Babylon 5

Babylon 5 was a science fiction television programme from 1990s Earth.

Dave Young once likened his own situation to a plot line from that series. When the Eighth Doctor told him that the Kulan might not wipe out mankind because Dave had traces of Kulan DNA in his system, Dave likened the Kulan to the Minbari, who called off their war with Earth because "they found that their souls were being reborn in humans."

The Doctor, for his part, said he "could never get into" Babylon 5 because he found it unlikely that "godlike aliens [would be] disguised as angels." (PROSE: Escape Velocity) Nevertheless he had enough familiarity with the show to once describe the resort planet Kursaal as "Disneyland meets Babylon 5." (PROSE: Kursaal) Izzy Sinclair compared the TARDIS' upper view of space to the opening of the program. (COMIC: Ophidius)

Sam Jones was able to deduce that a device she found in the Seychelles was a tracking device thanks to experience of watching the show. (PROSE: Bounty)

Babylon 5 was among the 20th century Earth television shows broadcast by Reef Station One in the New Earth Republic during the 101st century. (PROSE: Synthespians™)

Behind the scenes

Connections

• J. Michael Straczynski, creator and writer of Babylon 5, had professed enjoyment of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie shortly after its broadcast. He hoped the pilot would lead to a series and intended to watch it, despite such a series conceivably being a rival to his own then-running show. [1]
• Tony Dow, the visual effects producer of the 1996 TV movie, was also the visual effects supervisor of Babylon 5. He also directed five episodes of the series.
• Claudia Christian and Peter Jurasik were main cast members. David Warner, Christopher Neame, William Morgan Sheppard, Sarah Douglas, Guy Siner, Jim Norton, James Warwick, Neil Roberts, Robin Sachs, Eric Steinberg, Carolyn Seymour and Brian McDermott all made guest appearances on the series. John Novak and Juanita Jennings appeared in its spin-off Crusade.
• Neil Gaiman wrote the Babylon 5 episode "Day of the Dead".

References to Babylon 5

• In the audio story Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, the space station Achilles 4, said to have followed after Dark Space 8, is a reference to Babylon 5, the space station in this series. Dr Harcourt's line in that audio story about the contest being "the last, best hope for peace" between Angvia and Gholos is a direct quote from the opening monologue of Season 1 of Babylon 5.