Babylon 5, a
Nineties Space Opera created by
J. Michael Straczynski, ran from 1994-1998 (a two-hour pilot, "The Gathering", had aired in 1993). It was syndicated as apart of the
PTEN network package for its first four seasons, and was shown on TNT in its fifth.
Babylon 5 took the use of
Story Arcs to new heights, and introduced the concept of the
Wham Episode, with probably over half of its episodes contributing to one major series-long arc (a
Myth Arc). JMS had plotted out much of the arc before the series began, and occasionally referred to it as a five-year long
Mini Series. (The fourth and fifth seasons had to be telescoped into one when the show was going to be
prematurely ended. Then it was
Un Cancelled and picked up by TNT, and they had to scramble to create
a fifth season, which was not as well-liked by most fans.)
While the series is often given as an early example of a
hard science fiction show, it does have aliens with
powers verging on magic and humans with
Psychic Powers. Still,
by TV standards, it's fairly crispy sci-fi. Likewise, while the show is often seen as being more toward the cynical end of the
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, at times almost edging into
Black and Grey Morality, it also has some shining moments of idealism as well. One could say that the overarching
Aesop of the series is "the
pragmatic survive, and the
determined thrive, but
Faith Manages."
It spun off the short-lived series
Crusade, which ran for 13 episodes in 1999, telling the story of the spaceship
Excalibur and the search for a counteragent to/cure for a slow-acting biological weapon that had been successfully deployed against the Earth by agents of the Shadows. The series had serious trouble: superficial resemblance to the plot of
Star Blazers was cited, and creators commented on the ridiculous amounts of
Executive Meddling that they had to fight against. This trend for intervention was attacked more than once in the
Crusade scripts themselves. Opinions on the quality of the episodes were divided: to some, the series showed considerable promise before its
premature death; to others, markedly less.
There were several associated B5
Made-for-TV Movies:
It is available via Netflix, on disc only.
The WB
has also put up Season 1 and the first few of season 2 for online watching.
Has an
in-progress Recap page.
... and the
former Trope Namer for:
Babylon 5 subpages:
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