Alfred Bester (Babylon 5)
Alfred Bester is a male television character who features in Babylon 5.
Contents |
Biography
Alfred Bester
In 2258, he along with his fellow Psi Cop Kelsey were both assigned the task of capturing a powerful rogue telepath named Jason Ironheart. The man was actually a former Psi Corps instructor who underwent illegal genetic and drug experiments in order to create a telepath with a P-20 or beyond rating. A safeguard was implanted in his mind to shut him down but the man managed to escape the Corps with the two Psi Cops charged with bringing him back. They eventually tracked his quarry to the diplomatic station Babylon 5 where his seemingly polite nature led him to convince the senior staff that their target was a dangerous man. Bester was aware of Talia Winters prior relationship with Ironheart and with Kelsey they scanned her mind in a painful manner in order to see if Jason had contacted her. Talia, however, had not made contact with the man and instead the Psi Cops kept a close eye on the situation with them even tracking the movements of the senior staff in an attempt to find a lead. Afterwards, a 'drill' was scheduled with Bester believing that this was an elaborate ploy to allow Ironheart to escape after the renegade came to recruit Talia Winters and Commander Jeffrey Sinclair to his cause. Arriving at the scene, Bester and Kelsey attempted to telepathically shut Ironheart down with the safe word but Alfred was knocked out by Commander Sinclair. Upon regaining consciousness, he had discovered that Kelsey was killed and that Ironheart had escaped but the failure led to Bester having to agree to a false statement about the incident so that he would not have to explain the circumstances to his superior. Bester then bid his farewell to Commander Sinclair where he told him, "be seeing you" as he departed Babylon 5. (Episode: Mind War)
Around this time, Bester came to notice a conspiracy occurring within EarthGov that surrounded President Clark. He determined that Clark was not the one making decisions and instead was influenced by mysterious aliens. Through him, they came to infiltrate the Psi Corps and had plans to use Earth's telepaths for their own goals. Bester was unable to learn much about the mysterious conspiracy but came to learn that it was tied to a name he heard which were the Shadows. He continued to gather more information about this hidden enemy where he learnt of a convoy of ships travelling through Sector 500 that were transporting weapon components. After some further investigation, he came to learn that these 'weapons' were actually captured telepaths that had been altered by the alien forces for an unknown purpose. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Alfred believed that the reason normal did not like telepaths was due to jealousy of their evolution. He believed that normal recognised that they were obsolete and that the future belonged to telepath. As such, he was determined to make sure that future happened with telepaths in charge of human society. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
At a Psi Corps re-education centre for rogue telepaths, he encountered a woman named Carolyn and became infatuated with her. He claimed that seeing her had awakened something deep inside of him that he thought was long dead. During this time, he used every excuse he could find to spend time with her where he helped get her better quarters, get more food and other measures that made her life more bearable. At some point during this time, he came to realise that he had fallen in love with her which was something he did not think was possible as he had never experienced such feelings before. The two became lovers though Bester did not have the authority to move her elsewhere so they had to make do with their secret relationship. In this time, Carolyn became pregnant with their child with Alfred trying to convince her to either take the sleepers or join the Corps but she refused with him attributing this decision as being part of her stubborn streak. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
Officially though, he was married to woman and had a daughter that were part of a Psi Corps genetic pairing though there was no love in that relationship. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
Powers and abilities
Alfred Bester was born a human telepath whereby he had the ability to scan the mind of other beings. (Episode: Mind War)
A lesser known fact was that as a P-12, Bester had the ability to pinpoint a ship's location in the shifting currents of hyperspace. This was achieved by focusing on the thought waves of the crew on-board with the signal being amplified by hyperspace. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
Psi Cops were trained to pilot a Starfury with this related to them having to go off on their own for security reasons. As such, Bester was checked out on all the latest fighters. This led to him being part of the elite Black Omega unit that were attached to Psi Corps. (Episode: Ship of Tears)
Notes
- Alfred Bester was portrayed by actor Walter Koenig where he made his first appearance in the episode "Mind Games".
- An unproduced episode for Crusade indicated that Bester was to appear in an episode according to a script.
In other media
Books
Appearances
- Babylon 5:
External Links
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