Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an epic
science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by
J. Michael Straczynski.
Christopher Franke composed the music for the TV series and related TV movies. The pilot movie,
The Gathering, aired on
February 22,
1993, and the regular series initially aired from
January 26,
1994 through
November 25,
1998, first in syndication on the short-lived
Prime Time Entertainment Network, then on cable network
TNT. Because the show was aired every week in the
United Kingdom on
Channel 4 without a break, the last four or five episodes of the early seasons were shown in the UK before the US.
The series won several awards, including two
Hugos for
Best Dramatic Presentation.
The series consists of a five-year
story arc taking place over five seasons of 22 episodes each. John Iacovelli said "Babylon 5 is a window on the future" in the DVD feature
Creating the Future, linking to the idea of a
space opera. The hub of the story is set in the 23rd century (2258-2262
AD) on a large
space station named Babylon 5; the five mile (8 km) long, 2.5 million ton rotating colony is built to be a gathering place for fostering peace through
diplomacy, trade, and cooperation.
Having long been a science fiction fan himself, Straczynski was determined to produce a science fiction series for adults in which, for once, things would be done properly: consistent technology, "no kids or cute robots". It was not a utopian future — there is greed and homelessness. It was not a place where everything was the same at the end of the day — main characters grow, develop, live, and die. An unabashedly political show, it was always ready to deal with politics, sex, religion, and philosophy.
Straczynski wanted the show to be a mirror to the real world and to covertly teach (an idea mentioned by Mark Twain). [
1]
 |
The Babylon 5 Station |
Unlike most television shows, this series was conceived as a
novel, with a defined beginning, middle, and end. In addition, even tie-in novels, comic books, and short stories play a significant part of the overall story.
The overall story of the show was plotted out in some detail before the first episode was ever shot. Having a (loosely) predetermined plot was advantageous in many respects, as longer-term planning greatly reduced the working budget required on sets and costumes. The planned plot arc, allowing largely fixed sets and economies of scale, favorably compared with more episodic series which might require an entirely new set of props or costumes for each episode.
Though conceived as a whole, and with Straczynski writing most of the episodes (including all of the episodes of the third and fourth seasons, a feat never before accomplished in American television), it was necessary to adjust the plotline to accommodate external influences. Major challenges included the replacement of
actor Michael O'Hare as the station commander after the first season, the unexpected departure of actresses
Claudia Christian and
Andrea Thompson, and the necessity to pre-film the season 5 grand finale "Sleeping in Light" due to fears of premature cancellation after only 4 seasons. (Fortunately for the fans season 5 was later picked-up; according to Straczynski the changes made to the show to provide proper closure were minor: "If I had known with absolute certainty that there would be a season 5, then season 4 would have ended with 418, Intersections in Real Time.")
Babylon 5 uses an arc-driven storytelling style now prevalent in science fiction and in mainstream drama. In the DVD feature
The Making of Babylon 5, Walter Koenig was enthusiastic about the show. He said "It's an exciting uniquely different series that could forever change the way you look at science fiction television" and referred to "groundbreaking special effects and new breathtaking achievements in makeup, sets and costumes". Straczynski anticipated the rise of digital television, shooting the series in 16:9 format rather than the normal 4:3 - a full six years before
ER and many other dramas began doing the same thing.
Babylon 5 also revolutionized the use of computer technology (using
Amiga-based
Video Toasters at first, and later
Pentium and
DEC Alpha-based systems [
2]) in creating
visual effects at a time when using models and miniatures was the norm. It was also the first sci-fi series to respect
Newtonian physics in its space battle sequences, since utilised in other series such as
Joss Whedon's
Firefly and the
Sci-Fi Channel version of
Battlestar Galactica.
Direct fan interaction
Babylon 5 was also the first show to fully utilize the
Internet as a tool for building fan support. Straczynski used most of the popular Internet and pre-Internet communications services to spread the word about the show, answer fan questions and keep a constant stream of information buzzing through science fiction fandom. He posted thousands of messages, eventually focusing most of his attention on
GEnie and the
Usenet newsgroup
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
Babylon stations
In the show, Babylon 5 is a center of political intrigue and conflict, and eventually becomes a pawn in a massive interstellar conflict from which it emerges with a victory over forces of darkness and chaos, albeit at great cost. This is reflected in the opening monologue of each episode which includes "last, best hope for peace" in season one but changes to "last, best hope for victory" by season three.
