All episodes Season 5 S05E22 1998-11-25 60 min 1990s PTEN/TNT

Babylon 5

Sleeping in Light

TV Flash files “Sleeping in Light” as a desk essential hour — Babylon 5 (1994–1998) on PTEN/TNT, season 5, episode 22, aired 1998-11-25, 60 min.

From the desk

How this hour is filed

This leaf is S05E22: listed hour 110 of 110 in the Babylon 5 guide, last listed hour of season 5. It aired 1998-11-25 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Objects at Rest” (S05E21). No later hour is listed in this guide.

Essential hour

Essential hour: “Sleeping in Light”. Sleeping in Light: five-year novel closed — neutral ground finally allowed a last look at history.

Babylon 5 — Sleeping in Light (S05E22)

Catalog log

Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.

Twenty years after his death and resurrection at Z'ha'dum, and the end of the Shadow War, Sheridan feels his life force ebbing away and invites some old friends to gather for a final time.

Viewer FAQ

Where does Sleeping in Light sit in the Babylon 5 guide?

S05E22 is listed hour 110 of 110 — last listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 22.

When did Babylon 5 S05E22 air?

Sleeping in Light aired 1998-11-25 and is listed at 60 minutes.

What is distinctive about its structure?

It was planned as a multi-year novel-like arc rather than mostly standalone episodes — five seasons designed as one composition.

In the series

Why this series still plays

Diplomats and soldiers on a massive station, plotted as a five-year novel when American sci-fi TV still defaulted to reset buttons. J. Michael Straczynski wrote the bulk himself: foreshadowing, payoffs, fascism, faith, and the forever DS9 comparison. Neutral ground until history refuses neutrality. Serialization with actual architecture.

The first useful thing *Babylon 5* does is refuse the reset button. Diplomats and soldiers aboard a massive space station navigate wars, prophecies, and alliances across a deliberately planned multi-year arc. J. Michael Straczynski wrote the vast majority of the series (1994–1998 on PTEN, later TNT association for continuation) as a novel for television — foreshadowing, payoffs, political sci-fi with unusual long-range architecture for 1990s American TV. Humanity's place among alien powers becomes a stage for…

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Filed against

Also in season 5

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