Movies & TV House of the Dragon Pale Horses, Prophetic Dreams, and Bad Omens: House of the Dragon, Season 3 Episode 7 A betrayal is revealed, a future is glimpsed, and a character we thought dead returns… also: DRAGONFIGHT! By Tyler Dean | Published on August 3, 2026 Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO The penultimate episode of season three is, in some ways, quieter and features more table-setting than some others this season, and it defies the Game of Thrones tradition of having the most spectacular episode come second to last. At the same time, it features the longest and most visceral scene of dragon-on-dragon combat in the entire series and gives us the return of at least one character that most of the audience assumed was dead. Let’s dive in to discuss all its finger-removing, neck-biting, chin-stabbing glory… The Title The episode is entitled “The Dragon in Winter.” Obviously, it’s playing on The Lion in Winter, James Goldman’s 1966 play which was adapted into the much lauded, Oscar-winning film of the same name in 1968. The play is about King Henry II and his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, spending the holidays plotting political coups, backstabbing family members, and squabbling over which of their disappointing children should inherit the throne during a memorable Christmas in the 12th century. While, to my knowledge, Martin has never cited the play as a direct inspiration for any of his Song of Ice and Fire works, he is both a Medieval history buff and a classic Hollywood/movie buff (he famously owns a theater in Santa Fe called the Jean Cocteau Cinema), and he has cited Eleanor of Aquitaine as an inspiration for Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen (Silverwing’s original rider and Viserys and Daemon’s grandmother)—so this is very much in the series’ overall wheelhouse. In some ways, “The Dragon in Winter” recapitulates the play’s central themes and actions: It puts the rift between Daemon and Rhaenyra front and center and sees Alicent dealing with the ways in which none of her four children are truly fit to rule the Seven Kingdoms.  Of course, “winter” is always a charged and meaningful term in any ASoIaF tale. “Winter is Coming” are the words of House Stark and a warning about the privations of Westeros’ supernaturally long seasons as well as the oft-forgotten threat of the Others (called White Walkers in Game of Thrones) and the endless winter they bring with them. In an episode that revives Rhaenyra’s obsession with prophecy and shows Helaena dreaming of falling snow, signs of an impending winter are all around. Winter is also metaphorically coming in the form of Roderick Dustin and his Winter Wolves, who march in the vanguard of Oscar Tully’s host, threatening to end the Hightower threat.  And, insofar as the title of The Lion in Winter refers to the decline and dotage of a once-mighty monarch, so too does this title reference the aging or perhaps curdling of Rhaenyra’s reign as she descends further into tyranny, as well as the fracturing of her court as she finally consummates her relationship with Mysaria (The Lion in Winter also hinges on a secret queer relationship undermining a political stratagem). Unraveling the Opening Credits There are two new panels in the tapestry this episode. The first shows a pair of soldiers dressed in the Blacks’ colors, dead and bleeding out. The camera then moves through the cloth to show the obverse side where the same soldiers now bear the Greens’ colors. It’s a nice little bit of visual storytelling and slightly more surreal than the opening titles have previously been.  The last panel shows the Butcher’s Ball, with Criston Cole dead on his knees with the tines of the Seven-Pointed Star of Faith spreading out around him. Of course, here the star is mostly a stand-in for his actual guiding light, Alicent, reduced here to her faith—somewhat ironically since her affair with Ser Criston is one of the moments in which she broke with the precepts of her religion. Green threads move out from his panel and cross the border in which he is encased, moving through a field of what look to be blood-soaked branches towards the Targaryen sigil. Whether that’s meant to be new growth amidst all the blood or something more metaphorical remains to be seen. Helaena the Dreamer Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO The Helaena of the novel loves her dragon, Dreamfyre and flies with her often—only refusing after she is consumed by grief over the murder of her son Jaehaerys. Here in the show, Helaena says that it is “too much” when she is with Dreamfyre despite her desire to fly. That might be part of her autism-coding and overstimulation but Rhaenyra likens it to her father Viserys (the last rider of Balerion the Black Dread before his death)—they are the ones who believe that faith in dragons is a kind of hubris.  Intriguingly, Helaena’s desire to fly without a dragon feels like it’s a reference to Bran Stark, who also wishes to fly and is told by the Three-Eyed Raven (Helaena’s great grandnephew, Brynden Rivers) that Bran’s warg abilities will allow him to fly. Much like her brother Aemond—whom she says “burns without fire”—she flies without a dragon. Throughout Game of Thrones, it was implied that Danaerys is supernaturally special by virtue of her immunity to fire and having three dragons hatch on her husband’s funeral pyre. But here we see a more complex notion that what makes the Targaryens truly exceptional is not their connection to dragons but their prophetic dreams. After all, there were roughly forty families in Old Valyria who controlled and rode dragons. And if we believe the rumors of the creation of dragons, those ties through blood were forged by dark magic and human sacrifice. What Daenys the Dreamer, and Aegon the Conqueror, and Helaena, and Dany’s elder brother Rhaegar all had in common was a prophetic power that appeared, so far as we know, only in the Targaryen line.  So what does Helaena’s vision—the first one we’ve actually seen on the show (if one doesn’t count the shared vision that she and Daemon had at the end of last season)—portend? Let’s break it down: At the beginning of the episode she stands next to a gray mare in the courtyard of the Red Keep. There is a bright yellow light illuminating her from beyond the gates. We do not see the source of the light, but it looks an awful lot like dragonfire to me.  Later, during the longer version of her dream, she is first in the birthing bed, presumably giving birth to her current child (who I will refer to as Maelor even though the show has not confirmed a gender or a name).  Next, she is in her riding leathers atop Dreamfyre in an empty Dragonpit while a horde or armed man rush at her. She bellows “dracarys” and burns them. Oddly, it looks like an inverted shot of Rhaenys atop Maelys at Aegon’s coronation.  