Babylon 5 is the fifth, and last, of the Babylon space stations. Three predecessors, the original Babylon station, Babylon 2 and Babylon 3 were all sabotaged and destroyed before their completion. The fourth station,
Babylon 4 vanished twenty-four hours after it became fully operational. The episode "
Babylon Squared" and the two-part episode "
War Without End" deal with the disappearance of Babylon 4. Babylon 5 is substantially smaller than the previous stations. This was cited as due to budget constraints after the failure of the first four stations. Due to said constraints, Babylon 5 had no form of propulsion, whereas the
Babylon 4 station did.
Straczynski has said that he has detailed notes on the inauguration of the Babylon station program, and that one man was at the heart of the effort to get the first one built.
The three Babylon stations seen on screen were a different color: Babylon 1 was red, Babylon 4 green, and Babylon 5 blue. (A persistent
fanon rumor is that all five Babylon stations are colored in spectrum order - thus Babylon 2 would be orange, and Babylon 3 yellow. However, neither of those stations ever actually appeared onscreen.)
Bruce Boxleitner, who played station commander
Captain John Sheridan, described the space station Babylon 5 as "... A free port for diplomats, travelers and businessmen. A combination of building the
United Nations and
Times Square on an intergalactic scale...", in the introduction of "The Guide to Babylon 5".
The Babylon Series were modified versions of the typical
O'Neill Space Colony design, better known as the
O'Neill Cylinder.
Ethnicity and language of characters
All the major human characters speak American English, with the exception of Marcus Cole, who speaks with distinct British
Received Pronunciation - even though his family has not lived in the
UK for several generations. The show takes no account for possible evolutions of the language 250 years from now, save for some new words. Human characters stem from all across
Earth. Of the main characters, however, none are from
South America or
Asia. The latter was represented in
the pilot episode but the character,
Laurel Takashima, did not appear in the series. Ambassador Delenn and Londo Mollari, both alien characters, speak with regional accents similar to Russian and Eastern European slavic countries.
Susan Ivanova, born in
Russia, speaks with an American accent, but has some posters with writings in the
cyrillic alphabet in her room, possibly indicating she knows the language. Her father, seen on his deathbed, speaks with a distinct Russian accent, as does her brother. When Ivanova tries to learn the
Minbari language, she obtains comical results, such as the inability of even giving simple commands: her mastery of English is due to her upbringing in an English-speaking boarding school. Her name is consistently pronounced with the accent on the
antepenult rather than the
penult (i.e.
IVAnova rather than
IvaNOva), the latter being the more common
Russian pronunciation; the pronuncation
IVAnova is more rare but still proper; these ways of pronunciation are based on family traditions: For example, the name of the painter
Alexander Ivanov is always pronounced as
IVAnov. Still, her father's
rabbi, Russian by birth, uses both pronunciations. A less-than-neutral newscaster mispronounces her name; this would be intentional, as it is common practice to ask a subject to state his or her name at the beginning of an interview.
Michael Garibaldi, with an
Italian last name and an
English first name, also speaks with an American accent, and at no time is shown to know Italian. In one episode he mentions that his grandmother was a
Boston police officer. Though he was born and raised on
Mars and speaks English, he retains an Italian heritage in that he orders Italian foodstuffs such as
mozzarella by mail. He is also able to learn to read written Narn in a very short time, indicating exceptional linguistic skills, when reading the
Book of G'Quan. He does not, however, fare so well with a
Japanese technical manual. His name is consistently mispronounced as "gah-ree-
bohl-dee" instead of "gah-ree-
bahl-dee". Garibaldi is a fairly uncommon surname in
Italy, but it is the surname of national hero
Giuseppe Garibaldi. Giuseppe Garibaldi was the leader of the "
red shirts," a term used by fans for
Star Trek's ill-fated security guards, so the name is likely an in-joke.[
3]
Usage of English
Most aliens are able to speak human sounds, and in particular speak English correctly. Londo Mollari has a noticeable accent, developed independently by actor Peter Jurasik and most closely imitated by
William Forward, who played Lord Refa; most other Centauri do not have an accent. In the novels it is described as a "Northern accent" and is considered uncouth. G'Kar has a particular gift for speech and writing in both Narn and English, as is demonstrated particularly from early in the third season onward.
Among aliens, only Minbari are shown to speak a
different language. This is only explicitly heard when humans are present to stress that the humans cannot understand what is being said. When Minbari (or Narn, Centauri, etc.) are shown talking to each other, they are shown as speaking in English, to avoid long sequences with subtitles.
