My dad, who grew up in the 1930s and heard the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, came to me one day when I was in college and said "You've got to watch this new show, Babylon 5. It's the best thing on television!" He was right and I was hooked. Thanks Dad!
Huge respect should be given to JMS for what he did in Series One and later regarding Michael O'Hare. When it became apparent that Michael was suffering deteriorating mental health issues, JMS kept his secret and nursed him through the second part of the season so he could leave with dignity. He then worked a story arc for Sinclair which enabled Michael (when he was well enough) to finish Sinclair's story logically. And then, most wonderfully of all, he kept his promise to Michael to never reveal all this while Michael was alive. Once Michael passed away (tragically young), JMS did tell the details so that people knew how courageous Michael was. None of the people working on B5 knew the huge extent of Michael's chronic and debilitating Paranoid Schizophrenia until after he passed away, which allowed Michael to keep the dignity he valued.
Yes, JMS was such a support for Michael in what must have been a very trying time. When he (JMS) came out about Michael's issues I was so touched by the way they had rearranged everything to accommodate his illness. I cried buckets when I learned of it.
It must’ve been the worst of hell to have schizophrenia when you’re trying to be an actor. And not just an actor, an actor on a show where half the people there are dressed up in extravagant clothing and elaborate makeup to play a bunch of inhuman creatures. It’s must’ve been like if your brain could be kicked in the dick every five seconds. Poor guy
Not to forget, massive props to Walter Koenig who played Bester with an almost god-level amount of glee. If there was ever an embodiment of The Man You Love to Hate, Bester was it.
Thanks for the tasteful reflection on the cast members who are no longer with us. My wife and I were lucky enough to wangle a tour of the sets towards the end of season 3 (not something the studio customarily did) and it was a genuine privilege to meet JMS and to watch a scene being set up and shot. JMS is a class act and a true gentleman. My favourite line from the show has to be Delenn's "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else." It got a cheer from others in the room who had never even seen a single episode of the show before.
New people: Spoilers don't matter. My wife and I watched the show together 3 times, and even when we knew what was going to eventually happen it was enjoyable, even engrossing watching. Watching D'lenn working with the Tri-luminary, knowing what it meant was an Aha! moment and at least I watched each episode more carefully knowing there were key plot items each time the camera rested "too long" on any particular item.
Babylon 5 is my favorite sci fi series. It is a very 1990 series, but that brings it a unique look and feel. Its a beautiful series. Its very well written, it has great characters, great plots, and great plot twists. Its is unique because most of its characters have some major flaws and weaknesses, yet most of them over come them with intense personal struggle, which is much more realistic than so many other sci fi shows. The show does not pull many punches either, characters are tortured, shot, and some are killed, and it really hits you hard every time there is a great loss experienced in the show. The actors are great, their chemistry is great, their charisma is overwhelming and makes the show so fun to watch because you enjoy the them so much even when they are doing little mundane every day things. You can tell most of the actors really like the characters they play. For its time the special effects are good, and they do still hold up today more or less. The music is so good, and it is used to great effect to emphasis events and moods in the show. The show has a lot of spirituality and morality entwined within it. While at times its a little overdone in that 1990s way, most of the time its just matter of fact and brings depth and meaning into the world which seem to be on another level compared to other science fiction, in my opinion.
For 5 years, B5 was something really special as life was rearranged around it. Setting the video, traversing different time slots on C4 & S4C (if you near the England-Wales border, you might know what that was like), one nightmare scenario with a broken TV aerial. The absolute fear of missing an episode. 😱 I don't want to rose-tint the 90s, but looking back there was something magic about that whole experience.
One of my all time faves; just rewatched the entire run for the fifth time and still cried at the requisite scenes - usually G'kars, sometimes Londo's.
That scene with Sheridan alone on the White Star as the lights to out still makes me cry. Only snag with B5 - Claudia Christian; she just isn't a particularly good actor (actress?); frankly neither was Scoggins, so bad casting. Bruce (and everyone else) were brilliant though.
@@daveroche6522 I felt CC did well with Ivonava. Scoggins on the other hand felt like they cast her because she would fit in Christian's uniform with minimal alterations. Can't say I was fond of her backstory either but I suppose they needed a way to justify the more personalized lines that were originally written for Ivonava and since they didn't have the last 4 years to learn on they went with an EX. Because it was almost ignored after the intro.
Bester is FAAAR superior a character to act than Checkov. It is his finest SF role. His worst was probably The Starlost, a gig which Ellison got him before Harlan stormed off mad after writing the pilot (shockingly, Ellison had a bad temper) and refused to let his real name be associated with the series.
We adored his villainy. Also invented a bit of fanon, that he had an undergarment made from synthetic fabric. To us, he will always be 'The sinister Mr Bester with the vest of polyester'.
He asomakes sense and while he absolutely is a villain, youcan see how he thinks its to protect telepaths,and beieves that .And while stil being despicable. Really great role.
Since it didn't get mentioned here, anyone watching the show for the first time should also check out The Lurker's Guide To Babylon 5, a site archiving online posts and various other things about B5 from the 90s. It has most of the things JMS has said about the production over the years, on an ep-by-ep basis. (And considering how old the site is, it's kind of a miracle it's still up. I remember viewing it in Netscape.)
I am surprised you do not have more subscribers. This is witty commentary backed up by kind of amazing relevant video. Well done. Appreciation for your hard work.
While I enjoyed Star Trek, theres was something that managed to be gritty and yet pull at the heartstrings about Babylon 5. Londo besting Morden, Sheridans fate at Zahadum, the final fight in the Earth civil war....so many moments that just got you pumped up...made you laugh or even cry. Thats one hell of a thing to do. Truely television I was glad I watched.
You do have a knack of picking shows I love! It turned up in the UK just as I getting massively bored of TNG (as I've mentioned before somewhere it had gone into it's really droney music phase!) and this show was such a breath of fresh air. It just felt so much closer to what humans are actually liked while at the same time become increasingly epic in scope as time went on. So many great characters and episodes. There's really nothing like it.
I liked that a gun was a gun in B5, you couldn't take it apart and turn it into a warp core or something....one episode of TNG had worf i think dismantle a communicator and make a personal shield out of it.....go home worf, you're drunk!
I just found your channel maybe 4 days ago so I'm going through a bunch of older stuff. When I saw you've done the Trek shows and a bunch of other sci-fi and related tv shows and movies I thought, I'm gonna search for Babylon 5. And here we are. DS9 is my favorite TV show of all time, but Babylon 5 is right up there. Easily one of the best shows in sci-fi history, maybe even TV history. Very few shows come close. Trek does, Stargate does. Stuff like that. But, without a shadow (pun kind of intended) of a doubt, the best EPISODE of TV I've ever seen, is B5's season 3 episode Severed Dreams. Absolutely top tier stuff. I cry every time I watch it and Earth Force boards B5 and the Narn are being shot and that music plays, it's just incredible stuff. So, thanks for these videos. Your humor and wit are really good and between giving the right amount of information about the subject of the video and what you show - really impressive stuff. I'm looking forward to watching many more videos :D
I've watched this series EASILY 20+ times in my life, since I was kid watching with my Parents. Thanks to you, I once again feel the urge to revisit my favorite T.V series. To this day (Well, the last time I watched it, which was with a friend together) I still notice details and foreshadowing I never have before, making it an incredibly fun re-watch.
I haven't rewatched it at all since it first aired in NZ in the 90's (I was doing my degree at the time but made sure if I couldn't watch it when it aired I'd have my VCR recording, and as a backup make sure one of my friends also had it set up to record) - but my god, it has stuck with me all my years. Now after seeing this I will seek it out again.
