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Babylon Five
alt title(s): Babylon 5

Babylon 5, a Nineties Adventure Space Show created by J Michael Straczynski, ran from 1994-1998 (a two-hour pilot, "The Gathering", had aired in 1993). It was syndicated for its first four seasons, and was shown on TNT in its fifth.

Babylon 5 took the use of Story Arcs to new heights, and introduced the concept of the Wham Episode, with probably over half of its episodes contributing to one major series-long arc (a Myth Arc). JMS had plotted out much of the arc before the series began, and occasionally referred to it as a five-year long Mini Series. (The fourth and fifth seasons had to be telescoped into one when the show was going to be prematurely ended. Then it was Un Cancelled and picked up by TNT, and they had to scramble to create a fifth season, which was not as well-liked by most fans.)

While the series is often given as an early example of a hard science fiction show, it does have aliens with powers verging on magic and Psychic Powers. Still, by TV standards, it's fairly crispy sci-fi. Likewise, while the show is often seen as being more toward the cynical end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism, at times almost edging into Black And Grey Morality, it also has some shining moments of idealism as well. One could say that the overarching Aesop of the series is "the pragmatic survive, and the determined thrive, but Faith Manages".

It spun off the short-lived series Crusade which ran for 13 episodes in 1999, telling the story of the spaceship Excalibur and the search for a counteragent to/cure for a slow-acting biological weapon that had been successfully deployed against the Earth. Despite its superficial resemblance to the plot of Star Blazers, Crusade showed considerable promise before its premature death.

There were several associated Made For TV Movies:
  • The Gathering — 1993 pilot
  • In the Beginning — 1998, a prequel to the series
  • Thirdspace — 1998, takes place during the fourth season of the series
  • The River of Souls — 1998, takes place shortly after the end of series (excluding its Distant Finale). Features Martin Sheen.
  • A Call to Arms — 1999, takes place about five years after the end of the series (excluding its Distant Finale). Serves as a lead-in to Crusade.
  • Legend Of The Rangers — 2002 Made For TV Movie telling the story of a Ranger fleet. This was actually intended to lead into a third B5 series, but it didn't pan out.
  • The Lost Tales — 2007 Direct To Video interquel which was intended to be the first of a series of new DTV stories. It didn't pan out either despite some degree of commercial sucess.

Tropes seen on the series include:

  • Accidental Marriage: The "Religions Week" in "The Parliament of Dreams" featured an extremely confusing Minbari ceremony involving eating red fruit and some intense looks between Delenn and Sinclair. Although the people attending it were told that it was a "rebirth" ceremony, Catherine Sakai informs him that it could also have doubled as a wedding. He jokes that he didn't think that Londo and G'Kar were one another's type. Also subverted: it was a rebirth ceremony, as Delenn goes into the Chrysalis at the end of the season, to be reborn as half-human.
    • Also, a bit squicky when it's later revealed he's one of her ancestors.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: When Sheridan is captured and interrogated by President Clark's forces, his interrogator shares a corned beef sandwich with him to gain his trust. Both halves of the sandwich were poisoned, but the interrogator had been eating small amounts every day for several years and had built up an immunity. Sheridan had not, and the poison made him very sick.
  • Actor Existence Failure: When asked about sequels, Straczynski was known to say that he didn't see how it would be possible "so long as Andreas [Katsulas, G'Kar] and Richard [Biggs, Dr. Franklin] remain dead."
    • That said, he did The Lost Tales after their passing, and now with his Hollywood success, there seem to be very early feelers out about a real movie.
  • The Aesthetics Of Technology: Played mostly straight with the Minbari, Centauri, Vorlons, and several League and Independent races, but subverted with the Narns. They deliberately try to invoke this trope with their fancy looking ships, but the only thing advanced about them are the weapons they pilfered from their former Centauri overlords/oppressors.
  • Affably Evil: The Interrogator from "Intersections in Real Time." Carried out the task of slowly mentally breaking Captain Sheridan over the course of several days with the demeanor of a kindly and mild mannered middle aged accountant.
  • A God Am I: Subverted in Jason Ironheart, who while gaining immense godlike powers, was trying to suppress and control them long enough to get away and finish "becoming". Lyta gets like this near the end of the series before she leaves forever with G'Kar. Cartagia is like this, but then he is Ax Crazy.
  • Aliens Speaking English: English seems to be the lingua franca of Babylon 5, but many aliens (especially Centauri nobility) have noticeable accents when speaking it. They all have their own languages, but a Translation Convention presumably applies most of the time.
    • As humans rose to prominence relatively recently, older aliens have thicker accents than the younger ones, because they learnt English as adults.
    • One alien calls English "the human trade language", meaning that other languages, human and alien, are used. Besides, all station signs are trilingual in Interlac, English and Minbari.
  • American Customary Measurements: The station is consistently described as five miles long. However, The Metric System Is Here To Stay as well, especially when the Earth military is giving space distances.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: The episode "Passing Through Gethsemane".
  • Ancient Astronauts : The Vorlons spent quite a bit of time imprinting themselves as Gods/Angels and a fear of the Shadows in all of the "Younger Races".
    • Actually the fear of the Shadows was the Shadows' own fault. Largely due to the fact that shortly before every Shadow War, the race studies how to become the nightmare of THAT era. The memories and legends of their actions the previous times they were active don't help.
  • Arc Words: Used liberally in every arc and season.
  • Armor Piercing Question: "Who are you?" and "What do you want?". Also "Where are you going?" and "Why are you here?", if less often. The former two are asked by the Vorlons and the Shadows respectively, while the last two are referred to as "the human questions". It is implied that the Shadows and Vorlons have somewhat missed the point.
