< Babylon 5

Babylon 5/Tropes Q to Z


This page covers tropes found in Babylon 5. Tropes beginning with letters A-H can be found at Babylon 5/Tropes A to H and tropes beginning with letters I-P can be found at Babylon 5/Tropes I to P. Subjective tropes go to the YMMV page.

Tropes used in Babylon 5/Tropes Q to Z include:

Q

  • Quote Mine: The Illusion of Truth illustrates this trope in detail.


R

  • Rage Against the Mentor: Sheridan and Kosh, in "Interludes and Examinations."
  • Ramming Always Works: Captain Hiroshi's last stand against the EAS Roanoke ("Severed Dreams").
  • Readings Are Off the Scale:
    • The energy readings relating to the alien weapon in "Infection".
    • The energy surge at the climax of "Mind War".
    • The power surge at the beginning of "A Voice in the Wilderness".
  • Realpolitik: Though expressing reservations toward his government in private, Londo zealously defends the actions of the Centauri Republic when they begin to aggressively raid neighboring worlds, claiming they require a "buffer zone".
    • Even Vir will do this from time to time, as is part of his job, such as when he visited Sheridan to demand Morden's release in In The Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum, despite the fact that he can barely tolerate Morden.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Stephen Franklin to himself as at the end of his walkabout.
    • Sheridan to the Vorlons and Shadows at the end of the Shadow War.
    • Delenn is always giving this to the Grey Council, it seems. It may not be coincidental that she has political troubles back home.
  • Recycled in Space: Think Casablanca in space, combined with Lovecraft in space, combined with JRR Tolkien in space.
    • The Babylon 5 Advisory Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds was purposely designed to be the United Nations IN SPACE!
  • Red Alert
  • Red Shirts: This role usually falls to the lurkers, though in classic sci-fi fashion, the Security guards tend to be fairly disposable unless named. That role shifts to the Starfury pilots for the space scenes, particularly for any pilot who is Going In For A Closer Look.
  • Redemption Equals Death: While Neroon had long been the most sympathetic, honorable, and sane Warrior-Caste Minbari, he was only completely redeemed when he sacrificed himself to save Delenn (and end the Minbari Civil War). He does declare himself (in a somewhat Narmy scene) Religious Caste just as he dies; although he most likely truly means it (given Shakiri's disgrace), he's also preserving Delenn's victory.
  • Redshirt Army: General Franklin's marines (aka "ground-pounders") in "GROPOS".
  • 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.
  • Relationship Reveal: Following a year or two of dropped hints and innuendo, "Divided Loyalties" reveals Talia sleeping in the same bed as Susan Invanova.
  • The Reliable One: Lennier, in spades.
  • Rescued From Purgatory
  • Resignations Not Accepted: The only way out of Psi Corps is "feet first", according to Sheridan.
  • Restraining Bolt: Something that Mr. Bester installed in Garibaldi's mind, to make sure his puppet wouldn't attack him afterward. Bester calls it an "Asimov", a Shout-Out to Isaac Asimov and his Three Laws of Robotics.
  • Retroactive Precognition: All of Valen's prophecies.
  • Revealing Hug: In "Born to the Purple", Londo and Adira embrace, and the camera lingers on Adira's face as the happy facade she's been putting on for Londo slips away.
  • The Right of a Superior Species: The Minbari believed that their status as the oldest Non-First One Space Faring Civilization gave them the right to exterminate the entire human race simply to avenge the death of their leader in a botched first contact that was as much their fault as it was the Humans.
  • Road Trip Episode: Due to a blockade, Marcus and Dr. Franklin leave Babylon 5 and embark on a Type 2 on board a slow freighter to Mars in order to meet with La Résistance.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: An epic one in "The Coming of Shadows", when G'kar figures out that Londo Mollari -- to whom G'Kar finally extended his hand of friendship -- has declared war on the Narn colonies. It takes a whole security team and Sheridan to stop G'Kar from breaking into Londo's quarters to kill him, and for moment it looks like even that is not enough.
  • Room Full of Crazy: In Thirdspace.
  • Rousing Speech:
    • 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."
      • Subverted in the novelization, where Sinclair laments that for the men and women fighting on The Line, all the speech did was firmly remind them that they were all about to die.
    • Previously mocked in the episode "Points of Departure": Sheridan wants to give one to his crew upon his arrival, believing it to be a good luck charm, but one crisis after another delays it until finally he just ends up giving the speech to an otherwise empty room.
    • "The Reason You Suck" Speech that Franklin gave himself (in the form of a trauma-induced hallucination) managed to turn into one of these towards the end.
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens: 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 many other bits that aren't obvious on television.)
    • 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 Sci-Fi: 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.)
    • Lampshaded in an amusing scene in "There All Honor Lies" which features a Drazi wearing a rubber human mask.
  • Ruins of the Modern Age: The San Diego wastelands. The city was nuked by terrorists in 2150 AD.
  • Ruling Couple: Sheridan and Delenn.
  • Running Gag: Every time Ivanova makes a joke about all Russians sharing a bleak and cynical outlook on life, take a shot.


