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According to Joshua Tyler
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Sci-fi movies and TV shows are full of big space battles, but it’s rare to see them attempt realism. There have been a few exceptions recently. Area wowed audiences with its realistic portrayal of future space battles. 2000s Battlestar Galactica used basic Newtonian physics to create some of the most incredible space slugs ever captured on screen.
Long before one of those shows science fiction the series innovated massive, more scientifically accurate space battles using new technology beyond anything anyone had seen before. The show was also the first ever to use CGI on television. It changed everything about the way science fiction was made.
You’re about to find out what happens when the last, best hope for peace fails. These are the best space battles Babylon 5ranked from great to greatest.
4. Battle for Proximus 3 (Season Four No Surrender, No Retreat)
With the Shadow War over, Babylon 5’s Captain John Sheridan can turn his attention to solving Earth’s problems. This is bad news for President Clark, the corrupt totalitarian dictator who has taken over. Clark orders Earth Force ships to begin attacking civilian targets, and Sheridan can’t let it stand.
A fleet of 6 Omega-class destroyers, led by Captain Trevor Hall aboard the EAS Heracles, is ordered to blockade Proxima 3, a human colony that has broken away from Earth. Sheridan decides that this is where he wants to make a statement.
The foreign the allies who helped Sheridan during the Shadow War have signed neutrality treaties and will not be involved. Sheridan moves on Proxima with a fleet of white stars and every fighter craft he can find.
The battle does not begin immediately. This is an Earth-on-Earth conflict, and neither side wants to kill their brothers and sisters. Sheridan begs the other side to run, offers them amnesty, offers them anything if they stop supporting the corrupt Earth government.
Captain Hall is in command and is uninterested in Sheridan’s speeches. He is loyal to Clark, and while some of the other ships accept Sheridan’s offer, Hall launches an attack.
Earth forces are no match for Sheridan’s White Star fleet, and with the support of Babylon 5’s fighter squadrons, it is clear that Hall cannot win. Hall refuses to surrender, intending to fight to the last, but his crew mutinies. They surrender and the battle is over.
3. Liberation of the Earth (End of Season 4)
From the very beginning, the Civil War of the Earth Alliance was looming in the background of everything that happened on Babylon 5. It ends here.
To set the tone right, Captain John Sheridan moves his command to an Earthship, the EAS Agamemnon. Agamemnon was his previous command before being moved to Babylon 5.
Over Mars, a fleet of 36 destroyers face Earth, led by General Leftcourt, a man loyal to the corrupt Earth President Clark. Sheridan is ready for them. He’s been smuggling shadow-modified telepaths aboard Earth ships for weeks.
Sheridan launches a diversion and attacks the planet’s bases with his White Stars. He orders the telepath Lyta to activate the telepaths smuggled aboard Earth ships. He wakes up and takes out most of Earth’s destroyers. The remaining 10 ships are effortlessly taken out of service by the White Star fleet.
At the moment things seem to be going well, but that will soon change. Earth is surrounded by a series of defense platforms, and when President Clark realizes that it’s all over, he decides to turn them on his own planet. The battle becomes a race against time to destroy the platforms before they destroy the Earth’s population.
Meanwhile, the other alien races that supported Sheridan during the Shadow War stayed out of the fight at Sheridan’s wish. Despite previously avoiding human-to-human conflict, G’Kar and Londo are determined to support their human friends. They had previously convinced the others in Sheridan’s Alliance of Light to form and go to the rescue.
They all arrive on Earth. Sheridan and the White Stars. Earth allied ships. The Minbari, the Centaurs, the Narn, and the League of Unconnected Worlds. Every race in the galaxy comes with one common goal: to save Earth.
They attack Earth’s defense platforms in a desperate attempt to save the planet. It works but very slowly. Sheridan’s ship, the Agamemnon, is damaged and its weapon systems disabled. There’s one platform left and it’s about to launch into the planet. Sheridan orders a raid and sends his ship and its crew to their deaths.
Then, at the last second, General Leftcourt arrives. He repaired his ship and upon hearing what Clark had done, decides to switch sides. A former enemy teams up with Sheridan in one final battle to save the human race, and the last platform is destroyed.
The earth is liberated. Clark commits suicide. The civil war is over.
2. Battle of Coriana VI (Season 4’s Into The Fire)
The Shadow War rages on. To combat the threat of the Shadows, Captain Sheridan of Babylon 5 formed the Alliance of Light, composed of forces from the Narn, Minbari, and smaller unrelated worlds in the galaxy.
The Vorlons they thought were their allies revealed themselves to be villains no different from the Shadows. They are destroying entire planets to destroy all Shadow influence. It’s not going well.
