Babylon 5 newbies? (Richard Biggs - RIP) (1 Viewer)

I picked up the season 2 box set of Babylon 5 yesterday and I figure that there may be some people who are viewing the series for the first time (as I am doing with Farscape).

I'm a pretty hardcore fan, and I was curious to read some impressions of new viewers as they watch the show.

I suggest we keep the thread free of spoilers, except season 1, since that set was released a while ago.

And if anyone is watching it all for the first time, hold on to your seat- it gets so good!

Don't mean to throw water on your thread, but I think someone else recently started a thread for Babylon 5 "newbies" over in the DVD-area.

You can't have to many B5 threads!

My set should arrive soon. There are quite a few S2 eps I never watched (but not as much as in S1), although I read everything about them in the Lurkers Guide. Same with S3: I never watched Severed Dreams!!!

I really hope some newbie speak up.

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Holadem

The only other B5 thread I found was about the discs themselves in the Software forum, but if this discussion is moved there, that's fine.

The Sci Fi Channel is currently showing Babylon 5 at 9am. I think that Season 2 starts tomorrow. So once we're finished with our Season 2 DVDs, we can turn to Sci-Fi to tide us over until the next DVD release.

The Coming of Shadows

My God. Nothing on TV makes me feel like this ep does, except a few other eps of... Babylon 5 . This is only my second time watching it in 7 years or so and I had forgotten how good it was. It won a Hugo for best dramatic presentation, and while I am not sure if that is a worthy award (I know nothing about the Hugos), it is IMO one of the best dramatic presentation of any series I have seen, Sci-fi or not. The writing of course is what makes this episode, however, everything else was perfect, even the music which is usually too bombastic and cheesy IMO. It was a directorial tour de force as evidenced by the restrain used in that major scene with the emperor (not the end).

Great ep, I almost want to jump Straight to the Long Twilight Struggle .

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Holadem

The Hugos are very prestigious in the world of sci-fi.

Did you watch the extras yet? There is a whole featurette about the Hugos. B5 won against some pretty stiff competition.

It is one of the great B5 eps. I consider it the first "masterpiece" of the series, where everything is pretty much perfect.


The character of the emperor is a great way to evoke sympathy, pity, and disgust for the Centauri, effectively making him the representative of his people, as a ruler should be.

I love the scene where G'Kar has a drink with Londo and shakes his hand. Eerie stuff.

I am waiting for Season 3 in August to come out, so then I can watch all 3 seasons back to back

I'll be glad to be able to revisit B5 (on DVD) in the summer once the TV season winds down this month. The first 4 seasons of this show are fantastic.

Is there a 5th season?

I only watched perhaps 5-10 eps, including the last few ones and the finale. I absolutely CANNOT stand Byron.

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Holadem

I like Byron more than most, but what I do hate is that

(season 5 spoilers)


JMS' true vision of the first half of the 5th season never came to fruition due to the uncertainty of whether there would even be a 5th season, resulting in the the compression of the 4th season and Claudia Christian's departure.

I think the story of the rogue telepaths is an important one, but would have been better if it would have been spread out and not as concentrated in such a short amount of time. Also, it was supposed to involve Ivanova, not Lyta, which would have made for some great drama.

The rest of the 5th season is as brilliant as the rest of the series. The Drazi hiding Shadow tech, the Narns bombing Centauri, the beginnings of the ISA, and the final fate of Londo- great, great stuff.

Yeah, things got better in the second half of season 5, once they get rid of Byron. While the idea was nice, it would have worked better if they actually got an actor with CHARISMA, instead of that piece of wood that was the guy who played Byron.

Jason

You know guys, there are an awful lot of spoilers here for a thread call 'Babylon 5 newbies'.

Hey guys, This thread is titled "Babylon 5 Newbies" and as stated in the first post:

"I suggest we keep the thread free of spoilers, except season 1, since that set was released a while ago."

I love the s4/5 conversations as much as any other confirmed B5 fan, but mayhaps it needs a new thread.

[edited to add:] What She said...

Eric

You guys are right, but no newbies responded, so I assumed there are no newbies posting here or who want to participate in the thread.

I'm a newbie

Hi Julie, while there were some spoilers, I can assure you you haven't read anything damaging.

Mike, it would be nice to go back and erase stuff...

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Holadem

I'm a newbie too. Just made it up to episode 16 (Eyes) of season 1 but I have season 2 here and all ready to go. I can't believe that people watched this & followed it with episodes a week apart---you get a heck of a lot more out of it watching them back to back to back. The problem is, what to do after I run through S2?? :b Anyway, it's as terrific as everyone insisted and well worth the cheap price.

It's irritating beyond belief that Straczynski spoils the ending of the series in his commentary to episode 13. Apparently he doesn't think anyone missed the series on its original run. Doofus. Whedon has the same problem on Buffy. I'm not going to listen to any more commentaries on this series until all five seasons are released. Does the documentary have a ton of spoilers too?