Despite my certainty that Warner Bros. would never finance a high-definition overhaul of Babylon 5 (1993–8), it has happened. The remastered series debuted on HBO Max in early 2021 and was issued on Blu-ray in December 2023. (For my review of the Blu-ray release, please click here.)

As with Babylon 5’s 1998 run on TNT, the 2000 run on Sci Fi, and the DVDs issued between 2002 and 2004, the Blu-rays present the episodes in their original broadcast order. (The only exception is the pilot, which is banished to a bonus disc rather than leading off the set as it should.)

There’s not a lot wrong with the original broadcast order. There are a few instances where it violates the continuity of the narrative, but it is—for the most part—serviceable. It’s not the narrative disasters of Universal’s American Gothic (1995–6) DVD release¹ or Fox’s original broadcast of The Chicago Code (2011)², both semi-serialized series rendered incomprehensible by having their episodes run in random order, but it’s not optimum.

I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Babylon 5 in its entirety. Adding up the two repeat cycles above, at least a half-dozen guided tours for friends I introduced to the series, the DVD releases, three rewatches while I was writing the Babylon 5 Encyclopedia, countless spot checks while editing over twenty titles for B5 Books and the same while I’ve been writing my forthcoming making-of-Babylon 5 books—most of those while taking copious notes—I’m probably closing in on twenty viewings, give or take.

Having spent that much time with Babylon 5—both the show and its production paperwork—I’ve inevitably noticed details that would elude a first-time viewer, and probably most of the viewers who have the luxury of watching the show for entertainment rather than work. (Brought that one on myself.)

In the spirit of Harlan Ellison’s suggested viewing order for The Prisoner (1967–8)—which I’ve followed since that 6 September 1993 Sci-Fi Channel marathon opened my eyes to orders that defy the numbers on the videocassette covers—I humbly offer my suggested viewing order for Babylon 5.

In an effort to avoid spoilers, a simple list—which also supplies each episode’s location on the DVDs and Blu-rays—follows. (If you want to see my rationale for this sequence, please skip to the annotations below.)

* Optional movies and spinoffs. ** Unproduced, script available.

* Optional movies and spinoffs. ** Unproduced, script available.

Spoilers follow. You have been warned.

If you were paying attention to the production codes on the list above, you likely noticed that my order—with a few exceptions—follows the sequence in which the episodes were written and filmed.

Why—you may ask—does that order differ from the original broadcast sequence employed by PTEN, TNT, the Sci-Fi Channel, and Warner Bros. (Discovery) Home Entertainment’s DVD and Blu-ray releases?

There are a variety of reasons, and I’ll address each in turn.

The Gathering—Babylon 5’s pilot movie, produced in over twenty days in August and September 1992 and broadcast by PTEN affiliates the week of 22 February 1993—is the starting point. Had it been delivered one cent over budget, that would have been the end of Babylon 5, a one-off movie, much like PTEN’s Island City (1994) pilot the following season.

In 1997, TNT—which had licensed Babylon 5 for strip syndication, commissioned two movies-of-the-week, and ordered a fifth season to conclude the five-year arc—provided funds to re-edit The Gathering. During the original editorial process in late 1992, creator J. Michael Straczynski—an inexperienced producer—had deferred to the judgment of director Richard Compton. Straczynski and series producer John Copeland were dissatisfied with the result and pitched a “special edition” that would re-instate much of the material Compton cut; replace some of Foundation Imaging’s original visual effects work with shots provided by the show’s new cgi vendor, Netter Digital; and replace Stewart Copeland’s score with new music by Christopher Franke, who’d succeeded him on the series. When the revised pilot debuted on 4 January 1998, the titles read:

The 1998 special edition became the default version of The Gathering, though the 1993 original is preserved on a German DVD release and Amazon Prime, where it’s listed among the extras¹. While I wish the original edit was more readily available as a historical milestone in the development of cgi and a case study in how the same footage can yield two very different movies, the special edition is my preferred take on the material.

