30 Years Ago, "Severed Dreams" - When Babylon 5 Dared To Do Something No Sci-Fi Show Had Ever Done [View all]

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/babylon-5-severed-dreams-30-year-anniversary

In 1996, during the week of April 1, Babylon 5 Season 3 aired what was, up until that point, its most pivotal episode. The civil war between Earth and its colonies had been brewing for quite some time, but in “Severed Dreams,” the main characters of the show actively decided to break away from Earth, and in doing so, completely changed the game for what a weekly sci-fi TV series could accomplish.

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This isn’t to say that the idea of B5 seceding from Earth was taken lightly in this episode. Far from it. In fact, the moment Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) decides that the space station will become an independent state was shocking at the time, because you couldn’t imagine another sci-fi franchise doing the same thing. Sheridan saying that B5 was no longer part of Earthforce would be like if Picard (Patrick Stewart) left Starfleet in The Next Generation, or if Sisko (Avery Brooks) joined the Maquis in Deep Space Nine.