Should I Blind Buy Babylon 5?
- Thread starter bigdaddy
- Start date
My replacement arrived and all I can say is that it's less damaged than the copy I already have. I feel the need for show/tell.
This single set did not come in a bubble mailer(although that didn't help S5 last time any). It came in just an envelope sleeve as you can see.
So this is what the joint/hinges of my "new" S5 set look like. The bottom brace broke off. I can pick the set up and the spool still stays in place but it will not take much to dislodge it from this point.
For the sake of comparison here is what the first sets joint/hinges look like. Both are broken and the disc holders move freely inside when the case is closed.
I really don't have any expectation that a third set would get shipped any better. I told the service rep last time and the note she said she leave(if she did) didn't prompt delivery of this set in a box. Not even an air pillow, heck I didn't even get bubble wrap!! How cheap is the WB warehouse? Should I call again that is what I'm debating. I'd glady send these back, provided they pay for it, I don't want a collection of B5 S5 sets.
This single set did not come in a bubble mailer(although that didn't help S5 last time any). It came in just an envelope sleeve as you can see.
So this is what the joint/hinges of my "new" S5 set look like. The bottom brace broke off. I can pick the set up and the spool still stays in place but it will not take much to dislodge it from this point.
For the sake of comparison here is what the first sets joint/hinges look like. Both are broken and the disc holders move freely inside when the case is closed.
I really don't have any expectation that a third set would get shipped any better. I told the service rep last time and the note she said she leave(if she did) didn't prompt delivery of this set in a box. Not even an air pillow, heck I didn't even get bubble wrap!! How cheap is the WB warehouse? Should I call again that is what I'm debating. I'd glady send these back, provided they pay for it, I don't want a collection of B5 S5 sets.
I've never seen those sets? Mine looks alot like the DS9 sets, except, cardboard binding, instead of the plastic binding.
First thing, is make sure you have all good disks, don't return sets, without making sure you're not returning a disk that you are a keeping a damaged one for. Plastic cases are cheap, if you've got good disks and are tired of the back and forth, just keep the good disks in plastic cases, IMHO.
First thing, is make sure you have all good disks, don't return sets, without making sure you're not returning a disk that you are a keeping a damaged one for. Plastic cases are cheap, if you've got good disks and are tired of the back and forth, just keep the good disks in plastic cases, IMHO.
There are places you can just buy the plastic case with a 1-inch spine online for probably like 99 cents. Just ditch the original and replace it instead of continuing to mail back and forth with WB.
I haven't purchased a DVD set in years. Last one was Farscape now that I think on it...
Anyway, I was going to say that seeing these photographs and reading the disscussion, I too had an issue way back when with the First Season Set of Stargate SG-1.
It was an odd one too, Everything was fine EXCEPT for the Goa'uld vocalization on the ENGLISH language track for Ra's dialogue in "The Nox"
Young as I was, and having only recently started making Internet purchases... I just kind of let it go, but it's always been in the back of my mind. Wish I'd thought to get a replacement disc way back when.
Good luck with it.
Anyway, I was going to say that seeing these photographs and reading the disscussion, I too had an issue way back when with the First Season Set of Stargate SG-1.
It was an odd one too, Everything was fine EXCEPT for the Goa'uld vocalization on the ENGLISH language track for Ra's dialogue in "The Nox"
Young as I was, and having only recently started making Internet purchases... I just kind of let it go, but it's always been in the back of my mind. Wish I'd thought to get a replacement disc way back when.
Good luck with it.
When I was living in Sydney - I walking to a train station after a meetup with someone who use to post here (and from his recommendation), I brought a video copy of 2 episodes - so at sometime I watched my first 2 B5 episodes (A Voice in the Wilderness Part 1 & 2), was impressed.
Move forward a few years, until I was living in Newcastle, I found myself able to hire a lot of DVDs from the library. Several shows I've been able to watch this way and many of those I got to enjoy for the first time. At sometime, I'd like to buy the B5 DVDs, but not right now in my life. I can always borrow them again from the library, as would been 4th time I've seen the whole series. I know I'll be doing that before October this year.
Move forward a few years, until I was living in Newcastle, I found myself able to hire a lot of DVDs from the library. Several shows I've been able to watch this way and many of those I got to enjoy for the first time. At sometime, I'd like to buy the B5 DVDs, but not right now in my life. I can always borrow them again from the library, as would been 4th time I've seen the whole series. I know I'll be doing that before October this year.