S

  • Sarcastic Clapping:
    • The assassin in "The Parliament of Dreams", in response to Na'Toth's attempt to convince him she's his secret back-up.
    • Garibaldi expresses how moved he is (or not) by Bester's soliloquy about how he's just a misunderstood family man.
  • Second Episode Introduction: Several of the cast regulars were not present in the Pilot Movie; Dr Franklin didn't show up for the first proper episode either.
  • Schmuck Bait: Marcus escapes his jailer by pretending that his collapsible pike is some sort of medical scanner, and that you activate it by staring down the hole at the end. Pow. Marcus repeats this feat with another mook down the hall, this time using a tennis ball ("Exogenesis").
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Often averted. Space battles being so close is justified by beam weapon dispersal.
    • On the other hand, often played painfully straight with casualty numbers. Word of God is that a planetary bombardment using Colony Drops had casualties of only 3 million, while the casualties of the Earth-Minbari War were only a little more than those that have been suffered in the Iraq War so far.
        • JMS is of the opinion that the advanced civilizations would generally use more birth control and naturally have lower populations, too. It's his explanation for why Centauri Prime only has a few billion people living on it (though one episode put the total Centauri population at 48 billion), provides a decent explanation as to why we rarely see children on the show, and is evidenced by the families we do see or hear mentioned (many characters are only children who in turn have only one child [ie: Lise, despite three marriages, only gave birth to Garibaldi's child, Delenn and Sheridan only have one child, Londo had 3 wives and at least 2 lovers but never any children, and so on]). It seems like the Narns are the only major species with larger families since they seem to have litters (but even then the occupation seems to have left them with a relatively stunted population).
        • It is also possible that the casualties from the Colony Drop attack were minimized by the use of underground shelters, as the planet in question is mentioned as having underground tunnel networks in a later episode.
        • Considering that the Earth-Minbari war was largely fought in space, civilian causalities were probably low. That means that most of the 250,000 dead on the Human side were almost all soldiers.
        • A few battles took place over extended distances, such as the one in The Long, Twilight Struggle, where we never see the two sides' capital ships in the same shot until the entire battle is concluded. A few long panning shots followed weapons fire to show the distances involved. Indeed, the battle also featured quite a bit of Old School Dogfighting, but the fighters were so small compared to the capital ships that you can only discern them as specks and flashes of light around the bigger ships.
  • Science Marches On: In Believers Doctor Franklin wants to perform a surgery to remove a blockage in the lung of a sick alien boy. His parents object to cutting him open because it's against their religion. Nowadays, this surgery could be done without any cutting at all[1], by use of an endoscope.
  • The Scottish Trope: On one occasion, Marcus refers to "the Scottish Play." It is unclear if it's the character or the actor who averts referring to the play by its title.
    • Word of God is that neither Marcus nor his actor had a problem with saying the name of the play, and JMS wrote it that way to avoid offending anyone else. See the entry below for why.
    • During the filming of A Late Delivery From Avalon, guest star Michael York took this very seriously. A member of the filming crew who slipped up and mentioned The Scottish Play by its given name around him was required to perform various rituals to prevent any mishaps from befalling the production of the episode.
  • 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".
    • When confronted with Londo's announcement that he plans to divorce two of his wives, Timov passes up ample opportunities to win his favor or (failing that) murder him. She instead saves her husband's life via a blood transfusion, on the condition that Franklin cannot reveal that she's the donor. In the end, Londo begrudgingly keeps Timov as his spouse, since she's the least dishonest.
    • Played for laughs during Garibaldi's war against the post office. ("A Late Delivery From Avalon")
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Mere hours after Jack is arrested, President Clark calls Sheridan to demand his extradition to Earth. Shortly after leaving the station, the prisoner 'mysteriously' vanishes while en route.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them: Typically invoked by the Psi Cops.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: several times, sometimes quite extravegantly as when Delenn broke the Grey council and Sheridan seceded from Earth .
  • Script Reading Doors: The automatic doors on the station are standard-issue space opera Script Reading Doors. There's a particularly striking moment near the end of "And the Sky Full of Stars" where a door opens the moment Sinclair decides to leave, before he's actually started moving toward it.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Londo's first wife Timov. It's indicative, too.
  • Secret Circle of Secrets: The Grey Council.
  • Secret Keeper: Per Lumati custom, Correlimurzon tries to celebrate his species' alliance with Earth by getting into Ivanova's pants. She delays him for a couple hours before offering to go through with it "human style," which involves 10 seconds of dancing but little else. It's implied that his servant, Taq, saw through Ivanova's ploy but was nonetheless impressed by her cunning.
  • Secret Police: Nightwatch, in their snappy brown shirts and armbands.
  • Secret Test of Character: G'Kar pulls this on Lyta in "Darkness Ascending." She passes.
    • From time to time, Garibaldi will pull this on other characters who he suspects of doing illegal things for noble reasons. As long as they tell him the truth, he will usually help them find a better way to accomplish it. Of course, he only does this for characters who he believes will tell him the truth, but he always leaves them a little room to disappoint him.
    • Ivanova invites Corwin to her quarters to get to know him better. She asks him if he would follow orders, even if they went against the good of Earth. He says that he doesn't have the authority to make that kind of decision, and the heroes decide they can't bring him in on their conspiracy. Later, when they are forced to break away from Earth, he decides to stay with them rather than return to Earth.
  • Seeking Sanctuary: Following the fall of their homeworld, the remnants of the Narn Regime order G'Kar to seek political asylum on Babylon 5. The decision is particularly hard on G'Kar, who is worried for his family back home.
  • Serial Killer: Karl Mueller. Though convicted of killing three people on Babylon 5, his true body count is somewhere in the dozens, as shown when Talia peeks into his mind.
    • Also Charles Dexter, the Black Rose Killer, AKA Brother Edward.
  • Serious Business: Drazi politics.

Green.
Purple

I understand the Psi Corps is looking for you. I would hate it if they were to find you here.

  • She Knows Too Much: Despite intentionally leaving Talia alive as a witness, Abel Horn is later ordered to terminate her after she scans his mind.
  • Shell Game: The literal shell game is seen in "Soul Hunter", where a hustler tries it on in Downbelow and gets knifed by a suspicious mark.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Sinclair and Garibaldi, though both have had time to deal with most of their problems. Both mention having nightmares about their experiences in the Earth Minbari War.
    • From The Long Dark, Amis is firmly in the full-blown crazy variety of this trope. Except it wasn't the war that messed him up, it was his entire squad (except for him) being wiped out by an invisible alien that could move through walls and killed its enemies by ripping their organs out through their mouths.
    • Michael York's character from A Late Delivery From Avalon. He's so full of guilt and remorse and becomes so divorced from reality for a time that he thinks he's King Arthur.
  • Shipper on Deck: Marcus, towards Dr. Franklin and Number One.
  • Shock Collar:
    • In the first season episode "The Parliament of Dreams", G'Kar is forced to wear one as an act of revenge by one of his recently deceased political enemies.
    • Delenn undergoes a torturous test of her allegiance by "the Inquisitor", who zaps her with electrified manacles every time she gives an unsatisfactory answer.
    • Much later on, Sheridan finds himself trapped in one by an Earth Force torturer, not as the torture implement itself, but as a way to show that he can't attack him if unchained.
  • Shoot Out the Lock: Sheridan advises against it: The door his opponents are trapped behind is made of an alloy immune to PPG blasts.

Sheridan: Ricochet's a killer.

