I’ve decided to do my first Babylon 5 rewatch!
Lets have a binge thread to talk about B5!
I would love to find a 4k remaster of the series, there are some great demo videos on youtube, but on the streaming sites I can only find 720p. If you have any trouble choosing which streaming service to use just search for fmhy and they will have a curated list of options.
TV shows were wild back then, 22 episodes per season, 45 minutes each; 1000 minutes per season!
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The series is such an interesting piece Sci-fi history. Having the premise stolen by DS9, having to swap out one of the key characters after season one and pivot the story, the curse and early demise of many of the actors…
Curse?
If you do a “where are they now?” on the cast many are dead :/
A TV show with adult actors, plus 30 years after it was filmed… Yeah… they are not going to be around much longer.
Oh yeah but a lot of them died super early
Humanoid aliens with human traits… meh… but generally a nice watch.
Season 1 Episode 1 - Midnight on the Firing Line
Wow, the graphics look surprisingly clean, but very outdated!
Hahah, “Earth is some lost Centauri Tribe Making us distant relatives”
Vir is my spirit animal
League of Non-Aligned worlds, ohh yeah Space UN, but without the static veto security council
I do not like Santiago. I’ve always thought that a leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin, and his vice president has several. This, to me, is not a good combination.
The big mcguffin for episode 1 was the technical advisor for the raiders had archived communication between narn high command and the invasion fleet verifying the invasion was unprovoked. That seems like a wild operational choice, no compartmentalization for a sensitive operation.
PsyCore is super evil; Join us; Prison; or Lobotomy drugs.
Garabalis second favorite thing in the universe is loonytoons and not sex, as was so heavily hinted at. No way this joke setup could happen anymore
Season 2 - Episode 15
The PsyCorps is your friend, trust the PsyCorps.
Season 2 Thoughts and Comments
Over this season we see earth fall in with the secret police, who are different than the psycorps. Earth force is a very dangerous place for good people to be now.
The shadows and vorlons have revealed themselves as agents of good and evil respectively.
Lando is well onto the path of space Khan, naked hunger for expansionist empire. Right now he is somewhat reluctant, but when pressed uses grand anger as a shield. He is in the backseat, but he is responsible, and its tearing him apart. Who is to say where the shadows have also influenced.
We end the season with a Earth Centauri non-aggression pact, and Centurian expansionism into all of its neighbors.
The membari have been very quiet this season.
The purpose of Babylon 4 and its space jumping haven’t been hinted at.
What will happen to the vorlon timelord jack the ripper now?
Overall - The season has good intrigue setup, I’m now emotionally invested. I’d say less filler in this season, but still quite high maybe 30% totally B plot episodes.
The pieces are on the chess board now!
Really enjoyed re-watching this series! Very dense and intricate in terms of setting and story lines compared to other science fiction shows on air at the time. Even if I wasn’t so young then I believe I would have had difficulty following along week-to-week. Now, if I’d known about usenet…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_The_Road_Home
Comments and Thoughts
Zathras and the great machine transcend realities time and space. Zathras is probably the most important creature that exists.
The Power of Love is a little cheesy especially to solve quantum tunnel effects.
Since we are talking about parallel dimensions i wonder how that compares to third space, hyper space, and quantum space.
The joke about lost in space being something they couldnt say was a little oddly meta.
Season 3 Thoughts and comments
The shadows being agents of Chaos and the Vorlon agents of order was a interesting pitch in the finale. Not sure they motivated why the shadows care about “evolving” the younger races at all? Still not clear on what this war is all about yet.
It is weird earth has been so quiet
The checkov psycop seems to have totally disappeared
There are some good mysterboxes lined up.
Season 2 - Episode 14
Can we talk?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_In_the_Beginning
In the Beginning - 1998
The start of the Earth Membari war, the first hint of the Vorlons… the Shadows pestering Londo
The tragedy of losing the peace talks
Who was the prisioner referred to by Londo in the last scene?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_Thirdspace
Third Space Thoughts and Comments
Interdimensional psychic space crabs!
Normal space, Hyper Space, Third Space… Many dimensions to explore for FTL travel purposes, not all of them will have space crabs that the vorlons are ashamed of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5:_The_Lost_Tales
Thoughts and Comments
This feels super low budget, only a few actors in any scene, all cgi, no real sets.
The first story is introducing god and the devil, but its a weird fit since we have the vorlon and shadows in those relative positions, but this is going full god and devil in addition to vorlons and shadows. Felt forced
The second tale about the young prince, was nice, hopeful. Good to see sheradon returning to the station.
This concludes all the Babylon 5 videos created.
Even with all the other content, its hard to beat the shadow and vorlon war arc in the show. Seasons 1-4 are absolute peak science fiction.
I feel a little exhausted, but very up to date.
The reason nobody listens to Zathras is because Zathras leaves out important information…
A really good retrospective: https://youtu.be/7jUNB-o463w
- 1. Babylon 5: In the Beginning* (film, years: 2245-48)
- 2. Babylon 5: The Gathering (year: 2257)
- 3. Babylon 5: Seasons 1–4 (years: 2258-61)
- 4. Babylon 5: Thirdspace (film, year: 2261)
- 5. Babylon 5: Season 5 (year: 2262)
- 6. Babylon 5: The River of Souls (film, year: 2263)
- 7. Babylon 5: The Road Home (animated film, year: 2263)
- 8. Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers (film, year: 2265)
- 9. Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (film, year: 2266)
- 9. Crusade: Season 1 (year: 2267)
- 10. Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (year: 2271)
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Severed Dreams
What a absolute triumph of storytelling payoff.
The start of season 3 we see the civil war boil over to a point of no return, the shadows are acting more brazenly through their proxies.
In Episode 10 we have 2 season of buildup starting to come together and pay off, in a absolutely captivating and thrilling way. no single minute of screen time was wasted in this episode.
Babylon 5 is now independent, no turning back, it lives and dies by diplomacy now with no earth support.
We had first civil war, but what about second civil war? The membari also are divided and the religious casts come to the aid of B5.
Season 1 Episode 2 - Soul Hunter
Shag Tot - Soul Hunter - I almost thought the plot was going to revolve around bad communication but after the “shocked” kill it emotional outburst the ambassador actually explained herself, kudos.
Blesseded lunatics, ha
The soul hunter could be a Dr. Who
Kinda confused, at the end of the episode Delina breaks all the soul orbs, not just membari orbs. Since the souls could communicate was it consensual? The orbs appear to be able to move under their own power.