Babylon 5’s first season premiered almost a year after The Gathering, in January 1994. Because production commenced in July 1993, eleven episodes were completed, allowing for flexibility in broadcast.

As Straczynski wrote in Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Volume 1, “Because we were in a frenzy of construction and recasting and everything was a mess [in the summer of 1993], we knew that our first episode was almost certainly going to be the most problematic, but that we would have things humming along pretty efficiently by the third episode. It was for this reason that ‘Midnight on the Firing Line,’ the first episode aired, was actually the third script produced.”

Though the first three episodes were filmed in the opposite sequence, the writer approached the scripts in the intended broadcast order, as seen below.

103 Midnight on the Firing Line — Story & Teleplay commissioned: 27 April 1993.
102 Soul Hunter — Story & Teleplay commissioned: 3 May 1993.
101 Infection — Story & Teleplay commissioned: 14 May 1993.

“Midnight” reintroduced the world and characters, including Lt. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova and Talia Winters, who succeed the pilot’s Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima and Lyta Alexander as the station’s executive officer and licensed commercial telepath, respectively. Both are new to the station, as is Amb. Londo Mollari’s diplomatic attaché, Vir Cotto. “Soul Hunter” introduces Dr. Stephen Franklin, who acknowledges his predecessor, Dr. Benjamin Kyle, upon his arrival. Franklin is then central to the action of “Infection”, which features none of the station’s resident aliens—another reason it was filmed first—giving the incoming prosthetics vendor, Optic Nerve, a little extra time to finesse new takes on the characters designed by Criswell Productions for the pilot.

Preceding in production order, we continue:

104 Born to the Purple
105 Believers
106 And the Sky, Full of Stars
107 The War Prayer
108 The Parliament of Dreams
109 Grail
110 Mind War
111 Survivors

The original broadcast order for the preceding run of episodes differs considerably from the production sequence. “Believers” and “Grail” were pushed back (tenth and fifteenth, respectively) while “The Parliament of Dreams” and “Mind War” were brought forward in the lineup (as the fifth and sixth episodes).

“‘Mind War’ has come out so well that it looks like we’re going to move it up in the schedule a bit. It was originally slated to run about episode 10 or so, but the studio is so hot on it that it’ll probably run #6, right after ‘Parliament.’”

J. Michael Straczynski,
20 December 1993

What we have here is a case of an external force exerting itself upon the broadcast schedule: Warner Bros. and the producers of Babylon 5 needed the series to succeed, so—having deemed “Mind War” a particularly effective installment—they scheduled it to run as soon as possible. Since Catherine Sakai, a prominent character in the B-plot, was introduced in “The Parliament of Dreams”—another standout show from the first eleven produced—both were brought forward to serve as potentially stronger hooks for the audience than the episodes originally slated for those slots. (I would consider this a strong argument for using the original broadcast order when introducing a new viewer to B5; gripping the audience was a consideration in deviating from the production order.)

So, knowing why an episode might be brought forward, why might one be pushed back?

“When we go in [to editing] with an episode at 10:00, we’re usually out by 6:00, sometimes 7:00. … We were in there for three days working on ‘Grail.’ … The only one that was worse than ‘Grail’ for editing was ‘Believers,’ where we also came up short and we had to shoot a B-story.”

J. Michael Straczynski to Joe Nazzaro,
6 February 1995

Add the difficulties of rendering the first cgi-created creature on television to the already arduous task of editing “Grail” and it becomes clear why that episode reached the screen later than anticipated.

Speaking of cgi, we come to “Chrysalis” (112), the teleplay for which featured the following note from the author on page one: “The following script will be shot as episode #12 in the production schedule, but is intended to be aired as #22, the last episode of the season, which will be a cliffhanger.”

