Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

A group of Soul Hunters come to the station demanding the return of something that was stolen from them. Ian McShane. Martin Sheen as Soul Hunter.

P5 Rating: 7.77

Production number: TNT MoW3
Original air date: November 8, 1998
DVD release date: August 17, 2004

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Janet Greek
Novelization by Yvonne Navarro

Plot Points

• Ten thousand years ago, the Soul Hunters were drawn to Ralga, a world whose inhabitants were apparently about to die en masse. Deviating from their usual practice of capturing individual souls, the Soul Hunters placed all 1 billion Ralgans in a soul globe. But they were wrong about the impending mass extinction, and inadvertently captured the race as it was about to transcend its physical form and become pure energy. Over the course of the ten thousand years they've been in captivity, half have gone insane.
• The Minbari are the only race to have stopped the Soul Hunters from collecting a soul ("Soul Hunter").
• Soul Hunters never capture each other's souls; they believe themselves unworthy of preservation.
• Soul Hunters store their captured souls in "whisper galleries," immense halls in which the souls can communicate with one another.

Unanswered Questions

• Which other two races did the Soul Hunters capture en masse? Were those legitimate extinctions, or have the Soul Hunters made the same mistake twice?

Analysis

• The two storylines shared a thematic link: both the brothel operator and the Soul Hunters captured some aspect of people without permission and used the simulacra for their own purposes.

• "Infection" and "Thirdspace" shared several plot elements with this story: an ancient artifact is probed by a scientist funded by a major corporation; it's brought to Babylon 5 and activated with deadly results. The scientist is motivated by greed or power. The artifact was created by a powerful race due to their belief that they were the most pure, the smartest, or knew better than others.

• Transcending of physical bodies seems to be a common evolutionary path for races who survive long enough; even humanity is destined to take that step sometime in the next million years ("The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"). Other examples of transcendence: Lorien ("Into the Fire"), Ironheart ("Mind War"), and arguably the Vorlons ("Falling Toward Apotheosis") though they retained at least some physical form and could be poisoned ("The Gathering").

• One of the other two races captured by the Soul Hunters might have been the Markab, who died suddenly from a virulent disease ("Confessions and Lamentations").

Notes

• Soul Hunters are very long-lived; a four-thousand-year-old is considered young and naive.

• Soul Hunter ships all have the ability to attach to other ships and burn through, a capability they need since they're rarely welcomed by other races.

• The following press release is dated March 23, 1998. It contains some spoilers.

  RIVER OF SOULS -- The Next TNT Movie!

  An ancient vault filled with relics believed to hold the secret to eternal life is the centerpiece of the Turner Network Television (TNT) Original Film BABYLON 5: The River of Souls. Julie Weitz, executive vice president of original programming for TNT, today confirmed that series stars Tracy Scoggins, Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs and Jeff Conaway will headline TNT's next BABYLON 5 full-length movie. Douglas Netter and series creator J. Michael Straczynski will executive-produce the two-hour film from the script by Straczynski. The film is a co-production of TNT and Babylonian Productions.

  After a brief absence from Babylon 5, Michael Garibaldi (Doyle) returns to the station as a harbinger of doom. An archeologist in his employ has stolen an ancient relic he believes to be the key to eternal life from the Soul Hunters, immortal creatures who capture and preserve souls throughout the galaxy. With the station under siege from the Soul Hunters, the explorer releases thousands of enraged souls from the relic who merge with others, attempting to taste life one more time. Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Scoggins) must save Babylon 5 from an impending attack of the Soul Hunters and the wrathful entities looking for retribution.

  TNT is the exclusive home of the BABYLON 5 franchise, featuring the eagerly anticipated fifth season of 22 all-new episodes (Wednesday at 10 PM ET)and a Monday-through-Friday airing of the series' award-winning first four seasons. Building on the success of BABYLON 5: In the Beginning, TNT's first full-length BABYLON 5 movie, the network will premiere BABYLON 5: Thirdspace this summer.

  Turner Network Television, the number one-rated cable network in prime time and currently seen in more than 72 million homes, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc's 24-hour, advertiser-supported service offering original motion pictures and miniseries; contemporary films from the world's largest film library, the combined Turner and Warner Bros. film libraries; exciting NBA sports action; popular television series; and timeless cartoons.

  Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., is a major producer of news and entertainment product around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.

jms speaks

• Is there a title yet?
  Yes.

  Is there an air date yet?
  Under discussion.

  Who will be in it?
  Ditto.

  Will it involve the Telepath War?
  Negative.

• Actually, no, it isn't written yet. I won't be able to have a clear field to write it until after I've finished writing the 5th season. I know in general what I want to do with it, have fleshed out a lot, but until I've run the premise past TNT and WB officially, I can't comment.

• Just got clarification and verification: Thirdspace does indeed air July 19th, and another B5 TV movie airs November 23rd, and one more on January 3rd.

• TNT has moved up the airdate for "The River of Souls" to November 8th (from November 22nd) so that a) B5 fans won't have so long to wait, and b) to make sure both that and Sleeping in Light both get equal promotion, and one doesn't get lost in the other.

• "River" is a heck of a movie, I think...now we just have to film the darned thing. (Janet Greek is directing.)

• When does it take place?
  It takes place six months into 2263.

• Because we have only $3 million on which to make these movies, we have to rotate the cast because we can't afford to have them all in any one of them. Bruce and Mira were in the first two, so we gave Tracy a shot and put in Jerry as well as Corwin (his first), Zack and Franklin.

  We're just looking for ways to be fair to the maximum number of cast with the resources we have.

• Why did Martin Sheen's soul hunter speak so oddly at first?
  What we had discussed (actor, director and me) was that soul hunters don't generally get much chance to hang out and talk to people; they can empathically sense the language, however, when they encounter others. At first, he didn't know the language very well, and gradually became more able to express himself.

Last update: May 27, 2024