G'day,
Disclaimer - No offense intended by that evidently vile quote in the subject line...
Until today, I had never watched an episode of Babylon 5. I remember hearing about the show when I was in junior high (which makes sense - that's when it started), however it never aired on the 1 commercial channel in the town I was living in at the time (and cable was several years away), and whilst I could have rented the videos from Video 2000, I guess I just opted for the familiar instead, sticking to the ST:TNG titles. As such, B5 has been relegated to the faction of sci-fi tv shows that I've never watched... (along with Sliders, for example, which could well be next on my list to catch up on.)
Given that this series started 20 years ago, I'm sure I'm not about to make any astounding new observations, but hell, isn't that what the Net is for? Thanks to the occasional dig at B5 by Sheldon, I just felt it was finally time that I gave the show a chance... as I've not much else sci-fi on the calendar at the moment. As such, I sat down and watched Midnight on the Firing Line. (And, I've just read that's possibly not the "best" way to start watching the show... but it's done now.)
When I told my wife, who watched only by osmosis, that the episode was from the same era as STS9, her comment was - "Oh, I thought it was from the 70's!". I'll admit that was a bit harsh, however as I watched, I did feel like I was watching something comparable to 1987's ST:TNG:Encounter at Farpoint, rather than 1993's STS9:Emissary. Now, I accept that DS9 had a lot going for it over B5 - it was basically the continuation of an existing successful show, borrowing much from its heritage in terms of bolstering its production values, it had double B5's budget, and it had Dax... But as some of those reading this know, I love Doctor Who, so - I can see beyond the superficial - honest!
I don't mind coming into a story part way through, and learning the backstory as I go... but in this case, I really felt conflicted about who I was meant to be siding with... Do I feel for Londo/'s people, who were just attacked, or for G'Kar's people, who were previously attacked by Londo's people... (Is that the intent - to show that War is not always a simple affair) Personally, I think I'd rather have had the start of the episode introduce the station, and its people, particularly Londo and G'Kar, then have the attack...
Anyways, so the action sequences were... quite lame. Good CGI (with some models??), but not good enough to actually suspend your belief that you're watching CGI... again unlike DS9 which soon thereafter were producing some pretty amazing battle sequences all in CGI... The acting was also fairly mediocre, with only (luckily) the main players, Londo, G'Kar and Sinclair. I know DS9 had its weak links (ie Bashir), but I really did feel at times like I was watching something from film school... admittedly with a much better budget than film school...
Oh, and - talking of film school - something I was taught was to make sure you thought about sound... 100% of this story took place on spaceships/stations... yet a lot of the time the background is filled with silence... I should be hearing the hum of engines/life support etc etc. Pretty sure even Doctor Who's Four to Doomsday got that right.
Would I have watched another episode of B5 if it were 1994 and my local network was showing it... Probably, but only 1 more... Will I go to the effort now, to watch another episode... No. I think I'll side with Sheldon on this one.
cheers,
cosmic
Disclaimer - No offense intended by that evidently vile quote in the subject line...
Until today, I had never watched an episode of Babylon 5. I remember hearing about the show when I was in junior high (which makes sense - that's when it started), however it never aired on the 1 commercial channel in the town I was living in at the time (and cable was several years away), and whilst I could have rented the videos from Video 2000, I guess I just opted for the familiar instead, sticking to the ST:TNG titles. As such, B5 has been relegated to the faction of sci-fi tv shows that I've never watched... (along with Sliders, for example, which could well be next on my list to catch up on.)
Given that this series started 20 years ago, I'm sure I'm not about to make any astounding new observations, but hell, isn't that what the Net is for? Thanks to the occasional dig at B5 by Sheldon, I just felt it was finally time that I gave the show a chance... as I've not much else sci-fi on the calendar at the moment. As such, I sat down and watched Midnight on the Firing Line. (And, I've just read that's possibly not the "best" way to start watching the show... but it's done now.)
When I told my wife, who watched only by osmosis, that the episode was from the same era as STS9, her comment was - "Oh, I thought it was from the 70's!". I'll admit that was a bit harsh, however as I watched, I did feel like I was watching something comparable to 1987's ST:TNG:Encounter at Farpoint, rather than 1993's STS9:Emissary. Now, I accept that DS9 had a lot going for it over B5 - it was basically the continuation of an existing successful show, borrowing much from its heritage in terms of bolstering its production values, it had double B5's budget, and it had Dax... But as some of those reading this know, I love Doctor Who, so - I can see beyond the superficial - honest!
I don't mind coming into a story part way through, and learning the backstory as I go... but in this case, I really felt conflicted about who I was meant to be siding with... Do I feel for Londo/'s people, who were just attacked, or for G'Kar's people, who were previously attacked by Londo's people... (Is that the intent - to show that War is not always a simple affair) Personally, I think I'd rather have had the start of the episode introduce the station, and its people, particularly Londo and G'Kar, then have the attack...
Anyways, so the action sequences were... quite lame. Good CGI (with some models??), but not good enough to actually suspend your belief that you're watching CGI... again unlike DS9 which soon thereafter were producing some pretty amazing battle sequences all in CGI... The acting was also fairly mediocre, with only (luckily) the main players, Londo, G'Kar and Sinclair. I know DS9 had its weak links (ie Bashir), but I really did feel at times like I was watching something from film school... admittedly with a much better budget than film school...
Oh, and - talking of film school - something I was taught was to make sure you thought about sound... 100% of this story took place on spaceships/stations... yet a lot of the time the background is filled with silence... I should be hearing the hum of engines/life support etc etc. Pretty sure even Doctor Who's Four to Doomsday got that right.
Would I have watched another episode of B5 if it were 1994 and my local network was showing it... Probably, but only 1 more... Will I go to the effort now, to watch another episode... No. I think I'll side with Sheldon on this one.
cheers,
cosmic
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