Do you have any particular disappointments with B5?

My biggest disappointment is how the uncertainty about renewal damaged Season 4 slightly and Season 5 significantly.

Season 4 was slightly damaged because unlike Seasons 1-3, which ended on a cliffhanger, Season 4 ended with the interesting, but anticlimactic, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars". If JMS had been able to follow his original plan:

I don't usually comment on this, but...if I had known *with absolute certainty* that there would be a season 5, then season 4 would have ended with 418, "Intersections in Real Time." So you only pull 4 episodes forward, really. - JMS

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/084.html#JS

I remember seeing The Battle of Gorash when it 1st aired. I was thinking how cool it looked that finally starships were engaging each other on what looked like a truly planetary scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-uhi_qIgSU


Later in the series they seemed to go with the usual format of stacking as many ships as they could in the shot. And just having them stand nose to nose and slug it out. I guess because more ships and flashing lights in a shot draws more viewers. Or something.

*Edit quote to link. Stupid computer.

Byron. And that the S5 storyline obviously written for Ivanova had to be handed over to Lyta.

My beef:
-Talia getting axed.
-Abruptness of the Shadow war end.
-What happened to the Great Machine?
-The Byron arc.

While I grew to like Lyta I think the telepath arc would've been stronger with Talia. I get the uncertainty of Season 5 caused the Shadow War to be compressed. Kinda sucks that that happens even to a show with such good planning. I'd have like to see both the Earth Civil War and the Drak-Centari crisis happen in season 4 as part of further Shadow manipulations (maybe the latter would have to be amended), with the final showdown happening season 5. Epsilon 3 was also kinda forgotten after the Valen episodes, it definitely could've still come in handy while the Shadows were around and some conclusion better than nothing could've been set for it after. As for the Byron arc, I just don't like the portrayal. They act like vampires from an Anne Rice novel. Plus the arc only works if you completely ignore telepaths from other races. What did the Minbari or Centari telepaths on the station think about all this? Why couldn't those embassies, or other simply work out some type of immigration policy for them?

I don't feel the conflict with Earth was setup properly, at the end of the first season President Santiago is killed (who never appeared on screen), then in the second season there's a little bit about that but it disappears until the middle of season 3 where out of nowhere they find the proof the Santiago was assassinated by Clark then suddenly there's a big thing with Earth.
Another thing would be president Clark, the character had about 5 minutes screen time on the whole show yet was this big villain on the show, but never did anything significant on screen - he was basically a name.

I also agree with what others have said about seasons 4&5

Yesterday I thought this was solid ground, just another thing I was wrong about

Shadow War ended way to abruptly. I wish they could show more. And not only Big Space Battles (though, that would be also nice... i remember how we argued as kids about what is stronger - shadow "spider" of vorlon "cracken") but build on more of panic, chaos - a true feeling of end of days on galaxy scale.

More about Third Space Aliens and Third Space itself.

Fate of Talia. Was she really dissected or was it just Bester mindf@cking with Mr. Garibaldi? I wish her "reflection" that Kosh recorded would have become a crucial fact of her survival.

President Clark as a more sophisticated character. Not barely-on-screen power hungry mediocrity, puppet of Shadows and Psi-corp but actually a patriot of Earth, that sincerely belived that Santiago rule will destroy Earth and be the end of humanity.

There are more, but i will shut up for now.

***
It is alright to take few steps backward, if it helps you get a running start.

The main one is that it came out 10 years too early. Imagine if this was done now, superb graphics etc.
Not enough on the First Ones which were a cool bunch of ancient races and too much boring bits.
The Walkers appeared in Season 1 then again when Ivanova searched for them. Nowt till Into the fire episode when suddenly the others were there with extremely little explanation. The Mindriders appeared and Lorien said to go and meet them then that's it. No meeting. It would have been fun to see Ivanova and/or other charcters finding the Mindriders in season 2 and later the Kirshiac. The Torvalus in Season 3 and the Traid in Season 4 with Lorian's help. The idea each had one ship was pathetic. Could have done with more.

For the most part, I'm happy with just about everything, small quibbles though:

I would have liked to have seen more EA Captain involvement in the fight for Earth, on both sides. We got a taste of that with Mackey and the Agamemnon, but only barely. I suppose that would have been handled with those cut 4 episodes from S4. Maybe have a General Franklin-type officer.

More involvement of the time-travel aspect. As it functions, it's only there for Londo's redemption (which, honestly, I never felt quite added up) and Sheridan's "death". Some discussion on the nature of the keepers and decision planning would have been nice, here it just seems Sheridan completely forgets about the "keepers". Oh gee, the Shadow's minions have fled Z'ha'Dum and now the Centauri are acting up. It's not like that could be related somehow, could it?

I also missed a few of the early characters. Swedish CIC tech, Lou Welch, that dockworker, flesh out a few of the perspectives. More detail about what happened to Sakai - she just disappeared? Sure, big universe vs small ship, but still. Maybe have her smuggle goods to B5, how'd she react to hearing about Sinclair, etc.

Some sort of ending for the Great Machine, outside of providing a power booster for the Voice of the Resistance and that clip of Morden talking with Clarke, it did nothing and seemed like they were trying to forget about it. I know the finale was completely full, but if I was Dra'al, I'd have an issue with detonating a 5-mile long station in orbit over my facility.

Oh, and Beta Squadron.

Jake Meridius Conhale, at your service!
"Old Man" of the BSG (RDM) boards.