The Name Of The Place... Babylon 5

Babylon 5, ah Babylon 5, what a wonderful show it was. I came to Babylon 5 late in the party, seeing it from the fourth season, but I quickly caught up and have seen all the Babylon series, all of the short lived spin-off Crusade and all of the made for TV movies and even the made for DVD collection called Lost Tales. It all started with the pilot, simply called The Gathering.
The Gathering set the stage of Babylon 5, crudely and quite different from how it would actually play out, but it was a taste of things to come. It explained that Babylon 5 was a space station, a combined effort between humans and aliens, set in neutral space where conflicts could be resolved peacefully and prevent a war. We're told that humanity was almost wiped out in a war with the Minbari and that on the very last battle, just when the Minbari where about to take Earth and wipe out the human race forever, they surrendered and no one knows why. The commander of Babylon 5 is Jeffrey Sinclair, a war hero from the Minbari war and he runs the station with a subtle style. The pilot has a lot of problems, the aliens shown in some of it were puppets, the make up was cruder than it would be in the show itself and there are many inconsistencies that don't match up if you watch this movie then watch the show. But the basic plot is this: The Vorlons, the oldest space faring race have finally made contact and agreed to have a presence on the station with one Ambassador, known as Kosh. When he arrives on the station he is attacked and almost assisinated, the blame pinned on Jeffrey Sinclair. This is done by allowing a Telepath to scan Kosh, that Telepath Lyta Alexander becomes a big part of the show much later on. Well the pilot trundles along at a rather slow pace but in doing so really explores the different alien races that will take prominence in the shows main series. We are introduced not only to the Minbari, but to the Narn and Centauri also. Each of which have their own Ambassador in the station, the female Minbari Ambassador Dellen, the male Narn warrior Ambassador G'Kar and the drunken pompous Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari. We are also introduced to the staff of Babylon 5 but after the pilot on Sinclair and security Cheif Michael Garribaldi remain. The plot comes to climax with Sinclair finding out the assassin was in fact a Minbari with a device called a Changeling net that allows people to change their appearance. He posed as Sinclair to have humans removed from Babylon 5. He starts the timer on a bomb to kill himself, but before he does he tells Sinclair "You have a hole in your mind." Once all this is resolved and Ambassador Kosh is better, Sinclair explains to his girlfriend that the Minabari was right, he does have a hole in his mind, he has 24 hours he does not remember. It was during the last battle for Earth against the Minbari, he was in a fighter and his ship had its weapons disabled, so he decides to ram an enemy vessel, he charges the biggest ship he could see and then blacked out. 24 hours later he was found floating in space, his memory of the past 24 hours wiped as was his on board computer.

Season 1 of B5 started with tensions rife between the Alien races, we are introduced to new characers, a new XO Susan Ivanova a brash tough talking military woman who was one of the best strong female characters ever created for TV, a new medical officer Stephen Franklin and a new telepath Talia Winters. We find out that Lyta Alexander went missing after the pilot, she apparently tried to get into Vorlon space, and anyone who tries that is shot down and killed. The previous XO and doctor were shipped back to Earth with no explanation. The first season shows the rising tension between the Narn and the Centauri, the Centauri in the past had conquered the Narns and made them their slaves so the two races had always despised each other. Tensions mount between the 2 races as skirmishes take place, we get some backstory on each character and the appearance of Mr Morden leads to Londo Mollari starting down a dark path. We see the mysterious Shadows turn up fleetingly and then at the end of the first season, Micheal Garribaldi is shot trying to prevent the assisination of the Earth President, Ambassador Delenn enters a cocoon, and the Shadows wipe out an entire Narn base on orders from Mollari. This is the first time we see the Shadows in detail, organic spider-like ships that give off a creepy screeching sound as they fly around. Watching them for the first few times sends a shiver down your spine. As the second season opens, we find Sinclair has been reassigned to the Minbari Homeworld, a new captain in charge, Delenn is now a hyrbid Minbari and human now, Garribaldi survives but barely and tensions rise as the Centauri decide to take action against the Narns and start annexing Narn territory. The second season is when things get interesting, the first season set the scene and the second season shows you the direction the show is going and this is where we learn about the Great War that is coming. A war is going to take place, the Shadows are moving slowly and building their forces and the combinded force of the humans and alien races must band together and fight the Shadows or be destoyed by them.

