I have never watched this series because it looked extremly cheesy, is it any good, should I watch it?
Babylon 5?
- Thread starter GalaxyClass1701
- Start date
It's outstanding. This is blasphemy here, I know, but it's a masterpiece compared to Treks of the 90s. It does have lower budget sets, effects, and costumes but the story is absolutely awesome. Season 1 is a bit tough to sit through as the story really picks up in season 2 but there are little hints and foreshadowings in season 1 that make it's more questionable episodes forgivable. I will also say that the 5th season is a bit rough as they thought they were getting cancelled in season 4 so they wrapped it up at the end of that season, making season 5 a little bit directionless.
It had it's moments where it could be said to be cheesy. Overall though, I felt it was very good. It did have a couple of episodes that were bad, but it also had a good few episodes that were truly excellent
Babylon 5 is awesome. It's individual episodes are sometimes weaker than it's peers, but for the "big picture" it's absolutely unrivalled.
It had the advantage of being a properly plotted-out five-year story, rather than most "made up as they go along" shows (no huge threads are left dangling, like Enterprise's Future Guy story that went unresolved)
The CG is weak (the show pretty much pioneered CG), improving as the show goes on. The show's strength is the characters over the action, so it's never a problem.
I'd love to see a TOS-R style re-release with modern CG to the standard of the final B5 DVD, The Lost Tales. That would be amazing.
Oh, and this should be in the sci-fi/fantasy forum
It had the advantage of being a properly plotted-out five-year story, rather than most "made up as they go along" shows (no huge threads are left dangling, like Enterprise's Future Guy story that went unresolved)
The CG is weak (the show pretty much pioneered CG), improving as the show goes on. The show's strength is the characters over the action, so it's never a problem.
I'd love to see a TOS-R style re-release with modern CG to the standard of the final B5 DVD, The Lost Tales. That would be amazing.
Oh, and this should be in the sci-fi/fantasy forum
number6
Vice Admiral
It's as much fun as a talent show on local access cable, and as well written.
Babylon Five had the distinct advantage of an overarching story arc: from the very beginning, the head writer knew how it was going to end, and the major plot points along the way. This means there is a LOT of foreshadowing, and fewer internal contradictions.
Not every episode is a gem, but a lot of them bear watching more than once.
Not every episode is a gem, but a lot of them bear watching more than once.
number6
Vice Admiral
The ending is highly underwhelming. The relationships among the aliens were far better written than the those between the humans, which sounded like a by the numbers cop show from the 80s. The sets looked like shit and the CG was lower budget than a Tom Baker Dr. Who episode.
No, most people wouldn't - B5 pioneered digital effects on television and the improvements from season 1 to season 5 are remarkable. It also was much cheaper to go digital - I remember reading somewhere that JMS said he could do an entire seasons worth of effects for the same price as an episode of Voyager. For the money he had to work with he did a pretty fine job. And really, most of the sets don't look that much worse than TNG or VOY sets...
Here's the opinion of someone who watched the pilot episode a while back and nothing else:
It's not great, but it's not bad. It's enjoyable, the characters play off one another very well (although some are better acted than others), and the universe it is set in has fascinating larger stories, which can be seen even from the pilot. I'm planning to watch more every once in a while, but not all at once. So if you want to be entertained for a little while without it being too serious, go ahead and watch it. I enjoyed it.
However, I didn't enjoy it as 'sci-fi' so much as an old detective show...that happened to be in space. A large portion of the dialog seemed to be made up of one liners, the villain (of the episode) was easily identifiable (especially for someone who's Genre Savvy), and it concludes with the main characters laughing off the events of the day with a rather lame joke. Now, now, Babylon 5 fans, don't crucify me, I really did enjoy it. Besides, my perspective is probably skewed because I only watched one episode.
It's not great, but it's not bad. It's enjoyable, the characters play off one another very well (although some are better acted than others), and the universe it is set in has fascinating larger stories, which can be seen even from the pilot. I'm planning to watch more every once in a while, but not all at once. So if you want to be entertained for a little while without it being too serious, go ahead and watch it. I enjoyed it.
However, I didn't enjoy it as 'sci-fi' so much as an old detective show...that happened to be in space. A large portion of the dialog seemed to be made up of one liners, the villain (of the episode) was easily identifiable (especially for someone who's Genre Savvy), and it concludes with the main characters laughing off the events of the day with a rather lame joke. Now, now, Babylon 5 fans, don't crucify me, I really did enjoy it.
Besides, my perspective is probably skewed because I only watched one episode.
I didn't much care for B5. There were some episodes that I did enjoy (the B4 trilogy, for example - Babylon Squared + War Without End I and II) but all in all, it just wasn't my bag. Too many speeches, too much politics, and not enough space opera.
Ummmm...yes.
Ummmmmmm... Hell yes!
Babylon 5 is my favourite sci-fi series, including the Star Treks. It takes about half a season to really get going, but once it does it becomes essential viewing. It's got memorable characters, great storylines, excellent action sequences and, with installments like Chrysalis, The Long Twilight Struggle, Severed Dreams and Into the Fire, some of the best event episodes around. It's essentially serious, but still a lot of fun. Like any show, it's not without its flaws, but I can whole-heartedly recommend it. 
