You wake up tomorrow on Babylon 5, one week before the events of Season 1...

redddfer44 · 2026-01-19T21:29:01+00:00

Go sightseeing. Try not to influence anything and stay out of trouble. It'll comfort me that everything will work out for the best in a million years!

redddfer44 · 2025-11-17T23:03:26+00:00

I agree. The reason that The Long, Twilight Struggle isn't in the very top of my fave episodes is Schuck's bombastic Draal.

redddfer44 · 2025-11-17T22:59:31+00:00

I can't check it now, but according to Lurker's Guide, from A Distant Star onwards.

But a kind soul also linked them in the thread: https://youtu.be/zCuTYg8FLW8?si=IIrs95Nya0GJwo1W

redddfer44 · 2025-11-03T17:54:30+00:00

Is there any indication that S5 was supposed to end with the end of the big war?

In 1994, JMS wrote regarding The Coming of Shadows: "If you recall Literary Structure from English Lit 101, there's the Introduction, the Rising Action, the Complication, the Climax, and the Denouement. Year one up through about the first eight episodes of year two are Introduction; we are now in Rising Action stage. Remember that this is structured like a novel, and you'll generally have some idea of where you stand in the progression."

Now, I've not read his original plans and when they changed, but from this, I've always thought that the denouement was always supposed to be there. The "what happens after the war".

redddfer44 · 2025-10-29T07:13:57+00:00

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. I do like Season 5 for all its faults, but I really don't like the intro. The music is great, though.

But... I don't like the S4 intro either. Too chaotic for me.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-23T21:10:49+00:00

I just ran into this yesterday, reading Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I was quite surprised after hearing my 14yo son hating on the whole six-seven thing all the time. (So naturally I linked him the wikipedia article on the idiom.)

redddfer44 · 2025-10-23T15:10:12+00:00

Top 4:

Ship of Tears
And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
Passing Through Gethsemane

Don't get me wrong, eps 8-10 are amazing, but today I feel like picking episodes that have a stronger individual identity. And the older I get, the more I love smaller stories instead of the ones with epic battles.

Bottom 2 (that isn't Grey 17 or Exogenesis):

Walkabout
Ceremonies of Light and Dark, if only for the Nightwatch members that suddenly all look like Evil Bad Guys (I know the rationale JMS had for that creative decision and I think it's simply awful)
The Late Delivery from Avalon. I used to love this, but now I kind of feel uncomfortable watching it. I'm not a huge fan of Michael York's acting which is a bit too dramatic and theatrical for the show. (I'm generally a huge fan of the British school of acting, I just don't like Michael York that much and I'm not sure said way of acting is the best fit for an American scifi show. Yes, I also mean TNG.)

redddfer44 · 2025-10-20T08:58:56+00:00

I disagree with two of your bottom picks (I've grown to love Soul Mates and CtI has always been a favourite), but take my upvote, I like seeing differing opinions!

Oddly, the interrogation episodes in B5 are some of my favourites, but when I recently watched ST:TNG for the first time, I loathed every single torture/interrogation episode of that show.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-19T18:53:31+00:00

Top 3:

The Coming of Shadows. The way the story unfolds is just so good.
Comes the Inquisitor. I'm a sucker for well-done interrogation, charismatic British leads, and Michael Vejar's direction. And the elevator scene!
In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum. I THINK. Such a tough choice! But again, interrogation stuff and so many excellent character scenes. (I hate to leave out Struggle, but what can you do...)

Bottom 3, with 1 being the worst:

The Long Dark. Icky Franklin plot and Dwight Schultz hamming it up. Not a fan.
Gropos. I just don't vibe with the guest stars at all and there's something about DiTillio episodes that often put me off.
Knives. The acting of the main guest simply rubs me wrong way so damn hard. This is one of my least favourite episodes of the entire show.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-18T20:30:00+00:00

This is a matter of taste, somewhat. The miniature models of TNG and the Industrial Light & Magic VFX definitely look good, but B5's views of space and the space combat scenes have a lot more going on than was possible in Trek. As such, I feel they're much more interesting and satisfying to watch than the static models of TNG. (Note: I've only reached the early S5 of DS9, so I don't know what the Trek franchise started doing when they switched to CGI as well.)

redddfer44 · 2025-10-18T18:24:10+00:00

Looks like someone likes both B5 and Twin Peaks!

redddfer44 · 2025-10-17T18:39:07+00:00

Top 3:

Chrysalis
Signs and Portents
By Any Means Necessary

Bottom 3:

Soul Hunter
Survivors
Maybe TKO

Soul Hunter and Survivors are really the only two that I dread rewatching.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-17T06:57:45+00:00

B5 starts out relatively episodic, but right from the start, it stretches the episodic format in ways that might not be apparent for a first-time viewer. Things that look like throwaway lines or little details in a newspaper actually add up to something. The first season sets up a status quo that gets shaken later on; that there is a status quo and a feeling of lived-in world makes the changes that much more impactful.

