Three decades ago, in the wake of the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation in first-run syndication, there was a plethora of shows that were released in that form—not beholden to a particular network, but sold to individual markets separately. Into that boom stepped Warner Bros., who formed a sort-of syndicated network: the Prime Time Entertainment Network, which would syndicate a series of shows to various markets: Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Pointman, Time Trax, a few miniseries, documentaries, and TV movies, and a science fiction show from the mind of J. Michael Straczynski: Babylon 5.
Straczynski had an ambitious plan: to do a science fiction show that would succeed on a reasonable budget and also that would tell a complete story—a novel in television form, as it were. While such serialized storytelling is de rigeur now, it was very rare on television in the 1990s, seen mostly in places like soap operas, as well as the occasional drama like Hill Street Blues.
B5 was planned as a five-year arc. Straczynski simplified budget concerns in two ways. One was to have the action all in the same location rather than hopping from planet to planet, as most screen science fiction shows did.
Another was to do the effects entirely via a process that is almost universal in the 2020s but which was virtually unheard of in the 1990s: Computer Generated Images. B5 was a pioneer in CGI, using the Video Toaster for the Amiga to create the visual effects rather than models and miniatures. This meant that episodes of B5 could be produced for less than half the budget of an episode of TNG.
B5 debuted in 1993 with a television movie, The Gathering. It had the misfortune to air the same week as the World Trade Center bombing in New York in 1993, which put the antenna atop the WTC out of commission, keeping the movie from being broadcast in certain parts of the New York metropolitan area. Despite this ratings hit, the movie did well enough for Warner Bros. to order a series, which debuted exactly thirty years ago on PTEN.
Straczynski’s five-year plan hit a few roadblocks, including losing his main protagonist. Series lead Michael O’Hare, who played the Babylon 5 station’s commanding officer Jeffrey Sinclair, was suffering from severe mental illness, and departed the show after the first season to seek treatment. (At O’Hare’s request, Straczynski kept the real reason for O’Hare’s departure secret until the actor’s death in 2012.)
Other real-world issues with various actors caused rewrites and rejiggers of the plotline, but perhaps the biggest was PTEN’s collapse in 1997, with B5 still in its fourth season. Straczynski wound up cramming a lot of the planned storyline for seasons four and five into season four—only to then have the show rescued by TNT (also at this stage owned by Warner Bros.’ parent company, Time Warner), which not only aired the fifth season, but also commissioned several TV movies and a spinoff series. Alas, the spinoff, Crusade, only lasted one season. Straczynski created another pilot movie, Legend of the Rangers, for what was then called the Sci-Fi Channel, but it was not picked up for a series.
In addition to being a CGI pioneer, Straczynski’s B5 was also an early forerunner of viral Internet marketing, using CompuServe, Usenet, and especially the GEnie bulletin board to create buzz for the show. In tribute to the support of the show prior to its airing on GEnie, Babylon 5 station’s coordinates were Grid Epsilon 470/18/22. Grid Epsilon was a reference to GE, the company that ran GEnie, while B5’s bulletin board was on page 470 (one of the three Science Fiction Roundtables, specifically the one dedicated to screen productions), category 18, topic 22. (Your humble rewatcher was a regular presence on GEnie in those days, under the username KEITH.D.)
In September 2021, Straczynski announced that he was rebooting B5. That’s still in development at the moment, delayed at least in part by the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023. Also in 2023, Warner Bros. released an animated film, The Road Home.
Partly in honor of this reboot, partly in honor of the TV series’ thirtieth anniversary, and partly because I’ve been wanting to rewatch the show for the first time since its initial airing, next Monday will kick off The Babylon 5 Rewatch here on Reactor. We’ll be covering everything, starting with The Gathering, continuing to the five seasons of the TV series, the one season of Crusade, and each of the various movies, from In the Beginning all the way to The Road Home. I might cover some ancillary material, too…
Like my rewatches of the first five Star Trek shows, of the 1966 Batman, and of the Stargate franchise, each entry will be broken down into categories. A few will be familiar, though most will be new.
It was the dawn of the third age… A summary of the plot.
Nothing’s the same anymore. Jeffrey Sinclair’s role in the story.
Get the hell out of our galaxy! John Sheridan’s role in the story.
