Puntabulous

Babylon 5 – Season 3 – Review

So I finished the third season of Babylon 5 over the weekend. Remind me never to take a year off between seasons of Babylon 5 ever again. This was back when I thought it would be a good idea to rotate television shows between seasons. Bad idea! Luckily that thought went out the window when I got hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All throughout this season I had to keep the internet handy so I could pause the show and look up stuff I was supposed to remember from previous seasons. Don’t they know I have Drew Barrymore from 50 First Dates disease? I can’t remember shiz!

Anyway, what did I think of the season, you ask? Amazingness! The first season was a bit slow, then the second season got awesome about halfway through, and the third season continued on with the awesomeness and built upon it awesomely. (Can one build upon awesomeness awesomely? Do I sound like Michael Bay when I say awesome too much?) The characters are continuing to grow, the action and special effects are getting better, and payoffs are coming from storylines set up all the way back in season one.

It’s interesting when I watch Babylon 5. I often find myself cheering it on because it just has such an underdog feel to it. All the things I found myself not enjoying the first two seasons, I find endearing this time around as I get more wrapped up in the story. The mediocre special effects and action scenes that I once found irritating, I now find myself thinking “Wow, good for you Babylon 5!” when they try something that would possibly be considered bigger than what they can handle. You can tell that it’s made on a shoestring budget, and that it was probably on the brink on cancellation at times, so when they pull out something great, I get so happy for it.

There is no better example of the above than the episode Severed Dreams. It was just amazing what they pulled off, and it was just such an incredible episode. I compared this one to Exodus: Part 2 from Battlestar Galactica (which is one of my favorite episodes of television ever) thanks in part to a truly spectacular rescue. The other standout episodes this season were the two part episode War Without End. This is the best example of why I should never have waited so long in between seasons. This was a direct tie to an episode from the first season that would have made a lot more sense had I remembered all the details, but it didn’t prevent me from enjoying it immensely. And of course the season finale Z’Ha’Dum was fantastic and another example of how excited I get when they pull off great special effects.

So needless to say, I started up season four immediately. I’ll tell you all about it when I’m done.

REVIEWS, TELEVISION | Craig | December 23, 2009 7:41 am

15 Comments

By Dave S., December 23, 2009 @ 8:47 am

Interesting that you brought up the underdog thing, because I’d always felt the same way about it. By the time season 3 rolled around, I wasn’t watching the show as regularly (not that I was a super-dedicated watcher of it in the first place), so most of this post is kinda going over my head, but I do understand the sentiment.
By john, December 23, 2009 @ 9:16 am

“Severed Dreams” is an awesome episode! Season three is when everything really gears up, like being at the top of the tallest hill on a roller coaster. The payoff in Season four is so good too. Season five has some of the slowness that plagued seasons one and two, but there are high lights and it does wrap things up well.
By Dave S., December 23, 2009 @ 9:22 am

Is season 5 the final season?
By Justin, December 23, 2009 @ 11:04 am

Craiggersles, I know exactly what you mean about the underdog thing . I will always have a special fondness for this show, in large measure due to what they were able to carry off with, as you say, the shoestring budget and the cancellation issues.

Full disclosure: when B5 first came out, I watched the pilot, I wasn’t really all that grabbed, and I never watched it again until the Sci Fi channel (or somebody) started showing re-runs. This, in fact, is often how I get hooked onto a show (ER, LOST, Sex and the City). Nowadays I frequently tend to “resist” new shows even when people say they’re great, and then when the DVD comes out I just devour the whole thing end-to-end.

So if you thought YOU were confused due to your long hiatus between seasons 2 and 3, I never saw the series in order: I saw episodes out of order, from different seasons, all jumbled up. Sometimes Delenn would have hair, sometimes she wouldn’t, I had no idea why, etc., and I don’t think the series was out on DVD yet.

I spent a **LOT** of time on the Lurker’s Guide.