@@Beer_Dad1975 I think it's been difficult for the past 10 years. Many fans still complain about how long it took for "Agents of SHIELD" to get off the ground and insist that it should have began with the Fall of SHIELD and HYDRA's exposure, without any of the buildup.
After all those years , Babylon 5 is still my favourite TV-series. The #Babylon5 universe is the only tv series which is exhibited in my bookshelf in my living room. 🤩
B5 was my favorite, yes the CGI was in it's infants, however the story line and characters where superb. I loved episodes with Bester. I still Watch it...
The important message I wanted to tell people is this: IF you can find the Centauri Triology (I think the official name for the trilogy is the Legion of FIre trilogy) set of novels - read them. Because they detail ALL of the stories and plots that were never addressed in the actual show itself. It details the events that occur in the 20 years between when Sheridan is brought back by Lorien and when his time runs out and he "disappears" in that blaze of light. The Centauri Trilogy goes into detail about the fate of some of the lesser known characters, it tells what happened to the Centauri Empire, and so many other things. Reading the Centauri Trilogy puts everything into perspective. In truth, I actually feel sorry for any true Babylon 5 fan who did not get a chance to read the Centauri Trilogy. I've often said that Season 5 SHOULD have been the events of those three books - and I'm not sure why JMS didn't do that. There is also another 3 books detailing the Telepath War (officially called the Psi Corp Triology) that the actual series couldn't do justice for. I know Stam Fine sort of lambasted the show for how it handled the whole telepath issue - but believe me - the Telepath War trilogy takes care of that. The problem is this: While you can find the books online, they're pretty expensive, going for around $80 for the set. Often though it can be iffy whether you can find a complete set or not. There's also a Techno Mage trilogy. One of the things I loved about Babylon 5 was it's maturity. It wasn't a series filled with young and gorgeous people having violent angsty outbursts and hot-n-heavy sex scenes every time one turned around. I loved the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn - it was real to me. Even the way they looked at each other, you could literally see the love there. They weren't always smooching or screwing in the bedroom. Since all of the characters were older, they behaved in a far more mature fashion which was a big draw for older audiences. Granted, I was in my mid-20s when B5 came out - but I was past the "driven by hormones" stage of life. Far too many shows and movies have people barely out of high school ruling countries, commanding starships, leading armies, etc. Just because producers felt that the only people who go to movies or watch television were 12 to 22 year-olds. After that, you're supposed to become boring and therefore why would anyone make a movie about your life ... right? But seriously, the maturity of many of the characters really drew me in. That and the fact that B5 was one of the first television shows that wasn't episodic - like Star Trek - where every episode was its own self-contained plot bubble - and everything was solved in that 44 minute television show. To see an epic story carried out over the course of 5 seasons was utterly brilliant - especially since the plot ran off in ways you rarely ever see on television shows. Or even movies back then. Today, it's hard to understand just how revolutionary B5 was to television because the majority of shows now are "operas" rather than episodic - and a lot of shows have fun and unexpected plot twists. You never saw that back in the 80s and 90s. And though I'm a child of the 80s, I hate 80s television since the FCC was controlled by ultra-conservative right-wing fundamentalist Christians who thought there was way too much violence and sex on television. They're the reason why even most Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Daffy Duck, Wiley E Coyote, and other classic Warner Bros cartoons were pulled off the air. As a result, 80s television was HIGHLY formulaeic, predictable, boring, and every episode played out EXACTLY the same way - whether you were watching Dukes of Hazard, the A-Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider - take your pick. Every episode of every "action" show played out exactly like this: The good guys somehow crossed paths with someone who was being picked on by bullies. Back then, bad guys were not really all that bad - and they almost never killed anyone. They just - bullied. So the good guys would do some initial legwork and fact-finding until the show's middle where the good guys met the bad guys in combat - and would always lose. Often times there was an enormous amount of shooting and no one would ever get shot. Well, this defeat only emboldened the good guys, causing them to come up with a plan which usually had them building contraptions, making inventions, and ensuring that no one got hurt. The Duke Boys would beef up the General Lee and maybe they would lay tacks on the road or get Daisy and Uncle Jesse to run interference, etc. Or the A-Team would make things out of blow torches and dune buggies and radios. We all know about McGuyver and his invention shenanigans. There was a second big battle with the bad guys - millions more bullets were wasted as no one ever got shot (or, if they did, it was always in the arm or leg), eventually the bad guys were rounded up - often comedically like being stuffed into barrels or knocked unconscious by a random old lady with a flower pot - until the main good guy and main bad guy had a mano-y-mano fist fight - no guns, probably because all the ammo had been expended killing air molecules. And no knives either. Usually not. Because every fight had to be a fist fight - which, of course, the good guy ALWAYS won (they could've skipped that entire scene since we always knew what was going to happen) - and just as the last bad guy falls unconscious, you would hear the distant sound of the police - who ALWAYS managed to show up too late.
it's true, most 80s shows sucked but luckily there were exceptions. Sitcoms in particular. Night Court could be ball-bustingly funny, and by the late 80s more 'subversive' shows like Married with Children and The Simpsons were starting to appear.
By far, my favorite episode of the entire 5 years is *"Day of the Dead."* My favorite scene is when *Ivanova* is crying over the death of *Marcus. Claudia* should have gotten an Academy award for that performance.
DotD was ok. I will admit I thought it was interesting for Garibaldi to be visited by Dodger but it felt very much like it was written to expand Lockly's backstory. I think if they hadn't lost Takishima from the pilot and the story arc about her Shooting Garibaldi instead of his XO came to pass that could have been a very interesting Brikiri Day of the Dead. Now for Marcus's death scene with Ivonava that was wonderfully done evin down to the "I should have boffed him once." line. I enjoy Trek greatly but I LOVE B5 because the characters weren't always perfect or could be good for most of the series and have a bad day. That was why "In the Pale Moonlight" did so well for the yuserper... I mean DS9.
I am a huge fan of B5. To this day it is still one of the best Sci fi shows of all time. It lead the way for shows like the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica. Focus of story and character arc over time. Long term planning of the outcome. Truly an excellent example of JMS ability to create a compelling world.
Great series had them all on VHS ..and watched them all ..also J Michael Straczynski was interested in becoming the producer of Dr.Who ..now that would have been interesting..
Given how well Straczynski handled B5's time travel portion, planning out the hints from the first season to the final reveal, AND how wonderfully the characterization was, I think he'd have been fantastic heading Doctor Who.
Excellent! I met JMS at a SciFi con and asked what his thoughts were of the conflict between the different spacefaring races in B5. Why intelligence races wouldn’t be more civilized to one another. His response was “why does everyone have this Captain Kirk outlook of the future”? I thought that was a very good answer.
Great, thorough and funny review. Brilliant! Isn’t it amazing that even with a full synopsis it’s hard to really scratch the surface of how rich the show actually is. I think I’d sum up that major reasons to watch B5 are a ‘sense of wonder’, an earnest production and indelible characterisation not just of the inhabitants but of the various facets of the world (universe). Spellbinding!
Cheers Stam. Such a charming review. I vaguely recall this show being broadcast on Sunday mornings. It seems that the Channel didn't have enough confidence to include Babylon 5 in the evening schedules. After all, it would have to complete with British institutions like "Eastenders", "Coronation Street", "Emmerdale Farm" & "Brookside". When I say 'British institutions', I mean bad telly. Such a shame really, Babs 5 looks a lot better than Babs Windsor.
