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Newbie just starting S2 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Definitely. Sheridan has a lot of chutzpah, which is needed in a good leader. He is charismatic as well, garnering the support of those who might have been against him. He is the ultimate commander but softened with compassion (e.g., his allowing G'Kar sanctuary). He's a remarkable character.
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

I always say that I feel safer whenever Sheridan's in charge.
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

I really liked Sinclair; but Sheridan has grown on me...and quite nicely, too.

:D
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

WOW! I just finished the "Gethsemane" episode. How powerful was THAT! Lyta seems to have a very special relationship with Kosh. The ending was particularly interesting. He seemed to be filling her with his light. Will I find out what that means?
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

WOW! I just finished the "Gethsemane" episode. How powerful was THAT! Lyta seems to have a very special relationship with Kosh. The ending was particularly interesting. He seemed to be filling her with his light. Will I find out what that means?
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Waiting for Ge(... I still can't spell that sucker!) :LOL:
is my favorite B5 episode.

Maybe it's the ex-catholic in me. But that episode is just perfect in every way. Sad, granted, but it gives Brad Douriff (sp?) a chance to show us .... wow :eek:

the guy is an excellent actor. :cool:

Very powerful episode, and one you might want to hunt up the trivia on some day.

Wasn't this the episode that almost wasn't made because someone suggested a similar theme to JMS? Thus the NO STORY IDEAS at his moderated board?

(I'm asking other fellow B5 fans, not you, ilike mike. :p)
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Wasn't this the episode that almost wasn't made because someone suggested a similar theme to JMS? Thus the NO STORY IDEAS at his moderated board?
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Yes. After the "death of personality" idea was established in "The Quality of Mercy" a fan wondered what would happen if someone reprogrammed in that way started to remember his former life, who he had been, what he had done. JMS already had the script written or in development for S2, if memory serves, and had to put it on the back burner until he could track the fan down and obtain a signed release.

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

I positively LOVED the 'Gethsemane' episode. I, too, am an ex-Catholic who still believes it had some good ideas...like monks, for instance.

Brad Dourif is a powerful actor and brings such pathos to Brother Edward. I was completely enwrapped in this episode. It almost makes me wish we had something like personality wipe here on earth, although it has its problems, as shown in the episode.

"Voices of Authority" was also a powerful episode, exploring and meeting one of the First Ones. This speaks to such an ancient universe...how unique. JMS really has quite the imagination.

Why didn't this series fare better in the marketplace? It is SO well-written and well done!!!!!
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Why didn't this series fare better in the marketplace? It is SO well-written and well done!!!!!
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It didn't help that on a hell of a lot of channels that it was broadcast, it was shown extremely late at night causing people to have difficulty finding it. As for it on DVD, it has done well.

As for "Voices of Authority", how did you enjoy seeing the Walkers of Sigma 957 again, last seen when Catherine Sakai investigated the planet in the episode "Mind War"?

Your next episode is "Dust To Dust" eh? That's a particularly powerful episode, to me.
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Why didn't this series fare better in the marketplace?
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Well it isn't like it flopped. :) The show lasted the full planned five years, it got respectable, if not spectacular, ratings both in first-run syndication and on cable, and the TV movies got good-to-better-than-average for basic cable. The reruns got very very good initial ratings, good enough to justify two attempts to launch sequels, although with repeated run cycles they fell off.

LIke the original Trek, B5 found a bigger audience after its initial run, when it went into 5-day-a-week reruns. That's one of the reasons the DVDs did as well as they did. The show had been running in regular timeslots and with a frequency that was much more viewer-friendly and arc-friendly than the original PTEN pattern of airing once a week with blocks of new episodes alternating with reruns, and the bizarre practice of stopping new episodes in the summer, late in the season, and then returning with the end of the season, including what was written as a "cliff-hanger", immediately before the start of the new season. (So that "Points of Departure" aired the week after "Chrysalis", and "Matters of Honor" the week after "The Fall of Night", thus pretty much negating the whole point of a cliff-hanger, which is to maintain audience interest over a long summer hiatus.)

There's a case to be made that you're experiencing the show for the first time in the best possible way. You may miss out the live discussion of each episode as it comes out, but you also miss the interminable waiting between blocks of new episodes and the annual agony of waiting to find out if the show would be renewed.

