Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 2 - Babylon 5
Table of contents for top-10-sci-fi-shows
- My Top 10 Sci-Fi TV Shows
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 10 - Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 9 - The X-Files
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 8 - Stargate SG-1
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 7 - Battlestar Galactica
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 6 - The Avengers
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 5 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 4 - Sapphire and Steel
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 3 - Blake’s Seven
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 2 - Babylon 5
- Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 1 - Doctor Who
We’re getting closer. The number 2 slot in my top 10 list goes to Babylon 5. A show which tends to produce some very divisive opinions. I however regard it as one of the high points of televisual science fiction and think it’s a key turning point the movement from purely episodic shows to series that gradually unfold a story arc of the course of a season or longer.
Babylon 5 was a science fiction show conceived and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show as set aboard a space station in neutral space which was intended as a place for diplomacy amongst the dominant space faring races.
What separated Babylon 5 from most of the shows that went before it was the 5 year arc. As the series unfolded a complex back story gradually fell into place. With each season the tone and direction of the show shifted accordingly. The was also the first to fully realize the possibilities for CGI in science fiction tv as a way of dramatically cutting costs and really showing action in space like the movies had for some time.
Babylon 5 is not without its flaws. The first season is slow and there are several outright clunker episodes. The show really peaked in seasons 2-4 as the 5 year arc went into overdrive. Many people have complained that the final season 5 feels like it doesn’t fit the rest of the series at all.
At its best Babylon 5 was good science fiction by any definition. It developed a complex and largely consistent universe and used the characters that populated to ask questions about society. Unlike much tv sci-fi, Babylon 5 was prepared to give unpleasant answers to the questions that it asks.
I own most of Babylon 5 on DVD, but I have to admit that I’ve been hesitant to re-watch it. Often going back to watch what was once a favorite TV series proves to be disappointing experience. Much TV simply doesn’t age well. I’m torn then between enjoying my memories of Babylon 5 and risking those memories by re-watching the series.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Andrew Oakley
The problem for any show which tries to have an “arc” is ensuring that the cast buy in, and indeed are bought in. Michael O’Hare, who played the commander in the first series, left (amicably, as I understand) and was replaced by Bruce Boxleitner in the subsequent series, which resulted in some… ahem… “creative” ammendments to the story arc, which made the arc difficult to follow. Although O’Hare did come back to guest star in later episodes, it felt clunky, and contrived. Given that the 5-year arc was the whole point of the series, it was short-sighted not to contract the cast for that many series. I’d like to think this was down to budgetary restrictions, but I can’t help thinking that lack of experience and indeed naiveity also played their part. I appreciate that a five-year rolling contract is expensive, but it would have only been required for two or three key actors in order to have made the whole series much easier to follow.
On the plus side, it is important to note that the arc didn’t merely contribute a backbone story, but also meant that the universe and the myriad of characters and species actually felt far more fleshed-out than anything that had gone before. With other sci-fi shows, you got “species of the week”, and they never really felt three-dimensional enough for their viewer to care much about them; if they came back in later episodes, there were usually continuity errors and a feeling that they’d been re-written after the fact to fit with audience viewing figures. With Babylon 5, you would see the most minute detail right from the first encounter, and have consistency throughout the entire series. Which makes the loss of the leading actor at the end of series one, even more disappointing; what a shame that something this well thought out be scuppered by such a mundane contractual/financial oversight.
Dec 13th, 2005
Reply to “Top 10 Sci-Fi Shows: Number 2 - Babylon 5”