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Babylon 5 is an epic American science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centred around the Babylon 5 space station, which acted as a focal point for politics, diplomacy and wars. It is noted for its heavy reliance on pre-planned story arcs over its five-year run, sometimes described as a 'novel for television'.• The pilot movie, The Gathering, aired on February 22, 1993, and the regular series initially aired from January 26, 1994 through November 25, 1998, 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 US. The series won several awards, including two Hugos for Best Dramatic Presentation. Production Concept
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 not available, and so Straczynski hired Christopher Franke, of Tangerine Dream fame. Franke stayed on as the composer for all five seasons of Babylon 5, and three of the Babylon 5 telefilms. When Straczynski obtained funds to create a new writer's edition of the pilot movie, the original Stewart Copeland score was replaced with a new score by Christopher Franke. Use of the Internet The show was one of the first to employ Internet marketing to create a buzz among online readers far in advance of the airing of the pilot episode. Straczynski participated in online communities on USENET (in the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated newsgroup), and the GEnie and Compuserve systems before the Internet came together as it exists today. Also during this time, Warner Bros. executive Jim Moloshok created and distributed electronic trading cards to help advertise the series. In 1995, Warner Bros. started the Official Babylon 5 web site which was hosted on the now defunct Pathfinder portal. In September 1995 they hired a fan, Troy Rutter, to take over the site and move it not only to its own domain name at www.babylon5.com, but also to oversee the Keyword B5 area on America Online. 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 Regular cast Recurring guests There was also a group of actors who each played numerous bit parts, known informally as "The Babylon 5 Players". For example, each of the actors who played a Drazi ambassador during the series also appeared as another minor character elsewhere in the Babylon 5 saga. Story 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
Civilizations
"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, a feat never before accomplished in American television•), 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 that, in the event of an actor departing from the series, the character could be written out with minimal negative impact to the story. 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. ... That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance."• 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.• As originally planned, this would have occurred at the end of the series, but with Michael O'Hare's departure at the end of Season One, Sinclair's transformation to Valen was moved up by what became 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 turned into a way to remove the character from the series permanently. 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 "Vicar": According to JMS, Kosh had detected the Psi-Corps plot, and had 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 4, the "Trap Door" calling for Marcus Cole to die in battle was altered so as to literally give his life 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 to await a new discovery that might resuscitate him. Subsequently, when Claudia Christian left the series at end of Season 4, her character was written out of the series by having Ivanova accept a command of her own on a deep-space exploration mission, her self-realization of her grief over the loss of Marcus being the defining factor in Ivanova's decision to leave. Languages English is mentioned explicitly as the "Human language of commerce." Hearing other human languages or even their mention is highly uncommon in the series. Ambassador Delenn and Londo Mollari, both alien characters, speak with regional accents similar to Russian and Eastern European Slavic countries. All the major human characters speak American English, with the exception of Marcus Cole, who speaks with distinct British Received Pronunciation. Susan Ivanova, born in Russia, speaks with an American accent, but has some posters with writing in the Cyrillic alphabet in her room, possibly indicating she knows the language. Her father speaks with a distinct Russian accent, as does her brother. Various other minor human characters speak English with recognizable regional accents. Londo Mollari has a noticeable accent, developed independently by actor Peter Jurasik• and most closely imitated by William Forward, who played Lord Refa. In the novels it is described as a "Northern accent," and is considered uncouth. G'Kar has a particular gift for speech and writing in both Narn and English, as is demonstrated particularly from early in the third season onward. The Gaim, Pak'Ma'Ra and Vorlons do not speak directly in English, though in the case of the Vorlons it is not entirely clear that sounds preceding their English speech is their native language. Some companion literature to the series has suggested they simply refuse to learn other languages. This is true for the Pak'Ma'Ra — in the TV series, Lennier asks Delenn what to do with the Pak'Ma'Ra Ranger applicants, since they refuse to learn any language other than their own. Among aliens, only Minbari are shown to speak a different language when humans are present to stress that the humans cannot understand what is being said. When Minbari (or Narn, Centauri, etc.) are shown talking to each other, they are shown as speaking in English (except for a Narn religious ceremony in Season One), although according to creator Joe Straczynski, it is presumed they are speaking their native language, while the audience "hears" it as English. Themes Through its ongoing story arc, Babylon 5 found ways to portray themes relevant to modern social issues. Authoritarianism vs. anarchy; order vs. chaos; light vs. dark The central theme in Babylon 5 is the conflict between order and chaos, and the people caught in between. The Vorlons represent an authoritarian philosophy: you will do what we tell you to, because we tell you to do it. The Vorlon Question "who are you?" focuses on the identity as the motivator over personal goals.• The Shadows represent anarchy. Their belief is that by creating conflict, a stronger generation is born — "survival of the fittest".