“A View from the Gallery” is episode four of season five of Babylon 5.
The episode opens in hyperspace as a probe is destroyed by a number of ships. On Babylon 5, Captain Lochley is asleep when her link goes. She’s informed that they have something on the long-range hyperspace probes. Lochley asks if it’s them. The reply is that it could be, but the probe was destroyed before they got much information. Lochley heads to C&C, but they have nothing new. It may be the scout fleet that the Gaim warned them about. The fleet belongs to a race that is looking for worlds to conquer in the sector, soft and vulnerable ones. Lochley tells the crew they are going to either make sure the aliens don’t leave or leave convinced they are not soft and vulnerable. If they win, the problem will go away. If they lose, it will get worse. She then speaks to Lieutenant Corwin, asking whether Sheridan and Delenn are heading to lifepods. Corwin replies they won’t leave; Lochley will make sure they do. She then orders a fighter wing to launch and, elsewhere, two maintenance workers comment that this is the third alert this month. If there’s a mess, they are the ones who will have to clean it up.
Lochley is talking to Sheridan, insisting that he leave. He tells her that neither he or Delenn is. Lochley is concerned because they have no information on the enemy force and the White Stars are away on missions and will not get back in time. Lochley’s job is to protect Sheridan and the station, not necessarily in that order, and having Sheridan around diverts her focus. She asks, and he agrees he would do the same in her place. They leave in a tube, leaving the two maintenance workers from earlier behind.
One, Mack, says that’s why he likes Sheridan; he’s down in the trenches with everyone else. And he really loves Delenn. Sheridan is a good man. The other, Bo, replies that he heard Sheridan was dead once. Well, no-one’s perfect. Once finished, the two take a lunch break. Bo has hard salami – he knows a guy. Mack has spoo, a Centauri delicacy, and an expensive one at that. They swap and Bo says the spoo is awful. Mack agrees. Then there is an announcement that an enemy scout ship has been detected, and they leave in separate directions.
Dr Franklin is briefing Medlab when Bo arrives; there’s a problem with the isolab that needs fixing. Bo asks why bother trying to heal aliens who are coming to kill them. Franklin replies that he sometimes asks the same thing. He talks about his father, and how Franklin was supposed to enter the military. Then the ship Franklin’s father was shot down when it got caught between two warring sides. After the base was captured, three crew members walked out of that base, one of them his father. He’d been kept alive by the doctor, over the objections of the base OC, because the doctor believed all life was sacred. That’s when Franklin decided on his life choice.
Mack is in C&C; Corwin wants him to work on the console for the secondaries. The captain warns them that three scouts are coming through ahead of the main fleet, and they come out of the jump gate shooting. The scouts attempt to download the system’s codes and one is heading away when Mack gets the secondaries working. There was a bug in the console – literally. Lochley heads to talk to Garibaldi.
Mack meets up with Bo and they are discussing the captain. There’s a rumour, according to Bo, that Lochley fought on Clark’s side during the civil war. They are in a transit tube when Lochley and Garibaldi enter. Lochley isn’t pleased that they didn’t know about the aliens downloading codes. Given Garibaldi’s job is intelligence, she feels she should have warned her. Garibaldi replies he can’t think of every possible question. Lochley thinks that’s his job as well; he should head and speak to the Gaum again. The two aren’t getting along that well still.
A big fleet is incoming and, on asking why the jump gate can’t simply be shut down, it apparently takes two days to shut down and five to warm up. Else, boom. Plus, you don’t want to close your only escape route. Mack and Bo finish fixing a screen as the captain comes on and warns about the enemy fleet incoming.
The episode follows Mack and Bo around as they visit various parts of the station to fix stuff. They tend to be remarkably unfazed by what’s happening. Sitting in the observation bubble taking a break as a space battle rages on outside (it’s odd that the windows weren’t covered). Watching a fight between boarders, and security led by Zack. Along the way, they manage to bump into many important people. They spend time with Byron and the telepaths. Are in a shelter, where Londo is complaining top the universe and G’Kar is listening and contributing – a conversation that leads Mack to ask Bo how long he thinks Londo and G’Kar have been married. For their relationship is, now, a rather strange one. They also bump into Sheridan and Delenn as well.