So, I’m rewatching B5 as I pick up the DVD season box sets, and I’m loving this show. I’ve seen the entire series already, so this is a spoiler free-for-all thread. At the moment, I’ve caught up with the first two seasons, and the last three have arrived from Amazon (about $16 a season!)
Fun drinking game for Season 2: Every time you see a Ranger show up who is not important to the episode’s plot, take a shot. There are a bunch of them wandering around in the background before Sheridan learns about them.
One that that impresses me a lot watching this show again is the wing art on the Starfuries. There are a lot of unique designs being used, especially considering that only three or four of the fighters are flown by named characters.
also, while most of the Starfuries have only the center portion painted, Sheridan’s has the entire top wing done up in a tiger pattern. Subtle, Captain.
I too love this show! I have been slowly watching, disk by disk, on Netflix. I finally caved and bought Season 4 - I will eventually buy Seasons 2 & 3 also. Right now I am finishing up Season 5. I only have two disks left; so only six more episodes until I finish the whole series! It’s taken me forever to get this far, but the journey was damn worth it.
I just watched “And all my dreams, torn asunder”.
I totally had a crush on Marcus.
Please don’t spoil me on the ending, btw, I am almost there and would hate to ruin it this close in the game.
Oh yes, and Londo was marvelous. Seriously, someone who practically was the comic relief in the beginning became one of the most nuanced and interesting and pitiful creatures in the whole show. Him and G’Kar hands down steal the show everytime they come on.
Meeks, all I will say about the ending is when JMS told his friends what is was, they ALL looked at him like he had sprouted a second head.
Have kleenex handy.
I know. I mean, I already cry at unexpected places during this show…I’ll think “this is a little corny, a little cheesy”, and then someone whips out a masterful performance and my heart breaks.
I have to say something about Franklin - he got soooooooo much better and now I really like his characterization as the one person everyone trusts.
Heh, one of the first episodes Franklin was in, one of the security guards gets killed, and it looks like a heart attack. Garibaldi says the guy was too young for a heart attack, and Franklin’s reply, a sort of drawn out “Yeeeees? And what medical school did you attend?” cracked me up.
Of course, that incident happened before the pilot had even aired. The ending we eventually saw was much different from the ending he had originally envisioned.
Fun show. Buddy of mine provided set dressing for the show. Pretty much all the photography you see hanging in the crew’s quarters (except Daffy Duck :D) was his. You can see his stuff here.
I missed out on B5. I caught an occasional episode, but for some reason I never got in to it.
A few months ago, someone gave me the complete B5 set as a birthday present. Haven’t started yet as I’m not sure where to start. I have 5 seasons of Babylon 5, one season of “the Crusades” and five movies. Does anyone know in which order I should watch these? I really don’t know where to start and the dvds have just been laying there. Should I start with the original 5 seasons, then the movies, followed by the crusades? Or should it be in a different order? Any advice would be appreciated.
One of the movies should be the pilot episode, titled “The Gathering.” If you want to watch the whole thing in the intended order, start with that one, then watch seasons 1 through 5 of the show, then do the other movies and the sequel series, Crusade.
The problem with that approach is that the pilot and most of the first season are pretty bad. Really bad, in some cases. It picks up a lot in season two, and seasons three and four are some of the best science fiction ever on TV. But a lot of people never make it through the first season. If you wait a bit (or search for Babylon 5 threads on the boards), someone will no doubt be along shortly to give you a list of “must see” episodes from the first season, which will give you the high points of the series and enough backstory to follow what happens in season 2.
Legend of the Rangers (is that included in DVD sets at all? It is pretty skippable either way. I understand it was basically a pilot that didn’t pick up a show.)
The Lost Tales (again, is that included with the DVD set? I know it’s sold separately for sure)
There are also various books that were published both during the show’s run and afterwards. Some of these books incorporate plot elements that didn’t make it into Crusade due to it being one of the most cancelled shows of 1999)
The tricky thing with Season 1 is that it is very uneven. On the one hand, some of the episodes are just bad, and many of the elements just didn’t work very well and end up never being seen again. Some of the episodes, however, are great. And important plot points get peppered amongst both the good and bad episodes.
Some folks have said that you can always try jumping in at Season 2, since it introduces a new lead character who has to get up to speed on everything going on, but then again you will miss some legitimately great episodes from the first season that way.
Me, I just finished re-watching season 3, and it’s kind of a mind-trip to see how much this show changed in terms of plot, tone, etc. over the course of three years.
Watching the fourth season. I keep forgetting how grim this show could be. Also, I like that they finally get away from the station for a good while in this season.
Pretty sure that was all Coors Brewing’s doing.