    • More that they forgot. There was a period in which both races could've answered.
  • Artifact Of Death: The life force transfer machine.
  • Ascend Toa Higher Plane Of Existence: Ironheart, the First Ones who "go beyond the Rim"
  • Author Tract: Quite a few first and second season episodes.
  • Badass Boast
    Delenn: Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
  • Badass Creed : "We are Rangers. 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 Longcoat: Marcus Cole.
  • Bald Of Awesome: Michael Garibaldi. G'Kar.
  • Battle Butler: Lennier and Na'toth, when necessary.
  • The Battlestar
  • Because Destiny Says So: The eerily-accurate prophecies of Valen. (With a fairly significant Prophecy Twist at one point.)
  • Beethoven Was An Alien Spy: The Vorlon Inquisitor, aka Jack The Ripper.
  • Berserk Button: Be very careful what you ask a Vorlon.
  • Better On DVD, makes it easier to follow the arc-based story structure.
  • Beware The Nice Ones: Vir, Lennier
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the season three Wham Episode "Severed Dreams": "Only one human captain has survived battle against the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, BE SOMEWHERE ELSE!"
    • Again in season four's "Endgame": Sheridan orders the crippled Agamemnon to ram the defence platform, the only hope of preventing it from firing its particle cannon at Earth. Then the Apollo comes out of jump and shoots down the platform, the Agamemnon emerging triumphantly from the fireball.
  • Bio Augmentation: Two characters get gills implanted in their necks, allowing them to breath in atmospheres where their species normally can't.
  • Blessed With Suck: a small percentage of telepaths are also telekinetic. Unfortunately, three-quarters of those telekinetics are clinically insane.
  • Bling Of War: The Centauri. Dear God, the Centauri.
  • Boat Lights: G'Kar, after having his eye plucked out and replaced with a prosthetic.
  • The Bottle Episode could often be used, since it was set primarily on a space station.
    • In fact most of the series is bottle episodes, for the reason above.
  • Bury Your Gays: In every way that matters, Talia Winters, who was implied to share a mutual attraction to (and bed with) Susan Ivanova, was killed when her "sleeper" personality was activated. Ivanova later confesses to Delenn that she believes she loved Talia. It should be noted that the relationship was to be explored more thoroughly if the actress playing the former hadn't left the series, so it doesn't carry quite so many Unfortunate Implications as it might otherwise.
  • The Bus Came Back: Sinclair in "War Without End".
  • The Caligula: Centauri Emperor Cartagia.
  • Can You Hear Me Now: In one episode a character loses his communicator. He finds another person's communicator, but can't use it to call for help, because the communicator will only work for its owner. Meanwhile, back in the 21st century, all mobile phones can be used to call the emergency number, even without SIM cards.
    • Justified though in that the individual configuration of the B5 personnel communicators are said to be a safety measure.
  • Canon Discontinuity / Canon Immigrant- Word Of God holds the B5 novels as a pick-and-choose-your-canon affair, barring To Dream in the City of Sorrows which is canon.
  • Captains Log: In some episodes.
  • The Cassandra: G'Kar
  • Chekhovs Boomerang: The alien healing device.
  • Chekhov MIA: Anna Sheridan
  • The Chosen One: Masterfully executed.
  • Compressed Vice : The Minbari's extreme beliefs about honor in "There All the Honor Lies", which are never mentioned in any other episode and don't jibe with the way most Minbari characters actually behave.
    • Then again, the honor-bound were of the Warrior Caste, while the Minbari normally seen are of the Religious Caste. Two essentially different cultures, with different codes of behavior.
      • The beliefs in that episode are repeatedly described as Minbari beliefs, not Warrior Caste beliefs. Moreover, Lennier, a member of the Religious Caste, is the example used to make Sheridan and others realize there are exceptions to the supposedly rigid rule.
      • Most Minbari do behave that way, but most Minbari are not on the show. Only those who stand out for some reason — ambassadors, extremists, rebels — are noteworthy enough to receive Character Focus. Also, in most episodes their honor is not being challenged.
      • The Warrior Caste do consider their beliefs to be the "main" Minbari beliefs; it's perfectly in keeping with their established arrogance to present it that way, and Lennier was trained by them and picked up some of their ideas.
  • Contest Winner Cameo: Dr Lillian Hobbes
  • Cool Old Guy: Aldous Gajic from the episode "Grail". The dude not only takes on a bunch of guys, wielding guns, by kicking the crap out of them with a giant stick, but also talks down a mind-raping alien monster right before he takes a bullet for a guy he only just met. The guy is badass, to say the least. And he's played by David Warner.
    • It could be said that Sinclair becomes a Cool Old Guy in "War Without End", after experiencing a number of age-altering effects from the time jumps that turn him grey and wrinkly in a matter of minutes, but still leave him with the ability to take Babylon 4 back to the distant past to kick some Shadow ass as Valen.
    • Lorien is... older than he looks
  • The Corps Is Mother: Trope Namer.
  • Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Vir Cotto is shy and inarticulate, but deeply honourable and courageous and you wouldn't like him when he's angry.
    • Also see his response when Morden asks him what he wants
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: See that part for more details. Many, many examples.
  • Crystal Spires And Togas: The Minbari homeworld.
  • Cute Kids And Robots : Subverted several times, just to hammer home the fact that J Michael Straczynski despised this trope. The trope name, in fact, comes from JMS's early GEnie posts about the B5 project.
  • Deadly Decadent Court : Two Words: The Centaurum.
  • Deal With The Devil : "What do you want?"
