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The list of Babylon 5 characters contains characters from the entire Babylon 5 universe. In the show, the Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social interaction between civilizations. There are five dominant civilizations represented in the Babylon 5 universe: humans, the Narn, the Centauri, the Minbari and the Vorlons; and several dozen less powerful ones. A number of the less powerful races make up the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, who assembled as a result of the Dilgar War occurring 30 years before the start of the series.

Main characters

Jeffrey Sinclair

Jeffrey Sinclair, played by actor Michael O'Hare, is the Commander of the Babylon 5 station in season one. After one full season, O'Hare and series executive producer/creator J. Michael Straczynski made the mutual and amicable decision for the character and actor to depart as a regular.^[1][2] O'Hare subsequently reprised the character of Sinclair briefly in season two and a two-episode guest appearance in season three, enabling the show to wrap up loose ends. As a result of this departure, there are several minor inconsistencies between the first season and the remainder of the show, most visibly in "And the Sky Full of Stars" and "Babylon Squared". At O'Hare's personal request, the full reasons for his departure from the show were kept secret until after his death in 2012. The following year, Straczynski revealed that O'Hare struggled with delusions and paranoia due to mental illness, which ultimately prevented him from continuing to act. However, Straczynski emphasized that O'Hare's fans, particularly those of his role as Sinclair, had helped him cope with his struggle in ways medication never could.^[3]

The character was born on Mars Colony. In an early episode of season one, Sinclair stated that his family had been pilots "ever since the Battle of Britain" and Sinclair's father was a fighter pilot for EarthForce who participated in the Battle of Balos, the last engagement of the Dilgar Invasion. Sinclair continued the tradition and became a fighter pilot. Sinclair enlisted in EarthForce in 2237. During his time at EarthForce Academy, he met Catherine Sakai, with whom he had a relationship. After a year of living together, the two of them broke up, but continued to see each other off and on through 2258, when they became engaged. Sakai went missing in late 2259, while on a mission for the Rangers.^[4] The season one episode "By Any Means Necessary" establishes that Sinclair received Jesuit education as a young man.

In 2240, Sinclair was promoted to fighter pilot, continuing a Sinclair family tradition. Less than a year later, Sinclair was promoted to squadron leader. Due to his rapid rise through the ranks, the rumor of the day was that Sinclair was on the fast track to making Admiral. As squadron leader, Sinclair fought at the Battle of the Line, the last major battle in the Earth-Minbari War. During the course of the battle, his squadron was destroyed by the Minbari, and his fighter was badly damaged. In a last act of defiance, Sinclair attempted to ram one of the Minbari cruisers. He failed in this when he was captured by another Minbari cruiser for interrogation by the Grey Council. The council's Triluminary detected Valen's DNA in Sinclair, so they assumed, to their profound shock, that he possessed the soul of Valen, a hero of the Minbari who led them to victory 1,000 years ago against the Shadows. It was concluded by the Grey Council that Minbari souls were being born into human bodies. The discovery of what Sinclair possessed led the Minbari to surrender and return Sinclair to his fighter. The memory of his time aboard the Minbari cruiser was blocked—though this block would not be permanent and would break down years later. Sinclair — and the Earth Alliance — believed that he had blacked out from the acceleration. When Babylon 5 was brought into operation in 2257, Sinclair was selected by the Minbari to command the newly constructed station. He was selected over many more senior officers, including Colonel Ari Ben Zayn, all of whom had been vetoed by the Minbari (they had stipulated that they should approve the choice of Station Commander, as they had shared the cost of construction).

In January 2259, Sinclair was reassigned as ambassador to Minbar, where he took command of the Rangers. He was succeeded at Babylon 5 by Captain John Sheridan. In 2260, Sinclair received a 900-year old letter from himself on Minbar, revealing that he was not the reincarnation of Valen, as the Grey Council believed, but in fact Valen himself. Armed with this knowledge, Sinclair took Babylon 4 back with him 1,000 years to aid the Minbari in their first war against the Shadows, and in so doing, fulfilled Minbari prophecy by becoming the One Who Was. It was here that Sinclair used the triluminary to transform himself into a Minbari, thus fulfilling the legend about Valen being "a Minbari not born of Minbari", also explaining why the triluminary responded so strongly to him during his interrogation by the Grey Council, as it had been programmed to respond to his DNA.

John Sheridan

Bruce Boxleitner played Captain John Sheridan (seasons 2–5), Sinclair's replacement on Babylon 5 after his reassignment, and a central figure of several prophecies within the Shadow War.

Susan Ivanova

Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova (seasons 1–4, guest season 5), second-in-command of Babylon 5, was portrayed by Claudia Christian.

Michael Garibaldi

Michael Garibaldi was played by Jerry Doyle in seasons one to five and voiced by Anthony Hansen in Babylon 5: The Road Home.^[5] He is named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi.^[6]

In the first three seasons, Garibaldi served as chief of security aboard the space station Babylon 5. He held the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. In season four, during the Shadow War, Garibaldi was secretly subjected to mental reprogramming, which was triggered after the war. Garibaldi resigned from his job as chief of security to work as an independent investigator, helping people find what they had lost during the war. Increasingly, he came into conflict with Babylon 5 staff. Eventually, Bester released Garibaldi from his psychic conditioning by making subtle adjustments to Garibaldi's personality.

Garibaldi started drinking again in season five. Eventually, his long-time lover Lise Hampton returned to Babylon 5 to help support him. They married soon afterwards, and he left Babylon 5 to help her run Edgars Industries on Mars, one of the largest corporations on the planet. During the fifth and final season of Babylon 5 he was the Director of Covert Intelligence for the new Interstellar Alliance, a post parallel to the real-life present-day CIA Director. After the episode "Sleeping in Light" Garibaldi returned to his family on Mars. Upon arriving home, he found that his daughter had won a tennis match. Garibaldi's life after Sheridan's departure was relatively peaceful. Series creator J. Michael Straczynski said that his ultimate fate would be much quieter than Garibaldi could have imagined.^[7] In three novels - the last book of the Psi Corp trilogy, and the last two books of the Centauri Prime trilogy - the authors explore the period between the end of Babylon 5 and Sheridan's "death" in 2281.

Delenn

Satai Delenn was played by Mira Furlan in seasons 1–5. She is the Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5. Delenn was originally conceived as being a male character but played by a female actor, in order to give the character feminine mannerisms and therefore make him more "alien".^{[citation needed]} The Babylon 5 pilot TV movie The Gathering was filmed with this in mind, but the computer alteration to Mira Furlan's voice to make it sound masculine wasn't convincing, so the idea was dropped and Delenn was changed to a female.^[8] The Minbari makeup used from then on gave Delenn a much more feminine appearance.

When first appearing as the Minbari ambassador to Babylon 5, Delenn initially hid her status of being a leader of the Grey Council. At the start of the 2nd season, Delenn used a special artifact to transform into a half-human, half-Minbari hybrid - initially treated with suspicion by humans and Minbari alike. Delenn was instrumental also in getting Sinclair to be stationed as the first Earth ambassador to Minbar since, unbeknownst to Sinclair initially, they chose him because he was the first human the Grey Council had any direct contact with during the Battle of the Line.

In season two, Delenn and John Sheridan fell in love, which drove a further wedge between the Minbari religious and warrior castes, who soon broke a thousand years' of cooperation and began a civil war against one another. After Sheridan and Babylon 5 broke away from Earth, it was Delenn who rescued the station with a fleet of Minbari ships, at the cost of destroying the symbolic circle of the Grey Council. The religious and worker castes sided with Babylon 5 and the Army of Light. Unfortunately, without the Grey Council keeping order, the divisions in Minbari society became so strong that civil war soon broke out. It was later learned that Delenn herself was descended from Valen.^[9] Delenn is the "One who is," representing both halves of the Minbari and human race merged, more literally merging in the marriage of Delenn and Sheridan. Together they became war leaders, with Delenn managing to bind together diverse planets and races into a great alliance. Sheridan was the "warrior", while she was the "spirit". This alliance ended the great war between the Shadow and Vorlon races, and ushered in the Third Age for Mankind - a great time of growth and change.

