Raw Materials

Here on Grey 5, you find all kinds of containers, full of raw materials.  Maintenance technicians are coming and going, helping themselves to whatever spare parts they need to keep the station going...

Canonical Published Sources

The canonical sources include material from the TV shows themselves, or material authorized by the creators of the shows:

• Technical data cited in dialogue in the TV shows;

• Technical readouts appearing on screens in the TV shows;

• Measurements from freeze-frame clips or screen captures;

• J Michael Straczynski's published answers to questions on the Internet;

• Tim Earls', Ron Thornton's and Luc Mayrand's design sketches; and

• Information certified by Fiona Avery, Babylonian's reference editor.

Of these, we have to pay the greatest attention to dialogue and technical readouts.  These have to be made as self-consistent as possible; however some small glitches in continuity do eventually raise one or two issues in this material.  The original design sketches help to establish a number of fixed reference points for dimensions and capabilities of various vessels.  Where the full capabilities were not demonstrated on screen, they can be inferred from this material.  Fiona Avery's reference information is meant to be the last word; however, some of this was only established after the show had finished and is sometimes considered "after the fact".

Licensed Sources

The licensed sources include original material specially created for the Babylon 5 universe, starting from source material and premises communicated by the show's creators:

• Babylon 5 Crusade Magazine, published by Titan in the UK; now only on eBay;

• The Babylon 5 Security Manual, by Jim Mortimore, published by Titan Books in the UK;

• Sierra Studios' Official Guide to Babylon 5, also known as The Babylon 5 Reference CD-ROM;

• Sierra Studios' Babylon 5 Space Combat Simulator, which after extensive development was not eventually released;

• The Babylon Project: Babylon 5 Role-Playing Game sourcebooks, by Joseph Cochrane and others, published variously by Chameleon Eclectic/WireFrame Productions (US) and Titan Books/Mongoose Publishing (UK);

• The Revell Monogram polystyrene scale model kits of the Starfury and Babylon 5 Station;

• Agents of Gaming's Babylon 5 Wars rulebook and white metal miniatures;

• Precedence Publishing's Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game (CCG);

• The earlier, original freelance Babylon 5 novel series (9 books);

• The later, specially commissioned Babylon 5 novel series (3 trilogies); and

• Other Babylon 5 related books, published by Titan and Boxtree in the UK.

Of these, the Babylon 5 Security Manual is perhaps the most valuable source for technical material, since it reprints many of Tim Earls's original designs.  However, Sierra's Babylon 5 CD-ROM is almost as valuable, when describing the capabilities of spacecraft and alien politics; however some of this contradicts the Security Manual.  The Role-Playing Game provided further historical background on the Earth Alliance, but again contradicts the above two sources in some details.

Internet Sources

The researched sources include a number of Internet websites that have assiduously collected technical data from a number of other sources and attempted to refine a consistent picture of the Babylon 5 universe:

• Official Babylon 5 Website - Warner's official website is defunct, now just an advert for streaming the show;

• The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 - Steven Grimm's most comprehensive source, including all JMS's UseNet postings;

• The Babylon 5 Encyclopedia - a complete reference on any thing, person or place in Babylon 5;

• The Babylon 5 History Page - Larry King's discussion of timelines and prophecies in Babylon 5;

• The Babylon 5 Tech Manual - Brandon Bray's old website, with creative ship views and technical data;

• BabTech on the Net - Brian Young's defunct website with more careful relative scalings of ship sizes;

• Hyperspace:  A Guide to the Ships of Babylon 5 and Crusade - Lars Joreteg's complete guide to every spacecraft, by race;

• Babylon 5: The Place to Be - Holger Barton's defunct guide to the races and spacecraft, with Lightwave renderings;

• Voltayre's Encyclopaedia Xenobiologica - Christopher Russo's in-universe account of races, ships, history.

Of these, the most useful sites were the two Tech Manual sites.  Whereas Brandon Bray's B5Tech Manual was mostly guided by creative data from licensed sources and post-hoc rationalisations by Fiona Avery, Brian Young's BabTech was mostly guided by on-screen measurements from the TV shows, corroborated by some licensed sources.  The Lurker's Guide is most valuable for the archived UseNet postings from J Michael Straczynski and intelligent discussion of open issues.