I’ve been working on a model of the White Star from Babylon 5, and have gone down the rabbit hole of cataloging and recreating the sets (at least, the one that’s visible through the ship’s forward windows). I’ve already done a post on the celtic knot designs decorate the bridges of the White Stars in season 4 and 5, so this is an overview of the design variations on the bridge set overall.

I’ll be illustrating each variation with a cutaway CG model of the bridge. To be clear, this version of the bridge has been modified to fit within the exterior shape of the bridge module on the ship, so it isn’t intended to be a perfect match to the original sets. That’s another project.

White Star 1

Throughout season 3, we only see the bridge of the original prototype White Star.¹The White Star Fleet was introduced three episodes before the end of the season in 3×20 “And the Rock Cried Out, ‘No Hiding Place,'” but while we saw the other White Stars on the outside, there were still only scenes set on the original ship in the subsequent episodes. The bridge evolves over the course of the season, settling on its final form in 3×18 “Walkabout.” As it is a prototype that’s being tested in use, it does make sense in-universe for the bridge to be constantly modified.

3×01 “Matters of Honor”

The ship’s first appearance is very different from how it’ll develop. The free-standing consoles have bony railings attached to them. There’s no captain’s chair. A third control pod is tucked into the back corner.²This is almost certainly one of the two from the front of the bridge, duplicated by the magic of editing. Much of the detailing is incomplete, and the bridge is shorter in length compared to the majority of its appearances. For logistical reasons, I couldn’t reflect that in this model; on the the actual set, the nose section is against the first gray wall panel, rather than up against one of the stained glass panels, while the stained glass panel that will be there joins the front and back halves of the bridge. Since I needed to maintain the overall proportions of the bridge to keep it inside the exterior, I instead added a third pair of stained glass panels between the fore and aft sections of the bridge for the episodes where that was the case. Similarly, I use the same computer displays that are used in the rest of the season, even though the “lily pad” configurations aren’t used until the ship’s second appearance.

3×05 “Voices of Authority”

The bridge begins to take on its more familiar shape. Most notably, the captain’s chair has been added, and the freestanding consoles have had their bone-crests removed. Metal found-object radio panels have been added around the aft walls of the bridge. The control pods have been completely converted from their prior incarnations as motorcycle sidecars, with touchscreens added, and the aft consoles have been filled out with the “lily pad” graphics in addition to the simple blocks and circles and stubby White Star schematics that were present originally.

A shiny black floor is present in this episode. In all the ship’s other appearances in season 3, the floor of the bridge is dull gray, possibly the bare concrete floor of the soundstage.

3×08 “Messages From Earth”

With this episode, the bridge settles on to its main form. The bridge is elongated by moving one pair of the stained glass panels between the forward wall segments and the nose. The space between the mid wall segments and the aft section of the bridge is filled with a set of simple white light panels, replacing where the stained glass panels had been.

There’s also a moment in this episode where the control pods at the front of the bridge move themselves from the sides of the bridge to the center when the ship enters combat. While the pods frequently move around between episodes (or camera angles), this is the only time they’re seen moving diegetically on-camera. It’s also a bit of a mystery how they’re intended to be supported in-universe. In reality, they’re held up by a framework of metal rods, but those are usually kept in shadow or otherwise hidden. I assume they were meant to hover using Minbari anti-gravity technology. In the animated film The Road Home, they had a round base added to them.

The Road Home

This isn’t quite a version of the bridge from the series, but based on the details in this reimagined version of the White Star, it’s based on this era of the set,³Specific indications are the single captain’s chair and centerline main door, indicating it’s the season 3 version, and the plotting table has a lines-and-arcs graphical design rather than the image of the galaxy, showing it’s prior to the final revision in “Walkabout.” so I’ll throw in some screencaps and link to behind-the-scenes images.

While three White Stars are seen in the movie, circa “War Without End,” “Into the Fire,” and “Objects at Rest,” they only reimagined the season three version of the set, which makes sense as a matter of prioritization, since none of the scenes they recreated absolutely required the new features of the season 4/5 version.

3×16/17 “War Without End”

The plotting table at the front of the bridge is raised up to waist level.

3×18 “Walkabout”

The plotting table is returned to its prior height, and the graphic is changed from a pattern of arcs and lines to an image of the galaxy. There are no further revisions for the rest of the seasons.

