TV movies and series : Babylon 5

Tv movies and series : Babylon 5

Score  9/10

Years : 1993 (Pilot) ; 1994-1998 ; 1998-1999 + 2002+ 2007 (tv-movies)

Multiple directors

Country : USA 

Language : English

10 years after the earth-minbari war, earth is taken in the middle of conspiracies (o.o.!), military coups... aliens... just watch the show, will ya?

Ok, you need a little more? 

Babylon 5 is an unusual and near perfect Scifi show written 5 years in advance by JMS (Joseph Michael Straczynski), telling the story of a quarter million humans and aliens living on Babylon 5, a deep space station whose missions will evolve over the years 2257-2262... It all starts with the pilot ‘’the gathering’’, followed by 5 seasons and 5 tv-movies. JMS had to adapt sometimes this space saga, but he didn’t wave with his planned beginning, middle and end... 

The viewing order is a bit complex, as tv movies were produced and aired after the show but with plots taking place during the same timeframe as the series.

After the pilot (The Gathering, set in 2257) one naturally starts season 1 (each season is 1 year later, the only exception being the last episodes of seasons 4 &5, each jumping way ahead in time). 

The 1st season can be watched in its air order, or you can push TKO from 14th to 20th position, and Legacies from 17 to 21st, as seen in lurker's list - officially accepted by JMS. 

The second season can also be watched in its air order, or you can reverse episodes 7 (Soul mates) and 8 (A race through dark places)'s order, as well as of 17 (Knives) and 16 (In the shadow...).

The same goes for the third season, here you are able to reverse episodes 13 (A late delivery from Avalon) and 12 (Sic Vir), and bringing episode 18 (Walkabout) to position 16, after Interludes (15) and before the two-parter War without end, instead of after it.

Continue watching up to Season 4 episode 8 (The illusion of Truth). Insert here the film Thirdspace, (set in 2261, like the rest of season 4, which you resume and finish after it).

Then, follow by '' In the beginning'', (set in 2245-2248), then Season 5 , episodes 1 to 21 (Objects at rest, the last episode of 2262).

Here you'll insert the movies ‘’The River of Souls’’ (set in 2263); ‘’The Legend of Rangers’’ (2265), ‘’a Call to Arms’’ (2266) and the last episode of season 5 ... unless you also watch the spin-off Crusade before the last B5 episode. I shall talk about it in another post.

The movies complete the show, with more or less importance to the story line and visual success... They aren’t the best in the B5 universe, but can be enjoyable. 

Actually, I loved  most of the show - in re-watches I skip only TKO (season 1) which is an episode revolving around boxing... the other 109 episodes had many wow moments - I'll try to list some of the trigger warnings later. 

JMS, a major in psychology and it shows: his characters are written with their psychology taken in account and their evolution is phenomenal.

The gathering, which begins the story is certainly average and even poor in quality compared to other 1993 productions but the budget was small, because the studios were reluctant to invest in a new Scifi series, thinking in wouldn’t compete with Star Trek, THE scifi show of all times. Subsequently, Babylon 5 won the audience and a huge fan base is still active to this day (2015), and a better budget than the films. [Edit July 2021 : there are new fans bound to join the old, now that the show regained accessibility via streaming platforms.] 

Babylon 5 is a superbly written series overall with little stupidities and few episodes that can be skipped without losing the continuity of the story arcs built in intertwined plots... One to several clues are given over the episodes and seasons to finally explode as glaring truth '' this is where we were going to '...

The acting is just average for some, but the majority of the actors and actresses are of a higher level.

Notably, Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Mira Furlan (Delenn) and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) deliver deep philosophical lines that make you think, or dialogues of enormous emotional content...

Stephen Furst in the role of Vir Cotto is a brilliant Woody Allen inspiration...he even directed several episodes.

The very last episode is so moving, and so well written that even after seeing it several times and knowing what happens, it still brings tears to my eyes!

The pilot must be seen at least once to understand what happens in the series, but is is naïve in its implementation and some characters are played by actors of lower caliber, and are therefore transferred before Episode 1 ... However, we must see it to understand the main plot, which starts in 2257 for the television movie from 2258 to 2262 for the show ... 

The series deals with the human condition, be it poverty, racism, strengths and weaknesses, values, nobility ... the power of friendship, love, the power of media, politics ...

A really well-crafted series that I note 9/10, as it were almost perfect.

Christopher Frank composed the music for each season’s intro, and I suggest you don’t listen to them until they arrive, to avoid spoilers. 

*Update from August 2014. According to this website  J. Michael Straczynski Announces ‘Babylon 5′ Feature Film Reboot, Eyes 2016 Production Start... *  Edit July 2021 : it never happened. Copyright issues, as far as I understood. 

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Babylon 5… in the medias :

The movies are available alone or in boxsets, the seasons have been released individually and included in the entire B5 boxsets. I shall give you more details when I can. 

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... Triggers  ( I mark with * the new episode orders as seen in lurker's link above). 

Believers (S01EP10) has a scene with someone's internal breathing organs shown. I personally cannot watch these short passages, from 0:06:20 to 0:07:00 (dvd timestamp). 

Legacies (S01Ep17 on dvd= 21*) has a moment that is a big emetophobia trigger, about carrion eaters interrogated about a body, from 21:50 to 22:45 or so into the episode (dvd). 

Walkabout  (S03EP18 on dvd=16*) is the bloodiest episode in the entire show. A character gets stabbed and seen bleeding and crawling, leaving blood behind, for some portion of the episode.