Four years into BABYLON 5, JMS took a mulligan with a brand new prequel movie that served as a pilot for the series’s relaunch on the TNT network! Is it a better beginning to B5 than the original pilot, “The Gathering”? Does it strain credibility to have our cast of characters interacting during the Earth-Minbari War, portrayed by actors who are not actually ten years younger? And why do we call it the Earth-Minbari war instead of the Human-Minbari war or the Earth-Minbar war? And why is Chip only now asking that question? Luckily we don’t distract our recurring guest Steven Schapansky with those last questions!
Put yourself in the mindset of someone who happened to turn on TNT on basic cable in the States on January 4, 1998, and saw Babylon 5 for the first time. Would this have grabbed you? Would it have spoiled too much from Seasons 1-4? How about that buzzcut on Sheridan?
There may not be all that much to talk about in the spoiler thread for this prequel–the project began when there was even doubt there would be a fifth season–but if you see some things that resonate with future stories, this is the place.
It’s a season finale, and it’s entirely cuckoo bananapants! We look into the distant future of the B5 universe along with our traditional season-ending appearance by our beloved Control Group, Steven Schapansky. Plot points are seeded for Season 5, soapboxes are climbed upon, and (spoiler alert) one of your four humble correspondents absolutely hated this episode. Find out who and why, and how horrified the other three were, as we pour one out for the Prime Time Entertainment Network.
We get a series of glimpses into the future of the “Babylon 5” universe in this episode, technically the second of four finales. You can talk about how well it stuck its landing for you here, but avoid the details from Season 5!
Okay, so now everyone knows there’s going to be a telepath war. And everyone knows that Sheridan and Delenn’s new coalition started something that worked for a very, very VERY long time, but had growing pains.
But the devil is in the details. Here is where you can hang out with the devil.
Boy howdy, does this feel like the last episode of the entire series! Where could B5 possibly go from here? (We’ll talk about that in spoiler space, of course.) Jason Snell was actually at the studio when they were editing “Rising Star,” so he joins us for a peek behind the scenes!
Sheridan and his forces have succeeded in freeing Earth and its territories from Clark’s totalitarian government. But no good deed goes unpunished, as now the new interim government has to figure out what to do with him. And there’s also this issue of a new alliance of worlds.