Other than that, the
Gaim and
Pak'Ma'Ra are the only known races seen to either need or possess a translator, although Vorlons appear to use a form of artificial voicebox. Whenever the Gaim representative speaks, a series of insect-like chirps is heard, followed by a computerised voice. This has brought to debate if the sounds emanated by Kosh preceding English human speech are, in fact, the Vorlon language, but this has never been strictly clarified.The Pak'Ma'Ra use the same "light bulb" translation device as the Gaim; it is not known if they are incapable of human speech. Some companion literature to the series has suggested they simply refuse to learn other languages. This fits in with Garibaldi's assessment of their race: "lazy, stubborn, smelly and kinda look like an octopus that got hit by a truck".
English is mentioned explicitly as the "Earth language of commerce". Hearing other human languages or even their mention is highly uncommon in the series. For example, Marcus Cole makes a joke about the
French when some of the
First Ones refuse to speak English even if they understood it, suggesting that there are still French speakers who are hostile to the English language. In "By Any Means Necessary", a man called Alberto Delvientos dies after an accident in the docking bays, and his brother says in Spanish "¡Hermanito, Dios mÃo!" ("Little brother, my God!") when he realizes what happened.
Various human characters speak English with recognizable regional accents, including British (the telepath
Byron, the character who introduces the Nightwatch, and Knight One in "
And the Sky Full of Stars"), New Zealand (the woman hiring the monks in "
Passing Through Gethsemane"), Nigerian (David Endawi in "
Matters of Honor"), Australian (Ivanova's ex-boyfriend in "
The War Prayer") and Hispanic (a dock worker in "
By Any Means Necessary"). Most of these are the native accents of the actor playing the role. The actor playing "Captain Jack" in "
Racing Mars" spoke with a strange combination of Australian, American and Cockney accents all at once.
Civilizations
One of the show's many themes is the cultural and social interaction between civilizations: the station is, after all, a diplomatic meeting-place. The show is as much political thriller as science fiction.
Five dominant civilizations are represented on Babylon 5, and more than a dozen less powerful ones. The 5 dominant ones are the
Humans,
Minbari,
Narn,
Centauri, and the
Vorlons. The less powerful races make up the League of Non-Aligned Worlds which includes The
Drazi,
Brakiri,
Vree,
Pak'Ma'Ra,
Gaim,
Markab,
Hyach,
Llort,
Abbai, and others.
Regular cast
*
Mary Kay Adams -
Na'Toth (season 2)
*
Richard Biggs -
Dr. Stephen Franklin*
Bruce Boxleitner -
John Sheridan - (seasons 2–5)
*
Julie Caitlin Brown -
Na'Toth (season 1 & one episode of season 5)
*
Jason Carter -
Marcus Cole (seasons 3–4)
*
Claudia Christian -
Susan Ivanova - (seasons 1–4, last episode of season 5)
*
Jeff Conaway -
Zack Allan (recurring in season 2, seasons 3–5)
*
Jerry Doyle -
Michael Garibaldi*
Mira Furlan -
Delenn*
Stephen Furst -
Vir Cotto*
Peter Jurasik -
Londo Mollari*
Andreas Katsulas -
G'Kar*
Michael O'Hare -
Jeffrey Sinclair (season 1, recurring in seasons 2–3)
*
Bill Mumy -
Lennier*
Robert Rusler -
Warren Keffer (season 2)
*
Tracy Scoggins -
Elizabeth Lochley (season 5)
*
Patricia Tallman -
Lyta Alexander (pilot, recurring in seasons 2–3, starring in seasons 4–5)
*
Andrea Thompson -
Talia Winters (seasons 1–2)
Two members of the regular cast have died since the ending of the series.
Richard Biggs, who played
Dr. Stephen Franklin died from an
aortic dissection, or tear in his aorta on
May 22,
2004.
Andreas Katsulas, who played
G'Kar, died from
lung cancer on
February 13,
2006.
Recurring guest characters
*
Wayne Alexander -
Lorien*
Ardwight Chamberlain (voice) -
Kosh*
Tim Choate -
Zathras*
Joshua Cox -
David Corwin*
Robin Atkin Downes -
Byron*
William Forward -
Lord Refa*
Walter Koenig -
Alfred Bester*
Wortham Krimmer -
Emperor Cartagia*
Damian London -
Centauri Minister/Regent*
Marshall Teague -
Ta'Lon*
John Vickery -
Neroon*
Ed Wasser -
MordenTim Choate, who played Zathras, died in a motorcycle accident on September 24, 2004.
There was also a group of actors who each played numerous bit parts, known informally as "The Babylon 5 Players". For example, each of the actors who played a Drazi ambassador during the series also appeared as another minor character elsewhere in the
Babylon 5 saga.
