Not that anyone does ask me, but if anyone did, I'd recommend And Now For A Word as a good introduction to the series, it gives the viewer a good overview of all the characters, the station, and the circumstances.
It may be sacrilege to say this, but I find Intersections in Real Time a bit dull. I rarely re-watch it.
The Illusion of Truth feels a bit forced to me. Stuff like "Nothing in the Universe can stop us" felt completely unnatural things to say. Though I did appreciate the concept of showing how things can be taken out of context. Nowadays they'd just deep-fake it.
A View From the Gallery... yeah, not my cup of tea, but I understand why people like it.
The other off-format episode I can think of is The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari, which I think is very underrated, but it's one of the best episodes of season 5.
By the way, just want to say how much I'm enjoying reading Axionz thoughts about viewing the show for the first time. There's also been a lot of first-timers posting on Twitter after watching on HBOMax, and it's a joy to read.
It's always great when you find a hidden gem like this but it always get terribly sad when approaching the final season, and you know there will be no more episodes or even the possibility of seeing these characters again.
I totally agree with Jan here. Watch S5 in the intended (airing) order. Don't worry about the films, spins offs, etc for now.
IMHO most of the TV Movies are pretty bad and only In the Beginning really stands up as excellent. They're like a fun little bonus if you find yourself craving more (and you will!)
Crusade is a bit of a curiosity. I've seen it from start to finish three times, and on my third viewing, I came down very heavily on the side that it shouldn't have been made. It just felt cheap and derivative to me, with rare moments of quality. BUT, that's just me. Check it out once you are done with B5 proper. Everything after the original show is diminishing returns, but it's cool there are extra things here and there to watch.
Enjoy the final stretch! Whilst S5 is a bit up and down in terms of quality, it has some superb moments and B5 has one of the best finales.
Yeh I'm just watching through season 5 and I'm on episode 6 - Strange Relations. I've really slowed it down so I can enjoy the last season even more instead of binge watching it all and then I have no more Babylon 5 really lol.
A few things I will say about season 5 so far is that I much prefer Sheridan as the captain, really end up missing him being in that role and it just feels different that he's moved to a president role and taking on a new look, the beard and uniform just feels so strange as if the whole idea was to move Sheridan away from the command structure, that sort of military vibe which I loved about his character.
Garibaldi as well, miss him being in his main security chief role as it just starts to feel like a huge change as if the writer/directors were trying to distance the main characters a bit around that time, like not make them the prime focus anymore? Dunno it just feels strange lol, and I wasn't a big fan of Garibaldi being rogue when his mind got altered by Bester, I just loved that sort of Garibaldi, Sheridan, Ivanova trio. So when Garibaldi was mind altered it completely changed the dynamic of the show I thought and he never got much time on the episodes during that time frame either I don't think.
The last point would of course be not having Ivanova anymore which again just adds to that feeling mentioned above, as if the main cast have changed big time with their roles and sort of moving off the spot light a bit. I'm assuming Ivanova doesn't come back in as I think I read somewhere that she wanted more focus or a bit of a change up with her character and michael straczynski did not agree and wanted to keep her as is on the show?
Anyway it all feels very different in season 5 with so many changes and with the Shadow plot done and dusted and no more Vorlon's it sort of feels like the mystery has been removed, the Shadows were an absolutely AMAZING story and not knowing much about them made it even more interesting and just captures you when watching. The Vorlon's as well added to that mystery throughout especially when you learn that both the Vorlon's and the Shadows are linked, stellar story line for those.
With all these changes in both story and characters it makes me want to be back in Season3/4 lol.
Hope you're all doing good and enjoying the weekend!
