Babylon 5 Newbie's What's the Verdict?

I know what you mean. I'm also curious to hear from the newbies. (Although there have been one or two posts in other threads.) Actually I'm hoping Ron finds time to write a review, since I don't think he's watched the series before. Like him I never watched The X-Files when it was originally aired, and only discovered it on DVD. The couple of first season episodes I happened to catch didn't impress me, so I stopped watching the show. When I caught a third season episode at a friend's house and liked it, I was interested, but found the mythology a bit dense and confusing at that point. I wanted to watch the show from the beginning, which I never managed to do with the broadcast reruns. When the DVDs were released I took a chance, and bought the first season sight unseen. (Although I was also gambling my money with another motive. I was hoping that if Fox had a hit with The X-Files in a full-season boxed set, Warner Bros. might finally get off its encounter-suited butt and do something with B5. It's taken them a couple of years, but they finally have.)

I, too, found myself enjoying S1 much more this time than on previous viewings, not only because of having the benefit of hindsight (I've probably watched the whole series 8 or 9 times by now) but because watching four episodes back-to-back with no commercials is a different experience. And I'm still spotting things that I never caught all the other times I've watched it. (The clarity of the DVD image and the crystal-clear freeze-frames help. Great for reading all those Universe Today headlines. In one shot Garibaldi is reading the paper and there is a story about blending Human and alien DNA. Then he folds the paper down to reveal a certain character entering his office. Nice touch. And being able to read the title of Harlan Ellison's never-written autobiography, Working Without a Net, which Ivanova is reading in one scene.)

I'm also hearing things I've never heard before - like the station P.A. system announcing a Harlan Ellison book-signing in the background while two characters are doing a "walk'n'talk". I even think I caught a dialogue blooper by Claudia Christian that somehow slipped through, but I want to double-check it before I say more.

So c'mon folks. What did you think of S1?

Regards,

Joe

I agree with Joe. I always said you must watch season 1 again after the series is over and you grow a better appreciation for it. Watching them all back to back without commercials and excellent sound you can pick up things you never noticed such as the P.A. announcements and newspapers Joe Mentioned. I actually am watching parts of the set again a second time as there are some good episodes in Season 1. Even a few others dont like , i love because there are things even in those episodes forshadowed which mattered big time.


capt

I've never seen the series (nor Buffy, OZ, Sex and the City) but got B5 because it was a impulse buy and I had nothing to do over a weekend. I loved it and am looking forward to the rest of the series. I am hoping they accelerate the release schedule to something more like what Paramount does with the ST: TNG or DS9.
I am happy with it!
I did try to watch it when it was on TNT but just didn't get into it.

Felici-who?

I watched B5 from the beginning. I loved the whole series. I always liked Sinclair and was a little disappointed when he was replaced. Then Heridan grew on me. I did like that they followed thru with Sinclair's story though.

Seasons 2 thru 4 were fantastic. Granted the dialog was sometimes a little rough, but it was that big epic story that hooked me.

The season one DVD has been sitting on my shelf since it was released. I'm getting a 53" widescreen set on Monday and I have been saving a few things to premier on it. I can't wait!

Ric

Unfortunately, that probably won't be possible. Paramount was only able to do what it did with the Trek shows by starting work on the last year. They were already hard at work on DS9 before the first TNG set went on-sale. Because Trek has a huge built-in audience, Paramount was never in any doubt about making a profit on the DVD release. Warner Bros. was much less certain about B5, so they weren't willing to invest millions far in advance of the first release. They've only just started work on S2, now that they've seen the sales figures for S1.

The good news is a report out of London that shows a September release for S3, rather than the November release we've been led to expect. Assuming the report is accurate, it looks like they may be shortening the time between sets from four months to six, which means they will finish six months sooner than their tentative release schedule said they would.


