2. Babylon 5 - We've Got To Make Our Own Decisions And Grow Free Of Influence
It's been said that Babylon 5 made a habit of falling on its own face by just making some of the most utterly bad decisions in the production department possible. I can't possibly argue against that, because it's simple true. But, it can't be said that B5 isn't one of the most well thought out and well planned TV series of all time. Creator J. Michael Straczynski didn't pitch an idea and write it as he went, he brought the entirety of the story with pages and pages of back stories for each character to the first meeting with the network. This is one story that new exactly where it was going from day one. And, what starts as a pretty clear cut "alien bad guys must be blown to pieces" sci-fi piece of junk quickly becomes one of the most well thought out and well organized stories of modern television. Quick version: Babylon5 is a space station/ peace talks outpost full of alien species of relatively equal power in the galaxy, with the exception of one uber-powerful race. There are also sneaky, invisible bad aliens. The bad aliens want to start wars by helping certain races. Wars break out. Things get ugly. The bad aliens start going conquer crazy. The uber-powerful aliens also start going crazy, killing pretty much everyone to get to the bad aliens. Soon, the entire galaxy is stuck between a war of two very powerful races, representing dichotomous philosophical views. Yeah, that's a lot to swallow in one paragraph, so I know it doesn't make too much sense. The main idea being this: the two most powerful races represent opposing philosophies on the role of government/child care/gods. On one side you have the ancient race that believes creating order and stability will allow younger species to grow and learn. The other side believes that growth comes from conflict; the strong survive. In effect, the galaxy becomes their debating zone. Again, the ending to this one is too great to spoil, so lets just say that the writers clearly believed that it's our own responsibility to learn and grow on our own, and everyone reaches an age in which they must question what they're being told and make their own decisions.