River of Souls

River of Souls is the fourth of six Babylon 5 TV Movies. It is set in mid 2263, over six months after the end of the fifth season.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi
Tracy Scoggins as Captain Elizabeth Lochley
Richard Biggs as Dr Stephen Franklin
Jeff Conaway as Security Chief Zack Allan
Ian McShane as Dr Robert Bryson
Martin Sheen as Soul Hunter

Featuring[]

Jeff Doucette as 2nd Man
Wayne Alexander as Soul One
Bob Amaral as Customer
Beece Barkett as Woman
Joel Brooks as Jacob Mayhew
Joshua Cox as David Corwin
T.J. Hoban as Male Hologram
Stuart Pankin as James Riley
Ray Proscia as Klaus
Nikki Schieler Ziering as Female Hologram
Jeff Silverman as Man
Jean St. James as Sheila

Summary[]

After death, Then what? Questions of eternity arise when a supposedly infallible harvester of souls proves to be very fallible.

Story[]

Captain Lochley is happy that nothing of consequence has happened to Babylon 5 since John Sheridan and Michael Garibaldi left the station. She mentions a term she coined, the Sheridan-Garibaldi Effect, which describes the chaos the two have brought to the station in past. As she finishes explaining her theory to Lt. David Corwin, he regretfully explains to her that Garibaldi arrived a few minutes earlier. While Garibaldi is chatting with his employee Bryson, an archeologist who searches for eternal life, Security Chief Zack Allan is visiting an illegal holobrothel in Brown 11 to shut it down. The holobrothel uses photos of people to create a three dimensional copy of that person and people can have their fun with it with the help of a special suit. But instead of closing his facility the owner Jacob Mayhew calls for his lawyer James Riley who sues Lochley for damaging the reputation of his client, because Zack told the people there that it is dangerous to use these suits.

James Riley, Jacob Mayhew's lawyer serves Captain Lochley with a lawsuit while Lochley is having breakfast.

A few hours later a Soul Hunter arrives at Babylon 5 because

Jacob Mayhew, at his Holo-brothel in Down Below.

someone has stolen a special vessel with a billion Ralgan souls. Garibaldi's employee Bryson turns out to be responsible for the theft of these souls.

Lochley's Love Bat — Lt. David Corwin gives Captain Elizabeth Lochley a present, a Love Bat.

Ros 03 — A Ralgan talking to Lochley in guise of Dr. Franklin

The mad Ralga souls manipulate Bryson to help them to get their revenge. The very powerful souls use the reactor to pass through the station and try to kill the Soul Hunter. But Lochley thrusts the Soul Hunter away and is almost killed by the electric shock. For a moment she is dead, which in that small window of time some of the Ralga souls bring her into their vessel to talk to her. Lochley finds out that the Ralga were not really dying when the Soul Hunters captured their souls they were evolving to an existence of pure energy. When she regains conscious she tells the Soul Hunter about her experience. He is shocked to hear that they may have made a mistake.

Meanwhile many other Soul Hunter ships arrive at Babylon 5 and demand the soul vessel. The Soul Hunter aboard tries to tell them about their mistake but they don't believe him because they think they never slip up.

Ros 07 — Holographic illusion of Cpt. Lochley

Garibaldi and Zack search Brown 11 because that is the location where most of the reports of strange occurrences had happened the previous few hours. They find a dead man who looks like he was frightened to death. There Jacob Mayhew appears again and verbally assaults Zack for impairing his business. When he realizes that shutting down the sector wasn't to keep his customers away he shows them a strange energy stream coming out of his holobrothel. At this place they see a holographic illusion of Captain Lochley.

At this moment Captain Lochley, who has left the Med Lab, joins the group and sees the holo of herself. She is offended, and further shocked to hear that her image is more frequently used by the brothels female patrons. They realize that the souls are using the holograpic system to get bodies.

Lochley, Garibaldi and Zack follow the souls to a hall. The holo of Lochley talks to the other souls about revenge. When the lights flicker and the souls don't, Lochley realizes that these souls are using another resource than the reactor. They deduce that these holographic illusions are used only to distract them from the real situation. So Lochley runs back to the holobrothel with a hand grenade and blows it up. Mayhew is not happy about that.

Afterward, they find out that the hacking into the reactor takes place in Grey 4.

Ros 10 — Bryson holding the vessel of Ralga souls

As they arrive in Grey 4 they find Bryson in the middle of a pillar of lights and faces. He's in a kind of trance and holding the vessel of Ralga souls. Garibaldi tries to talk to him but as result the souls try to kill him. Security around Zack starts to shoot at the pillar but without harming it. So they stop shooting.

The Soul Hunter decides to sacrifice himself as a bridge between his people and the souls of the Ralga. He wants to bring them back to their home world where they could find a way to release the souls from the vessel without killing them. The souls accept his offer and he dies. The souls release Bryson.

Later Captain Lochley hands the vessel over to another Soul Hunter with the assurance that they keep their promise.

Finally Riley appears at Lochley's office and tries to sue her for violating the rights of his client and destroying his facility. But she shoots it down with the fine print of his client's contract about military operations.