Babylon 5 Is Back. But There's A Catch

If you’re a true connoisseur of 1990s sci-fi, you know that some of the best shows from that era are kind of hard to watch online. Sure, Deep Space Nine was the underrated Star Trek show of that era —bemoaned as the misunderstood stepchild in a big franchise, but it’s been pretty easy to watch DS9 streaming for years. And at the time DS9 was produced, the true underdog space opera of the same era, Babylon 5, had to tell its ambitious “novel for television” on a third of the budget of DS9. In sci-fi, one fan’s underdog is another fan’s rich and mainstream hit.

Then again, if you weren’t around in 1993 and 1994, and you didn’t snag Babylon 5 on DVD or Blu-ray in the past couple of years, it would make sense that you’ve not been able to binge it as easily as something like Deep Space Nine, or even seaQuest DSV. The truth is, from HBO Max to Prime Video to Tubi, it’s hard to catch Babylon 5 streaming, something that series creator J. Michael Straczynski acknowledges in a fun new announcement video: “For so many years there’s been nowhere for B5 fans to congregate, other than the occasional asylum or prisons.” But, outside of the sarcasm, the big reveal here is that the new Babylon 5 YouTube channel is airing full episodes of the iconic series, for free, starting now.

Babylon 5 streaming on YouTube — but which episodes?

As of August 3, 2026, the official Babylon 5 YouTube channel has confirmed that full episodes will air on YouTube. “You can have access to full episodes of this remarkable show,” Straczynski has revealed in a new “Full Episode Announcement” video. But which episodes are we getting?

Currently, there are just a handful of Season 1 episodes of Babylon 5 streaming on the new B5 YouTube channel, which includes:

• Season 1 Episode 1: “Midnight on the Firing Line” (1994)
• Season 2 Episode 2: “Soul Hunter” (1994)
• “The Gathering,” the original pilot of the show (1993)

Presumably, based on JMS’s comments, more B5 is coming to YouTube, but for now, it’s basically just like the first few episodes have aired on TV, and you have to catch up. It’s like 1994 all over again! Or wait, is it like 1993?

“The Gathering,” explained: Babylon 5’s odd pilot TV movie

Aired during the week of February 22, 1993, “The Gathering” was a test pilot TV movie, which proved to parent company Warner Bros. that a series was viable. At the time, viewers who watched the debut of Babylon 5 would have likely just watched the debut of Deep Space Nine the month prior in January 1993. So, although B5 had been in development for much longer than DS9, its pilot episode aired after DS9 definitely made some sci-fi fans feel a bit of déjà vu: another space station show? There’s a whole history of how B5 may have influenced the creation of DS9, but because the shows became very different from each other, and there were several notable folks who crossed over between franchises, it’s not worth thinking about too much. (After all, we all got over two asteroid movies in 1998.)

Having said that, Babylon 5’s debut episode, “The Gathering,” is a true test pilot episode and not really a pilot episode, meaning that in 1994, when Season 1’s “Midnight on the Firing Line” came around, that feels more like where the real show began. And yet, just like “The Cage” — Star Trek’s first pilot episode — is both a rough draft and also canon, “The Gathering” does set up some crucial worldbuilding for the entire show.

Many cast members from “The Gathering” would not return for the regular series; Tamlyn Tomita as Laurel Takashima was basically replaced by Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova. Meanwhile, Johnny Sekka’s Dr. Kyle was replaced by Richard Biggs as Dr. Franklin in the regular series. Finally, resident telepath Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman) was kind of replaced by the character of Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson), though, of the pilot episode character who disappeared in Season 1, Lyta is the only one who returned later in the series, and ended up becoming a major cast member in Season 3, following her return in Season 2.

The point is, even though Delenn (the late, great Mira Furlan of Lost fame) looks waaaay different in her Minbari makeup in “The Gathering,” we are meant to think that this is truly the beginning of the story. Famously, JMS planned B5 with a five-season arc in mind, and ended up writing the vast majority of the teleplays for all five seasons himself. So, even though “The Gathering” feels a little incongruous, it shouldn’t be outright skipped if you’re really diving deep on B5.

Chronologically speaking, in theory, the prequel film “In the Beginning,” which was made later and aired in 1998, is the earliest point in the B5 timeline, but, for now, that’s not streaming on this new YouTube channel. (“In the Beginning” also has a few spoilers in it, making it kinda like The Phantom Menace of B5 lore. But with better dialogue.)

The bottom line is this: “The Gathering” is an interesting and sometimes overlooked part of Babylon 5 history, and it’s nice to see it streaming for free right alongside the show’s true first episode, “Midnight on the Firing Line.”

You can check out the B5 YouTube channel here.