Season 1 hump....

[vacantlook]

Don't think you're the only one.

It's actually reassuring that I'm not. :thumbsup:

 

[Psi Cop]

Season 1 - Not enough of Mr Bester and friends! Season 4's Bester-Garibaldi and Season 5's Bester-Byron stories were the best. A close third is Londo's entire series journey.

 

[vacantlook]

At least we did get introduced to Bester in season one; "Mind War" is one of the first season episodes that I can most clearly remember watching in its original broadcast. I was all, "Ooo!" the whole time. And to find out through behind-the-scenes info that Walter Koenig was originally going to have been one of the "Knights" that tortured Sinclair in "And The Sky Full Of Stars".

 

[Sindatur]

I've got you all beat: I took to B5 from the very beginning with "The Gathering" way back with its original broadcast in 1993.

Don't think you're the only one.

Yup me too. Even if it had been a pile of crap, I loved the CGI, but, fortunately I was intrigued by the story as well, and couldn't wait until it went to Series with Midnight on the Firing Line

 

[vacantlook]

When Kosh's ship comes out of the jumpgate in "The Gathering", my jaw hit the floor. It was so unlike anything I had ever seen on Star Trek The Next Generation.

 

[Galahad]

When Kosh's ship comes out of the jumpgate in "The Gathering", my jaw hit the floor. It was so unlike anything I had ever seen on Star Trek The Next Generation.

I preferred it when Kosh's ship flew the other way round though... same with Shadow ships

 

[Psi Cop]

When Kosh's ship comes out of the jumpgate in "The Gathering", my jaw hit the floor. It was so unlike anything I had ever seen on Star Trek The Next Generation.

I love how the ships match each race's personality/features etc.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I've got you all beat: I took to B5 from the very beginning with "The Gathering" way back with its original broadcast in 1993.

I saw it too. I thought it showed promise, and watched them all on first airing. I think it was about ep5 when I was hooked.

 

[Galahad]

I've got you all beat: I took to B5 from the very beginning with "The Gathering" way back with its original broadcast in 1993.

I saw it too. I thought it showed promise, and watched them all on first airing. I think it was about ep5 when I was hooked.

I'm going to assign myself honorary membership of this club. According to IMDB, The Gathering never aired on UK Television... so I've been watching from the beginning for UK audiences - Midnight on the Firing Line in 1994.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I won't quibble with that. You did the best you could, with what you got...

 

[Sindatur]

I've got you all beat: I took to B5 from the very beginning with "The Gathering" way back with its original broadcast in 1993.

I saw it too. I thought it showed promise, and watched them all on first airing. I think it was about ep5 when I was hooked.

I was in for the long haul pretty much from The Gatehring, but, it was And The Sky Full of Stars that showed me B5 was really something special and was going to have a deep arc

 

[Teep Trick]

I started with "Midnight on the Firing Line" coz I didn't have cable at my apartment, and couldn't keep up with the show when they switched it over for season 5, though I caught one of the movies watching it on TNT at my dad's house, don't remember which one...

 

[KoshN]

Back in Sept. 1996, a fellow engineer and co-worker (He’s a Mech.; I’m an EE.) knew I was getting near 100% fed-up with Star Trek (DS9 and VOY ) and he told me about Babylon 5. He had an Amiga and was into the CGI modeling and animation aspect of it. So, I went home that night and watched the new episode, S3E21 “Shadow Dancing” and was IMMEDIATELY HOOKED. I borrowed VHS tapes from him the next day which had a half dozen, off-the-air, EP (not very good quality at all) recordings of Season 1 episodes, including Midnight on the Firing Line, Born to the Purple, and a few others I don’t remember. Like I said, I was HOOKED. *

I watched the rest of Season 3, and Season 4 on FOX-53 Pittsburgh in Mono. Then, I watched Season 5 and the TV movies on TNT in STEREO, and with MORE SATURATED COLORS. Then, when TNT re-ran the whole series (Season 1 thru Season 5 and the TV movies), I timer-recorded everything in VHS SP, and watched it straight thru when I got home from work. When the show became available on Laserdisc, I bought a Pioneer CLD-704 Laserdisc player and B5 on Laserdisc (1.33:1), but Image Entertainment never finished the release. Then I bought it all on DVD (1.77:1 with enlarged and cropped 1.33:1 CGI). To date, I’ve probably watched the entire series six to eight times. I’ve probably watched all of Crusade at least ten times.

