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To stand against the dark or perish.
Watching Babylon 5 is like being nibbled to death by cats.
"Who are you?" --Sebastian, "Comes the Inquisitor"
"What do you want?" --Morden, "Signs and Portents"
Babylon 5 is a new mythology for the modern era, in a world that has forgotten how to dream.
Babylon 5 is bigger than all of us. It is about heroes, and demons, things that make us happy, and things that make us sad, and things that go bump in the night. It is about rising above the circumstances of your existence to become something greater than yourself. It is about making choices, and making mistakes, and living with the consequences. It is about love and hate, peace and war. It is about you and me, and every other person on this rock hurtling through space that we call home.
Babylon 5 is a vision of the future.
For detailed information about backround and old episodes, check out the Lurker's Guide, which is the largest collection of Babylon 5 information available on the net. (Lurkers are homeless people who live in the undeveloped parts of the station, Down Below, and were named for the lurkers on Usenet.) Also check out the recently overhauled Official Fan Club Website and the The Official Babylon 5 Website from Warner Brothers.
For the quick introduction to Babylon 5, read on.
Babylon 5 is an epic novel for television, being told in 111 parts (that's 5 seasons of 22 episodes each, plus the pilot, for those who are keeping track). In the USA, we're at the beginning of season 4.
Set in the years 2257-2262, Babylon 5 is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. Babylons 1, 2, and 3 were sabotaged and destroyed. Babylon 4 disappeared without a trace 24 hours after it became operational.
It is the Earth year 2262. It is the dawn of a new era. The Shadow War is over. Earth has been freed from the paranoid dictatorship of President Clark. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds has reformed as a new alliance, with Babylon 5 as its center. It is a time of hope, new dreams, and great things.
But it is also the calm before the storm. The Telepath War is coming on Earth, and the Drakh War is coming to the Alliance. The new Alliance will waver and crack. But it will endure.
Babylon 5 currently airs in reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel during the day. Watch for news from JMS in January about a new project.
The Shadows Information OfficeDo you have questions about the Shadows? The Shadows' Bureau of Good Relations has provided the The Shadows Information Office to re-educate the populace and counter the vicious propoganda being spread by the Army of Light.
Psi CorpsDo you have questions about Psi Corps, the black-box organization which all telepaths must join to protect the privacy of normals? Jude has a web page which will tell you Everything You Need to Know about PsiCorps. Remember, if you think you might be a telepath, or know someone who might be a telepath, don't take any chances. Go to a PsiCorps testing center and find out for certain. They're conveniently located in schools, hospitals, and government locations as well as mobile testing sites. The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father.
Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps.
JMS, Richard Biggs, and Patricia Tallman were guests of honor at Marcon 31 in Columbus, Ohio the weekend of May 3-5, 1996. Detailed convention reports are now available on all of the events I attended.
JMS and Ed Wasser (Morden) were guests for Marcon 32, which took place in Columbus, OH on May 9-11, 1997. Convention reports are now available and are mostly complete.
Still haven't had enough of Babylon 5? There are many, many fans out there with Babylon 5 pages of their own! This is just a meager sampling to get you started.
"Welcome to Babylon 5. The last, best hope for a quick buck. Oh, this
is demeaning! We're not some deep space franchise. This station is
about something!"
--Ivanova to Sheridan, about the EarthDome proposal that Babylon 5
help to pay its way through merchandising, "There All the Honor Lies"
One thing Babylon 5 doesn't have much of is merchandise, although that is starting to change. The first comic ran from December 1994 through October 1995. A new one is now being produced in the UK and will be released soon in the US, starting with "In Valen's Name".
New! Babylon 5 bookmarks and bookplates, as well as other goodies, are now available from Antioch Publishing. There is also a 1998 calendar.
Several Babylon 5 soundtracks by Chris Franke are now available. The original Babylon 5 Soundtrack is available on CD and tape, and it features music from season 1 on tracks 1 through 8 and season 2 on tracks 9 through 11, with track 12 being a 4-minute extended version of The Requiem for the Line (from "And the Sky Full of Stars" in season 1). "Babylon 5 volume 2: Messages From Earth" is currently available only on CD, though tapes may come in the future. Volume 2 features the opening credits music from seasons 1 through 4 as well as four additional tracks of music drawn from those seasons. Newly released is "Babylon 5: The Cult", a collection of the complete music from five individual episodes: "Severed Dreams", "Late Delivery from Avalon", "Walkabout", "Shadow Dancing", and "Z'Ha'Dum". "Walkabout" includes the two songs that JMS wrote. Each episode is available separately. All are available directly from Sonic Images, or look for them at a convention. Local retailers can also special-order music for you.