But after the Shadow War ended, both Delenn and Sheridan found their homeworlds embroiled in civil wars. Although her work had saved countless lives and ended the great war, she returned home to a world racked with chaos and death. Delenn and the religious caste surrendered to the warrior clans. She then forced a showdown between herself and the new leader of the warrior caste. This would be a purification in which Delenn could sacrifice herself for her caste and for the Minbari people. With her sacrifice, the leadership of Minbar would continue to be held by the religious caste - not the warriors. Her old rival Neroon saved her life, however. And in his death cries he joined the religious caste, which returned to Delenn the balance of power. Delenn then gave control of the Grey Council to the worker caste, who had for many years stayed in the middle, as the religious and warrior castes simmered with disagreement. After John Sheridan refused to stand for re-election as President of the Interstellar Alliance, Delenn was chosen to succeed him. When she accepted the role, Sheridan took command of the Rangers until his death. Delenn asked Ivanova to succeed him.

Stephen Franklin

Stephen Franklin was played by Richard Biggs in seasons 1–5 and voiced by Phil LaMarr in Babylon 5: The Road Home.^[10] Franklin serves as the chief medical officer on the Babylon 5 space station. He first appeared in the episode "Soul Hunter". In the script of this episode, he was explicitly described as black.^{[citation needed]} J. Michael Straczynski was adamant throughout the run of the series that Franklin be a true individual who could have been played by an actor of any race.^{[citation needed]} Richard Biggs later expressed his gratitude at being able to play a role purely as an actor, not a black actor.^{[citation needed]}

Franklin has strong moral convictions. Although he spent most of the series in MedLab saving lives, Franklin also saw his share of action and adventure during the series. He was an active participant in the Earth Alliance Civil War, where he aided the Mars Resistance in its fight to free the Mars colony from Earth control. During the war between the Centauri Republic and the Interstellar Alliance, he worked with the telepath Lyta Alexander in investigating reports of Drazi atrocities against the Centauri on the Drazi homeworld. During the series's fifth and final season, Franklin resigned from his post at Babylon 5 to accept the position of "Head of Xenobiological Research" on Earth upon the retirement of Dr. Benjamin Kyle. He appeared in the Crusade episode "Each Night I Dream of Home".

J. Michael Straczynski has said that Franklin eventually dies while exploring an unknown planet, but has not revealed the details of exactly how or when he dies.^[11] When Biggs died in May 2004, Straczynski had been working on a Babylon 5 script titled The Memory of Shadows. Straczynski decided not to recast the Franklin character, and rewrote the script to remove him from the story. In the Babylon 5: The Lost Tales anthology, it is explained that both Franklin and G'Kar – played by Andreas Katsulas who died in February 2006 – had left to explore space beyond the "galactic rim".

Talia Winters

Talia Winter was portrayed by actress Andrea Thompson in seasons 1–2. Winters was a licensed, commercial telepath from Earth and a member of the Psi Corps organization. She was assigned to the Earth space station Babylon 5 in the year 2258 to serve as its second resident commercial telepath. Like all Psi Corps members, Winters' telepathic ability was numbered according to ability; Winters was classified as a P5, the level of most commercial telepaths. Typically, commercial telepaths were assigned to help two or more business parties broker deals, by monitoring their honesty during business negotiations.

Talia Winters' telepathic abilities manifested at age five. As required by law, her parents immediately sent her to be raised, educated, and trained in her gifts by the Psi Corps. During this time Talia was also tested for telekinesis, but was disappointed to learn that she did not have enough to move even a penny. Over the years, Ms. Winters developed a strong loyalty to Psi Corps, and accepted an internship in the commercial telepath division. During this internship, she met and befriended Lyta Alexander, another P5 telepath who had transferred out of the Psi-Cop division. After completing her education, Winters entered the workforce as a commercial telepath.

In 2258, Talia Winters arrived on Babylon 5 as its second resident commercial telepath. Her work on the station repeatedly brought her into contact with the command staff. Both of the station's commanding officers (Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and Captain John Sheridan) considered her a valuable ally despite her strong loyalty to Psi Corps. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, who harbored a not-so-secret crush on Winters, was in frequent contact with her. Garibaldi would routinely flirt with her and show up in the stations' transport tubes just when she was about to board them. Although annoyed by his unsubtle advances, Winters remained friendly with him and used her Psi Corps connections to help him contact his former lover, Lise Hampton, during the riots on the Mars colony. Talia Winters's most complicated relationship was with Susan Ivanova, the station's second-in-command. Initially, Ivanova was hostile to Winters' arrival and refused to acknowledge her presence. She quickly discovered that Ivanova's mother was a telepath who, rather than joining the Corps and leaving her family, submitted to a decade's worth of drug injections which dampened her spirit along with her abilities. Ivanova blamed Psi Corps for her mother's suicide; her experience gave Talia her first opportunity to learn about the darker side of the Psi Corps.

Also in 2258, Jason Ironheart arrived on the station in secret while on the run from the Psi Corps.^[12] The experiments he had participated in had strengthened his abilities to the point where he could telekinetically manipulate matter at the subatomic level. Ironheart gave his lover two gifts as he transformed into a being of pure energy: her own minor telekinetic abilities, substantially less powerful (and therefore less dangerous) than Ironheart's, and the ability to block the scans of P12 (the highest rated) telepaths. Winters put these new abilities to use the following year when Psi Cop Al Bester came to Babylon 5 to stop an underground railroad that Ironheart had set up for runaway telepaths. Her experience with the fugitive telepaths finally made her aware of how corrupt the Psi Corps had become. It was this epiphany that finally dissolved the tension between herself and Susan Ivanova; from that point on, the two women developed a mutual respect which later blossomed into a relationship.

In 2259, dissident telepath Lyta Alexander learned of a Psi Corps sleeper program that the Psi Corps had hidden in her.^[13] Although she knew one such sleeper had been sent to Babylon 5 to spy on its command staff, she did not know the identity of the spy. Lyta traveled to Babylon 5 with the password that would activate the hidden personality. With the permission of Captain John Sheridan, Lyta sent the password into the minds of individuals among and close to the command staff. When she sent the password into Winters' mind, the hidden personality took full control of her psyche, effectively killing the Talia Winters that everyone had come to know.

Talia became hostile and returned to Earth after the hidden personality took over. There were concerns among the stations' command staff over how much inside knowledge this new Ms. Winters could use against them. By that time, they had become convinced that then Vice President Clark had assassinated his predecessor with help from outsiders so he could assume the presidency, and they were clandestinely gathering evidence to that effect to ensure it was passed to members of the military who felt the same, and who could discreetly get it to the right hands. The staff had just agreed to bring Talia in on the operation, and were on the verge of doing so when Lyta had arrived to inform them of the sleeper. Garibaldi himself had mused that if Lyta had come one week later, they'd all be standing in front of a summary court martial board, if not worse. Psi Cop Bester hinted that she was dissected after arriving back on Earth, saying, "We learned some interesting things about Ms Winters in the course of her debriefing and dissect—that is, examination."^[14]

Vir Cotto

Vir Cotto was played by Stephen Furst in seasons 1–5. He is a Centauri male who was from a family of minor nobility. Vir first appears in the episode "Midnight on the Firing Line" as an assistant to Ambassador Londo Mollari. At the time, Vir was an embarrassment to his family, and his family arranged for him to be assigned to this position as a means of getting him as far away from them as possible. In the first two seasons, Vir proves himself to be an able assistant to Ambassador Mollari and also develops a friendship with the aide to the Minbari Ambassador Delenn, the acolyte Lennier.

Vir appears less frequently during the third season, since Stephen Furst had taken a role in a sitcom and couldn't appear in many episodes. This was explained in-universe as a reassignment as liaison to Minbar. Mollari arranges to have this happen in order to help Vir further develop in his career, but privately admits to Delenn that he does not want Vir around with the events - namely the Shadow War - that are soon to come.

Vir Cotto remains an important character during the Shadow War arc, which comprises parts of season 3 and 4. Vir was once again used as a "moral counterpart" to Mollari towards the end of the Shadow War arc. Mollari has Vir come to Centauri Prime to assist in the assassination of Emperor Cartagia. The assassination plot goes astray, with Vir finally being the person to kill the Emperor. Following the Shadow War, Vir returns to Babylon 5. In season 4 and 5, he continues to act as Mollari's assistant, and as a representative of the Centauri to Babylon 5 when Mollari is back on Centauri Prime. When Mollari ascends to the throne as Emperor, he names Vir as the Ambassador to Babylon 5, by then an important position. As was prophesied, Vir succeeds Londo as Emperor of Centauri Republic during the Drakh War. Vir appears after the main series in "The Fall of Centauri Prime" trilogy of tie-in novels, and is Emperor of the Centuari Republic twenty years after the end of the Shadow War, as shown in "Sleeping in Light".

