“Soul Hunter” is episode two of season one of Babylon 5.
Sinclair and Ivanova are waiting to meet someone coming in on the transport. The person they are waiting for is Dr. Stephen Franklin, the new medical chief of staff for Babylon 5. He is replacing Dr. Benjamin Kyle, who is working for the president now. Dr. Kyle was seen in “The Gathering” but not in the previous episode, “Midnight on the Firing Line”.
Sinclair gets called to command, as the jump gate is activating even though no ship is scheduled. An unidentified ship comes through the gate that doesn’t match anything they have seen before. The ship is out of control and on a collision course with the station.
Sinclair heads out in a Starfury to recover the ship – it’s pretty small, otherwise that wouldn’t work. If it’s a first contact situation, he doesn’t want to destroy the ship. Sinclair tells Ivanova not to shoot down unless there is a clear and present danger – impact in under two minutes does not appear to qualify. At least to Sinclair.
Sinclair recovers the ship and brings it back to the station. The ship is damaged and the pilot and sole occupant is badly injured, and is taken to sickbay. Ambassador Delenn asks to see the pilot, to see if she can help identify what he is – it’s a race that the humans have never encountered before. Delenn does recognise the species, and wants to kill him. She tells Sinclair that the pilot should be put back into its ship and fired into space.
The pilot is a Soul Hunter, and clearly Delenn does not like them, reacting more violently than Sinclair has ever seen her before. The Soul Hunters are childhood bogeyman for Minbari; immortal, no-one knows who they are or where they come from. Soul Hunters are drawn to death and steal souls at the instant of death. They are picky about what souls they take.
The aliens on the station are in hiding and ships are leaving way ahead of schedule. Clearly, the other species have encountered Soul Hunter before. The Soul Hunter is uncooperative until Sinclair suggests that he steals souls. The hunter claims that they do not steal souls, only preserve the special ones, leaders, thinkers, poets. Dr. Franklin thinks that the idea of taking a soul is ridiculous. Soul Hunters are drawn to death, the more important the person dying, the greater the value of the soul. The another Soul Hunter arrives on the station.
The Soul Hunters feel that they are doing good; others seem to disagree.
Previously, G’Kar had spoken about the Grey Council to Delenn; she did not appreciate his mentioning it. The Soul Hunter says that Delenn is a member of the Grey Council, the rulers of the Minbari – and serving the role of a mere ambassador.
This is the first episode to have Bill Blair in the first of many (uncredited) roles. He has appeared as many, many different, usually heavily made up, characters (Blair was the first Guinness World Record holder for the most special effects characters portrayed in a career) in Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.