No matter how hard I try, I can't stand Babylon 5

POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 22:30
VIEWED: 5200
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AURAPTOR

Sunday, March 23, 2008 3:06 PM

I can't put my finger on it, but every time I try to give it a chance, I always come to the same conclusion. Babylon 5 is a poser. It's lame and it's garbage. It was from the "best space battle smack talk" thread that I watched another clip from B-5. And as always, the characters seemed forced and rigid, while the effects are just sad. They remind me of the lame 80's version of Buck Rogers, with the most economic of upgrades. There's just nothing on that show which feels real, feels natural. I've never bought into anything about that show, from the aliens, the story premise, the characters, not one gorram thing!

No offense meant, either. I've seen how B-5 has its following, and for the life of me, I can't understand why. If someone were to trash Firefly, then I'd just assume they hate all things Sci-Fi, and write it off to ignorance. And I know some prefer Trek to Star Wars, though I'm glad for both, actually. There are movies and series which I prefer over others, some I care less for than others. But all in all, I can't think of a 'mainstream' sci - fi brand which annoys me more than Babylon 5.

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

PIRATECAT

Sunday, March 23, 2008 3:23 PM

AU you ignant potatoe picker. Offense taken its time to put on the cyber gloves. Smack there ya go. Take another big fella. Listen when it came out it was fresh with new scifi special effects no models anymore. Now by firefly standards its slow. Unifying the universe for peace seems lame. No more Federation control freaks in uptight spandex uniforms to enlighten us. As Earthers we are to just go out there and tear up some more planets cause we can. Also if you didn't take a pay cut in B5 you ended up on reality tv like jeff conway. later gator pc

"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".

AURAPTOR

Sunday, March 23, 2008 4:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by PirateCat:
AU you ignant potatoe picker. Offense taken its time to put on the cyber gloves. Smack there ya go. Take another big fella. Listen when it came out it was fresh with new scifi special effects no models anymore. Now by firefly standards its slow. Unifying the universe for peace seems lame. No more Federation control freaks in uptight spandex uniforms to enlighten us. As Earthers we are to just go out there and tear up some more planets cause we can. Also if you didn't take a pay cut in B5 you ended up on reality tv like jeff conway. later gator pc

"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".

Wow. That was rather..... tepid. Much like B-5. Figures.

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

CHRISISALL

Sunday, March 23, 2008 5:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
I've seen how B-5 has its following, and for the life of me, I can't understand why.

I think it's one of those cumulative things- like how I wasn't into Buffy for real until near the end of season two- before that I could have stopped watching and never looked back, now I think Buffy is gold. I think B5 has to be looked at the same way- if ya don't give it a couple seasons to get ya, don't bother with it. But I have close friends that swear by it, as well as peeps HERE that are swaying me in that direction.
Yeah, it seems a little stiff in clips, I'll give ya that. And a mite expensive, but I'm still intrigued.

Ivanovaisall

ASARIAN

Sunday, March 23, 2008 5:28 PM

Odd. No matter how hard I try, I can't not stand it. :) Yes, the CGI sucks. But it has a helluva story line; and it definitely works for me.

--
"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"

LEADB

Sunday, March 23, 2008 5:31 PM

I never cared for B5 until I started watching it from the beginning. I found it to be very serial oriented. I also didn't much care for season 5; I won't be offended if you start watching it from season 1 and just stop at the end of season 4 ;-)

Actually, I won't be offended if you don't even give it another chance. I'm not easily offended.

AURAPTOR

Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Odd. No matter how hard I try, I can't not stand it. :) Yes, the CGI sucks. But it has a helluva story line; and it definitely works for me.

--
"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"

Here's the kicker, I don't find Dr Who's FX to be anything special. In fact, I find them to be down right goofy, but the story line and the characters pull me in. ( The fact that it's British might be have something to do w/ it , but I dunno ) I guess what it really comes down to is that I'm perplexed that I am not in the least bit interested in B-5, and yet so many here whose views on Sci-fi with which I agree and whose opinions I value can be so far apart on this one issue. Now, I never read the DUNE series of books either, and the movies, by all accounts, were 'iffy' at best, but DUNE doesn't come anywhere close to annoying me as does B-5.

And chrisisall, this goes well beyond my reluctance to watch something like Buffy. The few times early on when I watched Buffy, I was fairly impressed, but since I hadn't followed from the start, I kinda just stayed away. It wasn't until I started watching Angel, and realized so much of it was tied to Buffy ( in character histories, story plot, etc... ) that I decided to give BTVS a proper try. And because It was Joss, I knew it was going to be good. i just didn't know HOW good.

It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

IMNOTHERE

Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
I've seen how B-5 has its following, and for the life of me, I can't understand why.

B5 was a milestone without which we might never have seen newBSG, Heroes, Firefly, Farscape, Andromeda - at least not in the form we know.

Sadly, though, I don't think it has aged very well. Unless you got into it when it first aired, I can understand that it would be hard to see what all the fuss was about.

Since the whole premise is very much a classical tragedy, it was produced in a theatrical/melodramatic style (as was Star Trek) which was already going out of vogue at the time in favor of the pseudo-realism of shows like newBSG.

It was also an early pioneer of CGI "model" work and virtual sets (certainly on TV) - at the time, it was pretty stunning: nothing like those space battles had been seen outside of the cinema (the closest Star Trek, TNG came was in Best of Both Worlds - and that was a big season finale - B5 did it several times a season). Ditto for make up - Trek was in the "aliens are humans with lumpy foreheads" phase - B5 had regular characters in full-face prosthetics. We've seen better since - but it was B5 raised the bar.

Unfortunately the DVD transfer did not do justice to these due to the "interesting" decision to go for a widescreen transfer - great for all the live filmed on super-16, but disastrous for the CGI and composite stuff which had to be taken from video, cropped and zoomed to 16:9.

There's also the small matter of ending the reign of the Star Trek Plot Reset Button (or Omega 9 or whatever they call it in Galaxy Quest). B5 actually had a pre-planned 5-year story with a beginning, middle and end. That was quite unique at the time, and probably too ambitious - but most shows since have at least had season-length plot arcs.

ECGORDON

Sunday, March 23, 2008 9:04 PM

B5 has to be viewed as a whole entity, one in which the sum is definitely more valuable than any of its individual parts. The first season was weak, but seasons two-four is some of the best SF on television (or film), only rivaled in my mind by Firefly and Lost since then. And as much as I like the majority of the new BSG, I think B5 was (and still is) superior.

DEEPGIRL187

Monday, March 24, 2008 10:27 AM

I never got a chance to watch B5 all the way through, but what I did see was good. I honestly enjoyed more than what I saw of Star Trek (the only show I could bring myself to enjoy was DS9). I will say that I didn't enjoy the first captain as much as the second.

Also, Garibaldi and Marcus kicked ass.

****************************************************

"This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at 30 paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."

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