Babylon 5 influences
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This article discusses literary and other influences upon the popular science fiction television series Babylon 5 (hereafter "B5").
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Cultural influences
The Lord of the Rings
Several elements in B5 seem a lot like elements in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. For instance, in The Fellowship of the Ring, the Dark Riders first appear singly, then in progressively larger groups; B5 repeated this tension-building pattern early in its first season, when enemy forces known as the Shadows appear first singly, and then in vast numbers. Additionally, the Shadows, like the Dark Riders, strike a deep primal fear in everyone who sees them. The way the Shadows are spoken of, as the Darkness and the Enemy is reminiscent of how Sauron is spoken of in the Lord of the Rings.
The most obvious LOTR reference is the Rangers, who share a name and a mission with the Rangers of Lord of the Rings. Both are secretive orders that work covertly to protect a populace that is either unaware or openly hostile to them, and both are led by individuals of mixed race – Aragorn, who had blood of Men, Elves, and Valar, and the half-human, half-Minbari Delenn. Just as the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen reunited the Humans and Elves, whose blood flowed through them both, the marriage of John Sheriden and Delenn reunited the Humans and Minbari, who shared each other's souls.
The code of the Rangers, as stated by Marcus Cole in the episode "Grey 17 is Missing", is: "We walk in the dark places that no one else will enter. We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass." This is reminiscent of two scenes from Lord of the Rings. The first is Aragorn's description of his Rangers during the Council of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring: "Lonely men are we, Rangers of the North, hunters - but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy"; and the second is Gandalf's confrontation with the Balrog over the abyss in Moria, in particular his cry of "You shall not pass!" before he shatters the bridge. Furthermore, Gandalf has previously been warned (by Aragorn, no less) that he will die if he enters Moria (also known as Khazad-dûm); in B5, captain John Sheridan is warned that he will die if he goes to a planet called Z'ha'dum. Both men sacrifice themselves, fall into an abyss, and return in an altered form to unite the forces of good against the forces of evil. Kosh could also be compared to Gandalf, in that both are powerful beings who help gather the forces of Light together and act as a mentor towards the main hero, Sheridan and Aragorn. Both also die in their duties, and both return, though Kosh's return was brief.
Also, B5 takes place at "the dawn of the third age", and the defeat of Sauron in Lord of the Rings is considered to be the ending event of the third age of Middle-earth.
The third season of Babylon 5, the Shadow War, is depicted less as a typical science-fiction war than as a conflict between Darkness and Light comparable to the War of the Ring. The Shadows, like Sauron, were defeated before, but over time regained their strength and returned to start a new war. The First Ones were leaving the Galaxy to out beyond the Rim, just as the Elves were leaving Middle-Earth to go to Valinor. After the Shadow War, all the First Ones leave for beyond the Rim. Likewise, after the War of the Ring, the Elves leave for Valinor. Both universes have difficulty getting all the various races to work together to stop the Enemy, since many of these races are suspicious and distrustful of one another. Aragorn, like Sheridan, was in exile from his rightful home in Gondor and was hated by the Steward Denethor who feared for his position if Aragorn returned. Sheidan, comparitively, had to breakway from Earth and was declared a traitor by President Clark. Both Denethor and Clark were corrupt and power-hungry and both ended up committed suicide when it seemed that their power was lost.
The Shadows, like Sauron, also have many servants and races working for them, that they summoned when they prepared to make war again. Both also infiltrated and influenced other rulers and nations, through Emperor Cartagia, President Clark, just as Sauron worked through Saruman and other forces of evil. The Shadow's Mr. Morden is their smooth-tongue advocate, just as Grima "Wormtongue" was in Rohan for Saruman. Additionally, the Shadows use living beings as the central operating system of their warships. This theme of domination and alteration if similar to Sauron's desire to dominate life in Middle-Earth and bend all to his will.
