Babylon 5-best Sci-fi Ever?

[AGateFan]

I finally just finished watching S5 of B5. I was in tears when B5 exploded, and Sheridian gone. No TV show has ever affected me this way, all I can say is wow. While the first of S5 was weak, the last part of it is amazing. I'm nearly speechless now.

Thats exactly what I felt.
I am not big into the whole deep emotion thing, normally dont really like that. But that last ep of B5 was just soo right and just soo amazing. So Amazing.
Great ending to a great show and completely redeemed some of the early season 5 stuff to me.

[keshou]

They are two different shows obviously but do you know why I think B5 is better than Stargate? It is because of this...

"I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe.... that we have not yet explained everything. Whatever they are, Ms Sakai, they walk near Sigma 957. And they must walk there alone." (G'Kar in "Mind War")

Dialogue... dialogue is king in B5...

I totally agree.

I'm always surprised when I hear people say that JMS couldn't write dialogue - I thought that was one of his strong suits. Especially when he wrote for G'Kar or Londo or DeLenn.

There were a few of G'Kar's little monologues that I would actually back up the tape and listen to them 2 or 3 times because I thought they were so amazing.

[keshou]

I finally just finished watching S5 of B5. I was in tears when B5 exploded, and Sheridian gone. No TV show has ever affected me this way, all I can say is wow. While the first of S5 was weak, the last part of it is amazing. I'm nearly speechless now.

Oh I felt that way too. The first half of S5 was mostly dreck but the end redeemed everything. I cried thru the whole thing. It left me totally drained.

[kmiller1610]

I'm always surprised when I hear people say that JMS couldn't write dialogue - I thought that was one of his strong suits. Especially when he wrote for G'Kar or Londo or DeLenn.

The speeches in B5 are very literate and profound. His presentations are often quite theatrical. If you want a more natural acting style, you might have some problems with B5. Some of the speeches are quite beautiful and moving.

[aAnubiSs]

There are three things I don't like as much as the rest of B5.

1. Season One: Unfortunately it had quite a few unnecessary episodes.
2. Season Five.1: Didn't like Byron. While I liked Lyta 'evil' I didn't like the way she got there. The episodes with Bester made this half watchable.
3. Mira Furlan: I don't like her voice that much. Can't explain it, I simply don't find it pleasing. I also feel that she in some scenes played it overly theatrical. While Sinclear was also played quite theatrical, just like the rest of them, there was something around Delenn's reactions I didn't like.

There were billions of things I loved about B5, here are a few:

1. Shadow/Vorlon conflict: They aren't evil, but neither isn't good in any way.
2. The arc: Simply insane storyarc. All five(unfortunately just 4 seasons) years were planned before the first episode was filmed.
3. Londo/G'Kar: I think this is my favorite duo of all tv-shows through history.
4. I liked the more theatrical acting. Maybe because it still feels fresh.
5. Never a reset button. Everyting that happend had consequences.
6. The final episode. Such a piece of art.

[Bragi]

You know..... eight years ago, I'd kill myself for saying this but... no.

Of course, it's all personal taste. As far as I'm concerned, B5 is a seminol Sci-Fi show worthy of mention along side Star Trek and Star Wars as the pinnacle of all that is Sci-Fi.

But for me, Farscape is the best Sci-Fi show. Again, personal taste. It's my personal favorite show (of all time).

Babylon 5's contributions to the art can't be denied though. It was really rough seeing that station blow itself apart.

[kmiller1610]

But for me, Farscape is the best Sci-Fi show. Again, personal taste. It's my personal favorite show (of all time).

I have never seen an ep of Farscape. Any chance you could provide a conceptual summary under the "disctinctive concepts of Sci Fi" thread I started. I'm trying to get enough stuff there, so that it provides one stop shopping for folks who want to check out other shows.....

[HirogenGater]

I am currently re-watching my B5 DVD sets and am almost through Season 3. Wow, even better than I remember it. Such a shame The Memory of Shadows never came to be, I would love more B5.

[Bey0nd]

http://www.hulu.com/babylon-5

[maneth]

My three favorites: Babylon 5, Moore's Battlestar Galactica and Farscape.

[nx01a]

Babylon 5 changed how viewers and producers/writers/etc. thought about sci-fi. An arc lasting 5 years? Impossible! The usual way of thinking about a tv show is to let it run for as long as possible until they cancel it, not to tell a complete story in a set period of time. Not that B5 didn't have problems, everything does, but it certainly is up there with the best.

[Jumper_One]

Babylon 5 changed how viewers and producers/writers/etc. thought about sci-fi. An arc lasting 5 years? Impossible! The usual way of thinking about a tv show is to let it run for as long as possible until they cancel it, not to tell a complete story in a set period of time. Not that B5 didn't have problems, everything does, but it certainly is up there with the best.

well said!

[Integrabyte]

Babylon 5 changed how viewers and producers/writers/etc. thought about sci-fi. An arc lasting 5 years? Impossible! The usual way of thinking about a tv show is to let it run for as long as possible until they cancel it, not to tell a complete story in a set period of time. Not that B5 didn't have problems, everything does, but it certainly is up there with the best.

B5 was a good show but I would not rate it the best Sci-Fi ever. The X-Files had an alien arc that lasted 9 seasons!!!! I am still waiting for a show to beat that duration for an arc. The X-Files was Sci-Fi too...to a certain extent. Coming back to B5, what made this good was the actors. Mira, Peter, Bruce, Claudia, etc were amazing on screen. This show ranks third for me after The X-Files and Farscape.

[maneth]

There were too many supernatural elements to the X-files for me to count it as sci-fi. The aliens were, but a lot of it wasn't.

I don't count anything as sci-fi that has supernatural elements to it, unless they're explained scientifically at some point. And by definition, if it can be explained scientifically, it's not supernatural. That said, there were some supernatural elements in B5 as well, particularly Sheridan's ascension.

[nx01a]

The X-Files alien arc was so convulted that, even hearing Chris Carter explain it on the movie soundtrack makes the head spin. I enjoyed the mytharc episodes to an extent, but I don't get the feeling CC had an intended end to it all, just stretching out the show for as long as it'd go. Don't get me wrong: I was in front of my tv every sunday night for years, just waiting for that theme song and the freakish paranoia I'd see, but I moreso enjoyed the entity-of-the-week episodes [which highlighted Mulder/Scully's personalities and relationship] than the mytharc ones.

I'm not sure I can count any TV show as being the 'best' sci-fi. I judge on what each has brought to the genre as a whole, whether it be awareness of sci-fi itself [Trek] or revolutionising how stories are constructed [B5] or for revolutionizing the genre itself and/or its audience [X-Files/Farscape].