The Passage of Babylon 5 in Singapore

"Greatness is never appreciated in its time"

Season One

Singapore was one the first places outside the US to show Babylon 5. Our local TV station SBC, on lookout for new series, had brought in B5. The first season was given a great timeslot on Sundays at 9pm. For the first time, sci-fi viewers were exposed to the wonderful world of computer graphics imagery.
Sadly though, the pilot movie, The Gathering, was not shown locally.
Season one's end saw the privatisation of our local television station, with a name change to TCS.
It will be some time before we got season two again.

Season Two

Despite letters asking for continuation to season two, the newly-formed TCS says that they have no intention of bringing B5 in for the coming year. Babylon 5 was not on their list.
Then, when a neighbouring country started showing season two (with the telecast visible locally), interest in B5 was revived. This, coupled with government's propagation of the Internet, generated a fair amount of postings on the local newsgroup soc.culture.singapore. Somehow, in the midst of this, B5 appeared in the local TV listings. There were no trailers, no announcements, only "Babylon 5" on the TV guide schedules. Maybe it was due to the newsgroups interest...Maybe it was due to 'competition' from another TV station...Nobody knows for sure.
It was shown on Friday nights (Saturday mornings), after the late night movie at 11pm. A dismal timeslot which tettered around 1-2am.
The timeslot was dependent on the duration of the late night movie. Being on a Friday night, it was also constantly pre-empted by holiday specials and other TV specials. Uncertainty ruled on season two.

Season Three

Season Three continues straight from season two. We were pleasantly surprised, astonished even. A new timeslot was allocated (no, not a primetime slot), on Monday nights, 1 am. This was a much more stable timeslot than Season Two's. There was absolutely no pre-emption. However, one of the episodes, Voices of Authority (yes, imagine that), suffered some censorship.
The amount of interest increased with season 3, reaching a peak with the War Without End two-parter. This was evident in our recently created Singapore newsgroup, sg.rec.tv, as many B5 lurkers surfaced. Season three is now in hiatus. The last episode shown was War Without End II. Sources say TCS is holding off the last 5 episodes to be shown continually with season four.
Hopefully, that wouldn't be an alternate reality. Maybe we'll finally come out of the darkness for the next season.

Alone in the Night,
Kiester

B5 Returns

Finally, after several long months of waiting, B5 returns to Singapore screens. It is scheduled to return on 29th April, 1am (same timeslot), continuing with Walkabout.

18th August - B5 is Missing

After Racing Mars was shown, the following week, B5 went missing. TCS attributed it to a delay in delivery and released that it will return on 4th October 97. There would also be a change in timeslot to a Saturday afternoon, at 4pm.
If this holds true, it would be mean a New Age, away from the Darkness for Singapore viewers.

4th October - B5 Re-appears

True to the schedule, B5 is now showing on Saturday afternoons at 4pm. It continues with Lines of Communication. The darkness is finally over! *Wohoo!*

Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS)

The local station's homepage

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