Where's the Babylon 5 section ?

OMcGovern

Am I the only one who is shocked that there isn't a "Babylon 5" section in this forum ?

I'm re-watching the 5 Series at the moment.... it's like revisiting an old friend.
Wonderful sci-fi, that beats every single Star Trek series and any spin-off series.

A 5 year story arc, which was actually planned, not like Star Trek which was written much like "Coronation Steet", episode by episode.

The character developer over the course of 5 years was wonderful.
The build up towards war, the god-like beings, the politics, the special effects.... it just brings a tear to my eye !

I've watched ALL the Star Trek episodes, but would choose Babylon 5 over every single one of them.

Just reply to let me know there's actually some red-blooded sci-fi fans out there !

regards,
Owen

c0y0te

I think B5 has had its day - unfortunately.

I was and am a huge fan of B5, and until Battlestar Galactica came along I thought nothing would ever eclipse its brilliance, but (I'm happy to say) BSG is living up to expectations.

The only other show that came close for me was Farscape, but you don't see a Farscape forum here either do you?

If it's rabid fandom, geek discussion and in depth analysis of a quality Sci-fi show you are looking for, then look no further than the BSG forum. Trust me

spooydermot

i have to agree with you, Babylon 5 was a work of genius, the enormity of the 5 year story arc was fantastic.
I also think it's quite fair to say that BSG is a worthy heir to B5's throne.

...in fact I think it might be time to go and re-watch B5....hmmmm

ixoy

The show has ended many years ago, so there's not that much more to discuss whereas "Star Trek" has, until recently, had continuous new episodes to discuss.

Now I think B5 is infinitely superior but the material to discuss isn't there bar pouring over old episodes. I mean I've seen the five seasons, 4 movies (5 if you include the pilot, and 6 if you included LotR), and "Crusade." I've read the 12 comics and noted how it contributes to the background and I've got the novels worth getting and still don't think there's a need for a dedicated forum. What'd we discuss on it other than what we know And, as it stands, most of the questions have been answered in the show or spin-off books so there's not really the mystery to explore either...

flinx11

I agree B5 grabbed me like no other scifi series at the time. It a joy to re-watch & as you said the story arcs were nothing short of brilliant.

Its a shame it was put out to pasture but unlike so many sf series which struggle on to seven seasons the completion of the story was its greatest asset.

I would however like to see a full fledged movie based in the B5 universe as was MJSs hope a few years ago.

As an aside its intresting to see whet some of the stars of B5 are doing now in particular Jerry Doyle who has retired from acting to become a political commentator in the states. he now hosts a weekly radio show which can be picked up on the internet & from what ive heard of it he seemed to take a lot of himself onto the set when he played Michael Garabaldi. Bit of a tough nut.

As i said worth re-watching every few years. I have re-watched it twice since it went off the air & ive found that my persoective on the show have shifted with each watching.

Bush is DEFINATLY an agent of the shadows!!!!

azezil

While I really enjoyed B5, why dear lord why did they make a 5th season, it should have just ended with season 4, the final episode of season 4 was so much better than the finale.

ixoy

azezil wrote:

While I really enjoyed B5, why dear lord why did they make a 5th season, it should have just ended with season 4, the final episode of season 4 was so much better than the finale.

Ya what? Yer the only person I've ever heard say that. The S4 finale (well the second one, when they found they had a season 5) was, by JMS own words, a bit of an experiment whereas the S5 finale - the original proper one "Sleeping in Light" - was a proper beautiful farewell to the show that featured the proper characters and settings, said goodbye to them, in the way that "Deconstruction of Falling Stars" never could given it barely featured the cast. That'd have been an awful way to end the show, without the cast we watched with.

azezil

Been a while since I seen it so I *may* be confused, but i did think the 5 series was dirt

Sarky

I managed to completely avoid B5 when it came out, and only got to watching it recently. I got to the bottom of season 2 not so long ago, and I'm busy getting my hands on the next 3.

