Sci-fi fans and television pundits alike will tell you that the biggest difference between TV "then" and TV "now" is that old school TV was usually constrained by episodic standalone episodes, rather than big serialized story arcs. These days, shows with big arcs are the norm — from Breaking Bad to Game of Thrones to Star Trek: Discovery — and it's super unlikely for shows not to invest in season-long story arcs.

When Babylon 5 started airing, doing complicated story arcs was basically unheard of; in 1994, The Sopranos was still five years away, and although Deep Space Nine did several have different story arcs, there were also plenty of standalone episodes sprinkled in the mix early on.

But, from the very start, Babylon 5 was actually pretty hard to watch if you hadn't watched the previous episodes. And unlike pretty much every single sci-fi show ever, there wasn’t really a writers’ room of any kind, as Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 teleplays for Babylon 5’s five-season run. Keep in mind, this was the '90s, so these seasons were long. To date, no other sci-fi series has as many episodes actually written by its creator. To be clear, Straczynski doesn't just have "story credit" on these teleplays. He actually is the only person who wrote 92 of the 110 teleplays.

So, even if the special effects might not hold-up or the crazy hair of the Centauri is a little too much for you to handle, there's one thing Babylon 5 has more than almost any other sci-fi show: It was the vision of one writer, and that writer completed the story in its entirety. Straczynski called it "a novel for television," and there's never been another show like it since.

You can stream all five seasons of Babylon 5 on Amazon Prime. Here's a quick hack guide to watching the best stuff.