Found one of my old rule books, if you surrender, you have to pick up your cards and go home, you are not out of the game, you are leaving. I guess if you were playing at your own home, you could stay but you had to hold your cards, rules are rules.

Just one of these funny things written in old card games, but I wouldn't put it past a player in a tournament demanding someone leave as it is in the rules....

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In all seriousness, I find it incredibly comforting to watch when the world is going crazy. It is a show fundamentally fueled by hope and a rejection of evil through the acts of common people.

I think about it when I take action to try to make the world better. Not in the sense of "What would Sheridan do?" but in the sense that we don't have to just sit back and accept shit falling apart around us.

I'm glad this show exists. I'm glad it got to tell the full story that it told. It's still, in my opinion, one of the best told stories on television ever.

I just want to start off by saying I am not from the US, and I understand that talk about politics, especially right now, might be a sensitive topic for some people.

I have been rewatching Babylon 5 (incl. movies and Crusade), roughly at a cadence of 1 episode per day, and intend to get to Severed Dreams on roughly November 5th. If I kept up at this cadence, I should complete The Deconstruction of Falling Stars (as the final episode) sometime in January. But I'm not attached to that.

So far it has been somewhat surreal having the timing of some events in the series loosely related to world events IRL. So it got me thinking...

The question: are there any likely or expected upcoming events in the world next 3 months that I could align with key episodes in my rewatch?

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We got the Omega Class Destroyer that evolved from the Nova Dreadnought and from the Omega we got Warlock. But the Hyperion design never got used again in comparison to the Nova---->Omega. So why didn't EA create newer heavy cruisers as support ships for the Omega and the newer Warlock? They could still use the Hyperion back section and build a more compact strutcture there with a rotating section for gravity?

No offense intended to Delenn lovers, because I'm one of them. She and Sheridan are still my favorite Sci-Fi power couple. I'm still deeply saddended by the loss of Mira Furlan.

That being said, my question still stands. Did Delenn have the least character development in the series? As far as I can see, she never really grew as a person outside of her relationship with Sheridan. Otherwise, she is always righteous, always wise and kind, always personally humble, never fails or falters, and never really changes (besides the obvious physical metamorphosis). Yes she carried the burden of causing the Earth-Minbari war and her silence over the damage done to Narn, but does she ever really change in any profound way, like many of the other characters did?

Franklin went through his addiction and redemption arc, Garibaldi got mindscrewed and fought to rebuild his life while also slipping back into alcoholism. Ivanova learned to warm up and trust people until she broke her own heart by not trusting herself enough to get close to Marcus. Sheridan went from boyscout, to revolutionary, to messiah, paid a terrible price and had many regrets although he came through stronger for them. Vir started as a timid dogsbody, nearly broke himself to save his own people, and finished as a deeply moral man who everyone should admire. Lennier struggled with duty, love and jealousy until it eventually consumed him. Even Lyta went through a dramatic change and became a leader to her people. And of course, Londo and G'kar don't even need to be explained as to why they're the most profound and important characters in the entire series.

But what of Delenn? Was she a weak link in the story? Yes she went through a ton of difficult crap, but I think none of it really changed her. Am I wrong? Why?

I’ve been re-watching the show and doing some googling and continuously come across this on the Babylon 5 wiki page. Is this a book or movie that I missed? It seems to take place during/after Excalibur

I was just watching it, then I clicked some buttons unintentionally and I jumped to other episodes now I have no idea which episode I was watching.

It was a guy about to call someone, then he gets stabbed, the murderer has a hand tattoo.

Recap from my first post: I mostly liked Season 5 when it aired in my country in 1999 and 2000. I think having a proper denouement was an excellent idea, but I seem to recall that it was somewhat drawn out. I've only seen the entire season in full once, though, and that's 24 years ago. I think I found it dull and annoying around 2008 when I last watched it and reached about halfway. So I've been wondering how I'd see these now. this is almost like watching new B5 episodes! I don't remember much of what's coming, so no spoilers, please!

I watch the show on bluray with my son who's at my place every other week, one episode per day, but usually not on the day he arrives. So I should be done with these thoughts by mid November at the latest. I post my comments after each disc.