  • Deflector Shields : The Thirdspace aliens have those. To get through the gate's shields from one side, the protagonists concentrate fire on the other side.
  • Deus Ex Nukina : "Z'ha'dum." End of line.
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything: The Minbari Fighting Pike, a Simple Staff that collapses into a small cylinder about the size of your hand and changes size when firmly shaken. Most prominently used by a virgin.
  • Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night : The Earth Alliance's President Elizabeth Levy during the prologue movie. "No greater sacrifice has ever been asked, but I ask you, now, to step forward. One last time. One last battle, to hold the line against the night." One long Crowning Moment Of Awesome for humanity, and a Tear Jerker speech if ever there was one.
  • Dream Sequence : Very effectively used in "Interludes and Examinations" and "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari"
  • Dis Continuity : Babylon 5 had four seasons. And no TV movies save for "In The Beginning".
    • To be precise, Season 5 consisted of the Telepath war, A View From The Gallery, The Corps Is Mother, the Corps Is Father, Na'Toth being rescued from Centauri Prime and the scene with Captain Elizabeth Lochley waking up in the morning.
  • Distant Finale : "Sleeping in Light."
    • "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" is a Distant (Season) Finale, replaced by replacing "Sleeping in Light" (which, as evidenced by its credits, was filmed during the fourth season) when the show was Un Canceled.
  • The Documentary : "And Now for a Word"
  • Drugs Are Bad: Franklin's stim addiction.
  • Dueling Shows with Star Trek Deep Space Nine
    • B5 delivered a magnificent Take That in its second season:
    Ivanova: "This isn't some deep-space franchise, this station is about something!"
    • Writer Peter David (yes, that Peter David) called Straczynski to ask "are you really going to use that line?" Upon receiving the answer "Yes, it's fall-down funny!" David went silent for a few moments, then asked, "You people really are dangerous over there, aren't you?"
    • Partially subverted in that Straczynski is a Star Trek fan and it was partially meant as an Affectionate Parody.
    • It would probably have been a lot more affectionate if Star Trek hadn't passed on his idea, then green lighted a knock off when B5 got its pilot made without their help. DS 9 even stole several names from B5 such as Dukat and Letta.
  • Earth Shattering Kaboom, during the entire fourth season.
  • Earth That Was: Inverted, once Earth is bombed back to the dark ages in the future, it's The Alliance, Sheridan, and the war of the third age that become myth.
  • Eternal Engine: the Great Machine of Epsilon III.
  • Evolutionary Levels
  • Extended Disarming: Dureena's arrival in "A Call To Arms"
  • Face Death With Dignity: In "Passing Through Gethsemane".
    • Also: Regent Virini, in " The Fall of Centauri Prime".
  • Both the Face Heel Turn and the Heel Face Turn, at many points. particularly the Vorlons, who turn out to be Knights Templar, and the main cast, who break away from the Earth Alliance in the third season episode "Severed Dreams".
    • Honestly though, how can you not include Londo as the ultimate example of how to do both?
    • Ditto Lennier.
  • Fake Memories : With capital punishment reserved for crimes like treason, psychopaths and murderers are instead sentenced to Death of Personality; they have their memories erased and altered by telepaths and their personality restructured to become pacifists and useful members of society (episode: "Passing Through Gethsemane").
  • Fantastic Drug: Dust, which can unlock latent telepathic powers.
  • The Federation : The Earth Alliance. At first.
    • Don't forget the Interstellar Alliance.
    • The Interstellar Alliance is the more the typical alliance. A better example is the Minbari Federation.
      • Which collapses and has to be rebuilt from the ground up.
      • And it also does not really fit the trope...
  • The Fettered: Sheridan.
  • Fighting For A Homeland : The Drakh, Byron's Telepaths
  • Find The Cure : Subverted in "Confessions and Lamentations".
  • Flash Forward : "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" consisted almost entirely of four flash-forwards.
  • Fling A Light Into The Future: The past, in this case. Babylon 4 was sent to help in the last Shadow war.
  • Flower From The Mountaintop: Ranger instructor Turval uses a hypothetical mission along these lines as an example of the sort of seemingly-trivial mission worth dying to complete.
  • Foreshadowing was frequently used—since the series was so intricately plotted in advance, it could be. Similarly prophecies (You Cant Fight Fate), and a particularly well-crafted example of a Stable Time Loop. It was actually built in to such an extent that actors were forbidden from ad-libbing, for fear of it screwing up the foreshadowing.
  • Genetic Memory : Fear for the Shadows and reverence for the Vorlons are explained as a combination of several species retaining race memories of the last Shadow War and the Vorlons using genetic and mental manipulation on the young species...
    • It should also be noted that Shadows weren't above using genetic engineering to cause the younger races to fear them.
  • Giant Enemy Crab: Shadow vessels are commonly referred to as "Battlecrabs." They'll cut through just about any fleet like it was made of soft cheese.
  • Glowing Eyes Of Doom: The Shadows, the monocular "eye" in the Vorlon encounter suits and Lyta when she starts using her enhanced telepathic abilities in her A God Am I stage, and when being possessed by either Vorlons or Shadows during their Final Battle.
  • God Emperor- Emperor Cartagia wishes to ascend to God Emperor status through his dealings with the Shadows.
