For those who are not familiar with Babylon 5, I highly recommend it.  I do not watch much TV now, and Babylon 5 is a major reason why.  It raised the bar on all series shows and highlighted the incredible flaws in just about every other manifestation of serialized drama.  I believe that if they had serialized dramas in ancient Greece then Aristotle's description of how to make them well would have ended up describing something that Babylon 5 followed nearly perfectly.  The story covers a 5 year arc which was conceptualized before a single episode was filmed, characters change throughout the show significantly, the very first episode alludes to plot twists revealed many seasons later.  Nearly every episode was perfectly crafted to be both a contained episode and to further greater plot developments.  The story encompasses everything a great story should.  It has a philosophical conflict as a primary theme, encompasses great wars, and revolutions, enslavement and resistance of societies, the dealings of the pragmatic vs the idealistic, on and on.  I believe it to be the best series ever produced. 

Michael F Dickey