I’m not subtle, I’m not pretty. Matthew Gideon’s role in the story.
Ivanova is God. Susan Ivanova’s role in the story.
Never work with your ex. Elizabeth Lochley’s role in the story.
The household god of frustration. Michael Garibaldi’s role in the story.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else. In general, the role of the Minbari in the story, as well as the specific roles of Delenn, Lennier, and the Grey Council.
In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic… In general, the role of the Centauri Republic in the story, as well as the specific roles of Londo Mollari and Vir Cotto.
Though it take a thousand years, we will be free. In general, the role of the Narn Regime in the story, as well as the specific roles of G’Kar and Na’Toth.
We live for the one, we die for the one. In general, the role of the Rangers in the story, as well as the specific role of Marcus Cole.
The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. In general, the role of telepathy, telepaths, and Psi-Corps in the story, as well as the specific roles of Lyta Alexander, Talia Winters, John Matheson, and Alfred Bester.
Never contradict a technomage when he’s saving your life—again. In general, the role of technomages in the story, as well as the specific role of Galen.
The Shadowy Vorlons. The role played by one or both of the Shadows and the Vorlons, the two ancient foes whose conflict makes up the tapestry of much of the series, in the story, particularly the uses of Kosh and Morden.
Looking ahead. B5 made copious use of foreshadowing by way of flash-forwards and prophecies, and this category will show when they’re used, and also when they later come to fruition (often not in the way you expect).
No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. A chronicle of the romantic and/or sexual exploits seen in the story.
Welcome aboard. The guest stars in the story.
Trivial matters. Various bits of trivia, ephemera, connections, revelations, etc. seen in the story.
The echoes of all of our conversations. A particularly good quote from the story.
The name of the place is Babylon 5. A review of the story.
Note that this rewatch will not have a 1-10 rating of each story. My least favorite part of prior rewatches has been having that silly rating system, which removes all nuance from the words that appear above it. I inherited it from the first Star Trek Re-Watch that appeared on this site back from 2009-2011, so I reluctantly continued it through all the Trek rewatches. I managed to not have to use it for the Great Superhero Movie Rewatch or the Stargate Rewatch, and I’m just as happy to avoid it here.
It’s possible I will think of other categories to add. I tried to anticipate all the various changes we’ll see throughout the various series, but I may have missed something that is worth having its own category. And I’m aware that not every character gets their own category, and in response I’ll just say that Jim Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Miles O’Brien, Julian Bashir, and Chakotay are among the major characters in the Trek rewatches that didn’t get their own categories. It happens.
We’ll be back next week with The Gathering!
I’m not sure if you shold cover all the books, but the three trilogies and two particular singles are certainly worth considering.
The novels about Galen the Technomage are particularly excellent.
While it shouldn’t be covered here, JMS’s autobiography, “Becoming Superman” is worth reading and talks about the production of the show. Fair warning, it’s the most frightening autobiography I have ever read.
Why is it the most frightening? And as its about Merry Christmas!
I saw him speak at the American Writer’s Museum and had only finished his book earlier that day. It was heartening to hear such a sincere, thoughtful gentleman he had become. A monument to resilience!
I still have all of those (though none of the non-canonical Dell novels anymore), and the DC Comics run (which is canonical). I haven’t re-read them in ages, though.
The books are a good illustration of why tie-ins to an active production are hardly ever canonical. JMS intended the Dell novels to be canonical, but he was too busy working on the show to supervise the books as directly as he wanted, so nearly all of them ended up not fitting with canon, with just two exceptions (one written by his wife, which no doubt made it easier to communicate with the author). But the Del Rey novels were published after the series ended, so he was able to plot and “showrun” them more directly. The comics were probably easier to keep canonical because they were shorter, and JMS himself wrote or outlined nearly all of them.
As I understand it, the DC Comics are only partially canonical. The ones by JMS are canon, but not the ones by David Gerrold.
Now that you mention it, that sounds familiar. In fact, I just checked, and I found that I no longer have Gerrold’s 2-part story, just the other 9 issues and one standalone special that JMS wrote or plotted.
Makes sense, of course; the simplest definition of “canon” in this sense is the body of works written (or at least directly overseen) by the original creator.
This is rather exciting!
