Last B5 Post for a while · 4:45am Jan 18th, 2020
While answering a message in my last post, I realized this was something I could share with all of you. In a way, I've been wanting to write a G'kar piece for over two decades. Can you believe that? I know it's not perfect, but what will ever be? And yet, in all that time I never sat down and did it. It was terrifying to write something like this before Sunset's Isekai.
Understand, this series is not just my favorite series. It really changed my life in many ways, it opened my eyes to self awareness, to looking into what made a story amazing. It grabbed me, sat me down and took me through exemplary character development for just about all the main characters in the series. Every time I read something about Babylon 5 I discovered something new... that it was the first series to actively use CGI constantly in TV. That it was the first TV series to have five seasons planned from the beginning. That it was the first tv series to actively engage with their fans online through forums. That an episode didn't air initially because someone mentioned a similar plot idea in the forum... that that same person hunted down JMS at a Comicon and gave them a legal paper, notarized and everything clarifying that they had no legal right or would take no legal action for that story being aired... and it was.
It's a series that touched many lives... and whose characters really touched mine. So... one last B5 post for a while. Not for me, but for a series that changed things, people and inspired many of us... and the people that made it possible. A bit of a downer, maybe but... I stick to my philosophy that the value of a life is not measured by death, but by what you leave behind.
It is a real shame they didn't save the CGI stuff -- With everything in high def, the new generation of people do not get to see B5 because they won't put a low def series on tv in general. B5 was what made DS9 good because star trek actually had competition for once. And B5 was great. Law vs Chaos stories tend to be better than Good vs Evil, and telling both sides to get out of my galaxy....
Wow. I didn't know much anything about Babylon 5 until read Sunset's Isekai nor watch it, let alone know all this, but...
It seems to be an awesome, absolute paragon of a show. A role model to strive for.
Wow.
Wanderer, I'm pretty sure stabbing someone in the heart with feels is against site rules, but here we are, both sad and wanting this show to be shown on TV once more.
Wow now am kinda sad this isn’t still on tv
5188162
Problem is, the show just wasn't that good imo.
5188180
It's ok, you're allowed to be wrong.
lets not forget the actors. The long takes where people struggled. The improv that happened despite rules against it. Londo and G'kar... MF'ing Londo and G'kar and how well the charaters played off eachother that you'd forget sometimes they weren't the main characters... That elevator scene, Vir's "want" the stories of life, death, rebith. The examination of rights and secrets.
All this in a single show... B5 truly was one of the best shows on TV despite some poor episodes thrown in as filler.
Londo's accent. God I can't imagine Londo without it but he just threw it in on his first take in the first shot despite being told not to.
The breaking of the Grey Council and the emotion in Delen's speech being because of her frustration about... Slovakia I think... then her breaking the staff which took so many takes they had to weaken it for her and she broke into a huge grin when she pulled it off (you can see it for a fraction of a second still)
The addiction storyline.
Each time you think you've got all the highlights more pop out.
(but in purple I'm stunning)
5188185
I'm allowed to be...Doesn't mean I am. Babylon 5 is basically a melting pot of all the bad tropes from the rest of Sci-Fi.
Babylon 5. The show that you could make at home? So many nods in MLP.
5188217
You didn't care for the story, setting, or characters, then?
5188227
Not really. Story was ok, but nothing special. Setting was basically generic Sci-Fi. Characters were again, ok. Not bad, just meh.
5188231
I might be mistaken, but that may be because B5 introduced some of those tropes in the mainstream media. Just like Ghost in the Shell's nothing awesome if you see it today (still good, but "nothing much") because of what it brought to the fore at the time.
I'm curious though to what you'd call good or even excellent if Babylon 5 didn't cut it for you.
66.media.tumblr.com/5b4e0848d8080db04dbfedf31a4869e2/tumblr_nq1t6uTqRq1qcsnnso1_540.gif
...why would you do this to me first thing in the morning?!
5188231 Not sure when you watched B5. But this is a 1994 show that literally broke all of the conventions and actively avoided the tropes of most of sci-fi until then. I'd be curious to see what "Bad Tropes" you're referring to, because it was deliberately different from the "let's go to space and beyond and explore!" Not that there's anything bad in that sort of show, but B5 was completely different. In fact, the studio pushed to have the "cocky pilot" thrown in there despite JMS's plans, so the first chance he got, he got rid of the character in a way that made sense to the story. I don't think you viewed it at the time. Basically what 5188242 said is true: if you watched it after it changed television, then you probably thought it was a ripoff of something else. But it wasn't.
Here's an example.
Babylon 5 was, for the time, ground-breaking. It also did things that I don't think a lot of other shows did...or ever did as well as they did.
In the absolute span of history, I do like DS9 more than B5, mostly because DS9 was able to pivot into looking at the shadows of the Star Trek universe without forgetting that there is light and people that carry that light high.
But, I would watch B5 every chance I can get. You got a great feeling that the cast was great together and they could disagree and still be friends. Garibaldi's "electric bleachers" speech came pretty much directly from Jerry Doyle, who probably wouldn't even be considered for a major TV role these days (conservative/libertarian, very law-and-order, pro-gun, ran his own radio talk show after this...and him and JMS were great friends). It was on the Internet just before Eternal September and the fans there reflected this. The stories were well-written, and you can tell that this was done mostly by one guy-it has a consistency that only a single writer or tight producer control can get away with.
I would love a remastered series that made the most of current/modern CGI for that and nothing else.
5188266
92 out of 110 and he had to deal with changing the ending of the 4th due to Warner cancelling it and then un-canceling. Oh that series was simply incredible. I saw it in the late 90s here in Brazil, late at night when my father got home. I was around 10 back then.
Thanks for reminding me of such a time in my life, Wanderer. It really brings out memories
i remember back when this was beng aired. i was in highschool. it was and still is one of THE best sci-fi tv shows that there has been on syndicated television. i have all five seasons, the movies and the 1st season of crusade (the series that was suposed to follow Babylon5). excelent stuff.
yes, there are alot of tropes strewn throughout the series, but they are placed in such a way that they make damned good sense to be there. this in my view is what makes a great sci-fi televison show. it is much the pity that we cannot have something of this calibur in our present day
5188266
I didn't watch it till about 12 years ago, but I saw UFO , Space 1999, and Battlestar Galactica (original) before it, and (as much as I hate Space 1999) think they're all better.
And yes, it did a lot of new things, but that doesn't make it a good series.
5188330 We'll have to agree to disagree.
5188335
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Man I loved that show. Made me give DS9 a chance in the first place.
Would you call it your last, best post for peace?
I love the b5 chapters would love some red dwarf (if only to drive sunset nuts)
5188160
Actually what made DS9 good was that they ripped off B5 in the first place.
Trust Ivanova, trust yourself; Anyone else? Shoot em.
And it was a real shame about Jerry Doyle. He had a good talk radio show right up until a little before he died. It was interesting to hear "Garabaldi" on the air.