Should I watch Babylon 5?

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Anonymous Bosch
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:26 pm
gbasden wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:49 pm
JCC wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:43 pm Checked out a few seconds of the first - well 2nd episode. The actual live action scenes look MUCH better in ep 2 as opposed to the not remastered pilot movie (ep 1). The CGI looks mostly the same to me. Not really up for a rewatch of B5 right now (I love the best parts of B5 but think there are also many very bad episodes in between and most of the last season was pointless. I am definielty in the DS9 > B5 camp but yes the best parts of B5 are absolutely awesome... Speaking of which, fuck Paramount (or whoever) for not doing a DS9 remaster, but I digress...) [Back to B5].... but I am sure I will rewatch it again some day and look forward to it looking better than ever before.
DS9 doesn't have any characters nearly as fantastic and Londo and G'Kar. I'm definitely in the B5>DS9 camp, and I'm really looking forward to another watch! :)
While I don't have a horse in which show is ultimately better (I think they excel at different things), Garak would like a word with you.
Well that's hardly fair, given that so much of B5's talented cast has shuffled off this mortal coil.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by Zaxxon »

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:32 pm
Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:26 pm
gbasden wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:49 pm
JCC wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:43 pm Checked out a few seconds of the first - well 2nd episode. The actual live action scenes look MUCH better in ep 2 as opposed to the not remastered pilot movie (ep 1). The CGI looks mostly the same to me. Not really up for a rewatch of B5 right now (I love the best parts of B5 but think there are also many very bad episodes in between and most of the last season was pointless. I am definielty in the DS9 > B5 camp but yes the best parts of B5 are absolutely awesome... Speaking of which, fuck Paramount (or whoever) for not doing a DS9 remaster, but I digress...) [Back to B5].... but I am sure I will rewatch it again some day and look forward to it looking better than ever before.
DS9 doesn't have any characters nearly as fantastic and Londo and G'Kar. I'm definitely in the B5>DS9 camp, and I'm really looking forward to another watch! :)
While I don't have a horse in which show is ultimately better (I think they excel at different things), Garak would like a word with you.
Well that's hardly fair, given that so much of B5's talented cast has shuffled off this mortal coil.
And Andrew Robinson is nearly 80! Crazy.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by Kraken »

Zaxxon wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:26 pm
gbasden wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:49 pm
JCC wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:43 pm Checked out a few seconds of the first - well 2nd episode. The actual live action scenes look MUCH better in ep 2 as opposed to the not remastered pilot movie (ep 1). The CGI looks mostly the same to me. Not really up for a rewatch of B5 right now (I love the best parts of B5 but think there are also many very bad episodes in between and most of the last season was pointless. I am definielty in the DS9 > B5 camp but yes the best parts of B5 are absolutely awesome... Speaking of which, fuck Paramount (or whoever) for not doing a DS9 remaster, but I digress...) [Back to B5].... but I am sure I will rewatch it again some day and look forward to it looking better than ever before.
DS9 doesn't have any characters nearly as fantastic and Londo and G'Kar. I'm definitely in the B5>DS9 camp, and I'm really looking forward to another watch! :)
While I don't have a horse in which show is ultimately better (I think they excel at different things), Garak would like a word with you.
Thank you. It had to be said. Garak and Quark are up there with Londo and G'Kar, but they got a lot less screen time together (and weren't adversaries). All of them are among my favorite sf characters.

If I had HBO I'd watch this again. Not going to get HBO to do it, though.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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I didn't care for season one and Sinclair.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Seasons 2-4 are the best. I have never watched the fifth.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by milo »

Anonymous Bosch wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:32 pm
Well that's hardly fair, given that so much of B5's talented cast has shuffled off this mortal coil.
Indeed, Mira Furlan (Delenn) just passed away last week, may she rest in light.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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Max Peck wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:12 pm Hopefully the remastered version will find its way to Canada. Some HBO content is carried here on Crave, so there is hopefully some chance we'll get it.
You obviously speak English, so why wait until they translate it to Canadian? :?
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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Because of the exchange rate you'd only get 85% of the translation.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by $iljanus »

I think in the Canadian version there's a Tim Hortons on the Zocolo
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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hepcat wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 8:28 am
Max Peck wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:12 pm Hopefully the remastered version will find its way to Canada. Some HBO content is carried here on Crave, so there is hopefully some chance we'll get it.
You obviously speak English, so why wait until they translate it to Canadian? :?
Because regional distribution limits my options to hope. It isn't available for streaming here in Canada (as was the case when Amazon Prime Video had the streaming rights for the show a year or two back).
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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B5 is superior because they don't have Bajorans and their stupid stories. B5 +100
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by hepcat »

But have you ever watched it in Canadian? It is so different. I like G'kar-eh especially. Sinclair-eh I could take or leave though.
Last edited by hepcat on Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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I watched the whole series a few years ago. It took a while until I started getting good, IMO (towards the end of Season 2). I felt other similar shows have done a better job since (but the show was groundbreaking. And one area I think it still does better than other shows have done is in the telepath stuff. And G'Kar and Londo were very good.). I far prefer DS9 to it, though, although it's not as similar as people suggest.

If you like space opera, I'd put it on the list of shows to watch, but it wouldn't be something I'd rush to watch.

Also, the CGI has dated really badly (but I'm someone who isn't a fan of CGI effects).
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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Defiant wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:06 pm I watched the whole series a few years ago. It took a while until I started getting good, IMO (towards the end of Season 2). I felt other similar shows have done a better job since (but the show was groundbreaking. And one area I think it still does better than other shows have done is in the telepath stuff. And G'Kar and Londo were very good.). I far prefer DS9 to it, though, although it's not as similar as people suggest.

If you like space opera, I'd put it on the list of shows to watch, but it wouldn't be something I'd rush to watch.

Also, the CGI has dated really badly (but I'm someone who isn't a fan of CGI effects).
The CGI has dated badly, but it looks a lot better in the remastered version on HBO Max than it did stretched out and cropped on the DVDs and what was streaming on Amazon for a while.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by hepcat »

I want to watch it all again. Mostly because I wonder if my love of the show was due primarily to it being a massive story arc, something rarely done back in those days. Or if it really is as good as I remember, story wise.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:46 am Seasons 2-4 are the best. I have never watched the fifth.
The fifth is pretty much skippable - but you really should watch the final episode which is wonderful - and was the original planned season 4 finale before it unexpectedly got renewed for a 5th season and they ended up postponing it until the end of the 5th. Which worked out well since the replacement season 4 finale was pretty cool too. The rest of season 5 is basically setting up plot threads that don't get resolved.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

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I can haz Babylon 5 Remastered after all. All it required was that I sell my soul to Apple, create an Apple account, purchase the series on iTunes, then activate my Fire Stick on my Apple account, and voila -- I can stream Babylon 5 to my TV (or watch it on my PC).
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by Grifman »

This was the best sci-fi series ever until The Expanse came along (I discount Firefly because it was just one season). B5 is epic space opera, and as far I ever experienced it, it was the first TV show that I remember that had a series long underlying story arc. For me it pioneered a lot of what is now common place in so many series. And no character in TV has ever had a story arc like Londo Molari,
Spoiler:
from clownish buffoon, to Prime Minister to powerful Emperor, who sold his soul along the way, yet redeemed himself in the end.
I'm looking forward to re-watching the show on HBO Max because even though the effects now are sort of "meh" the story arc is great.
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Re: Should I watch Babylon 5?

Post by gbasden »

I'm most of the way through Season 1 watching the remasters on HBOMax and I'm really enjoying it. The Homeguard plot thread feels especially relevant right now. The characters are just so brilliantly written.
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