  • Shout-Out: In one of President Clark's propaganda moves, he has ISN and a psychiatrist make up Mimbari War Syndrome, which is similar to Helsinki Syndrome.
  • Show Within a Show: The ISN Special Reports, which form the focus of the episodes "And Now For a Word" and "The Illusion of Truth." The fouth season finale "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" features more special reports, and other video records, being examined by a Ranger one million years in the future.
  • Silly Reason for War: The Drazi conflict in "The Geometry of Shadows", in which the Drazi split into two entirely arbitrary groups chosen by pulling scarves out of a barrel and then fight for the right to rule for the next five years.
  • Single Tear: Lennier sheds one after Delenn enters her cocoon state.
  • Sitting Duck:
    • Londo invoked this trope on the Shadow base on his homeworld.
    • Prior to his arriving on Babylon 5, Captain Sheridan's defeat of the Minbari warship Black Star came despite his ship being a Sitting Duck (having been crippled by the Black Star in a previous engagement), via some previously placed nuclear bombs in an Asteroid Thicket.
    • Captain Sheridan attempts to invoke this against a Shadow Battlecrab buried on the Jovian moon of Ganymede, but arrives just in time to see the ship launch and lay waste to the facilities there.
  • Skewed Priorities: Lampshaded by Franklin when Marcus starts probing him for tips on dating Ivanova... while the two of them locked in a steel cage.
  • Slipping a Mickey: Happens to Londo in "Born to the Purple".
  • Slobs Versus Snobs: The uncultured, obnoxious and brutal Narn versus the cultured, decadent and brutal Centauri. Choose which you dislike least.
    • The Narn tend to garner more sympathy, if only because their dogs get kicked far more often (usually, but not exclusively, by the Centauri). That said, the Narn tend to be collectively sympathetic only when they are the underdogs. They are shown as aggressive instigators in the first season, and they go back to that role in the back half of the fifth season.
  • Slow Clap: Having survived the tumultuous events of "Severed Dreams", Sheridan and co. take a lift down to the Zocalo, where a large crowd applauds them for taking a stand against Clark.
  • Slow Doors: Zack diving under a shutter door just as the docking bay is locked down, thereby springing the trap on Nightwatch.
  • Slow-Motion Pass-By: Talia detects Morden's shadowy 'entourage' by simply passing him in a corridor.
  • Smug Snake: Allison Higgins, ISN anchor and the face of Clark's propaganda machine. One wonders if perhaps she's also a Stepford Smiler.
  • Snowy Screen of Death:
    • Keffer's final, fatal encounter with a Shadow vessel. The data from this video is later broadcast throughout the Earth Alliance, striking a small blow against the Shadows' conspiracy.
    • At the outbreak of the Earth Alliance Civil War, a news anchor reports that ISN Headquarters in Geneva is under assault by the military. Cue static.
  • Space Cold War: Earth and Minbar. Earth and Minbar are slowly mellowing their relation at this time. Vorlons and Shadows are a straighter example of this.
  • Space Clothes: The Minbari have the best. Of course.
  • Spikes of Villainy: The Shadows' spaceships. Clark's Advanced Destroyers as well.
  • Spit Take: G'Kar, on being unexpectedly hailed by his straight-laced assistant while he's relaxing in a seedy nightclub, in "Born to the Purple".
  • The Spymaster: Ivanova is occasionally implied to be one. None of the other good guys seem to be able to run any secret project of their own without her finding out about it, including Sheridan and Garibaldi working with the Rangers, who specialize in being as discrete as possible. They usually only find out she knows everything once they try to let her in on the secret.
    • Late in the third season, Brother Theo is revealed to be one: He is coordinating efforts amongst religious leaders around the world to monitor communications and collect reports of things happening on Earth so that they can be smuggled out to La Résistance on B5.
    • Londo has tons of spies. It's a Centauri thing.
  • Society Marches On: In a Fourth Season episode, a (fake) gay interracial marriage is treated as completely unremarkable.
  • Something That Begins With Boring: Marcus and Franklin on the way to Mars.

Marcus: I spy with my little eye, something that begins with "E."
Franklin: What? No...not...
Marcus and Franklin: Even more boxes. (forced laughter)
Franklin: And that's when I shot him, Your Honor.

  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Lord Refa is brutally (and deservedly) murdered to the sounds of a gospel chorus. Doubles as Crowning Music of Awesome.
  • Space Fighter:
    • The Star Furies, a comparatively hard example of the trope.
    • And the Minbari's Nial fighters, being a much softer example, thanks to their advanced technology.
  • Space Is Noisy
  • 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). The Minbari also practice what they call "going to the sea", in which an elder spends their last days journeying into space, searching for a place where they can be of use.
  • Space Mines: In "Matters of Honor", we see a Centauri minefield deployed to interdict access to a planet.
  • More sensibly,"mines" are an idiom for orbital energy weapons and not contact mines.
  • Space Opera
  • Space Station: Kinda the whole point of the show.
  • Spoiler Opening:
    • The episode in which Na'Toth first appears attempts to keep the audience wondering whether she's really an assassin sent to kill G'Kar. The fact that she's been listed in the opening credits as a regular character since the start of the season pretty much kills the suspense on that one.
    • The second season opens with one of the regular characters in a coma, a second in a cocoon, and a third mysteriously missing. This would be more worrying if they weren't all still in the opening credits. (Partly averted in the case of the second character; the opening credits in the first few episodes used a headshot from the previous season, thus at least concealing that on the character's return she would be a Half-Human Hybrid with long flowing hair. Even then, some reruns and DVD releases don't even get this right, using the later opening with the spoilery headshot for the whole season.)
    • That also happens in the beginning of Season 4, where G'Kar's line gives away the fact that they retake Narn, and Sheridan being listed means that he somehow survived his self-nuking in Z'ha'dum.
  • Spring Loaded Corpse: A (supposedly) dead Markab discovered by Sheridan in Grey Sector ("Knives").
  • Stable Time Loop: See You Already Changed the Past
  • Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Several of them, operating everything from fighters to kilometer-long battleships. Battlestars are quite popular.
  • Stanley Steamer Spaceship: In "Mind War", the damaged area of the station includes several broken pipes leaking steam.
  • Star-Killing: Implied to have been done to the Dilgar.
  • State Sec:
    • Psi-Corps.
    • More blatantly, the Night Watch. They even have black armbands and posters proclaiming "TRAITORS CANNOT HIDE."
  • Stating the Simple Solution: Boggs' flunky suggests just killing Sheridan. Boggs blows him off, unwilling to turn Sheridan into a "martyr".
  • Stay on the Path: Generally speaking, ships traveling through Hyperspace must take care not to drift too far from the signal transmitted by the Hyperspace Beacons (beams transmitted between Jumpgates), lest they become lost. Some ships have more advanced navigation systems, however.
    • Also, it is generally accepted as fact that anybody who goes to Z'Ha'Dum never comes back. It gradually becomes apparent that this isn't entirely true, though it is very likely that you will not come back unchanged.
  • Stiff Upper Lip: Lennier's dryness and calmness sometimes give the impression of this.

Initiating the "getting the hell out of here manuever".

  • Stealth Hi Bye: Mr Morden pulls one on Londo at the end of "Signs and Portents".
  • Stealth in Space: The Minbari warships have some kind of electronic countermeasure that prevents Earther ships from being able to get a solid lock on them. Sheridan intentionally has the White Star fleet go without their stealth systems running during the Earth Alliance Civil War in order to show his opponents that he isn't just trying to slaughter them.
    • The Vorlons are able to fold Hyperspace in on itself, creating pockets that are nigh-impossible for the younger races to locate.
  • Stealth Insult: Londo tells one of Emperor Cartagia's ministers that when he previously met the man, he was an infant, drooling on himself, and later a teenager trying to peek up girl's skirts...