E06 Strange Relations: This episode has the bits that I've thought of when I feared that I'd hate season 5. I think someone dropped the ball on how to depict the rogue telepath scenes. From the mouths of everyone else, we hear warnings about the issue, but there's not even a single ominous note on the soundtrack. B5 is really good at evoking slight unease or maintaining tension between conflicting emotions, but this is just the worst kind of sentimental schlock. I try to look past it to see the story. It's not like none of the other seasons didn't have embarrassingly bad stuff here and there. Luckily, the rest of the episode is great and it's true to its title. Tracy Scoggins goes all out. I don't even mind the past marriage with Sheridan because it's portrayed so convincingly and makes a lot of sense. Oh yeah, and fuck that earworm.

E07 Secrets of the Soul: Both good and bad. The telepathic aesthetics started to really irk me, what with all the great hair and everyone just smiling so very happily. The fact that barely any of them have any dialogue just makes it more cringy. But the story took some interesting turns. I like the growing conflict between Zack and Lyta and the unease everyone feels toward the telepaths. I like how the telepath movement started to feel like many real movements based striving some sort of ethics: there's an outer striving towards perfection and friendliness and being "the good telepath", but underneath that veneer is a pile of resentment. In current lingo, "good vibes only" leads to something where there's no healthy way to deal with negativity. And honestly, the ending reveal of Vorlons that came about during sex was BRILLIANT. Sex between teeps was described as early as S01E06, but no one said anything about what it would like among a community of them! So many ideas from here and there along the show came together in one moment where annoyingly cheesy turned into brilliantly creepy. The Franklin storyline wasn't too bad, either, and it tied in thematically with the A plot, since both of the stories dealt with past atrocities where the ones who caused it are no longer here, so someone else must take responsibility for them. So, apart from the cheesy dialogue between Lyta and Byron, I maintain that the story was quite solid. Finally, because I'm a fan of bottle episodes, I appreciated how it didn't have the need to bring in the Capital Letter Main Characters in just for show.

E08 Day of the Dead: Full disclosure: I used to be a Neil Gaiman fanboy. I had the script for this episode in print and when he visited Finland, I got it signed. At the same convention, he read excerpts of his upcoming book and had the audacity to make an auditorium full of girls giggle and swoon. I grew envious and my fanboy phase died out soon. I'm not proud of that and I've been meaning to give his works another chance (Coraline is fine). So, how do I feel about this episode now? I wanted to approach it with an open mind, since on this rewatch, I've enjoyed many non-JMS episodes so much more than ever before. Sadly, it was not the case here. It just screams "HAS B5 FINALLY JUMPED THE SHARK?". The dead coming back to life and a part of the station transporting 27 light years and the writer offering non-explanations through clumsy exposition? It would fit TNG better than it does B5. I think I'd have liked it more as a story if part of the station had not gone missing and instead we'd had the characters weird out on the Brakiri candy combined with some weird mystic celebrations. And finally, the directing of this episode was cheap and formulaic. The director with his many closeups made it feel like regular 90s tv more than the bolder, more dynamic B5. A lackluster performance all around and the worst episode in a long, long while.

E09 In the Kingdom of the Blind: Ah, the duality of David Eagle. Sometimes his direction is brilliant. Sometimes he's cheesy and clumsy. In this episodes, he alternates. The Centauri plot is intense, superbly acted, both funny and upsettling in the best of Centauri ways. The telepath plot that's now beginning to combust suffered from embarrassingly awkward reaction shots, especially Byron burying his face in his hands; and the violent-prone telepath's acting left much to be desired, too. I feel quite torn after this one. Even JMS sometimes resorts to ludicrously bad expository dialogue ("I wonder what's happening to our ships", or whatever it was that Londo said; to be fair, this has happened in other seasons, too. Remember Ivanova talking out loud when she was ready to blow Bester out of the sk... space?). But then there's Damian London! And he's just the best of the great Centauri cast. I think I quit my previous rewatch MANY years ago after this episode and I can kinda see why. The unevenness is pretty frustrating. Also, have I missed something because I can't really follow Sheridan's reasoning behind his decisions regarding the telepaths? And finally, I've always liked the telepath plots along the show's run. Only now do I realize how unregistered telepaths basically fell off the radar after Race Through Dark Places before resurfacing here. (Addition: I read that Robin Atkin Downes was out of it because of flu meds and that he was ashamed of his performance.)

