Babylon 5 Online - a starting point

by Michelle, March 2001

Babylon 5 was lucky in being one of the first series to be broadcast while the internet was getting its first major increase in popularity. The Web hadn't become so 'mainstream' while B5 was in pre-production, but it certainly had by the end of the show.

Fans of the show benefitted enormously from this, because the creator and writer of most of B5, J Michael Straczynski, frequented various internet forums (originally Genie, later newsgroups and Compuserve) and would answer questions and provide enigmatic hints of future events to the fans. He was also determined to give people a glimpse of how the industry worked, so behind-the-scenes details were often revealed.

Fuelled by this, a large community of B5 fans developed. The Babylon 5 Usenet newsgroups became popular - rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 (rastb5) and rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (rastb5m) in particular, as this was where jms (as he is known online) took part. (Originally he was on rastb5, but as time went on a moderated group became necessary due to flame wars etc). A UK newsgroup uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5 (umtsb5) was also popular, and provided a haven for those wanting to avoid 'spoilers' on the mostly-American groups. Speculation about where the story was going was abundant, and as each episode was aired, it was discussed and scrutinised in depth for clues.

The B5-JMS email list is ideal if you're interested in what jms has to say, but don't have the time to read the various forums. This list emails you all his comments, along with the message he was replying to. Ranges from about 10 to zero messages a day, averaging maybe 3-5.

The greatest of the B5 sites has to be the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. It built up an extensive resources section, with episode guides, cast lists, and for each episode, a summary of all the important plot points, comments from jms, trivia, and questions raised. Newbies would be directed to this site to catch up on the storyline, and the site was even honoured in the series itself. It was originally hosted at www.hyperion.com/lurk/lurker.html (it has now moved to www.midwinter.com), and the Earth ship Hyperion in Babylon 5 was named for it.
It also has an extremely long list of B5-related links, which is why I'm not providing a huge number here, but only a few highlights from the ones I've seen.

The Official Warner Bros Babylon 5 page isn't as extensive, but has a few things of interest - mostly images, sound files, movies, and some cute Quick Time VR scenes of some of the sets (basically lets you look around a 360 degree view and zoom in on things).

The Spoiler Junkies page for Babylon 5 and Crusade has achieved some notoriety, but is nevertheless popular. Although there obviously aren't any more episodes, it's still keeping track of the various B5-related and jms-related stuff about.

If you're after sound files to liven up your computer, the Down Below Sound Archive is the place to go, with about 20 sound clips per episode.

Babylon Park, a strange combination of Babylon 5 and South Park, is not to be missed!

On a similarly silly note, you can Ask Kosh your deep and meaningful (or not) questions. And the Shadows Information Office is always worth a visit. In the words of jms: "I like the approach you've taken...it's twisted. I like that." REMEMBER: The Shadows LOVE you!

For more B5 humour, there is the extremely long-standing You Know You've Been Watching Babylon 5 Too Much When... list, often abbreviated to YKYBWBTMW... Sadly, the largest B5 humour archive I knew of, maintained by Nathan Mates, appears to have died :( A search of Google turns up a copy here, but I don't know how long this link will be valid.

The B5 Encyclopedia seems the place to go for quick info.

Those are the main places I can think of; I may add more later, but the Lurkers Guide Links page should provide you with plenty.