Babylon 5

[Greg1138 3]

Every so often I pick a show that I either haven't seen before or only saw bits of and watch the entire thing from beginning to end....Babylon 5 fits into that latter category. The attitude of UK TV at the time it was broadcast seemed to be pretty much the same as with any SF show at the time - "Pick a time slot and shove it in - change it from week to week - who gives a stuff, it's only Sci-fi".....type thing. As a consequence, I watched very little of it at the time and what I did see made little or no sense as it appeared I had missed too much.

So - it is high time I revisited Babylon 5. I have got some of the DVD's from a certain on-line rental company and am due to start the marathon but have a question for the B5 buffs. What order should I watch them in? Should I watch them in broadcast order? Or chronological order (i.e. with the "In The Beginning" movie first)....how am I going to get the best experience out of this? Advice elsewhere on the net differs from person to person and I would value some opinions.

Also - what are your (non-spoilerific) memories of the show? What was the music like?

Cheers all,

Greg

[Bryant Burnette 654]

You should absolutely NOT watch "In the Beginning" first. It is not, in fact, a prequel in some regards; the prequel elements are flashbacks told from the perspective of one of the characters, and the movie gives away far too much about that character that you really should not know at the outset of the series.

I was a huge B5 fan at one point in time, but in many aspects, I don't think time has been very kind to it. The production values are frequently garbage, the acting is frequently garbage, the dialogue is almost always garbage, and though the story has a great deal of epic sweep to it, it isn't capitalized on anywhere near as well as it ought to have been.

All that said, it is still a fascinating series, and when it is good, it is very good indeed. Any serious fan of sci-fi television owes it to themselves to see it.

A word of warning: the first season can be particularly awful at times. Stick with it, though, and it starts getting quite a bit better in, like, the final third of the season.

The scores by Christopher Franke are pure synth, but they're pretty good. And they really fit the show in some way I can't quite quantify.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

I liked it when I was younger, but I think Strazcynski is one of the most overrated writers around (along with a certain other writer/creator whose name I will not mention for fear of reprimand). His work on the Spider-Man comics was terrible.

[Greg1138 3]

You should absolutely NOT watch "In the Beginning" first. It is not, in fact, a prequel in some regards; the prequel elements are flashbacks told from the perspective of one of the characters, and the movie gives away far too much about that character that you really should not know at the outset of the series.

That's just what I'm after - thanks.

So when should I really watch In The Beginning...? Should I leave it until last? What about the other movies - should they also stand alone at the end of the series proper? Should I even bother with Crusade?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

As far as I understand, the movies are meant to be stand-alone episodes in the life, as-it-were, of B5. I first started watching B5 in 1993 (it was broadcast on a Sunday afternoon, I think) and I have never looked back. This series has a thematic spiritual quality, that, for me, puts it above other shows of that type i.e. "space opera stuff" (yes, I'm looking at you, Star Trek). I guess that the one strong memory is watching some bad people (I forget what they did) being cornered, and given their just deserts, while a kind of church service is going on, complete with gospel chior. I'm pretty sure that the episode was called "And The Rock Cried Out 'No Hiding Place'". The juxtaposition between what was seen, and what was heard was stunning, and not a little disturbing. Honestly, though, B5 is/was/is a tremendous achievement. It is easy to get a little jaded with more recent S.F., and to think "this is sooooooo derivative", when what most people really mean is that it reminds them vaguely of that other space opera, which started out-of-sequence (how stupid was that? Well Eps. I, II, and III proved how stupid that was!)in 1977. If you have not yet seen B5, then you are in for a treat.

[Kevin 22]

Comparing Babylon 5 to other sci-fi shows, watching the other stuff feels like I'm being nibbled to death by cats!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

Comparing Babylon 5 to other sci-fi shows, watching the other stuff feels like I'm being nibbled to death by cats!

Whatever floats your boat, mate!

[Quintus 5,399]

My one lasting memory of Babylon 5 was the crap cgi. My uncle used to love it though.

[Kühni 485]

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[Disco Stu 15,495]

Luke's line in The Last Jedi really is the perfect summation of today's entertainment landscape.

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

1 hour ago, Kühni said:

Uhm, yes, PLEASE?!  

 

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/babylon-5-reboot-the-cw-j-michael-straczynski-1235075236/

 

@Yavar Moradi Did you know about this? If so, WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD ME ABOUT IT!?!? 

 

Interesting news, although half the original cast has died in the interim. That show has had a bizarre curse.