Once again, auctorial intent in contrast to the vicissitudes of making tv provide us with a digression from the production order, so we continue season one thus:

113 DeathWalker
114 By Any Means Necessary
115 Legacies
116 Signs and Portents
117 The Quality of Mercy
118 Babylon Squared
119 TKO
120 A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I
121 A Voice in the Wilderness, Part II
122 Eyes
112 Chrysalis

One thing that becomes immediately evident when viewing the series in this sequence is that Delenn’s chrysalis device makes its debut in “Legacies” (115), in which only the lowest tier is featured on the table in her front room. (“Legacies” also features the first reference to Delenn’s upcoming transformation when Alisa Beldon tells Commander Sinclair what she “heard” in the ambassador’s mind.)

“Signs and Portents” (116)—originally aired two months before “Legacies”—shows that work on the device has continued, with Delenn assembling the second tier as Mr. Morden interviews her.

Delenn receives the final component of the device—the Triluminary—from a member of the Grey Council in “Babylon Squared” (118), completing the logical progression.

“But!” I hear you say, “Why isn’t the chrysalis device present when Delenn entertains Draal in her quarters during “A Voice in the Wilderness” Part I?

“Ha!” I say to you, in a strangely combative fashion. “Once it was finished, Delenn moved it to the bedroom, where it is located in ‘Chrysalis’! Perfectly logical, since one would obviously want to metamorphose in one’s bedroom…or maybe, I dunno, the bathroom?”

It’s also worth noting that John the Starfury pilot flies under Ivanova in Delta Wing during the events of “Signs and Portents” (116), then dies as Alpha Seven in the teaser for “Babylon Squared” (118). Ivanova notes that John “just turned thirty” when Franklin states he’s died of old age, indicating she knew him well enough to know his birthday. The episodes were originally broadcast in the opposite order.John the Starfury pilot in “Signs and Portents” and “Babylon Squared”, about to die.

201 Points of Departure
202 Revelations
203 The Geometry of Shadows
204 A Distant Star
205 The Long Dark
206 A Spider in the Web

A divergence occurs, with two episodes swapped—

207 A Race through Dark Places
208 Soul Mates

—for reasons related to PTEN’s scheduling and post-production:

“…originally, ‘Soul Mates’ was to air after ‘Race.’ At that time, PTEN was initially going to show just 6 new episodes, and we would have come in after the rerun break with ‘Race,’ then ‘Soul.’ When the ratings came in and looked good, they didn’t want to interfere with the growth, and indicated they wanted to show 7 new eps in the first batch. ‘Race,’ as you can see, was a very complex episode visually, and the only way to get it ready to run #7 in the first batch would’ve been to compromise the integrity of the show, and we simply won’t do that for any reason. ‘Soul Mates,” on the other hand, required very little in the way of post production, so that was moved forward into the #7 slot.”

J. Michael Straczynski,
29 January 1995

Things continue with:

209 The Coming of Shadows
210 Gropos
211 All Alone in the Night
212 Acts of Sacrifice
213 Hunter, Prey

And then…things get messy again. We have a mystery:

214 And Now for a Word
215 There All the Honor Lies

Thus far, I’ve not found any explanation for why these two episodes were swapped in broadcast order. As originally screened, “There All the Honor Lies” was the first show to air after seven weeks of repeats, so it’s possible that “Honor” moved ahead of “And Now for a Word” in an effort to start the new episodes with a more conventional story, the ISN documentary being an off-format entry in the B5 œuvre. It’s also possible that the cgi was to blame…which is definitely the case when we get to:

216 Knives
217 In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum

This is one of the rare cases where a minor bit of narrative continuity was upset by a heavier than usual cgi burden disrupting the intended sequence.

“…the chronological order was supposed to be ‘Knives, then ‘[In the Shadow of] Z’ha’dum.’ In ‘Knives’ you get the reminder about Anna [Sheridan], then in ‘Z’ha’dum’ you get the payoff…there was so much CGI work and rotoscope work and creature animation involved in ‘Knives’ that it got flopped to second in that order. So while it works best the way it was intended, it still works okay in this order.”