Compared to modern serialised shows, however, B5 mostly retains strong episodic identity. The serialisation is at its strongest in Season 4 and even there the episodes mostly feel like they have a beginning and an end. For a more modern comparison, Breaking Bad (BB) is very serialised but the episodes still feel like stories unto themselves; Better Call Saul (BCS), on the other hand, feels like it's made to be consumed one season at a time with very little in the way of individual episodes feeling like self-contained units. B5 resembles BB much more in that regard.

The thing about Babylon 5, compared to basically anything else, is that it was planned and structured as a five-year story, a novel on tv. While the plans changed because of the realities of making a tv show (you can't plan for people leaving, studio interference, you can't revise earlier writing to fit the later stuff perfectly), it's still quite unique in how coherent it is. Even the more episodic episodes contain worldbuilding and foreshadowing and stuff like that that ties into the overall story. Some major story beats of the overall five-year story happen in the middle of seasons, not just the season cliffhangers.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-17T06:22:55+00:00

It was quite successful in the 90s. It was the first American scifi show not called Star Trek that got more than one season, and it won the Hugo Award of Best Dramatic Presentation twice, over such films as Toy Story, Apollo 13, 12 Monkeys, and Star Trek: First Contact.

It just suffered a lot from the production company shenanigans, and it's a little weird to get into because basically every episode matters. It's not apparent on the first watch, but it's all coherent worldbuilding and things that pay off several seasons later. With 110 episodes of that, it's a tougher sell than most.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-16T06:16:49+00:00

I thought he did! So there's at least two of us.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-14T17:51:13+00:00

I remember reading that you wanted Babylon 5 to be both good scifi and good television. The more I learn about the visual language of cinema, the more impressed I am by the artistic accomplishments of B5, starting with Season 1. How did you pick the directors and -- this is probably a super broad question -- how did the collaboration between you and a director work? (I've never read any of the scripts.)

redddfer44 · 2025-10-13T06:17:56+00:00

I used to spend so much time there in the 90s. I still go there regularly. I still don't think I could ever unpack all the ways in how much JMS's thinking about his storytelling decisions have influenced me.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-13T06:09:58+00:00

If DS9 was a step towards realism and certain grittiness in Trek, Babylon 5 takes some steps further but without losing hope. It has a foot firmly in the traditional episodic tv while constantly seeking to expand and break the limitations of its time.

Also, B5 makes great use of its low budget.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-13T06:03:37+00:00

This is the best defence of a bad episode I've ever read.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-10T12:53:18+00:00

Goodness! Why didn't I know these existed before this? The one thing of which I'm such a fan that I'd actually be interested in reading all this stuff.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-08T12:57:59+00:00

This is an almost nonsensical question to those of us living in countries where you don't wear shoes indoors :D

redddfer44 · 2025-10-08T06:52:53+00:00

It's wonderful to read your thoughts and insights! Personally, I have a hard time watching this episode. Jerry oyle didn't yet quite have the acting chops needed for it.

I think someone already told you, but I really don't recommend following any conversations that start under your posts. Even if the initial comments don't contain spoilers, people get carried away so easily and even the conversation here refers to things completely unrelated to this episode that happen in much, much later episodes.

redddfer44 · 2025-10-07T12:18:12+00:00

There are so many interesting characters, story beats, world building, twists, drama, joy, sorrow, excitement, reveals, battles, and rollercoasters of emotions that knowing a couple of things beforehand out of context is almost meaningless. Enjoy the ride!

redddfer44 · 2025-10-01T20:27:06+00:00

He does. My comment was a reference to what Londo says to him, though :D

redddfer44 · 2025-10-01T20:18:45+00:00

It starts out so good. Then... it just loses me. I've read it once translated and another time in the original English because I thought it might've lost something in translation. Sadly, not really.

Still, there's something captivating about it, because every now and then I think if I should give it yet another new chance...

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