Which is better: B5 or DS9...

[Mallus]

One thing I did love about B5 that trashed Trek's work in this field was alien races. The aliens in B5 always felt alien to me. Not in just physical appearence but in how they react to things and what motivates them.

Glad you liked B5's aliens HB... I did too, but for exactly the opposite reason. I liked how human they were. Their motivations were all immediately understandable: pride, vengeance, love of kind and country. For the most part, B5's alien major alien races --with the exception of the Vorlons-- eschew the concept of 'alieness' entirely and instead act as stand-ins for real human cultures. The Centauri are the Romans, with a dash of Czarist Russian thrown in. The Narn are the Palestinians, and every other oppressed people who became as bad as their oppressors in their quest for freedom. And the Minbari always struck me as a little Asain-influenced. Honor and tradition bound, known for their warriors and mystics....

Alien-ness is tricky business. Succeed too much and you fail. How could a reader indentify, or find any value in reading about a consciousness so far removed from their own? How could a writer imagine something honestly non-human? Aliens are great foils: usually embodying certain very human traits in uncommon proportions. Or their like B5's: clearly evocative of real people from real cultures...

If you want to read a great treatment of The Alien, read Lem's Solaris --I'd say see the new film, but I haven't seen it yet. And I can't honestly recommend the Russian version unless you're had a problem sleeping --for the last decade or so...

 

[Orius]

What always puzzled me is that the human government poured all those resources into building a treaty station, and then don't send an ambassador. Sheridan doesn't count, he has no authority to negotiate. He just gets instructions handed down, he can't represent his government in making agreements with the other races.

Well, my impression of the show was that the station's CO represented Earth on the station. For the most part Sinclair/Sheridan's job was to act as a sort of mediator in disputes with other worlds. I think there were one or two episodes where the Earth government did send an ambassador.

 

[KenM]

Actually, that's an urban myth that JMS himself has decried as false. B5 was never proposed as a Star Trek show.

No, not a TREK show, but rumor is JMS pitched an early incarnation of Babylon 5 to paramont, they said they were not interested in doing a show set on a staionary space staion, a year later, they come out with DS9 JMS was still trying to get B5 rolling when DS9 came out.
Also, since TNT was on the fence on the fifth B5 season, JMS had to wrap some things up in fourth season that he wanted to wait until final season. Babylon 5 is the greatest space opera televsion show, hands down.