Babylon 5

[MisterOJ]

So, now I've only got two episodes left in Season 4. For the most part, it's been a fantastic season. Although I have missed seeing G'Kar and Londo during the whole war to retake Earth. That's my only complaint.

Season 4 has felt like they didn't think the show would be back for a 5th season and they wanted to make sure and wrap up the Shadow War and resolve the plot with the President all in one season. Which is fine. But now I'm wondering what Season 5 will be like. Can those of you who've watch tell me if it ends in a satisfactory way? If it's a disappointing end to the series, I'd prefer to go ahead and mentally prepare for that before it comes. Thanks!

[Ran]

The ending-ending is spectacular and absolutely appropriate to the show. The season as a whole in uneven, due to the padding needed after JMS had wrapped up things in S4 only to get that 5th season after all. I think the season is underrated in some respects, but it's fair to say there are a number of at-best-mediocre episodes.

[MisterOJ]

15 minutes ago, Ran said:

The ending-ending is spectacular and absolutely appropriate to the show. The season as a whole in uneven, due to the padding needed after JMS had wrapped up things in S4 only to get that 5th season after all. I think the season is underrated in some respects, but it's fair to say there are a number of at-best-mediocre episodes.

So Season 5 wasn't a sure thing and that's why everything was wrapped in in Season 4 after all? I was just assuming that based on the way the season has felt.

I'm glad to hear the series has a proper ending.

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

So Season 5 wasn't a sure thing and that's why everything was wrapped in in Season 4 after all? I was just assuming that based on the way the season has felt.

Yep, its fate was in the balance, and at the last minute TNT swooped in to provide the show a new home and give it its 5th season. So yeah, you've got exactly the right sense of what happened. Some new plot threads will be introduced, some more successfully than others, but the final episode was actually filmed during the 4th season so it ties everything together there and then they got the order of a final season and they did "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" instead.

It's a beautiful final episode.

[SpaceChampion]

JMS has another 5-season sequel series in mind when he originally blocked out the story prior to season 1 of B5.  He heavily cannibalized from the sequel series to pack it into B5.  Pretty much all of season 5 is material from those ideas, but it also seeps into seasons 2, 3 and 4.  Overall what we got was MUCH better than he originally planned.

Edited August 1, 2018 by SpaceChampion

[Werthead]

To expand on the earlier, with the exception of Neil Gaiman's episode (Day of the Dead), the first half of Season 5 is borderline-unwatchable dogcrap. The second half moderately improves until it gets pretty decent, then there's a couple of mediore episodes and then there's the excellent series finale.

I'd recommend watching the TV movies In the Beginning and Thirdspace between Seasons 4 and 5, as that's where they originally aired.

[Ran]

Eh, "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" is excellent, "Strange Relations" has Bester and some fun G'kar and Londo stuff, and three-part denoument of a story thread beginning with "In The Kingdom of the Blind" is actually very good besides some patented JMS hokiness at the end. For me, that's 6 of the 11 episodes making the first half that are entertaining. The other five... well, they're marking time, going through the motions, fair enough. You can get the sense that JMS is scrambling a bit.

I think the second half is more than decent, as well.

[Corvinus85]

Finally managed to finish the show. Season 5 was slow at first, and the emo telepath plot wasn't that interesting, especially since it pretty much fizzled out after Byron. The season got going with the Centauri/Drakh plot, and had a nice bittersweet ending. It was sad to see Londo head towards his prophesied destiny, though it was disappointing that the show's end skipped over that. I haven't seen any of the films, I wonder if any of those cover that, and also what happened to G'Kar. 

[RedEyedGhost]

On 7/4/2018 at 2:26 PM, drawkcabi said:

I watched B5 as it aired (and recorded it on VHS) from the first time the pilot episode aired. I was also going to cons then too. There was a camp even at the beginning that complained about the effects being too "cartoony" but it only kept a small portion from actually watching the series, for most of us though they were good enough, some of us thought they were really good, but most of all it was the writing and the story being told that enthralled us and we were happy enough with the effects to allow for the stories being told.

All the effects for the "The Gathering", the original version, were done on an Amiga computer.

When it first aired (and to this day) I thought that some of the effects were too cartoony, but it definitely didn't stop me from watching it!