Cartagia: Ah, Molari! It's wonderful to see you again!
Londo: And you, Your Majesty, I could swear you have not changed since the last few times I saw you. *smirk*
Cartagia's minister rolls his eyes

  • Stims Are Bad
  • Street Urchin: Alisa Beldon, when we first meet her.
  • Stop Helping Me!: When Vir becomes the Centauri Ambassador to Minbar, Londo keeps offering him advice on how to phrase his reports, much to Vir's chagrin.

Londo: Say instead "They are a decadent people, interested only in the pursuit of...of dubious pleasures." The "dubious" part is very important. It doesn't mean anything, but it scares them every time.

  • 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.
  • Suicide by Cop: Abel Horn (or what's left of him) provokes station secruity into shooting him. His body promptly self-destructs, concealing any evidence of his cyborg implants.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: you think the Shadows can kick your ass? Wait until the Vorlons decide that they're done tiptoeing around the younger races and bring out their Planet Killers!. So, with a galactic apocalypse coming down around their ears, what do the terrified and desperate younger races do? they go and find ALL THE OTHER OLD ONES THEY CAN TO JOIN IN THE FIGHT! Of course, by this stage they were so far beyond the Godzilla Threshold that Godzilla looked like a newborn puppy.
  • Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom
  • Super Registration Act: The PsiCorps.
  • 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.
    • JMS even used this to his advantage in the case of Ivanova. He had let slip that if Takashima had stayed on the show, she would have turned out to be a traitor. So when Ivanova showed up, people in the know assumed that Ivanova would now be the traitor. He even put subtle hints here and there that she might be a traitor to facilitate Wild Mass Guessing. When it turned out that Garibaldi's second was in fact the traitor, fans were caught completely off-guard.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Deliberately invoked by Sheridan when he plants a news story that "Absolutely nothing happened today in Sector 85 by 9 by 12. Please remain calm." He is telling almost the entire truth. Three White Stars, under his orders, did go to that sector and spend a little while shooting at nothing. Otherwise, absolutely nothing happened there.
  • Switching POV: The stories aren't always anywhere near the space station, and the narration switches accordingly.

T

  • 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.
    • Another, more political Take That was hidden in the first season episode By Any Means Necessary. The Rush Act mentioned in it, giving EarthGov the power to break up labor strikes by any means necessary, was named after Rush Limbaugh. Amusingly, when asked by a viewer from the UK who Rush Limbaugh is, JMS answered "Leading American proctologist. Trust me." Zing!
    • At some point in the show's past, San Diego was nuked by terrorists (a covert group has its base underneath the city's ruins). Word of God is JMS picked it because he was mugged and almost killed there one night.
    • The episode The Deconstruction of Fallen Stars is a Take That against Cultural Studies and Deconstruction (the philosophical movement, not the Trope).
  • Take a Third Option: Once Sheridan learns that Franklin is running the "underground railroad" funneling telepaths away from Psi Corps, he finds himself in an impossible situation: betray his oath, or turn Franklin in -- triggering a PR disaster, and giving Earthforce enough pretext to scrap the B5 project. Talia suggests an alternative: all the telepaths merge their psychic abilities at once, overpowering Bester and making him believe all of the rogue telepaths have been killed. His mission 'completed', Bester leaves the station, allowing the telepaths to migrate to safer quarters without interference.
    • How the shadow/vorlon war was resolved
  • Take Off Your Clothes: In one scene in "The Quality of Mercy", Ivanova walks into a slum clinic run by Dr. Franklin, and Franklin, without turning around, tells her to start by removing all her clothes. Ivanova replies by asking for flowers and a dinner first.
  • The Talk: Once Vir realizes he's been shafted into an arranged marriage, he makes a beeline for Ivanova, asking her advice about courting women.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: The resolution of "Infection", where Sinclair persuades the alien bioweapon to deactivate itself by bringing it up to speed on the history of the world it was built to protect (dead for centuries, because the population was wiped out by the weapons intended to protect them).
  • Talking Your Way Out: In "The Parliament of Dreams", G'Kar tries the "whatever you were paid, I'll double it" tactic on the assassin. It doesn't work because, the assassin explains, the assassin's guild has a reputation to uphold and comes down very hard on members who let themselves get bought off.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: In the old days of the Centauri Republic, poison was a commonplace negotiating tool. After exchanging a toast with Refa, Londo announces that he poisoned his drink.
  • Tasty Gold: Somebody in a low dive in Downbelow tests a coin this way in "Survivors".
  • Tattooed Crook: The thug in "Survivors".

Garibaldi: All that tattooing seeping into your brain? You think I have nothing better to do than bust you every few days?

