JMS' Viewing Order

[Springer]

Just out of curiosity, does it make sense the suggestion to watch the season 4 finale as series finale? (no spoilers, of course... just be vague )

I hadn't considered before the possibility of watching Deconstruction of Falling Stars last. In terms of the emotional content of the show and the storylines of our characters, then no, Sleeping in Light is the end. Deconstruction of Falling Stars also has some foreshadowing for season 5 that you lose if you move it to the end. But without giving away anything at all about Deconstruction, I can see an argument for moving it to the end. Maybe not on your first run through - as others have said, stick to the order in the DVD sets for that, but on subsequent viewings it might be interesting to see how it works at the end.

And yes, that does sound a little paradoxical, but you will understand after you've seen it

 

[Staninator]

J Michael Straczynski's Order
1. Racing the Night (103)
2. The Needs of Earth (101)
3. The Memory of War (102)
4. The Long Road (107)
5. Visitors from Down the Street (104)
6. The Well of Forever (106)
7. Each Night I Dream of Home (105)
8. Patterns of the Soul (110)
9. The Path of Sorrows (109)
10. Ruling from the Tomb (111)
11. The Rules of the Game (112)
12. War Zone (108)
13. Appearances and Other Deceits (113)

I registered just to weigh in on this... this watch order is garbage, and watching this particular order ruined Crusade for me. After watching B5 multiple times over the past 20 or so years, seeing Crusade for the first time watching this order was highly unsatisfying at best, totally confusing at worst. How can War Zone come in as the penultimate episode when it sets up the entire premise of the show? This is just WRONG! After finally watching the penultimate episode here and seeing what should have been the first episode made me really angry. I don't know what your sources are, but how can the first episode (108 War Zone) be so far down the list, it makes no sense.

To ANYONE coming to Crusade for the first time, please ignore this JMS watch order...

This to me, seems the correct order...

War Zone (chronologically takes place immediately after "A Call to Arms.")
Racing the Night
The Needs of Earth
The Memory of War
The Long Road
Visitors from Down the Street
The Well of Forever
Each Night I Dream of Home
Patterns of the Soul
The Path of Sorrows
Ruling from the Tomb
The Rules of the Game
Appearances and Other Deceits

...taken from this post.

http://www.b5tv.com/showpost.php?p=349849&postcount=3

 

[JonFrain]

Just out of curiosity, does it make sense the suggestion to watch the season 4 finale as series finale? (no spoilers, of course... just be vague )

I hadn't considered before the possibility of watching Deconstruction of Falling Stars last. In terms of the emotional content of the show and the storylines of our characters, then no, Sleeping in Light is the end. Deconstruction of Falling Stars also has some foreshadowing for season 5 that you lose if you move it to the end. But without giving away anything at all about Deconstruction, I can see an argument for moving it to the end. Maybe not on your first run through - as others have said, stick to the order in the DVD sets for that, but on subsequent viewings it might be interesting to see how it works at the end.

And yes, that does sound a little paradoxical, but you will understand after you've seen it

That actually makes quite a bit of sense. I mean if Thirdspace is moved up for chronological reasons, Deconstruction should be moved back. The only downside is that it's not as epic a series ender as SiL.

 

[hargano]

is not cheap sir


Servis Water Heater Malang

 

[Looney]

Okay now that I can post I just wanted to say that I have been using this thread for years. Thanks to blackcoatcowboy for starting it. :thumbsup:

 

[b5historyman]

This isn't the authorised by Joe Straczynski viewing order. The correct viewing order is in the Babylon 5 Historical Database, the In house reference researched and compiled by Terry Jones with the full input and cooperation of Joe Straczynski and Fiona Avery at Babylonian Productions.

 

[Looney]

Okay I will grant you that, but it is still a good thread that opened up the discussion. :thumbsup:

 

[b5historyman]

Okay I will grant you that, but it is still a good thread that opened up the discussion. :thumbsup:

Absolutely, but I've now posted on a new thread the correct order of everything in the B5 canon epsiodes (B5 and Crusdade), Movies, Comics and Short stories :thumbsup:

 

[fyl2u]

--

Crusade has three official ways to be seen but only one that is sanctioned.

Original Order
1. War Zone (108)
2. The Long Road (107)
3. The Well of Forever (106)
4. The Path of Sorrows (109)
5. Patterns of the Soul (110)
6. Ruling from the Tomb (111)
7. The Rules of the Game (112)
8. Appearances and Other Deceits (113)
9. Racing the Night (103)
10. The Memory of War (102)
11. The Needs of Earth (101)
12. Visitors from Down the Street (104)
13. Each Night I Dream of Home (105)

Chronological Order
1. War Zone (108)
2. The Long Road (107)
3. Ruling From the Tomb (111)
4. Appearances and Other Deceits (113)
5. The Memory of War (102)
6. The Needs of Earth (101)
7. Racing the Night (103)
8. Visitors From Down the Street (104)
9. Each Night I Dream of Home (105)
10. The Path of Sorrows (109)
11. Patterns of the Soul (110)
12. The Well of Forever (106)
13. The Rules of the Game (112)

J Michael Straczynski's Order
1. Racing the Night (103)
2. The Needs of Earth (101)
3. The Memory of War (102)
4. The Long Road (107)
5. Visitors from Down the Street (104)
6. The Well of Forever (106)
7. Each Night I Dream of Home (105)
8. Patterns of the Soul (110)
9. The Path of Sorrows (109)
10. Ruling from the Tomb (111)
11. The Rules of the Game (112)
12. War Zone (108)
13. Appearances and Other Deceits (113)

What are the numbers in brackets?

The order on the DVDs?

 

[Jan]

What are the numbers in brackets?

