Babylon 5/Recap

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Babylon 5 was a science fiction television series, created (and written almost in its entirety) by J. Michael Straczynski and produced by Warner Bros. It ran from 1993 to 1998, airing first on PTEN and later on TNT. It was followed by a series of TV movies, a spinoff series, a pilot for a second spinoff and a direct-to-DVD special.

Season 1: Signs and Portents
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens, wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
—Commander Jeffrey Sinclair gives the opening narration of season 1
  1. Midnight on the Firing Line
  2. Soul Hunter
  3. Born to the Purple
  4. Infection
  5. The Parliament of Dreams
  6. Mind War
  7. The War Prayer
  8. And the Sky, Full of Stars
  9. Deathwalker
  10. Believers
  11. Survivors
  12. By Any Means Necessary
  13. Signs and Portents
  14. TKO
  15. Grail
  16. Eyes
  17. Legacies
  18. A Voice in the Wilderness
  19. A Voice in the Wilderness, part 2
  20. Babylon Squared
  21. The Quality of Mercy
  22. Chrysalis


Season 2: The Coming of Shadows
The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens. A shining beacon in space, all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind… the year the Great War came upon us all. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2259. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
—Captain John Sheridan gives the opening narration for season 2.
  1. Points of Departure
  2. Revelations
  3. The Geometry of Shadows
  4. A Distant Star
  5. The Long Dark
  6. Spider in the Web
  7. Soul Mates
  8. A Race Through Dark Places
  9. The Coming of Shadows
  10. GROPOS
  11. All Alone in the Night
  12. Acts of Sacrifice
  13. Hunter, Prey
  14. There All The Honor Lies
  15. And Now for a Word
  16. In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
  17. Knives
  18. Confessions and Lamentations
  19. Divided Loyalties
  20. The Long, Twilight Struggle
  21. Comes the Inquisitor
  22. The Fall of Night


Season 3: Point of No Return
The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the Year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope… for victory. The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5.
—Commander Susan Ivanova gives the opening narration for season 3.
  1. Matters of Honor
  2. Convictions
  3. A Day in the Strife
  4. Passing Through Gethsemane
  5. Voices of Authority
  6. Dust to Dust
  7. Exogenesis
  8. Messages from Earth
  9. Point of No Return
  10. Severed Dreams
  11. Ceremonies of Light and Dark
  12. Sic Transit Vir
  13. A Late Delivery from Avalon
  14. Ship of Tears
  15. Interludes and Examinations
  16. War Without End
  17. War Without End, part 2
  18. Walkabout
  19. Grey 17 is Missing
  20. And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
  21. Shadow Dancing
  22. Z'ha'dum


Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat
It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed. The year is 2261. The place: Babylon 5.
—Lennier, Allan, G'Kar, Lyta, Vir, Marcus, Delenn, Londo, Franklin, Ivanova, Garibaldi and Sheridan all chip in on the opening narration for season 4.
  1. The Hour of the Wolf
  2. Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
  3. The Summoning
  4. Falling to Apotheosis
  5. The Long Night
  6. Into the Fire
  7. Epiphanies
  8. The Illusion of Truth
  9. Atonement
  10. Racing Mars
  11. Lines of Communication
  12. Conflicts of Interest
  13. Rumors, Bargains and Lies
  14. Moments of Transition
  15. No Surrender, No Retreat
  16. The Exercise of Vital Powers
  17. The Face of the Enemy
  18. Intersections in Real Time
  19. Between the Darkness and the Light
  20. Endgame
  21. Rising Star
  22. The Deconstruction of Falling Stars


Season 5: The Wheel of Fire
And so it begins... ..there is a hole in your mind... What do you want? ...no one here is exactly what he appears... ...nothing's the same anymore... Commander Sinclair is being reassigned... ...why don't you eliminate the entire Narn homeworld while you're at it? ...I see a great hand, reaching out of the stars... Who are you? ...President Clark has signed a decree today declaring martial law... ...these orders have forced us to declare independence! ...weapons supplies... ...unless your people get off your encounter-suited butts and do something! ...you are the One who was... ...if you go to Z'ha'dum, you will die.... Why are you here? Do you have anything worth living for? ...I think of my beautiful city in flames... ...like giants in the playground... ...NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR GALAXY! ...we are here to place President Clark under arrest.
—Clips from previous episodes make up the opening narration of season 5.
  1. No Compromises
  2. The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari
  3. The Paragon of Animals
  4. A View from the Gallery
  5. Learning Curve
  6. Strange Relations
  7. Secrets of the Soul
  8. Day of the Dead
  9. In the Kingdom of the Blind
  10. A Tragedy of Telepaths
  11. Phoenix Rising
  12. The Ragged Edge
  13. The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father
  14. Meditations on the Abyss
  15. Darkness Ascending
  16. And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
  17. Movements of Fire and Shadow
  18. The Fall of Centauri Prime
  19. The Wheel of Fire
  20. Objects in Motion
  21. Objects at Rest
  22. Sleeping in Light


The Films
I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in the station, when it is quiet, and just listen. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we ever exchanged. Long after we're gone, our voices will linger in these walls...
—G'Kar's words from "Objects in Motion" are the opening narration for The Lost Tales.

Crusade

Galen: Who are you?
Gideon: Matthew Gideon, Captain. Attached to the Earth Alliance starship Excalibur.
Galen: What do you want?
Gideon: To find a cure for the Drakh plague before it wipes out all life on Earth.
Galen: Where are you going?
Gideon: Anywhere I have to.

Galen: Who do you serve, and who do you trust?
—Gideon and Galen give the opening narration and set up the entire series.
  1. War Zone
  2. The Long Road
  3. The Well of Forever
  4. The Path of Sorrows
  5. Patterns of the Soul
  6. Ruling from the Tomb
  7. The Rules of the Game
  8. Appearances and Other Deceits
  9. Racing the Night
  10. The Memory of War
  11. The Needs of Earth
  12. Visitors from Down the Street
  13. Each Night I Dream of Home
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