Yeah, I've found even episodes I didn't like myself the first couple of times around (and which I therefore didn't go out of my way to watch in reruns) are better than I remembered them as being - even without the truly amazing foreshadowing. I find that Ivanova's "B" story in "TKO" more than makes up for the rather routine "Rocky" plot of the "A" story. (And I do like the fact that they used Sugar Ray Robinson's real name, Walker Smith, as the name of the boxer.) "Grail" was more fun than I remembered it as being. I'm very impressed by the job of reintroducing the show and the characters that "Midnight on the Firing Line" does. And it was only when watching it this time that I really understood Delenn's violent reaction to the alien in "Soul Hunter". Her story about a Minbari version of the boogey-man never sounded convincing to me. But think about it - which soul of all those on Babylon 5 would Delenn think most likely to attract a Soul Hunter? No wonder she tried to kill him.

Regards,

Joe

I'm not exactly a B5 newbie, but I have not seen seasons 2 & 3 yet and want to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Do the special features on the Season 1 DVD give away anything from the other seasons?

Thanks!

Gregory

Actually, there are a few spoilers in the data files (the Vorlon one, and the Delenn one). One of the commentaries gives away a few points as well.

The documentaries are fine though.

Len

I watched part of one episode during B5's original run. It was a couple of seasons into the show and the episode made little sense not having seen earlier shows. I then pretty much put B5 out of my mind.

But what the heck, I'm a sucker for DVDs, and besides my rental queue at netflix was getting low. So I rented the first disc.

I watched all four episodes on the disc in one sitting. The next day I went out and bought the S1 set. I enjoyed all the episodes, but "Signs and Portents" set the hook and reeled me in. I watched the whole season over one weekend.

I can't wait for the rest.

I refuse to watch any show with a guy who looks like this:



No way. Color me shallow and petty, but I could just never take it seriously.

At any rate, it always seemed to be one of those shows that is only liked by people who like ANYTHING sci-fi. And I caught part of an episode once and it seemed excessively melodramatic.

But, I am glad that it is being released for all the fans.

/\
That couldn't be further from the truth. B5 is something of an acquired taste to many and I don't think you can even remotely say the show is loved only by people who love ANYTHING sci-fi. There are plenty of people like that who didn't get into the show. It's not the kind of show everybody gets into easily.

Season one wasn't the greatest, but I enjoyed it. It's the next few seasons that will really crank things up. Too bad somebody's missing out on a great series because of one character's head piece. You're really missing out.

Indeed.

I haven't got the cash to pick it up yet. I got to get my 5.1 speaker set first. I'm hoping for it for Christmas. If I don't get it then, then I'll get it ASAP.

I refuse to watch any show with a guy who looks like this:
------------------------------------------------------------
That's too bad because the Lando character is one of the more interesting characters in the show, along with G'Kar. The show does get melodramatic in spots, but that can be said for any show.

Ok, I'll get out my crayons and start coloring.

From what I've seen it definitely is one of the more intelligent things to appear on TV. The show takes itself very seriously and, bad hair day or not, that character is extremely interesting.

And no, I don't like "ANYTHING sci-fi" - my list of enjoyable sci-fi on TV is limited to Dr Who, Red Dwarf, X-Files, and now B5. Yes, there's a rather large franchise missing from that list...

Quote:
---At any rate, it always seemed to be one of those shows that is only liked by people who like ANYTHING sci-fi. And I caught part of an episode once and it seemed excessively melodramatic.---


Couldn't be further from the truth. I like Sci-Fi but am a little selective on the type of Sci-Fi I like. I have tried for years to like Star Trek. I have seen all the Original series, The Movies and have sampled all of the other shows and I cannot get into any of them. I did like DS9 a little and I am considering giving it another try but all the rest of Star Trek is definately not for me. I love Babylon 5. It is my favorite Sci-Fi show and one of my favorite shows of all time and I definately do not like anything Sci-Fi. I really like the character development in this show as well as the main Story arcs.
As far as the look of a character goes, you could pull one character fom any sci-fi movie or T.V. show and make the same statement so that seems like a limp reason to not watch a Sci-Fi show.

