How many worlds are in the Earth Alliance? Well, on 23 December 1994, J. Michael Straczynski posted:

Earth Alliance has about 14 worlds/colonies in 12 different solar systems.

but more recently, an episode of Babylon 5 referred to "24 colonies in 14 systems". Presumably JMS's original post is no longer canon, but perhaps there are just different ways to count "colonies" involved here.

(For example, not every small military base should necessarily be called a "colony". In particular, 14 colonies in 12 systems means no more than THREE in the Solar system -- and we certainly know of more than three military bases and mining outposts in our system!)

In what follows, I have listed all colonies mentioned in the television show. References from the novles are placed at the end. For each colony, I have tried to list every reference in the show -- except for Mars (where only the major references are mentioned) -- and for Earth (which has only a brief entry, for obvious reasons.)

Humans first ventured into space in the 1950's, and first set foot on another world in 1969. The Earth Alliance was formed and absorbed most of the various nation-states of Earth, and began to settle other colonies in the solar system, around 2100. First contact with an alien race -- the Centauri -- occurred in 2151.

Around 2158, Earth Dome was built in Geneva and became the capital of the Earth Alliance.

Earth's expansion into the galaxy were interrupted by the Dilgar War of 2230 to 2232, and the Earth - Minbari War of 2245 to 2247.

Earth's president during the Earth-Minbari War was seen in In the Beginning, but her name was not given. After the war, she was responsible for launching the Babylon Project. According to the novel Clark's Law, Luis Santiago was her vice-president. He became President sometime in the 2250's, and was re-elected in January 2258 (Midnight on the Firing Line).

President Santiago was assassinated on December 31 (Chrysalis). The new president, Morgan Clark, declared martial law on 8 April 2260 (Messages from Earth) and abolished the Senate. He ruled as Earth's dictator from that point until the end of 2261.

• Earth's Moon: Not much is known about the human settlements on the Moon. Captain Sheridan served with Jack Maynard on the "Moon-Mars Patrol" according to A Distant Star.

• Mars: The Mars Colony has been one of the most visited locales in the show, and many of the major characters have roots there. Nonetheless, according to The Exercise of Vital Powers there are only two million humans living on the Red Planet.

"Mars Dome" has often been referred to in the show, and we have seen it from time to time. It is unclear whether the majority of Mars inhabitants live under this central dome.

One major city on Mars is New Vegas. It has been mentioned several times in the show: in And Now For A Word, Lloyd's of London, Las Vegas, and New Vegas were mentioned as having issued odds on Babylon 5's survival; Garibaldi and Ivanova discuss the "New Vegas Lottery" in War Without End, Part One; it is also mentioned in the original script for Passing Through Gethsemane. (Is New Vegas itself inside "Mars Dome"? Unknown. Christopher Russo suggests New Vegas may be the place referred to as the "Martian Pleasure Dome".) The Illusion of Truth mentions both New Vegas and Slimtown as Martian cities.

There is also a "secret" Psi-Corps base on Mars, mentioned in A Voice in the Wilderness, Messages From Earth, and Ship of Tears, and shown in A Race Through Dark Places, Divided Loyaties, and the Shadows Past and Present comic arc.

History --

There was apparently some Shadow activity in the solar system in the 13th Century, when Shadow vessels were buried on Mars and on Ganymede. Humans founded the short-lived First Mars Colony shortly before 2100; according to Midnight on the Firing Line it was destroyed in a sneak attack. The Second Mars Colony was founded around 2150, since one of its founders, John Carter, had a youthful great-granddaughter in 2259. (The Babylon Project Role-Playing Game, however, gives a date of 2105. Note, of course, that "John Carter" is the human who became the Warlord of Mars in the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs "Barsoom" series.)

The Toronto Blue Jays moved to Mars in 2200. Jeffrey Sinclair was born there in 2218 (And the Sky Full of Stars, Voice in the Wilderness).

