You know how I’ve been going ga-ga over the past few episodes and their references to classic sci-fi? I have to take a moment and applaud the title of this episode. “The Quality of Mercy” is taken from Shakespeare, more specifically The Merchant of Venice. You know, one of the Bard’s not-so-widely-read plays. It happens to be one of my favorite speeches, about the power of forgiveness and mercy.... 

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”... 

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...