It's not Star Trek (Babylon 5)

Member Name: yeldarb

Product:	Babylon 5
Date:	31/05/01 (261 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A 110 hour story for TV, Some great moments, You can almost believe this could happen

Disadvantages: A couple of lousy episodes, You can't join in half way - you need to watch it from episode 1

A Sci Fi based on a space station and it's not Star Trek? Surely not!
Now, I'm not going to get involved on the Star Trek v Babylon 5 discussion, or which came first. Honest.

Babylon 5 is set on a space station called, oddly, Babylon 5. Why 5? Well, as we're told in the pilot, Babylons 1-3 were sabotaged, and 4 vanished without a trace.

The story can be split into 5 chapters, and that corresponds neatly to the 5 seasons. Handy that.

Season One is the build up - introducing charactors, the "science" of the programme (what is and isn't possible) and does have a few duff (really duff) epiosdes. Bear with it, and you'll be rewarded. Some of the episodes (Signs and Portents in particular) give broad hints and to what is to come.

Season Two gets the action going. We learn more about the Shadows - although not a huge amount, but enough to get you interested - and sets the arc going.

Seasons Three and Four can almost be called one 44 hour episode. These tell the bulk of story of the Shadow war, and the Civil war, and by the end of it, things will never be the same again.

Season Five starts poorly, but ends with a terrific storyline and some great acting by all concerned. Mainly character building, but it does have it's own mini arcs.

So what sets this apart from other nameless scifi? Well, to put it briefly, the arc. Babylon 5 is a story. It has a start, a middle, and ... well, an end of sorts, but there are plenty of unanswered questions that leave you wanting more.
This format has been copied well by other shows, but B5 started it all, and even now, most shows only have a one season arc -B5 had it over 5 years!

This is B5's greatst asset - but also it's problem. You can't join in half way though. You could possibly pick it up in season 2, and just perhaps early season three (if you have someone to explain everythin). Any later t
han that - forget it. It's like reading the last half of a book. No good.

TV programes are hard to recommend. If you hate Star Trek because it's SciFi, you won't like B5. If you don't like Star Trek because nothing happens in it, try B5. (by nothing happens I mean that at the end of every episode things are pretty much back to normal)
DS9 tried it's own arc, but it was nowhere near as in depth or successful as the ones in B5.

Try it, the first season is ordinary at times, but once you get beyond it, you'll be hooked. As I said, there are some poor episodes, but when you get into the juicy bits - seasons 3 & 4 - you'll find quite possibly the best story ever told on your TV.

Summary: