This 5-Part Star Trek Rival Becomes a Must-Watch Cult Classic for Sci-Fi Fans on Apple TV

3 weeks ago 17

Image via Apple TV

Published Mar 18, 2026, 4:25 PM EDT

Makuochi Echebiri is a News Writer for Collider. He has been interested in creative writing from as far back as high school, and he would consume pretty much anything that’s film or TV. However, his truest love lies in the presence of historical epics and thrillers.

Lured by the brilliance of Middle Earth from an early age both in print and on screen, his palate has since expanded to other realms including Westeros, Kattegat among others. He also possesses a great appetite for the stories that emanate from the vastness of space. Even though he is no Avenger.

Obsessed with storytelling and having works of his own that have yet to make it to print, he is content to use that ability to communicate to as many as are reachable. In his spare time, he looks out for avenues where he can aid people aside from his plans to reign over this earthly realm. Yes…you heard that first here.

The avalanche has already started! And to be fair, it has been ongoing for quite some time, with the sci-fi genre delivering classic shows that have remained relevant over the years. Amid the likes of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other equally prominent and colossal franchises, certain classics may fall through the cracks. One such classic is the iconic science fiction series, Babylon 5, which is less familiar to mainstream audiences but revered by genre aficionados as a truly special project.

Babylon 5 was produced by Warner Bros. Television, with the series premiering in 1993. It ran there for four seasons before its fifth and final season aired on TNT. The series takes place in the year 2257, on the space station of the same name. By now, humanity has ventured into space, and this adventure has seen several devastating wars against alien species. Ten years after the Earth-Minbari War, all species mingle and do business on Babylon 5, even as intergalactic tensions simmer both within and without. They operate under the watchful eye of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare), later replaced by John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner), who was often engaged in difficult negotiations.

Now, nearly 33 years after its premiere, Babylon 5 is making a comeback. The classic sci-fi series created by J. Michael Straczynski has reappeared on streaming services as it establishes itself on the Apple TV Store, bringing a trailblazing 20th-century sci-fi experience to a modern audience. The series holds an IMDb score of 8.4 out of 10, and while there is no critic score on the aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score is impressive, with 92% on the Popcornmeter.

Put These Shows on Ice — The Collider TV Quiz!

Tomorrow is the last day of winter, so let's bundle up one last time for a wintry mix of some of the coldest television settings we've ever seen.

Who Else Stars in 'Babylon 5'?

Unlike most sci-fi of its generation and even the modern era, all five seasons of Straczynski's brainchild, Babylon 5, were planned. In its heyday, Babylon 5 was often seen as a rival to contemporary science fiction TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which also ran under the same premise, that of a space station and the delicate peace between several alien species. Besides O'Hare and Boxleitner, the series also featured Claudia Christian as second-in-command Susan Ivanona and Jerry Doyle as security chief Michael Garibaldi. There were also a number of alien ambassadors, including Mira Furlan as the serene Delenn, Andreas Katsulas as the self-righteous G'Kar, and the mercurial Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). After ending in 1998, the spinoff series Crusade ran for a single season before it was cancelled by TNT. In 2023, an animated feature, Babylon 5: The Road Home, saw a reunion of the series' surviving cast members.