Season 3

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Point of No Return

Matters of Honor

Sheridan: "You know, I'm getting really tired of these unannounced visits by VIPs who will not tell why they're coming or what they're going to do when they get here."  
Ivanova: "Well, leave it to you to try to take all the fun out of life.  I mean, come on, where's your sense of mystery, of adventure?"  
Sheridan: "You trying to cheer me up?"  
Ivanova: "No sir, wouldn't dream of it."  
Sheridan: "Good, I hate being cheered up.  It's depressing."  
Ivanova: "In that case, we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths."  
Sheridan: "Thank you, I feel so much better now."

Marcus Cole: "I stopped believing in miracles a long time ago....  When part of the heart goes dead, it's best to leave it that way."

Ivanova: "... the day something happens around here and I don't know about it, worry."

Garibaldi: "And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know?  I mean, I know what I know because I have to know it.  And if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me either.  ... I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble." 

Cole: "I don't usually speak unless I have something to say." 

Cole: "I keep my promises."

Sheridan: "First thing I learned at the Academy was:  'a lack of information can kill you'."

Convictions

Brother Theo: "God goes by many names, perhaps some alien sounding, different faces, and history, but all describing the same Creator.  We've come here to learn all those names, in hopes of better understanding the One who's behind them."

Londo: "I'm not sure that actually made sense, but I'm afraid that if I try to go back and try to figure it out, I will start bleeding from my ears."

Garibaldi: "May I be the first to say that this is the nuttiest idea you've ever had."  
Ivanonva: "Thank you."

Sheridan: "What can I say?  Life's tough sometimes."

Franklin: "... you saved his life. You deserve a little recognition."  
Lennier: "I did what I did because all life is sacred.  But when the object of your actions does not share that belief ... I fear I have served the present by sacrificing the future."

A Day in the Strife

Ivanova: "Well, let's just hope the high I.Q. boys back home give us all the right answers to this test.  Otherwise, we're going to get hit with a five-hundred-thousand megaton weed whacker."

Sheridan: "If that thing blows, at least it'll save me from one more annoying conversation."  
Ivanova: "Always finding the good in every situation, eh, Captain?"  
Sheridan: "Absolutely.  If I didn't, I might end up like you."  
Ivanova: "... what's that supposed to mean?  ... I swear, if we live through this, somebody's going to find their automatic shower preferences re-programmed for ice water."

Londo (to Vir): "You've been promoted. You'll earn more money, receive more attention, women may even come to find you attractive .. in time."

Ivanova: "If I live through this job without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions."  
Corwin: "Well, there goes my faith in the Almighty."

Passing through Gethsemane

Garibaldi: "Oh, I'm an eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth kind of guy...."  
Delenn: "So you support a system that would leave everyone blind and toothless?"  
Garibaldi: "Not everyone.  Just the bad guys."

Delenn: "We are the universe, trying to understand itself."

Londo: "Lyta Alexander!  As I live and breathe!"  
Lyta: "I suggest you remove your hand, Ambassador, or you won't be doing either for much longer."

Brother Edward: "Why would an uneasy conscience show up on a lab report?"

Voices of Authority

Julie Musante: "With our basic freedom in stake, no response can be too extreme."

Zack: "Women like a guy who looks trim, neat.  You've got to be sharp.  I look like I'm wearing a circus tent.  Any minute now, a little teeny car with sixteen clowns in it is going to come flying out of my butt."

Draal: "Captain.  Delenn tells me that you are going to try contacting the First Ones.  It is a magnificent idea.  A daring and splendid idea.  In doing so, you will see things no human has ever seen before.  It will be fun.  Assuming you're not vaporized, dissected, or otherwise killed in an assortment of supremely horrible and painful ways.  Exciting, isn't it?"

Ivanova: "Anything else you need?"  
Sheridan: "A glass of whiskey, a gun and two bullets."

Ivanova: "Good luck, Captain.  I think you're about to go where everyone has gone before."

Ivanova: "At least they've shown us they understand our language, they're just not willing to speak to us in it."  
Cole: "Who knew they were French?" 