Finally, she and the gray mare sit in a field near a farmstead, feeding the chickens she said she might like to keep back in the second episode of the season. With her are older versions of Maelor and Jaehaera (this finally answers our questions about the puzzling casting call looking for a teenaged Jaehaera, which fans couldn’t quite figure out). The sun behind them is hidden by an eclipse and snow begins to fall. We see the winds of winter blowing towards Helaena and there is a sound of screeching that is reminiscent of the noises the White Walkers made in the original Game of Thrones series What looks to be Helaena for a second awakes from sleep, but it is actually Rhaenyra. This might be clever cross-cutting or it might be the half-sisters sharing the same dream, just as Helaena did with Daemon last season.  As to what the dream means, it’s clearly some kind of vision of what Helaena’s future might look like. I think it might be implying that, in order to secure that future, there will be a terrible cost (represented literally here by her having to burn hundreds of people in order to escape King’s Landing). Additionally, I think the invocation of the White Walkers and winter at the end of the vision might serve as a sort of warning that if Helaena’s own ideal future comes to pass, it will somehow destroy the timeline that lets the people of Westeros triumph against the second Long Night (which we saw play out in episode 3 of Game of Thrones’ final season). Needless to say, I don’t love Helaena’s chances of making it out of this season alive, and I think they are trying to reframe her tragic death as a noble sacrifice for the future of her own children. That said, we are far enough off-book with her storyline that I genuinely have no idea what the writers have in store for her.  Common Mistakes Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO After the death of Criston Cole last week, following his final doomed crusade to face his death on his own terms, outside of anyone’s service, this episode shows us numerous other consequences of both failing to heed the common folk and the perils of trusting in noble patronage.  Sylvie tells Mysaria that her time as Rhaenyra’s Mistress of Whispers has made her unable to truly help the smallfolk of Westeros. She reminds her that “within the walls of the highborn, a whore will always and ever remain a whore.” While Lady Misery seems to be entangling herself ever deeper with Rhaenyra (now supplanting Daemon as her lover), we are reminded that Ser Criston learned only at very end that the lowborn will never be thought of as an equal by their noble compatriots. Even Gwayne, who seems to have truly considered him a friend, could only offer him more servitude in Oldtown. I won’t spoil things here, but I am almost positive that Sylvie is going to be used as a stand-in for another sex worker that will feature heavily in season four. If I’m right, it’ll be fascinating to see how her former association with Mysaria factors into that plot. This theme also comes up in the final reveal of Ulf having already betrayed Rhaenyra. As we have discussed in previous articles, Archmaester Gyldayn (the in-fiction author of Fire & Blood) doesn’t particularly care about the poor and also believes Rhaenyra to be completely unfit to rule. Thus, Ulf betraying her is seen as both a matter of his common breeding and her own poor judgement. Gyldayn suggests that Ulf was always a craven and turned his coat because he was afraid of the power of the Hightower host and did not want to die. This feels much closer to a psychologically consistent truth. Ulf is, indeed, being kept in a weird twilight where his old freedoms have been taken away but he has not been rewarded in any meaningful way that he can see. Like Ser Criston and Mysaria, he is falling into the same old trap of believing that he will be respected once he has been granted the trappings of nobility. Ormund may be the least trustworthy mouthpiece for the virtues of the smallfolk of all time, but Ulf is also the most credulous of social climbers with burgeoning class consciousness.  DragonWatch: Battle Edition Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO The centerpiece of tonight’s episode is clearly the four-dragon battle between Caraxes, Syrax, Seasmoke, and Sheepstealer. It’s one of the best dragon fights we’ve had in the entire series, which should help address complaints about House of the Dragon being “slow-paced” from the series’ detractors. Among the best details of the fight is a reminder that dragon blood smokes when exposed to open air. It’s an easily overlooked detail from Martin’s books (alongside their black, iron-rich bones) but one that reminds us that dragons are not natural creatures in Westeros—they are things made of fire and free from natural law (even fantastic natural law).  Obviously there’s no scene like this in the original book. Sheepstealer, as Nettles’ mount, though a wild dragon, is always loyal to Rhaenyra and it is only when Rhaenyra suspects Nettles of betraying her (both as her husband’s supposed mistress and in the wake of Ulf’s betrayal) that she and Sheepstealer are driven off. I’m surprised that the show had Sheepstealer live at the end of it—given that they are now returning Rhaena to some version of her arc in the novel, Sheepstealer doesn’t really have a place in the narrative. It remains to be seen if he will return or if this was just a kinder end to the arc than having him killed by three trained dragons.  Interestingly, Sheepstealer’s arc on the show is being used as an inversion of his arc in the novel, albeit one that proves the same point. As a wild dragon, the Targaryens believe that Sheepstealer is impossible to ride, but Nettles takes control of him despite having a dubious at best claim to any Targaryen lineage (she is a resident of Dragonstone, like the book versions of Ulf and Hugh but, unlike them, doesn’t look particularly Targaryen and has a less traceable pedigree). Nettles’ ability to tame and ride Sheepstealer is a point of evidence in favor of the idea that one does not need Targaryen blood to ride a dragon—that maybe anyone can do it. The show, in showing that Rhaena never truly tamed Sheepstealer—being unable to stop him from attacking her family and their dragons—creates a similar doubt: the Targaryens can only ride the dragons they have specifically domesticated, and aren’t truly masters of dragonkind in general.  Poor underbite-y, ungroomed, very angry guy.  We also get our first detailed look at Dreamfyre, who we only saw briefly in season 1, shrouded in darkness. She is the second-oldest living dragon after Vhagar (though Vhagar is one hundred and eighty-two years old and Dreamfyre is only ninety-eight and, at least in the novel, Sheepstealer is rumored to be at least the same age as Dreamfyre, and possibly much older). First ridden by the tragic Queen in the West, Princess Rhaena Targaryen, she is described in Fire & Blood as being slender with blue scales and a silvery crest. The show has given her a series of upturned horns along the back of her skull and down her neck, making her look like some sort of nightmare elk. Additionally, she has a hooded crest around the eyes that make her look a bit like a cobra from certain angles. It’s one of the bolder and weirder designs on the show and I’m glad we’re getting to see it in full. The show never disappoints with its dragon physiology. Slightly less novel, but equally stunning in this episode is Sunfyre’s resurrection and his destruction of Lord Mooton’s army. Sunfyre resurrected is described by Gyldayn as the “a broken thing, he who had been the most magnificent dragon ever to fly the skies of Westeros […] huge wounds were visible along his neck, where another dragon had torn chunks from his flesh […] and where his right eye should have been was only an empty hole, crusted with black blood.” The resuscitated Sunfyre is a nightmare thing, as broken and scarred as his rider and the show captures that monstrosity, shooting his return with low lighting worthy of a horror movie as he looms out of the shadows. It’s a perfect reveal after two and half years of having to keep his survival a secret from my friends who haven’t read Fire & Blood. Odds & Ends Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO Given her obsession with prophecy, of course Rhaenyra would seek to use Helaena to win the war. The only thing worse than being a disbelieved Cassandra is being a prophet on whom the attentions of the powerful are focused.  