[Denvek]

7 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Finally managed to finish the show. Season 5 was slow at first, and the emo telepath plot wasn't that interesting, especially since it pretty much fizzled out after Byron. The season got going with the Centauri/Drakh plot, and had a nice bittersweet ending. It was sad to see Londo head towards his prophesied destiny, though it was disappointing that the show's end skipped over that. I haven't seen any of the films, I wonder if any of those cover that, and also what happened to G'Kar. 

That’s actually covered earlier - rewatch the Babylon 4 two parter from Season 3. The future scene in that is where you see Londo arrange his death with G’Kar, and Vir takes the crown.

[Corvinus85]

11 hours ago, Denvek said:

That’s actually covered earlier - rewatch the Babylon 4 two parter from Season 3. The future scene in that is where you see Londo arrange his death with G’Kar, and Vir takes the crown.

I remember that, I was just hoping to see that in the timeline. Also, in that future, G'Kar had lost his eye again. Why?

Edited May 27, 2019 by Corvinus

[Durckad]

6 hours ago, Corvinus said:

I remember that, I was just hoping to see that in the timeline. Also, in that future, G'Kar had lost his eye again. Why?

I'm assuming it was stolen by Rocket.

[felice]

9 hours ago, Corvinus said:

I remember that, I was just hoping to see that in the timeline.

There's a little bit more in "In the Beginning".

9 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Also, in that future, G'Kar had lost his eye again. Why?

He left it in the wrong person's bedroom

[drawkcabi]

On 5/26/2019 at 8:30 PM, Corvinus said:

Finally managed to finish the show. Season 5 was slow at first, and the emo telepath plot wasn't that interesting, especially since it pretty much fizzled out after Byron. The season got going with the Centauri/Drakh plot, and had a nice bittersweet ending. It was sad to see Londo head towards his prophesied destiny, though it was disappointing that the show's end skipped over that. I haven't seen any of the films, I wonder if any of those cover that, and also what happened to G'Kar. 

Seriously thought, you might want to check out the Legions of Fire book series, a trilogy written by Peter David.

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Night-Centauri-Prime-Babylon/dp/0345427181/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=babylon+5&qid=1559033230&s=books&sr=1-3

JMS says it's canon and it covers what you are asking about.

It's been almost 20 years since I've read them I'm thinking I might go for a reread myself.

[Denvek]

Just finished my own Season 5 rewatch - say what you like about Byron and the telepath plot, but once that was out of the way the story significantly improves, and they absolutely nailed the endings.

[Cas Stark]

So, a new network COMET popped up a few weeks ago and it's showing B5.  Yeesh.  I was totally obsessed with this show, but season 1, is um, not very good, acting, dialogue, super wooden.  There are a few very slight hints toward the major storylines that would develop, but it is a LOT less sophisticated than I remembered it being.

[red snow]

38 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

So, a new network COMET popped up a few weeks ago and it's showing B5.  Yeesh.  I was totally obsessed with this show, but season 1, is um, not very good, acting, dialogue, super wooden.  There are a few very slight hints toward the major storylines that would develop, but it is a LOT less sophisticated than I remembered it being.

Season 1 was always pretty ropey particularly with Sinclair as the lead but a lot of the main story beats were present from early on. I wonder with 22 episode shows if there was a limit in terms of takes as it did seem like they just made do. It would also explain how as actors became more comfortable with the role that their performances improved

[Cas Stark]

22 minutes ago, red snow said:

Season 1 was always pretty ropey particularly with Sinclair as the lead but a lot of the main story beats were present from early on. I wonder with 22 episode shows if there was a limit in terms of takes as it did seem like they just made do. It would also explain how as actors became more comfortable with the role that their performances improved

Yeah, Boxleitner is going to feel like Lawrence Olivier after O'Hare.  There are definitely some small signs of what is to come, which I hope the subsequent seasons are at least almost as good as my memory of them.  

[Ran]

I feel really badly for O'Hare's reputation, given what was going on behind the scenes. From what I know, he was a well-regarded theatre performer (he played Jessup in the original Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men) and I think there are aspects of his performance in some episodes which really worked, conveying that he was a man deeply haunted by survivor's guilt.

[red snow]

4 hours ago, Ran said:

I feel really badly for O'Hare's reputation, given what was going on behind the scenes. From what I know, he was a well-regarded theatre performer (he played Jessup in the original Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men) and I think there are aspects of his performance in some episodes which really worked, conveying that he was a man deeply haunted by survivor's guilt.

I think he is a lot better as a guest star and like you say he had a lot going on health wise and arguably shouldn't have been working in what i imagine is a stressful and heavy workload as a show's lead