@@markweston216 I do not doubt that your memory is correct. I remember bathing my daughter in front of the telly on Sunday mornings while the show played in the background. I was not aware that it screened in the evenings. Maybe I caught the Omnibus editions? Wikipedia claim that one episode outperformed the evening soaps. I suppose the times varied by Region.
@@markweston216 That's fair comment. It sounds like you enjoyed the show, surely that is the most important thing here. From what I recall, I enjoyed the episodes I saw.
It was definitely on in the later evenings - I stayed up later specifically to watch it - but, while I don't remember them, Channel 4 repeating the episodes at the weekend sounds plausible. There was also an issue with Season 5. After the UK getting to air season finales before the US for the first four seasons (the US broadcast series in chunks of 5-6 episodes, then repeating that chunk before showing more new episodes, while the UK showed them straight through, so, despite starting months later, the UK overtook the US during the run), the US insisted on the series finale not being aired anywhere else before the US. So the UK saw 5e17 around Easter, the US finished the show over the summer, and then Channel 4 aired the final five episodes during the week between Christmas and New Year, where they finally managed to find a gap in the schedule...
As huge B5 fan, this year has been great. Stam with pt 1 of 2 with over an hour's worth of material. JMS's very promising news about two different B5 project! And Rowan doing his own 2 parter on this show too!
I am loving the renewed exposure B5 has been getting recently with several UA-cam reactors watching it for the first time, some new podcast discussions and review/retrospectives like this. Great video, I love the tongue in cheek but affectionate way you poke at this show. The CGI (especially in the early days) does show it's age but honestly, once I get back into the story telling I am hanging on every line of JMS's dialogue and don't even notice it.
JMS is awesome. He still puts out new commentaries on some of the B5 episodes every once in a while. He even got a YT strike for his own show. Ridiculous. He wrote my favorite episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, too. I don't know how to top the original series but I will give the new one a try when it is released.
Fuckin loved/ and love B5. Thinking about the first time you see the Shadow ships and then the White Star gives me chills. And i'm an old bitter nerd. Its sad to think how many of the cast have now gone on beyond the rim. A lot of the cast have died young.
Some of the ancient ones stayed behind. To teach and guide the younger generations. They spoke of a legendary TV show long ago, of epic story arcs. Visuals never before achieved. A show that dared to stretch forth its hand and touch the lives of millions in a way never before attempted. We remain. Waiting watching. Perhaps one day we may again witness it walking among the stars. To be recognised by all for what it was.
Influencer Caste - sheer gold. Just one of the brilliant tweaks in a really good, and accurate, coverage of 5 years of a great show. Well done - subscription earned!!
13:47 The influencers. Well I guess still better than being shot into space in a fake evacuation like the telephone sanitizers, hairdressers and TV producers...
awesome, recently rewatched the series and just started again after this video. The Character dynamics between Londo and G'Kar are some of the best in any TV series i can remember at the moment. So damn epic.
Fine review. Comment: One of the guest actors was Turhan Bey, actor in classic sci fi & similar films. Memory: I began watching B5 because it was the only interesting sci-fi show on at the time. (Space Rangers didn't fill the bill for me.) The episodes kept me on board - good mix of humor, humanity, and heroism. One episode - Signs and Portents? - had a character who was rushing to leave the station because he realized the ancient war between light and dark was about to restart. "What?" I thought. "Did I miss something?" And from there on I was hooked. Years later, a colleague explained that B5 was based on LOTR; and the B5 war was similar to the war with Sauron.
"He would develop a crush which would only resolve itself at the end of next season" 🤣🤣🤣 B5 might be my most favorite show of all time. I think a rewatch is overdue
man, Ive never been able to watch b5 after the second episode, Im too big a DS9 and Star Trek head... but if you are making a series of one hour videos about it, it means I should watch it, so I will
Pure love! Still remember the excitement of watching the series for the first time. On TV... could not wait to get back home from school not to miss the new episode. I still listen to the soundtrack... ahhh... pure love indeed! Best sci-fi series to date. B5 really has a soul! ❤
Now, while Coleman rather beat you to it, "Tis nice to have the Stam Stamp of Flippancy applied! At the time it aired, the only series I had followed all the way from Pilot to finish was Incredible Hulk... this was the 2nd. And I thought it was well worth it at the time. And again when it made DVD.
26:00 Was I the only one who found this deeply disturbing right from the start? Kosh states later that being seen by so many wore him out. He needed lots of time to recover. But being seen is a completely passive process. Unless you are actively manipulating the minds of your observes so they see what you want them to see. So that begs the question, why would the Vorlons want to hide their true appearance? We learn through the series that the Vorlons have been very active manipulating different races throughout the galaxy. But it was really this episode when I stopped seeing the Vorlons as purely the good guys. Of course if they are powerful enough to change how multiple races see them all at once, how hard would it be to just make you feel nothing but trust when you see a Vorlon, or you think about them? The Shadows, at least were honest. It seems Babylon 5, in it's view of the Vorlons and the Shadows took something out of the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve. The "serpent" is cast as the bad guy in that story, but if you read the story carefully, though the serpent temps Eve into doing something she had been told not to do, the serpent never actually lies. Actually, it is God who lies. Everything the serpent says is true.
Oh Babylon 5, the last best hope for Commodore Amiga owners. I watched this as a teenager with my brothers and we loved it. Our first real experience of proper season long story arcs on television. Londo and G'Kar really are what make this. It's their stories that remain with me. That and The Prisoner references, the stagey talking and the distinctive CGI (someone once said the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was at least distinctive in the look of its games and I think a similar sort of complement could be gifted to this show.) In the mid 90s in the UK new episodes of Star Trek were relegated to satellite TV and so this was the closest us normal people got to high quality science fiction (and no, Seaquest DSV doesn't count). Looking at them now, I think Deep Space 9 is the superior show, but that is not something my teenager self would have had any time for. You are clearly a major fan. Also the Tinker Tailor joke in this is one of your very best. But I think perhaps this episode of yours is a teeny bit too long. But anyway kudos for trying to summarise all 5 seasons as it's a hard show to wholly like. Flawed, bitty, loveable and never quite as good as it should have been, it was the perfect replacement for Doctor Who fans as we suffered through the 90s.
I was in college when I first watched this, and since it's final episode have rewatched it on average once a year. I just started my second rewatch on HBO. Great show. Hoping the reboot gets off the ground. It will never replace the original, but it would be fun to see how it can be reworked today.
I remember not watching the first season and hearing friends talk about it, half-admiringly, half-mockingly. It sounded 'meh'. Then i saw an episode about a third-way through S2 and was almost instantly hooked. That Shadow story arc was fantastic and, for three years, the show really was essential viewing. It's a shame about the hurried wrap and Season 5, but what can you do? Those middle three seasons remain some of my all-time favourite TV sci-fi. And yes, the Shadows were terrifying. One of the truly great existential threats of fiction.
Met Claudia Christian at a geek event in the late 90's after having a long time crush on her - she's definitely the (second) most beautiful woman I've ever met - (my wife comes first of course) - also incredibly gracious to sit there all day being nice to a bunch of thirsty nerds on the ass end of the planet - she'd have to have been on a 12+ hour flight to get to us - even if she was being paid for it, she was still amazing. Normally I find the idea of celebrity gouche, but for her I'll make an exception.
