In this final episode of the Babylon Project Podcast, we discussed the second three of six short stories from the Babylon 5 universe:  “Hidden Agendas”; “True Seeker”; and “The Nautilus Coil”.  As with the previous episode, this one was particularly special because we were joined by our Producer, Troy Rutter to help us wrap things up.

First, we discussed “Hidden Agendas”.  Written by J. Michael Straczynski, it was published in the official Babylon 5 Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 22 (in May 2000).  The story takes place on 21-22 January 2262, very shortly after Captain Lockley assumes command of B5 and just a few days after Byron arrives on the station.  As a reminder, during Episode 4 (“Rising Star”) in Season 5, Susan Ivanova’s absence from the series was explained by stating she was given command of one of the first Warlock class destroyers.  This story builds on that.

Susan Ivanova, in command of EAS Titans, arrives at Babylon 5 with this new Warlock class destroyer to meet with President Sheridan.  She’s there to quietly ask for help to determine if there might be dormant Shadow technology integrated into her ship.  After more traditional searches turn up nothing, Sheridan (with a part of Kosh inside of him) is able to board and take Ulkesh’s ship and use it to determine there is in fact Shadow technology onboard, at which point he permanently deactivates the technology.  This secretly leaves the fleet with at least one new Warlock class destroyer that isn’t able to be influenced by the Shadows.

Your hosts all agreed the story was worth a thumbs-up from each.

Next, we reviewed “True Seeker”, written by Fiona Avery.  

Occurring in 2269, this story happens just two years after the series Crusade ends.  It was published in B5 Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 23 (in July 2000), two months after Hidden Agendas.  Alisa Beldon, the main character in this story, was also a character in the original B5 series, Season 1, Episode 17 (Legacies).  She was a P10 telepath that Talia Winters tired to recruit into the Psi Corps while Susan Ivanova was working to prevent it.  Delenn steps in and offers her the opportunity to go to Minbar and train to become a True Seeker.

Alisa finds Jerrica Thomas, a Narn girl living on Earth after being evacuated from her home during the Narn-Centauri War.  Alisa vows to help Jerrica find her true heritage and takes her to Na’Toth to keep safe while she seeks Jerrica’s birth records.  She discovers Jerrica was actually named G’Ryka and is the daughter of G’Kar!  While there, G’Kar returns to Narn after an extended absence to resolve a dispute about who should fill his long-vacant seat in the First Circle of the Kia’Ri.  With Jerrica (G’Ryka) present, G’Kar endorses and insists that his daughter take his seat, then departs to continue his journey.

Your hosts were split on this story.  Jim and JP gave it a thumbs-up, while Raul and Troy gave it a thumbs-down.

“The Nautilus Coil” was the third and final story we reviewed.  Written by Gregory Keyes, the events in this story occurred in 2265, in between the end of the original B5 series and the start of Crusade.  This was the same year the movie “Legend of the Rangers” took place in.  This story also appeared in the B5 Magazine, in Volume 2, Issue 24 (in August 2000).

Lyta Alexander calls Michael Garibaldi to her base on Ganymede to share a secret she’s found.  As you’ll recall, these two characters aren’t exactly friends.  They don’t trust each other but maintain what could be described as a cool-but-correct relationship over the years.  Michael wants Lyta to remove the block Mr. Bester put on him so many years ago, preventing him from taking revenge on Bester.  In exchange for his help, she agrees to remove the block.

The secret Lyta reveals to Michael is a secret archive under the ice that reveals the location of a planet in Vorlon space where the telepaths were created/invented.  Their goal:  find that secret before the Psi Cops do.  They fly to the planet and find a lake with its beaches covered in the scattered of humans and other species.  They meet a very old Keven Vacit (from the Psi Corps Trilogy) who came to the planet and was preserved by the Vorlons over many years.  He explains how the telepaths were created, and explains that the skeletons are the remains of those who the Vorlons attempted to make telepaths, but didn’t work.  They were killed so as not to allow them to fall into the Shadow’s hands.  He also reveals that he knew the Shadows were coming and was there to attempt to enhance his own abilities to ensure Psi Corps was ready to aid in the fight.  In the end, Vacit explains Psi Corps is still growing and expanding, much like the growing and expanding coils of the Nautilus.  The story ends when he flies Lyta and Michael to Mars.

Your hosts gave this story four thumbs-up, ending our readings of the B5 short stories on a positive note.

As we wrap the Babylon Project Podcast up, we’d like to share an interesting stat with you.  It all began when Jim and Raul hijacked an episode of the SciFi Diner Podcast many years ago to talk about B5.  From there the Babylon Project Podcast was born.  We set out in an attempt to cover every episode of the original five-season series, the follow-on series Crusade, five B5 movies, nine stand-alone novels, the nine novels that made up three trilogies, six short stories covered in two special episodes, giving us 148 episodes of heartfelt conversations about a series we truly love.  Whether you joined us for one, all 148, or some number in between, we’re thankful we may have been able to add some interesting and useful commentary to your own B5 experience.

Make sure you listen to the very end for some funny moments over the last 8 years.

Keep an ear open!  Even though the Babylon Project Podcast is complete, we’re beginning a new endeavor, covering a piece of the Sci-Fi world that to our knowledge has never been covered before!  We genuinely hope you’ll join us.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

In this penultimate episode of the Babylon Project Podcast, we discussed three of six short stories from the Babylon 5 universe:  “The Shadow of His Thoughts”; “Genius Loci”; and “Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic.”  All three were written by J. Michael Straczynski.  The episode was particularly special because we were joined by our Producer, Troy Rutter!

“The Shadow of His Thoughts” was published in Amazing Stories Magazine, #597.  The events in August 2262, six days after Londo’s coronation as Emperor, placing the story during Season 5 of the original series.  London suffers from a recurring nightmare in which he’s forced to kill a helpless animal called a Chakat, and the story picks up after he awakens on the seventh day.  One of Londo’s first duties is to install a new Prophetess.  He departs the palace in a highly-ornamented carriage and meets with the young girl who is the Prophetess to be.  During Londo’s conversation with her, he learns she’s a true seer, when she tells Londo of what will be his final (in every meaning of the word) encounter with G’Kar.  This alarms Londo’s Keeper, seeing a risk to its future plans, and it orders Londo to kill the girl.  Londo disobeys and instead pulls enough jewels from the carriage to give to the young girl to carry her and her family for the rest of their lives.  He grants her freedom and to protect her, banishes her.  He installs the girl’s governess (power-hungry, not an actual prophetess and therefore no threat to the Keeper’s mission) as Prophetess, saving the young girl’s life and the satisfying the Keeper.  Later, Londo finds a note from the young girl thanking him for her freedom.  When Londo has his dream again, he frees the Chakat rather than killing it.  He never has the dream again.

All four of us gave this story a “thumbs-up”.

Next we dove into “Genius Loci”, published in Amazing Stories #599.  Events in this story take place approximately six weeks after G’Kar and Lyta Alexander depart Babylon 5 on G’Kar’s self-imposed exile.

While making a transit through hyperspace, they encounter a Psi Corps ship adrift, with only one life form on board—a dying Psi Cop.  He tells them the rest of the crew was left on a planet that scared him badly.  Lyta accesses the ship’s systems and determines the location of the planet.

Once on the planet, they separate and each of them discovers a colony.  Interestingly (or perhaps oddly) G’Kar finds a colony of Barn while Lyta finds a colony of telepaths.  G’Kar and Lyta both quickly learn things aren’t what they appear to be.  In particular, the telepaths all have the same mental patterns, suggesting they’re all one person.  Shortly thereafter, they discover the planet is actually a hive-minded telesymbiotic biomass, and has been showing both our travelers what it believed they wanted to see, probably in an attempt to keep them there.  Lyta uses her Vorlon-enhanced abilities to destroy the malevolent being, and they go on their way.

We had a split vote on this story.  Jim, Troy and JP were neutral, and Raul gave it a thumbs-up.

The final story of the episode was “Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic”, also published in Amazing Stories #602.  

The final story for this episode was published in Amazing Stories #602 and occurs, approximately 300 years after Marcus Cole’s death (which we saw in Season 4 of the original series.

Marcus has been in cryo-sleep since his death, put there by Susan Ivanova in her meager hope that someday his life could be restored after he gave it to save her.  When he learns what happened, he decides he must resurrect Susan, no matter the cost.  Finding an archive that captured a volume of Susan’s memories on data crystals, he obtains them and brings them to a “doctor” who is willing to create a clone of Susan and restore the memories.  To pass the time between the creation of the clone and its growth to the age at which Susan died, he puts himself back to sleep for 32 years.

He awakens, takes possession of the clone and brings her to an idyllic place where they can finally “live” in peace together.

The four of us reacted badly to this story, giving four thumbs-down, feeling it tarnished (if not ruined) the character of Marcus as we knew him.

Please join us next time for what will be the final episode of the Babylon Project Podcast,when we discuss three more short stories from the B5 universe.  As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Invoking Darkness was written by Jeanne Cavelos.  The story takes place starting in August 2260 through 2261, covering just five months.  As we discuss the third and final novel in the trilogy, it’s worth noting that the overarching story is tragic, alluded to by the collective title “Passing of the Technomages”.  It’s noteworthy as well that the second novel’s title was somewhat optimistic (Summoning Light), but the story concludes with Invoking Darkness, an apparent downward turn.  A good bit of this book makes direct ties into the story captured in episodes of the original Babylon 5 series.  If you’ve seen the show, you’ll recognize them; if you haven’t, then when you watch the show, we trust you’ll be excited to see the hooks that were put in place then, for the events that JMS envisioned Jeanne Cavelos would capture in this set of books.

War is underway and the Shadows appear poised to win.  Tied to the television show, John Sheridan appears convinced by a Shadow controlled version of his former wife (Anna) to travel to Z’ha’dum as the Shadows try to win him over to their side.  This would eliminate the problem that he is to them…the “nexus”…as he is also the vessel containing what remains of the Vorlon Kosh.  At the same time, Galen is assigned to depart the Technomage’s place of hiding, locate and kill three rogue members of the Technomage order.  It is during and through this assignment, he ends up on Z’ha’dum while John Sheridan is there, and uses his powers in an attempt to tip the balance of the war.  While chartered to kill the rogue members of the order, engaging in direct conflict with the Shadows, and especially on their homeworld, runs directly in conflict with the decision the Circle made to go into hiding.  Without permission, Galen risks it all…for everyone.  Storylines interweave quite a bit and we see just how events unfold to ultimately bring about the passing of the Technomages.  Don’t make assumptions about what that ending for the Order looks like.  The novel is definitely worth reading to see just what that looks like!

Our ratings were a 4.5, 4.5 and 4 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.33!

While Invoking Darkness was the final novel in the B5 universe, we do have two more episodes of content for you.  There were also six short stories, most of them penned by JMS himself.  We intend to cover them in the order they were published, beginning with the first three in the next episode:  “Shadow of His Thought; “Genius Loci”; and “Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic”.

Please join us next time for what will be the penultimate episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.  As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Picking up right where Casting Shadows left off, Summoning Light chronicles Galen’s assignment immediately after becoming a Technomage, focusing on the order’s assessments and preparations for the coming Shadow War.  Driving the storyline here:  the Technomages know their order is a risk of extermination and wrestle with whether to stand and fight (and just how to do that), or to go into hiding and save the order for another day, hopefully in a post-Shadow War universe where they’d be able to operate and remain true to the purpose of their order.  The information that drives the ultimate decision, and the most exciting wrinkle revealed in the book:  the technology the Technomages rely upon is of Shadow origins!  This creates a number of problems.  Morally/ethically, the order seems to stand against everything the Shadows stand for.  Practically, can the Shadows essentially hijack the Mages’ tech and use them for evil.  Related, and finally, with this fact now in the open, can the Mages truly ally with the rest of the universe, operate freely, and even potentially count on working with the Vorlons (the bitter enemies of the Shadows)?  

The biggest problem this knowledge creates is a schism among members of the order itself.  Many, especially Galen, are more than offended by the members of the Circle, who have known of the origins of their tech and kept it secret.  All this while leading an order that explicitly doesn’t keep secrets from itself.  Confidence and trust in what is viewed as betrayal leads to uncertainty and some amount of chaos.  When the Circle decides the order to go into hiding, some disagree and would rather fight the Shadows, consistent with the Order’s purpose.  The Technomages can’t trust their leadership, and to add fuel to the fire, members are actively being engaged and manipulated by the Shadows.  If they won’t come to heel, they will destroy them.  Through the several months covered by the story, we see Galen maturing as a man and as a Technomage, growing in his understanding and use of the unique power he has (and boy is he powerful!), and he begins to realize his unique place and role in the upcoming war.
One of the major storylines in this book is just how the Technomages orchestrate their movement into hiding.  Parts of how this was done were captured in the original Babylon 5 series, Season 2, Episode 3 (Geometry of Shadows).  Jeanne Cavelos does a great job of expanding on the little bit we saw, and explaining the Babylon 5 station’s role in the deceit the Mages created to allow themselves to hide the members of the Order.

Summoning Light was written by Jeanne Cavelos.  The story takes place immediately following the last book, beginning in January 2259 and covering only a few months.  It definitely bridges the gap between the first and third novels in the series, and serves very well to set up the events in the final book, and the final chapter in the story is this aptly-named trilogy “The Passing of the Technomages”.

Our ratings were a 4.5, 5 and 4 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.5!

Join us next time for the third and final book in the trilogy:  Invoking Darkness.  As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

With Casting Shadows, we see a solid start to the third and final trilogy of books written in the Babylon 5 universe.  As with the other trilogies, this set of books is considered canon and was based on an outline provided by JMS.  As you’ll recall, the Psi Corps trilogy was really Bester’s story; the Technomage Trilogy is Galen’s.  Those familiar with the B5 universe will remember Galen as a quirky Technomage that always seemed to appear when he wasn’t necessarily wanted, and never seemed to show up when people felt he was needed.  Now we learn Galen’s story.

In Casting Shadows, we meet a very young Galen on planet Soom, young, idealistic and immature, and a Technomage in training.  We learn of the disciplined life of those selected to train and become Technomages, the significant duration of that training, and a little bit about how their powers work.  Clearly tied to some amazing technology (of mysterious origin), the young apprentices learn to use the tech through a surrogate of the real thing, and “cast spells”.  The spells they invoke are actually only spells in appearance. In reality, they use the technology they’re tied to, to manipulate what’s around them— and so the “mage” part of the order’s name.

Galen graduates and becomes a full Technomage, but not without issues.  He demonstrates abilities that cause some concern among the members of The Circle—the governing body of the order.  Throughout Galen’s training, and especially during his testing, he demonstrates a level of power beyond what is normal for those of the order, significant enough that many are concerned Galen can’t control the power he’s able to generate.

Galen also has a young love, Isabelle.  She’s a bit more level-headed than he is, powerful on par with Galen, and an ideal complement to him.  Galen loses her when she loses her life, she charges him with a perspective on life that isn’t natural to him, and this perspective sticks with him forever.  This also appears in the TV series Crusade as he wrestles with his lost love.  His emotions, his moodiness, his idealism, tied to what could be an uncontrollable power mentioned above result in the Circle keeping Galen on a tight leash.

Running alongside all this, the Shadows are preparing for war, specifically to gain control of the younger races.  The Vorlons are watching as well, and it’s not clear what their intentions are regarding helping to prevent the Shadows from dominating the known universe.  Will they take a direct role, or not?  It appears not, causing concern among the Technomages, who are working through their own limitations and issues as potentially the only force that can stand between the Shadows and life as we know it.

Casting Shadows was written by Jeanne Cavelos.  The story takes place in the year 2258 and apparently into January of 2259, where the second book will pick up.  It covers a year or less of time.  As with the other trilogies:  this book set the stage well, for what’s to follow.

Our ratings were a 4, 4.5 and 4 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.16!

Join us next time for the second book in the trilogy:  Summoning Light.  As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

The third book of the Legions of Fire trilogy was phenomenal. We don’t know how the conclusion of the story, written in Out of the Darkness, could have been any better. As with the second novel, this one carried the reader into a new set of scenes, and a new set of perspectives as smoothly as a scene change in a great film. It was masterful.

Out of the Darkness was written by Peter David and based on a script written by JMS. Based on dates given in the novel, the story opens in 2275 (within a couple years before the end of the second novel), and carries us into 2278—just a year or so after the second novel ends, and in the last year captured in the movie “In the Beginning”.

The first novel was primarily Londo’s story; the second novel was primarily Vir’s story; and we decided the story in this novel was told in a way to be the interwoven and concluding stories of Londo; Vir; and John and Delenn. Peter David was masterful in how he wove these stories together in this book, focused on the primary characters, but also keeping the necessary cloud of other main/supporting characters in play. He showed equal mastery in how he very tightly wove all three novels in this trilogy together, as well as seamlessly place the events in the trilogy within the canonical narrative of the greater B5 universe.

With Londo’s story, we see the end that we knew was coming. He dies in office, in defiance of the Drakh and their Keeper that lives on (and in) him. He dies at the hands of G’Kar. In this exchange, G’Kar dies as well, at the hands of Londo (and his Keeper). What we didn’t know until now was how these two characters end up killing each other. This was incredible story-telling in that these two have been what amounts to lifelong enemies, colleagues and friends. The telling of the end of the story for Londo and G’Kar is emotional and frankly, respectful.

Regarding Vir’s story, we see all the work come to fruition that he’s done with the resistance, called “The Legions of Fire”, and with his allies the Technomages. He and his forces are postured to expose the secret presence of the Drakh, their full and enslaving control over Emperor Mollari and the Centauri government, and to also heal the wounds between the Republic and the Interstellar Alliance. Vir has truly grown into a powerful and mature political leader and warrior, and in spite of a few significant gaffs, an honorable man. This postures him to lead in the future, and put him on the best possible footing to gain the respect and trust needed to restore the Centauri Republic’s relationship with the IA.

Finally, we see John and Delenn—the two most powerful people in the IA. While this is true throughout the books we’ve read, we really see them here as parents. Their son David is a young man now and we get a good picture of the kind of young man he is. Smart? Sure—just look at his parents. Angsty? Definitely—he’s at that age that teen angst is a real thing. His moodiness and “know it all” attitude is probably exacerbated by just how smart he truly is, and all that he’s seen as the son of John and Delenn. Overall though, we see a sophomoric teenage boy who is striving to leave childhood behind and become a man. But this birthday is significant for a more sinister reason, foreshadowed earlier in the storyline. Emperor Mollari, under the control of his Drakh handler, hides Keeper in an Imperial Urn. During an awkward visit with John and Delenn years prior, he presents the urn to them as a gift to be given to David upon his 16th birthday. That day has come. While David is alone in his room, the Keeper emerges, attaches itself to him, and takes control. The Keeper then has David steal a shuttle and fly to Centauri Prime as an unwitting hostage for Durla to use to control and hopefully kill President Sheridan, as a critical part of the Centauri and Drakh attack the IA and Earth.

The novel concludes when the Legions of Fire brings Durla’s “Tower of Power” (secretly the headquarters and a primary operating base for the Drakh on Centauri Prime) down explosively, literally resulting in a rain of Drakh body parts falling on the streets and people of the capital city. In concert with this, Vir makes it clear to the people of Centauri Prime that the Drakh have been using their government as an instrument to prepare for and now to wage war against the IA. Londo is dead. In an attempt to grab power, Durla is killed as well, and the Drakh are exposed. Vir, already in touch with the IA, and having informed John and Delenn their son is safe, is left to pave the way for a new and friendly relationship with the IA. He does so now, not as an ambassador, but as the new Emperor of the Centauri Republic.

We can’t really do justice to this novel, or really this incredible story told across this trilogy. This set of books is truly the culmination of the entire Babylon 5 story. We can’t think of anyone who could have told that story better for JMS than Peter David.

Our ratings were once again a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5!

But wait, there’s more! With one final trilogy left, we look forward to coloring in some of the details and mystery of the Technomages. This trilogy is called “The Passing of the Technomages” and next time we’ll discuss the first book, called Casting Shadows. This trilogy is written by Jeanne Cavelos, who is a familiar name to us, having contributed to the B5 universe before. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

We rolled right into the second book of the Legions of Fire trilogy: Armies of Light and Dark, and we weren’t disappointed! This book flows seamlessly from the first, with the story shifting from focusing on Londo to putting Vir center stage.

Armies of Light and Dark was written by Peter David and based on a script written by JMS. The story opens in 2267 and carries us into 2277. These dates come directly from references early, and also late in the book.

Vir, the Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, takes center stage as we see his life balancing between being marginalized on the Station by everyone else there (due to the Centauri Republic’s failed moral standing and subsequent war with the Alliance); and a status back on Centauri Prime that almost feels like he’s been deemed Persona Non Grata by his own people. When home, he goes almost unnoticed. When he’s noticed by most in power (except for Londo) the attitude toward him seems to be annoyance. Consistent with what we already know about the Drakh control of the Republic, we clearly see Vir’s been cast aside to serve on Babylon 5 to keep him out of the way, while the truly powerful (under Drakh control) rebuild the Republic’s cities openly, and the military (secretly), to wage war once again.

We watch Vir grow up…maturing personally and professionally. He’s changing from the naive aide to the previous ambassador, into a mature and very politically savvy politician and strategist. This matters because of what he learns, and as a result, the action he takes to save his own people and home world—all facilitated by his perceived insignificance in the eyes of everyone else. It becomes obvious to Vir that while Londo is the Emperor, Minister Durla is exercising a signifiant and growing amount of power as the defacto ruler of the emerging police state. Before the book concludes, Durla maneuvers himself into the position of Prime Minister (facilitated by the Drakh), and is publicly the second most powerful member of the government, with only to Emperor Mollari to answer to. With Londo under direct Drakh control, Durla is effectively running the government, building a powerful military in secret, and using some forces openly to invade and take control of smaller words who are outside of the Centauri’s real vital interests. This is all done under the guise of putting down threats to the Republic, and on a more peaceful (sounding) note, to create jobs and gain the resources required to help rebuild what the Interstellar Alliance destroyed in the war. While these actions are offensive and almost imperial in nature, because of the relative insignificance of the worlds falling to the diminished Centauri Republic, the IA looks the other way. In reality, these are intended as bases from which to draw resources in order to establish the military the Republic needs to confront the IA.

Vir quietly and expertly establishes credible intelligence networks among the Centauri people, specifically those who have grown aware something sinister is going on. He also continues to work with the Technomages, granting him information and some capabilities that only they can bring. While things play out with Londo and Durla, Vir has become the primary influencer, if not the leader, of an increasingly powerful resistance movement on Centauri Prime. Allied with the Technomages, Vir is putting the pieces in place for this maturing resistance movement to eventually take back the Republic from the Drakh. With the help of the Technomages, he also finds the secret Planet Killer facility. Time is running out for Vir, the Technomages, and the resistance on Centauri Prime to set the necessary conditions to take action and end the war that’s about to be unleashed by the Drakh against Earth and the IA.

An incredible book, full of action, and driving us toward what can only be an incredible ending. We were all eager to jump right into the next book. Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5!

Next time we’ll discuss the third and final book in the series, optimistically called Out of the Darkness. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… If there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow. There’s always boom tomorrow!

