Yes, Zathras is accustomed to be the beast of burden for other people’s needs. It is a very sad life. He’ll probably have a very sad death. But at least there will be symmetry.
Depending on what season the four or five episodes you saw were from, I recommend seeing a few more, preferrably in order.
Don’t worry, CG. You have plenty of time to watch all the episodes.
“Can not run out of time… there is infinite time. You are finite… Zathras is finite. This…is wrong tool. No. No. Not good. No. No. Never use this.”
After consulting the Lurker’s episode guide (http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/eplist.html), I give you my quick reviews of the first season episodes. Please keep in mind that this is purely my subjective opinion, and YM, of course, MV:
Midnight on the Firing Line - necessary for understanding the roots of the Londo/G’Kar hostility.
Soul Hunter - The Soul Hunters do appear later on, including in a post-show movie, but they aren’t generally important enough to the story arc to watch this if you don’t care to.
Born to the Purple - Adira will show up again, and it’s kind of fun (Sinclair trying to pretend to be a tough guy is a hoot in its unbelievability).
Infection - skippable.
The Parliament of Dreams - Some clues about what happened to Sinclair during the war, but you also have to put up the intro of his girlfriend and their relationship. I like this show primarily for G’Kar’s “fishies” song and the business-like assassin: (Reading off a list: “You will know pain”–zzapp!).
Mind War - The only reason I can see for watching this is the introduction of Bester and the PsiCorps, and G’Kar’s speech about the ant at the very end. The guy who plays Jason Ironheart is painfully bad, and the thing he turns into at the end would embarrass a really bad Star Trek episode.
The War Prayer - Not necessary, but I like the Londo subplot.
And The Sky Full Of Stars - More on what happened to Sinclair during the war.
Deathwalker - Not necessary, but not a bad episode.
Believers - A lot of people really like this one, but I usually skip it.
Survivors - skippable.
By Any Means Necessary - skippable unless you enjoy Londo and G’Kar quarreling.
Signs and Portents - The first really good and important episode of the season. Do not miss it.
TKO - Ick. Stay away.
Grail - Not necessary, but it’s got David Warner in it.
Eyes - The PsiCorps returns and there’s a kind of review of the series up to this point; important mostly for the reasons why Ivanova hates the PsiCorps.
Legacies - Not necessary unless you like the Talia/Ivanova relationship.
A Voice in the Wilderness - Absolutely necessary. Do not miss.
Babylon Squared - Absolutely necessary. Do not miss.
The Quality of Mercy - The machine featured here will turn up again twice, and Londo’s attempted corruption of Lennier is entertaining (and includes a LOTR reference).
Chrysalis - Absolutely necessary. Do not miss.
That particular episode was originally designed to tie in to events in seasons 4 and 5:
Originally, it was going to be Talia Winters, not Lyta Alexander, who was going to be the super-powerful telepath that led the psi rebellion in season 5. Unfortunately, there was some kind of conflict with the actress who played Talia Winters, such that JMS wrote her out of the show. Bringing back Lyta was JMS’s “backup” plan – he had to concoct that story about the Vorlons giving her godlike telepathic superpowers, whereas if he’d gotten to keep Talia the excuse would’ve been simply that Jason Ironheart’s “gift” had reached fruition.
The whole point of the first season is really to establish the universe of Babylon 5 and get things moving a little bit. If you start with season 2 and read the first season episode synopses on the Lurker’s guide, you’ll be OK. If you’re not hooked by the end of the second season, then the show’s not for you.
He did. Poor Zathras.
Well, here goes. I’m putting on my asbestos underwear. I was planning on starting a thread on this once I finished the whole series, for fairness’ sake, but I might as well jump in now.