  • Team Handstack: In "TKO", Walker Smith, Garibaldi, and Caliban do one before Walker goes into the ring. (Caliban gives the other two a "what is this strange earthling custom?" look before he joins in.)
  • Technology Marches On: The thick digital tablets used by the station personnel might have looked futuristic in the mid 90's when the show was produced. Also, the snowy static shown on a screen whenever a camera is taken out is jarring if you are used to modern screens that simply switch to a blank black or blue screen when their signal is lost.
  • Techno Wizard: The Technomages.
  • The Teetotaler: The Centauri Regent. When Londo is informed that the Regent has been drinking himself into a stupor lately, Londo responds that the Regent had purposely cultivated sobriety as his one vice.
    • Minbari although that is simply because they are biologically incapable of handling liquor. Marcus in one secret meeting gives Deleen and Lenier a virgin drink as token of the fact that he knows that but few others do and therefore he really was a Ranger.
  • 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).
    • Even races the Vorlon never visted have psychics.
  • The Tell: Ivanova knows something is up when she sees Garibaldi "eating like a man starved", but she doesn't know him well enough to be sure there's a reason behind it. It turns out it is something Garibaldi does when faced with death (in this case, a ship full of colonists he came across who were killed by Space Pirates.)
    • In the second season, Captain Sheridan, who does not know Garibaldi yet, is able to tell that he is contemplating suicide, based on the fact that Garibaldi is sitting alone in his quarters idly loading and unloading his sidearm. Of course, given the recent events that had happened, Sheridan was right to be on the lookout for warning signs.
  • Temporal Paradox: The storyline involving Sinclair going back in time to become Valen is rich with both the Object Loop (the device that he and Delenn use to switch between being human and Minbari) and the Information Loop (everything he teaches the Minbari as Valen, which he learned from the Minbari, who learned it from Valen).
  • Tempting Fate:
    • At the beginning of "Mind War", Catherine Sakai makes the mistake of pointing out that everything's been quiet for a week, and asking "What could go wrong?"
      • Babylon 5 loves this trope. Anytime someone comments that it's been quiet lately, or that they haven't heard from so-and-so in a while, the scene is pretty much guaranteed to immediately cut to something bad going down. Especially if said comment is made during the teaser.
    • As part of a gambit to overstretch the Centauri forces, G'Kar's uncle orders the fleet to "temporarily" leave their homeworld unguarded.
    • Sheridan on armed escorts: No thanks, "I can take care of myself." (cue sniper crosshairs)
  • Testosterone Poisoning: Lampshaded by Ivanova in "A Voice in the Wilderness".
  • That's What I Would Do: In one scene, Sheridan predicts a particular move by the Shadows because "that's just what I'd do." Delenn is horrified by the notion of Sheridan thinking like the enemy.
  • That's No Moon: Babylon 5 orbits a planet called Epsilon 3. Only it's not a planet -- it's a planet-sized machine.
  • 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.
  • There Are No Therapists: The crew finds a man suffering severe delusions, thinking he's King Arthur. Seems there's no shrinks on B5 as Dr Franklin then decides to immediately break the man's delusion by reminding him who he is (and the terrible guilt he carries for what he did). Of course it does not go rather well, as the man has a breakdown and goes catatonic.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: "Death Clouds". These weapons, developed by the Shadows, consists of a giant net of Nanomachines which enclose over a planet, before launching thousands of multi-megaton thermonuclear missiles that penetrate the crust before detonating, thereby tearing the planet apart from the inside.
  • They Do: John and Delenn.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else: The "interrogator" in "Intersections in Real Time." If you saw him walking down the street, you'd probably peg him as an accountant.
    • Also Justin, the man Sheridan meets on Z'ha'dum. He's a willing servant of the Shadows, and tries to get Sheridan to switch sides. But in appearance and manner, he's like someone's kindly grandfather.
    • To a lesser extent, Morden. He gives off a creepy vibe one you know who he works for, but in his first appearance, he comes off as little more than a slightly weird handsome young man.
  • They Would Cut You Up: This is what Jason Ironheart is afraid of in "Mind War" (though to his credit it's not really his own fate that worries him so much as what They will do with what they learn from cutting him up).
  • Third-Person Flashback:
    • In the pilot show, this is notable averted when Kosh got poisoned and an telepath saw the events as seen from Kosh's eyes.
    • In "Revelations", when Garibaldi attempts to recall who attacked him, most of his flashback is just a rerun of the actual scene of him getting attacked, including several shots of Garibaldi in third person. The sequence does contain one new shot, representing Garibaldi noticing a detail that passed him by at the time, and this is in first person.
  • Third Person Person: Zathras.
  • This Is the Part Where: The assassin in "The Parliament of Dreams":

Assassin: (claps sarcastically) And this is the part where I'm supposed to decide I trust you, drop my guard, and let you shoot me in the back. Sorry.

  • This Means War: "The Coming of Shadows" inaugurates an all-out war between the Centauri Republic and the Narn.
  • This Was His True Form: The end of "Infection" plays out like this for the guy taken over by The Corruption though it's quickly established that he's only unconscious, not dead. Notable because it's a supposedly sciency weapon, and it took hours to transform him into the monstrous form, but once it leaves him he's back to normal in seconds, just like magic.
  • Throw It In: Averted for the most part. JMS was very much against ad-libbed lines, since he was careful about how every line was written in order to avoid screwing up the Myth Arc. In the few cases where it did happen, he had very serious talks with the actor involved (such as when Billy Mumy/Lennier hummed a mantra that turned out to be the title of the album his band made). One notable case where an addition was allowed is in The Fall of Night, the Season 2 finale. The Earth Ambassador tells Ivanova that his pen was a gift from his wife. After mentioning this, he kisses the pen. JMS states in that episode's commentary that when he asked the actor why he did that, the actor responded "Well, my wife isn't here, so I can't kiss her, so I kiss the pen instead." JMS then chuckles and says "Ah, actors. Someday they'll all be replaced with CG. I'm kidding. No I'm not. Yes I am."
  • 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 mutiny and treason.
    • In "The Corps Is Mother, the Corps Is Father," Bester and another Psi Cop hyperspace a "mundane" who killed one of their colleagues.
  • Tie In Novels -- notable for having the tie-ins be Canon, with series creator J. Michael Straczynski reviewing them and/or providing outlines. Events described in the novels were more than once later referenced in the series.
  • Time Abyss: Lorien
  • Time Travel: "Babylon Squared" and the two-parter "War without End". Notable as the episodes (set two seasons apart) are both sides of the same time travel event.
  • Title Drop: It's the name of the station. also, 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.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: When Nightwatch first comes to B5, Zack ecstatically joins. Over the next year he is slowly horrified by Nightwatch's fascistic nature. After witnessing firsthand the arrest of a shopkeeper who dared to badmouth President Clark, Zack agrees to help remove Nightwatch from the station.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: Each civilization seems to have its own version of this. Delenn is well schooled in Minbari Eldritch lore. G'kar is obsessed with the Narn variation.
  • Touched by Vorlons:
  • Tractor Beam: The Minbari have them.
  • Training from Hell: Delenn has to face this from Jack the Ripper.
  • Trapped by Gambling Debts: Happens to one of Garibaldi's men early in the series.
  • Trashcan Bonfire: "Chrysalis" has a scene with, in the background, a group of homeless people huddled around a futuristic equivalent, what looks like a large orange light bulb in a frame the shape and size of an oil drum.
  • Trigger Phrase: Lyta's "password" for uncovering the Psi Corps agent among Sheridan's ranks.
  • Truce Zone: The Babylon stations were all built to be this. So much for that idea.

"The Babylon project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the Shadow war, it became something greater - our last, best hope for victory".

