Currently I am rewatching the Blu-Ray release of Babylon 5. I think that this might be the 8th time I am rewatching the series. I love this show so much and it baffles me that it never got a wider audience than it did. Right now I am halfway through Season 2. The intelligence, depth and political relevance it still has, never ceases to amaze me. Love this show! I am really curious to see if we’re going to get a soft-reboot/different take on this story that was announced a couple of years ago. It’s sad that so many of the original cast are gone though.

Has anyone tried to create a text-to-speech voice based on Zathras?

I thought this would be so cool.

There were pretty much 3 characters that JMS had that could never be happy or were constantly abused in some fashion throughout the entire series: G'Kar, Londo and Garibaldi. I may be missing some as well but who do you feel got it worst?

Watching Season 3 episode 17: War without End and I just noticed something.

It's the episode where they steal Babylon 4, and Sheridan starts shifting through time. And I'm right at the part where Londo is drunk and explaining the little Drakh bastard on his neck..............and is never mentioned again until what, season 5?

CLEARLY its at a point where Londo is in charge.

CLEARLY has a parasite on his neck. Show and tell FFS.

And then Sheridan gets back to normal and says NOTHING? Just going to spend the whole war and after not warning him? I know there's a movie that addresses the aftermath of the show, but I just find it odd that he wouldn't say anything to anyone or look into it afterwards. Oh this is the aftermath- these are the allies of the shadows and they don't like what happened, then go back to business as usual "Don't go to Z'ha'dum" ??

In kinda goes in line with how the Shadows are commiting genocide across the galaxy, but are then surprised when Sheridan nukes their home city, and the Vorlons were like, wait we can do that??

Seems no studios are interested except the old regime of the CW.

https://preview.redd.it/eeen3q3mb89d1.jpg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb7601a9e182f5b06bcc322de04c60689654336a

Julie Musante. Kudos to the actor for bringing to life such a vile character.

I know, it's about the *how* Sheridan destroyed their warcruiser, but I mean come on. What did they expect? Earth was inferior to the Minbari in every way, of course they would resort to tricks and fighting dirty. The Minbari were an advanced space-faring species with powerful warring capabilities. Did they never encounter another enemy capable of using the same "dishonorable" tactics?

It just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm watching season 3 right now and I realized that we see hundreds and even thousands of adults on Babylon 5 and almost no kids. Are birth rates that low or are people who travel in space just unlikely to have them? All of the main characters don't have kids which seems a bit odd but makes the story easier to tell. Is this convenience or canon?

Edit: Just found out that JMS had a voluntary vasectomy at 21. Clearly didn't like it understand kids so it would have been hard for him to write them in. Kind of funny that he wrote all his main characters as childless like him. Funny how writers personalities make into their characters.

Whenever I rewatch the series, I always pay attention to the background reactions of the main and supporting characters. The interactions between Brother Theo AKA The Sassiest Man of God ever and Ivanova are always gold. Whenever Theo throws any of his sass at Ivanova, she always gives him a look like “We both know I’ll hit a priest” 🤣

Things are going good, Earth has joined the new alliance, and then...this? Was this supposed to be the series ending? It's not even helping the story...it's like a weird one off. So strange that it was the season finale.

Just a fun bit of trivia. In 1997, JMS confirmed that he didn't want a 6th season, but he noted: "...The only other option would be to do a 'Tales from Babylon 5' sixth season, which would be an anthology series, to all intents and purposes, using our characters almost like a repertory group. But we'll see..."

https://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=8624

(I found that by searching the archives. I haven't found it mentioned in discussions. It has been noted in a book published this year, The Triumph of Babylon 5 by Baz Greenland. I'm not affiliated with that author and I didn't know about that book before today.)

This thing they sent is really bad and its not just them.

Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt, Rocky and Bullwinkle all sent their series' in the same impossible to use carrying case.

I'm pretty sure this is one of the few shows to exhibit the heroes using the bathroom. (Excluding for comedic effect)

Hi, all! I'm making a fanedit of Babylon 5 that uses the episode structure from Sherlock. Sherlock has an uncommon and unconventional episode structure. Each season consists of only three episodes, and each episode is 90 minutes long. Which means each season of Sherlock is, essentially, a trilogy of movies. My goal with this fanedit is to make a version of Babylon 5 that fits that same episode structure, where each season is a trilogy of 90-minute movies.

