Thursday, May 29, 2008

Gone, but not forgotten: Babylon 5



"In the year 2258, it is ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair takes command of a giant five-mile-long cylindrical space station, orbiting a planet in neutral space. At a crossroads of interstellar commerce and diplomacy, Cmdr Sinclair (and his successor, Captain John Sheridan) must try to establish peace and prosperity between various interstellar empires, all the while fighting forces from within the Earth Alliance. It is a precarious command, particularly given that sabotage led to the destruction of Babylon stations 1, 2, & 3 and 4 vanished without a trace."

Babylon 5 ended its five season run in 1998 - TEN YEARS AGO - and secured its place as one of the best science fiction drama series ever to grace the airwaves. B5 really paved the way for better episodic genre shows like Farscape, Heroes and the current incarnation of Battlestar: Galactica.

Two storied attempts at spin-off shows, Crusade and Legend of the Rangers, met with less success, but 2007 saw the release of the popular direct-to-DVD Babylon 5: The Lost Tales which reunited a handful of the series stars. It remains to be seen if more "Lost Tales" are forthcoming.

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