I watched this series in the 90's with an antenna barely receiving the channel. I was worried that the video and makeup quality would be bad in HD, but it looks great. Also, syndication barely worked for the series. Fox 47 in LaCrosse would air it at odd times and sometimes not in order. Sometimes Thursday at 12:30am, sometimes Saturday at 2pm. I had to read the newspaper in library to find it on the schedule.
i was always a fan but you did this story justice, with this synopsis it made me want to watch this again. thank you sir for your excellent work and bravo on a job well done
Hey I actually love Grey 17 is Missing lol. I can't even count how many times I have quoted that puppet before it shoots the tranq at Garibaldi. I think, though, that I more often quote Franklin in withdrawal: "Give me some definitions of 'all right' and I'll see what I can do..." Yeah the Zarg was just silly, but sometimes the overall story got so heavy, we kind of needed a break with some campy shenanigans lol. I haven't seen the new animated B5 thing yet... anybody say yea or nay (without spoilers please!)?
Now that is a pleasant surprise. 3 days ago I've decided to rewatch B5 and I'm in the middle of season 2 at the moment. And now I can also watch this gem of a review. You truly are a gentleman and a scholar. Thanks ❤ ps Deep Space Nine soon (tm) ?
If you like sci-fi, you should give it a try. Season 1 is a bit of a chore, but that's often the case for sci-fi shows (DS9, TNG, Farscape). But seasons 2 to 4 are some of the best tv out there. You'll get used to the bad CGI, the sets and costumes do compensate for the CGI.
Giving a like. Leaving a comment. Playing quietly in the other room. All for the statistics to fill up and ads to play. Gonna come back here when I'm done watching the show, because I'm only on season 3 now.
If they could "remaster" Babylon 5 and all it's associated movies and spinoff series with modern CGI and 4K on UHD 4K "bluray disks, I would happily buy it and shelve next to my DVD version in my beloved media collection.
I remember having to stay up really late to watch this show. I learnt to program my vcr to record it but a stupid football show would run overtime and I would miss the ending.
I was a huge fan of B5 while it was running, and had enough faith in what it was trying to do that I could forgive its many ragged spots. Technically it was never as slick as the Star Trek shows that were running concurrently, but the big arc was almost insanely ambitious and paved the way for decades of serialized prestige TV drama (of course soap operas had been serialized forever, but generally in a more meandering way). I do think that later TV series took Straczynski's many production difficulties with a multi-season arc to heart and generally dialed it back to one big arc per season, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer formula. I was also fascinated by the development of CGI, and the show's use of CGI for all of its space effects was also a groundbreaking development, ahead of its time (indeed, ahead of what the technology could actually do well, and you can often see that on screen--these days, real-time videogame graphics usually have more detail than B5's painstakingly rendered effects shots). It's actually made the effects date poorly compared to B5's competitors, but at the same time, it meant they could do things other shows couldn't.
Bester is not Koenig's "best role since he was cast on Star Trek"; it's his best role *ever* , as he clearly knows, if you've listened to any of the many interviews he's given in the past two decades...
One of my all time favorite shows to break out every couple of years to binge watch. And after doing that quite a few times, I think my take on Kosh. Was this was all about him, in that he was of the mindset that the cycle needed to be broken. That cycle of every so long, the war that they and the 'shadows' played with well, every one, needed to be broken. But was just waiting for the right race/ people to learn enough to be able to step up. I think he was there on Bab5 for just that purpose. his whole time there was guiding both Jeffrey, and John toward that path. although I also think he knew about who Jeffrey was with the vorlons, and the 1,000 years ago deal as well. I could go on for quite a bit, But I still think Kosh was most of the reason all of this story line happens. Kosh even put a bit of himself in John to get him through both the shadow home world, and help him defeat Ulkesh the vorlon that replaced him, knowing that if that one was to remain, the cycle would not be broken, and just more of the same. In a way, to me this whole show was Kosh's swan song to get the others races to grow, but told mostly through the eyes of those he helped through it all. And then the reason was everyone finding out that just because we grew up from their 'gods' for lack of a better word, they still have a ton of sh1t to deal with. They will still have a long, long way to go, but with the hopes that they would not turn out to be the same as the Vorlon's and Shadows. But yeah, this was Kosh's story, only told through the eyes of others. JMHO. Also a side note, As a musician myself, I admire those shows that also know the value of sound, and score. Having Christopher Franke on board made to me one of the best components, his contribution is worth so much in this show. Thanks for mentioning that.
I never saw this, but I remember a trailer for it being at the front of an old VHS I used to frequently watch and one of the characters saying "After a thousand years, the darkness has returned" has always stuck with me.
15:50 The triluminary was made to react to the DNA of Vallen, this is why it reacted to Delenn, she was a descendant of Vallen, and of course it reacted to Sinclair because it was designed to react to his DNA.
Damn! That was warm-heartening... and it's been about 3 years since I've last watched it... Shall I dive again...? Maybe just a quick S2-S4 run... damn, you got me...! MOLLARI!! :)
![Space Battle [Babylon 5: An Ancient Ally]](/img/n.gif)
My dad, who grew up in the 1930s and heard the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, came to me one day when I was in college and said "You've got to watch this new show, Babylon 5. It's the best thing on television!" He was right and I was hooked. Thanks Dad!
My dad loved the show to. I miss you dad
Huge respect should be given to JMS for what he did in Series One and later regarding Michael O'Hare. When it became apparent that Michael was suffering deteriorating mental health issues, JMS kept his secret and nursed him through the second part of the season so he could leave with dignity. He then worked a story arc for Sinclair which enabled Michael (when he was well enough) to finish Sinclair's story logically. And then, most wonderfully of all, he kept his promise to Michael to never reveal all this while Michael was alive. Once Michael passed away (tragically young), JMS did tell the details so that people knew how courageous Michael was. None of the people working on B5 knew the huge extent of Michael's chronic and debilitating Paranoid Schizophrenia until after he passed away, which allowed Michael to keep the dignity he valued.
Yes, JMS was such a support for Michael in what must have been a very trying time. When he (JMS) came out about Michael's issues I was so touched by the way they had rearranged everything to accommodate his illness. I cried buckets when I learned of it.
Agreed, classy AF.
It must’ve been the worst of hell to have schizophrenia when you’re trying to be an actor. And not just an actor, an actor on a show where half the people there are dressed up in extravagant clothing and elaborate makeup to play a bunch of inhuman creatures. It’s must’ve been like if your brain could be kicked in the dick every five seconds. Poor guy
Not to forget, massive props to Walter Koenig who played Bester with an almost god-level amount of glee. If there was ever an embodiment of The Man You Love to Hate, Bester was it.
Named after one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, Alfred Bester.
The best description of Bester that I have read to date.
The saddest episode for me was when Londo finally became Emperor realising he was being controlled by the creature lurking on one of his shoulders
I really felt sorry for Londo in that scene, sitting on the Emperor's throne, utterly alone and having no control over his life whatsoever.
And so it begins
there's a hole in your mind
Even MORE B5 fans being lured in.
Thanks for the tasteful reflection on the cast members who are no longer with us.
My wife and I were lucky enough to wangle a tour of the sets towards the end of season 3 (not something the studio customarily did) and it was a genuine privilege to meet JMS and to watch a scene being set up and shot. JMS is a class act and a true gentleman.
My favourite line from the show has to be Delenn's "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else." It got a cheer from others in the room who had never even seen a single episode of the show before.
New people: Spoilers don't matter. My wife and I watched the show together 3 times, and even when we knew what was going to eventually happen it was enjoyable, even engrossing watching. Watching D'lenn working with the Tri-luminary, knowing what it meant was an Aha! moment and at least I watched each episode more carefully knowing there were key plot items each time the camera rested "too long" on any particular item.