There are currently two sets of trading cards from Skybox. The second set was released in late October, 1996. The quality is much higher than the first set, with more chase cards (trivia cards, Nightwatch posters, The Coming of Shadows, The Creator's Collection, Laser Cuts, and autographed JMS cards) and higher quality pictures (original graphics from Foundation Imaging instead of screen-grabs). However, this is a limited edition, and if you don't already have a set, you probably won't be able to find one. The first set of trading cards from Fleer came out at the end of September 1995, and the design and artwork are incredible. Unfortunately, they also sold out quickly, so they're hard to find.
There are also some T-shirts, a golf shirt, caps, micromachines (6 sets now), very nice coffee mugs, and a few other items available. If you can't find them at a convention or your local science-fiction store, try Uncomyn Gifts or Pegasus. Also be sure to check out the official Babylon 5 Emporium at The Official Fan Club, which has some items exclusively available through the Fan Club and has discounts for fan club members.
The Ultimate Babylon 5 Word Search was posted to the Babylon 5 newsgroup back in August 1995 to help pass the time until the new episodes in October. With more than 200 words hidden in 3 pages of letters, it has done its job admirably. :-)
If you still haven't gotten your Babylon 5 fix and want to discuss it in depth with other fans, check out the new moderated newsgroup. Or, if you want important news without wading through 500 posts per day, try the info newsgroup.
The universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
The language is not Narn or human or Centauri or Gaim or
Minbari. It speaks in the language of hope. It speaks in the
language of trust. It speaks in the language of strength, and
the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart
and the language of the soul. But always it is the same voice.
It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us. The voice
of our inheritors waiting to be born. It is the small still voice
that says "We are one". No matter the blood. No matter the
skin. No matter the world. No matter the star. We are one. No
matter the pain, no matter the darkness. No matter the loss.
No matter the fear. We are one. Here, gathered together in
common cause. We agree to recognize this singular truth. And
this singular rule: that we must be kind to one another,
because each voice enriches us and ennobles us. And each
voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the universe, the
soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.
We are one.
--The Declaration of Principles of the Interstellar Alliance,
"The Paragon of Animals"
"Mars. Three times before, this place has tried to kill me.
And now, it's finally finished the job."
--Garibaldi, "The Exercise of Vital Powers"
"It was the end of the Earth year 2260, and the war had
paused, suddenly and unexpectedly."
"The future is waiting in moments of transition, to be
born in moments of revelation."
--G'Kar, "Z'ha'dum"
"May god stand between you and harm in all the empty
places you must walk."
--"Shadow Dancing"
"Only one human captain has survived combat with the Minbari.
He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be
somewhere else."
--Delenn, "Severed Dreams"
"The universe is already mad. Anything else would be redundant."
--Londo, "Dust to Dust"
"I try never to get involved in my own life. Too much trouble."
--Garibaldi to Endawi, "Matters of Honor"
"It was the end of the Earth year 2259, and the war was upon us. As
anticipated, a few days after the Earth-Centauri treaty was announced,
the Centauri widened their war to include many of the Non-Aligned Worlds.
And there was another war brewing closer to home, a personal one whose
cost would be higher than any of us could imagine. We came to this
place because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. By the end
of 2259, we knew that it had failed. But in so doing, it became something
greater. As the war expanded, it became our last, best hope for victory,
because sometimes peace is another word for surrender, and because
secrets have a way of getting out."
--Ivanova, "The Fall of Night"
"The way things are going, I figured it might be nice to have a
reminder that the impossible, is possible."
--Ivanova to Sheridan, "The Fall of Night"
"Are you willing to sacrifice all that you are, to keep all that
you have?"
--G'kar, "Comes the Inquisitor"
"Abso-fragging-lutely, dammit."
--Delenn to Sheridan, "The Long, Twilight Struggle"
"I have absolute trust in your abilities, Commander."
"Oh, that's a hell of a thing to tell someone. Hah. No pressure."
--Captain Sheridan and Commander Ivanova, "The Geometry of Shadows"
"I think I'll stick my head in the station's fusion reactor. It would
be quicker, and I suspect after a while I might even come to enjoy it.
But this, this, this is like being nibbled to death by, ahh, what are
those earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet, go quack?"
"Cats."
"Like being nibbled to death by cats."
--Londo and Vir, "Chrysalis"
"Ivanova is God."
--Ivanova, "A Voice in the Wilderness, part 1"
This page last updated December 12, 2003.
Rachel M. Thurston
surakofb5@yahoo.com
Back to Rachel's Home Page