John Sheridan (Babylon 5)
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| John Sheridan | |
|---|---|
| Babylon 5 character | |
 | |
| First appearance | In the Beginning (chronological),
" Sleeping in Light " (chronological)
Human |
| Family | Elizabeth Sheridan (sister) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Lochley (divorced) Anna Sheridan (widowed) Delenn (as of season 4) |
| Children | David (by Delenn) |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Affiliated with | Babylon 5 EarthForce Anla'shok Interstellar Alliance |
John J. Sheridan is the lead character in the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Bruce Boxleitner. For most of the series, he is the commander of the Babylon 5 station; during the series' final season he is the President of the Interstellar Alliance.
Personality
John Sheridan is portrayed as an incorruptible, dynamic, idealistic, and
After Sheridan's "return from the dead" in the fourth season, he displays an increasing impatience with accomplishing his goals. This is caused, however, by the fact that during season four, he learns that he has only twenty more years to live. By the end of the series Sheridan has become a galactic president and legend, and overall there is little doubt that he has been a force for good throughout his time in the series.
Religious references
Throughout the show numerous references are made concerning Sheridan's analogous role in history to that of a
When Sheridan falls and is caught by the
Sheridan was also resurrected twice by
Character history
Early life and career
John Sheridan was born on Earth to an
In the TV movie
Following the war, Sheridan was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of the EAS Agamemnon in the mid-2250s. The Agamemnon was one of the new "Omega-Class" destroyers which were much larger and more powerful than the older "Hyperion-Class". Sheridan spent the next few years leading the Agamemnon in exploratory and diplomatic missions. He was one of the candidates to command
At some unknown point in his career, Sheridan played a major role in quelling the Mars Riots, something which proved to be a significant sore spot a number of years later between him and the Mars Rebellion when he offered them independence in exchange for their assistance in overthrowing President Clark's regime.
Season 2
When Commander
Sheridan soon discovered that Earth Alliance President Clark was slowly turning the Earth Alliance into a dictatorship. Sheridan found that the
Soon into the season, it became known that the
Season 3
At the start of the third season, Sheridan was presented with the prototype
In the episode "
The EAS Alexander, under the command of
Mars had decided not to implement martial law. In response Clark ordered his forces to bomb civilian targets on Mars. In response, Proxima 3 and Orion 7 seceded from the Earth Alliance. In "Severed Dreams" Sheridan joined them and declared Babylon 5's own secession. Very soon after Sheridan's declaration, an attack force arrived consisting of two Omega-class destroyers and several escorts. Clark's attack force was soon defeated at Babylon 5. Unfortunately, the reinforcements for Clark's attack force then arrived. Sheridan realizing that his position was hopeless was prepared to accept defeat, but at that moment Delenn came to his rescue, leading several Minbari War Cruisers to the station, while herself commanding White Star One. When told by the EarthForce ships to leave or they would engage her fleet, Delenn answered:
Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives…be somewhere else!
Realizing the situation, the EarthForce reinforcements turned around and withdrew.
In the episode "
In Minbari culture, there are three castes: Worker, Warrior and Religious. Sheridan married three women, and while only one was Minbari, each represented a different caste: Anna (Worker), Elizabeth (Warrior) and Delenn (Religious).[2]
For the remainder of 2260, Sheridan's attention was directed mainly against the Shadows and the upcoming war. He began to build up an alliance of races for the larger fight. Sheridan then led a large multi-species attack force against the Shadows. While the force was able to drive them off, the allies lost far many more ships than they had hoped. For every Shadow vessel they killed, two of their ships had been destroyed.
The Shadows found that Sheridan's wife
Sheridan was once told by Kosh that if he went to Z'ha'dum he would die. During his vision of the future, that version of Delenn told him not to go to Z'ha'dum; also during the vision, Centauri Prime had been devastated. He began thinking that originally perhaps he had listened to Delenn and did not go to Z'ha'dum. He reasoned that if he did go to Z'ha'dum that the vision of the future he had seen would not occur. So he accompanied Anna on the White Star to Z'ha'dum. What he did not tell her or anyone else was that he had Garibaldi hide two very large fusion bombs on to the ship. A group of Shadow Vessels had surrounded Babylon 5. At that time, Delenn was listening to a recording that he made. Sheridan explained his reasons for going to Z'ha'dum in the recording, and told her that he loved her.
