Babylon Five has the same premise as Star Trek: Deep Space 9 in that the storylines are based on a Space Station as opposed to a space craft like in Star Trek. Travel to other planets are rare.
The producers had attempted something that hadn't been tried at that time in such a grand scale by merging live action with computer generated scenes. Now, the special effects look dated but at that time, they were impressive.
After mankind reached and grabbed the skies, they came across different alien races such as the Centauris and the Minbari. Due to a misunderstanding, Earth and the Minbaris came to war which raged heavily.
The Minbari were on the brink of winning when they retreated. Five space stations were planned as centres of peace.
The first three were sabotaged, a fourth went missing leaving Five on its own. They had a detailed plan for the series, how long it would last and how things would develop. They resisted the temptation to expand it, instead creating an offshoot called Crusader and a number of films.
In the first series, Jeffrey Sinclair is incharge whereas in the following year, John Sheridan takes command. During the lifetime of the program, the station gains independence from Earth which is seen as being corrupt.
Like Sisko in DS9, Sheridan is a widower. Something that is unique about this is that each episode follows on from the last one unlike other series which are normally stand-alone episodes. |
