it is however not nearly as lolarious as ds9; note the absence of worf

[subduction]

Lol, space Jews.

Comments

[nolivingman]

Londo is the most captivating, yes; he's an amazing character, and Peter Jurasik is just stupendously good in the role.

And it's not that B5 feels like DS9, but the other way around, because JMS shopped B5 to Universal and they turned it down and then came out with DS9 some time later, to his great bitterness.

The Minbari you're thinking of is named Dukhat.

Yay, new Babylon 5 watcher! I just saw it for the first time last year, and I love it like burning.

[black_hound]

I remember all the B5/DS9 wank way back when. JMS was a regular on the old Compuserve Scifi community and was upfront that he thought he was being ripped off by Universal & the ST franchise.

I've only seen it in rare glimpses, but The Old Man™ watched it with a passion back when it was airing.

[nolivingman]

JMS is not shy about that at all, even to this day. He has no end to confidence in his own abilities, let's just say. On the other hand, his show is my favorite evereverever, so there you go.

[black_hound]

what is it that lawyers say? Prima facie? Or something.

Because it sure looks like a ripoff.

Regardless, according to The Old Man, B5 was heads and shoulders above DS9.

[rethought]

The fiance loves B5 (I've been treated to many a marathon), can't say it's my favorite.

I don't mind it, but it seems like everytime I sit down to watch, I get distracted and don't follow what's going on.

If you ever get around to it, notice how many time Delenn takes control! :)

[subduction]

I've found myself getting distracted here and there, yeah, but I think that may be in part due to the fact that I've been watching it late at night when I'm half-falling-asleep already.

Oh, I like Delenn! She hasn't gotten too sneaky yet, but there've been sufficient hints that I can tell she'll be one to watch.

[ria_oaks]

Haha, yay, a B5 newbie... as everyone says, it gets much better later on. Season 1 is a tad painful at times, but it has some good episodes and it sets up nicely for the rest of the show. I've never actually seen a full episode of any Star Trek (no wait, I think I saw most of one episode of the original one a few years ago...) so I can't speak on the B5/DS9 debate. But B5 has occupied a happy little place in my heart since I first watched it when I was 13 and I'm still very fond of it. And trust me, Ivanova does get better - she's pretty flipping awesome later on. :) And Londo is indeed awesome, too - Peter Jurasik is a fantastic actor, and once you get past the wtf accent and the hair (to this day my mom refers to him as "the guy with the funny hair") he's easily one of the most compelling and complex characters on the show. You seen ep5 yet? That's one of my favourite s1 episodes... lots of classic funny scenes. One particularly hilarious Londo scene, and lots of great G'kar stuff (Andreas Katsulas was an amazing actor... sigh. It

[subduction]

Yeah, and I've watched enough shows that suck ass in their first season but improve later on -- in fact, that tends to be the case with more sci-fi shows than now, I find. Certainly all the Star Treks get off to a pretty rocky start. So I can kind of take that in stride and tell myself to keep going, 'cause I do believe it'll improve. (Of course, a lot of shows are also awesome in their first seasons and then take a nosedive, but...)

Episode 5 is next! As I said up there a couple times, I can't quite bring myself to watch them during the day while it's so nice (yes, okay, I'm indoors checking my flist right now, but twenty minutes ago I was out in the hammock reading, and after this I'm going down to Ambleside to walk the seawall). And yeah, G'Kar seems pretty great so far as well, though I haven't seen a whole lot yet. I'll undoubtedly continue to post as I watch, though. :D

[ria_oaks]

True enough... Farscape, Buffy, Angel, B5 - all had kinda rocky starts, but then got really good. Though also certainly true about some shows starting off good then going downhill - hello Lost. -_-

Yay, let me know what you think of ep5. :) It's one of my favourite humour episodes... some classic lines.

Mmm, hammock, nice. :) I've been stuck in bed for most of the past couple of days recovering from my wisdom teeth. Le sigh. Feeling much better tonight, though my mouth still hurts. Hard to eat. :( Wish I could be out enjoying the sun while it lasts. ^^

[subduction]

Hah, I actually love the first season of Angel and think it got kind of rocky later on. ;) But yeah, Lost is one where I watched and enjoyed the first season but rapidly lost patience afterward. Veronica Mars, ditto.

Ep 5 was lots of fun, yes! I like the fact that this show isn't afraid to play with the subtext, too (that's at least the third jokey reference to Londo/G'Kar I've caught), which while not uncommon these days is pretty forward-thinking for 1994.

Wisdom teeth, yuck -- my sister just had hers out last week and was doing the same thing. I had mine out when I was 18 and got over it pretty quickly -- about a day and a half, so I guess I was lucky. Hope you feel better (and can eat, not to mention enjoy the sun!) soon.

[kickthebeat]

so, obvs the b5 fans will offer to bitch-slap me for this, but is there anything that can't be improved by a little worf? i am of the opinion that, no, nothing at all.

[subduction]

INCLUDING BASEBALL.

I'm just saying.

[ex_thissuga]

omg. b5! also, I think b5 was written before DS9; just have to point that out. ;) *reads comments* there we go. also, the first season is kind of like, omg, I forgot that this show is AWKWARD, and then you get to second and the quality improves ten-fold. so.

also, I will use my baseball icon for this comment just to reject onthecontrary's comment re: worf, because B5, NO. ;)

[subduction]

Yeah, this is the idea I'm getting. And given that most of the sci-fi shows I love have similarly craptacular first seasons, I'm cool with that, really.

But I have to stand by onthecontrary, babe. It's just a law of physics. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, the entropy of a perfect crystal at zero Kelvin is identically zero, and Worf makes anything more awesome. :D

[ex_thissuga]

see, with B5, the first season is really good in retrospect; it's really well done as far as setting up the rest of the show? but it doesn't seem it when you're actually, you know, watching it. y'know? so it's worth it to see the show, then even watch some of season 1 again.