What if your favorite prestige TV show aired episodes out of order? What if Andor had listed “Welcome to the Rebellion” before “Who Are You?” What if Battlestar Galactica had aired “Crossroads” before “Maelstrom”? Today, the idea of a pivotal TV episode airing before an episode that is supposed to precede it is nearly unthinkable. But 30 years ago, this brief continuity error actually happened on a very pivotal science fiction series. The year was 1995, and the name of the place was Babylon 5. And back then, in syndication, two Season 2 episodes — “Knives” and “In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum” were aired in the wrong order.
In 1990s science fiction TV, serialization was rare. While shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and aspects of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were pioneers in having interconnected story arcs over multiple seasons, the true pioneering show on this front was Babylon 5. Unlike shows like DS9 or Buffy, there wasn’t really a big writers’ room on Babylon 5. The numbers here simply don’t lie: Out of 110 episodes of B5 total, series creator J. Michael Straczynski has sole screenwriting credit on 92, meaning only 18 episodes were written (or co-written) by others. If you look for other examples of science fiction TV series like this, you won’t find any.
