Also I feel that the situation with Alisa in Legacies foreshadows the whole thing with the Vorlons and the Shadows. The girl is caught in the middle of two opposing opinions with Ivanova and Talia until she breaks free and decides her own fate in the matter. Yeah, I know, it's a pretty thin conclusion because that is a pretty basic recipe for drama, but the theme is there. After all, the show was about killing your parents - metaphorically speaking.
I'm kind amazed at times that the show ended up as good as it was. If it didn't manage to get itself some really good writers it could have ended up a disaster.
You also have to credit (most) of the actors. Sometimes Spiner, Dorn, or Stewart would deliver horrible lines in such a brilliant way that made them seem great.
Watching B5 for the first time, I watched them all in broadcast order, episodes and movies all. Though I wasn't The Gathering after the second episode.
Kail: When/if you watch Crusade, use the chronological order listed in that link. The JMS order is terrible and doesn't improve the viewing at all.
The first season was hard to find around here, so I missed a few the first time around and had to catch them in re-runs. I'm pretty sure I saw the rest as they were broadcast, though.
This is the only show I can say I'm enjoying the second viewing as much as the first. It's so much fun when scenes like Londo asking Morden "What is the price, for this help?" in regards to Morden's associates taking care of the Narn problem in quadrant 37. What is the price indeed!
When you get to such things, Kail, I'd be interested in hearing how the different viewing order impacts how it affects you, comparatively, particularly near the end of the series.
I was reminded on another page that it was three years ago yesterday that JMS held his 'Promise Panel' at the Phoenix Comic-Con reunion. This is what I posted that day: -------- For the second half of the panel, JMS shooed to 'moderator' off and talked about Rick, Andreas, Jeffrey and Michael. It was a true tribute to their courage and grace in the way that inspired him. I'll go into more detail on what he said about the others, but the promise he'd made was to Michael O'hare. Toward the last third of season one, JMS and Michael realized that he had a problem of increasingly delusional episodes, typified by paranoia. This can be helped with medication but that takes time and there really wasn't time while the show was shooting. JMS was even willing to shut down production for Michael to be able to get the help he needed but Michael didn't want to be responsible for the show shutting down and asked JMS to let him try to complete shooting. JMS did, and admired Michael was he struggled. After shooting was done, they all knew that Michael couldn't carry on so JMS let him know that when the time came, Michael could come back to complete Sinclair's arc. Thanks to friends, JMS knew when Michael was able to come back and perform in "War Without End". Afterward, JMS promised Michael that he'd 'keep the secret to his grave' but Michael asked him to keep the secret to *his* (Michael's) grave instead. And so...JMS told the story of Michael's struggle today. And he told us how there were times when the fans really helped Michael keep. going. JMS' admiration for the courage that each man showed was obviously deeply felt and sincere and the entire room (which was full to capacity) gave him a standing ovation and thanked him for what he'd said. It was an amazing experience. -------- One of several videos online:
Been watching the "CNN Documents Babylon 5" DVDs. Basically CNN visited the set at various times. The first disk is some cast interviews (raw unedited footage!). The second is simply watching a series of scenes being shot (fly on the wall stuff) - Claudia and Jerry Doyle are just insane cutups! The third disk is Claudia and Jerry today, watching the aforementioned scenes and interviews, and doing a running reminiscence commentary. That last disk is the prize - absolutely hysterical!!
I watched Legend of the Rangers a few days ago, the only B5 movie I hadn't seen. The overall story was ok on paper, but it didn't feel like it was implemented very well. Also, Spoiler: Legend of the Rangers the way they "fired" the weapons really drained all the tension from the fight scenes, at least for me. I just couldn't take the weapons officer floating and kicking seriously. G'Kar was excellent as always though, and most of the crew weren't terrible. I think it probably would have gotten better if it had gone to series. It had potential as a series, it just needed some stuff tweaked and thought out better, and better scripts.
If she just stood there and pointed imperiously at each target (with suitable dramatic editing), it would have been epic.