Re: (re)watch Babylon 5

[waxingjaney]

BS5E22 Series End

Spoiler:

[bomaye]

I'm watched River of Souls and it really didn't need to be a movie (felt more like an extended episode and it wasn't really a good episode either), but how did they get Martin Sheen into alien makeup and onto this?

[bomaye]

A Call To Arms

Just gonna write small things instead of reacting to all of it

Spoiler:

I guess that was supposed to kick off Crusade? Overall I thought it wasn't bad, I liked how it at least felt like the battles with all that stuff that Season 5 set up still occurred or were ongoing. I might watch Crusade at this point just to get whatever they were doing before it got cancelled (but first I gotta watch Legend of the Rangers, Lost Tales, the last season of Game of Thrones before the new one starts and the season of Titans, so I don't think I'll be joining Phantom 2040 right away)

Edit:

Legend of the Rangers

Right off the bat, it was like "Oh no, it was 2002 and no one told them the mid '90s are over." Having the gunner punch the air to shoot was awful. They kind of have G'Kar playing a parody of himself too. (They made a crack about every space-faring race having Swedish meatballs, I forget if that was in regular B5, but that's a good joke either way). Kinda weird to try to make some new great evil race when they already had the Shadows in the mythology too, it's almost like they just shoehorned in another story and just gave it B5 trappings to give it a leg to try to launch with.

[waxingjaney]

Yeah, that sort of thing is why I didn't like the later movies. JMS ran himself ragged writing and producing 5 solid years of TV, and he was just creatively worn out by it.

it's almost like they just shoehorned in another story and just gave it B5 trappings to give it a leg to try to launch with.

Lost Tales is even *more* of that.

[bomaye]

This is the longest I've ever watched a single thing with someone on a consistent basis over the internet and not have it fall apart or go on long hiatuses. arigato gozaimasu

[bomaye]

I liked The Lost Tales quite a bit. Well-acted in a theater-drama kind of way

Spoiler:

[waxingjaney]

B5 was actually filmed in 16:9, but the show would have to be reassembled from scratch using the raw footage, so it would be ridiculously expensive.

[bomaye]

The first episode of Crusade actually wasn't that bad. It definitely still felt like Babylon 5, I liked the CG. I don't think the main cast had much screen presence besides Galen, feels a lot like the adventures of the B5 B-Team (I saw Lochley in the opening credits though)

[waxingjaney]

Which one is the "first" episode? There are at least three different sequences for the thirteen episodes.

[bomaye]

"War Zone"

[waxingjaney]

Okay, that's the original TNT broadcast order.

[bomaye]

Episode 2/The Long Road was bad even though I dig the Technomages

[bomaye]

Episode 3/The Well of Forever

Spoiler:

[bomaye]

BTW, I've caught up on everything I've meant to and I'm reining in some of the other things I do just to create extra time, so I can hop on that Phantom 2040 watch-along if you'd like (as long as I can find it...)

Weekly again? 2 per week?

[bomaye]

Crusade E4/The Path of Sorrows



Pretty sure Crusade just blew all of B5 out of the water with this visual

[bomaye]

Also Crusade E4/Path of Sorrows

Spoiler:

[waxingjaney]

Also Crusade E4/Path of Sorrows

Spoiler:

[waxingjaney]

BTW, I've caught up on everything I've meant to and I'm reining in some of the other things I do just to create extra time, so I can hop on that Phantom 2040 watch-along if you'd like (as long as I can find it...)

Weekly again? 2 per week?

They're 20-minute episodes, so I was going go 2 at a time once I'm ready to go.

[bomaye]

Okay, I thiiiink I've got access to all of it via youtube, Phantom 2040 is doable. The first episode has mashed up the first 5 episodes into one

[bomaye]

Hey, just like regular Babylon 5, Lochley is in the opening credits and isn't even on half the show

[waxingjaney]

That's what happens when you're a last-minute substitute character. No respect, no respect at all.

[bomaye]

B5 Crusade E6 - Ruling From The Tomb

Spoiler:

[bomaye]

I really like how Gideon and Lochley play off each other, makes Lochley a more likeable and less awkward character.

Also I refuse to believe that somehow Tracy Scoggins never starred in some lame made-for-TV Tomb Raider movie. She's literally '90s Lara Croft in the flesh (or as close as you can get without plastic surgery or prosthetics, since Lara's polygons could get a bit ridiculous)

Ep 8 - Appearances And Other Deceits

Spoiler:

[bomaye]

Ep 9 - Racing The Night was such a weird visual episode. Really good CGI (for B5) for a space battle, horrifyingly bad CGI for Galen's Homonculus

I like the small details with their background chatter too (when Dr Chambers and Gideon arrive at the murder scene, you can hear someone in the background say "Doctor and the Captain are onsite" as an example)

[bomaye]

Just finished Crusade. You could tell they were abandoning the show during the last few episodes.

I think overall it was actually okay and had promise, but they did have screen-presence problems. Galen was far and away the most screen-grabbing character (probably on purpose) and he was mostly involved in the most interesting episodes. Gideon, Lochley, Eilerson and Dureena had okay screen-presence but they all felt like they would've been Lochley or a guest-star in B5 rather than a main character. Matheson and Dr Chambers barely had any presence to speak of (though Dr Chambers actress having those thick angry-looking eyebrows did make her stand out in contrast to her role).

So yeah, I did like the concept and liked the rifling around with ancient technology, death worlds and the like (B5's setting arguably makes this more interesting that Star Trek since the Shadows and Vorlonns and old races were central to the make-up of the galaxy) and wish there was a bit more.

Annnnd now it looks like I'm done with B5

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