Remembering Babylon 5: What Was The Hook?
Fans of Babylon 5 I’m sure will agree on at least one thing – it was the riddle of the Vorlons and the Shadows that kept us coming back for more. These two races of beings were so far in advance of us that they no longer had material bodies, they were beings of pure energy. In order to even relate to us lesser evolved beings they had to put their life essence into what was called encounter suits.
This mystery was the thread that ran through the entire series and it was this that kept many of us die hard science fiction fans coming back again and again for more. We eventually learn that the Vorlons and the Shadows were billions of years ahead of us. That they were in fact among the “first ones” to come into existence in our galaxy.
They were as far removed from us as we were from ants, and yet they were interested in us to a degree. But was this for our purposes or for their own? The answer to this question is what kept many of us returning to this show. We wanted to know why such beings would have any interest in us at all if they were so evolved. It became clear that these two races were aware of each other but they avoided each other deliberately, as if there existed a great divide between them.
The Vorlons made themselves known to a select number of Minbari and Humans, always present but never involved, as if just watching us. The most they would do is advise us or warn us of a time that was soon coming that would bring chaos and destruction and threaten our very existence. But they would not get involved directly or help us in any real sense. All they kept saying was that it was our time not theirs.
The Shadows on the other hand got involved directly. They chose individuals from the lesser races with whom they gave aid to. When needed, the Shadows would not hesitate to use their far superior warships to tip the balance in some dispute between the lesser races. Their warships, billions of years ahead of anything else, seemed indestructible and possessed a fire power that was unrivaled. Their shear power was unimaginable to us lesser races.
But what was this great cosmic game the Vorlons and Shadows were playing at? And why were the lesser races paying the cost? If they were beings of light why did they care about the petty disputes between far inferior races? Toward the end of the series we find out it was really nothing more than a difference between ideologies. The Shadows evolved through the process of chaos, war and conflict. It was what made them what they were today. Whereas the Vorlons achieved their position on the top of the evolutionary chain by embracing cold emotionless order and discipline. What these two giants now wanted was for the lesser races to chose one of their ways, to chose order or chaos as the process to their evolution. Which did the lesser races chose? To discover that answer you would have to watch the entire series.
For the Babylon 5 fan, a multimedia showcase of one of the best science fiction shows.