Based on numerous recommendations here and elsewhere from people whose opinions I respect, I starting buying the DVDs and watching them. I’m now halfway through the last season, and I’m still waiting for it to get good. This show SUCKED! The acting and writing are both abysmally bad, often dipping into the junior-high-school play area. The characters are almost without exception stilted, uninteresting one-dimensional stereotypes. And while the overall story arc is at times interesting and definitely ambitious, I also didn’t find it particularly imaginative or surprising.
In fact, the predictability of the show is, more than anything else, probably what irritates me most about it. Well, that and the bad acting and laughable dialogue. I never once felt like these people were in any real danger. You KNOW the good guys are going to win against impossible odds. You KNOW the bad guys will crumble under their righteous onslaught. And, with a very few exceptions, the good guys are so good and the bad guys are so evil that you might as well have the good guys wearing white hats and the bad guys wearing black hats.
In short, FWIW, and realizing that I am apparently representative of a very small minority here, don’t bother.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be in hiding for a few weeks.
No need to hide. We accept all types here, even those with stunted taste in television SF. Hell, we even accept Trekkies!
You honestly think this?? I thought the B5 characters showed a hell of a lot more depth than I’m used to seeing on TV. I thought they were all fair representations of real people, both principled & flawed. They might be stereotypical in some ways, but I don’t think they’re 1-dimensional.
Unlike a lot of other television programs the characters in Babylon 5 actually change over time. Londo and G’Kar from season 1 are not the same characters they are in season 2, 3, or 4. Take Star Trek, Voyager, or Deep Space 9 and Sisko, Worf, and Janeway are essentially the same character in season 1 that they were in season 5.
Marc
G’Kar’s evolution as a character is fascinating. He starts as a hot-headed rabble-rouser, then grows, learns, and reaches enlightenment, eventually becoming a reluctant religious leader. Andreas Katsulas is a very skilled actor. I think I would watch him read a phone book.
To be completely fair, while Delenn, Londo, and G’Kar are all dynamic and well-developed characters, most of the human leads are pretty static and not quite as fleshed out.
I’m sure *B5 *was great and I intend to getting around to watch it eventually myself but constantly comparing it to *DS9 *and making erroneous statements about the latter to try to build up the former really does nothing to make me think well of the series. If you honestly believe Sisko is the same character in the first episode as the last, then you either saw maybe a minute of one or both episodes or just have a massive bias against the show and just can’t see reality.
Londo is also surely the greatest exception to Smeghead’s characterization of the black & white good guy/bad guy divide.
(Bester, on the other hand, is such a great character precisely because he is such an unmitigated sleazeball. If he were any more e-e-e-evil he’d have to rub his hands together and say “Nyah-hah-hah!”)
As I said to Sol when we watched the episode, he turns from a really bad actor into a really bad CGI effect. Zathras, at least, would appreciate the symmetry.
Season Three rocks my socks. The show is great. I don’t even like TV, and I loved B5. Keep at it, it’ll be worth it.
Quoth Miss Mapp:
I loved Londo’s attempted corruption of Lennier (second-funniest subplot of the series, after Delenn’s bad hair day), but I somehow missed the LotR reference. Help, please?
B5 is my favorite science fiction show, and I feel I need to comment, at least on the “bad” acting.
The problem, I think, is that most of the acting is average. here are some great actors, though (Andreas Katsulus, the guy who plays Londo, and Billy West as Lennier,. However, the bad actors (most notably the woman who plays Talia Winters) can distract some people from the good ones, and the average ones certainly don’t help improve things, and since they aren’t improving it, they make it worse (if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.)
Luckily for me,. I seem to have some kind of bad acting off switch in my brain. Unless it is painfully bad (like Denise Richards,) I can ignore it and just enjoy the story.
Does that mean you are selling B5 DVDs at a discount?! :dubious:
It’s just a little joke: when recounting his life at the monastery, Lennier mentions his “eleventy-first birthday.”
(bouv, btw, Lennier was played by Bill Mumy, he of Lost In Space, “Danger, Will Robinson!” and Barnes & Barnes, “Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads…” fame)