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Favourite Babylon 5 episode and why?

N

nathan_forst

Beyond the rim
Hey everybody

I would just like to know what your favourite B5 episode is and why.

Personally I do not believe that I have favourite episodes... but I could be wrong ;)
 
Of course there are the big, arc-intensive episodes (War Without End, Z'Ha'Dum, Into the Fire, Endgame), but, for me, there are 2 episodes that I could just watch over and over...

Rumors, Bargains, and Lies - I love the way that Sheridan finally comes to the realization that if he's going to get the alien governments to work together, he's going to have to make them think it's THEIR idea. His actions don't make sense to anybody but him until the end. Classic.

AND

The Deconstruction of Falling Stars - The pictures of the future are just great (especially the last scene :D). Hands down, my favorite episode.
 
My favorite might be "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place". I love the contrast between the religious service and Lord Refa's ultimate fate.

However, "The Fall of Centauri Prime" is a close second. For me, Babylon 5 is the story of Londo and in this episode he finally meets his fate.
 
I've always said that Comes the Inquisitor is my favorite episode. And it is, I think. But there are so many to choose from. I loved Severed Dreams, and, like Zathras said, Deconstruction was great. Then, of course there's Sleeping in Light. I'm just going to stick with Inquisitor because I'm a huge fan of the Ripper mystery. :D
 
Do we have to choose?

I usually pick out a couple for each season.


1: And the sky full of Stars (this was the episode that really got me hooked)
Grail (I don't care that everyone hates it, it still has the greatest pre title sequence cliff hanger)

2: Divided Loyalties (Lyta returns and the pace quickens for the season end)
Comes the Inquisitor (Sabastian. What more need I say?)

3: Messages from Earth (I still can't believe how much they fit in, plus we get Marcus' space dragon speech)
Grey 17 is Missing (Some good lines from Garibaldi, but it has Marcus' fight with Neroon)

4: Atonement (How can one episode be the most thoughtful and funniest episode of the season? Major General everyone?)
Between the Darkness and the Light/Endgame (Marcus and Susan. 'I love you')

5: Darkness Ascending (I came up with a fan fiction idea that was mirrored in this episode and it's nice to think great minds think alike)
Sleeping in Light (Nuff said. I still cry when they blow up my station)


Season five was a little tougher, but we were spoiled with seasons three and four. I could choose so many favourites from those two seasons, hence there actually being three from season four.
 
I can narrow it down to two episodes:

Endgame - It had me on the edge of my seat, and I literally leapt into the air cheering when the Agamemnon reappears through the flames of the defence platform. Then within minutes it had me in tears when I saw Marcus dying alongside Ivanova's bed, having given his life for hers.

Sleeping in Light - One long emotional rollercoaster, which has me weeping like a baby every time I watch.

I'm sentimental, OK? :)
 
I don't know about my favorite episode. I'm like a lot of people; I just can't pick one. Maybe it's because they're so dependent on each other.

But the episode that finally sold me on the series was "The Long Dark." Very creepy.

I'd watched B5 only sporadically the first season. I watched pretty much every episode after that one.

It's one of my favorites for that reason alone.
 
About a year ago I went through the entire series and rated each episode on a scale of zero to ten. Out of 110 episodes, twenty episodes had the highest rating of 10! If I had to choose my favourite among those, I think it would have to be The Fall of Centauri Prime (followed closely by "War Without End", "The Face of Enemy", "Sleeping in Light", "Messages from Earth", "Severed Dreams" and many other episodes).

Spoiler space for "War Without End" and "The Fall of Centauri Prime"


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What makes The Fall of Centauri Prime stand out for me is Londo's ultimate fate. He was my favourite character on the show and although we all knew from War Without End that eventually this day would come -- being under the influence of a keeper -- it was still very sad to see. He saved millions of Centauri lives, but in return he sacrified all of his freedom -- and basically his life -- that day. What made it especially tragic was that nobody except him and the Drakh knew about it. Whatever actions he took on behalf of the Drakh would be perceived as actions performed solely by himself. And after that day he was truly alone.

If anyone is interested, my Top 20 Episodes are as follows:

(in broadcast order)

Season 1
Babylon Squared
Chrysalis

Season 2
The Coming of Shadows
The Long, Twilight Struggle
The Fall of Night

Season 3
Messages from Earth
Severed Dreams
Interludes and Examinations
War Without End (Part One)
War Without End (Part Two)
Z'ha'dum

Season 4
Falling Toward Apotheosis
Into the Fire
The Face of the Enemy
Between the Darkness and the Light
Endgame

Season 5
And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
Movements of Fire and Shadow
The Fall of Centauri Prime
Sleeping in Light

As you can see, I'm a sucker for arc episodes. :LOL:
 
It's so hard to pick just one, there are many episodes I could watch over and over. If I was only allowed to watch one I would cheat a little and say the 2-part War Without End.

