The races of Babylon 5 based on fictional sci-fi books

[love_nutz2]

I'm looking to define the races of babylon 5, I've got two figured out but I need a bit of help, here what I got so far.


Earth Alliance:

Its pretty clear who we are base, the main archetype is clearly Arthur C. Clark, his works are translated to the technology of the show, from the gravity axis on the ships is clearly show in 2010: the year we make contact, Phillip K. Dick also shows some influences the dark aspect of the Earth Alliance and along with Mars, etc. If you wish to add further, be free to do so. I also suspect isaac asimov's foundation books to be a bases and a hint of starship troopers also.

Centauri Republic:

These guys are clearly based off Dune, with the royal houses, the monarchy systems, etc. but they appear to be heavy based on the House Harkonnen for the most part, but with slight hints of House Atreides too for redeeming qualities.

Narn Regime:

Now, I have no clue who the Narn are based off, but I would suspect fremen from the Dune novels also, be free to correct me.

Minbari Federation:

Not a clue to be fair, but I'm guessing a novel series with space nomads?

Give us your opinions and ad more expansive knowledge to this thread.

 

[Remus]

Interesting idea for a thread. I agree with your assessment of the inspirational sources for the Earth Alliance and Centaury Republic, no idea on the others though.

 

[love_nutz2]

I just thought it was a great idea to take the best aspects of a sci-fi genres and combine 'em together, really clever idea for a TV at the time, like with star trek it clear that klingons, romulans, borg & etc are based on earth's Culture, Ideology and Society of times on earth, borg = the communist machine, cardassians = Orwell Big Brother Society.

I love that in sci-fi, but I've never seen it done as well in B5.

http://www.b5tv.com/showthread.php?t=11981

 

[Remus]

I think the portrayal of humanity in Babylon 5 is much more realistic than in something like Star Trek. If anything we're closer to the mirror universe Earth from Star Trek.

 

[love_nutz2]

Yep, were still going to be as violent, power hunger as we are now, the human races had barely changed from the basics, fashions, technology may change, humans will not unless we mess with are genetic to make us the peace loving hippies of the Star Trek ERA.

Mirror universe Earth from Star Trek would likely happen to us if we fell into a dark age at point where we had the technology to go into before the dark age had fully taken hold, just there will be no advancement.

 

[Hot Soup]

B5 had lots of influences, JMS himself has said there was lots of things which inspired many of the B5 themes.

The Centauri can certainly be compared to the great houses of Dune , along with ancient Rome for the broader cultural and sociological themes of that race. Cartagia is a bit of a Caligula type figure , theres the use of poison , the political intrigue , whilst by no means unique to Rome , there's lots of nice parallels.

I always enjoyed come of the smaller influences and homages like , Alfred Bester, the great machine and Forbidden Planet , the greek myth referencing , JFK, King Arthur and LOTR to name a few

 

[Sliver]

King Arthur was the funniest episode in the entire run. I'm rewatching the entire series again, some of the earlier foreshadowing is insane.

 

[Hot Soup]

Yeah good ep that , Gkar the Red Knight is great heh. B5 is one of those shows I try and rewatch every year , so good

And yes the foreshadowing is superb, when you see some of the stuff from season one which crops up in 3 and so on and so forth. I kinda wish JMS had the money to do it all again with a bigger budget or the movie that never got off the ground.

 

[Sliver]

Yeah, he stated that the only way he would do more B5 work is with a big budget. But with the death of both Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs I can't see that happening, sadly.

 

[love_nutz2]

:'(

May they rest in piece.

 

[Warped]

My best friend and I watched B5 a few years back, its a truly great show and hopefully someday they'll continue the story

 

[Hot Soup]

Yeah, he stated that the only way he would do more B5 work is with a big budget. But with the death of both Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs I can't see that happening, sadly.

Aye those two guys were a loss. They did the lost tales without them which were ok , a good showcase for much better effects, but it'd certainly be strange doing something bigger without them. I'd be interested to see a whole BSG style re-imagining , not necessarily with the original cast.

At the very least more lost tales would be nice!