Battle of the Line

The Battle of the Line is a fictional battle in the Babylon 5 fictional universe, the final battle of the Earth-Minbari war. The Battle of the Line was a desperate attempt by the Earth Alliance to stop a Minbari combat fleet from attacking Earth. Over 20,000 Human defenders fought in the battle, including most of the remaining warships of the Earth fleet. Despite this armada, the Minbari fleet easily destroyed most of the defending human warships, taking few losses themselves. Incredibly, however, the Minbari suddenly surrendered to the almost-defeated humans with no explanation.
The first commander of the Babylon 5 outpost, Earthforce Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, was captured by the Minbari during the battle. One major plot element of the first season of the television show involves his attempts to regain his memory of those events.
Event
Background
Approximately two years before the Battle of the Line, the first contact between Humans and Minbari ended in disaster. The lead Minbari ship opened their gun ports as a customary show of respect, but the captain of the lead Earth ship, believing this heralded an attack, opened fire pre-emptively. This resulted in the death of Dukhat, one of the nine members of the "Grey Council" who rule the Minbari species. The Grey Council, offended, declared a holy war against the humans. Confident they could quickly destroy any human resistance, the Minbari fleet bypassed Mars and Io to strike at Earth directly, destroying the human defenders with impunity as they had before.
As the battle drew to an end, the Earth fleet was virtually annihilated, and the Minbari fleet virtually unscratched. The devastation of Earth seemed inevitable.
Minbari surrender
Lt. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair flew a Starfury fighter into battle. His entire squadron was destroyed in under 60 seconds. After his fighter suffered serious damage, he attempted to ram the nearest Minbari cruiser,
As the first season of the television show begins, Sinclair has struggled with and been bothered by his amnesia.
The near-annihilation prompted the Earth Alliance to expand its diplomatic and technology efforts, prompting the Babylon Project. Post-war Earth-Minbari relations were understandably tense, but the Minbari did help fund Babylon 5. Straczynski further explained that actor Michael O'Hare's departure at the end of season one did not impair the resolution of the storyline: "The only difference in the resolution of that aspect is this: we had originally intended to resolve the missing 24 hours, and the Battle of the Line, by episode four, season two. We've simply moved it up 3 eps to the first episode." James Iaccino, writing in the Journal of Popular Culture, notes of Sinclair that "The mysteries which surround this hero's past are in keeping with those encircling the Jungian prototype".
Episodes
The Battle of the Line is referenced as a major plot element in the following Babylon 5 episodes:
* "The Gathering", the series pilot, in which the backstory of the Earth-Minbari war and Sinclair's blackout during the Battle of the Line are revealed. During the pilot, Sinclair is told by a Minbari, "There is a hole in your mind.",
* "Legacies", season 1, episode 17, in which a diplomatic incident results after the disappearance of the corpse of the Minbari war leader who oversaw the Battle of the Line.
* "Points of Departure", season 2, episode 1, where the full story of Sinclair's questioning by the Gray Council is revealed.
Additionally, the event is mentioned or referenced in the episodes "Soul Hunter", "A Late Delivery from Avalon", and the Crusade episode "Patterns of the Soul". The television movie Babylon 5: In the Beginning, developed between seasons 4 and 5 of the television series, provides a complete look at the events of the Battle of the Line; while the movie is set chronologically earlier than the events of season 1, it aired after season 4 to an audience who had already seen the mystery evolve throughout seasons 1 and 2. A separate book adaptation of the film was published in 1998.

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