Through its ongoing story arc,
Babylon 5 found ways to portray
themes relevant to modern social issues.
Authoritarianism vs. chaos; light vs. dark vs. gray
The central theme in
Babylon 5 is the conflict between order and chaos, and the people caught in between.
The Vorlons and the Earth Alliance Government (as it had been under
President Clark) both represent oppressive,
authoritarian philosophies: you will do what we tell you to, because we tell you to do it.
Who are you? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for a greater cause, or are you merely serving your own petty interests?
The Shadows represent chaos. Their belief is that by creating conflict, a stronger generation is born — pure "survival of the fittest". To accomplish this, the Shadows encourage conflict between other groups, who choose to serve their own glory or profit.
What do you want? Money, territory, fame, power?
The Rangers, composed mainly of Minbari and Humans with a scattering of other races, represent a third way; their unwavering commitment to compassion and self-sacrifice, epitomised by the character of
Marcus Cole, opposes both the emotionless war of the Vorlons and the chaotic brutality of the Shadows.
Ultimately, the main characters try to strike a balance: sometimes selfish, sometimes self-sacrificing, and making many mistakes along the way. Sometimes they impress us, and sometimes they horrify us.
Do you have anything worth living for? Do you love? Do you have a true calling? What is the purpose of your life? "Why are you here?"
Straczynski occasionally hinted that there was a "fourth question." One possibility is
Lorien's final question to Sheridan: "Where are you going?"
It is (intentionally) ironic that the Earth Alliance government, an incarnation of Vorlon-style order, informally allied itself with the Shadows during the course of the series.
It is also worth noting that the stated philosophies of both the Vorlons and the Shadows seem directly in conflict with the effects their presence seems to produce. During the time that the Vorlons are tacitly "in charge" of the known universe, wars and skirmishes seem commonplace. However, as soon as the Shadows enter the story, an alliance of races begins to form to fight them. This is noted in the episode
Z'ha'dum.
War and peace
The
Babylon 5 timeline includes numerous major armed conflicts:
* The Hyach-Doh genocide, mentioned only in passing, in which the Hyach-Doh race was wiped out by a sister race, the Hyach.
* World War III, erupting in the year 2076 AD, ultimately ending in 2084 with the loss of countless human lives. The
Earth Alliance is founded out of the ashes of this conflict.
* The first war between the
Narn and
Centauri, which ends four decades before the series.
* The war between the
Dilgar and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds (aided by the
Earth Alliance), which takes place three decades before the series.
* The war between the
Humans and the
Minbari (the Earth-Minbari War), which takes place ten years before the series starts.
* The second war between the
Narn and
Centauri, which takes place during the series.
* The aeons-old conflict between the
Vorlons and the
Shadows, which breaks out again during the series after a thousand-year lull.
* The civil war between the Minbari religious and warrior castes.
* The civil war between
President Clark's corrupt
Earthgov and the Babylon 5-led resistance.
* The war between the new
Interstellar Alliance and the Centauri Republic.
* The war between the Earth Alliance and the
Drakh.
* The
Telepath War, most of which takes place shortly after the series, from 2264-65.
* The battle to free Centauri Prime from Drakh occupation, which takes place a decade and a half after the series.
* An unnamed possible conflict between the Interstellar Alliance and "The Hand", an extremely powerful alien force, the early stages of which are the subject of the film
The Legend of the Rangers* The
Great Burn, a nuclear war between factions of the Earth Alliance that takes place five centuries after the series, circa 2762 AD (designated "World War IV" in the
Official Babylon 5 Chronology).
These conflicts serve to illustrate specific themes: every conflict has a forgotten "third side," people crushed beneath the feet of the powerful; a single individual willing to sacrifice himself can be more powerful than the greatest army; whereas an individual willing to sacrifice everyone else to serve his own objectives can reduce entire worlds to ashes, and yet still be defeated.
After all is done, we find members of the opposing sides working together to forge a new future. (Examples: the Rangers, Delenn and Neroon; Delenn and Sheridan; Londo and G'Kar; Garibaldi and Lochley.)
Ultimately, every violent conflict is born out of self-interest, perpetuated by prejudice and ideology, and resolved by the realization that each side needs the other to survive. The most clear example of this is the history of the
Hyach race: The Hyach evolved alongside the Hyach-do, with whom they interbred. Over the course of centuries the Hyach leadership began a process of persecution beginning with religious laws and ending in genocide. It was not until after the last Hyach-do had been killed that the Hyach birth-rate began to fall: the Hyach genetic structure needed something from the Hyach-do for them to survive, and by wiping them out they had signed their own death-warrant.
