Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

I'm rewatching B5 now, so I thought I'd pull up an old thread to see what people said...

I find it interesting that you love Babylon 5 because based on what I remember from you from the political forum and your views, it shouldn't be your cup of tea.

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

I've been rewatching it too :) Just finished the 1st disc of Season 2. This is my first rewatch of the series (first viewing was years ago ... not the original airing, but when Sci-Fi Channel was doing that widescreen remastered thing).

I started with "The Gathering". It's as rough around the edges as I remembered. Everything looks really cheap (even compared to what the regular series looked like). The actors playing the doctor and the B5 second in command are awful. Delenn just seems really weird ... in appearance, sound, and action. I forgot about that scene where she I'm glad the show never had her do things like that again (at least that I remember). And getting into Season 1, there wasn't any information from the pilot that wasn't repeated or shown in a flashback.

Season 1 isn't as awful as some fans make it seem (it just seems bad to the greatness that will follow). Taken on its own, it seemed about as good as a "Star Trek: Voyager" season ... a handful of really good/great eps, mostly ok and watchable eps, with a couple of cringe-worthy bad ones to round things out.

The show really picks up momentum in late Season 1 (when the big multi-season story threads are introduced). And Season 2 is helped (for me at least) with the major casting change that I talked about in my earlier post in this thread. It wasn't a casting change, but Claudia Christian noticeably got better as the series went along. The "making of" doc commented how Christian tried incorporating more of her own personality into Ivonova as the season went on. And I think that helped. At the start, Ivonova's character was pretty much: Russian, serious, and angry. But she gradually was fleshed out into a rounded individual.

Watching the DVDs, there's one thing that I noticed that's annoying. On the 1st disc, there's an introductory special feature (a short featurette). DO NOT watch these if you haven't seen the show before. They drop MAJOR spoilers that will ruin things for a 1st time viewer. For example, for the Season 2 intro

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

Interesting bit of trivia here about Delenn:

And, regarding G'Kar:

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

That's one of the great things about B5. The 5-year plan wasn't just for the story. Characters had their own arcs, developing and growing over time (some for the better, some for the worse).

Completely agree that

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

With your interests I would say you would love B5.
Try Farscape too.

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

On the subject of the fifth season...B5 was cancelled in the middle of the fourth. Straczynski (the creator and main writer of the series) had a five-year story arc planned. There were at least three separate main plots running, and they all were planned to come to fruition at different points in the fifth season. With only a dozen episodes left he had to wrap them all up. So he accelerated everything (it's really noticeable when the story goes into overdrive). By the last three episodes of the fourth season it was insane how fast he was tying up loose ends. He totally abandoned one of the plots, the one that hadn't developed as far.

Then .... it was picked up unexpectedly for a fifth season, by a different network (TBS? I don't recall). Since he had wrapped up most of the plots the fifth season was exclusively about the one he'd abandoned (the Telepath Problem). So it has a very different character from the other seasons, and it does have a much more spiritual leaning. But the whole series has that spiritual/mystical dimension. The whole Dark vs Light thing. The fifth season isn't that much more over the top on it.

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

I've never watched the 5th season. For me, Babylon 5 is a 4 season long show -- as well as the finale of season 5 (which was shot at the end of s4 if I'm correct).

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

This is the most recent Babylon 5 topic I could find. Unfortunately sad news from JMS on Facebook:

I regret that I must convey the sad news that Michael O'Hare passed away today. He suffered a heart attack on Sunday and was in a coma until his passing this afternoon. This is a terrible loss for all B5 fans and everyone involved with the show wishes to convey their condolences to the O'Hare family. He was an amazing man.

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

Oh man... RIP

Way too many from the cast have already passed beyond the rim...

Re: How much would I enjoy Babylon 5 based on these tastes?
 

I could never get into the show. It just seemed really cheap to me. I didn't care about any of the characters the way I did for the people on DS9 or Next Generation and, yes, Voyager.