If you were with us when we reviewed the stand-alone novels, you’ll remember each novel seemed to be a roll of the dice. Would it be good, bad, a mixed bag? We never really knew until we dove in. Well, we finished the Psi Corps trilogy (which was powerful!) and now we’ve moved to the Legions of Fire (aka the Centauri) trilogy, but with no concerns. We finished the first book in the trilogy, The Long Night of Centauri Prime, and have no doubt this set of books will be as powerful as the first trilogy we read.

The Long Night of Centauri Prime, as with all three of the Legions of Fire novels, were written by Peter David, and are all based on a script written by JMS. The story opens in 2262 with events that were depicted in the television episode “The Fall fo Centauri Prime” (S5:E18). The end of the book takes place shortly before the events in the fourth Babylon 5 television movie, A Call to Arms, set in 2266. Readers should keep in mind there are also events at the end of the book that occur in 2267, creating what appears to be a bit of a continuity issue. That said, the story in the novel doesn’t harm to the original series or other canonical works. So dive in and enjoy the story.

While a lot happens, involving a significant number of characters, this is primarily Londo’s story, perhaps best summed up as the continuing tragedy of (now) Emperor Londo Mollari.

Londo is on the throne, but not alone: he is shadowed by a Drakh handler named Shiv’kala, and subject to a “Keeper”, a living being created by the Drakh. This Keeper lives parasitically on Londo, attached to his body and fully entangled with his nervous system. Long is never alone, even mentally, other than when he gets intoxicated enough to put the Keeper to sleep. As you’ll recall, at this time the Centauri Republic was at odds with the IA, and the two ultimately went to war, which the Centauri lost. Londo is ruling over a devistated planet as a result of the war.

Under the thumb of the Drakh, Londo has little latitude to resist and for the most part can only watch his beloved world being turned into a police state. The Drakh also have another willing and power-hungry Centauri named Durla, whom they place in a subordinate, but powerful Ministerial position within Londo’s government. He begins to manipulate those around him in order to create and gain power at a level that Londo doesn’t fully realize at this point.

Centauri Prime is rebuilding, but sadly this is occurring under the secret direction of the Drakh, the local puppets of the Shadows. However, their goal isn’t to simply restore Centauri Prime to its previous level of affluence. Rather, their intent is to use the rebuilt Centauri as a militarily powerful race, to attack the IA. Their specific goal is to destroy Earth and kill President Sheridan for his role in defeating the Shadows and pushing them out of known space. While the attack on the IA will be conventional, they don’t intend to use the Centauri military to destroy Earth. Instead, we learn the Drakh are secretly creating a massive weapon that can only be described as a “Planet Killer”. Late in the book, thanks to the help of a small group of Technomages, Vir learns of the Drakh scheme and their direct control over Londo, to include the name of his Drakh handler. It almost costs him his life.

We loved the book. As we hoped, it set the stage for what can only be an amazing second book in what is unfolding to be an even better series than the Psi Corps trilogy. Our ratings were a 4.9, 4.5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.8.

Next time we get together, we’ll discuss the second book in the Legions of Fire trilogy: Armies of Light and Dark. We hope you read along with us, listen to our discussion, and comment on the podcast to join in on the discussion.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Here we are, ready to discuss the third novel in the Psi Corps trilogy.  As with the other two, Final Reckoning:  The Fate of Bester was based on a script written by JMS, and are considered canon, and written by J. Gregory Keyes.  As the story ends, we pick up with Mr. Bester approximately in the year 2250, and follow him until approximately 2281, around the time John Sheridan dies and the Babylon 5 station is decommissioned.  The novel takes place on Earth, and primarily in the city of Paris.

As things kick off, we’ve moved forward in time and the Psi Corps as we knew it has ended.  Bester had served as its commander, and was unsurprisingly ruthless in his pursuit of rogues, not to mention using the power of the Corps against “normals”.  To be blunt, the book makes some correlations to his abusive authority on par with many of history’s most horrible rulers.  Within the Corps, Bester’s hand was so heavy it bolstered a new (or renewed) resistance and a telepath civil war erupted—often referred to as the Telepath War.  With the help of the Interstellar Alliance (and specifically President John Sheridan), the bloodshed ends, trials are held, and some were even declared war criminals, including Bester.  A new Corps is formed, this time to hunt these criminals down and bring them to justice.  Through the telling of the story in this novel, we see an overall shift has occurred, changing the longstanding friction between “teeps” and “normals (or Mundanes)” to something resembling a genuine balance of power between the two.

In this environment, Bester expertly fades into the background, hiding from the new Corps, and hoping to simply live his life out.  He takes up residence in a small hotel in Paris under a false identity.  The rest of the novel is really the story of Bester wrestling with himself, trying to resolve his views on life, his people (the telepaths), normals, etc.  This is fueled primarily through a surprise relationship he finds himself in with the owner of the hotel.  She was a normal and essentially trying to recover and live out her own life after a series of unrelated traumas when their paths cross.  Neither was looking for the depth of friendship they found, and as the story unfolds, the genuine love that forms between them.  All the while, he’s still on the run, doing his best to maintain the lie that is his cover, but dropping what were the best practices to ensure he remained the least vulnerable to being discovered.  Bester has to face the actual life he’s living, and some ghosts from his past.  He wrestles with things about himself that were new to him, in some cases renewed for him, or intentionally buried, and perhaps even a few things that were true surprises to him.  It’s safe to say that as we watch the fate of Al Bester unfold, one of the things this novel does is expose the realization that teeps are human, and not some sort of superior race that Bester believed they were.  The novel was this, but also so much more, and well worth the time to read.  In the end, we were in agreement that while we continued to hate all that Bester was, and all that he did, with the humanity of Bester revealed, this book was the end of an incredible tragedy.  The tragedy of Alfred Bester is on par with the tragedy of Londo Molari that we were shown through the original series.  It appropriately ends with Alfred Bester’s death, around the same time as the emotional death of one of the Babylon 5 universe’s heroes:  John Sheridan.  

This final novel in the trilogy covers the shortest amount of time of the three:  just over 30 years.  It felt shorter, and while it was a “quieter” story, it didn’t lack in the ability to hold our attention.  It was a wonderful and powerful end to the story of the Psi Corps and Mr. Alfred Bester.  Our ratings were a 5, 4.5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.83.

Next time we’ll discuss the first in the next set of books, often called the Centauri Trilogy, but officially known as “Legions of Fire” trilogy.  The first novel in the set is called “The Long Night of Centauri Prime”.  If you have a copy, dust it off.  If you don’t have a copy, hunt one down .  Read with us and join us for the discussion.

With the second book in the “Psi Corps Trilogy” under our belts, we’re back to discuss the continuing story as captured in Deadly Relations:  Bester Ascendant.  As mentioned previously, this set of books was based on a script written by JMS, and are considered canon, and all three were written by J. Gregory Keyes.  The second novel in the set begins in about 2190 when Al Bester was just six years old, and tells us his story right up until his first visit to Babylon 5, covering another 60 years of time.  This novel really is Bester’s story.

The story is told in four parts (five if you count the epilogue), interestingly titled Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, and Ascendance.  As the story unfolds, we see how Alfred Bester became the Bester we all know and hate—or perhaps love to hate.  As an orphan, entrusted to the Psi Corps, Bester is one of the very first true children of the Corps, giving particular weight to the statement we’re all familiar with, “The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father”.  His training is difficult, and as a social misfit, life as a student and child of the Corps isn’t necessarily suited to his personality.  Even so, he’s inspired by a particular teacher/mentor, finds his way, and in fact becomes truly invested in and zealously embraces the Corps.  As a young man he has enough confidence in himself that he attempts to capture a wanted “Blip” (a rogue telepath).  This doesn’t go well at all, his motives and loyalty are questioned, and as the dust settles, his punishment is severe.  After his punishment ends, his mentor, who sees a lot of promise in Bester, brings him on another hunt.  The danger of these hunts convinces Bester even more that the Corps is right and best for all teeps, and his loyalty is cemented into place.

Also during this time, Bester falls in love, and is completely devoted to the young woman until she decides to go rogue.  In a heartbreaking moment, he chooses the Corps over his love for her, turns her in, and she’s arrested.

As the story continues, Bester is finally sent out to apprehend a Blip named Stone.  During this pursuit, he and his partner get information on another (more dangerous) Blip named Walters, the leader of a rogue movement.  Things go with difficulty and Bester ends up in the hospital, where he makes himself useful scanning dying people for information for the Corps.  This experience also takes a toll on him.  Once recovered, he is paired by the Corps with a wife, giving us some insight into the Corps’ breeding program.  He doesn’t love her, but he stays with her because of his loyalty to the Corps.  Bester also works an assignment to Mars.

On Mars he meets Lyta, who assists him with a murder case.  He’s also sent to an asteroid for a secret meeting with Director Johnston, who it turns out harbored a severe bias against Bestor.  The meeting was arranged to allow the Director to kill Bester and remove what he perceived was a problem within the Corps.  Instead, Bester kills him in a staged accident.  Along the way we’re introduced to Byron—yes, that Byron—and at the end of the novel, Bester is sent to Babylon 5 to capture Jason Ironheart.

Like the first novel in this trilogy, the second one covers a significant span of years.  Even so, it was incredibly readable, held great continuity with the first novel and within itself, and set the stage for what can only be an incredible conclusion in the third and final novel of the set.  We’ll suggest to you that these first two books might give you a dizzying view and perspective of Bester than you’ve had before.  Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5.  None of us could wait to get the next book started!

Next time we’ll discuss the third and final book in the Psi Corps Trilogy, called Final Reckoning:  The Fate of Bester.  We have no doubt it will be a powerful and fitting end to the story.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

We’re back again, this time starting the first trilogy of novels, collectively called the “Psi Corps Trilogy.” This set of books were based on a script written by JMS, and are considered canon, and all three were written by J. Gregory Keyes. In this first novel, we learn Bester’s backstory, and see just how the Psi Corps began. The novel starts in 2115, then quickly covers 80 years of time—basically from 130 years before the events in the movie “In the Beginning”, and ending about 50 years before the same. If compared to Season 1 of the original series, these events span from 142 years to 62 years before the start of Season 1.

When the trilogy was released, JMS endorsed it heavily, stating, “For my money, this is probably one of the best B5 novels ever done, and it takes quite a risk, because even though you see ancestors of some of our characters, there are none of the regulars in it. It’s our first attempt to really flesh out the B5 universe and future history. Anyway, it’s a hell of a read, and I commend it to you without reservation.” Our one side note: you may actually see one regular in this book. I’m sure you’ll figure out who it is before it’s pointed out to you though…

The action begins when the presence of telepathy is proven, resulting in widespread distrust and paranoia throughout the human population. People turn on those they know or suspect to be telepaths, and “teeps” find themselves hunted. An organization called the Metasensory Regulatory Authority (MRA) is formed by Senator Crawford, publicly to identify and protect telepaths, but quickly it could be argued that the regulation, segregation, and training given to telepaths to serve society was actually a way to control them. Within a short amount of time, it’s also learned that telepathy isn’t a naturally-occurring ability in humans, leading to further fear.

During all this trauma, many telepaths see what’s happening and don’t want to be regulated. Instead they hide from the MRA and forma a small network (a resistance?) to try and remain free. Psi Corps is then formed to attempt to bring members of the resistance (rebels…rogues) back into the fold, unharmed. This only confirms the fears of those resisting and the rogues become militant in an attempt to protect themselves and their freedoms. The irony is they’re not fighting “normals”; they’re fighting other teeps.

As all these struggles unfold, Kevin Vacit and Natasha Alexander (Lyta Alexander’s grandmother) go to Venus where they meet with the Vorlons and are told about the Shadows. Now aware of what is a dire threat, Kevin decides he can’t maintain or support the existence of the MRA and Psi Corps on one hand, and the rogues on the other. Based on the threat, he orders the hunting and elimination of the rogues. Interestingly, just like Natasha is the grandmother of one of the series regulars, Kevin is the grandfather of a significant regular in the series. (If you don’t mind knowing who it is, we’ll post the name at the very end of this entry.)

In spite of the amount of time this novel covered, we were in strong agreement that it was a fantastic start to what should be an incredible trilogy. Furthermore, while knowing the full B5 story that is revealed in the TV shows and movies definitely helps with overall context, this book could very well be enjoyed by any science fiction fan, and may even serve to bring new fans into the larger B5 universe. Our ratings were a 4.5, 5 and 4.5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.66.

Next time we’ll discuss the second book in the Psi Corps Trilogy, called Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant. If it’s anything like this first book, it’s going to be awesome.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow. There’s always boom tomorrow!

(As promised, if you want to know who the other regular is, who Kevin Vacit is the grandfather of: it’s Steven Kevin Dexter, renamed as a child to protect his identity as the offspring of rebels. His new name: Alfred Bester. As an interesting nugget of additional information, he’s named after a real-world Science Fiction author.)

This time we’re looking at the final novel in the set of nine (what people call) standalone novels: the much-anticipated To Dream in the City of Sorrows, by Kathryn M. Drennan. With what we already knew about this book, there was little concern about how good it was rumored to be. It was everything we’d expected and hoped for and/or remembered. Toward the end of the show, we mention that this was Raul’s third time reading the story over the years, it was Jim’s second, and JP’s first time through. It was unanimous that it was worth every minute of time spent to read it, or reread it.

As we’ve talked about each of the standalone novels, we’ve commented on whether or not each book is considered canon. In this case, it’s worth sharing this quote from J. Michael Straczynski himself: “To Dream in the City of Sorrows is not simply a licensed book set in the BABYLON 5 universe. While most of the Dell books to date have contained some elements that are considered canon, this is the very first one that is considered canonical in every small detail. What you hold in your hand is an official, authorized chapter in the BABYLON 5 story line. This is the definitive answer to the Sinclair question, and should be considered as authentic as any episode in the regular series.” (February 17, 1997)

There are really three stories here: the main story told about what happened when Jeffrey Sinclair left Babylon 5. The supporting stories, which are almost full stories on their own, revolve around Sinclair’s wife Catherine Sakai, and Marcus Cole.

The main story occurs primarily in the Minbar city of Tuzanor (also known as The City of Sorrows). The secondary story lines begin elsewhere but quickly join with the main story on Minbar as well. Sinclair is reassigned from Babylon 5 to Minbar as the Earth’s new ambassador. While there, he quickly learns there’s another, much more significant agenda in play: to make him the leader of the Rangers (Ranger One), and to bestow the title of Entil’Zah upon him. Though this story gain depth in our understanding of Minbari culture, the cultural casts, and how they view their history relative to Valen and his prophecies. We also see how the significant tensions between the Minbari and Humans is both stressed and eased by the Minbari need to address Sinclair’s potential, significant role within Minbari culture. Sinclair is pulled unknowingly and unwillingly into all of this through his nomination to become Entil’Zah.

Catherine, who has been away from Sinclair for longer than either would desire, returns to Babylon 5 to surprise him, only to be surprised herself when she learns he’s no longer the station commander and has moved to Minbar. She then follows him there. Through this story, we learn just how deep the love is between her and Sinclair. Once on Minbar, she supports this adventure he’s found himself pulled into, and works to become a ranger herself, as one of the first human Ranger trainees. A brief element of her story as she journeys back to her husband is her encounter with the essentially unknown Shadows in hyperspace.

Marcus, who is a mess after his father’s death, has thrown himself into running his father’s business. He doesn’t appear to enjoy it or want to do it, all the while taking great risks with his own life, perhaps in order to somehow distract or diminish the pain of his loss. His vagabond brother arrives for a visit, get’s lectured by Marcus for not helping run the family business, and ends up learning about the thing that has focused his wayward life: becoming a member of the Minbari Rangers. Marcus initially dismisses it all as one more stray adventure and useless path his brother is running down; his brother ensures him this isn’t the case, but Marcus seems unconvinced. Shortly after, when his brother’s life is lost in an attack (turns out by the Shadows) on and loss of the family business, Marcus decides to honor his brother’s request to consider the Rangers, and makes his way to Minbar. What unfolds is a wonderful description of how Marcus becomes the man, and the Ranger we knew him to be in the regular series.

We were all in agreement that this novel clearly stands out as the best of the standalone stories. We anticipate it will remain one of the best, even when compared to the three trilogies that also occur in the Babylon 5 universe. Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5.0.

Speaking of trilogies, the next time we meet, we’ll discuss the first book in the Psi Corps Trilogy, called Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps, by J. Gregory Hines. Our understanding of these trilogies is that they’re much better than the overall collection of standalone novels, so we’re looking forward to getting them started.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

Here we are, looking at the second to last standalone novel Personal Agendas, by Al Sarrantonio. We approached this one with cautious optimism, since it follows a very well written novel that brought us home to the Babylon 5 universe we all love so much. Turns out we weren’t let down; the book warranted our optimism. There were highs and a few lows though, but overall it was well-received.

Personal Agendas filled in some of the backstory revolving around G’Kar’s captivity on Centauri Prime under the ruthless rule of Cartagia. For those familiar with the television series, you know Sarrantonio focused this story on a very dark and heavy set of events. He does this well, and attempted to give the reader a break now and then through several other light-hearted, if not cute, side stories. This worked with mixed results. At the center of the story, G’Kar and Londo form a secret alliance. G’Kar is going to suffer and place himself at great personal risk to assist in the killing of Emperor Cartagia. This could cost him his life. Meanwhile, in exchange, Londo will work to end the Centauri rule over the Narn Homeworld. Things get a little sideways when Londo is captured by a squad of well-intentioned Narn, intending to free G’Kar. They work in ignorance of what’s actually in play, and what they’re putting at risk in terms of liberation for the citizens of both worlds. A basic knowledge of the television series ensures you already know both of our heroes will survive, however, the main story here is told well enough that it becomes a page-turner as you’re left wondering just how this will resolve in a manner that doesn’t disconnect from the series.

Readers will either find the B-stories amusing, perhaps even funny at times, or they’ll find them annoying. Either way, they’re a welcome relief to the high-stakes drama and emotional heaviness of the main story.

In the end we enjoyed the book very much, and we think you will too. Our ratings were a 3, a 4, and a 4.5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 3.83.

Next time we meet, we’ll discuss the ninth and final standalone novel, To Dream in the City of Sorrows, by Kathryn Drennan. If you’ve participated in the many seasons of the podcast, then you know we’ve mentioned this novel many times. We’re anticipating something great!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

We’ve arrived at the seventh and much-anticipated standalone novel The Shadow Within, by Jeanne Cavelos. And it was worth the wait!

The story takes place just before the Babylon 5 television series pilot episode “The Gathering” and was clearly well researched, and also presumably informed by the author’s familiarity with the characters as we know them from the series. The book was authored and published at a time when Ms. Cavelos would have had access to the first three seasons, and part of the fourth season, of the TV show. It looks like she was as much a fan as we are. The book is considered canon, along with the ninth and final standalone novel.

The novel filled in some missing info for a few key storylines: specifically what happened to Anna Sheridan that resulted in her apparent death, and later the discovery that she was actually working with the Shadows; and also additional information (backstory) related to Captain Sheridan when he was the commander of the Agamemnon prior to taking command of Babylon 5. We watch Sheridan’s career get frustrated by a combination of incompetence among his junior officers, perhaps fueled by something more sinister. With Anna’s story, we learn just how deep her love for John was, and his for her. It made her loss that we learned about in the television series even more heartbreaking. Related, we meet Mr. Morden for the first time (chronologically) and discover he’s actually Dr. Morden. One of the most interesting elements of the story is that we learn to appreciate (and maybe even respect) the character we all love to hate. Seeing Morden as he was before the Shadows took control of him was truly interesting.

As the novel progresses, we bounce between Anna’s and John’s stories. As is the case with good storytelling, each time a segment of Anna’s storyline ends, you hope to hurry through the next segment of John’s story so you can get back to find out what happened. But then when that segment of John’s storyline ends, you can’t wait to race through Anna’s to get back to what’s happening with his situation. The story unfolds quickly as a result, and in the end you feel like you were watching a couple of well-paired episodes, or perhaps what would have made a great Babylon 5 movie.

If you like this novel, you’ll be happy to know Ms. Cavelos is also the author of “The Passing of the Techno-Mages” trilogy: one of the three trilogies we’ll read and review together after we finish with the last standalone novel.

We enjoyed this book very much. Our ratings were a 4.5, a 5.5, and a 5.0 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.7.

Next up is the penultimate standalone novel, Personal Agendas, by Al Sarrantonio. We’re optimistic that it will be a good experience, even though it doesn’t carry the same positive reputation as The Shadow Within, or the ninth standalone, To Dream in the City of Sorrows. If you’re reading along with us, grab your copy and enjoy!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

The sixth standalone novel we’re discussing is Betrayals, by S.M. Stirling.

Raul offered a very useful way to view this book: as an anthology composed of two short stories and a novella. Taking this view helped frame or structure what we read. We all agreed this was a far better than the last two books—combined—even though, like the last several, this book seemed to contain more book than actual story. This is where the anthology perspective helped.

Overall, the book focuses on a significant diplomatic conference occurring on Babylon 5, driving an acute need for superb security. The primary attendees: diplomats from the Centauri Republic and Narn. At the same time, a previously unknown race called the T’ll arrive, currently ruled by the Narn, and seeking asylum. The trouble begins. A member of this unusual race commits a murder, and in the course of being pursued and apprehended, is rendered unconscious. For the T’ll, this is essentially a death sentence. Unconsciousness destroys what is a continuous memory within the individual, causing a return to the same mental state as a newborn. The friction between the Centauri and Narn is exacerbated by the current and deadly friction caused by the T’lln delegation. Things get even messier when President Clark gets involved: directing Captain Sheridan to oversee a fixed trial and death sentence for the T’lln assassin. Given that the assassin is already “dead” and a child now exists instead, the death sentence wouldn’t be justice. It would be the murder of an innocent. Sprinkle in some interesting dynamics with the press, present to cover the Centauri-Narn negotiations, and the creativity of Captain Sheridan, and the story concludes pretty well.

Some of the “odd themes” we’ve seen in the standalone novels presented themselves again: yet another new race (which we never hear from or about again), and a strong presentation on Narn aggression and dominance. Other more canonical themes are there too, including friction between the Narn and Centauri, and between Earth Gov and Babylon 5.

Our ratings were a 4, a 3.5, and a 3.5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 3.67.

Next is the long-awaited novel The Shadow Within, by Jeanne Cavelos. You’ve stuck with us this long, so please continue reading and join us next time when we discuss one of the two standalone books that is generally well received.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

Next up, we read The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name, by Neil Barrett, Jr. This is the fifth of nine stand-alone novels. Given how the first four weren’t that great, we were hopeful this one might shine a little, but ultimately we were disappointed. While not as bad as Clark’s Law, this book felt like a short story crammed into a full-length novel. As a result, this made Barrett’s book just okay, at best. And that’s not a strong endorsement. There was also an issue with where the story fits in the overall timeline. The book never says, and there’s disagreement out on the web. The best estimate is provided by the Lurker’s Guide, and even that doesn’t fully address the continuity issues. The bottom line is, by the time this novel was written, the TV series was in the third season, yet it seems like the author may have never watched an episode.

