I cracked out the B5 DVDs, and am currently approaching the end of Season 3 again.
It's now been 18 years since the pilot was released (1993), with Season 5 wrapping up in 1998, and a few movies, Crusade and such coming afterwords...
Star Trek, and even the new BSG series can't hold a candle to how well written this story arc was. And every time some character made a reappearance (Sinclair, Lyta Alexander, Bester, etc.), their backstory immediately comes to mind, and it is important. J Michael Straczynski really crafted a true gem here.
Incidentally, JMS wrote 92 of the 110 B5 episodes, including all of Season 3 and 4. Other notable writers include DC Fontana and David Gerrold.
Even the time travel episodes were well done, in comparison to some other attempts by other shows. They seemed very well thought out to me, not having that one off feel probably helped in this regard.
The other thing that I really appreciate was the attention to physics in the space battles. Watching Star Furies do battle is always a treat.
Having Harlan Ellison as a consultant probably helped a bit...
The CGI doesn't always stand up, but to be honest I haven't found that a distraction. The CGI sequences always tie in well with the story, which makes it easier to overlook. Imagining how some of the stuff would look using today's technology does make one wonder, though...
Captain Hiroshi's last act still gets me.
We've lost a few actors since the series was completed: Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway, Richard Biggs, Tim Choate (Zathras).
It is too bad that the B5 universe never really did get a decent video game treatment. Even a Star Fury battle simulator would have been fun. if I ever hit the lottery, and can get JMS and WB to agree...
Chris Franke's music is still brilliant after all these years. 'Nuff said!
I think Walter Koenig's portrayal of Bester was absolutely dead on!
B5 won a few awards back in the day...
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects, 1993 (The Gathering)[63]
Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series , 1994 (episode, "The Parliament of Dreams")[63]
Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, 1996 (episode, "The Coming of Shadows")[64]
Hugo Award: Best Dramatic Presentation, 1997 (episode, "Severed Dreams")[65]
Saturn Award: Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, 1998[66]
Space Frontier Foundation Award: Vision of the Future, 1994
Space Frontier Foundation Award: Vision of the Future, 1996
E Pluribus Unum Award: (Presented By American Cinema Association), 1997[67]
It would have been good to see Crusade or Legend Of The Rangers get some traction, but them's the breaks in the world of tv. Heck, I'm still torqued about Enterprise getting cancelled just as it was getting interesting, but that's another story.
Most of the B5 actors are now 'out of their prime', so a revisit of the series with the original cast would probably not hold up at this point. Besides, with Andreas gone, G'Kar's shoes would be very hard to fill in any case. Any re-imagining of this series would probably not go well...
Some useless trivia: Jerry Doyle left acting to become a talk radio personality. He hooked up with Andrea Thompson, but the two later split. Pat Tallman hooked up with Jeffrey Willwerth, but those two also split up several years later. Recently, Bruce Boxleitner and Melissa Gilbert have announced their separation, after being together for many many years...
Several B5 actors have since moved on to other things, while others still appear in interesting places now and then. Ed Wasser (Morden) hasn't acted in some time...
One of my favorite B5 quotes:
"The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
Topic: So I'm watching B5 episodes back to back again, some thoughts (Read 3115 times)