I finished watching all of Babylon 5 not too long ago. I never watched it when it was initially on but everyone kept telling me that I’ve love it. Well, I do love it but there is something that’s making me go: “I’m still not sure”. I can’t put my finger on it either and it’s really bugging me.
I’m a girl who was raised on Star Trek which has a pretty standard formula (although it wavers in DS9 – hence why I picked that series for my dissertation) and B5 doesn’t follow this.
It’s good, although poorly acted in parts, but it’s missing something and I can’t put my finger on what. I’m putting part of it down to my over familiarity with Star Trek and how it is sort of “seat of the pants” writing. Seasons might be planned out in advance but only so far. Whereas B5 was totally planned out even to the point where all the characters had “get out” story-lines in case the actors wanted to leave.
I’m impressed with that level of planning and some of the episodes have been excellent. Also once you get into season 2 the overall story arc seems to be coming into it more and I got really into it. I also like how the characters seemed to be fully developed right from the start. This differs from ST where it can sometimes take a few episodes to get into the character.
An example would be Kira – the first time we meet her there are hints of who her character will be but it takes a few episodes for her to turn into the Kira we’ll know for the rest of the series. Another example is Troi. Troi in the first few episodes of TNG is quite different from the Troi she becomes.
Now don’t mistake this for character development, I’m not talking about the gradual change over time as the character learns from events etc. I mean how ST characters are rarely set in stone from the first episode.
There will be an outline, a premise for the character, an idea who the writers/producers want this character to be. eg. Jadzia Dax – they knew they wanted a female alien who was an old soul in a young body. She evolved into a Trill*, an old friend of Sisko’s, with her look and character evolving along the way. Then… you have the input the actress will put in and how she changes the character based on how she plays the part. From all that you get the Dax we know.
*This character also changed what a Trill is known to be. Think about the first Trill seen in TNG and then compare that to what is ‘learnt’ about the Trill in DS9. Actually this is a better example of what I was trying to say. ST only plans so far ahead.
I get the impression from all I’ve read that B5 was completely planned out before any actors were hired. All characters were planned out in detail, all races had their backgrounds fixed and plot arcs planned down to the episode.
SJ Simpson 