
Babylon 5 redefined TV science fiction, so why isn’t it better known? - douche
http://www.avclub.com/article/ibabylon-5i-redefined-tv-science-fiction-so-why-is-88413
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throwaway7767
I just finished re-watching B5 a couple of weeks ago. It's one of my favorite
sci-fi shows of all time.

I have to admit, watching it again after the revelation that Michael O'Hare
was written out of the show due to mental illness puts the whole thing in a
very different light. The introduction of Bruce Boxleitner in the first
episode of the second season always felt a bit weird, and now the reason is
clear. It's hard not to imagine how it could have been, as a lot of things in
the story would have been much stronger if Sinclair had remained the commander
of B5 until he went back in time (which I imagine would have happened later in
the series). A whole bunch of major plot events in the later seasons would
have made more sense with Sinclair, foreshadowing in the first season had to
be re-done in the second season in order to fit Sheridan into the story. It's
especially apparent since Sheridan is IMHO one of the weaker characters in the
series. Most of the actors grow into their roles, but Boxleitner's Sheridan
never seems to get comfortable.

And of course, the pacing gets really weird at the start of the fourth season.
They race to finish the shadow war plotline in the first few episodes, but I
suspect that was supposed to last the whole season. Then they have to power
through the earth civil war which really was supposed to be fleshed out better
before kicking into high gear.

B5 is a great show. If you haven't seen it, you should. But man, I'd like to
see the B5 that could have been, where Sinclair was the commander and the
writers had time to flesh out the end of the shadow war and earth civil war
storylines properly.

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xenity7
I love Babylon 5 so I appreciate the thrust of this article, but I'm not
really sure what he evidence is that it's under appreciated. Most people who
like science fiction TV know and love Babylon 5.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
B5 also suffered from the whims of syndication, and god help you if you were
in a market like mine where it came on at literally midnight.

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flukus
Australia? Here it was midnight if you were lucky, but sometimes 11pm or 2am
depending on the output of a magic 8-ball. If you wanted to know when it was
returning so you didn't miss a cliffhanger you'd have to check the TV guide
religiously because it wasn't advertised, then hope the TV guide matched
reality.

I don't miss network TV.

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angersock
Some concrete things that B5 contributed and innovated on (as I understand it,
perhaps I'm missing some things):

 _Extensive use of CGI to drastically reduce set costs_. The core of the B5
show takes place on relatively extensive sets that are reused throughout the
series, with one-off locations presented with large amounts of composited CG
backgrounds. All of the space and planetary footage is rendered, and this
choice of setting (simplified lighting and shot composition) played heavily to
the favor of the tech at the time--I think most if not all of the work was
done on Amigas and Video Toaster.

 _Heavy interaction with the fanbase using Usenet_. I think that B5 was
probably one of the first times, if not _the_ first time, that fans got to
significantly interact with the folks who were creating a show in a meaningful
way. These days, it's pretty obvious and common to have shows use their online
presence and discussion panels and whatnot to create organic advertising, but
back in the day having JMS show up and answer questions and explain why things
happened the way they did was pretty amazing.

 _Tightly and long-plotted series storyline._ Compared with basically any of
the Star Treks (and DS9 is quite arguable because reasons), Doctor Who, Buffy,
X-Files, or other contemporary shows, B5 Had 5 years of plot to get through
and managed to do so. Every episode (barring some crap chunks of season 1)
brings in a new plot line, advances an existing plot line, or closes up a plot
line. This is a series that really bears watching twice specifically so that
you can see how seemingly little things telegraph well in advance important
later points. At least through season 4 I never felt that there was an ass-
pull or a moment where the narrative didn't know where the hell it was going.
I felt like the writer(s) _respected_ me and were going to take their time to
weave a good narrative, however long that took.

 _Genuinely terrible characters and no-win situations_. Nowadays it's become
somewhat in-vogue to have darker and edgier storylines, but at the time seeing
a show willing to do just really evil things (killing children) and having
horrible tragedies occur (depicting the _permanent_ loss of at least one alien
race that we'd gotten used to seeing around) was rare. Not only was it rare,
but it did so in conjunction with a fundamentally optimistic view about people
and the future--which is exceptionally rare these days.

 _Displaying competent and important women and LGBT characters_. Delenn is an
obvious example for her work with the Minbari and later actions, but Susan
Ivanova is probably one of the most capable yet human characters I've seen in
television science-fiction. Additionally, the way the show explored her
interactions with Talia Winters was basically pushing those themes about as
far as you could in television at the time it came out.

Honestly, the only show I'd put in the same ballpark would be the anime epic
_Legend of Galactic Heroes_. I'd strongly suggest, if you enjoy these things,
treating yourself to B5 seasons 1-4 and seeing just how well done this
material can be even in the absence of large budgets or well-known actors.

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flukus
> Genuinely terrible characters and no-win situations

Did they really have completely evil characters? Even the most hitler like
character had a really fleshed out personality.

> Displaying competent and important women and LGBT characters.

Also, normal looking women (and men), not the supermodel level that you find
in most american shows.

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angersock
They had a few characters that were pretty much completely evil, for example
the lady who had the key for immortality (not as lame as it sounds). I'd give
more examples, but spoilers. :)

