Babylon 5 Magazine Issue 19 Review

First Published: 02/06/00

Issue 19 of The Official Babylon 5 Magazine focuses on Commander Jeffrey Sinclair. It contains an interview with the actor who played him and an extensive look at one of his most pivotal episodes. The cover sports a photograph of the Michael O'Hare as Jeffrey Sinclair.

Features

The interview with Michael O'Hare is very revealing. While he maintains his silence about the events surrounding his departure from Babylon 5 at the end of the first season, he does reveal that there were significant pressures from PTEN throughout the season. He is adamant that Joe Straczynski was not part of the problem and recounts several examples of Straczynski's personal generosity. O'Hare also talks about how Babylon 5 affected him.

Part two of the massive Babylon 5 Official Chronology spans the time period from 2013 to 2198. In addition to being well researched, the timeline has an attractive graphic design and lavish illustrations. The timeline began in Issue 18.

Part two of Stoddard Hayes' three-part analysis of John Sheridan covers the events of Season Four. This article provides insight into the significant changes Sheridan underwent during this time, most of them very painful. Part one was in Issue 17.

Stoddard Hayes also provides an analysis of the Centauri. She discusses their history, culture, politics, and religion (or lack thereof). She theorizes how this culture produced the several prominent Centauri characters who lend so much color to Babylon 5.

Issue 19 provides an extract from Legions of Fire: The Long Night of Centauri Prime, the new novel by Peter David. The section printed is the first half of Chapter 1. This fiction is accompanied by a short interview with Peter David about this book as well as the rest of his association with the Babylon 5 universe.

Episode Examination

The "Station Log" for this month continues the focus on Jeffrey Sinclair with an examination of "And the Sky Full of Stars". This feature provides a synopsis and background information on the episode. Michael O'Hare, director Janet Greek, and J. Michael Straczynski discuss their contributions to this episode.

Regular Columns

The Babylon 5 Magazine includes several regular columns. "ISN News" contains short news articles about Babylon 5, Crusade, and their casts and crews. The hot news this month is that Babylon 5 short stories will be printed in the magazine beginning with a story from J. Michael Straczynski in Issue 22. Fiona Avery prints excerpts from her journal in her "Illuminations" column.

The "Zocalo" reports on the latest Babylon 5 merchandise. This month it also covers Frontier Earth, the new novel by Bruce Boxleitner. "The Great Machine" is a forum in which Fiona Avery answers your questions about the Babylon 5 universe. "Lines of Communication" prints letters from readers.

The issue is concluded by J. Michael Straczynski's "The Last Word". There are two columns this month. Last month's column about mainstream fiction and science fiction is reprinted due to the printing error that truncated it last month. In his current column, Straczynski tells the story of his series project with Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files) that was terminated by Fox. The series was tentatively titled The World on Fire.

Conclusion

The Official Babylon 5 Magazine is published by Titan Magazines in the UK, and it is also available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This issue is more feature-rich than the average issue, making it an exceptional value.