The second season rolls into the third season as the Narn homeworld is taken over by the Centuari, Earth's president is getting a tight grip on the Earth colonies and trying to set up a dictatorship (orchestrated by the Shadows) and Babylon 5 has to declare independance and fight against Earth forces just to survive. As the third season draws to a close, the war with the Shadows now breaks out into open conflict across the galaxy.

The fourth season is the action packed season that closes off the shadow war, the earth war and some other loose ends.The fifth season opens new avenues and is darker than the preceeding seasons.

I realised I was explaining a bit much so I have cut it down now, but Babylon 5 was a HUGE story, a 5 year arc that had to be cut down to 4 because the writer was told that they might not have a 5th season at all, then at the last minute they were told they had a 5th season. The story in Babylon 5 is where it excelled and it is why it was better than Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. It had believable characters, a huge story where everything was connected and some truly touching moments.

So I am going to list now my favourite things from Babylon 5:

The Evolution of Ambassador G'Kar
G'Kar of the Narns starts off as a war monger, someone bitter at the Centauri, he was child when his world was taken over and now they are free he takes every opportunity to strike at them. Throughout the first 2 seasons he has to watch in horror as Narn space is slowly taken away then the unthinkable happens and his world is attacked by Weapons of Mass Destruction then ultimately conquered by the Centauri. In the first half of Season 3 he trys to find ways to get revenge but with the help of Ambassador Kosh he suffers a revelation and starts to move away from his war monger ways and look into himself for answers. His character begins to speak of peace and ways to get peace for his people, he becomes a spiritual leader for his people, preaching to them of ways to fight the Centauri but without weakening them as a people. G'Kar becomes one of the most interesting characters you will ever encounter in any science fiction show. During the 4th season he is able to get freedom for his people and homeworld, but at a costly price, then through a series of bizzare events strikes up an unlikely friendship with Londo Mollari, Ambassdor the Centuari and the man responsible for the Centuari's resurgance of power. His story is one of pain, joy and finding yourself and is a high point of Babylon 5.

The Shadows
Less is more, the makers of this show know this, because when you fleetingly see the Shadows in seasons 1 and 2 you want to see more. They keep you on tenderhooks, you never get an accurate idea of their size but you know they are powerful. Into the third season we begin to see them more and more and they are still terrifying and we get an idea of their size and slowly we get a look into who and what they are and what they want. The great thing is, you never see too much. Its not like The Borg where you get too much of a glimpse into their world and try to convert them, in the end the Shadows remain the most compelling villains in Science Fiction because we still don't know a lot about them.

The romance between Sherridan and Delenn.
Captain John Sheridan join Babylon 5 in Season 2, nicknamed Starkiller by the Centauri as he is the only man to have destroyed a Centauri warship during the war, their flagship the Blackstar. Despite all this he is not some gun crazy whack job, he was a soldier doing his job. And in his time on B5 he becomes friends with Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari, their friendship turns to romance and it slowly, believably builds right up to the end of season 3 and is further cemented in Season 4 which ends with them being married. The story of them is touching, you can tell the characters do care for each other, whilst not relying on the other they are independantly strong but also a force to be reckoned with when they combine.

