Thoughts from Babylon 5 After My First Time Through

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#1

I just (as in seven minutes before this post) finished watching B5 for the first time. Since mid-December I have been watching the series, one to two episodes a day, sometimes as many as five. It has changed how I view SF. I now see it as an avenue to anything, a way of getting across issues in a way that is just fantastic, there is no other way to put it!

Throughout the series I was amazed at how JMS was able to weave a good story with wonderful social issues like racism, the rule of law, and loyalty just to name a few.

And the end, oh the end. I hope BSG can end that way. I want more, yet I know that more could very well just ruin what has been created. Brilliance, shear brilliance. I suggest this to any and all here on this forum who is reading this. Watch B5. Don’t ask why, just do it. You’ll quickly understand why.

#2

Congrats Leon. It is a truly satisfying series / experience. It’s not perfect but it is epic. I watched it from Day 1 and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. The show went through so many time / day changes (this was b4 Tivo, yo) you never knew when it was gonna be on. The series is one giant novel and to watch it patchwork like that, it ruins it. Then it had to shift networks and audiences. What a mess! It truly was a miracle that it got made to completion.

Thanx G’Quon it was released on DVD. That format is the only way to watch it. Oh that and spoiler-free. Believe me, you do not want to know what is gonna happen until you experience it.

I could talk for ages about B5 but it’s 3:30am and I have to get up in 2 hours. Nite night.

#3

Babylon 5 is an epic show, I’m in the middle of a rewatch that I really must finished. One of my favourite episodes has got to be ‘Shattered Dreams’. However there are a few bad episodes, mainly in the ealier seasons and the last one. Hopefully now that the writers strike is over a new edition of The Lost Tales will be produced.

#4

I also just finished my first watch of Babylon 5 only a few weeks ago. And I gotta agree with you Leon, it changed the way I view scifi in a lot of ways too. I had been holding out on watching it for a while, thinking how good can it really be. And after I saw (and bought as I was watching) the entire series-spoiler free thank goodness- I am comfortable saying it is one of the best sci fi series I have ever seen. It’s a great journey, and I highly recommend it!


“What do you want?”
“I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I’d look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange it for me, Mr. Morden?”
Morden and Vir, In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum

#5

I have soooo many favorite moments from B5. Londo’s drunken outbursts in ‘The Parliament of Dreams’. Any line delivered by Bester (Walter Koenig). ‘Comes the Inquisitor’ when G’Kar turns to Vir and slices his hand open and while the blood drips to the floor he repeats, “Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.” In ‘Severed Dreams’ when Delenn says, "“Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives…be somewhere else.” And of course the Vir line about Morden and the pay off. I can’t even list them all. It’s soooo good.

#6

Hi guys, like many of you I am doing a complete series rewatch of B5 and am currently halfway thru season 4. I think it was BSG withdrawal that made me cave and get the entire collection plus movies on DVD.

I really am enjoying it I must say, particularly the evolution of G’Kar and Mollari’s relationships and also how the whole President Clark thing is panning out (GODS I love a good conspiracy!). It’s riveting to watch Mollari’s unwilling descent and having to deal with the consequences of his alliance with the Shadows.

Yes, the effects are a little dated by BSG standards and yes, the acting is wooden, but the storylines are stitched together to create that rarest of beasts…a space saga.

I am also pleased that there are many aspects of space travel that are addressed with an eye to the realistic: spinny ships and so on rather than some vaguely hinted at technological revolution such as anti-grav and teleporters etc.

gaf.

#7

Apparently so, cuz ain’t it cool news says so.

#8

Babylon 5 holds a place dear in my heart, as I watched it from the beginning (I think I was 14 back then). As Gafra mentioned, the special effects seem laughable now, but this was back in 93-94, so they weren’t too bad, all things considered.

I have been re-watching the series too, and I am up to the beginning of season 2 right now. Sure the acting seems bad now, but the story is solid. Plus, I was watching an episode of Voyager recently, and in comparison, B5 isn’t so bad.

The character arcs of Lando and G’kar are my favorite part of the show, and there were so many great stories in this verse.

Oh, and I love the Star Furies; they kind of remind of the Zeroes from WW2 (trading armor for maneuverability.)

One thing I didn’t like was how anticlimactic the end of the shadow war and season 5 seemed. And what the hell was up with the telepath war? I wish that was better explained, and explored.

#9

By leaps and bounds

Lando? Great typo ROFL. Colt 45! Their story arc was the best.

I felt the same way.

#10

Ooops! Well, I am glad you at least got a laugh out of it!:o

#11

i was watching Babylon 5 before I was old enough to understand it. This was the show that got me into scifi. In fact, I started watching Friefly after seeing a promo for it on SCIFI back in 2003 when B5 reaired…yeah reairring i snot a word, but I don’t care.

I can not help but compare every Scifi show to B5, really. Even if JMS was the one who says that one should just take a show, and enjoy it. In other words…let B5 be downright poetic, and in my case, let BSG by downright real and gridy

What I mean by poetic is that B5 often made me feel like i was wacthing a play in the future. Its use of foreshadowing, and irony was just awesome.

#12

YES! Emily I think you have summarised my feelings about B5 in the first seasons too. Cannot help but recall “By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes” from the Scottish Play (think Blackadder).

http://www.youtube.com/v/ukqzcC_jf_0&rel=1

gaf

#13

From what I remember, JMS and crew thought they weren’t going to be picked up for a fifth season, so he ended the Shadow War storyline a few episodes into the fourth year, then packed in what was supposed to be season five into the rest of it. When TNT decided to take them on for year five, he had to extend the story for another year. At least, that’s what I’d heard. And I totally agree with you, Lucky. The Shadows are, to this day, one of the all time great Sci-Fi villains in my book, mainly because of their wicked spider-shaped ships. It was a shame to see them dispatched so unceremoniously.

#14

Hey, the Vorlons were pretty awesome too.

#15

All the stuff with earth wwas supossed to happen in season five. Alot of season five was, to tell you the turth, filler. Alot of people do not like the conflict with the telapaths, but to tell you the truth, I thought that was one the most moving story lines I have seen.

I’ll never forget the scene with Lyta walking away, hated by everyone, with Zack following behind. Man, that just killed me.

#16

So I just got done watching “The Coming of Shadows,” and I am once again hooked on the show. This episode is just flat out awesome! G’kar finally comes to peace with the Centauri, them BAM! Then the look on Mollari’s face when he shares a drink with G’kar, and you can just see him thinking: “Damn, what have I done?” Good stuff.

Maybe we could turn this thread into an unofficial B5 rewatch thread?

#17

Why not?

That makes me wonder though, should we use spoiler tags?

#18

Dude, that’d be awesome. A B5 rewacth! I say we should get a official one when BSG wraps up I mean…okay so it’d take us like two years to get through everything but lol.

#19

Well, lets see…

Season 1-5= 110
Movies= 4?

So 114 weeks or two years and 10 weeks.

#20

Yeah. It’s really a commitment. My suggestion would be to do it in chunks. That just didn’t come out right. Whatever. Since the series is one big story arc with little arcs inside, it’s best to approach it that way. 6 episodes a week and discuss on the seventh. Worked for God.

Do the math, my head hurts.