What would have made the first season of Babylon 5 better?

[Bri]

I honestly think season one was fine. Despite what some have said, I actually find certain episodes to be more "enjoyable" than the rest of the series ... even if they weren't as intellectually interesting. And I still maintain that Sinclair is a more fascinating character than Sheridan ever was.

Oh, a few are great. Season one was about establishing the universe, i.e. more time spent showing off the "realistic" tech (which compared to Trek, was).

As far as fascinating Sinclair, I don't agree. Sheridan had to go from "cowboy commander", to "city governor", to "traitor for the greater good", to "general", to "religious icon". His arc is far more profound, imo.

Bri

 

[Silanda]

Here's Jerry Doyle's side of that O'Hare feud: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641365/board/thread/78758094

Can't say that I necessarily believe him, though.

If nothing else, he's mixed up about his times. He specifies the first season and then talks about hitting on Pat Tallman who wasn't in the first season.

She was in the pilot though wasn't she? It did seem like he was talking about right at the start of filming too.

 

[Phily B]

Didn't the series DVDs make ass lodas of money for WB?

The figure I've seen most is that they made half a billion dollars on the DVDs.

Jan

Yeah, something like that and I read that a few years ago too.

Anyone know how TLT did?

 

[Jan]

Here's Jerry Doyle's side of that O'Hare feud: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641365/board/thread/78758094

Can't say that I necessarily believe him, though.

If nothing else, he's mixed up about his times. He specifies the first season and then talks about hitting on Pat Tallman who wasn't in the first season.

She was in the pilot though wasn't she? It did seem like he was talking about right at the start of filming too.

Yes, Pat was in "The Gathering". No matter what, though, Jerry's confused as to time. The pilot finished shooting in early September 1992 and the first season finished shooting on March 23, 1994. Jerry specifies that Michael said something would happen after May 26 which doesn't parse no matter how you look at it.

Didn't the series DVDs make ass lodas of money for WB?

The figure I've seen most is that they made half a billion dollars on the DVDs.

Jan

Yeah, something like that and I read that a few years ago too.

Anyone know how TLT did?

No specific numbers that I recall. I know that it was in the Amazon top 10 SF/Fantasy DVDs for several weeks, though, so it would seem logical that it more than repaid its 3 million dollar budget.

Jan

 

[Fish1941]

I don't see what could have been better. Season 1 was the beginning of the story and it would not have made sense to me that the story would start out on a spectacular level. After shows like "LOST" and "HEROES" that started out spectacularly and simply declined, now I prefer my shows with multi-season storylines to start out . . . okay or pretty decent, before it can get better.

 

[Reverend]

Plus of course the first season of any long running show is going to be a little bumpy by comparison. While JMS knew exactly where the major threads would start and what the structure of the major story beats would be, it still took time for to figure out the necessary minutia of production. So what would make season 1 better? Well more sets, better sets, hair and make-up people would could do a better job on Centauri crests, directors who could conform to a more cohesive style a few different casting choices, some rewrites on some of the weaker scipts etc. etc.
It's all meaningless of course since the show we got at the end was the result of making all those little mistakes along the way and learning from them, so a better first season would probably make most of the others seam a little samey.
So the real question is, what could they have done better, knowing what they knew when they knew it? Not allot, I imagine.

 

[Phily B]

Well since WB wanted to do another Lost Tale, I'm sure it made a tidy profit for them which at over 3 million is pretty impressive. I think B5 is done, the only way to go would be a Galactica type remake of it with update sets/actors etc which isn't really needed.

I'm happy with how it is, apart from Crusade not being finished but I can live without it. I really hated the CGI sets.

 

[Bri]

. I think B5 is done,

Waiting for the graphic novel now!

Bri

 

[Reverend]

Is that thing still on the go? I've been hearing the odd rumour about it here and there for years. This is the problem though, when everything HAS to go through one very busy man, not allot gets done when he (quite rightly) has better things to be getting on with.

 

[sidious618]

If nothing else, he's mixed up about his times. He specifies the first season and then talks about hitting on Pat Tallman who wasn't in the first season.

Yeah, I've a feeling that Doyle is talking out of his ass on this one. Doesn't matter, though, I still love Sinclair.

 

[Phily B]

He was probably talking about the pilot episode, which sort of counts.

 

[JoeD80]

but B5 isn't too popular anymore

Except of course the DVDs keep selling....yeah, no popularity there or anything.

Is that thing still on the go? I've been hearing the odd rumour about it here and there for years.

When asked about it about a year or two ago, he said it was still being worked on.

 

[Phily B]

They might still be selling, but I couldn't see a big budget movie going down too well. It hasn't been on the air for years, and that was due to low ratings (I think?). It struggled for most of its lifespan too.

 

[JoeD80]

It hasn't been on the air for years, and that was due to low ratings (I think?).

Nobody has bought the syndication package since Sci-Fi aired the show. If any cable stations have been interested since then and passed, I have no insight into their reasoning. Could be previous ratings; could be something else.

It struggled for most of its lifespan too.

No, it didn't, unless there's a different definition of "struggled" in play here. It wasn't the highest rated show, but it performed well enough to get renewed every year and it was the only PTEN show to outlast PTEN.