We’re back to riots on the station, and they’re presented in a way that suggests this is sort of a normal thing. Balanced against the TV show, we know this isn’t the case, so the suggestion is becoming somewhat annoying now that it’s appeared in several of the novels. While not well done, the reader can assume that some of this is caused by, or enflamed by, the emergence of an alien entity that causes everyone on the station to misbehave. It’s a reasonable explanation, but somehow still falls short, primarily based on how the author unfolds the story. In the end, a giant, green worm-like creature (9 million miles long and half a million miles wide!) approaches the station. It’s somehow real, but also not real, in that while everyone can see it, it doesn’t register on sensors. No one knows what it is, where it came from, if it’s hostile or not, or where it’s going. The odd behavior of station personnel seems to increase in severity as the creature draws closer. In response, forces from Earth and B5 approach it, examine it as best they can, and even fire at it, with no real consequences. While this appeared to be a way to build drama, it didn’t. Frankly, it took too long and made the story boring.

The space worm finally arrives and passes through the station (or the station passes through the worm…) and everything returns to normal. We’d like to tell you there’s more to the story than that, but there really isn’t. The worm is referred to as a shadow because of the problem that it’s seen but not apparently substantive. By the way, there’s no connection between this shadow and THE Shadows we’re all familiar with from the B5 universe. Your hosts seemed to agree there were enough comedic elements here (intentional or not, like Fermi’s Angels) that this may have been better written as a light-hearted comedy novel. But it wasn’t, so some of these kinds of characters and events fell flat or just seemed silly since they weren’t a part of a real attempt at humor. There was also some agreement that the one redeeming character in the story was Martina Coles—someone who could have been better developed and even appeared in other novels. But she was unique to this story, and not a part of the TV show or subsequent books. Oh well.

Two interesting aspects of the story that we briefly discussed toward the end of the program. First, there was a real potential for a cool story about a creature (the space worm) that even the Vorlons didn’t have knowledge of. This could have been very interesting and even a little terrifying. The author toyed with this concept a bit, but in the end, let it fall on the floor. Second, this novel is in some ways comparable to the movie Thirdspace. The movie wasn’t all that great either, but there are some real similarities between the two. We leave that for your consideration.

Well, we unanimously disliked the book—sadly a developing trend. Our ratings were a 1.3, a 0.5, and a 1.5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 1.1. Once again, based on the much higher ratings out there on the socials (GoodReads, Amazon, etc.), if any of our listeners enjoyed this, we genuinely want to hear why. Not to be critical of you, but to see if the three of us missed something in our own reading of the material. Also, keep in mind, these standalone novels are what they are, and aren’t considered canon except for the 7th and 9th books. With that in mind, it’s a little easier to manage expectations. It also means we’re drawing closer to at least two that should be pretty good. Not saying numbers six and eight aren’t good—we just don’t know yet. Then as noted during the episode, the three trilogies are all considered to be solid and definitely worth the time to read, so hang in there.

Please continue reading along and join us next time when we discuss the sixth stand-alone novel, Betrayals, by S.M. Sterling.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

The next stand-alone novel we read and reviewed is Jim Mortimore’s Clark’s Law. This is the only novel he wrote within the B5 universe, although he has writing credits for novelizations within the Dr. Who universe. The print copy was published by Dell in February 1996, and ran 288 pages. The story takes place in 2259, at the end of Season 2 and occurs between “Comes the Inquisitor” and “The Fall of Night”. sometime prior to “The Coming of Shadows” (Season 2, Episode 9). This book is not considered canon.

Well, we went from liking the previous novel quite a bit to not liking this one at all. Here’s the story: A newly discovered species called the Tuchanq come aboard Babylon 5 and in short order an unfortunate series of events results in several of the Tuchanq losing consciousness. This species never sleeps, but instead gains rest and maintains individual identity through a complex series of songs. What wasn’t known or understood by station inhabitants (including the command team) is that when a Tuchanq loses consciousness, they essentially lose their minds. D’Arc, commits a murder, is rendered unconscious and is left with the mind of an infant or child. The moral discussion that ensues and guides the story is that this “new” creature with no memory or identity related to the one that committed the murder, can not be held responsible for the crime. In a tangential power play, President Clark is trying to bolster his growing dictatorial control of Earth, and uses the incident to to prejudge D’Arc and mandate the death penalty for the crime, showing he’s a strong president and wiling to do what it takes to maintain order and discipline to protect the people and allies of Earth. This sets the stage for the tension of the primary storyline, as Capt Sheridan and his officers struggle with how to handle what’s morally right versus the unjust mandate to execute D’Arc.

In an odd and very unbalanced side story, we are shown a Babylon 5 where significant rioting is occurring while it seems the station officials are either unwilling or unable (or both?) to simply maintain the peace. It’s through this series of events we noticed that almost all the major characters were written inconsistently with those we know from the series. Also unfolding at the same time is the primary side story of G’Kar and Londo, in which G’Kar attempts to brutally murder Londo and then commit ritual suicide. In an incredibly planned and deliberate act, G’Kar stabs Londo brutally, and leaves him to die. The author leaves us with the impression, this was a major decision, but not really a big deal for G’Kar. These weren’t the characters of the TV series. The same was particularly true of Ivanova and Vir, Franklin, and to some extent Sheridan.

The significant events that took place in this novel didn’t come close to fitting into the B5 story arc we all know and love. It was truly as if Mortimore was given basic plot points and the B5 story bible, but he never actually watched an episode of the show. Outside of the specific disconnection of the characters as written, versus the show, none of these very significant events ever manifest in the series: G’Kar’s attempted murder of Londo, the existence of a species called the Tuchanq, many other species also mentioned that we’ve never seen, rioting on the station, a very muted and passive Commander Ivanova, etc.

All the themes we could identify in the book have run through the previous novels. Your hosts presumed that there was probably a master list of themes provided by JMS to all these authors to incorporate into their writing as the specific stories allowed. In Clark’s Law, we saw elements of crime and punishment, deceit and false accusations for political gain, corrupt government (specifically Earth), capital punishment, conflicts of morality and the growing tension between Earth and Mars.

One final note: we all agreed the author appeared to use the novel as an instrument to lecture his readers on his particular views of several of these moral issues, especially capital punishment. He also seemed to take a very odd shot at liberal democracies in general, and arguably the specific form of a federal republic. Well written Science Fiction has always had a significant role in examining social and ethical issues (contentious ones in particular) by placing the issue at the heart of fictional events and writing about them in a way that the reader is outside of the issues. In this case, the author failed to do this. The story was so badly written, he came across as lecturing us with his perspectives rather than letting us work out our own perspectives based on the story.

We unanimously disliked this book. Our ratings were a 1.5, a 0.5, and a 1 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 1. We’d never tell someone not to read a book, but this is one we’d warn you away from unless you have nothing better to do.

Please continue reading along and join us next time when we discuss the fifth stand-alone novel, The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name, by Neal Barrett, Jr.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

The third stand-alone novel is Blood Oath, written by John Vornholt. This is his second and final B5 novel. The print copy was published by Dell in September 1995, and ran 256 pages. The story takes place in 2259, sometime prior to “The Coming of Shadows” (Season 2, Episode 9). This book is not considered canon.

We liked this book, quite a bit. The story was primarily about G’Kar and focused on his attempts to remedy an assassination attempt on his life—actually a third attempt! For fans of the original series, you’ll remember the second attempt was a part of the episode “Parliament of Dreams” (Season 1, Episode 5). In this third attempt, Mi’Ra, the daughter from a rival family on the Narn Homeworld swears a blood oath (the Shon’Kar) to finally avenge her father’s death, the disgracing of his name, and the resultant destruction of her family, all caused by G’Kar as he rose to the Third Circle. Very early in the story, G’Kar is made aware of this intended assassination. He tells no one, and departs on a shuttle which explodes, killing him instantly. Or so it seems. We quickly learn he’s still alive, his death was faked in an effort to stop future assassination attempts, and to get to the Narn Homeworld to remedy the problem.

The rest of the novel happens there, where we get to enjoy a relatively deep and very interesting dive into the Narn Homeworld, many new Narn characters, and layers of the Narn culture. What made this novel stand out more than the first two was the author’s ability to very accurately capture most of the familiar characters, and to make everything feel like it was inspired or even written by JMS. There were a few oddities (like with some of Mike Garibaldi’s behavior), but nothing that was really that bad. At the end of the novel, with things resolved, we also enjoy a very well written surprise when we learn of Londo’s role in helping G’Kar through the struggle of trying to end the Son’Kar.

Of the various themes that ran through the book, some were unique to this story, while others also ran through one or more of the earlier novels. These included an examination of different forms of justice; the differences in how justice plays out within the Narn culture as well as the differences in justice between races; deceit and deception; reconciliation and friendship.

Your hosts definitely enjoyed this book and even described it as a fun story to read. When we rated the book, we ended up with a 4.5, a 4.0, and a 4.5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.3.

Please continue reading along and join us next time when we discuss Clark’s Law, by Jim Mortimore.

The second novel we read in the “set” of stand-alone novels is Accusations, written by Lois Tilton. This is her only B5 novel. Accusations was 278 pages and published by Dell in April 1995. Like Voices, this story occurs in 2258, during Season 2 of the original B5 series, and is also not officially considered canon.

There were some interesting similarities and differences between this novel and the previous one. While the story here is different and occurs primarily on B5, once again we see the themes of false accusations made to cover up some other issue, the accused being guilty until proven innocent, government corruption at high levels, corporate corruption, and tensions between Earth and Mars.

In Accusations, Commander Ivanova’s old flight instructor, J.D. Ortega, sends her an urgent and very short message from Mars letting her know he’s on his way to B5 and asking for a face-to-face meeting. Susan is intrigued and arrives at the meeting location, only to discover Ortega’s murdered body. As would be expected, she reports it to Mr. Garibaldi. They quickly learn that Ortega is (surprisingly) a wanted terrorist from Mars, setting the stage for the rest of the novel. Susan can’t reconcile what she knows of her old instructor with this fresh allegation. B5 is told an officer from Earth (Commander Wallace), will arrive shortly due to high-level interest in Mr. Ortega related to his supposed terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, raider attacks on commercial shipping remain problematic, and have come to a point where it seems as if the raiders know when and where freighters will be, and when they’re just far enough from protection to be most vulnerable. Susan begins looking for, and starts to identify, commonalities between the attacks: shipments originating from Mars, and apparently always carrying strategic metals. She suspects these attacks and seizures of cargos have a criminal aspect tied back to Earth and Mars.

When Wallace and team arrive, not only do they seize the entire murder investigation (something normally left to B5 security), but they present credentials from the Joint Chiefs that lock Mr. Garibaldi out of his own security system and all evidence tied to the case. Related, although Ortega’s contact with Ivanova has only been seasonal (characterized as exchanging Christmas cards over the years), Wallace accuses her of the murder and ties her to Ortega’s alleged terrorist activities as an accomplice. Wallace has Susan received of her position as XO.

Sheridan smells a rat but goes along with things, since technically everything appears to be proper. While only Wallace and his team keep the details of the investigation away from B5 leadership, Sheridan creatively uses Susan’s enthusiasm and analytical skills to take command of a Star Furry wing and begin to meet freighters at the locations she’s determined they’re most vulnerable. She and her wingmen end up in multiple confrontations with raiders, and capture one for questioning. She quickly confirms the raiders are in fact given specific shipments and locations to attack in order to take the cargo—the strategic medal called Morbidium, used for military weapons. She also learns Ortega was aware of this and had evidence there was an insurance scam (or worse) going on, facilitated by senior members of Earth Gov and the shipping companies.

As the story wraps up, we learn that the metal wasn’t just Morbidium, but ingots of a new medal called “Super Morbidium” which could be used for the secret development of new weapons that could essentially cut through all known metals. While this advance in technology would be truly beneficial to Earth in light of the recently ended Earth-Minbari war, and useful to prepare for what we know to be the upcoming Shadow War, it was being handled in a way to allow select government and corporate officials to profit. Worse yet, this profit was coming at the expense of lives. Ortega and Ivanova were simply the most recent two being set up to pay the price for knowing too much—with Orgega murdered to ensure he didn’t talk, and Ivanova silenced with the risk of even worse consequences for having connected the dots between the loss of select cargos and her old instructor Ortega. Even so, our heroes do what they do best, and maneuver the situation to ensure Wallace is exposed for what he’s doing. Ortega’s honor is restored posthumously, Ivanova’s honor is restored and she resumes her duties as XO.

We all enjoyed the “feel” of the story, and agreed the characters were written in a manner that they were consistent with the characters from the show. As we observed, we could “hear” their voices as we read the novel. The only real exception was Sheridan, whom we all agreed was written okay, but somehow just a little “off”. We also noted that there was one awkward moment with Susan that seemed out of character, involving a red dress. (If you read the novel, you’ll see what we’re talking about.) The only big beef we had with the author was her apparent lack of research into and understanding of military rank and authority. Even so, overall we liked the novel.

At the end we cover our favorite plot points and quotes. When you listen, we’d love to know if any of our favorites matched yours. We’d also love to hear your overall thoughts about the novel, so be sure to let us know on social media or by email.

Overall, your hosts rated Accusations with a 3.5, a 2.5 and a 4.0 (out of 5 booms), for an overall Boom Scale rating of 3.33.

Next, we’re on to the novel Blood Oath, the second of two novels by John Vornholt. Read up and join us for the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.  There’s always boom tomorrow!

As we dive into the first of the novels associated with the Babylon 5 universe, we read and discussed Voices. Written by John Vornholt (his first of two B5 novels), published by Dell in 1995, this story takes place sometime between the Season 2 episodes “Points of Departure” (Episode 1) and “A Race Through Dark Places” (Episode 8). This is the first of nine “stand-alone” novels, in addition to three trilogies we will read and review.

Since we’re turning the page and moving to written works rather than audio-visual, we opened the show with a quick discussion and agreement on the relevance we’d give to novels that are either considered canon or not. We agreed that while it’s interesting to note which are considered canon, our approach is driven primarily by whether or not we enjoy each novel. As we move through these books, you’ll see that it won’t matter much. For those who want to know: we noted that while JMS had a hand in all the novels, several are accepted as canon, while others aren’t. The only two from the stand-alone books accepted as canon are #7 and #9. If you stick with us though, the issue won’t be a distraction.

With Captain Sheridan recently assuming command of Babylon 5, the Psi Corps runs into issues trying to hold a convention on Mars due to terrorist bombings and threats. The fall-back plan is to ask Babylon 5 to host the event, on neutral turf, and arguably in an environment more easily secured from threats. Reluctantly, Captain Sheridan agrees, the event is scheduled, and as everyone gathers, a bomb goes off, killing a number of the attendees and almost killing Mr. Bester. The resident station telepath, Talia Winters, appears to be at fault, and flees to protect herself from what we can only hope is a frame job. In addition to being accused of the bombing, she’s now a fugitive telepath: a charge alone that breaks Psi Corps rules and presumes her guilty. While on the run, events unfold on both sides as Psi Corps (Bester) attempts to capture and kill her; and Mr. Garibaldi, working with the aid of folks on Earth and Mars to bring Talia secretly under their protection while they build the case to prove her innocence.

In the end, we learn she is innocent. We also see Bester and the Corps realize this is the case, but are too proud to admit they were wrong in declaring her responsible for the bombing. Things resolve well in the end, but not without an appropriate amount of suspense and drama.

We discussed a number of themes present in the novel, many of which span the original television show, including: terrorism; politics and the influence of corporate (specifically a commercial telepath company called “The Mix”) attempts to control politics; being a fugitive / running from the law; telepaths in general; and the emerging role and power of Psi Corps, and even a little bit of the tensions between Earth and Mars.</p>

Overall, your hosts rated Voices with a 1.25, a 3 and a 3.5 (out of 5), for an overall Boom Scale rating of 2.6.

Next, we’re on to the novel Accusations, by Lois Tilton. Read up and join us for the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… When there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow.&nbsp; There’s always boom tomorrow!

NOTE: For this special 2-hour episode of the Babylon Project Podcast, we have a brand new intro using narration from the past 6 years of podcasts. It gives us chills so we hope you enjoy it and the rest of our discussion! Also, from now on we will be switching to the first Monday of every month for the next podcast releases as we go through each and every one of the Babylon 5 novels. 

Remember we mentioned Call to Arms was our fifth and final movie review? Well, we added The Lost Tales into the mix. So welcome to our sixth and final review of the Babylon 5 movies! Keep in mind, it’s technically not a movie. Instead it’s a collection of two stories JMS intended for the B5 series, and a part of an anthology series. The rest were never produced. Consider them bonus, mini-episodes. This set went straight to DVD on July 31, 2007. The first DVD released should have contained three episodes, however, that plan was reduced to two that we have today, titled “Voices in the Dark: Over Here”; and “Voices in the Dark: Over There”.

An additional note about both tales: given the events we see unfold, it appears the Drakh plague that was released on Earth has been defeated. There’s no mention of it in either story, and it doesn’t seem to be a concern.

Tale 1: “Voices in the Dark: Over Here”.

The best part of this tale may vary well have been the introductory monolog from G’Kar. It warmed our hearts to hear his voice again. The tale features Colonel Elizabeth Lochley, still in command of B5. She’s been promoted to colonel at this point and is now called by her rank, rather than “Captain” as an identifier of her position. Still being Lochley though, there’s no doubt she’s in charge. As the story begins, a member of the B5 crew (Simon Burke) is suddenly and apparently possessed. He’s restrained and confined, and Lochley has called in a priest from Earth (Father Cassidy) to evaluate the situation and conduct an exorcism if necessary.

There are some pretty creepy scenes, but nothing truly scary. The drama builds as Burke’s possessor (a demon identifying itself as Asmodeus) is tag-teamed by Father Cassidy and Lochley, and we hear the demon explain he was cast out into space and left for others to find one day. God’s plan in this was to remind mankind that if the devil exists, then He does too. Now that he’s served his purpose, the insists Father Cassidy cast him out of Burke to remain bound in space. The arguments Asmodeus presents are weak though, and in a eureka moment, Lochley figures out that this demon was trapped on Earth with the others God had cast down during the Fall, possessed Burke while he was on leave back on Earth, then returned with him to B5 to escape. This constitutes what Lochley describes as an “ecclesiastical jailbreak”. Father Cassidy will exercise this demon from Burke, but not on B5. Instead, he’ll return with Burke to Earth and cast Asmodeus out there, to ensure he remains trapped where God put him. There were plenty of plot holes, but remember, this was an episode that was never fully fleshed out.

The tale wraps up with a beautiful closing monolog. None of us were really able to figure out what we were supposed to have taken from this tale, in the context of the greater B5 and Crusade series, but this might explain why it is one of the lost tales.

Tale 2: “Voices in the Dark: Over There”.

This tale really felt like a B5 episode and in terms of story, was easily a part of the broader storyline. Occurring on the tenth anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance, we join President Sheridan as he heads to B5 for the ceremony. Traveling with a reporter he doesn’t particularly like, he endures an interview—one of several that have annoyed him. Used as the way to set the stage for what’s going on though, we learn that Emperor Mollari will not be attending, however, the third in line for the throne (Prince Regent Dius Vintari) will attend on his behalf. In a sad moment of recounting, Sheridan explains to the reporter that Londo is in a bit of a dark place, and doesn’t laugh much any longer. Fans will remember why: he sits alone as the Emperor, under the sad control of a Keeper. She also asks about G’Kar, who we learn continues his adventures beyond the Rim, along with Dr. Franklin. The interview abruptly ends when the alert goes out letting everyone know they were about to jump into Quantum Space—a new form of travel that works differently and much faster than traveling through Hyperspace. It’s fast, and can be very disorienting to the mind and body. In a comical moment, the reporter gets nervous, the ship enters Quantum Space with the reporter in distress, and as the scene fades we hear Sheridan ask the reporter, “was that a new dress”? Apparently it didn’t go well for her.

Sheridan is visited by Galen the Technomage, and sees a “dream” of the destruction of New York City (and Earth) thirty years in the future. Galen tells him this event is the result of the Centauri (specifically Vintari, once he takes the throne as Emperor) attacking Earth—the home of the one people who have ever been able to stop the Centauri Republic. Galen tells Sheridan that on this trip to B5, the way to prevent this future catastrophe is to kill Prince Vintari. It’s suggested that this is really the only way, creating a real moral dilemma for Sheridan as he considers the need to kill a boy in an “unfortunate accident” order to save Earth. As Galen says to him, “The fate of billions of lives is in your hands.”

Sheridan ponders this, just as Lochley had to ponder the presence and destructiveness of the demon in Tale 1, and in his own eureka moment, realizes there are other options. When we meet Vintari, we see he’s a very young man. He’s also very wary of the intentions of others around him, particularly due to others who are in line for the throne behind him who would love to see him die, improving their potential opportunity to gain the throne. As a result he lives a very sequestered and guarded life. Upon arrival at B5, the time comes to kill Vintari, as they each pilot a Star Fury between Sheridan’s ship and B5. Sheridan chooses not to kill him. After they land on B5, Sheridan instead invites Prince Vintari to return with him to Minbar after the ceremony. Vintar will live in safety, and can essentially be a big brother for John and Delenn’s son David. Sheridan can also serve as a father figure to Vintari. (We learned earlier in the episode his father had been killed.)

Your hosts speculated that if Sheridan had chosen to go through with the attempt to kill Vintari as Galen recommended, it might have failed and become the event that created his hatred of Earth (replacing an understandable suspicion of Earth) and resulted in the subsequent attack after he takes the throne. As we would hope, Sheridan took the moral high ground, saved Vintari and set him on a path to change his future—and the future of Earth. Maybe it was actually a test of sorts, and Sheridan was able to ensure the young Prince didn’t become the monster Galen saw.

There were at least two very deliberate connections between these tales:

Dius is an old Greek word meaning “divine”. In this tale, and as Emperor, he is a “divine” and will wield the power to destroy planets. The positive and loving intervention by Sheridan to welcome him into his home to live with his family will apparently eliminate the future Galen revealed that included the destruction of Earth. This plays agains the unwelcome possession of Burke in Tale 1, where Asmodeus has to be restrained, cast out, and rebound on Earth.

The two tales are deliberately linked when Sheridan is talking to Lochley while en route to B5. After Sheridan asks her how she’s doing, she comments that “until today, [she] didn’t know it [B5] was on the crossroads between Heaven and Hell.” She was clearly referring to the issue with Burke’s possession.

While all the TV and movie content is now behind us, please stay tuned as we begin to review many of the novels written in the B5 universe—some considered canon, and some that aren’t. Read along with us, but even if you don’t, please tune in and her our discussion of each of these books. They definitely continue and fill out the story we all know and love!

Overall Program Timeline

At the beginning of our podcast covering The Lost Tales, we provided a timeline summary of all the video content we’ve covered on the podcast:

2245-2248 – In the Beginning (Movie)
2257 – Babylon 5: Signs and Portends (TV, Season 1)
2258 – Babylon 5: The Coming of Shadows (TV, Season 2)
2259 – Babylon 5: Point of No Return (TV, Season 3)
2260 – Babylon 5: No Surrender, No Retreat (TV, Season 4)
2261 – Babylon 5: Wheel of Fire (TV, Season 5)
2261 – Thirdspace (Movie, occurs within the B5 series timeline)
2263 – River of Souls (Movie)
2265 – Legend of the Rangers (Movie)
2266 – A Call to Arms (Movie)
2267 – Crusade (TV)
2271 – Lost Tales (Movie, contains two mini episodes)
2278 – In the Beginning (Movie) *

* The movie “In the Beginning” also contained future scenes in the year 2278. For this reason it essentially began and ended the entire set of programming. Babylon 5: a place of beginnings and endings!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We’ve reached the end of Crusade. When we began the series, we felt even though this was JMS and a deliberate follow-up to Babylon 5, the writing seemed off and the characters seemed awkward.  For our friends who listened along, we all learned (or were reminded) that what JMS wrote was not presented by TNT in the order he originally intended.

