Babylon 5 1.1-1.8

[meganbmoore]

I have, I think, figured out why I often find it hard to latch onto space scifi, or if I do latch on to it, to like it different reasons than others seem to. When I watch space scifi with humans and aliens, I seem to want to know more about the aliens, and less about the humans. It’s rather like how I like Crichton in Farscape, but often think of him as an excuse to have all the aliens, human looking and otherwise. The shows, however, seem to make the natural assumption that since I’m a human, I’m more interested in the humans. I don’t blame them, though that only seems to be true for me with Stargate: SG-1.

Babylon 5 is a classic 90s scifi series about a space station designed to help promote peace between all the known races in the mid-23rd century, created after a war between Earth and a race called the Minbari. I haven’t learned a lot of character and race names yet (almost too many characters to keep track of, and I’m bad with names to start with), so bear with me. Possibly the most striking thing about the series, watching it for the first time in 2008, is how incredibly dated the FX are. They’re pretty decent when it’s just the FX, but when it’s FX mixed with live action, you get things like the most hilarious lightning I’ve seen. So far, I find most of the episodic plots forgettable to ok enough. The characters and their stories, though, are largely engaging.

The alien preference seems to be holding steady, though, as the only human characters who’ve really caught my attention so far are Ivanova and the blonde telepath. Ivanova because she’s superstoic and I like stoic second-in-commands. The telepath because I find it interesting how she seems to dislike and fear the Psi-Corps, yet she also buys into their doctrine regarding behavior, and that telepaths are dangerous and must be controlled. I find Sinclair, Garibaldi, the doctor, and Sinclair’s girlfriend all to be perfectly fine, if a bit typical so far, but not as attention grabbing as those two, or the aliens.

But the aliens! I adore Londo, the loud ambassador with Shi’ar-like hair who seems to be a noisy braggart and more than a little ridiculous, but who’s also rather jaded to the world, and knows how to work systems to his end. Then there’s his opposite number, a lizard-like ambassador whose race seems to have been the enemy of Londo’s, and who is almost as much of a loud braggart, but who’s rather scheming and surprisingly thoughtful at times. I also really like his super-efficient and long suffering (even after just the first day on the job) Na’Toth, who is listed in the credits, but has only been in one episode so far. My favorite, though, is Delenn, the Zhaan-like representative of the Minbari, who keeps a lot of secrets, both about her own rank, and apparently about the war.

There are several things that jar me on the human/alien front. I get why they specifically refer to everything in Earth time, because all the races have different measurements of time, and they need something to all use, but some descriptions startle me. For example, at one point, Garibaldi, who’s a security officer, is asking an alien to describe someone, and asks if they were humanoid, or looked like an alien. I mean, for starters, he’s the alien to the person he was talking to, but the wording overall was weird. Then there’s the fact that it sometimes seems that the less human an alien looks, the more likely it is to be evil. The most “Uhm…what?” moment for me, though, is when there’s a firefight and Sinclair, Ivanova, and Random Helpless Alien Ambassador (RHAA) are being shot at. RHAA is shackled and doesn’t look like she can move very fast, while Sinclair and Ivanova are uninjured and not shacckled. So Sinclair covers Ivanova while the head for cover. Now, I strongly endorse Ivanova not getting shot and/or killed, but you know, she’s clearly very physically capable and wouldn’t be second-in-command if she couldn’t handle herself in a fight. If I were Sinclair, I’d be trusting her to get to cover while I helped RHAA. Instead, we see RHAA crawling for cover, and then she’s never seen again. And so I spent the next few minutes going “But what about poor RHAA? Was she shot? Is anyone going to unshackle her? Where’d she go?”

So, fun series so far, if mostly for the characters.

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I think that's how everyone feels about B5 in terms of the characters, haha. The aliens and Ivanova are win. At least, that's what I grasp from having seen some of it and having heard my husband talk about it. (He ... names things after it.) It's full of very good lines and I think I would have gotten really into it had I seen it at the time.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Londo, G'kar (the lizardlike opposite of Londo), Delenn, and Ivanova remain some of the most intriguing characters throughout, in my opinion.

[pikabot]

Part of the problem with the FX is that there were some major mastering issues when they were moving it onto DVD. Basically, they shot all the live-action stuff in widescreen, but due to budget only made the CG stuff in non-widescreen, because widescreen wasn't very prevalent back in the 90s. They figured that if they needed to, they could just take the CG models and redo it in widescreen later. Problem is, at some point betweenthen and when the DVD sets were released, the CG models got deleted. And they didn't have the money to completely redo it. So. You get that. You're right, it does look pretty hideous at times (although less so as the series progresses). I remember one shot where Ivanova's uniform turned bright green suddenly.

