Watching Season 5 of Babylon 5 again...

[Mistral]

Never had a beef with S5. Many hate Byron but I looked on him as he was-irrelevant as an individual but necessary as a catalyst. The fact that his messianic impulses ended with him in chains seemed appropriate. As for the non-Telepath stories, most of those were quite good. Loved Day of the Dead. Generally a good season-but like a band's 2cnd album after smashing sales records with the first it had a hard act to follow.

 

[Vestboy]

The thing with Season 5 that really stood out is Season 4 ended beautifully... and that's just it. It ended. So Season 5 had to rebuild momentum from scratch.

 

[Forbin]

Once Byron and his Byronettes goes up in flames, the season is just fine. I recall my wife muttering "Thank God" after that explosion.

I prefer Claudia over Scoggins. I like looking at Tracy more, but Ivanova was a much better character than Lochley, and while both actresses are B-list at best, Scoggins' acting has never been... well, good.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I prefer Claudia over Scoggins. I like looking at Tracy more, but Ivanova was a much better character than Lochley, and while both actresses are B-list at best, Scoggins' acting has never been... well, good.

But Scoggins's acting is far more tolerable than Christian's. Although I think Scoggins's strength is in playing the vamp-for-laughs much like she did as Cat Grant in the first season of Lois and Clark.

 

[Kegg]

I like looking at Tracy more, but Ivanova was a much better character than Lochley, and while both actresses are B-list at best, Scoggins' acting has never been... well, good.

Pretty much. In the Ivanova v. Lochley debate, such as it is, I'm for Takashima. Also not exactly a stellar performance, but easy on the eye well enough.

 

[trevanian]

Ivanova was often pretty weak, but geez, the stuff where she loses it after Marcus dies? That was really good, she must have been saving up for years to deliver the goods.

 

[Harvey]

That's her best scene in the series. Of course, save for the finale, it's also her last scene in the series. It's too bad Christian didn't hit the ground running with the character. I liked her on Freaks and Geeks. Writing, of course, also has something to do with this.

 

[JediKnightButler]

It's kind of hard to top seasons 2-4 of the series but S5 still has some good stuff in there, particularly during the last half of the season. The first half, with a few exceptions, wasn't that great- with the telepaths- and I rarely re-watch episodes from that part of the season, but the "Londo/Centauri War" storyline (starting with "Meditations on the Abyss") and the remaining final episodes leading up to "Sleeping in Light" were outstanding. The season serves as nice "bookend" to the series and opens up new storyline possibilities (some of which, unfortunately, will likely never be followed up on in books or other media but oh well..)

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ivanova was often pretty weak, but geez, the stuff where she loses it after Marcus dies? That was really good, she must have been saving up for years to deliver the goods.

"Did...did you just say 'boffed'?"

 

[Deckerd]

1. The resolution of Londo's arc: we knew this day would come. Making it even more tragic in a Shakespearan sense. Watching how Londo's arc ended in heartbreak makes me miss Dollhouse had more time to show more of its similiar arc involving Topher.

Is Dollhouse cancelled then?

I agree what you say about Londo. It's one of the best things about season 5. I think most people are reacting to the fact that the really bad baddies have left and there's a vacuum regarding what to do next.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Although it's my least favourite season of B5, Season 5 is definitely a decent season of TV, even if you don't count Sleeping in Light. The first half does suffer somewhat because the telepath plotline, while OK, wasn't really "big" enough to fill all the time that was allocated to it, but I definitely wouldn't want to give up The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari or Day of the Dead and seeing original Na'Toth again was great. The second half was pretty much consistently strong and The Fall of Centauri Prime is clearly one of the best episodes of anything ever.

Overall, there were some drawbacks to the season in general. I didn't think Sheridan and Delenn got enough cool stuff to do and I missed Ivanova. The backstory between Sheridan and Lochley was... ill-advised and it did sometimes feel like the story was over now that they'd taken back Earth.

On the other hand, Garibaldi and Lyta got some excellent stuff and the last few episodes shuffled most of the characters off the stage in a dignified fashion (poor, poor Lennier, though...). Ultimately of course, this was Londo's season and I thought his story was wrapped up very well.

I wasn't nuts about Sheridan's goatee, though. Should have kept the full beard from the end of Season 4!

 

[Agent Richard07]

I wasn't nuts about Sheridan's goatee, though. Should have kept the full beard from the end of Season 4!

They even colored it to get rid of the grey.