Mars was untouched in the Earth-Minbari War (In the Beginning). However, just after the war, Mars experienced some tumultuous food riots. Jeffrey Sinclair met both Laurel Takashima and John Sheridan during the riots (The Gathering, Voice in the Wilderness I, Lines of Communication, A Distant Star, and War Without End I). At this time (perhaps during the riots?) the Free Mars terrorist group became public -- though they had been organizing for some time before this, according to Spider in the Web. Many Marsies had sympathy with Free Mars' aims, if not their methods. The Mars Resistance is apparently an organization with a broader base and more mild methods than Free Mars.

In 2253, a wrecked Shadow ship was found in Syria Planum on Mars, but when it was excavated, another Shadow vessel arrived to take it home (Messages from Earth). This led to the ill-fated expedition of the Icarus to Z'ha'dum (as seen in Z'ha'dum and the novel The Shadow Within). By a remarkable coincidence, Jeffrey Sinclair and Michael Garibaldi, who had just met, also witnessed the vessels' departure from Mars, according to the comic arc Shadows Past and Present! And by another remarkable coincidence, the Shadow vessel was buried extremely close to a secret Psi-Corps base.

A major Mars Revolt occurred in October 2258 during A Voice in the Wilderness. After this revolt, a Provisional Government was appointed by Earth; this government was still in charge as late as March 2259 (Spider in the Web). Around this time, former Psi-Corp agent Lyta Alexander began working with the Mars Resistance, though she did not reveal that she was a telepath; she left Mars for Babylon 5 in October 2259 (Divided Loyalties, The Face of the Enemy).

When President Clark declared Martial Law (no pun intended!) on 8 April 2260, the Mars Colony refused to enforce his decree. Clark ordered an Earth Force bombardment of the colony on 13 April 2260 (Severed Dreams). From this point on, the Mars Underground was in open conflict with Earth Force. Apparently there was a major Earth offensive which began 28 July 2260 (since fighting had been going on for "259 days" when Earth captured New Vegas and Slimtown on 12 April 2261, according to The Illusion of Truth.)

Around June or July of 2261, the Mars Underground made an alliance with Sheridan's forces (Racing Mars and Lines of Communication), while Martian magnate William Edgars hired Garibaldi (Conflicts of Interest) for some nefarious deeds. From this point on, Mars became a focal point of the story-arc in Babylon 5. For full details, see the later part of Season Four. Suffice to say that when the Interstellar Alliance was formed, President Sheridan kept his promise to the Mars Resistance and insisted that Earth grant independence to Mars.

Mars has been prominently featured in the Crusade series. Both Captain Matthew Gideon and Max Eilerson are Mars natives. Eilerson in particular is a patriot, referring to Earth's "oppression" of Mars at least once.

Both War Zone and Ruling From the Tomb take place on Mars. These episodes refer to Mars as an "Independent Member of the Earth Alliance". It's unclear exactly what political status this conveys, but it is certainly an improvement over the earlier days!

Some additional statistics about Mars have been revealed. In War Zone, Gideon says that Mars is a "dead world" -- that there may have been some native life eons ago, but that there is none today. In Ruling From the Tomb it is mentioned that 90% of Mars' inhabitants are human. (Presumably the others are an assortment of the various races seen in Babylon 5.)

The Lurker's Guide notes that Ruling From the Tomb also featured a "Bradbury Street", a "Burroughs Street", and a "Carter Street". It's unclear whether Carter Street is named after the fictional John Carter or the "real" one!

The Lurker's Guide also spotted that the bar in Tomb was called the "Phobos", just like the bar in Face of the Enemy. It doesn't look much like the place where Garibaldi betrayed Sheridan, however.

One other point of interest. During Season Four, Michael Garibaldi received an early-morning call from William Edgars. The irate Garibaldi complained, "Mr. Edgars, have I ever mentioned to you that there is a seven-hour time difference between Babylon 5 and Mars?" Edgars responded, "Yes you have, but I am on call twenty-four hours a day." The clear implication is that there is a constant time-difference of seven hours between Edgars' home on Mars and the living quarters on Babylon 5. This is absurd. Babylon 5 runs on a 24-hour day, and Mars's day is closer to 24 hours 40 minutes. The only way this would make ANY sense is that the human settlements on Mars keep their clocks set on Earth time -- which would be insane (we've seen that Mars Dome is transparent. . . . .)

