This plot of being a descendant of someone from another planet is nothing new.

There's something similar about the Time Lords of Gallifrey. They're all descendants - genetically - of a black baby girl found on another planet. She was the first incarnation of The Doctor and everyone got the power to regenerate from her. As far as I know the girl was not human, but she might have traveled back in time to the beginning of Gallifrey.

Of course, there's no mention of souls, but the idea is the same. Is the soul embedded in, part of or an expression of the mixed DNA?

Are there really Minbari souls being born in Human bodies? Is there any proof or just a belief - faith - because of the Triluminary reacting to Valen's (human) DNA? There are humans and Minbari who share his DNA. Is that what they mean when talking about souls?

Well yes, that was the Triluminary basically indicating the presence of human DNA, or at least human DNA "related to" Valen, which of course would be strongest when they tested Sinclair because he BECAME Valen. But Delenn was also a late-descendent, and there were many others. After almost 1000 years, the "family tree" split off from Sinclair/Valen had become rather widespread.

The problem I was describing was how they early on were saying that the Minbari somehow "discovered" that they were "losing" their "best souls," which they decided were being (re)born in humans due to the Triluminary, but with human Sinclair starting to introduce some human DNA into the Minbari, if anything that might suggest that human "souls" were "lessening" the Minbari "souls" but there was nothing happening on Earth, at least not that we were told of, that would cause human "souls" to become better or be replaced by Minbari "souls."

Did they just forget about that in writing later episodes because they didn't want to bother with it any more, or because they realized they had "written themselves into a corner," or maybe because the way they were describing it wound up being an insult to human "souls?"

@Knixon said:

Did they just forget about that in writing later episodes because they didn't want to bother with it any more, or because they realized they had "written themselves into a corner," or maybe because the way they were describing it wound up being an insult to human "souls?"

I understand. It's one of those topics that's been discussed ad nauseam without any definitve answer. When I first saw the show in the 1990's I just accepted it as very entertaining fiction that didn't need any solid explanation.

What I did do, as usual, was have random thoughts about the show. Like for example, the idea of humans being born with extraterrestrial souls, hmm... sounds like something from L. Ron Hubbard. Isn't that Lyta in disguise on DS9, is there a connection between both space stations? Why not, Chekov is there too. A parallel universe? Shadows are insectoid creatures, so does that mean that insects are more advanced than the humanoid species? Nope, let's do the Rorschach test. Vorlons, who are you going to call? Ghostbusters, or Scooby Doo?

JMS is probably the only person, who could say if some things were left unexplained intentionally or not.

By the way, I mentioned Doctor Who, because, as you know, JMS seems to be interested in becoming the new showrunner for that show. I don't know if he has a chance, he is not British, but that shouldn't make any difference these days.

Last I heard, Dr Who is in trouble from "go woke, go broke" putting in a woman Dr plus other problems that I don't pay attention to because Dr Who never interested me. Does JMS think he can fix that? Would he be ALLOWED TO fix it, if that means going back to a male lead? I dunno. But, since Dr Who doesn't interest me, I haven't been paying attention.

@Knixon said:

Last I heard, Dr Who is in trouble from "go woke, go broke" putting in a woman Dr plus other problems that I don't pay attention to because Dr Who never interested me. Does JMS think he can fix that? Would he be ALLOWED TO fix it, if that means going back to a male lead? I dunno. But, since Dr Who doesn't interest me, I haven't been paying attention.

It's like with Star Trek, only worse. The origin of Doctor Who has been revealed as what I mentioned in my first post above. That's something you can't fix. I just hope there won't ever be a reboot, remake or sequel of "Babylon 5".

You think that's a problem? I fear remakes of UFO, The Starlost...

(timing advanced to avoid spoilers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Kv0VlJvNQ&t=174s

@Knixon said:

Last I heard, Dr Who is in trouble from "go woke, go broke" putting in a woman Dr plus other problems that I don't pay attention to because Dr Who never interested me. Does JMS think he can fix that? Would he be ALLOWED TO fix it, if that means going back to a male lead? I dunno. But, since Dr Who doesn't interest me, I haven't been paying attention.

Honestly, I hated early Doctor Who (before the 9th Doctor), I thought it was hokey. But really got into it when Eccleston took over as the 9th Doctor. Was a bit leery of Tennant because of a show I had seen him (Secret Smile) in, he was positively creepy! But he quickly grew on me but then Smith came along & I just couldn't warm to him. Wanted to see Capaldi's 12th but until now never had the opportunity. Not interested in Whittaker's 13th.

Doctor Who has been renewed for a 14th season with former showrunner Russell T. Davies coming back. But no word on who the 14th Doctor will be (Whittaker has bowed out)?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/babylon-5-reboot-cw-1235021237/

That sounds to me like they plan to follow the path begun by the "Legend Of The Rangers: To Live and Die In Star Light" movie, rather than "rebooting" the original series, and I'd call that a good idea. Especially if they plan to have Boxleitner star again. He's way too old to be Captain Sheridan again, in a remake of the original series.

Also, I'm reminded that Lennier tells Sheridan and Ivanova in Season 2, episode 1 that the bit about Minbari souls being born into humans began 2,000 years ago, but Sinclair went back in time only 1,000 years to become Valen.

@Knixon said:

Also, I'm reminded that Lennier tells Sheridan and Ivanova in Season 2, episode 1 that the bit about Minbari souls being born into humans began 2,000 years ago, but Sinclair went back in time only 1,000 years to become Valen.

That's correct. I always considered Jeffrey Sinclair as Valen, a Minbari not born of Minbari, but with a Minbari soul.

But he couldn't have a Minbari soul, because the Minbari didn't sent a "human Valen" to Earth 1,000 or 2,000 years earlier. It was Sinclair going to Minbar that basically started introducing human souls into the Minbari population. The Minbari got it wrong/backwards because they didn't know what really happened until later.

Well, it was never explicitly mentioned that Minbari visited Earth 2000 years ago and 'breed' with humans, but I assume that could have happened. Of course that is when you equate 'soul' with'DNA'. If you mean something else with the term 'soul' then anything is possible and the question could be 'what happens to your soul when you die?'

In theory, maybe. But human legend doesn't include anything like Valen, on the show. The more likely explanation is that - especially 1,000 years ago - they didn't realize that Valen had been human. They assumed that Minbari "warrior souls" (which could have been an issue of DNA, as you say) were leaving, but what actually happened was that Sinclair's human DNA began to "dilute" the Minbari.

Which is actually an insult to humans, when you think about it. And maybe that's why they didn't talk about it much later in the show.

Also, if the Minbari had some kind of reverse Valen to humans, 1,000 years or more before Sinclair was born, the he may have already had some Minbari DNA. But there was no need for that and it was never mentioned.

The big mystery, of course, was who set up The Great Machine (which was only 500 years earlier, vs 1,000 years for Valen) with the Triluminaries and all of that - and WHY? (Apparently the Triluminary that Delenn used came from the past, the one Sinclair used later, was the one that came from Epsilon Three which then traveled back in time with him and became the one Delenn used later...) I realize that there have been some books dealing with that stuff, but I'm not very interested in reading them. If JMS ever makes an official movie about it, I'll watch that. It may have been the Vorlons but there's no indication they built The Great Machine, it was built by the aliens like the one Sinclair and Garibaldi found there, the same race as the exiles who turned up later to claim it... But why would they have the Triluminary, etc?

Granted, JMS did better with Babylon 5 than most other sci-fi does regarding the "history," but there are still some pretty big gaps. And it seems to me that most if not all of them could have been easily avoided.