The fifth-season episode ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’ is a particularly memorable one for a variety of reasons. It contains some great drama of course, most notably with regard to the non-human lead characters, Londo, G’Kar, Delenn and Lennier.

But it also wraps up one of the major arcs of the fifth season, the seemingly random attacks by Centauri ships on Interstellar Alliance ships. In turn this sets up the next set of problems our heroes will have to face, the machinations of the Drakh and their manipulation of the now-isolated Centauri.

Drakh: dark symmetry

The Drakh were introduced earlier in the season, in the episode ‘Lines of Communication’. Delenn encountered them shortly after their evacuation of Z’ha’dum. Besides being homeless, the Drakh have also lost the guidance of the Shadows.

In the ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’ we see that the Drakh have chosen to continue the work of the Shadows rather than to abandon it. At this point we might contrast this with the servants and allies of the Vorlons. The telepaths have completely rejected the Vorlons and the Vorlon way, and instead of being weapons for use by the Vorlons, they have become soldiers fighting for themselves. The Minbari have taken a less aggressive stance, but they have equally boldly thrown off the Vorlon shackles, so that instead of isolating themselves from the other spacefaring races as they had done in the past, they are now actively organising and maintaining the new Interstellar Alliance.

But the Drakh haven’t rejected the Shadows, and now see themselves as shadows of the Shadows. More ominously, like the Shadows, they see potential in lesser races — like the Centauri — that they can manipulate, just as the Shadows manipulated lesser races.

On the other hand, the Drakh eclipse the Shadows in turning Londo’s tricks against him. In season four, Londo had forced the Shadows off Centauri Prime by using atomic bombs to blow up their base on the island of Selini. This time the Drakh turn things around by placing bombs of their own across the whole planet, forcing Londo to accept their presence on Centauri Prime or else face nuclear apocalypse.

Sympathy for the devils

One of the things that marks great writing is its ability to elicit sympathy for villains as well as heroes. In the ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’, JMS manages this twice, once for the Drakh, and a second time for the Regent.

The Drakh are portrayed as wanderers, and it’s crucial to the idea of an unending story that Sheridan and Delenn both fail to completely heal the post-First Ones world. As well as the new Interstellar Alliance, we also see them acting directly to restore democracy and liberty to the Earth Alliance, ostensibly one of the Shadow allies.

But Sheridan really doesn’t do much to help the telepaths, now known to be created by the Vorlons for use in the Shadow War, but abandoned by the Vorlons once they left to join the other First Ones beyond the Rim. The fate of the Drakh seems to within Delenn’s purview, but apart from taking out one of their fleets, she doesn’t really seem to have any good idea of how to accommodate the Drakh within the new reality. Delenn doesn’t see them as anything other than pawns of the Shadows, and treats them accordingly.

How many times in our own history have we won a war, despatched the enemy leaders, and then moved onto other things without thinking about the fate of their lieutenants and allies?

The Regent is a fascinating character who appears several times through the series but is so easy to overlook as comic relief. By the time we see the ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’ the Regent is a much darker character, badly used by the Drakh, but still not quite broken. As we’ll see with Londo in due course, the Centauri sometimes exhibit a remarkable personal strength.

Characters like the Regent, and to a degree Londo, are interesting because they seem to reject one of the key messages of Babylon 5: that individuals can make a difference. The Regent is certainly overwhelmed by the Drakh, no matter his personal strength, and Londo only barely manages to sneak a few of his plans past them.

But perhaps that’s missing the point. JMS isn’t saying that any one individual can change everything in the galaxy. Instead, he’s telling us that for the galaxy to change, individuals need to do their part. Taken this way the Regent tries his best, and while he ultimately fails, he fails valiantly. Likewise Londo cannot singlehandedly get the Drakh off Centauri Prime, but he does his part to make it possible for others to do so.

Londo’s finest hour?

It could be argued that the ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’ shows Londo at his best, courageous, reflective, patriotic and compassionate. His courage is obvious: he is contemptuous of the Drakh regardless of the power they have over him, and he accepts their Keeper with barely a flinch.

Even with the Keeper in place, Londo doesn’t completely acquiesce to the demands of the Drakh. Understandably given their previous encounter with Delenn, they want her killed, but somehow Londo manages to persuade them (or bribe them?) otherwise, and the Centauri rescue Delenn and bring her (and Lennier) to Centauri Prime.

We also see Londo protecting his friends. He cannot tell G’Kar the truth, but tries to prepare his friend for some of the things that will happen. In return he receives an extraordinary expression of forgiveness from G’Kar, someone who not so very long ago would have killed Londo without a second thought. Londo explodes at Vir when he comes into his rooms without knocking.

Rather than mere temper, Londo’s concern is that he doesn’t want Vir to get tangled up in the Drakh net by accidentally seeing something he shouldn’t. By sending Vir away to be the Centaur ambassador on board Babylon 5 he further separates Vir from the Drakh.

But while Londo may be personally as strong as ever, he’s acting from a position of weakness. His hologram may tower of the city, but he’s actually being filmed inside an underground chamber that looks more like a dungeon than anything else.

Echoes of the past

Early in the episode the Regent comments that he had “No choice, no choice at all”, a sentiment that Londo echoes a bit later in the episode, though for different reasons. The Regent is explaining why he caused the Centauri Republic to act as it did; Londo is reflecting on his own personal predicament. As is so often the case with Babylon 5, context is everything.

We see a splendid montage of what Londo has done in the last few years. One subtle bit of editing puts two scenes close together: first Delenn with her arms around Londo, and a second time with G’Kar putting his hands around Londo’s neck. At first glance, Delenn’s act would seem to be better of the two, but in fact her relationship with Londo, though compassionate, is generally cool and operates from a perspective of political rather personal necessity. On the other hand, while G’Kar would seem to be killing Londo, we actually know ‘War Without End’ that G’Kar is actually doing his best to make sure Londo’s plan to free Centauri Prime can succeed, despite the fact it will ultimately cost his life.

There are further echoes with the past. When the Regent dies, Londo says that the Regent’s “hearts gave out”, the same line he used after the assassination of Emperor Cartagia.

Bad timing

The importance of good timing, or rather, the dramatic consequences of bad timing, is twice stressed in this episode. At the personal level, there’s Lennier’s confession to Delenn about his love for her. But at the political level, we see Sheridan arrive at Centauri Prime too late to prevent the attack by the combined Drazi and Narn fleets.

In both cases the characters are presented with an unhelpful fait accompli. Lennier receives a gentle acknowledgement from Delenn, but given their relative positions as leader and foot soldier, while Na’tok makes it clear that Sheridan has far less control over the Interstellar Alliance than he had during the Shadow War. Lennier finds his relationship with Delenn irretrievably damaged, while Sheridan finds his authority over the Alliance undermined.

One final bit of bad timing comes at the end, when Zack walks into the senior staff meeting. He sees the upside of things: fighting among the aliens is dissipating, and everything on the space station seems to be settling back down to normal. Of course Zack lacks the perspective of the other characters, knowing little about the Drakh and their plans, so his optimism may well be misplaced…

In short, ‘Fall of Centauri Prime’ is a gem of an episode.