  • Government Drug Enforcement : Human telepaths who refuse to join the Psi Corps must take powerful medication to suppress their abilities, drugs that eventually drive them to suicide.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Londo friggin' Mollari. Not counting when he gets possessed by the Drakh at the end of the series, he spends his time every week flipping between both sides of the coin. For further details, see his treatment of Vir (see "Midnight on the Firing Line"), G'Kar (especially in "The Coming of Shadows"), Refa (see "The Coming of Shadows") and Morden (see "Signs and Portents" and "Interludes and Examinations"). Contrast it to his later treatments of Vir (see "Sic Transit Vir" and "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"), G'Kar (see "The Long Night" and "No Surrender, No Retreat"), Refa (see "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" and "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place") and Morden (see "The Hour of the Wolf" and "Into The Fire").
  • Heroic Sacrifice: A number of ships take one for the team as part of their collective "screw you" to the Vorlons and Shadows, and Kosh arranges for some Vorlon ships to attack the Shadows to help Sheridan build his alliance. He gets torn to shreds for this violation of the Vorlon/Shadow rules of engagement.
  • Hey Its That Guy: Many cast members were well-known for other roles before the show, or became well-known for other roles afterward. Primary and recurring cast members included Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, Bill Mumy, Stephen Furst, Jeff Conaway and Walter Koenig, with guest appearances by David McCallum, David Warner, Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Combs, Ken Foree, Russ Tamblyn, Mel Winkler, William Sanderson and Dwight Schultz, among others.
  • Hey Its That Voice: Byron the telepath is also the Medic from Team Fortress 2, among many others. When the computer is rebooted after a systems shutdown, it comes back online with an obnoxious, stubborn personality voiced by Harlan Ellison. And Ardwright Chamberlain - Nicolai of Shadow Hearts: Covenant - is Kosh.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Drakh keepers. Guaranteed they'll make your skin crawl.
  • Hollywood Tactics (seen in the Legend of the Rangers pilot). "We do not retreat, whatever the reason." A rather stupid tactic for a group known as "Rangers", whose job often involves bringing back information on mysterious aliens of terrifying technological superiority.
  • Honor Before Reason / Proud Warrior Race Guy: Deconstructed several times over with the Minbari warrior caste, whose rigid determination to uphold honor and tradition results in a great deal of pain and pointless death.
  • Ho Yay: Played with hilarious Lampshade Hanging during Marcus and Franklin's trip to Mars due to a Smithical Marriage in their stolen IDs.
    • Londo and G'Kar from late season 4 on. Lampshaded in a season 5 episode when two workers who encounter them for the first time comment on their relationship with: "How long have they been married?"
  • Humans Are Special: Used rather often, and to occasionally obnoxious effect. Straczynski seems to hold this trope close to his heart. Alien customs are generally portrayed as bizarre and just so gosh darn wacky — see the Centauri contribution to "religion week" in season one, Sheridan's dinner with Delenn and Lennier in season two, the Drazi pilgrims' reaction to an apparent visitation by an angel in season three, et cetera. If an episode features alien customs, expect them to be used as lazy comic relief. Human customs and ceremonies, on the other hand, are treated with the utmost respect — silly or not.
    • The "silly" alien customs were meant as a mirror to shine light on just how silly our own customs and ceremonies are. You do see the occasional security guards having trouble (and not really caring about) keeping track of them all, but that's realistic enough even with only human religions to worry about.
    • Also, when it comes to Humans Are Special, it's really more like "The Humans that run Babylon 5 are special". The humans on Earth or even Mars are not so special at all...
  • Humanity Is Superior: Humans are said to be really good at community building to the point where no one else would have even attempted anything like the Babylon Project, and they have quickly risen to a major power on the galactic scene despite their technology seriously lacking compared to three of the other major powers and a number of league races.
    • Did nobody notice how much human warship progress in only a few years? Early human capitol ships like the Hyperion heavy cruiser are completely outmatched by Minbari capitol ships, while the latest and most advanced human capitol ships like the Shadow Omegas and Warlocks are essentially as powerful. No other civilization seems to advance faster than humanity.
      • Chalk both of them up to Imported Alien Phlebotinum: the Shadow Omegas were necessary if the Shadows were going to use the Earth Alliance under Clark as their tool of chaos, and the Warlocks used a combination of Minbari and Shadow technology (among others).
      • Reverse Engineering of more advanced Imported Alien Phlebotinum is a usual way in Babylon 5 to develop new spaceships and other new systems. Reverse Engineering Old Ones-technology is even a sign of significant advancement.
  • Human Popsicle: Second season, we learn that a few human sleeper ships were sent out before the Centauri sold jumpgate technology to Earth. Medlab also has a few units to store and transport patients who need more help than the station can provide. And then there are the Shadow-altered telepaths that turn up later.
    • And Marcus Cole, notably because of Straczynski taking his sweet time to decide if he was this or Killed Off for Real after using the alien healing machine to keep Ivanova alive. If the fifth season hadn't been allowed to air, then Straczynski would have said he was dead instead of being this for about 300 years.
  • I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin: Even small amounts of alcohol can turn a Minbari into a violent psychotic.
  • Idiot Ball: In the fifth season episode, "Wheel of Fire", Sheridan is surprised to discover his wife Delenn is pregnant and says he wasn't sure she could even get pregnant (being a Human-Minbari hybrid) even though he's been to the future two years earlier in "War Without End" and was told on that occation by Future Delenn herself that they have a son named David.
    • There's these things called orphanages. Just saying.
      • Right, 'cause THAT makes great drama. Also, since Future Delenn says she remembers Sheridan telling her about this moment, one might think she would've bothered to mention it, had that been the case, instead of sending the poor sucker home deluded. Besides, by this time Sheridan and Delenn are preparing to move to Minbar. So Sheridan thought that they were going to adopt a Minbari orphan and name him David? That's some Jerry Springer shit right there.
