Babylon 5 - Episodics (#415)
"No Surrender, No Retreat"

Written by J. Michael Straczynski, directed by Michael Vejar

Captain Sheridan asks the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to end their treaties with Earth and join him defending Babylon 5. Sheridan then plans to use his forces to take back Mars and Proxima 3, both under Earth control.
Elsewhere on the station, Londo approaches G'Kar, asking to sign a joint statement of support for Sheridan on behalf of their respective governments. He also offers also a drink to seal the deal, but G'Kar refuses both.
The White Star fleet enter the space around Proxima 3, where several Earth Alliance destroyers are enforcing the blockade. Sheridan orders the destroyers to stand down and abandon the illegal action, but one of them, the Heracles opens fire.
As the battle heats up, most of the destroyers eventually agree to stand down or withdraw, while a White Star collides with the Pollux, destroying it. The Heracles finally surrenders after its captain is replaced. Sheridan meets with the remaining captains to decide their course of action.
Back on Babylon 5, G'Kar finally accepts that drink, and agrees to sign the joint statement- but not on the same page.
As two more ships sign on with Sheridan, the Voice of Resistance announces that Proxima Three is now liberated...

The final battle with Earth moves ever closer, in the hard-hitting 'No Surrender, No Retreat.' The title, a line from Sheridan to Ivanova in that episode, is also writer J. Michael Straczynski's overall designation for Babylon 5's fourth season. Straczynski was hoping to show that some conflicts, such as Sheridan fighting his own people, could not be seen in black and white, only in shades of gray.
In order to sustain the episode's energetic pace, veteran action director Michael Vejar tried to keep the camera constantly moving. Vejar approached the episode like a giant rolling snowball, where it was impossible to get off once it started rolling.
One of the more emotionally intense sequences in 'No Surrender' takes place when Londo shows up at G'Kar's quarters, hoping to get his former nemesis to sign a mutual declaration of support for Sheridan's forces. The lengthy, sometimes painful scene, was actually shot at the end of a very long day, and actor Peter Jurasik (who plays Londo) remembers feeling some degree of pressure to finish the scene on time.
As we soon see, Garibaldi's trip to Mars would have major consequences in just a few episode's time...

Joe Nazzaro


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