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

There's a case to be made that you're experiencing the show for the first time in the best possible way. You may miss out the live discussion of each episode as it comes out, but you also miss the interminable waiting between blocks of new episodes and the annual agony of waiting to find out if the show would be renewed.
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<creaky old person voice> Yep...when *we* were first Babylon 5 fans, let me tell you, it was *tough*! You young whippersnappers, you've got it *easy*, now. Lemme tell, ya...back then "Faith Manages" really meant something! We had to hunt for the episodes through shifting time slots (5 miles uphill both ways...)...hope and wait for renewal...wait *months* for the next episode sometimes...</creaky old person voice>

Seriously though, Joe's right, you're seeing it in the best possible way and one that JMS took into account at the time. There's a really good TV show when watched weekly as we saw it. It's when you watch it straight through without those gaps that you're able to realize that it's a great TV show.

Even so, your second viewing will almost certainly make you appreciate it even more. Which is why we enjoy hearing from the folks just experiencing it for the first time.

Jan
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

<creaky old person voice> Yep...when *we* were first Babylon 5 fans, let me tell you, it was *tough*! You young whippersnappers, you've got it *easy*, now. Lemme tell, ya.....</creaky old person voice>


And stay the hell off of our lawns! Damned kids!

:)

Joe
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

<creaky old person voice> Yep...when *we* were first Babylon 5 fans, let me tell you, it was *tough*! You young whippersnappers, you've got it *easy*, now. Lemme tell, ya...back then "Faith Manages" really meant something! We had to hunt for the episodes through shifting time slots (5 miles uphill both ways...)...hope and wait for renewal...wait *months* for the next episode sometimes...</creaky old person voice>
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The things I had to go through to get that series on tape! :eek: :LOL:
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

The things I had to go through to get that series on tape! :eek: :LOL:
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Tell me about it. I had this whole stack of S-VHS tapes taken from the first TNT rerun cycle. They had 4 episodes on each tape and gorgeous 4-color injket labels on the tops and spines with the Babylon 5 logo and all the episode titles in the same font. *sigh* What a waste of time and money. :)

But actually, that was really my first experience of watching the show in huge chunks and with no commercials. I still traveled on business a fair amount back then, and in many cities I B5 didn't run at a time when I could watch it, if it was on at all. So I'd set up the VCR to tape them all, and if I was gone more than 4 days I'd have my parents swap out tapes for me when they came by to check on the cats.

On some of these trips I'd be on the road for 12 to 15 straight days with one or two days off in the middle of the trip, so I'd usually take a day or two off when I finally got home (invariably at 1 or 2 in the morning on Sunday or Monday morning.) Then I could fire up the VCR and watch 10 accumulated episodes, fast forwarding through the commercials, one after another just decompressing from the trip. Ah, those were the days. :) (Not)

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Why didn't this series fare better in the marketplace? It is SO well-written and well done!!!!!
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Well, by my count, the only non-Trek space-based SF shows to last more than three seasons on broadcast TV are B5 and Andromeda, so I think it did pretty well (by the standards of space-based shows).

As for the "what is the best way to view the series" question....I actually disagree with the majority of folks here, in that I prefer having watched the show in its first run, with weeks and sometimes months between episodes. I find it ultimately more satisfying than the instant gratification of being able to watch 20 episodes in a week. Each episode becomes highly anticipated, and my overall appreciation for the show is greater.

There's also the communal aspect of it. Being able to get together with friends each week to watch the show, and being able to go online and read the commentary of other viewers when no one has any idea what's going to happen.

But that's just me. Everyone will have their own prefered way of watching shows like this.
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Actually, I have the best of both worlds here. I am watching the series one at a time...slowly...so I can absorb as much of its meaning as possible. Yet, I can come here with questions or discussion...the communal aspect.

You folks have been SO great. I sorta feel like a lamb with shepherds all around me, protecting me from wolves (spoilers) and allowing me to mature surrounded by guys and gals who know the whole story. Thanks so much.
 
Re: Newbie just starting S3 - Non-Spoilers ONLY!

Well, by my count, the only non-Trek space-based SF shows to last more than three seasons on broadcast TV are B5 and Andromeda, so I think it did pretty well (by the standards of space-based shows).
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I take it you're not including SG-1 in this? Aren't they up to eight or nine seasons by now...? And at this rate BSG should easily join the ranks, but I'll grant you it's not there yet, and the first season was short, too.

But your point still stands. Considering that JMS did almost exactly what he set out to do (5-year arc, with only a few adjustments), and the show never really jumped the shark, you are indeed correct. For non-Trek sci-fi, Babylon 5 is still the most successful show on record.
 
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