Date of The Gathering?

Jenesis

Mongoose
I'm putting together my first B5 campaign, but I want to start earlier than the beginning of the first season, and so the first scenario is planned to start off on 7th July 2257, three days after B5 opens it (cargo) doors, at which point the players are en route to the station.

Clearly the attempt on Kosh is a major event that should feature, but having just rewatched The Gathering, I still haven't been able to find anything that pins down the date. (Other than the fact that it's presumably near the beginning of a month, what with the trade discussion Lyta is present for, which involves 'the 15th' and 'the 22nd'.) Is the exact date known, or will I simply have to make it up? Have I missed an obvious date somewhere? :p
 
Well I'm sure LastBestHope, ElCid, Frobisher or others will be able to give you the exact date, but in the meantime I can tell you that I remember reading somewhere that the whole Gathering story happened about a month before the official opening. It was an opening restricted for the dimplomats and most of the staff wasn't even in operation, IIRC. So you could make it happen on June 3rd or something like that.

Just my two ducats.
 
Gosh. Well, that comes as a surprise. There seem to be lots of people on that station already, conducting business, and a lot of people in the casino who don't appear to have much official to do. Also, at the end Takashima broadcasts 'on all frequencies' that the closing off of the station is over and 'our cargo bays are ready to recieve you', or something similar. It doesn't seem to add up. You may yet be right, of course; having the station almost empty might have made for an inferior pilot episode. Hrm, an intruiging answer.
 
Thanks for the name drop redlaco, I see my (well deserved) reputation has started to precede me!

8)

For a discussion of where the movies fit in go to this thread:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2453

For your ease of research and delectation, I have reproduced my (IMHO) definiitive post on the subject below, where I cite my sources:

lastbesthope said:
Eryx said:
In the Beginning: 10 years before season 1 starts.
The Gathering: Approximately 6 months before season 1 starts.
Thirdspace: Season 4, between the First Ones leaving for the Rim, and Sheridan's war against Earth.
River of Souls: One year after Season 5.
Crusade: 5 years after season 5.
Legend of the Rangers: Not sure, but roughly 20-odd years after season 5.

I pretty much agree with everything everyone else has said since Eryx posted this except a couple of minor things.

River of Souls happens 6 months after the end of Season 5 (About June July 2263). We know this because Lochley mentions to Garibaldi it has been 6 months since he left (At the end of season 5/end of 2262)

Thirdspace happens sometime in the latter half of Season 4 (2261). I worked this out once but can't quite remember the 2 episode timeframe I worked out. You have the fact that Zack has his new uniform in Thirdspace so it must be after the "Next time use a bigger needle" scene where he is being fitted for it. Also Delenn and John are both on the station which narrows it down to times when that could happen, i.e. before Sheridan goes off to fight the Civil War, and sometime when Delenn isn't offing kicking Drakh behind or solving the Minbari civil war. Also, since Garibaldi isn't in the movie we can probably assume it is sometime after he has gone to Mars to work for Edgars. Just in case anyone wants to try and recreate my reasoning for themselves. (Having read what I looked up later I peg it as sometime between the end of 4.14 "Moments Of Transition" and the start of 4.17 "The Face of The Enemy" Though I could be wrong, but I'm sure I'm close 8) )

Crusade. Well Call to Arms is supposed ot be on the 5th anniversary of the formation of the ISA so that would placve it End 2266/Start 2267, Crusade follows directly on from there.

All of the above is from memory. Now to go and look up my vast array of B5 sources of info, feel free to talk amongst yourselves for a bit . . . . . .

(Returns from behind a pile of magazines)

The following is info from the Official B5 Timeline as made by a fan (not me!), sanctioned by JMS and then printed in the official B5 magazine.

In The Beginning
The Minbari War is listed as having taken place between July 2245 and 2248. A Late Delivery From Avalon (Season 3 July 2260) is cited as the 15th anniversary of "The Prometheus Incident" which confirms this.

The Gathering Sun 3rd January to Fri 8th January 2257
(Also states Sinclair took command of B5 Monday 9th March 2256)

Thirdspace is tagged as June 2261, after Delen has returned and recovered from her injuries in the Starfire wheel. Thirdspace happens after this and before Delenn is recalled to Minbar. the best it ties it down is after Ep 4.14 "Moments of Transition".

River Of Souls Tuesday 8 to Sunday 13th June 2263. Bryson arrives on station 11th June.

Call to Arms/Crusade. Call to Arms is Tuesday 17th to Monday 30th December 2266. The attack on Earth happens on the 28th December.. Episode 1 of Crusade "War Zone" happens Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th January.

As I've often said, and most of my friends agree, what little info about B5 I can't remember off the top of my head, I know which of my vast array of books, etc. to look it up in :)

Lastbesthope (For B5 info)

The bit you are interested in is:

The Gathering Sun 3rd January to Fri 8th January 2257
(Also states Sinclair took command of B5 Monday 9th March 2256)

If you have any other timeline (or any B5) questions just post them up, I'm sure to find them and answer them if someine else doesn't first, or PM me.

LBH
Epic level B5 fan!
 
Six months before the station's official opening, then? Gosh. So what did the official opening actually signify? Just a cursory gesture since the station had been going for months?

Maybe 'officially operational' means 'as finished as it's going to be' (since Downbelow was never fully developed), and the station was open to business before it was actually finished? That would make sense, I suppose, given the drain on resources the Babylon Project had become.

I have a feeling my canon campaign is about to become ever-so-slightly non-canon :)


Anyway, many thanks to all of you. The fount of your combined wisdom doth gush.
 
Jenesis said:
Six months before the station's official opening, then? Gosh. So what did the official opening actually signify? Just a cursory gesture since the station had been going for months?

Before? I thought you said you wanted to run your campaign from July 2257. Station officially opened Jan 2257 so I make that 6 months after.

Jenesis said:
I have a feeling my canon campaign is about to become ever-so-slightly non-canon :)

Not so much slightly non-canon as neatly filling the gap between The Gathering and Season 1(2258)

Jenesis said:
Anyway, many thanks to all of you. The fount of your combined wisdom doth gush.

You're welcome.

LBH
 
lastbesthope said:
Before? I thought you said you wanted to run your campaign from July 2257. Station officially opened Jan 2257 so I make that 6 months after.

In that case we appear to be in disagreement over the opening date of B5. I got the date from the core rulebook (p155):

2257: The Babylon 5 diplomatic station declared officially operational on Sunday 4th July.

My plan was to have the players turn up just after the station goes officially online.

[Edit: A bit of digging reveals another alternative (www.chronology.org/b-five/)

The Gathering - sometime in March, due to Kosh arriving 'just over two years ago' during the episode And Now For A Word. However, it also notes that Lyta referred to it as taking place in 'summer 2257' in Darkness Ascending.

The same site also gives the B5 opening date as July 4th, quoting "JMSM" as a reference, which I presume refers to J. Michael Straczynski, though I'm not sure what the second M is for.]

[Edit 2: The site also claims the March date as being confirmed by JMS. Might I ask where your January date came from?]
 
Gosh, I hate being that far off :? :oops: ,
but I'm also happy to learn something new every other day... :p 8)
Even if some dates seems to be debatable...
 
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