• The question they pose is "what do you want?" Placing desire and ambition before everything else, encouraging conflict between other groups, who choose to serve their own glory or profit.• Selfishness is often the turning point of a character from light to darkness, and selflessness denotes a change in the reverse. The stated philosophies of both the Vorlons and the Shadows seem directly in conflict with the effects their presence seems to produce. During the time that the Vorlons are tacitly "in charge" of the known universe, wars and skirmishes seem commonplace. However, as soon as the Shadows increase their presence, an alliance of races begins to form to fight them. ("Z'ha'dum"). War and peace The Babylon 5 universe includes numerous major armed conflicts. The conflicts serve to illustrate specific themes: every conflict has a forgotten "third side," people crushed beneath the feet of the powerful; a single individual willing to sacrifice himself can be more powerful than the greatest army; whereas an individual willing to sacrifice everyone else to serve his own objectives can reduce entire worlds to ashes, and yet still be defeated. Ultimately, every violent conflict is born out of self-interest, perpetuated by prejudice and ideology, and resolved by the realization that each side needs the other to survive. The most clear example of this is the history of the Hyach race: The Hyach evolved alongside the Hyach-Doh, with whom they interbred. Over the course of centuries the Hyach leadership began a process of persecution beginning with religious laws and ending in genocide. It was not until after the last Hyach-Doh had been killed that the Hyach birth-rate began to fall: the Hyach genetic structure needed the Hyach-Doh for them to survive, and by wiping them out they had doomed their race. By the end of the series, we find members of opposing sides working together to forge a new future. Love Unrequited love is a source of pain in Babylon 5. The losses of characters such as Ivanova and Sinclair are central to the story arc of the first three seasons, while Marcus and Lennier are ultimately destroyed by their love (for Ivanova and Delenn, respectively). Not all love in the show is unrequited, however. Sheridan, for example, returns from the dead after discovering that his love for Delenn is "worth living for" in "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?".• Religion One of the aspects of Babylon 5 was that many of its characters had profound spiritual and/or religious beliefs ("The Parliament of Dreams"). Straczynski, an atheist, was determined that the characters and the show would treat all these beliefs with the utmost respect, saying, "religion ... has always been present. And it will be present 200 years from now. That may not thrill me, but when one is a writer, one must deal with realities, and that's one of them. To totally ignore that part of the human equation would be as false and wrong-headed as ignoring the fact that people get mad, or passionate, or strive for better lives. ... In the Babylon 5 universe, all the things that make us human -- our obsessions, our interests, our language, our culture, our flaws and our wonderfulnesses -- are all still intact."• Often, a religious or moral question was presented with no clear answer. A perfect example was "Soul Hunter" in which three different interpretations are presented for the Soul Hunters' actions. The moral conflict presented in "Believers" is another example. More important for the overall arc of the program was the large plot thread hinging upon Minbari religious beliefs and the spiritual evolution of G'Kar. Original series Main article: List of Babylon 5 episodes and movies Episodes Each season shared its name with an episode which was central to that season's plot. Production costs: according to director J. Michael Straczynski "I produced B5s 110 episodes at a cost of about 90 million dollars." *. The scripts for the series which were written by Mr. Straczynski are all being published. This will, if all goes as planned, be a 15 volume series for a total of 92 scripts (as well as two TV movies).* Made-for-TV films Crusade The spin-off series Crusade• ran on TNT for thirteen episodes, having been set up by the TV-movie A Call to Arms. The production team received help from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make sure that the series depicted science and technology accurately.• However, creative differences between Straczynski and TNT caused problems; the network wanted more sex and violence• and forced Straczynski to begin the first episode with a fistfight. The sex-and-violence request was later withdrawn and TNT in fact allocated more money to Crusade, giving the actors better uniforms and new sets mid-season, but due to the creative differences TNT eventually decided to cancel the series after thirteen episodes had been produced, but before any of them were aired. At the time of the cancellation, no major story arcs had yet come into play, though unproduced scripts published online by Straczynski in addition to comments made by him online, at conventions, and on Crusade DVD commentaries reveal that they would have, had the series continued. Legend of the Rangers A made-for-TV movie titled To Live and Die in Starlight was produced by the Sci Fi Channel. It was the proposed pilot episode of a new series titled Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. Rescheduled after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the movie aired on January 19, 2002. However, it was scheduled against an NFL AFC Divisional Championship playoff game featuring the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders. The pilot's poor ratings killed the network's interest in a series. The Memory of Shadows In 2004 and early 2005, rumors widely circulated about a planned Babylon 5 movie for theatrical release. However, on February 25, 2005, a post from Straczynski announced that the project had fallen through and was for all practical purposes dead.• The proposed movie, titled The Memory of Shadows (TMOS), was written by Straczynski. Filming was to have begun in April 2005 in the UK with Steven Beck as the director. Several sources have claimed that factions within Warner Bros. wanted to recast established Babylon 5 roles with younger and more well-known actors, causing a major controversy among fans. Straczynski has acknowledged the subject and has stated that the negotiations were problematic, but has said that he is unable to directly comment on the issue. The Lost Tales A new project set in "Babylon 5" universe was announced by Straczynski at San Diego Comic Con 2006.