Hatred is associated with stupidity, forgiveness is associated with pragmatism, and wisdom follows conflict.
Love and true seekers
Unrequited
love may be the source of all pain in
Babylon 5. Ivanova loses everyone she loves. Lennier is the ultimate victim of unrequited love, but also of his own immaturity. Sheridan and Delenn know true love; Sheridan comes back from the dead
for love ("
Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"). Garibaldi takes a long time to figure it out. Ivanova says she doesn't speak with her heart any more. Vir knows what true love is from the beginning; his problem is getting to "
number six". In the first season, Sinclair is cautioned by Garibaldi to find something to live for, rather than something to die for. Later in the series, Marcus, the chaste warrior, sacrifices his life for the woman he loves. It was only at the last moment that he could tell her this.
But there are a few for whom physical desire has no appeal. They have a greater calling: finding the holy grail, all the names of God, or the fulfilment of a thousand year old prophecy. One of the remarkable aspects of Babylon 5 was that many of its characters had profound spiritual and/or religious beliefs ("
The Parliament of Dreams"). Straczynski, an atheist, was determined that the characters and the show would treat all these beliefs with the utmost respect. Often, a religious or moral question was presented with no clear answer. A perfect example was the early episode "
Soul Hunter" in which three different interpretations are presented for the Soul Hunters' actions – and the show stubbornly refuses to endorse any side as being "right". Another example would be the moral conflict presented in "
Believers". More important for the overall arc of the program was the large plot thread hinging upon Minbari religious beliefs and the spiritual evolution of G'Kar.
Fighting the system
Straczynski's recurring message is that an individual can make a difference. This message is strongly implied in the episode "
The Coming of Shadows", in a conversation between Emperor Turhan and Captain Sheridan. The Emperor dies before he can say that he is sorry for the crimes his government committed against the Narn. Straczynski considers this episode to be the centerpiece of the series.
Addiction
Addiction plays a recurring role in the saga of
Babylon 5. Power as an addiction, work as an addiction, violence as an addiction and hatred as an addiction all play out repeatedly. Several major characters have a history of substance abuse: Garibaldi is a recovering alcoholic who succumbs to intolerable emotional pressures and attempts to find solace in drink; Dr. Franklin is addicted to synthetic stimulants ("stims"); and Lochley went through a period of hard drug abuse in her younger years. Abuse of "dust", a telepathic drug, also plays a recurring role in the story.
Obsession as a related theme occurs numerous times too. Sheridan is willing to break the rules of due process to learn the fate of his wife after discovering the connection between her and Morden. The Narn and Centauri hate each other to the point of obsession and addiction.
Self-sacrifice
Self sacrifice plays an important role throughout the series as well. The ideal of one sacrificing everything for another (even a stranger) with no personal gain is a main contrasting theme of the "good" characters vs. "evil". Selfishness is often the turning point of a character from light to darkness, and selflessness denotes a change in the reverse, even though all main characters portray all levels of this throughout the series.
The original pilot movie had music composed by
Stewart Copeland. When the show was picked up as a weekly series Copeland was not available, and so Straczynski hired
Christopher Franke, of
Tangerine Dream fame. Franke stayed on as the composer for all five seasons of
Babylon 5, and three of the
Babylon 5 telefilms. When Straczynski obtained funds to create a new writer's edition of the pilot movie, the original Stewart Copeland score was replaced with a new score by Christopher Franke.
Main article: List of Babylon 5 episodes and movies
Episodes
Each season shared its name with an episode which was central to that season's plot.
* Season 1:
Signs and Portents* Season 2:
The Coming of Shadows * Season 3:
Point of No Return* Season 4:
No Surrender, No Retreat* Season 5:
The Wheel of FireMade-for-TV films
*
The Gathering - the pilot movie (
February 22,
1993)
*
In the Beginning - prequel (
January 4,
1998)
*
Thirdspace (
July 19,
1998)
*
The River of Souls (
November 8,
1998)
*
A Call to Arms - pilot to the
Crusade series (
January 3,
1999)
*
The Legend of the Rangers - pilot to the Legend of the Rangers series (
January 19,
2002)
Crusade
The spin-off series
Crusade[
4] ran on
TNT for thirteen episodes, having been set up by the TV-movie
A Call to Arms. The production team received help from
NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make sure that the series depicted science and technology accurately. [
5] But creative differences between Straczynski and TNT caused problems; the network wanted more sex and violence[
6] and forced Straczynski to begin the first episode with a fistfight. The sex-and-violence request was later withdrawn and TNT in fact allocated more money to
Crusade, giving the actors better uniforms and new sets mid-season, but due to the creative differences TNT eventually decided to cancel the series after thirteen episodes had been produced, but before any of them were aired. At the time of the cancellation, no major story arcs had yet come into play.
