So, this 'Babylon 5' thing better be good...

[Ethros]

I know the basics of what Babylon 5 is and what it's about, but I've never properly seen a single episode. So hey, why not buy the complete boxset? Makes sense to me

And for £58.40 from Amazon.co.uk I can't complain for the amount I'm getting. Just got an e-mail today telling me it's been dispatched. Should be here early next week I guess. This is what it is-
(btw, these are a customers pics from the site, not mine)

I've always been interested in watching it, but i've never seen it air on British TV in about forever.


And no doubt this has been asked a million times and more, but what order should I watch in it?
I'd prefer to go by the airdates please

 

[Jan]

And no doubt this has been asked a million times and more, but what order should I watch in it?
I'd prefer to go by the airdates please

Congratulations, that's one great price! Let me be the first of probably many to tell you that B5 will require an investment in your time and attention but it will pay off in the long run.

For the air dates, check out The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 for those and *much* more (look at the episode pages for the dates, not the list this links to).

And please post as you go through it. Many of us enjoy that as the closese we'll ever come to experiencing it for the first time again.

Enjoy.

Jan

 

[JoeD80]

I know the basics of what Babylon 5 is and what it's about, but I've never properly seen a single episode. So hey, why not buy the complete boxset? Makes sense to me

This is pretty much what I did -- although I bought them one season at a time. I was not disappointed.

And no doubt this has been asked a million times and more, but what order should I watch in it?
I'd prefer to go by the airdates please

The episodes are ordered on the DVD by air-date. There are some suggested watching orders here and there, but watching them in air order works just fine IMO. For the most part they were good at keeping the story in order, with only a couple small exceptions here and there.

 

[Subjective]

Yes! Please post!

Also, how much DO you know? Going through the series knowing nothing about what comes next is what really makes this series shine.

I'm just curious if you know where it's going other than the premise of "the UN in space".

 

[Ethros]

I'll happily update this thread as I go; but it could be a while. I finally finished watching all the DVDs I got the Christmas the other day, and now I'm working through the ones I got in the January sales
I've about half of ENT Season 4 to finish and a few films, and then I'm done.


I think I've read before that the first season is a bit hit and miss, but I'll try and stick with it. Besides, I borrowed all of The Sopranos from a friend in the latter half of 2008, and as I'm not a fan of gangster stuff really I found the first series pretty boring, the second was better, and I really started liking it by the third.

Yes! Please post!

Also, how much DO you know? Going through the series knowing nothing about what comes next is what really makes this series shine.
I'm just curious if you know where it's going other than the premise of "the UN in space".

Well I've read SFX magazine for nearly 10 years now, and lurk on here a lot. So I know most of the main character names, the species, etc
But there's no doubt a lot I don't.


I'm just hoping it arrives in one piece, as if a disc is scratced or somethings broken it'll be a bitch to send back

 

[Takeru]

..., but what order should I watch in it?
I'd prefer to go by the airdates please

Watch The Gathering first, it's the pilot, then seasons 1 to 5. Ignore the other movies until you're finished with the series, some of them take place during the show but add nothing to the story and most of them are crap.
The only movie worth watching is "In the Beginning", do NOT watch it first, it spoils a lot, but for some reason a few fans think it's a good idea to give the advice to watch it first, just because most of it takes place before the pilot.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

I've always been interested in watching it, but i've never seen it air on British TV in about forever.

I missed Babylon-5 as well it was only when I got a DVD player in 2002 did I finally discover this great series, Babylon-5 for me is the perfect way to tell a wonderful and detailed scifi story through television. B5 is an epic, classic moment of scifi

Here's what I recommend
Start with the movie 'The Gathering' You could really dive early into its timeline and watch 'In the Beginning' but since this was produced in 1998 and Babylon 5 aired around 1994 I wouldn't recommend going this route.
Go on to Season 1 and try to fly through it as fast as possible since it gets kinda slow and clunky, its a good enjoyable season but some episodes are a let down and the actor Michael O'Hare playing Sinclair can be a bit wodden

Come Season 2, sit back and enjoy since the series really starts to kick off and Season 2-4 hold some of the greatest moments in scifi televsion

The show gets a bit screwed come the end of 4, contracts were ending and the story was coming to a close. I won't spoil anything but people always said to me avoid the last season like the plague so I've done my best to avoid it and never bothered with the last season - EVER

and I remember the show as something great, I remember it as close to perfection


If you needed a little more B5 go for the movies, River of Souls, Call to Arms etc
B5 Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark came out about a year and a half ago, its a very entertaining movie and a great tribute to some wonderful B-5 actors who have since passed away

