This is a listing for characters associated with the Rangers that appear in the ScienceFiction series Babylon 5. Visit here for the main character index.
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Rangers in general
- Ancient Tradition: Started by Valen to fight against the Shadows during the First Shadow War.
- Badass Army: Once they had time to fill their ranks and build the White Star Fleet.
- Badass Creed:"I am a Ranger.""We walk in the dark places no others will enter.""We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass.""We live for the One, we die for the One."
- Badass Normal: The typical Ranger is a highly skilled combatant, thanks to intensive training and meditation.
- Eagle Squadron: The Rangers, or Anla'Shok, were originally a wholly Minbari organization. During the Second Shadow War, they began to accept humans amongst their ranks (including having Jeffrey Sinclair, a human, as Ranger One). This was at a time when the Earth Alliance government was run by a man who'd had Shadow assistance in arranging the previous president's death, was officially staying out of alien conflicts, and was doing its best to suppress knowledge of the Shadows' existence. After the formation of the Interstellar Alliance with the Rangers as a core part of it, they began taking in recruits from the other ISA member races as well.
- The Remnant: Prior to the Earth-Minbari War, the Rangers had become little more than an underfunded joke, as the Warrior Caste had grown to doubt Valen's prophecies. The Second Shadow War saw their numbers and resources growing considerably in response to the return of the Shadows, though still with no thanks to the Minbari Warrior Caste. The Religious Caste and those humans they could convince to join them had to carry the fight alone until the resolution of the Minbari Civil War repaired things with the Warrior Caste.
- Shout-Out: To the Rangers of the North in The Lord of the Rings. Also possibly to the Jedi, since they're warrior-monk types who wear robes and carry a characteristic weapon that folds out in length, though Rangers don't have any supernatural powers.
- Space Police: A role they adapt to fill in later seasons, being one of the few armed organizations that most of the younger races have no grudge against. With the end of the Shadow War, the Rangers' raison d'être transitions from fighting and spying on the Shadows to being the peacekeeping arm of the new Interstellar Alliance and bringing word of those in need to those in power who can help.
- Telescoping Staff: The classic standard weapon of the Rangers, the Denn'bok. It is a staff that is normally compacted to palm size and cannot be detected by standard security scans. When it is needed for battle, it can extend instantly to around five feet and it is deadly effective for Rangers fully trained in it.
- Undying Loyalty: To "the One" (a role filled by Valen/Sinclair, Delenn and Sheridan at various points in time).
Marcus Cole
Played by: Jason Carter
Where I come from is a much more interesting place.
A former Earthforce analyst and miner turned Ranger who serves as the organization's primary liaison aboard Babylon 5.
- The Atoner: His younger brother, who was a Ranger, came to warn him about an attack; he didn't believe it, leading to his brother's death. This led him to join the Rangers.
- Back from the Dead: A short story written by Straczynski in Summer 2000 for Amazing Stories featured Cole being revived three hundred years after the events of the series.
- Celibate Hero: Because he never found the right person yet, though he mentions there was a woman on his colony planet he was quite fond of before the place was destroyed by the Shadows and almost everyone died. The novel To Dream in the City of Sorrows shows both the person in question and the attack.
- Characterization Marches On: As initially introduced, Cole was dour, world-weary and taciturn (he claimed he only said something if he had something important to say). This rather quickly gave way to the wisecracking, cheeky, cheerful Gentleman Snarker that we all know and love.
- Dying Declaration of Love: His last words to Ivanova as he gives his life energy for her are "I love you."
- Going Native: He is more comfortable acting Minbari then acting human.
- Knight in Shining Armor: He has a poetically idealistic personality.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With Ivanova.
- Mr. Fanservice: Downplayed. While he's not given overt fanservice moments, he was intended to appeal to the adult female demographic, and more successfully than Warren Keffer, who was shoehorned in by Executive Meddling. As his first episodes started coming together, one of the female editing staff pulled JMS aside and said, "Listen very carefully: I want to see a LOT more of Marcus."
- Undercover as Lovers: His and Dr Franklin's fake IDs for the mission to connect with the Mars Resistance have them as husband and husband.
- Unexpected Virgin: Discovering that Cole is a virgin throws Ivanova for a loop. It threw his actor for a loop, too, and he never quite forgave JMS.
Lenonn
Played by: Theodore Bikel
Anla'Shok Na (Ranger One) in 2243.
- Cassandra Truth: His attempts to gain more support for the Rangers from the Minbari government fall on deaf ears.
- Meaningful Name: A Shout-Out to noted pacifist John Lennon.
- Only Sane Man: Not only is he right about needing to prepare for the return of the Shadows, he and Delenn attempt to negotiate a truce with the humans during the Earth-Minbari War through secret talks arranged via the Narns. Unfortunately, he's killed when the Centauri secretly bombard the location, mistaking it for an arms deal between Earth and Narn, and both humans and Minbari assume that a rogue faction of their own is responsible.
Ericsson
Played by: Bryan Cranston
The captain of White Star 14.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Allowing himself and his crew to be killed or captured by the Shadows to lure them into a trap at Coriana VI
- Only One Name: Only Ericcson's surname is revealed.
- Suicide Mission: Sheridan reluctantly orders him to sacrifice himself and his crew in one to lure the Shadows into a trap. Ericcson complies, noting that he knew the risks of the job when he signed up.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's only around for a single scene before being killed off, though he still winds up being very memorable
