Which was the best season of Babylon 5?

sidefxv1

sidefxv1

sidefxv1

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I used to love this show back in the day. Recently noticed it on special at a local books store so picked up the season 1 and 2 box sets. But which was the best season? I seem to remember the beginning of the Shadow Wars storyline being really good, which season was that?

(And should I just splash out and get all the boxsets while they're on special? :D )
 
2nd half of season 3 and first half of season 4 were probably the best episodes for me (if i recall correctly), mainly the Shadow War story arc. JMS has just released another B5 DVD also i think. Not picked it up yet as keep wasing through my BSG dvd's time after time.
 
Season 1 was more 'classic' sci-fi like Startrek, full of 'the weeks guest alien' and stand-alone episodes. Lots of groundwork for the later seasons however (probably worth watching the 'Babylon 4' episode).

Season 2 made good improvements, but it was Season 3+4 the best of the lot.

Season 5 was utterly dire, and seemed like an entire season of tying up loose-ends and stretching out plot lines that could have filled a few episodes. A real dissapointment.

And don't even think about watching any of the follow-up series. Some of the movies are reasonable however.
 
kefkef said:
2nd half of season 3 and first half of season 4 were probably the best episodes for me (if i recall correctly), mainly the Shadow War story arc. JMS has just released another B5 DVD also i think. Not picked it up yet as keep wasing through my BSG dvd's time after time.
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Series 3 and 4 were the best, I think that series 5 was a bit light on plot as they were a bit unsure of funding so put some plot in series 4 which was going to be in 5.

The latest DVD which came out recently is pretty poor being very light weight plot wise .... :(
 
If I remember rightly it was probably towards the end of the 3rd season that it started to be 'must watch telly'. That said from somewhere near the end of the 1st season, to the end of the 3rd it was very good stuff. Season 4 started off with a (ever so slightly disappointing) bang and then limped on through the remaining two thirds of the run.

I didn't even bother with the final season. :(
 
Season 3 and the first half of season 4. Although arguably the best episodes of the entire show came in seasons 1 and 2.

I really like season 1, it effectively set up the entire show.

Season 1

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/008.html

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/013.html

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/020.html

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/022.html

Season 2

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/031.html

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/038.html

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/044.html
 
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Lunatic Dreyfus said:
I didn't even bother with the final season. :(
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There was one or two really good episodes in season 5, and of course the fantastic "Sleeping in Light" which is probably one of the best bits of TV ever made. It was made during season 4 as they didn't know whether funding would be available for season 5, so they wanted to make the proper ending. Thats why its so much better than anything else from season 5.
 
Well, I think I'll grab them all while they're on special then. :) Sounds like 3 and 4 are must haves... and 5 has at least 1 episode that's worth watching.

Been watching the first series since getting it. I forgot how cheesy the first few episodes were. I was rofling at the wooden acting in the very first episode. You can tell most of the actors have no clue what to think about it all. I'm guessing they did a lot of blue\green screen stuff and that also seems to have thrown them off a bit. Just hit number 6 though and it's the first one I really remember from watching it on the telly - the one were the psychic (jason lionheart or somesuch) ascends. It's starting to suck me in all over again. ;)
 
Darthe said:
Season 1 was more 'classic' sci-fi like Startrek, full of 'the weeks guest alien' and stand-alone episodes. Lots of groundwork for the later seasons however (probably worth watching the 'Babylon 4' episode).

Season 2 made good improvements, but it was Season 3+4 the best of the lot.

Season 5 was utterly dire, and seemed like an entire season of tying up loose-ends and stretching out plot lines that could have filled a few episodes. A real dissapointment.

And don't even think about watching any of the follow-up series. Some of the movies are reasonable however.
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Because of the issues with funding JMS decided to finish Babylon 5 at the end of the 4th season, rather than end with a cliff hanger and then not finish the stories off. However Season 5 was given the go-ahead but with the major story arcs already closed story lines had to be created, run and completed far too quickly.
 
melchy said:
There was one or two really good episodes in season 5, and of course the fantastic "Sleeping in Light" which is probably one of the best bits of TV ever made. It was made during season 4 as they didn't know whether funding would be available for season 5, so they wanted to make the proper ending. Thats why its so much better than anything else from season 5.
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And also why its the only episode of Season 5 to feature Ivanova.
 
Just an addition to what i said above about really liking Season 1. I don't think you can really appreciate Season 1 until you've watched the entire series. I actually think its well worth going back to Season 1 again after you have watched the entire thing as you can then pick up on all the hints of things to come that you may have missed the first time around.

The CGI especially in Season 1 can look a little clunky, but the thing to remember is that it was state of the art for TV at the time and in many ways B5 opened the door for the use of CGI in TV. If i recall correctly an episode of B5 cost about 1/4 to 1/3 of the price of an episode of ST : TNG and some of that cost difference was down to the use of CGI rather than expensive models (later ST all changed to CGI).
 
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