A forum site with a strong Scifi base and no Babylon Five threads? Where's the love?
The show ran for all five of its intended seasons from 1994 to 1999, won two Hugo awards, 2 Emmy Awards, spawned six movies, and a spin off TV show.
As a person who grew up reading Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series this show seemed to speak to me in ways few other shows ever have.
My forum name I use is a intentional misspelling of An'la'shok because at the time and place I wanted to use the name the correct spelling was not available. With the passing of time it no longer matters what the spelling is, I am who I am.
Some of the shows characters like the Narn Ambassador G'Kar or the Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek are very memorable and I think will stand the test of time.
The special effects at the time were first rate and rivaled big screen movies. The stories were considered first rate.
There were also a number of memorable quotes and speeches uttered.
Quote:
"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free" - Ambassador G'Kar
Quote:
The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari. It speaks in the language of hope; It speaks in the language of trust; It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul. But always, it is the same voice. It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us, And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born. It is the small, still voice that says: We are one. No matter the blood; No matter the skin; No matter the world; No matter the star; We are one. No matter the pain; No matter the darkness; No matter the loss; No matter the fear; We are one. Here, gathered together in common cause. we agree to recognize this singular truth, and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another, because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, and each voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future. We are one. - Ambassador G'Kar
Quote:
"Well take this for what little it will profit you. As I look at you ambassador Mollari, I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sounds. The sounds of billions of people calling your name."
"My followers?"
"Your victims." - Elric and Londo, The Geometry of Shadows
Quote:
"What do you want?"
"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I'd look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange it for me, Mr. Morden?" Morden and Vir, In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
Quote:
"What is there left for Narn if all of creation falls around us? There's nothing. No hope, no dream, no future, no life. Unless we turn from the cycle of death toward something greater. If we are a dying people, then let us die with honor, by helping the others as no-one else can."
"I can't understand."
"Because you have let them distract you. Blind you with hate. You cannot see the battle for what it is. We are fighting to save one another, we must realize we are not alone. We rise and fall together. And some of us must be sacrificed if all are to be saved. Because, if we fail in this, then none of us will be saved. And the Narn will be only a memory. - Narn Image and G'Kar, Dust to Dust
Quote:
"This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw, .. or be destroyed."
"Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship."
"Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else." Delenn and Captain Drake, Severed Dreams
Quote:
"Oh, Londo, you are a fool. You walk away from the greatest power I have even seen, and now you expect me to do the same. They are the key to my eventual rise to the throne. Why would I abandon them?"
"Because I have asked you. And because your loyalty to our people should be greater than your ambition. And because I have poisoned your drink." Lord Refa and Londo, Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Quote:
"What guarantees will you give me that the crews will not open fire on a Centauri vessel as it approaches Babylon 5 ?"
"It's the same guarantee I gave when I said that none of the other Narns would break into your quarters in the middle of the night and slit your throat."
"Mr. Garibaldi, you have never given me that promise."
"You're right. Sleep tight. - Londo and Garibaldi, Walkabout
Quote:
"Of course he doesn't! It's easy to fight when you've got a lot of ships to work with. The real crunch comes when you are down to almost nothing. Then you either play it safe and you probably lose it all or you take a chance. After everything we've been through with your people, Sheridan was crazy to send our pilots out to fight for your ship. They didn't want to go, they didn't want to get blown out of the sky and leave B5 defenseless, and they sure as hell didn't want to die. But they did it because Sheridan *told* them to do it, and because it was right."
"This time it is possible he could be wrong."
"Yeah, it's possible. But you don't follow an order because you know for sure it's gonna work out. You do what you are told, because your CO has the moral authority that says you may not come back. But the cause is just, and fair, and necessary. That's why Sheridan is out there, and dammit, that's where the cruiser should be too! It's not Na'kal's decision, G'Kar, he doesn't see the big picture. You do, so in my book, and your book, that makes it your responsibility. Deal with it!" - Garibaldi and G'Kar, Walkabout
Quote:
"G'Quon wrote: There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always paved in pain. - G'Kar, Season 3 ending in Z'ha'dum"
Quote:
"This is the White Star Fleet. Negative on surrender...we will not stand down."
"Who is this? Identify yourself."
"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander, daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth ... I am Death incarnate, and the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me."
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"And will you continue, until there are no more Narns, and no more Centauri? If both sides are dead, no one will care which side deserves the blame. It no longer matters who started it, G'Kar. It only matters who is suffering" - Ambassador Kosh Naranek
Love it. Once you hit the season with the shadow wars it was must watch. The whole swapping of places from light to dark between G'Kar and londo was Shakespearean.
If it wasn't for Babylon 5, there wouldn't have been Deep Space Nine.
Bab5 was brilliant.
Great stories that you could tell were well planned in advance, and others that took full advantage of things they'd done previously.
Casting for roles felt spot on too.
Not to mention, much of the tech of the show felt much more grounded in realism than Star Trek sometimes does, and Star Wars shouldn't.
Watched the earlier seasons until cast and producers got greedy with the money upping the rights to air the show. So practically no local station can afford it here(actually they could but that would be a huge risk since Filipino and Sci-Fi don't mix too well)
So I got stuck somewhere between season 3 I think(The part where the shadows are slowly beginning to be revealed)
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What doesn't kill you makes you a funny mother*****- Henry Rollins.
I must say, I'd only ever heard of the show til a bit under a month ago. Had heard it was pretty good, but knew nothing about it.
I am now 3 episodes from the end of Season 4, as the fleet is pressing in on Mars and Earth.
This show... it is epic. Seriously. I thought Trek was pretty good, and things like Firefly and BSG were awesome. But this... This takes the cake. By far.
The plot is quite simply amazing, for the fact that it is both good, and spans a 5-season arc, always remembering episodes and random tidbits from the past. I always felt other shows suffered when they had a standalone episode that went forgotten, but it seem every single one in Bab 5 is of some importance, somewhere down the track.
And by the fourth season, the CGI and graphics is superb. It sort of drew the big epic fights back a little in earlier seasons, but they were still awesome, and now that its gotten really good, they're epic.
All in all, the first season took a bit of effort to get through, which draws the whole thing down a little bit, but since a little over halfway through S1 the series has been constantly awesome.
9.5/10 - I don't think I can watch any other sci-fi now. My standards... they have been blown to unknown heights. Definitely my top sci-fi.
i think UPN was playing it at around 24:00 on weekdays.
from what little i can recall about the series it was not hi-speed at all. lots of dialog about the body politic of obscure space creatures followed up with teckno-babble.
i might still watch an episode or two- because as boring a B5 was it is still better then the crap fest that prime time TV is these days.
Thing with Bab5 was that you should watch it from the start to understand it all, but the first season wasn't nearly as good as the others. It's a necessary evil, per se.
Finished every movie and episode made to-date, in chronological order, and there can be no doubt... Babylon 5 is, in my opinion, the best sci-fi in town.
And now I'm just really, incredibly depressed that there is no more. The 5-year story arc was epic in its scope, and wonderfully executed. The movies that expanded further on the series were all excellently done, and it's just a shame that there aren't enough of them to fill in every one of the gaps made between the years.
No Babylon 5 thread? Where's the love?
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