Lennier

Lennier was played by Bill Mumy in seasons 1–5. He is Minbari and acts as ambassadorial aide to Delenn throughout most of the series.

Just as Delenn was an acolyte of Dukhat, Lennier was the faithful acolyte of Minbari Ambassador Delenn for five years. A member of the Third Fane of Chu'Domo of the religious caste and a fierce fighter, he later joined the Rangers. He had family aboard the Minbari flagship Black Star when it was destroyed by Babylon 5 commander John Sheridan. Though other Minbari felt much animosity towards Sheridan, as they felt he'd acted dishonorably in destroying it, Lennier held no hard feelings, apparently understanding why Sheridan had done it.

In the episode "Day of the Dead," Lennier is confronted by the ghost of Morden, the human who worked with the Shadows. Lennier, who had returned from training hoping to speak to a spirit as part of an alien religious observance, makes the mistake of asking Morden for wisdom. Morden predicts that Lennier will one day betray the Rangers. This encounter foreshadows later events in the series.

Eventually it was revealed that Lennier was secretly in love with Delenn. He explained to Marcus Cole that it was "not romantic love as you would understand it, something nobler." Lennier did not act on his feelings due to her involvement with John Sheridan. Lennier did confess his feelings to her when he and Delenn were both trapped in hyperspace facing death, but Delenn, who had long known of his feelings for her, feigned that she hadn't heard his confession to spare him embarrassment.

Lennier's feelings later caused his downfall. When Sheridan suffered an accident aboard a White Star ("Objects at Rest"), Lennier, seeing for the opportunity to remove his 'competition', refused to help him and fled, for a short moment leaving him for dead. Almost immediately after he realized the foolishness of his actions and did come back, but by then Sheridan had managed to rescue himself. Lennier ran away, deeply ashamed of what he had done, and was never heard from again, except for a final, untraceable call to Delenn in which he asked her and Sheridan for forgiveness. This would likely constitute his "Betrayal of the Rangers" as predicted by Morden.

The series left Lennier's final fate unknown, although most of Morden's prophecies came true and there are hints in the series finale "Sleeping in Light" (during a sequence when the guests were remembering their fallen friends), that Lennier was killed in the Telepath War. This has been confirmed by J. Michael Straczynski in The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski TV Movies, in which he writes that both Lennier and Lyta Alexander were killed in the explosion of Psi Corps Headquarters in a major battle of the Telepath War. Straczynski had previously said of Lennier's death (in his commentary for "Sleeping in Light"): "That's a very sad story and maybe I'll tell it some day". .

Elizabeth Lochley

Elizabeth Lochley was played by Tracy Scoggins in the fifth and last season of Babylon 5, replacing the previous commander of the station, John Sheridan, and filling the role of the character Susan Ivanova. She was also a semi-regular character in Crusade, where she has a romantic relationship with Matthew Gideon, the captain of the Excalibur. Lochley featured prominently in the first volume of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales entitled "Voices in the Dark", released on DVD in July 2007.

Due to a troubled youth, Lochley never consumed alcoholic beverages or other drugs from the moment she began her military career. After Captain Sheridan is relieved of his command, he requests Earth to assign Lochley as his replacement. Although she chooses not to join Sheridan's rebellion against the corrupt government headed by Morgan Clark, he still trusts her judgment and ability. The show later reveals that Sheridan and Lochley had been married briefly after graduating from EarthForce Academy. While the marriage did not work out, they still have a mutual respect and appreciation. She proves to be a strong and capable leader, finding solutions to many crises and coping with the ones that had no solutions.

During the Brakiri Day of the Dead, in which the dead return for one night, the Brakiri on the station purchase a part of it for the night which includes Lochley's quarters. She is subsequently visited by the ghost of her friend Zoe, who confirms that she deliberately committed suicide by overdosing on drugs. Prior to this, nobody knew for certain whether Zoe's death was intentional.

The series Crusade is set approximately five years after the events of the fifth season of Babylon 5 and show that she is still the captain. In Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, Lochley is still in command of the station but now holds the rank of EarthForce colonel. It is unknown whether she and Gideon are still intimate. During her communication with President Sheridan, Lochley says of Dr Stephen Franklin, "Oh, I thought you'd heard. Doctor Franklin went with G'Kar, exploring beyond the Rim." This was filmed in the last quarter of 2006, with actor Richard Biggs (Franklin) having died in 2004 and actor Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) having died in February 2006, several months prior to principal photography on The Lost Tales. Actor Tracy Scoggins, who portrays Lochley, admitted on the DVD commentary to having difficulty delivering the line, at one point nearly breaking down in tears. The line was a subtle eulogy to both actors.

Marcus Cole

Marcus Cole was played by Jason Carter in the third and fourth seasons of the show. He is a leading member of the Rangers, a military force consisting of Humans and Minbari who serve the "One", a triumvirate consisting of Jeffrey Sinclair / Valen, Delenn, and John Sheridan.

The character's backstory is given as being born on the Arisia Mining Colony, where his family operated a relatively dangerous mining operation. His brother William had left the colony and become a Ranger on Minbar; he was killed by the Shadows while visiting Marcus on Arisia. Marcus was one of the few survivors (if not the only survivor) of the attack. Much of Marcus Cole's early background is told in the novel To Dream In the City of Sorrows by Kathryn Drennan. Marcus Cole joined the Rangers following the death of his brother, William, and at times he seems to have joined the Rangers as a form of guilt over his brother's death.

Cole becomes close friends with Dr. Franklin. Defending Delenn during her transition to become "Ranger One", Cole engages Neroon in a fierce one-on-one battle. Despite losing, and nearly being killed, he earns Neroon's respect, even getting Neroon to laugh warmly. It was also revealed on the show (episode: The Summoning) that Marcus Cole was a virgin, a character aspect which was a marked departure for a dashing hero role. However, the combination of his virginity and fighting skill once led him to (only half-jokingly) compare himself to Sir Galahad ("A Late Delivery From Avalon").

He falls in love with Susan Ivanova. However, the two do not become involved. Some attribute this to Ivanova's previous history of disastrous romantic relationships, such as her relationship with Talia Winters. Later, after a devastating attack on Ivanova and Cole's White Star during the battle to reclaim Earth from the tyrannical government of President Clark, Cole takes the severely injured Ivanova to Babylon 5. Using an alien execution device that takes one person's life-energy and transfers it to another, he sacrifices his life to save hers. His corpse is then preserved at Ivanova's request in cryogenic suspension in the hope that he might be revived in the future. This was actually not shown in the series, but in the credits of "Sleeping in Light". The credits showed each character as first and last seen.

Cole's story concludes in "Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic", a short story written by JMS and published in Amazing Stories #602. It takes place hundreds of years after the series ends. Cole is revived when the homeworld of those who built the life-energy transfer machine was found. He then proceeds to create a clone of Ivanova by enlisting one of Garibaldi's descendants to help him. Endowing it with her exact memories by stealing the scans done of her memory, he then strands her and himself on a lush, fertile and uncharted world with the intent of living "happily ever after" together. There are significant moral questions raised by his actions in this story, but JMS has been quoted as "wishing to give the character the happy ending he deserves" while at the same time raising the type of ethical question for which Babylon 5 is famous.

Na'Toth

Na'Toth is the aide to Narn Ambassador G'Kar. She was played by Julie Caitlin Brown in the first season. For the second season, Brown was replaced by Mary Kay Adams. Na'Toth was written out of the series after appearing in two more episodes. Brown returned to reprise the role in the fifth-season episode "A Tragedy of Telepaths". In The Babylon Files, a Babylon 5 guidebook, series creator Straczynski said he had considered having G'Kar have a "revolving-door" series of aides, akin to Murphy Brown.