This episode kicks off with the Gideon and crew waiting at a rendezvous point for a mysterious meeting with an unknown person. When a Warlock class destroyer appears, they quickly learn the meeting is with Senator Jacob Redway (and apparently his personal assistant, named David)—one of very few Senators who was away from Earth when the Drakh virus was unleashed. The crew is given a set of orders from the Joint Chiefs and sworn to secrecy as they embark on a secret mission to Earth. Why recall the only research vessel that’s deliberately staffed with people free of the plague and searching for a cure? 

Almost as soon as they’re underway, Excalibur picks up a distress signal. Redway “orders” them not to stop, Gideon sternly but respectfully tells him he’s not in his chain of command, and they divert to assist. They quickly learn the distress beacon originates from a Star Fury piloted by Captain Lochley! Gideon explains to Redway he’ll obey the orders and not stop but he won’t ever dismiss a distress signal. The solution: slow down and catch the Star Fury, then continue to toward Earth. Lochley explains she was jumped by raiders and learns they can’t just take her back to B5 because of the mission they’re on.  Remember the Senator’s assistant? We see him make a discrete (and unauthorized) call to Earth to his fiancé, and tells her he’s coming home to marry her. She doesn’t know why, other than although he’s free of the virus, he’ll accept exposure and a possible death sentence to spend the rest of her life with her.

The Excalibur arrives at Earth and prepares to receive a shuttle from the surface. Gideon questions this, given that any ship attempting to leave Earth will be destroyed. Nonetheless, the shuttle pushes out of the atmosphere and just before it’s destroyed, jettisons a single life pod. It is brought onboard, quarantined, and an old friend emerges: Dr. Stephen Franklin! We’re reminded he leads Earths planetary effort to find a cure. We get the rest of the story about David—he’s a volunteer to be exposed and Dr. Franklin is going to track the virus through his body in real time. That info might give them some very key data critical to the development of a vaccine.

The Drakh intercepted David’s call and now the Excalibur’s mission to Earth is compromised. An element of the Drakh fleet is on the move to eliminate this potential lead toward the cure.

David’s infected and the virus is tracked, but then things begin to go wrong. There are several failures, buttons don’t work, the Drakh ships arrive and attack (BOOM!), David is knocked unconscious, the containment system appears to be at risk of malfunctioning, and before anything can happen, an automatic sterilization protocol is activated and we’re minutes away from the incineration of David. Dr. Franklin ends up quickly using a manual procedure to pull David into another containment room, saving the day, and the hope this might lead to a vaccine. As the battle continues, Gideon creatively decides if he rushes the Drakh mother ship, it will force them to jump, allowing Excalibur to follow and destroy them. The plan works, and the enemy ships are destroyed in Hyperspace. (More BOOM!)

With the immediate crisis resolved, David and Dr. Franklin are successfully returned to Earth, and Excalibur can take Captain Lochley home to Babylon 5. Doctors Franklin and Chambers confer over a video phone to compare notes about what they learned from David’s infection (shows real promise!). Back at B5, as Lochley prepares to disembark, she and Gideon exchange some flirtatious pleasantries. She tells Gideon he should stop by the next time the Excalibur is in the neighborhood. As Excalibur pulls away, Matheson points out the smile on Gideon’s face…he know’s what going on between the two. Gideon denies it’s a smile and claims “it’s gas.” Riiiiight. As the episode closes, Gideon suggests they should come back sometime soon to give the crew some crew rest on Babylon 5. *wink*

That wraps up Crusade, but not the podcast. Stay with us as we watch the final movie in the series, Lost Tales. Then, our plan is to continue with the Babylon 5 novels.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This was a playful Crusade-based version of the popular show X-Files. A little campy (on purpose), it was a fun episode to watch, even though it wasn’t totally a filler or throw-away episode. There was perhaps, at least one very traditional use of the Sci Fi genre to make a strong social statement.

The episode opens up with the crew noticing something smells, but can’t figure out what it is or where it’s coming from. With that stage set, their attention turns quickly to a distress signal and a small, very classic contact with aliens, saucer-shaped life pod. Once recovered, two aliens emerge…wearing suits, and speaking with British accents. One is clearly a male, and the other a female. His name is Durkani (a play on David Dukovney’s last name) and hers is Lyssa. We quickly see that these two are homages or parodies of Agents Mulder and Scully. He believes and she doubts. They attempt to take a hostage with intent to return to their planet with proof that we (their aliens, and the truth) are in fact out there. Their plan fails and they find themselves in the brig. Questioning, and the storyline unfolds from there.

Durkani and Lyssa’s story is that we (Earthlings) have been visiting their planet for centuries, quietly conspiring with their government to pacify the people. When things go wrong, when “necessary” budget cuts are made, when anything that could cause the government to be perceived as wrong, or if anything happens to make them unpopular, the blame is placed on the government’s need to protect the people from the powerful and negative influence of the Visitors. It sounds far-fetched and Gideon isn’t really buying it. There’s no record of Earth ever having contact with this race. In a quick couple of flashback scenes, supplementing Durkani’s story, clearly establishing them as Mulder and Scully, and in the second flashback, we’re also introduced to a mysterious man who appears to be their opponent in the search for the truth. Who could he be? The set up suggests he’s a tip of the hat to the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man or Cancer Man from the X-Files. Durkani even shows proof of prior contact, to include contentious and secret photos of things from Earth like blimps, a golf club, a photo of Mount Rushmore, and on their own planet, a humorous version of a crop circle in the shape of the American Flag.

Durkani’s amazing claims are further reinforced when a government official named Kendarr, also from this planet, approaches the Excalibur and is allowed to board. He’s the same fellow we saw earlier in the second flashback—his identity as the Cigarette Smoking Man is confirmed. He claims he is a law enforcement official there to take custody of Durkani and Lyssa, return them to the planet, and execute them for stealing a space ship with the ability to travel beyond their solar system. We’re treated to a brief and interesting discussion between Gideon and Kendarr about capital crimes. The story moves on quickly, leaving us to ponder the magnitude of that problem on our own, with Kendarr providing some additional information, leading the viewer to think the intended capital sentence isn’t really about the theft of a ship as much as it is about leaking the proof of their contact with an alien race. Kendarr is well-informed, explains his government has been aware of several other races for centuries (a confirmation of Durkani’s story), and is even conversant about hyperspace and Jump Gate technology. His government took power by blaming the outsiders for their problems, then pacified the people by tightly controlling this narrative, and excusing anything they did by claiming they’re doing so to protect the population from the evil aliens. They also reinforced the pacification by providing the people “addictive” things like pizza and ice cream to keep them content. He’s actually aware Earthlings aren’t the evil monsters they’ve been set us up to be, making this “first contact” a problem. The proof Durkani and Lyssa could bring back would quite possibly ruin the power the government currently holds. In explaining himself as a government official, Kendarr even nonchalantly makes the statement that the truth has never been in anyone’s best interest. Yikes! This is perhaps the larger and frankly very sinister message we’re left to ponder from this otherwise light-hearted episode. Oh, and Kendarr is distracted by…a smell?

A tussle ensues, prisoners run, and the source of the smell is discovered: a leaky sewage pipe. In the end, everyone is detained, and ultimately the visitors to the Excalibur are returned to their planet. As they depart, Kendarr’s final words are enhanced by—a cigarette. Yes indeed, he was the Cigarette Smoking Man! But our crew isn’t done just yet. In this slightly off-kilter world, Gideon decides he can’t leave things as they are. In a violation of the rules, he drops a number of probes on the planet, with information confirming who the Earthlings actually are, and that they’re not the evil Visitors the government had told the people they were.

Was it a filler episode? Seems so, overall. Was it fun? Absolutely. But it also had a few significant messages for us along the way. If the series had continued past the first 13 episodes, it would have been interesting to see if the heavier issues would have come back again as a part of the main storyline.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This would have been the third episode to air if JMS had his way., but we’re seeing it as the eleventh episode. Once again, we talk about things seem disconnected here (such as the relationship between Max and Dureena) based on “earlier” episodes, – but they really aren’t. One thing all three of us intend to do at some point is go back and rewatch the series in the order originally intended.

Consistent with Babylon 5, this story deals with a fairly common theme involving the use of moral authority, stated in this case by Captain Gideon as the friction between what is right (legal) and what is moral. As we’re “early” in the Crusade storyline, we see a Ranger come to Gideon and present him with a possible lead toward a cure. An individual from a planet called Praxis 9 has copied thousands of years of his (somewhat closed, or relatively unknown) culture’s information, apparently everything that’s important, and has fled in order to sell it to the right buyer for the right price. The fugitive was subsequently captured and his people have sent a ship to recover him. The Excalibur is closer, and if the determination is made that there might be scientific/medical value useful for curing the virus on Earth, the Excalibur could attempt to get there before the Praxis vessel, directly interfering with another race by taking custody of the fugitive then hopefully convincing him to release the information to Earth. The Ranger points out to Gideon that Praxis 9 is technically outside the jurisdiction of the Alliance, so in addition to violating the Alliance directive not to interfere with other races, risk exists in that if the mission is discovered and is attributable to an Alliance ship, the Alliance will disavow any knowledge. This would leave the crew of Excalibur at the mercy of the legal system of the Moradi race. Gideon has to make a decision whether or not he and the crew should do something illegal for the greater good (or needs of) Earth. He decides to accept the risk and the mission is on. To limit risk, Gideon and Dureena are the designated crew to contact and extract the fugitive (named Natchok Var).

The Moradi are understandably protective of the details of their culture, and Praxis 9 has a very hostile atmosphere, resulting in their cities being under several domes. We learn that Dureena has been here before, and she uses her past experience to open an exterior door to enter the dome where Natchok Var is held. As we’re introduced to the city, it appears to be a city-sized version of “Down Below” on B5, but with additional unsavory businesses, including an active slave market. It’s at this point we start to get an indication of Dureena’s past, as she shows a moment of hesitation when seeing the slave market. It’s easy to conclude she was once held as a slave here.

After a few distractions created to give the opportunity to grab Natchok Var, he’s quickly liberated and the team heads back to Excalibur…but not before the Moradi arrive. During the confrontation/exchange, the Moradi state they want to end the situation peacefully, and the time taken to work out the deal, two important things happen. First, we learn that Natchok Var’s actual intent is to preserve cultural information that his government is destroying in the name of removing things that aren’t “beneficial to the state”. (We referred to this as an example of “cancel culture”.) He tells the crew he’s willing to give the information away to the right people—it wasn’t stolen to sell. Second, he is moved by hearing Mozart, decides the crew of Excalibur are the right people, and gives them the data crystals to copy. In return he’ll give himself up, allowing the situation to end peacefully, and ensuring the data will survive. There’s a smaller moral issue that plays out during this as well, in that Gideon and crew wrestle with the concern that turning Natchok Var over to his government could result in an unfair trial or even his death. In the end, it’s his decision though and they see him depart. Their greatest fears are realized when they witness the Moradi warship destroy Natchok Var’s shuttle once it’s clear of Excalibur. Perhaps this encourages them though that gaining a copy of the information on the data crystals made Natchok Var’s sacrifice worthwhile.

What was remarkable in the end, after Dr. Chambers did an initial review of the data, she realized there was “nothing scientifically useful” on the crystals. Instead the data all captured the Moradi arts. Your hosts agreed that this is a tragic view of the value of the arts expressed through the fictional Moradi government, and seen at times through our own (real world) human history, where the arts have been downplayed and even destroyed in various places and at various times.

Finally, the episode ends with what still would have been significant, initial character development for Dureena. In an exchange between her and Gideon, we learn that Dureena wasn’t just held as a slave on Praxis 9. Tragically, her own family sold her into slavery to pay off debts. Wow!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

As mentioned previously, the previous episode was intended to be the premiere for the series, and this episode was intended to air third. 

This episode kicks off with Jane (our favorite actress Maggie Egan!) talking about how the Rangers are scouting for leads on potential cures, with the military research vessel Excalibur following up on specific leads. This explains why in earlier episodes (as aired) it seemed the Excalibur was sort of wondering around, almost purposelessly or without any real focus or urgency. Here, the Excalibur arrives at a planet, sends probes into the atmosphere, and begins plans to send crew members to the surface. However, Galen appears and warns them not to go: those who go will die. As this storyline unfolds, we learn that many have gone to this planet before, including Technomages, and all have died.  In a tender moment, Galen explains he’s being as pushy as he is because he views Gideon and the crew of Excalibur as his family.

Warnings considered, Gideon and crew head to the surface, risking death for information that might prove useful toward finding a cure for the Drakh virus on Earth. As camp is set up, we’re shown a sort of graffiti on some walls, and Dureena immediately does what she does: explore and seek information that wouldn’t be easily obtained by others. She finds an interesting data crystal and brings it back to the others, and shortly thereafter, an IPX employee working for Max dies. Someone or something has slashed her throat. Then several others die.

Max takes the data crystal and begins working to decipher what’s on it, and translates the written planetary language. We learn the graffiti means “behold and die”. Galen links himself to some of the remaining probes dropped by Excalibur and also makes an important discovery: there is an artificial virus at work. On that virus: a symbol, sigil, a signature of sorts, that Galen immediately recognizes and causes him to become furious. The virus was created using Technomage technology, and becomes active at night, reprogramming itself to adjust to the beings infected, causing them to kill themselves. With only a few hours left before dark, he grabs a very cool tool of his trade, a unique staff, and heads below the surface to find what drives the virus.

Back on the Excalibur, the team returned with samples (actually “buckets” of the nano virus, and Doc Chambers found a way to incorporate it into a compound that could be used as a temporary vaccine. A promising discovery! Excalibur is ready to depart, but Gideon is told there’s one shuttle remaining away, but imminently returning to return to the ship. With all shuttles previously accounted for, he questions why one left and went back to the surface. That’s when Dureena walks back in and we see why she made the quick trip back to the planet. Remember, she’s a thief, and has even been called a “tunnel rat”. Well, our favorite tunnel rat found her way back down to the control chamber Galen had destroyed, recovered his staff, and brought it back to him.

The show ends with Gideon consulting the Apocalypse Box again. In a troubling moment, we see the box caution him, “Do not trust.” When asked, the Box elaborates: Galen…

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The Excalibur’s crew is on a planet seeking the cure to the plague on Earth, Max is making a number of discoveries, but with little medical advancement, and Dr. Chambers has discovered there are at least 30 kinds of DNA present.

Galen is missing (for the moment), with his absence attributed to being a Technomage, and Dureena is climbing through tunnels where she discovers what appears to be a giant machine. She’s called back to the surface without the immediate chance to tell the others what she’s looking at. Time passes, and it eventually surfaces that the people of the planet are cryogenically dormant—sleeping—with a single being awake and taking care of the machine. The storyline takes a sinister turn when the caretaker tells Gideon and crew why the population is asleep: they were also infected with the plague that now haunts the Earth. They had been trying for four years to lure others to the planet, then experimenting on them even to the point of death, in hopes that they’d find a cure. The episode places ethics of science and experimentation in front of us to ponder: is it okay to kill some in order to save many more?

When Excalibur tries to depart, the ship is grabbed by a tractor beam and starts being pulled to the surface. In order to escape, Gideon rotates the front of the ship toward the surface where the beam originates, and fires the main gun. The tractor beam fails and the ship recovers control in time to prevent its destruction in the planet’s atmosphere.

As the ship and crew depart, Galen asks Gideon how he picked this particular planet to search. Gideon’s response: “I have my sources.” As the show ends, we’re shown his source…a mysterious, glowing box that we already know is the Apocalypse Box, previously won in a game of cards. We’re left wondering what this box really is, how it works, and why Captain Gideon trusts it.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Max works on deciphering symbols assumed to be the written language of the race onboard the ghost ship. When he he realizes what he might be looking at, infected crew members nearby hear him and they’re not happy with his discovery.  Max tells Gideon an alien presence gained access to the other ship and the alien crew vented their atmosphere trying to kill the invasive species. However they moved into a single host  to survive. Now they are infecting Gideon’s crew one by one.

In an interesting turn of events, the hostile alien presence again attempts to consolidate into a single host thanks to a plan by the crew, and during the moments of desperation, it comes across an unconscious human crew member who is also in a space suit. It quickly removes his glove, touches him, and transfers into his unconscious body.  Now trapped, internally it tries to tell Gideon it knows what he is looking for (the cure) but is unable to speak.

Our crew starts to get back to normal life—but with the addition of new uniforms, courtesy of the flamboyant designer.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The Excalibur is on a voyage that has a deliberate connection to finding a cure for the plague and our crew finds themselves on Babylon 5 to work gaining access to a planet called Lorka 7. Max quickly runs into someone he probably didn’t want to see: his ex-wife. Gideon quickly finds himself arguing with the Brakiri for access to a planet they are the guardians for.  The reason given why he can’t the visit the planet: rules regarding a religious order and the risk of their purity being compromised by corrupt visitors. Even so, we learn that it’s okay for the Lorkans to be on Babylon 5 because they’re “incorruptible.”

Max’s ex-wife (Cynthia) asks him to bail her out of an outrageous debt she got herself into. Max decides to help her out and pays off the original loan amount, calling the interest on the loan “extortion”, apparently feeling his ex should get an exception to the terms of the loan. Mueller turns his attention to Max, kidnapping his cat Mr. Kitty.

The Lorkan plan to kill Gideon (and apparently also Lochley since she’s with him on a sort of date) also fails. Max ends up confronting Mueller and puts an explosive collar on him: one that will explode if he gets too close to Max or his ex. Max tells Mueller he’ll return the cat, bathed.

As the show wraps up, the Lorkans reveal that our two corrupt emissaries were actually running some sort of criminal scheme on Lorka 7, and feared that a visit from Gideon and crew would have revealed it. Now caught, the planetary leadership allows them to visit, knowing they’re “corrupt” but acknowledging that purity without temptation is meaningless. The visit will allow both sides to gain something valuable. As things wrap up, Max and his ex part in peace, and his cat is returned safely.

Kind of a wild and frivolous episode. It had it’s odd issues, but overall it was kind of fun.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The episode opens on Mars, where we find Captain Lochley and Gideon together in advance of a conference convened to discuss the Drakh plague. Gideon is there since he’s the captain of the Excalibur; Lochley has been called away from Babylon 5 to head up the event security.  She confidently declares the event “perfectly safe.” — Oh boy! Early in the episode we also see several tips of the hat to Ray Bradbury, starting with a visible street sign for Bradbury Street.

Lochley and Gideon seem slightly flirtatious, Max and our old friend Trace seem to be squabbling over a chance to gain Dureena’s affection, and Dr. Chambers isn’t immune to what may be advances from others either. It’s not clear why everyone seems so interested in the affection of others, but outside of the seriousness of the conference, things are somewhat lighthearted…until violence strikes. A brutally murdered victim seems to have something to do with a shady Foundationst priest named Dr. Lebecque and a sketchy religious order called Sacred Omega. The decision is made to transport the body to Excalibur to attempt to reduce visibility and gossip about what could be perceived as a threat to the conference. As with having Lochley head the security effort, the reasoning for moving the autopsy off-world seems a bit weak, but it’s used to set up time to hear about Trace’s past. He was going to be a priest at one point and has a connection with Lebceque. As for Lebecque, he seems unstable as he’s hearing and responding to a voice in his head that seems to be encouraging him to consider the Drakh plague a result of the will of God, driving him to consider ending the anti-plague event by killing everyone present, preventing them from thwarting God’s will. He’s listening.

There’s more social interaction between Lochley and Gideon, and what appears to be a romantic interest forming. In a comical moment, Gideon divulges to Lochley that his hero is John Sheridan; Lochley divulges to him that she used to be married to Sheridan. (Awkward!) Trace and Max are still squabbling over Dureena (she’s not interested), Trace has had too much to drink and isn’t holding up well, and eventually stumbles outside.

Based on the prompting of the voice, Lebecque has a bomb rigged and ready to detonate to kill all those who can contribute to curing the plague who are in attendance, and as things come to a head, Trace’s prior knowledge of Lebecque from his days entering the priesthood pay dividends. They run a pretty cheesy but successful bluff to convince Lebecque to back off his plan, everyone is saved, and we learn the voice in his head is Joan of Arc. The episode ends with Lochley inviting Gideon to swing by Babylon 5 if he’s ever in the area, and as the credits roll we hear…dogs and cats?

In the end, this was a fairly obscure episode, in that the title refers to a play written by T.S. Eliot. A line from that play is also quoted toward the end of the episode. At least one of your hosts couldn’t cleanly connect the episode to the point of the play (the temptation and death of Archbishop Becket of Canterbury, in 1170). We tried to piece the connections between the episode and the play together, but probably not with much success. Overall, it wasn’t very clear what the episode added, but it definitely provided a little humor and some additional character development for several of our main characters. It definitely established the beginning of what could be an interesting personal relationship between Lochley and Gideon.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Once again the crew is taken off the path to find a cure for the Drakh plague. The Excalibur is sent to Theta 49 where there is concern a small group of colonists might be contaminated with the plague. Gideon receive orders to find the colonists and bring them back to Earth—an unusual request. If they’re actually contaminated, it would be relatively simple to quarantine this secluded planet.

As Excalibur arrives, we get a glimpse of one of the colonists interacting with a representative of what appears to be an indigenous population. This elder tells the colonist that he should take his people away so that his own people can live, suggesting the local population already knows the colonists are infected.

After a quick dowsing in a protective mist to protect them from the virus, members of the crew go to the surface to make contact with the colonists. They’re informed that the colonists left Earth before the Drakh plague was dispensed, but the settlers agree to be tested for confirmation.

As the drama unfolds, we learn there are dissenting views among the colonists, with Mr. Black offering to his people they might want to go back. We also hear the dissenting view that going back might mean they’d be locked up again after the discovery of “who and what we are.” We don’t yet know what this means, but it gives us a little more insight into why the Excalibur is ordered to bring them back.

Meanwhile, Dureena finds another camp—not Earthlings—and quickly discovers she’s found a surviving remnant of her own people, previously unknown to be on Theta 49. Quickly we learn that the colonists are infected even though there’s confirmation they did leave Earth before the release of the Drakh virus. With a new problem to be solved, Dr. Chambers suits up and goes in to examine the waste disposal system for clues about how the colonists ended up infected. Gideon uses special access to gain information and learns that the colonists have cybernetic enhancements courtesy of an activity called the Bioweapons Division. This makes them dangerous, especially since they’re living weapons. This further complicates the plot in that it seems Earth’s military leadership would be happy they’ve isolated themselves. The mystery is solved when Dr. Chambers discovers that the solders were deliberately infected through their food. If this were ever discovered and made public, it would be a significant blemish on Earth’s military leadership.

Armed with this information, Gideon comes up with a plan and stages the destruction of the colonists (BOOM!) to provide cover for them to remain outside of Earth’s control. We also learn that the survivors from Dureena’s world are also infected. Unfortunately the virus works much more quickly on them than on a human. Dureena pleads to leave them alone. In the end, Gideon reports back to Earth that the planet will be quarantined to protect the previously unknown indigenous population, allowing the now “dead” Earth colonists to live out the remainder of their lives in peace as well. After all, Gideon’s public orders were to prevent the spread of the virus.

