In the television series Babylon 5, The Great Machine is an enormous technological complex of networked machines beneath the surface of the planet Epsilon III. It first appears in season 1 two-part episode "A Voice in the Wilderness".
Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a test pilot movie on February 22, 1993, Babylon 5: The Gathering, in May 1993 Warner Bros. commissioned the series for production as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five seasons.
"A Voice in the Wilderness" is a two-part episode from the first season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.
History
The Great Machine was constructed sometime around the earth year 1758, 500 years prior to the establishment of Babylon 5. The identity of the race who built it is unknown, although the race that formerly inhabited the planet did play a part in its maintenance and supervision. Eventually, the offensive potential of the machine provoked a schism in the custodial species between those who sought to use it with restraint against those who sought to use it for conquest. The violent faction was eventually expunged, and knowledge of the planet's location had been lost to them in the process.
Following the exodus, the inhabiting species eventually died off or left Epsilon III, leaving only one member of their race, a being named Varn (Curt Lowens), to function as the custodian of the Great Machine. Varn himself had a series of ten assistants named Zathras to perform the physical repairs and maintenance of the Machine itself, although this was not known to anyone until the year 2260. Varn continued to operate the Great Machine until his health finally began to wane in 2258, and the Machine began to malfunction as a result, destabilizing the planet. An expedition by Babylon 5 personnel brought him back to the station where he informed them of his identity and his function. Unfortunately, the Great Machine also broadcast an emergency beacon that was detected by the expunged faction, who traced the signal back to its location. There was a resulting standoff between Babylon 5 and the fleet of faction ships over custody of the Machine. A member of the Minbari religious caste named Draal (played first by Louis Turenne, then by John Schuck), facing retirement and exile, offered to take Varn's place as custodian of the Great Machine and to protect it against those who would abuse it. With the assistance of Londo Mollari, Draal returned with Varn and assumed control of the machine. Draal then warned Babylon 5 station personnel that the Machine and the planet were off limits to everyone until the time was right. Subsequently he used its weapons systems to destroy the faction fleet when it attempted to land. Varn then began to train Draal about the machine's workings until his death in 2259.
Curt Lowens was an actor of the stage and in feature films and television, as well as a Holocaust survivor and a rescuer who saved about 150 Jewish children during the Holocaust.
Zathras is the name shared by a group of characters in the science fiction television series Babylon 5, all portrayed by Tim Choate. There were ten of these characters who appeared on several episodes throughout the series. The name of Zathras' species and homeworld were never revealed; in "War Without End", Zathras is seen living on Epsilon III and helping take care of the Great Machine with one other member of his race, although there is no evidence that this is their actual homeworld.
Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. Its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of India's Hindu society into rigid social groups, with roots in India's ancient history and persisting to the present time. However, the economic significance of the caste system in India has been declining as a result of urbanization and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside Hinduism and India. The term "caste" is also applied to morphological groupings in female populations of ants and bees.
Draal kept the Great Machine off limits until 2259, when Babylon 5 became involved in the Shadow War. He offered the services of the planet (The Long, Twilight Struggle) to assist in the search for other First Ones, and to provide communication and historical information that would assist them in the effort. The Great Machine was essential in creating the temporal rift that allowed for the passage of Babylon 4 1,000 years into the past to fulfill its role in the previous Shadow War (War Without End), and for obtaining the clandestine radio transmissions that proved Earth vice president Clark was directly responsible for the assassination of President Santiago in 2258 (Voices of Authority). While Draal had pledged the Machine's defenses to the aid of the station in the war, they were never needed, and instead, Epsilon III was used as refugee relief area for victims displaced by the War.
"The Long, Twilight Struggle" is an episode from the second season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.
"War Without End" is a two-part story consisting of the 16th and 17th episodes in the third season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5. They were broadcast first on May 13 and May 20, 1996 on the PTEN network in America. It marks the return of Michael O'Hare, who by mutual agreement departed the show as a regular after season one, reprising his role as Jeffrey Sinclair for the character's final appearance on the show. The story resolves many of the threads from "Babylon Squared", which detailed part of what happened to the Babylon 4 space station.
"Voices of Authority" is the fifth episode from the third season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.