Na'Toth was the second aide to G'Kar, after his first aide Ko'Dath died in an airlock accident. When Na'Toth arrived, a member of the Narn assassins' guild was attempting to kill G'Kar at the behest of an old rival. G'Kar was eventually kidnapped by the assassin. Na'Toth went to the assassin and claimed to be his backup. She was then able to disable the pain device that had been placed on G'Kar, allowing G'Kar to defeat the assassin, who left the station before the assassin guild had him killed.

Na'Toth went home to Narn at some point during the second season. She was on Narn when the Centauri used mass drivers to pluck asteroids out of orbit and bomb the Narn homeworld. Na'Toth was missing and presumed dead. In the fifth season, Na'Toth was found to be alive and imprisoned in the Centauri Royal Palace ("A Tragedy of Telepaths"). Londo Mollari and G'Kar smuggled her from the palace, and arranged for her to be sent back home to receive treatment for her injuries.

Na'Toth did not appear in any further Babylon 5 television episodes or movies. The short story True Seeker, published in the July 2000 issue 23 of the Official Babylon 5 Magazine, depicts Na'Toth as living on Narn in the winter of 2269 and enjoying a state of celebrity. The book Out of the Darkness by Peter David suggested that as of 2278 Na'Toth was still alive and living on Narn.

Zack Allan

Zack Allan was played by Jeff Conaway. He regularly appeared in the show from season 2 onwards. During the second and third seasons of the series he was a security officer on the Babylon 5 station. In the fourth season, he was promoted to become Babylon 5's Security Chief and he retains that position through to the end of the series' fifth and final season.

Briefly in season 2 and 3, Allan was a member of Nightwatch, a civilian para-police force created by Earth Alliance President Morgan Clark to expose and arrest "traitors to Earth". True to form, Zack joined Nightwatch for the bonus pay they offered, without paying much attention to their political views and fascist nature. However, he had the truth of their nature driven home when a shopkeeper accused of sedition for publicly criticizing Clark's presidency was physically dragged away from his store and imprisoned by Nightwatch officers in the episode, "The Fall of Night". After this experience Zack agreed to help Babylon 5's command staff, eventually playing a critical role in "Point of No Return" in leading the bulk of the station's Nightwatch into a trap set up to capture them.

Allan was the second aide to B5 Chief of Security Michael Garibaldi from 2259 to 2261. Following Garibaldi's resignation as chief of security in season 4, Allan was appointed Chief of Security. He held the position for many years; except for a brief stint back on Earth, he remained there until the station was decommissioned in 2281. Because of this, he was the only one not to receive his invitation to Sheridan's farewell party in Sleeping in Light, though Allan was still to meet Sheridan one more time as Sheridan took one last walk through the station.

In Sleeping in Light, he walked with a noticeable limp, which has never been explained on screen. In the voiceover commentary of the episode, series creator J. Michael Straczynski explained that Zack was involved in heroic activity and lost his leg. In keeping with his previous experience with uniforms, it is suggested that the prosthetic he was supplied with never fitted correctly. Later in the episode, after the aged and abandoned Babylon 5 was destroyed and the Drakh influence on Centauri Prime was exposed and eliminated, Zack joined the Rangers and became Centauri Emperor Vir Cotto's assistant.

Lyta Alexander

Lyta Alexander was played by Patricia Tallman. Lyta was introduced in the pilot episode "The Gathering" as a telepath assigned to the Babylon 5 space station by the Psi Corps, a fictional organization providing support to telepaths and monitoring their activity. However, she did not appear in the remainder of Season One due to a dispute concerning Tallman's salary.^[15] Lyta's role in the series was largely taken up by Andrea Thompson, who was cast as Talia Winters, a telepath who took over Lyta's responsibilities in the station. After Thompson left the series due to disagreements regarding the amount of screen time given to her character,^[16] Lyta returned as a recurring character in Seasons Two and Three, after Capt. John Sheridan took over as station commander, and became a regular cast member from Season Four onward. Her character simply resumed the dramatic arc once intended for Thompson's.

In the series' pilot, she is described as a sixth-generation telepath, although she points out that telepathy may have been running in her family undetected even earlier, since telepaths were not monitored before that generation. In the series it is stated that Lyta was trained by the Psi Corps, and that she briefly interned with the Psi Cops division.^[17] After an incident whilst accompanying Alfred Bester,^[18] she transferred to commercial work. In 2257, she was assigned as Babylon 5's first commercial telepath.^[19] Soon after arriving at the station, she scanned Vorlon Ambassador Kosh, in violation of the wishes of the Vorlon government, in order to try to discover the identity of his attacker.

In Season Two, Lyta's experience with the Vorlon ambassador permanently changed her. She was recalled from her assignment a few weeks later and questioned regarding her encounter with Kosh. Interrogated for months by the Psi Corps, she eventually escaped and joined the Mars Resistance. While underground, she uncovered information regarding a mole among the Babylon 5 command staff, and returned to the station in late 2259 where she revealed Talia Winters as an unwitting mole for secret forces in EarthGov and Psi Corps.^[17] In season 3, Lyta travelled to the Vorlon homeworld, one of the few known humans to do so and live. There, she was modified by the Vorlons, given gill-like implants to allow her to breathe in a Vorlon environment, the ability to "carry" a Vorlon consciousness, and tremendously increased telepathic and psychokinetic powers. Even she did not initially realize the full potency of her new abilities. She returned to Babylon 5 as an aide to Ambassador Kosh.^[20]

In Season Four, Lyta was key to eventual resolution of the Shadow War on Coriana 6, serving as the vessel through which Sheridan and Delenn confronted the elder races and forced them to leave the galaxy.^[21] Immediately after the Shadow War, she was part of the expedition to the Shadows' homeworld of Z'ha'dum. Using unknown abilities and implanted instructions from the Vorlons, she triggered the destruction of the planet to spite Alfred Bester and to prevent Shadow technology from falling into the wrong hands.^[22] However, after the conclusion of the Shadow War, she found herself unwelcome and had difficulty finding employment. She would go on to play a decisive role in the end game of the Earth Civil War, triggering the Shadow-modified telepaths smuggled aboard Earth ships to disable the fleet at Mars.^[23]

In Season Five, Alexander became romantically involved with Byron, revealing to the telepaths that they had been created by the Vorlons as weapons for their war with the Shadows. After Byron's death, Alexander was inspired by his cause to create a homeworld for telepaths, and became the leader of a movement sponsoring violent resistance against the Corps. Lyta also began to more thoroughly explore the abilities the Vorlons had given her. She was eventually arrested for supporting terrorism aboard Babylon 5 by John Sheridan.^[24] Alexander then struck a deal with Michael Garibaldi to help her avoid prosecution, as well as provide funding for her cause. Former Narn Ambassador G'Kar took her with him on a mission of exploration.^[25]

Lyta does not appear in any of the canonical material released since the end of the series. It is strongly implied in Crusade and some of the canonical novels that her actions (both on Babylon 5 in 2262 and afterward) led to the Telepath War of the mid-2260s, in which she was killed. According to Straczynski,^[26][27] Lyta was intended to appear in the Crusade episode "The Path of Sorrows" as part of a flashback, but Tallman's salary could not be negotiated. The scene as aired featured an unnamed telepath who died striking against the Psi Corps. Whether or not this was intended to be Lyta, Straczynski confirmed Lyta did die in such an attack. In the aforementioned script book, Straczynski wrote that both Lyta and Lennier were killed in the explosion of Psi Corps Headquarters in a major battle of the Telepath War. Hints about her death had also been stated by Straczynski in posts to the Babylon 5 newsgroup,^[28] and in the final novel of the Psi Corps Trilogy by J. Gregory Keyes.^[29]

G'Kar

G'Kar is the Narn ambassador to Babylon 5 and was played by Andreas Katsulas in seasons 1–5. He makes his first appearance in The Gathering as a villainous diplomat opposite Londo Mollari, being constantly engaged in insidious, if petty and often comical schemes, usually driven by his hostility to his people's historical enemies, the Centauri, whom Londo represents. However, in the course of the series, he is transformed into a Messianic figure and the foremost spiritual leader of his people.^[8] The character last appears in Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers.