E10 A Tragedy of Telepaths: It was okay. Londo, G'Kar, and Na'Toth were great, as expected, but Londo's speech about how things happen in a monarchy got a little long-winded. JMS has his mannerisms and it's like he had no time to polish the script. Byron, on the other hand, was better than in the previous episode, because he even had facial expressions (see above note about his meds). I liked Lochley: even though her character didn't get too much to work with, she made a decision that no other character in the show would have made, and Scoggins again brought a get-shit-done attitude. It's hard to believe she's been with us for such a short while. Sheridan and Delenn feel sidelined; it irks me, which is ironic, because just three episodes ago I was happy they weren't around.

E11 Phoenix Rising: Great episode, no reservations. Walter Koenig killed it and the tension was superb from start to finish. Wonderful performances from everyone except maybe the baddie teeps. This is the sort of soundscape that I wish Franke had created earlier for the telepaths. I really liked Byron now, to my great surprise. His character makes sense now, although I'm afraid that even upon a rewatch, his reasonings and traumas wouldn't really play enough into his behaviour and dialogue earlier in the season. However, he got a powerful send-off and it's great when a story ends well. In an ideal world, I'd like to have seen rogue telepaths more between S2 and S5, and have a meaningful character or two in addition to Byron in S5.

Overall, unlike some other shows that are accused of dropping the ball in the later seasons, B5 builds on what came before and follows loose threads. It's a proper denouement and I genuinely love this slower pace that still seems to be building towards something big. And E11 was intense as heck and qualifies as big. While I wasn't altogether happy with the downs of the episodes on this disc and I'm not going to pretend it's perfect, I still don't see any significant drop in quality compared to the other seasons. All of them had their stinkers, too, but granted, none of them had a central arc for half a season that dipped this badly. Despite their shortcomings, I'd rank many of these individual episodes above many season 2, 3, and 4 episodes, let alone season 1.

Final note: now that I don't need to watch that title sequence every time, I think that alone puts me in a better mood to appreciate this season. I watched the opening again because I heard they revised it a bit, but it still stinks like a Pakmara's breath. It's absolutely the worst thing about this entire season thus far.

More in two weeks!

I am rewatching B5 and noticing that Lennier seemed to be very fond and friendly of Sheridan at the beginning. I wonder why is that, he already knew Sheridan and Delenn should be together, and already seemed to develop a crash on Delenn. For me it seems very strange. Any ideas?

"I picked Babylon for the station, because a lot of what happens in the Babylon 5 story comes out of Babylonian creation myth, which says that the universe was born out of the conflict between order and chaos."

JMS explained that Babylon 5's shadow war narrative was based on an ancient Babylonian myth, he was most likely referring to the story, Enuma Elis. In this story, the primordial goddess of the sea Tiamat, who represents chaos, wages war against the younger gods. But Marduk, god of the sun, unites the younger gods against Tiamat, slaying her.

In Babylon 5, the younger races of galaxy, humanity among them, is caught in a war between two ancient forces: the awakened Shadows of Z'ha'dum and their ancient rival the Vorlon Empire. The Army of Light, led by humans and Minbari, oppose both ancient giants by building an alliance with the other younger races.

Here are some parallels:

• Billions of years ago, ancient races walked amongst the stars like gods, keeping stewardship over the galaxy, guided the younger races, and warred with one another. Babylon 5's shadow war story depicts two ancient alien races engaged in an old rivalry that began eons ago, wielding advanced technology seemingly god-like in power and holding an extreme dogmatic focus on opposing ideologies. In resemblance to the myth, the Vorlons (representing Marduk) led many of the younger races against the shadows during the First Shadow War, driving back the forces of chaos and threw the Shadows back.
• Just like the Tiamat, who created hideous monsters to be used against her foes in her war, the Shadows with their mastery in genetic engineering, modified certain individuals and even entire races to be subservient to them, using them as pawns in their ancient war.
• In the myth, Marduk and Enki executes the gods who took Tiamat's side during the war, which parallels the way Vorlons would destroy entire worlds that have fallen to Shadow influence.
• Marduk then creates humans from the blood of his fallen enemies and have them to serve the gods and help maintain order. Similarly, the Vorlons modified select individuals among the younger races to have telepathic abilities and used them to fight against the Shadows.

If Londo refused to asked Morden to send Shadow ships to defend the Centauri supply system and Refa had to use their own forces instead, could the Narn have destroyed the supply outpost? Or would they simply fail with many lost ships, but enough to turn their tails back to Narn homeworld to defend it?