September 10th, 2008
About a year ago I started a journey, one that for the most part finished this morning as I watched the final episode of Babylon 5.
I had bought the entire series about a year and a half ago and when we had to move all of our stuff into storage I hung on to them promising that it would be one of those shows that I watched completely through. Â Filling in the blanks of my on again off again watching of it like I did with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Friends. Â There’s nothing like experiencing an entire series of a show in a short period of time (this made several seasons of Friends a lot better than I initially thought, heck even Ross was more likable).
I had watched but barely remembered season one of B5, I had seen most of season two and probably all of season three. Â I only managed to catch a couple of episodes of season four which confused me and negatively shaped my overall impressions of the show. Â I didn’t see any of season five.
It took me a year to watch the full series, unlike my marathon viewing of Farscape I was unable to entice Tracey to watch the series, a little too much scifi. Â So I could only watch it on my own and it’s not really a show you can watch in the background. Â So it took a while.
To answer the question posed in the title, I think yes, Babylon 5 does stand the scrutiny of time. Â The effects are a little dated, the film quality is pure 90s television but they certainly couldn’t be considered bad. Â Obviously they used complete computer effects for the ships and station but none of this really detracts from the story.
You see, I finally get what the B5 fanatics have gotten all along (I don’t know if Babylon 5 fans have a stupid nickname). Â The show is all about the story. Â The massive five year story arc that begins laying its groundwork in the first episode and plays itself out right up till the end.
The show is probably unique in that it knew exactly what the storyline was going to be all along, probably a sign of the times when today I don’t know if any show could do that. Â Simply because the shows today have one episode in which to hook viewers before they are moved to weird timeslots, shown out of order or have six to twelve month mid season breaks.
I’m sure that B5 had to fight off its own cancellation threats but when you watch the five seasons in a row you see that real planning went into its story. Â Something that also struck me was that the show hits the ground running, it didn’t require one or two seasons to warm up.
The characters themselves also share in the effectiveness of the series, everyone grew and changed, did good things, did bad things, lived and died. Â It was great watching almost background characters develop into key figures of the show. Â Even the way that the different races evolved throughout the series was amazing when you look back at the full run.
So my original impressions of the show were way off.  I always seemed to think that the Shadow war was a tiny part of the overall picture, which of course it wasn’t.  I didn’t like what happened to Garibaldi originally but then I didn’t really know what had actually happened to the character.
If you like science fiction television and are concerned about the potential dry spell that is coming for new shows then you might want to consider visiting some of the older series that you may not have encountered or given a go. Â If you have’nt watched it or given it a chance I highly recommend going out and getting a cheap copy of B5 season one, pick one night a week to watch one or two episodes and I’m fairly confident you’ll be picking up season two.
For me though I’m going to take a break from the B5 universe, maybe putting in a little time in Alias land before venturing back and watching the ill-fated Crusade and some of the movies.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Categories: DVD, Science Fiction, Television |
Tags: b5, Babylon 5, television science fiction, What I'm watching | 28 Comments
January 12th, 2008
Well it’s finally here, my top ten fictional space ships list which you will never ever agree with because it is only ten ships and there’s no way I’ve included your favourite!!!
The rules were also that I could only choose one ship from a series:
- Serenity (Firefly/Serenity)
It was really hard to pick this over the Enterprise but in recent years Serenity and the series Firefly has cemented itself as one of my all time favourite science fiction shows and the ship itself is just awesome, it looks cool and moves great but it is probably the interior which has a wonderful lived in feeling. Probably has a lot to do with the way they built the sets which was to connect the rooms like they would have been in the show and the cast actually used sets like the galley to eat etc.
Notable scene: Serenity repaired after crash landing at the end of the film, lifting off and soaring through the storm up past it and into space where something falls off.
- Enterprise (Star Trek)
The original and the best, the NCC-1701 no bloody A, B,C or D (and now E). It is really hard to sum up why but the Enterprise herself became a character in Star Trek as loved as the actors.
Notable scene: Hard to go past the refit unveiling in Star Trek: The Motion Picture where Adm. Kirk and Scotty circle it several times to the amazing soundtrack. Enterprise’s destruction is quite memorable too.
- Moya (Farscape)
It was a toss up between Moya and the Farscape One module which I quite like also but I think a ship that you feel something for so much that it makes you wince when it has hooks shot into it is going to get the nod. Something that I realised whilst putting the list together is that the ships that I prefer are the ones that become characters in their own right and it would be hard for that not to be the case with Moya.
Notable scene: Any time Moya goes to starburst.
- Gunstar (The Last Starfighter)
The Gunstar makes it simply because who wouldn’t want to pilot such a cool nod to our childhoods, before computer graphics became the video perfect resolution state that they are in today we had games like Asteroids where the ship was basically a triangle and you had to use your imagination, big time. The Gunstar whilst a little more advance than the Asteroids ship is still a polygon reminder of my childhood playing arcade games and pretending deep inside that they are more than they appear.
Notable scene: The scene where the death blossom is unleashed and pretty much kills every mofo in the immediate galaxy.
- Lexx (Lexx)
I was a late comer to Lexx and have yet to watch the entire series although I’m told the last season is not really worth it. I love the Lexx’s business card: “the most powerful destructive force in the two universes”. It’s also one of the only science fiction shows Tracey will watch with me currently.
Notable scene: Why are most of these notable scenes involving destruction? Because blowing up a planet is cool.
- Liberator (Blake’s 7)
This is from my childhood. When I was very young I was given a matchbox version of this ship and it has been a favourite of mine ever since, I haven’t even watched an episode of Blake’s 7 which I know I should (my Mum’s favourite sci fi show) but the DVDs are expensive so unfortunately no notable scene for this one.
- Sulaco (Aliens)
I just love the look of this ship, it’s like a shark slipping through water, and you know that it can kick ass. It didn’t really do anything other than look slick and slice through space so no notable scene again.
- Viper (Battlestar Galactica)
Again something from my childhood that was happily updated for the new show. The vipers always looked cool and had that great launch sequence on the show oh and King Tut helmets!!
Notable Scene: I really loved the scene when the Battlestar Galactica jumped into the atmosphere of new Caprica (in the remake) and launched the Vipers through a wall of flame.
- Starfury (Babylon Five)
These are such cool little fighters that have muscle written all over them, they don’t even get launched they get dropped out B5 on racks, like guns!!! They have to be arguably the most manoeuvrable of the ships on the list.
Notable scene: I like how they can change direction on a heartbeat.
- Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers at least that’s what the series was called here)
Another from my childhood and a show with a lot of memories as my Mum used to watch it with me when I was very young, so good memories. Once again how cool is it to have a traditionally water based design in space with cannons and jets and everything an air craft carrier would have… except for a freakingly huge gun barrel down the middle of the ship that absolutely stops dead whatever is in its path. Another series that I have to buy and watch again!
Notable scene: You guessed it - big bloody cannon down the middle firing.
There are a bunch of ships that came really close to the list that I might mention anyway, Discovery from 2001 A Space Odyssey, Freedom and Independence from Armageddon, Roger Young from Starship Troopers, the Event Horizon from Event Horizon and finally but certainly not least the ships from Star Wars. A note about the Star Wars ships, I don’t love them, I like them but I can’t say that any of them including the Falcon rock my world. Controversial I know, go on tell me which ones I’ve left out.
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Categories: Science Fiction |
Tags: Aliens, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Blake's 7, Farscape, Firefly, Lexx, Science Fiction, Serenity, ships, Star Trek, The Last Starfighter | 28 Comments