Legend of the Rangers
A made-for-TV movie titled
To Live and Die in Starlight was produced by the
Sci Fi Channel. It was the proposed pilot episode of a new series titled
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. Rescheduled after the
September 11, 2001 attacks, the movie aired on
January 19,
2002. However, it was scheduled against an
NFL AFC Divisional Championship playoff game featuring the
New England Patriots and the
Oakland Raiders. The pilot's poor ratings killed the network's interest in a series. Straczynski posted the following to
Usenet on
January 27,
2002:
The east coast ratings got hammered by the football game, which was the highest rated such game in something like 5 years. The B5 male demos are pretty much the same as for sports, and we lost heavily to football. So there we did not do well. By contrast, on the west coast, where the show aired *after* the game had finished, we not only met but *exceeded* SFC's expectations, getting a 3.2 or 3.6 in many markets, which is actually pretty unheard of for a basic cable network. The problem is that the average, 1.7, is still what's used for advertising.The Memory of Shadows
In 2004 and early 2005, rumors widely circulated about a planned
Babylon 5 movie for theatrical release. However, on February 25th, a post from Straczynski announced that the project had fallen through and was for all practical purposes dead. [
7] The proposed movie, titled
The Memory of Shadows (TMOS), was written by Straczynski. Filming was to have begun in April 2005 in the UK with Steven Beck as the director.
Several sources have claimed that factions within Warner Brothers wanted to recast established
Babylon 5 roles with younger and more well-known actors, causing a major controversy among fans. Straczynski has acknowledged the subject and has stated that the negotiations were problematic, but has said that he is unable to directly comment on the issue.
According to statements and clues made by Straczynski in a convention appearance in New Jersey, and statements on a Usenet newsgroup, it is known that the planned storyline connected to that of the short-lived
Crusade television series. In this movie the technology of the ancient Shadow race is being unleashed on the galaxy by an unknown force.
EarthForce intelligence officer Diane Baker, whose brother was recently killed in a mysterious explosion, intends to find out who is behind the conspiracy. Joining her is Galen, a
technomage who has been charged with keeping the technology out of the hands of those who would abuse it.
The Lost Tales
A new project set in "Babylon 5" universe was announced by Straczynski at San Diego Comic Con 2006
Unique to the Babylon 5 universe among virtually all other shared media universes is the sanctioned canonicity of many of its offshoot novels and comic book stories; nearly all of the Babylon 5 novels and novelizations to date having been based on outlines written directly by J. Michael Straczynski. The later Del Rey books are considered to be more canonical than some of the earlier Dell ones, and at least two major plotline revelations were made in the DC Comics series that were directly referenced in the TV series. In all, per Straczynski's own remarks, canonical elements exist in every single book published to date, and his deeper involvement in the novel-publishing program from 1996 onward has ensured a greater level of canonicity within such works.
Additionally, the creator himself penned a number of short stories expanding on several key story-points from the television series, along with a number of other established authors, with all such tales considered as "real" as the TV show itself. The comic books published by DC are also fully endorsed, with JMS again either having directly written or contributed to all of the issues in one form or another.
Straczynski himself is presently (as of early 2006) hard at work finishing up the manuscript for a 100-page Babylon 5 graphic novel, to be published during the late period of the year by Wildstorm Productions. At the moment, the premise, characters, and plotline are still unknown.
Mongoose Publishing, the publisher of recent Babylon 5 role-playing game (RPG) material, has announced that it will be releasing a line of Babylon 5 novels and graphic novels beginning in summer 2006. JMS has made it clear that he is not involved with this project and considers the works to be "fan-fiction".[8]Season releases
|
DVD cover art for Babylon 5: The Complete Fifth Season |
All five seasons have been released individually in the US and the UK. A complete 5-season set is also available in each of the two DVD regions, titled Babylon 5: The Complete Television Series for the U.S. and Canada, and Babylon 5: The Complete Universe for the UK. The UK version also includes all the films and the short-lived spin-off Crusade.Babylon 5 movie releases
|
DVD Cover art for Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers |
The Babylon 5 TV movies were distributed differently in the U.S. and UK. Initially a DVD containing the two movies The Gathering and In the Beginning were released on both region 1 (North America) and region 2 (UK) DVD. Then, in the U.S., the first five movies which aired while Babylon 5 was still on the air were released in one boxset, with the TV movie Legend of the Rangers getting its own separate release on both region 1 and region 2 DVD. In the UK, a film boxset was released, but instead of containing the five movies like the U.S. version, it contained the three movies which hadn't been released yet (Thirdspace, River of Souls, and A Call to Arms).Mastering problems
The transfer of Babylon 5 to DVD created significant problems with regard to special-effects/CGI footage. Several factors complicated the process.
