B5's first season

[eruthros]

So here is the thing about Babylon 5: because of the kind of show it is, almost every episode contains at least five-ten minutes relevant to the arc, or crucial to characters. (Take, for example, Infection: mostly crap, with ten excellent minutes at the end. Or TKO: Soooo awful! Except the Ivanova scenes, which are great.)

So if you've got a friend who is going to watch B5, and who wants the arc, but is morally opposed to fast forwarding through the shitty parts (me: "no! honest! really! skip EVERY SCENE of Infection until the basic plot seems to be over! you can!"), what you have to do instead is instruct said friend to, you know, do some reading during the episode. Therefore:



[Poll #1004434]

Comments

[umbo.livejournal.com]

The problem is, it's been way too long since I've seen any of these. I mean, I didn't start watching B5 until season 2, and I only went back and watched the season 1 episodes on reruns later because I figured I would learn some things, arc-wise--seriously, the guy who plays Sinclair is so very awful that I had to force myself, plus clearly the writing improves in season 2 as well. Which is a long-winded way of saying I'm really guessing based on your descriptions, because I haven't seen any of these in years. Not that I've seen the other seasons in years, either, but you know what I mean.

Is B5 being rerun anywhere these days? Because this is making me want to watch the show again.

[graycastle.livejournal.com]

aw, you're lookin' out for me! You're such a good pusher crack dealer friend.

[eruthros]

I don't think it's being rerun anywhere. But I have a bunch of tapes off of TNT that I'm not gonna need anymore, if you want them; I'm missing a lot of the earlier part of season one, but I've got everything else.

And yeah, if you watch season two first, season one seems even MORE painful. Because there is so, so, so much awkward acting (partly because of bad direction, clearly, because Garibaldi and Ivanova and Vir improve immensely in season two), and JMS hasn't yet curbed his tendency toward constructions like "this I do not like" and people talking to themselves in ways people never talk to themselves. I mean, there's so much important character stuff, and it sets up a ton of the subsequent seasons, and it's the first appearance of MORDEN! But. Geez. "TKO."

[eruthros]

I try very hard!

Part of this is -- B5 is a really, really hard show to hook people on after the fact. There's too much arc, and the acting in the first season is so so wooden. There are many different strategies, most of them involving starting people at the end of season two or mid season three, but then you don't get the awesome, awesome arc coming to fruition! So you're all "you should watch it from the beginning!" except then people give up. So you can't win! And it makes you defensive. And sad.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I think the answer really is, start with season 2, and explain some of the important stuff what's happened before. Then, later, when she's hooked, she can go back and watch season 1.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'm invested enough to warrant sending a bunch of tapes off--I mean, if I were around the corner from you and could just pick them up, sure, but that's a lot of tapes, I wager, you know? I wouldn't mind seeing the show again, though.

*is wishywashy*

[graycastle.livejournal.com]

for serious, when it comes to scifi, I am willing to cut a lot of slack and give 'em a lot of time to grow into their show. And plus, I'm really, really easy to hook on a show, in general. I believe you that it will get better! I've watched plenty of bad scifi in my time - I used to have the space channel, which had a lot of canadian-made scifi shows, which doesn't mean they were BAD scifi shows or anything, but...uh...they were. plus, I made it through the first season of SGA! and most of the first season of SG1! so, anyhow, don't worry. I promise I will give it till the end of season three at least. *shakes on it*

[sineala.livejournal.com]

I think I cut up S1 a slightly different way: the arc eps you must see, the not so arc eps I personally enjoy, and everything else, most of which has some kind of B-plot that means you need to know later (e.g, Quality of Mercy).

I apparently wrote this up for someone once, and I concluded that the absolute non-skippable arc episodes were And the Sky Full of Stars, Signs and Portents, A Voice in the Wilderness, Babylon Squared, and Chrysalis.

I also have a soft spot for Mind War (I [heart] telepaths), but I don't think it counts as arc because the, um, super special powers foreshadowing didn't pay off due to cast changes and, um, the one with the sick kid -- Believers. Because "Believers" is all, we are not Trek, and it is awesome. And, yes, I like Deathwalker.

There's also a bunch of stuff I don't much like. I'm not sure one needs to watch Quality of Mercy, but everything you need to know gets reexplained later. I also really hate Soul Hunter, but I know it's important.

I started with the final five of S3 (well, when I was paying attention -- I watched most of S1 and the pilot and gave up). Another option might be to just start with "The Coming of Shadows," and catch up later. :)

[sineala.livejournal.com]

Also, did you end up getting your super-cheap DVDs? 'Cause I still need to buy S4 and S5, and $20 sounds good to me.

[eruthros]

Well, that's more-or-less how I cut up season one, too. But I figured I could roll the first two categories together when I asked people how they felt about episodes. :)

I call Parliament of Dreams, And the Sky Full of Stars, Signs and Portents, Voice in the Wilderness I+II, B2, and Chrysalis the crucial arc episodes, with maybe some Midnight on the Firing Line.

But I quite enjoy War Prayer (because of the scene with Londo and Vir in the garden), Born to the Purple (which really is kinda arc-like, but has an incredibly long payoff), Survivors (despite the crap acting of the guest stars, because it sets up the ideas of the President and of Garibaldi), By Any Means Necessary (speaking of things Star Trek would never do), and maybe some other ones I'm not remembering right now.

And my "bunch of stuff I don't much like" includes the A-plots of Infection, TKO, Deathwalker, aaaaand a lot of other things as well. :)

[eruthros]

I did! I had to email deep discount, but they actually undersold Wallmart by a dollar! So: $22.

[ryuichi333.livejournal.com]

Um. Hi. I've seen you around fandom a lot, and wanted to know if you would mind if I (both as Ryuichi333 and Oligomer) friended you? I really just enjoy your comments, and your posts are just as entertaining.

[eruthros]

You're free to, but I'm traveling out of the country right now so I'm not reading lj at all and barely checking the internet once a week. :)