Babylon 5: What Next?
06-05-09 | 12:16 PM
#1
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Babylon 5: What Next?
So after years of hearing people rave about this show, I finally made time to watch it. I'm not sure if it lives up to the hype (there was a lot of hype), but it is a very enjoyable show. I've just finished Season 4; I'm going to loop back and watch the first three movies (In the Begining, the Gathering, In the Begining, and Thirdspace). Then I'll watch Season 5 and the last two movies in the movie collection DVD set (River of Souls and A Call to Arms).
So my question is this: As I understand it, that leaves three holes in my Babylon 5 TV viewing experience: the Legend of the Rangers movie, the Lost Tales DVD, and Crusade. Are any/all of these worth picking up, or am I better served sticking with the main series plus the movies in the boxed set?
So my question is this: As I understand it, that leaves three holes in my Babylon 5 TV viewing experience: the Legend of the Rangers movie, the Lost Tales DVD, and Crusade. Are any/all of these worth picking up, or am I better served sticking with the main series plus the movies in the boxed set?
06-05-09 | 12:32 PM
#2
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
I found Crusade to be very enjoyable, although it was disappointing not being able to resolve the full arc (although I suspect we'd only gotten hints of the true arc in the 13 episodes, much like Babylon 5). I'm a completist so I have Legend of the Rangers and the Lost Tales, but neither one of them are particularly good and you're not missing much if you skip them.
Did you not watch The Gathering before watching the series? It was essentially the pilot and there was no reason to hold off on that.
Did you not watch The Gathering before watching the series? It was essentially the pilot and there was no reason to hold off on that.
06-05-09 | 12:37 PM
#5
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Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Which raises another question -- are the Gathering and In the Begining redundant with each other? How much footage is recycled vs. unique?
06-05-09 | 12:41 PM
#6
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Not redundant at all. There's a minor amount of footage from earlier seasons that's re-used in In the Beginning, but it's a different story and the vast majority of the scenes are new.
06-05-09 | 09:36 PM
#7
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
From an earlier thread:
“To answer your question, I believe you should watch them (more or less) in the order in which they were aired. IMO, the only reason to watch In the Beginning earlier than its original broadcast is if you need convincing of how incredible the story is before sitting down to watch. If you’ve already made up your mind to watch the show, no sense spoiling stuff that’s much better when revealed slowly over a few seasons. You say you’ve already seen up to Season 3, so I guess it doesn’t matter too much.
Also, while ‘Sleeping in Light’ does take place chronologically after River of Souls and A Call to Arms, I’d recommend watching it right after ‘Objects at Rest.’ This is certainly debateable, but unless there is a compelling reason otherwise (the network shuffled the eps or something), I tend to lean towards watching things in the order in which they were broadcast. I think ‘Sleeping in Light’ works best as a one-two-three with ‘Objects in Motion’ and ‘Objects in Rest’.
If I were building a definitive order, it’d likely go like this.
The Gathering
Season 1: Signs and Portents
Season 2: The Coming of Shadows
Season 3: Point of No Return
Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat I
Thirdspace (Either directly after ‘Into the Fire’ or after ‘The Illusion of Truth’ … anywhere between ‘Into the Fire’ and ‘No Surrender, No Retreat’ would be fine though)
Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat II
In the Beginning
Season 5: Wheel of Fire (I’d watch ‘Phoenix Rising’ before ‘Day of the Dead’, even though their aired flipped - doesn’t really matter as ‘Day of the Dead’ is a stand-alone, but it flows better that way)
The River of Souls
A Call to Arms
Crusade
The Legend of the Rangers
Hope that helps.”
das
Also, while ‘Sleeping in Light’ does take place chronologically after River of Souls and A Call to Arms, I’d recommend watching it right after ‘Objects at Rest.’ This is certainly debateable, but unless there is a compelling reason otherwise (the network shuffled the eps or something), I tend to lean towards watching things in the order in which they were broadcast. I think ‘Sleeping in Light’ works best as a one-two-three with ‘Objects in Motion’ and ‘Objects in Rest’.
If I were building a definitive order, it’d likely go like this.
The Gathering
Season 1: Signs and Portents
Season 2: The Coming of Shadows
Season 3: Point of No Return
Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat I
Thirdspace (Either directly after ‘Into the Fire’ or after ‘The Illusion of Truth’ … anywhere between ‘Into the Fire’ and ‘No Surrender, No Retreat’ would be fine though)
Season 4: No Surrender, No Retreat II
In the Beginning
Season 5: Wheel of Fire (I’d watch ‘Phoenix Rising’ before ‘Day of the Dead’, even though their aired flipped - doesn’t really matter as ‘Day of the Dead’ is a stand-alone, but it flows better that way)
The River of Souls
A Call to Arms
Crusade
The Legend of the Rangers
Hope that helps.”
das
06-06-09 | 09:00 AM
#8
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Crusade actually works better if, after you finish watching them, you track down the two scripts that JMS published that were never produced. The season 1 game changer "To The Ends of the Earth" and the season 1 finale, "End of the Line."
