The Parliament of Dreams

The Earth Alliance arranges a week-long festival of religious and cultural exchange on the station. The Centauri celebrate with a lavish party, commemorating the victory of the Centauri over the other sentient life on their world, the Xon. After the war, they will look around and count how many of them survived and they celebrate their good fortune (rather than mourn those who have been killed, an unusually positive outlook in life which perhaps describes the Centauri, in contrast to the bitter and perpetually angry Narns). In the party Londo Mollari gets extremely drunk and passes out. The Minbari host a session of prayers, a rebirth ceremony wherein the "old" self is "killed" and a new and better one is reborn. This is mirrored some two years later when Delenn hosts another ritual in Ceremonies of Light and Dark.

G'Kar's enjoyment of the festival is tempered when a courier brings word that an old political rival of his is arranging to have him assassinated. A paranoid G'Kar first suspects his new diplomatic attache, Na'Toth, but learns too late that the true assassin is the courier himself, Tu'Pari. After being subjected to a brief torture session, Na'Toth intervenes, beating G'Kar but in turn releasing his binds; G'Kar then escapes and easily disables Tu'Pari.

Jeffrey Sinclair meets an old flame, Catherine Sakai, and rekindles their on-off romantic relationship, before hosting a celebration of Earth religion in which he introduces the major station personnel to a line of people, all of different faiths - the line extends some distance all the way to the final credits.

[edit] Arc significance

Introduces Catherine Sakai as Sinclair's love interest.
Introduces Na'Toth, G'Kar's personal aide.
Introduces Lennier, Delenn's personal aide.

[edit] Production details

"The Parliament of Dreams" was originally titled "Carnival!"

This episode marks the first appearance of Na'Toth, G'Kar's diplomatic attache, played by Caitlin Brown. She replaced Ko'Dath, who appeared only in "Born to the Purple," and was played by Mary Woronov. Woronov left the show after encountering problems with the extensive makeup process; Brown was called in at the last minute to replace her. In the second season, Na'Toth was played by Mary Kay Adams.

Lennier also makes his first appearance, despite being named in the credits in each of the previous four episodes.