Haven't heard of POINT CENTRAL, and I think I'll avoid it for the time
being, for obvious reasons.

In terms of "literary or visual influences," frankly...well, I thunk it
up. Somebody has to start SOMEwhere.

Where it began, really, was an Einsteinian thought-experiment. I'd seen
SO many SF shows ruined by backing into a budget that ended up always being 2-
3 times what they'd said it would be, that I sat down, very deliberately, and
said, "Okay, let's see if we can come up with a show that's SF, that isn't one
of the TV Generics (Man On The Run, Man In Search Of New Worlds, Man Trying
To Find His Way Home), and that can be contained."

The major source of expense on a show is creating new worlds every week.
So I figured, this should be stationary. I thought about the sorts of shows I
liked in TONE...Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, even M*A*S*H, and in each
case, there was created a center of operations and YOUR STORIES CAME TO YOU.
Look at L.A. LAW (which I can't abide)...you set up a law office, and people
with problems come to you.

So: a stationary locale, where people in trouble come to you. This led
me to also think of post WW II Germany, where American, French and British
forces (and, I think, some Russian) patroled equally to make sure that no one
side got the upper hand. It also put me in mind of the early free-ports of
the 19th century, which were noted for some pretty rough characters, for
adventure, for intrigue and smuggling.

Put those various elements together...and you've got BABYLON 5.

That's where it came from.

jms