Helaena says that the thing she last dreamed of was a “gray mare.” In A Dance with Dragons, Danaerys dreams that the Asshai’i shadowbinder, Quaithe, warns her of a pale mare coming to the city of Mereen. This turns out to be a warning about a dying Astapori refugee (who rides a pale mare) coming to the city and unwittingly spreading an epidemic of dysentery. Just a fun and not at all portentous fact… Aemond’s incestuous desires continue in his dreams. Last season, Alys’ influence led Daemon to have similar sex dreams about his mother, Alyssa Targaryen. We know that Aemond harbors either unnatural or perfectly-normal-by-Targaryen-standards desires for Alicent, but it seems that Alys is particularly interested in stirring up mother-son incest fantasies in the men she attempts to seduce. Wild stuff. As a side note, it is kind of fascinating how much the show successfully plays the Aemond-Alicent stuff for horror and disgust while having Alyn-and-Baela and Daemon-and-Rhaenyra (both uncles paired with their nieces) played as sexy and romantic. It’s fascinating that the show has managed to make us accept the Targaryens’ incestuous relationships as somehow acceptable while at the same time reminding us that our incest taboos are pretty darn universal—Targaryen propaganda at its best.  As Oscar Tully’s army and the Winter Wolves march South, we see the army has banners for Houses Tully and Stark but also for House Blackwood (a white weirwood tree and black ravens on a red field) and their rivals, House Bracken (a red horse on a yellow field). Alysanne Blackwood, who killed Ser Criston last episode, is a member of the House, which is one of the few that still worships the Old Gods south of the Neck. The Brackens showed up last season as well, being burned by Caraxes after Willem Blackwood used Daemon’s presence as an excuse to carry out old house rivalries.  There are also banners for House Mallister and House Vance. The Mallisters have a white eagle on purple and are located in Seagard, Defending against the Greyjoys. House Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest sports a banner displaying a black and white, checkered field with alternating black dragons and golden eyes in a gold ring. Those are men serving lord Tristan Vance (unseen on the show) who march against their brother house: Vance of Atranta. Both houses and their sigils are references to fantasy author Jack Vance. This sigil, in particular, alludes to Vance’s novella The Dragon Masters and his short story “Liane the Wayfarer.” Jeyne Arryn is one of the many queer women in this era of Westerosi history and I’m glad the show has finally confirmed it by showing us her longtime lover, Lady Jessamyn Redfort. Fun fact: Jessamyn is a relative (likely a cousin) of Adrian Redfort, the up-until-this-episode commander of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard whom Aemond kills at Harrenhal. Lady Jeyne says “living amongst nettles and sheep” as a nod to the fact that Rhaena’s plot has partially taken the place of the character Nettles, who was cut from the show.  Lady Jeyne tells Daemon that Vhagar was sighted near Fairmarket and suggests Rhaena may be there. Fairmarket is a decently sized market town located on the Blue Fork of the Trident in the Riverlands, halfway between Oldstones and where the river joins with the Green Fork. Jeyne is pretty up to date on her dragon-sighting rumors.  There’s a gigantic pile of dragon droppings (presumably Vhagar’s) in the abandoned farmstead that Baela and Addam investigate. Not since the late Sam Neill and company investigated that sick Triceratops have we seen such a detailed, ignominious prop. The Addam-Alyn-Baela love triangle is an invention of the show but a welcome one, as it gives Addam another point of contention with his brother now that both of them have accepted their Velaryon heritage, and the book version of Addam is fairly absent from major events during this portion of the Dance. In the novel, Adrian Redfort dies significantly later in the story during events I won’t spoil here. That said, the show has played pretty fast and loose with members of the Kingsguard and Queensguard. And both Ser Lorent Marbrand and Ser Adrian Redfort have been given far more to do this season than they ever had in Fire & Blood, even if neither survived as long as their book counterparts. Of course Ormund Hightower is a keto/paleo bro with his disgust for fat and his wildly undercooked goose. Just embrace veganism already. Maidenpool, the town where Larys, Aegon, and Tyland are headed, is the seat of House Mooton, located on the southern shore of the Bay of Crabs which separates the Crownlands from the Vale of Arryn. It is named for a pond in which the legendary maiden, Jonquil, is spied while bathing by her future lover, Florian—a fool who proves as brave as any knight. In the original Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark likens her alliance with disgraced knight-turned-fool, Dontos Hollard, to the story of Florian and Jonquil. In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Tanselle Too-Tall recounts the tale of Florian and Jonquil in the first puppet show Dunk and Egg see her perform.  The entirety of Alicent’s plot at Harrenhal is invented for the show. As is most of Alicent’s plot this season. In the novel, she spends most of what comprises season three imprisoned in the Red Keep without so much as a word. Still, much as with her secret meetings with Rhaenyra last season, this gives her more time with the people she’s closest to—a chance to deepen her character. Still, every shot of her in this episode is the absolute least comfortable we’ve ever seen her. Daemon offering to hunt down Vhagar alongside Rhaena is one final nod to giving her Nettles’ arc. Daemon and Nettles do, indeed, scour the countryside looking for Vhagar around this time and, if one believes the story told by the court fool, Mushroom, have their affair.  Daemon did not, indeed, have a dragon for at least the first eleven years of his life. During that time, Caraxes was ridden by Aemon Targaryen, Rhaenys’ father and Daemon and Viserys’ uncle.  