A similar theme is the different levels of civilizations in both Babylon 5 and the Lord of the Rings. The Minbari stand technologically and culturally above the other Younger Races, much as the Elves are set above the other races of Middle-Earth. Delenn's role is not dissimilar from Arwen's. Also, the Centauri and the Narns stand at different technological levels, just as Gondor and Rohan do in the LOTR. Gondor itself is described in Roman-like terms, whereas Rohan is more Anglo-Saxon. Gondor and the Centauri Republic are soldier states, whereas Rohan and the Narn Regime are more warrior-oriented. The former are older civilizations and the latter are younger civilizations, still imbibed with a spirit of dashing, even reckless, bravery and warrior heritage that is lacking in the former.
The name Narns might be derived either from C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, or from Tolkien's Narn i Hîn Húrin in The Silmarillion which was itself almost certainly the inspiration for the name Narnia. The name of Tolkien's heart of elvendom, "Lórien" (or "Lothlorien") is given to the first of the First Ones in B5. (See "Lorien") The name of the Shadows' agent, Mr. Morden, may also reflect Tolkien's Mordor. The similar nature of the names Khazad-dûm and Z'ha'dum has been noted earlier.
The creator of B5, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS), acknowledges Tolkien when a "techno-mage" loosely quotes The Fellowship of the Ring, where the character Gildor Inglorion says, "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
JMS has stated that people misunderstand the similarities between the two different stories. He often says that B5 is "greatly informed by" but "is not" any particular preceding work of fiction or history.
Shakespeare
A plethora of Shakespearian quotes and misquotes peppers Babylon 5 dialogue, Macbeth being a notable favorite.
The legend of King Arthur
Two episodes highlight the influence of the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The Battle of the Line is an analogy of King Arthur's final battle. Delenn is associated with the Lady of the Lake. Sheridan is unquestionably King Arthur, gathering the disparate alien races under one alliance. Lennier reveals himself as Lancelot when he betrays the Rangers over his feelings for Delenn, and Kosh may literally or figuratively be Merlin. Marcus Cole suggests that Kosh, like Merlin, might see the future by remembering it, and that Kosh may have visited Earth and modeled the Round Table after his acquaintances on Babylon 5.
In fact Kosh may not have needed to remember the future through some unusual unexplained means as Marcus theorises: it is well established that Kosh knew Valen, the Minbari religious leader responsible for founding the Grey Council. Valen was in fact Jeffrey Sinclair, a Human sent back into the past, and Kosh may easily have become aware of future events through Valen/Sinclair, especially since he was a telepath.
Excalibur appears at least twice in the series: once as an actual sword and again as the ship charged with finding a cure for the Drakh plague and saving Earth, the second Victory class destroyer (the Victory herself, and the shipyards to construct more vessels of her class, were destroyed shortly after Victory was launched). Note the episode: "A Late Delivery from Avalon."
Finally, there also is the obvious reference to the Holy Grail in the eponymous episode.
Forbidden Planet
The Great Machine on Epsilon 3 in the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness" appears to be an homage to the ancient Krell machine in the movie Forbidden Planet (1956), especially in the overhead shot of a narrow bridge that runs through a vast space surrounded by alien machinery. However, JMS said that he did that because it looked right, and it would not have mattered if it wasn't the shot from Forbidden Planet.Template:Ref
Ancient Greek myth
Many of the Earth Alliance ships in B5 are named after characters from Greek or Roman myths, such as Sheridan's command prior to Babylon 5, the Agamemnon. JMS has said repeatedly that G'Kar is his Cassandra character, who predicts the future but whose warnings go unheard. The frequent quotation of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem Ulysses in the series could also be seen as a reference to Greek myths.
Alfred Bester
Science fiction writer Alfred Bester provided the inspiration for Babylon 5's telepathic Psi Corps in his 1953 novel The Demolished Man. In the novel, telepaths band together under the control of the "Esper Guild", which is very similar to the Psi Corps -- with the exception that they are a benevolent society of telepaths, and not sinister like the Psi Corps. Straczynski paid homage to Bester by naming a main telepath character, Alfred Bester, after the author.
