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How did we all become Babylon 5 Fans?

I didn't get hooked till late last year actually, so I'm a newbie. When it first started airing, I was never home to watch it. I worked a retail job and had shifting hours. I do remember being at my parents house once and they had it on (it was season 1) and I remember thinking 'what an odd show. What is UP with that dudes hair'. I thought it looked strange and never tuned in, and my parents didnt get hooked in the 2 episodes or so they saw in season 1.

Over the next year or two occasionally I would see it on at my best friends house. He watched it, and his dad did as well. He said it was a cool show, which many would think is a reason to watch it right? Well my friend watches a LOT of TV. He has good taste in some stuff, but also watches a LOT of real bad TV. So I didn't give it much thought.

Last September or so (we live together as roommates now) my friend started watching it again on Sci-Fi. They were re-running it in order at 6pm CST...perfect for me as thats when I get home from work. I was on the comptuer in the same room and half tuned in. It must have been the third season or so, beause the Shadows were pretty active. I started asking him 'who is that. what is that. what is going on' etc and he filled me in. I realized that even though it was a neat show to watch (season 3) that there was a LOT I missed. I hit the net and some sites and read about the whole premise, and that it was a 5 year long story. Then I was hooked. I have ALWAYS been into story arc type shows. I LOVED that Xfiles had this background story for several seasons about the alien colonization. (Ive stopped watching that BTW cause they have lost track of it and its kinda pointless now). So I didn't tune in a lot to B5 until season 1 started, then I watched it begining to end, taping it as I went. Now I have the folks watching it.

Gee that was long. Sorry about that. What can I say, I am at work and have nothing better to do at the moment...
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'I don't believe in the no-win scenario' - JTK
 
This is a great topic and it has really gotten me walking down memory lane to think of a reply. I found it interesting how so many people can have such a wide variety of experiences with the show and have nearly the same end result ... becomming a big fan.
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I actually remember reading an article in TV Guide about the new pilots for the next season. I was flipping through the overviews when the one for B5 caught my eye. I read it and was intrigued but dismissed it as a ST knock-off (I was a huge ST:TNG fan). I did actually want to see it just to see if my initial reaction was correct, but I don't think I ever did see the pilot.

This is all kind of hazy in my mind but I remember catching a few season one eps and thinking ... ok, this is not bad and not exactly ST either. The aliens were diverse and interesting so I kept on watching but not regularly. I am pretty sure I missed most of the end of season one (all the WHAM eps) and picked it up again in early season two. Whoa boy ... was I sure thrown for a loop! Everything changed and I had no idea what happened or how they got there. Most confusing!

Luckily, this happened right before my first trip to Sweden to meet a guy (who is now my husband). He was really pleased that I was familiar with his favorite show and helped fill in some of what I missed. In fact, I remember sitting together watching most of season one (still no B5 Squared) that he had taped. It was then that I knew it was true love ... with both the show and the man.
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After that, I was hooked and struggled to catch up when I got home. Then there were the scheduling changes which made it hard to see every single episode. During that time, I remember the first AHA! that I got when I realized that the forshadowing was placed a few years before an event actually happened. Man, now -THAT- was good television!

It wasn't until the reruns on TNT when we got to see the series again in it's entirety and really got to see how many layers upon layers this show had. I realized that a lot of season one wasn't as bad as I thought it was since it set us up for stuff that happened much later.

Of course, we had to find out more about this man who could do this and I joined every mailing list I could. Well, now I am more fanatic than my husband is.
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Monica Hübinette | monica.hubbe.net | The Abyss : B5
It is an infinite helix, the dance of two souls resonating, like the twist of DNA, like the vast universe. --Banana Yoshimoto (Lizard: Dreaming of Kimchee)
 
I have a really simple story.

I needed something to do at 7 pm about this time last year, watched Season 5's Centauri conflict, and was hooked.

That's it.