* Although originally broadcast in the standard television aspect ratio of 4:3, all live-action footage was filmed on Super 35 mm film (with a ratio of 1.65:1). The idea was that, once widescreen televisions (with an aspect ratio of 16:9 or 1.78:1) became more popular, the episodes could be easily converted into a widescreen format.
* CGI shots were rendered in the 4:3 ratio, but designed so that the top and bottom of each shot could be removed to create a widescreen image without ruining the image composition.
* All of the purely live-action shots were stored as high-definition digital images.
* However, CGI shots, and shots combining live-action with CGI, were stored in the much lower-definition NTSC digital format. (Again, the expectation was that it would be relatively cheap in the future to recreate the CGI as widescreen.)
* Over the years, the original computer-generated models, etc. have been lost, making it necessary to use the old 4:3 CGI shots.
This has resulted in several consistent flaws throughout the Babylon 5 DVD release. In particular, quality drops very significantly whenever a scene cuts from purely live-action to a shot combining live-action and CGI. This is especially noticeable on the PAL DVDs, since CGI shots had to be converted from NTSC as well as being blown up to fit a widescreen television. In addition, while the live action film was indeed widescreen, shots were composed for 4:3, resulting in a conspicuous tendency for actors to clump up in the middle of the screen.There are no officially licensed Babylon 5 video games on the market, though in 1998 a video game based on Babylon 5, named Into the Fire, was being developed by Sierra, the publishers of Homeworld. This game was to have cast the player as the pilot of a Starfury fighter craft through many missions of a dynamic storyline, while also giving the player an opportunity to "move up through the ranks" and eventually take command of capital ships and even fleets. It was to feature large battles and realistic physics. Multiplayer competitive and cooperative modes would have allowed players to pilot ships of alien races. Christopher Franke composed and recorded new music for the game, and live action footage was filmed with the primary actors from the series.
Work on this game ended on September 21, 1999, when, as part of a corporate reorganization, Sierra cancelled it and laid off its development staff.
The web site FirstOnes.com followed the game's development and demise, and continues to track Babylon 5 mods for other games. FirstOnes.com also hosts the site of the Space Dream Factory, an independent project to develop several standalone games. The first of these, titled "Babylon 5: I've Found Her", is set five years before the series, and can be downloaded free of charge at the project's website.
A collection of mods for the Homeworld platform can be found at The Great Wars Mods website. These mods try to capture the best battles from the series. Great Wars III is the most developed of all, having virtually every aspect of the game converted to a Babylon 5 theme.
Another independently developed, freely available mod is The Babylon Project, a total conversion of the computer game Freespace 2. The mod features several campaigns set during the Earth-Minbari War and the Raider Wars. Additional campaigns, including the Earth Alliance Civil War, are planned. Active development continues on the project's forums at Hard Light Productions.
There is a modification available for the Babylon 5 universe for Malfador Machinations' strategy game Space Empires IV. However, it remains incomplete at this time, presumably waiting for the release of Space Empires V early in 2006. Because of the release of Freespace 2's source code, the mod is now a freely downloadable standalone game.
There is also a mod for Escape Velocity from Ambrosia Software.* Babylon 5 Limited Edition Entertainment Utility (1996): Windows 95 desktop customization software containing screen savers, wallpaper, audio, icons, and cursors. Produced by Sound Source Interactive, Inc. (aka TDK Mediactive, Inc.).
* Babylon 5 Arcade Series Entertainment Utility: "Shadow Wars" (1998): Windows 95/Windows 98 desktop customization software containing screen savers, wallpaper, audio, icons, cursors, and an arcade-style space game. Produced by Sound Source Interactive, Inc. (aka TDK Mediactive, Inc.).
* Babylon 5 Wars wargame
* Babylon 5: Fleet Action wargame
* Roleplaying games
* Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game
* Trading cards
* Magazines
* Comic books
* Micro Machines
* Model kits
* Miniatures
* Clothing
* DishwareEach of the characters in the series was written with a "trap door" into their background that, in the event of an actor departing from the series, the character could be written out with minimal negative impact to the entire 5-year storyline. Although most of these "trap doors" are still somewhat of a secret known only to JMS and some of the production and writing staff, the following have either been "triggered" on screen or confirmed by JMS:
* Sinclair was intended from the beginning to become Valen. As originally planned, this would have occurred at the end of the series, but with Michael O'Hare's departure at the end of Season One, Sinclair's transformation to Valen was moved up by what became several years.
