A Niner Watches Babylon 5 (NO spoilers, please)

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Ditto to most of this, although I've yet to sample BSG. I've always really liked the characters on B5 (though Zack doesn't have much character development and it took me a while to warm up to Lyta) and I think the show did a good job on selling most of them to the audience early on. It also handled departures and new arrivals pretty well, although when Claudia Christian left after Season 4 she did leave something of a hole. The relationship between Sheridan and Ivanova was definitely something I missed once it was gone.

I personally prefer this show to anything in the Star Trek franchise by quite a wide margin.

That said, The Gathering is probably one of the worst episodes. The show improves by an almost ridiculous amount.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Oh, I wouldn't disagree. I felt the arc you refer to didn't end properly (though I can forgive one stupid line, as it is in a sea of thousands). A few of my favorite episodes of the series are, indeed, standalones. But most of the standalones in the first season are terrible, and as such, don't matter much. Except as an academic exercise illustrating how to waste William Sanderson and David Warner at the same time.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Geez, people... How hard it is to avoid discussing spoilers???

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Bloody hell, I'm swimming in posts! :lol

I agree. I missed The Gathering each time I did a run through of B5, and just went straight in at Midnight on the Firing Line, which is almost a second, much faster-paced pilot. When I finally got around to see The Gathering, I was a little bit scared.

The story definately plods, and the exposition throughout is painful at times. I don't think I need to watch it again, as I've said elsewhere in the thread. The score is right.

Nah, not a military dictatorship, which will become clearer in more focused episodes, like the next one. It does seem odd at first that the military would have a presence on a council, but Sinclair and the XO are trained. It's a neutral station for diplomacy.

JMS released script books that were commercially available. They're a fantastic read, just prohibitavely expensive to pick up on eBay! It sucks, I know. Who mentioned Harlan Ellison?

Hee!

Yeah the more interesting characters grab you instantly. I love all the mystery of Kosh, and Sinclair. Ah, feeling all nostalgic for season 1 now! Takashima was a particularly useless character.

Spoiler: Takashima

It was sort of a shame how she left and her arc never got off the ground, it would have been interesting to see that blow up at the end of season 1. Though would we have had Claudia Christensen that way?

I thought Quark was somewhat gorilla-like?

Glad you brought the funny.

Nice review. Now get watching!

And where is the KelKel avatar?

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

There's a difference between copyright protection and what I feel JMS is doing in this case, which is using past works for further profit. It's his right to charge for them if he so pleases, and if somebody else was trying to profit from his works he should demand his money's worth, but that doesn't mean he has to pull down scripts which were once freely available to all so that the only way to access them is through purchasing them. I'd like to think that if I were a writer I wouldn't do that to my largely internet-focused fanbase, but I'm one of those degenerates that grew up with the internet and believes that everything should be free just so that I don't have to pay for it.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Which I totally disagree with. I find the sense of entitlement that comes from the internet generation dismaying, unbecoming and completely unrealistic.

JMS is a creator of ideas. If people wish to partake of them, they SHOULD have to pay, it's how he makes his living. I don't begrudge him that at all.

If you don't want to pay, don't pay. But don't act like JMS owes YOU his work for free. He doesn't.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

People tend to take over threads like this and turn it into a discussion of the whole series, when really we should only be discussing TheGodBen's reviews and the episode in question. It happened in that other B5 thread, that recent Farscape thread, and the Dune thread.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Agreed. People, the OP is only one episode in. Can't we restrict this to the stuff that he's already seen, and move other discussion to another thread? You may even be spoiling things by discussing which characters enter and exit the series at different times, as the TheGodBen doesn't necessarily know stuff like that.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Heh. Great break down. Probably why, in the end, neither B-5 nor nuBSG really worked for me.

Balance, people. It's all about the balance.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Some of this will be revealed in due course, but I don't think it spoils anything to explain the basic set-up: -

The Earth Alliance is a "Multi-Tiered Democratic Republic", which basically means each member state within the Alliance (mostly old the superpowers or consortiums of what used to be third world countries) has a seat in the Earth Senate and a President ellected by popular vote.
Each member state (Russian Consortium, Chinese State, Central African Bloc, North American State, etc.) run their internal affairs more or less how they like and choose their representatives how they see fit, though within the bounds of EA laws.

B5, while in neutral space is an EA built station (with significant funding from the Minbari and to a lesser extent, the Centauri.) The "Babylon 5 Advisory Council" as you saw it is made up of the five "big powers" - Earth Alliance, Minbari Federation, Narn Regime, Centauri Republic & the Vorlon Empire - and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. The League is made up of a dozen or so relatively minor powers and while each League world has an ambassador, the League itself get only one collective vote on the council, while the "Big Five" get one each. While many of these world have had diplomatic relations with each other in the past (the Vorlons being the most isolationist) it usually took the form of the odd trade agreement, single embassies and missions of the respective homeworlds or in a few cases, a declaration of war; this is the first time they've all had representatives in one place at the same time for a specific purpose.