If you like the first season, just wait because the middle seasons of the show's run (2, 3, and 4) are absolutely amazing. Very tightly and intelligently plotted.

(And yes, Londo and G'kar are the bestest things ever)

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the first and fifth seasons (I'd like to sit down and watch the whole thing sometime); by all accounts the second through fourth seasons are much better.

Even with my limited knowledge, B5 is one of my favorite shows. And the characters--human and alien alike--just keep getting better. You'll find that the "human-like good, freaky-looking evil" thing outright reverses later, by the way, at least if I'm remembering correctly. Well, somewhat. It's more complicated than a simple dichotomy.

Londo and G'Kar remain one of the best relationships ever written for TV.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

<3 Ivanova and Delenn and the aliens. And... they tend to get into them a bit more than other shows do (at least, iirc, they do).

I have a soft spot for Sinclair, and while I like Garibaldi, he does bore me a bit (Catherine and the doctor, Franklin, are also pretty win).

But Londo and G'Kar? SUCH TOTAL AWESOME I HAVE NO WORDS.

[calliopepurple.livejournal.com]

Ivanova has her reasons for what she thinks about the Psi-Corps. Pretty much everything in the first season will turn out to have a point, even things you'd totally forgotten about.

Dammit I need to watch this show again so hard that it hurts!

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

I used to enjoy watching this series when I came home from school (although it was aired wildly out of order, and thus was very confusing). From what I recall season 1 was my least favorite of the bunch, but it gets very good from season 2 onward when the story really gets going.

Londo and G'kar (I think? The guy from the race that Londo hates) develop into some really great characters, especially in and around season 4.

[foenix.livejournal.com]

I think when you consider that B5 was a 90s show, on the cutting edge of tv CGI, and in syndication without the backing of a major network *and* still managed to come in under budget, those effects are pretty good. =)

And yes, the characters are amazing. That's the strength of Babylon 5, really. Most good shows, I guess. Hugely flawed, each and every one.

Garibaldi grows on you, I suspect. Or I just like the sarcasm. See also: Ivanova.

[heavensgardener.livejournal.com]

Ivanova is win. Her awesomeness only increases exponentially as the show goes on.

Season 1 is really kind of slow. It really starts picking up around 2, but 5 is...not really that good, alas.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

When I watch space scifi with humans and aliens, I seem to want to know more about the aliens, and less about the humans. It’s rather like how I like Crichton in Farscape, but often think of him as an excuse to have all the aliens, human looking and otherwise.

It's not just you! The default Heroic Whitebread Manly-Man lead characters -- Kirk, Crichton, Sinclair, Dylan Hunt, etc. etc. etc., typically leave me utterly meh while I fixate on the supporting characters. And I can't vouch for the fandom as a whole as I never got into it enough to bother with stalking the newsgroups or fansites, but just amongst the handful of B5 fans I knew back in the day it definitely seemed to be Ivanova and the aliens leading the popularity lists. (As well they should!)

I always particularly adored Ivanova, and Talia, and Delenn, and G'Kar, and Londo -- tho' I did have a bit of a soft spot for Garibaldi since I have a weakness for snarky wiseass types. And a few other characters who I shall not name right now as they don't come along until later.

Season 1 really is pretty much the weakest part of the series, it had so much infodumping to do and things hadn't entirely gelled yet; if you're enjoying these earliest episodes that much, it bodes well for the middle seasons being even more enjoyable. And if you like Delenn and Ivanova now, I suspect you'll absolutely adore them as the show progresses and their characters are further developed.

[the_rck]

Babylon 5 cemented my tendency to search for online spoilers. I loved it, but there were times when I couldn't face episodes if I didn't already have a sense of the general shape of the story. There was a very active discussion online that included massive commentary from JMS. I can't remember the website name off the top of my head, but it might still be around in some form and be worth looking at after you've watched the series. (I'd expect spoilers for future episodes in the discussions at this point.)

I found season 1 more watchable after seeing season 2. We came to the series late, while season 2 was airing, and had to scramble a bit to catch the season 1 episodes. There're a lot of things in season 1 that set up much bigger events later or otherwise change when viewed with more information.

My husband has been buying the script books which are (or were) about $40 each.

[bemysty.livejournal.com]

ohgod babylon 5 <3 Will forever be my favourite science fiction series of any country, ever, because the plotting between season 2 and 4 was just breathtaking... how they made it all match up and how hints strewn earlier were taken up later was like a sledgehammer to my 14yo-grew-up-on-TOS-and-TNG brain *g*

Let's just say that Londo, G'Kar, Delenn, Lennier and Ivanova are still among my favourite characters from any medium. I basically cried my eyes out when Andreas Katsulas died a couple of years ago because this, in JMS' words, also meant the death of G'Kar - double the loss, essentially.