Comments on: Babylon 5 – Season 1 – Review

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:07:57 +0000

Hi! I came on over to look through things because of Moosh In Indy.
My bf and I are total dorks and love watching Babylon 5. A few things:

1–Jeffrey Sinclair has MUCH better things to do than command Babylon 5 anymore, just you wait! There’s some pretty strong reasons why the Minbari like him so much.

2–Susan Ivanova is THE BOMB! (you should check out her Playboy spread too, highly recommend!) She’s also one of the most tragic stories out of all the characters (IMHO). But she is by far one of my favorites, followed by Marcus (wait until Season 3) Talia Winters, and Delenn. I like Lenir a lot too, but I’m also a fan of the old Twilight Zone episodes and it still throws me that he was that evil kid that an entire town feared because he could make anything/anyone he didn’t like disappear with a thought. (Bill Mumy is an AWESOME person btw)

3–Oh yeah, BIG storyline with the Shadows. So big in fact my bf decided to run a tabletop RPG based on that whole plot. It was awesome!

4–Does the whole Bester vs Chekhov thing ever pop up in your head and mess with you? It does for me.

5–Some of the sexiest people on this show are bald, strangely (probably because all the weird hairdos messing with your mind)–there’s a lot of HAWT Centauri women. BUt then again I think of all the Sci-Fi shows this had the highest concentration of HAWT women in general. (yes I have fantasized about a lesbian 3-way with Ivanova and Talia, and just to throw in a redhead for good measure I’d take Lyta too)

Overall, stick with it! It gets better! Season 3 is probably the best season, in my opinion, although some people prefer 4. I’ve never seen 5 because my bf the uber-critic flat out refuses to acknowledge there is a season 5, so we have the boxed sets for the first movie (which goes into the details of the Minbari/Earth war from like 10 years ago as told by Londo) and first 4 seasons, but no more than that.

Much love, from one dork to another
Amber

By: nevermore

nevermore — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:41:28 +0000

About the CGI: They were mainly used for budget reasons in Season 1, as has been said. But especially from season 3 onward, there are space battles that couldn’t have been done with models at all, no matter the budget.

The Shadows will play a major part in the first 3 1/2 seasons. Don’t worry about the Sinclair storyline. It will get closure eventually.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:34:29 +0000

The other major issue with the CGI in B5 is that the fact that the DVDs were released in the widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio. This is a problem because at some point all the master CGI files were um, lost, and the only surviving effects shots were 4:3 masters. So for the DVDs, they cropped and zoomed the 4:3 shots to fill a 16:9 shot.

But yes, Sam I am is right in saying that CGI was chosen for B5 because it was cheaper.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:32:38 +0000

Sam I am: No need to defend B5. I think it’s a great show! The special effects need work, but they were still groundbreaking for their time.

By: Sam I am

Sam I am — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:44:25 +0000

Ok, I rarely enter the comment section, but I feel I need to speak up for B5.

In regards to #5, the special effects, B5 at its peak cost about 100k per episode; ST:TNG cost over a million per episode. Comparing the two doesn’t seem fair. Although I will tell you that the quality of B5 special effects improves much more so than ST:TNG over the course of the show.

By: mat

mat — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:57:41 +0000

You MUST watch DS9. I’m super cereal. For the longest time I thought the people who said it was the best series of all the Treks were nuts until I sat down and finally watched it. Eh. Mah. Gawd. The last three seasons are amazing. Usually seasons one and two of any Star Trek series sucks (my balls… what?) then start to get interesting during the fourth and fifth season. This was true with me at first with DS9, but once I went back to the earlier episodes after seeing how it all ended (spoiler: everyone dies) they didn’t seem so bad.

In conclusion, I cannot express in words the sheer radness that is ST:DS9 so I think you should invite me over and we should watch the entire series together. I can guide you through the better episodes, or we can watch every single one in order if you insist. And I bet you would insist, because you seem like the insistent type…

By: BOSSY

BOSSY — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:56:49 +0000

As a rule, Bossy doesn’t enjoy programs with Lt. Commanders. Just saying.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:57:10 +0000

No way! I love Londo’s hair! I think it’s pretty kick ass. I’ve only watched up through season four, and there are definitely ups and downs to the show. Ivonova is one of my favorites as well.

By: Polt

Polt — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:40:39 +0000

Since you haven’t seen STTNG season 2 until now, I’m not all suprised about you not seeing DS9.

Pulaski herself isn’t really all that bad, but Season 2 itself was horrid, and she was only in that season so she’s a reminder of just how bad the season was.

HUGS…

By: Tam (Meee)

Tam (Meee) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:40:38 +0000

Holy hell, you’ve never seen DS9? I won’t shun you like Brian but its close. I’m not the sci-fi fan you are (I have my moments though) and I used to watch DS-9 regularly. Is it similar to/better than/worse than B5? No freaking clue, never seen it. Just felt the need to express my dismay.