The White Star Fleet

The bridge set was revamped for season 4. A new main door was built, and it was repositioned to be off-center. The wall panels of the aft section were reordered, and new graphics were made for the wall displays (the existing control consoles continue to use the original graphics). The forward half of the bridge was widened. A gap was opened between the fore and aft segments of the bridge, leading to two additional side-passages flanking the bridge. Ahead of those doors, two corner consoles were added. The captain’s chair was replaced with an elevated platform running the width of the bridge and all the way back, flanked by a second seated console to the captain’s left, and a standing console to the right. A sitting area was also added under the viewports in the bridge’s nose.

In addition to these design changes, the bridge incorporated several details that could be quickly altered in order to distinguish different ships, especially important in episodes where multiple different White Stars are seen. The insignia above the main hatch could be swapped out. Rarely, the details around the door itself were repainted. The large light panels on the aft wall could be recolored, as could the lights in the posts holding up the railings around the command platform. Three wall monitors at the very rear of the bridge were swapped out, in three specific sets, never mixed. Set A consists of a side view of the ship, a top view, and a star map. Set B is a top view of the ship, a map, and another top view of the ship. Set C consists of what appears to be a map of several stars, a single star or planet system, and a set of arced lines.

I’m going to organize this next section by ship instead of episode. I’m going to be parsimonious in identifying separate ships, and won’t assume minor variations in color or lighting (which may be a result of differences in the color timing of the episode itself and not changes in the set) must mean a ship is unique, but I will mention when it’s arguable.

White Star 2

This was the ship used most often throughout season 4 as Sheridan’s (and, occasionally, Delenn’s) personal flagship. It was first seen at the end of 4×05 “The Long Night,”⁴More on that later. The ship’s knot is a white diamond, the back wall lights are white with a slight purple tint, the railing posts are orange, and the monitors are set B. Additionally, it had a unique touch in that the columns and keystone flanking the main hatch were painted with bronze accents.

The ship subsequently appeared in the 4×06 “Into the Fire,” 4×07 “Epiphanies,” 4×11 “Lines of Communication,” and 4×13 “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies.” It also appeared in the comic book miniseries In Valen’s Name, taking place between “Into the Fire” and “Epiphanies” (or between the teaser and first act of “Epiphanies”). The ship appeared to be destroyed in that comic, but apparently was merely disabled and was recovered and repaired, since it was fine immediately afterward. It probably also appeared at the beginning of the telemovie Thirdspace (taking place between 4×08 “The Illusion of Truth” and 4×09 “Atonement). The bridge of Sheridan’s White Star is only seen briefly in close-up, but the aft wall light panels match, as do the computer screens. The railing posts are blue instead of orange, but they’re only barely visible at the bottom of the frame, so it’s possible they were intended to be out of sight to save time redressing the set, but weren’t cropped out in the widescreen transfer as intended.

White Star 2 (Civil War Livery)

Beginning in 4×15, “No Surrender, No Retreat,” the exterior of the ship had several Babylon 5 sword-and-shield insignia mounted to it, to identify it as Sheridan’s ship to the enemy (and the audience).⁵From this episode forward, the frame of the forward plotting table was repainted from gloss black to flat gray on all White Stars. As part of this, the diamond knot above the bridge hatch was replaced with a B5 sword-and-shield plaque. In this form, White Star 2 further appeared in 4×16 “The Exercise of Vital Powers,” 4×17 “The Face of the Enemy,” and 4×19 “Between the Darkness and the Light,” where the ship was destroyed.

White Star Prime

This ship was identified by the callsign “White Star Prime” in 4×15 “No Surrender, No Retreat,” and was never referred to by another name. This was the ship that Ivanova (and, once, Marcus) preferred to command. The ship’s knot was an irregular gold circular knot, the back wall lights were purple (similar to the original White Star), and the railing posts were initially blue in their first appearance, and purple subsequently. The monitors are set A.

