Ok so i just finished watching season 4 of babylon 5 and i was blown away by the last 4 episodes of the season. But i was wondering since i heard many people hate season 5 if its worth watching. Also looking on tv.com many of the episodes are rated highly and i know bester (whos my favorite character) returns in some episodes so i cant understand the hate for season 5.
is babylon 5 season 5 worth watching
- Thread starter tmosler
- Start date
Short answer: yes, it's worth watching.
Honestly, my advise is to watch it, don't pay any attention to what anyone says and form your own opinion. Seriously, I've seen the merits of season 5 discussed to many times I can probably describe verbatim exactly how this is going to go.
Honestly, my advise is to watch it, don't pay any attention to what anyone says and form your own opinion. Seriously, I've seen the merits of season 5 discussed to many times I can probably describe verbatim exactly how this is going to go.
"Is Babylon 5 Season 5 worth watching?"
Yes.
Despite the very divided opinions on it, Season 5 is actually just as critical to the overall arc of the series as the four seasons which precede it are, as it serves as an Epilogue to those seasons and deals directly with the aftermath of those events.
In fact, it's actually my personal favorite out of the 5 seasons of the series because of how it explores the consequences and aftermath of Seasons 1-4.
Having said that, I would echo Reverend's advice to watch the season for yourself and form your own opinion on it.
Yes.
Despite the very divided opinions on it, Season 5 is actually just as critical to the overall arc of the series as the four seasons which precede it are, as it serves as an Epilogue to those seasons and deals directly with the aftermath of those events.
In fact, it's actually my personal favorite out of the 5 seasons of the series because of how it explores the consequences and aftermath of Seasons 1-4.
Having said that, I would echo Reverend's advice to watch the season for yourself and form your own opinion on it.
I watched B5 for the first time a few years ago via dvd, and remember thinking after finishing season 5 what people on this board moaned about? Yeah Byron was a bit annoying, and that Penn & Teller ones wasn't so hot, but overall there were some great episodes. Some folk on the internet just love to get their panties in a twist about nothing.
...early 2009 I watched it all, doesn't seem that long ago. I'd love to do a rewatch someday if I ever get time
...early 2009 I watched it all, doesn't seem that long ago. I'd love to do a rewatch someday if I ever get time
Season 5 is worth watching -- whether it's worth rewatching is another matter.
You should also watch the charmingly goofy Crusade after Season 5, and the TV movies out of curiosity.
Ignore J. Michael Straczynski's entire career after this franchise though. It's pretty unbelievable how uninspired a writer he seemingly instantly became after he finished Babylon 5.
Ignore J. Michael Straczynski's entire career after this franchise though. It's pretty unbelievable how uninspired a writer he seemingly instantly became after he finished Babylon 5.
If you do watch Crusade, watch the TV movie "A Call to Arms" first. "Legend of the Rangers" and "The Lost Tales" were pretty much meh.
Season Five is pretty bad and betrays the quality of the show in a myrriad of ways. That said, if you loved the first four years, you owe it to yourself to see how it ends! 
Unfortunately a lot of it was due to outside factors. JMS was told at the start of S4 that he would not be getting a fifth year so he condensed the series to wrap up in one year instead of two. Then when he got an eleventh hour reprieve at another network, he suddenly had an empty year to fill up. (I exaggerate for effect)
Then, he killed off Marcus thinking Ivanova would be in S5. Then in between seasons, a tragic negotation misunderstanding resulted in her being off the show. So he lost two of his best characters instead of one.
This resulted in the inclusion of a horribly uninteresting and poorly acted new character, and the bastardization of an already terrible storyline.
Then, at a hotel he accidently threw away his story notes for the first half of Season Five, resulting in even more subpar episodes than there might have been.
Then, his Season Five budget was slashed to be much lower, resulting in a near total lack of CGI space battles and action. Also, they lost a day of shooting, meaning that they couldn't do complicated action-y scenes anymore.