Ready today for your entertainment is Season 1 Episode 3 of 3. Enjoy!

https://mega.nz/file/WEwR3SLR#P0dVT3hgtMbvzUliwpuum6GRjmmI5zgeIC1my44l30k

This 90-minute movie-episode 3 of 3 gets back to big plot and focuses on Earth. It tells the story of a presidential visit and sabotage (Survivors), a pro-Earth hate group (The War Prayer), a rogue telepath (Mind War), and an assassination (Chrysalis). I want each of these movie-episodes to tell a complete story, with a minimum of cliffhangers and "to be continued"'s. To do that, I pushed Delenn's cocoon to S2 where that story will be told in full, and I pulled in Garbaldi's recovery from S2.

Here's the full rundown of Season 1 Sherlocked Edition:

S1E1 Midnight on the Firing Line
https://mega.nz/file/qJhjiIjK#yoNzfVX5i_sFuVROyCmE9HZiPkZ_Zt6W279ROq6IAmA

Welcome to Babylon 5! (The Gathering) When the Narn attack a Centauri colony, Londo and G'Kar nearly come to blows (Midnight on the Firing Line, Chrysalis), but Londo receives help from a mysterious stranger (Signs and Portents). Meanwhile, Garibaldi investigates an unauthorized use of a communications channel (Born to the Purple), and a rabbi helps Ivanova come to terms with her father's death (TKO). Also, ambassador Kosh hires telepath Talia Winters to oversee a very unusual negotiation (Deathwalker).

S1E2 By Any Means Necessary
https://mega.nz/file/yBA2GDQR#N5sFmSwgQliTGXfRJzD46idBz0BltifghZYloUMakOk

An accident in the docking area kills a worker and threatens to spark an illegal strike (By Any Means Necessary), and Sinclair is forced to protect a notorious war criminal who has invented an immortality serum (Deathwalker). Meanwhile, the station hosts a week-long festival where humans and aliens demonstrate their religious beliefs (The Parliament of Dreams), Londo interferes in an important Narn religious observation (By Any Means Necessary), and Dr. Franklin asks Sinclair to intercede with a family who refuses life-saving surgery because of their religious beliefs (Believers). Also, Catherine Sakai wants to survey a promising planet for possible mining, but G'Kar warns her to stay away (Mind War).

S1E3 The War Prayer
https://mega.nz/file/WEwR3SLR#P0dVT3hgtMbvzUliwpuum6GRjmmI5zgeIC1my44l30k

Garibaldi is blamed for an accident ahead of the President's visit, which leads to hitting the bottle after a prolonged abstinence (Survivors). A violent attack on a Minbari poet leaves Sinclair scrambling to flush out a vicious pro-Earth group (The War Prayer). And Garibaldi makes a discovery that could cost him his life (Chrysalis). Meanwhile, Talia's old Psi Corps instructor is the victim of a secret experiment and the target of a manhunt involving the Psi-Cops (Mind War), and Londo takes Lennier for a look at the less savory sections of the station (The Quality of Mercy).

It always makes me laugh too hard when you see Marcus, at the beginning of the episode is trying to escape with the help of a Drazi-

NOW! NOW DAMMIT NOW! NOW!.......................................(in quiet defeat) now.

Is this just one of the .any things ds9 used/stol/inspired haha I mean not only is an alien with crazy face makeup and similar forehead but her weird alien forehead gets branded just like quark

Both marks could be removed easily by the med tech of each series, quark gets his removed of course but Delenn's friend wants it to stay on her head as a reminder

Babylon 5 is just so pure, makes me feel like I'm on a 90s mall in a different city. Ds9 felt like Los Angeles and b5 feels more east coast doesn't ut?

The two scenes are so similar it just made .e laugh because delenns face helmet makeup stuff looks a lot like the ferrengi makeup, and I'm sure the same hollywood alien makeup people worked on both shows, no?

