Babylon 5 Reviews A

Years ago I did what you might call “reviews” of Star Trek episodes. I mostly just briefly noted what progressive politics were involved and sometimes used that as an excuse to talk about similar situations in reality.

In late 2015 I finally watched all five seasons of Babylon 5, another sci-fi show, one I had thought of watching once in a while stretching back a couple decades. It isn’t as political or as progressive as ST but there’s some good stuff there- in fact, on one issue, a progressive take on the working-class and/or labor movement, B5 is better than ST. Because there is so little progressive material, I’m going to do one post for every four episodes reviewed, and only mention the episodes that have some progressive political stuff. I might ignore some of the more minor and/or less unique stuff about conflict resolution because from what I remember, it’s very common in this series. Also, although less so than is the case with Star Trek, multiculturalism is a big part of Babylon Five and I will also only be commenting on that when it is more significant than usual. Lastly, there are issues raised about telepaths- I’m going to completely ignore stuff about telepaths when reviewing these episodes.


**Season 1 Episode 1: “Midnight on the Firing Line”** See this for a plot summary.


This is an episode largely about conflict resolution. A colony of the Centauri is attacked and taken over by the Narn. Decades earlier the former occupied the latter’s home world in a near-genocidal manner, and some Narn see this attack as revenge that might as well result in genocide (they’re equally hateful of each other, although apparently the centauri started it). In my study of many conflicts our world has seen in reality, I think that kind of (what might be called) mirror-image hate is fairly uncommon. The military commander of Babylon 5, Sinclair, pushes for a peaceful and multi-lateral resolution of the conflict through the Baby;on 5 Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and emphasizes a blockade of Narn (but at one point he also talks about military intervention, which is disappointing even though it would be multi-lateral). This effort is defeated at one point by dishonest diplomacy by the Narn, but then Sinclair gets some dirt on the them and gets them to withdraw.

We also learn that:
1. Earth’s government is budget-cutting and isolationist and xenophobic. Sinclair seems to believe in a “Domino Theory” involving Narn aggression. Although Sinclair is mostly progressive, Earth and B5 are not utopias like the Federation in Star Trek.
2. The Minbari are known as honorable in war and also take a strong stance against the hatred between the Narn and the Centauri.


**Season 1 Episode 2: “Soul Hunter”** See this for a plot summary.

I don’t have much to say about this episode or the issue it reminded me of, but it DOES remind of an issue between American Indians and institutions of the dominant society. That is the repatriation of Indian remains and of many objects of great cultural significance back to the Indian community. I read a little about it here and here. I think I first heard of it when I heard Winona LaDuke read part of a novel she wrote at a book-reading. I think it’s one of about seven stories in the book, but it sounded very interesting. More about her book here.


**Season 1 Episode 5: “The Parliament of Dreams”** See this for a plot summary.

This episode is about a festival-type celebration of all alien religious traditions represented on Babylon 5. It was organized by Earth and sounds like a fairly good idea in terms of promoting diversity and respect for different religious traditions. When it’s Earth’s turn the military commander in charge of Babylon 5 lines up dozens of people representing Earth’s different religions and introduces alien representatives to them. Those present and mentioned before the episode ends included: an atheist, a Catholic, a Zen Buddhist, a Muslim, an Orthodox Jew, an Oglala Sioux, Greek Orthodox, a member of the Ebo tribe, a Yupik Eskimo, a member of the Jivaro tribe, a Bantu, a Taoist, an aborigine, a Shinto, a Maori, and a Hindu.


**Season 1 Episode 7: “The War Prayer”** See this for a plot summary.

Bigotry and diversity and hate crimes are the major themes in this episodes. Although nothing that seemed worth a direct quote, there are some good statements against bigotry.