• Phobos: There was a terrorist attack on Mars' larger moon, as mentioned in Eyes. Apparently it is also the site of a prison (this is mentioned in the Lurker's Guide, but I can't locate the original source).

• Deimos: Despite its tiny size, there is apparently a settlement on Mars' smaller moon. In Season Four, William Edgars' message displays have Mars - Phobos - Deimos written in the logo.

• Outer Planets: In December 2258, Earth Alliance President Santiago went on a "Five Planet Goodwill Tour"; when Chrysalis begins, he is leaving Mars Colony and heading for the "Outer Planet Colonies". It's not clear exactly what the five planets are, or whether "moons" count as "planets" here. The only human settlements in the outer solar system mentioned in the show have been the moons of Jupiter. Presumably, such items as Jovian Treeworms (Born to the Purple), Jovian Tubers (TKO), and Jovian Sunspots (Deathwalker, Spider in the Web) are from these moons, and not from Jupiter itself.

• Io: Although it's difficult to imagine a settlement on Jupiter's inner moon (Io is plagued with gigantic volcanoes), this is the location in the outer solar system most often mentioned on the show.

When the Minbari invaded the Solar System at the end of 2247, Earth "lost touch with Io" (In The Beginning), but it's unknown what damage the Minbari did to the colony. Walker Smith spent some time here before TKO. Susan Ivanova and John Sheridan were stationed together on Io for some time (Points of Departure); this is where Ivanova threw a telepath out a window.

One of William Edgars' many estates is on Io (The Exercise of Vital Powers).

The primary jumpgate in the Solar system is "near Io", and has been mentioned several times. President Santiago's ship was destroyed near this jumpgate in Chrysalis.

• Ganymede: There was a labor strike on this moon in 2237; this was the last time the Rush Act was used prior to By Any Means Necessary. In March 2260, a wrecked Shadow vessel was dug up on Ganymede; Captain Sheridan destroyed this vessel in Jupiter's atmosphere (Messages from Earth).

• Europa: In 2241, Michael Garibaldi was working as a security guard at an ice-mining operation on Europa, and drinking a bit too much. He went into business with Frank Kimmer, and began drinking less, but after Kimmer's accidental death, Garibaldi "crawled back into the bottle" and soon left Europa. Kimmer's daughter confronted Garibaldi in Survivors. (Note also that in Comic 6, "Against the Odds", Garibaldi mistakenly refers to this as having happened on Io.)

There was also a labor strike on Europa at some point in time (By Any Means Necessary).

This colony is probably a planet in the Proxima Centauri system, but this has not actually been stated on the show. Proxima Centauri, sometimes known to astronomers as Alpha Centauri C, is the closest star to our sun: it's 4.226 light-years from us (slightly closer than Alpha Centauri A or B), and is a type M5 red dwarf star.

(Note that the "Centauri" race of Babylon 5 do not hail from Alpha Centauri, as their homeworld is at least 40 light-years from Earth!)

In 2247, the Minbari conquered "the Mid-Range Military Bases at Beta Durani and at Proxima III" just before heading to our Solar System to end the war, as seen in In The Beginning. Del Varner was smuggling goods from the Proxima System and the Vega System in The Gathering. The Ikarran bio-technology devices in Infection were brought to B5 via the transfer station off Proxima III, and were quarantined there after the episode. Dr. Tasaki, the over-eager scientist in A Voice in the Wilderness, mentioned that his wife lives on Proxima. And mad bomber Robert Carlson had struck on Proxima III before Convictions.

On 13 April 2260, after President Clark ordered the bombing of Mars Colony, Proxima III and Orion VII declared their independence from the Earth Alliance (Severed Dreams).

By early 2261, Proxima III was under constant threat by President Clark's forces, but they still maintained contact with Babylon 5 and with the Mars Resistance (Racing Mars). On August 3, although at least one Starfury squadron had defected to Proxima's side, Earth Force ships were winning the battle for the planet and not sparing civilians (Moments of Transition).

In September 2261, the White Star Fleet and Babylon 5's starfuries fought a battle in the Proxima System (No Surrender, No Retreat.) This resulted in the liberation of Proxima III, which was thereafter guarded by Earth Force ships loyal to Sheridan.

