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Babylon 5 is an epic American science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on the Babylon 5 space station, a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and wars in the late 2250s and early 2260s. The series is noted for its heavy reliance on pre-planned story arcs over its five-year run. Because of this, it was sometimes described as a "novel for television."
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 U.S.
The series won many awards, including two Hugos for Best Dramatic Presentation and an Emmy for Best visual effects. A straight-to-DVD movie about selected characters from the series was released on 31 July 2007.

Production
J. Michael Straczynski set five goals for the Babylon 5 series. In a 1991 post to to the GEnie service,

"It would have to be good science fiction."
"It would have to be good television, and rarely are SF shows both good SF and good TV; there're (sic) generally one or the other."
"It would have to take an adult approach to SF, and attempt to do for television SF what Hill Street Blues did for cop shows."
"It would have to be affordable, done on a reasonable budget."
"It would have to look unlike anything ever seen before on TV, and present not just individual stories, but present those stories against a much broader canvas." Concept
The original pilot movie had music composed by Stewart Copeland. When the show was picked up as a weekly series, Copeland was not available, so Straczynski hired Christopher Franke, of Tangerine Dream fame. Franke was the composer for all five seasons of Babylon 5, three of the telefilms, and the Lost Tales DVD. When Straczynski obtained funds to create a new writer's edition of the pilot movie, the original Copeland score was replaced with a new score by Franke.

Music and scoring

Main article: Babylon 5's use of the Internet Use of the Internet

Main article: List of people involved with Babylon 5 Regular and guest stars

Mary Kay Adams - Na'Toth (season 2)
Richard Biggs - 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) Regular cast
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.

Wayne Alexander - Lorien / Shiv'kala the Drakh
Ardwight Chamberlain (voice) - Kosh (seasons 1-3)
Tim Choate - Zathras
Joshua Cox - David Corwin
Robin Atkin Downes - Byron
William Forward - Lord Antono Refa
Walter Koenig - Alfred Bester
Wortham Krimmer - Emperor Cartagia
Damian London - Regent Virini
Marshall Teague - Ta'Lon
John Vickery - Neroon
Ed Wasser - Morden Recurring guests

Plot summary
The five seasons of the series each correspond to one fictional sequential year in the period 2258-2262. As the series starts, the Babylon 5 station is welcoming ambassadors from various races in the galaxy. Earth has just barely survived an accidental war with the powerful Minbari, who, despite their superior technology, mysteriously surrendered at the brink of the destruction of the human race (the Battle of the Line).

Main arc
During 2258, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair leads the station. Much of the story revolves around his gradual discovery that it was his capture by the Minbari at the Battle of the Line which ended the war against Earth. Upon capturing Sinclair, the Minbari came to believe that Valen, a great Minbari leader and hero of the last Minbari-Shadow war, had been reincarnated as the Commander. Concluding that others of their species had been, and were being, reborn as humans, and in obedience to the edict that Minbari do not kill one another, they stopped the war just when Earth's final defences were on the verge of collapse.
Ambassador Delenn is gradually revealed to be a member of the mysterious and powerful Grey Council, the planetary legislature of the Minbari. Towards the end of 2258, she begins the transformation into a Minbari-human hybrid, ostensibly to build a bridge between the humans and Minbari.
The year ends with the assassination of Earth Alliance President Santiago, and with the escalation of tensions between the Narn and Centauri, after a Narn outpost in Quadrant 37 is completely destroyed by an as-yet-unidentified third party.

