Best order for the movies

[manwithnoname]

Thank you.

I now have it noted on my list.

[Lope de Aguirre]

I definitely recommend against watching "In the beginning" before you're through with Season 4...

Yeah, don't!

[cornholio1980]

Thanks for the list. I was thinking about this yesterday. I will now watch accordingly. Peace.

I definitely recommend against watching "In the beginning" before you're through with Season 4...

[manwithnoname]

As for the movies, let's see if I can get them all.

In The Beginning is the prequel that covers the Earth-Minbari War. It was filmed during season 4, and does kind of give away a few things from early in the series. JMS has said, though, that it works fine for new viewers to watch it first, even before season 1.

The Gathering was the original pilot. Basically, it's the first episode of season 1.

River of Souls and Thirdspace are fairly outside the main arc. I believe they both take place during/around season 5.

A Call to Arms was the launching point for Crusade, and it takes place after the main series (can't remember the exact year; 2268 or so, I think?).

Legend of the Rangers also takes place well after the main series. It was supposed to be the pilot for a new series, but it never got picked up.

Did I miss any?

Thanks for the list. I was thinking about this yesterday. I will now watch accordingly. Peace.

[Stunning_in_Purple]

Thanks Jan, I wanted to double check before I got too excited.

[Jan]

That's the release of the Legend of the Rangers pilot movie on DVD, Stunning. I think it's just been discussed in other threads.

Jan

[Stunning_in_Purple]

Is there something coming out, Babylon 5 related on the 14th? I just saw a little snippet of something on scifi.com I found it a bit surprising because I thought I would have heard of it here first.

[grumbler]

What do you mean grumbler? Being new here i seem to have missed something, I think.

HoM

JMS is going to publish (in the last book of the scripts series) the memo in which he laid out the 5-year plan for B5 at the start of the series. It will, presumably, lay this speculation to rest. I advocate speculating while the speculating is good.

[cornholio1980]

No, that was Lady Ladira's prophecy that has the shuttle flying out just before the station explodes.

You're right, and I'm an idiot.

Sorry

[House of Mollari]

We will find ot soon enough, but if anyone wants to speculate on this and mull evidence, it is a great topic that will soon be going away, so let's have at it now while there is still time.

What do you mean grumbler? Being new here i seem to have missed something, I think.

HoM

[grumbler]

If you ask me, of course it did. B5 got destroyed, with a shuttle leaving it, in Sleeping in Light - just as was shown in B▓.

No, that was Lady Ladira's prophecy that has the shuttle flying out just before the station explodes. From what i remember of the scene in BSquared the scene ends with Sinclair being carried away by the crowd. The whole Garibaldi scene never occurs, unlike every bit of prophecy we see elsewhere in the show (even Vir gets in a prophecy! )

Like the bolted-on tachyon emissions explanation, the "destiny that was aborted" explanation seems tacked on to cover changes that occurred in the main plot.

We will find ot soon enough, but if anyone wants to speculate on this and mull evidence, it is a great topic that will soon be going away, so let's have at it now while there is still time.

[cornholio1980]

as it is the only prophecy that never comes true

If you ask me, of course it did. B5 got destroyed, with a shuttle leaving it, in Sleeping in Light - just as was shown in B▓.

[Capt.Montoya]

My guess was that Sinclair would leave for the past at the series finale. The final scene of WWE would have been the series ending (or next to last scene).
But I never connected that with B4 going forward in time...

So thanks Grumbler, now my speculation is complete (and at odds with yours).
I now think that B4 would go forward in time to pick up Sinclair and take him to the past to become Valen. I had no specific ideas for how that would happen before.

This of course removes the "explanation" that the tachyon field aged him, which always seemed a bolted on plot point to me, and motivated my original speculation.

The scene with Garibaldi as "last man standing" always seemed to me a distraction. But that also served a purpose, to remark that the actions of the characters could change their future, motivating the jump into Z'ha'dum.

[grumbler]

...you can read Zathras's dialogue as being that they needed to take B4 to either the past or the future.

Fascinating....

Jan

Indeed. My contention has always been that B4 first gets dragged into the future, where they pick up the battered and scarred Sinclair, one of the few survivors of B5's destruction back in 2262 (which we saw in Sinclair's flash-forward in B^2 - i never bought that "it was all a mirage" stuff as it is the only prophecy that never comes true). He got all scarred and old from fighting the losing battle that eventuially left the Shadows (and Earthforce?) as the dominant force in the galaxy, in my story.

Then, they go 1000 years back in time and reverse all that, leaving poor bereft Delenn to pick up the pieces in 2282.

Does B5 get "restored" by the change in history? My guess is no, based on JMS's writing style.

That is why i so look forward to the JMS memo. I wonder how much it blows into bitty pieces my "out of thin air" guesswork!

[Jan]

Minor correction to GH's post, mainly in semantics. The series 'bible' was made available long ago by the Fan Club. It was mainly information that a freelance writer would need to know. What will be in Volume 15 is a memo that JMS wrote for WB after the pilot was finished but before the series started.

The 'treatment' for the series was also released by the Fan Club and there were some fairly substantial changes in character details between that and the pilot and more between the pilot and the series. Reading them both, you can see how threads were slid from one person to another but that they didn't really go away.

The thing is, though, as people reading the books can attest, there were potentially several different paths that JMS had mapped out to get where he wanted to go. For instance when writing Zathras' dialogue for "Babylon Squared", depending on unforeseen changes between it and "War Without End", you can read Zathras's dialogue as being that they needed to take B4 to either the past or the future.

Fascinating....

Jan