List of Babylon 5 characters
The list of Babylon 5 characters contains characters from the entire Babylon 5 universe. In the Babylon 5 television show, the Babylon space stations are conceived as sites of diplomacy and cultural exchange. There are five dominant civilizations represented in the Babylon 5 universe: Humans, Narn, Centauri, Minbari and Vorlons; and several dozen less powerful ones. A number of the less powerful races make up the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, which assembled as a result of the Dilgar War occurring 30 years before the start of the series.
Main characters
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 decision for the character and actor to depart as a regular. 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.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. 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.
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
played Captain John Sheridan, 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, second-in-command of Babylon 5, was portrayed by Claudia Christian.Ivanova is initially portrayed as a competent leader who values her work above all else. The show emphasizes her Russian heritage and gradually reveals a tragic backstory that informs her character's actions.
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. He is named after the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi.In the first three seasons, Garibaldi serves as chief of security aboard the space station Babylon 5. He holds 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. 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". 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. 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 hides her status as a leader of the Grey Council. At the start of the 2nd season, Delenn uses a special artifact to transform into a half-human, half-Minbari hybrid. Her transformation is initially treated with suspicion by humans and Minbari alike. Delenn was instrumental 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.
Delenn and John Sheridan fall in love, which drives 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. 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.