Babylon 5

[Tom Hendricks]

My wife and I watched the first three episodes of Season two last night. She was stunned by the replacement of Sinclair and the arrival of Sheridan. She was like, I want Sinclair back. I had to explain to her what happen with Michael O' Hare. However she's really digging the moving forward of all the story lines, she's catching the little tidbits here and there. Which makes me very happy, so she's piecing together the story.

 

[david kelly]

I've always wondered one thing in season 5: why was there no Earth ambassador present on B5? Sheridan is President of the Alliance and cant serve as a representative of EarthGov. Lochley is just in charge of the station. So where is the person to represent Earth in the council?

 

[David cgc]

I've always wondered one thing in season 5: why was there no Earth ambassador present on B5? Sheridan is President of the Alliance and cant serve as a representative of EarthGov. Lochley is just in charge of the station. So where is the person to represent Earth in the council?

Judging by the nameplates in front of them, Sheridan did represent Earth, which is weird for a few reasons, but there you are. Presumably, once Sheridan finally retired a few years before his death, President Delenn continued to represent Minbar.

The Guide to Babylon 5 CD-ROM, made between seasons 4 and 5, mentioned a Janice Drake being assigned to Babylon 5 as Ambassador to the Interstellar Alliance from Earth, but no such person ever appeared on-screen, nor was it ever made clear if any such character was intended to be part of the show at any point.

I just had an interesting thought, though; at the end of season 5, Sheridan and Delenn move to the new headquarters on Minbar, but Londo and G'Kar's replacements are both staying on Babylon 5. I can understand Vir staying, since the Centauri aren't part of the alliance anymore, but shouldn't Ta'Lon and the former League Ambassadors have gone to Minbar rather than staying on B5 (which we saw continued up through Crusade, with the same Drazi and Brakiri Ambassadors still hanging around)? Was the IA headquarters just for the "executive branch," as it were, and the... whatever function the advisory council served... stayed on the station until Earth repurchased it?

 

[Kibbin]

Just though I'd mention that according to B5 today is when we establish the first permanent lunar colony in the in the sea of tranquillity.
Also is there a way to actual post pictures on this board or just hotlink them form other sights?

 

[Sophie74656]

Just started, I'm about 6 episodes into season 1. The stories are pretty good but the special effects are horrible. Even for the time.

 

[Kibbin]

Just started, I'm about 6 episodes into season 1. The stories are pretty good but the special effects are horrible. Even for the time.

They were a bit ps1 compared to ds9 and the like weren't they. I think they didn't have the budget or were just convinced that this was the future over the model work that early d29 relied on. I would say it gets better (effects wise) but I'm not sure if that's the case or if I just got so sucked into the story that I stopped noticing.

 

[Forbin]

Just started, I'm about 6 episodes into season 1. The stories are pretty good but the special effects are horrible. Even for the time.

I'll say what I always say when this comes up - what you're seeing there is the very beginning of TV budget digital effects. B5 was the trailblazer, and they learned as they went. You basically have B5 to thank for what came afterwards. Just be patient, watch them improve as time goes by, and the effects will eventually be as good as any on TV at the same time.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

You know, in the episode where the Markebs all die, they don't mention at the end that even though Steven failed to save the Markebs, his medicine he developed too late might have saved the Pac Ma Ra from the same fate.

Kind of a subtle "Great, I saved the UGLY ones" attitude?

They kind of gloss over at the end the fact that the plague CAN jump species, but only to one particular other species, and there's still a plague to be contained capable of wiping out another entire species. We didn't even get a throwaway line at the end "I've contacted the Pac Ma Ra medical community and instructed them how to make the possible cure". Any Markeb who was infected could have come into contact with a Pac Ma Ra, who could have then gone back to homeworld. The episode glosses over this and act like there's nothing left to prevent once the Markebs died.

 

[Jan]

They were a bit ps1 compared to ds9 and the like weren't they. I think they didn't have the budget or were just convinced that this was the future over the model work that early d29 relied on. I would say it gets better (effects wise) but I'm not sure if that's the case or if I just got so sucked into the story that I stopped noticing.

