NPC: Major Emily Jane Banks

Played by Kristen Bell

First appearance (as Zebruune): Season 1, Episode 2: Not of Minbari

Ten years Thomas Carlson's junior, Emily Jane Banks joined his squadron in the EarthForce Army Foward Air and Space Combat Control Regiments in 2244, fresh out of the academy, becoming his rookie wingman. It was not until after they had fought together, and survived, the Battle of the Line, that they admitted their love for one another. From then on they were inseperable.

An accomplished pilot in her own right, Banks progressed through the ranks under Carlson, and soon became his deputy Wing Commander, position which was cemented when Colonel Tommi Salmainen requested them both to serve on Babylon 3.

Although Carlson would discover later that she had escaped the station's destruction with him, she was long thought killed in Babylon 3's destruction. It was not until late 2264, when Carlson, Enoch, and Ta'Ren rescued the Minbari Ambassador Zebruune from a Streib research station orbiting the dead world of Markar, that it was revealed the "Ambassador Zebruune" serving on Babylon 5 was a fake. When Carlson investigated, he found the false Zebruune had been waylaid by her own assistant Darzus, whom Carlson defeated in single combat. When he brought her to Medlab, Doctor Hobbs discovered the impostor was really a Human who had been transformed into a Minbari by a parasitic infection, and that the human parts of her DNA matched the records of Emily Jane Banks.

Banks was saved by receiving a massive blood transfusion from Carlson, and moved to Minbar with Mr. Smits to undergo gene therapy.

NPC: Colonel Tommi Salmainen

Played by Don Johnson

First appearance: Season 2, Episode 3: Babylon Cubed

Born in Finland, Earth in 2197, Tommi Salmainen was the friend and mentor of Thomas Carlson throughout his formative years. As soon as he enlisted, Carlson was assigned to Salmainen's command, the Avenger-class carrier Perseus, and rose through the ranks during the course of the Dilgar War, eventually becoming the Salmainen's Wing Commander.

Carlson continued to serve under Salmainen in the clean-up operation and pacification of Dilgar-invaded space following the war proper, up until the destruction of Omelos in 2235. During this time, Salmainen's talents as a diplomat and negociator came to be reknowned throughout the Earth Expeditionary Force and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. It came to no surprise to anyone when, in 2251, Salmainen was given the command of the first completed Babylon Station, Babylon 3. It was natural that he offer the post of Wing Commander for the station to his friend Thomas Carlson.

When Babylon 3's superstructure began to collapse shortly before it was going to go on-line, Tommi Salmainen stayed behind to coordinate the station's evacuation and was killed in its destruction.

NPC: Mr. Smits

Played by Graham McTavish

First Appearance: Season 1, Episode 3: From the Shadows of the Past

St-John Smits was MarTar Enterprises' head of security. Like many in his profession, he was a GROPO during the Earth-Minbari War. Mr. Smits was working under Ta'Ren on Babylon 5 until 2263, when he started to fall out of favour with his employer after the Narn began to associate with the Techno-Mage Enoch, who was operating on the station under one of his many aliases. After suffering the embarassement of having his employer poisoned on his watch, Mr. Smits was transferred to serve under Mark Baggett on Beta IX, relinquishing his position on Babylon 5 to Enoch.

Carlson, Enoch and Ta'Ren caught up with Mr. Smits on Beta IX in 2264. When together they investigated a raider cell which led them to an alien station orbiting the neighboring dead homeworld of the Markab, it was revealed "Mr. Smits" was in fact a Dark Minbari impostor. The real Mr. Smits was on that very station, under the spell of a strange alien parasite. Mr. Smits was rescued and moved to Minbar to receive treatment.

NPC: Mark Baggett

Played by Paul Reiser.

First Appearance: Season 2, Episode 4: The Ghosts of Omelos

BIOGRAPHY: A spacer born on Beta IX in 2220, Mark met Ta'Ren during the Earth-Minbari War, as they both worked in civilian shipping. Together, after the war, they founded their own company, MarTar, which they expanded into R&D after they opened shop on Babylon 5 in 2257. Mark took care of the head office on Beta IX, while Ta'Ren oversaw the operations on Babylon 5.

Ta'Ren was the best man at Mark's wedding, and is godfather to his second daughter.

Mark sold his shares in MarTar to BrakEarth in 2264 in order to pursue his political ambitions. He was elected to the Earth Alliance Senate late that year, and is a vocal member of the conservative Senate Committee for the Unity of the Earth Alliance.