Londo Mollari

Londo Mollari was played by Peter Jurasik in seasons 1–5. As a member of one of the oldest Noble Houses of the Centauri Republic, he is the Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5. In the words of series creator J. Michael Straczynski, he is “overweight, prone to gambling constantly (null-pool is his favorite) and fond of women and drinks”.^[30] At the start of the series, Londo seems to be ineffective in his role as ambassador. As the events of the Shadow War come to a peak, Mollari is promoted to the position of advisor on planetary security. Later, with Cartagia dead and a Vorlon fleet en route to destroy Centauri Prime, Mollari is promoted to the position of Prime Minister, making him temporarily head of state until a new Emperor can be elected. Following the galactic war with the Shadows, Mollari eventually rises to become Emperor of the Centauri Republic, taking the title Emperor Mollari II, since another member of his family was Emperor in the past.

Earth Alliance

The Earth Alliance was a major galactic superpower in the Babylon 5 universe. The name of its military force is EarthForce. Earth Alliance had gained more technology than any other race in the known Babylon 5 universe: Dilgar, Narn, Centauri, Shadow, Minbari, and Vorlon tech all at one point in time.

It was founded at the end of the twenty-first century, after the Third World War: first as a loose coalition of nations, then as a tight alliance of nearly every nation on Earth as well as Alliance-controlled colonies throughout the Galaxy, though colonial populations have had a history of independence-driven rebellion, especially Mars. The Alliance is a unicameral representative democracy under the leadership of an elected president with a strong military. In one second-season episode ("And Now For a Word"), the Alliance is said to consist of 24 outposts and colonies in over a dozen solar systems.

Since the end of the Earth-Minbari War, the Alliance had prospered in interstellar trade, though some influential factions had become increasingly xenophobic and isolationist. Following the assassination of President Luis Santiago, the new president, Morgan Clark, formed Nightwatch (a pervasive secret police) and dissolved the Senate, turning Earth and her colonies into a totalitarian fascist state. Clark's changes are reversed in the fourth season after the Earth Alliance Civil War leads to his suicide in the face of his inevitable overthrow, restoring democracy.

Ari Ben Zayn

Colonel Ari Ben Zayn (Gregory Martin) is an EarthForce Intelligence officer who investigated Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and his command staff in the Babylon 5 episode "Eyes".

Colonel Ben Zayn's investigation was one of several conducted by Earth Force Internal Affairs as the events on Mars were putting the command staff of colonies and stations in question. Ben Zayn's interest was not of investigation, but one of asserting control as he was passed over for command of Babylon 5 in favour of Sinclair by the Minbari, which did not sit well with Ben Zayn.

Ben Zayn's true intentions were discovered by his Psi Corps Military Specialist Harriman Gray, as Ben Zayn is a close friend of Psi Corps official Alfred Bester. He was defeated by Gray and Sinclair and sent back to Earth for investigation into his activities.

David Corwin

David Corwin (Josh Coxx) is a C&C (Command and Control, or Observation Dome) worker. The character appears in seasons one through five, Thirdspace and The River of Souls. First credited as "Tech #1" he becomes Lt. JG David Corwin. He is later promoted to full lieutenant. He occasionally fills in for the lack of a second in command in season five (see also B5 government). In River of Souls, which takes place after the station is returned to Earth Alliance jurisdiction, it is implied that he has been officially made XO. He is named for Norman Corwin.^[31]

Richard Franklin

General Richard Franklin (Paul Winfield) is an EarthForce general. His sole screen appearance was in the episode "Gropos". Richard Franklin is the father of Babylon 5's chief of medical staff, Doctor Stephen Franklin. The relationship between father and son is strained, due to the General's Human-centric beliefs. Richard Franklin was often away from home as Stephen was raised.

Franklin is the commander of the Earth Alliance 356th Infantry Division and is known by the nicknames "Old Firestorm", "Hero of the Canal Wars", "Scourge of Janos 7" and "Liberator of the African Block".

General William Hague

General William Hague (Robert Foxworth) is chairman of EarthForce's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first leader of the resistance against the authoritarian regime of Earth Alliance President Morgan Clark. Hague was able to escape the Sol system on board the EAS Alexander. EarthForce ships that remained loyal to Hague were hunted down and destroyed leaving only the Alexander. Hague was killed shortly after in a firefight with the EAS Clarkstown. He was replaced as the leader of the resistance by Captain John Sheridan.

Foxworth portrays Hague in two episodes as a supporting role for John Sheridan as a contact in the underground resistance against Morgan Clark. Many of the characters mention his name on referring to the sub-arc regarding the resistance which lends importance to Hague's role offscreen.

General Robert Lefcourt

General Robert Lefcourt was portrayed by actor J. Patrick McCormack.

General Lefcourt first appeared in Babylon 5: In the Beginning where he and another Earth Alliance official quizzed ambassador Londo Mollari about the Minbari. Despite being warned by Mollari to send only one ship to make contact with the Minbari lest they are perceived as a threat, Lefcourt brashly asserted that the Earth Alliance had taken care of the Dilgar and it could take care of the Minbari as well. Mollari commented that this attitude was both arrogant and stupid; however, he did give all information that the Centauri held about the Minbari.

Despite Mollari's warning, General Lefcourt decided to send a small task force to the border of Minbari space. The expedition was led by the EAS Prometheus under the command of Captain Michael Jankowski, a reckless and unpopular commanding officer infamous for his poor handling of first contact situations. The task force unexpectedly encountered three Minbari warships, one of which contained the Grey Council. Jankowski initially refused to jump back into hyperspace, preferring to wait to the last moment so they could get as much information on the Minbari ships as possible. By the time Jankowski decided to jump the Earth ship's jump engines had been accidentally disabled by the Minbari. He then misinterpreted the meaning of the Minbari ships opening their gunports and panicked, ordering his ships to open fire. When the Minbari leader Dukhat was killed it led to the opening of hostilities between the Minbari and the Earth Alliance.

Following this General Lefcourt and General Fontaine appear to lead EarthForce's losing effort against the Minbari. The pair are shown briefing EarthForce personnel after the initial Minbari attacks and again later when they show replays of Commander John Sheridan's victory over the Minbari flagship the Drala'Fi (Black Star in human). Following this he gives Sheridan and Dr Stephen Franklin a mission to meet with a Minbari representative on a neutral planet to discuss peace. He tells Sheridan in no uncertain terms that if the Minbari want Earth's surrender then he is to give them it, to ensure the survival of the human race.

Thirteen years after the end of the Earth-Minbari war the Earth Alliance had slipped into civil war with the now Captain John Sheridan leading a rebellion against the authoritarian regime of Earth Alliance President, Morgan Clark. Sheridan's fleet manages to overcome all EarthForce resistance before mounting an attack on the Sol System. General Lefcourt is selected by Clark to command a fleet of 35 Omega class destroyers who make their stand at Mars. He is selected not because of any particular loyalty to Clark but because of his belief that soldiers should not take up arms against their own government no matter the cause.

Sheridan was also a pupil of his at the EarthForce academy and it was thought that he would know his tactics best. Taking command of the EAS Apollo he dismissed the ground attacks by the Mars resistance and a single White Star commanded by Marcus Cole as a diversion and refused to allow his fleet to turn back to take them on. Minutes later most of Lefcourt's fleet is disabled by Shadow altered telepaths and the rest are put out of action by Sheridan's White Star fleet.

Security aboard the Apollo soon find and eliminate the telepath onboard but the ship remains adrift. General Lefcourt threatens the engineering crew to get the ship under control and when they finally manage to do so he orders them to Earth in pursuit of Sheridan's fleet. The Apollo made a timely arrival, and President Clark - in a final vindictive act before committing suicide - had ordered the planetary defence grid to fire on Earth.

Sheridan's fleet managed to destroy all the platforms except one. With it about to fire on the North American seaboard, the EAS Agamemnon under Captain Sheridan's command was the only ship in range able to destroy it. The Agamemnon's weapon systems were inoperative, however, and Sheridan ordered the Agamemnon to ram the platform. Seconds before it would have. the Apollo exits hyperspace and destroys the final platform, General Lefcourt then welcomes Captain Sheridan home.

Jack

Jack was Michael Garibaldi's aide (Macaulay Bruton, who also portrays the character Tragedy in Season One "Eyes"), a recurring character in Seasons One and Two of Babylon 5. He is both implicated in, and explicitly involved in, events that lead to the death of Earth Alliance President Luis Santiago, and the "coming darkness."

