Hey all,

I'm considering checking out B5 via the season sets on Amazon UK (cheap!) to get more sci-fi since there isn't much good around these days and was wondering if any SF fans might have any suggestions on how much, or even if, I'd enjoy it based on my other tastes.

Star Trek TOS: Enjoyed it somewhat
Star Trek TOS movies: Greatly Enjoyed
Star Trek TNG: Greatly Enjoyed
Star Trek DS9: LOVED IT! (Fav show of all time along side M*A*S*H)
Star Trek Voy: Enjoyed Somewhat
Enterprise: Enjoyed
Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-5 (Showtime Years) Greatly Enjoyed, Seasons 6-10 (Sci-Fi Channel) Enjoyed Somewhat
Stargate Atlantis: Enjoyed somewhat
Firefly: Haven't seen it yet (I know it doesn't matter for my request but I figured considering the strong fan base it'd be mentioned anyways)

Thanks for any suggestions!

I've started season 1 of B5 a couple times and had to abandon ship for various reasons. I hear it starts slowly but gets amazing. I also understand that thematically it'd be similar to your fave, DS9 (which I really enjoyed), and era-wise I think it gets compared to Farscape (which I haven't watched).

I think it's definitely worth a try if you're a fan of sci-fi and DS9. Maybe try one season via free options to test before buying?

Might be of interest:

bsg, b5, farscape, or x-files (which to watch first?)

There is no vulgarity and it's all about the children of the various races. You'll love it.

I greatly enjoyed TNG (prefer TOS though) and thought B5 was far superior. I went through the 5 seasons in a few weeks 3 or 4 years ago.

It's a wonderful series and way better than DS9 in my opinion. Just be aware that it didn't have even half the budget of the various ST incarnations (just guessing) so there are rough makeup designs, especially the first season, and the special effects are of the time and not the greatest but pretty great for what they had to work with. The writing and story arcs are very good.
Def. recommend watching it.

If you like Star Trek, you'll probably like Babylon 5. It's superficially similar in that it takes place some three centuries in the future, has a military structure, and a similar aesthetic.

Unless you're a hardcore Trekkie and are turned off by other science fiction shows, you'll probably like it.

Walter Koenig is fantastic in Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is worth sticking with through the (usually painful) first season as it becomes the best scifi series I can think of.

Plus, it has Zathras in it!

Zathras: "Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people's needs. Very sad life... Probably have very sad death... but at least there is symmetry."

You will love B5, the shows have some similarities.

I watched several episodes of season one on some website and effects(I knew they'd suck beforehand though) sucked and the acting was just incredibly horrible IMO. The story seems like it would get really good though. I plan to give it a chance at some point.

Sure ... sounds like B5 should be right up your alley! Like others have mentioned, be prepared for spotty effects and acting and a general slow start to the series. But once you get into the meat of the giant story arc, television sf (or maybe even sf period) doesn't get much better.

I think a casting change in season 2 helped my enjoyment as well.
And I agree 100% with the above poster about Walter Koenig. His performance is a revelation if you think all he can do is play Chekov.

I've always told people that if you liked DS9, you would love Babylon 5

agreed

Thanks for all the comments everyone (except arminius - really?).

Sounds like the consensus is season one was a bit of a dog. Think it'd be a problem for me to skip to ordering the S2 set and going from there story wise?

No, I hear you need to stick with it for the whole story arc

(I mean, yes, it'd be a problem to skip it.)

Yes, you don't want to skip season 1. Honestly, I don't think it was that bad. It just paled in comparison with what followed.

"The Gathering" may be skippable though. While it sets up some things (the general setting and races, Sinclair's "missing" time), there's no information that wasn't repeated later. The producers did quite a bit of re-tooling from this to the actual start of the series.

Thanks for the FYI. I'll at least wait until I view thru season two before forming a judgement on the series.

Definitely a problem.

I agree -- "The Gathering" isn't a necessity. I didn't watch that until later.

Thanks for the link. I just read through it and it bumped BSG off my interest list thanks to this post:

It's getting so I pretty much want to wait til any series has ended before I invest my time in checking it out in case the Jesus crowd starts to infect it with their agenda.

Lord hemp me if one of the chicks on 2 Broke Girls finds religion during the run of the series.

I mentioned that I've started B5 twice, and both times I've started with The Gathering. I'm definitely skipping it next time!

You still need to see season 1 to learn the characters and their back stories.

At least 1 season one episode is critical to the overall storyline.

Just don't watch the last season, then. For me, it wrapped up nicely at the end of 4 (probably why i haven't gotten around to actually finishing 5).

As vocal as I am about that sort of stuff politically, I don't really mind it in entertainment if it is done well. I had no issues with the Lost or Quantum Leap final episodes for example. The imagery, the story-telling, and the mystical nature of religion are pretty captivating when done correctly.

Babylon 5 does a wonderful job blending the concept of religion and science and never talks down to either camp. They spend some time with the idea that advanced technology may appear as supernatural, as well as exploring the common themes that most religions share in several moving philosophical character debates.

I wouldn't say that iss a reason to not watch BSG
the religion stuff wasn't that bad to put up with

I loved BSG but agree it was hit or miss toward the end. What I usually tell people who are interested is that they can watch the miniseries and see if they like it enough to go on. It hooked me.