But the part about the Minbari taking a Quester seriously is in fact from Grail, and I agree that it helped to make it a better episode.
Wow, I did mix it all up. My memories of the actual Grail episode are not as clear.
Hey - so does anyone know the names of the spin-off novels, or the authors? Is it JMS who wrote them? I’d like to at least tie up the resolutions of the main characters that were left - Garibaldi, Lyta, the Drakh war, Bester, etc. I’d like to get my hands on them.
Anyone?
Just search Amazon for Babylon 5 under “Books.” All sorts of hits. Plenty of copies available used.
I think Peter David wrote a few of them.
Probably the best of the novels is Kathryn Drennan’s To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which concerns Sinclair’s time on Minbar and has a bit of Marcus. I believe JMS said it was fully canonical. The only other of the stand-alones I’d recommend is Jeanne Cavelos’s The Shadow Within, which gives you some Morden and Anna Sheridan backstory.
Apart from those, you have a bunch of stand-alones that fail to stand out, IMO, and the trilogies. There are three of those. One on the psi corp, one on the centauri, and one on the techno-mages. I found them all to be worth reading. More information here Babylon 5 Books and Novels
I’ll second To Dream In The City Of Sorrows, I love the texture it added to Sinclair, particularly his motivations for wanting to… end up where he did. And the fate of Catherine Sakai was done really well too, and a big surprise. (Trying to be as non-spoilerific as possible here.)
The Shadow Within was also very good. I haven’t read any of the three follow-up trologies, but I’d like to, especially the Centauri one. It would be great to know what was really happening on Centauri Prime when Sheridan visited it in “War Without End”.
Did a huge run last night. 9 episodes! Was too late to post anything here and had to go straight to bed.
Overall, I can definitely see how it’s getting better.
A few comments/questions though.
Legacies was ok as an episode, but I just couldn’t figure out why the Minbari would bring a dead military leader for a wake/funeral/ceremony to B5. If he had been such a great military leader, why not bring the body back to the home world? Did I miss something?
Babylon Squared was interesting, although I confess it was a bit confusing. But I understand this will be something that will come up again in future episodes.
Chrysalis was fantastic. Season one final episode and it was one wow moment after another. Best so far. And the episode responsible for us jumping straight into season 2 as we couldn’t just leave it there.
Of the first three episodes of season two, I guess first two were transition episodes and an explanation to the change in command. Not sure how I feel about Sheridan yet, but from previous posts on this thread I gather I will grow to like him.
Lastly, I thought The Geometry of Shadows was fantastic. Very funny about the Drazi. And the intro to Technomages. Looking forward to seeing more on the Technomages. I know the Technomages were departing for the rim, which could indicate they won’t come back, but I hope they do.
May need a bit of B5 break after that marathon last night. Will see how it goes this evening.
Perhaps a few more episodes…
I’m not sure this needs a spooiler box, but oh well: They were parading his body around the galaxy, as a way of honouring him. B5 wasn’t meant to be his final resting place, it was just a stop on the tour. Presumably he would have ended up back on Minbar (or one of their worlds) eventually.
Oh, you are going to love it. It gets way, way better than the best season 1 episodes.
By the way, I think there is a technomage book(or perhaps a few) where you can learn more about them.
re: bringing the fallen Minbari warrior leader to Babylon 5: It is worth mentioning that even some of the Minbari thought that bringing the warlord’s body to an Earth Alliance station built in the fallout of the war where the Minbari nearly wiped out all of humanity was a bit of a dick move on the Warrior Caste’s part.
Oh, also, the guy leading the Minbari warriors visiting the station in that episode? Remember him. You’ll see him again later.
In regards to the technomages: They are definitely leaving, and you won’t see them again during the show. One of them does turn up in the spinoff movies and Crusade. More than a few of the human characters that he has grown fond of become a bit annoyed with the fact that they can’t seem to stop him from turning up at will.
Alit Neroon, looking incredibly pompous and stuck-up at this time! 
As opposed to every other time he looked pompous and stuck-up? That’s just kinda his look, like how Garibaldi tends to look increasingly bald. 
Haven’t posted for a while, so I thought an update may be in order.
Have now completed the first four seasons and without a doubt, it did get better and better as it went along, with perhaps a few exceptions.
I fully agree that Grey 17 is Missing was not very good.
A few other episodes and story arcs too. Like Dr. Franklin’s Walkabout episode/story arc. Was glad when that was over.
The entire Shadow war was great, especially when it was revealed that the Vorlons really couldn’t care less about other species. Although I did find it a bit odd that the remaining piece of the old Kosh in Sheridan would attack the new Kosh. I would have thought the old Kosh would’ve been in cahoots with the new Kosh. Perhaps the old Kosh had become sympathetic with Humans since he had been residing in Sheridan. And one final nitpick on the Shadow wars was the end. All that build up and effort in bringing the Vorlons and Shadows to confront each other directly, you expected some spectacular bang. But instead, it ends with some kind of spiritual conclusion in which the Shadows and the Vorlons just go away to some mysterious next level. Huh? After all that build? I mean here are two ancient species who apparently come alive every 1000 years to basically play chess with the universe where in all other species are merely pawns and they rarely confront each other directly. I think that could have been done better. I mean Sheridan manages to get the two to confront each other directly. If they had then subsequently annihilated each other beyond recovery, it may be a darker story, but I think it would have felt more real than that spiritual ending.
Of the remaining 4th season it was fantastic. The only remaining nitpick I would have, (that I recall), was the change in Garibaldi when he returns after having disappeared for three days. I don’t know, it just bothered me that no one picked up on his extreme change in behavior. But maybe I’m being too critical.
Now ready to start season 5, and I am dreading it a bit. Having read the various posts on this thread, Season 5 will be disappointing. Hmm, we shall see.
The first half of S5 with deals with telepaths is pretty much universially considered a disappointment, but once you’re past that (and there’s a bunch of other stuff going on in the first half besides that), it gets really good. And the best single episode (IMO) is the final ep of S5.
So…don’t dread it too much…it doesn’t ruin the other stuff and it’s not that bad…but the first half is a huge let-down after season 4.
As an aside, I’ve got a question about S5 character motivations
[spoiler]
The biggest flaw (IMO) that JMS makes is everyone’s treatment of Lyta to make S5 “work”. She risked her life by allowing the Vorlons to modify her, she sacrificed everything and was a large, LARGE part of the defeat of the Shadows and the rescue of all the frozen telepaths…and Sheridan couldn’t let her have a room for life on B5? Really? A war vet?
That’s completely out of character for Sheridan who’s incredibly loyal to his people.
Of course, she had to be kicked out of her apartment, made jobless, and left alone so that she’d fall in with Byron…but it’s out of character for everyone else to have let it happen.
Any fanwank on why Sheridan (especially after the tantrum he had in…um…S2? when Earthgov tried to charge him rent on his apartment) would become such a douche? (Yes, to make the plot work–is there any in-show reason that makes sense?)[/spoiler]
Oh good point! I forgot about that. It was another thing that bothered me too.
Yeah, that one made no sense at all.