Babylon 5 is my favorite sci fi series. It is a very 1990 series, but that brings it a unique look and feel. Its a beautiful series. Its very well written, it has great characters, great plots, and great plot twists. Its is unique because most of its characters have some major flaws and weaknesses, yet most of them over come them with intense personal struggle, which is much more realistic than so many other sci fi shows. The show does not pull many punches either, characters are tortured, shot, and some are killed, and it really hits you hard every time there is a great loss experienced in the show. The actors are great, their chemistry is great, their charisma is overwhelming and makes the show so fun to watch because you enjoy the them so much even when they are doing little mundane every day things. You can tell most of the actors really like the characters they play. For its time the special effects are good, and they do still hold up today more or less. The music is so good, and it is used to great effect to emphasis events and moods in the show. The show has a lot of spirituality and morality entwined within it. While at times its a little overdone in that 1990s way, most of the time its just matter of fact and brings depth and meaning into the world which seem to be on another level compared to other science fiction, in my opinion.
For 5 years, B5 was something really special as life was rearranged around it. Setting the video, traversing different time slots on C4 & S4C (if you near the England-Wales border, you might know what that was like), one nightmare scenario with a broken TV aerial. The absolute fear of missing an episode. 😱 I don't want to rose-tint the 90s, but looking back there was something magic about that whole experience.
I hear you friend! C4 watching was a nightmare.
One of my all time faves; just rewatched the entire run for the fifth time and still cried at the requisite scenes - usually G'kars, sometimes Londo's.
A Sunday morning's drive is also well done and emotional.
That scene with Sheridan alone on the White Star as the lights to out still makes me cry. Only snag with B5 - Claudia Christian; she just isn't a particularly good actor (actress?); frankly neither was Scoggins, so bad casting. Bruce (and everyone else) were brilliant though.
Back with mostly great writing and character development
@@daveroche6522 I felt CC did well with Ivonava. Scoggins on the other hand felt like they cast her because she would fit in Christian's uniform with minimal alterations. Can't say I was fond of her backstory either but I suppose they needed a way to justify the more personalized lines that were originally written for Ivonava and since they didn't have the last 4 years to learn on they went with an EX. Because it was almost ignored after the intro.
How will this end? In fire!
An hour long Stam Fine video on Babylon 5. This is UA-cam nirvana for me 🙂👍🏻
Bester is FAAAR superior a character to act than Checkov. It is his finest SF role. His worst was probably The Starlost, a gig which Ellison got him before Harlan stormed off mad after writing the pilot (shockingly, Ellison had a bad temper) and refused to let his real name be associated with the series.
We adored his villainy. Also invented a bit of fanon, that he had an undergarment made from synthetic fabric. To us, he will always be 'The sinister Mr Bester with the vest of polyester'.
He asomakes sense and while he absolutely is a villain, youcan see how he thinks its to protect telepaths,and beieves that .And while stil being despicable. Really great role.
Since it didn't get mentioned here, anyone watching the show for the first time should also check out The Lurker's Guide To Babylon 5, a site archiving online posts and various other things about B5 from the 90s. It has most of the things JMS has said about the production over the years, on an ep-by-ep basis.
(And considering how old the site is, it's kind of a miracle it's still up. I remember viewing it in Netscape.)
B5 has some of the best characters in sci-fi tv. But Londo is my favourite. Peter Jurassic is a delight in every scene he is in.
And then he went on to have a whole movie franchise named after him! Of course I speak of... "Jurassic Park"! ;D
LONDOOOO!!! Her voice could shatter entire planets! 🤣
Possibly the greatest TV show ever made.
It's one of them for sure
I agree.
Plus JMS is my fellow empath who can predict the future.
In my top 5 for sure. Might even be #2, right behind the shiniest show in the 'Verse...
Correct
Nice one. This show deserves the love and attention.
I am surprised you do not have more subscribers. This is witty commentary backed up by kind of amazing relevant video. Well done. Appreciation for your hard work.
While I enjoyed Star Trek, theres was something that managed to be gritty and yet pull at the heartstrings about Babylon 5. Londo besting Morden, Sheridans fate at Zahadum, the final fight in the Earth civil war....so many moments that just got you pumped up...made you laugh or even cry. Thats one hell of a thing to do. Truely television I was glad I watched.
Kudos for the best series recap I have seen yet. Zooti zoot zoot.
You do have a knack of picking shows I love! It turned up in the UK just as I getting massively bored of TNG (as I've mentioned before somewhere it had gone into it's really droney music phase!) and this show was such a breath of fresh air. It just felt so much closer to what humans are actually liked while at the same time become increasingly epic in scope as time went on. So many great characters and episodes. There's really nothing like it.
I liked that a gun was a gun in B5, you couldn't take it apart and turn it into a warp core or something....one episode of TNG had worf i think dismantle a communicator and make a personal shield out of it.....go home worf, you're drunk!
I will never read the Ikea Kallax assembly instructions again, without thinking of Mira again.
I just found your channel maybe 4 days ago so I'm going through a bunch of older stuff. When I saw you've done the Trek shows and a bunch of other sci-fi and related tv shows and movies I thought, I'm gonna search for Babylon 5. And here we are. DS9 is my favorite TV show of all time, but Babylon 5 is right up there. Easily one of the best shows in sci-fi history, maybe even TV history. Very few shows come close. Trek does, Stargate does. Stuff like that. But, without a shadow (pun kind of intended) of a doubt, the best EPISODE of TV I've ever seen, is B5's season 3 episode Severed Dreams. Absolutely top tier stuff. I cry every time I watch it and Earth Force boards B5 and the Narn are being shot and that music plays, it's just incredible stuff.
So, thanks for these videos. Your humor and wit are really good and between giving the right amount of information about the subject of the video and what you show - really impressive stuff. I'm looking forward to watching many more videos :D
Was a big fan of this show as a teenager and while I haven't fully revisited since then, it's great to see your extended thoughts on it.
I've watched this series EASILY 20+ times in my life, since I was kid watching with my Parents. Thanks to you, I once again feel the urge to revisit my favorite T.V series. To this day (Well, the last time I watched it, which was with a friend together) I still notice details and foreshadowing I never have before, making it an incredibly fun re-watch.
I remember a episode where a character remarked gkar and Londo were like a old married couple
😁
I haven't rewatched it at all since it first aired in NZ in the 90's (I was doing my degree at the time but made sure if I couldn't watch it when it aired I'd have my VCR recording, and as a backup make sure one of my friends also had it set up to record) - but my god, it has stuck with me all my years. Now after seeing this I will seek it out again.
Better than anyone that star trek had to offer. I try watching DS9 but find myself falling asleep after an episode or so. B5 I can easily binge watch.
I agree. The first season is a bit of a slog for me but from 2 onwards this is very bingeable.
Agreed. I just watched it for the first time in my 40’s too
Hey, Psy Corps, leave us kids alone!
My favorite Sci-fi show and one of my favorite shows ever.
I've never had a problem with Season One. I understood what JMS had to do - set up the series, the characters and main narrative. Which he did.
Unfortunately these days the concept of the slow burn is difficult to get across.
@@Beer_Dad1975 I think it's been difficult for the past 10 years. Many fans still complain about how long it took for "Agents of SHIELD" to get off the ground and insist that it should have began with the Fall of SHIELD and HYDRA's exposure, without any of the buildup.
After all those years , Babylon 5 is still my favourite TV-series.