      • Alternatively, he thought there would be a lot more genetic engineering involved, instead of a natural pregnancy.
      • Wait, considering Delenn is the descendent of the first human/Minbari mix, this shouldn't have been that surprising.
  • I'm Going For A Closer Look: Very bad idea upon encountering a Shadow vessel or most unidentified craft.
  • I Need A Freaking Drink: You would, too, if you had to deal with what happens on this station.
  • Incredibly Obvious Bomb: In "The Fall of Night", Sheridan only knew to jump from the core shuttle because the bomb was one of these.
  • Irony: Delenn gives Garibaldi the "Blind and Toothless" speech when he espouses the death penalty ("Eye for an Eye"), despite she herself having ordered a genocide over the death of one man in particular.
    • Which is where she learned said fact.
    • Dramatic Irony: Delenn tells her fellow Religious Caste leaders how brutal and unpredictable the Warrior Caste is, how they would never turn on their own, and how people from her Caste are all wiser and better than them. This is after these guys had, after incomplete information, attached waste exhaust to the environmental systems to kill everyone on the ship so they wouldn't surrender.
  • Israelis With Infrared Missiles: While not precisely a member of the IDF, Colonel Ari Ben-zayn from the first-season episode "Eyes" is a tough, suspicious Earth Force intelligence operative with a life story strongly reminiscent of the sort of ex-IDF troops who become Mossad agents.
    • who for some reason speaks with an English accent, making him also an Evil Brit and a Fake Nationality. Garibaldi refers to him at one point as Colonel Ben Hitler - more than likely a case of Did Not Do The Research than an intentional racial epithet.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: One of the classics.
  • Karma Houdini: Dan Randall, the ISN news reporter from "The Illusion of Truth". Yes, Clark's administration all got snapped by Sheridan's comeback tour, but this Troper thinks it would've been nice to see that guy crucified.
    • Don't forget Alfred Bester, more or less.
  • Knight In Sour Armor: Marcus Cole. Garibaldi even more so.
    Garibaldi: "Like you said, I never start a conversation unless I know where it's going, but I always leave a little room for someone to disappoint me."
  • Knight Templar: Byron's followers.
    • Almost every side has at least a few.
  • Large Ham: "My deeeaarr... Meeester Garibaldi!"
    • There is no ham larger than Draal.
  • Last Minute Reprieve: Used a few times throughout the series.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: The Narn are a whole species of these.
  • Letter Motif
  • Literary Allusion Title
  • Littlest Cancer Patient : Subverted twice; see above under Cute Kids And Robots.
  • Locked In A Room: Subverted in "Convictions"
  • Loss Of Identity: Death Of Personality
  • Lower Deck Episode : "A View from the Gallery"
  • Magnificent Bastard : Londo Mollari is either a Magnificent Bastard or a Tragic Hero, depending on the episode. He's vastly entertaining to watch, but once his machinations begin to spin out of control, everyone knows it, and even his few friends stop liking him.
    • Bester qualifies as well, managing to get the upper hand every time with even the protagonists impressed by his evasion of karmic justice.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Lord Antono Refa, Morden
  • Married To The Job: Ivanova. And the job is jealous.
  • Mayfly December Romance: Sheridan and Delenn.
  • Meaningful Name: "Bester" sounds like "bastard" whenever any station personell speaks the name.
  • Mentor Archetype : Aldous Gajic to "Jinxo" in the first season episode "Grail". As well as several other characters.
  • The Messiah: Byron, Sheridan, Sinclair and Delenn, all in their own ways.
    • Also G'kar after his spiritual enlightenment.
  • Midnight On The Firing Line, at the beginning of its Myth Arc. Trope Namer, of course.
  • A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Read: Pretty much every teep.
  • Mind Manipulation, such as Mind Probe and Mind Rape : Something PsiCop Mr. Bester was very fond of.
    • The power granted by the telepathic drug "Dust" is specifically described as Mind Rape in the episode (season three's "Dust to Dust") in which it's a major plot element. G'Kar does it to Londo, finding out about his role in the bombing of the Narn homeworld.
    • Happens to Sheridan and Delenn, more or less by design, somewhat by consent, during the final battle with the Shadows and Vorlons.
    • Actully on Bester, while quite willing to mind probe, wasn't one to mind rape unless their where telepath lives at stake. The man did have some standards.
  • Mind Over Manners: The less evil telepaths, most of the time, follow the rule about not scanning someone against their will. Mostly.
  • Money Dear Boy: Dr. Vance Hendricks' raison d'être in the first-season episode "Infection."
  • Moral Myopia : A lot of it, actually. Minbari were all pissy over Sheridan's nuking of the Blackstar despite their own policy of taking no prisoners and leaving no combatant survivors [that they know of]. Vir's arranged wife feels Narns are a brutal race that needs culling and has participated in multiple atrocities. Bester feels absolutely no remorse about killing mundanes and is less than sympathetic toward teeps that are not Corps.
    • The Minbari weren't pissy over a human nuking a ship, but over what they saw as dishonorable means.
      • Because it's a lot more honorable to hone in on a distress signal and blast a drifting wreck to smithereens.
  • Mordor: Z'ha'dum. It even has a Great Eye, which Ivanova sees when she's plugged into the Palantir Great Machine, and later when she visits the planet itself.
  • My God What Have I Done: A truly heartbreaking example in "The Coming of Shadows" when G'kar, after making his peace with the Centauri emperor, finally extends a tentative hand of friendship to Londo and buys him a drink — unaware that Londo has just ordered the annihilation of a Narn colony.
    • Another being during the Earth-Minbari War when Delenn receives Dukat's last message.
