One of the favorite science fiction TV series of the 90’s was about a little space station that could — Babylon 5 —and was the harbinger of prestige TV in the 21st century. And now, all five seasons of Babylon 5 will be easy to watch again. The whole series will be streaming on Amazon Prime in June.
1. Yo, @amazon @AmazonStudios …just wanted to say that everyone involved with Babylon 5 is excited to have the show streaming on Amazon Prime starting in June. If you'd really like to make a splash with both established fans and new viewers, I have a little secret for you…
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) May 17, 2018
These days, nearly every big TV series requires viewers to have seen nearly every single episode to understand what is going on the latest installment. But, TV wasn’t always like this. In fact, in the Nineties it was still exceedingly rare for a TV show to have episodes directly lead into each other. Two-part episodes were a big deal, and season long story arcs (with the obvious exception of daytime soap operas) were unheard of. But, Babylon 5 changed all that.
The show was the brainchild of J. Michael Straczynski, who is probably most famous to contemporary sci-fi and fantasy fans as being the guy who co-wrote Sense8, wrote a bunch of comic books, and did the story for the first Thor movie in 2011. But, for the sci-fi faithful, Babylon 5 remains his crowning achievement. Set on a space station in the 23rd century, the show revolves around galactic politics, epic alien battles, and secret agendas from a variety of factions. Basically, it was like Game of Thrones combined with Lord of the Rings, in space, as a TV show. And, unlike any of its contemporaries, every single episode connected to the next installment. Without this show, the brilliance of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica would have probably never happened.
So, even if newcomers don’t love it, the most dedicated fans of contemporary TV will certainly notice a lot of plot tricks and long-game concepts that Babylon 5 did way before anyone else. – Babylon 5 hits Amazon Prime in June.