While B5’s VFX were done in Lightwave 3D, which originally came from the Video Toaster, they never actually used Video Toasters to render the VFX for B5.
The pilot used Lightwave separately on a series of networked Amigas, and then Foundation switched to PCs and DEC Alpha workstations for the series.
Thank you for taking on this project, Keith! I have long wanted a B5 rewatch, and I very much enjoyed your Star Trek and superhero-film rewatches, so I am very much looking forward to this. In particular, I have always appreciated how you have approached the material as both a fan and an honest critic; I am intrigued to find out how that plays out for a show in which I had a stronger fan interest.
Prior to last night, the last time I watched any B5 was on my old 27″ tube <mumblety> years ago. Alas, to my complete lack of surprise, a 2014-vintage flat-screen is not particularly kind to a 2002 DVD transfer of 1990s CGI. <shakes fist in general direction of the WB archivists>
Indeed. The “real-life” was done in 16:9 hi-def, but pan-and-scanned to fit 4:3 screens. The CGI was all rendered if 4:3 standard def. So, yeah; without re-rendering the CGI fo match the real cinematography (horribly expensive!), it didn’t translate all that well to our now standard widescreen TV’s and monitors.
The original intention was to re-render the CGI for widescreen. JMS understood that the tech was moving fast and by the time things like Blu-ray were a thing ten or fifteen years later, it would be cheap to rerender – using the original CGI files.
Then Netter Digital and Warners lost the original files.
(The transition from Foundation Imaging to Netter Digital impacts the animation in a few other ways; the original Foundation ship and station models reportedly have animated features that they designed in but that simply don’t get used at all after the changeover.)
It’s horribly expensive now because you’d have to rewrite the CGI from scratch. It shouldn’t have been, because as usual the series was ahead of its time.
I have a prejudice against “artificial intelligence” “creativity”, but I think I could tolerate a use of “A.I.” to watch older media – including old and scratchy and monochrome and muffled sound movies and television – basically to re-perform it with high quality modern video. Or even immersive.
On the other hand, do I want A.I. re-making “Babylon 5” instead of JMS re-making it? And I suppose that wishing for both isn’t right, either.
I’d rather see old media the way it was made. Clean it up, yes, make it as good as it looked when it was new if possible, but don’t “modernize” its format. The Mona Lisa doesn’t need to be in 3D or animated, Citizen Kane doesn’t need to be colorized, and Gojira doesn’t need its effects replaced with CGI.
The goal of art is not to “get it right,” to achieve some absolute standard of perfection or correctness, but to express the creativity and talent of its makers. When you watch something old with flawed effects or stagey sets or whatever, you’re seeing the hard work and caring that the production team put into making the best thing they could with the resources they had. Replacing that with someone else’s modern work may look better, but it disrespects the work and commitment of the original creators. And replacing it with “AI,” with something that wasn’t even created by human skill (or that was plagiarized from many humans’ skillful creations and mechanically mashed together), would just render it soulless and invalidate the whole purpose of art.
Very excited to have this rewatch! I’ve watched all of B5 more times than I care to count, and still have a box full of VHS tapes of the whole series I made off of the broadcasts. Now if only I had a working VCR…
Very very happy to have a rewatch and rediscussion of this epic.
Let’s go!
As a note for those doing the rewatch along with Keith, if you have a Roku box the whole series is available on the Roku channel that is included with the box.
And since this was a show formatted for television, the commercial breaks are still use for that purpose on Roku.
Actually, you don’t have to have a Roku. the Roku Channel is available on computers. They have some really good shows available for free with commercials.
The web version of the Roku channel is not available everywhere. It’s not available in Canada, for example, although it is available here through their streaming devices.
But in this case it doesn’t matter, because Roku doesn’t have B5 available in Canada either. There doesn’t seem to be any authorized streaming source for it in Canada, paid or free, although you can buy digital copies via AppleTV.
I still have my DVDs. I may have to dig them out.
There’s a new blu-ray boxed set release with the recent rescanned masters. The quality is generally excellent given the show’s limits, and you can see so much more costume detail.
So glad you are doing this. B5 is one of my favorite shows ever and I think it really holds up to the point of seeming prescient at times. The rating system isn’t necessary so I don’t mind you ditching it.