• "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" will be a set of mini-stories featuring established characters from the series. The project is intended to be a straight-to-video DVD release, however there is possible interest from one of the major US TV networks as well. The production of the first anthology of two stories, named collectively Voices in the Dark will commence in November 2006 with Straczynski writing, producing and directing. Novels, novelizations, short stories, and comic books Unique to the Babylon 5 universe among virtually all other shared media universes is the sanctioned canonicity of many of its offshoot novels and comic book stories; nearly all of the Babylon 5 novels and novelizations to date having been based on outlines written directly by J. Michael Straczynski. The later Del Rey books are considered to be more canonical than some of the earlier Dell ones, and at least two major plotline revelations were made in the DC Comics series that were directly referenced in the TV series. In all, per Straczynski's own remarks, canonical elements exist in every single book published to date, and his deeper involvement in the novel-publishing program from 1996 onward has ensured a greater level of canonicity within such works. Additionally, the creator himself penned a number of short stories expanding on several key story-points from the television series, along with a number of other established authors, with all such tales considered as "real" as the TV show itself. The comic books published by DC are also fully endorsed (with the exception of DC changing a curse word in the first issue), with JMS again either having directly written or contributed to all of the issues in one form or another. Straczynski himself is presently (as of early 2006) hard at work finishing up the manuscript for a 100-page Babylon 5 graphic novel, to be published during the late period of the year by Wildstorm Productions. As of 2006, the premise, characters, and plotline are still unknown. Mongoose Publishing, the publisher of recent Babylon 5 role-playing game (RPG) material, has announced that it will be releasing a line of Babylon 5 novels and graphic novels beginning in summer 2006. JMS has made it clear that he is not involved with this project and considers the works to be "fan-fiction".• Season releases All five seasons have been released individually in the US and the UK. A complete 5-season set is also available in each of the two DVD regions, titled Babylon 5: The Complete Television Series for the U.S. and Canada, and Babylon 5: The Complete Universe for the UK. The UK version also includes all the films and the short-lived spin-off Crusade. As on 2006, the complete first season and the individual shows from Season 1 are also for sale at the iTunes Store. According to director J. Michael Straczynski as of mid-2006 "The DVD sales have raised over 500 million in revenue." The financial success of the DVD box sets has led to a renewed interest in further Babylon 5 work *. Babylon 5 movie releases The Babylon 5 TV movies were distributed differently in the U.S. and UK. Initially a DVD containing the two movies The Gathering and In the Beginning were released on both region 1 (North America) and region 2 (UK) DVD. Then, in the U.S., the first five movies which aired while Babylon 5 was still on the air were released in one boxset, with the TV movie Legend of the Rangers getting its own separate release on both region 1 and region 2 DVD. In the UK, a film boxset was released, but instead of containing the five movies like the U.S. version, it contained the three movies which hadn't been released yet (Thirdspace, River of Souls, and A Call to Arms). The Gathering was released as a low-priced promotional R1 DVD in 2004, intended as a 'trial' of the series proper; Warner Bros. issued several such DVDs but discontinued the line shortly thereafter due to lack of interest. Mastering problems The transfer of Babylon 5 to DVD created significant problems with regard to special-effects/CGI footage. Several factors complicated the process. This has resulted in several consistent flaws throughout the Babylon 5 DVD release. In particular, quality drops very significantly whenever a scene cuts from purely live-action to a shot combining live-action and CGI. This is especially noticeable on the PAL DVDs, since CGI shots had to be converted from NTSC as well as being blown up to fit a widescreen television. In addition, while the live action film was indeed widescreen, shots were composed for 4:3, resulting in a conspicuous tendency for actors to clump up in the middle of the screen. Games In November 1997, Chameleon Eclectic Entertainment published the original The Babylon Project: The Roleplaying Game Based on Babylon 5.• In 2003, Mongoose Publishing printed the Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game & Factbook.• The Babylon 5 Wars wargame, the first licensed product of its kind, was first published by Agents of Gaming in 1998. The game was developed in close contact with the creators of the show, and most of the published material is considered canon. Agents of Gaming later published Babylon 5 Fleet Action, which focused on battles of a larger scale. There was also a Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game. There are no officially licensed Babylon 5 video games on the market, though in 1998 a video game based on Babylon 5, named Into the Fire, was being developed by Sierra, the publishers of Homeworld. Work on this game ended on September 21, 1999, when, as part of a corporate reorganization, Sierra cancelled it and laid off its development staff when the game was only a few months away from release.• This game was to have cast the player as the pilot of a Starfury fighter craft giving the player an opportunity to "move up through the ranks" and eventually take command of capital ships and even fleets. Christopher Franke composed and recorded new music for the game, and live action footage was filmed with the primary actors from the series. The web site, FirstOnes.com, continues to track Babylon 5 mods for other games. FirstOnes.com hosts the site of the Space Dream Factory, an independent project to develop several standalone games. A collection of mods for the Homeworld platform can be found at The Great Wars Mods website. These mods try to capture the best battles from the series. Another independently developed, freely available mod is The Babylon Project, a total conversion of the computer game FreeSpace 2. The mod features several campaigns set during the Earth-Minbari War and the Raider Wars. Other games with Babylon 5 mods include Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II. Trivia See also | |||||||||||||
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