Babylon 5: Our last, best hope for peace

Everyone had something they were watching during the 2 months Coronavirus COVID-19 Circuit Breaker lock down. Mine was re-watching the classic Sci-fi series Babylon 5 which originally aired in the 90s from 1994 to 1998. After completing everything Star Trek in 2018 and all eleven seasons of X-files in 2019, it was finally time to journey back to the 90s or fast forward to 2257 (which ever way you wanted to look at it) to Babylon 5.

And to be honest, Babylon 5 made the last months most bearable and actually quite a blast.


Created by J. Michael Straczynski and produced by Warner Bros. Babylon 5 surrounds a massive pivotal space station at the crossroads of a variety of galaxy-shaking events, including a war that nearly destroys Earth. It's a galaxy-spanning space opera that somehow still manages to feel intimate.

Through 5 seasons and numerous movies, we follow the vision of one writer, Straczynski himself; who completed the story in its entirety. Straczynski called it "a novel for television," and there's never been another show like it since. Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes that spanned 4 years in the making presenting a complete, pre-planned, serialized story arc that is arguably one of the first successful examples of such on American television.

I'm going to say that unlike TV series that presented stand-alone plots, Babylon 5 was actually pretty hard to watch if you hadn't watched the previous episodes. It's literally a story that takes 110 episodes to tell.

What I really appreciated was how the series raises and asks important questions but does not necessarily provide a pat answer. They include topics on politics - how political leadership bring change, the absurdities of power, the desire for power and it’s costs on revenge, rivalry and warfare. Religious respect and faith versus medicine. Challenges of vices in alcoholism, drug-addiction and compulsive gambling. Time travel and mind reading. I think Babylon 5 had covered it all.



And because there was a lot more time for the show to develop, the characters and their relationships were genuinely believable. from Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik’s lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry as adversarial Ambassadors Londo and G’kar and Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan as lovers, John J. Sheridan and Delenn.



Today we would cringe at the low budget 3D Studio Max CGI, but back in the 90s when I was starting out my 3D animation career, the space stations, space wars and vast galaxies looked notoriously awesome. It's almost hilarious today that paper-based reports and newspaper still exist in the far future. Almost an eyesore. It's amazing how CGI and special effects had improved leaps and bounds, but I considered Babylon 5's attempt ground breaking and inspirational.

Here's a timeline of the Babylon 5 story,

Year
2257 - Movie: "The Gathering"
2258 - Babylon 5 Season 1 ("Signs and Portents")
2259 - Babylon 5 Season 2 ("The Coming Of Shadows")
2260 - Babylon 5 Season 3 ("Point of No Return")
2261 - Babylon 5 Season 4 ("No Surrender, No Retreat")
2262-3362 - Babylon 5 Season 4 Episode 22 "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"
2245-2248 - Movie: "Babylon 5: In the Beginning"
2262 - Babylon 5 Season 5 ("The Wheel of Fire")
2263 - Movie: "River of Souls"
2265 - Movie: "The Legend of the Rangers"
2266 - Movie: "A Call to Arms"
2267 - Crusade Season 1
2271 - Movie: "The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark"
2281 - Babylon 5 Season 5 Episode 24 "Sleeping in Light"

I still have the Legend of the Rangers to catch some other time.



I'd leave you with some of my favourite quotes from the series,

"I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happened to us come because we actually deserve them." - Marcus Cole, Ranger

“I will tell you a great secret… the molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station , and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out.” - Ambassador Delenn, Minbar

Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. - Ambassador Londo Mollari, Centauri Republic

"Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth." - J. Michael Straczynski

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Category: TV
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