After the Shadow War concluded in 2261, President Clark began to escalate the violence and atrocities of his police state to control dissent. Babylon 5, which had seceded from the Earth Alliance the previous year after Clark had attempted to arrest its command staff, began to broadcast intelligence reports of Clark's regime to counteract his propaganda. Because of the distance between Earth and Epsilon III, Babylon 5 enlisted the Great Machine's power supply to enhance the signal so that it could traverse the distance and bypass the jamming equipment used by Earth to block the transmissions (Conflicts of Interest).
"Conflicts of Interest" is an episode from the fourth season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.
Following the Earth Alliance Civil War between the pro-Clark and anti-Clark factions, nothing is known about the Great Machine's activities.
Description
The Great Machine is a collection of massive technological systems that run throughout the surface and core of the planet. While these functions vary — weapons, surveillance, observation, communication, manufacturing, etc. — they all perform on a scale far larger than most other systems of similar design. The Great Machine is designed to be entirely self-contained and self-sufficient, and is powered by a multitude of fusion reactors, many of which exceed 15 kilometers in length.
While the Machine has many regulatory and automated systems, the size and scope of it requires the prolonged presence of a sentient mind to function as an operating system, which is located at its center. To protect this individual, the Machine has advanced medical augmentation facilities that can rejuvenate and extend the life of the custodian far beyond the species-normal lifespan. Using the interface, the custodian can utilize the facilities of the Machine to observe the entire system and even far reaches of the galaxy.
The Great Machine has a variety of defensive systems, such as ground-to-air missiles. While most of these systems are unknown, one of the primary weapons is a directed energy beam weapon of enormous power capable of destroying an entire fleet of ships in a single, continuous burst.
Most of the Great Machine's abilities are unknown, however, as their uses were only required primarily between the years 2259-2261, and only in a limited capacity. Outside of these mitigating circumstances, the Great Machine remains off-limits to all uninvited visitors and its technology a secret for its own protection.
English Wikipedia articles related to Babylon 5 and Crusade:
The Earth Alliance is the name of a fictional alliance of the nations of Earth and off-world colonies in the television series Babylon 5. The transition of Earth government from a democratic, elected government to an authoritarian, militaristic one and back to a democracy again is a major theme of the series. It is considered one of the five major galactic diplomatic/military powers in the Babylon 5 pilot episode movie "The Gathering". They have separate seats at the head of the council chambers on the Babylon 5 station. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds sit in the general assembly section.
The Minbari are a fictional alien race featured in the television show Babylon 5. The Minbari characters of Delenn and Lennier figure prominently throughout the series; Neroon, Draal, and Dukhat are less prominent Minbari characters.
William Morgan Clark is a fictional character and a major antagonist from the universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, portrayed by Gary McGurk. His character rarely appeared on-screen, but is a major off-screen presence in the show.
The Drakh are a fictional alien race in the Babylon 5 universe. The Drakh were dark servants for the race of First Ones known as the Shadows. They appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Babylon 5, as well as the television movie, A Call to Arms. The Drakh are a ruthless, malevolent race who become prominent adversaries to the Interstellar Alliance following the conclusion of the Shadow War in 2261. Armed with the technology left behind by their Shadow masters, the Drakh are determined to assume their vacant role and, with the aid of other former Shadow allies, use it to establish dominion over the galaxy.
Babylon 4 is a fictional space station from the television series Babylon 5. In the series, it was the immediate predecessor of Babylon 5 and the largest of the Babylon stations.
The Omega-class destroyer is a fictional vessel used by Earthforce, the military branch of the Earth Alliance, in the science fiction television series Babylon 5. The CGI model of the ship created through an early version of Lightwave made its first appearance during the opening scene of the opening episode of the second season, "Points Of Departure", which was initially aired in the United States on November 2, 1994.
This article discusses fictional civilizations on the science-fiction television show Babylon 5.
In the Babylon 5 science fiction universe, the EAS Alexander was an Earth Alliance Omega class destroyer. It may have been named after Alexander the Great. It played a key role in the Earth Alliance Civil War of 2260 - 2261.
The EASHyperion is a fictional starship in the science fiction television series Babylon 5. The EAS Hyperion is seen in the first season two part episode "A Voice in the Wilderness". EAS Hyperion is under the command of Captain Ellis Pierce at the time.
Draal is a fictional character in the universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, played first by Louis Turenne and later by John Schuck.
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