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Babylon 5

I hope everyone can forgive me for not wanting to re-read 65 pages for this...

Preemptively TL;DR: Where would you put "In the Beginning" in your ideal viewing order, when showing the series to a newbie who has enjoyed Star Trek, Farscape and Lost? I told my friend, briefly, that B5 is sort of midway between Farscape and DS9 (and let's not argue about that here).

I'm currently planning to start with "The Gathering" (the 'remastered' version).

Possible options that occur to me:
1) Before "The Gathering" (not personally a fan of this idea, but open to suggestions)
2) After doing a run of the series
3) Immediately after "Atonement".
4) After Season 4, before S5.
5) Between S1 and S2 - I find this idea personally compelling as it gives some teases of what's to come, elaborates on what's already happened, and features both the outgoing and incoming commanders of B5.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
 
To my way of thinking, I'd only recommend a person watch ITB first on a first viewing if it's a hard sell and they're not likely to have the patience to stick it out.

Otherwise, I'd just say stick with the order in which things originally aired with ITB & Thirdspace at any point after season 4, doesn't really matter over much TBH. It might actually work best as a nice little breather between seasons 4 & 5 since there's no cliffhanger to worry about. Failing that, just watch all the TNT movies together after 'Sleeping in Light'. There's really very little to be gained from shoving them into the mid-season. Indeed, it'd really mess up the narrative of the season arc by dumping a big unrelated story smack in the middle.
Which means I honestly don't thing there's much value in trying to find exactly where in season 4 'Thirdspace' should go either. The whole thing is framed as taking place in the past tense and it specifies in the opening monologue roughly when this is. Actually watching it in that time would make that feel a little redundant IMO.

And yes, regardless of anything else, it's best to go with the remastered version of 'The Gathering' for obvious reasons.
 
Agreed, Either after season 4, or after the whole thing is over. It's way too spoilery of the 1st season Valen mystery, and mildly spoilery of Londo's fate and War Without End. It works as well as a look back as it does a catch-up briefing.
 
I've never seen Legend of the Rangers, but after seeing the references to the weapons control scene I found it on youtube, and it is pretty cheesy. I think it is kind of a cool idea in theory, but the whole execution of it wasn't very good. I think it could have been a bit more interesting if they had done it more like a fast paced fight scene, and had her dodging and blocking the enemy attacks, instead of just kind floating there throwing a few punches and kicks.
 
In the Minbari cruisers, the leaders had that panoramic view of everything, if this would have been similar and she just pointed or wave or something fluid, it could have look so cool, but her grunting and kicking like a 4th grader trying to get her yellow belt stunk on ice in January in a snow storm.
 
I'm happy to report that I have a Convert. :)
I am -so- looking forward to seeing how she handles what's to come. And as someone who basically didn't get into the show until late S2/early S3, it's almost jarring to see G'kar being such an ass even though I'm well aware of his arc.
 
I've never seen Legend of the Rangers, but after seeing the references to the weapons control scene I found it on youtube, and it is pretty cheesy. I think it is kind of a cool idea in theory, but the whole execution of it wasn't very good. I think it could have been a bit more interesting if they had done it more like a fast paced fight scene, and had her dodging and blocking the enemy attacks, instead of just kind floating there throwing a few punches and kicks.

I honestly don't see the point of having a weapons system like that. Wouldn't the officer get very exhausted, very fast, during a protracted battle?

I mean, what's so much more "honorable" about firing a ship's weapons by throwing your arms and legs around rather than pushing buttons? The end result is the same.
 
I like watching "In The Beginning" in between "Objects at Rest" and "Sleeping in Light." That's where it falls chronologically, and returning to the beginning right before the end is oddly appropriate.

"Thirdspace" can be watched roughly where it chronologically falls during season four.

"River of Souls" is garbage, barely watchable.
 
I'm pretty sure I only watched RoS when it originally aired. I'm assuming there's a commentary, and I wonder whether the commentary discusses the problems with the film at all.

After seeing the 'remastered' "The Gathering" for the first time, my feeling is that it does a lot of world-building and character development and such, but nearly fatally kills the pacing in the process. I unfortunately don't remember enough about the original version of the episode to make any comparisons.
 
I honestly don't see the point of having a weapons system like that. Wouldn't the officer get very exhausted, very fast, during a protracted battle?

I mean, what's so much more "honorable" about firing a ship's weapons by throwing your arms and legs around rather than pushing buttons? The end result is the same.

This is how it was described in the script:
INT. GUNNERY POD
Sarah's chair and the display swivels with her --
ANGLE - ON HER EYE
reflecting the display and the alien ships...the system tracking
the movements of her eyes. She locks on, CLENCHES a fist.
EXT. LIANDRA
The ship's guns FIRE.

It may have been too quiet for the Sci-Fi channel? It may just not have played well when filmed. Who knows....

Jan
 
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I honestly don't see the point of having a weapons system like that. Wouldn't the officer get very exhausted, very fast, during a protracted battle?

I mean, what's so much more "honorable" about firing a ship's weapons by throwing your arms and legs around rather than pushing buttons? The end result is the same.

This is just me, but I like the think that she just wasn't using it right and that the Minbari really did design it to be used with minimal effort as per the script. Alternate explanations include: it wasn't properly calibrated for humans. It's old and worn out, so the motion sense triggers weren't able to register anything slower than a punch anymore. Or she's just a nutter and enjoys flailing around like a loon. ;)
 
It's been a while, but wasn't the point of LOTR that they were all nutters in one way or another?
 
I honestly don't see the point of having a weapons system like that. Wouldn't the officer get very exhausted, very fast, during a protracted battle?

I mean, what's so much more "honorable" about firing a ship's weapons by throwing your arms and legs around rather than pushing buttons? The end result is the same.
I really don't know if there would be a good in universe reason for something like that.
 
It's been a while, but wasn't the point of LOTR that they were all nutters in one way or another?
Not that I recall. Can you give examples? The only ones I can think of that might be termed 'nutters' would be the Narn Engineer Na'Feel who had a stern talk with the engins and Tirk who wasn't particulary talkative. The others were all respected officers, weren't they?

Heck if I've got an issue with Rangers at all, it's Tirk. I had no use for that character at all.
 
Not that I recall. Can you give examples? The only ones I can think of that might be termed 'nutters' would be the Narn Engineer Na'Feel who had a stern talk with the engins and Tirk who wasn't particulary talkative. The others were all respected officers, weren't they?

Heck if I've got an issue with Rangers at all, it's Tirk. I had no use for that character at all.
I recall they weren't nutters, they were just the bottom of the barrel/rejects group one usually finds in oddball military crew films.
 
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