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Production:
USA, 1993-99 Cast: Michael O’Hare, Claudia Christian, Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Andrea Thompson, Peter Jurasik, Andreas Katsulas, Mira Furlan, Stephen Furst, Richard Biggs, Bill Mumy. Some sort of science-fiction soap opera. All television serials have a continuity, but here it is very extremely handled: although each episode is self-conclusive and can make sense by its own, the entire serie is a unique story during a five years time (equal to five seasons). |
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The year is 2258. Earth has just ended a long war against an alien race,
the Minbaris. Moreover, the war was fired by a misunderstanding between
two too wary commanders (from both parts) which had caused the death of an
high religious Minbari personality. Minbaris had begun an holy war which forced earthmen to run back to their planet, but once they had reached Earth Minbaris... surrended, for mysterious reasons. In order to keep peace the Babylon project was born: a space station to be used as a neutral place where humans and aliens could have diplomatic meetings. But soon something started to go wrong, and the first three Babylon |
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stations were blown up by sabotages, while the
fourth had simply vanished. Humans had got frustrated, but alien governments insisted for a fifth station... and so Babylon 5 was born. The situation proves soon to be very difficult. Because in the war aftermath, with a very frail peace, several alien races (together with humans) are acting, and not very smoothly. Minbaris are an ancient race with high acknowledgement and mystic powers. They have a very superior technology and had defeated humans very easily, but they inexplicably surrended when they could exterminate all Earth population. Centauri are a powerful fallen race: as ancient Romas did, they have fallen to pleasure and depravity, but some of them want to rise again to the ancient glory, at |
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any cost... Narns are a wary and proud race, which was submitted for centuries by Centauri, and some of them now are wishing for revenge against their ancient dominators. Vorlons are a mysterious and very unknown race: all the ships which entered their space never came back, neither their appearence is known because they wear special clothes which hide them totally. Anyway a very powerful race which dosn’t want to be identified by anyone. But the most disturbing are the “shadows”: neither their existence is certain, and obviously they have no ambassadors on Babylon 5. They are believed to be a very powerful race, whose appearence and purposes are even more mysterious than the Vorlons’. But one day on the station arrives Morden , a human who claims to be a |
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Shadow’s emissary... In this complex situation there are the humans. As other races did, humans developed telepathic powers. To handle these powers and people who possess them an organisation called “Psi-corp” has been created. After being defeated by Minbaris, many earthmen dislike aliens, and the Psi-corp has accurate plans developed in perfect autonomy... After this long and complicate premise, we can go to see the characters... All the characters are very complex people, they are all very doubtful, and no one of them is properly a total “friend” or “enemy”. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) survived the war against Minbaris. He’s the human emissary on Babylon 5, and as a former soldier he is |
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not comfortable as a diplomatic. He would know why Minbaris surrended, but
unfortunately he has a lack of memory of 24 hours... From second season commander Sinclair becomes ambassador on Minbaris’ planet, and at his place there is Commander John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner). Former war hero, he made possible the only human victory agains Minbaris, and so he’s hated by the Minbaris warriors. He’s trying to recover from the loss of his wife, deceased during an archaeological research on an alien planet. He had worked in the past with Lt. Commander Ivanova. Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) is russian, and is very distrusting about Psi-corp, which in the past caused her mother’s suicide. Security chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) had alcohol problems in the past, |
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and Sinclair wanted him in that place, for they were together in the army.
Not very diplomatic, he is a very troubled person, although he tries to
hide this. Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson) is a level-5 psi-rating telepath and, obviously, member of Psi-corp. She sells her telepathic services to businessmen, and occasionally assists Sinclair in negotiations. Doctor Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs) is a specialist in xenobiology, the study of alien races. He travelled in space for a long time to study new races, and his high sense of duty and his moral integrity don’t always help him to confront so many patients and so different for their organism and culture. Ambassador Londo Mollari represents the Centauri. Despite his rank on his homeworld, on Babylon 5 he’s regarded as a secondary importance person. A war |
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hero in his youth, he likes very much alcohol and is very friend of
Garibaldi, the only who can understand him. Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) represents the Minbari. Member of the religious caste, she poses to have a rank lower than her real one. She is fascinated by humans and tries to learn all about them, and seems to distrust Sinclair. Ambassador G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) represents the Narn. Fierce and arrogant, he does his best to gain advantages for his race and get revenge against the Centauri, Londo included. Ambassador Kosh Naranek represents the Vorlons. This character has been made with an electronic puppet which talks with musical sounds (which are converted by an instant translator), so no actors are credited for this part... |
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Nobody knows what he is doing on Babylon 5, and his answers are always
very short and cryptical. His instant translator is dubbed by Ardwight
Chamberlain. A recurring character is Alfred Bester (Walter Koenig, Ensign Chekov from “Star Trek”). A Psi-corp agent, he is a telepath with a level-12 psi-rating (the maximum), and is charged to find and eliminate fugitive and rebel telepaths... There’s also a cameo of Robert Englund, the famous Freddie Krueger from the “Nightmare” movies and alien Willie from “Visitors”. The Babylon 5 universe is further expanded by several books and novels. Many people noticed several similarities between Babylon 5 and “Star Trek: Deep Space 9”, which seems to have been inspired by this serie. Not only |
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produced in the same years, but also “DS9” talks about a space station
orbiting around a planet where a long time war is just ended, “DS9” is too
a neutral place for alien races to meet, again there is a captain troubled
by his wife’s death... and the list could be very longer. 110 episodes, color, 60' Pilot episode: The gathering (TV movie) First Season: Signs and Portents |
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01) Midnight on the firing line 02) Soul Hunter 03) Born to the purple 04) Infection 05) The parliament of dreams 06) Mind War 07) The war prayer 08) And the sky full of stars 09) Deathwalker 10) Believers 11) Survivors |
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12) By any means necessary 13) Signs and portents 14) TKO 15) Grail 16) Eyes 17) Legacies 18) A voice in the wilderness - part 1 19) A voice in the wilderness - part 2 20) Babylon Squared 21) The quality of mercy 22) Chrysalis |
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31) The Coming of Shadows |
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42) The Long, Twilight Struggle |
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50) Dust to dust |
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61) War without end - part 2 62) Walkabout 63)Grey 17 is missing 64) And the rock cried out, no hiding place 65) Shadow Dancing 66) Z'Ha'Dum Fourth Season: No Surrender, No Retreat 67) The Hour of the Wolf 68) Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? |
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69) The Summoning |
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80) Moments of Transition 81) No Surrender, No Retreat 82) The Exercise of Vital Powers 83) The Face of the Enemy 84) Intersections in Real Time 85) Between the Darkness and the Light 86) Endgame 87) Rising Star 88) The Deconstruction of Falling Stars In The Beginning (TV movie) |
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97) A Tragedy of Telepaths (La tragedia dei telepati) |
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The Legend of the Rangers (TV movie, pilot for a
never made serie). |
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