Recap of Season 1 with a few pics as well.
"It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where Humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call - home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five-hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5."
- Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
So begins Season 1 of Babylon 5. And we all are completely entranced from the beginning.
Or are we?
I personally liked the first season fine though many people advise new viewers to skip it. There are several reasons to watch, Sinclair being the first and most important one. Also, most of the seeds are sewn for the story arc in this first season.
Michael O’Hare was devastatingly handsome to me. The friend who sent me to B5 was a total Sinclair fan and she was looking to infect someone else. This was after B5 and Crusade were already done and televised. Sci-fi was showing one episode every weeknight at 7 pm so I was rolling through them at a pretty good pace. I had never seen a tv show quite like it. I was hooked from the start.
MY friend also kept telling me to pay close attention to EVERYTHING so I knew that Signs and Portents was really an apt name for this season. I loved the mysteriousness of the show.
ON this last rewatch, I was surprised at what an ass G’kar was originally, but then I remembered that he, above all characters, had the most growth. (With the possible exception of Vir.) Londo is a blithering buffoon, too, until he hooks up with Morden, then we see how terribly vicious the Centauri can be (or we think we do). Everyone changes… except Garibaldi. Garibaldi stays the same throughout, good or bad.
There is another theme that runs throughout season one as well. In Mind War, G’kar tells Catherine Sakai this: “I told you before you left: no one here is entirely what they appear.” This is a theme that is borne out time and time again through the entirety of the series but it is first evident, of course, in Season 1.
You all watched it: The stand alones, both good and bad, the arc stories, both good and bad and all in between. No character is entirely good though I suspect Sinclair is the closest one we will meet. No character is entirely bad though Morden will come the closest to that. What do you think? Who is your favorite good guy? Bad Guy?
I think Babylon Squared might be my favorite episode so far. It tells us that we really don’t know what is going on and we meet the wonderful Zathras. Could any character be more interesting, mysterious and funny? Which episode is your fave? Why?
And the guests: David McCallum, Walter Koenig, William Sanderson, John Vickery, Tim Choate, and of course, Ed Wasser. Those are just a few. The show has tons and tons of guests through all the years. Not to mention the stellar cast! Oh my! Any favorites there? I love tiny villainous David McCallum… I was totally in love with Illya Kuryakin when I was a very little girl and I also adored tiny little Chekov in Star Trek but if any of you know me, you know I do not like Teeps in general and Bester in particular.
All in all, I enjoyed the first season and fell entirely in love with Sinclair. It set the tone for the rest of the series. Yes, there were bad episodes but there were some great ones.
Here are some quotes:
"It's all so brief, isn't it? Typical human lifespan is almost a hundred years, but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. It wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then .. it's over."
"Doesn't matter. If we lived two hundred years, we'd still be human. We'd still make the same mistakes."
"You're a pessimist."
"I am Russian, Doctor. We understand these things."
- Dr. Stephen Franklin Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova
"Ambassador, it is not my place to speculate on how anything gets in your bed."
- Aide Na'Toth to G'Kar
"You take, Zathras die. You leave, Zathras die. Either way, it is bad for Zathras."
- Zathras
"There comes a time when you look into the mirror and realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors."
- Londo
"Understanding is a three-edged sword."
- Kosh
I’ll leave you all with this clip of Zathras:
Click to viewSources I’ve used this season:
B5 DVd set, Season 1
The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/
The Babylon Project: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105946/
Babylon 5: Signs and Projects by Jane Killick