The Humour
Babylon 5 has its share of humour running through it, characters have funny moments, some of the things that people say as quick quips are funny in the sense that you will smirk about it. But the best example of Babylon 5's humour is in the third season episode in which Londo and G'Kar are trapped in an elevator together after a bomb has gone off. The elevator is unable to move and a fire below them is slowly bring smoke up toward them, if they don't get out they will die. According to Star Trek, the formula would have been that they both work together to get out and become better for the experience. However in this episode G'Kar refuses to help Londo, saying that he gets to watch Londo die and doesn't have to lift a finger to do it. He finds this very funny and starts laughing, Londo starts shouting for help, shouting things like "HELLO" and "CAN ANYONE HERE ME" and G'Kar in hilarious fashion replies in a squeaky voice "HELLO" and "I HEAR YOU" whilst still laughing. Hard to explain here but if you can find that clip on Youtube it will definetly make you laugh. Garribaldi is also a funny character and actually has a quick wit about him. The show has a good mix of humour and drama to it, so whilst not being as dark as Battlestar Galactica and not as lighthearted as The Next Generation tended to be, Babylon 5 strikes a balance that most shows would struggle with.

Sleeping In Light
The final episode of Babylon 5. This is a masterstroke by J Michael Straczynski. Written at the end of Season 4 when they were still unsure of a 5th season, this episode was shown at the end of season 5 and depicts John Sheridan's last days. At the beginning of season 4 John dies, and is brought back to life by the being Lorien who claims to be the first of the living beings in the universe, Lorien says he is only able to give John 20 years and then he will simply stop. This episode picks up with Sheridan realising his time is coming to an end, he gathers his friends together for one last time, sharing a meal and enjoying their company. He watches the sunrise with his wife, Delenn, one last time and then takes a ship and flies to Babylon 5 for one last look around before it is decomissioned. He leaves Babylon 5 for the last time and takes his ship to the sector where the Shadow war ended, there he sees Lorien again and slowly closes his eyes. A voice over tells us his ship was found, sealed with no one aboard. The scene soft fades to the interior of Babylon 5, J Michael Straczynski is dressed in a Babylon 5 jumpsuit walks to a control panel and flicks a switch, we hear Babylon 5 power down and as a lone ship leaves, it docks with an earth vessel. Now comes the most powerful part of the episode, the music swells, one ship from every race is watching as Babylon 5 explodes, torn apart in a controlled explosion and the ships slowly turn and fly away. We hear a voice over say "Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations, there would never be another." The episode ends with showing us other characters from Babylon 5. I admit I was crying like a baby at the end of the show, hell thinking about it now I can feel a lump in my throat. Everything about those last scenes was heartwrenching, the music was perfect, the destruction of the station done in dramatic fashion and the precession of ships watching its last moments, its perfect. If you watched that episode without seeing anything else you might think it was okay, but if you had watched all of the series to that point, guaranteed you would feel tears stinging the edge of your eyes.

There are many more things I could list about Babylon 5 but those are the the main things that I love about the show. During it's 5th season, a number of straight to video movies of Babylon 5 were released, the first of which was called In The Beginning and depicts the Minbari Earth War and it is a dramatic epic tale that is great fun to watch, even if you know what is going to happen it still throws a few surprises at you.

The second straight to DVD movie is called Thirdspace and takes place between the end of the Shadow War and before they start their assualt on Earth. Its all about an artifact found floating in Hyperspace, the artifact starts to control people and when it opens up a strange race of creatures come out ready to take over the galaxy. Its a good action story with no real links to the main story arcs in any way.

The third movie is called River of Souls and is about the race of Soul Hunters and stars Martin Sheen. Its okay, not great, doesn't really serve any purpose.

The fourth movie is called A Call to Arms and is the story that leads into the spin-off series Crusade. The movie is about the Shadow's followers The Drakh, they have decided to get revenge on the people who sent the Shadows away, the humans. They target earth for destruction, the plot barrels towards a showdown between the Humans and the Drakh above planet Earth, however as the Drakh realising they are losing, they unleash a plague upon planet Earth, the population of the planet have 5 years before the virus kills every man, woman and child on Earth. This leads into Crusade.

