I ran out of old Star Trek TV to watch so I regret to inform you I've started my first ever Babylon 5 watch-through.
Welcome to my Babylon 5 thread I guess.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
I'm halfway through season one and my initial impressions are:
- this is an ambitious story portrayed by mostly okay actors
- wow, aggressive use of early computer graphics, u sure bout that?
- feels soap opera-y
- season one (so far) has less cringe than season one TNG but more cringe that season one DS9 (the DS9 comparisons will continue and you can't stop me)
Babylon 5 Watch Through
The police powers of the Office of the President seem pretty broad and far-reaching. Yikes!
Oh well 𤡠As long as a benevolent philosopher king like President Santiago stays in power, forever, I don't see any potential issues here.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
I should state that my only previous exposure to the show was being confused by a few episodes I saw as a kid, and reading through several B5 novels at my middle school library. Mostly I'm going in with fresh eyes.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Never heard of any government referring to itself as a âregimeâ but okay, sure, the Narn.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Ron Canada
Babylon 5 Watch Through
oh, and from earlier:
Jeffrey Combs
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Something that I liked when I was younger (but dislike now) is how little religion was portrayed in TNG-era Star Trek. It was always alien religions, and usually they were dismissed as superstition.
B5 also has alien religions, and aliens are shown to have more than one religion too. But also human religion. Sinclair had Jesuit teachers as a child. And thereâs a whole ep about Worfâs dad convincing Ivanova to sit shiva for her deceased father.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Iâm a little worried itâs an over-correction from Star Trek, what with the Vorlonâs reveal coming up. But I like it so far.
Religion has been a part of human society since time immemorial and itâs not going to just disappear once we discover aliens. Worfâs dad asks if an alien seafood dish is kosher â thatâs a way more interesting than âall religions are entirely superstition.â
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Unbelievable. DS9 is shameless; they even ripped off B5 having two main cast members getting married đ
Babylon 5 Watch Through
I feel like the writing in season one could have really benefited from a second writer. Someone to push back a bit against JMS, who appears to want total, absolute creative control.
Actors are creative people, too â the few times actors on this show are permitted to bring their own ideas to their characters, it really shines. JMS reminds of Star Wars prequel-era George Lucas, treating actors like puppets.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
wrapped up season one, started season two
the season one finale was pretty good. paid off a lot, and set up a lot. good pacing.
the season two opening credits narrative took a steep step backwards. CG got marginally better. I'm not sure I like this Sheridan guy yet.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Linear and Na'toh are the dark horses of the series, my god
Babylon 5 Watch Through
No one has told Claudia Christian that Ivonova is not the main character of B5 and itâs *amazing*. Similar to Nana Visitor / Kira â they both steal the show IMO.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
The moment Ivanova started using crutches I thought âoh no, Claudia Christian got hurtâ and I was right.
Apparently she was afraid sheâd be written of the show for a broken ankle â sounds like a really tight production environment. JMS apparently had âescape hatchesâ to write out any character on the show and as an actor, thatâs gotta feel like a sword of Damocles đ
~Babylon 5~ Star Trek Discovery Watch Through
Iâve been at home sick this past week but took a break from B5 to zip through Star Trek: Discovery season one for the first time. The two contrast with one another and it was fun to watch something new.
Impressions with season one:
- Michael Burnham is a great lead
- Lorca was amazing
- omg Tilly
- why do they feel the need to reference TOS so much?
- MY MAN SARU
- Shazad Latifâs portrayal was *so good*
- didnât care for the Klingons
~Babylon 5~ Star Trek Discovery Watch Through
Also âsporesâ
Spores spores spores
enough with the spores
~Babylon 5~ Star Trek Discovery Watch Through
and Michelle Yeoh fucking slays (figuratively, literally, etc)
~Babylon 5~ Star Trek Discovery Watch Through
I knew a bunch of homophobes hated Discovery because it has a gay couple and I was curious to see the portrayal of gayness that had upset them so much.
Itâs literally, just, a couple brushing their teeth before bed lol. Thatâs it, thatâs all it takes to set these people off. Two men doing normal life stuff together.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
Season two was off to a rocky start but their finding their feet with Captain Tron pretty quickly. Things are heating up and itâs exciting!
Give me more Psi Corps plot! Give it to meeeeeeee
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow I actually felt that Burnham was the weakest part (apart from lots of plot holes, completely random and illogical decisions of there characters etc.). She has the solutions to all problems, always gets away with breaking the rules, and entirely cries too much for being such a super hero. I haven't seen a single leading character cry that much in a series, ever.
IMHO ST:Discovery ist by far the weakest of all Star Trek series.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@vvv I agree there are lots of plot holes â I think the early change of showrunner led to a lot of those. Iâm interested to see how season two changes how it tells its story.
When Michael, I think she cries for pretty good reasons. Her character goes on an emotional arc and was raised on Vulcan, so it makes sense she sucks at emotions.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow for someone raised on Vulcan I would have expected her to to have more control over which emotions she shows. Vulcans do have very strong emotions, they just learn to avoid showing them and let them cloud their judgement. Exactly the opposite of what Burnham does. To me this is a a huge plot holes because it completely ignores the established lore.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow I haven't seen the fourth season, yet, but the first three gave me the impression that the authors desperately wanted to be different than the other series but lacked a real vision. It all seems just like a patchwork of half baked ideas, with random action scenes to fill the holes.
Here and there there are glimpses of good ideas and plots but the whole thing just doesn't entirely work.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow have you gotten to Kenickie yet? :D
From the commentary, JMS talks about how at a Con, he and others from Bab5 could tell people had recognized the actors out of costume, which is a good sign. Captain Tron and Kenickie were hanging out, and they noticed two women were checking them out. Tron said something like "they recognize me!", but then they came up and asked for Kenickie's autograph. (d'oh!)
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ischade havenât gotten that far yet!
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow he doesn't run off with the show the way many of the others do. but he's a good egg.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow holy shit. I am here for this thread. I would love to do amnestics and watch B5 again not knowing whatâs coming.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@Fishermansenemy Iâm enjoying it! I know a few spoilers but seeing everything unfold is really satisfying.
Babylon 5 Watch Through
@ashfurrow Oh, you'll get them â with Bester at his best and at his worst, as friend and (usually) foe, and a lot of variants. More about Bester in a (JMS-blessed) fan-fiction novel â ask me if you want to read it, I'll look up name and publisher.