  • My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels: Ivanova speaking Minbari:
    Ivanova: (in Minbari) Engines at full... high power. Hatrack ratcatcher to port weapons... brickbat lingerie.
    • "Aw hell..."
  • Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Mr. Morden.
  • Naughty Tentacles : Centauri have six prehensile phalli, 2-4 feet long. Their definition of "bases" is how many you get to put in.
  • Near Death Experience : experienced by Sheridan across "The Hour of the Wolf" and "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"
  • Neck Lift
  • Sheridan Never Got To Say Goodbye. Neither did Ivanova.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Marcus Cole (although he's one of the good guys).
    Marcus: "You know, I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought: Wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now, I take great comfort in the hostility and unfairness of the universe."
  • Non Sequitur Thud: A truly epic example courtesy of a drunken Londo in "Parliament of Dreams".
  • Not Actually The Ultimate Question: Repeatedly and vigorously deconstructed.
  • Not So Different : Londo and G'Kar realize this about halfway through the fourth season. As well as Sheridan and Delenn and several other pairs and groups, including, as is revealed to the characters and audience in the third and fourth seasons, the Vorlons and the Shadows really aren't all that different.
  • Number Two: Ivanova
  • Odd Friendship: Londo and G'kar, representing two races which had long been bitter enemies, grew into an Odd Friendship by the end of the series.
  • Oh Crap: The look on Refa's face when holographic Londo reveals his endgame to him - which then leads to a pack of angry Narns beating the absolute bajeezus out of him. The following scene, as the Narns pummel him with Lutheran church music playing in the background, is almost eerily beautiful.
  • One Gender Race: The Pak'Ma'Ra ... sort of.
  • Open Heart Dentistry: Dr. Franklin can do everything from setting broken bones to major surgery to incredibly fast pharmaceutical research for nearly every race that lives on the station.
  • Opt Out: An extra after Sheridan gives a Line In The Sand speech.
  • Our Elves Are Better : The Minbari, who are elegant, refined and more technologically advanced than nearly any other race. As a partial subversion, they are also quite willing to wipe out an entire species if provoked. Slightly. Like, by killing one of their guys (yes, their leader, but still).
    • It should be noted that Dukat was more then simply the leader of the Minbari (at least to them). He was the equivalent of the pope and president among other things to them, and the most popular and beloved leader since Valan.
    • Responding to provocations with overkill seemed to be a most common Minbari practice.
      • It's pretty much their "hat", really. The Earth/Minbari War started because when they made first contact neither species, in an aversion of Translator Microbes, understood the others' language. The Neidermeyer captain of the Earth Alliance ship misread the custom of opening gunports in a sign of strength as attacking, so he opens fire. This may seem like a boneheaded custom of the Minbari Warrior Caste, and the leader calls them on it right before his death, which results in the war. They alas would not fully realize humanity to be a literal Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits until years later, they assumed us to be an entire species of Neidermeyers and decided to teach us a lesson. Other examples include destroying an entire fleet of Drakh for the loss of a single ship, and arranging a duel between a gang leader and his victim after a mugging. You do not mess with the Minbari. You do often ask them What The Hell Hero.
    • On the Drakh, keep in mind that both races have pretty strong reason to dislike one another.
  • Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions : Totally and utterly averted. Every race is religious, although humanity surprises everyone by having so many different faiths (the only other species explicitly stated to have multiple religious is the Narns, and it's implied that they have many, many fewer than Earth).
    • Even though JMS is atheist.
      • Well, yeah. He's a real atheist, not a Hollywood Atheist. That means his beliefs are the result of a lifetime of soul-searching, not Fantastic Racism.
        USENET: (on Passing Through Gethsemane) "The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"
        JMS: Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that they're too smart to bet on what we'll do.
        And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence, brutality beyond belief; I've seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of "god's noblest creature." And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, "How do you apologize to them?" "I can't." "Then I cannot forgive."
        As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it's only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it's gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
        So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and Minbari....
  • Only The Author Can Save Them Now: How to face the Shadows and Vorlons?
  • Perfect Pacifist People: Subverted by the Minbari, who are pacifists only among themselves.
  • Pet The Dog: Londo Mollari has so many of these that it makes people cry.
    Mollari: My shoes are now too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.
    Vir Cotto: I don't understand.
    Mollari: Nor should you.
  • Planet Of Hats : Nearly every race. (Well, the Minbari have three types of hats.) Humanity's hat is diversity and community-building.
  • President Evil: Clark.
  • Prime Directive : The Psi Corps regulations (which get broken almost as much as the original Prime Directive)
  • Previously On : Used in certain major arc episodes to remind the audience of previous events that are reference, as well as the entire fifth season narration (see below).
  • Prophetic Ship Names : Icarus, Agamemnon.
  • Psychic Static : The nursery rhyme variant is used against Bester.
  • Puny Earthlings: Played straight with regards to a few races' raw physical strength (Minbari, Narn...) compared to humans; but averted in other cases. Minbari come from a planet that is colder than Earth, and temperatures high enough that a human would merely find enormously uncomfortable will kill a Minbari rapidly, not to mention they become violently deranged when they consume alcohol. The Drazi have the opposite problem; they are far more intolerant of COLD weather than humans are.
  • The Puppet Masters: Used straight with the creatures that possess the Centauri Regent and Londo, subverted in "Exogenesis". Also, PsiCop Bester subtly controlling Garibaldi by enhancing the paranoid tendencies of his mind and planting post-hypnotic suggestions; and the PsiCorps being able to plant a second "sleeper" personality into people, something which happened to Talia Winters.