A quick note about the B-Story here. Our friend Max from IPX has been under some pressure to report back what the Excalibur has been finding. We’ve watched him fail at this so far, but now he has the chance to give them something interesting about Theta 49. He queues up a report divulging the info he has on the planet, including about the people there, and in a moment of strength of conscience, he deletes it rather than sending it, protecting Dureena’s people and the colonists. Are we seeing some depth developing in Max’s character?

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

In this episode, your hosts agree this felt like the usual B5 episode we’ve come to love.  We also find the crew of the Excalibur on what appears to be a legitimate mission focused on finding a cure for the Drakh plague:  a relatively unknown world that also happens to be a place of healing.

Upon arrival, the team finds a strange alien apparently entombed in a vessel, that has the ability to grant forgiveness and therefore a release from the emotional burden carried by others.  We then see this creature begin to heal members of the crew by interacting with them one at a time.  First Captain Gideon wrestles with the loss of his entire ship and crew when he was a new officer.  He survived because he was outside the ship when it was lost and was picked up by a Technomage ship—Galen’s ship.  Here we also get the backstory of when Galen and Gideon first met.  We see some subsequent trauma (and drama), but ultimately the issue Gideon needs to be forgiven for comes to the surface—at a minimum he seems to be suffering from survivor’s guilt.  Through the mental link he has with the creature, he is told he’s forgiven.

Next, Matheson has his encounter with the creature.  In his past, and during the rise of the Resistance in the Babylon 5 series, he was a young Psi Corps employee (but not a Psi Cop) and the custodian for a Psi Corps prisoner being held for interrogation.  The prisoner (a leader in the Resistance) convinces him that she’s being held unjustly, and that once the Psi Corps gets what they want from her, she’ll be killed.  The Resistance was gaining traction and the Corps was desperate to find a way to curtail their progress.  In the end, he helps the prisoner and we learn Matheson was a wild card in the Resistance’s ultimate ability to beat the Psi Corps.  We also learn she’s carrying a beacon, allowing the Resistance to successfully find and attack the Psi Corps base.  Matheson had never told anyone about this betrayal; the mysterious creature frees him and tells him he’s forgiven.

Galen is next to face the creature.  Galen’s pain was a bit different.  The love of his life is wounded and ultimately dies, leaving Galen alone.  As she departs, she tells him that the universe has a purpose and that one day he will need to learn to forgive God for his decisions.  She also promises him that if there is a way after she’s gone, she’ll call to Galen, say his name and send him a message.  Rather than embracing the encouragement of his dying friend, the loss drove Galen to a deep anger toward God and a denial that there is any real, meaningful purpose  in the universe.  Unlike with Gideon and Matheson, Gideon isn’t in need of forgiveness; he needs to forgive.

As the episode wraps up, a message arrives for Galen.  This is particularly interesting since no one other than the crew of Excalibur knows Galen is onboard the ship.  The computer says it didn’t come from any specific location: just “out there.”  The message was simple.  It contained his name and the word LOVE.  Galen denies this is possible as we’re reminded of the words Isabelle spoke to him, “If there is a purpose, if there is a design, if there is a way after I’m gone, I will call to you and say your name, and send you a message.  And you will know I was right.”

The planet provided healing, but not the kind Earth needs to cure the plague.  Even so, Gideon and Matheson received the healing they needed.  Sadly, it remains to be seen if Galen will ever be healed.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Things kick off quickly, and a little ominously, with a Psi Corps ship approaching the Excalibur. We’re introduced to Mr. Jones, a Psi Cop of sorts, who is there to perform a scan and review of the First Officer, Mr. Matheson. We learn that the Senate has abolished Psi Corps (at least as we knew it, even though Jones’ ship is prominently marked with the Psi Corps logo and he wears a Psi Corps pin) but has apparently retained a form of the organization akin to an Internal Affairs activity, that ensures telepaths who now live among the Normals aren’t abusing their abilities. That said, through the episode we watch unethical behavior from Mr. Jones that rivals any of the abuses of power we saw in Babylon 5.

This takes place while the Excalibur is under way to a mysterious location within Hyperspace—a little known and understood place called The Well of Forever. Galen talks Captain Gideon into tying his ship and the Excalibur’s navigation systems together to find and reach the Well by suggesting there might be something there that could help contribute to the cure of the plague on Earth. What that might be is a mystery, as are most things that Galen appears to know. With Gideon convinced, the ships are connected and the search begins.

Jones conducts his scan of Matheson in a less than professional way, while mentioning Matheson is a sort of folk hero, who therefore requires additional oversight. Jones almost sounds jealous, but may also be using this as an excuse to look for something valuable that has nothing to do with his official duties. When the scan is complete, Matheson complains to Jones that he violated the rules and obtained “operational information”. Jones simply dismisses this, using his authority to threaten Matheson to be quiet.

Excalibur reaches the expected location of the Well only to find it’s not there. The agreement was that if the Well wasn’t there, Excalibur would immediately return to normal space. When Gideon tells Galen they’re turning around only to learn Galen has hijacked the Excalibur’s navigation system so that he could continue the search without interference from the crew. This was a significant betrayal of trust and Gideon tells him it’s mutiny. Galen doesn’t appear to care. They find the Well of Forever shortly after this exchange, but the damage is done to the relationship. We learn the Well is a sort of burial ground and Gideon’s motive for seeing it out at any expense was a promise he made to a loved one to carry her remains there for burial. They learn that the structure of the Well contains significant and rare elements, and a solid core of Quantium 40—the stuff Jump Gates are made of and rely on, but nothing that appears to be of any value in terms of helping to cure the plague. This adds to Gideon’s frustration as he realizes Galen knew this and the suggestion there might be something that could help save Earth was also a lie. Galen lied to get the Captain to agree to make the voyage, already knowing that once that happened, he’d hijack the ship. Now that the mission is complete, Galen returns control of the Excalibur to Gideon and they safely depart.

During these events, Matheson told Gideon that during his scan, Jones took operational data—something he wasn’t authorized to do, nor did he have an official need for. Gideon, with the help of Dureena, puts a plan in place to confront Mr. Jones. As things wind down, that confrontation occurs in a manner that causes Mr. Jones to admit he was scanning people without authority. Gideon then holds this over his head to ensure no bad report will go out about Matheson, nor will operational data about the ship’s mission (specifically about the Well of Forever) will be released.

Having broken the Captain’s trust, Galen is going to depart the ship and suggests to Gideon he won’t return unless welcomed. Gideon reminds him of his betrayal and that while he kept his honorable promise to his dead friend to get her to the Well of Forever, he acted without honor to do so. Galen seemed to think the ends justify the means; Gideon didn’t agree—nor did your hosts. We’re left wondering if Galen will ever be able to restore the trust others had placed in him.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

While is is the second episode broadcast, JMS intended for this to be episode 6, so if you feel like you might have missed some of the development of the crew’s storyline, you know why.

Why is this mine so important? And is there really a dragon? Turns out an old friend of Galen’s is also on the planet – a fellow technomage, Alwyn, who is doing his best to temper the frustration and anger of the villagers with the desire for the Earth Force folks to stop mining and leave. With a sense of desperation lurking among the Earth Force members, conflict seems inevitable. When additional Earth Force troops arrive, they’re taken hostage, reinforcing the perspectives of leadership on Medusa.

Alwyn pushes for the release of the hostages, and in an almost predictable turn of events, a young girl in the village falls ill, due to dust from the mine, bolstering the attitudes of the villagers about the need to rid themselves of the mine and Earth Force troops. The threat to her health is confirmed by Dr. Chambers onboard Excalibur, and we also learn that this same problem will eventually threaten the entire population. Tensions are definitely high. When Alwyn warns the villagers that holding hostages will only work against them, they won’t relent. He tells them they’ve forced him to take care of the problem his way, and they’ll have to live with the consequences. Without telling them what he’s doing, he goes to the mind and appears to be using his powers to directly threaten the Medusa. Medusa orders Excalibur to fire on him, which they do, destroying the mine and apparently killing Alwyn. BOOM! While the mine is now gone, they must now live without their wise advisor.

Calmer heads prevail and the villagers agree to help Earth Force find a better location to mine for the mineral that might save Earth, and won’t threaten the health of the people on Regula 4. Then, as the episode ends, we discover that Alwyn may not be as dead as he appeared…

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The show opens with a nice and concise recap of the events that brought us to the start of this series. Earth is quarantined after being contaminated by the Drakh virus we saw released at the end of A Call to Arms, and humanity as we know it has an estimated five years or so to find a cure, or die. With loose plans afoot to start the search for a cure, Captain Gideon, with his ship and crew have been ordered back to Earth. As the show begins, we see his crew attempting to mutiny (BOOM!) to prevent going back, apparently considering in a panic that the only reason they’re returning is to go back to the surface and be exposed.

Things quiet down and Gideon meets with his leadership to receive his new assignment: he will become the captain of the Excalibur, now designated as a research and exploration vessel, with the mission to find a cure. He is given a new crew, chosen for him, but quickly establishes that he won’t take the mission without his First Officer from his old ship, and also the addition of Dureena the thief. The new cast/crew is established.

Elsewhere, we see an Earth Force destroyer chasing down a Drakh vessel they believe was one of the ships that attacked Earth and released the virus. Following some more BOOM, the Drakh ship ends up crashing on Ceti 4. Ensuring the word gets back through a jerry-rigged beacon, we see handsome, daring men in flight jackets, with chiseled jaws and voices that at times sound almost like they’re from a movie from the 1940s or 50s rather than a TV show made in the 1990s and set in the 2200s. (A bit much? Maybe.) We also hear about the continuing tensions created by the power of giant companies vs. governments, and specifically IPX (from our previous reviews). The Excalibur still needs to complete testing / trials but now, due to the urgency of finding the cure, we see the ship and crew being tugged from mission to mission. We also see the return of Galen (the Technomage). While you can make the connections yourself to the ultimate mission of the ship, initially it seems we keep seeing Excalibur taking care of business that isn’t quite a direct line toward solving the problem. It wasn’t clear to us if this was a rapid attempt to create a sense of urgency, a way to quickly introduce us to the new crew as they work through a series of issues, or just a choppy start to the new storyline. In the end, we all agreed that as with any new series, we should give it several episodes to find its groove.

Excalibur races to Ceti 4, and we also see that the Drakh have help on the way too. The result is we get some more BOOM, perhaps as a reason to show there the Excalibur either had a few weapons we didn’t get to see before, or possibly some quick upgrades that were made to its secondary guns. The main gun (which we see fired) still drains the ship of power though, resulting in a minute of vulnerability as the necessary power levels are restored.

As the episode ends, Galen is waiting for Captain Gideon, and Gideon asks him for help. We also hear some familiar questions from Galen, and Captain Gideon’s answers:

What do you want? To find a cure for the Drakh plague.
Where are you going? Anywhere I have to.
Who do you serve, and who do you trust? I don’t know.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

After the last movie we reviewed, this one was refreshing and felt like it comfortably belonged with the series.  As the movie opens we see Delenn is the Vice President, and we learn Sheridan has been keeping below the radar.  We quickly see why:  he’s been involved in the creation of a new hybrid Minbari-Human-Vorlon technology destroyer class of ship.  There are two prototypes complete (Excalibur and Victory) and the time has come for Sheridan to see the fruit of the work.  He boards the Excalibur and we’re introduced to Mr. Drake, the lead engineer, who will guide Sheridan’s orientation.

Things get tense right away when it becomes clear to Sheridan and Garibaldi that the demonstration flight will be the first time the ship has operated out of dock—there was never a shakedown cruise to confirm engines and systems work as designed.  With the likelihood that something will go wrong, Mike is mad, and Mr. Drake gets a little more time to ensure the ship is ready to sail.  While all this is going on, Sheridan receives a message from Delenn, takes it in a private room, and we get our first indication something is amiss.  The message wasn’t from Delenn at all.  Instead, it was a jumbled series of images, and Sheridan ends up zoned out for a half hour, only interrupted when Mike comes in to check on him.  Thinking he had just stepped into the room, he’s surprised to hear Mike tell him he had been there for 30 minutes, but explains away the lapse in memory by saying something was simply wrong with the message.  Later, he’s visited by Galen in a dream and shown a vision of a place called Daltron 7.

On B5, a dangerous (and very interesting) woman called Dureena arrives, with an apparent fascination with knives that surfaces when Security checks her.  She clears Security and asks a simple and odd question:  Where do the lost people go?  The answer:  Down Below.  She’s on her way and in short order we discover she’s a member of the Thieve’s Guild, and meets with the local group on B5.  Later, she’s also visited in a dream and told to “choose her target wisely.”

The demonstration of the new ship goes as well as can be expected, but with two disturbing events occurring:  Sheridan is visited again by Galen, told about the Techno-mages, and warned of a coming attack on Earth by a race called the Drakh (a subservient ally of the Shadows); and when the Excalibur’s main guns are fired, it drains the entire ship’s systems resulting in a total loss of power and rendering the ship vulnerable for at least 60 seconds. Regarding the Drakh, it seems they’re planning to take the Shadow’s place, and take revenge on the Earth for its role in the demise of their former Shadow masters.  Sheridan has also been sketching the busts of three unknown people, and has Mike looking into the mysterious Daltron 7.  In short order Sheridan meets Dureena when he passes by B5 to explain the emerging threat to Earth to Captain Lockley, and realizes she’s one of the people she’s had visions of and sketched a picture of.  Her connection?  She’s one of the few (if not the only) surviving members of her race after the Shadows destroyed her planet in the Shadow War.  She joins Sheridan.  An Earth Alliance ship also arrives and is commanded by Captain Anderson, the second person Sheridan had sketched a picture of.  He’s also been having visions similar to Sheridan’s, he’s convinced him to come along, and the two of them concoct a plan to use both prototype destroyers to attempt to save the Earth.  They slip away from B5 unnoticed.  They’ll visit Daltron 7, and then find a way to confront the Drahk to prevent them from using a planet killer on Earth like the one used on Dureena’s home world.  They slip away from B5 unnoticed, and in some cleverly orchestrated moves, steal the Excalibur and Victory, and our three heroes (Sheridan, Sherman and Dureena) head toward Daltron 7 before Mike (now chasing them) catches up.

Arriving at Daltron 7, they find the planet destroyed, and a dead Drazi with an important recording.  The Drazi is the third person Sheridan had sketched out.  They take the recording and go, and almost immediately end up confronted by Drahk fighters, who don’t appear to recognize the ships and therefore don’t just attack right away.  As they negotiate with Dureena, she attempts to bluff.  It was good, but the Drahk don’t believe her.  It appears they’ve been tipped off by someone!  A big black hole (a null field) appears in space and the Drahk run in.  Sheridan decides to fire into the hole and pursue.  When he emerges on the other side he discovers an incredibly large fleet ready to go on the offensive, with a planet killer weapon prepared for Earth.  He hastily withdraws, calls to fill Lockley in on the threat, and makes an appeal to her to contact Earth and plead the case to have the fleet position itself around the planet to fight.  Meanwhile, Mike arrives at the secret base where Excalibur and Victory were, learns that the ships are gone and with some hesitation, brings Mr. Drake along as his pursuit continues.  Shortly after this, he discovers the leak—none other than Mr. Drake—who has traded away humanity for what he believes is a better and safer deal with the Drahk.

Given the size and lethality of the attacking fleet, Excalibur and Victory arrive at Earth pleased to see the message got through and the fleet was in position.  Shortly after, the attack begins.  Given the size of the attacking force, along with the fight happening so close to Earth, Captain Anderson has a plan that just might work:  the Earth fleet with punch a hole for Victory and Excalibur, who can then use their more powerful weapons to destroy the planet killer.  He hole is made, but somehow when Excalibur fires, it misses the actual ship carrying the planet killer.  With no time left, Victory rams the control center of the attacking force, destroying the weapon.

Just when it appears all is well, however, the Drahk begin doing something else, effectively spraying the surface of the Earth with…something.  As the movie begins to close, we learn that it’s a biogenetic plague, engineered by the Shadows, but not optimized for use on humans.  The result, humanity has five years to attempt to find a cure, or perish.  The movie ends with the decision to use Excalibur as a search and research ship, and humanity begins a crusade to find the cure, setting the stage for the follow-on series “Crusade”.

Now that the movies are complete, Raul, Jim and JP will finish out the television-based Babylon 5 story by watching and reviewing the one-season series “Crusade”.  Please stay with us as we work our way through this final bit of television content!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The consensus from your hosts going in was this may be the least favorite of the movies we’ve looked at. As we’ve seen with other movies in the set, the volume of content in the movie probably warranted an episode-length effort, but it was drawn out to fill the time required of a feature-length film. There was so much promise for some incredible Ranger-focused story, providing real depth to a very interesting character set in the B5 universe. We were a little disappointed. The movie opens with some boom, and with a new ship, a new threat, and a mystery that the Interstellar Alliance has discovered: or perhaps awakened.

The storyline for the movie begins when we see a Ranger (David Martel), who chooses to withdraw and survive a lost battle to fight again another day, being reprimanded and punished for staying alive. At this time in the history of the Rangers, with the Shadow War behind them and so far from a credible interstellar threat, there is emphasis on the Ranger’s motto—an oath—that obligates them to “live for the one, and die for the one.” G’Kar, still a delegate for his world, is present on Minbar and takes the opportunity to add his thoughts (wisdom) to the debate about the Ranger’s fate, resulting in some softer options for how to punish Martel for surviving.

We learn the new ship we saw is called the Valen: a first-of-a-kind cruiser class Ranger vessel, with capabilities different from the White Stars. Another ship is also brought into the story: an old Ranger attack ship called the “Liandra”, supposedly haunted by its former crew who died onboard. As a result of the discussions about Martel’s future, he is detailed to command the old and under-maintained Liandra, along with a small, rag-tag crew. The little bit of background we get about this diverse crew could have been (should have been?) a much more significant and interesting part of the story, but this is one of the places movie fell short. The Liandra and Valen launch on mission to take an Alliance delegation to a secret conference on Beta Durani 7.

They arrive to discover the colony destroyed, and they’re attacked by three vessels sent from a previously unknown entity called The Hand. Both ships end up disabled, the dignitaries are moved to the Liandra (living for the one), and in a heroic effort the Valen is destroyed when it rams one of the threat ships (dying for the one) to allow the survival of the dignitaries.

The last half of the movie revolves around learning more about The Hand, and how to deal with the threat. The Hand appears to be another old race (never mentioned in the original series or other movies) who have arrived from another space (but not Thirdspace)—a place of apparent total darkness. We also learn there’s a traitor onboard the Liandra and among the Alliance ambassadorial delegation, further frustrating the effort to defeat the threat.

When it’s all said and done, The Hand is defeated through a plan involving a minefield, selectively shooting mines, the use of grenades, and a race back to the nearest Jump Gate. When the battle is over, our heroes have destroyed The Hand’s capital ship with 50 grenades, making this whole part of the storyline almost comical. The known universe is saved, and as things begin to wrap up back on Minbar, the Council seems apologetic for its earlier philosophical stubbornness, closing the loop on what may be a more balanced approach to the motto: to live for the one and die for the one; and attempting to make it clear why the movie’s subtitle was “To Live and Die in Starlight”.

Was it hideous? No. Was it good? Not really. There was a lot of promise with what the story was built around, but if the movie was intended to sell someone on the production of a new series, it miserably failed. Frankly, it was surprising to us that it was written by JMS, and left us with the impression the movie may have actually convinced producers that he wasn’t really serious about this concept as a new series.

Please join us next time as we review the final movie of the set: A Call to Arms.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The movie kicks off with an awkward Indiana Jones type of character (Dr. Bryson), who is nowhere near as cool or polished as Indy. He’s looking for something specific, with a clear indication that something bad is going to happen. We quickly learn this reckless archeologist is after an object called a soul orb. With his prize in hand, it appears to communicate with him, but we don’t know if he understands or perhaps he’s deluded. With protective systems functioning, he has to flee to protect himself and the orb he’s stolen.

Meanwhile, there’s a quiet moment on Babylon 5: or is there? We catch a glimpse of a vendor running a holographic brothel and quickly conclude that the relative calm may become a storm. This is more assured when Michael Garibaldi shows up on the station to deal with a business matter related to something Edgars had begun: a project called Life Eternal that Dr. Bryson belongs to, and the orb he’s stolen has some relationship to this business—now Michael’s business. Michael wants preliminary data on what’s been discovered, while Dr. Bryson continues his deeper analysis. The attempts at deeper analysis follow in some fairly clumsy scenes where the good doctor seems to know all he needs to do is apply high voltage to the orb to discover more and communicate with it.

Picking up the brothel storyline again (making it predictably clear this storyline will intertwine with the orb storyline), there’s some sort of problem with the brothel resulting in Zack being turned loose on the problem, and making an internal business problem a larger one. Seems this business isn’t operating legally. If it is, then it’s just barely legal. In light of the attention this illicit business is receiving, the vendor’s lawyer shows up and begins trying to make trouble for the station.

Then a Soul Hunter arrives, looking for something stolen by Dr. Bryson—the orb. It appears this orb contains souls under the protective custody of the Soul Hunters and Bryson is putting them at risk. Shortly thereafter, we learn that a planet’s worth of souls are contained in the orb. Dr. Bryson is making the argument that they are being held prisoner while the Soul Hunter argues they are being “preserved and continued” rather than allowing them to simply pass from existence. Regardless, the souls are angry. With a Soul Hunter onboard the station attempting to return them to bondage, and no apparent way to elude the Soul Hunter, the angry souls convince Dr. Bryson to destroy the station. In their words, “better to destroy the station and embrace the darkness than to go back with them.”

With some souls having escaped the orb, they begin to wreak havoc in a variety of ways, to include occupying characters in the holo brothel. In an effort to intervene, the brothel is destroyed, Lochley is hurt and in a coma, and is pulled into the orb where she learns the truth about the imprisonment of these souls. The orb is in fact an unintentional prison for a billion souls who were captured by the Soul Hunters through a horrible misunderstanding. Thinking these people were dying and going extinct, they were captured and entombed right at the moment of apparent death. Sadly, they were actually freeing themselves from the constraints of their bodies and evolving beyond the physical (like the Vorlons), but instead ended up captive within the orb. Many had gone mad over time, and all now want to exact revenge or die, or both. Lochley comes out of the coma and informs the crew, and the Soul Hunter, of what she’s learned just as a fleet of Soul Hunters arrive to back up their agent. In great sorrow, the Soul Hunter already onboard the station is convinced of the error and takes the side of the B5 crew and the souls in the orb, now working to correct the thinking of the arriving fleet, and to free the souls.

The story begins to wrap up as Dr. Bryson continues to try and destroy the station by detonating the station’s reactor. Captain Lochley and the Soul Hunter attempt to save the station and free the souls. They find Dr. Bryson with the orb at the reactor, and in an act of sacrifice, the Soul Hunter forfeits his own life to prevent the destruction of the station, saving the orb and the life of Dr. Bryson.