  • Trust Password: In "A Late Delivery From Avalon", a deluded man claiming to be King Arthur gets into a scuffle with station guards. Marcus decides to put his accent to good use, bowing before "Arthur" and claiming that Galahad and Lancelot are onboard, as well. "Arthur's" face immediately darkens; Galahad and Lancelot died at the Battle of Camlann!
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Sheridan's famous victory against the Minbari flagship, Drala Fi ("Black Star" in English), by converting an Asteroid Thicket into a makeshift minefield. The Minbari didn't appreciate this little improvisation, despite the unlikelihood of an Earthforce ship being able to take out a Minbari warcruiser in a fair fight. Instead, Sheridan was labeled "Starkiller" and smeared throughout Minbar as a butcher and coward.
    • The humans in turn point out that the only reason the Black Star got close enough for that to work was because they were homing in on the humans' distress signal so they could destroy a helpless ship.
  • Tuckerization:
    • Recurring character Alfred Bester, a psychic cop, is named in honor of the author of the classic SF novel The Demolished Man, which is about a psychic cop.
    • In the episode "Survivors" there is a high-ranking soldier named General Netter; Doug Netter was the series' executive producer.
  • Turn in Your Badge: In "Survivors", Garibaldi is suspended from duty and made to turn in his security authorization, communication link and sidearm after being framed for the sabotage he was investigating. True to the trope, he insists on continuing to investigate on his own.
    • Following an order by the Political office allowing Nightwatch to take over B5's security, Nightwatch begin consolidating its hold on the station by firing staff who won't cooperate and join ("Point of No Return"). Ironically reversed at episode's end, when Sheridan relieves them all of duty, replacing the disloyal guards with Narns.
    • Inverted in In The Shadow Of Z'Ha'Dum. Garibaldi resigns in protest when Sheridan refuses to release Mr. Morden when he can't charge him with a crime, but he knows he had to have something to do with the death of Anna Sheridan.
    • And Played With in Conflicts Of Interest: Garibaldi resigned several episodes previously, but never got around to turning in his Identicard and his issued gear until Sheridan and Zack Allen pressed the issue. Zack even knew Garibaldi well enough to ask for his backup gun too. He didn't realize that Garibaldi would have a spare Identicard too.
  • Twisting the Words: "The Illusion of Truth"
  • 2-D Space: Averted. The human Star Furies have multiple thrusters and rotate across all three axes.
  • Two of Your Earth Minutes appears sporadically; averted just about as often.
    • G'Kar and Na'Toth both speak of "Earth hours" in "The Parliament of Dreams". Oddly, they mostly do it when discussing a deadline G'Kar is facing -- which was set by a Narn, and which they discuss only with each other and with another Narn. So why don't they talk about it in terms of their own Narn hours?
    • Neatly inverted in "By Any Means Necessary", with Sinclair pointing out to G'Kar that "The Narn homeworld is twelve light-years from Babylon 5. Ten of your light-years."
    • "A Voice in the Wilderness" has "ten of your hours" and "500 of your years", from two different aliens.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Ivanova is a freaking Token Minority Value Pack. She's a female Russian Jewish bisexual latent telepath
  • Types of Naval Ships: Interestingly, this is one of the few settings that will use the names of contemporary real-world naval ships for their starships (ie: Cruisers and Destroyers), and most of the races even seem to consistently apply these names (For the Narn, Centauri, and the Minbari, their heaviest warships are all some type of Cruiser), and yet the humans don't use the names in the standard way. For the Earth Alliance, a Heavy Cruiser is one of the smallest warships the humans field, with a Dreadnought being bigger and meaner, and their primary front line Battle Star equivalent is called a Destroyer, evidently a new larger warship type introduced after the beating they took in the Earth Minbari War, rather than the smaller warships used for screening and attacking in 20th century warfare. This is easily justified, as the names used for varying types of ships are always changing throughout history. During the 1950's, the biggest surface combat ships in the US Navy were Frigates. A decade later, the exact same ships were Cruisers.
    • Starting with the spinoffs, we begin to see the Interstellar Alliance begin to use Destroyers as well, in this case referring to something with more firepower than a Minbari Warcruiser while being much faster.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Col. Ben Zayn's (short-lived) takeover as Commander of Babylon 5.


U

  • Unable to Cry: Mariah Cirrus, upon finding out that her husband is dead. Justified because the cryogenic hibernation process caused her tear ducts to dry up.
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Utilized frequently.
  • Undercover As Lovers: When they make contact with the Mars Resistance, Marcus and Franklin are both given their new stolen ID's: "Jim Fennerman and Daniel Lane, a young married couple on their way to Mars for their honeymoon." Although the idea of gay marriage is treated as completely regular, it is mostly used for comedy, and Marcus appears to be having a grand old time playing it up.
  • Underground Railroad: Babylon 5 is host to part of the Telepath Underground Railroad, a network that helps Rogue Telepaths escape the Psi Corps. The stationmaster on B5 is revealed to be Doctor Stephen Franklin.
    • In the second and third seasons, multiple such railroads are set up by various characters to help Narn civilians escape the brutal occupation of their homeworld after their war with the Centauri Republic.
  • Undying Loyalty: Lennier and Vir. Ivaniva too, and Na'Toth. In fact pretty much every major character's second (except for Garibaldi's, who in fact turns out to be The Mole and shoots him in the back)
  • Ugly Guy Hot Girlfriend: Londo may or may not be ugly by Centauri standards, but he's not terribly attractive by human standards, and so by Human standards, Adira is much better-looking than he is.
    • One of Londo's wives is a very attractive woman who's also much younger than him. Possibly his other wives were like that when they were younger. However, as these were all Arranged Marriages, the trope isn't playing completely straight.
  • Undisclosed Funds: In "The Parliament of Dreams", Catherine Sakai receives an eye-widening amount of money as a bonus for a job she recently completed. She receives the notification of the amount in writing, and the audience is not told exactly how much it is.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Sheridan after Z'ha'dum.
  • Unobtainium: Quantium-40, used in construction of hyperspace jump gates.
    • The firing coil of a PPG is made out of an alloy called "morbidium", which (according to the 1st season episode "Chrysalis") is a metal that is harder than diamond.
  • Unstuck in Time: Sheridan gets Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Trope Codifier.
  • The Unpronounceable: The Shadows' true name is said to have hundreds of syllables (it's ten thousand characters long!) 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. Or occasionally massacring it, for the funny.

Londo: "I feel like I'm...what are those Earth creatures? Webbed feet, goes 'quack'?
Vir: "Cats!"
Londo: "Yes. I feel like I'm being nibbled to death by cats!"

    • 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, except in the episode "Gropos":

Sergeant-Major: Where the strokin' H do you think you're going, private?

    • In at least one instance, a character refers to himself as being "honked off."
    • And there's Sheridan's exclamation of "Abso-fraggin-lutely!" Delenn repeats it in a later episode, in an inapppropriate but hilarious fashion.
    • After Marcus dies, Ivanova regrets ignoring his obvious affection for her: "At least I should have boffed him just once."
  • Urban Segregation: The shiny areas seen for most of the series, vs. Down Below
  • Used Future: see above.