He was a well-developed character, and a study in what pride, lack of foresight and unbriddled ambition will result in. Truly one of the most compelling and tragic characters in sci-fi. You have to watch the whole series, though, to appreciate how his blind lust for glory, power and throne cause him to make one foolish decision after another.

IM(H)O, no character in any sci fi series, including ST (with the possible exception of Kira in DS9) is better developed over a five year period - in any show for that matter.

Yes, as JMS (creator executive producer J. Michael Straczynski) notes, in many ways Babylon 5 is as much Londo's story as it is anyone else's.

And yes, many people dismissed it as the show "with that guy with the silly hair". Their loss. Peter Jurassik acted his way out from under that hair to become one of the most memorable characters in television history for those who bothered to watch. Not SF television history, mind you. He's as vivid a character as any you can name in the 50+ year history of the medium.

About the hair - it was a mistake. As JMS explains on one of the commentary tracks, they originally envisioned the a short hair crest running from side to side on the head. Those who have seen the entire series will remember there is a fad for a "short-haired look" among certain younger Centauri in a later season. That is pretty much what they were all supposed to look like. To create those hairdos the makeup people would take long strands of hair, build up a "fan" and then cut it back. When they were doing the first make-up tests for the pilot Peter J. walked out of make-up before they trimmed it back and found JMS. "What do you think?" he asked, kidding. "Do you like it?" JMS thought the actor really liked it. Not wanting to step on his creativity he said, "Fine. We can work with that." At this point Jurassik thought JMS really meant for this to be what he wore, so he didn't dare admit to the producer that he had been kidding.

Thus the long-haired Centauri were born. They spent all of S1 trying to get the damned hair to work, adding more each week. They finally developed an almost solid-looking "fan" of hair (that looked like it could cut you) early in S2 and that became the standard look for Centauri males for the balance of the series. JMS actually apologizes for how bad the hair looks in S1 on the commentary, but they did their best. Considering that B5 was produced on less than half the budget of a TNG or DS9, I'm willing to cut them some slack. As with a lot of British SF, this is a series where you tune in for the characters and the story, not for glitzy FX that are there mostly to cover the fact that the characters and story aren't very interesting.

And just to repeat one point, B5 is far from a show that "people who like anything SF" are drawn to. People who like written SF are drawn to it, and many of those avoid screen SF like the plague. Lots of people who aren't drawn to SF at all enjoy it, just as lots of people who could never stand watching standard cop shows became hooked on Hill Street Blues or NYPD Blue.

Chuck:

If you are so prejudiced against the show, why bother posting to a thread that you know in advance is going to be populated by fans, or at least those willing to give it a chance? I'm genuinely curious, becuase I've never understood this interest. I see threads all the time asking "when is X going to be released" where my immediate reaction is "why was X ever made?" But it would never cross my mind to read the thread, much less post a "gee, I always thought this movied sucked but I hope it gets released for the sake of its fans" note. (I was going to say, "If you so dislike a show...", but then remembered that you haven't even seen a whole episode, so you can't have any actual grounds for disliking it, just a bad reaction to a single image.)

I'd like to offer you a challenge. Go rent a copy of disc 1, and then watch all four episodes on it. Post again to let us know what you thought of it. I'd be very interested in knowing.

Regards,

Joe

To ignore Londo could mean missing out on your Ladies of Narn Calender!

Oh, yeah! Miss September (Na'Toth) is hot!

(Actually, Julie Caitlin Brown is very good-looking when she isn't hidden under all that makeup.)

Regards,

Joe

Another thing I found unique about this show was the way they showed spacecraft flying. This is one of the few SF shows I have seen, where the ships did not necessarily fly like they were airplanes in an atmosphere. It is one of the few SF shows where the ships would, at times, be rotated completely around the pitch axis. There is only one other movie, that I can think of, where the spacecraft operated in a more realistic manner: 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Y'know what Chuck? When B5 first aired, I had the same reaction. Couldn't take an "alien" that looked like that seriously. The costume... the HAIR. Even watched PART of an episode, and thought... "well... this won't be around long."