The reason Sinclair is on the council and representing Earth is because B5 is under a military governorship. Not the same thing as a dictatorship because Sinclair's authority comes directly from the Earth Alliance President and on political and diplomatic matters is answerable to the Babylon 5 Senate Oversight Committee. All of which is separate from his authority and responsibility as an Earthforce officer.
It may seam a bit much for a mere Commander (lower in rank that a Starship Captain) and it is. The reasons behind this will be addressed down the road.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Season 5 wasn't bad. Just the Byron stuff. That shit was the definition of bad.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

I never said he owes me anything, I just consider it to be a sign of disrespect towards his fanbase.

These review threads have earned me a very small fanbase of a half-dozen people that read them and reply with their own opinions infrequently, which isn't much but it is far more than I deserve and more than I thought I would ever have. Early into reviewing Enterprise somebody came into the thread and told me I should stop because I was rubbish, I wasn't saying anything interesting and my jokes weren't funny. I had no problem with the guy not liking me or my reviews, but coming into the thread to tell me to stop as I'm rubbish seemed rude, so I replied by saying that if he doesn't like the thread he doesn't have to read it, and he in turn replied with a long post of reasons why I should stop. A small group of my supporters came along and backed me up, and they said some very kind things about my reviews. I don't say this often, or at all, but I'm hugely appreciative of those guys, they're the reason why I made a picture of a topless Scott Bakula on the back of a pony, or why I spent an hour one night creating a fake website which probably only made one person chuckle a small bit.

If somebody told me that they'd give me money for writing this crap but in return I'd have to charge those guys to read it, I wouldn't do it. Not because I don't like money, I love the stuff, I'm quite the collector, but because I have enough respect for myself that I couldn't lower myself to choose money over the kindness of my peers.

But wave a million euro cheque in front of my face and I'd quickly change my mind. Screw self-respect and principles, I want that giant cheque!

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Acting and writing I'll grant have their debatable points.

SFX----I don't consider this a "problem", merely indicative of the time. The SFX were cutting-edge when the show was made. "The Gathering" won a visual effects Emmy. If you extend the criticism to the entire production value it has a bit more merit; some of those plywood walls were a little too flimsy, and the early virtual sets certainly have issues.

And the music---not a problem at all. The music is terrific. Well, to be fair, season 1 had some issues in that regard, but after that it settled in nicely, and there's some fantastic scores down the road. Did you know that Babylon 5 has a complete orchestral score for every single episode? Not many series can claim that.

I mean, there's no way you can call music like this a weak point: link (Warning, this contains season 4 clips, but no spoilers if you keep your eyes closed).

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Really? Except for Star Trek, which was produced in a different era with different standards, and the final season of Enterprise (which saw its budget cut, and thus elected to use synthesized scores for some episodes), every episode of the Trek franchise has a complete orchestral score.

Franke was obviously allowed much more creative freedom in his scoring, though.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

Exactly so.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

I can tell you for certain that JMS' scripts were *never* freely available with his permission. Ever. They weren't pulled down when the script books were planned, they've always been pulled any time they were found.

Jan

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

What an utter load of crap.

The nerve of a professional writer to actually expect to be compensated for the effort he or she has put forth and not just give it away to the fans. Wow. How disrespectful!

How about some respect to the folks who create all this entertainment and the effort they put forth doing so? Nope, it sohuld all be on the net so it can be downloaded ad infinitum for free. Why? Because we're the fans, that's why. To actually expect us to pay for any of it, why that would be disrespectful.

I have no idea what you do to make a living, but I am guessing you aren't going to go and do whatever it is for free just because someone likes it are you? Or if you are, you should ask to see your boss first thing tomorrow morning ans tell him you won't be needing those paychecks anymore. I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

Gotta side with Harlan Ellison on this one when he says "Pay the writer!"

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

When I wrote my thing, I was trying to avoid spoilers. One thing that I got spoiled on when I was watching the show was Christian leaving at the end of the 4th season. That really isn't a spoiler because A) It aired 15 or so years ago, and B) It's ambiguous enough to not reveal anything big. I think that was the only thing I mentioned in terms of spoiler. I understand the need to not be spoiled (Hey, I just did one of these threads, still doing it kinda during my second watching, and I was quite happy to not be spoiled) but since TheGodBen has only watched The Gathering, it's not really much to go on to have a valid conversation, especially since unlike mine, there are actually some posters here who bring up valid points of the issues with the show.

 

Re: A Niner Watches Babylon 5

I've seen that kind of thing a few times around here. My response? Fuck 'em. They don't like it, they don't have to read. They think they can do better, by all means, STFU and demonstrate.

But no one has to be a jackass and come in and tear up someone's reviews just because they are an anonymous, otherwise powerless coward on an internet site.

With you, brother. Carry on and review away.

BUT...if JMS wants you to pay for consuming his stuff, you need to pay the man.