The #Babylon5 universe is the only tv series which is exhibited in my bookshelf in my living room. 🤩
B5 was my favorite, yes the CGI was in it's infants, however the story line and characters where superb. I loved episodes with Bester. I still Watch it...
The important message I wanted to tell people is this: IF you can find the Centauri Triology (I think the official name for the trilogy is the Legion of FIre trilogy) set of novels - read them. Because they detail ALL of the stories and plots that were never addressed in the actual show itself. It details the events that occur in the 20 years between when Sheridan is brought back by Lorien and when his time runs out and he "disappears" in that blaze of light. The Centauri Trilogy goes into detail about the fate of some of the lesser known characters, it tells what happened to the Centauri Empire, and so many other things. Reading the Centauri Trilogy puts everything into perspective. In truth, I actually feel sorry for any true Babylon 5 fan who did not get a chance to read the Centauri Trilogy. I've often said that Season 5 SHOULD have been the events of those three books - and I'm not sure why JMS didn't do that. There is also another 3 books detailing the Telepath War (officially called the Psi Corp Triology) that the actual series couldn't do justice for. I know Stam Fine sort of lambasted the show for how it handled the whole telepath issue - but believe me - the Telepath War trilogy takes care of that. The problem is this: While you can find the books online, they're pretty expensive, going for around $80 for the set. Often though it can be iffy whether you can find a complete set or not. There's also a Techno Mage trilogy.
One of the things I loved about Babylon 5 was it's maturity. It wasn't a series filled with young and gorgeous people having violent angsty outbursts and hot-n-heavy sex scenes every time one turned around. I loved the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn - it was real to me. Even the way they looked at each other, you could literally see the love there. They weren't always smooching or screwing in the bedroom. Since all of the characters were older, they behaved in a far more mature fashion which was a big draw for older audiences. Granted, I was in my mid-20s when B5 came out - but I was past the "driven by hormones" stage of life. Far too many shows and movies have people barely out of high school ruling countries, commanding starships, leading armies, etc. Just because producers felt that the only people who go to movies or watch television were 12 to 22 year-olds. After that, you're supposed to become boring and therefore why would anyone make a movie about your life ... right? But seriously, the maturity of many of the characters really drew me in. That and the fact that B5 was one of the first television shows that wasn't episodic - like Star Trek - where every episode was its own self-contained plot bubble - and everything was solved in that 44 minute television show. To see an epic story carried out over the course of 5 seasons was utterly brilliant - especially since the plot ran off in ways you rarely ever see on television shows. Or even movies back then. Today, it's hard to understand just how revolutionary B5 was to television because the majority of shows now are "operas" rather than episodic - and a lot of shows have fun and unexpected plot twists. You never saw that back in the 80s and 90s. And though I'm a child of the 80s, I hate 80s television since the FCC was controlled by ultra-conservative right-wing fundamentalist Christians who thought there was way too much violence and sex on television. They're the reason why even most Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Daffy Duck, Wiley E Coyote, and other classic Warner Bros cartoons were pulled off the air. As a result, 80s television was HIGHLY formulaeic, predictable, boring, and every episode played out EXACTLY the same way - whether you were watching Dukes of Hazard, the A-Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider - take your pick.
Every episode of every "action" show played out exactly like this: The good guys somehow crossed paths with someone who was being picked on by bullies. Back then, bad guys were not really all that bad - and they almost never killed anyone. They just - bullied. So the good guys would do some initial legwork and fact-finding until the show's middle where the good guys met the bad guys in combat - and would always lose. Often times there was an enormous amount of shooting and no one would ever get shot. Well, this defeat only emboldened the good guys, causing them to come up with a plan which usually had them building contraptions, making inventions, and ensuring that no one got hurt. The Duke Boys would beef up the General Lee and maybe they would lay tacks on the road or get Daisy and Uncle Jesse to run interference, etc. Or the A-Team would make things out of blow torches and dune buggies and radios. We all know about McGuyver and his invention shenanigans. There was a second big battle with the bad guys - millions more bullets were wasted as no one ever got shot (or, if they did, it was always in the arm or leg), eventually the bad guys were rounded up - often comedically like being stuffed into barrels or knocked unconscious by a random old lady with a flower pot - until the main good guy and main bad guy had a mano-y-mano fist fight - no guns, probably because all the ammo had been expended killing air molecules. And no knives either. Usually not. Because every fight had to be a fist fight - which, of course, the good guy ALWAYS won (they could've skipped that entire scene since we always knew what was going to happen) - and just as the last bad guy falls unconscious, you would hear the distant sound of the police - who ALWAYS managed to show up too late.
As a 12-year old, I enjoyed B5 immensely back in the day ^_^
it's true, most 80s shows sucked but luckily there were exceptions. Sitcoms in particular. Night Court could be ball-bustingly funny, and by the late 80s more 'subversive' shows like Married with Children and The Simpsons were starting to appear.
By far, my favorite episode of the entire 5 years is *"Day of the Dead."*
My favorite scene is when *Ivanova* is crying over the death of *Marcus. Claudia* should have gotten an Academy award for that performance.
JMS would cry reading this... because he wrote 99% of the episodes and DotD was written by Neil Gaiman :P
DotD was ok. I will admit I thought it was interesting for Garibaldi to be visited by Dodger but it felt very much like it was written to expand Lockly's backstory. I think if they hadn't lost Takishima from the pilot and the story arc about her Shooting Garibaldi instead of his XO came to pass that could have been a very interesting Brikiri Day of the Dead.
Now for Marcus's death scene with Ivonava that was wonderfully done evin down to the "I should have boffed him once." line. I enjoy Trek greatly but I LOVE B5 because the characters weren't always perfect or could be good for most of the series and have a bad day. That was why "In the Pale Moonlight" did so well for the yuserper... I mean DS9.
I am a huge fan of B5. To this day it is still one of the best Sci fi shows of all time.
It lead the way for shows like the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica. Focus of story and character arc over time.
Long term planning of the outcome. Truly an excellent example of JMS ability to create a compelling world.
Great series had them all on VHS ..and watched them all ..also J Michael Straczynski was interested in becoming the producer of Dr.Who ..now that would have been interesting..
Given how well Straczynski handled B5's time travel portion, planning out the hints from the first season to the final reveal, AND how wonderfully the characterization was, I think he'd have been fantastic heading Doctor Who.
I love that even for a small budget, they weren't afraid of damaging the models and showing the realer sides of life and one future
Excellent!
I met JMS at a SciFi con and asked what his thoughts were of the conflict between the different spacefaring races in B5. Why intelligence races wouldn’t be more civilized to one another. His response was “why does everyone have this Captain Kirk outlook of the future”? I thought that was a very good answer.
Great, thorough and funny review. Brilliant! Isn’t it amazing that even with a full synopsis it’s hard to really scratch the surface of how rich the show actually is. I think I’d sum up that major reasons to watch B5 are a ‘sense of wonder’, an earnest production and indelible characterisation not just of the inhabitants but of the various facets of the world (universe). Spellbinding!
Babylon 5 is the perfect example of what you can do if you ignore the franchise bullshit and try doing something original.
Spoilers? Laughs in re-watching it almost every year for the past 25 years.
A wonderful show with human frailties, encompasses so much
G'gar and Londo. So human.
Cheers Stam. Such a charming review. I vaguely recall this show being broadcast on Sunday mornings. It seems that the Channel didn't have enough confidence to include Babylon 5 in the evening schedules. After all, it would have to complete with British institutions like "Eastenders", "Coronation Street", "Emmerdale Farm" & "Brookside". When I say 'British institutions', I mean bad telly. Such a shame really, Babs 5 looks a lot better than Babs Windsor.
