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B5 3rd season. (1 Viewer)

DaveGTP

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AT the very least, rent a few essential eps of S1, watch half of S2 THEN go to S3.
A good idea, but if you are a newbie, you really can't tell which ones are critical and which ones aren't. Plus, there is an occasional S1 and S2 ep that is really really good (like the surgery-is-against-our-religion episode in S1) that is not part of the overall plotline, but is good philosophical stuff that deserves a watch. For the price ($60-75ish) that you can get B5 seasons for, it's well worth it.

JMS wrote the series as one long story, with several 1 or 2 season-long story arcs. That's why B5 is so great. That's why you should watch from the beginning. About the only thing you could really skip without missing much would be the pilot. Rent the first season from Netflix, greencine, etc, before trying to watch the middle of the book (err, show)!!
 

John Berggren

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If you're new to Season 3, how are you sure you got all the relevant parts of Season 1?
A friend of mine provided me with a list of 2 or 3 episodes that could be missed in season 1.

When my partner, who has less patience than I do with the nature of season 1, decided he would try it, my friend and I determined the bare minimum of episodes to watch and not miss anything integral. I can supply this list to anyone who wishes.

I found season 1 to be a challenge. I found season 2 to be quite enjoyable. I'd hate to think that someone might skip the later seasons simply because they forced themselves to watch all 22 episodes of season 1. TKO? Infection?
 

Rob T

Screenwriter
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I picked it up at Costco today for $74.94. No floaters. No scratched discs. :)
I won't be able to get to it till Thursday at the earliest though. :frowning:
 

Philip Verdieck

Supporting Actor
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Jan 23, 1999
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WARNING

Do not watch the introduction, or listen to the commentary by JMS if you have not seen season 3 before.

The intro is full like a summary of various highlights in the season. Also, when he does commentary, he talks about implications of events throughout the series.

JMS takes the viewpoint that it is the experienced fans who are buying these, so he can feel free to talk about everything.

Update: I am done with the Severed Dreams commentary, and it doesn't give anything away. Feel free to watch it.

Update 2: I have listened to the Zha'ha'Dum commentary. There are two instances where the point is mentioned which is a spoiler. If you want to listen to it, mute it:
1) right after Sheridan starts packing his PPGs and looks in the mirror until Sheridan walks out to access the Babcom Unit.
2) right after the White Star comes down hot until the jump is made

Update 3: The gang commentary (Morden/Sheridan/Garibaldi/Dr. Franklin) is great. There is a little bit of spoiler mentioned during the end credits. Mute it then.

Crap.
Defect in SD. After Sheridan orders forward interceptors fired, the screen shows Ivanova, then jumps to the 1st scene. I can fast forward by it, but when backing up, it will lock. Some of the scene afterwards appears unattainable.
 

DaveGTP

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Thanks for the warning. I know enough not to watch the commentaries, but I was going to watch the into. I have it sitting here at work. I don't get to watch it until 11pm tonight.
 

Eric F

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Sep 5, 1999
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If noone else said it then I will-
If you're not going to watch from the beginning, don't bother.

I started watching B5 during its original run, and I think it was the end of Season2. I was hooked, but I had no idea what was going on half the time, even into the end of the series. It wasn't until TNT started rerunning it that it caught me up to speed.
 

Philip Verdieck

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You can enjoy B5 if you start at S3. You will be missing a lot of backstory. If I was going to have to miss 1 season before watching B5, it would be the first.
 

Britton

Screenwriter
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Jun 3, 2001
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Defect in SD. After Sheridan orders forward interceptors fired, the screen shows Ivanova, then jumps to the 1st scene. I can fast forward by it, but when backing up, it will lock. Some of the scene afterwards appears unattainable.
Oh man... I've only gotten through 6 episodes so far, but I can feel your pain. SD is one of the very best episodes, and I imagine it's doubly painful for the flow of that one to be interrupted.
 

Matthew_Millheiser

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 1, 2000
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I really can't see how one could watch B5 starting with S3 and truly enjoy it, unless said person ramped up quickly by consulting The Lurker's Guide To Babylon 5 and getting up to speed.

I watched the pilot episode in 1994, wasn't too impressed but wasn't horrified either, caught the last few eps of the first season and almost all of the second, and was still a little behind when it came to season three began in 1995. The Lurker's Guide is a great tool, not only to get caught up but to also get background as well as JMS thoughts on each and every episode.
 

Andrea W

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B5 season 3 came from amazon.ca today. That was way faster than I expected. That extra $1 for expedited international shipping is well worth it. I had two floaters, though. Disc 2 and disc 4. They don't appeared scratched, thank goodness. To be safe, though, I'll have to run them through my DVD player and see if it crashes or not.
 

Britton

Screenwriter
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Jun 3, 2001
Messages
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Hmm, my discs 2 and 4 were also floaters. I wish Warner would use some better hubs for these things.
 

GarySchrock

Second Unit
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Feb 28, 2003
Messages
294
Whelp, 2 floaters for me too. Disc 2 and 4 also, and disc 2 is pretty scratched up. Now I have to deal with amazon.ca to return it. Knew I should have just bought the stupid thing locally.

You'd think they'd have learned how to package these things without them falling out. This whole situation is just getting ridiculous. I need to pull the discs in the sets I have already out and put them in better cases, I just can't trust this book style case to hold the discs securely.
 

MarkHarrison

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 14, 2002
Messages
597
Whelp, 2 floaters for me too. Disc 2 and 4 also, and disc 2 is pretty scratched up. Now I have to deal with amazon.ca to return it. Knew I should have just bought the stupid thing locally.
For my favorite TV show of all time, it's well worth the extra money to just zip over to CostCo and pay the $69.99 (no tax in Oregon :)). I know I could save about $15-$20 online, but this way I don't have to worry about returns. Just shake the boxes to find a good copy and I'm done.
 

Britton

Screenwriter
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Jun 3, 2001
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The main reason I order these boxed sets mostly from Amazon is due to the return process. For example, if I make my way through a 6 disc set, only to find the last minute on the last disc locks up or has some glitch, Amazon ships me a replacement, I swap out the bad disc, and that's that. My local Best Buy is horrible because they usually won't let me just swap out the bad disc(s). Instead, I have to exchange the ENTIRE set and then go back and rewatch all the episodes I've already seen just to make sure those aren't glitchy. Trust me, watching something just to make sure it works isn't a whole lot of fun. Costco is a different case since they take back opened DVDs, so I can just buy another set, swap the discs and return the bad ones.

Anyway, I'm through the first 14 episodes and I'll tackle the final 8 tomorrow. Bring on Season 4!!!
 

nolesrule

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When I return my B5 sets at Best Buy (I've had scratched discs for all 3 seasons), I bring back the whole package, open the new one at the return counter in front of the csr and just mix-and-match the good discs from each package to get a complete set.
 

DaveGTP

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Jul 24, 2002
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This is why I do the Suncoast-triple points method. Got the set for about $67ish after gift certs. Never a return problem at Suncoast. I will go burn the gift certs on a reasonably priced anime or something next week.
 

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