Well time to break out the DVDs! I don’t think those contain The Gathering so I’ll start at the beginning of the regular series (unless, of course, my memory is wrong and that episode is included) Looking forward to this!
The First Season DVD did not contain The Gathering; there was a separate DVD set that contained all of the movies (including The Gathering).
Excitement abounds!
I’m very much looking forward. The only disappointment for me that i haven’t found any streaming services that would have B5 in Europe…
Did you reject/not consider sections on races and/or medical (focused on Dr. Franklin)? I think those are another important part of the storyline.
Don’t forget for next week that there are two different versions of “The Gathering,” the original one and then the one JMS re-edited for TNT.
It’ll probably be the TNT one, as I believe it’s more readily available. At least it’s the version that was released on DVD.
Very excited about this rewatch as I just bought the Blu-ray set of the series. Will be following along.
I just stumbled upon this and it could be very interesting to read other’s thoughts on B5 which is my favorite TV show.
I would suggest a category for alien races, they are very important to the B5 setting and story.
Um, did you read the entry you’re commenting on? The Minbari, Centauri, Narn, Shadows, and Vorlons all have their own categories.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
He may mean the unaligned world aliens – not sure though. Not sure they merit a category but the UN like structure of the show with almost a security council was one of the most fascinating aspects of it to me.
When I was a teenager (I was a weird teenager) I subscribed to Writer’s Digest. They had different departments where pros at the craft of novel writing or short-story writing, say, would give tips every month. JMS was the scriptwriter columnist. He talked the readers through the process of his coming up with the idea, pitching the show, and getting it accepted. And then he announced he was leaving WD to work on the show full time. I hoped it would succeed, but mostly I thought about how much I would miss his columns. Never did I imagine it would become such a cultural touchstone.
The Lurker’s Guide, while definitely showing its age as a website, has some great information for fans of the show.
A note for would-be lurkers: the main “Epsiodes” page of The Lurker’s Guide is currently broken, but the individual episode pages are accessible via the “Reference” tab instead.
Hey, maybe this rewatch will case a spike in traffic that will get the current maintainers’ attention…
Interesting, I’ve never watched this show so I’ll be tuning in…Monday.
When it was first airing, I’ll admit that I was a Star Trek snob and thought B5 was a cheap knockoff. Then somewhere in Season 3 I stumbled across and episode of B5 that completely hooked me and changed my perspective on the entire show. At that point I had to go back and watch the entire series from the beginning. Despite its flaws (it has a few), B5 is at the top of my list for favorite SciFi TV shows.
I’m really looking forward to this rewatch. In fact, it might be time for me to actually rewatch the show myself (thank goodness I have the full-series DVD set).
It was actually the other way around. JMS pitched B5 to Paramount and sent them a copy of his series bible. They didn’t buy it. But shortly thereafter, a Star Trek series premiered about a multi-racial space station, set against the backdrop of a major interstellar war, that even featured a changeling (as did B5’s pilot)…
None of that is valid. DS9’s creators had no “interstellar war” in mind; that came along years later under a different showrunner. And it’s specious to compare a shapeshifting guest character in the B5 pilot to a series regular in DS9. This was only a few years after Terminator 2 had shown what CGI morphing could achieve, so naturally lots of different productions independently wanted to feature shapeshifting characters to take advantage of the technology.
As for the space station thing, the original intent for DS9 was actually to set it on the surface of Bajor. The only reason they abandoned that in favor of a space station is because it would’ve been too expensive to do regular location filming.
And how is “multi-racial” evidence of anything? Most space-based science fiction features multiple alien species. You might as well claim imitation because they both have background music or have the characters speak English.
The series is also streaming on Tubi, with limited commercials (about 1-2 breaks per episode with 1-2 ads per break). The only extra beyond the five seasons is the pilot movie, “The Gathering.”
This is great news, Keith. I loved your Star Trek rewatches, and am delighted to hear you will be applying your efforts to my favorite TV show.
I can’t wait to see your comments on Zathras. And Zathras. And Zathras, too.
Zathras will be savaged … always savaged…poor Zathras…
The problem with the category headings is that the font used on the new site makes it almost impossible to distinguish bold print from regular text. Could you maybe switch to using underlines for the categories, or putting colons after the headings instead of periods?
