The Captains of Babylon 5 and Crusade

Much like Star Trek, Babylon 5 has had its share of captains. In this article I look at Babylon 5's captains, Commander Jeffery Sinclair, Captain John Sheridan, Captain Elizabeth Lochley and, yes, Susan Ivanova. As well as, Captain Mathew Gideon from the Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade.

For those of you who might be wondering why I included Ivanova and Gideon, I'll explain. If Claudia Christian had remained with the series through the fifth season, the character of Susan Ivanova would have become the commander of Babylon 5 instead of the new captain, Elizabeth Lochley. So, in that respect I'm including Ivanova in this. Now, as far as Gideon goes, he's a part of the Babylon 5 franchise. Much like Picard, Sisko and Janeway are part and parcel of the Star Trek franchise.

Commander Jeffery Sinclair, aka Valen - Sinclair was Babylon 5's first commander.
He was a hero of the Earth-Minbari war. He fought in the Battle of the Line. It was near the end of the Battle of the Line that he was captured by the Minbari, tortured, interrogated, scanned, and then he was let go and the Minbari surrendered. During the scan, the Minbari discovered that humans carried, in part or in full, Minbari souls. They also discovered that the Minbari soul that Sinclair had was one of their most revered leaders. Sinclair carried the soul of the great Valen, a Minbari not born of Minbari who turns out to be, yeah you guessed it, none other than Sinclair. Sinclair also became the first human to lead the elite army of both humans and Minbari called the Rangers, or the Anla'Shok.

Captain John Sheridan - Babylon 5's second commander.
Sheridan was hand picked by the Earth Alliance's late President Luis Santiago to succeed Sinclair if anything happened to him. Sheridan, also a hero of the Earth-Minbari War, gained Earth's first real victory of that war by taking out the Minbari's flagship, the Black Star, and several heavy cruisers before they retreated. Sheridan went on to command the Agamemnon, and then to command Babylon 5. On Babylon 5, Sheridan along with his command staff began to see the truth behind President Clark's reign of terror and led the fight against it. Sheridan and crew, along with the Rangers, Ambassador Delenn and G'Kar led the fight against the Vorlons and the Shadows. Sheridan went on to form the Interstellar Alliance and become it's first President. At the end of the civil war with Earth, Sheridan and Delenn were married and by the end of the series they had a son, David (I'm assuming that he was named after Sheridan's father).

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