I'm dead impressed so far. If nothing else, the show was ambitious beyond nearly anything else I've watched. Things that happened were significant. The CGI obviously didn't age well, but I can well realise how cool it must have loooked back in the 90's.

I'm going to enjoy watching the rest of it. Shame on me for not getting into it sooner.

Karl Hungus

Frankly, despite it not being a current ongoing show, I do actually think it would merit a forum of it's own. Hell, the last episode of Red Dwarf was back in 1999, and we've still got a forum for that. Not that I think B5 should have a forum just because Red Dwarf has one, I just mention it to illustrate that a show doesn't have to have new episodes to merit discussion.

madrab

i remember there was a request put in year ago for one but nothing ever came of it, it would be interesting though

OMcGovern

Series 4 had built up such action and momentum that series 5 had a tough act to follow. I thought the "telepath war" was nothing more than a small hippy protest... very disappointed at that. I expected Bester to be leading the telepaths into a war of espionage, combat using the psi-corp starfuries, and maybe some exploding heads like in the film "scanners" :-)

I did love the character development of G'Kar, Londo and Mr Garibaldi.

regards,
Owen

madrab

byron was only the beginning of the telepath war, the full tp war was never shown in the series & was set a year(?) after season 5, & was referred to in "a call to arms"

ixoy

Madrab's right - you saw nothing of the telepath war. The closest you got was Byron acting as a sort of kindling for events to come. We only saw vague hints - even the Psi Corps trilogy only mentioned it without revealing much. We do know that

Lyta Alexander died in the telepath war

.

Pugsley

I dont see why people dont like series5, it wasnt as good as series 4 Ill admit, but you couldnt really expect it to be, series5 added so much to G'kar and Londo, and the whole Drackh (sp?) fiasco added a lot to Londo aswell. I liked Londo in the first 4 series, but without series5 he just wouldnt be the same imo, series5 added a lot to Garibaldi too.

The Centauri war was quite well handled too, when the minister of war was saying 'we are fighting a strictly defensive war', you always assumed he was just a blatent liar, until after the events on the Drazi homeworld when they find out they actually where only defending.

. If you take series5 for its own merits and dont expect it to live up to series4, I think its definately worth watching. Far better than series1 anyway

Rewatching series2-5 atm, Ill probably rewatch farscape when thats done (the only sci-fi I have seen to compare to B5 imo).

madrab

thats just what i did recently puglesy, b5 series 1 through 5 then farscape 1-4 & peace keeper wars, then the 5 b5 movies

a good fill of nerdyness for me (still have crusade to finish off)

Pugsley

I didnt think crusade was the bad, I quite liked the crew in general, but they werent really going anywhere with the story, it could have been better than it was, could have turned out pretty well if it was givin more than half a series though, shame we will never find out.

ixoy

Pugsley wrote:

I didnt think crusade was the bad, I quite liked the crew in general, but they werent really going anywhere with the story, it could have been better than it was, could have turned out pretty well if it was givin more than half a series though, shame we will never find out.

Listen to the commentary track on the final DVD (before it was taken out) of "Crusade" and you'll find out where it was going and it sounded very interesting, which is why it's such a pain it got canned. Much like B5, S1 was only really ramping things up.

Here's what I can recall would have happened

the real focus of the show would have been on left over Shadow-tech. The plague was only ever introduced to appease the studio so the characters would have something to do. JMS intended on it being cured in S2/3. During the course of looking for the cure, the Excalibur crew would find out that Earth was working with forbidden Shadow-tech. The Earth Gov. would have turned against them and they would have become renegades, leading to all sorts of off-shooting storylines.

This would have been then ever more closely intergrated with Babylon 5, which would have stood by them etc etc.

Oh and that chest that spoke to Gideon? There was a lot more to that. It's no coincidence that the actor's voice was used for the chest.

And umm Galen would take on an apprentice in Dureena which would see her go down a dark road with the magic which, as you may know, is an offshoot of shadow tech anyway....

