Yeah, I remember buying the Season One DVD and being super skeptical after watching the first few episodes and almost gave up. Managed to finish the season and then bought the second season and was hooked. So many plot threads are followed up in Seasons 2 and 3 and the show just really picks up momentum. Only problem I have with the show is now whenever I start rewatching it, it's pretty much the only thing in my DVD player for the following three weeks...It's that addictive (although I always skip the last season...Season Five was extremely weak and not necessary...)...

Yes, it's worth it.

Stick with it. You will be so glad you did.

Babylon 5 is one of the first series that was attempted as a 'novel for television' and a huge influence on later serialized television - and, while I don't like to use the term ripped off...was a huge huge influence on Deep Space Nine.
Londo and G'Kar DO carry the show not just because of their enormous acting chops but, frankly, their antagonism drives so much of the plot.

Season 1 isn't as bad as season 5 in my opinion - you can skip S5 if you want and just watch the series finale "Sleeping In Light" but I think Season 1 has some very pertinent episodes that seem like throwaway scenes/episodes but come back in a big way later. However, S2-4 are some of the finest most thrilling science fiction ever on television even today in my opinion. Only series I rank more highly in the realm of sci-fi is Farscape, but this show has my favorite episode of ANY show which is the S3 finale.

Yes, the show has some cheap production values to us now, but some of the SFX were pretty good cgi 'for the time' but don't look as good now on DVD or upscaled or whatever you are watching it on now...and many of the side characters in an episode look like they got picked up off the street for the day...but that doesn't matter with how epic the plot of the show becomes.

The plot of the show does start to wind down about half way through S4 because the showrunners thought they were being canceled and ended up getting an S5 anyway which affected the quality hugely so if you ever want to rewatch it later, you'll probably have a running order of your own to get the most out of it.

Yes, yes, yes. Londo and G'Kar are two of the greatest characters ever written. I still get chills just thinking about their scenes.

I'll add one more yes. Season 1 is kind of a slog (except for a few good episodes such as "Signs and Portents," "Babylon Squared" and "Chrysalis") but stick with it. Season 2 starts picking things up, and about halfway through s2 it becomes one of the best damned stories ever told on television.

You’ve got that last part backwards. JMS shopped the show around to different studios, one of which was Paramount. They liked it but passed, but then turned around and took many of the ideas from JMS’ pitch and rewrote it to fit into Star Trek lore. So DS9 is actually a rip-off of B5. Unfortunately Paramount managed to get DS9 on the air before B5, which made it look even more like B5 was the copy cat.
Studios do this shit all the time, which is why we get so many movies close together that seem to have such similar plots, like Armageddon/Deep Impact, Volcano/Dante’s Peak, Antz/A Bug’s Life, etc.

That's what I meant. I enjoyed DS9 despite knowing how Paramount treated JMS, but I've rewatched Babylon 5 several times and still haven't gone all the way through DS9 more than one full viewing.
When B5 really kicks into the full shadow arc, it is absolutely edge of your seat, binge watching at its finest.

Interesting. I've watched Deep Space Nine many times over the last several decades. The parts are stronger than the sum. Individual episodes are some of the most incredible in the Trek canon: "Duet", "Necessary Evil", "Past Tense" parts I and II, "The Visitor", "Hard Time", "Trials and Tribble-ations" (which is absolutely genius), "Far Beyond the Stars" and "In the Pale Moonlight" just to name a few. The show makes things up on the fly and doesn't have things pre-planned as I could see. The Mirror Universe saga is completely pointless. However, the Dominion is probably the greatest antagonist in Trek since the old school Borg. It's a great show and acquits itself well, rip-off or not. In fact it's easily the best of the post-Roddenberry spin-offs.

At the risk of causing a B5 vs DS9 pissing contest--which I'd like to avoid, *so far* there's been no episode of B5 that I want to revisit and indeed found the first season punishing to sit through. That may change as I watch the rest of the series.

As boring as you might think the first season is, don’t skip it because many plot points are referenced later on when things start getting good.

I finished it. I'm on to season 2!

You haven't seen how some of those earlier episodes matter later on, too. I don't want to delve too close to spoilers but, trust me, a couple of them will probably be on your rewatch list when you see how they affect the story arc in later seasons.

What happened to Sinclair during the Battle of the Line, and why doesn't he remember?
What is inside Kosh's Encounter Suit?
What happened to Babylon 4? Where did it go, and why?
Why did the Minbari end the Earth-Minbari War as they were about to destroy the Earth?
Who is Londo's mysterious friend, and who does he work for?

I won't get into a contest between B5 and DS9 - I do like DS9 a lot but whenever I start a rewatch, I just stop before I get to season 3 when things start to get good.

I don't want to get too far into spoiler territory to try and entice you to watch but one of the highlights of the show, too, is Walter Koenig as Bester - seemingly a villain but what are his true motives?

I think watching B5 can be done from several different angles but my favorite way, and I don't think this is that much of a spoiler at this point, is watching it as a Greek tragedy of Londo Molari...



I think I just realized something, but I’m quite foggy on the matter. Re: Londo and G’Kar

Babylon 5 may have been dark and edgy entertainment in the placid 1990s with its storylines dealing with the rise of fascism, endless war, and oppressively bleak class stratification. In our present time with the rise of fascism everywhere, endless warfare, and growing poverty and income inequality the worst it's been in a century; watching it in the 2020s is akin to cutting. I'm pretty close to done with this show. I could only make it to the 5th episode of season 2 and it feels like getting my teeth scraped. I might pick it up when I'm less depressed about the world and less persnickety about things like directing and pacing in a television show.

Babylon 5 is fantastic, even (gasp) almost 3 decades later. The first season and a half of 2 are slow. However, they are essential as the show will reference events from there in later seasons. Seriously though, one of the best science fiction narratives to ever grace the small screen.

I get your point and sympathize with it, but if you stick it out you’ll see Sheridan go to war against many of these very things.
Fuck it, here’s a season 4 spoiler. While reading it will spoil the surprise of some plot points, maybe the anticipation of knowing what’s coming will offset that:

Hate to break it to you, but the situation on Babylon 5 is only going to get worse in the near future, but the second season will end on a hopeful note. I'll put it this way... you see the forces of darkness gathering, but the forces of light are out there doing the same, you just haven't seen them yet. And there are some excellent episodes coming up... "The Coming of Shadows," "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum," "The Long Twilight Struggle," and "The Fall of Night."

The main theme of the show is about being one of the good guys, no matter how difficult or hopeless it may seem, and fighting back against the darkness with everything you have. It's going to have to get dark in order to put our heroes to the test.

The biggest issue with a Babylon 5 re-watch is that those F/X are so shoddy. But it wasn't cutting-edge stuff when it aired, either. The stories hold up though - that's the main reason to give it a view. Same reasons you would go back and watch the original Star Trek.

Despite the botched DVD transfers (they just cropped the 4x3 effects shots and composite shots to 16x9 and enlarged them), there is nothing in my DVD collection that I watch more than Babylon 5.

The writing is some of the best I've ever seen on television. Despite all the dark themes there is still a bit of humor there, and the acting is just fantastic. And the story arcs - the story arcs are amazingly well thought out. Straczynski had the major plot points figured out and the individual seasons mapped out before they shot a single scene. So stuff from Season 1 that seems like a throwaway line or an unimportant scene comes back as something crucial to the overall story arcs later on. It's just brilliantly mapped out and executed.

And Seasons 3 & 4 are the most amazing thing I've ever seen on television. Originally, the effects looked really good (in the original broadcasts in the 90's), and the only CGI that was clearly substandard was when they tried to do CGI people from a distance (which was rare). But the key thing with B5 is the story (stories). It's the writing and acting that is brilliant. Everything else is window dressing when it comes to TV. The writing and acting on B5 is first rate.

I'm in the middle of re-watching it again right now (mid 4th season). 8th time through.

This thread is making me want to re-watch it again as well.

Apparently most of the episodes on Vudu are 4:3 but I really don’t want to spend more than $20 or so for the whole series so maybe if there’s a sale on it I’ll pick it up.

I'm not entirely washing my hands of Babylon 5. I would just like to watch it at a time when the real world doesn't make me want to cut my wrists in a bathtub on a regular basis.