This is going to be such a treat. I have been a fan of B5 since my father started to watch it back in 1994. It’s this show that he loved, even more than Star Trek, and I always enjoy watching it with him when theres a marathon or when he gets the urge. I’m defintley going to be watching this commentary as close as a Vorlon. Faith Manages, everyone.
YES!!! I loved this series even more than I loved STNG and I LOVED STNG….part of it I am sure is that it hit just the right time for me end of high school and beginning of college when I was beginning to question various authorities in my life and find my own way – much like ..well that is a spoiler … which goes to my next question. This hits at a perfect time as I am rewatching the series (in disjointed format) with my father. (We have just gotten to the second season where things begin to kick off in amazing fashion) how are spoilers going to be dealt with? I would love to get him to read these postings!
This is a rewatch of a 30-year-old show. It will be full of what some may consider spoilers.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Looking back from 30 years later one of my favorite characters is Vir Cotto. What an arc! Starts out (deliberately, given who played him) as “Flounder from Animal House in Space” ends up as Centauri Emperor, with a few Moments of Awesome (that little wave, like this…) and of course his covert work with the refugees.
That scene with Morden’s head was epic. All scenes between them were great.
Yes! Vir was a terrific character and the way he matured over the seasons was so well done.
That should be, “Flounder from Animal House… in Spaaaaaaaaaace!!!!!”
I began watching the series just before the third season started on the PTEN Network. I stumbled upon the episode “Comes the Inquisitor” re-airing, and I knew then I would do whatever was needed to not miss what was to come. When TNT revealed they were picking up the series for season 4 AND re-airing the pilot and the first four seasons in order, I got a S-VHS recorder to capture it all, since my job prevented me from watching in real time. Anyone know where to find a working S-VHS player? Anyway, I saw an article yesterday that the Blu-ray version was on sale on Amazon and ordered it (bought the DVDs way back as they were released) on a whim. Saw this article 24 hours later – serendipity strikes again!
Which version are you going to be watching? I did a B5 rewatch a couple of years ago with my housemate who hadn’t seen it (sadly i didn’t entirely convert him to this or Farscape).
We started off watching some DVD copies, and it was rough going. I knew Bablyon 5’s CGI wasnt going to have aged well – but this badly?
After the frist half series or so we switched to the Amazon prime remastered versions. The amazon versions are in 4:3 rather than widescreen which is a bit of a pity, but are in full HD and don’t butcher the CGI.
Really looking forward to this. B5 is my all-time favorite television series, warts and all.
I know it’s way too early to ask, but in 2.5 years or so, in what order are you going to review Crusade? I remembered that there was a big reshuffling of episodes, and per Wikipedia, there are at least 4 different episode orders out there.
SInce one of the categories is Matthew Gideon, I’m assuming (yeah – I know about ass-u-me-ing…), it’ll get to Crusade.
You don’t need to assume anything, it says right there in the article you’re commenting on that I’ll be including Crusade.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
As I recall, even though they rearranged the intended episode order for Crusade, they did some reshoots or something to justify the uniform changes and such in-story, so there are elements that only work in the original broadcast order, although that order has continuity problems too. There really is no viewing order that’s entirely consistent.
I’ll cross that bridge when I burn it. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Heh. Fair enough.
Very much looking forward to these reviews. I have very fond memories of watching the series the first time around. I kind of have a soft spot for the golden age of syndication. Most of it was admittedly little more than dodgy hangout TV at best (“War of the Worlds”) and hate-watching at its worst (“The Crow: Stairway to Heaven”) with stuff like “Forever Knight” and somewhere in between but I’m so tired by the joylessness of prestige TV I’d happily welcome a few more guilty pleasures. I suspect you’ll temper your evaluations with an appreciation for the Herculean task Straczynski was up against as well as the amount of affection so many of the people involved with the project put into it. It really was an Andy Hardy-like work of love and sincerity in a medium generally devoid of such qualities.
Babylon 5 is one of my favorite shows. I’m looking forward to the rewatch. It will give me an excuse to break out my DVDs. I have all of them. I’m debating whether or not I want the Blu-ray even though they are currently on sale. I may not comment on everything but I read all the posts.
What order are we watching them in? The Lurker’s Guide used to give a specific order to watch the episodes and movies.
