Niners Unite...around Babylon 5! - The Lost Threads

Ummm.....what? You are aware that "No Compromises" is not the pilot? That it's the season premiere of ***Season 5***?

 

Oh my god!!! I got them out of order!!! Arrrrrghhhhh!

Well I'll definitely be watching more. As far as a 5th season premier goes, it sure was a nice setup for the series. All those 5s got me confused.

 

Well, that's one for the record books.....

 

OK, that's much better and makes more sense. Add Midnight on the Firing Line to my list of pilots I enjoyed.

I liked the action from start to finish and the characters are compelling. The aliens actually look, well, alien instead of just bumpy head/face humanoids. I'm still intrigued by the PsiCorps and I'm curious about how the show will explain Earth's progression to this point. The elevator scene with Garibaldi offering to share his favorite thing in the world was classic. So tempted to try that line sometime.

I'm going to take my time and savor it. Just one episode per day.

 

....Well, technically, that isn't the pilot either. The pilot is called "The Gathering", and is included in the Babylon 5: The Movies box set as well as in a more basic flip-disc package that might still be around somewhere.

Don't worry, though, there's not much in it that's too important. It doesn't even get referenced until "And the Sky, Full of Stars".

 

Betrayals is one book that I had to force myself to finish. The T'llin don't fit the bill as either interesting or sympathetic characters. Ivanova's subplot is the only part that grabbed me at all. The con artist story is marginal at best and quite predictable.

I'll be stepping out of publication order from here on out. The eighth and ninth books will be next, followed by the seventh, and finally the three trilogies in reverse order. In this way, I'll be going from lowest appeal to highest appeal. Please let me know if I'm screwing up the reading experience in some way by taking this approach.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "reverse" order on the trilogies. Galen shows up in both the Technomage trilogy and (chronologically later) the Centauri trilogy, but I don't recall his character development from one having much influence on his portrayal in the other.

The only relevant ordering issue is that The Shadow Within should come before the Technomage trilogy.

The other thing which may influence your decision is that the PsiCorps trilogy is three separate but related stories, while the other two are single three-book narratives.

 

By reverse order, I mean the reverse of the publication order. According to the Lurker's Guide, they came out with the Psi Corps books first, Centauri books second, and Technomage books third. As I said, I will read the Technomage trilogy immediately after the seventh book (The Shadow Within). It looks like I should be okay with my choice. Thanks, Lindley!

 

Haha, the entire opening credits for season 5 are spoilers. I feel sorry for you

 

It's been OK actually. I know so little about B5 that I've been able to enjoy season one without any issues. I just finished the fifth episode regarding all the various religions last night. The ending was a nice touch. I'm kind of curious if the point Catherine made about someone having got married during the ceremony is going to come up again later.

The cast is also starting to grow on me. My favorite is easily Girabaldi.

 

If you liked S1 you'll like the rest of the show.

 

why is it that anytime anyone (anywhere) starts watching B5, i get the irresistible urge to watch the whole damn thing all the way through yet again!?!?!

i know we don't re-set the thread after 1000 anymore, but since we do have a virgin watch-through just starting out, which bound to drive some of us to watch B5 again (you know who you are...), might it not be a good time to start a fresh thread?

and by the way, in case you don't have the DVDs, you can watch online for free!

 

Personal Agendas: Short, sweet, light, fluffy fun. I love Vir and Londo, and it was great to see Lyndisty back in a story. Of course the status quo could not change, and they even give a wink to that by agreeing to keep the events secret. The Bond-type subplot is also a hoot.

To Dream in the City of Sorrows: This is a great character piece for Sinclair, and it ties up a lot of loose ends. I will not look at a few certain episodes the same way after reading this book. Marcus rocks! Keeping the review as spoiler-free as possible, I would love to see a novel or fan fiction devoted to Sinclair's time after his final appearance on the show. There's a tease in the epilogue, but there are a lot of story possibilities left unexplored.

 

Just finished watching Mind War. Awesome episode! The best one so far. The analogy about the ant at the end was perfect. And the introduction of Sigma 975 was a nice way of opening the door to a mystery without giving away too much. Great to see Koenig playing a role other than Chekov as well.

 

no one here is exactly what he appears
if there was one sentence that summed of B5, that's it!

if couple of times you see him, it's like - hey look it's Chekov. next couple of times you go back and watch TOS, and it's like - hey look, it's Bester...

actually a pretty damn good novel. not as good as the technomage trilogy, but what fan-fic is?!?!

i really wish we got one, just one Sinclair episode post-season 1 (and war without end doesn't count!). it would have made B5 just sooooo much better.

 

I too hoped that Sinclair had been given an episode set on Minbar in season two, something that would've impacted events on the station in the following episode. Oh, well.

If there is every a novel series again, I'd like to see a trilogy set during the first Shadow War with Valen and Babylon 4. I know there's the comic "In Valen's Name," but that only showed a few select incidents from that period. Speaking of which, did the comic series every state what the Minbari actually called B4?

 

Maybe they called it the Fortress of Light. Knowing them, Babylon 4 would not be poetic enough.

 

I like it.

 

Season 1 is really shit though.

Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. Its AWFUL unless you've watched the rest of the seasons. Its probably one of the most unique TV shows evers. The problem for me is everything outside of the core cast, and story.