It all culminates on a heavily populated planet called Coriana VI. Sheridan lures both Shadow and Vorlon forces to this one place.
Until now, the two elder races had avoided fighting each other. Instead, they use others as pawns in a perpetual argument against themselves. Sheridan’s plan is to force the Vorlons and Shadows to face each other, even though he knows his forces will be caught in the middle.
He has an ace in the hole. The Vorlons and Shadows aren’t the only Elder races left in the Galaxy. Sheridan sends Ivanova to recruit the last remnants of the other Firsts. Whether they will appear when called upon is unknown.
The battle begins. The Shadows and Vorlons fall into Sherdian’s trap. The ancient enemies are so laser-focused on each other that the two megapowers ignore Sheridan’s vastly inferior army of light.
Refusing to be ignored, Sheridan attacked, using the mined asteroids as a trap. Now the Vorlons and Shadows are angry. They turn to attack the army of light.
The battle quickly turns into a huge fireball of destruction, with the three fleets tearing each other apart. The Army of Light is not doing well; they are decimated. Sheridan calls for help and that’s when the First appears. Each person brings only one ship, but one ship is enough.
There are now four fleets involved instead of three, and the battle becomes even more chaotic. The first destroys the Vorlon Planet Killer and saves Coriana VI.
The Shadows engulf Sheridan’s fleet in a cloud of death, bringing the battle to a halt. Both the Vorlons and the Shadows appear to Sheridan and Delenna, demanding that they choose one of their sides. Babylon 5’s power couple refuses.
Enraged, the Shadows begin firing missiles at Sheridan’s command ship, the White Star 2. Each time they do so, the ships of the Alliance of Lights throw themselves into the missile’s path, sacrificing themselves to save their leaders.
The Vorlons and Shadows surrender to the decision of Sheridan and his people to commit suicide rather than choose a side. The eldest of the First, Lorien, convinces them to leave the Galaxy and move on. The Shadow War is finally over.
1. Battle for Babylon 5 (Severed Dreams Season 3)
The battle for Babylon 5 is something the series has been building towards for three seasons. We’ve watched the Earth government and crew of Babylon 5 respond to it becoming more and more authoritarian and corrupt.
Sometimes there are hidden signs of the rottenness of earthly government in the background. Sometimes they were front and center in the story. It was done gradually. We know it, and the Babylon 5 crew knows it.
Captain Sheridan tried to remain neutral, but it would not last. In episode 3 “Severed Dreams”, he is forced to take a stand. This attitude leads to immediate conflict.
The corrupt president of Earth has ordered a fleet of Earth forces to attack and destroy the ships of those disloyal to his regime. One of these ships, an Omega-class destroyer called EAS Alexander, is forced to fight back. The ship’s commander, Ed Ryan, realizes that there is only one refuge left for him and his crew. That place is Babylon 5.
Alexander and another Omega-class destroyer, the Churchhill, soon arrive at Babylon 5. Sheridan is ordered to surrender them or fight the government and the planet he’s sworn to protect. Sheridan and his crew decided to fight.
He announces the independence of Babylon 5 and prepares for battle. The country sends a task force to put him and all those who support him in prison. A battle ensues.
The attack force consists of two Omega-class destroyers and two Hyperion-class heavy cruisers. Babylon 5 has its defense network, its fighters and two Omega class destroyers.
Sheridan and his captains hesitate to fire on other Earth Force vessels. Until recently, the people aboard their enemy ships were friends and colleagues. Their opponents aren’t that interested in holding back, and so the battle begins.
Babylon 5 launches its fighters and activates the defense network. The station and its allies return fire. Explosions are everywhere. The enemy launches penetration pods and they begin dropping troops on the station in an attempt to take it over. Babylon 5 is ready to repel the Frontiersmen, but the Earth ships are outnumbered.
One of Babylon 5’s ships, the Churchhill, is critically damaged. Her captain decides to sacrifice himself and his crew to destroy the remaining attacker.
One Omega-class destroyer remains, but Captain Sheridan orders the station to focus fire. She is badly damaged and Sheridan pleads with her commander to surrender. It’s too late and the ship explodes.
The battle is over; Sheridan thinks they survived. It isn’t and they don’t have it.
New jump gates open and more Earth Force ships appear. Two more Omega-class destroyers and a Hyperion-class destroyer head for the now depleted Babylon 5. Sheridan and his crew prepare to die.
That’s when the Minbari arrive and Delenn delivers perhaps the greatest speech in science fiction history.
“Only one human captain has ever survived a battle with a Minbari fleet. He’s behind me. You are ahead of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”
Terrified by the superior Minbari ships, the Earth fleet runs to the jump gate and does not return. Babylon 5’s independence is secured and the battle is over for now.