J. Michael Straczynski,
24 May 1995

After the Icarus shuffle we resume with:

218 Confessions and Lamentations
220 Divided Loyalties
219 The Long, Twilight Struggle

Whoa! Those last two were not in production order! What gives?

Before we tackle the production sequence, allow me to present dialogue-based evidence that “Divided Loyalties” was intended to be screened before “The Long, Twilight Struggle”.

In “Divided Loyalties”, Delenn admits to Sheridan that “In preparing to come here, I was not taught the more…colorful parts of your language.” A discussion of the word “butt” follows, and Sheridan concludes “Abso-fraggin-lutely.” In “The Long, Twilight Struggle”, Delenn deploys Sheridan’s “Abso-fragging-lutely” and adds a “damnit” for good measure. She then explains: “Since our last discussion, I have been studying your use of language. So you approve?”

We can conclude from this exchange that the episodes were aired in the correct order, and I suspect the out-of-sequence production was for some logistical reason. Most likely, Patricia Tallman—who returned as Lyta Alexander in “Divided Loyalties”—was booked for stunt work on another project.

221 Comes the Inquisitor
222 The Fall of Night
301 Matters of Honor
302 Convictions
303 A Day in the Strife

One again, cgi (and consideration of the ratings sweeps) resulted in two episodes being swapped on original broadcast:

304 Voices of Authority
305 Passing through Gethsemane

To add a little context, “Gethsemane” was transmitted the week of 30 November 1995 and “Voices” made its debut on 1 February 1996, so the swap provided a lot of breathing room to get the cgi finished.

“We’re finishing the last EFX shots on ‘Voices of Authority,’ episode #4, which will air after episode #5, ‘Passing Through Gethsemane’ because the latter requires almost zip EFX, and is a better cap to the November sweeps.”

J. Michael Straczynski,
28 October 1995

306 Dust to Dust
307 Exogenesis
308 Messages from Earth
309 Point of No Return
310 Severed Dreams
311 Ceremonies of Light and Dark

The following swap is the last deviation from broadcast order until season five:

312 A Late Delivery from Avalon
313 Sic Transit Vir

This time, we have three reasons for the exchange:

“‘Avalon’ and ‘Vir’ were reversed in order to a) finish effects on ‘Avalon,’ and b) to give a lighter episode after ‘Ceremonies’ (also to hold [Michael] York for sweeps).”

J. Michael Straczynski,
29 April 1996

We have the old standards cgi and promotional reasons, plus—and this is an interesting one—a matter of tonal relief. While contemporary technical and promotional considerations can easily be discounted when considering the viewing order, the issue of emotional impact could be a good argument to leave these two episodes in their transmission order rather than restoring them to production order; your mileage may vary.

The rest of season three proceeds as originally aired. The same goes for the whole of year four, produced and transmitted in the same order…until the very end.

314 Ship of Tears
315 Interludes and Examinations

[Updated, 1 Dec 2024] Neil Ottenstein reminded me of the viewing order archived at The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5. I’d forgotten that “War Without End” was produced and scheduled ahead of “Walkabout” due to visual effects work and May ratings sweeps.

318 Walkabout
316 War Without End, Part One
317 War Without End, Part Two

319 Grey 17 Is Missing
320 And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
321 Shadow Dancing
322 Z’ha’dum
401 The Hour of the Wolf
402 Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
403 The Summoning
404 Falling toward Apotheosis

405 The Long Night
406 Into the Fire
407 Epiphanies
408 The Illusion of Truth
409 Atonement
410 Racing Mars
411 Lines of Communication
412 Conflicts of Interest
413 Rumors, Bargains, and Lies
414 Moments of Transition
415 No Surrender, No Retreat
416 The Exercise of Vital Powers
417 The Face of the Enemy
418 Intersections in Real Time
419 Between the Darkness and the Light
420 Endgame
421 Rising Stars

As has been frequently mentioned by J. Michael Straczynski, Warner Bros. ordered the Babylon 5 story to be wrapped up in season four due to the demise of PTEN, the consortium of television stations that broadcast the series for the first three years of its existence. Thus, the final episode produced for season four was “Sleeping in Light” (422), the series finale.