V

  • Values Dissonance: Actually discussed and dealt with quite often in-universe, as the station is a multicultural hub in which the various alien races are largely free to operate much as they would on their homeworlds so long as it doesn't harm other races.
  • Vestigial Empire: The Centauri spend half their time invading the rest of the galaxy and the other half reminiscing about their glory days, back when -- one assumes -- they were even worse. Lampshaded with Londo's Light Bulb Joke.
  • Vichy Earth: What happens to the Narns after the Centauri get at it. After bombarding Narn from orbit, the Centauri dissolved the Kha'Ri and established an occupation government staffed with collaborators (though generally not Quislings). They put a price on G'Kar's head and appoint a new ambassador to Babylon 5, with whom G'Kar has some serious disagreements.
  • 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.
  • A Villain Named Zrg: There's a humanoid predator species named Zarg.
  • Villainous Crossdresser: We find out after the fact that Cartagia was one.
  • Voice of the Resistance: Trope Namer.
  • Volleying Insults: In "Convictions", Londo and G'Kar are trapped in an elevator. They exchange a final volley of insults as a rescue crew approaches -- much to G'Kar's annoyance, as he'd seen the incident as a chance to watch Londo die without political reprisals.

Londo: There, you see? I am going to live!
G'kar: So it would seem. Well, it is an imperfect universe.
Londo: Bastard.
G'kar: Monster.
Londo: Fanatic!
G'kar: Murderer.
Londo: You are insane!

G'kar: And that is why we'll win.

Londo: "Go be the ambassador to Babylon 5", they say. "It will be an easy assignment". Ugh, I hate my life.

G'kar: So do I.

Londo: Shut up!


W

  • Walk and Talk
  • War for Fun and Profit: The Shadows believe that evolution springs from conflict, and therefore provoke wars throughout the galaxy with the expectation that those who survive will end up stronger and better for it.
  • The War Has Just Begun: Sheridan's speech at the conclusion of "Severed Dreams".
  • War Is Glorious: Seems to be the motto of the Minbari Warrior Caste.
  • 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.
  • Warts and All:
    • Played in a heartwarming manner between Lennier and Delenn in Atonement:

Delenn, I have pledged myself to your side... come fire or storm or darkness or death. Can understanding be a greater danger?

I'm Anna Sheridan. John's wife.
—Note- this is while Delenn is spending the (first) night with John.
    • The last line of Comes The Inquisitor:

Sebastian: Good luck to you in your holy cause, Captain Sheridan. May your choices have better results than mine. Remembered not as a messenger, remembered not as a reformer, not as a prophet, not as a hero, not even as Sebastian... Remembered only... as "Jack."

Satai Delenn: Animals! Brutal! They deserve no mercy! Strike them down, follow them back to their base and kill all of them, all of them! No mercy!

"THIS will teach you to trifle with the Centauri!"

  • What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Earth Gov trying to make Sheridan pay fifty credits a month rent for his spacious quarters, which appear to be larger than many apartments on Earth.
    • Sheridan claims that it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing. If he lets the bureaucrats back on Earth get a toe in the door, then they'll start micromanaging his job until he can't wipe his nose without a countersigned order.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Garibaldi's reaction to Sheridan interrogating Morden in the second season episode "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum".
    • Also his reaction to Sheridan in general during the 4th Season.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Spoo. The Interstellar Animals Rights Protection League's official policy on the treatment of spoo is "Kill 'em.".
  • What You Are in the Dark: Sebastian's inquisition is about establishing what Delenn and Sheridan are in the dark, as the answer to this question is of vital importance to the Vorlons. When he's satisfied that they measures up he gives a rather epic speech on the topic.

How do you know the Chosen Ones? No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions. Not for glory, not for fame... For one person. In the dark. Where no one will ever know or see.

  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • The character of Lennier abruptly departs from the show in the penultimate episode. He is the only major character whose fate at the end of the series remains unknown.
      • He is dead. In "Sleeping in Light" Sheridan offers a toast to absent friends, standard Unusual Euphemism for the dead. Mentioned are Londo, G'Kar, Marcus... and Lennier. The plot outline for the Telepath War bluntly states that Lyta and Lennier die during it.
    • Averted with the character of Na'Toth, however. Originally a recurring character of some importance in the first two seasons, she vanished in late Season 2 with no explanation. Much later we got an explanation that she'd returned to Narn and been killed in the Centauri bombardment. Eventually and unexpectedly, she returned in a single episode of Season 5 that satisfactorily resolved her fate.
    • What happened to Captain Lochley? She's not at the party they have for Sheridan, she's not listed among the dead, and she's not on Babylon 5. And it's a little weird that Sheridan would invite everyone else and not his ex-wife.
      • "Sleeping in Light" was filmed at the end of season 4 in case the show got canceled. As a result, Lochley didn't appear since Ivanova's actor hadn't left yet, and thus Lochley's character hadn't been introduced.
    • In the episode "Sic Transit Vir," Vir's fiance has captured a Narn, whom she offers for Vir to kill. After this scene, which ends before Vir takes any action, the Narn is never referred to again.
  • When Things Spin, Science Happens: Babylon 5 itself. Also seen on less-advanced Earthfroce warships, which rely on rotating sections to generate indoor gravity.
  • Where Da White Women At?: Talia once shared a romance with her black instructor, Jason Ironheart, when they were both at Psi Corps Academy.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?:
    • Lorien explains to Susan that he and his race were born naturally immortal.

Lorien: At first we were kept in balance by birth rate. Few of us were ever born, less than a handful each year. Then I think, the Universe decided that to appreciate life, for there to be change and growth, life had to be short. So, the generations that followed us grew old, infirm, and died. But those of us who were first, went on. We discovered the Vorlons and the Shadows when they were infant races and nourished them, helped them and all the other races you call the First Ones. In time, most of them died, or passed beyond the rim to whatever lies in the darkness between galaxies. We've lived too long, seen too much. To live on as we have is to leave behind joy and love and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment. We know it will turn to ash. Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion, it may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

    • Subverted in "Deathwalker", when a war-criminal creates a serum for immortality. Every government wants it for themselves. The catch: for the serum to work for one individual, certain components which can't be produced artificially must be extracted from another member of the same race, a process which is fatal to the other person. She intends for the billions who will die for the immortality of others as revenge for the defeat and extermination of her people in a previous war. Even knowing this, Sinclair and the others can't stop her from walking away unharmed. Then the Vorlons blow up her ship with her and her serum in it.

Kosh: You are not ready for immortality.

