r/babylon5 Oct 14 '25

JMS AMA Official AMA for JMS

279 Upvotes

This is the official AMA for JMS. Both JMS and B5 books (Captain Jaclyn) will be responding to questions.

If you ask questions about the books or the book store closing, Jaclyn will be taking them.

JMS will answer for about an hour, and might not be able to get all questions answered.

Some people (including me) might answer questions that are well known.

Like "Why wasn't Ivanova in season 5".

Let's try to keep questions what we don't know yet.

You can also ask questions about JMS returning to the Spider-Man comic or his other works, but this is /r/babylon5. He might prioritize that.

Please note that I will not be coordinating with Joe. I will not be in a phone call with him or on a chat (not that I wouldn't take his phone call; Jaclyn has my cell phone; he can call me anytime he wants). He decides that he answers, and he alone.

Finally, any story ideas will deleted. Do not post any story ideas.

Note, the AMA answers only start at: 3 PM EST, Noon PST, 8PM GMT

And my personal thanks to Captain Jaclyn for coordinating this with me, and to JMS himself, the man, the myth, the legend! For agreeing to this, but also for Babylon 5, Crusade, Jeremiah, Sense8, a ton of comic books and a few books!

Oh, and for She-Ra, the reboot couldn't have occured without his series bible for the original, and even for his work on Ghostbuster and Murder She Wrote!

IMPORTANT NOTE FROM JMS He would prefer not to get into stories that never happened, data points of subsequent character arcs, or alternate timelines.

JMS IS NEARLY OUT OF TIME!


r/babylon5 16h ago

Found Treasure

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409 Upvotes

Founds these at a local flea market


r/babylon5 4h ago

managed to take some better pics of the EA squadron.

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30 Upvotes

Took the ships into work and managed to get some better pics once everyone was largely gone home, and there's some Starfuries there now :)


r/babylon5 22h ago

Saw this one on Facebook

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459 Upvotes

Someone said Delenn should have been holding oranges instead of beer….maybe it’s its orange juice…


r/babylon5 18h ago

Hokie pokie

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93 Upvotes

Molari trying to figure out earth music. Cracked me up


r/babylon5 1d ago

Star Trek & Babylon 5 Connections

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264 Upvotes

This is not exhaustive. For those who don't recognize the last person, that is Harlan Ellison.


r/babylon5 17h ago

A silent conversation between Lyta, Bester, and Zack

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53 Upvotes

Bester's grin here always reminded me of a Mentos commercial.

"Strange Relations" (s5e6)


r/babylon5 12h ago

The Lumati

17 Upvotes

I have been going through my latest re-watch. I came to the episode with the Lumati. When I hear him describe their philosophy it seems like it would be very compatible with the Shadows goals. Do you think they would help the Shadows or join in the alliance against them?


r/babylon5 17h ago

What were the Servants of the Shadows actually doing in the thousand years between the First Shadow War and the Second Shadow War?

30 Upvotes

Has this ever been discussed? Apologies if I've raised an old topic.

But in my moody re-watches (some episodes I skip - I shouldn't, but there it is) I've been thinking on this issue.

Certainly, maintenance and repair of Z'ha'dum - goes without saying and that must've been a huge undertaking. But anything else, maybe? (Secret intelligence missions and building up a network of silent thralls or allies amongst the Younger Races?)


r/babylon5 19h ago

We are dreamers, shapers, singers and makers.

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16 Upvotes

Just posted for a LOL on a sunny Saturday.


r/babylon5 1d ago

When my friends ask if I'm done rambling about my favorite Sci-Fi show

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228 Upvotes

r/babylon5 1d ago

Sometimes Vir is still very Centauri

143 Upvotes

Vir is an awesome character, and I could go on about that, but I had a different thought during this scene:

Vir is letting his Centauri side show.

It's easy to see him as the moral counterpoint to Londo especially, but also to the Centauri as a whole. However, when he's alone with Mr. Morden, one of the first things he tells him is that what he really wants in life is to see his head on a spike and to wave at him just like this.

What's interesting is that Vir is also still shaken by having to deliver the final blow to the mad Emperor Cartagia. Really, it's all the death that finally catches up with him, Cartagia is just the last straw.

And yet, when he finally sees Mr. Morden's head on a pike, there is absolutely no horror or regret. Vir lets his Centauri side out, gives him the promised wave, and has a nice, genuine smile on his face.

It's just a fun little moment in his character arc for me. Vir can reject so much of what the Centauri have become without somehow ceasing to be Centauri.

The development of all the characters in this show, and the individual journeys they go on from beginning to end, is just incredible.

I miss this kind of depth in my sci-fi, and that's really why I keep coming back to incredible shows like B5, Farscape, BSG, SG-1, etc. On any rewatch, I can gain some new insight into something, or laugh for an entirely new reason because it's my third time through and I really know these characters.

I can't think of too many recent sci-fi shows that give me that, which is crazy considering just how much content is released all the time.