Cole: "It's leaving. My guess is 'zog' means no."  
Ivanova: "Like hell. I am not letting them leave without saying 'yes'."  
Cole: "Really? And how do you propose stopping them? Perhaps a big red and white sign with the word 'stop' on it? I'll put a bucket on my head and pretend to be the ancient Vorlon god Boojie."  
Ivanova: "That's it!"  
Cole: "Fine, I'll get a bucket."

Garibaldi: "He hates me.  They all hate me.  That's why they're doing this to me.  To make me crazy."

Dust to Dust

Franklin: "I will not support murder.  We can not kill him."  
Ivanova: "Can we wound him?  Just a little?"

Exogenesis

Cole: "Security?  Hello, is anyone there?"  
B5 computer: "Warning: Bio-genetic id comparison indicates you are not authorized for operation of this link. Please turn it in to Security."  
Cole: "I'm trying to contact Security, you stupid machine!"

Cole: "Oh, for the record, if they kill me, this was not a good idea on my part."

Messages from Earth

Garibaldi: "... I've been stuck in this tin can for three years.  I haven't taken a vacation....  ... the pay sucks....  ... but where in my contract does it say I have to eat the same food for breakfast every day for three years?"  
Sheridan: "Paragraph 47, subsection 19, clause 9a.  You can find in the index under S.U.A.E.I."  
Garibaldi: "S.U.A.E.I.?"  
Sheridan and Ivanova: "Shut Up And Eat It!"

Ivanova: "I'm going to kill him. After breakfast.  If I can find him."

G'Kar: "You can learn much from silence."

Lennier: "If I were holding anything back, I would tell you."

Ivanova (to Sheridan): "You look pretty good for a dead man."

Point of No Return

"Everything's gone to hell.... God help us all, you're on your own."

Londo: "... intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"

Lady Morella: "There is always choice. We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with the decision we have already made. If you understand that, there's hope. If not .."

Garibaldi: "This isn't a game. You'd better get your priorities straight, and you'd better do it fast, because hell is coming five steps behind me and you don't want to be on the wrong side when it gets here."

Lady Morella: "The future reveals itself only reluctantly ...."

Severed Dreams

Londo: "Madness!  Total and complete madness!  This never would have happened if the humans hadn't started fighting with one another."

Major Ed Ryan: "That's what makes this war different from anything we've ever gone through before.  This time, we know everyone we kill."

Sheridan: "... We have just been thrust into the middle of extraordinary events.  So we must approach this calmly and rationally.  Those are not the enemy out there. They wear the same uniforms, and we've both sworn to uphold the Constitution.  They're as loyal to Earth as you are, and we will render humanitarian aid.  Because, as much as our humanity got us into this, our humanity is the only thing that's going to get us out again."

Minbari: "None of us is safe anymore.  The Shadows are moving."

Minbari: "The Grey Council has said ' The problems of others are not our concern.'"

Sheridan: "I know we were all hoping to avoid a head-on confrontation with Earth, that somehow we could -- stop this train before it went off track. But this train is heading right for us, and there is not a lot of time. So we have only two options.  We fight, or we surrender.  Now, if it was just us, hey 'you pays your money, you takes your chances'.  But, it's not just us.  There's a quarter million people here, and billions more out there counting on us.  I promised Delenn  that we would draw a line against the Darkness no matter the cost.   Now we know the cost.  There's too much at stake to walk away now." 
Franklin: "If we surrender, they'll court-martial us. If we fight and lose, they'll probably kill us."  
Sheridan: "They probably will at that. So the choice is yours." 
Ivanova: "I say fight." 
Garibaldi: "Fight." 
Franklin: "Fight."
Sheridan: "Fight."

Delenn: "For a thousand years we have been awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy, and when it finally happens, you scorn it, you reject it, because you no longer believe it yourselves.  'We stand between the candle and the star, between the Darkness and the Light.'  You say the words, but your hearts are empty.  Your ears close to the truth.  You stand for nothing but your own petty interests.  'The problems of others are not our concern.' --  The Council has lost its way.  If the Council will not lead, if we have abandoned our Covenant with Valen ..., then the Council shall be broken , as was prophesied.   We must stand with the others now, before it's too late.  I say listen to the voice of your conscience.  Break the Council and come with me.  Our time of isolation is over.  We move now, together, or not at all."

