Babylon 5 is On Again

“Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night.”

Would you watch a show for its storyline and setting, even if many of the actors periodically gave lackluster performances? What if the graphics had quickly aged and now look like a cartoony video game? And how would you feel if the character designs were vastly different in quality, with incredible makeup for some and what appears to be a whirlwind trip through a chintzy wig shop for others?

If you’re like me, you would probably say no... unless, of course, you’re talking about Babylon 5.

I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve re-watched, in whole or in part, this sweeping space opera from J. Michael Straczynski. I’ve set my old DVDs to play in the background while I worked, cleaned, and cooked. I’ve spent many a lonely hour curled up under a blanket to reacquaint myself with my favorite episodes. And I’ve even shown it to my daughter, who, like children do, spent a year thinking it was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen -- until the next amazing thing came along, that is.

It’s the show that filled the empty spaces in my apartment when I lived alone, in a new state, without cable or reliable internet access. It has kept me company throughout some of the most difficult parts of my life, reminding me that there’s always light in the darkness.

At first, there was a simple reason for this, one which didn’t even have all that much to do with my appreciation for the show. It was simply there. And, given the choice between watching the free DVDs that came with my DVD player (Ultraviolet, anyone? Anyone?) or watching something that could run for hours on end, day after day, I chose the latter. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t terribly forgiving of the acting and the character design when it premiered on television, but many of Babylon 5’s rougher edges grew on me over time. I didn’t mind so much that the Centauri looked like Flowbee accidents (cue Garth on Wayne’s World crying while getting a Suck Cut) or that Minbari Ambassador Delenn’s hair-bone-hair style would have been impossible to manage in real life. (I mean, really, how did she comb the hair on top of her head?) The forced acting from some of the less-talented cast members just became par for the course, and the lovingly scripted, more heartfelt scenes made up for everything. And, to be fair, the graphics were pretty amazing for a tiny budget in 1994.

But I’m a geek, and a very forgiving one at that, so I understand why some people are less enthusiastic about a show with so many faults. Even the storyline isn’t for everyone, as it has religious overtones, war, racist confrontations/alien speciesism, elements of mysticism, and real-world parallels. Some people don’t want their entertainment to remind them of such things, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I know I have some strong preferences for my entertainment, too, such as disliking “reality” TV or anything that includes too much senseless violence. To each their own, as it were.

With all these negatives, though, what could possibly make me want to keep re-watching this show?

It started with a basic appreciation for the storytelling. When Babylon 5 first came out, speculative fiction for television was in a bit of a rut. Many shows, Star Trek included, frequently fell back on a “creature of the week” style of writing. There was a problem, the problem was a weird creature, and the resolution usually involved the main characters either defeating or helping said creature. Rinse, repeat. Ask any Trekkie what their favorite moments from the series are and you probably won’t hear about any of these “creature of the week” episodes -- except, perhaps, for some notable exceptions. You might hear about tribbles, but you’ll probably also hear about story-centric holodeck romps, quirky humor, episodes which gave surprising clarity to previous events, acts of heroism, or some of the many heartbreaking scenes that made them care for the characters in ways they hadn’t before. So when a sci-fi series came along that promised to be different and rarely, if ever, had “creature of the week” episodes without some kind of greater narrative tie-in, my little book-loving heart was thrilled.

Once I became a bit more familiar with some of the show’s behind-the-scenes aspects, I respected J. Michael Straczynski’s efforts even more. Babylon 5 was a pioneering endeavor which ultimately changed the expectations and possibilities of science fiction in television. Aside from the aforementioned shunning of “creature of the week” writing, J. Michael Straczynski did something else which was largely unheard of in the TV world: He wrote long, complicated, interconnecting story arcs, some of which made viewers feel like they should be taking notes to avoid missing anything. This type of complex narrative may be fairly commonplace in today’s realm of Westworld, Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders, and many more, but in 1994, you’d be hard-pressed to name a show with similar writing depth outside of Twin Peaks.

Furthermore, not only did Straczynski refer to Babylon 5 as a “novel for television,” but the off-screen, tie-in novels and comics were considered canon. Out of the 18 original Babylon 5 novels, only 7 of them are outside canon. On the surface, that may not seem very impressive, but it’s incredibly unusual to see. Take, for instance, the Marvel universe: How many times have the events of the movies and shows conflicted with the comics? How many times have the comics had conflicting storylines from one series to the next? Or, perhaps, a better comparison would be the Star Wars universe, where entire histories have been written in novel form -- only to be completely undone, forgotten, or conveniently side-stepped by a new show, comic, movie, or even the next set of books. As a geek, it’s a rare treasure to have multiple forms of media which all contribute to the same story.

It’s also a bit unusual to find a creator who is so in-tune with their actors that they are willing to alter the script in ways which allow personal feelings and beliefs to be aired. One notable example of this would be Straczynski’s conversations with ex-Yugoslavian actress Mira Furlan, who played Ambassador Delenn. Furlan had previously worked for a touring theatre group in Yugoslavia, which at the time was in the midst of a civil war. Straczynski “[wrote] speeches for her that would allow her to comment on what was happening to her homeland without calling it out by name.” I can’t help but feel like that is a lasting gift, both to the cast of Babylon 5 and the audience, as it adds a highly personal, human touch to what could have otherwise been just another show about aliens.