The movie ends on a lighter note when Captain Lochley explains the finer points of why the loss of the holo brothel doesn’t come with a burden of guilt for the station or Lochley.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

G’Kar and Delenn set things in motion through their opening monologues and the show kicks off with Centauri Prime in flames. Emperor Mollari is old and still on the throne, sad and alone in his thoughts. He’s interrupted by two kids (Luke and Lisa) and their nursemaid, who humbly apologizes for the unintended interruption. Londo assures her it’s okay and asks the kids, “What do you want?” Luke wants to hear a story, and Londo quietly suggests that the boy did better answering that (dangerous) question than Londo did. With that question we’re reminded of the Shadows and Londo’s role significant responsibility for the war with the Shadows. But this isn’t the story Londo will tell. Instead he takes us back to Earth’s first contact with the Minbari, and the Earth-Minbari War.

Londo is a young ambassador to Earth when the military becomes aware of the Minbari. Plans are formed for contact, and Londo warns them that the Minbari should be avoided. Emboldened by what Earth believed was a significant military victory, they dismiss Londo’s warning and tell him, “The decision’s already been made.” Londo’s parting comments to the Earth’s military leadership are that he hopes, “In your stumbling around, you don’t wake the dragon.”

We learn the Rangers are something akin to an aging and hollow force, originally postured to stand against the Shadows. They now languish due to the long-time absence of the threat and a growing dismissal and even disbelief in Valen’s prophecies that pointed them at the coming conflict. With disbelief running strong, the Grey Council decides to settle the matter of the likelihood of the Shadow threat by checking on a verifiable part of Valen’s prophecy and setting out for Z’ha’dum. In a brief moment of happiness for us as fans, we see Delenn become a member of the Grey Council. Then tragedy when the Earth and Minbari expeditions encounter each other.

BOOM!

Through a series of arrogant decisions and misunderstandings, we once again see the beginning of the Earth-Minbari War, and Delenn’s emotional direction given in response to Earth’s forces firing on the Minbari fleet to counter attack and “show no mercy.” In short order we learn that Minbari forces are decimating Earth’s.

As desperation grows, two key things happen: Delenn learns of the relationship between humans and Minbari—they share souls, and realizes that they can’t continue to kill the Earthlings due to the edict that Minbari don’t kill Minbari. In an early exchange with the Vorlons (here’s where they first appear chronologically!), Delenn also learns that the humans are critical to a victory against the Shadows in the upcoming war. She begins to work to find an acceptable way to stop the war with Earth, without betraying the still secret relationship with the Vorlons, all as the Battle of the Line approaches. Meanwhile in desperation, Earth approaches the Narn in an effort to acquire advanced weapons, without which Earth will lose and humans quite likely exterminated as a race.

A series of events unfold that place Sheridan in charge of combat forces, and Delenn is sending Lenonn to negotiate peace by arranging a meeting through the Narn. As the battle continues, nukes are involved (BOOM!) and Sheridan scores a significant and needed victory to boost morale. He also receives a new mission and finds himself in a meeting with G’Kar and Franklin. Lenonn makes the meeting just in time to be killed by the Centauri, and in this we learn of Londo’s culpability: the death of Lenonn was based on the Centauri belief that they needed to prevent an alliance between the Narn and Humans. Lenonn’s death was an attempt to disrupt this, not realizing the meeting wasn’t to form an alliance as much as to negotiate peace and end the war. As a result, the battle continues. Minbari ships begin attacking the Earth directly and the end of humanity as we know it is at hand. The speech that fueled the Battle of the Line occurs as we hear the declaration for “one last battle to hold the line against the night” as refugees attempt to flee and somehow preserve the human race. Meanwhile, Delenn is desperately looking for a way to end it.

In a twist of events, during the Minbari interrogation of Sinclair, it’s revealed to the interrogators that Humans have Minbari souls, and Sinclair may possess the soul of Valen. Delenn now has the information she needs (known to others now), to end the war. As battle stops, the mistakes each side has made become clear and a new project is announced in order to attempt to prevent something like this from ever happening again: the Babylon Project.

The movie ends with Londo wrapping up his story with some tear-jerking comments to the nurse, and leaves us with the impression the story may have been his final act for his people.
You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The first of five Babylon 5 movies we’ll watch and discuss.  If you have the same box set as some of us do, Thirdspace is the third movie, but the one we start with.  In terms of the show’s chronology, it takes place between Seasons 4 and 5.

The movie opens with a monologue by Sheridan.  He tells us we’re between the wars in the year 2261.  The raiders are a problem and we see a dear friend right in the middle of the fight addressing the problem:  Susan Ivanova.  In fine Ivanova fashion, when the raiders threaten her squadron with the power of a larger mother ship, Susan brings in a fleet of her own, and the raiders relent.  Seeing Susan after so long is like coming home.

Lyta has a job as a sort of Telepath Private Eye and we watch her dealing with quarreling brothers to resolve a disagreement between them.  During this scene though, she isn’t feeling well…caused by something in Hyperspace.  When we see this object adrift, along with the nearby Starfuries, we see just how big it is:  massive, at nearly 1/2 a mile across!  Before long, the plan forms for the Starfuries to tow it into the vicinity of the station.  As it draws closer, Lyta is having pretty horrible visions.

The object shows signs of having received weapons fire, and because it’s a unique and possibly ancient artifact, it draws the attention of the quickly arriving Intergalactic Planetary Expedition (IPX) vessel commanded by a Dr. Elizabeth Trent.  In addition to drawing in IPX, we see it can also draw power from objects (like maintenance bots) that get too close, suggesting something a little sinister about this old artifact.  As we learn more, it’s revealed that it’s over one million years old!  Trent argues that it’s within IPX’s pursue and authority to examine the artifact and ultimately wins the day.  She also comes across as fairly disingenuous.

Lyta’s state worsens as she begins to apparently lose her mind…scribbled notes, mumbling…with it all unfolding in what should have been an intimate moment of courage for Zach.  Alone in the elevator, he finally has the courage to admit his feelings for her.  Her response:  a disheveled glare.  He quickly backpedals and lets her know it’s okay that she (apparently) doesn’t feel the same in this sad but somewhat comical moment.

Odd events continue to happen.  Somehow Trent knows about Lyta’s past, including the fact that the Vorlons altered her, and letting us know there really is probably something more to Trent than meets the eye.  Things get a little stranger in the Zocalo and Susan is hearing things.  The artifact is quite possibly a doorway, or a gate similar to a jump gate, but much more powerful:  a super jump gate.  We quickly learn the artifact is just that.  Where jump gates allow passage from regular space into and through hyperspace, the artifact is a similar technology that allows access to a third form of space.  Traditional jump gates allow very fast travel from point to point through hyperspace, the artifact and similar gates allow for instantaneous travel through “thirdspace”.  In this case, with the proximity of the artifact, we learn that it’s the cause of the emerging chaos on Babylon 5 and that in this control of people, it’s working to power up and become operational.  We can also say with confidence it seems to be controlling Trent.

The Vorlon in Lyta finally comes out and teaches everyone what the artifact is.  It’s a gateway to another dimension, created by the Vorlons in their attempt to find their god, and perhaps become gods themselves.  It backfired.  The beings on the other side were powerful enough to scare the Vorlons, and in essence they were the opposite of life as we know it in this universe.  They were anti-life.  She reveals the only way they can shut the artifact down at this point, and ensure those on the other side don’t come through the gate and destroy our universe.  It involves Sheridan, a space suit with a jet pack, and a nuclear weapon.

As things are getting dire outside the artifact, with the fight favoring the enemy, the Whitestar fleet finally arrives, and holds the enemy at bay to some extent.  Sheridan, protected only by luck, flies through the swarm of ships, delivers the nuclear device within the artifact, and runs.  The device goes off, the artifact is destroyed and the gate closes as a giant ship is coming through.  Sheridan somehow avoids destruction in the nuclear blast, it’s confirmed Trent was under the control of the beings behind the artifact, and things begin to return to normal.

The movie ends as it began:  with a monologue from Sheridan.  It was all true, and all a lie.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

With the last show leaving us satisfied with a very appropriate and emotional season ender, the SERIES concludes with this episode. If you thought the last one tugged on the heart strings, this one beats it, hands-down. Things begin with a monologue by Michael as we learn 20 years have passed since the incidents on Z’ha’dum and Lorien extending John’s life. The show opens with some certainty that John’s departure from this life is imminent. Listener, I hope your heart is ready.

John is having dreams that specifically lead him to believe — or know — that it’s time. He’s not hiding anything from Delenn and while he isn’t blunt about it, she suspects as well. As he rises early with Delenn to enjoy the sunrise, we see that at some point during the time between his arrival on Minbar and now, he’s become the Entil’Zha. As the opening scene concludes, we learn it’s time to send the messages…

Back on Earth, we see Susan is back, now a General, and tired (or angry, or both) of the politics that revolve around her rank. Earth appears to still be in the Alliance, but it also seems things are generally cold toward the Rangers. A Ranger arrives and hands Susan a message.

Vir is Emperor now and is interrupted by a Ranger who delivers him a message.

Stephen and Michael are together on Mars and a Ranger delivers messages to them too.

In each case, the recipients quickly react and depart for Minbar. The messages were in fact the notification that John’s time is drawing to a close, and his call to his friends to come see him. But where’s Zack? As the various messages are delivered, we learn that one was sent and returned, giving us a hint that it might have been intended for Zack.

With everyone assembled, there are quiet and heartfelt moments for the group at dinner, and a toast to those no longer with us. As the evening continues, there are side discussions going on as well, including a significant one between Delenn and Susan. We learn that John and Delenn’s son David is in deep space and that Delenn is now the President of the Alliance. In this capacity, she invites Susan to become the next Entil’Zha. While it’s not really joy on her face, we catch a glimpse of a moment of joy in the midst of all the sorrow as she’s asked to essentially rejoin the Babylon 5 family she’s been away from for so long.

After everyone heads to bed, John and Delenn have another quiet moment. In that moment he notes it’s Sunday tomorrow. He talks about when he was a boy and reminisces about how his father used to take them all on a Sunday drive. There was never a specific destination, rather it was just a drive. He tells Delenn he wants to go for a drive. The evening ends quietly and intimately, with tomorrow ominously approaching.

The next morning John is in his full Alliance uniform and Delenn is dressed stunningly. It’s here that we learn it was understood the evening before that John will be going for the drive and this is his goodbye to Delenn. It’s early morning, they embrace, he cries (for what may be the first time in the series!), and in one of the heaviest moments of the series, she tells him “good night, my love.” He walks away, pauses, then departs, and we know this is the last time they’ll be together.

John arrives on a deserted Babylon 5 to take a final stroll there, and finds Zack. We learn now why Zack didn’t come to the gathering on Minbar. A message was sent for him, but he was on Babylon 5 and never received it. In a moment of grace very typical of the honor of John Sheridan, he saves Zack the heartache of knowing he’s dying or that he missed receiving his message. Zack offers to walk him around and in carefully selected words, he responds, “I know the way.”, foreshadowing his pending death. It appears Zack was right—he just might be there until they turn the lights out. We’ve learned that Babylon 5 has come to the end of its useful life and is scheduled for demolition, so the lights will go out soon.

As things begin to wrap up, we seen Sheridan heading to Cortana 6. He’s fading, and he’s waiting. Back home, we see Delenn. She knows. Then Lorien joins John and explains he’s not only there for John, in fact they have waited for him to live out the remainder of his life. Now the time has come for him to move from this journey ends and “another begins.” With tears in our eyes and heavy hearts, John is consumed in light as he quietly passes away (falls asleep), and Babylon 5 is destroyed, dying with him.

But in a moment that makes us smile just we see JMS in a cameo finally turning out the lights.

Susan gives us the closing monolog as the show ends. Susan takes the position of Entil’Zha and we see Delenn finally sitting…alone on a bench. And next to her, we see the spirit of John, now sleeping in light. But don’t stop there, be sure to watch the closing credits (and listen to the music!). What a way to close out a series that arguably stands alone in quality television storytelling.

With the original series behind us, please join us as we begin our reviews of the movies in the official Babylon 5 universe!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

As this episode opens, your hosts discuss that this is the SEASON ender—and it sure feels that way. You’re correct in that there’s one more episode, but the agreement is that the next and last episode is the SERIES ender. The situation: John and Delenn are leaving Babylon 5 and heading to Minbar to move into the new, permanent seat of the Alliance. Things kick off with a dialog, perhaps some reflecting, between Sheridan and Lockley about the adventure we’ve all participated in: “where does the time go?” And also the question, “what’s out there?”, answered by “the Rim” and then beyond that, “the truth.”

Ta’Lon is back on Babylon 5 and asking for G’Kar, apparently unaware he’s left the station for good, and a bit puzzled since G’Kar summoned him. He goes to G’Kar’s room, ends up picking the lock and enters, looking for something—anything—that might have been left for him. He finds a message from G’Kar informing him he’s the new Ambassador to Babylon 5. In one of the coolest scenes that carries a lot of punch, we see G’Kar talking to Ta’Lon side by side, as if they were in the same room, as G’Kar explains to him that he is the right choice for Ambassador because he’s more warrior than priest. (It seems whether he wanted it or not, G’Kar left the station because he had become more priest than warrior.) In the end we see a overall parallel in the story lines as Vir has replaced Londo, and Ta’Lon has replaced G’Kar: the old and the new.

As the replacement for Michael, Tessa appears to have settled in nicely, and is it just us, or have they softened her appearance? She looks comfortable. As for Michael, we find him running the daily operations of Edgars Industries, and in a move that is probably typically Michael, he has replaced the Board members with a handful of trouble makers from within the company, gives them all raises, and a significant challenge to put all their talk into action. We suspect these loudmouths and discontents might actually become credible leaders.

We also watch the transition of responsibility for Med Lab between Franklin and Dr. Lillian Hobbs. As he passes her the reins, Franklin strolls off to join Sheridan in a quiet and heartfelt conversation in the corridor.

Speaking of Sheridan, he has an awkward moment and conversation with Lennier as Delenn leaves them alone briefly—these two men who both love her. Then Delenn shares some final words as she and John prepare to depart the station. In a moment of writing perfection, Sheridan (who wanted to leave quietly) says nothing and defers to Delenn, who eloquently shares that there are no “goodbyes.” As always, Zack is there too and makes a passing comment about remaining on Babylon 5 and being there when they turn off the lights. Sheridan makes his last flight as a commander onboard the station, and in those final moments, turns his ship to view the station’s command deck. In what can only be a tearful and heart-wrenching moment, we have a single scene where we see the new command crew and the old.

Then we have some boom! There’s an accident and a toxic leak onboard John and Delenn’s ship and John rushes to the aid of others. He find himself in a room that needs to be sealed off to protect the others onboard, but thankfully Lennier is there to help, but in an angering and surprising turn of events (and in the shadow of Delenn’s love for John), we watch Lennier seal John in the room rather than ensure he escapes. Lennier then runs. John escapes and after some amount of time Lennier returns with help. It’s not clear if his return was the result of a guilty conscience, or believing John would be dead at this point, to hide his involvement in John’s undoing. Regardless, Lennier flees, apparently for good.

As they arrive on Minbar, John and Delenn are greeted with fireworks and an old friend, Londo, who they learn is now the Emperor of Centauri Prime. Londo makes an attempt to let them know things are not what they appear, hinting that he’s being controlled by others, and for a brief moment, Delenn almost sees his Keeper! He gives them a precious gift to pass to their future son when he turns 16. What is revealed to us is that gift contains a hibernating Keeper intended for David. In this same scene Lennier calls and apologizes to Delenn, and makes it clear to her he’s going away until he finds a way to redeem himself. Then as we watch Londo depart, he stresses once again they’re all friends no matter what, putting the events of War Without End into perspective.

As the episode and season ends, Delenn observes John recording a father-to-son message to David, for him to listen to when he turns 21—words John won’t be there to share at that point. As we listen, we see a wonderful montage of the crew, old and new, at a minimum to highlight the events of John’s recent life that contributed to the formation of the wisdom he’s now passing to his son.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This is the beginning of the end of the season in that this episode starts the real wrap up of where people are, and where they’re going. As the show opens we see Number 1 (we learn her name is Tessa) arriving on Babylon 5 to a less than warm reception. Dr. Franklin recognizes her though, and helps her ease through security. We quickly learn she’s looking for Michael on what appears to be urgent business — yes, she has her serious face on. Or is that her normal face? She’s taken to see Michael and finds him less than gracefully enjoying his very honorable and deliberate battle with detoxifying his body and breaking the addiction. Lise greets Tessa at the door and is a model of dignity and grace. The awkward situation is punctuated when Tessa reveals that there will be an assassination attempt on both Michael’s and Lise’s lives. Those behind the hit are none other than the current Board of Directors for Edgars Industry. This only emboldens Michael in his resolve to protect his wife and what has become her company. He forms a plan for how to deal with the situation once he gets to Mars.

Related, we also learn that Earth is putting a real squeeze on Mars, hoping to create an environment of real trouble through civil unrest, so that they can come in and “help” quell the problems. Politically, Earth is trying to make an unhealthy Mars so they can then be the good guys and provide the “cure.” Tessa and John work a part of the solution though by facilitating the establishment of a formal relationship between Mars and Minbar, creating a situation that will limit or even prevent Earth interference with its former colony.

G’Kar appears to be growing very impatient and even cold toward his followers, at least one of which expresses real and serious (although almost comical) discontent toward him. G’Kar, knowing he’s leaving with Lyta, maintains his professionalism though. He wants no party or celebration to honor his contributions to the Alliance, but one is set up anyway, not just for G’Kar, but also to say farewell to Mike as he moves to Mars with Lise. The more sinister side of the public celebration is to set the stage to draw the potential assassin out. Security has a plan and is waiting. Sure enough the assassin exposes himself and is caught, but in a moment of genuine surprise, the disgruntled follower of G’Kar attempts to kill him. He misses though and ends up hitting Lise.

As we witness G’Kar and Sheridan saying goodbye, G’Kar shares a few final thoughts. It’s a special moment that will play into the next episode. We also learn that Lise will recover. By her side in Med Lab and in that moment, he and Michael decide not to delay their marriage any longer and become husband and wife in a bedside wedding.

In a moment that tugs the heart strings, G’Kar and Lyta depart, with Zack watching from afar. His love for Lyta hasn’t ever diminished.

Finally, after Michael and Lise arrive on Mars, we watch him surprise the Board. He has all the dirt he needs on every one of the Board members, he lets them know, then informs them they will all resign. Where did he get the dirt? Only from his replacement as the new head of Alliance Intelligence: Tessa. And as the show wraps up, what about Stephen? We’ll let’s just say as he wraps up a meal with Tessa, there’s another “oh, Stephen” moment, reminiscent of their time on Mars during the war.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

There aren’t really any lighthearted episodes to look forward to at this point, but we do get a break from the heaviness of the last two episodes. Wheel of Fire begins with Lockley greeting G’Kar as he returns to the station. In what is almost a comical moment, we learn that G’Kar has become an icon, with his followers posting images of him on the wall and carrying statues of him around. Even more offensive to G’Kar’s sensibilities and humility, they’re even kneeling in his presence!

Sheridan finally confronts Michel about his alcoholism, and fires him. Even so, Delenn’s ever present wisdom and guidance enables him to handle it with compassion. With one issue addressed, there’s an emergency call from Earth. The issue: attacks on Psi Corps by well funded and equipped amateurs motivated by remembering Byron. The issue? Sheridan is told the trail of support runs “through your office” (B5). All indicators point at Lyta and the need to arrest her becomes apparent. A short time later, she’s arrested and put in isolation.

In another compassionate moment, Lockley visits Michael and in a surprising turn, she encourages him to get out of his self-pity and do something about his problem. The surprise: she understands and has been right were Michael is. Later, Lise shows up to help Michael, apparently called in by Lockley in a way that allows him to be the good guy.

In a briefly comical moment, we see a frustrated Delenn cussing, but the awkward humor in it quickly disappears when she suddenly passes out. We’re relieved to discover a few scenes later that it’s good news: she’s pregnant!

As he talked to Lise truthfully about his situation, Michael is about as low as he can be. Then in a wonderful turn of events, she proposes to him and gives him a reason to clean himself up. And in the midst of this, he has a great idea that involves Lyta and a way they may be able to deal with their common enemy: Bester. The deal is presented to Lockley, and G’Kar finds himself involved as the plan will also relieve him of the issue of his growing status as someone approaching godhood in the eyes of his followers. As we draw close to the end of the episode, we learn what we suspected about Lyta: she is a living weapon.

As the episode ends, John and Delenn are together sharing a quiet moment. John is annoying Delenn in a good way, and she expresses concern for Londo. With that we shift back to the somber scene of Londo that ended the last episode: sitting alone on the throne.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

The last episode essentially resumes after a (rare) recap of events that brought us to this point—a recap with BOOM. If the last episode contained one of the saddest moments in the season/series; at least one of your hosts feels this is perhaps the saddest episodes in the series. Events continue to unfold and play along a central theme to the series: there are consequences that result from actions.

As the bombs fall, one bright moment is when we get to see Londo race to G’Kar’s aid. Whatever their relationship was, we definitely see what it has grown into. Londo also learns from the Regent who “they” are: the “they” he keeps referring to in the context of someone the Regent seems to be responsible to: current and frankly terrifying consequences for past actions that directly involved Londo.

Sheridan learns the Drazi and Narn military leaders explicitly disobeyed his direction by attacking Centauri Prime. We learn that the manipulation behind all this through the Centauri will result in Drahk gaining a slave race (the Centauri), and a new home world (Centauri Prime) in order to continue the Shadow’s work now that the Shadows are gone. From their perspective, this is the consequence of Sheridan’s destroying their old home world (Z’ha’dum).

We catch up on the status of Delenn and Lennier as they continue to drift in the damaged White Star and have hit a point where they’re almost out of fuel and options. Lennier comes up with a final action that might save them, but when it appears hopeless, he makes a humble and blunt confession to Delenn about his feelings for her. In a twist, they are rescued and his spoken words hang there awkwardly. In an act of grace (or denial), Delenn spins what he said in a way to allow him to save face. Even so, it wounds Lennier deeply.

As things begin to end for the Regent, and a new chapter in Londo’s life is about to begin, Londo is fully aware of what’s about to happen to him. In some his final free moments, he says goodbye to G’Kar. The words shared by these two, and the meaning behind these words, are heartbreaking. Shortly after, we lose Londo as he takes a Keeper and arguably surrenders to his greatest fear, fulfilling the final requirement to satisfy Lady Morella’s prophecy from back in Season 3, Episode 9.

Vir is present, and Londo’s not happy about it. Londo’s angry with him, but it’s clear to the viewer he’s being the way he is to protect Vir and allow him to get to safety.

The episode begins to draw to a close with a very heavy montage of Londo’s life: past, present and future, and we’re left with him walking to take the throne. Totally alone. When the episode ends, we’re left seeing Londo sitting in darkness on the throne—an image that has haunted us since early in the series has now become reality. As Raul states, this episode could have been called “The Fall of Londo Mollari.”

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This episode further defines the divisions between the sides, and the issues that continue to surface and fester within the alliance. The war continues to be hot – as White Stars are authorized to attack Centauri. BOOM. Related to the White Stars, the fleet has been in constant use, and Sheridan appeals to Delenn for help in creating a new class of these amazing ships to satisfy the need for more, and a more capable fleet.

