Original Airdate: May 20, 1996 Written by J. Michael Straczynski Directed by Mike Vejar Episode #: 61 Production #: 317
Guest stars: Michael O'Hare as Ambassador Sinclair. Tim Choate as Zathras. Kent Broadhurst as Major Krantz.
Sinclair must take Babylon 4 into the past, to help save the future.
When Sheridan (BRUCE BOXLEITNER) appears seventeen years in the future, Londo (PETER JURASIK) sits on the throne. Centauri Prime has been left in ruins as a result of the war, and an angry Londo, feeling the Centauri were abandoned, tells Sheridan he will kill him for the role he played in the war. Later, for secretive reasons, Londo explains to Sheridan and an aged Delenn (MIRA FURLAN), that they are his last hope for redemption. Londo tells them to take his ship and escape in exchange for their help in freeing his world. They agree, and as Sheridan and Delenn race toward the vessel, Sheridan gets pulled back in time again, but not before Delenn warns him not to go to Z'ha'dum.
From knowledge passed along by Delenn, Ivanova (CLAUDIA CHRISTIAN) speaks to Marcus (RICHARD BIGGS) about Valen, the great leader, and one of the Minbari's holiest figures, who defeated the Shadows and formed the Grey Council. Ivanova wonders if they will get a chance to meet him during their travels.
To divert the attention of the Babylon 4 crew, so that a homing device can be placed in the central core of Babylon 4 to move the station through time, Sinclair (MICHAEL O'HARE) and Ivanova rig the pressure alarms to go off. This action would leave Major Krantz (KENT BROADHURST) commander of Babylon 4, with no choice but to evacuate the crew for fear that the station would destruct. However, when Ivanova rigs the scanners, the time device activates prematurely moving the station four years ahead.
Meanwhile, Lennier (BILL MUMY) discovers several ships approaching. When asked who they could be, Sinclair explains it is him and Garibaldi, when they arrived two years ago to answer a distress call from Babylon 4.
In the time flash, Sheridan again disappears, and Sinclair, who had previously passed unprotected through the time distortion field with Garibaldi, ages twenty years. Meanwhile, Sheridan phases in and out in view to Zathras (TIM CHOATE), and his broken time stabilizer falls to the floor. Again returning to the future, he finds himself in a cell with Delenn, who tells him their son, David, is safe now.
Zathras, attempting to fix Sheridan's time stabilizer, gets caught by security guards and is taken to a lockup area. While there, he explains to Sinclair the need to use Babylon 4 as a base of operations in the war to help save the galaxy. When a blue-suited figure appears phasing in and out, Zathras explains he is the One, and hands the figure the fixed stabilizer before he vanishes. Zathras then declares it time to leave or suffer the fate of being trapped in time forever. Sheridan the reappears, the result of his time stabilizer being switched by the One.
Sinclair commands Babylon 4 back to the distant past, explaining the reason that brought him to the present in the first place was the letter received (see episode #316), which had been written by him nine hundred years ago. In the note, he described these events as they had unfolded -- including him taking Babylon 4 back in time.
