2. The Little Guy
Another thing Babylon 5 did, a subject which Star Trek seldom if ever tackled was the idea that not everyone in the galaxy is involved with the machinations and plots going on. Sure, there was "Lower decks" in NextGen, and of course the Ferengi were always fun; you saw people kicking back at the Dabo tables and in Ten Forward, though to be fair there was little relaxation to be had aboard Voyager. But what Babylon 5 did was look beyond the overarching plots, the grand schemes and the main movers and shakers and take a step back to spend some time talking about "the little guy". A good example of this is season five's "A view from the gallery", where the story takes place from the viewpoint of two maintenance workers who go about their normal day as the people we have come to know as the stars of the show run back and forth dealing with crises. Whereas normally the episode would focus on, say, an attack on the station, in this episode the attack occurs but we only hear about it in the conversation of the two guys, who then go and have lunch, leaving the big decisions to those that are, essentially, paid to make them and who they trust to protect them. Then in season four there's a point where the Rangers --- the elite of Sheridan's forces, Babylon 5's version of the SAS or Navy SEALs --- come to the aid of an unknown alien race. These guys are being attacked by a far superior force and have no allies. When one of them doubts that Babylon 5 will send ships to defend them, when they don't even know them, the ships appear and the aliens' enemies are destroyed or fought off. It's quite a touching moment when the sky lights up with stars, each star a rescuing ship. But even then, JMS doesn't let us think this is done out of the goodness of the heart: Sheridan intends to recruit these people into his fight, and maybe use their planet as a strategic point in his war, and making friends of them will certainly aid in that enterprise.