Crusade was about the new flagship of the human race, the Excalibur, a joint Earth Minbari vessel is sent out to find a cure for the virus. The show lasted for 13 episodes but inteference from the network, demanding more sex and violence be added, soon led to the show being cancelled before it even picked up the pace. What was on offer was really good and the 13th episode was epic, showing the first real battle in the show, petitions were made up to get the show re-instated but it was of no use, Crusade was dead.
No one heard anything for a while until 2002 a pilot for a new Babylon 5 show called The Legend of The Rangers was shown, a 90 minute pilot that was pretty poor to be fair. It had G'Kar in a guest role and introduced a new enemy to the show but poor ratings in america and very little hype led to it being a damp squib, even long term Babylon 5 fans were dissapointed in the show, especially the virtual reality weapon, where the crew member was dropped into a room, then space was created all around her and she punched at targets to fire lasers at them. It was probably a good idea in theory but in execution looked stupid.

Years passed and finally we heard some rummblings about a Babylon 5 movie, a feature length film but that all died quickly due to funding, then later we heard about a straight to DVD production called Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. J Michal Straczynski informed fans that this would be a series of DVDs featuring episode long stories filling in the blanks and telling new stories in the Babylon 5 universe, each disc would have 2 "episodes". The first disc came out and did really really well, Warner Bros were impressed with the sales and were interested in another disc, but wanted it at the same budget as before, the first disc being filmed on a really low budget. Straczynski declined not wanting to give fans a sub par experience and there has been no more Babylon 5 dvds released.

As far as Straczynski written B5 is concerned, it's dead. He said he may make a movie of the show if the funding is there, but I wont be holding my breath. Ever since series 5 of Babylon 5 it has been handled terribly by studios and I think the patience of the fans has worn thin. To get your Babylon 5 fix now the best thing to do is get the Babylon 5 books that are out there. Straczynski himself wrote the plot outlines for most of the series of Babylon 5 books out there, so if you can find them, they are definetly worth reading, I recommend The Shadow Within and The Passing of The Technomages Trilogy.

Fans are also keeping Babylon 5 alive on the internet by creating games based on the show. A video game called Into the Fire (which is also the title of the episode that ends the Shadow War) commissioned by Sierra was in production, live action sequences with the actors had been filmed and the game was apparently over 90% done, it would feature you as the main character starting off as a fighter pilot then taking control of larger vessels as you rose in the ranks. The game was cancelled before it could be completed. Fans were in uproar, but it led to nothing. Sierra refused to finish the game so fan made games were the next best thing, 2 notable fan made games are "Babylon 5: I've Found Her" which is a game made completely from scratch by a talented team of programmers who have spent years and years of their time creating this game with you as the pilot of a Starfury, it handles well and has voice overs, tutorials and fan made missions packs are being made all the time. The other fan game is "The Babylon Project" and was originally a mod for Freespace 2 has turned into a game in its own right. Huge in scope and fan support this game has went from a mod to a game with a series of mini fan made expansions. The support for this game is huge and people are always working on missions and patches are regularly released. The games are great fun and I guarantee you will see The Shadows at some point in each game, but I wouldn't recommend trying to take one on in a Starfury.

Babylon 5 died at the worst possible time, when Crusade was cancelled it was a scant eighteen months before shows such as Earth Final Conflict and Andromeda and Farscape all capture people's imagination, each of these shows lasting four seasons or more and none having the drama, humour and ability to tell a coherent linking story as well as Babylon 5 ever did. The frustrating thing about it all is that with Crusade being cancelled, questions were left unanswered and they will never answered. I advise that if you are a science fiction fan, watch Babylon 5, you may find the first season slow going but as soon as you hit season 2 you realise things are going to movie quickly as building up the characters and backstory in season 1 was necessary. You'll be hard pushed to find a science fiction show that had the power and drama to end the way Babylon 5 did and I guarantee nobody cried at the end of The Next Generation but I know of people who cried at Sleeping In Light out of genuine emotion, now that's a show worth watching.