Rewatching Babylon 5- So is it really any good?
- Thread starter sidious618
- Start date
Woodward was great in Crusade. I think Gary Cole, Peter Woodward and David Allen Brooks are the strongest of the cast. Gary Cole of course developed an interesting reputation from Office Space though. Heh.
Actually I have a similar problem with B5. Sometimes the characters behave too similar to each other I think, going off on similar tirades occasionally, etc. After watching the series a bazillion times this kind of thing becomes more apparent.
Crusade again has this going on. It's just how JMS writes I guess.
Yeah he could have been a little more original at times with Jeremiah.
Actually I have a similar problem with B5. Sometimes the characters behave too similar to each other I think, going off on similar tirades occasionally, etc. After watching the series a bazillion times this kind of thing becomes more apparent.
Crusade again has this going on. It's just how JMS writes I guess.
Last edited:
I was speaking of Edward woodward, not Peter woodward (Father and son), but Peter not bad....
It was made especially poignant for me as I was doing my huge rewatch when he died. So suddenly he was popping up on screen most days, even if only in the titles!
I was speaking of Edward woodward, not Peter woodward (Father and son), but Peter not bad....
Peter was a regular. Edward guest-starred in one episode.
I was doing, well, not a re-watch, but a re-skim through the show at the time. Zack has a lot of "Funny Aneurysm Moments" in "River of Souls," now.
I was speaking of Edward woodward, not Peter woodward (Father and son), but Peter not bad....
Peter was a regular. Edward guest-starred in one episode.
I enjoyed the one season only(unfortunately) of the spin-off series CRUSADE which had a similar mission to the animated series Star Blazers:Quest For Iscandar .
Infection
So I just finished watching what many consider to be one of the worst, if not the worst, episode of Babylon 5. I disagree quite a bit. It's not great, maybe not even good, but it does have its heart in the right place and it's a bit of an arc episode, isn't it? The war machine that goes on the rampage looked like rudimentary Shadow technology (it may have been seven years since I've watched but I sure as hell don't forget what Shadow tech looks like- those ships are scary as hell). So is it? That wasn't really clear to me. It sounds like the Akarana invented it yet Vance says it comes from 1000 years ago. So what gives there?
This episode also brings in a reporter, something I recall B5 doing on a number of occasions. This isn't the best reporter storyline as she's kinda obviously supposed to be a pain and the scene when she's in C&C comes off as incredibly silly. Bleck.
Still I'm willing to forgive the episode its many flaws because of the ideas behind it. I loved the conversation at the end between Garibaldi and Sinclair as it's not one you see on a lot of action shows from the 1990s or even now although the rise of the anti-hero in TV does bring some of those ideas around. It also makes me sad that Sinclair won't be around post season one as I've really come to like him a lot. Again, the conversation between Garibaldi and Sinclair has some clunky dialogue but the actors put their all into it and I love the idea behind it. It definitely shows that B5 is interested in character development.
I'm always suspicious whenever fandom targets on episode as the worst and in this case I think they're definitely wrong. I'd put this episode ahead of Born to the Purple and that episode wasn't terrible.
Finally there's Ivanova and Franklin's talk of anti-alien sentiments at home and this is the second time such a reference has been made- we saw that the president is going to be a bit of a seclusionist in MotFL.
So C+.
I hope to watch The Parliament of Dream tonight. I'm looking forward to Chekhov's first episode, though, so I hope to get to that one tomorrow.
So I just finished watching what many consider to be one of the worst, if not the worst, episode of Babylon 5. I disagree quite a bit. It's not great, maybe not even good, but it does have its heart in the right place and it's a bit of an arc episode, isn't it? The war machine that goes on the rampage looked like rudimentary Shadow technology (it may have been seven years since I've watched but I sure as hell don't forget what Shadow tech looks like- those ships are scary as hell). So is it? That wasn't really clear to me. It sounds like the Akarana invented it yet Vance says it comes from 1000 years ago. So what gives there?
This episode also brings in a reporter, something I recall B5 doing on a number of occasions. This isn't the best reporter storyline as she's kinda obviously supposed to be a pain and the scene when she's in C&C comes off as incredibly silly. Bleck.