Another impressive behind-the-scenes feat from the Babylon 5 team was the handling of their small budget. With somewhere around $800,000 to spend each episode, every dollar had to count. (By comparison, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, which began its run in 1993, had roughly twice as much per episode at $1.6 million.) In order to do this, the creators had to forgo the use of expensive props or models, which had largely been the norm for science fiction in film. But what was a show full of spaceships, explosions, galactic scenery, and mystical events to do without the help of models? Create everything with CGI, of course.

Unfortunately, 1994 was still early-days for using computer graphics on such a large scale. So early, in fact, that the CGI in the original pilot was generated with a wall full of networked Amiga computers. Each of these Amigas housed only 2 MB of memory. As a point of reference for how little that is, even the least powerful graphics cards on the market today tend to have a minimum of 2 GB, which is 1000 times larger than the memory in each little Amiga. Lucky for us, the series has been remastered, which means we can now watch it in a cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing way. It might not be perfect, but it’s certainly better looking.

As for the non-CGI budget expenses, the costumes, sets, and makeup all deserve commendations. One of my favorite things about watching Babylon 5 is marveling at all of the beautiful fabrics they employed. Costume designer Ann Bruice Aling was fearless in the face of mixing patterns and turned the dreaded “fashion police” faux pas into an art form. Velvet, silk, gauze, brushed cotton, satin, jacquard, even ostrich leather -- if you can name it, it’s probably in a Babylon 5 costume somewhere, carefully folded in amongst some of the most texturally pleasing outfits I’ve ever had the opportunity to see on television. Each species has a distinct clothing theme, too, which adds a beautifully done visual cue to their habits, beliefs, and ways of life. The Narn are imposing, yet regal, in their fiery earth-tones and iridescent, almost beetle-like greens. Minbari clothing, on the other hand, reflects their thoughtful mysticism with soft, watercolor blues, whispering purples, and gentle neutrals. The Centauri are not unlike a reflection of Napoleonic fashion, boldly colored and cut to flatter. And the humans are as mutable and individualistic as ever, with comfort and understated sophistication being recurring themes in their clothing choices.

Another delightful, though easily overlooked detail is the inclusion of a set of chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Fans of the Addam’s Family, Blade Runner, or even Madonna may recognize the artist’s signature high-backed, ebony-wood style, which effortlessly adds an air of clinically-organic stateliness to any scene. The argument could easily be made for Mackintosh’s influences in other aspects of the show’s style, albeit in less obvious ways. The inclusion of repeated, floor-to-ceiling vertical stripes paired with meticulous curves and overlapping, almost mathematically precise contrast lines is an effortless, if perhaps unintentional, reminder of Art Nouveau stylings.

As for the makeup department, I have always felt that Babylon 5 had a serious advantage over most other science fiction shows. While, yes, there were some odd choices, such as the Centauri hair disasters, there were also some incredible hits. Rarely do we see a Narn or a Minbari who fail to look like an actual alien as opposed to a human wearing prosthetics. The Narn ambassador, G’kar, has what is easily one of the most impressive makeup jobs, even to this day. Despite having his whole head weighed down by a mound of latex and paint, he remains expressive and natural, without a single seam showing. The version of Delenn’s makeup in the pilot is vastly different -- and inferior, in my opinion -- to the version we see in the actual show, but both manage to be impressively believable. Compared to the sometimes minimal, oftentimes emotionally limited alien makeup seen on other shows from the same period, Babylon 5 pulled off an ambitious task and made it look easy in the process.

Of course, it’s difficult to discuss Babylon 5 without mentioning the many cast members who are no longer with us. Most recently, Mira Furlan died after a long battle with West Nile Virus. Before her, we lost Andreas Katsulas (G’kar), Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi), Tim Choate (Zathras), Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Stephen Furst (Vir), Jeff Conaway (Zack), Michael O’Hare (Sinclair), Majel Barrett (Lady Morella), and many others who either worked on the show or made small appearances. Even speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison, who worked as a creative consultant for the show, sadly passed on in 2018. Babylon 5 is a reminder of all the wonderful contributions these people gave to the world of science fiction, and it serves as a bittersweet monument to their imagination and accomplishments.

And so it is with a bit of sadness that I admit Babylon 5 is the one show I rarely, if ever, admit is one of my all-time favorites. Even with every positive I have mentioned, it remains the show with the weird haircuts and “bad” CGI. It’s the show with occasionally lifeless performances from both the main characters and bit-part actors, the show that was nearly cancelled, the show that was ahead of its time when it aired and failed to age well enough in aesthetics to appeal to many modern audiences. To admit such a thing would be to declare how very much a geek I truly am.

So there, I admit it.

I am a geek, and I’ll still be re-watching Babylon 5 in the decades to come.