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Babylon 5 Opening Themes

Which season's opening theme was the best (considering music, narration & visuals)?

  • Season 1

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Season 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Season 3

    Votes: 8 50.0%
  • Season 4

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • Season 5

    Votes: 5 31.3%

  • Total voters
    16
Forgive me if this has been a topic before, but I'm wondering how much everyone liked Babylon 5's opening themes and, since they're different every season, how they would rank them.

My ranking would be:
  • #5: Season 1
  • #4: Season 3
  • #3: Season 2
  • #2: Season 5
  • #1: Season 4

All the opening themes are good, but season 4 has everything -- best music, best narration, and best images/clips. I especially love how each member of the cast got to read a snippet of the narration, and for the credits, they use a lot of excellent clips from throughout the show's run.

=====

I thought of bringing this up now because one of my favorite podcasts, Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV, just happens to be running a poll/survey during July of Top Genre Show Theme Songs that they're going to turn into a top 100 or top 50 countdown soon. You can find the voting rules and ballot form here:

http://tuningintoscifitv.com/polls-and-surveys/top-genre-show-themes

Interestingly, one of the rules is that you can vote for a show as a whole or for individual seasons, a rule probably meant to address rare shows like B5 that changed their opening theme every season.

The voting is probably intended for regular listeners of the podcast, but that doesn't seem to be a requirement, and it's a really good podcast, one of my favorites, so I would recommend it anyway.

In fact, this is the 2nd summer that the podcast has done a Babylon 5 re-watch (first-time watch for two of the co-hosts). This summer they are in season 3 (they skipped s1). The episodes that they're scheduled to discuss next are "Ceremonies of Light & Dark" and "Sic Transit Vir."

For a crash course on their Babylon 5 content, check out their B5-tagged blog items and Babylon 5 forum discussion. Not a lot of people are posting on B5 right now, so I'd love some company over there. :) (I go by "Todd W in NC" over there.)

A few months ago, they ran another survey for Top 100 Genre Shows of All Time, for which they did 11 very well produced editions of their podcast counting down the 100 best shows, plus 10 honorable mentions. Babylon 5 came in at #10. Each episode of the countdown, except the special wrap up episode, included 10 main shows plus one "Best of the Rest." They didn't just read the results; they included clips from the shows, commentary from the co-hosts and listeners, recaps of the previous countdown entries, reading of some listeners' ballots, etc. They were very well edited and some of the later ones ran over an hour long.
 
I think I like season 3's the best.

And would I be considered a geek if I know the narrations of each season's opening theme by heart and recite them whenever I watch eps of B5? :LOL:
 
I like what sounds like the nobility of french horns in the Season 5 main titles. It just sounds grand, epic, etc..
 
I like what sounds like the nobility of french horns in the Season 5 main titles. It just sounds grand, epic, etc..

It sure does. I prefer listening to it without the narration. It gives it more of that grand, epic sound as you said KoshN. It is the best of all the season themes. Though, when I crank up the season two theme while driving in my car, I find like it more and more. So many layers to it.
 
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Season 3 is best for me. I like the first part of the Season 5 theme (taken from 'Voices of Authority' on B5 Soundtrack Volume 2 isnt it?) but when it breaks into a higher tempo it loses its appeal for me. Shame because VOA suite is ace.
 
Wow. I'm really surprised by how many votes season 3 got and that I'm the only person who voted for season 4. I asked this same question over at JMSNews.com, and over there, season 4 got a few more votes, and season 5 came out on top.

When I think about an opening theme or title sequence, I take into consideration the visuals and any applicable narration, in addition to the music.

When it comes to the season 3 opener: (1) I'm not as crazy about the music; (2) I don't like the staged headshots of the actors as much as episode clips; and (3) While I like the impact that Ivanova's "It failed," line had, I didn't like how short the narration was. But, for season 4: (1) I really like the music; (2) I love the episode clips and split-screen method used to show each cast member; and (3) I loved the choice to have each cast member read a portion of the narration.

I thought of bringing this up now because one of my favorite podcasts, Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV, just happens to be running a poll/survey during July of Top Genre Show Theme Songs that they're going to turn into a top 100 or top 50 countdown soon. You can find the voting rules and ballot form here:

http://tuningintoscifitv.com/polls-and-surveys/top-genre-show-themes

Interestingly, one of the rules is that you can vote for a show as a whole or for individual seasons, a rule probably meant to address rare shows like B5 that changed their opening theme every season.

Today is the last day of voting on Top Genre Show Themes over at the Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV podcast. At first, I struggled with whether to list two or three separate B5 openings on my ballot, to give extra weight to seasons 4 & 5 (and maybe 2), but there were too many other shows I wanted to include in my ballot. So, I voted for Babylon 5 as a whole but ranked it #1. Here's what my whole top themes ballot ended up as:

  1. Babyon 5
  2. Firefly
  3. Star Trek: Enterprise
  4. Quantum Leap
  5. Highlander: The Series
  6. Stargate: Atlantis
  7. Alien Nation
  8. The Greatest American Hero
  9. Mystery Science Theater 3000
  10. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 4 - 7)
 

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