David Sheridan: "John, I can't imagine the kind of decisions that are going through your mind right now.  I'm sure they're not easy, the important ones never are.  But, when push comes to shove, you've always done the right thing.  What was the first lesson I ever taught you?" 
Sheridan: "Never start a fight, but always finish it." 
David Sheridan: "You do what you have to do ... I'll talk to you when I talk to you."

Sheridan: "Babylon 5 is seceding from the Earth Alliance.  We will remain an independent state until President Clark is removed from office."

Sheridan: "We don't want a fight, but if you attempt to carry out those orders, we will defend ourselves."

Sheridan: "We won't start this fight, but, by God, we'll finish it."

Delenn: "This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari.  Babylon 5 is under our protection.  Withdraw -- or be destroyed."
Captain Drake: "Negative!  We have authority here.  Do not force us to engage you ship."
Delenn: "Why not?  Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet.  He is behind me.  You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."

Ceremonies of Light and Dark

Londo: "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts.  Only the heir to the throne of a kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts."

Londo: "Ah, for a moment, I was thinking women, drinking, and debauchery.  I forgot I was speaking to a Minbari."

Cole: "You see?  It's like I've always said:  'You can get more with a kind word and a two-by-four than you can with just a kind word.'"

Sic Transit Vir

Londo: "And how are things at the royal court?"  
Vir: "You know, collusion, politicking, scheming, innuendo, gossip.  The same old thing."

 

Vir: "There were other women, but I never got past one."  
Ivanova: "You mean first base."  
Vir: "No, no, I mean one. You see, we have six a .. we have six, you see, and each one is a different level of intimacy and pleasure. So, you know, first you have one, and that's naa-naa. Then there's two .. and by the time you get to five it's ..."  
Ivanova: "All I can say is that enthusiasm, sincerity, genuine compassion, and humor can carry you through any .. lack of .. prior experience with .. high numerical value."

Sheridan: "... back home we have an old saying:  'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'"  Delenn: "Humans can be a very depressing people."  .

Lyndisty: "Do you think I'm pretty?"  
Vir: "Oh, yes, deliriously.  But, I always associated delirium with fevers.  So, there you are."

Vir (in response to kiss from Lyndisty): "If kisses could kill, that one would have flattened several small towns."

Ivanova: "... I think I really enjoy being a sneak."  
Sheridan: "Then I hereby appoint you the official Babylon 5 Sneak in Residence."  
Ivanova: "Why, thank you."   
Sheridan:  "Now get the hell out of my chair."

A Late Delivery from Avalon

09/14/2000

Garibaldi: "What do you mean 100 credits?"
Postman: "I mean, more than 99, less than 101.  What, you got a hearing problem or a math problem?  Look, I can't get into conceptual arguments with you her, I got people waiting."
Garibaldi: "But that's three times the delivery charge for a package this size."
Postman: "That was before we had a revolution around here.  Now, in my little corner of Earth Force, the mail still gets delivered.  If I got to use trap doors, alien transports and back channels to get the mail in and out, that's my job.  Neither rain not snow nor meteors nor alien invasion nor --"
Garibaldi: "Look, this is extortion!"
Postman: "It's business!  You see, when my costs go up, I have to pass that along to the consumer.  That's you, just in case that's another one of those concepts you got a problem with."
Garibaldi: "That's my box."
Postman: "No, ... it's the property of Earth Alliance Postal Service.  You pony up 100 credits, then it's your box.  ..."
Garibaldi: "Give me the box!"
Postman: "And break my oath to the Post Office?  I'd die first.  Next."

Cole: "... I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair.  Then I thought -- wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?  So, now, I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

Cole (re: the jewel in the middle of the Ranger pin): "Minbari call that Isil-zha.  Means the future.  Birth.  Beginnings.  Dawn of a new age.  ...  It's a subtle language for subtle people.  It took me a year of studying to get the fundamentals down.  The Minbari say the only way to understand the battle is to understand the language.  War is a much concept as execution."
Franklin: "What else did they teach you?"
Cole: "Delight.  Respect, compassion.  That for your actions to be pure, they must proceed from direction, determination, patience and strength.  I'm afraid I'm still working on patience.  --  They taught me how to live, how to breath, how to fight and how to die.  And they taught me terror.  How to use it -- and how to face it."