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The writer's life is not meant to be a happy one. We all accept that going in. -JMS
 
I got into the show kinda backwards. My son got me hooked on the CCG. Then I had to watch the show to understand some of the cards

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Somewhere, there's injustice.
Somewhere, there's danger.
Somewhere else, the tea's getting cold.
C'mon Ace, there's work to do.....
 
I got into the show by accident, when it came on TNT. One of my favorite shows came on after it, and one day I decided to turn to the channel earlier. I saw the show about the diets with Dr. Franklin and thought it was funny. Then, the next week I tuned in earlier to TNT and was hooked on B5.

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Have a nice day!!!
 
This was probably the only time in my life I got into something before the big crowds...

I was a Lurker in the Compuserve Science Fiction Forum. One of the semi-regulars was a guy named J. Michael Straczynski, who actually had things to say about lots of subjects, including books and films and TV shows. Over time, I figured out that he worked in the television industry, and noticed that he was dropping some hints that he was doing something we'd all be interested in -- not a whole lot of detail, certainly nothing like the whole "TWCBN" adventures on GEnie, but hints.

Finally, sometime shortly after its posting on December 14, 1991 -- which 10th anniversary I probably should have marked last week, had I thought of it at the time -- I read a message:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>About a month ago, more or less, Warner Bros. held a press conference to announce the formation of its new "network" of independent TV stations. At that time, the go-ahead on BABYLON 5 was announced. It is officially a Go project. The first phase is a 2-hour movie, slated for late fall 1992, and then the series <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Followed by a bunch of details, including (of course) the fact that he was the creator and writer.

I thought it looked interesting, especially given the fact that the guy seemed to have a pretty good idea of what SF was supposed to be. So I waited and waited, and read lots more stuff he kept telling us, and finally got to see the pilot. And the rest, as they say, is a past-related field of study of your choice.



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-- Marty
 
I also got hooked on the show by accident. I was playing remote roulette one night when I happened to come across the show when it was still on TNT. It was a season 5 episode. I don't remember which it was, but all I do remember is that I liked it from the start and decided that the show was worth watching.
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Lorien: Who are you?
RW: The salad man.
Lorien: Why are you here?
RW: To be the salad ambassador.
Lorien: What do you want?
RW: Everyone to know the joys of salad.
Lorien: Do you have anything worth living for?
RW: Yes, my salad bars.

[This message has been edited by RW7427 (edited December 20, 2001).]
 
I was pretty young when the pilot was releasd, and I remember watching it and having mixed feelings. Up until "The Gathering" most of my science fiction television was Star Trek. I had seen some Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers (where the hell is my Buck Rogers, Sci-Fi Network?!), but I was raised on ST. So here is this new show, about a space station and the one thing that stuck with me since that first viewing, is how dirty B5 looked. The place was a wreck in some spots, and even the cleaner areas never had that antiseptic look of the ST sets. I was intruiged.

In watching the first season, I knew that I had struck upon something big, I called my best friend at every commercial break, and we discussed the events that had just occured, made hypoythesis about what was going on and what would happen next. Over the next four years, it became an experience, not just a show. It drove all of my conversations, and set the bar for all of my critiques of television.

The agonizing season cliffhangers and the stunning revelations ("Points of Departure" "Spider in the Web" "Divided Loyalties" "War Without End" "Zahadum" "Into the Fire" "The Face of the Enemy" "Between the Darkness and the Light" "Rising Star" etc.) kept my rapt attention for longer than any other hobby or persuit I had ever picked up (except soccer). But there was one moment that it really all clicked and I knew that I could never walk away from the show.

It was a small scene, between the (at the time) villain G'kar, and a seemingly minor love interest for Sinclair, Catherine Sakai. As the two walked through the Zocalo, and talked of appearences and ants, I fell instantly in love.

Instantly.

I am also pleased to say, that my love for Babylon 5 has only gotten better with age.

