When to watch 'A Call to Arms'?

[Tanith0709]

Just wondering when would you say is the best time to watch this movie?

Most places I have seen suggest watching it right before the last episode of season 5 but what is the reason for this?

I don't really like disrupting the flow of a shows season and as far as I can tell A Call to Arms just sets up Crusade so wouldn't it be better to watch it after season 5?

[maneth]

I watch all the movies after season 5...

[Tanith0709]

Came across this on another site for continuity:

• Movie: The Gathering
• Season 1
• Season 2
• Season 3
• 1st 2 disks of Season 4 (Ep 6: Into the Fire)
• Movie: Thirdspace
• Remainder of Season 4
• Movie: In the Beginning
• Season 5 (all but the last episode)
• Movie: River of Souls
• Movie: Call to Arms
• Season 5 (final episode)
• Crusade

[DigiFluid]

That's mostly right, but has a couple of mistakes. In the Beginning is framed much later on, the Season 4 finale falls at the very end, and the last episode of B5 is before that.


2257 -- The Gathering
2258 -- B5 Season 1
2259 -- B5 Season 2
2260 -- B5 Season 3
2261 -- B5 4.01-09, Thirdspace*, B5 4.09-21
2262 -- B5 5.01-21
2263 -- River of Souls
2265 -- Legend of the Rangers
2266 -- A Call to Arms
2267 -- Crusade Season 1
2278 -- In the Beginning
2281 -- B5 5.22
1,002,262 -- B5 4.22**




* The place of Thirdspace is debatable. It has to take place before the end of 4.09, but something happens at the beginning of the episode that must take place prior to the events of the movie. Add that to the fact that there doesn't seem to be enough time elapsed in 4.09 to allow for Thirdspace to take place DURING and it's a bit frustrating to place

** Chronologically this is where this one is placed, but it makes a kind of underwhelming end to watching through the universe

[Cold Fuzz]

Just wondering when would you say is the best time to watch this movie?

Most places I have seen suggest watching it right before the last episode of season 5 but what is the reason for this?

I don't really like disrupting the flow of a shows season and as far as I can tell A Call to Arms just sets up Crusade so wouldn't it be better to watch it after season 5?

In all my rewatches I've always watched A Call to Arms after season 5's "Objects at Rest" and Legend of the Rangers. I usually don't watch "Sleeping in Light" until I've finished everything else.

[FrodoFraggins]

I think the B5 TV episodes should be watched in order, without splicing in the standalone movies or spinoffs. But that's because the quality goes way down for them and the standalone movies obviously aren't referenced in the TV episodes. They are just nice little asides to the universe created in the series itself.

[DigiFluid]

The full, screen and page timeline (of things which JMS regards as canon to the universe) flows thus:

Spoiler:

2115-89

• Dark Genesis (Psi Corps Trilogy novel #1)

2195

• Deadly Relations (Psi Corps Trilogy novel #2)

2256-7

• The Shadow Within (novel, but only the Icarus story is considered canon)

2257

• "The Gathering"

2258

• Babylon 5 Season 1

2258-9

• Casting Shadows (Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy novel #1 -- spans from before B5 1.22 into January 2259)

2259

• In Darkness Find Me (comic)
• Babylon 5 2.01-02
• Treason (comic)
• In Harm's Way (comic)
• The Price of Peace (comic)
• Babylon 5 2.03-08
• Shadows Past and Present (comic arc)
• Babylon 5 2.09-22

2259-60

• To Dream in the City of Sorrows (novel spanning from Sinclair's departure from B5 to the beginning of 2260)
• Summoning Light (Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy novel #2, begins concurrent with B5 2.03 and spans until after B5 3.20)

2260

• Babylon 5 3.01-20
• Babylon 5 3.21-22
• Invoking Darkness (Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy novel #3, begins where book 2 left off and continues till after B5 3.22)

2261

• Babylon 5 4.01-06
• In Valen's Name (comic)
• Babylon 5 4.07-08
• Babylon 5 4.09 (partial, only the first few minutes)
• "Thirdspace"
• Babylon 5 4.09 (remainder)
• Babylon 5 4.10-21

2262

• Babylon 5 5.01-02
• Hidden Agendas (short story)
• Babylon 5 5.03-19
• Shadow of His Thoughts (short story begins 6 days after The Fall of Centauri Prime)
• Babylon 5 5.20-21
• Genius Loci (short story)

2262-66

• The Long Night of Centauri Prime (Centauri Trilogy novel #1, begins after "Shadow of His Thoughts" and continues till just before "Call to Arms"

2263

• "River of Souls"

2265

• The Nautilus Coil (short story)
• "The Legend of the Rangers"

2266-73

• Armies of Light and Dark (Centauri Trilogy novel #2)

2266

• "A Call to Arms"

2267

• Crusade Season 1 (varying orders possible)
• Crusade: To the Ends of the Earth (unfilmed script)
• Crusade: Value Judgements (unfilmed script)
• Crusade: War Story (unfilmed script)
• Crusade: The Walls of Hell (unfilmed script)
• Crusade: Untitled Part 3 of Sword trilogy (unfilmed script)
• Crusade: End of the Line (unfilmed script for Season 1 finale)

2269

• True Seeker (short story)

2271

• Final Reckoning (Psi Corps Trilogy novel #3)
• The Lost Tales (comic)
• "The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark"

2274-9

• Out of the Darkness (Centauri Trilogy novel #3)

2278

• "In the Beginning" (framing of story in this period, and is concurrent with what Sheridan encounters when he travels to the future in Season 3's War Without End)

2281

• Babylon 5 5.22 "Sleeping in Light"

2561

• Space, Time and the Incurable Romantic (short story)

1,002,262

• Babylon 5 4.22 "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"

NOTE: Whether the unfilmed Crusade scripts are canon or not remains a mystery. I opt to include them in chronological reckonings of the B5verse because JMS wrote them himself.

Again, this is a chronological approach.