This ship appeared in 4×03 “The Summoning,” 4×06 “Into the Fire,” and 4×15 “No Surrender, No Retreat.”⁶There are minor color differences in NSNR, so it’s possible it wasn’t intended to be the same ship, but the colors are close enough it could be the result of lighting or color timing variations between the different episodes, and the monitors and knot design match. Additionally, it probably was the ship used by Ivanova, Delenn, and Lyta in 4×01 “The Hour of the Wolf.” The new set wasn’t complete at that point, so the only tell-tales present are the aft wall lights and monitors, and while the script identifies it as White Star 2 in stage directions, it’s never called that in dialog.⁷It’s likely this was a logistical mix-up; the identifying features were kept consistent for Ivanova’s ship in the next few episodes, but when Sheridan needed a White Star, which was explicitly going to be White Star 2, and Ivanova was currently on the ship using the bridge configuration that had been intended for White Star 2, White Star 2 had a different set of distinguishing features when it was first identified in dialog. It’s also probable this was the ship Ivanova commanded at the end of Thirdspace. The monitors and railing posts are correct, but the wall light panels are white instead of purple. This may have been for logistical reasons; the wall panels are kept white on all four ships seen in season 5, so perhaps it was more inconvenient to recolor them than it was to alter other aspects of the set.

White Star 14

This ship’s bridge appeared in 4×05 “The Long Night.” The ship was destroyed at the end of the episode, though apparently the wreck was salvaged and returned to service eventually, as White Star 14 was referenced in dialog in 4×15 “No Surrender, No Retreat.” The ship’s knot was a white semi-circle with two quadrant-shaped segments. The railing posts were blue. The aft wall lights were blue. The monitors are not visible in the episode, so I made a guess. Additionally, a rarely-used smaller freestanding console is positioned in front of the captain’s chair, and the ship doesn’t have the typical pair of control pods at the front of the bridge.

Marcus’s “Endgame” ship

Following the destruction of White Star 2, Marcus took command of this ship in 4×20 “Endgame.” The ship’s knot is not visible,⁸I used the recolored version of the White Star Prime knot which was used for Sheridan’s ship in “Sleeping in Light,” since it was available and hadn’t technically been used on another White Star. the aft wall lights were white, the railing posts were pink, and the monitors were set C.

Sheridan and Franklin’s Fast White Star

At the end of 4×20 “Endgame” and the beginning of 4×21 “Rising Star,” Franklin and Lennier return to Babylon 5 in this White Star. The knot isn’t visible, the railing posts are blue, the aft walls are white, and the monitors are set A.

In 5×17 “Movements of Fire and Shadow,” and 5×18 “The Fall of Centauri Prime,” Sheridan takes command of a White Star which matches all the visible identifying features of Franklin’s ship. Additionally, the knot is visible, a downward-pointing white triangle. Sheridan specifically requests a “fast” White Star, and given Franklin needed to get to Babylon 5 as quickly as possible in “Endgame,” it seems as sensible as not that these might both be the same speedy-even-for-a-White Star vessel.

White Star 27 a.k.a. Maria

White Star 27 appeared in 5×14 “Meditations on the Abyss” and 5×15 “Darkness Ascending,” though the bridge was only seen in the former. The knot is a gold four-lobed loop, the railing posts are blue, the aft wall lights are white, and the monitors are set A. Beginning in this episode and continuing to the end of season 5, the third, smaller free-standing console is regularly used in the aft half of the bridge. Additionally, the ship’s unofficial name, Maria, is stenciled on the fuselage in red paint, just behind the “head.”

Delenn’s Minbar Ship

This ship appeared in 5×17 “Movements of Fire and Shadow,” and 5×18 “The Fall of Centauri Prime,” where Delenn and Lennier attempted to fly it to Minbar, but were attacked en route and the ship was wrecked. The knot is a white circle with a quadrant weave. The aft wall lights are white, the monitors are set C, and the railing posts are orange.

Sheridan and Delenn’s Minbar Ship

In 5×21 “Objects at Rest,” Sheridan and Delenn took this White Star from Babylon 5 to their new home on Minbar. The knot is the downward-pointing triangle from Sheridan’s fast ship, above, though recolored gold. The railing posts are blue, the aft wall lights are white, and the monitors are set B.

White Star 90

In A Call to Arms, we see White Star 90 under the command of Garibaldi in his capacity heading up construction for the Interstellar Alliance’s new prototype capital ships. White Star 90 also appeared (without any scene set aboard) in 5×03 “The Paragon of Animals,” where it was severely damaged with the entire crew being killed or fatally injured in battle. The circular quadrant knot from Delenn’s Minbar ship is reused. The railing posts are blue, the aft wall lights are red, the monitors are set B, and the ship is back to only using the two larger free-standing consoles. Additionally, the columns (but not the keystone) around the main hatch are accented in blue, and the lights above the forward viewports are blue instead of white.