Season 1 - 2258
At the beginning of 2259, Captain John Sheridan replaces Sinclair as the military governor of the station. He and the command staff learn that the death of President Santiago was actually an assassination masterminded by Vice President Clark (who then assumed the Presidency).
A conflict develops between the Babylon 5 command staff and the Psi Corps, an increasingly autocratic organization to which all human telepaths must belong. Commander Ivanova, the second in command of the station, is secretly a telepath who has illicitly not joined the Psi Corps.
The Shadows, an ancient and extremely powerful race who have recently emerged from hibernation, are revealed to be the cause of a variety of mysterious and disturbing events, including the attack on Quadrant 37 at the end of 2258. Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari enlists their aid in the ongoing territorial squabbles against the Narn. After full war breaks out, the Centauri eventually conquer Narn in a brutal attack involving mass drivers, outlawed weapons of mass destruction. A power struggle amongst the Centauri ensues after their emperor dies.
Towards the end of the year, the Clark administration begins to show increasingly-totalitarian characteristics, clamping down on dissent and restricting freedom of speech. The Vorlons are revealed to be the basis of legends about angels on various worlds, including Earth, and are ancient enemies of the Shadows.

Season 2 - 2259
A conspiracy develops between the Psi Corps and President Clark, whose government has discovered Shadow vessels buried in Earth's solar system and is beginning to harness their advanced technology. The Clark administration continues to become increasingly xenophobic and totalitarian, and uses a military incident as an excuse to declare martial law. This triggers a war of independence on Mars, which had long had a strained political relationship with Earth. Babylon 5 also declares independence from Earth, along with several other outlying Earth Alliance colonies.
In response, the Earth Alliance attempts to retake Babylon 5 by force, but with the aid of the Minbari, who have allied with the station against the growing Shadow threat, the attack is repelled.
Becoming concerned over the Shadows' growing influence amongst his people, Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari attempts to sever ties with them. Mr Morden, the Shadows' human representative, tricks him into restoring the partnership by engineering the murder of Mollari's mistress.
Open warfare breaks out between the Shadows and an alliance led by Babylon 5 and the Minbari. Genetic manipulation by the Vorlons is discovered to be the source of human telepathy, as it is later discovered that Shadow ships are vulnerable to telepathic attack.
Displeased at the Vorlons' lack of direct action against the Shadows, Captain John Sheridan goads Vorlon ambassador Kosh Naranek into launching an attack against their mutual enemy. Kosh's deeds lead to his subsequent assassination by the Shadows.
Upon returning to the station, former commander Jeffrey Sinclair transforms into a Minbari and, using an alien artifact discovered on the nearby planet Epsilon III, travels back in time 1000 years with the stolen Babylon 4, to use the station as a base of operations against the Shadows in the first Minbari-Shadow war. He is subsequently revealed to be the actual Valen of Minbari legend, rather than a reincarnation.
Spurred by the reappearance of his assumed-dead wife (who now works for the Shadows), Sheridan is provoked into visiting Z'ha'dum, the Shadow homeworld, in an attempt by them to recruit him, but he destroys their largest city in a kamikaze nuclear attack and is last seen jumping into a miles-deep pit to escape the explosion.

Season 3 - 2260
In 2261, the Vorlons join the Shadow War, but become a concern for the alliance when they begin destroying entire planets which they deem to have been "influenced" by the Shadows. Disturbed by this turn of events, Babylon 5 recruits several other powerful and ancient races (the First Ones) to their cause, against both the Shadows and the Vorlons. Captain John Sheridan returns to the station after escaping the destruction of Z'ha'dum.
Centauri Emperor Cartagia has forged a relationship with the Shadows. Londo Mollari engineers the assassination of Cartagia and repudiates his relationship with the Shadows, killing Morden and destroying the Shadow vessels based on the Centauri homeworld, thus saving his planet from destruction by the Vorlons.
Aided by the other ancient races, and several younger ones, Babylon 5 lures both the Vorlons and the Shadows into an immense battle, during which the Vorlons and Shadows reveal that they have been left as guardians of the younger races, but due to philosophical differences ended up using them as pawns in endless wars throughout the ages. The younger races reject their continued interference and the Vorlons and Shadows, along with the remaining First Ones, agree to leave the galaxy.
Minbar is gripped by a brief civil war. Free of the overriding military threat from the Shadows, an alliance led by Babylon 5 frees Earth from totalitarian rule by President Clark in a civil war which culminates in the suicide of the President and the restoration of peaceful government.
Mars is granted full independence and Captain John Sheridan agrees to step down as commander of Babylon 5, becoming President of the new Interstellar Alliance and continuing his command of the Rangers, who are to act as a galactic equivalent of United Nations peacekeepers.
The events of 100, 500, 1000 and one million years into the future are revealed, depicting Babylon 5's lasting influence throughout history. Amongst the events shown are the political aftermath of the 2261 civil war, a subsequent world war involving a new totalitarian government, the fall of Earth into a pre-industrial society, and the final evolution of mankind into energy beings similar to the First Ones, after which Earth's sun goes nova.

