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AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
I've never seen the show and I honestly know almost nothing about it.

I watched the first episode and was pretty stoked by some stuff:

S1E1
Non-oxygen breathing alien forcing them to have a separate chamber was cool.

I thought the show might be ridiculous by the screenshots I've seen over the years, but it seems to take itself kind of seriously, which I love because I've read shitloads of serious sci-fi books, and I love the politics ones best.


I'm going to stick to spoilering basically all of my thoughts by episode since I know at least one other poster is on a blind watch too. I'd appreciate it if everyone would stick to that!

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AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
also I will just get it out of the way:

the CGI is so horrible as to be jarring during some scenes and I am actively closing my eyes to ignore it at points

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
S1E2: why is the station commander allowed to pilot ships on missions

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

TheAardvark posted:

S1E2: why is the station commander allowed to pilot ships on missions

Trek holdover with the captain going on missions.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Apparently I’ve already skipped the opening pilot movie ‘The Gathering’? I should try and find that.

s1ep2: “Life’s full of mysteries, consider this one of them.”

Not a bad second episode, introducing Delenn more than the first, which concentrated on Londo and G’Kar. Maybe The Gathering does that more? I’m now wondering how much I’ve missed.

Ok, yes it’s weird the station commander is going on that particular mission. Also the starfury has a grabbing machine arcade game claw? And I have to say, some of these sets look distinctly cheap. The ‘secret door’ the soul hunter comes through has visible unpainted wooden edges.

W. Morgan Sheppard had such a great voice.

There’s some nice plot seeding going on here, I feel. Little bits of dialogue that will definitely become relevant at some point.

Roth
Jul 9, 2016

I haven't seen it either, so I think I'll join in on watching it too.

Squizzle
Apr 24, 2008




plz ban + 30 anyone who messes up the blind watch aspect of this

Roth
Jul 9, 2016

Squizzle posted:

plz ban + 30 anyone who messes up the blind watch aspect of this

Nice backseat modding

Roth
Jul 9, 2016

Dang it's not on streaming anymore.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
I love the show intro btw, it's exactly like the Joe Friday opening to every Dragnet episode.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
S1E3: Londo's aide reminds me a lot of Guillermo from What We Do In The Shadows.

Also I might have a thing for babes with bald heads and pony tails now.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
S1E4 hey they addressed the "why the commander is doing insane front line poo poo" thing!

Also liked when Garibaldi bought that unidentifiable object at the beginning of the episode.

Pick
Jul 19, 2009
Nap Ghost
This is my favorite show that has ever existed, enjoy your blind watch, you are incredibly lucky to have this opportunity.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Oh yeah! I love this show and wish it was on Netflix.

I will follow along for sure.

Lord Frankenstyle
Dec 3, 2005

Mmmm,
You smell like Lysol Wipes.
I'm so glad I saw this show when it came out, because it doesn't hold up well now.

Groke
Jul 27, 2007
New Adventures In Mom Strength

Frankenstyle posted:

I'm so glad I saw this show when it came out, because it doesn't hold up well now.

It's 90s as gently caress but in both good and bad ways.

Also pretty much a pioneering effort, there wasn't much in the way of pre-planned multi-season story arcs on television before this thing came along.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993

Frankenstyle posted:

I'm so glad I saw this show when it came out, because it doesn't hold up well now.

I'm not seeing too much of an issue with it right now. Enjoying the characters and writing, actually think it's improving rapidly as the season goes on too. :shrug:

e: unless you were talking about the CG, as below, but it has a kind of charm and it's not being overused so far apart from episode 1. hopefully that remains the case

AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Jun 1, 2020

Lemniscate Blue
Apr 21, 2006

Here we go again.
It's worth noting that the CG suffered greatly in the transfer from analog to digital media. Which sucks.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
The bad set quality and CG doesn't take away from the story imho. There's a long tradition of shows that look like poo poo having great acting/stories.

Groke
Jul 27, 2007
New Adventures In Mom Strength

Lemniscate Blue posted:

It's worth noting that the CG suffered greatly in the transfer from analog to digital media. Which sucks.

It's a loving crime against humanity, yes. Or something.

It's also worth noting that the CGI was also pretty much a pioneering effort; I'm not aware of any other TV shows that used it anywhere near as much before then. Also it got noticeably better from season to season (especially between seasons 1 and 2) as they got better hardware etc.

Looked pretty good on the dinky little CRT televisions we had back in the mid-90s, anyway.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."

MonsieurChoc posted:

The bad set quality and CG doesn't take away from the story imho. There's a long tradition of shows that look like poo poo having great acting/stories.

As my av attests, I know of these shows.

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Watching The Gathering now, and it's definitely required viewing. LOTS of setup all over the place, dearly missing from the first eps of the series.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993

The_Doctor posted:

Watching The Gathering now, and it's definitely required viewing. LOTS of setup all over the place, dearly missing from the first eps of the series.

drat. All right, I'll pause and watch that one tonight before moving on.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
Tried looking for it everywhere and can't find The Gathering on streaming to buy.

