--- title: "Babylon 5" year: 1994 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/babylon-5" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 59 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-16T22:48:29.327801+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T22:48:54.319253+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Babylon 5 (1994) Created by J. Michael Straczynski · 45m · MPA TV-PG · Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 59 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* A space station full of people who should never have been put on the same committee > *Babylon 5* is worth the patience it demands of science-fiction viewers. Its long story gives personal grudges room to become absorbing drama, though a stiff opening and overemphatic dialogue make the first stretch harder work than it should be. ## Synopsis A space station called Babylon 5 brings humans and aliens together in the hope of keeping peace. Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) and G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) bring a rivalry that makes coexistence difficult, while Delenn (Mira Furlan) is another presence in the station’s community. Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) also belong to a company whose members must live alongside people with different loyalties and priorities. The immediate task is to keep them talking, with the station’s peacekeeping purpose offering no guarantee that personal encounters will end in agreement. ## Review Peace is a fine stated purpose for a space station, though it leaves a television writer needing people who will make it difficult. Creator J. Michael Straczynski finds enough of them to sustain *Babylon 5* across five seasons. We recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction with room for grudges, changing loyalties and decisions that continue to matter. There is a rough beginning to get through, however, and the series sometimes confuses giving a character something important to say with giving them a convincing way to say it. The strongest reason to stay is the antagonism between Londo Mollari and G’Kar. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas give these characters enough pride and sensitivity to make their exchanges hurt, even when the dialogue is pushing hard. We were moved more than we expected by their quarrels, because both actors make wounded pride recognisable beneath the alien appearance. Their performances encourage us to notice how personally each takes a disagreement, and the continuing story rewards that attention. The long story earns its length by allowing characters to change without making their earlier behaviour irrelevant. In its middle stretch, the series has accumulated enough history for a confrontation to carry more than the immediate disagreement. This is where it becomes absorbing, and where the early patience is repaid. The later unevenness is a real reservation: maintaining a long story is also a matter of pace, and some stretches feel extended after their strongest material has passed. Before that, there is a fair amount of awkward television. J. Michael Straczynski’s writing can lean heavily on statements of purpose, and the performances are not uniformly able to make those statements sound like conversation. Characters too often appear to be waiting for their next substantial speech. The ideas are worth hearing, but there are early exchanges in which we can feel the effort of getting them said. John Iacovelli’s production design supplies a workable home for the drama, though the early surroundings do not always convince. We find the cinematography of Fred V. Murphy and John C. Flinn III least persuasive in those early conversations, where it does too little to make laboured dialogue interesting to watch. The CGI also demands tolerance. It becomes less distracting once people and their grievances are the reason to watch, but the opening gives the hardware more attention than it deserves. The editing team, including Suzanne Sternlight and Skip Robinson, has the difficult job of making this much talk move. Early on, scenes can feel longer than the ideas inside them warrant, though the middle stretch gains considerable momentum as the continuing stories gather force. Christopher Franke’s music lends conviction to the larger drama. It can also make an already emphatic passage feel over-insisted upon; a little less instruction about what matters would help. As science-fiction television, *Babylon 5* is most persuasive when disagreements have consequences that cannot be tidied away at the end of an episode. The satisfaction comes from remembering how these people used to think and recognising what has changed them. That takes time, and the weaker stretches still count against it. Give it time if the genre appeals, but there is no obligation to pretend the awkward episodes are good. *Fi1m score 74, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (4) - **The AV Club**, Rowan Kaiser (75/100, inferred): The critic highlights Babylon 5's ambitious five-year arc, pioneering CGI effects, and strong mid-series peak with deep character transformations and coherent long-term storytelling, while noting its slow start, unsubtle dialogue and acting, and uneven early production values. Londo and G'Kar's rivalry-to-friendship arc is singled out as a standout example of the show's organic, archetype-level drama. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/babylon-5-redefined-tv-science-fiction-so-why-isn-t-it-1798234450) - **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The critic views Babylon 5 as a cult sci-fi favourite with emotional depth and ambitious long-form storytelling that influenced later shows, despite its low-budget effects and uneven later seasons that diluted its impact after network issues forced plot resolutions. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/09/jump-the-shark-babylon-5) - **Variety**, Tony Scott (60/100, inferred): The premiere episode of the syndicated sci-fi series is serviceable with intriguing potentials for ongoing stories on the space station but leans too heavily on hardware and effects at the expense of personal relationships and has thin dialogue in places. [Read](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/babylon-5-2-1200435201/) - **The Independent** (30/100, inferred): The critic views the series as heavy and unconvincing despite its special effects Emmy, with wooden performances and unengaging dialogue. They single out the absurd alien interactions and lines, such as a Narn ambassador offering 'spoo' in the commissary, for particular mockery. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/television-it-s-space-opera-jim-but-not-as-we-know-it-1436585.html) ## Details - **Created by:** J. Michael Straczynski - **Creator:** J. Michael Straczynski - **Director:** Michael Vejar, David J. Eagle, Janet Greek, Jim Johnston, John C. Flinn III, Jesús Salvador Treviño, Kevin G. Cremin, Richard Compton, Tony Dow, Bruce Seth Green, John Lafia, Mario DiLeo, Stephen Furst, John Copeland, Menachem Binetski, Kevin Dobson, Adam Nimoy, Douglas E. Wise, Kim Friedman, Stephen L. Posey, Doug Lefler, J. Michael Straczynski, Lorraine Senna, John McPherson, Goran Gajić - **Writer:** J. Michael Straczynski, Larry DiTillio, D. C. Fontana, Peter David, Harlan Ellison, Kathryn M. Drennan, Neil Gaiman, Marc Scott Zicree, David Gerrold, Christy Marx, Scott Frost - **Cinematography:** John C. Flinn III, Fred V. Murphy - **Editor:** Suzanne Sternlight, Skip Robinson, David W. Foster, Lisa M. Citron, Kathie Burr - **Music:** Christopher Franke - **Production design:** John Iacovelli - **Costume design:** Ann Bruice - **Producer:** Richard Compton, J. Michael Straczynski, Douglas Netter - **Cast:** Bruce Boxleitner as John Sheridan; Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi; Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova; Michael O'Hare as Ambassador Jeffrey Sinclair; Mira Furlan as Delenn; Richard Biggs as Stephen Franklin; Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar; Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari - **Runtime:** 45m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-PG - **Release (the US):** 26 January 1994 - **Genres:** Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: buy, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $21.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, FR, GB, IE, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine* (1993): Another space station where diplomacy becomes personal and compromise has lasting costs. - *Legend of the Galactic Heroes* (1988): Patient interstellar politics, rival leaders and a willingness to question military glory. - *The Expanse* (2015): For factional loyalties, difficult alliances and characters living with their earlier decisions. - *Andor* (2022): Political choices acquire weight through patient writing and attention to ordinary lives. - *I, Claudius* (1976), Fi1m 90: Stay for the dangerous conversations and performers who make political ambition painfully intimate. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/i-claudius.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/babylon-5