IGN's S5 Review...

[Leto II]

IGN\'s S5 Review...

...More jollies from our good buddy "Sergio Non," cultivating his blasé, Hipper-Than-Thou, Dude-About-Town persona:

IGN's Review

He's scaled it back slightly from the last time, but still sounds Too Cool For School thither and yon.

A taste:

Straczynski's commentaries for The Fall of Centauri Prime and Sleeping in Light form the bulk of season five's extra attractions. He's more than happy to explain what he sees as Great Profundities and Deep Ideas, point out the show's Hugo Award and extol his achievements: "If anyone at all has the right to have their name on the back end of that station, it's yours truly, and that's why it's there."

His final scoring of the set:

The Movie: Should have ended with season 4. 6
The Video: "Enhanced for widescreen TVs?" Yeah right. 4
The Audio: A bit front-loaded and heavy on the music. 7
The Extras: JMS spends most of the time patting himself on the back. 6
Overall Score (not an average): 6

Why am I even bothering with this, tonight...??

Heck if I know.

 

[Elric]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I think there will always be this debate about Season 5 - some people like it, some people don't! There are many reasons why this season is the way it is, but for good or bad, it is what it is.

Personally I like it Even Byron didn't bother me that much (the singing did though!). I consider it much like an Eplilogue in a book (in much the same way as Season 1 was like a prologue). It showed the aftermath of the main story - nothing comes to an abrubt end, especially such major events as happened in the show.

It started the Teep War story (which will hopefully be told fully at some point) and really started showing what Lyta could do. It showed us how fragile the ISA was to begin with (as it would be), the Drakh and Centauri Prime. It also introduced us to the Drazi homeworld. The list goes on...

I think many people perceive it as a disappointment because of the intensity of S4 and the fact many of the threads were wrapped up by the end of S4. I just watch it for what it is, and I really enjoy it

 

[grumbler]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I think many people perceive it as a disappointment because of the intensity of S4 and the fact many of the threads were wrapped up by the end of S4. I just watch it for what it is, and I really enjoy it

I tend to agree that Season 5 is only disappointing if your expectations are based on an impossible extension of Season 4. Five was just icing on the cake - it finished off the story arc elements that didn't get treated in the rush to end things at Four, plus some bits that wouldn't have been done at all but were interesting "tidbits" of the B5 universe's story. In fact, the only ep that never worked for me was "A View from the gallery" because of the phony-balony "instant aliens" and some of the worst dialogue for Delenn in the entire series. The rest were all enjoyable as filling in the missing arc bits or filling in some interesting background.

 

[Dave Thomer]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I tend to agree that Season 5 is only disappointing if your expectations are based on an impossible extension of Season 4. Five was just icing on the cake - it finished off the story arc elements that didn't get treated in the rush to end things at Four, plus some bits that wouldn't have been done at all but were interesting "tidbits" of the B5 universe's story.

Not sure I agree there. I'm glad S5 got made, because there are a handful of rather good episodes in it. But I do think the quality of the writing declined a bit overall, and I also think that season 5 was as much a prologue to future stories as it was an epilogue to the series. And that bugged me a lot.

 

[PillowRock]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

In fact, the only ep that never worked for me was "A View from the gallery" because of the phony-balony "instant aliens" and some of the worst dialogue for Delenn in the entire series.

I seem to remember reading that AVftG was originally, before PTEN's collapse made it look like they needed to get to a reasonable stopping point by the end of S4, envisioned as a S4 episode with the attack coming from Clarke's forces. That would have worked better and not fealt as forced. I guess JMS just liked the idea and wanted to that shifted POV ep after all. Plus it made up a bit (in terms of total screen time) for having pulled a few eps worth of would-have-been-S5 action up into S4.

For most of the rest of S5 (in the first runs) I kept expecting something to come back into the story from / about those aliens, just because it was so uncharacteristic to have that kind of a one-shot appearance.

 

[ElScorcho]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

the phony-balony "instant aliens"

Yeah, that really bugged me too. Supposedly, the Interstellar Alliance encompassed most of the major races. How come nobody knew about these guys?

 

[vacantlook]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

Maybe they were the same alien race that sent that probe in season three's "A Day In The Strife."

 

[Nancy]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I loved "A View from the Gallery". Mac and Bo were hilarious!

"I think I'm in love...
She's married!
We can work something out."

 

[KoshN]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

the phony-balony "instant aliens"

Yeah, that really bugged me too. Supposedly, the Interstellar Alliance encompassed most of the major races. How come nobody knew about these guys?

Same could be said of "To Live and Die in Starlight" (the B5: Rangers pilot). Go listen to what Sindell (head of the Ranger Council) said about that, the coverage of the IA, the new race coming out of nowhere, etc.

 

[channe]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I'm not sure I loved S5, but, as a storyteller myself, was very glad it was there. Anything would have been anticlimactic after the end of the Shadow War, and aside from Byron (gag me), it was fine.

 

[KoshN]

Re: IGN\'s S5 Review...

I'm not sure I loved S5, but, as a storyteller myself, was very glad it was there. Anything would have been anticlimactic after the end of the Shadow War, and aside from Byron (gag me), it was fine.

Well, I'm not a storyteller, but I agree. Once we got past the Byron episodes, I loved S5. I even liked the Byron episodes as long as Byron was not onscreen (e.g. when Lyta was fending off Bester and the bloodhounds, what Lyta revealed to Byron in "Secrets of the Soul" - the flashbacks, Londo & G'Kar on Centauri Prime, etc.).