• Orion Colonies: Colonies bearing the name "Orion" have been mentioned several times.
• Orion IV is a mining world. Garibaldi worked here after losing his job on Europa; Walker Smith was one of his drinking buddies there. (Survivors, TKO). This may be the home of "Fortune City".
• The Black Rose Killer operated on "Earth Colony Three in the Orion System", according to Passing Through Gethsemane.
• Orion VII was populated by "Flame-Birds" sometime in the last half-million years, as revealed by the Vendrizi in Exogenesis. More recently, it was visited by General Hague's ship, the Alexander, when Hague was trying to organize the opposition to President Clark. The Alexander was ambushed during its return from Orion VII (perhaps near the Orion VII jumpgate, or perhaps after leaving hyperspace), on 10 April 2260. (This was the battle at the beginning of Severed Dreams.) After Clark ordered the bombing of Mars Colony, Proxima III and Orion VII declared their independence from the Earth Alliance (10 April 2260).

There is, of course, no star called simply named "Orion". The location of these planets is thus unknown -- and more importantly, we don't even know if these worlds are in the same star system, or are even different names for the same world.

But since Passing Through Gethsemane refers to the Orion System, my guess is that in one star system, there is a mining world (Orion IV), and a large civilian colony (Orion VII); moreover, Orion VII is the third human colony (or the third human colony outside of the Solar system) and thus also bears the title "Earth Colony Three".

Richard Wakefield suggests Pi-3 Orionis as a nice, nearby candidate for this star -- it's a yellow-white F6 star only 24.505 light-years from Earth, and since it doesn't have a well-known name (like the bright stars in Orion) it might easily be called "Orion" by its inhabitants.

On the other hand, he "Babylon 5 Micro-Machines" include a vehicle which is supposedly a dual aircraft/spacecraft used by the "Orion Belt Alliance". Christopher Novosad-Russo points out that since aircraft aren't much use in an asteroid belt, this suggests that the "belt" here must be Orion's Belt. If so, there may be three colonized systems -- Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta Orionis, the "belt stars". These are all white giant stars between 1500 and 1600 light-years from Earth.

Another mystery: In the final scene of Season Three, we glimpse a plaque in Sheridan's quarters which reads:

Earthforce Orion Command (Unreadable)
hereby appoints
John Sheridan
to the rank of
Captain

Does this mean that, when he was promoted to Captain, Sheridan was assigned to an Orion-related division of Earthforce? Or does this mean that after Orion VII seceded from Earth, they re-commissioned Sheridan as a captain in their own navy?

Oddly, the Orion colonies were never mentioned during the fourth season of Babylon 5, despite Orion VII's major role in the rebellion during Severed Dreams!

In the Crusade episode Patterns of the Soul, the planet Theta 49 is clearly in the vicinity of Orion VII. General Thompson's original orders (which he claims come from President Sheridan!) were for the colonists to be brought to an Earth Force ship near Orion VII, which would then transport them to Earth.

When Gideon says that the Excalibur is "going to Theta 49, in Orion Sector," Eilerson replies that he doesn't want to "go to Orion System." This is an odd twist. Perhaps Eilerson either mis-heard or misunderstood Gideon. Perhaps "Orion Sector" and "Orion System" mean the same thing; but this is very odd. (Sectors are used inconsistently; for example, "Sector 14" is a small piece of a star-system, while at other times "sectors" seem to include several stars.) It is also possible that Eilerson already was familiar with Theta 49, and knew it was in the Orion System.

But the most likely explanation is that Eilerson's "Orion System" was an error. There is no sign in the episode  that there are other inhabited planets in the same system. Indeed, if Theta 49 were in the same system as Orion VII, why would the Excalibur be needed to ferry thirty people to an Earthforce ship one planet away?

• Vega: Alpha Lyrae, better known as Vega, is an average-sized white star (type A0-V) only 25.167 light-years from Earth.

Del Varner had been smuggling goods from the Vega System and the Proxima System in The Gathering; some of the dialogue seems to imply that Vega is in "the Damocles Sector".

In Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2, the EAS Hyperion was "headed for the Vegan Outpost". Also, John Sheridan mentions that he was briefly stationed on the Vega Colony in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.

