is babylonian 5 any good

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I enjoy the oddities of season 5, I think it's a lot of fun. Like a whole season of extras as well as some satisfying stories. And the finale should make anyone cry.

This thread is really making me yearn for a rewatch but I have to be strong! There are other things I'm supposed to be watching and a planned rewatch thread coming up.

 

[Takeru]

Babylon 5 was okay but not nearly as good as some fans believe it is (i.e. the holy grail of televised sci-fi), the only great performances were delivered by the three ambassadors, everyone else was somewhere between meh and decent.
Season 1 was dull as dirt, I don't care about bits and pieces becoming interesting after I've seen the entire story, it's still horrible, the only episodes I recommend are the Babylon 4 one and the season finale.
Seasons 2 - 4 are great but after wrapping up the shadow war and the earth alliance stuff it was back to being boring in season 5.
The movies (except for "In the Beginning") are crap, Crusade is awful, The Lost Tales should have never been told ... it really seems the Babylon 5 universe sucks except for three years, when it became interesting.

Oh, I forgot the effects, they're bad. I don't care if they were good for their time, good for their time still equals bad because cgi wasn't even close to good enough for weekly television (there's a reason Star Trek still used models), the Babylon 5 effects look cartoony and don't blend well with the live action footage.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All true.

But here's the amazing thing about the shitty effects... You acclimatize after significant immersion.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I never quite acclimatized to the Centauri throne room. I'm pretty sure I could whip something up that looked better than that in my kitchen.

 

[Gov Kodos]

All true.

But here's the amazing thing about the shitty effects... You acclimatize after significant immersion.

Want shitty effects, watch some old Doctor Who. The Space Prawn from the Invisible Enemy still gives me the giggles when I see it. I'm in for the stories, and Trek was boredom incarnate from TNG forward all too often. Special effects are irrelevant when the story is shite.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Why is everyone being mean to Star Trek these days?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Virini's keeper didn't share his fascination with pastels.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All true.

But here's the amazing thing about the shitty effects... You acclimatize after significant immersion.

Want shitty effects, watch some old Doctor Who. The Space Prawn from the Invisible Enemy still gives me the giggles when I see it. I'm in for the stories, and Trek was boredom incarnate from TNG forward all too often. Special effects are irrelevant when the story is shite.

Classic Doctor Who spent more money on Lunch than Special Effects. You make allowances. Babylon 5 however, spent millions generating computerized special effects, which Blake's Seven used to achieve by gluing two hair driers together (It's documented in the DVD extras.) and swinging them about on fishing wire.

But yes, story should be king.

 

[JoeD80]

Babylon 5 was cancelled.

Everything was used up, tied off and delicious.

Then WB surprise reversed the cancellation and JMS was caught flatfooted with no story left to tell.

Season 5 is a come back from the dead frakking zombie.

Wrong in several respects.

1) PTEN folded. Not quite the same as canceling a show. They had no money for *any* shows.
2) TNT were the ones to pay for a fifth season as part of buying the syndication package.
3) There was still story to tell, particularly around G'Kar and Londo. Joe even talks about it in the script books, and on the DVD commentary, that the Fall of Centauri Prime was the major event that the five years was building to.

Oh, I forgot the effects, they're bad. I don't care if they were good for their time, good for their time still equals bad because cgi wasn't even close to good enough for weekly television (there's a reason Star Trek still used models),

Actually, there's a reason Star Trek: Voyager decided to use the same exact company that produced the first three seasons of B5's CGI.

spent millions generating computerized special effects

The overall per episode budget was only $900k.

 

[Forbin]

I'm probably the only person on Earth who still thinks of Jessica Walter as Morgan Le Fay in the original Doctor Strange TV-movie:

"I am Ishtar, bloody Ishtar!"

Right there with ya, Brian. I actually really liked that movie.

 

[Forbin]

BTW, the B5 20th reunion panel discussion at Phoenix ComiCon is on Youtube. 2 hours in 2 parts. Everybody alive is there except Bruce (he got work! ). It's alternately moving and bloody hysterical.

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm probably the only person on Earth who still thinks of Jessica Walter as Morgan Le Fay in the original Doctor Strange TV-movie:

"I am Ishtar, bloody Ishtar!"

Right there with ya, Brian. I actually really liked that movie.

Brian?

Not to sidetrack the discussion too much, but what I liked about the old Doctor Strange was that it wasn't afraid to get comic-booky, complete with magic and demons and alien dimensions, as opposed to to the other CBS Marvel adaptations of the time, which seemed determined to tone down the more fantastic elements of the original comics.

But I digress. Back to B-5 . . .

 

[Forbin]

I don't know where the "Brian" came from. Senior moment, sorry.

I also liked Edward Everett Horton's voice on the shadowy stop-motion Devil.

 

[Guy Gardener]

In your heart of hearts, you know that you believe that you are Stewie and everyone one else in the world is Brian the Dog.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Why is everyone being mean to Star Trek these days?

Star Trek is for Hippies. Y'gotta be a tough guy these days.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

They are all Herbert.

 

[stj]

Virini's keeper didn't share his fascination with pastels.

Wasn't Virini the security minister who clued Mollari into who killed the woman? I do believe the Regent's last name was never given.

But your point about the pastels is probably correct.

Reverting for some odd reason to the thread topic, Babylon 5 does stretch disbelief when it throws about megacorps, as if capitalism is eternal. Or even able to reach the stars.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Used Googel to find that name.

Someone lied to me.

Dug into my shoeboxes of B5 CCG's to find the bastards real name which I kept in an amazingly anally retentive orderly state.

Minister Verano.

http://b5ccg.mahasamatman.com/GreatWar/Gallery/200.JPG

You're thinking of MInister Durano.

http://b5ccg.mahasamatman.com/GreatWar/Gallery/199.JPG

Here's more cards from that expansion.

http://vhati.zxq.net/ArcanistCCG/B5_GW_imglist.html

 

[JediKnightButler]

I enjoy the oddities of season 5, I think it's a lot of fun. Like a whole season of extras as well as some satisfying stories. And the finale should make anyone cry.

This thread is really making me yearn for a rewatch but I have to be strong! There are other things I'm supposed to be watching and a planned rewatch thread coming up.

I didn't like the first half of S5 with the Telepath story arc except for maybe "Kingdom of the Blind" (which had a great Londo/G'Kar/Centauri intrigue side story) but the second half of the season beginning with "Meditations on the Abyss" and ending with the one-two punch of "Movements of Fire & Shadow/Fall of Centauri Prime" was awesome. I felt that that the remaining episodes tied everything up quite nicely leading into the series finale.

 

[RJDiogenes]

They are all Herbert.

I reach.

I also grok Spock.