That's what I can recall would have happened in "Crusade" and it's all the worse that we never got to see it realised....

azezil

ixoy wrote:

Here's what I can recall would have happened

the real focus of the show would have been on left over Shadow-tech. The plague was only ever introduced to appease the studio so the characters would have something to do. JMS intended on it being cured in S2/3. During the course of looking for the cure, the Excalibur crew would find out that Earth was working with forbidden Shadow-tech. The Earth Gov. would have turned against them and they would have become renegades, leading to all sorts of off-shooting storylines.

Well I'm glad it didn't go that route, it'd just be B5 with a new name. Too like the original imo.

trishw78

I vaguely remember seeing some of B5 on S4C/channel4 when I was younger & I'd love to see the complete B5 series does anyone know where I can get my hands on a cheep boxset of B5... I loved Frscape, I currently rewatching it up to s4 ep7 so far. So according to a few of you, if I've read correctly if I loved Farscape I'll love B5 in it's entirity

Pugsley

trishw78 wrote:

So according to a few of you, if I've read correctly if I loved Farscape I'll love B5 in it's entirity

B5 and Farscape are totally diffrent in every aspect apart from their both in space, and their both brilliant

I know a few people who like one but not the other.

trishw78

Pugsey wrote:

B5 and Farscape are totally diffrent in every aspect apart from their both in space

I get that all I was try but not sucessful to say was that i'd like to see all of B5 as I've only seen bits

madrab

Pugsley wrote:

B5 and Farscape are totally diffrent in every aspect apart from their both in space, and their both brilliant

I know a few people who like one but not the other.

& also have long running story arks & decent non-humanoid aliens & proper explanations of different languages

jaggeh

B5 still has novels coming out, there are 2 computer games in the works (one being an mmo) and JMS has said that he wants to do another b5 film and acompanying series. the last attempt (legacy of shadows) he was doing for nothing.

i doubt we have seen the last of B5 and id say a forum is easily useable.

madrab

Ah well, this might get us started

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=50894415#post50894415

monkeyfudge

ixoy wrote:

Oh and that chest that spoke to Gideon? There was a lot more to that. It's no coincidence that the actor's voice was used for the chest.

And umm Galen would take on an apprentice in Dureena which would see her go down a dark road with the magic which, as you may know, is an offshoot of shadow tech anyway....

That's what I can recall would have happened in "Crusade" and it's all the worse that we never got to see it realised....

Yep...

That funny box really peaked my interest... I would have loved to see where they were going with that.

Galen I couldn't stand at all... he was a bit of a prat really and the weakest element of the show.

cerbeus

For those of you that would like more images of Babylon 5 this is a good place to start:

http://www.jumpnow.de/index.php

Jack B. Badd

Was never all that interested in B5 before but a mate got me hooked recently and I've been working my way steadily through the series. Saw "War Without End" last night and was totally dumbstruck - ended up babbling incoherently for about 10 minutes afterwards!

madrab

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Was never all that interested in B5 before but a mate got me hooked recently and I've been working my way steadily through the series. Saw "War Without End" last night and was totally dumbstruck - ended up babbling incoherently for about 10 minutes afterwards!

yeah that will do it alright

ixoy

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Saw "War Without End" last night and was totally dumbstruck - ended up babbling incoherently for about 10 minutes afterwards!

Yep and, unlike Trek, there's gonna be no big crappy reset button. That's what makes it such a mind-fcuk. It's such a pivotal episode that it's hard to describe unless you see the show...

And tomorrow for me, alas, I get to re-watch "Sleeping in Light." Oh I'll try not to get weepy again...

Jack B. Badd

ixoy wrote:

Yep and, unlike Trek, there's gonna be no big crappy reset button. That's what makes it such a mind-fcuk. It's such a pivotal episode that it's hard to describe unless you see the show...

Oh, it was beautiful...just seamless! There are no words to describe...