Unfortunately a lot of it was due to outside factors. JMS was told at the start of S4 that he would not be getting a fifth year so he condensed the series to wrap up in one year instead of two. Then when he got an eleventh hour reprieve at another network, he suddenly had an empty year to fill up. (I exaggerate for effect)
Then, he killed off Marcus thinking Ivanova would be in S5. Then in between seasons, a tragic negotation misunderstanding resulted in her being off the show. So he lost two of his best characters instead of one.
This resulted in the inclusion of a horribly uninteresting and poorly acted new character, and the bastardization of an already terrible storyline.
Then, at a hotel he accidently threw away his story notes for the first half of Season Five, resulting in even more subpar episodes than there might have been.
Then, his Season Five budget was slashed to be much lower, resulting in a near total lack of CGI space battles and action. Also, they lost a day of shooting, meaning that they couldn't do complicated action-y scenes anymore.
Over at Marvel he had a good run on Thor, and a seriously amazing miniseries called The Twelve. Other than that, yeah.
I honestly didn't think there was any drop in quality whatsoever between Season 5 and the four previous seasons, and personally liked Tracy Scoggins' Elizabeth Lockley.
Everyone please ignore this statement and read Midnight Nation.
I rather liked Jeremiah, even if some of the dialog was very B5-derivative.
Problems with S5:
1. Some people always thought Babylon 5 was only about the Shadows and Vorlons. These people obviously were disappointed with everything that came after The Shadows and Vorlons left.
2. Some people hate the Telepath arc, and even though it only takes up a little more than half of the episodes in the first half of the Season, many people don't remember anything else about the season than just the Telepath Arc.
3. Season 4 ended with such a bang, it couldn't be topped. Also, as mentioned, JMS thought S4 was going to be the end, so, some of that non-stop plot explosion of the final founr episodes of S4 was meant to be stretched out through the first 3 or 4 episodes of S5, and the beginning S5 Arc of the Telepaths was meant to start weaving into the canvas in late S4, so, there would've been more of a smooth ride from Episode 4.22 to 5.01. Because of that cancelation threat, and tying some stuff up a few episodes early, and not starting stuff that should be started, you pretty much have S5 starting as a cold start and you have the Arc growing pains of early S1, which caused many people to get a bad taste in their mouths for S5.
So, in the first half of S5, I think you have probably about half of them are pretty damned good, and a few pretty decent and a few that are fairly average. but, the second half of S5 is as good as the best point in the Series, IMHO. And remember, a fairly average Babylon 5 episode is much better than an episode of many other Series, so "fairly average" is not really a bad thing in comparison to many other shows, it's just that when compared to itself, Babylon has so many awesome episodes, it's hard for it to compete with itself.
1. Some people always thought Babylon 5 was only about the Shadows and Vorlons. These people obviously were disappointed with everything that came after The Shadows and Vorlons left.
2. Some people hate the Telepath arc, and even though it only takes up a little more than half of the episodes in the first half of the Season, many people don't remember anything else about the season than just the Telepath Arc.
3. Season 4 ended with such a bang, it couldn't be topped. Also, as mentioned, JMS thought S4 was going to be the end, so, some of that non-stop plot explosion of the final founr episodes of S4 was meant to be stretched out through the first 3 or 4 episodes of S5, and the beginning S5 Arc of the Telepaths was meant to start weaving into the canvas in late S4, so, there would've been more of a smooth ride from Episode 4.22 to 5.01. Because of that cancelation threat, and tying some stuff up a few episodes early, and not starting stuff that should be started, you pretty much have S5 starting as a cold start and you have the Arc growing pains of early S1, which caused many people to get a bad taste in their mouths for S5.
So, in the first half of S5, I think you have probably about half of them are pretty damned good, and a few pretty decent and a few that are fairly average. but, the second half of S5 is as good as the best point in the Series, IMHO. And remember, a fairly average Babylon 5 episode is much better than an episode of many other Series, so "fairly average" is not really a bad thing in comparison to many other shows, it's just that when compared to itself, Babylon has so many awesome episodes, it's hard for it to compete with itself.
Similar threads
