Having finally watched all of Babylon 5, I’m finally qualified to hold the opinion that Deep Space Nine is better than Babylon 5. (And it is.)
I’ll even take it a step further: Farscape’s better too! And, possibly even Stargate: SG-1. Though, that wouldn’t be worth getting into a holy war over. (Note added 14 years later, after watching all the way through Stargate a second time: yes, it would.)
For years and years, whenever the subject of DS9 versus B5 came up, I was faced with people saying, “But B5 was fully preplanned!” Having now watched the entire series, I now find that statement to be a terrific argument against pre-planning. I almost wonder if it would have been better if the writer had just taken his plan and written it up as a short story… Apparently, great television is not about great plans.
(None of this is to say I disliked B5 — just that it doesn’t come close to comparing to DS9.)
I was kind of hoping I was wrong and that it would be a transcendent experience that would teach me about life and the universe. Like Star Trek. In the end, it was just an okay TV show.
Now, Portal, however… That’s a transcendent experience.