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Babylon 5 is the story of the last of the Babylon stations, the last hope for a galaxy without war. It begins in the year 2257 with the opening of the Babylon 5 station. Unlike most television series, Babylon 5 is a single story, completely planned out from day one with a beginning, middle, and end. Each episode is enjoyable on its own, but is also a piece of a larger whole, a chapter in a five-year-long novel for television.
It is the story of the residents - both human and alien - of this Floating UN, a story of laughter, heartache, self-sacrifice, betrayal, darkness, and light. There are 5 major alien races - The Minbari, the Centuri, the Narns, the Vorlons, and of course the Humans. There are hundreds if not thousands of "lesser races" that are just trying to survive.
The Centuri have just ended a 100 year occupation of the Narn homeworld, and the Narn are out for revenge. The Earth Government is about to suffer an upheaval as the current president dies in an 'accident' and his vice president takes over. The Humans and the Minbari are still growling at each other even thought the great war between them ended 20 or so years ago.
The Babylon Project was conceived in the aftermath of the war. Modeled after the United Nations, it would be a meeting place, neutral ground where the powers could meet and work out their differences peacefully.
Heh. Peace? Between these 5 races?
Ah yes, the Vorlons. No one knows very much about the Vorlons, other than they are an old race, ancient, with many strange and wondrous technologies. No one knows what they look like as they go around inside 'Encounter Suits'. Whether this is to keep their native noxious gasses inside, or to keep prying eyes OUT no one knows. At least, not yet.
The first three Babylon stations were sabotaged in mid-construction. The fourth was completed, but just as it was about to go online it vanished without a trace. The Earth government would have stopped there, but some of the alien governments, seeing the value of a meeting ground, offered financial assistance for the construction of a fifth station. Naturally, there were strings attached.
The setting of the show is affected by events in each episode - the status quo isn't neatly restored at the end of the hour, characters actually die, are reassigned, or are forever changed by their actions and those of the people around them. Main characters betray, lie, cheat, and offer great acts of heroism all in the same episode. Character dynamics are just that... dynamic, ever changing, yet the core of them remains the same. Because of that, it's impossible to come up with a single introduction to the series and characters.
The pilot was a 2 hour movie called "The Gathering", and the show spawned 5 "Movies of the Week"... 4 because of TNT, and one was the result of the Sci-Fi channel picking up the show in syndication. The characters, the music, the special effects and the story itself are all works of art unto themselves, however when combined they create a concerto that has never been equaled in Science-Fiction history, and I doubt will ever be duplicated.
Ivvory · Sun Apr 23, 2006 @ 07:50am · 0 Comments |
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