You might recall I've had issues getting a B5 season5 set delivered to my house with the case packaging undamaged. I have 2 busted copies now. I decided to call the WB store again. I figure, worse they can say is sorry we reshipped it once already. Give me some policy statement.
Anyway as the odds, or luck, would have it I got the same customer service rep on the phone. As I talked she felt like this was familiar. I give her my Order# and sure enough it's her ID on the reship. We are going to try again. She entered my reshipment be done via another delivery carrier. Apparently if it's USPS and one item it never touches human hands during packaging. Those items go down a chute and like a vending machine the merch is "dialed out" dropped into a non padded envelope where another machine applies a label.
She is instructing it go UPS this time which requires a human to get the order form and allegedly see her instructions to pack carefully. I'll know this time next week if I have a non broken set of season 5.
Anyway as the odds, or luck, would have it I got the same customer service rep on the phone. As I talked she felt like this was familiar. I give her my Order# and sure enough it's her ID on the reship. We are going to try again. She entered my reshipment be done via another delivery carrier. Apparently if it's USPS and one item it never touches human hands during packaging. Those items go down a chute and like a vending machine the merch is "dialed out" dropped into a non padded envelope where another machine applies a label.
She is instructing it go UPS this time which requires a human to get the order form and allegedly see her instructions to pack carefully. I'll know this time next week if I have a non broken set of season 5.
The third set of S5 showed up yesterday.
Yep, it was busted also.
However, between the three sets I've managed to cobble together one that is not broken.
One set had the spoked disc holder that did not break.
One set had the anchors for the spokes that did not break.
I merged the two and now have one non-broken set of B5 s5.
I'm not likely to ever order from the WBstore again.
Their customer service was nice, or Rachel was since I got her twice somehow. Their shipping methods lack much to be desired.
I'm still months away from actually watching B5 though so until I watch s5 I'm not going to be in any rush to sell the extra sets, just in case I need to do a disc swap.
Yep, it was busted also.
However, between the three sets I've managed to cobble together one that is not broken.
One set had the spoked disc holder that did not break.
One set had the anchors for the spokes that did not break.
I merged the two and now have one non-broken set of B5 s5.
I'm not likely to ever order from the WBstore again.
Their customer service was nice, or Rachel was since I got her twice somehow. Their shipping methods lack much to be desired.
I'm still months away from actually watching B5 though so until I watch s5 I'm not going to be in any rush to sell the extra sets, just in case I need to do a disc swap.
Good grief, I can't imagine a worse online experience in the last few years than the one you've described. Hope it worked out for you in the end.
What I always tell people about Babylon 5 is this:
If you watch Season 1, you might want to watch Season 2.
If you watch Season 2, you'll definetely want to watch Season 3.
If you watch Season 3, you'll threaten physical violence against anybody who tries to keep you from watching Season 4.
If you watch Season 4, you might as well watch Season 5.
If you watch Season 1, you might want to watch Season 2.
If you watch Season 2, you'll definetely want to watch Season 3.
If you watch Season 3, you'll threaten physical violence against anybody who tries to keep you from watching Season 4.
If you watch Season 4, you might as well watch Season 5.
almost perfect...
If you watch Season 1, you might want to watch Season 2.
If you watch Season 2, you'll definetely want to watch Season 3.
If you watch Season 3, you'll threaten physical violence against anybody who tries to keep you from watching Season 4.
If you watch Season 4, you might as well watch Season 5 for Lyta in the tight leather pants and the finale...
M
I like this. I like this a lot.
I have great fondness for how we, as a family, used to watch season one of Babylon 5 every week in a slightly mocking "It's a bit rubbish but there's nothing else on at tea time and the effects are pretty" way, only to be completely addicted by the end of the year (it should be noted that the UK broadcast wasn't helped by the pilot not being shown until after season one, as a bank holiday special IIRC).
In retrospect most of the first year is perfectly fine 90's US SF TV with a handful of stand-out shows (Signs and Portents, Babylon Squared, the final). The big problem is, whilst the aliens pretty much hit the ground running the humans tend to find a lot longer to find their feet, with Jerry Doyle being the only one to really give a consistently good performance from the off. Poor old Michael O'Hara never really gets a chance to settle down, most of the time being very wood like with random moments of Shatner thrown in.