Never watched B5 again... for a couple of years. Then I heard people talking about it... the characters... plots within plots... huge story arc... so I thought... "heck... I'll watch another one". Nothing else was on.. so what the heck.

I've never looked back. And I officially became a B5-nut. I've now seen the entire series three times, and I *still* catch little details that make me go "geez! So THAT is why that happened!" The overall story-arc has tiny tendrils that link up all over the place. Really rather amazing.

And the folks here are right. The character of Londo is one of the most compelling and well-developed characters that has appeared on TV. Not just sci-fi... but TV.

I agree with Joseph. Watch just one disk... and see what you think. Don't make the mistake that I did and write it off because of the appearance of one character.

And if ya still don't like it... that's your call.

Personally, I'm glad I give it another go!

And you can add to this that Londo's character was basically a drunk dope in the pilot did not help matters any.

Like everyone else on here, Londo's character development (thanks to some Emmy Award class acting by Peter J.) was about as vast and intelligent as any character development in the history of TV, I kid you not.

One of the reasons I hope Ron gives the show a chance in a review because if he reviews it, I know that will convince other newbies to give it a shot.

If my damn box set would ever arrive from TAU, I could start to rediscover this brilliant series all over again.

Andy

Yeah. Although they made concessions to the requirements of action/adventure, like sound in space, they tried very hard to be as scientifically accurate as possible. In fact, when NASA was noodling with ideas for "workhorse" space tug/construction vehicle for the international spacestation, they looked at the Star Fury design and decided they really couldn't improve on it. So they contacted JMS and asked if they could base their eventual craft on that design. He said, "Yes, but only if you promise to name the things Star Furies when you build them." They agreed.

Similarly, no Earth station or ship has artificial gravity. They either simulate gravity by rotation, or everybody stays in free-fall. Some alien races, with access to advanced technology, do have artificial gravity, but it isn't something we are likely to develop in a mere 200 years, (assuming it is even possible) so we aren't shown as having it.

In fact, this touches on another thing I like about the show. The Humans are neither the technological top dogs in the galaxy, nor tied for the honor. In the Trek shows the major races - Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans - are all pretty much equal, and together have the most advanced technology among the races commonly seen in the show. In B5 the Vorlons are ahead of everybody, the Minbair next (they were fighting interstellar wars 1,000 years ago), the Centauri after them. The Humans and the Narn are playing catch-up, mostly with technology bought or stolen from more advanced races. It gives both the political and the military situation more possibilities. Earth ships aren't so powerful that you have to invent a one-shot super-advanced alien species, or have a major system breakdown, everytime you want to show one in danger.

Regards,

Joe

Speaking of details, how about this....

In Deathwalker (Season One) The Kosh and Talia bit. Now flash forward to season four and a little something a certain main (paranoid) character draws something into the steam on the mirror. Know what I am referring to? Took a couple of viewings for me to catch that one.

I recently finished season one, just starting first episode of season 2. I must say i too had prejudices on the series before going into it, but now i have very few left.
Entering the world of Babylon 5 was odd at first for me... the costumes, makeup, backgrounds, and sfx were putting me off. Those aspects have grown on me, or they simply arent affecting me anymore. I've found the soul of the show to be in the characters, and the story ... as it should be

The show is becoming quite good, and i cant wait to see where they are taking us in season 2. I hope it will prove to be better than the first season.

Now I cant say i would recommend the show to everyone, but you do own it a try. I would never have given it a thought if one of my friend didnt push me into watching it ... and so far im not regretting it.

Now if anyone can help me, i would have one question, not really about the story, but anyway:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

if the above cant be answered without going into spoilers dont bother with it.

I am not quite sure the exact circumstances about O'Hare's departure but there does not appear to be any ill-feeling between the parties, and his story is not over...

Your experience with B5 mirrors my own. I was put off by the series at first, but after a few episodes it really grew on me. The best is yet to come!!