"Mind War" is the sixth episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5.
Jason Ironheart, Talia Winters' old instructor at Psi-Corps, arrives at Babylon 5, having recently evaded capture.
Psi-Corps agents Alfred Bester and his assistant Kelsey arrive shortly thereafter, and meet with Sinclair, Ivanova, and Winters, warning them that Ironheart is aboard and they need to perform a manhunt for them.
In his guest quarters, he explains that he is an advanced test subject from Psi-Corps, an attempt to raise the telepathic abilities of humans well beyond any known levels.
However, his abilities are growing beyond his control, and as he speaks to Winters, he suffers a "mind quake", shaking the nearby area violently.
Alerted to the situation, Sinclair accosts Bester in lying to him because several people were wounded by the mind quake.
Meanwhile, Catherine Sakai is told of a planet named Sigma 957 which an excavation company would like a survey of, willing to pay her a handsome sum for it.
[1] Actor Walter Koenig, who played the recurring role of Psi Cop Alfred Bester, is best known for he portrayal of Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and films.
Koenig was originally offered the role of Knight Two in the episode 'And the Sky full of Stars', but was unable to do so because of health issues.
The way that Thompson played this final scene was inspired by her recently becoming pregnant with her child with her real-life partner, co-star Jerry Doyle.
[6] The Babylon 5 makeup department involved in this episode – consisting of Everett Burrell, Greg Funk, Mary Kay Morse, Ron Pipes and John Vulich – won the 1994 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series for the previous episode, "The Parliament of Dreams"[7] For its visual effects scenes, Babylon 5 pioneered the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in a television series.
[10] The scenes of the rail car travelling through the interior of the station were created by effects designer Eric Chauvin.
The production team built a set of the rail car, which was filmed in front of blue screen, and the core background was rendered and composited by Chauvin.
The positioning of the four engine pods at the extremities of the craft was inspired by Ron Cobb's design for the Gunstar fighter from The Last Starfighter.
[15] Elias Rosner, writing in Multiversity Comics, highlights the performance of Walter Koenig as Bester.
"[16] Jules-Pierre Malartre, writing in the science fiction review site, Den of Geek, notes that the episode is "heavy on sci-fi and social issues" and deals with concepts such as "equality and the potential of human evolution".