It used to be on channel 4 around 10pm. If I remember rightly
@@markweston216 I do not doubt that your memory is correct. I remember bathing my daughter in front of the telly on Sunday mornings while the show played in the background. I was not aware that it screened in the evenings. Maybe I caught the Omnibus editions? Wikipedia claim that one episode outperformed the evening soaps. I suppose the times varied by Region.
@@tomsenior7405 maybe I'm not sure. I just remember staying up on a Sunday night when I was little watching hoping my parents wouldn't hear it.
@@markweston216 That's fair comment. It sounds like you enjoyed the show, surely that is the most important thing here. From what I recall, I enjoyed the episodes I saw.
It was definitely on in the later evenings - I stayed up later specifically to watch it - but, while I don't remember them, Channel 4 repeating the episodes at the weekend sounds plausible. There was also an issue with Season 5. After the UK getting to air season finales before the US for the first four seasons (the US broadcast series in chunks of 5-6 episodes, then repeating that chunk before showing more new episodes, while the UK showed them straight through, so, despite starting months later, the UK overtook the US during the run), the US insisted on the series finale not being aired anywhere else before the US. So the UK saw 5e17 around Easter, the US finished the show over the summer, and then Channel 4 aired the final five episodes during the week between Christmas and New Year, where they finally managed to find a gap in the schedule...
As huge B5 fan, this year has been great. Stam with pt 1 of 2 with over an hour's worth of material. JMS's very promising news about two different B5 project! And Rowan doing his own 2 parter on this show too!
I am loving the renewed exposure B5 has been getting recently with several UA-cam reactors watching it for the first time, some new podcast discussions and review/retrospectives like this. Great video, I love the tongue in cheek but affectionate way you poke at this show.
The CGI (especially in the early days) does show it's age but honestly, once I get back into the story telling I am hanging on every line of JMS's dialogue and don't even notice it.
JMS is awesome. He still puts out new commentaries on some of the B5 episodes every once in a while. He even got a YT strike for his own show. Ridiculous. He wrote my favorite episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, too. I don't know how to top the original series but I will give the new one a try when it is released.
I wonder what he would do with Seaquest :)))
Hi my name is Mark and I love Babylon 5!
54:21 OMG I always thought she looked familiar! Winnie Cooper!!!
Fuckin loved/ and love B5. Thinking about the first time you see the Shadow ships and then the White Star gives me chills. And i'm an old bitter nerd. Its sad to think how many of the cast have now gone on beyond the rim. A lot of the cast have died young.
Ivanova and garibaldi ... two of the best support characters ever.
This is a well done documentary. Thank you.
Some of the ancient ones stayed behind. To teach and guide the younger generations. They spoke of a legendary TV show long ago, of epic story arcs. Visuals never before achieved. A show that dared to stretch forth its hand and touch the lives of millions in a way never before attempted. We remain. Waiting watching. Perhaps one day we may again witness it walking among the stars. To be recognised by all for what it was.
Influencer Caste - sheer gold.
Just one of the brilliant tweaks in a really good, and accurate, coverage of 5 years of a great show. Well done - subscription earned!!
13:47 The influencers. Well I guess still better than being shot into space in a fake evacuation like the telephone sanitizers, hairdressers and TV producers...
awesome, recently rewatched the series and just started again after this video. The Character dynamics between Londo and G'Kar are some of the best in any TV series i can remember at the moment. So damn epic.
this review has been done with a real feeling of affection mate. thank you. good balance
Fine review.
Comment: One of the guest actors was Turhan Bey, actor in classic sci fi & similar films.
Memory: I began watching B5 because it was the only interesting sci-fi show on at the time. (Space Rangers didn't fill the bill for me.) The episodes kept me on board - good mix of humor, humanity, and heroism. One episode - Signs and Portents? - had a character who was rushing to leave the station because he realized the ancient war between light and dark was about to restart. "What?" I thought. "Did I miss something?" And from there on I was hooked.
Years later, a colleague explained that B5 was based on LOTR; and the B5 war was similar to the war with Sauron.
"He would develop a crush which would only resolve itself at the end of next season" 🤣🤣🤣
B5 might be my most favorite show of all time. I think a rewatch is overdue
Can't wait to hear you babble on about Babylon 5!
if you go to zarhadoom than you have to throw your ring into the fire but nah seriously i love this show well presented stan fine good humor well done
This series hooked me from the very first episode.
The little show that could but the same show seemed to be cursed as many of the main characters died before their time.
best lines in the entire show. " there is only 1 human to survive fighting the Menbari. He is behind me and you are not. Be somewhere else. "
I just got through my second watch in 12 years. It holds up. Exceptional series.
man, Ive never been able to watch b5 after the second episode, Im too big a DS9 and Star Trek head... but if you are making a series of one hour videos about it, it means I should watch it, so I will
Pure love! Still remember the excitement of watching the series for the first time. On TV... could not wait to get back home from school not to miss the new episode. I still listen to the soundtrack... ahhh... pure love indeed! Best sci-fi series to date. B5 really has a soul! ❤
My favourite show of all time. Bar none. I know it had faults but it pales into nothing when it clicks
Yuuuus kicking bishop Brennan up the arse reference
I enjoyed this video. Babylon 5 was a treat to watch as I felt I could enjoy new, fresh science fiction without the Star Trek universe.
Now, while Coleman rather beat you to it, "Tis nice to have the Stam Stamp of Flippancy applied!
At the time it aired, the only series I had followed all the way from Pilot to finish was Incredible Hulk... this was the 2nd. And I thought it was well worth it at the time. And again when it made DVD.
comedy is all about............timing
26:00 Was I the only one who found this deeply disturbing right from the start? Kosh states later that being seen by so many wore him out. He needed lots of time to recover.
But being seen is a completely passive process. Unless you are actively manipulating the minds of your observes so they see what you want them to see.
So that begs the question, why would the Vorlons want to hide their true appearance?
We learn through the series that the Vorlons have been very active manipulating different races throughout the galaxy. But it was really this episode when I stopped seeing the Vorlons as purely the good guys.
Of course if they are powerful enough to change how multiple races see them all at once, how hard would it be to just make you feel nothing but trust when you see a Vorlon, or you think about them?
The Shadows, at least were honest.
It seems Babylon 5, in it's view of the Vorlons and the Shadows took something out of the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve.
The "serpent" is cast as the bad guy in that story, but if you read the story carefully, though the serpent temps Eve into doing something she had been told not to do, the serpent never actually lies. Actually, it is God who lies. Everything the serpent says is true.
Great catch! I never thought of it like that.
Oh Babylon 5, the last best hope for Commodore Amiga owners. I watched this as a teenager with my brothers and we loved it. Our first real experience of proper season long story arcs on television. Londo and G'Kar really are what make this. It's their stories that remain with me. That and The Prisoner references, the stagey talking and the distinctive CGI (someone once said the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was at least distinctive in the look of its games and I think a similar sort of complement could be gifted to this show.)
In the mid 90s in the UK new episodes of Star Trek were relegated to satellite TV and so this was the closest us normal people got to high quality science fiction (and no, Seaquest DSV doesn't count). Looking at them now, I think Deep Space 9 is the superior show, but that is not something my teenager self would have had any time for.
You are clearly a major fan. Also the Tinker Tailor joke in this is one of your very best. But I think perhaps this episode of yours is a teeny bit too long. But anyway kudos for trying to summarise all 5 seasons as it's a hard show to wholly like. Flawed, bitty, loveable and never quite as good as it should have been, it was the perfect replacement for Doctor Who fans as we suffered through the 90s.
