ah!!! This feels very Discworld to me.

holy shit, I love this style????

LITERALLY CANON

Okay, if we put aside the obvious--that being Ivanova because I love her and I want a whole series about a bisexual captain in space--I think the only other thing I would have loved to see was G'Kar's travels post-series. SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

AHHHHHH I'm so happy I caught that.

I don't know yet! I think the order I watched all the "space" shows matters, in that I watched a show that was a response to Trek--Battlestar Galactica--and then Trek, and THEN B5, and I think I'd have to go back to watch more of Trek to see if I changed my perception of the show.

1) Just how dark it got. Like, the whole Shadow War is so immensely fucked up in a way I don't think I could have appreciated until the end.
2) Sheridan.
3) A "single" scene??? Oh lord. I do like Delenn's first reveal post-transformation. I don't LIKE it, but I remain transfixed/frightened by the assassination of Santiago and the way it goes down. OH GOD. Kosh saving Sheridan is also one of the wildest things ever.
4) I have a few, but I'm still haunted by, "All love is unrequited, Stephen. All of it."
But the best one? EASY: "Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am Death Incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me."
5) Walter Koenig!!!
6) The serialization. Y'ALL KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE SERIALIZATION. But without knowing behind-the-scenes stuff, I enjoyed how sprawling and complicated this story was.
7) It was okay. It was weird seeing super good CGI for "The Lost Tales." I bet the whole show would look amazing with that technology if it had been available.
8) Well, JMS had a vision and a plan, and having one person for that meant it actually got to be executed. I also bet he was just... tired? Please tell me he got a nap eventually. But it's hard to answer this because... well, this is the vision he wanted, right? Other writers may have given him needed perspectives, but how different would the show have been?
9) Yes!
10) Maybe not all of it, but key episodes: yes.

Ultimately: this was a blast, and it was nice to watch something meaty and difficult and challenging. I feel like I now have a grasp on ALL THE GREAT SPACE SHOWS. Finally!!!!

Oh lord. A few monologues from G'Kar, Sheridan's death, MOST OF THE LAST FUCKING EPISODE. Oh my god, Delenn in the garden. EVERY TIME.

WAIT. Who was he on Voyager???

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to say it feels like a novel for television, but I don't know that that makes it unique. At the time? Oh, certainly. I mean... was there all that much that was close to it? The X-Files and DS9 didn't have quite the level of serialization. Plus, few shows were allowed to pay off plots FIVE YEARS AFTER THEY STARTED. But I think there are a lot of shows since then that feel like novels for TV. (Avatar: The Last Airbender and Person of Interest are the first two that come to mind.)