Babylon 5 - Science Fiction TV Series

Babylon 5 is a five-mile (8 kilometre) long space station. It is located in neutral space near a planet called Epsilon Eridani (Grid Epsilon). Built by the government of Earth or the Earth Alliance in 2256 it became operational in 2257. It is staffed by officers and crew from the Earth Force, Earth's military arm.



The mandate under which it was created was to establish and maintain peaceful relations between the Earth and the various alien races by providing a safe haven where negotiations could be undertaken and grievances worked out by duly appointed alien ambassadors.

The governing body for this assembly is a council made up of representatives from the five major space-faring powers; the Earth Alliance, the Mimbari Federation, the Vorlon Empire, the Narn Regime and the Centari Republic. These councilors work with representatives of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds in an attempt to stabilise interstellar relations. Babylon 5 has a secondary function as a military post for Earth and also operates as a commercial port for travellers, traders, businessmen, criminals, and the enigmatic Rangers.

Essentially, Babylon 5 is a floating city in space. It claims to be the home of 250,000 humans and aliens. As can be expected, with that many entities inside a space station there are bound to be problems. The senior staff of Earth Alliance officers and the embers of the diplomatic community deal with a wide variety of threats to station security, cultural differences, interstellar crises and personal problems on a daily basis.

Unresolved prejudices and issues leftover from the Earth-Mimbari War and the occupation of the Narn homeworld by the Centauri lead to what appear to be insurmountable problems. Earth faces Anti-alien groups, a corrupt government and an unknown threat from the militant Psi Corps, a telepathic society created to control telepaths and their interaction with 'normals'.

Earth's Mars colony wants independence and turns to Babylon 5 for support. In amongst all this is the growing threat to the galaxy represented by the growing presence of the mysterious Shadows in regions around the Outer Rim of known space. To all intents and purposes, fate has indicated that Babylon 5 will be crucial in deciding the outcome of all of these roiling social problems.

There are five major space-faring races in the Babylon 5 universe. They are represented as mentioned above by the Earth Alliance, the Mimbari Federation, the Vorlon Empire, the Narn Regime and the Centari Republic. There are also those alien species represented by the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.

Of course no good dramatic story would be complete without an arch-nemesis and this role is fulfilled by mysterious Shadows who lurk in the outer regions of known space called the Rim.

While the story is about all the different species in the Babylon 5 universe, there are of course a number of main characters. As can be seen in the main photo above, these include Humans, Minbari, Centari and Narn. Between the main characters and the minor support roles of the alien species from the League of Non-aligned Worlds are major support characters. These include:

The Vorlon Ambassador, Kosh:

And the Shadows themselves:

Babylon 5 was and continues to be a groundbreaking science-fiction series. As mentioned in the introduction, the series revolutionized special effects used for television programs. It captivated audiences with its portrayal of an Earth Alliance Captain and his role in the running of a five-mile (8 kilometre) long space station and in saving the galaxy.



The amazing amount of detail in the development of the characters and plots with the complex interleaving is extraordinary. The storyline is so engaging that my wife and I were watching up to 3 and 4 episodes a night on DVD. What we loved about it is that while some of the minor storylines for each episode are resolved, there is always something that is carried forward and reappears later on and you get one of those - aahaaa moments happening. You could say that there are things happening all the time. Everything has a reason for being included and you need to keep watching to see where it leads. For example Sinclair goes aboard the mysteriously reappearing Babylon 4 in Season 1 but you have to wait until Season 3 for the explanation of where it came from and where it went.



And that is where J. Michael Straczynski keeps you enthralled. The show was conceived and created to be a five season long novel for television. However, the series was axed as the fourth season was being filmed. The series creator, J. Michael Straczynski, brought forward a great deal of the season five storylines just in case. Warner Brothers at last agreed to the fifth and final season allowing the show to reach its natural conclusion.

The story of B5 (short for Babylon 5) is one that will keep you engrossed for the duration of its tale. One of the main twists deals with the Minbari Ambassador, Delenn. She transforms from this:



to this: between Season 1 and Season 2.

Our beloved enemy (or is he really), the Centari Ambassador, Londo Molari also goes through some changes.

As for the rest of the story, well, you'll just have to watch it for yourself.