KAT'S BABYLON 5

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Did You Know?????

It took JMS 6 years to take B5 from concept to Pilot Movie.

When B5 was built Lloyds of London gave the odds of the station succeeding as 500-1 against, Las Vegas offered 350-1 against and New Vegas 200-1 against.

B5 is situated in neutral space at Grid Epsilon 470/18/22 and orbits Epsilon 3.

42% of B5's population is non humanoid and the station contains 14 different alien atmospheres.

An average of 50 to 60 ships visit the station each day.

B5 is divided into colour-coded sections; Red is commercial; Green is ambassadorial; Blue is medical and docking bays; Yellow is zero-gravity cargo bays and Grey is industrial and alien.

"Downbelow" is the undeveloped area under B5's main levels and home to "lurkers".

G'Kar's name was originally going to be spelled Jackarr .

That the original plotline of B5 was to reveal that Laurel Takashima was part of the conspiracy to kill Ambassador Kosh in the pilot episode. She would also have been involved in Garibaldi's attempted murder in Chrysalis.

JMS prefers his name to be written jms on the Internet because he thinks it looks more friendly.

The presidential inauguration scene in Chrysalis is based on Lyndon B Johnson's inauguration after JFK's assassination.

Earthdome was originally designed by Stephen Burg for Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct Series though Anderson never used.

B5's space fighter helmets cost $3000 to manufacture.

Three different types of PPG's were used; detailed aluminium models for close ups, plastic models for long shots and extras and foam rubber versions used to hit someone or be dropped.

20 minutes of footage was cut from the pilot, missing scenes include Sinclair confronting a drugs dealer who tries to take a hostage; Dr Kyle sending a nurse back to Earth for refusing to co-operate in a Minbari birth; Catherine Sykes accusing Delenn of betraying Sinclair; and Delenn interrogating Londo about his vote to send Sinclair to the Vorlon Homeworld.

Several actors have played multiple roles in B5. Jim Norton has played Ombuds Wellington and Lazarenn, the doomed Markab doctor; John Vickory has played Neroon and Mr Welles; W Morgan Sheppard has played a Soul Hunter and G'Sten; Ed Wasser has played an Earthforce officer Guerra before playing Morden; David Sage has played both human and Centauri characters; Louis Terenne has played Draal and Brother Theo and Wayne Alexander has played Sebastian, Lorien, a Drazi and a Drakh.

JMS wanted to name Season Three "I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds" but fans did not believe that I Am Become Death was grammatically correct. JMS responded that I Am Become is perfectly acceptable although archaic and is also in Tennyson's Ulysses. He finally settled on Point of No Return.

JMS is a great fan of the British cult series The Prisoner.

JMS named the lurkers of Downbelow after Internet users who read newsgroups but never post to them.

The Earth Alliance ship Hyperion was named after a Babylon 5 site called ftp.hyperion.com.

Grid Epsilon 470/18/22 is named after the original internet location of the Babylon 5 topic of GEnie, Page 470, CAT 18, Topic 22.

Anthony Andrews, James Earl Jones, Roger Reece and A Martinez were some of the actors who were considered for the role of John Sheridan.

John Rhys-Davis read for the role of Sinclair.

In Britain the episode TKO was initially banned by Channel 4 before being shown in a late night time slot.

Peter David, once he finished the script of There All the Honor Lies, sent JMS a teddy as a present with "JS" on the front and "Babearlon 5" on the back. JMS was so horrified he wrote and inserted the final scene so that the bear was deposited into space by Captain Sheridan.