Speaking as someone who's watching Babylon 5 for the first time and as someone who's only seen the first three seasons, I feel like the third season is the season where the series really came into focus. Everything's lined up into effectively two coalitions. The Shadows who have Earth and the Centauri under their thumb whether they know it or not one side. The Vorlons who have the Minbari, the Narn resistance, Babylon 5, the Rangers, and aligned worlds on the other side. Even Bester is sort of nominally on Babylon 5's side. Clark is the man I love to hate. Probably even moreso than Morden. Yet Clark has had next-to-no screentime. Clark is a villain who has presence without even being seen! That's how evil he is. Kosh would've preferred to bide time, but Sheridan wanted to bring the fight to the Shadows and Delenn helped him to make that possible. Which now means Babylon 5 and its allies will be able to take the fight to the Shadows on more equal ground. It makes me excited about what's to come rather than feel dread about what the Shadows might destroy them. This was a season that pulled no punches. And Vir got punched a lot! Poor Vir.
The character who had the most growth this season had to be G'Kar. From leading a resistance to not being sure, to continuing because his people wanted him to, to finding out what Londo enabled Morden to do, to finally being accepted into the War Council after finding out what Delenn and Kosh knew and having to come to terms with it. Not only did G'Kar have to face a lot, but he also seems a lot wiser now. As Delenn notes, he really has changed. G'Kar now is almost nothing like the G'Kar from "The Gathering".
The character who I thought had the next most growth was Sheridan. He really came into his own this season. At first, he had to hide everything he was doing. To the point where he had to take precautions when Bester came onboard earlier in the season to prevent him from finding out anything that could undermine their Resistance. Then, by the middle of the season, he took the bold move of having Babylon 5 declare independence from Earth. "We're really in it now." Now, he no longer had anything to hide. On top of that, his relationship with Delenn grew to the point of full-on romance. How much courage he has was put on full display when he stood up to someone in an angry mob. "What I've got is what I got" when he gave the asshole is weapon and left himself essentially unarmed. And standing up to Kosh. That took real courage. Finally, getting to see Sheridan and Sinclair on-screen together. Too bad circumstances didn't allow for more of that. And then Sheridan seeing is wife or, more accurately, what the Shadows did to her. Overall, this season gave Sheridan a lot.
This was also a great season for Delenn. She took on the Gray Council, which was now imbalanced and tilted towards the Warrior Caste, and dissolved it through sheer willpower. Without her, not enough of the Minbari would've aided Sheridan. Without her, they wouldn't have the telepaths needed to be able to fight the Shadows. And without her, Earth forces would've have been driven away from Babylon 5. And that's where she gets to deliver her line, "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me."
Londo is partially redeemed this season. At the end of last season, I started to hate Londo. In a "love to hate" way, not that I actually hated him. But now he wants nothing to do with Morden and indirectly got rid of Refa, who did want to have something to do with Morden. But then Morden got Londo back on his side after the death of Adira. One step forward, one step back. But least now Londo doesn't look as irredeemable as he used to. Especially when looking at how things unfold in the future where Londo, as an old man, wants to resist the Shadows, and has G'Kar kill him. Interesting to see the context of G'Kar and Londo's fight to the death. The circumstances were something I never could've imagined.
Now that I'm done with the season, it seems to me like Franklin's arc was only there to give Franklin something to do. The stems drive him to the edge, he gets super angry, then he runs off to go find himself. At first, I thought it might be interesting but, by the time it was over I realized it wasn't.
Ivanova and Garibaldi are the steady hands of the season. They continue to do what they do best: Ivanova's a badass First Officer and Garibaldi's a badass Security Chief. Garibaldi doesn't take any crap from Nightwatch.
I thought Marcus was a good addition to the cast. The Rangers needed a face, and that's Marcus. He looks distinct, he has a distinct personality, and he has a great chemistry with Ivanova. I like the "Will they? Won't they?" thing they have going on with them.
Kosh #2 seems like much more of an asshole than Kosh #1. I like having Lyta back and I hope they do more with her next season.
The White Star, have to mention that, is my favorite Babylon 5 ship. Gone too soon! It was an alien ship that felt truly alien. And it's unusual to have such an alien ship as the hero ship in a science-fiction series. So, I'm glad they had it. And I hope they get a replacement next season.
Finally, I loved finding out that Sinclair was really Valen and finding out more about the Shadow War from 1,000 years ago. It really added to the history and the depth of Babylon 5. It's amazing that Babylon 5 feels as fleshed out in only three years as Star Trek which (at the time) had 30.
That covers everything on the macrolevel. Even if I hadn't averaged everything out with a calculator, I already knew this was my favorite season of Babylon 5 out of the first three. And I'm expecting even better with the fourth. This seems to be the type of series that gets better and better with each and every season. Although I know the fifth season isn't as highly regarded. Which means the fourth season should be the pinnacle of Babylon 5. Can't wait to start watching it! No gap this time. I'll be putting it on as soon as next week.
