Babylon 5 was a show that never really crossed my radar at first until I learned more about it and just how ambitious it was. J Michael Straczynski planned this entire show ahead of time, as if it was one long book. He was incredibly active on forums and fan pages to the point that there's an entire website compiling his input, and he and the show ended up helping coin some of my favorite elements in TV, that being the Myth Arcs and Wham Episodes. There's only one other show that had this much of a cultish impact on TV and that's my favorite show of all time, Buffy. And just like Buffy, its first season wasn't the best, but it is definitely promising.
Babylon 5 is a science-fiction show about a group of diplomats on the titular space ship as several intergalactic wars rage and loom in the background. I'm not gonna sugar-coat things, the show doesn't put its best foot forward. The pilot "The Gathering" does a solid job with world-building and introducing the cast, but it has some bad acting, a sluggish pace, and weak special effects. All of these qualities improve once the show begins proper, especially if you're watching the HBO remaster, but even then, a large portion of the season is composed of standalone episodes that just weren't the greatest. A lot of these standalone episodes, especially at the start of the season, mostly had very standard and predictable pattern where everything got tied up at the end (which feels a bit odd in a show about political turmoil). I tend to give first seasons the benefit of the doubt since the novelty of a new show is there, some of my favorite shows has a slow start, and the slow build towards serialization can be satisfying, but I also totally understand if anyone was put off by the start of Babylon 5.
However, what this show does do well is definitely the world-building. JMS crafted an entire universe with multiple planets and species with their own complex political relations which is incredibly impressive. Every episode, even the weaker ones, provides more information on this world, from their religions to their history. And as poorly aged as the CGI is, the practical effects still look pretty great, with alien species like the Centauri and Minbari looking incredibly distinct and memorable even today. It was also interesting to watch the writing slowly improve throughout the season, with the latter half balancing drama and humor pretty much perfectly. The whole cast is likable and they have a great dynamic with each other, especially the power trio of Sinclair, Garibaldi, and Ivanova. We also get more and more important revelations throughout the course of the season like what happened in Sinclair's past, what happened to Babylon 4, and who the Shadows are, slowly building until the game-changing finale Chrysallis which seems to be setting up a far more serialized Season 2. I feel like this season, aptly titled "Signs And Portents" feels like a prologue for the show as a whole, slowly laying the groundwork of the world through these standalone tales and setting up for the real meat of Babylon 5. While I'm sure all of this set-up will be satisfying later on, it just wasn't the most fun to watch, really.
While the episode quality was generally hit or miss this season, these were some of the highlights:
And The Sky Full Of Stars: The first genuinely great episode of the series and a really unique one. The Cybernet is super trippy and unique, and the exploration of Sinclair's backstory is interesting. We still don't know all the answers, but the reveal that Delenn is part of some conspiracy about his lost memories. For the show's first "Wham Episode", it was a pretty good one.
A Voice In The Wilderness: For the first two-parter of the series (unless you're counting The Gathering), A Voice In The Wilderness definitely feels more ambitious than any episode before it. It's just a really well-rounded episode overall, packed with cute character moments (Ivanova's mantra is perfection), exciting planetary exploration, and a tense final battle. This episode feels like more of an adventure than a lot of the other politically-driven episodes, and I'd be perfectly fine with seeing more stuff like it.
Babylon Squared: Similarly to And The Sky Full Of Stars, this experimental episode packs in a ton of important plot information, revealing that Babylon 4 was unstuck in time. As a result, this episode is filled with timey-wimey shenanigans hinting at a dark future for the cast and an important destiny for Sinclair. We also get to learn more about the conspiracy that Delenn is a part of as it really feels like the show was starting to build to some massive reveal about everything...
Chrysallis: This season finale was absolutely mind-blowing, taking every single story thread, from the Shadows to the Earth government to Delenn's plan to Sinclair's past, and tying it all in a knot. Every characters gets something to do here, and the sheer amount of big twists and massive status quo changes throughout the episode left me constantly stunned. No wonder JMS coined the Wham Episode term, he's hella good at it! This was easily the best episode of the season, funny, dramatic, and tense in equal measures. It was a satisfying ending and an amazing set-up for what should be a more serialized Season 2. Nothing's the same anymore, indeed.
Overall, Babylon 5's first season wasn't the best. It has rough CGI, a slow start, and some very cheesy standalones, but its world-building, characters, and solid second half makes it a rewarding watch regardless.
2/5 Stars
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