I’m sticking with broadcast order, more or less.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I look greatly forward to this! And I hope that this time, I can maintain enough interest following the fifth season that I can manage to watch all of the movies.
Love it!! This was my favorite television show for a very long time. Looking forward to your analysis.
As a teen I loved both B5 and DS9 and didn’t see why it was a big deal when so many other shows shared premises, and they both did different things with their respective storylines. I’ve rewatched it a couple times over the last 20-odd years since its first airing, and it’s still a good time. A friend recently watched it for the first time and had a blast.
I really liked the “backdoors” for most of the main actors to leave and return as needed due to the realities of 90s television production, personalities, and life in general. The telepaths particularly had some interesting setup possibilities either way.
And I loved the serialization. I like continuity and trackable character growth, so while there was some of that over the years of syndicated shows, the nature of them made that a lot more background in many cases (or really only showcased during big “event” episodes, especially around sweeps weeks and season starts and finales). Also multi-episode, let alone season-long, let alone series-long, storyarcs were rare things back then, and B5 helped push the notion mainstream.
“While such serialized storytelling is de rigeur now, it was very rare on television in the 1990s, seen mostly in places like soap operas, as well as the occasional drama like Hill Street Blues.”
A couple of things are worth mentioning here. For one, while there were shows with serialization before B5, none of them did what B5 did, which was to make each season a distinct arc with a beginning and end. They just went on continuously. It was B5, along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its “Big Bad” story-arc model with a different archvillain every season, that laid the template for modern season-arc storytelling.
Second, and more importantly, it’s inaccurate to say B5 was serialized. Rather, it was a mix of episodic and serial elements. A strict serial is a single plot (or several parallel subplots) spread out across multiple consecutive episodes, so that each episode is merely a chapter rather than a whole story in itself. In B5, a plot that began in one episode would usually be resolved in that episode, but would have ramifications further down the road. It told episodic stories that were complete in themselves, but that advanced a larger continuity over time. Which worked better than the pure serial approach that’s overused today, because it allowed the individual episodes to be memorable and distinct stories in themselves that added up collectively to something bigger, rather than just being indistinct fragments of a single dragged-out story. So it really does B5 an injustice to call it a serialized show. It struck a healthy balance between the strengths of episodic and serial storytelling.
Really, ever since B5 was in first run, I’ve seen people assuming that episodic and serial storytelling were mutually exclusive opposites, a binary choice, when the truth is that most series have a mix of both approaches to one degree or another. I’ve always felt the ideal was to strike a balance between them.
Those who overstate the degree to which B5 was serialized overlook or ignore its creator’s own thoughts on the subject. “A novel for television” was always an elevator pitch, not a structural analysis. During its original run, JMS commented many times that he felt the story in each episode required a proper beginning, middle, and end; and that it was essential to frequently mix in standalone episodes to avoid exhausting or alienating the audience.
What I recall being so distinctive (and compelling) about the first season of B5 was its use of foreshadowing much more frequently and overtly than other episodic SFF TV of its time (or since, IMO); by late in the first season it was clear that the writers were taking care to think through story elements before putting them on screen, and then playing fair with their in-story consequences. Perhaps those impressions of intentionality & connectedness—and the degree of insulation they provided from sloppy retcons—can make B5 feel more serialized & pre-planned than it actually was.
I think it’s simpler than that — people mistakenly equate continuity with serialization. B5 was an episodic series with a strong evolving continuity, not unlike the later seasons of Deep Space Nine, but more preplanned. But people these days refer to anything with a story arc as a serial even when it isn’t.
I’d suggest the category “We’re not some Deep Space Franchise”, quoting Ivanova from the episode There All Honor Lies. The category would be for all the nods to Warner-owned properties that Straczynski worked into the series, starting with Garibaldi’s love of Loony Toons and moving outward from there. Imagine being a writer given the freedom to reference that massive catalog without having to worry about copyright issues. Straczynski took full advantage!
I always figured that the cross-promotion was part of how Warner Bros. covered the budget, rather than something JMS chose to do.
No, I don’t think that follows. Product placement is when you get someone else to help pay for your show in exchange for incorporating their product. There’s no financial benefit to incorporating references to your own product, since then you’d just be paying yourself.