Radar

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"The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
 
I got started watching B5 from the start and the way it began was pretty much by chance. Way back when in my early teens, I was flipping through the channels for SOME watchable weekend movie. All of the sudden I came across the pilot, althought I didn't know it was a pilot for anything. I just thought it was another weekend B-movie. Later on, the series started. It was advertised in channel 44's scifi block. Back then 44 wasn't upn44. Anyhow...my memory is quite fuzzy here...I believe it was pretty much back to back with DS9. So I would watch both of these station-based shows one after the other. So I watched it straight throught it's first run....so when it went over to TNT....since I had no cable, that was the crappiest thing that could have happened. So I just continued on with DS9, which turned out wonderful at the end. Now that I'm in college, I got to watch part of season 2 and most of season 3 on Scifi channel....and hopefully season 4 will come after new years
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Ahh after so long I'm getting to see my fav Scifi show once more....

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Off Topic: I just got my B5 DVD from my local Borders (only one left *yippie*), and I watched both "The Gathering" and "In The Beginning" last night. I have to comment something about the special effects in both of these movies....because quite frankly, the graphics quite literally SUCK. I understand that the Pilot had to have a small budjet...but come on....why the heck would ItB have such a lower quality of graphics than the TV series (unless TNT cut season 5's budget down to bits)....I have never seen the other B5 telemovies and would like to know how their special effects faired. Oh and while I'm on the subject of the FX....why were the battle scenes in ItB feel cardboard....not only did the graphics suck but the way the battles were played made so much difference. They lacked any emotion....any battle sequence from the TV series would have beat the hell out of the ones in ItB....I couldn't FEEL any emotion about the so called "slaughter." It just didn't feel real....


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And so it begins...
 
Nice to see so many good stories
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"Ink on a page!" -Refa describing the moral depths of a treaty.
"Life is life, whether it's wrapped in skin, scales or feathers." -Dr. Franklin
 
I started watching Babylon5 for the same reason I've done every important thing in my life. I was bored
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There was nothing better on, so I decided to give it a shot. I liked it and I watched it the next day, and the next day, and after that I never missed it.

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My name: Solaris5....
My mission: to burst the bubble of idiocy that has enveloped everyone and bring common sense back from beyond the rim.
 
Hi, folks, sorry it's been so long, but my working hours are chaotic right now!
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I got told by a work colleague back in 1992 (?) about this new show, set on a space station, which she thought might have potential but was " too much like 'Deep Space Nine', and wasn't as good." As We'd only got terestrial TV ( and still have only Terrestrial TV) I'd never seen DS9, so had no preconceived ideas.
I watched the first four or so episodes, then missed one, feeling that the show was OK but not brilliant. then i caught the next episode, and I think this was 'and the sky full of stars', where the mysteries surrounding Delenn and Sinclair began to get more coverage. Once I'd seen the first twenty episodes, I was convinced that the show really did have potential: Star Trek, in all it's forms, even the most recent, tends to be a little sanatised, whilst the B5 characters felt more in touch with how things are now. This isn't a criticism of ST, as I feel we need that kind of optimistic future too, but B5 had far more levels to it. Quite often there were three storylines running in one ep: the main plot, a sub plot, and, of course, more info about the whole arc. It was, on the whole, well written and, to me at the time, the first original Sci-fi show to pop up for some time.
Then, of course, the last episode, with Garibaldi gunned down and the station personnel all thrown into turmoil with the assassination of the President.
Cue the second season, and it was all change: new station head, no Sinclair, and the sense of something big looming on the horizon.Mystery piled on mystery, and at the end of that Season, that was it. I was hooked. Unfortunately, the colleague who introduced me to it had, by then, long since left the company I was then working for, so i was never able to reward her, but I did manage to convince another, now a good friend of mine, to become interested. This was Bart, with whom I went to a Sci Fi convention a few years back: after a seeing a few episodes he had my entiretaped collection to watch to catch up on the story, and I can safely say he's an even bigger fan than I am!




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" Beauty in the midst of darkness."
 
I'm finally back! Because of school
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I haven't been able to check out the site since September. It looks awsome!

