27 Years Later, This Cult Series With 92% on RT Remains the Best Space Opera Ever Made
A science fiction classic ahead of its time.
Joseph Michael Straczynski created many things, but his main brainchild will always be Babylon 5 – one of the pillars of the space opera genre along with Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.
Unfortunately, it is rarely remembered today. The story of the space station is lost against the backdrop of the huge Star Trek and the cult Firefly.
It may seem that Babylon 5 has only historical value, but this is not the case. Straczynski's work is of course technically outdated, but thanks to its plot, characters and universe, it can easily compete with modern series.
What Is Babylon 5 About?
The distant future. Babylon 5 is a vast space station. Representatives of almost every civilization in the universe are here. Trade deals are made, conflicts are settled, diplomats meet, joint decisions are made on the most important issues.
The station's predecessors – Babylons 1, 2, 3 and 4 – were destroyed by saboteurs. But not everyone is satisfied with the peace – a new saboteur arrives at the station with the mission to destroy this stronghold of peace.
Babylon 5 Introduced an Entirely New Story Concept to the Sci-Fi Genre
Babylon 5 was the brainchild of one man, Joseph Michael Straczynski. At the turn of the 80's and 90's, Straczynski dreamed of fixing what he saw as the main problem with science fiction series of the era – the lack of long-term planning.
He believed that writers and directors, forced to work from episode to episode, could not tell a truly big, complex and coherent story. It is clear that these claims were primarily directed at the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was released at that time.
Instead of creating a series in which the characters explored a new planet or anomaly in each episode, Straczynski decided to create an epic canvas focused on the relationships between characters and states.
His primary source of inspiration was literature: Asimov's Foundation, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Herbert's Dune, and other large-scale epics. The creator of Babylon 5 relied less on fantasy works than on the idea of a story concentrated in one place.
Babylon 5 Had a Unique Approach to Character Development
The main feature of Babylon 5 is its attention to character development and its unprecedented, by today's standards, willingness to change the roles of its heroes.
Even in shows with plot surprises, most characters remain true to their original image until the end. But on Babylon 5, the plot is secondary to the personal stories.
A striking example of this is the trajectory of Londo Mollari, ambassador to the Centauri Empire. He appears on screen as a comic character, then makes perhaps the most monstrous decision in the entire series, and then lives with the consequences, never receiving final forgiveness and atonement for his sins.
Mollari is just one example; in fact, all of Babylon 5's characters end the series very differently from how they began.
Babylon 5 Is Still Relevant Today
While shows with multiple parallel storylines are nothing new, this kind of attention to character and determination to change them remains rare. It seems to be reserved for serious, dark, realistic stories in the vein of Breaking Bad.
And Straczynski has proven that a show can tell a story of tragic fall or redemption while remaining entertaining and lighthearted. That's what makes Babylon 5 worth watching now – and hoping someone will want to revive it someday.