It clears up so many questions from the past and at the same time shows us something of the future.
 
I think it says a lot about a show that this many people have this much trouble choosing just one favorite because there are "too" many excellent episodes to choose from.

I'm kind of in that camp. If the question were, "What's the *best* episode," that would be too tough to answer. My answer would probably look a whole lot like Drakh13's list. However, since we're looking for the *favorite* episode, one episode always stands out in my mind for one particular reason...


And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place


I was an annoyingly obsessive Star Trek geek in high school and the first bit of college but was a late blooming fan of Babylon 5. That all changed when I saw Rock/Hiding Place. That is the episode in which my taste in science fiction changed, my appreciation for good drama matured, and I came to one revolutionary conclusion... Babylon 5 is better than Star Trek.

Granted, Babylon 5 still remains my favorite show of all time, but it was in that one single episode that I realized there was more to TV, drama, and science fiction than Star Trek, and more importantly, I knew the reasons why.

Unfortunately, what I'm living with now is the realization that nothing has been better than Babylon 5 since then and possibly never will be. In a way, Babylon 5 has ruined me on science fiction television, because it set the bar so high, I'm never more satisfied than I was during B5's run.
 
"And All My Dreams Torn Asunder"

Because it's a great episode.
Because it's a great episode for "Delenn"
Because it was directed by Mira's husband Goran whose work I like and because it gave the two of them the opportunity to work together.
 
I'm going to have to wait until s4 and s5 come out so I can see the episodes again. I've only seen b5 from start to finish once so its hard to say. But, for now I'd have to say my favourites are "Severed Dreams" and "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place".
 
I chose my favorites season by season as well.

Season One:
Signs and Portents, winner
Chrysalis, runner-up
And the Sky Full of Stars, honorable mention

Season Two:
Comes the Inquisitor, winner
The Coming of Shadows, runner-up
Honorable mention: In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, The Long, Twilight Struggle, Fall of Night.

Season Three:
Z'ha'dum
Interludes and Examinations
Honorable mention: about half the season... Messages from Earth, Severed Dreams

Season Four:
Into the Fire
Falling Towards Apotheosis
The Face of the Enemy

Season Five:
Sleeping in Light
The Fall of Centauri Prime
The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari

But probably my all-time favorite episode is the one which sold me on B5: Comes the Inquisitor. It gets better every time I see it.
 
I made this thread and I cannot ever choose my favourite episode, its just not possible for me! I thought the whole series was my favourite episode. ;)

1: And the sky full of Stars (this was the episode that really got me hooked)
Grail (I don't care that everyone hates it, it still has the greatest pre title sequence cliff hanger)
Click to expand...

I liked Grail! I thought Grail was a really good episode... why does everybody hate it? :confused:
 
I liked Grail! I thought Grail was a really good episode... why does everybody hate it? :confused:
Click to expand...

It was an unnecessary detour from the B5 arc. It was stupid and added absolutely nothing to the story. There are a few others (only a few thankfully) that are just as bad- TKO, Infection, and Grey 17 is Missing. Eeew. :rolleyes:

It's much harder to pick a favorite, there are so many good ones. My favorites would include these, but I'm sure there are more-

Messages from Earth
Point of No Return
Severed Dreams
Z'ha'dum
Endgame
The Fall of Centauri Prime
 
mmm... it's a hard question :)

Right now i'd say Coming of Shadows, because it kicks ass and i've watched s2 recently.
 
The best thing about the B5 universe, though, is that you may have a couple of bad episodes, but there are no utterly worthless episodes. I love to watch Star Trek:TNG when I can catch it, but I've seen several episodes that weren't worth watching at all. They were terrible from start to finish. Just about every Babylon 5 episode lends something to the story in one way or another.

* "Grail" gave us Delenn's dialogue with Sinclair about her belief that he is a "true seeker."
* "TKO" gave us the line, "Watch your back, Garibaldi."
* "Infection" introduced us to organic tech. & dead worlds which played LARGE parts in the overall story arc.
* "Grey 17..." set up the aire of respect between Neroon and Delenn that led to important decisions down the road.

Even if the main plot isn't that great, you can just about always find something important to the overall story in the "B" or "C" plot (though you have to look pretty darn hard in some 1st season ep.'s ;)).
 
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