Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998) (TV)

Director:

Jesús Salvador Treviño

Writers:

J. Michael Straczynski (creator)
J. Michael Straczynski (written by)

Release Date:

19 July 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The crew of Babylon 5 discover an ancient artifact floating in hyperspace.

Plot Keywords:

Space | Telepathy | Alien Technology | Spacecraft | Alien Invasion

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Bruce Boxleitner	...	Capt. John J. Sheridan
Claudia Christian	...	Susan Ivanova
Mira Furlan	...	Delenn
Richard Biggs	...	Stephen Franklin, M.D.
Jeff Conaway	...	Zack Allen
Stephen Furst	...	Vir Cotto
Patricia Tallman	...	Lyta Alexander
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Bill Morishi
Shari Belafonte	...	Elizabeth Trent
William Sanderson	...	Deuce
Kip King	...	Leo
Floyd Levine	...	Alex
Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter	...	Merchant
Joshua Cox	...	Lt. David Corwin
Judson Mills	...	Delta Seven

Also Known As:

Babylon 5: Guardians (USA) (working title)
Thirdspace (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | Germany:12 | Finland:S | Iceland:12

Company:

Babylonian Productions

Trivia:

When they finished editing the movie for broadcast, the producers found out that they were actually a few minutes short so the elevator scene with Zack and Lyta was added.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Even if the carbon ratios from the artifact's origin were known, Carbon-14 dating is only effective for dating things to about 60,000 years. Other radioisotopes would be used to date anything much older, yet Ivanova says that carbon dating determined the object is over a million years old.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sheridan: [voiceover] It was the middle of the Earth year 2261. The year between wars and the beginning of a new age. The Shadow war was over, but there was still a darkness waiting for us at home...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dead Space (2008) (VG)

A good adventure yarn

"Thirdspace" doesn't pretend to be anything other than light (or maybe dark is a better word) adventure, and it works fine on that basis. Admittedly, I have a weakness for "humanity finds a really old alien artifact out there and tries to figure out what it's for" stories. Such stories are often disappointing because we never find out what it's for; in "Thirdspace", we do find out, and then everyone rather wishes they hadn't.

Sterling special effects and a good script make this the best of the B5 TV-movies so far (through "River of Souls"). The plot is a little dodgy in that the degree of control the denizens of Thirdspace exert over the gate to their dimension seems inexplicable great, but overall the tension is high through most of the episode, and it's good to see Ivanova again.