Then, after “Sleeping in Light” had been filmed in April 1997, executive producer Douglas Netter managed an eleventh-hour reprieve and secured a fifth season to be screened by the basic-cable channel TNT, a corporate sibling following Turner Broadcasting’s merger with Warner Bros. For once, PTEN’s bizarre notion of withholding the final four or five episodes of each season to be shown as preamble to the season premiere—thus negating the value of the year-ending cliffhangers by resolving them seven days later—worked in Straczynski’s favor, allowing him to create a new season four finale, “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars” (501) to replace “Sleeping in Light”, which would be shelved until the end of the fifth season, where it was originally intended to be placed, had their been no studio/network shenanigans to contend with.

Now—in what is a potentially controversial opinion—I recommend viewing the movies-of-the-week (MOWs) Thirdspace (MOW1) and In the Beginning (MOW2) between seasons four and five. Both stories are told in flashback, the former narrated by Sheridan from some time after the Earth Alliance Civil War and the latter recounted by Mollari from between the scenes of the flash-forward featured in “War Without End” Part Two (317).

Some folks advocate wedging Thirdspace into its chronological position, yet another subject for debate, given that the action takes place between scenes in “Atonement” (409), which makes for an awkward viewing experience and disregards the fact that the story is narrated in past-tense by Sheridan. Placing Thirdspace at the end of season four works nicely.

In the Beginning unquestionably takes place in 2278, between the events of “Objects at Rest” (522) and “Sleeping in Light” (422). It unarguably features spoilers for “And the Sky, Full of Stars” (106), “Revelations” (202), “A Late Delivery from Avalon” (312), “War Without End” Part Two (317), and “Atonement” (409). It does not deal explicitly with any plot points established in season five, which makes sense since it—and Thirdspace—were produced immediately after season four.

Once again, I base my placement on Straczynski’s intent in writing the two movies, which were designed to introduce successive runs of repeats on TNT. The two MOWs were commissioned over a year before Netter’s wheeling&dealing yielded a fifth year of the series and were explicitly intended to be promotable events to bring viewers to TNT for its daily B5 reruns.

And now, I shall somewhat undermine my own argument with the words of the writer:

“When I sat down to write ‘In the Beginning,’ my feeling was that I should look at the long term. Would the hole in Sinclair’s mind be the same mystery it was in season one, or would it be kind of known thereafter? If so, then do you want to play with the mystery, or set up what actually happened? I figured, okay, let’s go for the latter…let’s let the audience know (which will mostly know by now anyway), and set up the background, with the characters not knowing the first season. I took basic Greek tragedy as my model, with ‘In the Beginning’ functioning more or less as a Greek chorus that sets things up.

“If you want to play it as a strict mystery, then no, probably don’t go near ‘In the Beginning’…but frankly, if I were going to start someone off on B5, I’d definitely want to start with ‘In the Beginning,’ which sort of skims in and out of the overall storyline in a beautiful fashion.”

J. Michael Straczynski,
15 September 1997

Never let it be said that I don’t present all the evidence, whether it backs me up or not.

That said, by the recording of the In the Beginning commentary, ca. 2004, Straczynski left the sequencing to the viewwer.

“There are a number of fans who say that you should watch this before you watch the series. Some say you should watch it after you’ve watched the series because it is filled with spoilers. I’ll leave this to the considered turning of your own conscience out there, what you want to do.”

J. Michael Straczynski
DVD Commentary, Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Since “Deconstruction” (501) replaced “Sleeping” (422) in season four, all of season five’s production codes are offset, relative to their broadcast sequence.

502 No Compromised
503 The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari
504 The Paragon of Animals
505 A View from the Gallery
511 Day of the Dead

Now, we come to a bit of strangeness.

