Think You’re a Hardcore Sci-Fi Fan? You’re Not If You Haven’t Seen This 30-Year-Old Gem
It was a genre phenomenon that is now unjustly forgotten.
Joseph Michael Straczynski, a screenwriter who worked on numerous films, TV series and comic books, dreamed of correcting what he saw as the main problem with sci-fi series of the 1980s and 1990s – the lack of long-term planning.
He believed that writers and directors who were forced to work from episode to episode could not tell a truly big, complex, and consistent story.
Instead of making a series in which the characters explored a new planet or uncovered an anomaly in each episode, Straczynski decided to create an epic that focused on the relationships between characters and states.
His primary source of inspiration was literature: Asimov's Foundation series, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Herbert's Dune, and other large-scale epics. And in 1994 his ambitious project was released – Babylon 5, which even after 30 years has an audience rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
What is Babylon 5 About?
According to the plot, the Babylon 5 space station was built in the mid-23rd century by the Earth Alliance as a center for galactic diplomacy. Representatives of all the civilizations controlling space negotiated at the station.
There were four major players: Earth, the decadent but still powerful Centauri Empire, the warlike Narn, who had recently gained independence from them, and the Minbari, a generally peace-loving civilization that, however, had recently nearly destroyed humanity in a war. The ambassadors of these nations, as well as the station officers, became the main characters.
In addition to the great powers, the Babylon 5 universe included other races united in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, as well as the mysterious Vorlons, the most technologically advanced and powerful nation.
The entire story was built around the relationships and political struggles between individual characters and their countries – relationships that led to a number of global conflicts: a civil war on Earth and among the Minbari, and a second conflict between the Centauri and the Narn.
Babylon 5 Was Way Ahead of Its Time in Terms of Plot and Character Development
This space TV opera was a real Game of Thrones in space. A complex universe with a well-developed history, numerous, developing dramatic characters, story arcs unfolding over five seasons – Babylon 5 gave every science fiction series of the late 1990s a run for its money, including Star Trek.
It may have been far inferior to its contemporaries in terms of graphics, but CGI in any sci-fi project is doomed to obsolescence. Science fiction, as fans know, is not about style or special effects, it is about ideas and concepts.
And Babylon 5 proved to be the undisputed leader in creating a complex, balanced world of space diplomacy, a success that neither The Expanse nor Foundation nor Halo nor any other expensive sci-fi project of recent years has been able to replicate.