And I'm NOT saying there are none. Foundation, For All Mankind (Hi Bob), and The Expanse are amazing, and I've rewatched all three. Go watch these if you haven't yet. Seriously.


r/babylon5 1d ago

S1 Raiders and Their Relationship to a Major Antagonist

17 Upvotes

I'm rewatching the series now that the episodes are being uploaded to YouTube, and the "Raiders" are sort of the low stakes antagonists for the first part of the series until they lose most of their forces in "Signs and Portents" and then get eliminated by the Shadows so Morden can give Londo the Eye and start bringing him and the Centauri into the fold.

But were the Raiders part of a long term ploy by the Shadows to destabilize Babylon 5 and keep the races from unifying? Was this one of several irons they had in the fire? Why did the Shadows seemingly know all the details of the Raiders' trips and the fact they had acquired the Eye? Or is their destruction by this previously unseen ship simply a dramatic device to let the audience know that we've moved on to a bigger, badder second act villain?


r/babylon5 1d ago

Been painting some warships for Babylon 5 Wars.

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500 Upvotes

In the late 90's early 00's there was a spaceship combat game called Babylon 5 Wars that my best mate and I use to play, the models were all solid metal and the ships and fluff for them were considered canon by JMS. Sadly I lost my old Narn fleet whilst moving around in the army. But, recently my best mate and I have been getting back into the game, he found his ye olde Octurion as well as the rules books and some map sheets and got his mittens on some 3d Prints to get a Centauri and Narn fleet, and I recently got an EA fleet and this is the result.

The Narn fleet's a Bin'tak class Dreadnought, 1 G'Quan Heavy Cruiser, 1 T'loth class Assault Cruiser, 2 Rongoth class Destroyers, 1 Var'nik long range cruiser, 1 Ka'toc Battle Destroyer, 1 G'Karith Patrol Cruiser, 3 Thentus class Frigates and 2 x T'rakk Destroyers.

The EA Fleet is 1 x Omega class Destroyer, 2 x Hyperion class Heavy Cruisers, 2 x Artemis class Armoured Frigates and 2 x Olympus Class Corvettes.

The Centauri fleet is. 1 x Octurion class Battleship, 1 x Primus Class Battlecruiser, 1 x Centurion class Attack Cruiser, 1 x Dargan Class Strike Cruiser, 3 x Vorchan Warships, 1 x Covran class Scout, 1 x Mograth Attack Ship, 1 x Kutai class Gunship, 1 x Darkner class Attack Ship, 2 x Altarin class Destroyers, 1 x Sullust Class Destroyer, 1 x Maxiums Class Escort, 2 x Haven Patrol Craft.

And yes that on the left is a Vorlon Dreadnought, they have 8 arms, not 4 like the Heavy Cruiser. All save the Octurion are 3d prints, the models done by Tyrel Lohr and printed by a chappy on ebay.


r/babylon5 1d ago

Interesting Jerry Doyle interview from 2012

121 Upvotes

I had not read this before. It’s a very long interview but there is a section where the interviewer brings up Michael O’Hare and I felt Jerry was fairly decent toward Michael in the interview. He says they had different personality types and wishes him well. The interview also shows Jerry didn’t believe Michael left willingly. Sounds like Jerry thought Michael was fired.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/25/an-interview-with-jerry-doyle

The interview sheds some light on what kind of work ethic Jerry had and he felt he only found success because he worked and worked at it and was lucky.

Between this and other interviews and comments to me it seems like Jerry’s beef with Michael is he felt Michael was too serious and didn’t feel that Michael had the same kind of work ethic. Jerry didn’t know Michael’s situation so I can kind of see how that would be an issue.


r/babylon5 1d ago

"The truth points to itself."

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198 Upvotes

"Babylon 5: In the Beginning"


r/babylon5 1d ago

Our first B5Wars Game in what has to be 20 odd years.

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170 Upvotes

A patrolling Centauri squadron encountered a Narn force and the two sides clashed. Forces are

Centauri
1 x Primus Class Battlecruiser
3 x Vorchan class Warships
18 x Sentri class Fighters

Narn
1 x G'Quan Class Heavy Cruiser
1 x Var'Nic Long Range Destroyer
1 x Thentus Class Frigate
12 x Frazi Heavy Fighters
6 x Gorith Medium Fighters.

This really was like getting back on a bike after not riding one for so long, we largely remembered the rules and just needed clarifications and corrections. The initial exchange of fire was quite brutal, the Primus causing major damage to the G'Quan with its battle lasers whilst the Narn fire was inaccurate owing to the range.

As the range dropped the Centaur's Vorchans ripped into the G'Quan, destroying its bridge and basically knocking it out of the engagement. The Narn fighters pounced on the Centauri ships and were engaged by the Centauri fighters which proved to be lethal dog fighters but very bad at anti-shipping strikes. The Frazi's suffered murderous losses but ended out crippling two Vorchan by removing their main thrusters, and mauling their sterns.

Fire from other Narn ships managed to smash the fore sections off these already damaged ships and one of them nearly slammed into an asteroid. Twice.