All it took to hook me was S3E21 “Shadow Dancing.” After that episode, I had no trouble getting through Season 1 at all, because, I’d had a glimpse of what was coming. I knew the show was going to be GREAT, because I’d SEEN it.
.
.
.
.
.
* After that, I doubt I watched more than a dozen DS9 and a dozen Voyager episodes. I did watch all of Enterprise when it came out, and liked Seasons 3 & 4 (except for the last 7 min. of the S3 finale and all of the S4 finale.). Now, I'm done with Trek. I'll still watch TOS or TNG if I come across it, but not DS9 or Voyager.

 

[Teep Trick]

I have to admit I watched all those shows, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, fairly uncritically. I was also into the X-Files, Millennium and Space: Above and Beyond at the time too. Didn't get to watch Harsh Realm though, and didn't get to watch Buffy until much later, once again thanks to no cable-itis, and I even saw most of what aired of The Lone Gunmen and Firefly. I'm glad Babylon 5 got the run it did get, so many other shows just get unceremoniously shoved off the deck.

 

[Raw Shark]

I started with Midnight on the Firing Line. When Garibaldi mentioned the transport being leased by a refugee export service, I knew I was onto something really different.

Raw Shark

"Minbari... pale, bloodless, look in their eyes and see nothing but mirrors, infinities of reflection. Will not let us help them, no."
Soul Hunter

 

[butlerd]

Season 1 is indeed difficult. I'm currently trying to rewatch the series with my wife and so far we are only about 5 episodes in and so far I haven't "hooked" her yet. We just got done watching DS9, which she really liked, but she isn't getting into B5 so much yet, although she thought that "Parliament of Dreams" was decent. We have "Mind War" coming up to and I told her about Walter Koenig's recurring cameo. I keep promising her that it will get better.....much better. Frankly, after having seen the series before, I really didn't think that S1 was all that bad and it did set up a lot of important things that are "paid off" quite nicely in seasons 2-4. Not a huge fan of "The Gathering" but I did like "Midnight on the Firing Line", which does a good job of establishing the Narn/Centauri/G'Kar/Londo situation that develops throughout the series.

 

[butlerd]

All it took to hook me was S3E21 “Shadow Dancing.” After that episode, I had no trouble getting through Season 1 at all, because, I’d had a glimpse of what was coming. I knew the show was going to be GREAT, because I’d SEEN it.

Back when I lived with my dad, my television was my alarm and somehow it got set to TNT and woke up just about every morning to B5 and I'd wake up just as one episode was ending so I heard what was going on but, of course, had no context for it. I think that one day I woke up just as Elric was telling Londo about his "destiny" and about his victims crying out to him. I had heard little things here and there about B5 and seen the videos and Laserdiscs in stores but had almost no idea what the show was really about. I caught part of "In the Beginning" when it was first on TV in 1998 but didn't get what was going on at all. Well, when the show reached Season 3, I started recording some eps such as "Severed Dreams", "Interludes and Examinations" and, finally, "Z'ha'Dum" After seeing "Z'ha'Dum" for the first time, I was totally blown away by it and resolved to finally start watching the show. I subscribed to the Columbia House DVD club for the show and started getting the 4-episode discs in the mail and watching it from the beginning with a good friend of mine.

 

[Psi Cop]

Having seen the series the mystery of Sinclair's missing memory doesn't really apply when rewatching the show so I start with IN THE BEGINNING then go straight on to MIDNIGHT ON THE FIRING LINE. THE GATHERING is not necessary, contains non-returning characters, has poor sfx and make-up and is not in widescreen which all spoil the 'continuity' of the series. Given Sinclair only lasts one series revealing his secret from the beginning is no biggie really.

 

[Springer]

I'd say The Gathering is important to later events, if only for showing the beginning of the connection between Lyta and Kosh, which is essential for understanding what happens to Lyta later. It's an important episode for Sinclair too although I agree other parts don't mesh too well with the rest of the series. And I really like the stone garden scene.

Season one is what got me hooked, although it did take half of the first season for that to happen, but I love going back and watching those first season episodes now. The War Prayer is the only episode that I would consider really bad. The first season has its own unique feel, which I get quite nostalgic about really. I'm happy the series went where it did in later seasons, but the premise set down in season one is quite intriguing.

 

[Red45]

Even though season 1 isn't as strong as the others, it's still better than most science fiction shows. My biggest problem is the characters don't realize their potential, Claudia Christian doesn't do much comedy, Michael O'Hare is pretty awful, etc.