Still I'm willing to forgive the episode its many flaws because of the ideas behind it. I loved the conversation at the end between Garibaldi and Sinclair as it's not one you see on a lot of action shows from the 1990s or even now although the rise of the anti-hero in TV does bring some of those ideas around. It also makes me sad that Sinclair won't be around post season one as I've really come to like him a lot. Again, the conversation between Garibaldi and Sinclair has some clunky dialogue but the actors put their all into it and I love the idea behind it. It definitely shows that B5 is interested in character development.
I'm always suspicious whenever fandom targets on episode as the worst and in this case I think they're definitely wrong. I'd put this episode ahead of Born to the Purple and that episode wasn't terrible.
Finally there's Ivanova and Franklin's talk of anti-alien sentiments at home and this is the second time such a reference has been made- we saw that the president is going to be a bit of a seclusionist in MotFL.
So C+.
I hope to watch The Parliament of Dream tonight. I'm looking forward to Chekhov's first episode, though, so I hope to get to that one tomorrow.
I know, it would have been so much better had the reporter been Jane. But, we will survive.
Who is Jane? And you can spoil me.
I think the consensus that Infection is arguably the worst episode of B5 is a fair one, but that doesn't mean it's utter garbage. Indeed, I think there's quite a lot going for it. I think the point is that B5 on it's worst day is still on par with any "average" Trek episode. I mean given a choice between watching 'Infection' or the likes of 'A Night in Sickbay', 'Spock's Brain' or 'Threshold' well...not really a choice is it?
So I went on to Hulu and they didn't stream Parliament of Dreams right either. After cursing a bit I went onto amazon and just ordered the first season (I already have 2, 3 and 4 but will have to buy 5) because I don't want to have to keep skipping episodes. I might skip PoD and go to Mind War which does stream so I can update with something before the DVDs arrive.
That's the weird/sad part about Babylon 5. TOS's cast lives all 30 years after the end of their series before the first one dies and here, TNG got off the air 4 years before B5 and has 0 casualties (fortunately) whereas B5 has 3 already (4 if Zathras is counted) and then there's whatever the hell's up with Sinclair. It's just sad. What's worse is the cast of The Golden Girls, of all shows, lasted longer between the end of their run and their 1st casualty than B5 did (by the way, Betty White is The One, in both senses. In the end, there can only be one, and she got all the fame from the other golden girls. That's why she had her big comeback and fame in the past 2 years or so. Golden Girls was actually a series about 4 Immortals engaged in verbal warfare as a form of passive conflict instead of clanking swords, though I would have loved a Duncan MacLeod v. Bea Arthur battle. That would have been one for the ages...).In her book, Pat mentions how the cast gets together at the funeral of each who's passed, and says "My friends, we have to stop meeting like this."
Isn't "Grey 17 is Missing" up/down there? (nice concept though, a missing floor. One building at one of the campuses I was at had a secret floor)
Nettleton was in B5? Did they seek her out or just saw the 1st 4 letters of her name and hired her anyway? She's probably most familiar to viewers of early '60s television as the woman in "The Midnight Sun" (Twilight Zone) and for running into Buz & Tod a few times along Route 66 ("Some of the People, Some of the Time" was a good episode, and in "Suppose I Said I was the Queen of Spain" her character has a monologue that makes you tilt your head at her weird and slowly back out of the room) not to mention 4 Naked City episodes (2 of which were kinda weird), and checking IMDB, don't remember any of the 3 Fugitive eps she was in and I'm sure no one remembers her from Baywatch Nights because no one remembers (or wants to remember) Baywatch Nights.
Lemmie know when you're about to watch Grail. Jinxo wished me happy birthday this year. He literally said "Happy Birthday, from Jinxo!" 
Lemmie know when you're about to watch Grail. Jinxo wished me happy birthday this year. He literally said "Happy Birthday, from Jinxo!"
Hopefully within a week or two I'll be up to it.
She's the ISN anchorwoman on news broadcasts all thru the series. Some have argued that the show is as much Jane's story as it is Babylon 5's.
Similar threads
