Babylon 5 10/10
I'm sure in all my time here I've sung the praises of this show but since I'm rewatching it I figured I'd post about it. This is one of my comfort shows, rewatch it about once every 5 years or so. I love it so much I'm not gonna try to give some objective opinion about it, just gush.
It is my first time viewing it in two new ways for me:
- HD. Some kind of AI upscaling whatevers. It's what's on the blu-ray.
It's a mixed bag- I can tell that some fidelity is lost in the process. But seeing it so clearly is worth it and I'm enjoying it.
- JMS preferred viewing order
So "JMS" is show-runner J. Michael Straczynski. One of the things that made this show unique is that it really is that complete vision and guidance of one person, so it has more consistent, complete, and focused story-telling and chararcter development of any sci-fi show ever made (probably... maybe the Joss Whedon stuff can compare in that sense). So much so that he actually wrote most of the episodes himself.
During the making of the show he also pioneered being active on the nascent internet. He has shared, in bits and pieces, behind-the-scenes info on episodes that were delayed for production reasons, issues that effected the writing (casting, production, etc), and some of his original concepts that were scrapped or changed over the years. Vigilant fans have assembled a viewing order that deviates a bit from the aired order to create what is considered the "JMS viewing order." It includes a few standalone movies and an aborted spinoff series.
I'm watching it this way, minus the spinoffs, minus two episodes that I really dislike and add nothing to the story IMO.
Anyway, for those that no nothing about the show, the premise and setup is basically Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And they aired together. So yes there's a whole nerd drama about who ripped off whom. At the time, B5 was looked at as the also-ran Trek. Trek was THE space game in town, not like now with so much more content and nerd culture dominating pop culture. It was on a network that went bust and of course had WAY less money to spend.
Certainly the biggest difference between B5 and DS9 is that B5 is literally not Trek, so it doesn't have the themes and lore to contend with. The biggest being that future humanity in B5 is NOT utopian. Fortunately, it's also before the post-9/11 GRIMDARK. So there is conflict, there is idealism and ideologies, there is this overriding sense that humanity can and should progress but it's brutal and painful and ugly.
The biggest most famous selling point is that the story was planned from the get-go so the twists and turns, the changes, mostly make sense by the time you get to the end. It is the most satisfying overall story in any show I've ever watched. Don't get me wrong, I love DS9, but I feel like its last season had a LOT of weaknesses and that some of its big turns towards the end were unearned.
The show's strengths AND weaknesses stem from the same place- that being its singular authorial voice. JMS has a silly sense of humor and some of the jokes fall flat; he has his boomer white guy liberal world view which is generally fine but can get the writing stuck on some annoying repetitive themes. He is a brilliant dialogue writer which leads to some spine-chilling moments but also cringe dialogue at times where it sounds like the character is reciting an essay.
The acting is all over the place, but in a way that I find charming and part of why I keep watching. Most importantly, the main cast is fantastic. Three of the main alien characters- Delenn, G'Kar, and Londo, are the kind of attention-wresting screen mongers we want in our space operas (the DS9 equivalents would be Oda and Quark). The human characters I wouldn't say were ever gonna win Emmys, but they come to take the tropes assigned to them and by the second season invest them with emotion and depth.
Walter Koenig, who played "nooklear wessels" Chekov in the original Trek is a recurring villain and his performance is a revelation. The one-off guest characters are all over the place- some of them are absurd scenery chewers and I admit I love that crap; some are great, some just suck. So it goes.
The space battles are exceptional. In terms of pure graphics, it hasn't aged well- we're talking early computer graphics. What's awesome is how they're choreagraphed and directed. They rarely are just space ships pew pewing each other- they have narrative to them. You can understand what's happening and why, what the strategies are, and there is a thought to physics and positioning that exceeds much Trek even.
Maybe the weakest production point is the alien design. A lot of bulbous head craggy faced aliens. The hair on the character of Londo is notoriously stupid looking. I'm not gonna defend it other than to say at least it's more effort than the B'joran's crinkly nose+earring (the Cardassians, on the other hand, maybe the coolest and most clever design of an important alien race).
So, I guess I'm recommending it, yet again. If anyone is looking to:
- Have a meaty show to sink their teeth into that will entertain them for a while (5 seasons, 22 episodes per)
- Doesn't mind old stuff looking of its time
- Likes some traditional story-telling: epic story, personal stories, war and peace, space shit.
A common observation/recommendation of the show is that it's slow at first and that you have to suffer through the first season before it gets good in the second. I legit think this is just wrong and I really don't think it's just me being a fanboy here. Of those initial 22 episodes, I think three are legit bad (but none are the episodes I skip), half-a-dozen are top notch, and the rest are solid. Yes, seasons 3 and 4 are the peak, and season 5 stumbles out the gate, but overall that's a pretty good hit record.
For reference, the two eps I skip are:
- Deconstruction of Falling Stars, the season 4 finale. This was basically a last-minute filler due to the behind-the-scenes production issues that also greatly hampered the first half of season 5.
- A View From the Gallery, an early season 5 that actually offends me, and not just because it adds nothing to the story or characters.