And mad bomber Robert Carlson stole explosives from the ice mines of Vega VII, per Convictions.

And in A Call To Arms, Captain Anderson was taking the Charon to Vega Colony when he received his strange "summons" from the Technomage.

• Deneb IV: Alpha Cygnus, better known as Deneb, is a white giant star (type A2-I) which is an awesome 1600 light-years from Earth. In Racing Mars, Dr. Franklin and Captain Jack discuss the human colony on Deneb IV, where Captain Jack's daughter lives. When Jack claims it is a tiny settlement, Franklin realizes he is lying; Franklin points out that Deneb IV is the "largest colony market in the area".

This fourth-season mention is the only reference to a Deneb colony. However, back in season one, Catherine Sakai said she had made a "survey run through the Deneb Sector" during Parliament of Dreams.

• Arisia 3: In Lines of Communication, Marcus Cole tells the Mars Resistance, "I was raised on Arisia Colony, which was sucked dry by Earth taxes and ruined by Earth corporations."

The novel To Dream in the City of Sorrows (which JMS says is "100 percent canon") has a slightly different version of these events. In this novel, Marcus worked at his family's mining facility in orbit about the otherwise-lifeless Arisia 3. It was here that his brother, having met with Sinclair on Minbar, first told Marcus of the Rangers.

However, Marcus' family seems to have started this mining facility when he was a young adult. In Matters of Honor, Marcus mentions he had worked on several mining worlds, and was working on one when his brother died. So Marcus was not "raised" on Arisia. Furthermore, it seems a bit pretentious to call this tiny facility a "colony" at all; indeed, there are no other human settlements in the system.

Marcus had earlier mentioned that he was raised in a community that prized its English traditions (A Late Delivery from Avalon). If we take the novel-version as canon, then Marcus was stretching the truth in his speech to the Mars Resistance, and his birth colony is still unknown.

(Note: Although Marcus pronounces the world "eryssia", the spelling of "Arisia" is used in the closed-captioning and in the novel. Arisia is the oldest inhabited planet in our galaxy in the greatest pre-Golden Age science fiction series, the "Lensman" Saga. Yet Edward Elmer Smith's Arisia bears no similarity to the Cole family's mining facility. Perhaps whoever discovered the system was a fan of Smith's works?)

• Beta Colonies: An annoying number of planets in Babylon 5 are referred to simply by a Greek letter and a number -- "Sigma 957", "Epsilon 3", etc. Worlds with the designation "Beta" are very common, and it is a mystery how they are related, if at all.

In the early days of the show, "Beta" seemed a designation used by the Centauri to name planets.

• Beta 9 is an old, lost Centauri colony, according to Midnight on the Firing Line.
• Beta 12 is the Centauri name for Earth, also according to Midnight on the Firing Line.
• But in The Gathering, Londo claims that long ago the Centauri conquered the Beta System "in only nine days" (implying, by the way, that there were natives of yet another species). Yet Beta 9 and Beta 12 are clearly in different systems, so the term "Beta System" should be ambiguous.
• It is possible that Londo could be making any of these things up; he doesn't seem very serious!

However, in the fourth (and now, fifth) season, "Beta" seemed to be associated with human colonies.

• After the battle for Proxima III in No Surrender, No Retreat, it was stated that the EAS Hercules was heading to Beta 9 for repairs. Later, in Between the Darkness and the Light, Ivanova orders the survivors from the EAS Damocles and the EAS Orion "delivered to the proper authorities on Beta 9". So this must be a human world loyal to Sheridan's forces.
• Could this Beta 9 and Londo's Beta 9 be the same? It doesn't seem possible. How could a "lost Centauri colony" in 2258 become a civilized Earth colony by 2261? The most likely explanation is that Straczynski re-used this name, forgetting that it had been used nearly four years earlier for another world.
• Beta 7 was mentioned in the Season Five opener, No Compromises. Major John Clemens had run the prison system on Beta 7 "until President Clark was kicked out of office", according to Garibaldi. Thus Beta 7 must have remained a Clark loyalist world until the end of the civil war.
• We saw quite a bit of the civil war in the latter part of season four. It seems unlikely that there would be a Sheridan-loyalist world (secure enough to use for political prisoners!) in the same system as a Clark-loyalist world. So Beta 7 and the "new" Beta 9 are most likely in different star systems.

