Babylon 5.

In the mid 1990s, planning a five-year series arc for television was considered crazy. So was the idea of rendering all special effects with CGI. And if a show runner said he would do both of those things while also producing a high-quality science fiction show at a fraction of the cost of the budget given to the Star Trek series of the time, you might have laughed in that guy’s face. But creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) did it, and the result is Babylon 5.

Special guest Phillip Gilfus, co-host of Ceti Alpha Three on The Nerd Party, joins Charlynn for an in-depth discussion of the many layers of Babylon 5’s writing in this episode of Punch It. They discuss how JMS structured a five-year story that could function unscathed from real-life circumstances, the themes that made the epic story thought-provoking to all members of its audience, the compelling characters that gave story its depth, and much more.