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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2018 4:15:06 GMT -6
Hi all,
People are recommending me this series quite a lot, recently. Supposedly, it's not only pretty good TV, but also sporting some sort of high-concept overreaching plotline. Now, having no specific opinions on this, I find: 100+ hours of TV, some really dated special effects, and, according to Wikipedia, a lot of conceptual changes during production, like the exchange of key characters.
So, my question is, having not watched an episode since perhaps the 90s, is all this praise justified, in your opinion? - I wouldn't mind watching a longer, even older series, for some time. - But since free time is precious, should I really invest it in this one?
Thanks,
Rafe
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Post by Stormcrow on Jul 8, 2018 14:13:09 GMT -6
Babylon 5 was very strong as a series-arc show, but not so much as an anthology show. The first season is infamously rough. But if you can get through it, you'll be rewarded by seasons-long story-arcs that reach mythic proportions. The end of the series is a bit rough too: they weren't sure they'd be renewed for a fifth season, so they shortened the main arcs and wrapped them up by the end of season four, then when they got a fifth season after all they wrapped up all the dangling bits they didn't have time to cram in. It's still worth watching the last season, but it'll seem a bit of an anticlimax.
The mid-series changes they were forced to make (typically by actors leaving the show) aren't as bad as you might think: they work them into the stories pretty well.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2018 4:37:20 GMT -6
Thanks, man. I'll give it a try, then! Actually, I watched a few episodes from the last season (not the spin-off, apparently, but really, season 5), and I liked that there was an apparent attempt to turn a very epic-scale story into a more intimate one. Seemed, in one word, pretty "sophisticated" sci-fi to me. Especially that this, after all, seems to have developed out of a pretty standard '90s series formula.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 9, 2018 15:40:51 GMT -6
I watched around half of the series and then drifted off to other things, as my attention span is rarely more than 3-4 seasons of the same show before I have to move on. I haven't gone back, but it's not because the series was bad. A friend of mine had the whole series and recommended it strongly enough that I gave it a shot. I liked what I saw enough that when B&N had all of the disks on a 50% off sale I bought the whole thing. As I noted, I haven't made it back.
There are several movies and several seasons. If I was to go back to watch the thing over, I'd try to watch in chronological order.
I found this somewhere online a while back, and it might help:
I can't quite follow that order since I don't own Crusade, but I think I have the rest on DVD.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jul 11, 2018 1:55:33 GMT -6
Babylon 5 is one of my favorite series ever. It's definitely worth watching.
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Post by Stormcrow on Jul 11, 2018 21:20:38 GMT -6
Good heavens, don't watch it in internal chronological order. You get massive spoilers that way. Watch it in air-date order.
Good luck with Crusade. It has some good stuff, but it hasn't aged well at all. The pilot episode is really awful.
The thing is, you don't really need to go outside of Babylon 5. You don't really need to go past season 4, to be honest, but if you just can't stop you can certainly do season 5.
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Post by verhaden on Jul 12, 2018 7:41:45 GMT -6
Air-date (or at least production date in situations where networks screw up airing order) is always my preference. In this case, JMS was largely in charge of episode ordering, so you're getting his intent watching it as such.
Being said, I'd also skip "The Gathering" and watch "Midnight on the Firing Line" first -- you can always go back and watch it whenever, but it's a rough early pilot.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2018 18:37:06 GMT -6
Starting tomorrow, with "The Gathering". I'll stick to air-date order, if only because I still need to find out whether I like this, or not. Looks nice; a bit campy, from today's perspective, but, as some of you might know, I like "Wing Commander" quite a lot - so there is no such thing as "bad special effects". Really pumped for this one - I've long been a fan of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes", another sci-fi saga of epic proportions. So, it will easy for me to like this one, too, I hope.
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Post by robertsconley on Jul 13, 2018 7:57:41 GMT -6
So, my question is, having not watched an episode since perhaps the 90s, is all this praise justified, in your opinion? - I wouldn't mind watching a longer, even older series, for some time. - But since free time is precious, should I really invest it in this one? Unequivocally yes it is worth watching. The characterization and plot are really that good. It has it ups and downs however overall it is one of the best. Seasons 1 and Season 5 are the weakest. Seasons 2, 3, and 4 are outstanding one of best epics ever done in science fiction. Crusade had potential but was cut short. The various B5 movies are of varying quality. In the Beginning is best watched after season 3. River of Souls is meh, Thirdspace is OK, A Call to Arms is decent and sets up Crusade. Works well on it own which was surprising to me at the time. The Legend of the Ranger is meh. I liked B5 Lost Tales but people's reaction are varied. As for Season 1 and 5 while overall they have weak points there are vital threads that pay off enormously in both. Particularly the story of G'Kar and Londo Mollari.
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Post by robertsconley on Jul 13, 2018 8:01:44 GMT -6
Being said, I'd also skip "The Gathering" and watch "Midnight on the Firing Line" first -- you can always go back and watch it whenever, but it's a rough early pilot. Yeah the pilot is rough but it establishes the early mysteries of the show as well as showcasing Londo and G'Kar at the start of their arc.
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Post by verhaden on Jul 13, 2018 8:28:58 GMT -6
Not saying you shouldn't watch it, but if you're looking to "hook" a new viewer who may not be up for the experience, I personally wouldn't start them with it.
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 13, 2018 8:53:27 GMT -6
I'm always torn about production order versus chronological order, but production order makes sense to me so I did a quick Google search for B5 production order and I'm not seeing a quick reference. Lots of "what order should I watch" hits, but mostly these seem to lead to discussion where more than one poster gives his/her opinion. And they all seem to differ slightly from one another. Does anyone have a production order list?
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Post by robertsconley on Jul 13, 2018 9:42:55 GMT -6
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Post by Finarvyn on Jul 13, 2018 18:47:42 GMT -6
Thanks. Exactly what I was looking to find. (Clearly, I failed my Google-fu check. )
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Post by robertsconley on Jul 13, 2018 21:04:04 GMT -6
d**n, I watched the last Episode of Season 3 to refresh my memory on something and I just burned through all of Season 4. d**n it such a good show.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jan 24, 2021 18:46:39 GMT -6
I still have a bunch of the movies on DVD. I should watch them again. Mira Furlan just passed away a few days ago. So many of the cast and crew have passed away. All the more reason to re-watch the show.
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Post by verhaden on Jan 27, 2021 6:09:14 GMT -6
Newer HD versions of the remaster are available on HBOMax, iTunes, and Amazon. While my older iTunes purchase was "upgraded" to better quality, it's still in SD. I'd have to buy a separate version for the HD content. Found this example on the web: imgur.com/a/rvYKpSW
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Post by Vile Traveller on Jan 31, 2021 10:13:24 GMT -6
I haven't watched Babylon 5 in years, so I'll probably get the remastered version and give it a go. It's definitely out there in a league of its own in many ways. The main character changes were actually great, because they kicked you out of that comfortable "Star Trek" zone where you pretty much knew anyone not in a security uniform would be okay at the end of every episode. I do still wish they'd do a complete rework of the SFX (I feel the same way about Blake's 7), but I'll take what I can get.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jan 31, 2021 12:40:30 GMT -6
True, Babylon 5 and Blake's 7 both had that vibe that got you out of the Star Trek mindset. I know a few Trek fans who can't get into these shows for that very reason.
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