Not your Babylon sister.

[uvula_fr_b4]

I've just recently been getting into Babylon 5, a five-season long (with several made-for-television movies, including the pilot movie, Babylon 5: The Gathering) TV show that was originally broadcast on the WB network that I managed to entirely miss during both its original run and its syndication on TNT

Comments

[marlowe1]

I started watching B5 as the second season was ending and they showed the important episodes (The Coming of the Shadows, that one with the telepaths) before showing the end of season 2 in which there's a definite OMG Did that just happen experience.

I later watched season 1 in order to get the background but it was never a good season.

[uvula_fr_b4]

Oh, I don't know; Season 1 isn't so bad thus far. Beats the pants off of Season 6 of ST:TNG so far, at any rate.

I did have a quibble about Episode 9 ("Deathwalker") -- namely, Jha'dur's rationale for gifting the Earth Federation with the immortality drug should've been that she wanted to eff them up economically and socially (if everyone's immortal, how the frickin' frick can the economy keep growing? what will the young'uns do for a livin'? where will the young'uns live?), not, "Ooooh, you're all gonna be mass murderers, 'cause that's what you'll have to do to score the key ingredients for my elixir vitae!" Other than that, it was a decent ep.

[marlowe1]

Deathwalker has one of the JMS tricks that I love which is the Deus Ex Machina that is much more disturbing that the actual problem.

Have you met Mr. Morden yet?

[uvula_fr_b4]

No, I sure haven't. Looks like he first pops up in Episode 13 of Season 1 ("Signs & Portents," for which the season is named), so it's the first ep on the 4th disc of the season.

Yeah, it was mordantly amusing to see the Vorlons take care of the "Deathwalker" problem.

Kind of makes me wish that Straczynski didn't walk away from (or get fired from; I'm not sure which) Marvel's latest retooling of the Squadron Supreme; he had a pretty nasty take on their equivalent of Wonder Woman, Princess Power.

[dfordoom]

I liked Babylon 5 for a while but it got rather badly bogged down in the seemingly endless Shadow War arc.

I'm a big Shatner fan as well. The original series is the only Star Trek I find to be watchable, and yes that's mostly for Shatner's performance. Whatever you think of Kirk he's great fun.

Patrick Stewart as Picard is one of TV's great bores. And ST:TNG has so many other irritating characters as well. Like Data!

I'd still pick UFO and Blake's Seven as the best science fiction series so far. Both are quite character-driven and both have interestingly flawed characters.

[uvula_fr_b4]

Picard can be amusing if he has an effective foil (like Q, or Vash, or Troi's mum); but Troi as the lead character of an episode is much more dull than Data.

I like Worf, but he's been pretty boring for most of Season 5 and so far in Season 6, 'cause he's been saddled with his kid, Alexander (his adoptive human parents handed him off to him because of Alexander's behavioral problems). Before that, Worf was usually the funniest main character on ST:TNG.

I've never seen UFO or Blake's 7; I'll have to check them out. (I've only just gotten around to watching one of the Doctor Who serials ["The Silurians," with John Pertwee as The Doctor] this year, although I did see one of the Peter Cushing movies as a lad. I suspect I'll like the ones where he's not stuck on Earth with UNIT better.)

[dfordoom]

I suspect I'll like the ones where he's not stuck on Earth with UNIT better.

Definitely. The series really hit its stride when Tom Baker took over the role, plus he got to be paired with the three best Doctor Who companions ever (Sarah Jane Smith, the amazingly awesome Leela and Romana II). Baker had a terrific chemistry with all three actresses (one of whom he married). The Fourth Doctor stories include most of the great Doctor Who stories.

UFO is more adult-oriented with much of the interest coming from the stress of command and the difficult decisions that Commander Stryker has to make. It's often a surprisingly low-key series - it's definitely not just a shoot 'em up.

Blake's Seven has Avon, one of the most delightfully cynical and ambiguous characters in TV sci-fi. He's cynical, ruthless and treacherous but he's still unequivocally one of the good guys.

And it has the greatest (and sexiest) sci-fi villainess ever in the person of Servalan. She's so evil but you just have to love her.

Well, fudge.

[uvula_fr_b4]

Checked out Netflix (US), and guess what? They don't have Blake's 7.

Bah.

At least they have UFO; looks like it only lasted one season (12 episodes), so that shouldn't be too big of a hassle to get into.

Hey, I need something to watch while I'm waiting for the final season of Breaking Bad to come out on DVD....