Okay. I’m pretty easily swayed here at the dope and always willing to give most SF shows a second (or third or fouth) chance, so I’ve a) added the last disc of B5 season one back to my queue and b) added Firefly.
I was just waiting for someone to hold out hope…
*“The Babylon project was our last, best hope for peace. … It failed. … But in the year of the Shadow war it became something greater: our last, best hope … for victory. The year is 2260, the place: Babylon 5.” *
– Commander Ivanova in Babylon 5:“Matters of Honor”
I agree that you should watch some of the last ep’s of Season 1–they really are important to the plot, and besides, Zathras is one of my favorite characters of all time. (Not Zathras, though, he can get annoying.)
We have symetry
Declan
Ah the vicar.
Declan
You stumbled across the worst of the bunch, in fact almost anything with more than 30 sec of screen time for Dr Franklin is a marginal episode at best.
You still have a season and change to get to before some of the best stuff. “Severed Dreams” in season 3 being one of my personal faves.
In its day, I loved B5: it was refreshingly different from Star Trek, the story far more compley than anything else on tv, the CGI was state of the art, the characters actually grew, shrank and changed (still rare) and aliens were allowed to act alien, at least sometimes.
When I watched it again a couple of months ago, I couldn’t help but notice that it has aged considerably and some of its more annoying aspects, like the periodic rains of anvils, the pompous speeches, the theatrical dialogue were far more … annoying.
And still, I loved it, and not just in a nostalgic way. The story arch works and events lead logically (no, I’m not making this up) step by step to the next development – in this respect, B5’s storytelling is more advanced than many recent shows, even acclaimed ones, like Moore’s BSG, whose story suffers more and more from the lack of a consistent plan (wouldn’t be surprised if he is one the Five).
And knowing what is coming focused my interest on all the little hints that foreshadow later, sometimes much later, events (which carried me through some less … interesting … episodes).
I can also still watch the space battles without having to smother my disbelief, throw it in a coffin and bury it six feet deep (again, looking at you, Moore).
And though I like the characters of Firefly more (watch it, really, I’m serious), not one of them rivals the tragedy of Londo or the growth of G’Kar - and Ivanova remains my all time favourite space pessimist.
Of course, you could say that Whedon didn’t have the time to develop the characters - I’d say: thank goodness! 
Serenity illustrates again his tendency to mary sue one character into all powerful supergirl - and I’m glad we didn’t have to see that happen within the series.
B5 almost fell into that trap with Sheridan - but escaped.
I don’t like that episode either - but for other reasons. In contrast to you, I enjoyed it that the aliens acted differently and didn’t adopt the human point of view in the end. If aliens act “humanly” (or, to be more precise, “like Americans”), they are just men (Americans) in costumes with funny heads - it’s the difference that shows us that there is more than one reality; a quite useful lesson when dealing with other cultures (yeah, anvilly, I know, but B5-anvilly 
).
The humans within the B5-universe learned that truth the hard way when they first met the Minbari (one anvil alone doesn’t get you into the spirit). I think, the commander’s behaviour is a “lesson learned” approach - and that is another aspect of B5 that distinguishes it from pretty much every other Science Fiction show.
It’s not perfect, it’s definitely dated but you might like it nonetheless.
I’m going to have to disagree with you, here: those aliens acted “humanly” – they were standing in place of human-religious-fanatics, after all. They acted in just the same way that humans act who perform “honor killings” because one of the women of their family was raped. All of the B5 aliens basically acted like crypto-humans of one extreme or another. Only the Vorlons and the Shadows were different, initially, although in the end their motivations were entirely understandable as ones that humans might have adopted.
Lightray, you are right, I’ve mashed two things together: cultural differences and ‘alieness’. And right now, I can’t think of any alien staying alien on tv - or, well, even in literature (although that doesn’t mean anything, I haven’t read much Science Fiction). The only stories that seem to avoid humanisation are the ones that keep distance, like Lem’s Solaris or Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
As opposed to say…“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield?” B5 was downright subtle compared to any incarnation of Star Trek.
Now that people have brought it up, B5 and BSG are almost exact opposites. Where B5 is strong, BSG is weak and vice versa.
B5 had the strong, logical story arc that was well planned out in advance. Loose ends were usually tied up. Things made sense. Behavior of all characters and races had a reason.
BSG is made up as it goes along. Nothing makes sense. The writing is “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” planned. They don’t know at all what they are going to do from season to season.
B5 was super cheesy, with unrealistic dialog and long wistful speeches.
BSG has more realistic characters with good, realistic dialog. They sound like people would in real life. The writing isn’t sappy or boring (usually).