1. The story It is probably the biggest, most complex story that was put on film so far - well over 60 hours of good TV. This had been tried never before and makes shows like Lost or Battlestar Galactica successful today.
2. It is non boring Besides elements of Season 4 being built up as early as Season 1, even in small details, the storyline has a lot of interesting twists, that makes you yearn for more and stay interested even over the course of five years. But nowadays you don't have to. You can get the box set and have yourself been swallowed up in a matter of weeks.
3. The casting Casting was done very thoroughly, obviously; as every character had been designed in detail long time before casting, including all changes and developments, actors could be found that filled these roles perfectly. And they were. For example, Richard Biggs was the most ethic and believable TV doctor I have ever seen.
4. The acting The characters Londo Mollari and G'Kar seem to be the most popular, they are also filled by outstanding actors, but all the others, including guest roles were no less than great. Stephen Furst is a brilliant comedian and Bruce Boxleitner is just a joy to watch, he is so 100% in every scene.
5. The music Only two words: Christopher Franke. The score of B5 has the magnitude and the quality of a movie score and adds to the scope of the show greatly. Look out for a Special on Season 4 Box set called "No Surrender, No Retreat Suite". First watch Season 4. Then listen to the suite WITHOUT the pictures. And at last, enjoy the music with the pictures. You will conclude that the music itself captures all emotions of Season 4, the combination with the pictures just makes it a masterpiece.
6. The special effects Babylon 5 was a "poor show" as JMS put it. They had nowhere near the budget of a Star Trek series. But still its scope was intended to be big, with space battles unseen on TV to this point. Although most of the ground shots did not work, as a lot of virtual sets, the space scenes reached a remarkable level of perfection by the end of the series, and the battles were big indeed, with very interesting angles and camera movements only doable by cgi. Another aspect that B5 pioneered in.
7. The character development SciFi is not stupid. It is not about blowing up spaceships with laser guns either. Well, sometimes it is. But not B5. It is a character driven show with most interesting development to each character. They all developed, but still were truthful to themselves. Time is taken to explore each single character in detail and entertaining it is.
8. The humor There was Stephen Furst of course, who literally can turn any line into an enjoyable piece of comedy, but there were other actors with great comedic skills as well, Claudia Christian, Bruce Boxleitner, Patricia Tallman, Peter Jurasik to name a few. Although the story line was very exciting, the element of humor was never forgotten; this made Star Trek TOS successful and it definitely did not hurt B5.
9. The philosophy J. Michael Straczynski has said that his intention was never to make a moral or philosophical statement, but just to tell a story. But as the story involves a lot of these elements, at least it makes you think. And, although being a declared atheist, JMS handles things like religion or prophesy extremely respectfully and he gave the best summary of the essence of Christianity in the episode "Passing Through Getsemane" I have ever heard, equally brilliantly delivered by Oscar Nominee Brad Dourif.
10. The harmony of the complete work of art I believe that there are three classic types of art: Picture - painting, its 3D-representation sculpture and photography Music Literature, written and its physical representation acting.
Film puts all of them together, makes the pictures move and includes many more like effects, stage and crop design, costume design, camera, editing and makeup. I consider film the most complete work of art because it HAS to be the team work of a number of distinct artists. If each and every one of them is great, then the whole is great. And I think B5 is just that, besides or maybe because of the extremely tight budget they had. For example, when B5 went to TNT for Season 5 the actors suffered serious cutbacks in salary. Bruce Boxleitner no doubt had plenty of offers in his drawers, but nonetheless he stayed and finished the work. So did almost all the others, and I think You can tell this kind of attitude in the show.
2. It is non boring Besides elements of Season 4 being built up as early as Season 1, even in small details, the storyline has a lot of interesting twists, that makes you yearn for more and stay interested even over the course of five years. But nowadays you don't have to. You can get the box set and have yourself been swallowed up in a matter of weeks.
3. The casting Casting was done very thoroughly, obviously; as every character had been designed in detail long time before casting, including all changes and developments, actors could be found that filled these roles perfectly. And they were. For example, Richard Biggs was the most ethic and believable TV doctor I have ever seen.
4. The acting The characters Londo Mollari and G'Kar seem to be the most popular, they are also filled by outstanding actors, but all the others, including guest roles were no less than great. Stephen Furst is a brilliant comedian and Bruce Boxleitner is just a joy to watch, he is so 100% in every scene.
5. The music Only two words: Christopher Franke. The score of B5 has the magnitude and the quality of a movie score and adds to the scope of the show greatly. Look out for a Special on Season 4 Box set called "No Surrender, No Retreat Suite". First watch Season 4. Then listen to the suite WITHOUT the pictures. And at last, enjoy the music with the pictures. You will conclude that the music itself captures all emotions of Season 4, the combination with the pictures just makes it a masterpiece.
6. The special effects Babylon 5 was a "poor show" as JMS put it. They had nowhere near the budget of a Star Trek series. But still its scope was intended to be big, with space battles unseen on TV to this point. Although most of the ground shots did not work, as a lot of virtual sets, the space scenes reached a remarkable level of perfection by the end of the series, and the battles were big indeed, with very interesting angles and camera movements only doable by cgi. Another aspect that B5 pioneered in.
7. The character development SciFi is not stupid. It is not about blowing up spaceships with laser guns either. Well, sometimes it is. But not B5. It is a character driven show with most interesting development to each character. They all developed, but still were truthful to themselves. Time is taken to explore each single character in detail and entertaining it is.
8. The humor There was Stephen Furst of course, who literally can turn any line into an enjoyable piece of comedy, but there were other actors with great comedic skills as well, Claudia Christian, Bruce Boxleitner, Patricia Tallman, Peter Jurasik to name a few. Although the story line was very exciting, the element of humor was never forgotten; this made Star Trek TOS successful and it definitely did not hurt B5.
9. The philosophy J. Michael Straczynski has said that his intention was never to make a moral or philosophical statement, but just to tell a story. But as the story involves a lot of these elements, at least it makes you think. And, although being a declared atheist, JMS handles things like religion or prophesy extremely respectfully and he gave the best summary of the essence of Christianity in the episode "Passing Through Getsemane" I have ever heard, equally brilliantly delivered by Oscar Nominee Brad Dourif.
10. The harmony of the complete work of art I believe that there are three classic types of art: Picture - painting, its 3D-representation sculpture and photography Music Literature, written and its physical representation acting.
Film puts all of them together, makes the pictures move and includes many more like effects, stage and crop design, costume design, camera, editing and makeup. I consider film the most complete work of art because it HAS to be the team work of a number of distinct artists. If each and every one of them is great, then the whole is great. And I think B5 is just that, besides or maybe because of the extremely tight budget they had. For example, when B5 went to TNT for Season 5 the actors suffered serious cutbacks in salary. Bruce Boxleitner no doubt had plenty of offers in his drawers, but nonetheless he stayed and finished the work. So did almost all the others, and I think You can tell this kind of attitude in the show.