Finally, note that in Face of the Enemy, Lyta Alexander tells Dr. Franklin of a time that Psi-Corps acted as judge, jury, and executioner. The criminal whom they punished is now held in an institutio "somewhere on Beta Colony". Could this be the same as the "new" Beta 9? or the same as "Beta 7"? or perhaps the same as Beta Durani (see below)?

Or might this even be shorthand for "Earth Colony Two"?

• Beta Durani: This is another human colony, which wasn't mentioned until recently. Its name resembles the "Greek Letter - Constellation" protocol, rather than the "Greek Letter - Integer" protocol mentioned above. However, there is no constellation called "Duranus" or anything similar.

According to In the Beginning, Stephen Franklin discovered a crashed Minbari ship on Beta Durani sometime around 2242, but was unable to save its crew. Five years later, at the end of the Earth-Minbari War, Beta Durani and Proxima III were conquered by the Minbari just before they entered our Solar System.

After President Clark began to rule the Earth Alliance as a dictator in April 2260, it would seem that Beta Durani had an unsuccessful resistance movement. It was liberated by Sheridan's forces in September 2261, according to Susan Ivanova's "Voice of the Resistance" broadcast in The Exercise of Vital Powers.

• Regula IV: A small group of human separatists settled on Regula IV in the late 2170's, according to the Crusade episode The Long Road. In 2267, the Excalibur tried to negotiate with this group and their guardian techno-mage.

• Theta 49: Theta 49 is in the Orion Sector, near Orion VII. (See Orion Colonies above for details on the "Orion" worlds' locations.)

Theta 49 was not a human colony before 2266. Indeed, it contained a thousand-year old settlement of Dureena's people and was otherwise uninhabited, as related in the Crusade episode Patterns of the Soul.

In November 2266, around the time that the Drakh sowed the plague on Earth, a group of thirty humans settled on Theta 49. The Excalibur visited them in 2267. 

Since it appears that this settlement will remain on Theta 49 for some time after 2267, it now qualifies as a marginal "human colony".

• Ceti Gamma II: This world was also discussed in Patterns of the Soul. It is an Earth colony of unknown size and location. General Thompson's covert weapons team was based here, and the Pro-Zeta Corporation manufactures proteins and "synthetic meat" on this planet for distribution to the Earth Alliance worlds "and more".

"Ceti" normally designates stars in the Cetus constellation. If this star is named according to modern conventions, it would be "Gamma Ceti", not "Ceti Gamma". The closed-captioning on Patterns of the Soul spelled this as Seti Gamma Two, but unless someone can verify that the script used this spelling, I will stick with "Ceti".....

• New California: There was a labor strike on New California at some point in time, according to By Any Means Necessary. (The exact quote refers to "the strikes on Europa and on New California and at Matawan"; however, it's possible that what is said is "in New California", which would suggest this is a city, not a planet. Matawan is a real city which had a major labor strike in the 20th century.)

• New Jerusalem: Colonel Ari ben Zayn was involved in fighting here, according to Eyes. It is possible that this began as a Jewish colony or an Israeli colony; ben Zayn was also involved in military campaigns in Israel.

Jerry Pournelle, Gordon R. Dickson, and other science fiction authors have written stories about off-world colonies founded for religious reasons, much as the New England colonies were in the 17th Century. New Jerusalem may be a colony of this type; if so, it's the only one mentioned so far in Babylon 5.

• Cyrus III: Colonel Ari ben Zayn was involved in fighting here, according to Eyes.

• Janos VII: General Franklin led a military campaign here -- in GROPOS, he is referred to as the "Scourge of Janos VII". The pterodactl-like Grylor in Knives is mentioned as being native to Janos VII as well.

• Amador and Pepinia: Two of Earth's newest colonies. Amador and Pepinia joined the Earth Alliance just before The Gathering, according to the headline in "Universe Today".

• Sinzar and Flinn Colony: These were sites of battles in 2247, during the latter part of the the Earth-Minbari War, according to In The Beginning.