One minor quibble with Rhaenyra flying to the confrontation with Sheepstealer is that it slightly bursts the claustrophobic bubble of her being totally confined to the Red Keep this season. It doesn’t matter immensely, but the series is beginning to betray a little bit of the teleporting Littlefinger impulse where dragonriders can cross hundreds of miles in a day. Excellent to see that Baela and Rhaena are okay with one another at the end of the day. Their relationship as loving sisters was one of the biggest sacrifices of Rhaena’s plot arc this season and I’m glad they found a way to repair it.  Alys’ new sultry corset is great but it can’t compare to Gayle Rankin’s press junket outfits, including one that might be inspired by Catherine O’Hara’s The Crows Have Eyes ensemble for Schitt’s Creek. Lord Walys Mooton and his army, who meet their death by Sunfyre at the end of the episode, do indeed die in that manner in the book. Though in Fire & Blood, no one ever believes that Sunfyre is dead and the Mootons die trying to put the severely injured dragon down. I love that Ormund sets up incense burners around his fireside encampment to ward off the smell of Ulf. Honeyholt is the seat of House Beesbury. Ormund and his army put down their rebellion sometime last season and while it will return to future generations of Beesburys, it is currently without a lord.  I feel like the show has done a great job of giving us every step of Ulf’s journey, eliding only the exact moment he betrayed Rhaenyra. His betrayal probably felt inevitable to non-book readers but, in making that betrayal a thing that already happened while continuing to show him bumbling his way through service to Rhaenyra, they land the surprise that otherwise might have whiffed.  In Conclusion… Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO Another great episode of simmering tension before the storm inevitably breaks. The show has done an excellent job of turning Rhaenyra into a crueler, less likable version of herself without ever betraying her core character. And this episode shows all the chickens of her increasingly desperate decision-making coming home to roost: Daemon’s betrayal revealed, Ulf’s turncloak moment, Corlys captured, another Queensguard knight sacrificed, and a potential dragonrider ally made dragon-less. But what do you think? Are you excited for the finale next week? Are you as worried about Helaena as I am? Was seeing Criston Cole’s head on a pike enough for you jackals?! Let me know in the comments, and join me for the season finale next week![end-mark] The post Pale Horses, Prophetic Dreams, and Bad Omens: <i>House of the Dragon</i>, Season 3 Episode 7 appeared first on Reactor.

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch: Fifth Season Overview The final season of Babylon 5 was plagued by mediocre storylines and odd character choices By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on August 3, 2026 Comment 3 Share New Share Babylon 5 Fifth SeasonOriginal air dates: January – November 1998Executive producers: Douglas Netter, J. Michael Straczynski It was the dawn of the third age… Sheridan is officially sworn in as the president of the Interstellar Alliance, while Captain Elizabeth Lochley of EarthForce—who was on Clark’s side during the civil war, and who also was briefly married to Sheridan years ago—takes over as commanding officer of B5. Sheridan is using B5 as the seat of the presidential office for the first year until the official headquarters in Tuzenor on Minbar are ready. The IA’s first year is fraught, to say the least. Sheridan grants asylum on the station to a group of human telepaths who are not registered with Psi Corps, led by an allegedly charismatic telepath named Byron. Alexander falls in with the rogue telepaths, and she and Byron become lovers. Byron also learns from her that human telepaths were engineered by the Vorlons, which leads to him demanding reparations from the IA in the form of a homeworld. (Why he asks the IA for reparations for the Vorlons’ actions is left as an exercise for the viewer.) When Bester shows up with a cadre of Psi Cops to arrest Byron, it causes problems because the IA charter allows for each signatory world to run their own affairs. Which means that Psi Corps is within their rights to arrest Byron and his gaggle. They resist this arrest, and a standoff with them ends in tragedy. However, Byron’s resistance has inspired a movement against Psi Corps, leading to terrorist attacks on Psi Corps locations with “REMEMBER BYRON” graffiti on the attack sites. Garibaldi is made the head of covert intelligence for the IA, and he and Lochley butt heads on a regular basis. After discovering that Bester has fixed things so that Garibaldi cannot cause harm to Bester, Garibaldi falls off the proverbial wagon. Credit: Warner Bros. Television IA cargo ships are being attacked and destroyed by ships of unknown origin, as no survivors are left to describe the attackers and apparently black-box technology has completely disappeared from the galaxy in the centuries since the present day. An attempt is made on Mollari’s life, leading G’Kar to volunteer to be his bodyguard when he returns to Centauri Prime on official business. There is another attempt on his life there, but that one is stopped by a mysterious alien who also kills the assassin. That alien is a Drakh, and it eventually comes out that the Drakh are responsible for the keeper that was bonded to the Regent last season and also for the attacks on the IA ships, done to frame the Centauri Republic and start a war. That war goes badly—not aided by Garibaldi’s drunkenness causing some situations to get way worse than they would have—eventually leading to a joint Drazi-Narn task force bombarding Centauri Prime (against Sheridan’s wishes). The end result is Centuari Prime in ruins and out of the IA, Mollari made emperor following the Regent’s death at the hands of the Drakh, and the new emperor forced to take on a keeper of his own, lest the Drakh destroy the rest of the homeworld. Vir takes over as Centauri ambassador to B5. Garibaldi’s drunkenness comes out eventually, and it’s Lochley of all people—a recovering addict herself—who proves most helpful to him. He resigns his post, replaced as head of covert intelligence by Tessa Halloran, the erstwhile Number One of the Mars Resistance, which also helps to improve Mars’ standing, as Earth is sabotaging their attempts to be independent. For his part, Garibaldi is all set to take over Edgars Industries after marrying Lise (who also helps him get sober). The Book of G’Kar has become such a hit that G’Kar now has groupies who will not leave him alone (one of them tries to kill G’Kar because G’Kar is, justifiably, snotty to him). He’s also being asked to return to take over the Narn government. He wants neither, so he leaves the station, naming Ta’Lon as his successor. Alexander is backing the terrorist attacks on Psi Corps. Nobody on B5 is willing to turn her over to Psi Corps, but they can’t keep her on the station, either, so she goes off with G’Kar (with whom she has already arranged for an exchange—telepath DNA in return for help finding a telepaths’ homeworld). She also makes a deal with Garibaldi to help create a secret slush fund for the rogue telepaths in return for Alexander removing Bester’s block. Lennier joins the Rangers, mostly because he can’t stand to be near Delenn and Sheridan because he’s turned into a mopey twerp over Delenn. When Sheridan and Delenn are en route to Minbar to finally occupy the new IA HQ in Tuzenor, Lennier deliberately fails to act to save Sheridan’s life, leading to him running away in shame. The season ends two decades in the future. Sheridan is now Ranger One, while Delenn is now IA president. His extra hit points from Lorien are running out, and he wants to say his goodbyes. He and Delenn have a final dinner with Ivanova, Franklin, Garibaldi, and Vir, then Sheridan visits B5 one last time before it’s decommissioned and inexplicably destroyed, and then he fades away with Lorien. B5 is blown up, Ivanova is made Ranger One, and everyone who’s still alive lives happily ever after. Probably. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Favorite Get the hell out of our galaxy! From “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari”: Sheridan appears in Mollari’s dream in multiple outfits: the EarthForce uniform he wore when he first reported to the station, in just the undershirt, as he was in “Severed Dreams,” then in the Army of Light uniform he started wearing at the end of “Ceremonies of Light and Dark,” then in the robes of Ranger One that Sinclair wore in “The Coming of Shadows” and the “War Without End” two-parter, then in white Minbari robes like those worn by Delenn in (among other places) “The Parliament of Dreams” and by Dukhat in “Atonement.” Then he turns glowy and disappears much like the evolved human in the framing sequence of “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.” Favorite Ivanova is God. From “Sleeping in Light”: Ivanova describes her current life as a general as being “an old war horse, trotted out after a parade so all the kids can point at it.” She eagerly accepts the job of Ranger One. Favorite Never work with your ex. From “Strange Relations”: Lochley actually follows the rules and is pretty much the only grownup in the story. Favorite The household god of frustration. From “Objects in Motion”: Garibaldi is already better at being the head of Edgars Industries than he ever was as a security chief, a PI, or the head of covert intelligence. Mostly because being unethical and extralegal and cutting corners is far more beneficial to a corporate CEO. Favorite If you value your lives, be somewhere else. From “The Fall of Centauri Prime”: Apparently, Mollari thinks highly enough of Delenn to beg the Drakh to allow him to rescue her. Favorite In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… From “A Tragedy of Telepaths”: Mollari tells a story from when he was a child about a guard who always stood in the garden. Apparently, years ago, the emperor’s daughter was worried about a particular flower and so ordered a guard to stand over it to make sure it remained unharmed. The young woman eventually forgot about the flower and the flower itself died—but the order was never rescinded, and so a guard continued to be assigned to that part of the garden thenceforth. He tells that story to illustrate why he can’t simply order Na’Toth to be freed. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Favorite Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. From “In the Kingdom of the Blind”: When G’Kar shows up by Mollari’s side, the nobles assume that he’s there as entertainment. Vole later presents G’Kar with the guard who lashed him at Cartagia’s behest and hands him a whip. After swearing in front of all these witnesses that there will be no consequences to whatever action he takes next, Vole asks what he’ll do. G’Kar hands the whip back, saying he doesn’t blame the tool for what the wielder of the tool did. This disappoints Vole, as he was hoping for proof of Narn barbarity and instead exposes his own. Favorite We live for the one, we die for the one. From “The Paragon of Animals”: For the second time in three episodes, a Ranger shows up just long enough to get killed. Obviously, these guys have the same life expectancy as a Starfleet security guard, and maybe Lennier should reconsider his new career choice… Favorite The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. From “Phoenix Rising”: We find out that Byron was a Psi Cop. Also Bester genuinely thought that the telepaths would understand that Bester is on their side and won’t harm them, all the way to the end, a level of self-delusion that is, frankly, sad. Favorite The Shadowy Vorlons. From “Day of the Dead”: Kosh manages to have one last cryptic-ass statement from beyond the grave: “When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning.” Favorite Looking ahead. From “The Fall of Centauri Prime”: More a “looking behind,” as the status quo on Centauri Prime that we saw in Sheridan’s jump forward in time in the “War Without End” two-parter is set in motion here, with Mollari being made emperor and receiving his Drakh Keeper. The Drakh also mentions wanting to do their work on Centauri Prime without interference from the IA or anyone else. At least one aspect of that “work” will be seen in A Call to Arms and Crusade when they unleash a plague. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Favorite No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. From “Secrets of the Soul”: As first established in “Mind War,” telepathic sex is very intense, as the minds intermingle even more than the bodies do. We see that for the first time here, as Byron gets deep inside Alexander, mind and body, and learns all about what the Vorlons did to her. Favorite Welcome aboard. We have some old recurring characters who, for obvious reasons, make their final appearances in this season: Jennifer Balgobin as Hobbs, Simon Billig as a Ranger, Jonathan Chapman as the Brakiri ambassador, Joshua Cox as Corwin, Maggie Egan as Jane the ISN anchor, Denise Gentile as Lise, Walter Koenig as Bester, Damian London as the Regent, Marie Marshall as Dodger, Marjorie Monahan as Halloran, Kim Strauss as the Drazi ambassador, Marshall Teague as Ta’Lon, Fabia Udenio as Adira, and Ed Wasser as Morden. We have some brand-new recurring characters who make their first and final appearances in this season: Wayne Alexander as the Drakh (Alexander also brings back the recurring role of Lorien at season’s end), Robin Atkin Downes as Byron, Thomas MacGreevy as Cholini, Robin Sachs as Na’Tok, Richard Yniguez as Montoya, and Christina Gavin, Jack Hannibal, Victor Love, and Leigh J. McCloskey as the rogue telepaths with speaking parts. Other notable guests: Sharon Annett (“Sleeping in Light”), Turhan Bey (“Learning Curve”), Neil Bradley (“Objects in Motion”), Mongo Brownlee (“Learning Curve”), John Castellanos (“The Ragged Edge”), Martin East (“Meditations on the Abyss”), Monique Edwards (“The Wheel of Fire”), Bridget Flanery (“Day of the Dead”), Mike Genovese (“The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father”), James Hornbeck (“Objects in Motion”), Neil Hunt (“In the Kingdom of the Blind”), Lawrence LeJohn (“A View from the Gallery”), Wesley Mask (“Darkness Ascending”), Bart McCarthy (“Movements of Fire and Shadow”), Francis X. McCarthy (“In the Kingdom of the Blind”), Raymond O’Connor (“A View from the Gallery”), Ian Oglivy (“In the Kingdom of the Blind”), Dex Elliott Sanders (“The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father”), Julie Caitlin Brown comes back as Na’Toth in “A Tragedy of Telepaths” after the character pretty much disappeared some time in the second season without fanfare. But the best guests are the real-life comedy duo of Penn & Teller who play the previously mentioned fictional comedy duo of Rebo & Zooty (with Harlan Ellison providing the voice of Zooty’s vocoder) in “Day of the Dead.” Favorite Trivial matters. The one from “A View from the Gallery,” because it had some particularly entertaining tidbits, I think… Favorite The echoes of all of our conversations. From “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari”: “Do you know what this is? