Editing Babylon 5 (section)

=== Origin ===
Having worked on a number of television science fiction shows which had regularly gone over budget, Straczynski concluded that a lack of long-term planning was to blame, and set about looking at ways in which a series could be done responsibly. Taking note of the lessons of mainstream television, which brought stories to a centralized location such as a hospital, police station, or law office, he decided that instead of "[going] in search of new worlds, building them anew each week", a fixed space station setting would keep costs at a reasonable level. A fan of sagas such as the [[Foundation (book series)|''Foundation'' series]], ''[[Childhood's End]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[Dune (franchise)|Dune]]'' and the [[Lensman series|''Lensman'' series]], Straczynski wondered why no one had done a television series with the same epic sweep, and concurrently with the first idea started developing the concept for a vastly ambitious epic covering massive battles and other universe-changing events. Realizing that both the fixed-locale series and the epic could be done in a single series, he began to sketch the initial outline of what would become ''Babylon 5''.<ref name="GEnie-1992">{{cite web<!-- Archive URL date taken from page metadata, main URL date taken is the one used for the entire document -->|url=http://www.midwinter.com/b5/GEnie/jms92-04|title=Babylon 5 (GEnie) posts by JMS for April, 1992|last=Straczynski|first=J. Michael|author-link=J. Michael Straczynski|date=April 1992|work=[[The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5]]|publisher=Steven Grimm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817234058/http://www.midwinter.com/b5/GEnie/jms92-04|archive-date=August 17, 2000|access-date=October 19, 2009|quote=I *love* sagas, and B5 will present a chance to tell that kind of saga. ... But this is hardly revelation; the world of SF print has been doing this now ever since the Lensman books. The job now is translating that approach to television...}} Alt URL http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-04 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203060703/http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-04 |date=December 3, 2006 }}<!-- original {{cite web |url=http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-04 |title=[[GEnie]] posts by JMS for April, 1992 |access-date=August 18, 2006}} --></ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16576 |title=Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=January 25, 1995 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028181548/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16576 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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| quote = Once I had the locale, I began to populate it with characters, and sketch out directions that might be interesting. I dragged out my notes on religion, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, science (the ones that didn't make my head explode), and started stitching together a crazy quilt pattern that eventually formed a picture. Once I had that picture in my head, once I knew what the major theme was, the rest fell into place. All at once, I saw the full five-year story in a flash, and I frantically began scribbling down notes.
| source = —J. Michael Straczynski, 1995<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16576 |title=Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=January 25, 1995 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028181548/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16576 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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Straczynski set five goals for ''Babylon 5''. He said that the show "would have to be good science fiction". It would also have to be good television, "and rarely are SF shows both good SF *and* good TV; there're {{sic}} generally one or the other." It would have to do for science fiction television what ''[[Hill Street Blues]]'' had done for [[police drama]]s, by taking an adult approach to the subject. It would have to be reasonably budgeted, and "it would have to look unlike anything ever seen before on TV, presenting individual stories against a much broader canvas." He further stressed that his approach was "to take [science fiction] seriously, to build characters for grown-ups, to incorporate real science but keep the characters at the center of the story."<ref name="io9 evolution">{{cite web |url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-strange-secret-evolution-of-babylon-5-5985727 |title=The Strange, Secret Evolution of Babylon 5 |last=Shankel |first=Jason |date=February 21, 2013 |work=[[io9]] |access-date=August 31, 2018 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224162258/https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-strange-secret-evolution-of-babylon-5-5985727 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="GEnie-1991">{{cite web<!-- Note: The Google Cache archive for this cite has been removed because it is a dead link. Google Cache is not an archive; it's a cache. -->|url=http://ftp.midwinter.com/b5/GEnie/jms92-01|title=Babylon 5 (GEnie) posts by JMS for November 1991 through Jan, 1992 |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |author-link=J. Michael Straczynski |date=November 1991|work=[[The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5]]|publisher=Steven Grimm|access-date=October 20, 2009|quote=For years, at conventions, I have heard fans lament, and even sat in on panels entitled WHY CAN'T THEY GET IT RIGHT?}} Alt URL http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-01 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718110902/http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-01 |date=July 18, 2011 }}<!-- original {{cite web |url=http://ftp.midwinter.com/b5/GEnie/jms92-01 |title=Babylon 5 posts by JMS for November 1991 through Jan, 1992 |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |author-link=J. Michael Straczynski |year=1992 |access-date=July 19, 2007 |archive-date=December 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121209180134/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:s4lsbb_HEiMJ:www.midwinter.com/b5/GEnie/jms92-01+%22It+would+have+to+be+good+TELEVISION%22&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us |url-status=dead}} --></ref> Some of the staples of television science fiction were also out of the question (the show would have "no kids or cute robots").<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=21376 |title=Well, lemme comment on that. One... |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=December 5, 1991 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |quote=How they want solid characters, imaginative stories, no kids or cute robots, using science the way it should be used, not talking down to the audience. That desire has been noted. |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028172016/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=21376 |url-status=live }}</ref> The idea was not to present a perfect utopian future, but one with greed and homelessness; one where characters grow, develop, live, and die; one where not everything was the same at the end of the day's events. Citing [[Mark Twain]] as an influence, Straczynski said he wanted the show to be a mirror to the real world and to covertly teach.<ref name="GEnie-1992"/>

Following production on ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'', Straczynski approached John Copeland and Doug Netter, who had also been involved with ''Captain Power'' and showed him the [[Bible (screenwriting)|bible]] and pilot script for his show, and both were impressed with his ideas.<ref name="sonq">{{cite web |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/an-oral-history-of-babylon-5-the-beloved-tv-novel-that-showed-a-different-way-to-tell-sci |title=An Oral History Of Babylon 5: The Beloved Tv Novel That Showed A Different Way To Tell Sci-fi |first=Lisa |last=Granshaw |date=June 27, 2018 |access-date=August 31, 2018 |work=[[Syfy Wire]] |archive-date=December 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201219224411/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/an-oral-history-of-babylon-5-the-beloved-tv-novel-that-showed-a-different-way-to-tell-sci |url-status=live }}</ref> They were able to secure an order for the pilot from [[Warner Bros.]] who were looking at the time to get programming for a planned broadcast network. Warner Bros. had remained skeptical about the show even after greenlighting the pilot. According to Straczynski, Warner Bros. had three main concerns: that American attention spans were too short for a series-long narrative to work, that it would be difficult to sell the show into [[Broadcast syndication|syndication]] as the syndicate networks would air the episodes out of order, and that no other science-fiction television show outside of ''Star Trek'' had gone more than three seasons before being canceled.<ref name="newsarama 2019">{{cite web |url=https://www.newsarama.com/44664-jms-revisits-babylon-5-on-show-s-25th-anniversary.html |title=JMS Revisits BABYLON 5 On Show's 25th Anniversary |first=Jonathan |last=Encarnacion |date=April 8, 2019 |access-date=April 12, 2019 |work=[[Newsarama]] |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703182030/https://www.newsarama.com/44664-jms-revisits-babylon-5-on-show-s-25th-anniversary.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Straczynski had proved out that the syndication fear was incorrect, since syndicate stations told him they show their shows in episode order to track broadcasts for royalties; however, he could not assure Warner Bros. about the attention span or premature cancellation concerns, but still set out to show Warner Bros. they were wrong.<ref name="newsarama 2019"/>