[Yavar Moradi 2,585]

38 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

Interesting news, although half the original cast has died in the interim. That show has had a bizarre curse.

Hence, the reboot…

 

1 hour ago, Kühni said:

Uhm, yes, PLEASE?!  

 

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/babylon-5-reboot-the-cw-j-michael-straczynski-1235075236/

 

@Yavar Moradi Did you know about this? If so, WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD ME ABOUT IT!?!? 

 

I assumed you knew!

 

Yavar

[Tallguy 3,364]

12 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Luke's line in The Last Jedi really is the perfect summation of today's entertainment landscape.

 

THIS is why they should have recast Leia. (IMHO they should have backed a Robert Downey Jr. sized truck of money up to Meryl Streep's house.)

On 07/09/2009 at 6:24 AM, Quintus said:

My one lasting memory of Babylon 5 was the crap cgi. My uncle used to love it though.

 

Back in the day (and on tube TVs) it was the closest that space battles ever got to Return of the Jedi.

 

On 30/08/2009 at 5:10 AM, Charlie Brigden said:

I liked it when I was younger, but I think Strazcynski is one of the most overrated writers around (along with a certain other writer/creator whose name I will not mention for fear of reprimand). His work on the Spider-Man comics was terrible.

 

I'll assume you mean Bendis? 20 years ago I LOVED his stuff.

 

JMS' reach certainly exceeded his grasp on B5. But what a reach! OTOH he made me love him when he wrote The Real Ghostbusters. He reportedly fired a writer who thought that the toy companies should be giving them script ideas.

 

OTOOH I seem to recall he followed Peter David's AMAZING run on the Star Trek comic book. And he was no Peter David. (This was in the wreckage of Star Trek V when David made me love the TOS cast again.)

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

Just starting rewatching B5 on Amazon - one of their "included with your subscription but with adverts for some reason" shows, although as I'm in Guernsey, Amazon doesn't know what adverts to show me so I don't get any, win!

 

I'm pretty sure I watched the entire thing when it was first on, but never really had any great urge to buy it on DVD so nice to have it on streaming. They clearly did a good job remastering it as the filmed footage looks great, even if they didn't upgrade the FX.

 

Only a few episodes in and enjoying it, even if it's a bit clunky, although Andrew Katsulas and Peter Jurasik are clear standouts both as actors and characters. I still don't know if Centauri hair is meant to stand up on its own or if they just have amazing barbers... (much like The Expanse. I get it, it's TV, but the Belters have ridiculously complex hair cuts that always look perfect, which seems kinda weird given what they are meant to be).

 

It's amazing how much slower shows were to get going in the "old days" compared to today where things seem to hit the ground running. It's strikingly more dated looking than DS9 or other Star Trek shows of the period. Not just the FX (which are rather more nice graphics rather than any pretence of realism) but the way the interiors are decorated and lit.

 

You don't get much of an impression of the station's size, it's all gloomy corridors (that make it look like a crappy grey hotel) and neon bars; even the bigger civilian sections seem kinda pokey. The only time it genuinely looks impressive are the shots where the central cylindrical section is shown in the background. I can't help but wonder if they would have put everything on interior surfaces of the cylinder so you'd always see it above and around you; clearly the FX required for that would have been prohibitively expensive and difficult to achieve. A shame as the promenade or ops on DS9 are pretty easy to identify from the exterior but much of the inside of B5 is rendered so anonymously.

 

I remember there being very regular releases of Christopher Franke's music and much of it is very effective, even if it's not the stuff I'd ever want to listen to on its own. Certainly has more character than Trek music of the period. The only thing I could do without are the stingers which seem to accompany every shot of the exterior of the station or the opening of the jump gate (which is definitely much less impressive than DS9's wormhole).

 

I'll be interested in this reboot though... although hopefully the writing will be shared a bit more. I'm not sure JMS writing nearly every single episode is a good thing!

 

 

[Positivatee 327]

I bought the complete TV series on DVD (minus the movies) for a friend years back but I lost them in the divorce and didn't ask him for them back. I taped them from HBO recently and will watch them someday. 

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

3 minutes ago, Positivatee said:

I bought the complete TV series on DVD (minus the movies) for a friend years back but I lost them in the divorce and didn't ask him for them back. I taped them from HBO recently and will watch them someday. 

Let us all know what you think!

[Thor 7,465]

I should rewatch it again too. Haven't watched it since it was on the air in the 90s. It was a favourite then (despite my misgivings about what I call 'pointy ear sci fi'). Own and love the two volumes of Franke's music; never bothered with the individual episode CDs.