Season 2 does kick things up a gear, and season 3 builds to one of the all time best TV cliffhangers. But my favourite is the fourth, the cancellation forcing JMS to wrap things up a year early means the year is all killer, no filler and builds up to a great climax.
Sadly that means we then get the un-cancellation, which coupled with the fact burn out from writing that many episodes is begining to hit JMS means season 5 starts of badly, and even when it starts to pick up again (the Londo and G'Kar stuff is at least as good as anything else in the show) it's still wildly incosistent. Without going into spoilers, the new set up introduced at the end of season 4 never really works for me.
With the movies, In The Begining is best (albeit suffers from an important actor from season 1 of the show only being involved in stock footage, meaning he suddenly comes out of nowhere to end the war with no connection to anything else in the film, making it pretty much for the dedicated fan only), Thirdspace is good silly fun and A Call To Arms is a surprisingly decent back door pilot, but suffers from knowing now none of it will ever go anywhere. River of Souls is pretty much terrible, and only really interesting as a snap shot of where Martin Sheen and Ian McShane's careers were before The West Wing and Deadwood came along.
Never really bothered with Crusade as the bit I did see didn't convince me JMS was over his burn out. And I managed about half an hour of Legend of the Rangers, as others have said G'Kar is the best thing in it. And even he seems oddly off, like he's smoked a big pile of dope just beforehand.
In retrospect most of the first year is perfectly fine 90's US SF TV with a handful of stand-out shows (Signs and Portents, Babylon Squared, the final). The big problem is, whilst the aliens pretty much hit the ground running the humans tend to find a lot longer to find their feet, with Jerry Doyle being the only one to really give a consistently good performance from the off. Poor old Michael O'Hara never really gets a chance to settle down, most of the time being very wood like with random moments of Shatner thrown in.
Season 2 does kick things up a gear, and season 3 builds to one of the all time best TV cliffhangers. But my favourite is the fourth, the cancellation forcing JMS to wrap things up a year early means the year is all killer, no filler and builds up to a great climax.
Sadly that means we then get the un-cancellation, which coupled with the fact burn out from writing that many episodes is begining to hit JMS means season 5 starts of badly, and even when it starts to pick up again (the Londo and G'Kar stuff is at least as good as anything else in the show) it's still wildly incosistent. Without going into spoilers, the new set up introduced at the end of season 4 never really works for me.
With the movies, In The Begining is best (albeit suffers from an important actor from season 1 of the show only being involved in stock footage, meaning he suddenly comes out of nowhere to end the war with no connection to anything else in the film, making it pretty much for the dedicated fan only), Thirdspace is good silly fun and A Call To Arms is a surprisingly decent back door pilot, but suffers from knowing now none of it will ever go anywhere. River of Souls is pretty much terrible, and only really interesting as a snap shot of where Martin Sheen and Ian McShane's careers were before The West Wing and Deadwood came along.
Never really bothered with Crusade as the bit I did see didn't convince me JMS was over his burn out. And I managed about half an hour of Legend of the Rangers, as others have said G'Kar is the best thing in it. And even he seems oddly off, like he's smoked a big pile of dope just beforehand.
agreed on most of those points...
thirdspace was a 'brain off and popcorn' movie style episode... think the only reason to pay mild attention to it was Lochley in lingerie wandering around half way through lol
Call to Arms i really enjoyed, as i did Crusade, mainly because of the Technomage characters, which i think were one of the best races to come out of B5, especially when you read the backstory trilogy books for them which explain a lot about what they were doing during the B5 arcs
Legend of the Rangers sort of fell flat for me as well... it could have been something great, but in the end just died with laughable acting and special effects, like the holographic weapons system where kicking and punching fired weapons and torpedoes? wtf roflol...
M
thirdspace was a 'brain off and popcorn' movie style episode... think the only reason to pay mild attention to it was Lochley in lingerie wandering around half way through lol
Call to Arms i really enjoyed, as i did Crusade, mainly because of the Technomage characters, which i think were one of the best races to come out of B5, especially when you read the backstory trilogy books for them which explain a lot about what they were doing during the B5 arcs
Legend of the Rangers sort of fell flat for me as well... it could have been something great, but in the end just died with laughable acting and special effects, like the holographic weapons system where kicking and punching fired weapons and torpedoes? wtf roflol...
M
Lochley wasn't in ThirdSpace. Ivanova was. Do you perhaps mean River of Souls?
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