If you get tempted by the last season of Babylon-5 just DONT

Start the Crusade spin-off series instead, it had nice potential as a series and had a wonderful cast
(veteran actor Gary Cole, 'Lost' boy Daniel Dae Kim, lovely ladies Tracy Scoggins and Marjean Holden and some great guest stars from B-5)

BTW
For a bit of trivia, there was some huge back and forth between B-5 and DS9 fans back in the day
Both have strong similarities and some writers even accused each other of taking each others ideas, early on I see why Fivers accused Nine of taking from their show but as B-5 matures you can also see how it behaved less saintly and JMS started pinch stuff back from DS9

 

[Angel4576]

An important point to note. When you start watching, give it time. It's a slow burner for the first half of the season. Episodes like 'And the Sky Full of Stars', 'Mind War', 'Signs & Portents', 'Babylon Squared' and 'Chrysalis' are the level of quality that you can come to expect in Seasons 2-4 and the backend of Season 5.

There are a couple of really dodgy episodes early on that caught a lot of folks out at the time and made them tune out. Episodes like Infection and Born to the Purple are what I'm thinking of here.

 

[RoJoHen]

I watched B5 for the first time over the summer. It was a wild ride.

If you want to watch "The Gathering" first, go ahead. Otherwise, I'd just save the rest of the movies until the end if you don't want to get too complicated. I know some people have preferred orders, but it really won't add or subtract anything from your experience to just save them all for the end. It may even interrupt the flow of the series if you pause to watch the movies in the middle.

 

[Subjective]

woah woah woah... you've never seen season 5? Have you seen the series finale at least? You cannot miss that one, it's the finest hour of television!

 

[RoJoHen]

The show gets a bit screwed come the end of 4, contracts were ending and the story was coming to a close. I won't spoil anything but people always said to me avoid the last season like the plague so I've done my best to avoid it and never bothered with the last season - EVER

and I remember the show as something great, I remember it as close to perfection

If you get tempted by the last season of Babylon-5 just DONT

This is an absurd notion.

There is a drop in quality in the first half of season 5, but I think its ending is just as strong as the rest of the series, even better than a lot of it too.

 

[Mr Light]

B5 remains to my eye the greatest TV series ever made. Enjoy! Just remember the first season is a rough trick to love.

 

[Candlelight]

It really doesn't matter too much what order you watch the movies but I would suggest the following:

The Gathering
Season One
Season Two
Season Three
Season Four
In The Beginning
Thirdspace (fast forward when you get to the elevator scene, seriously)
Season Five
A River of Souls (or avoid if possible, it really makes Spock's Brain look like Shakespeare)
A Call to Arms
Crusade (the episode order is all over the place due to production problems, which in itself is another TrekBBS thread; best to just watch it in the order that the box set presents itself)
Legend of the Rangers (skip the weapon's pod battle scene, you'll know it when you see it)
The Lost Tales

 

[Von_Steinwehr]

I enjoyed B5 when it was on tv and now on DVD. My only negative about the universe is "Legend of the Rangers." I haven't bought or seen the new direct to DVD movies, so I can't comment on them.

 

[Nobody]

Just remember, once you get past season 1 the quality picks and the real fun begins.

Have fun, it's a great ride.



-nobody

 

[Brent]

Yeah, stick with it, don't give up after Season 1, keep watching, by the end of S4 you'll think its the best SCIFI show ever.

 

[JuanBolio]

You won't be disappointed, my friend.

With a few small exceptions its all good - and seasons 3 and 4 are just plain some of the best damn sci-fi space opera ever shown on any screen.

 

[Angel4576]

The first half of season five is hit and miss to put it generously, but even then there are a couple of standout episodes. Neil Gaiman's 'Day of the Dead' for example.

This being said, the last 5/6 episodes are as good as anything that B5 ever produced, and the finale, remains to this day my favourite finale from any show, any time, anywhere. Awesome.

 

[Gov Kodos]

I hope it is to your tastes, it is one of my favorite series. The first season is one that I didn't appreciate until I'd seen the whole series. It sets up the issues and plots but much of the set up isn't at all obvious so the first time through I got a feeling of "what's the point of all this?" The fifth season gets criticised a lot, but as mentioned above, that was more the fault of issues of series renewal at the end of the fourth year. They finished up a lot of things that would have carried into the fifth and given the season more direction at the start.

And so, it begins...

 

[JuanBolio]

Even though some episodes are weaker than others, you shouldn't skip. Almost every one has something delightful in it, even if its just a small character moment or a great line, or an important factoid for the overall story arc.