JMS has confirmed that making Garibaldi a Daffy Duck/Looney Tunes fan was entirely his own idea: https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1670215384396607489
There was a lot more WB/Looney Tunes stuff on set that was never really seen on TV. One time I visited the set was when Garibaldi’s quarters was set up and there were rugs in addition to the stuff on the walls. Plus Joe had some stuff in his office (including some Superman statues and a signed photo of Joel and the Bots).
That sort of thing isn’t exactly uncommon in TV — for instance, I remember a WB-owned episode of The Dukes of Hazzard whose plot revolved around something being smuggled in a Bugs Bunny doll, and the movies shown on Movie Night on Star Trek: Enterprise were usually Paramount films. So I don’t think it’s a distinctive enough practice to warrant a category.
I love that this is happening just as I’m (finally) getting the series on Blu-ray. :)
It occurs to me that a better heading for ‘Looking ahead” might be “Zathras warn, but no-one listen to Zathras.”
This is great news, Keith! Looking forward to another of your terrific rewatches.
One note of recollection on “viral Internet Marketing”: the Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 played a big role in this during the original run. Not only was it very well done, but JMS participated in a way that gave it extra juice.
This looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. I am a first time watcher of Babylon 5. I’ve started watching on Tubi. I’ve just finished episode 18. And will watch episode 23 this weekend which is The Gathering, TNT version.
I know I am late to the party in regards to Babylon 5 viewership but such is life. I think I had an internal bias towards the show. Misguided I know, because the bias was simply that it wasn’t Star Trek or Star Wars. Crazy right.
The first few episodes have been a bit rough in parts but it is a series that is clearly different than Deep Space Nine, which in my mind is the Star Trek most like this show. From what I can tell, both shows have very similar elements, aside from the Holodeck.
I look forward to joining the conversation.
Already loving the names you gave the categories, especially “We live for the one, we die for the one“. My mind immediately goes to Marcus in the episode “Grey 17 is missing”. One of my favorite displays of loyalty and devotion from any character.
Good thing it’s going to cover all the TV movies, plus Crusade. And let’s not forget the DVD-only Lost Tales from 2007 – which is essentially a couple of extra episodes that take place in-between 2262 and 2281.
I am really looking forward to this rewatch as I consider B5 one of my favorite shows. Your previous series have all been wonderful and I used your DS9 articles during my first full watch of the series to really help jeep things in order and aware of the moments that would become important, and I’m sure this rewatch will bring more of that great analysis.
In a show with so many characters though I am disappointed that Dr. Stephen Franklin didn’t warrant his own sub heading has he does have a fairly good long term story through a good portion of the show. But, that may just be my memory colored by time.
Right, betting this is going to be fun enough that I finally made an account and got the B5 blu rays for the watch-along. Let’s go!
I have a suggestion for another category, which could be called Missing in Action or Sir Not Appearing in This Episode. Something that annoyed me about 90s Trek was how every opening credit character had to appear in in each episode, regardless of how awkward or contrived it might be. But with Babylon 5, if a character didn’t have feasible role in the episode, said character just didn’t appear. Perhaps the category could also extend to opening credit characters who only appears in flashbacks or as hallucinations.
BTW I’m only seeing a fraction of the comments this thread should have and don’t see anything to click on to reveal more. Anyone know how to uncover these unseen comments?
Sorry, it turns out that my browser was just being sluggish in loading the excess comments.
OMG. YES. YES, PLEASE, AND THANK YOU. One of the greatest SF stories ever written in any media. Hands down.
Wow, I’m excited. I’m not familiar with your other work, but a chance to rewatch what I would call the best sci fi series and be able to watch discussions of it – that really sounds exciting. Straczynski’s grasp of politics and sociology astounded me on my first watch of this. I cant wait to see if it holds up.
Just checked my DVDs to make sure that I have everything. (Yay, I remembered correctly. All set.)
I’ve watched all of the episodes and most of the movies more than once, but it’s been a while. This will be fun.
Looking forward to this!
Most definitely looking forward to this rewatch discussion. It’s been too long!
Thank you, Keith.
Oh this is going to be good! B5 was a big part of my college life and I’ve rewatched it many times over the years. Last fall we started watching it again, one episode a week, with our 14 year old. I had forgotten how long the seasons were! We have just barely made it into season 2.
