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Mr. Morden is back, Vir tells Morden what he wants (and does he ever!), Zach joins Big Brother, Sheridan becomes Dick Cheney, Franklin is religious, and Chuck goes a little political.

These reviews really highlight the incredible depth of B5 as compared to TNG and Voyager. Can you imagine the kind of "is what the government doing right?" sorts of plots being brought up in those series and presented without an incredibly obvious answer? The only remotely close story I can think of is Insurrection, and even there the movie basically paints it as "the Federation is doing something evil, what shall we do about it?" whilst paying only the most basic lip service to any arguments that there might be another way to think about it.

DS9 would go an awful lot closer to reality in this respect, but even that was never close to B5 in this respect.

Maybe because B5 wasn't anybody's cash cow, JMS could make whatever provocative storyline he wanted. Early TNG was already handicapped when it made the Federation the essence of perfection, the center of harmony in the universe, the source of infinite wisdom, and off course humans no longer seek individual triumphs, but instead seek to better themselves. Not much room for a character study or metaphors about the good and evils of government. We're all good, there's no struggle, our every need is provided for, and the government is run by equally good people who have no ambitions but to serve.

B5 is just epic in comparison. And the musical score. Eff you RIck Berman.

It's a story about children and parents - the Vorlons and Shadows think its their obligation to raise the younger races, always end up fighting each other over who should do it, then start killing the children who side with one parent against the other.

Love - Delenn and Sheridan who served on opposite sides of war can come to love each other.

The Folly of Revenge - The Narns keep pushing the Centauri, which drove the Centauri to the Shadows and the Narns almost to their own extinction. The Narns could have been exploring space and improving their lot in life, but instead spend their time frothing at the mouth over the Cenaturi. The don't need to forgive the Centauri but just realize how far they have come, they overthrew their oppressors and became their equals. An end goal like, "spread our people amongst the stars," would be a better goal than revenge. Or "become strong so we're never conquered again." WTF kinda goal is revenge? And Delenn who wanted revenge against the Humans for killing Dukhat, realized all she did was condemn an entire race to extinction.

Forgiveness - G'Kar's story arc. He can never forgive the Centauri, but he can at least forgive Londo.

Sacrifice - Sheridan goes to Zha' Ha' Dum knowing Kosh's prophesy but goes anyway, and sacrifices himself while giving the Shadows a pounding.

Politics - Londo vs Lord Refa, Sheridan vs Earthgov, Delenn vs. The Grey Council, the Ministry of Peace, President Clarke, the Mad Emperor Cartagia being blindly followed, seceding from a union.

Religion - All the races have religions of their own. It's a great moment when Kosh moves to save Sheridan when he is falling, revealing his true form, yet all the races, save the Centauri, see their top religious icon saving Sheridan. They got to see what some of us can only dream of- their god is real and actually does something tangible.

And even introspection- the story arc of Londo Mollari.

I don't mean to make it sound like I am worshiping B5. But Chuck is really making me nostalgic about B5 to the point I forget the things I didn't like.

Nutso wrote:The Folly of Revenge - The Narns keep pushing the Centauri, which drove the Centauri to the Shadows and the Narns almost to their own extinction. The Narns could have been exploring space and improving their lot in life, but instead spend their time frothing at the mouth over the Cenaturi. The don't need to forgive the Centauri but just realize how far they have come, they overthrew their oppressors and became their equals. An end goal like, "spread our people amongst the stars," would be a better goal than revenge. Or "become strong so we're never conquered again." WTF kinda goal is revenge? And Delenn who wanted revenge against the Humans for killing Dukhat, realized all she did was condemn an entire race to extinction.

Very eloquently put and a fantastic summary.

One interesting thing - in one of his after show interviews JMS said that whilst the Humans and Minbari ultimately survive and become non-corporeal "ancient ones" like the Vorlons, both the Narn and Centauri did not. Whatever lessons they learned along the way simply weren't enough, and both species became extinct.

Sacrifice - Sheridan goes to Zha' Ha' Dum knowing Kosh's prophesy but goes anyway, and sacrifices himself while giving the Shadows a pounding.

If I could change one thing about B5, I think I would have left Sheridan dead. Not that I have anything against Sheridan, I rather like him, but for a show so grounded in realism to dip the well of "he's dead, but next week he gets better" just didn't quite fit for me. I'd rather have seen him stay dead and then have Ivanova lead the charge by turning his legacy into a religious-type rallying call. It would actually have an interesting parallel with christianity, a sort of "He died to save us, now let's fight in his name" vibe.

I think more than anything the Narn and Centauri probably got locked into a constant cycle of vengeance. It would fit them.

GK, it's important to remember the JJS was linked to the resurrection. So in leaving him dead JMS would have lost the religious connection. Rather, I would have liked to see Ivoniva lead the "in his name" charge after he in captured by Earthgov.

Here is an example of the the spirituality and realism being intertwined, augmented by great dialog being delivered by professionals. These guys would have made great work of George Lucas'' dialogs. The musical score helps move the drama as well.

In this scene G'Kar takes those telepathy enhancing drugs, and takes Londo's memories by force. When Londo's sins become too much for G'Kar, fate and faith intervenes. http://youtu.be/39nvDbbrsmI Everything that occurs here changes G'Kar forever.