this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
77 points (95.3% liked)

Science Fiction

13717 readers
3 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

  1. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
  2. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
  4. Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
  5. Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow
77
Should I Give Babylon 5 Another Chance? (self.sciencefiction)
submitted 1 year ago by PlanetOfOrd to c/sciencefiction
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

As a Sci-Fi fan I've been a huge fan of shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Terminator: TSCC, Star Trek, etc. I keep hearing Babylon 5 is awesome.

I was too young at the time to watch the series when it was on. But then as an older teen/ young adult I decided to give it a try. Everything was so cringe it was hard to get through 3 episodes. IMO the whole vibe was "safe..." maybe even a bit corny--not the intense, exciting, politically-tense space opera that I was told it was.

So maybe the beginning episodes are just world-building? What do other people think?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Look up a "necessary episodes only" watch list.

Babylon 5 is excellent... eventually. Most of season 1 is supremely skippable, and much of it absolutely should be skipped. Season 2 gets a lot better, and by season 3 you'll be watching every episode.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This was the list I found. I will give it a chance too.

Story Arc essential ones

Midnight on the Firing Line
Soul Hunter
And the Sky Full of Stars
Survivors
Signs and Portents
A Voice in the Wilderness
Babylon Squared
The Quality of Mercy
Chrysalis
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I managed to dig up the list I used when I was rewatching it with my wife.

  • 1.01 Midnight on The Firing Line

  • 1.06 Mind War

  • 1.08 And The Sky Full of Stars

  • 1.13 Signs And Portents

  • 1.18 A Voice In The Wilderness (1)

  • 1.19 A Voice In The Wilderness (2)

  • 1.20 Babylon Squared

  • 1.22 Chrysalis

  • 2.01 Points of Departure

  • 2.02 Revelations

  • 2.08 A Race Through Dark Places

  • 2.09 The Coming of Shadows

  • 2.13 Hunter Prey

  • 2.15 And Now For A Word

  • 2.16 In The Shadow of Z'ha'dum

  • 2.19 Divided Loyalties

  • 2.20 The Long, Twilight Struggle

  • 2.22 The Fall of Night

Personally I would very much skip Soul Hunter. It's a bad episode, and it's plot relevance is only for one of the movies. I'm also really not convinced that Survivors is strictly necessary. I guess on that one I'd say give it ten minutes, and if you're not digging it then skip.

From Season 3 through season 4 just watch every episode, it's a really solid show by that point. Season 5 is basically a coda. Watch or skip based on how you're feeling by that point. The main plot functionally resolves at the end of season 4 because of network fuckery.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks!

[–] PlanetOfOrd 1 points 1 year ago

Nice! Thanks.

[–] YaksDC 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't really enjoy the episodes/season dealing with the Earth separatists. Much rather have earth - alien conflict.

Loved me some Londo.