Babylon 5 - what a show!!

[BST]

I only wished that I had seen it on the first run. I love it.

Unfortunately, I could never remember what time it was on which seemed to be caused by always having something else going on at the time. A co-worker of mine kept telling me how good the show was and I did actually watch several shows and liked them but, could never get into a routine. As time passed, I kept getting farther and farther behind and since I'm the type that can't just start on something mid-way, I vowed to not watch anymore of it until I got the series on tape. Finally, after a long, long time, I was able to free enough money up to buy the set on DVD which I purchased last year. Still I had no time to watch it until recently.

Then, I went on my own 5-year mission which I just completed today.

What a show!! As many have stated, years before me, it was incredibly well written and I do also agree with the sentiment that JMS is a genius. It brought out the whole gamut of emotion with me. I laughed, cried, got angry with some of the characters, enjoyed when someone got his come-uppance (like Mr. Morten) and felt thoroughly satisfied when the last scene faded to black.

My favorite character:

Spoiler G'Kar

[gmd3d]

I agree. B5 is a great show, first run I did not take to it at all.
but when it got to season 2 I decided to give it a go and enjoyed it enormously.
for the reasons you have pointed out already.

it was the first TV show to use CGI for the ships and effects, at the time all in lightwave as far as I know.

The thing I like about JMS is that he likes the Hero willing to go the distance like Captain Sheridan, he pays for it too as you will remember in the end. which is very emotional.

I am now in season 4 again, just started.

imagine if you will what he could have done with BSG.

[Centurion Draco]

Originally Posted by BST

I only wished that I had seen it on the first run. I love it.

Unfortunately, I could never remember what time it was on which seemed to be caused by always having something else going on at the time. A co-worker of mine kept telling me how good the show was and I did actually watch several shows and liked them but, could never get into a routine. As time passed, I kept getting farther and farther behind and since I'm the type that can't just start on something mid-way, I vowed to not watch anymore of it until I got the series on tape. Finally, after a long, long time, I was able to free enough money up to buy the set on DVD which I purchased last year. Still I had no time to watch it until recently.

Then, I went on my own 5-year mission which I just completed today.

What a show!! As many have stated, years before me, it was incredibly well written and I do also agree with the sentiment that JMS is a genius. It brought out the whole gamut of emotion with me. I laughed, cried, got angry with some of the characters, enjoyed when someone got his come-uppance (like Mr. Morten) and felt thoroughly satisfied when the last scene faded to black.

My favorite character:

It's a truly great show. I must have watched it through a dozen times (all the way). It just gets better and better.

When the withdrawl starts to kick-in, buy the movies, then watch the whole series again, but inserting them in the right places
Then get Crusade and watch that as it follows on from 'A call to arms' but watch it using the JMS episode order.

ALso, make sure you buy the two sinlge dvds 'Legend of the Rangers' and 'The Lost Tales'.
They aren't quite up to the standard of the originals, but they have modern CGI which is fantastic!!!

And remember, continued support makes more output more likely. JMS hinted recently that there may be something in the works!!

[Centurion Draco]

Originally Posted by Taranis

.......imagine if you will what he could have done with BSG.

Now thats an idea!!!!

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Centurion Draco

Now thats an idea!!!!

JMS likes the hero aspect of characters. if not larger than life but close to it.

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by Taranis

I agree. B5 is a great show, first run I did not take to it at all.
but when it got to season 2 I decided to give it a go and enjoyed it enormously.
for the reasons you have pointed out already.

it was the first TV show to use CGI for the ships and effects, at the time all in lightwave as far as I know.

The thing I like about JMS is that he likes the Hero willing to go the distance like Captain Sheridan, he pays for it too as you will remember in the end. which is very emotional.

I am now in season 4 again, just started.

imagine if you will what he could have done with BSG.

Yep, I agree. Great sci-fi show. Have all five seasons, and two of the movies on DVD.

I think, actually, the first season or two of the show's CGI FX were done with a program called "Video Toaster", which was an app that I think was exclusive to the old Amiga PC's. They may have moved onto Lightwave after that though.

A few months ago, I had the honor of meeting the lovely Claudia Christian. Such a sweet person, and a beautiful lady. She's also a musician. I bought her CD (which, admittedly, I still have yet to listen to.) And to think, if I had not taken that weekend off solidly, I could've had the honor of entertaining her at one of my gigs. (WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!)