  • Rage Against The Mentor: Sheridan and Kosh, in "Interludes and Examinations."
  • Refuge In Audacity: How they smuggle Na'Toth off the Centauri homeworld. No Centauri would admit seeing their own Prime Minister slobberingly drunk snuggling up to a veiled slave girl and staggering toward the spaceport.
  • Rescued From Purgatory
  • Restraining Bolt : Something that Mr. Bester installed in Garibaldi's mind, to make sure his puppet wouldn't attack him afterward.
  • Retroactive Precognition: All of Valen's prophecies.
  • Romantic Runner Up: Zack.
  • Room Full Of Crazy: In Thirdspace.
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens: But while B5 does have its Rubber Forehead Aliens, it also has a far wider assortment of semihumanoid and completely nonhumanoid species than is usually seen in TV SF: the giant mantis crime boss from the first season, the Shadows (the show's Big Bad), the Pak'ma'ra, the Nakaleen Feeder, and of course the Vorlons (an entire race that spent most of the series acting as The Watcher), just to name a few. And it's indirectly implied that the Rubber Forehead Aliens are the result of genetic tampering by Vorlons, as the humanoid species are generally the ones with telepaths, and the projected form of an unsuited Vorlon is a Winged Humanoid found in most races' major religions, even though the Vorlons' true form is nothing like that.)
    • The most infamous is of course the Centauri who don't even rise to the "rubber forehead" level and are basically people with unlikely haircuts.
      • And sharp teeth. And Naughty Tentacles. And many other bits that aren't obvious on television without the help of the CSI team and the Necro Cam.
      • Lampshaded, as the Centauri are mentioned to have claimed (fraudulently, of course) that Earth was one of their lost colonies when they first made contact.
    • Not sure if this counts as a subversion or a lampshading, but there was an amusing scene in "There All Honor Lies" which features a Drazi wearing a rubber human mask.
  • Screw Destiny : The main cast eventually decides this and enlists the aid of the First Ones to fight both the Shadows and the Vorlons, ending their constant struggle for dominance.
  • Screw The Money I Have Rules: Why Franklin turns Dr. Hendricks in at the end of the episode "Infection."
  • Secret Police: Nightwatch, in their snappy brown shirts.
  • Shout Out: The show is known to have a few shout outs to The Lord Of The Rings, A Canticle For Leibowitz, and other works of fiction.
    • Such as a Martian representative named Amanda Carter in the episode Spider in the Web. With an ancestor named John, in case you didn't get it.
    • And The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester— which is about a telepathic cop.
    • Also don't forget the multiple Shout Outs to George Orwell's 1984: Ministry of Peace, rewriting the dictionaries, ect.
  • Academia is bad: In the commentary for the last episode of the fourth season, JMS stated that, as an academic himself, he always hated the habit of deconstructing a historical character, thus perhaps the title "The Deconstruction of Fallen Stars". He also intended the holographic operator in the third segment to be a doctor.
  • Silly Reason For War: The Drazi conflict, solved by Ivanova deftly plucking the leader scarf off the head Drazi, and ordering her faction to wait quietly in a cargo bay for the conflict to end. She even got free booze out of it! (The broken leg, not so good.)
    • That actually wasn't a complete solution, since it turned out the conflict was supposed to last more than a year. However, she used her leadership to make her faction dye their sashes the other color.
  • Something That Begins With Boring: Marcus and Franklin on the way to Mars.
  • Space Elves: The Minbari, sort of.
  • Space Is An Ocean: Magnificiently averted. Sort of lampshaded/subverted with the Minbari Sharlin cruiser, which looks like a fish. However, one could argue that Hyperspace is an ocean.
  • Space Opera
  • Standard Sci Fi Fleet: Several of them, operating everything from fighters to kilometer-long battleships. Battlestars are quite popular.
  • State Sec: Psi-Corps, admit it.
  • Stay On The Path
  • Subliminal Seduction: "THE PSI CORPS IS YOUR FRIEND. TRUST THE CORPS."
  • Subspace Ansible: Tachyon relays.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Lorien and the other First Ones. And Not Quite as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, the Vorlons and the Shadows (who happen to worship Lorien as something akin to a god).
    • Also, Word Of God says that Humans and Minbari will eventually reach this state. In "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" we see it happen.
  • Super Registration Act: The PsiCorps.
  • Supreme Chef: Garibaldi
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Elizabeth Lochley for Susan Ivanova, John Sheridan for Jeffrey Sinclair, Susan Ivanova for Laurel Takashima, Stephen Franklin for Benjamin Kyle, Talia Winters for Lyta Alexander, and later Lyta Alexander for Talia Winters.
  • Take Off Every Zig
  • Take That: In a single episode, swipes are taken at both Star Trek Deep Space Nine and merchandising generally; in the series finale, an inspirational message doubles as a dig at the show's doomsayers.
  • Techno Wizard: The Technomages.
  • Telepathic Spacemen: Due to being Touched By Vorlons, every race has some (except the Narns, due to Shadows killing all of them in the past, but the genes are still latent in them).
  • Theme Initials: John Sheridan and Jeffrey Sinclair. Which surely has nothing to do with the show being created by Joe Straczynski. The Theme Initials of the romantic leads matched those of JMS and his wife.
  • They Do: John and Delenn.
  • Thrown Out The Airlock: Dr. Franklin does not find 'spacing' jokes funny because of a friend's accident. Garibaldi advocates it regularly for particularly heinous crimes. And, most famously, Sheridan spaced a teddy bear.
    • For the Earth Alliance, this is an execution method reserved for specific circumstances.