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes that says, ‘Hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea’.” —Mollari ranting at Allan. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Goodnight, my love.” What an absolute chore this season has been. I’ve often described B5 as being on a bell curve, with the first and final seasons being poor and the middle seasons being excellent. This rewatch hasn’t really changed that opinion all that much, but the bell’s less even than it was two-and-a-half decades ago. I had more problems with the fourth season this time around, and I also found the fifth season to be far far worse than the first season. The inaugural season was still pretty terrible, mind you, but there were redeeming features and interesting setup for future stuff. The fifth season, though, was just awful. The first third or so is massively dragged down by Robin Atkin Downes and Tracy Scoggins. Downes emits a force field of boredom combined with a spectacular inability to change his facial expression, so every episode with Byron in it is smushed flat by his somnolent presence. Scoggins gets marginally better as the season goes on—she’s actually decent in “Day of the Dead” and “The Wheel of Fire”—but she’s mostly stiff and uninteresting. Scoggins’ biggest flaw is one that isn’t entirely her fault: she’s replacing someone who’s all but irreplaceable. Claudia Christian’s Ivanova is by far the best human character on the show, and Scoggins already faced an uphill climb taking her place in the cast, and she’s just not up to the task. On top of that, the pacing in this season is just abysmal. There isn’t 21 episodes’ worth of story here (not counting “Sleeping in Light,” since that was written and filmed earlier), and everything just drags. As is often the case, the plotlines involving the Centauri are superb. The best writing and the best acting (not just the usual suspects of Peter Jurasik as Mollari, Stephen Furst as Vir, and Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar, the latter being entangled significantly with the former, but also Ian Oglivy, Neil Hunt, Francis X. McCarthy, Thomas MacGreevy, and the spectacular Damian London) was the stuff involving the Centauri. Indeed, it’s the only part of the season I look back on with anything resembling fondness. The season ended with a whimper, as we got four straight epilogues with absolutely nothing interesting happening in any of them, so by the time we got to the one that approached worthwhile—“Sleeping in Light”—it was one more damn epilogue instead of the quiet coda to the series it was intended to be. People have said I was unfair to ding it for its placement at the end of season five when it was intended for season four, but it’s not like J. Michael Straczynski didn’t know what was happening in that last episode. He could have written three final episodes that weren’t denouements leading up to the denouement he’d already written… On top of that, three main characters come out of this season looking really bad. One seems to be deliberate: Sheridan is spectacularly incompetent in his first year in office as IA president. That was foreshadowed in “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,” which is why I think it was on purpose. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. It also lessens the impact of “Sleeping in Light,” as we’re told that Sheridan was rewarded for his year of fucking up (granting Byron asylum, mishandling the cargo ship attacks, losing all control of his generals in the Centauri war) with (checks notes) more than a decade-and-a-half in office? Really? Then there’s Garibaldi. There is no circumstance, none, under which he should have been given any job of responsibility with the IA, or indeed any government or military. Bester completely compromised him and, as we learn, the Psi Cop still has some measure of control over him. He’s the biggest security risk in the galaxy, and putting him in a position of authority in the IA can be added to the parenthetical list of Sheridan’s fuckups in the previous paragraph. Oh, and he’s a drunk, and his falling off the wagon made an already crappy situation worse… Finally, we have the transformation of Lennier into a toxic man-baby who lets his adolescent crush on Delenn take over his entire personality, and lead him to a potential charge of manslaughter when he refuses to help Sheridan and a fellow Ranger whom he could save. It’s a revolting development, one that does a massive disservice to what had been a great character. All in all it feels like the show might have been better off if TNT hadn’t picked up for another season. That’s not entirely fair—the rogue telepath storyline could have worked but for the disastrously bad guest casting, and the Centauri storyline was superb—but the show stumbles very badly to the ending. TNT commissioned four movies to go along with the fifth season, as well as a redo of the pilot movie, “The Gathering.” While they were aired before (In the Beginning), during (Thirdspace and River of Souls), and after (Call to Arms)the fifth season, this rewatch will be covering all four over the next four weeks. Next week: In the Beginning.[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: Fifth Season Overview appeared first on Reactor.

News Star Wars Visions The Ninth Jedi The Ninth Jedi Trailer Arrives Just Days Before the Star Wars Series’ Premiere The animated series opens up the Star Wars timeline By Molly Templeton | Published on August 3, 2026 Screenshot: Lucasfilm Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Lucasfilm The animated Star Wars series The Ninth Jedi is a first for the galaxy far, far away: a spin-off of the anthology series Star Wars: Visions. It follows on two Visions shorts, “The Ninth Jedi” and “The Ninth Jedi—Child of Hope,” though it seems like you might be able to watch without any previous knowledge. The first trailer began with a little time-and-place-setting, with a voiceover that said, “The Jedi and the Sith have disappeared. A terrible age of conflict now mires the galaxy in chaos.” A new and final trailer reintroduces Lah Kara, whose missing father was a powerful Jedi—and a crafter of lightsabers that react to their user’s heart. “In the new series,” StarWars.com explains, “Lah Kara continues to train in the ways of the Jedi under Margrave Juro amid an epic journey of self-discovery as she and Juro’s small fellowship of Jedi-in-training embark on a quest to save her father.” The final trailer makes mention of a weapon—seemingly fueled by kyber crystals—that will destroy an entire planet. This may sound somewhat familiar. The Ninth Jedi may be set in the future, but it plays on familiar Star Wars themes about the power of emotions and the use or misuse of knowledge. Lucasfilm is releasing The Ninth Jedi in both its original Japanese and in an English-language dub. The original cast includes Chinatsu Akasaki (Lah Kara), Tetsuo Kanao (Juro), Hiromu Mineta (Ethan), Hinata Tadokoro (Homen), Cho (Gramps), Shinichiro Miki (Lah Zhima), and Akio Otsuka (The Narrator). The English version features Kimiko Glenn (Lah Kara), Andrew Kishino (Juro), Masi Oka (Ethan), Patrick Seitz (Homen), JP Karliak (Gramps), Simu Liu (Lah Zhima), Neil Kaplan (The Narrator), Feodor Chin (Gennoh), Young Mazino (Nawaam), Chase Sui Wonders (Tafflah), and Keone Young (Kwana). The Ninth Jedi is directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Mitsuyasu Sakai. It premieres on Disney+ on August 5.[end-mark] The post <i>The Ninth Jedi</i> Trailer Arrives Just Days Before the Star Wars Series’ Premiere appeared first on Reactor.

