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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HIXIE129

Monday, March 24, 2008 12:11 PM

B5 was a great show and the actors were terrific.

JONGSSTRAW

Monday, March 24, 2008 12:48 PM

I bought Season 3 & Season 4. Those seasons wrap up the Shadow War, and the War against Earth in one continuing arc. Next to Firefly, I love these episodes more than any other sci-fi show. The action is great, the stories are great, but most importantly is the fact that all the main characters undergo a personal crisis that changes their behavior in interesting ways.

MUDKICKER

Monday, March 24, 2008 2:49 PM

Ugh. B-5. Utter crap. Never liked it... never will. But that's just me.

Sorry folks.

____________________________________

"We are not gonna die. You know why? Because we are so...very...pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

PVT Gabriel "Mudkicker" Sheppard, 76th Independent Battalion

CHRISISALL

Monday, March 24, 2008 8:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
B5 has to be viewed as a whole entity, one in which the sum is definitely more valuable than any of its individual parts.

Amazon has 1-5 for $210, would you say that's a fair price?

Quizical Chrisisall

ECGORDON

Monday, March 24, 2008 11:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
B5 has to be viewed as a whole entity, one in which the sum is definitely more valuable than any of its individual parts.
Amazon has 1-5 for $210, would you say that's a fair price?

Quizical Chrisisall

That works out to $41.99 per season, which is definitely not as good as the $19.99 per season I paid at Best Buy last year (and I believe amazon had a similar sale on at the same time). Either wait for another sale or just buy the first four seasons, since individually those are only $39.99 each right now. Of course three and four are the best but won't mean anything to you without seeing the preceding episodes, and don't forget that the original pilot film, "The Gathering," is not included in the season one set, but can be purchased on a dual-sided disc along with "Babylon 5: In the Beginning," as well as the five disc "Movie Collection" set.

Season five is worth buying only if you really enjoy the first four, but the plotlines in it were anti-climactic. JMS crammed his originally conceived season five stories into season four because he feared they would not get renewed for another year.

And of course, as I have done on several other threads recently, I'll do a bit of self promotion and provide a link to my review page for the series - http://templetongate.net/babylon5.htm

TRAVELER

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:59 AM

There is a story arc that requires seeing the each season. If you don't know the on going plot it is hard to tell the characters motivations. There are also subplots that leak in and you may lose a lot if you miss those. It is like the old time serials that played in the theaters in the 30's to fill the theater in the afternoons with kids. Return next week and see if Flash escapes the deathtrap of Ming the Mercilous.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

ECGORDON

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 2:49 AM

In regards to my review that I linked to earlier, I probably should do some revisions to that. I wrote it nearly seven years ago now, and at that time I said the FX was impressive for tv. But since then we have had Firefly, BSG and the Stargates, all of which put the B5 effects to shame. I based that statement on what I was seeing on the Sci-Fi channel at the time, but the dvd transfers actually highlight the deficiencies of the FX. The live action was shot on Super-16 and that transferred okay to a widescreen format, but the FX had to be blown up then cropped to 16-9 ratio, so it looks grainy and quite fake now. Still, B5 lives and breathes through the storylines and the character development, not the FX.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 4:43 PM

You know I never really cared that much for Babylon-5 either, even though generally I only have good things to say about it.

The thing about Babylon-5 is that every time I see it, I get the impression that it’s good science fiction. Unlike a lot of science fiction it does actually attempt to keep to the laws of physics, which would normally make me love a show, and then there is the epic and dramatic backstory - another staple of good sci-fi. You’d think that Babylon 5 would be among the greatest scifi in the history of scif, but somehow it just doesn’t work. It just doesn’t keep my attention or my interest on an individual episode level. I think maybe it tries to go so hardcore scifi that it forgets the simply dramatic elements of storytelling.

I don’t really know, but that’s kind of my impression. I keep thinking that the key is to sit down and watch everything in it’s entirety in order, and then maybe the story will come out and make sense, but that’s a lot of episodes to commit to all at once.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

ECGORDON

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 11:08 AM

I don't know if this is true or not, but someone on the scifi.com forums posted that next week's Best Buy sale will include all seasons of Babylon 5 for $19.99 each. I'm hoping that includes the Movie Collection since that is all I lack to complete my set.

BARNSTORMER

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 1:43 PM

Auraptor,

I had a real hard time getting into B5. My sister kept trying to get me to watch, but everytime I did, I thought it was'nt worth it.

Then one day I caught a piece of "In the beginning" while channel surfing. This was a B5 movie that got into the pre-history of the B5 verse.

There were several scenes in the movie that hooked me, much in the same way that the first aired firefly ep hooked me.

I still can't stand seasons 1 and 5 though. But 2,3,and 4 were pretty good IMO. Even if some of the episodes were a bit lame.

Am I a Lion?... No, I think I'ma tellin' the truth.

BarnStormer

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