From 1994 to 1998, a scrappy sci-fi TV series chronicled an epic story concerning a pivotal space station at the crossroads of a variety of galaxy-shaking events, including a war that nearly destroys Earth. It was also a series that struggled to find its viewership while on the air but is now considered a classic.

Despite what you're thinking, this show is not Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but instead one that came out around the same time. And while Babylon 5 lived in the shadow of Trek in the '90s, this little space-station-that-could actually thrived and broke new ground to change the science fiction genre forever.

Here are five ways Babylon 5 pioneered popular science fiction and changed the way we think about the genre, whether you know it or not.