Perhaps most powerfully, he shoots Garibaldi in the back at the end of Season One ("Chrysalis"), preventing Garibaldi from warning Sinclair in time about the assassination attempt on Santiago, resulting in it being successful. In the Season Two episode "Revelations", Garibaldi regains consciousness, and with the help of Talia Winters, Talia helps Garibaldi telepathically retrieve his memory of being shot, and sees Jack's reflection in a mirror. Jack is arrested by Lou Welch & station security, but President Clark personally contacts Captain Sheridan, and orders Sheridan to have Jack sent back to Earth. En route to Earth, the transport carrying Jack and all of the evidence regarding Garibaldi's attempted murder, is intercepted by a second unknown EarthForce transport (later found out to have been sent by President Clark's agents) and taken away to safety; his ultimate fate is unknown.

Jack had connections with Psi Cop Alfred Bester & Psi Corps, as Jack was contacted telepathically by Bester & later gave Garibaldi the same salute that Bester gave Commander Sinclair in Season One "Mind War".

Susanna Luchenkoedit

Susanna Luchenko (Beata Pozniak) becomes the president of the Earth Alliance following the overthrow and suicide of President Morgan Clark. She plays a key role in ending Clark's oppressive policies, including ending his martial law decree, and restoring democracy to the Earth Alliance. Luchenko had previously represented the Russian Consortium in the Earth Senate.

When she became President of the Earth Alliance, she appealed to the people of the Alliance to remain calm, and not to resort to committing acts of revenge against members of Clark's regime. She asked that people "listen to the better angels of their nature." Luchenko said that the courts and legal system would investigate and prosecute those who committed crimes during Clark's presidency.

When it was learned that the Drakh were preparing to destroy Earth, Captain Elizabeth Lochley of Babylon 5 persuaded Luchenko to send a large fleet to confront the Drakh. Even though the Shadow's planet killer the Drakh brought to destroy Earth was itself destroyed, the Drakh were able to successfully seed Earth's atmosphere with biological weapons. The weapons would kill every living thing on Earth in five years. Sheridan offered his support, and the full resources of the Interstellar Alliance to help combat the Drakh plague. At some point within the next few years the Excalibur was able to find a cure for the plague.

Her only appearance is in the fourth-season episode " Rising Star ", although her name is mentioned in a number of fifth-season episodes.

Benjamin Kyleedit

Doctor Benjamin Kyle was portrayed by Johnny Sekka. His only appearance was in the Babylon 5 pilot movie The Gathering. Kyle was a xenobiologist who was chosen by Commander Jeffrey Sinclair for assignment to Babylon 5 in 2257. He was given responsibility for Babylon 5 medical department and labs. He was aboard the station when an assassination attempt was made on Ambassador Kosh. Kyle was one of very few humans to see a Vorlon first hand when he was forced to open the encounter suit of Ambassador Kosh, while working to save the Vorlon dignitary's life. Kyle was subsequently reassigned to Earth by the Earth Alliance President to work as an expert on alien physiology. Dr. Stephen Franklin was assigned to Babylon 5 to assume the medical duties. He eventually assumed the position of head of Xenobiological Research at EarthDome. When he retired in 2262, he was again replaced by Dr. Stephen Franklin.

Lou Welchedit

Lou Welch (David L. Crowley) is a member of the station's security force. He served for several years on board Babylon 5, and was one of Michael Garibaldi's close friends. His first appearance was in the first-season episode "Survivors." He appears in several early Babylon 5 episodes, until his last on-screen appearance in the second-season episode "Gropos." (This is approximately the same time that the character of Zack Allan was introduced into the show.) Reintroduced in the novels, Lou Welch later dies on Centauri Prime when he is murdered by the Prime Candidates and the Drakh after being caught using a changeling net to gather information on Vir Cotto's behalf.^[which?]

Luis Santiagoedit

President Luis Santiago (still photo of Douglas Netter) was President of the Earth Alliance at the beginning of the series. His openness to peaceful relationships with alien races contrasts with that of Vice President Clark, who hid his xenophobic views until he became president after Santiago's assassination in 2259.

When Santiago was elected no one had doubts as to his Genevan expertise as he had already served as vice president under President Elizabeth Levy during the tumultuous Earth-Minbari War.^{[citation needed]} After serving at least one term, Santiago was re-elected in 2258, defeating challenger Marie Crane. Santiago had strong policies on opening trade relations and discussions with alien races and fully supported the efforts of the space station Babylon 5. While some saw this as a good thing, Vice-president Clark secretly opposed this viewpoint and once he was in power began a propaganda war to increase xenophobic views of the Earth Alliance.

Susan Ivanova comments during his reelection campaign that she does not intend to vote for Santiago because she believes a leader should have a strong chin, which Santiago lacks.

He was approximately one year into his second term at the time of his assassination aboard EarthForce One, the Babylon 5 equivalent of Air Force One, at the beginning of 2259. The incident occurs near the jump point off Io, one of Jupiter's moons. An energy problem with EarthForce One's jump engines is registered and the craft explodes live on ISN (the CNN of Babylon 5's universe). A slight suspicion of foul play is hinted at by the ISN feed. The newscaster comments that the president is late making his New Years speech moments before the incident. Whether this is because an incident has already occurred on EarthForce One, with the explosion of the craft to cover any evidence, is unknown though it is later discovered Clark arranged the incident with help from The Shadows.

Psi Corpsedit

The Psi Corps is an agency of the Earth Alliance responsible for all humans with telepathic or other para-psychological abilities anywhere within Earth-controlled space. All persons with Psi abilities are required to either join the Corps, face lifetime imprisonment, or submit to a lifetime of drug treatments to suppress their abilities. Prolonged treatment with these drugs has a depressing effect. Psi Cops are members of a para-military body enforcing laws related to telepaths and operates with few checks against their authority.

The Corps was originally established to protect, nurture and train humans with Psi abilities and to protect the mundane population from possible abuse or criminal activities by talented individuals. The Psi Corps' headquarters has hospitals, offices and a boarding school where young people possessing telepathic and telekinetic power (known colloquially in the series as teeps and teeks) can develop without the fear and persecution they would face among the normal population (referred to by psychics in the series as mundanes).

At some point the Corps realized that it could not be controlled by any external authority and developed into a fascist state-within-a-state, pursuing its own agenda using the Psi Cops and other means, taking an active role in Earth politics. By the time of the pilot movie, Babylon 5: The Gathering, the Corps has degenerated to the point where many potential and former members prefer a life on-the-run as rogue psychics (referred to by the Corps as blips) to the safety and comfort of living and working under its wing.

After the colony on Babylon 5 was forced to leave, Lyta Alexander began a crusade against the Psi Corps. Her actions led to a war in which rogue telepaths and non-telepaths fought the Psi Corps. The old Psi Corps was destroyed, and a new Psionic Monitoring Commission was built to replace it. Once the Telepath War was over, the Psionic Monitoring Commission dedicated itself to hunting down those members of the Corps who committed war crimes, such as Alfred Bester. Bester was eventually captured and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison with his abilities taken away by drugs. Many private schools were founded to educate telepaths; they met with mixed success. Telepaths were allowed a much wider range of options as far as their lives were concerned. Rather than having to join the Psi Corps, they were able to do almost anything they wanted. This included joining the Earth Alliance military and working for private organizations.

Alfred Besteredit

Alfred Bester was played by Walter Koenig. He is a senior Psi Cop and a recurring antagonist in the series. J. Michael Straczynski named the character after the science fiction writer Alfred Bester,^[32] since telepathy is a recurring theme in his work (most notably The Demolished Man, which partly may have inspired the Psi Corps and the "death of personality" legal punishment in the Babylon 5 universe).

When Bester first appeared in the Babylon 5 series, he was in pursuit of a powerful telepath named Jason Ironheart, who had been the victim of illegal genetic and drug experiments by the Psi Corps in an attempt to create a powerful supertelepath, a P20 or beyond. Bester didn't get along with the command staff, a point which continually occurred throughout the series.

Bester eventually agreed to work with Captain John Sheridan at several points during the Shadow War particularly after the Shadows captured someone very close to Bester. However, after Michael Garibaldi was captured during an attack by the Shadows on the station, Bester was able to secretly recover and capture him in turn. Bester had become aware of an anti-telepath conspiracy, and decided to try to use Garibaldi to expose it. Bester subjected him to subtle reprogramming in order to use him as a sleeper agent. He exploited Garibaldi's inherent traits of paranoia and distrust of authority, correctly believing that the conspiracy would view Garibaldi as a prime recruit once alienated from his friends and work.

