Talk:Babylon 5

free pictures

It would be great if we could have at least one picture for each member of the main cast of Babylon 5.If anyone owns free pictures of the other actors, don't hesitate to upload them.Thanks.Preslavk (talk) 23:21, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Agree For the casual reader w:Free content and w:Open content are defined terms. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 01:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Added some pictures

I went through the episode articles on English Wikipedia for seasons 1 and 2 and found a few people involved had pictures on Commons. After I added them (and a few crew members), I sub-sectioned the actors. Obviously, season-credited stars go first. For others, the first section is for non-season-only actors, since all the other sections are specific to the five seasons. This meant that season-spanning guests, and guests from the telefilms went there. It pretty much means "Miscellaneous that doesn't fit a season". Also, actors from the B5 direct-to-DVD release TLT can go there I suppose, if we ever find any. I'm assuming the page includes everything from the B5 universe, and not just the series per se. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 01:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Added what I could find for seasons 3-5, Crusade, and have worked some on educational and other references in the show. Still working on Tennyson--very important to the first season. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 08:08, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

What other languages belong in this list?

• List of notable B5 languages

This list makes an argument for each real-world language that B5 is spoken of in. The reason for the list is because Commons is in to doing the multiple language thing. This list is meant to be inclusive. The word "notable" in this context means the answer to the question, "What other languages have we seen others write of B5 in around the Internet?" I also justify the "Big 5" because lots of people read these languages (or at least speak them, I should say). Browsers today are sophisticated enough to display the fonts, if yours isn't, tough.

• List of ISO 639-1 codes
• The "Big 5"

The list is in alphabetical order according to the English alphabet.

• Language – rationale

1. Arabic (ar, العربية) – One of the "Big 5" not otherwise justified.
2. Belarusian (be, Беларуская) – This is the language of the "The Great Maker's" ancestors, I believe.
3. Bulgarian (bg, български) – The article "Babylon 5" is a Featured Article in this language's Wikipedia, indicating editors have worked really hard on it, they must've cared.
4. Croatian (hr, hrvatski) – Notable because it is the native language (citation needed) of a major season star, and I believe leading to the series popularity in that region.
5. Dutch (nl, Nederlands) – Many B5 things are found in Dutch on Google, and I think one page may have been used as a reference that I noticed one time. Dutch Wikipedia has a working External Link at http://www.sfseries.nl/content.php?id=7.
6. English (en, English) – This is the language the show was originally produced in. A wide variety of English is used in the show, especially British and American varieties.
7. French (fr, français) – This language is used in subtitles on the R1 DVD's. Note that R1 DVD's cannot be sold (legally) in Europe or Mexico.
8. German (de, Deutsch) – Someone took the time to translate the B5 description on the Commons page into German. Also, many of our English Wikipedia Fair Use images originally came from a German web site.
9. Hebrew (he, עִבְרִית) – The article "Babylon 5" is a Featured Article in this language's Wikipedia, indicating editors have worked really hard on it, they must've cared.
10. Hindustani (hi, हिन्दुस्तानी) – One of the "Big 5" not otherwise justified.
11. Italian (it, italiano) – At least one Commons editor of the science fiction related stuff here speaks this language natively (User:Yoggysot). There are cultural references to things Italian via the character of Garibaldi.
12. Mandarin Chinese, simplified (zh, 官话) – One of the "Big 5" not otherwise justified.
13. Russian (ru, русский) – The 'ru' category has been added to the episode articles on EN WP. Also, someone took the time to translate the Russian text on Ivanova's quarters wall image into English (though the translation was deleted from the article per WP:TRIVIA which clearly states to delete all trivia (sarcasm; it never comes close to saying that)). Series creator claims general Russian ancestry, though the specifics are outside the scope of this list.
14. Spanish (es, español) – This language is used in subtitles on the R1 DVD's. Note that R1 DVD's cannot be sold (legally) in Europe or Mexico.

Proposed text to translate

Babylon 5 (1993–1998 plus spin-offs) is an epic American science fiction television series and fictional universe created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers around the Babylon 5 space station, a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and wars. The series is noted for its heavy reliance on pre-planned story arcs over its five-year run, sometimes described as a "novel for television".

Note on translation

I tried to remove the word "run" from the text, I'm not sure the contextual definition will translate well. I asked about it at Wikipedia Reference desk/Entertainment, the best we could come up with is "air". In the sentence it would become "airing", which I think may be poor English. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 07:42, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Isn't "epic" a bit POV there? --Illythr (talk) 17:20, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

I think I understand the argument against, and I would make the accusation w:WP:PEACOCK rather than POV given the case, given it's a word Hollywood likes to use to mean "any old thing in serial format", and overstate the point. However, there is a non-peacockish use of the word wikt:epic, and as to whether it applies to the work under discussion was adequately resolved to my satisfaction (the consensus thing) at w:Talk:Babylon 5/Archive 2#"Epic" status (yes, I've read all the archives I could find on the B5 subject).

On another matter, I appreciate your edits here, especially to the Russian and German entries; it was part of the point of the exercise, to draw other editors out to fix them properly, having previously admitted and agreed that "machine translations suck, and are only a last resort means for accomplishing a task". I think any language order is just fine, so long as it is specified, external, standard, and objective, and can't be used to make a POV-like preference accusation of one language over another.

I feel the spirit of w:WP:REDLINK is to link to article deficiencies that exist in the encyclopedia for the express reason of pointing them out to the reader (who may also turn editor), and I thought it was a pretty good idea in this case, since it is specifically for that purpose that I made the links to the non-existent articles (even though they don't actually turn red in my browser here on Commons). In the case of Commons, such links would highlight the deficiency in any language Wikipedia in which the article does not exist when the reader clicks on them to find out more. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 23:25, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Ah I see, "epic" in the sense of "epic film", as opposed to the more common colloquial meaning. In this case it's ok, but the word should probably link to the appropriate article in order to avoid confusion.

On sorting - I used the order in which bots routinely sort interwiki links, as this seems to be the most neutral order. I have no objection to putting English at the top, should anyone wish it so, seeing as how it's the language of the series and all.

I removed it because external links are not painted red by the Wiki engine (in this case, links from Commons to other Wikipedia projects). This creates some confusion by making the link appear "available". Feel free to put the link back, if you thing it's for the best. --Illythr (talk) 17:25, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

"Novel for television" - like, a w:telenovela? --Illythr (talk) 11:24, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Found one

Add to the list: Finnish, #15.

15. Finnish (fi, suomi) – This language is the native language for Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning. —Aladdin Sane (talk) 16:46, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

List of human-corrected machine translations

Please edit this list if you fix any:

• Arabic (ar, العربية)
• Belarusian (be, Беларуская)
• Bulgarian (bg, български)
• Croatian (hr, hrvatski)
• Dutch (nl, Nederlands)
• English (en, English)  Done (Aladdin Sane - not a machine translation, ahem)
• Finnish (fi, suomi)
• French (fr, français)
• German (de, Deutsch)  Done (Illythr)
• Hebrew (he, עִבְרִית)
• Hindustani (hi, हिन्दुस्तानी)
• Italian (it, italiano)
• Mandarin Chinese, simplified (zh, 官话)
• Russian (ru, русский)  Done (Illythr)
• Spanish (es, español)

—Aladdin Sane (talk) 03:29, 3 January 2010 (UTC)