6. Shades Of Grey
When I first saw the pilot movie I was stunned, and thought it would be a major crime if this was not developed into a series, so was delighted when that was exactly what happened. In the earlier run of the first season admittedly nothing terribly groundbreaking happened, though Babylon 5 was always lauded for its CGI which at the time was said to be years ahead of the competition. Initially opinion was mixed about lead actor Michael O'Hare as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair; some said his performances were wooden and stiff, but whatever their view that all changed with the onset of season two and a new leading man in the charismatic, energetic Bruce Boxleitner, who would become famous as Captain John Sheridan. It's perhaps not at all coincidental that one of the major alien races in the series, the Minbari, are ruled by the Grey Council, because grey is a colour that really characterises Babylon 5. Not in a bad or boring way, but in the sense of shades of light and dark. Unlike Star Trek and other sf series, Babylon 5's characters often shifted their allegiances and outlook, many changing and even completely reversing their original position over the course of the series. Star Trek the original had characters that were, in the main, (without meaning to sound critical, which I don't intend to be) one-dimensional and often comedic, while Next Generation had a much deeper development of character, but still they were pretty much seen as "the good guys". Nobody had any real appreciable problems or flaws, and everyone more or less got on with everyone else. There were no rivalries. Babylon 5, through Straczynski's incisive writing, turned this idea on its head. Babylon 5's characters dealt with real issues. Doctor Franklin battled addiction to "stims", little shots of stimulants he used to get himself through his too-busy days (sound familiar?) while the chief of security was a recovering alcoholic and Sheridan's second in command hid a deep, dark secret of her own. Even the aliens were far from friends. All right, in Star Trek the Klingons hated the Romulans and the Ferengi were only ever out to see how much gold-pressed latinum they could squeeze out of anyone, but there wasn't the kind of frank hatred and hostility we see in Londo Mollari and G'Kar, ambassadors of the Centauri and Narn respectively. And then there are the ones who wait in the shadows and say nothing, watching, observing, calculating, and who are quite happy to see thousands, even millions die to achieve their mysterious ends.