Between the Candle and the Star: Babylon 5, Science Fiction and Television Narrative Jan Johnson-Smith A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 2001 -i - Between the Candle and the Star: Babylon 5, Science Fiction and Television Narrative by Jan Johnson-Smith iii Abstract This dissertation explores the limits and possibilities of science fiction at the level of television. It examines the narrative strategies of the television series Babylon 5, arguing that the programme has created a radical new sf discourse for television. In doing so, Babylon 5 has also created a new form of television narrative. The Introduction establishes the parameters of the study. Part One examines science fiction in context, considering how the genre may be identified, and in Part Romantic Two, examines its possible precursors and the influences of the epic, the novel (particularly the Gothic) and Sublime. It also considers the role and in American visualisation of the Western and the epic settlement of the frontier mytho-history. Part Three establishes the general criteria for an aesthetics of television, discussing television narrative, and examining episodic and serial drama, soap opera, before considering issues of authorship and industry. It also explores representations of sf on television with series such as Star Trek; Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Dr Who, The X Files, Space: Above and Beyond and Stargate: SG-1. Part Four examines the five-season text of Babylon 5, arguing that in form and content it creates an ideological break with the binary ideology of the past, creating a new form of television which is both epic and novelistic, serial and episodic in nature. Part Five concludes the dissertation, proposing that Babylon 5 offers the first television epic and creates a discourse where the ideology of the past and the values of traditional television sf are questioned and subverted, resulting in a new mythos based upon the infinite discourse of diverse humanity. iv BETWEEN THE CANDLE AND THE STAR: Babylon 5, Science Fiction and Television Narrative Volume 1: Copyright Statement: page ii Title: page iii Abstract: page iv Contents Page: page v List Tables, Illustrations of and Extracts page vi Acknowledgements: page ix Dedication: page xi Author's Declaration: page xii Introduction: Points Departure Synopsis of - Introduction and page 1 Part One: Signs Portents Context and - Science Fiction in page 17 Part Two: Between Darkness Sublime the and the Light - Speculations page 61 Part Three: A Voice in Wilderness the - Television Narrative and Science Fiction page 113 Part Four: The Geometry Shadows of - Babylon 5 and the Light of Destiny page 181 Part Five: And the Sky Full of Stars - Conclusion page 267 Works Cited: page 275 Additional Critical and Fictional Bibliography: page 285 Filmography and Teleography: page 288 Appendices: A- Babylon 5 character arcs/episode guide/cast list page 292 13 Sample - Television Listings page 305 C- Interview with Eric Chauvin page 306 D- Introductory voice-overs for Seasons 1-5 page 309 E- Interview with Ron Thornton by Eric Reinholt page 312 Volume 2: Video Extracts 1-25. Please see video cassette v TABLES, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND VIDEO EXTRACTS TABLES Table 1: Babylon 5 Timescale page 5 Table 2: Narrative/Plot page 131 ILLUSTRATIONS (between pages 112-113) Figure 1: Albert Bierstadt: YosemiteValley: Glacier Point Trail (1872[?]) Figure 2: Fitz Hugh Lane: Becalmed off Halfway Rock (1860) Figure 3: Fitz Hugh Lane: Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay (1860) Figure 4: Fitz Hugh Lane: Brace's Rocks, Brace's Cove (1864) Figure 5: Thomas Cole: View on the Catskill, Early Autumn (1837) Figure 6: Thomas Cole: River in the Catskills (1843) Figure 7: Albert Bierstadt: Surveyor's Wagon in the Rocky Mountains (c. 1859) Figure 8: Albert Bierstadt: Wind River Country (1860) Figure 9: Albert Bierstadt: The Oregon Trail (1869) Figure 10: Albert Bierstadt: Valley of the Yosemite(1864) Figure 11: Albert Bierstadt: The Last of the Buffalo (1888) Figure 12: Albert Bierstadt: The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (1863) Figure 13: Frederic Edwin Church: Twilight in the Wilderness (1860) Figure 14: Albert Bierstadt: Sunset in YosemiteValley (1868) vi VIDEO EXTRACTS 1) Babvlon 5: Opening credits and voice-over: "The Gathering" pilot episode. 2) Star Trek: Opening credits and voice-over. 3) Babylon 5: Season One: Opening credits and voice-over. 4) Babylon 5: Season Two: Opening credits and voice-over. 5) Babylon S: Season Three: Opening credits and voice-over. 6) Babylon 5: Season Four: Opening credits and voice-over. 7) Babylon 5: Season Five: Opening credits and voice-over. 8a) Babylon 5: Lady Ladira's vision, from "Signs and Portents" (1.13). 