Books SFF Bestiary Large Happenings for a Small Mouse: Brian Jacques’ Redwall There are talking-animal epics, and then there’s Redwall. By Judith Tarr | Published on August 3, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Brian Jacques’ Redwall was a publishing phenomenon from the very beginning. Jacques wrote it (by hand, 800 pages’ worth) for children at a school for the blind in Liverpool, showed it to a writer friend who passed it on to his own publisher, and even though the book was nearly twice as long as the usual chapter book in the early 1980s, the publisher offered him a five-book contract. The gamble paid off richly: 22 novels between 1986 and 2011, an animated television series, games, merch, picture books, cookbooks, all the trappings of a runaway success. It’s still in print and the series (originally aired from 1999 to 2002) is still streaming, though the heavily promoted Netflix film has, alas, been canceled. It all begins with the story of a mouse named Matthias, a brand-new novice in Redwall Abbey near the Mossflower Forest. There are no humans in this world. The peaceful brothers and sisters of Redwall are primarily mice, but they share the abbey and the forest with numerous woodland creatures: squirrels, moles, hedgehogs, voles, shrews, an indomitable badger, an intrepid hare, and various other animals and birds. They have enemies, too: rats, ferrets, stoats, foxes, and a terrifying snake named Asmodeus (“Asmodeussssssss….”). The first volume is epic in plot as well as length. Jacques was well read in classical literature as well as adventure fiction and children’s stories. Matthias is the chosen hero, the fated victor, avatar of the legendary Martin the Warrior, complete with quest to find Martin’s tomb and win his armor, shield, and sword. His fated enemy is the terrible Cluny the Scourge, the one-eyed rat who wields his tail like a bullwhip and tips it with a poisoned dart. Matthias and his friends are flawed and, dare I say it, human. They squabble, bicker, make mistakes. Sometimes they do bad things, either because they’re compelled or because they have good but misguided intentions. They grow and learn and change, and when they come into conflict with each other, they eventually shake paws and make up. Cluny and his mob of cutthroats have no redeeming features. Even when they pretend to be good, they’re plotting evil, sniggering at the well-intentioned fools who buy what they’re selling. There’s no kindness in them, no goodwill and no gratitude. They’re bad to the bone. In between the two are the aggressive and warlike sparrows. At the beginning they own the upper reaches of the abbey, beating off anyone who tries to invade their domain. It’s Matthias who turns these enemies into allies, first capturing a young warrior named Warbeak and later being captured in turn. The king of the sparrows, King Bull Sparra, is a winged version of Cluny, but without Cluny’s evil intelligence. He’s a tyrant and a megalomaniac. Unlike Cluny’s mob, however, sparrows as a species are basically good; the king’s sister Dunwing is Warbeak’s mother, and she’s a kind and sensible person who sees the good in Matthias and undertakes to help him and, eventually, save the abbey. The trope of the hero making allies among other species is just about obligatory in anthropomorphic-animal stories. Bambi does it. Mrs. Frisby does it. Tailchaser does it. In every case, the ally becomes indispensable. The victory can’t be won without them. The lesson each of these stories teaches is that the fated hero only succeeds with the help of his friends—the ones he’s had all along and the ones he makes along the way. The hero is the leader, and the ultimate responsibility falls on him. But his triumph is a communal effort. Matthias wears the panoply of the legendary hero. The hero comes to him in dreams to offer warnings and guidance. That’s magic in its way, but it’s up to him how he uses it. As the wise cat Squire Julian Gingivere says: There are very few such swords as this one left in the world, but remember, it is only a sword, Matthias! It contains no secret spell, nor holds within its blade any magical power. This sword is made for only one purpose, to kill. It will only be as good or evil as the one who wields it. It’s all about personal responsibility, about making the right choices. Strong stuff, and a powerful moral theme, but it’s told with sweep and vigor. It’s a grand adventure with a huge cast of characters. It can be ruthless: good characters don’t always make it, and bad ones do very, very bad things before they get their comeuppance. These animals are heavily anthropomorphic. They talk, of course. They walk on their hindlegs. From the evidence (and the animated series illustrates it), they have opposable thumbs as well as full color vision. They wear clothes and carry weapons. They eat and drink incredible, varied, delicious things, grown and harvested and cooked with loving care and in mouth-watering detail. Different species have different talents that correspond to their real-world versions. Moles are genius diggers and engineers. Otters are talented waterfolk and fishers. Constance the badger is a powerful fighter. Squirrels are champion climbers; shrews are hyperactive and quarrelsome. Foxes are clever and devious, rats are vicious fighters and killers, as are ferrets and stoats. The adder Asmodeus, also known as Poisonteeth, is wicked and horrible and evil and everything myth and legend makes a snake out to be (right down to the trail of slime—snakes are not slimy, not even slightly, but this is a fantasy snake, so…). Mice hold the good-guy side together. Redwall is a sanctuary, a place of healing and of peace. Its inhabitants only fight when forced to. Although Redwall is called an abbey and has an abbot, there’s no apparent religious component. No daily round of prayer and ritual, no altar or chapel, though there is stained glass. It’s about morality rather than dogma, history rather than scripture. The members of the community appear to be celibate; that’s hinted at in the end, when we learn what happens between Matthias and Cornflower. So why not tell it straight? Why mice? Why not tell the same story about an embattled abbey, a horde of ruffians, and, all right, some helpful animals and birds. Especially birds; in a medievalized setting, an air force is otherwise hard to explain. Maybe it’s because anthropomorphic animals let us see ourselves at a remove. We can indulge our biases, play on stereotypes, and examine complex moral issues. It’s the basis of the ancient and honorable beast fable, expanded and transformed into modern epic fantasy. There are other talking-animal epics, and many long-running fantasy series, but nothing else exactly like the Redwall cycle.