Babylon 5 (TV Series) War Without End: Part One (1996) User Reviews

These two episodes are among the most exciting EVER

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 23 January 2007]

This episode and the next are a combined two-part episode and are among the best of the year and finally address exactly what occurred to Commander Sinclair, as he makes a guest appearance in these two episodes. If you remember back in the first season, you learn that Babylon 4 disappeared and reappeared and Sinclair mounted a rescue effort to save the crew before the ship vanished for good. This episode recounts the exact same story but from totally different points of view. This time, instead of saving the crew, Sheridan, Sinclair and the rest are actually the ones for making the station disappear in the first place! It seems that the station was needed by Valen a thousand years earlier and was instrumental in the defeat of the Shadows at that time.

While the plot is MEGA-strange and complex, I love how the series' main writer and executive producer, J. Michael Straczyinski already plotted out this season three episode all the way back in season one. The greatest aspect of BABYLON 5 is how all these plots and story threads all are eventually woven into one huge and amazing tapestry. If you look at the first episode about the disappearance of Babylon 4, you'll see that these two season three shows fit seamlessly. Exciting throughout and a must-see for all fans of the series.

The Two Towers of Babylon 5

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 27 March 2013]

If Babylon 5 is Lord of the Rings in Space - Then War Without End is the central tenet of the story just as The Two Towers is the middle of Lord of The Rings.

In Lord of The Rings, Gandalf dies and comes back much like The Sheridan will do later in the series. Much Like "The Sisko" in the Parallel Star Trek story "Deep Space Nine" which also mirrors Lord of The Rings.

JMS completed his Space Opera by putting this story right in the Middle. We had been hearing about "The Hole in Jeffery Sinclair's Mind" all the way back in "The Gathering". We had been hearing that the main Prophet of the Minbari Race, Valen by name, was a Minbari not born of Minbari. We had seen Zathras in S1E20 "Babylon Squared" look at Sinclair and blurt out "Not the one, no, not the one".

This story occurs concurrently with "Babylon Squared" and even some episodes which we would not hear about until seasons 4 and 5 rolled out. In fact, we can say that these two episodes planted in Season Three guaranteed that Babylon 5 would continue at least through 4 seasons.

In season 1 the character of Draal was introduced, into a Machine which sole purpose was to propel the story from 1,000 years in the past all the way to a possible future which had two endings, depending on whether The Sheridan would go to KhazaD-Dumb or not. In one, Babylon 5 is blown up by the Shadows, in the other, The Shadows are blown into little tiny black, shiny chunks.

So this story was a clever concoction of JMS, he brilliantly stitches together all of the little stories that built Babylon 5.

But even with Prophecies staring us in the face, the Universe has a way of adjusting itself to any little changes- And this happens at the end of the tale.

We are introduced to "The One" - The one who was, the one who is, the one to come. The Beginning of the story, the Middle and The End. I never knew it when I was watching this unfold on whatever nights I was lucky enough to catch Babylon 5 during it's Syndication, that I was watching a parallel to Lord of The Rings. But each time I watch these clever episodes, it becomes all the more apparent.

I am so glad I was able to watch this as it was broadcast the first time.

What was so great about Babylon 5 was that it was not just an "Alien-of- the-Week" or 'Space Crisis of the week" show - It had real depth, in the richness of it's characters and the cleverness of the story. The Producers had a choice: Either use Practical Effects like the Trek shows were using, and have the characterizations suffer because of it, or chip in and buy bunches of Personal Computer Workstations and do it all with Infant CGI applications. And each year, these got better and better. So that when this was broadcast, it was done as well as it could have been done for the money and for the tech of the time.

I never really liked the character of Sinclair in Season 1 - But when I saw this, I was able to go back and enjoy the first season, which has several markers which point to this pair of episodes. The Ultimate Fate of The Sinclair is revealed in this story and it is a butt-kicker, even with all of the clues pointing to it seeded in the first and second seasons.

Excellent

[VenVes · 30 August 2018]

An excellent first half to an exciting and imaginative two parter.

Sheridan does not belong

[polite-45692 · 6/10 · 17 May 2019]

Sheridan does not belong with Sinclair and Delenn. His unnatural, unimaginative, cliched approach to everything seems very much out of place.