The Chronicles of Dune
JMS noted in the DVD release of Babylon 5 that one of his favorite science fiction stories is Frank Herbert's Dune. There may be analog between the Padishah Empire and the Centauri, the Psi Corps or the Bene Gesserit, the Vorlons and the Spacing Guild, the Narn and Fremen.
Other cultural influences
- The Prisoner - the Psi Corps show many similarities to this British television series, including a modified salute and use of the phrase "Be seeing you".
- The EarthForce Destroyers bear a striking resemblance to the Russian spacecraft Aleksei Leonov from 2010: Odyssey Two.
- The design of the Babylon 5 space station itself appears to be based upon the concept of an O'Neill cylinder, a space habitat design proposed by the physicist and space pioneer Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1973 book The High Frontier. This is confirmed by JMS and the class of space station is the O'Neill class.
- Other book, television, and film influences include Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Outland, Blake's 7, E. E. Smith's Lensman novels; and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- The idea of monks preserving technology after a devastating nuclear war on earth as seen in the episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" seems to be at least influenced by the novel A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr..
- Several scenes visually refer to other works, usually other tv shows or movies, such as the scene in "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" in which Lord Refa is killed, which recreates a similar scene from the film Cabaret.
- One final influence should be obvious: the history of ancient Babylon and Babylonian creation myth.
Historical and political influences
Roman History and I, Claudius
The Centauri Emperor Cartagia believes himself a god. His demise leads to Londo's unlikely ascension to the throne, and then ultimately to Vir's even more unlikely succession. This parallels the story of Claudius (never seriously considered a contender; a stammering cripple; note that Londo was 'crippled' by a Drakh 'keeper'), who is made Emperor of Rome when mad Emperor Caligula (another self-appointed god, and note the similarity of the names) is killed. The Centauri also traditionally use murder (especially by poison) as a political tool, almost as frequently as described in the novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves.
Other historical and political influences
- World War II ("There will be peace in our time," remarks a human diplomat after signing a treaty with the Centauri, who later overrun much of the galaxy).
- One of the Night Watch members in the third season quotes Thomas Jefferson: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom," to support the concept of Nightwatch, whereas Jefferson meant it as a warning against the idea.
- The diplomatic set-up on Babylon 5 is clearly modeled on the United Nations with the five member Babylon 5 Advisory Council roughly analogous to the Security Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds representing the General Assembly.
- Another historical reference is the assassination of JFK, pre-figuring the assassination of Earth Alliance President Luis Santiago. Following the assassination, the swearing in of Morgan Clark is designed to re-create the scene aboard Air Force One when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in.
Other Influences
Freud
This one may seem dubious, but the dutiful viewer must contrast Babylon 5's effeminate, womb-like form to the Excalibur's phallic presence. Babylon 5 is a "dream given form" and the symbol of the dream recurs, notably in Londo's dream of his own death and in a subtle reference, "you can't let that destroy the dream," while Sheridan is on Z'ha'dum.
Joseph Campbell
JMS has remarked that B5 doesn't deliberately follow Joseph Campbell's myth-arc but he acknowledges that many of its elements are present.
Christianity
Despite JMS's professed atheism, Babylon 5 contains many references to Christian ideas. Several episode titles refer, directly or indirectly, to elements of the Christian faith, notably the third season episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", but also "A Voice in the Wilderness" and "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" (which is also the title of a lively gospel song). Moreover, the monks led by Brother Theo may not be explicitly Christian, but certainly seem based on Christian monastic orders. Overall, Babylon 5 strove for even-handedness in its treatment of religions, notably in the multi-faith gatherings in the episodes "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" and "The Parliament of Dreams", although arguably the appearance of Kosh in the guise of a Christian angel was intentionally subversive.
References
- Template:Note The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: A Voice in the Wilderness. Retrieved January 4, 2006