Season 4 - 2261
In 2262, Earthforce Captain Elizabeth Lochley is appointed to lead Babylon 5. The station grows in its role as a sanctuary for rogue telepaths running from the Psi Corps, resulting in a violent conflict. G'Kar, formerly ambassador of the Narn, becomes a spiritual leader after publishing a book written in incarceration during the Centauri-Narn war.
The Drakh, former allies of the Shadows who remained in the galaxy, take control of Regent Virini on Centauri Prime using an invisible mind-control organism known as a "keeper". They use their control to incite a war between the Centauri and the Interstellar Alliance, in order to isolate the Centauri from the Alliance and gain a malleable homeworld for themselves.
Centauri Prime is consequently decimated by Narn and Drazi warships and Londo Mollari becomes emperor, accepting a Drakh keeper under threat of the complete nuclear destruction of the planet. Portions of the end of his reign are seen in various time travel sequences throughout the series; one such sequence shows Mollari and former nemesis (and later friend) G'Kar dying at each other's throats in an act of mutual suicide. Vir Cotto, Mollari's loyal and more moral aide, becomes emperor, free of Drakh influence.
Sheridan and Delenn marry and move to Minbar, along with the headquarters of the Interstellar Alliance. Twenty years later, on the verge of death, Sheridan takes one final trip to the now-obsolete Babylon 5 before its decommissioning. Sheridan dies, but is claimed by the First Ones, who invite him to join them on a journey beyond the rim of the galaxy.
The Babylon 5 station is annihilated in a planned demolition.

Season 5 - 2262
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.

Story elements

Main article: Babylon 5 (space station) The Babylon station

Main article: Civilizations in Babylon 5 Civilizations
Though conceived as a whole, and with Straczynski writing most of the episodes (including all of the episodes of the third and fourth seasons; according to Straczynski, a feat never before accomplished in American television

"Trap doors"
English is mentioned explicitly as the "Human language of commerce." Hearing other human languages or even their mention is highly uncommon in the series. Ambassador Delenn and Londo Mollari, both alien characters, speak with distinct accent similar to Slavic.
All the major human characters speak American English, with the exception of Marcus Cole, who speaks with a distinct British accent. Susan Ivanova, born in Russia, speaks with an American accent, but has some posters with writing in the Cyrillic alphabet in her room, possibly indicating she speaks the language. Her father speaks with a distinct Russian accent, as does her brother. Various other minor human characters speak English with recognizable regional accents.
Londo Mollari has a noticeable accent, developed independently by actor Peter Jurasik
Interlac is also referred to as a universal language most often used in first contact situations because it is easily translated. Because it is a language based on pure mathematics, easy translation is possible, but it is normally only used in first contact situations until another basis of communication is found.

Languages
Through its ongoing story arc, Babylon 5 found ways to portray themes relevant to modern social issues.

