By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Babylon 5 is so fondly remembered today, over 30 years after it premiered, thanks to the tightly woven narrative and singular vision of creator J. Michael Straczynski, but it is not the rise of John Sheridan, the Shadow War, or the Psi-Corps that represent everything great about the series. Instead, it’s the tragic saga of enemies turned not quite friends but respectful rivals nonetheless, Londo, the Centauri Ambassador, and G’Kar, the Narn Ambassador, who go from amusing background characters to making the entire audience cry by the end of the series. In a space opera series about intergalactic war and ancient civilizations, the greatest moment is a quiet conversation between two men who wanted nothing more than to watch the other die first.
Two Species At War
When audiences are first introduced to the world of Babylon 5, Londo (played like a drunk Shakespeare in the Park performer by Peter Jurasik) is the boisterous, over-friendly Centauri Ambassador who will take any lull in the conversation to brag about the might of the Empire, while G’Kar (played by Andreas Katsulas, able to emote under a full face of prosthetics and makeup), is the over-the-top schemer who happens to be hilariously petty. Throughout Season 1, the two are mostly one-note characters, and while entertaining even in this role, it’s halfway through Season 2 that the two Ambassadors experience a dramatic shift in their standing that sets them on the path to become the best part of the series.
In Season 2 Episode 9, “The Coming of Shadows,” the relationship between Londo and G’Kar changes, while we also get to see, through the prophetic visions of the Centauri, that the two are going to kill each other as old men. When the dying Centauri Emperor passes along to G’Kar a message that he’s sorry for what the Empire did to the Narn, G’Kar is elated, going so far as to happily sit and have a drink with Londo. What the Narn Ambassador doesn’t know is that hours earlier, at the urging of Londo, the Centauri launched an attack on a Narn colony.
With their species at war with one another, Londo and G’Kar spend the next few seasons bickering in public, becoming openly hostile and yet, as time goes on, they start to slowly learn how much is riding on the shoulders of the other, how large of a burden each of them bears, and their flaming hatred for one another slowly begins to cool. Very slowly.
The Perfect Scene-Stealing Duo
The two in the same scene is bound to produce at least one amazing line or facial expression, including when the two are trapped in an elevator during the Season 3 episode “Convictions,” when G’Kar is excited that he “Doesn’t have to do anything and I still get to watch you die!” The utter disappointment that the Narn feels when they’re eventually rescued caps off a brilliant, darkly comic sequence that involves nothing more than two characters who hate each other.
During Season 5, Londo and G’Kar have bonded to the point where, during “A View From the Gallery,” Mack, one of the Babylon 5 station technicians, overhears the two bickering and remarks, “So how long you figure they’ve been married?” Even the two once-heated rivals end up acknowledging their respect for one another, and it all leads up to Londo finally achieving his lifelong dream to become Emperor, only to realize that it means giving up his own life.
The Beating Heart Of Babylon 5
Before he walks through the Imperial Palace to ascend to the throne, and the dire consequences that come with it, Londo and G’Kar share a moment alone between them, when one exchange carries the weight of five seasons and years of understanding. While the future Emperor struggles to express himself, and how he’ll miss seeing his friend, the Narn stands, and with more emotion than you’d expect from a network sci-fi series, that “Mollari, understand I can never forgive your people for what they have done to our world. My people can never forgive your people. But I…can forgive…you.”
Everything J. Michael Straczynski wanted to say with Babylon 5 comes to a head in that one, powerful moment, which helps raise the whole show above its 90s contemporaries. When the series first premiered, no one would have guessed that the two strangest-looking members of the main cast in Season 1 would, by the final season, become the beating heart of the series and, to many fans, the real stars. Londo and G’kar, thanks to the perfect once-in-a-lifetime combination of JMS’s writing and the real-life chemistry of Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas, are the greatest on-screen pairing of not just alien characters, but any sci-fi characters of the 90s.
