Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is a cult scifi TV series that you should have watched 20 years ago, but in my opinion would need a reboot to really be relevant to watch in the current age. I watched it as a kid and then again in 2017 out of nostalgia.
The series focuses on a human-run diplomatic space station called Babylon 5 where hundreds of thousands of humans and aliens live. There, ambassadors from the several prominent alien races interact and the human heroes try to prevent catastrophic conflicts. Conflict happens anyway, most notably when the imperialistic Centauri Republic renews their war against the monastic Narn.
The backdrop in the setting is created by two very advanced “precursor” races called the Shadows and Vorlons. The Shadows are the seemingly obvious villains who see conflict as necessary for evolution of “the younger races”, and to that end scheme to make the Centauri go war against the Narn. Vorlons don’t quite turn out paragons of justice either, having caused major issues in every younger race by introduction of telepathic abilities. While present on Babylon 5, the Vorlon ambassadors are reluctant to really communicate, as if they are too far above the other races.
The conclusion of the series goes beyond solving the Centauri-Narn crisis by having the humans and other younger races stand up against the Shadows and Vorlons, viewed as one party of unwanted supervision.
At least I was left with the striking feeling that there never was that big animosity between the Shadows and Vorlons. Despite their seemingly large physical differences, the two races were actually like two brothers good-naturely quibbling about something that was ultimately unsignificant to them: the younger races. Only with the events of the series do they realize the younger races are a force to be reckoned with.
The scale of the series is epic. After the The X-Files , Babylon 5 was perhaps the first TV series to have “Myth arc”, a story arc that spans the whole series, as put by tvtropes.org. But the acting and many other parts of the whole don’t reach the expected levels of modern scifi shows, making the series difficult to recommend.
These Babylon 5 time travel episodes in season 3 are pretty cool. Finished the season now.
http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Book_of_G%27Kar
He began writing the book after being jailed for attacking Londo Mollari in a Dust-controlled state. The book was distributed in 2262 without the consent of G’Kar. Every copy has a circular coffee stain on page 83 because Mr. Garibaldi accidentally spilled coffee on it and all Narn holy books must be reproduced line for line and word for word right down to the flaws in the paper. The book was soon projected to surpass the Book of G’Quan as the best selling book in Narn history.
Continuing Babylon 5. One of the best thing about this series I think is the way it handles one-on-one character dynamics. There are certain pairs that come together again and again to have a specific kind of dialogue and atmosphere, like the unlikely Londo and Garibaldi. Londo, who is probably the most powerful person on the station (excluding Vorlons and Shadows perhaps), likes to drink and have fun with Garibaldi who holds no political power whatsoever.
Londo after cheering up Garibaldi: “Now I will go to spread happiness around rest of the station. It’s a terrible responsibility, but I’ve learned to live with it [laughs].”
Just saw S02E15, the one with ISN making a show about 36 hours on Babylon 5. I think this is one of the best episodes, because it has such a good perspective. There’s wpparently another episode similar to in the fourth season, so I might be mixing some memories. I find remarkable how it doesn’t go overboard with the “shocking” idea that news could be biased. The report is obviously biased yes, but mostly in subtle ways, and it leaves the kind of feeling the fictional program also allowed the opposing viewpoints to get through. It could be that the other episode is more propaganda-heavy, corresponding to change on Earth up to that point of time. This episode is also pretty exciting in the terms of events on the station. Centauri and Narn are fighting right next to the station, and there seems to be a great deal of big events in the episode, with my guess being that they saved time to do that by being able to skip details among the events around the usual main characters. There are very interesting viewpoints that Londo and G’Kar give to the human viewer about their war (both obviously biased). Finally, the fictional Psi Corps commercial in the middle of it all is just charming.
I’ve been checking tvtropes pages for the episodes, they have a lot of stuff including detailed recaps. Wikipedia also has full episode recaps, and there’s at least one wiki and just now I found some fanpage with all kinds of trivia for the episodes (production/JMS’s comments probably the most interesting). I’m reminded just how loved this series was and still is. JMS was such a visionary to create this masterpiece — I can’t even imagine the challenge of having gotten that pilot movie done in a way that the epic-scale series could proceed right after it, perfectly consistent.
I thought I’ll stop watching Babylon 5 here at the end of 4th season, as due to executive meddling JMS aimed to end the series there and as a result the 5th season reportedly became an inferior one. There’s also the Crusade spin-off and several movies, but I just feel like I already got what I wanted from the series rewatch.