The wealthy industrialist William Edgars, the plot's mastermind, believed that a civil war among humanity would be counterproductive no matter how totalitarian the current regime. Edgars insisted that Garibaldi draw out Sheridan before he would bring Garibaldi fully into his confidence. Garibaldi, not suspecting why he was so driven to find out the innermost secrets of the plot, betrayed Sheridan to agents of the corrupt President Clark. Edgars then revealed that his pharmaceutical company, Edgars Industries, had perfected a lethal virus which would attack telepaths' unique genes. Any infected telepath would quickly die without regular doses of the antidote they had also created. This would reduce telepaths to a slave race and avert the war which many normals and telepaths believed loomed on the horizon. After learning this, Garibaldi entered a fugue state, and alerted Bester and the Psi Corps. Bester came to Garibaldi, still locked in his robotic paralysis, and revealed the details of the brainwashing and the deception. Although tempted to kill Garibaldi, Bester instead removed the commands and left Garibaldi to cope with the realization that he had betrayed everyone he knew on all sides. The Corps murdered William Edgars and captured the only known samples of both the virus and antidote.

It was later revealed that, even with the programming removed, Bester had left in place an 'Asimov', a type of mental block - adapted from the first of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (Bester stated that it had been adapted from the first two of Asimov's laws, but his explanation only covered the first law) - knowing that Garibaldi would likely murder him on sight if not prevented from doing so. Lyta Alexander eventually agreed to remove the block from Garibaldi's mind, once he had helped her destroy the Psi Corps.

Following the Telepath War, Alfred Bester was wanted for war crimes that he committed. He was planned to appear in the Crusade episode "Value Judgments", written by Fiona Avery, on the run from the authorities and being sought by Garibaldi's agents. The episode would have shown him encountering the crew of the Excalibur, who require a powerful telepath to open a lock that responds to powerful telepathy. The episode would have ended with him escaping once again.

Bester's origin story is established in the "Psi Corps Trilogy" of novels by J. Gregory Keyes, written after the end of the series and considered part of the canon. He was born Stephen Kevin Dexter, the son of Matthew and Fiona, leaders of a telepath resistance to the Psi Corps who were killed when he was an infant; he was adopted by the Corps and given his name by the Psi Corps director, an admirer of the author.^[33] As he became a prominent Psi Cop, Bester discovered the truth about his parents and their deaths from his godfather, Stephen Walters. In a rage, he gunned Walters down with his PPG; his left hand remained tightly gripping the weapon, explaining why Bester's left hand was always clenched in a fist on the series.^[34] After the Telepath War, he spent several years on the run before moving to Paris, where he fell in love with a local businesswoman named Louise. But Michael Garibaldi was relentless in his pursuit, and eventually tracked him down. Bester was brought before the war crimes tribunal, and was tried in France for his crimes. He was sentenced to life in prison and subjected to the Sleeper drugs that deprived him of his telepathic abilities. During that time, a statue was even made of his birth parents and the boy he had been before becoming "Alfred Bester". He then spent the next 10 years in a maximum-security prison, and died shortly after the death of John Sheridan in 2281. The very day before his death, he finally accepted that he was indeed the 'lost child' of Matthew and Fiona Dexter, and his left fist finally reopened as a result. Even in death, Garibaldi pursued him. After Bester's funeral, Garibaldi went to the gravesite and hammered a wooden stake into the ground above Bester's coffin. This quite amused a departing watcher, who was fully aware of what Bester had done and been in life.^[35]

Jason Ironheartedit

Jason Ironheart (William Allen Young) appeared in the first-season episode "Mind War".

Ironheart is a former lover of Talia Winters when they were in the Psi Corps together. He volunteered for experimental treatments to enhance his telepathy, and to produce stable telekinetics. The experiments succeeded, but caused Ironheart's powers to increase to an uncontrollable level. He fled from Psi Corps to Babylon 5 where he set up an escape route for other rogue telepaths, but was pursued by Bester.

Ironheart began to undergo destructive "mindquakes", releasing bursts of psychokinetic energy so powerful they threatened the station. As Ironheart realized that his abilities had grown too great to contain, he discorporated his physical form, but not before leaving Talia with a gift; enhanced telepathic shields, and even a bit of telekinesis of her own. He then turns to Sinclair and says, "Goodbye Commander. I will see you again, in a million years." (This is a reference to the final episode of the fourth season.)

Byron Gordonedit

Byron Gordon was played by Robin Atkin Downes. He was introduced in the season 5 episode "No Compromises" as a strong telepath (P12 rating). Byron is shown arriving on the Babylon 5 station with a large contingent of rogue telepaths early in the year 2262. At this stage Byron is portrayed as a Gandhi-like figure; a leader of telepaths who seeks freedom from the Psi Corps and from mundanes, but that will only do so through passive resistance/physically non-violent means, though he does show himself to be mentally violent, using intimidation and blackmail against members of the alliance. In "The Paragon of Animals", Byron helps the new Interstellar Alliance by revealing treachery by the Drazi against the Enphili. John Sheridan offers Byron and his telepaths political asylum at Babylon 5. They are allowed to establish a small colony in Brown 3.

In his early appearances in Season 5, Byron is shown as trying to maintain distance from conflict between his telepaths and the aggressive mundanes from "Down Below", the Psi Corps, and from being used as tools by the Interstellar Alliance. Key disputes come between Byron and Michael Garibaldi over his wish to employ Byron's telepaths as spies ("The Paragon of Animals" (episode 3)), and between the telepaths and the Earth Force/Psi Corps over their rogue status ("Strange Relations" (episode 6)). Ultimately, Byron agrees for two of his people to serve the Alliance, and Elizabeth Lochley negotiates for the telepaths to remain temporarily on the station.

It is later revealed in "Secrets of the Soul" (episode 7) that Byron had trained with the Psi Corps. In fact, he had interned with the Psi Cops and was the protégé of the famous/infamous Alfred Bester. This later episode also revealed that he was part of Bester's elite Black Omega squadron, and had deserted after receiving orders to fire upon defenseless mundanes (non-telepaths).

The Psi Corps Trilogy books by Gregory Keyes expand on this apparent crisis of conscience a little. Byron and his ship appear to have crashed or been lost around Venus, but this turns out to be a ruse to effect his desertion without raising suspicions.

A second major shift in Byron's outlook occurs in as the result of a romantic relationship with telepath Lyta Alexander that evolves over several episodes of the television series. Lyta and Byron find comfort and acceptance in each other, however intimate moments ("Secrets of the Soul" (episode 7)) eventually unlock secrets of the Vorlons hidden deep within Lyta's mind. It is revealed to Byron that the Vorlons had generated telepaths as weapons in their war against the Shadows. Byron is shown as angered by this. As the Vorlons are no longer around to be blamed, he decides that the remaining races who had been "saved" by telepaths owe him and his people a new homeland. Furthermore, from comments of his in "The Paragon of Animals" and other episodes, it is clear that in his own way, he despises mundanes just as much as Bester does.

In "In the Kingdom of the Blind" (episode 9), Byron threatens the members of the Interstellar Alliance with the revelation of their deepest secrets. The aim of this exercise is increased leverage to further his and his followers' goal of a new telepath homeworld. However, Byron's mental intimidation merely caused conflicts to rapidly escalate, and the Psi Corps is called in to arrest Byron and his followers. While many remained with Byron in a starvation protest sealed in their colony, a group of renegades take a more aggressive stance attacking station personnel and seizing hostages. Amongst the hostages are Garibaldi and Dr Franklin.

In a story arc carried over several episodes ("A Tragedy of Telepaths" (episode 10)-"Phoenix Rising" (episode 11)) Byron is portrayed as distraught over killing in his name; this is not how he wanted the battle to be fought. With the aid of Lyta Alexander, he is able to free the hostages and kill the leader of the renegade telepaths. He surrenders under the condition that those who did not take part in the violence would be freed; the renegades and himself would turn themselves in to station security. While these terms are agreed to by Sheridan, the appearance of Alfred Bester during the surrender precipitates a shooting battle, during which many telepaths and security members are killed. Byron, not wanting to return to Psi Corps, fires into a chemical leak, causing an explosion and turning himself and the other renegades into martyrs.

