I am begging you on my knees, Doctor Who fans who have slowly fallen out of love with it, to watch Babylon 5
Listen, they're not comparable, they're doing totally different things. BUT I think a lot of despairing Whovians (do we still use that term? I’m out of the loop) would love Babylon 5, and there are a few key similarities.
1). An-- actually, more than one-- overarching storyline!! You remember plots like Bad Wolf or Torchwood or Saxon or There's Something on Your Back or the Crack or Silence Will Fall or The Impossible Girl from Doctor Who?
Yeah, that, spanning over multiple seasons.
2). Complex characters & friendship dynamics. Doctor Who offers quite a bit in terms of characters to get invested in, and something I always loved about the show was the humour but also genuine connection between the Doctor and their companions.
Babylon 5 has a large pool of characters to choose a favourite from, and they are all complex, layered and just all round delicious really. The friendship dynamics are SO GOOD. Lots of comedy, and lots of heartfelt moments too. And for the shippers out there, there are many potential ships, as well as strong canon romantic relationships.
3). Philosophical and moral conundrums that make you think.
If you loved the episodes that asked questions about the pitfalls of the human race, or episodes that were subtle (or not so subtle) political commentaries, oh boy, is Babylon 5 the show for you. Babylon 5 is very much about the interpersonal relationships, but these relationships are influenced, and characters change and grow, as thought-provoking questions arise and bigotry shows itself in various ways.
Listen, idk what it is, but sometimes the low budget shows have the most heart and soul in them! So if you’re missing the charm of the early seasons of New Who with its terrible CGI and a team of people making it who genuinely care about what they’re making… you are going to have a great time with Babylon 5.
5). Meaningful conversations.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I personally find a lot of modern scripts really bland… and something I always used to love about Doctor Who was the way the dialogue worked. As previously mentioned, you had moral dilemmas or philosophical questions, and very enjoyable character dynamics. But there was also real passion in the words the characters spoke. Growing up, especially growing up undiagnosed autistic, Doctor Who helped me make sense of the world via the way the characters would speak to each other, it gave me hope, it also gave me some of the foundations for the type of person I wanted to be.
In recent years, I have found that a lot of the Doctor Who scripts lack this passion somehow, even if the actors say it with just as much conviction as before.
So if you miss this aspect of the show too and are looking for other, maybe older TV with passion in its veins, Babylon 5 is absolutely for you. Like Doctor Who, it is a rich, vibrant, well-constructed universe based on reality, but with a twist: in Doctor Who’s case, that’s the existence of aliens and one very special alien in particular. In Babylon 5’s case, that’s the fact it’s set in the future and explores both the progress and also repeated errors of the human race. Both shows have meant a lot to me over the course of my life, both shows have affected me in profound ways, both shows have altered who I am at a core level. They aren’t comparable, but they are both shows where I think the people who like one /might/ like the other.
I may have fallen out of love with Doctor Who, but I will always give it the respect it deserves, and be immensely grateful to it for helping young autistic me navigate life— and for being my primary source of joy— for nearly 20 years.
Babylon 5 is criminally underrated and I am trying to alert those who might enjoy it but haven’t seen it to its existence, though I realise unless you buy it, it is usually hard to get ahold of in most countries. Still, can’t blame a girl for trying.
PS. If you do watch Babylon 5, some people find it takes a little while to get into as it establishes itself, but once you’re in, trust me, you are /in/.
