Babylon 5 was a series that started off shaky, but really got good. In that sense it is similar to many other sci-fi shows I dig...TNG, DS9, X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer...ahh 90s sci-fi/fantasy on television. Good times. I didn’t watch Babylon 5 at all when it was originally on. I remember at least once trying to watch it on TNT...but it was beyond me at that point. Keep in mind I was in elementary school.
As an adult who got into sci-fi stuff pretty heavy around college, I would occasionally read stuff about B5, particularly as I got deeper into my childhood friend Star Trek, and I finally watched Deep Space 9. You can’t read about either show without some kind of reference to the other. So I was curious to see how Babylon 5 held up against a series that slowly but surely won my heart and became my favorite Star Trek series.
Hulu was initially my source for starting to watch. They had the pilot and some other episodes I think at the time. I watched “The Gathering” and I must admit it felt very dated. I attempted to watch the series then, but I kind of got sidetracked and lost interest for a few years. Part of me still wanted to try again though, an I’m glad I finally did. I restarted from the pilot and watched up through a few episodes into season two, when I got distracted again. Finally I got back in and powered through until it became such a joy to watch that I couldn’t stop.
“The Gathering” may not hold up as well as it should, but a lot for this series post-Season One really does. Season One is shaky and is bogged down by a stiff leading man. Now I understand the actor suffered from mental illness and that probably played into the weak performance he had, but his leaving the show lead to getting a charismatic and likable lead in Bruce Boxleitner, who I really enjoyed from the get-go. Season Two they found their feet, and and by the time they reached Season Three they were full throttle. Season Four was a rampant race through tying up major storylines in a satisfactory way, before we get to the final season...which while starting off a little rocky, found it’s place and ended the series on a proper high note.
There is still a TNT movie, a spin-off it leads into, and a couple of spin-off pilots that didn’t take off (one for the Sci-Fi Channel, the other for direct-to-DVD) to go, and I will review them. But Babylon 5 (the series proper) I have finally completed. It took me long enough to get into it, but now that I did...I think I’ll miss these characters a little.
NEXT TIME: Drakh Attack Earth
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