Just started watching this show believe it or not. Im actually disappointed.Not in the show at all. Just a question i needed clarification on. I came here hoping for a different answer. The makeup is so awful that i couldn’t tell if the bone was just a decoration they wore………or if it was part of their head. Surely its just decoration, like how humans wear headbands or barrettes. As its SO OBVIOUSLY not part of their anatomy. So i found my way here after some googling, expecting to see that its just a decoration. Not like the cranial ridges on klingons in star trek. A example of something like that done well. Its like the part that sits above the fake ear, you can see its not part of their head. If they couldn’t afford good makeup they shouldn’t have changed their ear position. It could have been hidden behind the ears. Ugh

The old DVD versions with the shiny foil boxes came with a very helpful little episode guide for each season so you knew which disc had which episodes along with a little blurb about them. Super annoying to come back to the bluray set a month later and try to remember where you left off, or worse how to watch a specific episode somewhere else in the series. I wish they would've charged an extra few dollars and included a booklet. I don't think I've ever bought a box set of a TV season that didn't come with an insert or guide of some kind.

I used to have all of the Babylon 5 books, back in the day, and I mean all of them. Stupidly, some time ago, I got rid of them. Watching the remaster has got me hankering for a re-read, so off to eBay I went. I wanted some of the original numbered ones. One seller had 6 of them for £25. Another one had all 9 for £40, but was open to offers. I put in a cheeky late-night offer of £30, not expecting it to be accepted. Imagine my surprise when I woke up in the morning to find that it had. They should keep me busy for a while. 😁

So I was watching the pilot Babylon 5 telefilm a few weeks ago, (the ORIGINAL, not 'The Gathering', but the same is true of both of them), and it kept bugging me as to why they made a big deal about Del Varner having been dead before Kosh even arrived. I remembered him talking to Londo in the casino, about Londo's 'system', and he appeared to be behaving rather human, for a Minbari in a holographic disguise. I assumed it was a plot hole, that it WAS in fact Del Varner he was speaking with at that point, but the whole 'pulling out after Londo ran up a bill', was done AFTER the Minbari had killed him, even if it didn't match up with the timeline. I just assumed it was some shotty continuity. Then, I too a step back, and examined the plot as a whole, and realized that it was by design.

G'Kar and the assassin, hadn't expected that Takashima and Dr. Kyle would use a telepath to scan Kosh and determine both where the poison entered his body, and who had done it. Lyta fingering Sinclair, wasn't part of their original plot. To get a sense of their original plan, you just have to look at G'Kar's first act when the news broke: he went to Delenn and immediately cast the blame on Mollari, proposing an alliance between the Narn and the Minbari to counter what he suggested was a forthcoming alliance between the EA and the Centauri against the Vorlons.

Why did G'Kar cast the blame on Mollari?... because he wasn't at the reception or at the airlock. Why did this happen?... because Del Varner promised to help him with his betting system at the casino, then backed-out. That means that this wasn't just a simple conversation between the two... the Minbari assassin, disguised as Del Varner, deliberately kept Mollari busy so he wouldn't be there, giving G'Kar the (weak) opportunity to cast the blame on Mollari and try to get his alliance with the Minbari.

The Minbari assassin, needed the Changeling Net, to A), get aboard Babylon 5 disguised as a Narn, which didn't happen but they got around that, B), delay Londo at the casino posing as Del Varner (which was why he was acting Human, rather than trying to avoid drawing attention to himself), then C), impersonate Sinclair so he could get close enough to Kosh to apply the poison. Makes you wonder, though, if he had additional help from B5 personnel, so he could get in and out of the airlock without being seen.

Anyway, I'm betting his impersonating Sinclair, was also part of a backup plan in case the assassin WAS noticed entering or leaving the area. Having Sinclair as the culprit would deepen the rift between the EA and the Vorlons. Anyway, G'Kar and the assassin had to go to the backup plan quite soon, once Lyta pointed the finger at Sinclair. You'll note, that G'Kar stopped trying to make alliances after that point, and went straight for the throat... Sinclair's throat. Was having Sinclair brought to the Vorlon homeworld for trial, an attempt to simply undermine the peace process, or did they have further plots waiting in the wings? Might the assassin attempted to incite the humans to war against the Vorlons, by impersonating a Vorlon, and killing Sinclair at the time of the intended prisoner transfer? Perhaps he would find a way to smuggle a bomb with Sinclair, timed to detonate when he was on the Vorlon Homeworld.

What are your thoughts on how this plot was intended to unfold?

And, yeah, maybe this plot that I missed was more obvious to some, but I didn't get it until recently. I was 15 when I first watched it, so I kinda had just accepted the plot as a whole, and hadn't picked it apart until recently.