Looking forward to this. B5 is one of the few shows I keep acquiring replacement media for as technological time marches on.
I started with VHS tapes recorded off the air of all the episodes. Only one was not my own — something happened, I made a yowl of pain about it on rastb5, and a very kind lady in Hawaii (!) duped her copy and sent it to me. The main thing I remember about that tape collection, which filled a large storage tub, was that you could get a good snapshot of history from the TV news ads playing during the shows (OJ Simpson!).
Eventually, once DVDs were the thing, I got the full set of them. That’s what I (re)watched with my son when he was growing up.
Now, in the interest of saving a foot and a half of shelf space, I bought the BluRay set for myself. Which is what I’ll use for this article series. Very cool, very slick, very non-space-consuming … but still missing a bit of the charm of those old VHS tapes (as well as the Stewart Copeland very cool soundtrack for the original “The Gathering”).
I think the food deserves its own category. Characterization through food. Food jokes. Intrigues around food. Alien food … Don’t know what to call it.
Also, Earth politics. Definitely something Orwellian in the reference.
“Alien food … Don’t know what to call it.”
Exocuisine, or xenocuisine? Or if we stick with Ancient Greek roots, xenomagirics (assuming we’re referring to culinary arts).
Looking forward to this! It’ll be nice to see your reactions after 30 years.
This is going to be such a fun read/watch-along!* It was one of the shows I watched with my dad when I was growing up and has remained a family touchstone with a lot of fun memories
*Though I had to send the DVDs back last year.
B5 is a family classic, and we get the DVD box set my dad and his brothers-in-law all pitched in money to buy 20 years ago on rotation. So every year at the family reunion it gets brought and handed off to the next brother – or cousin of the next generation – to watch again. Basically everyone gets to rewatch it in turn every 5-6 years, but at least I had my turn fairly recently :)
Also just had a friend watch it for the first time last year and she loved it! So I might pull her onto the Reactor train to read Keith’s reviews of it!
I love that this series is appreciated. My husband and I just finished a B5 rewatch with friends who had never seen it, and since we have the dvds, why not? They enjoyed it – which is good because we’d really have to question their taste if they didn’t XD
Current rewatch is Farscape (again with our friends who missed out – they’re younger). Next on the list is Lexx . . .
Looking forward to this! I haven’t watched Babylon 5 since it was on air, and this will be the first of krad’s non Trek rewatches I’ll be here for.
Though, this will mostly be a watch for me. I remember very little about Babylon 5, mostly just characters and species and minor plot points. I watched episodes of the first 2 or 3 seasons in first run. So it’ll be weird for me to try to avoid spoilers from a 30 year old series.
I’m very excited to go through the saga from beginning to end.
Hi, all–we’ve run into some technical difficulties, so Keith’s first episode rewatch will be up tomorrow (Tuesday, March 26) instead of today as planned. Please check back, and thanks!
While we’re waiting, I thought I’d point out that Reactor’s search capabilities continue to confound, despite the improvement over the old site (e.g., having actual sort options). Searching for “Babylon 5” does not find this post, despite both the phrase in the title and the tag. It is the first post that shows if you actually find the tag and you can also find it if you search for Keith’s name and click on that to get a list of his posts, but the general search simply fails. Your indexing still needs work.
Yes, I just tried to search for an old TNG Rewatch article, and it took me forever to find it in the so-called “results.” I finally found it on the last page, because apparently the searches default to reverse chronological order rather than how close the match is, which is an incredibly useless way of doing it. Compounding that is that it apparently doesn’t search for titles specifically, just anything that has the search words anywhere in the article. And I’m not even sure it limits itself to hits that contain all the search words.
No discussion of B5 would be complete without mentioning “The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5.” It is perhaps the original B5 wiki.
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/
“At O’Hare’s request, Straczynski kept the real reason for O’Hare’s departure secret until the actor’s death in 2012.”
Some important context: JMS planned to take the secret to his own grave but O’Hare told him to only take it to his, believing that the fans should eventually know and hoping that learning about his struggle might bring awareness to mental health.
“When the last tear, like the last drop of blood, was shed, all the Earth nation’s brave warriors’ deaths portended that awful fall, and heralded human history’s end.”
~First Ones (Battle of the Line, alternative histories)