The Drazi aren’t returning the bodies of those they defeat (suspicious!), and Londo has formed a plan that he believes will result in his release from jail. Then there’s an incident involving bright lights, some creatures we might have seen before, and then Londo waking and being told by G’Kar that he snores. In spite of Londo’s plan, G’Kar has a better one and it results in Londo’s freedom. Once free he attempts to build support but runs into a wall, in the form of the Defense Minister, who only seems interested in defensive actions.

Back with the Alliance, there’s an uncomfortable meeting with the military leadership and a bunch of individuals plan for how to continue the war. As one leader states, “We are working together in our own individual ways.” Not a promising statement, especially in light of some participants’ desire to attack the Centauri home world. Londo finally gets time with the Regent, and it’s clear something is wrong with him. We learn of a secret Centauri fleet that is employing Shadow technology, and in a parallel part of the story, we see Lyta and Franklin figure this out. We see more oddities with the Drazi and Narn, and in the midst of all the action, Delenn’s White Star is heavily damaged.

In one of the saddest moments of the episode (and perhaps the series), the Regent explains to Londo that he’ll be dead by morning, and Londo will be the Emperor. Then to add gravity to this revelation, the Regent informs Londo that he’s sent away the ships and turned off the planetary defenses. The attacks away from the home world have been conducted with the intent to draw the Alliance to Centauri Prime to attack it.

As the episode concludes, we see what’s been going on with the Drazi and Narn—ships appear overhead and the show ends with significant BOOM as their ships bomb the capital.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Sadly but not surprisingly, Michael’s downward spiral continues and he’s finally confronted by one of his few true friends: Zack. It’s encouraging to see his friends still stand with him even as his life continues to rip apart just as the Alliance is on the verge of war with itself. This culminates when Michael is supposed to be ready and waiting to receive a signal from a White Star watching the Centauri so he can relay it to Sheridan. He fails when we find him drunk and incoherent yet again. He doesn’t hear the signal.

Delenn works to get the Minbari involved, and the potential for war becomes war—BOOM! The Alliance is truly torn asunder.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Delenn receives information from Lennier and learns several disturbing things: the attacks on shipping have increased dramatically in number, and each attack appears to be preceded by a discrete and encoded Centauri transmission. Later in the episode, Lennier gets a little unorthodox in his attempt to gather additional, necessary information. The risk is great, Lennier almost loses his life, but the result is very clear evidence (with lots of boom!) about the Centauri responsibility for the attacks on shipping. What’s not known is why they’re conducting these attacks. Back on Babylon 5, Delenn fears Lennier has been lost in space, but to her (and everyone’s!) great relief he brings the evidence home safely.

While these significant events unfold, Lise finds a hidden bottle of booze in Mike’s room, knows instantly what it means, confronts Mike and the result is anger and Mike’s further decent into the abyss—or perhaps we should say he’s further enveloped in an ascending darkness.

As the episode wraps up with new evidence in hand, the Council reconvenes — only without Londo. The situation is tense, to say the least, and the Alliance appears to be on the cusp of a new war, this time with one of its founding members: the Centauri. But we’ll have to wait to see how the evidence is handled and presented to Londo.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Meanwhile, the Drazi have concluded on their own they believe the Centauri are responsible for the attacks, and they attempt to bug Londo’s room in an effort to gather their own intelligence. It fails when the device is discovered and results in a rare comical moment for Londo as he loudly spins a tale about the Drazi ambassador’s wife, knowing he’s being listened to.

G’Kar’s ethical journey continues to build a spiritual following in spite of his strong desires not to be this kind of leader. And poor Michael continues to spiral ever deeper into the abyss of alcoholism.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We watch one of Bester’s students lose his life and the other develop a crush on Mr. Bester as they work together. In the end the case is cracked and “justice” is served…justice in a way that may parallel the storyline about the Ranger cadet in Learning Curve.

The end of the episode is uncomfortably dark, and it ends the significant storyline of the telepaths that has run through all five seasons.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We join Sheridan as he’s lamenting over the bureaucratic side of life as the President of the Alliance, and with the Council in turmoil over the ongoing attacks, pressure mounts for the Alliance to do something. Seems the way the original charter was drafted, no one has authority outside their own sovereign space to take military action, and the Alliance is stretched thin. The show opens with some boom and we watch three key points unfold along the ragged edge: the new problem of how to get (or allow) member races to contribute to the common defense; we see Londo happy to be back on B5 after the uncomfortable events he experienced on Centauri Prime; and our friend Michael Garibaldi is hung over and in a sad place once again.

Weaving several of these together, it seems there was a survivor during the most recent attack on transports and the race begins to get hold of him and learn what he knows. Obviously this would help Sheridan’s team to learn who may be behind the attacks. On the other hand, perhaps those responsible for the attacks might want the survivor silenced. In a solo mission, Michael is detailed to use his contacts on the Drazi home world to bring the rescued pilot in, and in the process continues to fall deeper into his renewed addiction. He also seems to be everyone’s favorite punching bag. He ends up coming home empty-handed except for a button. A button that might be a very real piece of evidence into who’s responsible for the attacks on the shipping lanes.

In another storyline Ta’lon makes an appearance and while G’Kar is happy on some level, he’s also suspicious. It turns out Ta’lon and others have “liberated” the incomplete Book of G’Kar and published it. The result: G’Kar has become a religious figure with a significant following and now much deal with how people are interpreting his words.

The episode wraps up as we essentially have confirmation that the attacks on the shipping lanes are in fact Centauri. G’Kar is aware and the decision is made that Londo should be kept in the dark about this. For now.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Lots of things unfold and many separate threads of the story intertwine. Byron’s rebels are armed, Psi Corps arrives and Bester briefs his troops. While this is happening, Byron wants to talk to Sheridan. Michael is looking to find a way to get at Bester—old wounds aren’t healed and Michael wants to get even. Byron’s armed separatists take hostages in Med Lab

Byron makes his way to Med Lab undetected, then in a surprise turn of events, shoots one of his own to take control of the situation. He then negotiates for the violent teeps to surrender and those who are innocent of committing any crimes to be freed. Byron and Bester exchange words and leave us pondering “why can’t it be any other way than the Corps?”

As the episode ends we witness a toxic spill and some boom.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Byron’s story continues as a group of his followers wall themselves into a section of the station, with intent to take actions to secure their future. No more pacifism for this group as they see Byron’s plan failing. Meanwhile, he continues down the path of martyrdom. By the episode’s end, Bloodhound Units are arriving on the station to round up Byron’s followers.

On Centauri Prime, Londo and G’Kar are surprised when they discover Na’Toth being held prisoner by the Regent for at least the past two years. She was essentially forgotten and both G’Kar and Londo are understandably angry. After some thought, they come up with a plan to break her out by hiding in plain sight. After all, “the court is trained not to see improper things.” Londo makes a scene and folks simply look away.

Once again Londo also hears about a war materials increase, suggesting that he’s one step closer to discovering what the Centauri fleet is up to.

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Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Starting with this episode, we see three consecutive episodes about telepaths, then have a break from the telepath storyline, followed by a fourth episode that essentially culminates the main storyline of the human teeps. In this episode, we watch Byron and his crew make a final attempt to gain a homeworld of their own. It’s done badly as we learn he significantly lacks the ability of diplomatic or strategic thinking. He also loses control of some of his people, which results in violence for a second time. Desperate and out of options, Bryon’s followers secretly scan many of the Alliance leaders, threatening to divulge their secrets. The stage is set as Byron appears to be preparing himself to become a martyr.

Meanwhile Londo Mollari, visiting Centauri Prime, questions the suspicious activities of the Centauri fleet and is almost killed by an assassin. He’s separated from his body guard (G’Kar) but is saved by an unknown (or unrecognized) entity. In what is perhaps one of the most heartbreaking moments in the entire series, Londo has a brief and tragic conversation with the Regent who explains a few things to him. As this happens, we realize who interfered with the assassin and we get a foreshadowing of what Londo’s future will hold. As the episode ends, Londo tells G’Kar he’s returning to B5 because his home world “frightens him.”

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

An interesting and very strange episode. After some discussion and some hesitation, the decision is made to honor a request by the Brakiri to celebrate a very special and rare religious custom on B5. The ceremony requires them to conduct the ceremony on Brakiri soil and as a result they actually purchase (not rent) a significant segment of the station, to be returned after the ceremony is complete. The custom: The Day of the Dead. It’s not quite what you think it might be, and it ends up not quite being what the non-Brakiri on the station expected, except for perhaps G’Kar. As the ceremony occurs, the portion of the station the Brakiri own literally disappears. Those caught up in the missing segment of the Station have a personal experience related to the Day of the Dead as each meets a significant (and dead) person during the absence—friends, enemies, lovers. We follow Mike, Lockley, Lennier, and G’Kar through the experience.

In addition to that oddity, the famous (or perhaps infamous from Lockley’s perspective) Rebo and Zooty are onboard and while taking to Sheridan, they express an interest (desire?) to quit their comedy act and go into politics.

As the ceremony and the episode conclude, the missing part of the station returns, and Lockley has a particularly interesting message from Kosh for Sheridan—a message that seems to tie back to “The Long Night of Londo Mollari” as well as perhaps being instructional as the story moves forward.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

There’s no relief in sight for the building tension in this fifth and final season. As we watch a number of storylines unfold, our attention is held by Zack’s growing jealousy and frustration with Lyta’s clear fondness, emerging loyalty, and maybe even love for Byron.

Lyta seems to be driven to the point of finding identity and comfort among this family of rogue telepaths: the Vorlons abused her, and her non-telepathic colleagues haven’t trusted her and even shun her. But in the best of circumstances, we still don’t really know what Byron and his followers are up to.

The tension is built primarily through the use of soft slurs on both sides, as we watch non-telepaths and telepaths alike refer to each other as “you people”, “those people” and other similar descriptors. Secrets emerge as we learn that Byron isn’t really in control of his followers when the convenience of peace disappears. He also learns some of the very dark secrets within Lyta that track back to her relationship with the Vorlons: secrets that impact all telepaths. In a parallel storyline, Dr. Franklin uncovers a very significant secret of the Hyach as they sheepishly try not to betray their dark past yet provide information Franklin requires in his new capacity working for the Alliance.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Have you been looking for some traditional boom? You’re certainly going to get some in this episode! An inbound vessel crashes into the docking bay when the captain disregards direction from C&C. Then, in an apparent assassination attempt, the ship intended to carry future Emperor Mollari back to Centauri Prime explodes as it starts its departure from B5. What a way to start an episode!

And we see several strange relationships play out as the episode unfolds. We find Lyta stealing from Dr. Franklin and Med Lab in an effort to provide supplies to Byron and his followers. This is particularly troubling when we know all she really needed to do is ask for the supplies. It seems Lyta’s relationship with Byron is growing stronger. Bester appears on the station with a squad of Bloodhounds and seems to have an oddly comfortable relationship with Captain Lockley. He’s there to arrest Byron and his followers, and we end up with the impression there’s some sort of past relationship between these two telepaths. Lyta confronts Bester and his goons directly and alone, and further strains the already awkward relationship when she appears to be able to contain them all without additional help. Then there’s the bad-turning-ugly relationship between Lochley and Garibaldi, the never-quite-worked-out relationship between Zack and Lyta, Delenn’s work to successfully bring Londo and G’Kar even closer by making him Londo’s personal body guard to serve with him inside the Royal Court on Centauri Prime…and the list can go on and on. You have to see it to really believe just how many strange (and strained) relations there can be in one episode!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Welcome to the episode that drew the most passion out of your hosts. This is a controversial episode in that it’s theme revolves around the Minbari’s traditional/historic doctrine of Mora’dum (or the application of terror) associated with the training of the Anla-shok. This is a two-edged sword of sorts. Something happens that causes terror in a Ranger; and the Ranger is then required to inflict terror in return to gain their confidence and strength back.

Two issues surface as the episode unfolds: what are the limits of the terror a Ranger is allowed to apply, and is this custom still a reasonable allowance under the new Alliance? We can have opinions about a custom like this when it’s completely internal to the Minbari, but the Rangers are now multi-species and are an arm of the multi-world Alliance (not just Minbar). Related, the matter that caused the invocation of Mora’dum was arguably a “local” matter on Babylon 5 that happened to involve a Ranger, and not an Alliance matter. But President Sheridan favors the Ranger’s authority over that of Captain Lochley. This caused the question to surface about the Alliance’s ability to respect its own rules when it finds itself in an inconvenient position. Is Minbar being favored over other members? We’d love to hear your thoughts as we watch a young Ranger student, a new captain on B5, and the leadership of the new Alliance worthing through a very steep learning curve.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We’ve spent four seasons watching galactic events unfold from the points of view of our heroes. In this interesting episode, we get to see a special view from the perspective of “every man”, or perhaps from a few fellows who sit in what’s often referred to as “the peanut gallery”. Meet Mack and Bo, two maintenance workers on Babylon 5 who have also been witnesses to the events we’ve seen. We get to enjoy their perspectives and thoughts as the station is attacked and they are witnesses to the actions, and even some discussions, of our leaders.

In the middle of what is a significant and deadly attack, there are some heavy moments, and some light ones. We learn a few important things about the strategic importance of Jumpgates, and little but important things like the differences between salami and spoo. The question of Captain Lochley’s loyalty during the war resurfaces again, but this time through the discussions of Mack and Bo, and their perspectives are definitely interesting. The attack on B5 is finally thwarted as we cheer the return of the White Star Fleet.

As things wrap up, our two new heroes meet Delenn, twice, and their exchanges are special, as are some of the insights into the burdens of leadership and command.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, you probably recognize the title of this episode from Hamlet, or perhaps as a reference to Psalm 8:5. The episode kicks off with us seeing the Council hasn’t changed much, debate is freely occurring, and we see some angry resistance from the Drazi as they refuse to sign the Alliance’s Declaration of Principles. Rather than signing as an affirmation of their support for the principles, they feign indignation saying that they don’t need to sign because it suggests their support to the Alliance is in question.

In another storyline, we watch a possible plan unfolding to use telepaths as spies…or perhaps just fact finders, as Michael and Byron clash over the ethics of it all. We also see that while Byron is clearly against Psi Corps’ control and oppression of telepaths, he actually appears to hold the same views they do with regards to non-telepathic beings, or “Mundanes”. Perhaps we still don’t really know what Byron and his followers are actually about. Throughout the episode we hear an increasing use of what is akin to racist language from telepaths and non-telepaths alike, suggesting there’s an emerging story here.

As things progress we learn of a race called the Enfili on the outskirts of Drazi space, and eventually the real reason why the Drazi were so resistant to signing the Declaration of Principles.

Join Raul, Jim and JP as we examine the ties to the earlier season, and watch as new storylines emerge.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Meanwhile, Lennier’s unrequited love for Delenn comes to a head and he decides to join the Rangers. Is he following a path he’s supposed to be on, attempting to run from his love, or both? We’re left wondering about his motives and the health of his heart as well.

Londo’s painful adventure continues as his conscience manifests as several of his colleagues and we hear him regularly prompted to “turn around”. As time passes we learn that to live, only “one word is required.” If you’re new to the series, enjoy Jim, Raul and JP’s discussions as they work through this episode, learn what that “one word” is, and whether Londo lives or dies.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Join Raul, Jim and JP as they discuss Mars, Minbar, a dead Ranger, a music box, and the initial reason we’re given for why Captain Lochley was chosen by President Sheridan to command B5. And we quite possibly end up with more questions than answers about that last item: or at least one significant question about Lochley’s loyalty during the war. We also discuss the future of B5 as an Alliance asset rather than an Earth Force station, which informs (and potentially muddies) the division of power between President Sheridan and Captain Lochley. By the end of the episode we have a little “boom.”

Fine. Done. Let’s eat.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Join us for what Join us for what is perhaps the oddest episode of the entire series.  In this set of vignettes, we’re prepared for Season 5 through several snapshots in time.  Our journey begins with John and Delenn’s new marriage, then jumps ahead in time several times.  As the episode unfolds, we move ahead from the key events we’ve just witnessed by a year, then 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years, and finally 1,000,000 years.  It’s a wild ride that can surprise a new viewer with things that change, and probably even more-so by things that don’t.  As odd as the episode is, it’s an important one to watch with us before we step into the fifth and final season of this amazing show.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

After the intensity of the last episode, and the end of the war, we see things wrapping up. Marcus is dying and his final moments show some of Claudia Christian’s (Ivanova) best performances in the series. Sheridan is a full participant in what must come next for him, and showing us all the integrity we’ve grown fond of, ensures the right thing is done. What is left of the system is strained and bruised, and John holds himself accountable in addition to allowing the fragile and recovering system to deal with him. And in the mix of what feels like a long and heavy episode, we get a few light moments courtesy of Londo and G’Kar.

We hear little lessons in the differences between politics and action, and doing the right thing in the wrong way, and amidst all that, it becomes clear that there’s a greater plan at work for the Babylon 5 Resistance, with Delenn a significant planner and/or leader in the effort. We watch as the plan unfolds, knowing it must be significant when it includes things like a deliberate revelation to all of the existence of the Rangers.

As the episode (and arguably the season) draws to a close, we enjoy some warm moments with John, Delenn and John’s dad. We also enjoy the satisfaction of knowing the things we’ve watched for many seasons will end well, as new things begin: “The dawn of a new age for everyone!” But don’t relax too much: the door that opens in front of our heroes comes with it’s own new set of struggles, including the foreshadowing of a future telepath war and Drakh war. But Babylon 5 endures…

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Should we worry about the number of Earth Force defectors, and how easy they’re coming over to support Sheridan and the Resistance?  Is Clark simply so bad as to fuel so many to change sides and risk charges of treason?  Or could some of the defectors be double agents?  Ivanova leads a fleet of White Star ships on a mission, and we hear about Earth Force ships with an advanced design—apparently some sort of secret weapon.

Everyone seems to be falling behind Sheridan, Clark plans an ambush, and Garibaldi contacts the Resistance on Mars only to end up injured.  Even so, he works well to rally the forces of the Resistance and move their efforts forward.

As the story unfolds, we learn what the advancement we heard about for some of Earth’s ships actually is—Shadow technology.  When battle ensues, Ivanova utters one of her best lines in the series and in the heat of battle ends up struggling for her life.  There’s lots of boom this episode, and quite possibly some tears.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

In this out of the ordinary episode, we discuss what’s happening now that Sheridan is imprisoned and Clark wants a confession.  He’s interrogated and pressured to make a live public statement to confirm what we know as viewers is false.  But in the context of his interrogation, we learn a number of things about the world inside the show:  Clark’s people believe that ends justify the means, and so truth is subjective.  Whether something is true or not, it doesn’t really matter.  Truth is immaterial.  In fact, the goal is to make John decide to “believe differently.”  Finally we learn that the preeminent “truth” of the time is “you cannot beat the system.”  

There are no limits to what it seems Clark will do to get Sheridan to publicly change his story to bolster Clark’s actions.  In his distress, we get to see John encouraged by Delenn (real or imagined?), and even in his agony, he attempts to help a Drazi prisoner—demonstrating his heart even when his own safety and life are at risk.  We also see discussions about the risk of turning John into a martyr, bringing us back to the discussion he had with those sympathetic to the Shadows on Z’ha’dum.

There’s great conversation about the inquisitor as well.  The actor who plays him was impressive.  We also consider that while we believe John is doing the right thing for the right reasons, this may be a great lesson in the price someone can pay for exercising moral authority.  Clark may be wrong, but John is apparently paying a price for standing for what’s right and true.  Join us as we move through this trippy episode and start moving very quickly toward the climax for the fourth season!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

War gets closer to Earth and more former Earth Force ships are aligning themselves with sides.  Sheridan’s dad is captured and being used as bait to lure Sheridan to Mars to be captured.  Mike delivered the news to Sheridan that his dad was captured and Sheridan should meet with the folks involved on Mars.  Even though he’s warned against it and told it could be a trap, he goes anyway.

Talking with Garibaldi, Edgars confirms his view that Psi Corps is the problem as he sees it, and the drugs mentioned last episode are in fact a cure for a disease his company also created.  The plan is to put Psi Corps back in their box to ensure they’re not a threat to the “mundanes” and their way of life.  Before the episode ends, Edgars is dead and Garibaldi is freed from Psi Corps control.  In the run up to his freedom we learn that it appears the Psi Corps has actually continued to fight the influence of the Shadows, and therefore Clark—perhaps making them the good bad guys?  Rather than killing Garibaldi, Bester leaves him to suffer the consequences of continuing to live now that he’s been sufficiently used.

Join us as we see many faces of the enemy, depending upon whose perspective you take:  Clark, Sheridan and the aliens who influence him, large corporations and Edgars, the Psi Corps, or even Mr. Garibaldi himself.  No doubt the list could go on, and there may be more than just one enemy.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

William Edgars is quite powerful!  Maybe more than we imagined.  Garibaldi arrives on Mars and has a bunch of questions for Mr. Edgars, his new boss:  first about his drug smuggling through B5; and also about receiving help from Edgars to stop Sheridan.  What initially looked like a plan to help telepaths with some sort of cure for a problem ends up being a part of a larger plot to ensure telepaths can’t take control of all things human, and Garibaldi finds an ally in his quest to stop Sheridan and get him “proper treatment.”  We also hear Edgars’ views on who is actually in power—and it’s not President Clark, nor is it the electorate.  If true, it makes sense why a man like Edgars is willing to work against Clark, and Sheridan, and Psi Corps.

So who really holds and exercises vital powers?  Why are so many of Clark’s forces defecting and joining the Resistance?  Is it properly placed loyalty, or something more sinister?  So many questions!  Join us as we walk through the episode as yet more key events unfold.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

William Edgars is quite powerful!  Maybe more than we imagined.  Garibaldi arrives on Mars and has a bunch of questions for Mr. Edgars, his new boss:  first about his drug smuggling through B5; and also about receiving help from Edgars to stop Sheridan.  What initially looked like a plan to help telepaths with some sort of cure for a problem ends up being a part of a larger plot to ensure telepaths can’t take control of all things human, and Garibaldi finds an ally in his quest to stop Sheridan and get him “proper treatment.”  We also hear Edgars’ views on who is actually in power—and it’s not President Clark, nor is it the electorate.  If true, it makes sense why a man like Edgars is willing to work against Clark, and Sheridan, and Psi Corps.

So who really holds and exercises vital powers?  Why are so many of Clark’s forces defecting and joining the Resistance?  Is it properly placed loyalty, or something more sinister?  So many questions!  Join us as we walk through the episode as yet more key events unfold.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Enough is enough, and we find ourselves in the War Room again.  Sheridan is compelled to start taking action and holds a meeting with the ambassadors from the non-aligned worlds.  He states the price for them to continue to continue their relationship with B5:  each will provide a warship to contribute to the protection of B5, and break their alliances with Earth.

And we have some boom.  Quite a bit actually, as the forces aligned with B5 exchange blows with Earth Force vessels.  In the end several of the earth force ships join B5 in its stand against President Clark.  It appears Resistance is gaining momentum, and capability.  But can these new allies be trusted?

Finally Garibaldi’s frustration with Sheridan hits its limit and he departs B5 for Mars to continue his work there, with no intent to ever return.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This aptly named episode gives Raul, Jim and JP a lot to talk about. Lots of transition happens in various story arcs, and with individual characters.

The conflict on Minbar between the Warrior and Religious castes comes back into focus as Delenn prepares to surrender to calm the situation. There are a few surprises and the Grey Council is re-established. Psi-Corps continues to maneuver. And while Lyta is looking for work on the station, Bester offers her a job as a covered agent. Understandably reluctant at first, she ends up taking the job and we’re left wondering if either party is really getting what they want.