• Jericho 3: Another colony mentioned in In The Beginning.

• Disneyplanet: In Epiphanies, Garibaldi says that after quitting his job he could vacation on Disneyplanet. Oddly, we have never seen him watching any Disney films on Babylon 5; he seems to prefer the classic Warner Brothers cartoons......

Straczynski, responding on the internet to a question about Disneyplanet:

Give 'em time, and they'll try to buy a planet. It's inevitable.
With Earth now in the present, that'd make two.

This planet is mentioned The Parliament of Dreams, but it might not be a human world.

(Actually, this is listed as being in "Parliament" by Andy Lane. But I just rewatched my tape and couldn't find it. I'll double-check, but this may be an error on Lane's part.)

• Antares: Alpha Scorpii, better known as Antares, is a twin star (one M1-I red giant and one smaller B4-V white star) around 520 light-years from Earth. It has been mentioned various times during the show. However, it's not certain that Antares is a human settlement.

Del Varner visited the Antares Sector before coming to Babylon 5 in The Gathering. His computer files mention Antares itself as one of his past locations.

In The Parliament of Dreams, Catherine Sakai brings Jeff Sinclair some "Antarean Flarn" to eat. Interestingly, "Minbari Flarn" is referred to in Confessions and Lamentations and Sic Transit Vir; is this the same food?

The novel Voices has an alien character referred to as an Antarean. However, the novel Blood Oath (by the same author) mentions the planet Antareus. If this isn't a misspelling, it may be the home of the Antarean, and then Antares could still be a human world.

• Bel-Nar, Andat, Hutchison Colony, the Mohlion Asteroid Belt, and Tau Tramula: These places are all listed in Del Varner's computer files in The Gathering; along with Antares, they are the six places he visited before coming to Babylon 5. The last two names are very hard to read, and not all need be human colonies, but at least "Hutchison Colony" sure likes like a human name. Based on the dialogue, most or all of these are in the "Antares Sector".

(It should be pointed out that the special-effects folks may not have intended for us to freeze-frame these computer files, so this may all be nonsense. In particular, on the planet Bel-Nar, Del Varner was trading Trilithium Compound, which would seem to belong in that Other Show, not in Babylon 5's universe!)

Before coming to Babylon 5 in Eyes, Ari ben Zayn visited Lagrange 22, which is "near Mars". (It might not be feasible to put a station in the L4 or L5 points of either fast-moving Phobos or tiny Deimos, so this may be in Mars' L4 or L5 point. If so, it's not particularly close to Mars.

Presumably there are at least 21 other Lagrange stations! Yet during TKO, Walker Smith mentions visiting Lagrange Station without mentioning any number.

Building a real space city in the Lagrange point which trails behind Earth's moon would be an awesome -- yet feasible -- accomplishment. The L5 Society was founded for this purpose. It is now part of the National Space Society.

• Midrange Military Outpost: After the Battle of Proxima III, Sheridan's forces continued to liberate Earth colonies. In The Exercise of Vital Powers, Ivanova mentions Beta Durani and the Midrange Military Outpost as places recently freed from President Clark's rule. It seems likely (based on Sheridan's comments in Face of the Enemy) that the garrison here chose to ally with Sheridan rather than to fight.

Although Ivanova refers to the "Midrange Military Outpost" as if that defines a unique place, In The Beginning refers to "the midrange military bases at Beta Durani and at Proxima III" as if that is a generic term.

• Babylon Stations: The first three Babylon stations were built in the early 2250's but sabotaged before their completion (Grail, The Gathering); JMS verified that they were destroyed by humans opposed to the Babylon Project. It is not certain where they were located.

Both Babylon 4 and Babylon 5 were located in the same star system; Babylon Squared reveals that it takes a starfury three hours "in normal space" to travel from B5 to B4. Babylon 5 orbits the planet Epsilon 3, but Babylon 4 might not; its location is usually referred to as "Sector 14". For a discussion of exactly where Epsilon 3 might be located, see the companion document, Stellar Geography in the Babylon 5 Galaxy.

Babylon 4 was completed in 2254, under the command of Major Kranz. It vanished twenty-four hours later. For details on its odd fate, see Babylon Squared and War Without End.