I did find spoilers for a main character (the framing narrative of "In The Beginning") when I found the dvd that was released containing both of those though :smith:

e: oh nice, YouTube still has a copy for purchase streaming

e2: youtube refuses to run it even after buying it but I did find a reddit comment a page down that mentioned for some reason The Gathering is listed as the last episode of season 1 (ep 0) when they usually put those at the beginning. Bizarre but hey

AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jun 2, 2020

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
Yeah, I had to finagle it on Plex as series 0, episode 1.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
If there's one good thing about this whole finagling it's that I only just found out there are 5 seasons of this show. I had it in my mind there were 3 for some reason. Bonus!

Pick
Jul 19, 2009
Nap Ghost
Season four of Babylon five is the best television that ever aired.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
drat that pilot really did need to be watched first. The Vorlon are only seen briefly once or twice in the next 4 or 5 episodes. The Commander's backstory also would have been nice to have.

E: OH and most important, G'Kar's cunning plan to sleep with the telepath because lmao

AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Jun 2, 2020

Winifred Madgers
Feb 12, 2002

blind bookmarked thread

Frankenstyle posted:

I'm so glad I saw this show when it came out, because it doesn't hold up well now.

lol it literally gets better every single time I watch it, which I've admitedly lost track of but is approaching double digits

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
Holy gently caress S1E6!!! let me make sure I get this straight

The Earth is secretly being controlled by the psycorps

There was a long detailed explanation about how awesome loving is when you're both telepaths

The psycorps figured out how to juice up psychics

But the one they juiced up the most became so psychic he transcended?

I'm going to ignore the transparent 3d CG model of him post transcendence because lmao


E: I love poo poo about transcended races, it's one of the things I love seeing explored in stuff like the Culture books. The psychic dude and then G'Kar's speech about elder races are very much my poo poo

AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Jun 2, 2020

Winifred Madgers
Feb 12, 2002

if that's your reaction to a throwaway season 1 episode then this thread is going to get insanely good

Winifred Madgers
Feb 12, 2002

also have you seen any Stargate?

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993

Son of Sam-I-Am posted:

also have you seen any Stargate?

I've watched the original movie like 4 or 5 times but never any of the TV shows lol

Winifred Madgers
Feb 12, 2002

TheAardvark posted:

I've watched the original movie like 4 or 5 times but never any of the TV shows lol

There's a reason I ask, based on your post about ascended beings you'd probably appreciate that show too.

You are where I was last winter; my wife was trying to get me to watch SG-1 and I was reluctant because I had thought it was a Hercules/Xena tier show, but it really surprised me basically right from the start and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Pick
Jul 19, 2009
Nap Ghost

Son of Sam-I-Am posted:

if that's your reaction to a throwaway season 1 episode then this thread is going to get insanely good

yeah that dude's gonna get his nuts rankled

TraderStav
May 19, 2006

It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down
I did my first blind watch of this show about 6 months ago and am STILL thinking about this show. Enjoy your first time through this and avoid the lurkers guide.

Buckle up.

VideoGames
Aug 18, 2003
Heck yes! I bought season 1 a few weeks ago as something to watch during the lockdown and I have watched The Gathering and the first episode and already it is very intriguing. I am going to try to keep up with everyone in the thread because I am also blind watching and have only ever heard great things :D

The_Doctor
Mar 29, 2007

"The entire history of this incarnation is one of temporal orbits, retcons, paradoxes, parallel time lines, reiterations, and divergences. How anyone can make head or tail of all this chaos, I don't know."
The Gathering: “There’s a hole in your mind.”

Lots of cases of pilot-itis all over the place, but good setup. Sinclair’s past is explored nicely, and everyone gets good time in the limelight to establish their characters. Londo’s speech about the fall of the Centauri Empire was utterly spellbinding.

Takeshima’s actress sounds bored being there, Ivanova being more engaging from what I’ve seen. And now I know who the Dr Kyle is mentioned in ep 2. Shame he left, he was very good, but it seems like he retired from acting for health reasons after filming this, so I can’t blame him.

I’m glad they changed Delenn’s makeup for the series, what they started with looks very odd.

Definitely the place you need to start from for the series.

Bell_
Sep 3, 2006

Tiny Baltimore
A billion light years away
A goon's posting the same thing
But he's already turned to dust
And the shitpost we read
Is a billion light-years old
A ghost just like the rest of us

TheAardvark posted:

Holy gently caress S1E6!!!
E: [spoiler]I love poo poo about transcended races, it's one of the things I love seeing explored in stuff like the Culture books. The psychic dude and then G'Kar's speech about elder races are very much my poo poo

This is still one of my favorite moments of the entire series, and what got me hooked on B5 as a whole. It's still my favorite science fiction series.

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Vavrek
Mar 2, 2013

I like your style hombre, but this is no laughing matter. Assault on a police officer. Theft of police property. Illegal possession of a firearm. FIVE counts of attempted murder. That comes to... 29 dollars and 40 cents. Cash, cheque, or credit card?

TheAardvark posted:

Holy gently caress S1E6!!! let me make sure I get this straight
[...]
I'm going to ignore the transparent 3d CG model of him post transcendence because lmao


From the main Babylon 5 thread, my favorite take on that:
He literally turns into the galaxy brain meme.

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