Walkabout (Babylon 5)

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“Walkabout”

Babylon 5 episode

Dr Franklin

Episode no.

Season 3
Episode 18

Written by

J. Michael Straczynski

Directed by

Kevin Cremin

Guest stars

Erica Gimpel (Cailyn)
Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander)
Jennifer Balgobin (Dr. Lilian Hobbs)
Robin Sachs (Na'Kal)

Production no.

318

Original airdate

30 September 1996
18 August 1996 (UK)

Episode chronology
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"War Without End"	"Grey 17 Is Missing"

List of Babylon 5 episodes

Walkabout is an episode from the third season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.

1 Synopsis
2 Arc significance
3 Production details
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Dr. Franklin continues his walkabout, and becomes involved with a singer in Downbelow. The new Vorlon ambassador arrives at Babylon 5.

Sheridan decides to test the theory that telepaths can harm Shadow vessels. Lyta Alexander accompanies Sheridan on this mission, but no other members of the Alliance outside of the Minbari offer to help. Garibaldi confronts G'Kar about the lack of support from the Narns, especially in light of the risks the entire Earth crew has taken in helping and sheltering the Narns. G'Kar is able to not only convince the Narns to throw in with their support, but the other races as well.

[edit] Arc significance

The replacement Vorlon is introduced, whose name is never revealed but has been known to the fans as "Ulkesh". This Vorlon is darker and somewhat more amoral than the previous Kosh and regards humanity with more disdain than his predecessor. Kosh and Ulkesh have also appeared to Delenn years before aboard the Grey Council ship as they lived inside Dukhat's sanctum in the Babylon 5 movie In The Beginning. Ulkesh is voiced by Kosh's voice actor and has a distinctly higher voice pitch than him. Also, the "chimes" that accompany Ulkesh's speech are somewhat darker. Even Ulkesh's overall color scheme seems darker than Kosh.
Its proved that Shadow ships are vulnerable to telepaths, albeit it requires tremendous focus and power on part of the telepaths in order to effectively jam them. Lyta was almost driven insane by the Shadow ship when she initially tried but after learning of how the Shadows killed Kosh, she angrily lashes out at the enemy vessel and manages to "trap" it inside her mind and prevent it from moving.
The G'tok, the Narn warship which was granted sanctuary by Sheridan on "the Fall of Night" makes a return.
G'kar reveals a strange discovery he has made--every race has their own version of what the humans call "Swedish meatballs." For the Narns, the name of the dish is "Breen" (it is unknown though if this is an absolute truth, and if it also applies to such beings as the First Ones, including the Vorlons and the Shadows). The name is obviously taken from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." It is also the name of a major race in the Star Trek universe which allied themselves with the Dominion.
G'Kar manages to rally many of the non-aligned worlds into helping Sheridan.

[edit] Production details

It has always been said that after opening a jumppoint, a starship experiences extreme power drain which hampers the use of weapons. Particularly for Narn ships, the drain is enough to even cause momentary loss of contact with the rest of the Narn fleet ("Revelations"). However, the G'tok here is seen firing its beam weapons immediately after emerging from hyperspace, much like the EAS Agammemnon in "All Alone in the Night".

In "Matters of Honor", Sheridan deduces that the only reason why the Shadow ship missed hitting the Whitestar was because the Shadow ship didn't want to destroy the Whitestar and instead intends to catch it. Here, the Whitestar is still able to evade the Shadow's weapons even though the Shadow ship is clearly bent on destroying it.

Lyta Alexander said that she needs to be in a line of sight for her to effectively engage the Shadow ship. However, the Minbari telepaths onboard a Minbari Sharlin-class cruiser were in a darkened room and could not possibly be in a line of sight of the enemy. However, it is possible that the room the Minbari telepaths are in is the same as the command center of a Minbari warship which has holographic displays.