In the aftermath shown at the end of "Phoenix Rising", Lyta Alexander takes over Byron's mission for a telepath homeland or homeworld, and she becomes the leader of the telepath resistance.

The actions of Byron's more aggressive followers along with Alfred Bester's own violence against them arguably form the opening moves of the Telepath War.

Miscellaneous humansedit

William Edgarsedit

William Edgars (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) is the founder and CEO of Edgars Industries, the fourth-largest Earth megacorporation and largest pharmaceutical research company on Mars. One of the richest men in the Earth Alliance, Edgars was a powerful member of the plutocracy that held great influence over EarthGov policy. With this influence threatened by President Clark's regime and its empowerment of the Psi Corps, Edgars conspired to gain a means of control over telepaths, and to ultimately neutralize them if necessary. He acquired a leftover Shadow-tech biological weapon through the black market, and developed it into a virus that infects telepaths, killing them unless they regularly take an antidote also produced by Edgars Industries. This plot was foiled and Edgars was murdered by the Psi Corps after the conspiracy was discovered by Michael Garibaldi, acting as an unwilling infiltration agent. William Edgars is survived by his wife, Lise Hampton, who is the sole known inheritor of his estate.

Lise Hamptonedit

Lise Hampton (Denise Gentile) is Michael Garibaldi's love interest. She appears in seasons one through five. She is also known as Lise Hampton-Edgars and Lise Hampton-Edgars-Garibaldi. She first appears in part two of "A Voice in the Wilderness".

Lise Hampton first met Garibaldi when he was stationed on Mars during the Earth-Minbari War; the pair began an on/off relationship that lasted until Garibaldi accepted the post of Chief of Security aboard Babylon 5. During the Mars Rebellion, Garibaldi becomes concerned about Lise's safety, and learns she has been injured during a riot; Garibaldi is heartbroken when he finds out Lise has married a man named Franz. Lise and Franz later divorce, and Lise marries wealthy industrialist William Edgars, founder and owner of Edgars Industries. When Edgars is murdered by Psi Corps, Lise inherits Edgars Industries, but goes on the run and turns to the Martian underworld for protection; the criminals take Lise hostage for ransom instead. Garibaldi and a group of Rangers rescue Lise.

After the end of the Earth Alliance Civil War, Lise and Garibaldi are married and take joint ownership of Edgars Industries. A rogue faction of Edgars Industries executives hire an assassin to kill Lise and Garibaldi, but Garibaldi learns who is responsible and takes revenge.

In the series finale, "Sleeping in Light", Garibaldi and Lise are still happily married and have a teenage daughter named Mary.

Brother Theoedit

Brother Theo is the leader of a group of Roman Catholic monks living on Babylon 5, who appear in a few episodes of season three.

Brother Theo and his order of Cistercian Trappist monks (from New Melleray Abbey) first come to the station in the episode "Convictions". The group of monks wish to learn more about the varied aliens and their beliefs, and support that work by offering their services as computer experts and engineers. With permission from Church officials and the Babylon 5 command staff, they take up residence in the station. Brother Theo and his monks quickly prove their value when they help review security camera footage to catch a bomber who terrorized residents on the station.

Next, Brother Theo appears in the episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", when he manages to soundly beat John Sheridan in a game of chess. Sheridan is introduced to Brother Edward (Brad Dourif) during the course of the game. Soon, Theo becomes concerned about Brother Edward when the monk begins reporting hearing voices and having flashbacks. Theo, not knowing too much about Edward's past, asks Sheridan and Garibaldi to look into his past. But at the same time Theo is doing the same, and before too long it is learned that Edward was actually the "Black Rose Killer," a serial killer who preyed on women. After being convicted of the crimes, Edward had his mind wiped, and after being presumed dead in a fire had come to the Order with a new personality designed to want to serve society. The families of the victims of the "Black Rose Killer" are not satisfied, and want revenge. Using a Centauri telepath and the intercom system, they manage to break down the memory blocks, and one of the family members mortally wounds Edward. Before dying, Brother Edward is granted absolution by Brother Theo. After the trial and conviction of Brother Edward's killer, Theo takes the newly-mind-wiped man into the order as Brother Malcolm, having forgiven him for killing Edward.

Brother Theo's final appearance was in the episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place". After the station broke away from the Earth Alliance the monks remained on Babylon 5. Brother Theo had helped set up an intelligence network with other religious leaders, and helped bring several of them to Babylon 5 (under the pretext of a conference) to help smuggle this intelligence to the station's command staff.

Anna Sheridanedit

Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert) was John Sheridan's wife. She served as a crew member aboard the Icarus, an Interplanetary Expeditions ship that set down on Z'ha'dum approximately two years before John Sheridan's assignment to Babylon 5. The Icarus and all hands were believed lost at some point during the expedition. In fact, the crew came into contact with the awakening Shadows and at least some crew were "changed" to suit the Shadows' needs. John Sheridan had lived with guilt over his wife's death as he believed himself partly responsible for her accepting a position on the Icarus.

In 2260, Anna (or her body under Shadow control), who had up until that point been used as the living control center of a Shadow vessel, was sent by the Shadows to Babylon 5 to lure John Sheridan to Z'ha'dum. Both traveled there in the White Star. Anna dies (again) at Z'ha'dum when John Sheridan remotely activated the White Star, causing it to fall toward the Shadow compound, and then detonating two high-yield nuclear weapons (500 megatons each) on board the ship.

David Sheridanedit

David Sheridan was the son of the Interstellar Alliance President John Sheridan and his wife Delenn. Sheridan was named after his paternal grandfather David Sheridan. He did not appear in any of the Babylon 5 television episodes or made-for-television movies, but was featured in Out of the Darkness, the third novel in the canon Legions of Fire novel series.

His existence was first established in the two-part "War Without End" episode from the third season of Babylon 5 when his father traveled forward in time briefly and was told by Delenn that they had a son. This foreshadowing served to alter the tone of the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn, which was at that point still developing. It also served as part of the motivation for Sheridan's actions at the end of the third season, which in turn resolved many of the major plotlines thus far in the show. The final episode of season four, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" contains a reference to an incident involving David, in a segment set one hundred years later, but does not detail the nature of this.

Towards the end of the fifth and final season of Babylon 5, Delenn finally became pregnant with him. His birth takes place off-camera between the penultimate episode, "Objects at Rest", and the final episode, "Sleeping in Light", set some 19 years later. In "Sleeping in Light", we learn that David was in training with the Rangers at the time of his father's death. That was after the resolution of the trap set for him and his parents by the Drakh, who used Mollari as their unwilling agent.

According to the DVD commentary for the final episode of Babylon 5, "Sleeping in Light," Straczynski decided not to have David Sheridan appear in that episode, partly because he hadn't figured out how he wanted David to look, and partly because he feared that debuting an important character would detract from the story he wanted to tell in that episode.

David Sheridan finally appeared in the Peter David novel Out of the Darkness as a main character, where he brings his story full circle by, under the control of the evil Drakh, luring his parents to Centauri Prime, thus creating the situation that his father stumbled into in "War Without End", and explaining the reference in "Deconstruction of Falling Stars". David is saved when the Drakh controlling him is killed, thus causing David's Keeper to wither and die.

Catherine Sakaiedit

Catherine Sakai (Julia Nickson-Soul, credited as Julia Nickson) is the love interest of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair in the first-season episodes "The Parliament of Dreams", "Mind War" and "Chrysalis". The two have a long on-again, off-again relationship, though at the end of "Chrysalis" they announce their engagement.

Sakai is an independent planet surveyor and operates the survey ship "Skydancer". G'Kar warns her against surveying Sigma 957, but she does not take his advice. She then becomes one of the first humans to come across the "First Ones", who make their home there. Her ship is damaged, and her death imminent, but she is rescued by a ship sent by G'Kar.

In the canonical novel "To Dream in the City of Sorrows", we learn that Sakai has joined the Rangers. During a mission with them, she disappears into a time rift. It's suggested in that novel that her disappearance was one of the reasons Sinclair went back in time with Babylon 4.

Mordenedit

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=List_of_Babylon_5_characters
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