[end-mark] The post Large Happenings for a Small Mouse: Brian Jacques’ <i>Redwall</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Books reading recommendations Five SF Works About Building a New Nation Sure, societal collapse is inherently dramatic — but nation-founding can be exciting too! By James Davis Nicoll | Published on August 3, 2026 Comment 4 Share New Share Nations have a natural progression from (presumably) optimistic formation to eventual collapse. Collapse has obvious dramatic potential (see here, here, and here for some examples); thus the many works set amid crumbling or recently expunged civilizations. However, the early days of new polities can be just as exciting. The first few volumes of Canada’s Hansard are one nail-biter after another! Not everyone has access to records of century-old Parliamentary debates to fill the quiet evening hours. Happily, authors have been happy to fill that gap with tales of young nations, some so young that technically they do not yet exist. Consider these five vintage examples of nation-founding tales. “The Inspector’s Teeth” by L. Sprague de Camp (1950) Relativistic travel, making for easy travel between the cluster of civilizations near Sol, could be a recipe for disaster. An Interplanetary Council aims to give the interstellar community a minimal bureaucracy that will draft and enforce a few necessary regulations, thus averting strife and war, and ensuring general prosperity. There is, of course, a catch. The Council requires its founders, all species sufficiently ambitious enough to have crawled out of the mud to reach the stars themselves, to set aside their personal ambitions in the name of an abstract greater good. Can human and alien agree on what this might be? The answer is found in a curious anecdote about an Osirian’s school days on Earth. To be honest, the Interplanetary Council isn’t exactly idealistic. Their main fear is that interstellar anarchy could lead to a space-Genghis Khan getting his grasping appendages on starships and nukes1. Still, the proposals are better than nothing. Luckily for the Council’s prospects, de Camp is in his “wacky college days” mode and not his considerably grimmer “Judgment Day” mood. Quatre Montréalais en l’an 3000 by Suzanne Martel (1963) Founded by Francophone survivors of the Great Destruction, the underground city of Surréal, deep beneath Montreal’s Mount Royal, has provided its inhabitants with comfort, safety, and civilization. In stark contrast to Surréal, the surface lands are still uninhabitably radioactive. Or so people are free to believe, as nobody has checked in centuries. When a tremor opens a passage to the surface, young Luke P9 explores. To his astonishment, the surface is a verdant wilderness. Furthermore, it is inhabited… by Anglophones. Can the two solitudes unite after two centuries apart or is strife inevitable? I know this book as The City Under Ground, which I remembered as a comparatively upbeat recovery-after-the-bomb juvenile novel. It’s still possible to read it that way, as long as you don’t stop to wonder at the event that enables a new Anglo-French alliance: both groups are threatened by a third. A group that existed when the book was first published. And still exists. And might have strong feelings about being villainized. The Tangent Objective by Lawrence Sanders (1976) Independent since 1958, the tiny African nation of Asante is ruled by King Prempeh the Fourth. While Prempeh may not always prioritize Asante’s prosperity, he does have a keen instinct for his own financial well-being. This is a problem for Starrett Petroleum, who would like to exploit Asante’s newly discovered oil reserves without the bother of revenue-sharing with Prempeh. Solution: a sudden change in government, to be orchestrated by Peter Tangent, agent for the oil company. Tangent’s choice? Captain Obiri Anokye, who has every virtue a greedy oil company could want in a would-be coup leader. More virtues, in fact: Anokye has a grand vision of the nation Asante could be… as part of a unified Africa, finally taking its place as one of the world’s great powers. Starrett thinks Anokye is their pawn. They are simply one of Anokye’s. There are not many 1970s books about brilliant African nation-builders. This is definitely one. The bad news is that The Tangent Objective is very much a disco-era lurid, sex-filled thriller, with all the carefully crafted prose and subtle characterization—or rather, lack thereof—that implies. It does not, however, lack for energy. The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin (1978) The Brasil-American exiles who founded Victoria’s lone City value the pacifists in nearby Shantih Town. Shantih Town provides the City with an ample workforce to abuse and exploit. In return, the City provides Shantih Town with exploitation and abuse. It is the perfect symbiosis. The flaw in the City’s reasoning is that Victoria is a planet, most of which is nowhere near the City. Shantih Towners could simply migrate far from the City and found a community to their liking. A bold proposition! Or as the City would frame it, flagrant theft of City property: their serfs. I don’t think there was ever a sequel to this story, so we don’t find out how matters play out over the centuries. Did the City reform? Did it collapse without its workforce? Did it set out on a campaign of planetary conquest? Worst-case scenario, the Shantih Town migrants bought themselves time, which isn’t nothing. Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster (1982) By the era that is the setting of Icerigger and The Tar-Aiym Krang, Foster’s imagined Humanx Commonwealth is simply a backdrop, a vast, wealthy, powerful and efficient polity that enables peace and prosperity on a galactic scale. However, a neutral observer might wonder how it came to be. Why would the beautiful insectoid Thranx even consider partnering with hideous soft-skinned humans? First contact between people and humans goes poorly. Humans are even uglier than the lizardoid Aann and no doubt even more violent. Clearly the Thranx must protect themselves from the humans, who are doubtless egg-eaters. Eccentric Ryo disagrees; perhaps there is some good in these space-horrors. Easy enough to prove… provided Ryo doesn’t mind committing a legendary crime spree. Every SF author gets their one impossible assumption. In Foster’s case, it is that something lacking an exoskeleton might not be the monster that they appear to be. This is hardly a comprehensive survey of the young nation genre. I didn’t even mention the Antarctican Republic! If I have overlooked your favourites, please mention them in comments below.[end-mark] See Poul Anderson’s The High Crusade for a comedic exploration of what might happen if Crusades-era Englishmen were handed a spaceship and nukes. ︎ The post Five SF Works About Building a New Nation appeared first on Reactor.