January 26, 1994: "Babylon 5” Premieres

January 26, 1994: Babylon 5 premieres in syndication. As series creator J. Michael Straczynski had hoped, his science fiction "novel for television" ran 5 full seasons.

It turns the usual science fiction trope on its head: Earth is not the good guys, although the main cast humans are. Unusually for American broadcast television at the time of its airing, it was conceived as a "novel for television," with a pre-planned five-year story arc, each episode envisioned as a "chapter."

The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5 -- the 1st 4 stations named Babylon being considered failures -- built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. Major plotlines included intra-race intrigue and upheaval, inter-race wars and their aftermaths, and embroilment in a millennial cyclic conflict between ancient races. The human characters, in particular, become pivotal to the resistance against Earth's descent into totalitarianism.

The main Babylon 5 story arc occurs between the years 2257 and 2262. There is a unified Earth government, which has gained the technology for faster-than-light travel. Ten years before the series is set, Earth barely escaped destruction by the technologically superior Minbari, who sought revenge after an Earth starship unwittingly killed their leader during first contact, only for them to surrender unexpectedly on the brink of victory. Earth has since established peaceful relationships with them, and the Earth Alliance has become a significant and generally respected power within the galactic community.

Among the other species are the imperialist Centauri; the Narn, who only recently gained independence from the Centauri empire; and the mysterious, powerful Vorlons. Several dozen less powerful species from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds (a metaphor for the "Third World" of real-life present-day Earth's United Nations) also have diplomatic contact with the major races.

In Season 1, the station's commanding officer was Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (played by Michael O'Hare), subsequently appointed Earth's Ambassador to Minbar. In Seasons 2, 3 and 4, it was Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner). In Season 5, he becomes President of the new Interstellar Alliance. His second-in-command is Lieutenant Commander, later full Commander, Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian). In Season 5, the commander was Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins).

Also assigned to the station were Chief of Security Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and chief medical officer Doctor Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs). Other major characters included Minbari Ambassador (and later wife of Sheridan) Delenn (Mira Furlan), her aide Lennier (a middle-aged Lost In Space veteran Bill Mumy), Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik), his aide Vir Cotto (Stephen Furst), and Narn Ambassador G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas, known for playing a Romulan captain on Star Trek: The Next Generation). 

Having Stephen Furst and Peter Jurasik on the same TV show is kind of overkill. I guess Wayne Knight was too busy with Seinfeld to make it a trio.

Melissa Gilbert of Little House On the Prairie, then married to Boxleitner in real life, made a cameo appearance in a flashback scene as Sheridan's now-deceased wife. Star Trek legend Walter Koenig played Alfred Bester, a bigoted telepath and Psi-Corps officer.

Biggs died in 2004, Katsulas in 2006. Jeff Conaway, formerly of Taxi, whose Zack Allan replaced Garibaldi as Chief of Security, died in 2011. O'Hare died in 2012, Doyle in 2016, Furst in 2017, Furlan in 2021. As of January 26, 2022, Straczynski, Boxleitner, Christian, Scoggins, Mumy and Jurasik are still alive.

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January 26, 1994 was a Wednesday. Football player Tyreek Hill and singer Justin Bieber were born.

Baseball was out of season. Super Bowl XXVIII was played the following Sunday, and the Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills, 30-13.

There were 7 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, 103-98 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 104-90 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Hornets, 145-120 at the Charlotte Coliseum. Shaquille O'Neal scored 36 points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Phoenix Suns, 116-107 at The Omni in Atlanta. Despite the Suns' defeat, Cedric Ceballos led all scorers on the night with 40 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Utah Jazz, 100-98 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 108-92 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 108-92 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The New Jersey Devils and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 3-0 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, first- and second-year expansion teams, respectively, but already arch-rivals, played to a 1-1 tie at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).