Themes
The central theme in Babylon 5 is the conflict between order and chaos, and the people caught in between.
The Vorlons represent an authoritarian philosophy: you will do what we tell you to, because we tell you to do it. The Vorlon Question, "Who are you?" focuses on identity as the motivator over personal goals. Selfishness is often the turning point of a character from light to darkness, and selflessness denotes a change in the reverse.
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 increase their presence, an alliance of races begins to form to fight them. ("Z'ha'dum").
A third question, asked by Lorien (the oldest living being in the B5 galaxy) is "Why are you here?". This third question suggests that there is more to life than the duality of order and chaos.
J. Michael Straczynski has stated on the DVDs that there were four questions about life. Lorien asks the final of the questions to a dying Sheridan in the last episode. "Where are you going?"

Authoritarianism vs anarchy; order vs chaos; light vs dark
The Babylon 5 universe includes numerous major armed conflicts. The 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.
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-Doh, 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-Doh had been killed that the Hyach birth-rate began to fall: the Hyach genetic structure needed the Hyach-Doh for them to survive, and by wiping them out they had doomed their own race.
By the end of the series, we find members of opposing sides working together to forge a new future.

War and peace
Unrequited love is a source of pain in Babylon 5. The losses of loved ones to characters such as Ivanova and Sheridan are central to the story arc of the first three seasons, while Marcus and Lennier are ultimately destroyed by their love (for Ivanova and Delenn, respectively). Ivanova realizes she loved Talia (among the first time a same-sex relationship was alluded to in a scifi series). Garibaldi loses a would-be lover to war in Gropos. Zack Allen's affection for Lyta Alexander is also unreturned. Not all love in the show is unrequited, however. Sheridan, for example, returns from the dead after discovering that his love for Delenn is "worth living for" in "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?", and Garibaldi finds a happy ending with the woman he loves.

Love
One of the aspects of Babylon 5 is that many of its characters have 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, saying, "religion [...] has always been present. And it will be present 200 years from now. That may not thrill me, but when one is a writer, one must deal with realities, and that's one of them. To totally ignore that part of the human equation would be as false and wrong-headed as ignoring the fact that people get mad, or passionate, or strive for better lives. [...] In the Babylon 5 universe, all the things that make us human -- our obsessions, our interests, our language, our culture, our flaws and our wonderfulnesses -- are all still intact."
Many religions are mentioned in the Babylon 5 storyline. Often, a religious or moral question is presented with no clear answer. A perfect example is "Soul Hunter" in which three different interpretations are presented for the Soul Hunters' actions. The moral conflict presented in "Believers" is another example. More important for the overall arc of the program is the large plot thread hinging upon Minbari religious beliefs and the spiritual evolution of G'Kar.
Within Season 1 we learn that Commander Sinclair was brought up by Jesuits, Susan Ivanova is Jewish and, in the episode "The Parliament of Dreams", many of Earth's contemporary (20th Century) religions are still in existence.
Additionally, Season 3 sees a community of Benedictine monks take up residence on B5.

Religion
The subliminal and subconscious play a very significant role in the Babylon 5 franchise. Every single major character experiences, on at least one occasion, some altered state of consciousness in which he or she receives some sort of important mental message. This could either be one that further fleshes out the character for the benefit of the viewer, or one of transcendental and transpersonal nature that anticipates important further developments in the storyline. Some of these signs and portents resemble lucid dreams but many are quite bizarre and "dreamlike", frequently in a spiritual context.

Dreams and visions
Substance abuse and its impact on human personalities also plays a significant role in the Babylon 5 storyline. The station's security chief, Michael Garibaldi is a textbook relapsing-remitting alcoholic of the binge drinking type who physically and socially recovers only at the end of Season Five; Dr. Stephen Franklin develops an (initially unrecognized) addiction to injectable stimulant drugs while trying to cope with the chronic stress and work overload in medlab, and wanders off to the homeless and deprived in Brown Sector where he suffers through a severe withdrawal syndrome; Station Commander Susan Ivanova mentions that her father became an alcoholic after her mother had committed suicide after having been drugged by the authorities over a number of years. Among the aliens, Londo Mollari is at least a heavy abuser of alcohol, mostly in the form of the Centauri national drink, Brevari. Numerous other references to substance abuse and drug dealing are scattered throughout the storyline.