Related to telepaths, Garibaldi and Zack bicker over a package of “research pharmaceuticals” belonging to Edgars. Michael is supposed to facilitate moving this mysterious package through the station from Mars to Io. Everything is in transition and we’re left with the feeling many significant elements of the B5 story are about to… explode.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

In this episode, Sheridan continues bargaining to establish the necessary elements of, and allies for, his campaign against Clark by creating the perception certain things are happening that might cause real harm to the worlds who aren’t very supportive of joining the fight.  Certain bits of information (rumors, lies?) are spread by just the right people, at just the right time, and the results are interesting—maybe even funny at times.  The Drazi in particular, end up very worked up over what they’re told is “nothing”, leading them to fall into supporting Sheridan.

Meanwhile, Minbar is at war with itself.  Delenn feels guilty, believing she may very well have caused this herself by eliminating the Grey Council.  Even so, she takes action and meets with Neroon, a leader from the Warrior caste.  While they meet in private to negotiate (bargain?), some of those accompanying them overhear parts of the conversation, causing them to misunderstand what’s happening between the two – setting the stage for bad things to happen.  Harkening back to “Lines of Communication” and the problems Number One had on Mars with subordinates using “unauthorized bombs”, in this episode Minbari subordinates act without all the facts, resulting in needlessly threatening the lives of many and almost ending the life of Lennier.

We leave the episode with The Voice of Resistance announcing a newly formed patrol force, and wondering what Neroon is actually up to.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

So many interests are in play now, often in conflict.  Here are a few of the big ones, and no doubt there are more woven through the storyline:

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Things are starting to build toward open conflict between Clark’s government and Sheridan’s forces. With everything else going on though, things begin to interfere with the plans to counter Clark.

On Mars, Number One is furious when when a bomb goes off in a hotel, risking blame against the Resistance and allowing Clark to create more propaganda. Attention of any kind, especially the wrong kind, may very well bring an end to their work. Away from Mars, Minbari allies are being attacked. Delenn arrives on-scene and makes contact with a new race—the Drakh, only to learn they’ve discretely established prior Minbari contact and have been meeting with Forrell, who endeavors to use them as allies in the emerging civil war between the Minbari Religious and Warrior castes. In exchange, all they want are a few border outposts. Delenn and Lennier see a dangerous problem behind this plan: the Drakh are Shadow allies.

With ISN propaganda running rampant, Sheridan turns the old War Room into a studio. It’s time to counter the propaganda lies with the truth by broadcasting the Voice of the Resistance into Earth space.

Before the episode is over, we see Lennier put on his warrior face, the warrior in Delenn surfaces again, and we get some boom!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Oh, Steven!

What can we say?  We all love it when we have a Dr. Franklin/Marcus episode.  There was just a really great chemistry between the two.  They’re on Mars to get help from the Mars resistance as part of Sheridan’s plan to take back Earth.  Why a doctor for a military operation, you might ask?  We’ll find out at the end of the season.

We also meet someone who becomes an instant fan favorite, known only for the longest time as Number One.  We do eventually find out her actual name, but it’s going to be awhile.

Meanwhile, Susan has the chance to be Susan at her best.  I mean, who else are you going to put in charge of recruiting a band of smugglers?

Things between Sheridan and Michael continue to spiral downhill.  If you think this is going to lead them to a bad place, well, we think so to.  This time, though, it leads Sheridan to a good place.  To help matters, Delenn is ready with yet another Minbari courtship ritual.

Woo! Hoo!

This is a rather lighthearted episode.  The last we will have for awhile.  After this things are going to spiral into a series of climaxes that will bring us to an end of many story lines be the season’s conclusion.

The conversation between Jim, JP, and Raul is a lively as ever, so join us as we discuss another fantastic B5 episode on the Babylon Project Podcast.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Poor John.  Problems with the in-laws has gone to a whole new level here.

Seriously, though, Delenn has been running a bit rogue the last several seasons and it’s time to pay the bill.  One good thing for us, is that we get to see full-Minbari Delenn again.  And we have some interesting guest appearances from the past.

Even better is that we get a lot of answers about Earth-Minbari relations that we have been wondering about since the original pilot movie.  Delenn gets some very surprising answers, as well.  It turns out that she’s not the only one with some special information and the cover-up has been going on for quite some time.  This episode will also set up some of Delenn’s tasks in the rest of the season.

As always, Raul, Jim, and JP are full of interesting thought and commentary for this episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

There’s an old joke.  How do you know a reporter is lying?  His lips are moving.  Ok, I’ve heard it used for several other professions, as well, but oh man, does it apply to this episode!  Seriously, though, an honest and free press is important to a democratic society.  In this case, we see the power of a press under the control of a dictator at work.  That is an entirely different animal.

The Babylon 5 command staff allow an ISN reporter onto the station as a follow up from season 2’s And Now For A Word.  You know it’s going to be a hit job.  The crew knows, as well.  However, nobody is prepared for just how much you can do with a bit of creative editing and no way to get equal time to call B.S.  Pay attention to the time on the station and how things are cut to give a desired message.  This is a creepy and disturbing episode.

The good news is that you won’t get lies or B.S. from Raul, Jim, and JP.  Just good solid commentary and thoughtful discussion on the press, the power of the word, and just how much damage it can have when abused.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Yeah, we certainly do have a few lightbulbs going on.

Bester’s got a few ideas to help save his lover involving Z’ha’dum.

Londo has the idea that it might not be quite safe for him on Centauri Prime.  You know, killing the emperor, and all that, might have made a few people vengeful.

Zack thinks it might be a bad idea for Mike to quit and Mike is drawing faces in the mirror.

Lyta has the bright idea to stick it to Bester and Captain Sheridan passes along the idea that sometimes it is better to ask permission rather than forgiveness.

And then there’s all the lightbulbs popping off over the heads of Jim, JP, and Raul.  You’d think it was a camera expo.  Or maybe the lights just all went out and everyone’s in the dark.  You all will have to decide that in this next episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

That’s one happy Vir!  Londo gave him what he wants.

And episode 406 is giving fans what they want.

What we have been building towards for over three years now comes to a head in this episode.  The Vorlons and the Shadows have been fighting it out … well, more like taking it out on the Younger Races.  Sheridan is going to make sure everyone, Vorlons, Shadows, and the Army of Light all know the truth.

Raul, Jim, and JP talk much about endings this episode.  That’s natural, since this episode marks the end of the Shadow War.  Raul starts on his oft repeated mantra throughout S4, that a particular episode could be a season finale.

But it’s also about beginnings.  Remember, this is only episode 406.  We still have 16 episodes to go in this season and a lot of problems back home for everybody.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Last time, G’kar had the long night.  This time, pretty much everyone else does.

Sheridan has been building the largest fleet in known history to fight both the Vorlons and the Shadows.  At the same time.  That weight certainly ruins the night.

Susan is Russian.  Of course she’s having a bad night.  On the bright side, she does get a promise of making a noble gesture at the end of all things.

Neither expect to be coming back.  Certainly a long night there.

If you’re a jester, in the Centauri royal court, I expect you have a lot of long nights.  Humor is so fleeting, after all, and it doesn’t sound like job security is high on the emperor’s list of priorities.

Emperor Cartagia has a bad night, as well.  The permanent kind, actually.  Bad for him.  Good for the rest of Centauri.

Vir also has a pretty bad night.  Then again, committing your first cold blooded murder really doesn’t make for a great evening watching the telly, now does it?

Jim, Raul, and JP, however, are not having a bad night.  Any time where they can get together and talk Babylon 5 is a good day in their book.  And of course, if they are having a good night, so are you, the listener.  Unless you’re listing during the day.  Then you get to have both a good day and a good night.

So sit back, relax, have the beverage of your choice and join us as we discuss The Long Night on the Babylon Project Podcast!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Well, we’re four episodes in and now Sheridan’s back, Garibladi’s back, even Mr. Morden is back.  In fact, everything is back to normal.  Or at least Babylon 5’s version of “normal” which is anything but.  You see, Sheridan is playing host to a Vorlon, the Centuari are playing host to a Shadow fleet, and Mike seems to have a host of problems with Lorien.

On the larger scale, the Vorlons are on a rampage, wiping out entire worlds – not the populations, but the whole planet – that have played host to the Shadows.  News of this is a bit concerning to Londo, but fortunately Emperor Cartagia knows Morden can’t be trusted.  Yeah. right.  I’m sure our listeners have seen enough of him to know there’s more to that.  Londo has a plan afoot to take save his people, but it seems that G’kar is the one paying the price so far.

Speaking of paying a price.  We find out that being brought back from the dead isn’t quite rainbows and roses.  Delenn finds out that price when the command staff address their own Vorlon problem.  John, it seems, has a bit of a shift in plans.  He’s not simply going to take the fight to the Shadows, he’s going to take on both the Shadows and the Vorlons.  At least we finally – after 3-1/2 years – get to see what a Vorlon really looks like.

This is just a taste of what is in store for everyone on this episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.  Jim, JP, and Raul discuss all this and much more in this pivotal episode of the series.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Interesting title:  The Summoning.

Cartagia summons Londo.  (A couple of times, actually.)

Lyta summons the Vorlon.  (Yeah, that probably won’t work out well.  Go figure.)

Sheridan summons the League.  (He’s better now.)

The Vorlons summon their big guns.  (And they’re not afraid to use it.)

Marcus summons unicorns.  (Let’s not go there…)

While the first may be the most obvious, the rest certainly apply as well.  Ok, perhaps not the unicorns, though it might be easier to find one than it seems in finding First Ones.  With all the summoning going on, it seems that great events are afoot.

And speaking of summoning, join Raul, Jim, and JP as they summon more fascinating thoughts and insights into the Babylon 5 universe as they discuss this game changing episode.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Inquiring Narn want to know.  And inquiring Rangers want to help him know.  Sadly for G’Kar, things don’t work out quite the way he expects.  However, it does play well into his path of destiny.  Let’s be honest, we all know that sooner or later the Centauri had to get their hands on him.  We know that from the visions of previous seasons.  Actually, the capture of G’Kar sets the destinies of both he and Londo in motion.

In spite of the title, this episode is about more than our missing security chief.  Delenn is not taking the loss of John very well.  Not only has she been fasting the entire time, she has decided on some possibly rash actions.

Finally, there is John Sheridan.  Let’s just leave it at he needs to find a reason to live.  Reasons to die are apparently to easy.  At least in First One logic.

Get ready for more wide ranging discussion with Raul, Jim, and JP as the discuss this next episode of Babylon 5.

Oh… and we do find out what happened to Mr. Garibaldi.  Except that we don’t.  Not quite.  Yet.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Welcome to season 4.

Ingmar Bergman’s film describes the hour of the wolf as this:

The hour between night and dawn. The hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghost and demons are most powerful, the hour of the wolf is also the hour when most children are born.

With all due respect to Mr. Bergman, I have to admit I like Susan’s description even more:

It’s the time between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways that your life should’ve gone but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta. Seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first-name basis. In times like this, my father used to take one large glass of vodka before bed. ‘To keep the wolf away,’ he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside.

That’s a fitting description to start off Season 4 of Babylon 5.  If you think anything is going to ease off after the rollercoaster of Season 3, think again.  The intensity only pushes up from hear.  The Shadow War is far from over, and there’s still lots of messes back at everyone’s home worlds.  Oh … and no.  That is not an image from Season 1.  Remember, in this show everything connects!

Be ready for many more fun times with Raul, Jim, and JP.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Sheridan took on and defeated the Shadows in a military confrontation last episode.  Now he has to confront them and win on an individual level.  We all knew that sooner or later, John would be going to Z’ha’dum and this is it.  Nobody could have imagined the circumstances, however.

This episode ties back not only to obvious Shadow war foreshadowing throughout the series, but also specifically to things we’ve seen in War Without End and Babylon Squared.  We have a lot of closure in tonight’s story.  Of course, in typical Joe Straczynski manner, that also leaves us with far more questions.  Still, it’s a very satisfying end to a very satisfying season.

The conversation with the team is some of the best of the podcast.  Why?  Because we are joined by our editor, Troy Rutter, for the discussion.  You’ve heard him interviewed in the past.  He brings a very special magic to the podcast that just makes the whole chemistry work better than ever.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Hmmm, think that “Z minus” thing might mean something?  Last week it was 14.  This week it’s 7.

Oh, and did we mention that there’s only one episode after this one in season 3?

The team is struggling to get the League worlds to commit ships to Sheridan’s plan, partly because he is keeping them in the dark regarding many of the details.  Eventually, the agree to provide support, and everything is in motion to take on the Shadows directly.  The battle is an amazing piece of production that is far beyond what anyone would have considered for the mid-1990s.  Actually, it holds up pretty darn well even 20 years later.

In the meantime, the Franklin side-story of the last several episodes gets a wrap-up.  You are going to have to forgive Raul for being a bit cocky.  The guys have been giving him a hard time for ragging on Franklin so much, but he finally gets vindicated.  Even Franklin agrees with him about Franklin.  Depending on which Franklin you’re talking to, that is.

Oh, and shall we say that something of a bomb drops at the end of the episode?  The Shadows were handed a pretty solid, if costly, defeat.  You know they are going to retaliate.  So there’s even more boom! at the very end.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We had a short breather last episode, if you can call Neroon pounding Marcus to a bloody pulp either short or a breather.  Last episode was setup.  This episode is just as much setup, but also a huge payoff (with another type of setup of its own!).

Sheridan is assembling his fleet to take on the Shadows.  Telepaths are being distributed across the ships to give them the best fighting chance.  On top of the war preparations, Brother Theo has some friends over from Earth who are more than meets the eye.  The stress is clearly getting to John and some of the people around him take some steps to address the issue.

In the meantime, Londo has some stress of his own.  It seems the emperor has had enough with the feud between Londo and Refa.  A Minister has arrived to determine which House to support and put the feud to rest.  Londo is not particularly worried, though, and assures the Minister that the issue will be resolved shortly to everyone’s satisfaction.  Ok, well not everyone.

The two stories intersect in one of the most macabre and chilling scenes of the series.  The elegance of it is probably one of the most disturbing parts.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Now, as far as the “A” story goes, it’s sort of hard to argue that point.  The Zarg is rather lame for one of the most dangerous predators in the sector.  Raul also gets rather bent about the firing of bullets from a steam pipe.  It’s simply not how bullets or firearms work.

On the other hand, the “B” story is outstanding!  Delenn is getting a promotion thanks to recent events.  Our farvorite cranky Minbari from the Warrior Caste has some issue with that.  And our favorite ranger has a conversation about it.  Hilarity – as well as several sound thumps – ensue.

The “B” story saves the day and makes the episode quite fun to watch in spite of the Zarg and soggy bullets.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Dr. Franklin.  Pretty girl.  Walkabout.  Yeah.  ‘Nuff said.

If that curt summary makes you think there may be some salt involved, then you’d be right.

Now on to the main story!

Before our little escapade in time, we had to important milestones in our story.  First, we found a weakness with the Shadow ships in the form of telepaths.  Second, we got commitment from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to help in the coming war.

This episode has some tests for both those theories.  Hopefully, it works out because whether we want it to or not, it is clear that if they don’t find the trouble first, then the trouble is going to go out of its way to find them.

And folks, don’t take our ragging on Dr. Franklin too seriously.  It’s become sort of an obligation where he and the ladies are concerned.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

This episode, in particular, does a brilliant job of interleaving parts of the season 1 episode Babylon Squared into the actual story of this episode.  Not surprising, because in so many ways this is really the 3rd part of a three part story who’s first episodes was in season 1.

Or as Kosh would say, “The circle is now complete.”

Of course there is a problem in that when a circle reaches its end, it is really at its beginning.  So yes, we do get closure.  At least in Sinclair’s story.  But in closing that story a universe of new questions demanding closure is created.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

We have everyone’s favorite fuzzy alien returning: Zathras.

We have Commander Sinclair returning as the leader of the Rangers.

We have the most mysterious location in the series returning: Babylon 4.

Something that was set in motion in season 1 is about to come full circle here near the end of season 3.  This episode is so big it’s going to take two parts to get all the elements of closure needed.

Time travel stories in science fiction series are very rarely done well.  It’s not a lack of talent, they are just simply hard to do right and keep the whole cause and effect issues straight.  JMS does a great job here.  Be warned, with Raul on the cast, it’s going to be hard to avoid some of the philosophy of time questions.  A Theory vs. B Theory of time does come up, so we understand if you need to medicate after this one.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

While this is going on, Londo is taking a journey of his own.  A much darker journey that will lead him to embrace the darkness that continues to pursue him.  While Sheridan’s journey is that of a hero, Londo’s is one of tragedy.  This interlude for him marks the shift towards that tragedy.

Examinations is the best way to describe Franklin’s interlude in this episode.  His stim problem that has been growing through the series finally catches up with him.  He responds, of course, in typical “Franklin” fashion.   Raul isn’t as sympathetic to him as some think he should be, and promises to be coming back to his thoughts there soon.

Over all, this is an incredibly arc-dense episode, so sit back, clear your head, and enjoy.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

It seems that he has some common ground with the Babylon 5 command staff where President Clark and the Shadows are concerned.  Sort of an, “Enemy of my enemy is my friend,” type of relationship here.  Make no mistake, though, his first loyalty is to his fellow telepaths.

It’s a good thing he’s concerned, too.  It seems that the Shadows are somehow weaponizing telepaths.  One of the telepaths turns out to be someone Bester knows quite well.  In fact, we see a somewhat softer side to him.  Just don’t let that make you overly sympathetic.  He’ll be back to his normal self soon enough.  At least, the Babylon 5 team have gotten another ally out of this mission.

G’Kar is also brought into the fold.  Delenn takes the unpleasant task of telling him the story.  The whole story.  It’s a painful and moving moment that shows us just how far the G’Kar character has evolved.  Both stories are brought together with a surprise at the end that explains Narn history and provides hope for the future.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

But this is still one heck of a King Arthur story.  And a satisfying thump they made!

What do you expect, though, when you combine the talents of Mira Furlan, Andreas Katsulas, and Jason Carter with the amazing Michael York.  You cannot have that many top notch stage actors on a script without something amazing happening.

Michael sells it so well, you not only wonder if his character really is King Arthur, but you actually hope he is.  That isn’t so far fetched, considering the extent to which the Vorlons have tampered with human history.  The chemistry he has with Andreas/G’Kar is great.  We see a hopeful side of Marcus that is particularly moving.  We also have one of the most powerful moment in the series with Michael and Mira.  Not a word was spoken.  When you have actors that good, you don’t need words.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

How do I put it. Yeah. That’s it. Vir gets the girl. And what a girl she is. She does make bald look good.

Raul can’t look at this episode without thinking “Flounder.” This really is one of the funniest episodes of the series. JMS, however, being who he is makes a hard shift and suddenly gets much darker than expected. We also get a solid lesson in how no good deed goes unpunished. Ok, we also get a bit of a lesson in bad deeds going not only unpunished, but elevated.

Oh, and as long as we’re talking Twain, let’s not forget Lincoln. Or should I say “Lincolni?”

While we are in school, we will also get a bit of a home-ec lesson. First rule: leave the Minbari cooking to the Minbari. Second rule: you can choke anything down with enough salt.

So , sit back, relax, put out some little blossoms in the night, and prepare to enjoy Jim, Raul, and JP on this next episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.

You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow!

After all the crisis, Delenn decides to take matters into her own hands by having the rebirth ceremony.  Yeah, we saw part of that in Season 1, as well.  Though this time, there aren’t any possible weddings happening.  Yet.  Unfortunately, Nightwatch decides to express their displeasure with Sheridan by going after Delenn.  I suppose, those three Minbari warships hovering in the background might have something to do with that.

Anyway, it does seem that Sheridan has had enough.  He makes that rather clear in the end.  We also have a few secrets revealed.  Some of them will have an impact on the future of the story.  Overall, this episode slows down the pace a bit after the roller-coaster we’ve been on.  Pay particular attention to G’Kar.  We will be contrasting him now with him in the future.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

You’ll shoot your eye out kid.

Uh… no.

We’re not the Classic Christmas Movie podcast.

But we’re also not entirely the Babylon Project Podcast today, either.  Well, yes we are, but tonight we’re not talking about, “The next exciting episode…”  What we are talking about is all the wonderful feedback we have gotten from you, our listeners.  For Jim, Raul, and now JP, hosting, Troy’s brilliant editing and Anthea’s voice on the credits, this podcast has been a labor of love that we do without expectation of, well, anything.  That we get any feedback at all is humbling.  That it is such quality and thought provoking feedback is an absolute honor.

So tonight, this is your show.  Your thoughts and comments are a special treat for us, so we’re returning the favor with a special treat episode.  Just in time for a holiday gift back to you.  Have a very Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Holiday, or whatever you do to celebrate this season.

And thank you!  Thank you for another wonderful year shared with us.  So party like a Centauri and we’ll see you in the New Year!

“Be somewhere else.”

Probably one of the strongest lines in science fiction television.  Raw power and an absolute willingness to use it.  We’ve seen some of the flirty or feminine Delenn lately, so we might have forgotten she was a member of the Grey Council – and the chosen of Dukat – for a reason.

But that’s just one of many “wham” points for this episode.  All the tension we’ve been seeing build with the Earth Alliance explodes today.  Clark forces the hand of Sheridan with a result I don’t think he expects.  Hard decisions are made, but are they really that hard when you don’t have anything else to lose?

The moralities of command.  Free press.  Just war.  The price of even a just war.  All this and more are the focus of this episode of Babylon 5.  Raul, Jim, and JP have a fascinating and extended conversation about this and more on this fan favorite episode that also won the 1997 Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

Joining JP in our exalted guest list is the appearance of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry.  With those two, can it get any better?  Well, yes it can.  We also get the ever popular Marshall Teague back as Ta’Lon.  OH!  And Maggie is back!

A cast like this can only mean that we are in for a very special episode.  This is the second part of the mid-season trilogy that changes the course of the show.  After the events of last week, we find President Clark forced to make his move to consolidate power.  That means bad things for Babylon 5 as the Nightwatch infiltration reaches a climax.  Zach will have to find his way out from that spot between a rock and a hard place.

Londo is also having something of an existential crisis, so he pull in a bit of existential help.  The outcome isn’t quite … well … it’s not what he hopes, but it is what he fears.  He gets several puzzles added to his confusion with his answers.  Of course.  Vir also gets a few surprises along the way.

G’Kar explains his epiphany and why he is no longer what we saw in the beginning of the show.  He also has a solution for a lot of the crew’s problems.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!

It turns out that this isn’t the first time that the Shadows have been involved in Earth.  With a Shadow vessel found earlier on Mars and now on Ganymede, it seems it’s up to Sheridan to save Earth from itself.  Do you think anyone is going to notice he’s gone?  Do you think anyone is going to be able to add 2+2 and get 4?

This episode starts of a mini-trilogy in the midst of the season that creates a major shift in the direction of the show.  Join Jim and Raul as we discuss these and many other questions on this next exciting episode of the Babylon Project Podcast.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes.  You can email us at TheBabylonProjectPodcast@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember… No boom today.  Boom tomorrow.  There’s always a boom tomorrow!