  • Time Abyss: Lorien
  • Time Travel : "Babylon Squared" and the two-parter "War without End"
    • Notable as the episodes (set two season apart) are both sides of the same time travel event.
  • They'd Cut You Up
  • Title Drop: Not in the usual sense, though. Each season has a title that it shares with one episode in that season. When you see a title card reading "Signs And Portents" or "The Coming Of Shadows," you know that something big is coming.
  • Touched By Vorlons: The Trope Namer. Specifically Lyta Alexander and Sheridan. To a lesser extent, telepaths (of all races) in general.
  • Truce Zone: The Babylon stations were all built to be this.
  • Twisting The Words: "The Illusion of Truth"
  • Two Of Your Earth Minutes
  • Unstuck In Time: Sheridan gets Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
  • The Unpronounceable: The Shadows' true name is said to have hundreds of syllables and to be unpronounceable for the tongues of younger races.
  • Unusual Euphemism : Characters are repeatedly being described as having "Gone beyond the Rim" when the actor playing them dies. This is most noticeable in G'Kar who continued to be a prominent character even after the show ended until the actor playing him died of lung cancer.
    • Many aliens seem to have a habit of saying "As the humans say" before using a well known Earth expression.
    • Sheridan: "Well, as my great granddad used to say, cool"
    • A more literal example, Vir's "Spoo-for-brains"
    • In the first season, "stroke" is occasionally used basically as a substitute for "fuck" (with "stroke" presumably referring to masturbation). This doesn't really appear again afterwards.
  • Urban Segregation: The shiny areas seen for most of the series vs Down Below
  • Used Future
  • Vestigial Empire: The Centauri spend half their time invading the rest of the galaxy and the other half reminiscing about their supposed glory days, back when — one assumes — they were even worse. Lampshaded with Londo's Lightbulb Joke.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: Hands up, everyone who knew Jason Ironheart's "You cannot harm one who has dreamed a dream like mine," was a Dakota prayer of protection and not a really weird line.
  • Voice Of The Resistance.
  • The War Of Earthly Aggression: On slow burn throughout most of the first four seasons, this becomes the main plot in mid-season 4 after the First Ones leave the galaxy.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye, Sinclair and to a lesser extent Talia. Also Lt. Warren Keffer, a more traditional action hero who was added by Executive Meddling and later Killed Off For Real by J Michael Straczynski at the earliest point convenient for the plot. Plus Dr. Kyle and Takashima in the pilot.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: William Edgars sets himself up as this.
  • We Will Not Have Pockets In The Future: Averted.
  • Wham Episode: It's the Trope Maker, so there's obviously plenty.
  • What The Hell Hero: Garibaldi's reaction to Sheridan interrogating Morden in the second season episode "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum".
  • What You Are In The Dark
  • Will Not Tell A Lie: The Minbari like to think of themselves as this, but it's at best an Informed Attribute. It would be an understatement to say their definition of 'lie' is extremely flexible. Notably it doesn't include lying to save another person's honour (which forms the basis of the plot of the second season episode "There All The Honour Lies") or lying by omission. And some Minbari characters, including Delenn who is easily the most prominent one on the show, just plain ignore this supposedly deeply ingrained aspect of their culture; one fan quipped on Usenet that "the way to tell whether Delenn is lying is to check whether her mouth is moving", and no-one (including JMS, then a regular contributor to that newsgroup) disagreed.
    • This is actually commented upon several times. Sheridan tells his old friend Captain Maynard "The Minbari never tell you the whole truth." Delenn states that the Grey Council "never tells the whole truth." When Sheridan and Delenn meet infront of the "Universe Today" vending machine, she states that she likes to read the "Eye on Minbar" section so she can learn things before the Grey Council tells her "What she needs to know and no more." Their philosophy us stated to be "Understanding is not required, only obedience." And of course, most importantly, the Grey Council never told the Warrior Caste why they surrendered at the Battle of the Line. It seems the Minbari do not think omissions are lies.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Most notably, the string of episodes after Sheridan's return from Z'ha'dum was an elaborate gambit ultimately culminating in the Vorlons and the Shadows invading Sheridan and Delenn's minds, allowing the heroes to talk the elder races into leaving the galaxy., Also, Mr. Bester's manipulation of Garibaldi.
    • Sheridan managed to pull off a delectable one in the episode "Rumors, Bargains and Lies".
    • Londo's elimination of Lord Refa
      • Morden turning Londo against Refa in order to make him come to Morden for support
  • You Dont Want To Catch This: Lennier claiming to have Netter's Syndrome.
  • You Have Already Changed The Past / Stable Time Loop: Everything involved with "War Without End" and "Babylon Squared." Babylon 4 appears in Babylon 5 space four years after it disappears (the episode "Babylon Squared." The events leading up to that appearance are explained in the two-parter "War Without End," in which we find out that Babylon 4 was taken to the year 1260 AD (or so) to help the Minbari and their allies gather to fight the Shadows. To prevent this from happening, the Shadows sent a big bomb to Babylon 4 just as it was about to come on line in 2254. However, the White Star also goes back in time (because Delenn, Sinclair, Sheridan, and Ivanova see it in a recording), destroys the bomb, and (as it turns out) takes it back in time as well. However, this is not before the time device (sent by Draal and transported by Zathras) malfunctions, dropping Babylon 4 into 2258, leading to the events of "Babylon Squared." Sinclair then realizes that he must take Babylon 4 back in time himself, and then uses the triluminary device to turn himself into a Minbari—specifically, Valen, who led them in the First Shadow War, organized their society, and effectively became the main prophet of their religion. So Yeah...

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