John Sheridan (Babylon 5)

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Babylon 5 character
John Sheridan
Affiliated with	Babylon 5
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
First appearance	In the Beginning (chronological), Points of Departure (airdate)
Last appearance	Sleeping in Light (chronological) Voices in the Dark (airdate)
Portrayed by	Bruce Boxleitner

John J. Sheridan (2215–2281), played by Bruce Boxleitner, is a fictional character in the universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. He acts as the lead character from the second season to the end of the show.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Sheridan's first year as military governor of Babylon 5 3 Sheridan's second year in command 4 Z'ha'dum 5 The aftermath of Z'ha'dum 6 Campaign against Clark 6.1 Aftermath 7 Presidency 7.1 Telepath crisis 7.2 Later years 8 External links

[edit] Early life and career

John Sheridan was born on Earth to an Earth Alliance diplomat. In his young adulthood he joined EarthForce and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander. He was offered the first officer position on board the EAS Prometheus, but turned it down because he believed the Captain had a reputation for recklessness and a bad record in first contact situations. Sheridan's concerns proved prescient considering that the EAS Prometheus was the ship that fired on the Minbari ships during Earth's disastrous first contact with that race.

Sheridan served as first officer aboard the EAS Lexington during the Earth-Minbari War. Following the death of Captain Sterns in an ambush, he orchestrated Earth's only military victory of the war: After the EAS Lexington was nearly destroyed in the ambush, Sheridan mined an asteroid field and sent a fake distress signal as a lure, resulting in the destruction of the enemy flag ship, the Black Star, which came in to kill off his "distressed" crew. Following the battle, the Minbari nicknamed him Starkiller.

Following the war, Sheridan went on to command the EAS Agamemnon in the mid-2250s, leading exploratory and diplomatic missions. He was one of the candidates to command Babylon 5, but was rejected by the Minbari in favor of Jeffrey Sinclair. However, President Santiago had kept him as his first choice in the event something happened to Sinclair.

[edit] Sheridan's first year as military governor of Babylon 5

When Commander Jeffrey Sinclair was reassigned as ambassador to Minbar in January 2259, Sheridan was chosen to command Babylon 5. His command skills were first tested when the Minbari ship Tragati, which had disappeared during the Battle of the Line, reappeared and tried to provoke him into firing upon them. However, Sheridan remained cool and defused the situation. Sheridan was initially not well received by the Minbari, and was still called "Starkiller" by many in the warrior caste (referring to the engagement in which the Black Star was destroyed).

Almost immediately after her emergence in half-Human form, Delenn asked Sheridan to dinner. Over the next year, Sheridan was thrust into one crisis after another. The tenuous Narn-Centauri peace deteriorated into open warfare. He had to deal with the Drafa Plague which Markab residents had unwittingly brought to the station. The Shadows had returned and were beginning to move again, and even covertly aided the Centauri in defeating the Narn.

As if the above crises were not enough, Sheridan soon discovered that Earth Alliance President Clark was slowly turning the Earth Alliance into a dictatorship. Sheridan found that the Nightwatch, a Sturmabteilung like organization, had recruited much of the station's security. When Sheridan attempted to aid a Narn vessel, the Centauri attacked Babylon 5, forcing him to destroy a Centauri warship. Given the choice of either apologizing to the Centauri or losing his command, Sheridan decided to apologize. The Centauri attempted to assassinate Sheridan, but he was saved by Vorlon Ambassador Kosh and the formality of the apology was dismissed in view of this event.

After the fall of Narn, Minbari Ambassador Delenn revealed the Rangers to Sheridan, and offered him shared command of the Rangers on Babylon 5. Sheridan vowed that the Rangers would hold the line against the darkness, no matter what the cost.

[edit] Sheridan's second year in command

At the beginning of his second year of command on Babylon 5, Sheridan was presented with the prototype Minbari White Star class spacecraft. On his first mission in command of White Star One, 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 (an extinct race) homeworld. At the same time, he had to keep an Earth Alliance official snooping around the station unaware of that mission, and his knowledge of the Shadow's involvement.

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 many more were injured. Delenn's aide Lennier was in a coma for several days as a result of one such explosion. After finding the bomber, Sheridan went to reason with him, and prevented him from setting off an explosion that would have destroyed the station.

Proof surfaced that Clark had arranged for late President Santiago's assassination in the form of a transmission that President Clark had made just prior to EarthForce One's destruction. When Sheridan found that Clark's administration was attempting to adapt Shadow technology from a vessel unearthed beneath the surface of Ganymede, he destroyed the vessel rather than allowing it to fall into their hands.

