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Throughout the TV series Babylon 5, we hear about different sections of the eponymous space station referred to by colours and numbers, e.g. "Green Two" or "Grey Seventeen". These two parts of the classification system seem to be orthogonal: e.g. in the episode "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" in S3, a call is traced to the Green sector and also found to be from level 14, after which they know it comes from Green Fourteen.

I love a good bit of worldbuilding, especially detailed maps of imaginary places. Is it ever explained, perhaps in supplementary materials to the show, exactly how the different "sectors" and "levels" are organised? Is there a canonical map of Babylon 5 showing all the coloured and numbered regions?

Rand al'Thor
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2 Answers2

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Babylon 5's Art Director Ted Haigh was kind enough to provide a map in the Feb 1993 edition of Cinefantastique. This shows each of the major sections and their functions.

enter image description here

From the show itself (and the in-universe map seen in B5: Shadow Dancing) we can extrapolate the various sectors, their locations and function;

  • Brown - Life Support and Waste Reclamation facilities
  • Blue - Maintenance and Operational controls
  • Green - Arponics and the ambassadorial quarters.
  • Grey - Atmosphere monitoring and the station's original power station.
  • Red - Public and Commercial facilities including hotels and Medlab
  • Yellow - Power supply, fuel tanks, various labs.

enter image description here

This non-canon (but otherwise excellent) image from the licensed B5 Station Guide RPG, courtesy of TheWertZone seems a solid reference.

enter image description here

As an aside, based on Mr Garibaldi's trips in the elevator in B5: Grey 17 is Missing, we can reasonably assume that levels don't simply go from top to bottom (like decks on a Trek starship) but circulate outward from the core of the station in concentric rings with level 1 at the innermost and level 20+ at the outside.

Valorum
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    So B5 is basically a metal greenhouse with bits tacked on each end? Ummm... – Jon Clements Oct 19 '17 at 18:03
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    @JonClements - That's the very point and essence of an O'Neill Cylinder – Valorum Oct 19 '17 at 18:11
  • If you compare the wertzone image with the one in the answer below for the station guide, they are the same. – JohnP Oct 19 '17 at 21:13
  • @JohnP - You are, of course correct. – Valorum Oct 19 '17 at 21:19
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    I never realised there was a reason to call it the "brown" sector... – Nacht Oct 19 '17 at 22:26
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    "we can reasonably assume that levels don't simply go from top to bottom" I don't think it ever occurred to me that anyone could think otherwise. In a rotating cylinder, outside is down. How would any other system work? – Acccumulation Oct 20 '17 at 03:21
  • @Acccumulation - Well, the station has an (orientation) top to bottom. – Valorum Oct 20 '17 at 06:53
  • " Well, the station has an (orientation) top to bottom." Can you elaborate/provide cites? Do you mean there is some Euclidean coordinates that are used to describe the station? AFAIK, whenever they talk about "down below", they mean the outside. – Acccumulation Oct 20 '17 at 13:11
  • @Acccumulation - When they refer to "downbelow", they mean Brown Sector. At the bottom of the station. Literally (and also figuratively) down, below them. – Valorum Oct 20 '17 at 13:22
  • I'm accepting this answer, even though I was hoping for more detailed info, because it's the best I've got. Be warned that I may move the tick if something better comes along later :-) – Rand al'Thor Nov 03 '17 at 15:46
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The Babylon 5 Station Guide (now out of print) contains more maps than you can shake a stick at. It has several books containing lots of maps, including pages and pages of deck plans, along with four double-sided posters containing more maps.

Photo of the product

I'm not sure how canonical it is. It was an officially licensed product. I think JMS had to give approval for the final version of each of Mongoose's products.

Quentin
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    This link includes some commentary from JMS on the Mongoose books and their 'canon' status http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/The_Babylon_Project_talk:Canon – suchiuomizu Oct 19 '17 at 23:38