Babylon 5, "the last of the Babylon stations", went on-line in 2256. While Earth propaganda claimed B5 was "neutral territory", it was clearly under the control of Earth Force military (see Survivors, GROPOS, etc.) Its commanding officer was Commander Jeffrey Sinclair until the beginning of January, 2259. Captain John Sheridan took command of Babylon 5 on January 8.

On 13 April 2260, after President Clark ordered the bombing of Mars Colony, Proxima III and Orion VII declared their independence from the Earth Alliance. Sheridan followed suit and declared Babylon 5 independent as well. (Severed Dreams). Since this date, the station has been effectively under the direct control of military dictator John Sheridan, who has created his own uniforms and his own laws. He occasionally consults with his fellow officers, but almost never reveals his plans to them. On September 2, 2261, Sheridan began a war to "liberate" Earth and its colonies from his fellow tyrant, President Morgan Clark.

The Excalibur visited Babylon 5 in the Crusade episode The Rules of the Game. Lochley was still in charge of the station. If she has been commanding officer continuously from January 2262 to mid-2267, that would be five and a half years -- much longer than Sinclair's two to three years or Sheridan's three years! 

Oddly, President Sheridan stated in Rising Star that he intended for the Interstellar Alliance to eventually buy Babylon 5 from the Earth Alliance. But this never came to pass. In Sleeping in Light, the final fate of the last of the Babylon Stations was revealed.

Betelgeuse 6 appears in Voices, and Betelgeuse Four appears in Blood Oath (both by author John Vornholt). Beta Orionis, better known as Betelgeuse, is a red giant star (type B8 I) which is around 900 light-years from Earth.

S.M. Stirling's novel Betrayals mentions a Japanese-settled world called Nippon (which is, of course, the real name of the island which Europeans call "Japan").

The Babylon Project, the role-playing game written by Joseph Cochran, lists some (but not all) of the above-mentioned colonies on its map. It also adds New London Station, Canton I Colony, Canton III Outpost, Kandhi III Colony, Berlin II Colony, Delphi IV Colony, and the Myoto VI Outpost, all of which sound like "national" colonies. The Cooke II Colony, Cooke III Colony, Dakota I Colony, Dakota II Outpost, Dakotat Colony, Leonis V Colony, and Leonis VII Outpost are also named. Further worlds take their names from the stars where they are located: the Sirius III Mining Outpost, Sirius Transfer Station, Kapteyn's Station, Ceti Station, Ceti II Colony, Tau Ceti IV Colony, Wolf V Colony, Signet Station, Ross IV Outpost, Eridani III Colony, and the vanished Procyon II Colony. Oddly, The Babylon Project places this "Altair Transfer Station" at the star Ross 154, not at Altair. In a similar vein, it places the Vega Colony at Ross 248, not at Vega; it gives the Minbari control of the real Vega system.

In our Solar system, The Babylon Project adds the Venusian Orbital Station, Saturn Station, and the Skywalker Asteroid Base. It also names the colony on Earth's Moon as the Armstrong Colony.

For a more in-depth analysis of the astronomical data given in this game, see the companion document, Stellar Geography in the Babylon 5 Galaxy.

New Vegas is not a world, but a city on Mars. (See "Mars" above.)

New Melleray was the home of the Brother Theodorus' monks before they came to Babylon 5 in Convictions. This is a real abbey near Peosta, Iowa. Since New Melleray is a Trappist (Cisterian) abbey, it would seem that Brother Theo's monks are Trappists.

Balos (or Balus) is a planet which was captured by the Dilgar in 2230, and liberated by the Earth Alliance in 2232, during the Dilgar War, according to information given in Deathwalker. But it is not a human world, for Balosians are mentioned in Born to the Purple. It's conceivable that Earth "kept" this world after liberating it, but I know of no evidence to support this.

Ivanova lists fourteen worlds which are under Vorlon attack in Falling Toward Apotheosis. Some of them have human-sounding names (7 Lukantha and Mokafa Station specifically sound African). However, it seems clear from Epiphanies and Racing Mars that no human colonies were involved in the Shadow War or the Vorlon War.