This led to Clark declaring martial law throughout the Earth Alliance. After martial law was declared, Sheridan defeated the Nightwatch forces by luring them into a trap by means of 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 persuaded Ambassador G'Kar to recruit replacements for the security forces from the local Narn population.

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 reached 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 coming to arrest Sheridan and his staff.

Mars had decided not to implement martial law. In response Clark ordered his forces bomb civilian targets on Mars. In response, Proxima 3 and Orion 7 seceded from the Earth Alliance. In the most painful decision of his career, Sheridan joined them and declared Babylon 5 own secession.

Very soon after Sheridan's declaration, an attack force arrived consisting of two Omega-class destroyers (The EAS Roanoke and the EAS Agrippa), two Hyperion-class cruisers, a breaching pod and several squadrons of new Thunderbolt-class Starfuries. The attack force inflicted heavy damage on Babylon 5. An assault force of EarthForce marines dispatched in a breaching pod came aboard the station inflicting many casualties among the security forces. The Churchill, which had sustained heavy damage, succeeded in destroying the Roanoke, by ramming it. Clark's attack force was soon defeated when the Agrippa succumbed to the station's defense grid.

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 Cruiers to the station, while herself commanding White Star One, forcing the Earth Force reinforcements to withdraw.

Soon afterwards, Delenn was kidnapped by the remaining Nightwatch loyalists on the station in an attempt 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.

Sheridan also learned that he had a role to play 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, having put his Keeper to sleep temporarily through alcohol, 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 which prevented anymore such occurrences. 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.

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. G'Kar joined the War Council, and it was learned that Shadow vessels were vulnerable to telepathic interference. Sheridan was able to successfully test this theory, and the Shadows fled before they lost any more ships. 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.

[edit] Z'ha'dum

The Shadows found that Sheridan's wife Anna was still alive, and that she was acting as the CPU for a Shadow vessel. The Shadows pulled her out as soon as they made the connection between her and Sheridan. Because of her time in the Shadow vessel, her original personality had died some time ago. A new personality had developed, which was totally loyal to the Shadows. They then sent Anna to Babylon 5 to bring Sheridan to them on Z'ha'dum.

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. During his vision of the future, 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.

While on Z'ha'dum, the Shadows attempted to lure Sheridan to their side. Sheridan refused to cooperate. He revealed that he considered Anna to be dead, since the Anna he knew would have never cooperated with the Shadows. Sheridan also revealed that he could tell that she had been plugged into a Shadow vessel because of the scars on her neck. The Shadows confirmed this. The first humans on Z'ha'dum were given a choice by the Shadows. Either work with the Shadows, or face enslavement or death. Anna refused to cooperate, and was thus enslaved. Sheridan escaped from the Shadows momentarily and went to a balcony overlooking their capital city. He then activated the fusion bombs, and put White Star One on a collision course with the city.

Meanwhile, 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.

Anna tried one more time to get Sheridan to cooperate with the Shadows. He refused, and the White Star crashed into the city and the resulting nuclear explosion destroyed the capital city. Meanwile 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.

[edit] The aftermath of Z'ha'dum

In the weeks following Sheridan's visit to Z'ha'dum, the war paused. There were no major Shadow attacks during this time. The alliance made by Sheridan had started to fall apart. Many governments felt that if they did nothing the Shadows would leave them alone. Delenn realized that this was wrong; that the Shadows would attack anyway. During this time, Delenn was shown one of Sheridan's recordings, in which he said if someone fel they might as well try to fly. With that, she began to organize a large Anla'Shok attack on Z'ha'dum.

Meanwhile, Sheridan had died on Z'ha'dum. But somehow, he had become trapped on Z'ha'dum in between life and death. He met Lorien, who was the first and oldest sentient being in the galaxy. Lorien tried to talk him into letting go, that no matter how important the cause, that death could ultimately not be denied. Sheridan learned to let go of the world of the living, but he could not let go of Delenn. Lorien then agreed to help him. Lorien did not know if he would be successful or not, but Sheridan knew he had to leave the state he was in. Lorien was able to help bring him back from the dead by giving him some of his own life force, extending Sheridan's life by approximately 20 earth years.

Some of the alien ambassadors had arranged a protest on the Zocalo against Delenn's attack. She tried to convince them of the folly of doing nothing. When some bystanders tried to attack Delenn, her aide Lennier responded, and the situation began to degenerate into a large fight. But at that moment Sheridan entered the Zocalo. All fighting ceased as Sheridan made his way to a ramp to address the crowd. When an Ambassador said that they all thought he was dead, Sheridan replied by saying, "I was. I'm better now."

