Reviews by:
@s.sohan2005
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Star Trek Undiscovery is an absolute gem of a Trek movie only behind the popular installment (Wrath Of Babylon 5 is a landmark space opera done in television. Babylon 5 is a science fiction television unlike no other. It's a five-year story about a station fighting off fascism and authoritarian rule with great science fiction ideas and allegories about religion. It's a five-year novel in television and a crowning achievement in the television and science fiction medium.
Writing:
The show's science fiction themes are well-written and well-crafted with interesting ideas and three-dimensional characters who are the POVs in this universe. The status quo changes throughout the show and J. Michael Straczynski's writing makes the audience care for these characters and their respective arcs balancing it with large-scale ideas and worldbuilding.
Characters:
Babylon 5's characters are thematically rich and filled with nuanced depth and interesting characters to follow for this show. Characters like Londo Mollari, G'Kar, Sheridan, Delenn, Ivanova, and Garibaldi are just to name a few of the vast characters we explore throughout the show and the acting is stellar with sincerity and depth which comes from a great understanding of the characters.
Production value:
The show's weakness stems from its dated production values and dated CGI but I appreciate its use of CGI in space battles and its depiction of various alien ships. It's restrained yet emotive with it being on television. It's a mixed bag with a lot of practical effects not holding up well. The direction is shoddy at times with spinning camera movements and generic making its presentation awkward and jarring for contemporary viewers.
Balance between serialization and stand-alone episodes :-
Babylon 5 has a great mix of standalone and serialized episodes which gives the showroom to explore science fiction ideas and military ideas with religious undertones but with a great worldbuilding up with the A plot. It has a character focus and questions the ideas of certain characters while staying true to their depiction. This provides better pacing to the show's merit and doesn't let the focus of its characters and story falter.
Concluding thoughts:
B5 is a groundbreaking television show which broke out from the Star Trek science fiction course and carved its own path in the science fiction genre. Babylon 5's success allowed for other Science fiction mainstream and cult favorites like SG1, Farscape and the return of Battlestar Galactica to get off the ground. It's legacy on modern television storytelling cannot be understated and with it having a great legacy behind.
By @s.sohan2005
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