Ah, Babylon 5. Television's incarnation of the phrase "Hell yeah!". Why did I love it? Why wouldn't I? The writing, acting and directing have (with a few admitted exceptions) aged like fine wine. Okay, the CGI has aged like fine milk, but it was a pioneer without which we wouldn't have the stuff we have today (like how there'd be no CIG Gollum without CIG Jar-Jar). Every few years, I rewatch the series (it's available on DVD now, but that took a very long time; I made a point of saving my tapes) and see something I missed before. I could go on and on about the show, but I will leave with two little notes.
I came to watch B5 after TNT bought it. A friend and I were up in a cabin over New Year's, determined to play our way through the entirety of NAMCO's Joust on his Playstation, juiced to the gills on sugar and caffeine (which is a lot more like being drunk than you'd think). We finished just in time to catch the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (much more coherent than the original, but still a trippy movie), and during every single commercial break, TNT was bragging about the series it was going to start airing. Finally, in frustration, I called to the television "Fine! Fine! I'll watch it- just stop telling me about it!".
And they did. It may have simply been because the movie ended; I genuinely don't know, but it absolutely amazed me. Naturally, I lived up to my end of the bargain, and faithfully watched the whole show, taping every episode, since my friend told me there were lots of little details that rewarded rewatching. He had NO IDEA.
Secondly, the depth of the writing. The story was five seasons long, and that was it- no matter what, season five would be the last. That's a big part of why it took so long for the show to get made in the first place. Seven episodes of season two were written by other people, but the entirety of seasons 3 and 4, and all but one of season five (that one?
Neil Gaiman) JMS wrote himself. He had what he called "trapdoors" to enable any given actor to leave the show without destroying the story. In one case, and actor whose character who was dealing with serious mental problems ended up leaving the show, because, it turned out, the actor himself was dealing with his own serious mental problems. He told JMS, who said he'd respect the actor's privacy; "I'll take it to my grave". To which the actor responded "No- take it to
my grave". Once he was dead, it couldn't hurt him anymore, and THAT was the kind of loyalty Babylon 5 inspired.
Okay, I lied; one last thing: the music is absolutely amazing. It integrates so well that you often don't even notice it, but it impressed me so much that I went out and bought two episode soundtrack CDs, which I haven't done for any other series, before or since.
I can sum it up with 1 image:
Most practical starfighter design EVER.
<mike drop>
Better than you even know. Supposedly, at one point NASA approached JMS and asked if they could copy the design for use in an actual spacecraft. JMS said sure- so long as they called it a Starfury.