06-06-09 | 09:06 AM
#9
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Babylon 6?
06-06-09 | 10:18 AM
#10
DVD Talk Hero
06-06-09 | 06:52 PM
#12
DVD Talk Gold Edition
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
I had heard that the pilot was reworked into a movie set after Season 4 with flashbacks, so I held off on watching it. By the time I realized that the Gathering was the original pilot and that it was something separate from In the Begining, I was already well into Season 3, so I decided to just continue to hold off.
Which raises another question -- are the Gathering and In the Begining redundant with each other? How much footage is recycled vs. unique?
Which raises another question -- are the Gathering and In the Begining redundant with each other? How much footage is recycled vs. unique?
"In the Beginning" should only be watched when it was aired originally, after season 4.
Back to your original question. "Crusade" is definitely worth viewing. There are a myriad of thoughts on the order to watch it. I think I finally found a JMS approved viewing order. I thought one of the stories in "The Lost Tales" was good, but it was a bit of a letdown.
As I post in all the B5 threads, make sure you follow along with the postings on the Lurker's guide. It has notes on every episode WITHOUT spoilers and JMS's original comments to the fans when the episodes originally aired:
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/eplist.html
06-08-09 | 06:06 AM
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From: Gatineau, QC
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
I'd still watch all of it it.
-Legend of the rangers was a pilot for a new series which I thought had plenty of potential.
-Lost tales had no budget clearly but it was nice to see some of the characters long after the series ended.
-Crusades imo was a bit painful to watch. Messed up order, and not enough to see where the show was heading. I wish there had been a full season.
-Legend of the rangers was a pilot for a new series which I thought had plenty of potential.
-Lost tales had no budget clearly but it was nice to see some of the characters long after the series ended.
-Crusades imo was a bit painful to watch. Messed up order, and not enough to see where the show was heading. I wish there had been a full season.
06-08-09 | 08:36 AM
#15
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
The scene of the "battles" in Legend of the Rangers is permanently seared in my brain as one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. Whoever approved the method of controlling attacks should be executed.
06-08-09 | 11:36 AM
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Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
I was watching this by myself, and I still felt embarassed watching that scene...
06-08-09 | 01:02 PM
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06-08-09 | 05:37 PM
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Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Yup, it's as bad as I remember...
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06-09-09 | 05:57 PM
#21
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Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Now you've got me all excited to see this horrific scene in Legends of the Rangers. I can't wait.
I've gone back and watched the first 3 movies and am currently working my way through Season 5. I'm about a quarter of the way through the season and I can tell you right now -- if they ever do a Babylon 5 movie focusing on Mack and Bo, I will be first in line to buy tickets.
I've gone back and watched the first 3 movies and am currently working my way through Season 5. I'm about a quarter of the way through the season and I can tell you right now -- if they ever do a Babylon 5 movie focusing on Mack and Bo, I will be first in line to buy tickets.
06-10-09 | 09:40 AM
#22
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
I personally liked Lost Tales a lot. They were character-driven stories which IMO is really the point of B5.
I thought Crusade had potential and a few good episodes. It's worth watching IMO although like B5 the special effects look pretty dated. It's cool to watch to see where he was going to go with the universe. Be sure to watch in JMS-suggested order. Unlike B5, in which he stopped getting notes from corporate suits part way through season 2, Crusade was heavy-handedly messed with my the suits.
B5 is my favorite show but I wasn't impressed with most of the TV movies. JMS does better in long format, I think, for B5.
Me and the wife are actually re-watching B5. For me it's the 3.5x time I've seen it (saw the first 2 seasons on TV originally). Alternating episodes of Buffy and B5 (just like when we watched it together the first time - she got me to watch Buffy, I got her to watch B5). It's going to take us years at this rate though, a couple of episodes about once per week after the kids are in bed.
Last edited by GreenMonkey; 06-10-09 at 09:49 AM.
06-10-09 | 12:41 PM
#23
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Actually, the best thing for you to do is just stop right there and skip directly to the final episode of Season 5. As much as I loved Babylon 5, none of the movies except "In The Beginning" are really worthwhile, and the first half of Season 5 is forgettable, while the latter half is just OK-to-good.
06-10-09 | 03:57 PM
#25
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: Babylon 5: What Next?
Lando + G'kar storyline in S5 - One of the strong parts of the show IMO.
But the telepath stuff...just kinda meh.
S4 got accelerated because they didn't know if there would be a S5. And so some stuff cut out of S4 moved to S5. Made for some weird pacing for S5.