110: Mind War

Narrowly escaping an Earth Alliance fighter squadron, outcast Psi Corp member Jason Ironheart takes refuge on Babylon 5.  He contacts former student and lover Talia Winters to escape the Psi Cops, members of an elite group with higher powers.  Bester and his aide, Kelsey, interrogate Sinclair and Winters hoping to find the fugitive - and Winters risks her standing with Psi Corps in trying to help Ironheart.

Catherine Sakai is requested to seek permission from Ambassador G'Kar to survey Sigma 957 for Universal Terraform - and he advises her to stay away, warning of strange things that happen in that area of space.

Talia and Sinclair learn that Ironheart has been augmented by the Psi Corps to become a telekinetic, his powers working beyond all expectations, allowing him to move objects on an atomic level.  Killing the only person able to duplicate the experiment, he fled to avoid Psi Corps misusing his power.  Sinclair arranges for Ironheart to make an escape - but when Bester and Kelsey discover the plan they intervene, and Kelsey is killed.  He leaves the station aboard a ship, and then appears to evolve into a higher state of existence - leaving behind a "present" for Talia, a minor telekinetic ability.

Sakai does indeed encounter strange and mysterious happenings near Sigma 957 - the sighting of an enormous unknown alien spacecraft - and is rescued from a near crashland on the planet by Narn ships sent by G'Kar.  When she asks the Ambassador why he helped her, he simply replies "Why not?".

Notes: This is the first appearance of Psi Cop Alfred Bester, and also of the ancient alien race that live in the area of Sigma 957 (see Voices of Authority and Into the Fire).  Ironheart's gift to Talia is also explored later in A Race Through Dark Places.  Despite her mistrust of telepaths, Ivanova seems to be getting quite friendly with Talia (see Divided Loyalties).

Bester was named after science fiction writer Alfred Bester (his full name first revealed in the comic The Psi Corps and You, and confirmed in Ship of Tears.  The novel Dark Genesis reveals that Bester was named after the writer even within the series!).

The soundtrack of this episode is available on Babylon 5 Volume One.

Guest Cast: Walter Koenig (Bester) was originally to have played one of the Knights in And the Sky Full of Stars, which was produced prior to this episode, but was recovering from a heart attack at the time.  Macaulay Bruton makes his first appearance as Garibaldi's Aide (see Chrysalis).