Aside from my fellow Republibot 2.0, and my eldest son, I've never managed to get anyone hooked on B5. I gave up on the mouth-breathing Trekies once I realized that Trekies don't actually like Science Fiction, they just like Trek. (Think about how many die-hard Trekies you know who've never read an SF novel that wasn't a tie-in with "Star" in the title) Ibid Star Wars fans.
Well......, I'm hardly a "mouth-breathing Trekie" or a "die-hard Trekie" but the the B5 novels are the first SF novels that I ever read, starting with Dell #5 in October 1999, and then #7, #9, #1 through #4, #6, #8, the Psi Corps trilogy, the Centauri trilogy, the Technomage trilogy, the three B5 novelizations, the Technomage trology again
, and now "The Dresden Files" series of novels (currently on #10 of 11 "Small Favor."). Indeed, I didn't read
any novels (SF or otherwise) between 1975 and 1999, but this was due to being too busy during college (B.S.Electrical Engineering + working my way through college.) and then working in nuclear power and having to read 10CFR, two nuke plants' Updated Final Safety Analysis Reports (~10 feet thick per plant) and various other technical materials until I could barely get my distance vision working for the drive home. After doing 20 years of that, I wasn't up for doing much "recreational" reading. Indeed, after having read for so many years
for facts, I'd completely forgotten how to read a story. I saw the words, knew what they meant, but I'd completely lost the ability to imagine/visualize the story. By reading Dell #5 (
OMG was that bad!), #7 and #9, I grew that ability back.
My theory is that there's just some qualities to some shows that naturally attract some people and repel others.
True. For me, re. DS9, the repulsion was due to the writing and a lot of the characters.
Trekies are, I think, attracted by the lack of drama
No. Re. TOS and TNG, I think the attraction in the old days was the simplicity, and having a story wrapped up in one hour, and the lack of SF competition. For me, re. DS9 and VOY, there was no attraction, and I watched them due to carryover TOS and TNG goodwill. I liked ENT Seasons 3 & 4 more than DS9 and VOY. ENT Seasons 1 & 2 were pretty much a snooze.
Maybe.
Then explain DS9 which had religion ad nauseum. B5 also had religion, but the writing and the characters weren't obnoxious.
Maybe.
Eh, I don't know . <shrug>
Maybe. For some people, everything has to be black or white, all or nothing, simple that way. Not me, though.
....clutter, sex, and fat people in the series. It's a very clean vision of the future that manages to dispence with pretty much everything they find tedious in real life.
Well, DS9 had some of that, but the writing and the characters weren't as good as on B5.
....If that's the case, clearly they're not going to like the tumbledown world of B5, with its gods and passions and strife and emotion and stuff.
Maybe that's why some B5'ers (NOT ME!) also like DS9.
By the same coin, I'm somewhat repelled by Trek.
So am I, post-TNG, but that's also because
I've changed, partly
because of Babylon 5. Babylon 5 changed me. Today, I have a difficult time going back and enjoying Trek, even TOS and TNG when in a nostalgic mood. Back in grade school and high school (1960s~1970s), speaking solely of fiction books, I only read assigned books (The Brothers Karamazov, The Scarlet Letter, Brave New World, etc.), the Trek adaptions by James Blish, "Dracula" (an
old copy from "the stacks" in the library), and some of the Dracula Horror Series novels (e.g. #2 "The Hand of Dracula!" by Robert Lory, ©1973, ISBN-13: 978-0523002002, which I dug up and just noticed that it has a "TRUE" cigarette ad. bound between pages 112 & 113.
Trying to get the kids hooked, I guess.
).
I can't agree with this...and I'm not fond of inter-fandom bashing.
It's sooooo subjective, i.e. based upon where you're standing NOW.
Heck, I was one of the original Trekkies....
So was I.
....and look where I am now.
<points at self> <nods in agreement> Now, I can't get enough of long series of books, the more complex the better, the more foreshadowing and connections between threads, the better.
I think it boils down to taste. I've noticed that folks who liked DS9 often are able to enjoy B5 because of the similarity of there being long-running arcs (never minding any other similarities or rivalries).
I absolutely CANNOT, because of the Trek writing and the characters. For me, the difference between DS9 and B5 is night and day. I
can't stand DS9, but I
love B5 and Crusade. I think I may have developed a severe allergy to Berman & Braga writing.
Lots of people simply don't want to make the commitment needed for a show like B5. A lot of people don't like to read long series of books, either.
Oh I do. For me, it's the only stuff worth reading.
There's nothing wrong or right about that, just a matter of taste.
Jan
It may also be laziness, or being too busy with their everyday life to start a long series of books. However, once you start, you're in. Starting's the hard part. These days I'm busy, but I'm reading books all the time. If I get stuck in traffic, I dig out my latest novel, which I
always have with me, and I read. I CAN'T STAND to be somewhere with NOTHING to do. If I have nothing to do, I'm SLEEPING.
