Can you recommend a show for a fan of TOS and Babylon 5, but not the other Trek series?

[MacLeod]

Voyager is similarly misanthropic with worse acting, and DS9 has the same problems as TNG, except they try to be "gritty" by copying Babylon 5 and fail because they still portray the Federation as the unquestionable good guys even though they were the aggressive party who started the Dominion war. One thing that they did better was portray spirituality, which was present in TOS but sneered upon in TNG (another example of "Roddenberry's vision" disliking the reality of humanity) but they did it quite badly, and I cringed at "the Sisko."

You do realise that DSN actually aired first, and S1 of B5 didn't start until 1994 (aside from the pilot) when DSN was well into it's second season? So who copied whom? But it's not uncommon in film and TV to have things with similar themse Deep Impact vs Armageddon for example.

Thanks, why specifically? Is the original one just dated, or is it bad?

Sure the orginal BSG is dated and somehwat cheesy but because I watched it when it first aired it does have some Nostalgia factor but the three part opener is somewhat padded with only really half having some rewatch value as for NuBSG it loses seam in the third season and I didn't recall for the final five arc that was the focus of the last season.

It's dated. The themes are there to be enjoyed and the followup Galactica 1980 is almost universally agreed upon as horrid.
@Gov Kodos is right in that the reboot takes the themes and makes them more relevant.

Now Now there is at least one episode of BSG80 that is decent the last episode.

But Farscape can be njoyable though it did draw some critisim for it's use of puppets (and I use that term loosely) for characters like Rygel and Pilot. But I didn't have a problem with that, though some puppets used where better than others.

When compared to the rest of the show the firstcouple of season of SG-1 are not that great, that being said the final part of S1 is quite good and sprikled in there are the starting blocks of the mythology of the show such as "The Torment of Tantalus" and "The Fifth Race"

Blake's 7 does look dated but then again it is over 3 years old and the BBC was never know for massive budgets.

 

[Starscream2112]

Now Now there is at least one episode of BSG80 that is decent the last episode.

The Return of Starbuck episode?

 

[JD]

I'd put in another vote for Farscape, Firefly and RDM BSG.
To give you a good feel for the show here are some trailers:
Farscape

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When you finish the main series the story continues in the miniseries/movie Peacekeeper Wars, so you need to be sure to watch that too.
Firefly and the concluding theatrical movie Serenity

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BSG

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If you enjoy Farscape and Firefly/Serenity, both shows also got comic book series that picked up after the movies.
BSG also got prequel series, Caprica, which dealt with Adama's family when he was a kid and the origins of the Cylons. A lot of people didn't really like Caprica, but I enjoyed it just as much as BSG.

 

[DigificWriter]

To the OP: It's a little weird that you like both the original Star Trek series and Babylon 5, but not any of the subsequent Trek series since TOS and B5 couldn't be any more further apart tonally and aesthetically... to the point that B5 is actually the complete antithesis of TOS and, quite frankly, has far more in common with Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise than it does anything else (including the series that have been mentioned here already).

However, I will second the suggestions of both nuBattlestar Galactica, Firefly, and Caprica, and throw in Stargate Atlantis as well.

 

[EmoBorg]

The Expanse
Stargate Universe

Universe had plenty of flawed characters. If you want to see an Air Force Colonel beat an arsehole scientist to death's door and then leave him on a planet, this is the show for you.

 

[Jedman67]

You do realise that DSN actually aired first, and S1 of B5 didn't start until 1994 (aside from the pilot) when DSN was well into it's second season? So who copied whom? But it's not uncommon in film and TV to have things with similar themse Deep Impact vs Armageddon for example.

The story, structure characters and arcs of B5 are completely different than DS9. B5 was pitched to CBS years before DS9 was created.

 

[MacLeod]

The Expanse
Stargate Universe

Universe had plenty of flawed characters. If you want to see an Air Force Colonel beat an arsehole scientist to death's door and then leave him on a planet, this is the show for you.

Sure Rush was an git, but that doesn't mean his viewpoint was wrong.

The story, structure characters and arcs of B5 are completely different than DS9. B5 was pitched to CBS years before DS9 was created.

There are certainly at least some superficial similarties between DSN and B5, but one can enjoy both for what they are and lets face it if it weren't for the sucess of TNG, B5 might never have seen the light of day. But I didn't know that it was also pitched to CBS I knew it was pitcjed to Paramount..

 

[Jedman67]

There are certainly at least some superficial similarties between DSN and B5, but one can enjoy both for what they are and lets face it if it weren't for the sucess of TNG, B5 might never have seen the light of day. But I didn't know that it was also pitched to CBS I knew it was pitcjed to Paramount..

Maybe it was Paramount? whatever company was running TNG at the time.

Agreed, both shows are enjoyable and stand on their own.
SGU I just couldn't like. I tried.

 

[Anwar]

SGU's problem was that they made the cast too dysfunctional and unlikable, and the show didn't have much of a plot beyond "The ship is doing something weird, how do we survive?"

By the time the writers finally realized they needed a plot and gave them one, it was too late.

 

[MacLeod]

SGU's problem was that they made the cast too dysfunctional and unlikable, and the show didn't have much of a plot beyond "The ship is doing something weird, how do we survive?"

By the time the writers finally realized they needed a plot and gave them one, it was too late.

I also think some of the actos on SG:U took more time than others to get into their roles. Robert Carlyle was the best actor on the show and his character seemed to be the most developed at the start, it took some tweaking of the others to get them o that stage.

 

[Kor]

Another vote for Firefly and its rushed, quick and dirty ending in Serenity.

Kor

 

[JD]

Serenity actually wasn't the ending, we've gotten two comic book miniseries that continue on after it, Leaves on The Wind, and No Power in the 'Verse. I haven't read No Power in the 'Verse yet, but Leaves on the Wind was really good, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone that wants more Serenity after the movie.