Babylon 5

If you haven't watched Star Trek (original and next generation) and Babylon 5, then you just haven't watched real space sci-fi yet. B5 is the best space series up to now. You just want more...

Yes, from today's point of view it looks dated, even cheap at times. The CGI can't cover the fact that it was made in the mid 1990s. There is no way around that.

But let that dissuade you from watching this and you miss out on one of the best TV (not only scifi) shows ever put on TV.

My all-time favorite Sci-Fi Series. It still holds up today. It is so good; in fact; that it has never been duplicated. It stands on its own in a sea of #CopyAndPaste series.

One of the greatest Sci-fi series ever made, own the whole collection and watch every few years, still holds up.

This series set the standard for long story-arcs in sci-fi series. You can't watch it in any way but sequentially. The character development and story-telling reward the viewer in ways that subsequent sci-fi productions have struggled to achieve.

I recently invested in the blu-ray remastered edition, having had the original DVD box-set. The remastering isn't perfect; there are strange switches between 16:9 and 4:3, together with banners (presumably for advert breaks) left in. But. The CGI is vastly improved, with very few of the artefacts and tearing which marred the previous release. If you like owning, rather than streaming, then I recommend this.

Babylon 5 is an essential for any science fiction fan.

It started slow with a lot of build-up and stories that at first seemed to go nowhere, then in the middle of the first season and onward it started to build up it's own mythology and do space opera at a level no other shows had done up till that point. It foreshadowed a lot of plot points and small details could be addressed three or four years later as it dared to do plot twists and shocking deaths that "Star Trek" and other science fiction shows did not dare do at that time. Stories lead into stories and there was a complex continuity worthy of a well written novel. Characters were engaging even if the acting and dialogue sometimes could be wooden especially some guest actors were exceptionally bad. The last season was also an enormous long epilogue to the first four years and with the exception of the last episode and a couple dealing with the fall of Centauri Prime it was mostly a failure on all accounts, especially the Psi War that was a disappointment to see unfold. Filler episodes were mostly useless though and some characters was not used to their potential even if they were regulars (I'm looking at you: Keffer, Na'Toth and Talia Winters), but at the end it is hard not to embrace this science fiction drama that paved way for heavy serialized series on American TV at a time when most programming leaned on episodic and stand-alone storytelling with little or no characterization. For fans of the genre it is a must even with it's numerous faults.

For me it's definitely better than Star Trek Deep Space 9. It may even be better than Star Trek TNG (there's no pain in the arse characters like Wesley Crusher or Riker for a start).
I'd say all of the characters are well written/performed, the special effects still look good 30 years later and the long story is good and doesn't detract from the stories in individual episodes or vice versa.

Nowadays I guess this show would still consist of 5 seasons, but they would be much shorter. While all those filler episodes in seasons 1-3 (first half) set up later story arcs, they're still something to work through which also costs it at least 1 point. But it's worth it because Babylon 5 at its best, meaning some episodes of season 2, pretty much the entire season 3 (except said fillers) and the majority of season 4, is simply stunning and unprecedented during its run.

Character arcs? Character development? Complicated relationships and politics? Look no further. This show is a must-see.

(And on a sidenote: I'd love to see the original draft of this series' 5-year arc without the changes that became necessary due to cast changes.)