8b) Babylon 5: Babylon 5's demise from "Sleeping in Light" (5.22), (includes part of Ivanova's final voiceover). 9a) Babylon 5: Vir and Morden from "Signs and Portents". 9b) Babylon 5: Vir and Morden from "Into the Fire" (4.06). 10) Babylon 5: Delenn's speech from "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" (2.16). 11) Babylon 5: Lorien and Sheridan from "Whatever Happened to Mr Garibaldi'? " (4.01). 12a) Babylon 5: Shadow and encounter-suited Vorlon from "Into the Fire" (including Sheridan and Delenn's rejection of binary ideology). 12b) Babylon 5: Vorlon out of encounter-suit from "Falling Towards Apotheosis" (4.04). 13a) The Next Generation: the bridge and viewscreen from "Face of the Enemy". 13b) Voyager: the bridge and viewscreen from "Once Upon a Time". 14) Stargate: SG -1. Opening credits. 15) Babylon 5: The Centauri Imperial vessels depart following Turhan's death: "The Coming of Shadows" (2.03). 16a) Babylon 5: Normal space, a jump-ate and hyperspace from "A Distant Star" (2.04). 16b) Voyager: Coming from trans-warp speed to normal space from "Timeless". 17) Babylon 5: Alien ships and the First Ones from "Into the Fire". 18) Babylon S: The battle from "Shadow Dancing" (3.21). 19) Babylon 5: Delenn's explanation of "the universe made manifest" in "A Distant Star". 20) The Next Generation: Opening credits and voice-over. 21) Voyager: Opening credits and voice-over. 22) Babylon 5: G'Kar's closing voice-over from "Z'ha'dum" (3.22). 23) Babylon 5: Lorien and Sheridan in "Sleeping in Light". 24) Babylon 5: Sheridan and Delenn in the golden dawn from "Sleeping in Light". 25) Babylon 5: Closing titles from "Sleeping in Light". vii Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow (T. S. Eliot: "The Hollow Men" 1925) viii Acknowledgements Thanks must first go to John Ellis at Bournemouth, and Andy Medhurst at Sussex, for their support, faith, and supervision over the past three years. Bournemouth University's Research Centre in Performance and Audience in Media Arts generously funded a sabbatical, allowing me to pursue just this project from April to July 2000. My thanks again to John Ellis for this, and also for the loan of a research laptop, without which this could not have been written! Thanks to Andrew Ireland for his splendid video editing, James Jordan for advice and help with the colour plates, and to Chris Wensley and Penny Cooke for their editorial advice. My gratitude also to Majid Yasin and Osman at the Bournemouth Islamic Centre for their patient explanation of passages from The Holy Qur-mi. Eric Chauvin and Andy Lane gave candid and helpful email interviews, Eric Reinholt kindly gave permission to use his interview with Ron Thornton, and, although we were sadly unable to complete the interviews as we'd hoped, I wish to thank both Ron and John lacovelli for their time. I was unable to obtain an interview with J. M. Straczynski, but I am grateful beyond words for what was achieved in Babylon 5. There arc so many other people to whom I owe much, but in particular my thanks go to Sandie, Sheila, Deborah, Verity, Jacqui, Sue, Sharen, Ruth and Tim for keeping me in order (or not), and for being the best sort of administrative colleagues. Also, for a variety of reasons, sensible and silly, thank you to: Jonathan Auckland, Richard Berger, Hugh Chignell, Stephen Deutsch, Chris Donlan, John Foster, Steve Griffiths, David Hanson, Gary Hayton, Kavita Hayton, Matt Holland, Dan Howard, Paul Inman, Jan Lewis, Julia McCain, Byron Jacobs, Mark Jones, Will Jones, Geoff King, Gavin Matthews, James Morrison, Marc and Judy O'Day, Jo Robinson, Mike Robinson, Tim Smith, Sean Street, Gareth Thomas, Rob Turnock, Emma Warwood and John Whitley. A very real thank you to my classmates and students at Sussex, Clark, Suffolk and now Bournemouth, who remind me why I do this: you really do make it worthwhile. Also, to my parents for supplying me with submarine stories to maintain some semblance of sanity amid it all, and particularly to my father, for introducing me to sf in the first place. Ir A special thank you to Catherine Boyce, not only for being definitely the best lodger in the world, but also for providing copious bottles of wine to share (which doubtless explain most of the following), and for putting up with sudden and probably highly uninteresting diatribes about science fiction, westerns, and American landscape painting, in the kitchen, lounge, hall, dining room, stairs, bathroom, garden.... etc. Finally, I wonder how this was ever completed with the plethora of furry felines who chewed, bounced and walked all over the laptop, day and night. More importantly, I doubt very much that this would have been completed were it not for them - Thomas and Tabitha, better known as T2: JudgementMogs, and the Mogbads, Jack Wabbit and Willow. Tabitha, we miss you.