Information AboutBabylon 5 |
''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 Arc s over its five-year run, sometimes being described as a "novel for television."1 The pilot movie, '''', aired on February 22 , 1993 , and the regular series initially aired from January 26 , 1994 through November 25 , 1998 ,2 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.3 The series won many awards, including two Hugos for Best Dramatic Presentation 4 and two Emmy awards - for makeup and visual effects.5 A straight-to-DVD movie about selected characters from the series was released on July 31 , 2007 . PRODUCTION Concept In a 1991 post to to the GEnie service,6, J. Michael Straczynski set five goals for the ''Babylon 5'' series. He said that the show "would have to be good science fiction" as well as good television ("rarely are SF shows both good SF ''and'' good TV; there're (sic) generally one or the other"); it would have to do for science fiction television what Hill Street Blues had done for Police Drama s, by taking an adult approach to the subject; it would have to be reasonably budgeted, and "it would have to look unlike anything ever seen before on TV, presenting individual stories against a much broader canvas." He further stressed that his approach was "to take SF seriously, to build characters for grown-ups (not a Wesley in the bunch), to incorporate real science but keep the characters at the center of the story." Some of the staples of television SF were also out of the question (the show would have "no kids or cute robots"7). He started out with ideas for two different shows, one a vastly-ambitious epic covering massive battles and other universe-changing events, and the other set aboard a single space station, before realizing both could be done in a single series. The idea was not to present a utopian future, but one with greed and homelessness; one where characters grow, develop, live, and die; one where not everything was the same at the end of the day's events. Straczynski wanted the show to be a mirror to the real world and to covertly teach (an idea influenced by Mark Twain ).8 Unlike most television shows at the time, the series was conceived as a "novel for television", with a defined beginning, middle, and end. In addition, many of the tie-in novels, comic books, and short stories play a significant Canonical part in the overall story. The show uses an arc-driven storytelling style now prevalent in both televised science fiction and in mainstream drama. In anticipation of future , using Amiga -based Video Toaster s at first, and later Pentium and DEC Alpha -based systems.9 It also attempted to respect Newtonian Physics in its effects sequences, with particular emphasis on the effects of inertia. Music and scoring The original pilot movie had music composed by Stewart Copeland . When the show was picked up as a weekly series, Copeland was unavailable, so Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream was hired. Franke was the composer for all five seasons of ''Babylon 5'', three of the television movies, 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. Use of the Internet See Also: Babylon 5's use of the Internet The show employed internet marketing to create a buzz among online readers far in advance of the airing of the pilot episode,10 with Straczynski participating in online communities on . The fans continued to play an important role in the development of the series, and the online support campaign is credited with helping persuade former PTEN station owners to carry the fourth season of the show in 1996. REGULAR AND GUEST STARS See Also: List of people involved with Babylon 5 Regular cast
Recurring guests
In addition, several other actors have filled more than one minor role on the series. Kim Strauss played the Drazi Ambassador in 4 episodes, as well as 9 other minor characters in 10 more. PLOT SUMMARY Main arc 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 ). Season one - 2258 During 2258, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is in charge of 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 defenses 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 two - 2259 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 failed to join 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 Driver s, 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 Vorlon s are revealed to be the basis of legends about Angel s on various worlds, including Earth, and are ancient enemies of the Shadows. Season three - 2260 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 1,000 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 four - 2261 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, but at a price: barring illness or injury, he has only 20 years left to live. 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 their 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 forever. 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. This 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 nuclear war on Earth 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 five - 2262 In 2262, Earthforce Captain Elizabeth Lochley is appointed to command 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 Narn-Centauri 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. STORY ELEMENTS 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. The Babylon station See Also: Babylon 5 (space station) orbiting Epsilon III ]] In the show, Babylon 5 is a center of political intrigue and conflict, eventually becoming the Linchpin of a massive Interstellar conflict. This is reflected in the opening monologue of each episode, which includes the words "last, best hope for peace" in season one, but changes to "last, best hope for victory" by season three. Babylon 5 is the fifth Babylon space station, a modified version of an O'Neill Cylinder . 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 (" Babylon Squared " and " War Without End "). Babylon 5 is substantially smaller than the previous stations, due to budget constraints after the failure of its predecessors. The station is set in the Epsilon Eridani star system, orbiting the third planet, Epsilon Eridani III (frequently referred to as " Epsilon III " in the series). Bruce Boxleitner , who played station commander Captain John Sheridan, described the Babylon 5 station 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''. Civilizations See Also: Civilizations in Babylon 5 (left) of the Narn Regime and Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic .]] At the beginning of the series, five dominant civilizations are represented. The dominant species are the Humans , Minbari , Narn , Centauri , and the Vorlon s. "The Shadows " and their various allies are malevolent species who appear later in the series. The less powerful races eventually form the League Of Non-Aligned Worlds . "Trap doors" 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 television11), it was necessary to adjust the plotline to accommodate external influences. Each of the characters in the series was written with a "trap door" into their background so that, in the event of an actor's departure from the series, the character could be written out with minimal impact to the story.12 In the words of Straczynski, "As a writer, doing a long-term story, it'd be dangerous and short-sighted for me to construct the story without trap doors for every single character. {Link without Title} That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance."13 Major challenges included the replacement of Actor Michael O'Hare as the station commander after the first season. Jeffrey Sinclair was intended from the beginning to become Valen.14 This was supposed to have occurred at the end of the series, but with Michael O'Hare's departure at the end of season one, Sinclair's transformation was moved up by several years. 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 who 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 used to drop the character from the series. Had Thompson remained, her "good" persona would have been restored by the use of a data crystal that Kosh had commissioned through the services of a VCR (pronounced "Vicar", a telepath with an implant allowing him to record the psychic data he detected): According to Straczynski, Kosh would have detected the Psi-Corps plot and taken steps to salvage what he considered a valuable resource. This plotline was never used. Two characters were written out using a pair of intertwining "Trap Doors." When Jason Carter left the series at the end of season four, the "Trap Door" calling for Marcus Cole to die in battle was altered to give his life force 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 in hope of a new discovery that might resuscitate him. Subsequently, when Claudia Christian left the series at end of season four, her character was written out of the series by having Ivanova accept a command of her own as captain of a new Warlock Class Destroyer , her self-realization of her grief over the loss of Marcus being the defining factor in her decision to leave. Rising Star (Babylon 5) Languages
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