Addiction
Main article: List of Babylon 5 episodes and movies

Original series
Each season shared its name with an episode that was central to that season's plot.
Production costs: according to director J. Michael Straczynski "I produced B5's 110 episodes at [a cost of] about 90 million dollars."

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 Fire Made-for-TV films

Spin-offs

Main article: Crusade (TV series) Crusade

Main article: Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers Legend of the Rangers

Main article: The Memory of Shadows The Memory of Shadows

Main article: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales The Lost Tales

Main article: Babylon 5 Novels, novelizations, short stories, and comic books Novels, novelizations, short stories, and comic books

DVD releases
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. As of 2006, the complete first and second seasons and their individual episodes are also for sale at the iTunes Store.
According to director J. Michael Straczynski as of mid-2006 "The DVD sales have raised over 500 million in revenue." The financial success of the DVD box sets has led to a renewed interest in further Babylon 5 work [1].

Season releases
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). The Gathering was released as a low-priced promotional R1 DVD in 2004, intended as a 'trial' of the series proper; Warner Bros. issued several such DVDs but discontinued the line shortly thereafter due to lack of interest.

Babylon 5 movie releases
The transfer of Babylon 5 to DVD created significant problems with regard to special-effects/CGI footage. Several factors complicated the process.
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 wide screen television. In addition, while the live action film was indeed wide screen, shots were composed for 4:3, resulting in a conspicuous tendency for actors to clump up in the middle of the screen.

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 wide screen 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. Mastering problems
A total of 31 soundtrack albums have been released for Babylon 5. They are all composed by the series composer Christopher Franke and released under his own record label Sonic Images. There are 3 compilation albums: Babylon 5: Vol 1, Babylon 5: Vol 2, and Best of Babylon 5. In addition, there are 25 episodic soundtracks and 3 movie soundtracks.

Soundtrack releases
These include music that appeared throughout the series, but have been extensively reorchestrated, rewritten, and remixed by Franke into lengthy movements. In some cases new themes are introduced, such as the season 5 intro theme, which is heard on the last track of Babylon 5: Vol 2 even though the soundtrack itself was released long before season 5.

Compilation soundtracks
The 28 episodic and feature film soundtracks include the exact unedited music from each corresponding episode or feature film, with no alterations, omissions, or additions.

Episodic and feature film soundtracks
Seasons 1-2 and parts of season 3 of Babylon 5 have been released as advertisement supported downloads through the In2TV download service. Additionally, every episode from seasons 1-5 as well as the pilot movie Babylon 5: The Gathering are available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace in the United States.

Other releases
In November 1997, Chameleon Eclectic Entertainment published the original The Babylon Project: The Roleplaying Game Based on Babylon 5. This game was to have cast the player as the pilot of a Starfury fighter craft, giving the player an opportunity to "move up through the ranks," and eventually take command of capital ships and even fleets. Christopher Franke composed and recorded new music for the game, and live action footage was filmed with the primary actors from the series.
The website FirstOnes.com continues to track Babylon 5 modifications for other games. FirstOnes.com hosts the site of the Space Dream Factory, an independent project to develop several standalone games. A collection of modifications for the Homeworld platform can be found at The Great Wars Mods website. These modifications try to capture the best battles from the series. Another independently-developed, freely-available modification is The Babylon Project, a total conversion of the computer game FreeSpace 2. The modification features several campaigns set during the Earth-Minbari War and the Raider Wars. Other games with Babylon 5 modifications include Independence War, Star Trek: Armada, Star Trek: Armada II, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, Vega Strike and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.

Trivia

Babylon 5 influences
List of Babylon 5 articles
Babylon 5's use of the Internet
The Be Five
List of television series that include time-travel
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
Alien Healing Machine

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