Watching Babylon 5 for the first time
- Thread starter Toxteth O´Grady
- Start date
I actually re-watched season one after season three, and it's amazing how much set up you see in season one. A brilliantly scripted and plotted series.
Oooh.. i envy you so much. I'd give much to be able to go back and re-watch the show without knowing the storyline and events.
It is definitely one of the best SF shows i ever saw with some truly awesome characters and story moments.
Season 1 is definitely the weakest though it sets up the main storyline quite well which will only become evident as the show progressess. Unfortunately due to studio politics the resolution to the main storyline got a bit compressed because the network didn't commit on time to season 5 so Straczynski had to make sure that the main storyline got wrapped up in season 4. Of course by the time the network decided to give B5 the promised season 5 it was too late to change it back because production was already on the way.
Season 5 is still very watchable even if the main storyline had concluded because there were many threads left dangling that the season picked up.
Of course you need also not reject the show due to its outdated special effects and non-HD, 4:3 aspect ratio. There's nothing that can be done save for a complete overhaul of the material and that's not realistic.
Nevertheless it's still one of the premier space opera TV shows and well worth your time.
It is definitely one of the best SF shows i ever saw with some truly awesome characters and story moments.
Season 1 is definitely the weakest though it sets up the main storyline quite well which will only become evident as the show progressess. Unfortunately due to studio politics the resolution to the main storyline got a bit compressed because the network didn't commit on time to season 5 so Straczynski had to make sure that the main storyline got wrapped up in season 4. Of course by the time the network decided to give B5 the promised season 5 it was too late to change it back because production was already on the way.
Season 5 is still very watchable even if the main storyline had concluded because there were many threads left dangling that the season picked up.
Of course you need also not reject the show due to its outdated special effects and non-HD, 4:3 aspect ratio. There's nothing that can be done save for a complete overhaul of the material and that's not realistic.
Nevertheless it's still one of the premier space opera TV shows and well worth your time.
Admiral Buzzkill^ Captain Buzzkill, reporting for duty!
Though you can only watch it for the first time, once, there are many rewards in watching it the 2nd, 5th, 10th.... time
B5 is my all time favorite Series, followed closely by DS9 and Farscape
Oh, that's no problem at all. It's the stories and characters that count. I can deal with effects that aren't the best.
Was there any reason they went with CGI instead of models? Was it just cheaper?
Probably though in the 90s i guess the volume of CGI was still very expensive (today a standard laptop could generate the CGI of B5) or maybe models couldn't convey the imagery JMS wanted.
Either way they are only there to serve the story and they do so adequately even if they seem bad compared to modern CGI such as in BSG.
That's almost like a story I heard Andreas Katsulas told at a con: he was explaining that his mother had Alzheimer's and he'd take her for a walk to see the flowers in his garden, and for ages it really hurt him that she didn't remember them, until he came to think of it as a good thing, but she was getting the pleasure of seeing them for the first time over and over again, which made it eeasier for him to bear.That's what Alzheimer's is for
This show PIONEERED CGI effects on a TV budget. They're crude because they're among the first ever. This show and LightWave were developed together, and the show started off being done on the Amiga computer platform using LightWave on Newtek's Video Toaster effects card. TV CGI effects developed very quickly after that, and in a couple of seasons you'll see CGI as good as any you saw on DS9 or Voyager. So don't dis the effects, honor them as you would a revered ancestor.
I did a complete rematch of B5 last year including TV movies and Crusade. got halfway through Crusade and gave up... it just ain't B5 sadly
Oh, really? Well, if I can watch it somewhere for cheap I might check it out.
The problem with Crusade was that they got 6 episodes in the can and TNT Network suddenly demanded changes that would affect everything ("better looking uniforms"), plus a new first episode with "more action! put in a fist fight!". They shot the next 6 episodes with those changes, and then the network demanded those episodes be aired first. So Straczinski had to write a bridging episode to explain (poorly) why the uniforms changed, and we just had to live with relationships that seemed out of order. Then, of course, the network cancelled the show anyway.
And J Michael Straczinski decided to stop working in TV for the sake of his blood pressure.
Every time I see a new thread for B5, I get really tempted to give the series another chance. I tried watching it at the time, but it just never grabbed me for some reason (seeming either too dull or talky or pretentious).
But that could just be because I was a dumb teenager and more accustomed to the Trek style and approach back then. Seeing all the praise for the show in here, though, I can't help but wonder if it might appeal to me more now as an adult....
But that could just be because I was a dumb teenager and more accustomed to the Trek style and approach back then. Seeing all the praise for the show in here, though, I can't help but wonder if it might appeal to me more now as an adult....
I personally enjoyed the first Season, when it originally aired. Took about 7 episodes, before I knew it was really going to be Special and involved, and not just an episodic Series that was fairly decent. I think there was only 2 episodes, I hated, and I have since gained an appreciation for them, due to the B Story and the Set Up.