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by martok2112

Yep, I agree. Great sci-fi show. Have all five seasons, and two of the movies on DVD.

I think, actually, the first season or two of the show's CGI FX were done with a program called "Video Toaster", which was an app that I think was exclusive to the old Amiga PC's. They may have moved onto Lightwave after that though.

A few months ago, I had the honor of meeting the lovely Claudia Christian. Such a sweet person, and a beautiful lady. She's also a musician. I bought her CD (which, admittedly, I still have yet to listen to.) And to think, if I had not taken that weekend off solidly, I could've had the honor of entertaining her at one of my gigs. (WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!)

Video toaster is part of the NewTek world as is Lightwave. but I do believe that VT was first and was used for the first season of B5,

I was sorry to see she was not in the 5 season of B5.

Film and television programmes using Lightwave

A more comprehensive list can be found at the Lightwave website.
http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/projects.php#tvmini
Some notable highlights are:

Jurassic Park (1993 Visual Effects Oscar winner)
Babylon 5 (1993 Visual FX Emmy Award)
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) (2007, 2008 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
Children of Dune (2003 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
Dune (2001 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002 Oscar Nominee)
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (spinoff TV Series of the movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)
Lost (2005 VFX Emmy Award)
Stargate SG-1 (Emmy Nominee)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [2]
Star Trek: Enterprise (Emmy Nominee)
Star Trek: Voyager (1999, 2001 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
Titanic (1997 Visual Effects Oscar Winner)
The X-Files (2000 Visual FX Emmy Winner)
Pan's Labyrinth [5]
Avatar (2010 Visual FX and Art Direction Oscar Winner)
Invader Zim
Finding Nemo
24
300
Iron Man
The Outer Limits (TV)
Animal Armageddon (2009 documentary TV series created 100% in LightWave 3D)
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan
V (2009 TV series)
Firefly (Fox - Emmy Winner)

[martok2112]

Lightwave is an amazing program.

[kingfish]

i loved babylon 5. sadly a number of actors from the show have passed. michael o'hare[sinclair] seems to be mia.

[BST]

Yep. Zack. Dr. Franklin, and G'Kar have gone beyond the rim.

[Jubal]

Originally Posted by kingfish

i loved babylon 5. sadly a number of actors from the show have passed. michael o'hare[sinclair] seems to be mia.

Guess I was lucky to get his signature in 1995 then. He was kinda out of sorts even then. Just signing away, didn't really seem happy to be there.

Originally Posted by BST

Yep. Zack. Dr. Franklin, and G'Kar have gone beyond the rim.

Wow... sorry to hear that.

I got to see the show at about third season. I thought the show was weird and confusing for the first two seasons and thought it was just a Deep Space Nine rip off. Hey, just saying.

THEN I happened to give the show a fifth try and in that episode they showed the SHADOWS in the cell that were not usually visible and I said "Oooohhh.. this is cool."

Started watching the show, and in the stories that followed in the great shadow war was what I considered to be the golden era of the show. Great characters, great stories. Seasons 1 and 2 were better explained. Really grew to like the Vorlons or what Kosh was, the Rangers were cool, and B5 was kicking major Shadow butt.

I was talking to my friend who saw the final part of the shadow war when I had to work and I said just being funny "Let me guess, they all decided to make up, hold hands and just leave together."

And to that my friend said "Well, actually, yes." I don't know how I guessed that ending, and to this day I laugh about it.

To me what happened after the shadow war was just disappointing mush to me. They worked to introduce a new big bad, they tried to continue things on, but I felt it fell flat. Just saying.

Ranger series would have been cool if the original ranger was there. A show about Rangers should have been awesome but instead it was just... meh!

But amazing show and I think there will not be another show of a good continuing story line will not happen again for some time.

I think the New BSG (didn't like it, but I will see it for what it is) gave B5 a run for it's money, and in the end Deep Space Nine was good in it's own right. Perhaps even Andromeda could be one of those continuing tales that fall into this category which I enjoyed and also ran for 5 seasons. Didn't watch all of Farscape or Lexx. (no cable most of the time)

But B5 was just epic. The music was epic, the characters, the races, the believable character development, etc etc.