While on Z'ha'dum, the Shadows attempted to lure Sheridan to their side. He refused to cooperate. He escaped from the Shadows momentarily and went to a balcony overlooking their capital city. Anna tried one more time to get Sheridan to cooperate with the Shadows. He refused, ordering the White Star to crash into the city; the resulting over 1 gigaton nuclear explosion destroyed the capital city. Meanwhile, Sheridan, about to be killed by the explosion, jumped off the balcony into a pit that was miles deep after hearing the voice of Ambassador Kosh instructing him to do so.
When the capital city was destroyed, the Shadow vessels left Babylon 5. Sheridan's colleagues realized that he was now dead.
Season 4
At the start of the fourth season, the Shadows were still recovering from the destruction of their capital city. The alliance made by Sheridan had started to fall apart. Many governments felt that if they did nothing the Shadows would leave them alone. During this time, Delenn began to organize a large
Meanwhile, on Z'ha'dum, somehow Sheridan had survived the fall and was trapped between life and death. He met
In "
Finally Sheridan confronted the Shadows and Vorlons. With
Sheridan has made use of nuclear devices on at least four separate occasions: against the Minbari flagship, the Black Star; at
has consequently referred to his character as "John 'Nuke 'em' Sheridan".When Earthforce ships destroyed five refugee ships carrying 2,000 civilians per ship, Sheridan began a campaign to topple Clark's administration. He first led a task force to Proxima III to break the blockade of the planet. Following the breaking of that blockade, Sheridan then headed towards Earth. Sheridan's old ship, the Agamemnon, showed up and joined his side. While touring the Agamemnon, Sheridan received a message from Michael Garibaldi that his father had been captured by Clark's forces, and asked him to come to Mars. Garibaldi, under the PsiCop
The White Star fleet encounters a battle group of Advanced Destroyers (sent to engage the regular break-away Earthforce Alliance Destroyers), enhanced with Shadow technology. Susan Ivanova was mortally wounded when her command ship, the White Star 2, collided with debris from one of the destroyed enemy vessels in "Between The Darkness And The Light".
In the episode "
Under political pressure from the remnants of the Earth Alliance government, Sheridan resigned his Earthforce commission. In the episode "
During that same press conference Delenn and G'Kar addressed the gathering. Delenn announced that the members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds had voted to dissolve that body, and enter into a new Interstellar Alliance. To the shock of the Earth Alliance government, Sheridan was named the first President of the Interstellar Alliance. Sheridan and Delenn returned to Babylon 5. The couple were married at this time.
Season 5
After returning to Babylon 5, President Sheridan began the process of leading the new Interstellar Alliance. The first years of the Alliance would bring about numerous problems that would shake the Alliance to its core. Sheridan had to work to keep the Alliance together, despite forces that were working to tear it apart. President Sheridan brought Captain
In the episode "
After his inauguration, Sheridan gave shelter to a group of refugee telepaths led by a man named Byron, and allowed them to form a colony on Babylon 5. He felt that with Psi-Corps preparing to eventually overthrow the government that it would be beneficial to have telepaths friendly to the Alliance. In addition to helping save Sheridan's life, Byron himself learned that the Drazi - who were members of the Alliance - were using raiders to harass the Enphili. This helped end the harassment of the Enphili - who were being bombed to the point of extinction by the raiders. Afterwards, Sheridan took the opportunity to let Garibaldi form a covert intelligence unit with several of these telepaths.
PsiCop Bester came to the station with the intention of taking the telepaths back to Earth. His group managed to arrest all the telepaths, and were about to depart. But Captain Lochley and Dr. Franklin came up with a way to delay the removal of the telepaths. Dr. Franklin found that he had the right to quarantine newly arrived people for two months, and Lochley backed him up. This gave the telepaths a respite in order to figure out a long-term solution.
In "
Later years
Sheridan led the Alliance from
In
In
In the final episode, "
Reception and literary analysis
John Sheridan as a literary character has been subject to a small number of literary analyses, for example as a hero[3] and as a leader.[4]
References
- ^ Straczynski, J. Michael (1995-10-08). "Captain John Sheridan, As written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski". The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
- ^ "Strange Relations". The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. 1994-07-13. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
- ISSN 1540-5931.
- ISBN 978-1-4422-2986-0.