The Long, Twilight Struggle

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“The Long, Twilight Struggle”
Babylon 5 episode

Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 20
Guest stars	John Schuck (Draal) Rif Hutton (ISN Reporter) William Forward (Lord Refa) W. Morgan Sheppard (Warmaster G'Sten)
Written by	J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by	John Flinn
Production no.	219
Original airdate	18 October 1995 1 August 1995 (UK)
Episode chronology
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"Divided Loyalties"	"Comes the Inquisitor"
List of Babylon 5 episodes

The Long, Twilight Struggle is an episode from the second season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Arc significance
3 Production details
4 Trivia
5 External link

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Centauri learn of a Narn plan to destroy a Centauri supply and communications base at a system called Gorash 7. A senior minister in the Centauri government, Lord Refa, convinces Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari to use his contacts with the Shadows to stop the Narn attack. While the Shadows engage the Narn, Refa and Mollari will join the Centauri fleet for an all-out attack on the Narn homeworld.

The Narn commit their entire battle fleet to the attack and hyperspace to Gorash 7. However several Shadow ships are waiting for them and rapidly de-cloak. Within minutes the numerically superior Narn fleet is completely wiped out by the Shadow ships. Among those killed is the Narn warmaster G'sten, uncle of Narn ambassador G'Kar.

Using their now overwhelming advantage over the Narn, the Centauri launch their final attack on the Narn homeworld, using universally condemned mass drivers for planetary bombardment, ending the Narn-Centauri War after the Narn surrender unconditionally.

G'Kar asks Sheridan for, and receives, sanctuary aboard Babylon 5, as the Centauri have ordered him arrested, after stripping him of his ambassadorial status. Draal, the keeper of the Great Machine on Epsilon 3, invites Sheridan and Delenn to visit, and during the visit offers assistance in the coming Shadow War. The existence of the Rangers is revealed to Sheridan, and Delenn transfers equal authority over the Rangers to him.

[edit] Arc significance

The Centauri defeat the Narn conquering their home planet with the aid of Londo's Shadow allies, ending the war.
The existence of the Rangers is revealed to Captain Sheridan.
Draal returns and forms an alliance with Babylon 5.

[edit] Production details

[edit] Trivia

The title derives from the inaugural address of President John F. Kennedy, in which he implored

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

– John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961

The phrase "a long, twilight struggle" has since been a frequent metaphor for the Cold War.