I adore season One. It may actually be my favorite.
I was in college when I first watched this, and since it's final episode have rewatched it on average once a year. I just started my second rewatch on HBO. Great show. Hoping the reboot gets off the ground. It will never replace the original, but it would be fun to see how it can be reworked today.
I'm afraid i know how - for THE MODERN AUDIENCE and to send THE MESSAGE ;(
Over the seasons B5 had some of best character arcs of any sci-fi show.
I remember not watching the first season and hearing friends talk about it, half-admiringly, half-mockingly. It sounded 'meh'.
Then i saw an episode about a third-way through S2 and was almost instantly hooked. That Shadow story arc was fantastic and, for three years, the show really was essential viewing. It's a shame about the hurried wrap and Season 5, but what can you do?
Those middle three seasons remain some of my all-time favourite TV sci-fi.
And yes, the Shadows were terrifying. One of the truly great existential threats of fiction.
Seeing Andreas Katsulas' performance on B5 makes me weep for what could have been on Star Trek TNG.
Rest in Peace you absolute legend.
Met Claudia Christian at a geek event in the late 90's after having a long time crush on her - she's definitely the (second) most beautiful woman I've ever met - (my wife comes first of course) - also incredibly gracious to sit there all day being nice to a bunch of thirsty nerds on the ass end of the planet - she'd have to have been on a 12+ hour flight to get to us - even if she was being paid for it, she was still amazing. Normally I find the idea of celebrity gouche, but for her I'll make an exception.
Still love B5! Of all series i ever saw this one will never go away in the back of my mind. I do also liked DS9 very much too;)
I watched this series in the 90's with an antenna barely receiving the channel. I was worried that the video and makeup quality would be bad in HD, but it looks great.
Also, syndication barely worked for the series. Fox 47 in LaCrosse would air it at odd times and sometimes not in order. Sometimes Thursday at 12:30am, sometimes Saturday at 2pm. I had to read the newspaper in library to find it on the schedule.
i was always a fan but you did this story justice, with this synopsis it made me want to watch this again. thank you sir for your excellent work and bravo on a job well done
Hey I actually love Grey 17 is Missing lol. I can't even count how many times I have quoted that puppet before it shoots the tranq at Garibaldi. I think, though, that I more often quote Franklin in withdrawal: "Give me some definitions of 'all right' and I'll see what I can do..." Yeah the Zarg was just silly, but sometimes the overall story got so heavy, we kind of needed a break with some campy shenanigans lol.
I haven't seen the new animated B5 thing yet... anybody say yea or nay (without spoilers please!)?
24:55 The payoff to this is just plain brilliant.
Now that is a pleasant surprise. 3 days ago I've decided to rewatch B5 and I'm in the middle of season 2 at the moment. And now I can also watch this gem of a review. You truly are a gentleman and a scholar. Thanks ❤ ps Deep Space Nine soon (tm) ?
Great Maker! BEST! SERIES! EVER! In Valens Name.
Never seen this show. But your video was as always very entertaining. Thanks for all the work and care you put into your videos.
If you like sci-fi, you should give it a try. Season 1 is a bit of a chore, but that's often the case for sci-fi shows (DS9, TNG, Farscape). But seasons 2 to 4 are some of the best tv out there. You'll get used to the bad CGI, the sets and costumes do compensate for the CGI.
@@grunchlk Thank you. I will give it a try.
"What is built endures. What is loved endures."
Season 1 was great. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have seen season 2!
Huge fan of B5. Would love it to continue.
One of my absolute favourite shows of all-time. Thanks so much for this.
Giving a like. Leaving a comment. Playing quietly in the other room. All for the statistics to fill up and ads to play. Gonna come back here when I'm done watching the show, because I'm only on season 3 now.
1:02:43 Kills me every bloody time!
Spaced. You know after you cover The Tomorrow People and Voyagers! you could do Spaced. ;)
Easily the best sci-fi series by a million light years. I have the whole thing on DVD - watched it all three times. Just gets better every time.
If they could "remaster" Babylon 5 and all it's associated movies and spinoff series with modern CGI and 4K on UHD 4K "bluray disks, I would happily buy it and shelve next to my DVD version in my beloved media collection.
I remember having to stay up really late to watch this show. I learnt to program my vcr to record it but a stupid football show would run overtime and I would miss the ending.
I was a huge fan of B5 while it was running, and had enough faith in what it was trying to do that I could forgive its many ragged spots. Technically it was never as slick as the Star Trek shows that were running concurrently, but the big arc was almost insanely ambitious and paved the way for decades of serialized prestige TV drama (of course soap operas had been serialized forever, but generally in a more meandering way). I do think that later TV series took Straczynski's many production difficulties with a multi-season arc to heart and generally dialed it back to one big arc per season, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer formula.
I was also fascinated by the development of CGI, and the show's use of CGI for all of its space effects was also a groundbreaking development, ahead of its time (indeed, ahead of what the technology could actually do well, and you can often see that on screen--these days, real-time videogame graphics usually have more detail than B5's painstakingly rendered effects shots). It's actually made the effects date poorly compared to B5's competitors, but at the same time, it meant they could do things other shows couldn't.
Bester is not Koenig's "best role since he was cast on Star Trek"; it's his best role *ever* , as he clearly knows, if you've listened to any of the many interviews he's given in the past two decades...
One of my all time favorite shows to break out every couple of years to binge watch. And after doing that quite a few times, I think my take on Kosh. Was this was all about him, in that he was of the mindset that the cycle needed to be broken. That cycle of every so long, the war that they and the 'shadows' played with well, every one, needed to be broken. But was just waiting for the right race/ people to learn enough to be able to step up. I think he was there on Bab5 for just that purpose. his whole time there was guiding both Jeffrey, and John toward that path. although I also think he knew about who Jeffrey was with the vorlons, and the 1,000 years ago deal as well. I could go on for quite a bit, But I still think Kosh was most of the reason all of this story line happens. Kosh even put a bit of himself in John to get him through both the shadow home world, and help him defeat Ulkesh the vorlon that replaced him, knowing that if that one was to remain, the cycle would not be broken, and just more of the same. In a way, to me this whole show was Kosh's swan song to get the others races to grow, but told mostly through the eyes of those he helped through it all. And then the reason was everyone finding out that just because we grew up from their 'gods' for lack of a better word, they still have a ton of sh1t to deal with. They will still have a long, long way to go, but with the hopes that they would not turn out to be the same as the Vorlon's and Shadows. But yeah, this was Kosh's story, only told through the eyes of others. JMHO. Also a side note, As a musician myself, I admire those shows that also know the value of sound, and score. Having Christopher Franke on board made to me one of the best components, his contribution is worth so much in this show. Thanks for mentioning that.
Love the humor you add to these. Great stuff.
I never saw this, but I remember a trailer for it being at the front of an old VHS I used to frequently watch and one of the characters saying "After a thousand years, the darkness has returned" has always stuck with me.
Oh I hope you get the time to watch it - you'll feel so rewarded for it.
15:50 The triluminary was made to react to the DNA of Vallen, this is why it reacted to Delenn, she was a descendant of Vallen, and of course it reacted to Sinclair because it was designed to react to his DNA.
Damn! That was warm-heartening... and it's been about 3 years since I've last watched it... Shall I dive again...? Maybe just a quick S2-S4 run... damn, you got me...! MOLLARI!! :)