• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

When Does Babylon 5 not get boring?? lol...

I skipped most of S1 (on the advice of people here, in fact) and liked it that way.

Yes. I'm one of those who watched the show while it aired. And don't regret it at all. And upon rewatches, I watch it all again. The first season built an incredible foundation upon which this huge, vibrant, original universe was laid.

Even the "bad" episodes have little bits that stick with you and help build the big story and character arcs to come.

As other posters have said, the vibe put off the whole time in Season one gripped me. I got what was being built here. And because I hung in there (though for me, it wasn't hard), I was greatly rewarded with a tremendous storytelling experience.
 
It gets much better as soon as Bruce Boxleitner takes over from "The Incredible Wooden Man" aka Michael O'Hare.

Yeah, I couldn't take his acting so I saw only a few season one episodes. I wrote the show off though I did like some of it so when I heard O'Hare was replaced I decided to give it another chance. I loved seasons 2-4. I kind of lost interest after that. It moved to TNT and was on at an inconvienient time for me.

In defense of Michael O'Hare: Sinclair is a damaged guy. He's got a lot of stuff buried, and much of that...well, that'd be a spoiler. sufice to say, the guy has got some massive PTSD happening. O'Hare's portrayal of Sinclair reflects this very well.

Anyhow, O'Hare gives a great performance as Sinclair, IMO. Watch a bit closer next tiem you view the first season - there's a lot of subtle acting going on. O'Hare doesn't over-act the a lot of others tend to (Shatner, Patrick Stewart, etc.).
 
Did you just say Patrick Steward tends to overact? :wtf:

I imagine that if that's the scale you're using than O'Hare's performance would be great, but I find his performance somewhat disaffecting at times, and off-putting at its worst. Not quite sure where the blame goes for that, but I doubt I could have made it through the series with Sinclair in charge the whole time.
 
Ha, yeah. I remember liking the original TV movie when it aired (just because a show set on a space station seemed like a really cool idea), but I was never able to get into the actual series, no matter how often I tried. Just a lot of stiff characters giving flowery, pretentious speeches, basically.

The characters on DS9 seemed about a thousand times more charming and dynamic to me.

I agree with you. I also never forgave them for replacing Tamlyn Tomita with Claudia Christian
.
 
It's a shame the first season wasn't better. I suspect a lot of people missed out on the awesomeness that came later as a result of its problems.


Oh my. Thank you for that video.

Video=Win.
Thanks a lot, Lindley! I hit play and saw how long it was and thought "naaah..." then proceeded to watch the whole thing. I haven't watched B5 for about 5 years or so...it's about time, isn't it? 5 years seems like a good amount of time... :beer:
 
Speaking as a fan of both Trek and B5, I have to say that B5 had the balls to go where Trek wouldn't and still won't go story-wise: serious character development and drama. The only Trek show to approach the level of development and complexity was DS9.

B5 is less "space opera" and more "serious sci-fi". The emphasis is on the story and characters, not the "run and jump" or the "pew pew pew" (though it has plenty of both).
 
Just wondering I got thru season 1 it reminds me of a soap opera!! I have the movies should they be watched in any particular order?

Ordinarily I tell people how much I envy them getting to watch the show for the first time but it may be that it's just not going to be to your taste.

There are certain resemblances to a soap opera, I suppose. It's an ongoing story (though not open-ended like a soap opera) and in some episodes a *lot* happens that resolves some things but puts others in motion. In soap operas, this is (or at least was) known as 'Friday'. B5 fans call them 'Wham' episodes.

As for the movies, there are all sorts of opinions as to when to watch them but for the first time, I just say to watch "The Gathering" (special edition) at the beginning and the others after watching the seasons. No real need to slot them into certain places while it seems possible you won't be watching the rest of the series.

But if you do...I envy you getting to see it for the first time! :)

Jan
 
Re: When Does Babylon 5 not get boring? it had alot going on? lol...

Personally, I thought the Series became really good as soon as And the Sky Full of Stars Episode 7, and showed you it had a lot going on under the surface that was gonna break loose. Certainly, by the end of the first Season, you should start being intrigued, if not, it's probably not for you, but, you can try starting S2 to see if the Cast change works better for you.
 
I'm a huge B5 fan, but even I have a hard time slogging though season 1. After the first episode it doesn't really get compelling for me until the last episodes of the season. So just hang in there, and get through the season. It's well worth the time investment to experience the only well-done arc series.
 
I'm a B5 fan, but JMS' often overly lengthy, expository dialogue does occasionally bring episodes to a tedious crawl.
 
It gets much better as soon as Bruce Boxleitner takes over from "The Incredible Wooden Man" aka Michael O'Hare.

I'll take issue with that. I prefer O'Hare to Boxleitner.

For one, neither actor is Deniro or Hoffman, and second, Boxleitner had a lot of real ham in the show, so I think people acting like he was so far above O'Hare is just BS.
 
It gets much better as soon as Bruce Boxleitner takes over from "The Incredible Wooden Man" aka Michael O'Hare.

I'll take issue with that. I prefer O'Hare to Boxleitner.

For one, neither actor is Deniro or Hoffman, and second, Boxleitner had a lot of real ham in the show, so I think people acting like he was so far above O'Hare is just BS.

In his first several episodes, Boxleitner wasn't playing Captain Sheridan. He was playing Captain Skippy. It took him awhile to find his footing, but he eventually grows into the role, and settled in nicely.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top