  • Who Watches the Watchmen?: Actually, nobody monitors Psi-Corps.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: The Minbari like to think of themselves as this, but it's at best an Informed Attribute. 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 that "The Minbari never tell you the whole truth." In season four, the Drazi Ambassador publicly states the same thing when speaking out against Delenn. The sentiment is even expressed by Delenn herself, who states that the Grey Council "never tells the whole truth.". When Sheridan and Delenn meet in front of the "Universe Today" vending machine, she also 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." The Minbari philosophy is stated on at least one occasion to be "Understanding is not required, only obedience" (no doubt they learnt this from the Vorlons). 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.
  • Wiper Start: Garibaldi attempts to use his computer skills to find updated information for Sheridan. Against all logic, this causes the door to Sheridan's office to start opening and closing repeatedly.
  • With Due Respect
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Three quarters of human telekinetics are insane.
  • The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Except for rank Delenn is very much this. She seems to be required both by Minbari honor code and by the necessities of her position as ambassador to maintain an outwardly regal appearance that belies her troubled and emotional nature inside.
    • Skip the except. Any woman who can become Satai, can be offered a job as head and refuse, can disband and rebuild the Grey Council by fiat, and can stop a war by burning herself alive might as well be a queen.
  • The World Is Not Ready: Stock excuse for why advanced aliens won't entrust the Narn, Centuari, or human species with advanced technology.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Would you entrust the Narn, Centauri, or for that matter, quite a few humans with some of the technology they have there?
  • Would Not Shoot a Good Guy
  • Word of Gay: JMS once asked actor Wortham Krimmer to tone down Emperor Cartagia's fey behavior, to which Krimmer responded, "Well, Joe, he's bisexual, don't you know." When JMS gave an "oh really" sort of reply, Krimmer said, "Absolutely. He's the emperor. He can f--- anyone he wants."
  • Word of God: JMS remained active on USENET throughout the show's run, and would often answer questions about the B5 'verse posted to rec.arts.sci-fi.tv.babylon5.moderated.
  • Working with the Ex: Sheridan deliberately hires his ex-wife to command the station when he has to resign by reason of becoming a president; they didn't work out romantically, but he still trusts her.
  • World of Cardboard Speech: Ironheart gives one of these to Sinclair in Mind War.
  • Worth Living For: Stephen Franklin, after getting a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech from a trauma-induced hallucination of himself.
    • For Sheridan, this would be Delenn, throughout the fourth season of the show.
    • Delenn says that Sinclair is looking for something Worth Living For during the first season. Garibaldi implies the same, saying that Sinclair is constantly throwing himself into dangerous situations because it's easier to find something worth dying for than something worth living for.
  • Worthy Opponent: Delenn says this about humans while watching them die at Battle of the Line from the Grey Council's shipboard palace. Sinclair says this about Minbari in "Midnight on the Firing Line". As each of these are destined to exchange species it is a kind of Foreshadowing.
    • Neroon, in his first appearance, decides that it is a great honor to his fallen mentor to be considered this by Sinclair, who had every reason hate the Minbari after his squadron was slaughtered at The Line. He later comes to hold the same opinion of Marcus Cole and Delenn.
  • Wretched Hive: A seedy tavern in Downbelow where Marcus meets with his contacts.
  • Write Back to the Future: After Sinclair travels to the past to become Valen he leaves behind notes for himself and Delenn to be deliver 1000 years later, with the information about how and why they need to steal Babylon 4.
  • Written in Infirmity:
    • In the second-season episode "The Geometry of Shadows", Ivanova breaks her leg in a brawl that broke out while she was trying to resolve an internal dispute between two Drazi factions; Claudia Christian had actually broken her leg in an accident and they needed an excuse for her leg being in a cast.
      • In fact, her leg was already broken in the scene where it happens in the show. One can assume that her cry of pain as she falls was not entirely faked. JMS referred to her as "a trooper" for doing this.
    • For a while in Season 3, Garibaldi has his arm in a sling. This is because Jerry Doyle broke his arm during a fight scene in "Severed Dreams". If you look closely at the end of the fight scene, you can even see his arm bend in a way it really shouldn't.


XYZ

  • You Already Changed the Past: Babylon 4 reappears four years after it disappearance ("Babylon Squared"). In the two-parter "War Without End," it is revealed that Babylon 4 was snatched by the Minbari and taken to the year 1260 AD to help fight the Shadows. To prevent this from happening, the Shadows sent a bomb to Babylon 4 just as it was about to come on-line in 2254. However, the White Star also goes back in time, destroys the bomb, and (as it turns out) takes it back in time as well. However, this is not before the time travel device (sent by Draal and delivered by Zathras) malfunctions, dropping Babylon 4 back into present-day 2258, resulting in 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.
  • You Are What You Hate:
    • Ivanova's aversion to Psi-Corps, or telepaths in general. As we later discover, Ivanova does not hate telepaths as people, but reacts with hostility toward any threat of being scanned, which would lead to being 'outed' as a P1. OK, hands up, who actually didn't see that coming?
    • The Vorlon Inquisitor is easily peeved by anybody presuming to be 'chosen', or part of a greater plan. As he later confides to Sheridan, the Inquisitor believed he was doing God's work when he committed the Whitechapel murders centuries ago.
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Thanks to their relentless tampering with the development of younger races, Vorlons appear in the guise of divine beings, although their appearance can vary greatly depending on the species and individual's own history and mythology. This is accomplished by way of actively projecting a telepathic image which, when used on a large crowd of people, can be a great strain on the Vorlon.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: See "Dreaming of Things To Come", above.
  • You Didn't Ask: Sinclair's excuse for not sharing an important piece of information sooner in "A Voice in the Wilderness". (The real reason is that he just made it up on the spot.)
  • You Don't Want to Catch This:
    • Lake's Syndrome.
    • Lennier claiming to have Netter's Syndrome. (Also a Shout-Out to Doug Netter, the show's producer.)
  • You Have to Have Jews: Susan Ivanova and Rabbi Koslov, although Susan was not a practicing Jew.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: The Mole to Garibaldi, after the latter asks him who is behind the conspiracy that assassinated President Santiago.
  • You Sound Familiar: The Drazi Ambassador apparently likes to masquerade as a Narn from time to time.
  • You No Take Candle:
    • Alien species that lack prior contact with humans tend to talk like this.
    • The Drazi talk like this even though they've been around humans for a while.
      • According to some possibly-non canon material, the Drazi language is very simple, and they find languages with complex grammar rules (like English) hard to learn. Apparently their not incapable of learning, however. The Drazi ambassador's English is notably improved in the 5th Season.
  • You're Insane!: Sinclair's reaction in "And the Sky Full of Stars" when the interrogator explains his theory about Sinclair being a Minbari sleeper agent.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: In "Acts of Sacrifice," Ivanova attempts to secure an alliance with a race of Social Darwinists who are about two steps removed from being Space Nazis. She is extremely uncomfortable with their effusive praise for Babylon 5's "down below" ghetto, which they assume was deliberately planned to separate the "genetically inferior" humans from their superiors.
  • Your Door Was Open
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters
  1. ↑ beyond hacking up the blockage to facilitate removal, that is
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