Anyways, keeping the tread of this post, I watched the first season when in came out, but when Sinclair left, I got pissed and stopped watching the show. I started watching it again when the reruns started on the Canadian space channel back in '99. And I've been obsessed ever since.
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I was at home going through the guide on the TV when I seen Babylon 5 on the Scifi Channel. So, I watched an episode, and I was hooked. I believe it was the first episode that I seen. And latly I've been exposing my little brother to it, (he said he liked that a bad guy's head was put on a stick)

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-With every light is born a shadow-

[This message has been edited by Elizar (edited December 22, 2001).]
 
I came. I saw. I watched.

The End

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.
 
About a week before B5 premiered in the UK, I was told by a lot of friends the B5 was just a Star Trek rip off and not to bother as it wouldn't - (a)be any good & (b) last.

When Midnight on the firing line aired I was hooked.

So for me, it was the very first episode.

BTW The Gathering wasn't shown until after the first series had finished (don't ask).

By the time the third series started I was trying to produce a timeline for the series.



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Three things:

1. Saw In the Beginning on TNT, wondered what I was missing(side note, while I will always despise the Atlanta overseers for later treatment of the show and Crusade I do give the LA people credit for picking up the show and making the movies).

2. When talking about a place it's there not their. No offence but I couldn't resist bringing it up.

3. The only way people will pay the general forum the attention it deserves is to put the appropriate threads there. People don't go there because everyone uses the B5 forum as a catch-all. Please move this thread Ivanova or Antony.

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"Crying isn't gonna get your dog back. Unless your tears smell like dog food. So you can sit here eating can after can of dog food until your tears smell like dog food or you can go out there and find your dog."-Homer in The Canine Mutiny
 
I can't help but notice that Doctor Gonzo is behaving like a true Vorlon... order, order must rule in this universe!
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As for me, I'm still not sure just when I stopped being simply interested in watching the series and became the crazed fan I am now...
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"Isn't the universe an amazing place? I wouldn't live anywhere else." - G'Kar, B5: Rangers
Kribu's Lounge | kribu@ranger.b5lr.com
 
I was 6 when original Trek aired, and cried if I missed it. I lived and breathed the US space program, counting down with every Gulf Oil sponsored telecast of every liftoff.

I built model rockets and got to the point where I made "October Sky" look like pansy stuff. After College, When "Next Generation" started to air, I felt reborn. Then DS9 hit, and I lost my taste for any more new Trek forever.

About the same time, I started hearing about a funny thing called PTEN, with several weird shows, kind of a "Kung Fu Next Generation" weirdness, and a "Time Cop" weirdness, and another show that purported to be a different kind of Sci-Fi; it looked Darker and More Cerebral. Then I saw Londo's hair and Napoleon uniform, and didn't have much hope for the thing.

Thank goodness I got past that little prejudice. I have never seen such beauty of the Human (or Minbari) spirit, in self-sacrifice, love, nobility, standing for one's principles, and all the other good things we B5-ers know and love.

There were 2 hurdles I could not clear to keep watching. One was a very demanding home environment that made it difficult to take time out to watch a TV show once a week without feeling guilty and receiving verbal abuse and withdrawal of marital privileges for it. The second was a very shakey commitment to airing syndicated shows in any orderly manner by our local (then fairly new) FOX independent station. Then suddenly B5 was gone from our local Broadcast market. Horrors! How could they?! Answer: Easy.

Several years tick by for me with only occasional bits of news and the occasional re-run episode caught in a hotel room when traveling on business. Still the best TV there is.

Finally now, I can peacefully enjoy the greatest Sci-Fi drama ever created on my crystal clear dish, and I'm quietly and patiently salivating as January 19th comes ever closer. B5 Universe forever!
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When I gae 't sae me killy Kairn,
'Tis the fol 'o dew, a charnie bairn,
Tu loodie, tu lookie, tu wipple,
an' the auld man flipt an' diede.
 
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