Mr. Welles

"It's the thought that counts."

- Mr. Welles to John Sheridan

Mr. Welles was a character introduced in the Babylon 5 episode The Fall of Night.

He was portrayed by John Vickery, who had also played the recurring character of Neroon on Babylon 5.

By the late 2250s he was a senior member in the Morgan Clark administration after the assassination of Luis Santiago. After Clark's Ministry of Peace formed the facist paramilitary group Nightwatch, Welles became a senior figure in that organization.

Towards the end of 2259 Welles accompanied the EarthGov diplomat Frederick Lantze to Babylon 5 to assist Lantze in his efforts to get a non-aggression pact signed. He also went to rally the local Nightwatch forces on B5 and to ensure that they were toeing the party line. Welles stressed the need for Nightwatch personnel to inform on others that Clark saw as threats to his power.

Welles tried to recruit Susan Ivanova into the Nightwatch in order to have a mole in the B5 senior staff, insinuating that it would be a fast track to promotion. Ivanova refused, stating that she would earn her promotion through hard work rather than through betrayal.

A member of Nightwatch discovered that John Sheridan had given sanctuary to the Narn heavy cruiser G'Tok sanctuary. Welles immediately informed Lantze, who had in turn went right to Londo Mollari with that information.

When a Centauri cruiser arrived to take custody of the G'Tok, Sheridan refused to turn the Narn ship over. The Centauri cruiser attacked the ship and Babylon 5, and was quickly destroyed. In the aftermath Lantze and Welles worked to smooth things over with the Centauri, and Welles ordered Sheridan to apologize to the Centauri or lose his command.

Welles soon departed Babylon 5. He continued working for Clark up until Clark committed suicide rather than face arrest in late 2261. Welles was able to use his political skills to survive the subsequent disbanding of the Ministry of Peace and Nightwatch as well as the justice department investigations in to him.

By 2267 Welles was working in the Political Affairs Office. He was assigned to the Excalibur to help make some changes to the ship to improve her public image on Earth. These involved uniform changes and adjusting the Excalibur's internal color scheme. While on the Excalibur Welles was possessed by a group of alien entities, but made a full recovery after the aliens left his body.