Season 3, Episode 3: In the Walls of Eryx

by Simon-F. Laflamme

Dubbed « Hessius’s Folly » by the Centauri, Quadrant 93 is a world of ruins rumored to occult fable riches, located in a tumultuous region of hyperspace. It is also a place from which no one returns, and Captain Carlson is persuaded it is the resting place of his and Ta’Ren’s missing friend, the Techno-Mage Enoch. After a brief encounter with a hostile crew of stranded Drazi privateers, the Human and the Narn reach the shore of an ocean of Shadow-stuff, where they are waylaid by the degenerate descendants of the original Centauri explorers. The timely intervention of the fallen Minbari Ranger Lennier allows them to retreat to the Ruins of Iscolas, the ancient fabled city of Quadrant 93. Lennier tells them how, in a quest for penance, he was tricked into coming to Quadrant 93 by the “man in-between”, the oracle, of the dark city of Tenothk: a Human named Christopher Spears. That night, Carlson and Ta’Ren are visited by a ghostly incarnation of Enoch, who explains how, after his defeat on Babylon 5, the Shadow technology used by his Technomancy instinctively led him to Iscolas to be recycled in its oceans, where his body and ship now lie. Enoch’s brush with death also had the fortunate consequence of “rebooting” his memory, and the Techno-Mage confirms that what he, Carlson, and Ta’Ren saw in the Virtual Reality Net regarding Babylon 3 is true. After his abduction from Babylon 3, Enoch remembers being put in a Shadow Ship by a man named Christopher Spears. The predicament of Spears’ victims becomes explicit: Quadrant 93 is a giant Prisoner’s Dilemma built by the Shadows to favor their ideology: only the opening of two simultaneous jump points will allow one to reach hyperspace; only the cunning and the ruthless will escape Quadrant 93 by sacrificing the weak and the foolish. Carlson, Lennier and Ta’Ren con the Drazi pirates into retrieving Enoch and his ship from the dark matter, and take turns in volunteering who should pilot Enoch’s ship, which is to be sacrificed. Lennier seizes this opportunity for redemption, making Ta’Ren swear to bring his love to his Entil’Zha, Delenn. The Drazi patrol boat makes the jump to hyperspace, followed by the Brakiri shuttle transporting Carlson, Enoch and Ta’Ren, while Enoch’s Pinnace is vaporized, and Lennier along with it.

Season 3, Episode 2: Mindwalkers

by Simon-F. Laflamme

When Carlson and Ta’Ren retreat to Narn to recoup from their ordeal on Shambah III, the Narn trader learns the consequences of his life amongst the stars and his abduction: Ta’Ren is regarded a pariah among his people, and his former associate Mark Baggett has seemingly let MarTar fall entirely in the hands of its main competitor, BrakEarth. At the suggestion of Va’Nur, a preeminent leader of Ta’Var Cartel, Ta’Ren’s soul searching brings him and Carlson to the headquarters of the Kana Rituk, a civilian Narn ecological organization dedicated to the restoration of Nar’Shal, whose leader is Ta’Chunq, an anthropological geneticist specialized in telepathy. Ta’Ren is surprised by the fact that half of her staff is composed of Humans, and Carlson astonished to learn that they are all telepaths. Avis Ames’ visit to the Kana Rituk’s compound makes the situation clear: the Rituk had a deal with Psi Corps to study captive Rogue Telepaths in their efforts to restore the telepathic gene to the Narn pool; along the way, the Narns turned the table on the Corps and used this agreement to ferry as many rogues as possible to a secret telepath colony they founded on the remote world of G’Quan’Ri. Now the Corps has learned of this and wants them all back. With the help of Va’Nur, Carlson and Ta’Ren escape with Rogue Telepaths to Gortha, the City of Dead, and orchestrate the Psi Corps’ downfall. Summoned by the Ta’Var Cartel, a Narn harass group meets and destroys the Psi Corps mothership Apophis in a battle in orbit around G’Quan’Ri. While Carlson lives out a brief idyll with Eliane Castronovo, the leader of the Human telepaths on Narn, Ta’Ren strengthens his ties to Ta’Var Cartel. Beyond arranging for the secret construction of a new ship for Carlson and Ta’Ren to use in their quest, Va’Nur also evokes the Forbidden City of Thenothk, where a “man in-between” is rumored to have the answers to every question.