Babylon 5 was the creation of Joe Michael Staczynski. He had the idea for a science-fiction television series that would tell a story over five years. This story arc would immediately make it better than the God-awful Star Trek as every episode would not have to end with everything exactly as it was when it began. In trying to sell this idea, he approached Paramount, who refused, but then started making the appalling Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Straczynski unsuccessfully sued them for nicking his idea.
When Babylon 5 began it was a little like Star Trek, usually consisting of episodes with self-contained stories, in order to establish the characters and setting. Unlike the squeeky clean and completely good and altruistic inhabitants of the USS Enterprise those aboard the Babylon 5 space station were mainly ambassadors for their own races, all with their own agendas. The first season did have an underlying mystery threading the episodes together, however, and this was what happened to the station's commanding officer, Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) at the Battle of the Line ten years previously. Unfortunately he was not around to learn what had happened to him when it was revealed at the beginning of Season Two. Between seasons Sinclair was replaced by Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner), and the story arc began to gather more momentum as the Shadow War loomed.
The Shadows, like the powerful and enigmatic Vorlons, were a race dating back to the dawn of Time. They had been defeated a thousand years previously, but now they were returning for another attempt at galactic conquest.
The build-up to the Shadow War was great. Staczynski let out details and revelations only sparingly, making the series compulsive viewing. Unfortunately the Shadow War itself was a bit disappointing. The special effects were absolutely amazing, using cutting-edge CGI for all the spaccraft. This made the massive space battles awesome. Part of the problem, though, stemmed from the fact that at the end of the third season it was unclear whether a fifth would be commissioned. So, hedging his bets, Straczynski collapsed the next two years of storyline into Season Four. The Shadow War, which was just hotting up, was over and done with by episode six of this new season, and somewhat unsatisfactarily at that. The rest of the season was taken up with the far less interesting sub-plot of the corrupt regime back on Earth and Sheridan's attempt to defeat it.
With all the threats so meticulously set up over four years now vanquished, a fifth season, commissioned by TNT, was tacked onto the end of the story arc. Despite having the best theme music by far, this season was pretty awful. It was made worse by a telepathic character called Byron, who was the most annoying character ever seen on television. Given some truly awful and cringeworthy dialogue even by the standards Babylon 5 occasionally fell to, the highpoint of this season was him being blown up.
When the final season whimpered to a close a short-lived (one season) spin-off series appeared on our screens called Crusade. It was irredeemably bad. Babyon 5 seems to be over, but it was quite good while it lasted, and when it occasionally peaked, it was excellent. |
