Babylon 5

I loved Babylon 5 when it first aired. Yes, it was a cross of Lensmen and Lord of the Rings. Yes, it had something of the aesthetic of a saturday morning cartoon (technically, the special effects and make-up were superb, but the designs felt a little cartoony to me even then.) Yes, it sometimes chose to be stagey and dramatic, formal and artificial, but that worked with the material. Yes, it was occasionally amateurish, with something of a 1960s quality which was unexpected in the early 90s. Yes, J. Michael Straczynski’s dialogue could be predictable or cliche (but as Clive James said of Telly Savalas’ performance in Kojak “[he] can make bad slang sound like good slang and good slang sound like lyric poetry” and that is the case with some of JMS’s excesses as performed by some of his better actors.)

I’m re-watching it on Amazon Prime. The special effects have suffered transfer artifacts which is sad, because they were stand-out in their day and even more amazing to fans who understood how they were produced. Straczynski got the genre, had a good story to tell, wrote appealing characters portrayed by personable actors. I loved the show in all its aspects and it stands the test of time for good, thoughtful, engaging space opera.