Prologue: On the first day of 1999, Channel 4 broadcast the last episode of Babylon 5, Sleeping in Light. Despite the intrusion of a logo, this marked the end of an era for the many UK fans who, like myself, had followed the series for its five year run. As some of the responses on the UK newsgroup showed, this was a series with an ability to move you unlike any other of its kind.

As I really don't have the time or resources to create an all out gob smacking B5 page, I'll leave that to the established sites which do an incredible job. What I can do, though, is share my personal experience of the series. This basically consists of having been to two conventions and the odd Babbling and Gathering, and even having set up my own meeting group for a short period of time while I was studying in York.

If you're wondering what the hell this page is all about, then you probably need to know a little something about Babylon 5. The concept at the heart of the Babylon 5 series, and now movies (currently available at video retailers right here in the UK), is a story arc. The original series portrays 5 years of time in the life of the last of the Babylon spacestations. This period of time was mapped out by the show's creator, Joe Michael Strazcynski, or JMS as he's known to people like myself, in advance. In the first two seasons there were two types of episodes, arc and non-arc, the former building up the core storyline.

JMS has written every arc episode, which means that for the later series he wrote every single episode, unheard of in TV terms. I asked him at my second convention whether he intended to exert that level of control over the coming movies and sequels, to which he answered "as much as was possible", which for JMS means he won't be letting the reins go any time soon.

My first impressions of B5 weren't all that great. I watched the pilot on Channel 4 and I remember thinking things like "hmm, those Amigas must be working hard" (B5 spaceships and now in many cases sets are computer generated) and "those are very thin guns" and "I didn't know Bruce Willis was in this" and "why does the control room look like a disco?!" Despite my slightly muted response I watched the first episodes as they came out, and I think it was Soul Hunter that really got me hooked. It didn't have a big space battle like the first episode, but it did have a great sequence as a Starfury tried to grapple a crippled ship. Now, as much as I like Star Trek, it has a physics all its own. What I liked about B5 was that this Starfury was using visible bursts from jets and was responding to those bursts just like it would in the real world. That's the way the shuttle manoeuvres.

I think it was this that made me realise - Babylon 5 is REAL. It's science fiction, yes, but it's... gritty. Dirty. Believable up to a point. I'd been watching a lot of Trek up to that point, and it was all nice safe Next Gen stuff. This was altogether darker. People got shot, and they didn't get saved by the doctor. Ships blow up, and the crew don't get beamed out at the last minute. PPGs don't have stun settings. Deep Space Nine, and even Voyager now, are a far cry from the rosy Next Gen days, and I suspect Babylon 5 has forced them in that direction. Ironic that the original B5 computer graphics wizzes now do the CGI for the Trek series...

So I kept watching the series, and arrived at University in due course. And discovered a relatively little known thing called the Internet. Scary to think it WAS actually little known of just four years ago... Anyway, along with that and the joys of UNIX came Newsgroups. And that, for me, heralded the beginning of my involvement with the fan side of things. Uk.Media.TV.SF.Babylon5. It was in its infancy back then, but it was to grow into a potent force which helped to keep Babylon 5 on air here and back in the States as it found its feet. It was a unique group, with its own self-enforced rules about the dreaded spoilers. It still is today.

Many people assume that Babylonians or Trekkies are just sad anoraks, with nothing better to do. They're wrong. They're amongst the smartest and kindest people you could hope to meet. For us, Babylon 5 was like the serialisation of a novel, or a play where we got each act a week at a time. We analysed it to pieces, as any English student would a book for an essay. We're really no different from football fans supporting a particular club. It's a little harder for us to get together, but when we do there's an automatic acceptance, a feeling of fitting in, which is probably all any person who's slightly at odds with the majority wants to feel.

So, one year into University and I'm a fairly regular contributer and very regular reader of the group. I'm actually designated UMTSB5 207, the 207th person EVER to post anything to the group. In the Summer of 1995, after that first year, I headed up to Manchester for my first convention; my longest solo drive at that point in time and therefore quite the adventure. You can read my report on it and my photographs of it elsewhere. I think this is where the Babblings concept first came into being, as all the UMTSB5ers got together in one room and were paid a visit by JMS.

The Babblings meetings happen in London, and now in Manchester for a younger generation of fans whom I know quite well, having met them at my second convention and having gotten myself down to one Manchester Babblings. My own York Babblings didn't pull such a big crowd, so it fizzled out. While at Durham I joined the Newcastle Gatherings on a more regular basis, but unfortunately my bases to date have never been ideal for attendance of the meetings on a regular basis. As a result I now find myself somewhat detached from the UMTSB5 group, as accessing the Net is an expensive hobby for an ex-student.

That pretty much brings me up to date. I recently looked in on the group to find many of the original contributers still going strong. They know who they are. Babylon 5 is currently paused in the UK, with Channel 4 unable to show the last 4 episodes of the final season until they're shown in the US. This probably means we won't see them until early November. In the meantime, the first two TV movies are coming out on video. I've already purchased In The Beginning, which I recommend as an excellent prelude to the events contained in the arc. A word to the wise (or indeed terminally bored, if you're still reading this!); watch the videos in order if you start from scratch. It'll make a lot more sense and you won't screw up the storyline's development for yourself!

For more in-depth information on the series and social events here in the UK of a related nature please have a look at my Babylon 5 links page. Thanks for looking in, and my thanks to JMS and all those who have kept the dream alive...

Cheers
Andy

Last updated 31 January 2002