Sheridan told the assembly that the Shadows were not gods, nor were they indestructible. He had fought them, and killed many of them. He told the crowd that Delenn was on the right track. Sheridan asked the assembled Ambassadors to help build the largest fleet ever assembled. He told them that if their governments balked, Sheridan ordered them to tell their governments that as the only man to have returned from Z'ha'dum that the Shadows could be defeated, and that the Shadow threat could be ended "not just for now, not just for the next thousand years, but forever". And the hostile mob was forged into a cheering crowd ready to follow Sheridan.

Later, he briefed his staff on some of his experiences on Z'ha'dum. Sheridan revealed the truth of the Shadow War. At first, two races of the First Ones, the Shadows, and the Vorlons agreed to remain when most of the other First Ones left. The two races would guide the developing younger races. For a while, the two abided by rules that had been set down. But eventually, the they began to have differences of opinion. The Vorlons believed that strength and evolution only came from order. The Shadows believed that the only way for races to evolve and become stronger was through conflict. Over time, the two races became diametrically opposed to each other. Eventually, hostility broke out between them and their respective allies.

The Shadows and Vorlons would not directly engage each other in combat but instead used the younger races as pawns. Finally Sheridan confronted them both. With Delenn, he led the alliance of Humans, Narns, Centauri, Minbari, and the League of Non-aligned Worlds, known as the Army of Light, against the Shadows, ultimately leading to the point at which Lorien confronted the Shadows and Vorlons telling them they must depart with the last of the First Ones "beyond the rim" of the galaxy. This confrontation, The Battle of Coriana VI, occurred in early 2261. They did so and left the galaxy in the hands of the younger races (Minbari, Humans, Narn, etc.) with the instructions to oversee the younger races as the Vorlons and Shadows had done before them.

[edit] Campaign against Clark

When Earth Force 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 with his forces. 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.

This turned out to be a trap. Garibaldi, under the PsiCop Alfred Bester's influence, had set a trap for Sheridan. Immediately after arriving on Mars, Sheridan was captured by Clark's forces. For the next week he was interrogated and tortured by Earth Force interrogators. Sheridan was able to successfully resist them despite intensive drug and psychological pressure. Sheridan was rescued by Garibaldi after Bester released Garibaldi from his telepathic conditioning.

Captain Sheridan then returns to the fleet. He and his forces then went on to the final engagements of the campaign. Sheridan was able to use Shadow modified telepaths to disable most of Clark's ships at Mars - this saved many thousands of lives on both sides. Sheridan then took the fleet to Earth. Seeing that their fortunes had changed, the resistance on Earth had went to arrest Clark, but Clark committed suicide before he could be captured.

In a last spiteful act, Clark turned the planetary defense system against Earth. Earth Alliance Senator Crosby was able to contact the fleet and communicate what Clark had done. The fleet then proceeded to destroy the defense platforms before they could fire on the planet. But the missiles fired by the platforms damaged or destroyed many ships in the process. One last platform was operational and was ready to fire. Sheridan's damaged ship was the only one in range - his ship had no weapons. Seeing no other choice, Sheridan ordered the Agamemnon to ram the platform, which would narrowly avert the destruction of the Eastern Seaboard of North America. At the last minute, however, the EAS Apollo, one of the ships previously disabled over Mars, which had managed to repair the damage done to it, enters orbit and destroys the battery, saving the Agamemnon and Earth.

[edit] Aftermath

Under political pressure from the remnants of the Earth Alliance government, Sheridan resigned his EarthForce commission. Even though Sheridan had done the morally correct thing by removing President Clark from office by force, Clark's successor President Luchenko felt that Sheridan had to pay some sort of price for his actions. She offered amnesty for all who followed Sheridan, as well as allowing Sheridan to retain his military pension and leave with full honors. After the President put the amnesty in writing, Sheridan agreed to resign. The next day, the President gave a press conference. Sheridan announced that he could not remain in EarthForce - his remaining would only continue its divisions.