Arthur: "I am Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon and King of the Britons!  No man takes Excalibur from me and lives!"

Arthur: "I'm not sure how I came here, but if I am here, now, it's because I am most needed here and now."

Cole: "You know, the Vorlons have been to Earth.  From time to time, they have taken someone out of their time, preserved him till he was needed, and revived him.  ...  A ship appeared and tool Arthur to a place where he would be healed and preserved, a place from which he would return when he was most needed."
Franklin: "Legends are legends because they hav a certain power over us.  The idea of a legend walking in the front door....  ...  He is not Arthur.  His speech patterns are too contemporary.  Vocabulary is all wrong.  The question we should be asking is, what made him tip over?  ...  What terrible thing could have happened to drive him 1,700 years into the past to find peace and meaning?"

Arthur: "What manner of men prey on the weak and the poor...?  Stealing from old women!  Cowards, I think!"

G'Kar: "By G'Quon, I can't recall the last time I was in a fight like that!  No moral ambiguity, no hopeless battle against ancient and overwhelming forces.  They were the bad guys, as you say, we were the good guys.  And they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the floor!"
Arthur: "It's wrong for the strong to prey on the weak.  That Idea was at the very heart of the Round Table -- to correct injustice, to promote a society of laws, not arms.  ...  You were the first to lend your good arm to my defense.  And you shall sit at my right hand at the new round table.  --  And you shall be known as Sir G'Kar -- the Red Knight."

Cole: "Better the illusions that exalt us than 10,000 truths."

Franklin (to Arthur): "David -- McIntyre.  Age -- 52.  Serial number -- R27A59.  Honorable discharge from Earth Force -- February 9, 2253.  Silver Star for valor.  You were at the Battle of the Line.  20,000 of our best went in and a little over 200 survived.  It also shows you were gunnery sergeant on the Prometheus.  ...  This Prometheus was the first ship to encounter the Minbari.  Fifteen years ago today.  Now, there was a misunderstanding.  The Minbari approached with their gun ports open.  It's a sign of respect.  The captian, he interpreted this as a threat.  He panicked.  ...  Because of this misinterpretation, he ordered his crew to attack.  ...  The attack destroyed two Minbari vessels and killed their leader Dukhat, which started the Earth-Minbari War.  Now, if you were gunnery sergeant on the Prometheus, you fired those shots.  ...  The review board absolved you of all responsibility for following the orders of your commanding office."

Franklin: "You know you'd think I'd learn one of these days that I can't fix everything, but it never happens."

Postman: "... first thing I learned was never mess with the post office."

McIntyre: "One journey has ended.  Another beckons."

Cole: "Merlin was a great teacher, you know.  ...  They say he aged backwards.  That was how he was able to fortell the future, by remembering it, which means he came from the future."

Ship of Tears

Sheridan: "So how did you find out about all of this?"  
Bester: "I'm a telepath.  Work it out."

Bester (to Ivanova): "Normals like you are obsolete.  The future belongs to telepaths ... and I intend to make sure that future happens.  One way or another."

Interludes and Examinations

Ivanova: "... Everyone's been handling the stress pretty well, but sooner or later, something's got to give somewhere."

Sheridan: "Nobody wants to fight a war unless they know there's at least a chance of winning."

Sheridan: "I hear you've got a saying:  'Understanding is a three-edged sword'?  Well, we've got a saying too:  'Put your money where your mouth is.'" 

Sheridan (to Kosh): "You put me in this position, you asked me to fight this damn war. Well, it's about time you let me fight it my way."

War Without End (Part 1)

09/14/2000

Rathenn: "I have done nothing worthy of praise."
Sinclair: "Well -- with your help, we've created something bigger than we are.  It has a life of its own.  Come what may, the Rangers will finish the work ahead."

Vorlon (re: Sinclair): "He is the closed circle.  He is returning to the beginning."

Delenn: "I wish I had more time.  But, now, time is all we have."

