”And so, it begins… Here we are. The end of the first season. “Chrysalis” is more than just an awesome season finale, however. It’s the episode that sold me on Babylon 5. It’s the episode that showed me there was something worth tuning into on a regular basis instead of the sporadic basis I had been watching the show originally. In short, it’s awesome. I’ve spent a lot of the past few... 

While I may not have been crazy about “Voice in the Wilderness,” I will admit the two-part episode marks a rise in the stakes of the show. The series suddenly has a much more epic feel and that’s certainly visible in “Babylon Squared,” one of the fan-favorite episodes of the first season. The history of the Babylon stations was covered in a previous episode, but I don’t think anyone thought... 

With only five episodes left in the season, it’s time for the show to ramp things up. “A Voice in the Wilderness” is a nice attempt to do so, although I propose that it’s one of the weakest scripts to come from series creator J. Michael Straczynski, with huge neon signs instead of subtle foreshadowing, some really bad character motivation, and one of the worst cliffhangers in the history of... 

It’s obvious that Babylon 5 is inspired by epic stories of the past. Captain Sheridan carries himself as Odysseus, refusing to concede to outside forces, including death, until the time is right (and, of course, there are the constant references to Tennyson’s “Ulysses”). The Rangers (among other things) add a feeling of Lord of the Rings inspiration. And, more than once, we get references to... 

Alright ladies and gentlemen, buckle in. This is going to be a long ride. For many people, “Signs and Portents” is the start of the major story arc in Babylon 5. It’s my hope that, over the course of this series so far, I’ve shown that some story elements go all the way back to the first episode (“Midnight on the Firing Line”). This is definitely a game changer, however, with so much story... 

With Star Trek in the ‘60s, Gene Roddenberry showed that science-fiction can be used as a powerful medium of social commentary – a tradition J. Michael Straczynski carried on with Babylon 5 more than once. “Believers” is the first such episode, where Babylon 5 really dives into a topic that of some importance to contemporary audiences. While it is at times a bit heavy handed, “Believers”... 

For seven episodes now we’ve heard about the Earth-Minbari war, with little attention paid to it aside from a cut scene that was restored in the special edition of “The Gathering.” It’s such an important element in the history of Babylon 5 that it’s mentioned weekly in the opening narration. Finally we get to understand what the war was like and some of the fallout that has come since the... 

So far we’ve looked at episodes that are among my favorites and among my least favorites. Sooner or later, however, there have to be some episodes that are in the middle – episodes that leave you feeling, “meh,” as we might say on the podcast. “The War Prayer” is one of those episodes. It offers a few interesting things into the world of Babylon 5, but it’s mostly a stand-alone episode... 

If “Infection” is my least favorite Season One episode, then “The Parliament of Dreams” ranks up there as one of my favorites for the season. The episode is the first time G’Kar is really put at the center of a story (as I’ve mentioned previously, I was a big G’Kar fan), reveals some of culture of the different alien races, and even gives the Commander a romantic connection, although... 

One of the things that continually drew me to Babylon 5 over the years it ran was its take on spiritual matters. I’m not a very religious person, but there was something about the way spirituality was touched upon by the various characters that struck a cord with me: Delenn’s idea that we are all star stuff, G’kar’s transcendence. The fact that the show communicated spirituality so well is...