As I recall, SD9 was using models at the time rather than CGI? B5 was the first to do all CGI so saying that the special effects were horrible 'even for the time' is pretty off.

 

[Kibbin]

As I recall, SD9 was using models at the time rather than CGI? B5 was the first to do all CGI so saying that the special effects were horrible 'even for the time' is pretty off.

Sorry that's what I was trying to say, that ds9 was using models at the time that B5 was using cgi. As Forbain said they were pioneering the stuff but that meant that when you placed the two space station sci fi shows side to side DS9 came off looking pretty decent while B5 looked a little like a ps1 game. I'm not sure whether ST wanted the medium to improve before they used it or if they couldn't afford to switch and so stuck out with models longer.

 

[Sophie74656]

I'll say what I always say when this comes up - what you're seeing there is the very beginning of TV budget digital effects. B5 was the trailblazer, and they learned as they went. You basically have B5 to thank for what came afterwards. Just be patient, watch them improve as time goes by, and the effects will eventually be as good as any on TV at the same time.

Well, the first season was in 1994. TNG had already been on the air and DS9 premeired the year before. Better effects were available. I just assumed they had a super teeeeeny budget.

 

[Sophie74656]

They were a bit ps1 compared to ds9 and the like weren't they. I think they didn't have the budget or were just convinced that this was the future over the model work that early d29 relied on. I would say it gets better (effects wise) but I'm not sure if that's the case or if I just got so sucked into the story that I stopped noticing.

Honestly I'm not so sucked into the story yet that i can overlook the bad effects. My boyfriend is really enjoying it so we'll keep watching

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Aside from the Trek shows having far higher budgets than B5 (which had less than a million total budget per episode), they were also able to cut some corners. TNG heavily re-used models made for the TOS movies, DS9 heavily re-used models made for TNG and the TNG movies. And even then, they were not able to show the diversity in ships that B5 could do thanks to CGI.

 

[Kibbin]

Honestly I'm not so sucked into the story yet that i can overlook the bad effects. My boyfriend is really enjoying it so we'll keep watching

It's a slow burn series. To me it was one of those where you look back over a season or series and go "that was good" not an episode or so which means if it's not for you you might be waiting a while to really realise it by which point you've wasted a while on it already.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Also like DS9, season 1 comes off better when you already know where things are going.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Also is there a way to actual post pictures on this board or just hotlink them form other sights?

You can post pictures from an account that you maintain on an image-hosting site. Hotlinking to a site you don't own is not allowed.

 

[Kibbin]

You can post pictures from an account that you maintain on an image-hosting site. Hotlinking to a site you don't own is not allowed.

So I can't post direct from the computer? Sorry for derailing the thread, I was just trying to put up a picture for the lunar colony and tech isn't my strong suit.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

So I can't post direct from the computer? Sorry for derailing the thread, I was just trying to put up a picture for the lunar colony and tech isn't my strong suit.

As I mentioned, you need to upload your image to a hosting website and link to that. I don't think even premium members can host images here.

By the way, here are rules for this site:
https://www.trekbbs.com/rules/

 

[Kibbin]

As I mentioned, you need to upload your image to a hosting website and link to that. I don't think even premium members can host images here.

By the way, here are rules for this site:
https://www.trekbbs.com/rules/

Okay cool and thanks.
Sorry for derailing the thread everyone to make it up to you I want to talk about one of my favourite bits from B5. The news papers. It would be so easy to be outdated in that regard but I think it still holds up. For those who don't remember or haven't got to that bit yet you get your paper freshly printed each morning with your chosen supplements and articles and then you recycle it back into the machine for your next one tomorrow. I still think that's clever and cool.

 

[David cgc]

As I mentioned, you need to upload your image to a hosting website and link to that. I don't think even premium members can host images here.

We can. Speaking of, just so we can move on with our lives:



Wait a minute, what the hell? That today in history segment is set on April 12th! It's the same day when Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in 1961. I don't have the DVDs handy to check that screenshot I saw on Facebook, but could it be that this is another "Today is the day they went to in Back to the Future 2" thing?