When Neil Gaiman was contracted to write “Day of the Dead” in August 1997, Straczynski sent him the as-yet unaired episodes of season four and the first four scripts for the fifth year, the episodes Straczynski had written at a break-neck pace to get ahead of the last-minute renewal.

Thus, Gaiman was writing his episode based on the status quo as it appeared in “A View from the Gallery” (505). When you consider that Mollari and G’Kar leave the station in “Strange Relations” (507) and return from Centauri Prime in “The Ragged Edge” (513), and that the telepaths—whom Lochley claims Garibaldi considers responsible for the events in “Day of the Dead”—are no longer on the station after “Phoenix Rising” (512), Gaiman’s episode must sit between “No Compromises” (502)—when the telepaths arrive—and “Strange Relations” (507)—when Mollari and G’Kar leave for Centauri Prime. Knowing which scripts Gaiman reviewed prior to writing allows the episode’s ideal location to be determined.

Since we’re on the subject, freelance scripts typically take longer to turn around than in-house teleplays, so that’s why “Day of the Dead” was scheduled to be shot as 511, half way through the season’s production schedule. Interestingly, the episode was pulled forward in the broadcast schedule, just not far enough, as the creator explains:

“We suggested moving up [‘Day of the Dead’] because the NBA playoffs will hit after #12, and better to have 3–4 intense episodes in a row, culminating in 12, than to break up the middle, which would’ve been okay as a respite if there wasn’t going to be a break, but since there is a break now, I want to slam the last few before it hits for more impact.”

J. Michael Straczynski,
6 March 1998

506 Learning Curve
507 Strange Relations
508 Secrets of the Soul
509 In the Kingdom of the Blind…
510 A Tragedy of Telepaths
512 Phoenix Rising
513 The Ragged Edge
514 The Corps Is Mother, the Corps Is Father
515 Meditations on the Abyss
516 Darkness Ascending
517 And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
518 Movements of Fire and Shadow
519 The Fall of Centauri Prime
520 The Wheel of Fire
521 Objects in Motion
522 Objects at Rest

My preference is to slip The River of Souls (MOW3), A Call to Arms (MOW4), Crusade, The Legend of the Rangers, and The Lost Tales in between “Objects at Rest” (522) and “Sleeping in Light” (422) since they fall between those episodes in the history of the B5 universe and—more importantly to me—it feels like 19 years elapses between 2262 and 2281 if you watch the shows thus.

MOW3 The River of Souls
The Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight
MOW4 A Call to Arms

Crusade complicates matters due to TNT’s interference and eventual cancellation of the series after thirteen of the contracted twenty-two episodes were produced.

108 War Zone
111 Ruling from the Tomb
107 The Long Road
109 The Path of Sorrows
113 Appearances and Other Deceits

The sequence begins, as it must, with “War Zone” (108), wherein the crew of the Excalibur assembles. “Ruling from the Tomb” (111), which features the first meeting of Gideon and Lochley, is placed second, which is consistent with the urgency of assembling a large conference and Gideon’s assertion that if there was a saboteur aboard his ship, it would have been blown up “weeks ago.” This also allows an exit for the character of Trace Miller, who only appears in two episodes, due to TNT souring on the character and dropping actor Alex Mendoza’s option for the “back nine” episodes. “The Long Road” (107) takes place approximately two months after the Drakh plague was released on Earth. “The Path of Sorrows” (109) is placed fourth in the sequence because it establishes the mysteries of the Cerberus and Apocalypse Box, both of which will become prominent in the following episodes. It also ends with Galen departing the Excalibur. “Appearances and Other Deceits” (113) comes fifth to transition the crew into the gray-and-red uniforms.