The order on the DVDs?

The production numbers. 101 means season one, first episode filmed.

 

[b5historyman]

Really, don't worry about it in the slightest. Watch 'The Gathering' and then the episodes in the order they come on the DVDs and simply get immersed in the story for the first time. You won't really appreciate the nuances until the second time, anyway so just concentrate on it as presented in the simplest way possible - which is how those of us who watched it in its first run saw it.

Enjoy. I envy you your first two viewings!

Jan

So, there is no need to watch the movies in the order JMS himself advices, between the episodes of the series?
Just out of curiosity, does it make sense the suggestion to watch the season 4 finale as series finale? (no spoilers, of course... just be vague )

I stand by this....

http://www.b5tv.com/showpost.php?p=349849&postcount=3

....order. If you do not watch the TV movies where they are supposed to go chronologically, keep in mind when watching them where they are supposed to go, i.e. what timeframe they're from.. HOWEVER, watch The Gathering FIRST.

Why? It's not correct and certainly NOT the authorised jms chronological viewing order.

 

[fyl2u]

What are the numbers in brackets?

The order on the DVDs?

The production numbers. 101 means season one, first episode filmed.

Oh crikey, so they weren't even filmed in either "the original order" or in JMS's order?

 

[b5historyman]

The production numbers. 101 means season one, first episode filmed.

Oh crikey, so they weren't even filmed in either "the original order" or in JMS's order?

This is the correct jms authorised chronological order from the Babylon 5 Historical Database

Crusade Season 1 2267.
War Zone 1st Jan - 5th Jan 2267.
The Long Road. 27th Feb - 2nd March 2267.
Appearances and Other Deceits. March 2267
The Memory of War. 30th March - 1st April 2267.
Needs of Earth. April 2267.
Racing the Night. May 2267,
Visitors from Down the Street. 13th May - 14th May 2267
Each Night I Dream of Home. May 2267.
The Path of Sorrows. June 2267.
Ruling from the Tomb. 15th June - 16th June 2267.
Patterns of the Soul. June 2267.
The Well of Forever. July 2267. (Joe confirmed that Mr Jones saying Matheson had sensed the emotions of others, was indeed referring to Durkani and Lyssa from Visitors from Down the Street)
Rules of the Game. July 2267
To The Ends of the Earth 1st September - 3rd September 2267 (Full script but unproduced. Dates from the script)
Value Judgements. September 2267 (Full script but unproduced)
End of the Line. December 2267 (Full script but unproduced)

 

[KoshFan]

Oh crikey, so they weren't even filmed in either "the original order" or in JMS's order?

Short answer: yes. This happened quite a lot on B5 -- "Chrysalis" was filmed in the middle of Season 1, for instance.

(Actually, for some time now I've wondered if that was in part because JMS was hedging his bets on Michael O'Hare's health, the way he hedged by filming "Sleeping in Light" at the end of Season 4. But maybe it really was because of all the visual effects necessary.)

 

[Jan]

In this case in particular, I think that the time needed was correct. JMS said in the script books:

“Chrysalis” required new ship designs, the creation of Earthforce One, the Shadow vessel,36 the Shadows themselves, the Io station, the attack on the Narn fleet, and a lot of naturalistic CGI – the hardest kind to produce convincingly – including the DownBelow environments and the Maze, which for me was emblematic of Londo’s life. Each turn of the maze represents a choice he’s made, or is going to make, for good or ill. He’s in the center of that maze, just as he is in the center of his life, when Mr. Morden offers him a direction and a choice, appealing to him as a patriot but also as someone who wants desperately to be recognized, to be important again. Once
he makes that choice, Londo begins a journey that will ultimately take him far from any hope of salvation.

To illustrate just how close we ran to the bleeding edge in terms of delivering these big episodes in time for broadcast...and how things don’t always work out as you plan them...we were frenziedly working on “Chrysalis” until the last possible minute, to make sure it was absolutely flawless. Finally,
exhausted but happy, we delivered the episode the day before it was to be beamed out to the various PTEN stations via satellite feed.

 

[KoshFan]

Ah, I'd forgotten that Chrysalis was one of the ones where they were down to the wire.

And I keep forgetting that they would have invented the Shadow ship for Chrysalis and re-used it in Signs and Portents rather than the other way around.

 

[cloaked]

Chronological Order
1. War Zone (108)
2. The Long Road (107)
3. Ruling From the Tomb (111)
4. Appearances and Other Deceits (113)
5. The Memory of War (102)
6. The Needs of Earth (101)
7. Racing the Night (103)
8. Visitors From Down the Street (104)
9. Each Night I Dream of Home (105)
10. The Path of Sorrows (109)
11. Patterns of the Soul (110)
12. The Well of Forever (106)
13. The Rules of the Game (112)

This Crusade Chronological Order is great. This order is nearly the same as the Historical Database Chronological Order as authorized by JMS; with one adjustment to correct a continuity issue. "Ruling From the Tomb" appears to go after "The Long Road" based on the order of Gideon/Lochley meetings as described here: http://www.b5tv.com/showthread.php?t=45810

This viewing order was taken from J Michael Straczynski's interviews, notes, and discussions. Not everything is meant to make sense but this is how he wants it to be viewed. Some episodes have flashbacks and visions of things and cannot be separated the episode.

blackcoatcowboy, thanks for posting this! I realize JMS has authorized multiple viewing orders, and sometimes the orders or his comments conflict. However this appears to be the best list I've seen. Its very similar to the popular Lurker's Guide viewing order, but with several improvements. I've referenced this order in the new Viewing Order page that I've created on Fandom:
https://babylon5.fandom.com/wiki/Viewing_Order