Babylon 5 : The River Of Souls is the 3rd feature length film (4th if you take in the pilot film into consideration) It was originally broadcast November 17, 1998 on TNT, as one of two films shown over the 1998–1999 season to fill in the gap between the fifth season of Babylon 5 and the first season of the spin-off series Crusade. Not all the main cast members were involved in the film. Jerry Doyle, Tracy Scoggins, Jeff Conaway, Richard Briggs return to play their roles and are joined by legendary actor Martin Sheen and Ian McShane. It is set six months in the year 2263, over half a year after the end of the Fifth Season.
Dr. Robert Bryson, an archaeologist in search of a means of immortality brings his most recent find to Babylon 5 – an orb containing one billion souls of an extinct race. Bryson had an excavation team on the alien planet and found the orb among many others and brought it with him. He then brings the orb with him to Babylon 5. Meanwhile on the station Captain Elizabeth Lockley is happy that nothing of consequence has happened to Babylon 5 in the 6 months since Sheridan and Garibaldi left the station. She speaks to Lt. Corwin about her theory a term she coined, the Sheridan-Garibaldi-Effect, which describes the chaos the two have brought to the station in past. Just as she finishes her though, Corwin informs her that Garibaldi has arrived a few minutes ago to conduct some business and to meet his employee Dr. Bryson. At the same time Security Chief Zack Allen is visiting an illegal holobrothel in Brown 11 to shut it down. The holobrothel uses photos of people to create a three dimensional copy of that person and people can have their fun with it with the help of a special suit. However when Zack tells the people there that it is dangerous to use these suits the owner of the holobrothel, Jacob Mayhew, calls for his lawyer James Riley who sues Lochley for damaging the reputation of his client. Later a soul hunter (Martin Sheen) arrives at the station saying that the orb containing a billion Ralga souls has been stolen from his people and is now on Babylon 5.
The mad Ralga souls manipulate Bryson to help them to get their revenge. The very powerful souls use the reactor to pass through the station and try to kill the Soul Hunter. But Lochley thrusts the Soul Hunter away and is almost killed by the electric shock. For a moment she is dead, which in that small window of time some of the Ralga souls bring her into their vessel to talk to her. Lochley finds out that the Ralga were not really dying when the Soul Hunters captured their souls they were evolving to an existence of pure energy. When she regains conscious she tells the Soul Hunter about her experience. He is shocked to hear that they may have made a mistake. Meanwhile many other Soul Hunter ships arrive at Babylon 5 and demand the soul vessel. The Soul Hunter aboard tries to tell them about their mistake but they don’t believe him because they think they never slip up. Zack & Garibaldi search an area where strange occurrences have been reported find a dead man who looks like he was frightened to death. There Jacob Mayhew appears again and verbally assaults Zack for impairing his business. When he realizes that shutting down the sector wasn’t to keep his customers away he shows them a strange energy stream coming out of his holobrothel. At this place they see a holographic illusion of Captain Lochley.
At this moment Captain Lochley, who has left the Med Lab, joins the group and sees the holo of herself. She is offended, and further shocked to hear that her image is more frequently used by the brothels female patrons. They realize that the souls are using the holograpic system to get bodies. Lochley gets the idea that these souls are using another resource than the reactor. They assume that these holographic illusions are used only to distract them from the real situation. So Lochley runs back to the holobrothel with a hand grenade and blows it up. Mayhew is not happy about that. The souls are trying to hack into the reactor on Sector 4. As they arrive in Grey 4 they find Bryson in the middle of a pillar of lights and faces. He’s in a kind of trance and holding the vessel of Ralga souls. Garibaldi tries to talk to him but as result the souls try to kill him. Security around Zack starts to shoot at the pillar but without harming it. So they stop shooting. The Soul Hunter decides to sacrifice himself as a bridge between his people and the souls of the Ralga. He wants to bring them back to their home world where they could find a way to release the souls from the vessel without killing them. The souls accept his offer and he dies. The souls release Bryson. Later Captain Lochley hands the vessel over to another Soul Hunter with the assurance that they keep their promise.
Finally Riley appears at Lochley’s office and tries to sue her for violating the rights of his client and destroying his facility. But she shoots it down with the fine print of his client’s contract about military operations.