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Babylon 5

John S. Drew's picture
Submitted by John S. Drew on January 11, 2009 - 10:15am

So, I'm watching the penultimate episode of the fourth season of Babylon 5.  They are wrapping things up from the overthrow of Earth's president.  I was fine with the way things were progressing until they got to the end with the INS program and showed that Susan was transferring to a Minbari ship on a shakedown cruise.  The news itself was fine, but I had a problem with her very personal statement.  It just didn't ring as something Susan would do.

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John S. Drew's picture

Fifth Season

Submitted by John S. Drew on May 21, 2009 - 9:15am.

Oooh, this has been painful.  I'm only five episodes in and it's not holding my interest.  You would think that the aftermath of a major war in which B5 was the middle of would offer some great story possibilities, but it's not happening here.

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John
Creator, Producer, All Around God-Like Being
"What?  Too much?"

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A Mess

Submitted by NickelNDime (not verified) on January 13, 2009 - 7:34pm.

Babylon 5 was a mess from the start and the arrogance of JMS to think that he everyone would actually hang on for five years while he told his story was incredible. Then it looked like it was cancelled the fourth season so he rushes through the story and then is left with absolute rubbish the last season.

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Oooh

Submitted by celticboy (not verified) on January 14, 2009 - 4:51pm.

I'm going to have to disagree there.

For a start, remember what we were used to getting, Star Trek which had no ongoing storyline.  In fact, I can't remember ANY long term TV show having a story arc, especially in SCI-FI  (V is the only one I can think of right now)

It's not arrogant to think that someone might LIKE to see a beginning, middle and end to your story, and in fact, as B5 started doing it, so did Deep Space 9.

The biggest problem B5 had was the "feud" between fans.  You were either a B5 fan or a DS9 fan, it just wasn't cool to like them both.

Given the choice between Star Trek & B5, I'd take B5.  I like Trek, but there are too many technobabble endings, huge-universe ending storylines wrapped up in 40 minutes and forgotten about till next time. And please DON'T mention the sodding deflector array which seemed to save the universe every five minutes by recalibrating it.

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No arguments

Submitted by NickelNDime (not verified) on January 17, 2009 - 8:05am.

I'm not saying that what JMS tried to do wasn't amazing, but the arrogance of the man during the time and the fact that he really thought he could pull off an ongoing storyline when it hadn't been done and do it in syndication was amazing.  That was my point.

I am a Trek fan and my initial dislike for the series was based on loyalty, but when you look at the first season with a dull lead, and cliched storylines, it's hard to get excited about anything that followed.

And yes, DS9 did follow suit, but you could step away from Trek for awhile and not feel like you were missing part of the story.  You had to be a hardcore B5 fan in order to keep up.  JMS made the show unfriendly for the casual viewer.

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John S. Drew's picture

Try It

Submitted by John S. Drew on January 17, 2009 - 8:25am.

I felt the same way you did when B5 came out.  I could only watch the show about halfway into the first season.  I even got a tongue lashing from JMS when I commented negatively on the old GEnie boards.

I've tried the series again, watching it as it originally aired.  I start the fifth and final season this Monday.  I'm liking it.  Yeah, it started out rocky, but what series doesn't?  I never had a problem with the lead, in fact, I liked him.  Besides, Ben Sisko sounded like he was drugged half the time in those early DS9 episodes.  And when he had to get excited, it was kind of scary, like, "stay away from the babbling man, kids," scary.

I'm disappointed that they had to rush the overthrow of Earth storyline.  I really liked it.  I have to admit I wasn't too crazy about the Shadow War though.  It does set things up nicely for the troubles on Earth.  I'll be really curious to see how things progress now with the fifth season as I understand it's not so well loved by fans.

—

John
Creator, Producer, All Around God-Like Being
"What?  Too much?"

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Ok, She wasn't transferring

Submitted by celticboy (not verified) on January 12, 2009 - 3:59am.

Ok, She wasn't transferring to a Minbari ship, but rather one of the latest EA destroyers.

Secondly, you really need to understand the whole :"Claudia Christian leaving" scenario to understand why this was done, and why the writing may have been a little "off"   If everything hadn't imploded, Ivanova would have been in charge of B5 in the last season.  Mind you, if everything HAD gone perfectly, the Shadows would have taken longer to get rid of, and season 5 would have been the war against Earth.

B5 a series where I haven't got the complete series on DVD (have it on VHS though)  This needs to be rectified at some point.

 

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John S. Drew's picture

Hmmm.

Submitted by John S. Drew on January 12, 2009 - 6:12am.

Definitely worth an episode on some talk show on science fiction or another.

Thanks for the correction on her status. Where the hell did I get a Minbari ship from?

Soma .

—

John
Creator, Producer, All Around God-Like Being
"What?  Too much?"

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Jay_Smith's picture

Sounds like a summer show

Submitted by Jay_Smith on January 17, 2009 - 11:08am.

Point-Counterpoint on the whole B5 experience.  I'm sure that could be cobbled together quite efficiently. :)

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Episode titled

Submitted by celticboy (not verified) on January 12, 2009 - 1:39pm.

*WTF JOE? - An analysis of just WHERE Babylon 5 went wrong"

I think a certain Terri Osborne would HAVE to be a guest..

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