The last thing you'll start with me is a flamefest, praising Babylon 5 and JMS (uppercase, not our podrock, though he's praiseworthy on his own terms). I quote some B5 dialog on my album page for its insight into human communities.
I agree with the mainstream view that it revolutionized American* visual sci-fi, by attempting the audacious feat of telling a five-year story arc. It worked spectacularly well. So far I've watched the entire series probably four times, all ~120 hours of it, and each time I still discover something new. With Trek the game is discovering the goofs; with B5, the game is discovering the buried treasure. We'll be mining that vein for a long time to come.
(*--due credit to British storytelling persistence; a five-year story arc was a bigger novelty here than elsewhere.)
Off Topic » in reply to re: B5, Release Formats
B5 rules!