Eventually I filled in all the blanks and was able to start watching the live series as it came out. As I said elsewhere, although the show is extremely derivative in many ways, and shows the mark of having been written by somebody who only knows the secondary sources (like somebody who reads Tolkien but never reads the primary sources that Tolkien got inspired by, and which are responsible for the astonishing depth and richness of Tolkien’s creation, something which has never been equalled), I give Straczynski full props and honors for having planned out his story arc in advance and having carried it through so skillfully.

Which, again, is something I will never forgive the creators of BSG for *failing* to do, as much as I still love that show and its characters (and its vastly better special-effects than anything B5 ever came close to thinking of).

I’m glad you enjoyed War Without End and Z’Ha’Dum (oh and while I’m complaining about derivativeness and failure-to-be-Tolkien-ness — did anybody notice how much Z’Ha’Dum sounds like, say, Barad-Dûr? And don’t get me started on people who obviously never studied a foreign language trying to make langauges up; apparently the sound “n” is the universal galactic sound that must be used to start words for “no”, even by Minbari; sure, French and Spanish and German and even Russian use that sound, but most of the EARTH’S languages don’t have an “n” in their negatives). I still say the climax of War Without End is the greatest scifi reveal ever (hm, well, “I am your father” is pretty good; and the ending of “Foundation and Earth” is pretty damn good though I could see it coming from miles away; but still). And the way Delenn collapses in tears as she’s watching Sheridan’s goodbye video still makes me tear up, all at the same time with my heart pounding as those scenes are inter-cut with the scenes of Sheridan succeeding with his remote-control ship plans, him jumping, his wife screaming, the music swelling perfectly. B5 is a work of art.
By john, December 23, 2009 @ 11:21 am

Now I know why there are only four comments today, Justin has really said it all. I will only add two very minor things:

Dave S.: Season five was the last (and good to have you back with some regularity of posting!).

And, the Lurker’s Guide is a great resource. I remember finding it after completing the series and filled in all the blanks.
By Tam, December 23, 2009 @ 11:30 am

Umm. Never seen it. Enjoy.
By Tam, December 23, 2009 @ 11:31 am

Oh forgot to add that I loved Underdog the cartoon. Does that make me a cool kid now?
By Justin, December 23, 2009 @ 11:47 am

Tam – as long as you hasten to add that you *hated* Underdog the movie (rather, that you saw the previews, *hated* the previews, and didn’t *see* the movie).

Who COULDN’T love Sweat Polly Purebread? Or Simon Bar-Sinister? Or the Flying Saucerors?!

And I’ve just realized that all this time, I’ve been ignoring the injunction at the top of the “post a comment” section:

Craiggleserzeses, You Are A Big (&Tall) Dork!!!
By Tam, December 23, 2009 @ 11:55 am

Justin: Never saw the movie, have no interest. I hate when they ruin something classic by doing a remake. Blah.
By Polt, December 23, 2009 @ 2:29 pm

Craiggleserzeses? Sounds like a demon, ya know, the right hand devil of Mephistophelos, or some such junk. Still very creative mixing the Polt nickname with the Joshspeak (which is unfortunately the only way i’m gonna get to mix it up with Josh…), and tacking it all on the Craiggles. nice.

HUGS…
By Justin, December 23, 2009 @ 2:42 pm

Tam – u are a gal after my own heart

O Purple one – I don’t quite see the Mephistophelean connection. Though your comment made me wonder if Craiggleserzeses is right-handed when he decongests …

And yes, it is a shame about our eternal damnation to the outer circles of “never gonna get to mix it up”-hood.
By josh, December 23, 2009 @ 11:55 pm

Maroon 5?! I love “Sweetest Goodbye,” “Little of Your Time,” “Must Get Out” & “Back At Your Door!”
By Justin, December 24, 2009 @ 11:35 am

Why do Joshes enjoy making my brain explode so?
By josh, December 24, 2009 @ 1:32 pm

Cuz they don’t know what people are talking about, yet still want to feel like part of the party, so they take the most rando detail (in this case, the # 5) and spin off a comment on something they understand!
By Justin, December 24, 2009 @ 2:37 pm

Josh – that made sense! My brain is returning to unexplodedness *whew*