John Sheridan (Babylon 5)

John David Sheridan1(?? - 2281), played by Bruce Boxleitner, is a fictional character in the universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.

Sheridan's Second Year in Command

At the beginning of his second year as Commander of Babylon 5, Sheridan was presented with the new Minbari White Star class starship. In his first mission as Captain of the White Star, he helped Rangers stationed at a training camp under Centauri blockade escape before being captured by the Shadows. He managed to destroy the Shadow vessel by blowing up the jumpgate at the Markab homeworld. At the same time, he had to keep an Earth Alliance official snooping around the station unaware of that mission, and their knowledge of the Shadow vessel.

Related Topics:
Minbari - Markab

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Other problems surfaced during the first few months of 2260. A serial bomber had set off a number of explosives on Babylon 5. This resulted in the deaths of a number of people, and more were injured. Delenn's aide Lennier was in a coma for several days as a result of an explosion. After finding the bomber, Sheridan went to reason with the bomber, and kept him from setting off an explosion that would have destroyed the station. Also, Brother Edward, a Catholic monk, came to the station. This monk had been a serial murderer known as the Black Rose Killer. He had been captured and sentenced to Death of Personality, which was a total mindwipe of the person and replacement with a different personality. After the mindwipe, he escaped from the facility where he was being held, and eventually joined a religious order. Due to manipulation by relatives of the women Edward killed, the mindwipe began to break down. Sheridan helped Edward's superior Brother Theo find out who he truly was. Unfortunately Sheridan wasn't able to stop Edward from being killed.

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Proof surfaced that Clark had arranged for President Santiago's assassination through a transmission that President Clark had made. When Sheridan found that Clark had people trying to adapt Shadow technology from a Shadow vessel found on Ganymede, he destroyed that ship in order to keep Clark from learning about Shadow technology.

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This led to Clark declaring martial law throughout the Alliance. After martial law was declared, Sheridan defeated the Nightwatch forces by luring them into a trap by passing information that a Narn transport was bringing in replacements for the Nightwatch forces. He was able to then arrest the Nightwatch forces and confine them to quarters. Sheridan revealed that he had buried a lie inside the truth - he had gotten Ambassador G'Kar to recruit replacements for the security forces from the local Narn population.

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The EAS Alexander, under the command of General William Hague, was leading the efforts against Clark. Hague was killed in an attack on the Alexander, but the ship escaped and went to Babylon 5. The EAS Churchill joined the Alexander at Babylon 5. The Churchill brought information that an attack force was a few hours away, and that the force was going to arrest Sheridan and his staff.

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Mars had decided not to implement martial law. In response Clark had his forces bomb civilian targets on Mars. In response, Proxima VII and Orion III left the Earth Alliance. Sheridan joined them and declared Babylon 5 an independent state.

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But a few minutes after Sheridan declared independence, an attack force arrived. The attack force inflicted heavy damage on Babylon 5. An assault force that had boarded the station caused many casualties among the security forces on the station. The Churchill, which was on fire, destroyed one of Clark's ships by ramming it. However, Clark's attack force was defeated.

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Unfortunately the reinforcements for Clark's attack force arrived then. Sheridan realized that they were at the edge of defeat - that there was no way they could endure much more. But Delenn came to the rescue at the last minute, leading the White Star and several War Cruisers to the station.

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Soon afterwards, Delenn was kidnapped by the remaining Nightwatch forces on the station to force the Minbari government to withdraw their ships. Sheridan was able to rescue Delenn from the Nightwatch forces, but one Nightwatch member seriously injured her by stabbing her in the back with a large knife. Sheridan tracked down the man and knocked him cold, yelling that he wouldn't have anymore of the Nightwatch on his station. At that moment, he became aware of just how much Delenn meant to him.

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Sheridan also learned that he had a role in the disappearance of Babylon 4. He went to sector 14, where the station had disappeared. Sheridan, Delenn, Marcus Cole, Ambassador Sinclair, Lennier, and Ivanova went back in time to intercept Shadow allies who were on their way to destroy that station. They were able to detonate the fusion bomb the Shadow allies were carrying, but the explosion damaged the time stabilizer Sheridan was wearing to protect himself from the effects of time travel. As a result Sheridan drifted 17 years into the future. He found himself on a devastated Centauri Prime, about to be put to death by Emperor Mollari. During this time he also learned that he had married Delenn and had a son, David. Mollari then summoned him and Delenn. Instead of executing them, Mollari let them go, and provided a ship for his escape. While on the way to the ship, Sheridan was pulled back into time, and back to Babylon 4. He helped attach the time shifting equipment to the main reactor. After a power surge caused him to drift through time for a while longer, eventually Delenn put her stabilizer on him, which caused him to stop drifting through time. They were able to send Babylon 4 into the distant past where it was used to fight in the last Shadow war. Sinclair stayed on board, and transformed himself into the Minbari religious figure Valen.

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For the remainder of 2260, Sheridan's attention was directed mainly against the Shadows and the upcoming war. He began to build the alliance of races up for the larger fight. G'Kar joined the War Council, and it was learned that Shadow vessels were vulnerable to telepathic interference. Sheridan was able to successfully test that theory, and the Shadows ran before they lost anymore ships. Sheridan then led a large multi-species attack force against the Shadows. While the force was able to drive off the Shadows, the allies lost a lot. For every Shadow vessel they killed, three of their ships had been destroyed.

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