During that same press conference Delenn and G'Kar addressed the gathering. It was at this press conference that she announced that the members of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds had voted to dissolve that body, and enter into a new Interstellar Alliance. She invited Earth to join the Alliance. The Alliance offered to show humans how to create artificial gravity, which would allow for more efficient space vessels and installations that did not require rotating sections. Earth agreed to join the Alliance, and also agreed to grant Mars independence. To the shock of the Earth Alliance government, Sheridan was named the first President of the Interstellar Alliance. Some in the Earth Alliance suspected that he knew he was going to get that position from the beginning, making his military commission resignation not a punishment, but merely a necessary part of a personal career advancement. Sheridan and Delenn returned to Babylon 5. The couple were married at this time. He promoted Susan Ivanova to the rank of Captain as one of his last acts as an EarthForce officer. Still grieving over the death of Marcus Cole, Ivanova decided to leave Babylon 5 and take command of a prototype Warlock class destroyer.

[edit] Presidency

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 Elizabeth Lochley to the station to take command. Even though Sheridan described her as Ivanova's replacement, she was really a replacement for the both of them. Lt. Corwin took over some of Ivanova's other duties. Sheridan gave her a free hand to run the station's affairs, reserving only the political course of the Alliance to himself.

Right after returning to the station, Sheridan began preparing for his formal inauguration. At about the same time he had to deal with the first assassination attempt to be made against him. Former EarthForce Major Clemens had run the Beta 9 prison system under President Clark. After Clark died, warrants were put out on Clemens on charges of torture and murder of dissidents on Beta 9 and elsewhere. Blaming Sheridan for what had happened to him and not having much to lose, Clemens came to Babylon 5 to kill Sheridan. Clemens also was a trained infiltrator. Sheridan was saved by a telepath from being shot by Clemens in the reception hall, who had disguised himself as the new Gaim ambassador. The inauguration ceremony was moved to the observation dome. Clemens tried to destroy the dome with a Starfury, but was intercepted by Garibaldi in his own fighter. Garibaldi managed to use the Starfury's robotic arm to grab Clemens' fighter, and threw it clear of the station. Clemens was killed when the station opened fire on him.

[edit] Telepath crisis

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. It also illustrated that the Alliance was quite willing to act against those who would commit violence against others. 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.

Soon, Byron fell in love with Lyta Alexander. The telepaths then learned that the Vorlons had created them to fight the Shadows. Byron was quite angry over how the telepaths had been used. He decided to demand that the telepaths be given a homeworld. Byron had his telepaths spy on the various ambassadors, and learn secrets from them. In an Alliance meeting, Byron made his demand, and revealed that they had spied on the ambassadors.

The PsiCops arrived soon afterwards to disband the telepath colony, and take the telepaths back to Earth. Despite attempts by Sheridan to seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis, the PsiCops insisted. Byron and a small group of telepaths committed suicide rather than allow Bester to take them back into Psi-Corps control.

[edit] Later years

Sheridan led the Alliance from Babylon 5 for the first year. When the Alliance headquarters in the Minbari city of Tuzanor were complete, Sheridan moved to Minbar. He led the Alliance from there for over a decade. Just before moving to Minbar, Sheridan and Delenn learned that Delenn was pregnant. Despite the fact that the baby's human heritage could lead to danger, Delenn was able to carry the baby to term. The couple named their son David. In 2279, Sheridan declined reelection to the Presidency. His wife Delenn became the second President of the Alliance. Afterwards, Sheridan focused his efforts on leading the Anla'Shok.

In 2281, Sheridan knew that the 20 years he had been given by Lorien were almost over. He had his friends - Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, and Centauri Emperor Cotto - come to his home for one last reunion. Just before their meeting, Franklin found that Sheridan only had a short time left. The next morning, Sheridan left his home and his wife for the last time. He traveled alone to Babylon 5 to see the station one last time. He learned that the station was about to be shut down and demolished. Zack Allan - who had also been invited to the reunion but the invitation was returned to Sheridan - came to visit with Sheridan. Sheridan learned that Allan had reenlisted a few months ago and returned to Babylon 5, which resulted in the Ranger carrying his invitation being unable to find him on Earth. Sheridan realized that he was coming to the end. He then traveled alone to Coriana 6, where he was taken beyond the galactic rim by Lorien. His empty ship was later recovered, but his body was never found. Some Minbari believed that he would eventually return, but neither his friends or family ever saw him again.

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¹In the original broadcast of "And Now For a Word" Sheridan's middle name is given as David (his father's name, the name he eventually gives his son, and also the middle name of Jeffrey Sinclair). In later episodes, he is referred to as "John J. Sheridan". On the Babylon 5 season 2 DVD release of "And Now For a Word", Sheridan's name is corrected to "John J Sheridan".

John Sheridan is the descendant of the famous Civil War general Philip Sheridan.

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[edit] External links

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