The First Five of "Babylon 5"

Welcome to Labor Day weekend, with the cineplexes still full of dregs and the networks still running repeats for a few more weeks. So I decided to dive into one of the shows that's been on my "to watch" list for ages: "Babylon 5." Created by J. Michael Straczynski and beloved by a fiercely protective fanbase, the syndicated science-fiction show is best known for being tightly written around a series of ambitious story arcs that spanned multiple seasons. Having no previous experience with the show at all, I started from the beginning. I thought I'd share some first impressions.

I watched the first five episodes over the past couple of days, which covered the introductions of all the credited characters in the show's opening sequence. I think it was enough to give me a good sense of the "Babylon 5" universe and the quality of the production. The title refers to a space station where humans and aliens cohabitate in the 23rd century. According to the opening narration it exists to "prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers."

Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner), his capable second, Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian), and the head of security, Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) police the station and its inhabitants. Babylon 5 is inhabited by a variety of alien species, but the most prominent are the Minbari, the Narn, and the Centauri, who all have the distinction of featuring two regular castmembers apiece. The most human in appearance are the gregarious Centauri, who resemble Napoleonic aristocrats with great fanned-out ruffs of hair like triceratops frills. The devious Narn are more reptilian, with lizard-like features, spotted hides, and metallic clothing. Finally there are the stately Minbari, who display bald pates and go about in sweeping robes.

The Centauri ambassador Londo (Peter Jurasik) and his toady Vir (Stephen Furst) are constantly at odds with Narn ambassador G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas), and the premiere episode sees the Babylon 5 crew narrowly avert a war between the two races. The Minbari are represented by the lovely Delenn (Mira Furlan), who is a high-ranking member of the leadership who is on the station incognito. Rounding out the human cast are physician Dr. Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs) and psychic Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson). In episode five, we also see the arrivals of G'Kar's second, Na'Toth (Julie Caitlin Brown), and Delenn's second, Lennier (Bill Mumy).

"Babylon 5" was aired in 1993, and it's a shock to see the use of such rudimentary CGI graphics, especially the establishing shots of the space station. The rest of the effects have aged decently, and all of the alien make-up remains impressive. Still, it's easy to date the production based on little things like the lava-lamp lighting, the lettering used for the credits, and the synthesizer-heavy musical score. After a few episodes these elements mostly fade away into the background, aside from the occasional instance of crimped hair, and the series holds up very well in spite of them.

I was pleasantly surprised by the consistency of the performances and the level of the writing. The concepts and execution of the individual episodes are easily on par with any of the "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine" episodes I remember from their early seasons. The scientific accuracy of the science-fiction elements is better than most, and I was pleasantly surprised to see genre writer Harlan Ellison listed as a creative consultant right up front. Obviously the big future story arcs are only being set up in these first introductory episodes, but you can see the groundwork being laid for the later developments, and it's all done very well. Background information is introduced a little at a time, and even the dullest episodes will reveal something about a character's past or a certain aspect of an alien society that's sure to come back later.

Easily my favorite characters are Londo and G'Kar, the Centauri and Narn ambassadors respectively, who are both from cutthroat societies that require them both to be ruthless, cunning, and nasty on occasion. As their races are traditional enemies they don't like each other, but have similar problems and I can see the two of them getting old and funny together, though Londo has a recurring vision that they'll die together by mutual strangulation. Peter Jurasik as Londo is an utterly charming old letch, who reminds me vaguely of Grandpa Munster. G'Kar makes no secret that he likes playing the baddie, but he's also not nearly as cold-hearted as his scaly exterior might suggest. Andreas Katsulas plays him as odious and sympathetic at the same time, and he's fantastic.

The humans as a whole come off as less interesting next to the outsized personalities of the aliens, but I though Claudia Christian as Ivanova came off the best. She's playing something of a stereotype as the duty-driven second-in-command, but she also gets several of the best dramatic moments. Bruce Boxleitner as Captain Sheridan also does a great job with material that isn't quite as strong. It's too soon to say much about the rest. Secondary characters like Vir and Na'Toth have operated primarily as comic relief so far, Delenn was a damsel in distress in her spotlight episode, and Dr. Franklin and Winters haven't been given anything particularly interesting to do yet. Garibaldi hasn't made much of an impression, except that Jerry Doyle has a striking resemblance to Bruce Willis.

But so far, so good. This is one of the best starts to a science-fiction series that I've seen in a while now, especially for something from the early 90s. I don't think it's as strong as one of the other major genre series that premiered the same year, "The X-Files," but I can see a lot of promise here. I'll keep watching and provide updates as I go.