* Before Andrea Thompson left the series for a career as a CNN "journalist", the character of Talia Winters was to have undergone a transformation into a Psi-Corps agent, having been revealed as a "sleeper" whose true personality was buried subconsciously and acted as a spy observing the events on the station and the actions of her command staff. When Thompson left the series, this revelation was turned into a way to remove the character from the series permanently. Had Thompson remained on the series, her "good" persona would have been restored over the "evil" one by the use of a data crystal that Kosh had commissioned through the services of a "Vicar"; According to JMS, Kosh had detected the Psi-Corps plot, and had taken steps to salvage what he considered a valuable resource. This plot was never used, as was the data crystal.
* Two characters wound up being written out using a pair of intertwining "Trap Doors". When Jason Carter left the series at the end of Season 4 to return home to England and his family, the "Trap Door" calling for Marcus Cole to simply die in battle was altered so as to literally give his life *to* Susan Ivanova as she lay dying from wounds suffered in battle. In a twist that left the possibility for Cole's return, his body was left in suspended animation on the station to await a new discovery that might resussitate him. Subsequently, when Claudia Christian left the series at end of Season 4, her character was written out of the series by having Ivanova accept a command of her own on a deep-space exploration mission, her self-realization of her grief over the loss of Marcus being the defining factor in Ivanova's decision to leave. JMS would later revisit these two characters in a short story which not only resolved the relationship in a way that was very well-received by fans, it also incorporated elements of the Talia Winters "data crystal" plot.
* Vir Cotto's "Trap Door" wound up being used as a major sub-plot involving the maturation of Vir's character in the world of Centauri politics. Had Stephen Furst left the series, Vir would have simply returned home and taken up another government job. As the series progressed, for several episodes Vir was reassigned as the Centauri ambassador to Minbar, although he eventually was reassigned back as Londo Mollari's aide.
* One of the show's Hugo awards is used as a prop in the final episode, the first time that a Hugo has been shown on-screen in a series that has actually won a Hugo.
* The Babylon 5 station is located in the Epsilon Eridani star system, orbiting the third planet of that group (also known as "Epsilon III"). The Star Trek canon also placed the planet Vulcan in this area, at 40 Eridani-A, and at least one reference was made to Epsilon Eridani being the location of Vulcan.
* In the Babylon 5 universe, every intelligent species in the galaxy has, apparently on its own, developed the food that we call Swedish meatballs. Each species has a different name for it (the Narn call it "breen"). This is reminiscent of a phenomenon reported in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: every intelligent race has a drink called "gin and tonic"â€"but only the name is the same, and the actual drink is unique to each species.
* The episode Severed Dreams had a cast change that impacted the plot, as well as the replacement actor being cast partly by mistake.
* Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams appeared in a cameo role in the season four episode "Moments of Transition". In a bar, he enlisted Garibaldi to help him find his dog and cat (presumably a reference to Dogbert and Catbert) who he said meant to take over the universe. Adams also has stated that he considers B5 to be the best television show ever made. When TV Guide did a cover story on that, they had Dilbert say Star Trek, believing that that would sell more issues. [9]
* The Guinness Book of World Records notes that Babylon 5 is the longest miniseries television show in history, with the entire five season run planned and scripted in full before one episode was shot. Babylon 5 debuted on February 22 1993 and ended on November 25 1998 after 110 episodes. It ran for a total of 4,818 minutes, which means that if one were to watch every episode in one sitting, it would take 3 days, 8 hours and 18 minutes to view.[http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long80.html]* Babylon 5 influences
* List of Babylon 5 articles
* Similarities between Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Internet marketing and fan influence on Babylon 5
* The Be Five
* Space colonization in popular culture
* List of television series that include time travel
* rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
* The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
*
* The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: The definitive Babylon 5 reference and episode guide
* Early Babylon 5 Designs: Information from the original 1991 promotional flyer, with different character names and Peter Ledger's artwork
* JMSNews: Collection of Straczynski's postings to Usenet and other online forums
* The Great Machine: Babylon 5 Wiki
* The Babylon Podcast: Our Last, Best Hope For B5 Discussion
* Babylon 5 Episodes Free on AOL's In2TV
* Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski: Straczynski's only official site.