103 Racing the Night
101 The Needs of Earth
102 The Memory of War
104 Visitors From Down the Street
105 Each Night I Dream of Home

To do as little damage as possible to Straczynski’s original intent, the next five episodes proceed in their originally intended sequence: “Racing the Night” (103), “The Needs of Earth” (101), “The Memory of War” (102) [which must precede “Patterns of the Soul” (110), due to the virus shield’s creation], “Visitors From Down the Street” (104) [which must precede “The Well of Forever” (106) and Mr. Jones’s accusation that Matheson has had unauthorized telepathic contact] and “Each Night I Dream of Home” (105) [which necessarily takes place after “Ruling from the Tomb” but before “The Rules of the Game” (112)].

114 To the Ends of the Earth (Unfilmed, the script was published in CRUSADE: What the Hell Happened? Vol. 3.)
112 The Rules of the Game
110 Patterns of the Soul
106 The Well of Forever
115 Value Judgments (Unfilmed, the script was published in CRUSADE: Other Voices, Vol. 2.)

The unfilmed “To the Ends of the Earth” (114) transitions back to the black uniforms and develops the Cerberus storyline set up in “Path” and alluded to in “The Needs of Earth.” Once again, the story ends with Galen departing the Excalibur, providing a good opportunity to sequence the crew’s much-needed shore leave at Babylon 5 in “The Rules of the Game.” The added benefit of this placement is that Lorka 7 provides a promising destination for the Excalibur crew, which can then be undercut by General Thompson’s orders to divert to Theta 49 in “Patterns of the Soul,” where Dr. Chambers’s virus shield gets its first test. Galen then returns to hijack the ship—possibly fulfilling the Apocalypse Box’s warning to Gideon in “The Memory of War”—and lead the crew to “The Well of Forever.” Once again, ideal contrast is provided by placing Matheson’s trial by Mr. Jones—the successor to the Psi Corps—in “Well” immediately before his encounter with Bester—the last vestige of the Corps—in the unfilmed “Value Judgments” (115).

118 Tried and True (Unfilmed, the script was published in CRUSADE: Other Voices, Vol. 2.)
116 The End of the Line (Unfilmed, the script was published in CRUSADE: What the Hell Happened? Vol. 3.)

The rest of the season would proceed as Straczynski noted in his files: the unwritten “Darkness of the Soul” (117)—possibly the story in which Galen would have discovered Gideon’s Apocalypse Box; “Tried and True” (118)—in which Dureena was reunited with her mentor; an untitled Straczynski-written and directed episode (122)—a “surreal/unusual episode” wherein a “construction base [would be] found”; the written-on-spec “War Story” (119)—wherein Dureena would have been kidnapped; the partially outlined “The Walls of Hell” (121)—in which Gideon and company would have searched for their missing comrade; an untitled Straczynski-written episode (120)—in which Dureena would have returned, boasting forbidden technology; “The End of the Line” (116)—the unproduced season-one finale; and “Little Bugs Have Lesser Bugs” (2XX)—the Peter Woodward-scripted season-two orphan that calls into question the resolution to year one’s cliffhanger.

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
422/523 Sleeping in Light

Jan Schroeder, my advisor on the Babylon 5 Preservation Project, considers my practice to be a heresy of the highest order. She feels the emotional impact of “Objects at Rest” (522) and “Sleeping in Light” (422) is heightened by viewing them back-to-back; I’m 180 degrees from her on that point, but—as I said above—I always try to make room for the opposition.

If this article has entertained or offered food for thought, I have Ko-Fi for digital tips and Patreon, where you can find some of my other work. Contributions from Babylon 5 fans like you fund my ongoing Babylon 5 research and publishing work.

Much appreciated,
JASON DAVIS, Writer
THE MAKING OF BABYLON 5

Originally published as the 21 and 28 February 2020 installments of the Babylon 5 Preservation Project weekly briefing, this piece has been substantially revised and expanded.

All images from Babylon 5, Crusade, and Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers are ©1993–8, 1999, and 2002, respectively, by Warner Bros. Discovery and are used here for purely illustrative purposes.

1. My thanks to Daniel and Lee Whiteside for informing me about the original edit of The Gathering being archived at Amazon Prime. ↩︎