A while back I finished my Babylon 5 edit of the entire series. I love the series but I wanted to put together an edit that which removes plot threads that go nowhere, fix a few inconsistencies, and removed the stories that don’t add to the major arc stories.

I’ve put together a series of 22 films that tell the entire Babylon 5 story while removing all of the filler. In some cases, this means just stitching three episodes together in sequence while in other cases, I’ve modified story elements and rearranged some things. In the case of Babylon Squared / War Without End, I’ve removed some of the inconsistencies to create a more seamless story, even adding more of B-Squared back into WWE.

My edit works for long time fans and newcomers. A few people have told me they couldn’t get into the series before and this helped them get into it.

SEASON ONE

Babylon 5 Project I: Dawn of the Third Age
Babylon 5 Project II: Signs and Portents

These two films condense most of season one into about 4 hours. Talia’s role has been minimized throughout.

SEASON TWO

Babylon 5 Project III: Moments of Revelation
Babylon 5 Project IV: The Coming of Shadows
Babylon 5 Project V: The Long, Twilight Struggle
Babylon 5 Project VI: The Fall of Night

Season two is a bit odd in that it includes both the season finale of season 1 and season premiere of season 3. In both cases it has to do with new characters who are more slowly introduced in these edits.

SEASON THREE

Babylon 5 Project VII: Point of No Return
Babylon 5 Project VIII: Severed Dreams
Babylon 5 Project IX: Interludes and Examinations
Babylon 5 Project X: War Without End
Babylon 5 Project XI: No Hiding Place
Babylon 5 Project XII: In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum

This is the season where the series really begins to shine. As such, there aren’t as many changes here as there were in previous seasons. Films 7 and 9 are where most of the condensing of episodes happen.

SEASON FOUR

Babylon 5 Project XIII: The Summoning
Babylon 5 Project XIV: Into the Fire
Babylon 5 Project XV: Lines of Communication
Babylon 5 Project XVI: Moments of Transition
Babylon 5 Project XVII: No Surrender No Retreat
Babylon 5 Project XVIII: Endgame

Like season three, there wasn’t very much to change here. The only real truncating of several episodes happens in film 15 and only two episodes are removed entirely.

SEASON FIVE

Babylon 5 Project XIX: A Tragedy of Telepaths
Babylon 5 Project XX: Darkness Ascending
Babylon 5 Project XXI: The Wheel of Fire
Babylon 5 Project XXII: Sleeping in Light

The first half of season 5 was really slow and the whole story arc of 11 episodes was truncated into a single 2.5 hour film. The series finale features a time jump so I used that to bookend the film version.

How Much Has Been Cut?
I’ve cut about 45% out of the series entirely with a large amount coming from the first two seasons. If you want to get into some specific numbers, here’s what has been cut:

Season 1: 60% removed
Season 2: 52% removed
Season 3: 29% removed
Season 4: 17% removed
Season 5: 31% removed