Alot of folks, really didn't take to S1, but, those that stuck with it usually liked much of what came after. IMHO, S1 of B5 is much less "Meh", then TNG's first 2 Seasons. Plus, B5 S1 actually improves on a rewatch, when you can really appreciate how well it put so many pieces into place, even though people got impatient for "Something to happen", which I believe it undeniably does from Late S1 and forward
I was treated to B5 and DS9 Back to Back on Weds (or Thurs.?) nights, during the years they overlapped. Best TV nights ever, only rivaled by Full Serial Doctor Who with an episode of Blake's 7 (UFO and The Invaders also at different times) on PBS Sunday Nights back in the 1980s and Farscape Fridays (I forget what exactly played with Farscape, but, some of it was really good, I think)
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I'm a lifelong Trek fan, and loved DS9 when it aired.
I also loved B5 from the second episode I ever saw, the second season barn-burner The Coming of Shadows. Still one of the most impressive hours of TV I've ever seen. (I was unimpressed by the B5 pilot when it first aired.)
Maybe 5-7 years ago I did a B5 rewatch. Loved it.
Right after, I tried to do a DS9 rewatch and got about halfway through the pilot before giving up. I may never be able to rewatch DS9, but I'm pretty sure I'll rewatch B5 once a decade or so for as long as I have left.
I also loved B5 from the second episode I ever saw, the second season barn-burner The Coming of Shadows. Still one of the most impressive hours of TV I've ever seen. (I was unimpressed by the B5 pilot when it first aired.)
Maybe 5-7 years ago I did a B5 rewatch. Loved it.
Right after, I tried to do a DS9 rewatch and got about halfway through the pilot before giving up. I may never be able to rewatch DS9, but I'm pretty sure I'll rewatch B5 once a decade or so for as long as I have left.
^ When B5 first aired, there were Trekkies who accused it of being a DS9 knockoff. As the two shows matured it became painfully evident that it was the other way around, and that it was B5 that had been really built from the beginning to deliver the long-term story arc.
DS9 and the Dominion War lost my interest when I came to that realization. The early seasons of DS9 still had something to offer -- they really went deep into dramatic territory that Trek had hitherto shied away from -- but after that? Not as much. I do catch bits and pieces of DS9's later seasons now and again and I could probably rewatch and enjoy most of it today, but B5 was still the better of the two at the epic story-arc IMO.
DS9 and the Dominion War lost my interest when I came to that realization. The early seasons of DS9 still had something to offer -- they really went deep into dramatic territory that Trek had hitherto shied away from -- but after that? Not as much. I do catch bits and pieces of DS9's later seasons now and again and I could probably rewatch and enjoy most of it today, but B5 was still the better of the two at the epic story-arc IMO.
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I know that TrekBBS Spoiler rules don't apply for B5 anymore but for the sake of the OP please try to refrain from talking about future events in the show so he can enjoy it like i did in the 90s when it originally aired and you had no possibility to spoil yourself (which can be absurdly easy nowadays with the Internet).
Thanks, FPAlpha!
I just watched episode 2 last night, "Soul Hunter". I thought it was good. It was an interesting sci-fi premise with the species who steal souls. The main soul hunter in the episode was familiar to me. When he started talking he reminded me of the Klingon commandant at Rura Penthe in TUC. I looked it up later and, sure enough, it was him. I discovered he played several roles in Star Trek over the years, up to the 2009 film.
This episode introduced the new CMO, Dr. Franklin, replacing Dr. Kyle from the pilot. I don't have much of an opinion of him yet, but he already seems to have more of a personality than Kyle did.
Regarding Kyle and Takashima: Is there a reason they were replaced? Just standard retooling from pilot to series or was it something else?
Also regarding changed from pilot to series: I have to admit that I liked the uniforms from the pilot better. I don't really care for the additional bits of leather around the collar and then going down the front. It's too much, in my opinion.
I just watched episode 2 last night, "Soul Hunter". I thought it was good. It was an interesting sci-fi premise with the species who steal souls. The main soul hunter in the episode was familiar to me. When he started talking he reminded me of the Klingon commandant at Rura Penthe in TUC. I looked it up later and, sure enough, it was him. I discovered he played several roles in Star Trek over the years, up to the 2009 film.
This episode introduced the new CMO, Dr. Franklin, replacing Dr. Kyle from the pilot. I don't have much of an opinion of him yet, but he already seems to have more of a personality than Kyle did.
Regarding Kyle and Takashima: Is there a reason they were replaced? Just standard retooling from pilot to series or was it something else?
Also regarding changed from pilot to series: I have to admit that I liked the uniforms from the pilot better. I don't really care for the additional bits of leather around the collar and then going down the front. It's too much, in my opinion.
Tamlyn Tomita (Takashima) I think, was too busy and unable to return for The Series.
Johnny Sekka (Doctor Kyle), I'm not sure, I think it was health related, he just didn't have a Series left in him (The Gathering was his last role, though he did make it until he was 72, in 2006 before he passed away, and he was only 60 when the Series began, so, maybe it wasn't Health?). The recast does have a story reason written into the show's Arc, though.
Which makes Richard Bigg's death in 2004 at 44 years old all the more heartbreaking. He was in his early 30's when the show began.
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