Now I know why, given all the sci-fi shows I have on tape, I don’t have Babylon 5 on tape. The first season is so tedious, and I caught the rest of the show in bits and pieces. I think I have yet to see any of Season 5.

I’ve never been interested in shows that focus on “political intrigue”. If I wanted political intrigue, I’d watch the news or read a newspaper. Both things depress the hell out of me. I prefer shows that focus on personal relationships, like BtVS and Angel do.

That doesn’t explain why I adore Deep Space Nine, which also had political intrigue, but Star Trek never seemed nearly so in-your-face about political story lines. Deep Space Nine was always ultimately about the characters and their interpersonal relationships with each other, not how the Romulans hate the Klingons who hate the Cardassians who hate the Bajorans who hate the blah blah blah. That was part of it, yes, but I don’t remember it bothering me or boring me like it does with B5.

I know enough about Babylon 5 to know some interesting things arise when the races have to ban together against the Shadows. A lot like the DSN war against the Dominion. And I know there is a whole messiah story line involving Commander Sinclair as the Minbari prophet, Valen. It’s funny all the parallels between B5 and DSN, with the Sisko-as-Emissary storyline.

I’m going to watch all of B5 and give it a chance to impress me, through the magic of cable and rental DVDs. I think I’ve seen it all the way through at least once, but I don’t remember it moving me the way DSN did. We’ll see.

I already am a big Ivanova/Talia shipper. Sexual tension or what? And it’s good to know in advance it gets consummated, even if it was done too subtley.