Cole: "We haven't had a Shadow attack in nearly eight days.  My guess is they're reconsidering their strategy, after the Vorlons got involved."
Sheridan: "They're worried.  That means they'll hit us twice as hard when they come back."
Cole: "Assuming a worst-case scenario."
Sheridan: "Well, the way things have been going lately, I've decided to start taking Ivanova lessons."

Sinclair: "There are no coincidences...."

Cole: "Back on Minbar, there was a saying among the other Rangers:  'The only way to get a straight answer out of Ranger One was to look at every reply in a mirror while hanging upside down from the ceiling.'"  
Sheridan: "Did it work?"  
Cole: "Oddly enough, yes.  Or after a while, you passed out and had a vision.  Either way, the result was pretty much the same."

Delenn: "... if we fail to save Babylon 4, Babylon 5 will also be destroyed."

Sinclair: "If we don't go along with this, we'll change history and the Shadows will come out of the last war stronger than they should be.  We won't stand a chance against odds like that.  ...  I believe it."
Cole: "If Entil-zah believes it.  I believe it."
Ivanova: "I'll be in the car."

Garibaldi: "I've just seen Babylon 5 destroyed four times, each time the same.  The time stamp on the message is dated eight days from now.  ...  Eight days from now, we go straight to hell unless you've found some way to stop it."

Sinclair: "... I think we'd work well together, like Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark, Lucy and Ethel."  
Sheridan: "Well, when I joined Earth Force, the sign said:  'Greatest adventure of all'.  If they only knew.  All right, let's do it.... Lucy and Ethel?"

Zathras: "... Zathras do.  Zathras good at doings, not understandings."

Zathras: "When we travel through time, we travel through great waves of tachyon impulses.  You can become unstuck in time, unless there is anchor.  ...  Time distortion can do terrible harm."

Lennier: "The White Star is base on Vorlon organic technology.  It learns from experience -- changes, evolves.  The skin of the ship now uses the Vorlon defense system.  Most of the energy is reflected away, leaving only the physical impact."

Sheridan: "... as my great grandfather used to say:  'Cool.'"

Zathras: "Cannot say.  Saying, I would know.  Do not know, so can not say."

Sinclair (re: Sheridan): "Putting the future back on track may be our only chance to save him."

Sinclair: "All my life, I've had doubts about who I am, where I belong.  Now -- I'm like the arrow that springs from the bow.  No hesitation, no doubts.  The path is clear."

Sinclair: "Can you get the equipment up here by yourself?"
Zathras: "Yes, yes.  Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs.  Very sad life.  Probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry."

Sinclair: "Ready?"  
Delenn: "Why do your people always ask if someone is ready right before you're going to do something massively unwise?"  
Sinclair: "Tradition."

War Without End (Part 2)

Cole: "He's quite mad, you know.  He actually thinks that Sheridan's going to materialize in there."  Ivanova: "Marcus, we're stealing a station to fight in a war that was over a thousand years ago.  We're all mad."

Ivanova: "... we're running out of time."  
Zathras: "Cannot run out of time.  There is infinite time ...."

Walkabout

Garibaldi: "It's easy to fight when you've got a lot of ships to work with. The real crunch comes when you are down to almost nothing. Then you either play it safe and you probably lose it all or you take a chance."

 

Garibaldi: "... you don't follow an order because you know for sure it's going to work out. You do what you are told, because your CO has the moral authority that says you may not come back. But the cause is just, and fair, and necessary."

Grey 17 is Missing

Garibaldi: "Thin air? Why is it always thin air? Never fat air, chubby air, mostly-fit-could-stand-lose-a-few-pounds air?"

And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place

Vir: "Londo, they could've killed me." 
Londo: "Nonsense, you are not important enough to kill."

Shadow Dancing

Ivanova: "'May gods stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.'"

Ivanova: "That's a lot of ships."   
Cole: "That's a bloody awful lot of ships."

Franklin: "I don't care how much it hurts! Don't go passing out on me, 'cause that's just running away again!"

Garibaldi: "... the thing is:  sometimes people walk away because they want to be alone, and sometimes they walk away because they want to see if you care enough to follow them into hell.  I think I went the wrong way."

Z'ha'dum