General / Off-Topic Babylon 5 argument available

Para Handy

Para Handy
Babylon 5 argument available for all SF fans:

www.theguardian.com

How Babylon 5 went from space opera to space junk

After almost being cancelled, the sci-fi show with heart and brains became a shadow of its former self
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com


Part of a series of articles about TV shows that went on too long. Shame to include B5 in this series since it was cancelled so they wrapped stuff up in series 4 and then it was renewed - so not really "jumping the shark"*.

My favourite comment in the responses so far is "This review is five sections where all the pertinent information is wrapped up in the first four, and the final doesn't really mention any relevant plot points that further the premise being made." - :)

* I always liked the fact that in "Two Pints of Lager..." they actually killed-off one of the leads by having him failing his "jump the shark" adventure.
 

marx

marx
Yeah, the problem was that the series was actually planned out well for five seasons (unlike, cough, some other long-running shows), then there was the infamous flip-flop. I guess they did some parts as hooks for some spin-offs, but those never took off the ground. There was Crusade, which had a terrible case of executive meddling, and was cancelled even while the first season was airing.

I'm not sure what the point of the review above was, though, because the first four seasons of Babylon 5 were excellent anyway. Despite the noticeable drop in quality, the fifth still wasn't space junk.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
That whole series of articles is junk IMHO - they just find something people loved and trash it for the views.

I think I probably only saw the first 2/3 series when it was on - kids these days don't know they were born with the ability to 'just watch stuff' :)
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Yeah, on rewatch the 5th season is actually pretty good. Though at the time I thought less of it.

Given all the behind the scenes drama it's amazing it turned out as great as it did.
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
BTW - I hope everyone has seen some of SpatialKatana's Youtube CGi creations of B5 stuff, Vorlons v Shadows for example:

 

Sunyavadin

Sunyavadin
marx said:
Yeah, the problem was that the series was actually planned out well for five seasons (unlike, cough, some other long-running shows), then there was the infamous flip-flop. I guess they did some parts as hooks for some spin-offs, but those never took off the ground. There was Crusade, which had a terrible case of executive meddling, and was cancelled even while the first season was airing.

I'm not sure what the point of the review above was, though, because the first four seasons of Babylon 5 were excellent anyway. Despite the noticeable drop in quality, the fifth still wasn't space junk.
Click to expand...
The unfilmed Crusade season 1 finale was its "Severed Dreams" moment, where the actual overarching plot kicked into full force as they resolved the story arc of the first season and moved into the actual overarching plot of the series.
But the studio had screwed with the show so much, it never got there. We also missed out on getting the show's middle finger to the awful uniforms the studio insisted on for the first filmed episodes.
And it's a TRAVESTY that we never got the Bester episode of Crusade. "What's that? You need a powerful telepath to help you? But the only one here is a war criminal on the lam?"
 
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