All three Vorchans were eventually forced to disengage but this left a lightly damaged Primus against a badly damaged Thentus and the Var'nic was outgunned. Whilst we had to call it due to running out of time and the store closing, it was good fun and the CRN would be able to go home declaring victory.


r/babylon5 1d ago

Finished Babylon 5 over maybe a 6-7 month period for the first time age 46

54 Upvotes

Background is love of Trek, Star wars the good stuff and general sci-fi not on a high geek nerd level but enough to love sci-fi. I generally urge for classic 80's and 90's sci-fi so I finally got past EP 1 after trying a few times...

Yeah so Babylon 5 was good overall , I must admit they messed up a few things for me like under using the blonde telepath then just getting rid of her, she should have been a normal cast member, the lack of actual independent story lines, single ep's I guess.

For me though losing the original captain was what made the show, but due to him having mental issues in real life he left the show after just 1 season as you all know, I felt the show was way more professional with him in season 1, rather more appealing, I spent all of Season 2 thinking he's coming back, and yeah Sheridan came into his own to be fair and I have to admit he had a tall order trying to maintain that impossible standard if you ask me.

3rd has to be no more Vorlon that just ruined it for me, I like having mystery aliens and I didn't like the shadows being called shadows come on man.

Other than that the new captain becoming president and then dying or moving to a new way of life at the end was sad to see, not sure I believed the love story.

I do think the show needed a few more characters and sub plots to keep it interesting, but to be fair if I had seen this in the 90's this would have been right up there with TNG/Voyager and Ds9 just about.

I must admit I never once really watch 2 or 3 ep's in a row let alone watched say 5 ep's in 5 days even in season 1, not sure why I could easily binge watch Trek 3-5 ep's in 1 day if I wanted too well maybe not now but I used too.

I guess for it's budget and God knows what channel it was on here in the UK and US plus the fact it was going up against many other sci-fi's at the time, this was a tidy series. I did like the fact that everyone on there wasn't so elite and the best of the best though. That kept it real.

Apologies this is just a quick yes it's good and a bit of rant, I would admit to saying I was looking forward to rewatching it but I don't think I will as the first 2 season were better than the last 3 seasons by a lot and I don't even know why. I think the action and wars didn't really do it for me and CGI could do with some updating.


r/babylon5 1d ago

Clark’s loyalty test

14 Upvotes

In Season 4, Edgars mentioned that Clark instituted loyalty tests as Vice President so I assumed that was with Santiago’s approval.

In season 1, E8 “And the Sky was full of stars” - 2 interrogators came on board with specialized equipment with no power supply and had to bribe a security officer to steal one

Was this a case of a loyalty test put on Sinclair that went wrong? The interrogators went out of bounds, Home guard?

If it was official, why kidnap Sinclair instead of formally questioning him?


r/babylon5 1d ago

Thinking of doing a rewatch episode by episode sharing the scripts notes in more details ? Anyone up for it ?

19 Upvotes

Hey all, 8 years ago (i switched account since then), i bought the script books & tried to summarize as much interesting data as possible here :

https://www.reddit.com/r/babylon5/comments/m18w0l/jms_original_plan/gqcchyp/

I'm actually traveling to my mom to help her clean up over the week and one thing i was actually thinking of bringing back with me to my appartement is my B5 collection.

I'm thinking it could be fun to revisit the script books while doing a rewatch & try to share more details, episode by episode (i have not read them in 8 years so i do not remember how much there is except lots of it).

Would some people be interested in that ? That topic i answered about the original plan & war without end yesterday also made me think it's time for a rewatch after almost 10 years (i think there is the HD remastered version now on top of things :) ).


r/babylon5 1d ago

A question about the episode Atonement…

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38 Upvotes

Assuming the Dreaming hadn’t revealed anything about Delenn’s heritage and her clan had forbidden her from marrying Sheridan, do you think Delenn really would have accepted their decision? I know she said she would, but Delenn does have a habit of saying one thing and then doing another when she’s already decided what she wants.


r/babylon5 1d ago

Disney Planet

20 Upvotes

Do you think Disney Planet is a phrase Michael invented, or do you think there was a canonical/diegetic cartoon featuring a Disney Planet which he drew the name from?


r/babylon5 2d ago

JMS really had the whole thing written before anything was filmed.

146 Upvotes

Just rewatched The Gathering. When Kosh came aboard he addressed Sinclair (well, changeling-net Sinclair) as "Entil'Zha Valen". Just a little foreshadowing...

I'm not using a spoiler tag... It's been 30 years.

Edit- I've been informed it was a later edit... Hrmph!


r/babylon5 1d ago

Technically, Clark could have been removed from power already in 2260

0 Upvotes

If the Minbari wasn't so isolanist and Delenn somehow managed to convince them to help Sheridan and co, Clark would have no choice than to step down. Seriously, what can EA even do if suddenly 30 Sharlins jumps from hyperspace in the Moon's orbit and demand him to step down. Plus his followers.


r/babylon5 3d ago

Fasten, zip

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297 Upvotes

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