I was just thinking this myself.
Shatnertage's Mostly-1st-Time Watch Thread
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I was just thinking this myself.
Somehow forgot this...
I still have nightmares about watching Infection. But after that the show is okay, and it becomes quite good later on.
No, my initial thoughts were correct, that first batch of episodes were terrible.Heh. Didn't even last as long as Godben, who gave up after 4 episodes on his first try.
He did recently give it another chance though. I... think he may have reconsidered his initial thoughts on the series.
I still have nightmares about watching Infection. But after that the show is okay, and it becomes quite good later on.Well the first season of B5 was weak compared to the other seasons espically S2-4.
If I had to pick a few must see episodes of S1 of B5 :-
The Gathering
The Parliament of Dreams
Mind War
And The Sky Full of Stars
Signs & Portents
Eyes
A Voice in The Wilderness
Babylon Squard
Chrysalis
Might have missed an episode that ties into the arc/character arcs. But I think they are more or less the key episodes from S1
If I had to pick a few must see episodes of S1 of B5 :-
The Gathering
The Parliament of Dreams
Mind War
And The Sky Full of Stars
Signs & Portents
Eyes
A Voice in The Wilderness
Babylon Squard
Chrysalis
Might have missed an episode that ties into the arc/character arcs. But I think they are more or less the key episodes from S1
Sure, Odo might be able to pull off the female founder to issue a cease fire order to all Dominion forces. However, how long would a peace treaty signed by Odo rather than the female founder have lasted?
There is one (and only one) good thing about Infection: it leads to Garibaldi getting a good line in a Season 2 episode when he references its events.
Uhh, what line was that again? I haven't seen a episode of B5 season 2 in months and the ones that don't have the Centauri in them tend to not leave much of an impact on my memory...
Something about Dr. Franklin vouching for another doctor and Garibaldi replying "last time you vouched for a doctor friend of yours, we had two dead bodies and an Ikarran war machine tearing up Downbelow".
Overall, I liked "Take Me Out To A Holosuite". Mostly, because Worf was cracking me up. His lines were hysterical and so very Klingon. I can't help but wonder how Worf would react in a Football game! I did find it rather annoying that they kept yelling, "Batter, Batter, Batter". The Volcans should not have a reaction to this type of distraction, and it is kind of annoying....
When I was watching it, I was very aware of WYLB's flaws as two hours (give or take) of dramatic TV. In retrospect, when I'm just thinking about the ideas and not the execution, it's not quite as bad, but there are still a lot of decisions I don't quite get. I'd say that Sisko abandoning Jake is very high on the list.
In general, it seems that the writers were much more concerned with giving characters "closure" than just telling a good story. Reading what they've said, this influenced the show going back to the 6th season--for example, getting Odo and Kira together, so Odo is making a sacrifice when he rejoins the Link. So we also got things like all of Ferengi society being transformed just to give Rom closure in a way that's completely illogical for the character, and getting Bashir and Ezri together, even though the real issue Bashir has to deal with isn't romance, it's being comfortable with the man he is. You could see this even before the Augment revelation, with him just being the young, eager, slightly jerkass "frontier doctor." Since we now know he's an Augment, he's got that to deal with--and the Section 31/"do I want to be a spy" stuff, too. I don't begrudge them getting the characters together, but it's not something that I would have spent a lot of time on.
WYLB wanted to end the story. AGT told a story that summed up the past and potential future of TNG. I prefer AGT.
A lot of it comes down to execution. If they'd been able to give us a scene as powerful as Bubbles walking up the stairs at the end of The Wire, or even that scene where McNulty stops his car and we see the montage of Baltimore, it would have been worth it. But from my perspective they didn't deliver anything that good.
I'm not going to say that WYLB was a crime against humanity or that it perpetuated despicable acts against my childhood, but it was a disappointment for me. I'd really liked the way the closing arc started, but after episode 7 it felt like they couldn't get their momentum back.
In general, it seems that the writers were much more concerned with giving characters "closure" than just telling a good story. Reading what they've said, this influenced the show going back to the 6th season--for example, getting Odo and Kira together, so Odo is making a sacrifice when he rejoins the Link. So we also got things like all of Ferengi society being transformed just to give Rom closure in a way that's completely illogical for the character, and getting Bashir and Ezri together, even though the real issue Bashir has to deal with isn't romance, it's being comfortable with the man he is. You could see this even before the Augment revelation, with him just being the young, eager, slightly jerkass "frontier doctor." Since we now know he's an Augment, he's got that to deal with--and the Section 31/"do I want to be a spy" stuff, too. I don't begrudge them getting the characters together, but it's not something that I would have spent a lot of time on.
WYLB wanted to end the story. AGT told a story that summed up the past and potential future of TNG. I prefer AGT.
A lot of it comes down to execution. If they'd been able to give us a scene as powerful as Bubbles walking up the stairs at the end of The Wire, or even that scene where McNulty stops his car and we see the montage of Baltimore, it would have been worth it. But from my perspective they didn't deliver anything that good.
I'm not going to say that WYLB was a crime against humanity or that it perpetuated despicable acts against my childhood, but it was a disappointment for me. I'd really liked the way the closing arc started, but after episode 7 it felt like they couldn't get their momentum back.
Originally, Sisko was supposed to sacrifice his own life stopping Dukat in the fire caves. Hence the title "What You Leave Behind". So I guess the original intent was to use Sisko as a bookend, to show the accomplishments a starfleet officer can make in seven short years.
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