The_Doctor posted:

ultrafilter posted:

It's definitely not a big deal but I think I'd prefer watching in the intended order over what we got.

ultrafilter posted:

Just imagine Sinclair trying to pull that conversation off.

Whybird posted:

It always entertained me how the restriction on TKO was "no humans". Like, every single other alien race was fine, but humans specifically weren't allowed to play. It's as if the international wrestling community all unanimously agreed that the Welsh weren't allowed to take part.

quote:

Although it's practised by many other species for whom it is a greatly cherished tradition, an alien species has to earn the right to hold tournaments and have members train as Mutari. Back before the Yolu made contact with other races, or even united under one government, a Yolu nation or faction had to earn the right to compete, and after the Yolu made contact with aliens this rule was applied to them as well.

This right is earned through a member of said species either emerging victorious during a match against a local Sho-rin, or fighting him to a draw. Usual this is after being sponsored by a Muta-Do or Ka-Tow, although anyone can simply just issue a challenge as a Sho-rin is honour bound to except all challenges (although circumventing the resident Muta-Do like that is often seen as disrespectful and it is almost always a last resort).

DrBouvenstein posted:

The Gathering is the pilot movie, it IN THEORY should be watched first, but I know plenty of B5 watchers say don't bother, it's not THAT critical.

If you're thinking of In the Beginning, that is another movie that should be watched later. I guess even saying WHEN to ideal watch it counts as a spoiler? I don't agree with that, cause how else would a newbie know when to watch it and not spoil themselves on stuff that, ideally, they find out in the course of the series not that movie?

Empress Brosephine posted:

Oh is it best to follow this order?

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/master/eplist.html

I ask because HBO lists Signs and Portents after Survivors instead of By Any Means Neccesary

ultrafilter posted:

The series is on Amazon prime and they list the episodes in the original air order.

There are switches you should make in season two and season five, but you can worry about those later.

Empress Brosephine posted:

s2 e1 spoiler
also I'm mad at myself I accidentally read the season 2 episode 1 description and now I know b5 has a new leader 😓😓 granted I don't know why or what happens. I know literally 0 about the plot of this show other than that now

feedmegin posted:

Major as the second most junior officer rank is pretty lol

OnlyBans posted:

incoherent not-quite-banme post

Hollismason posted:

I thought it was done pretty well. I like Sheridan but Sinclair had his own charm. Not sure why they changed it like they did and then having Sinclair show up again and in charge of the Rangers.

Hollismason posted:

Just chiming in again to say that I made it to Season 3 E16 War Without end PART 1. Oh poo poo A part 1 means there is going to be a part 2. Last episode Super loving depressing, Kosh died, Londo went back to working with the Shadows after being manipulated by Morgan. drat. The Doctor just loving QUIT because he was addicted to Stim, goddamn this episode had so much poo poo going on and its just like a mid season episode

I continue to not remember any of this which is good. I know of some stuff that is going to happen FUTURE SPOILERS I know at some point Sheridan is captured by Earthcore? And given a poisoned corn beef sandwich I think? I know he goes to Zah Ha Doom. Uh I know Morden gets his come uppance , G Kar Loses his eye. I remember that

Anyway that's all I remember right now.

Super loving addictive and I've still got like 44 to I guess like 55 episodes to go which is pretty sweet. Kind of I feel at the half way mark of the series.

Powered Descent posted:

Hello there B5 blind watch thread! I'm Powered Descent. I've been meaning to check out this show for a couple of decades now, so today my girlfriend and I finally sat down and watched the first episode, Midnight on the Firing Line. I'll be trying to react to B5 as its own thing, but seeing as we're both HUGE fans of Deep Space Nine, some comparisons are inevitable. Anyway, here are my reactions, more or less in the order I thought them during the viewing.


1. Holy cow, you can SEE how low the budget was. I may have been spoiled by Star Trek for my expectations of 90s sci-fi production values. The sets and lighting, the filming, it's all barely above soap opera level. About the only thing that doesn't look cheap is the alien makeup, which somehow is top notch. (With the possible exception of the sideways-mohawk Space Hungarians.) Still, I refuse to hold the show's frugality against it. A good story can be compellingly told with cardboard sets, after all.

2. Man, those were some awkward-rear end exposition dumps right at the beginning. But as a lifelong sci-fi fan, I'm used to those, and honestly I'll take a good old-fashioned infodump over the recent trend of the super gradual season-long reveal of backstory for no other reason than to artificially prolong a mystery.

3. Why can't the telepath tell why someone doesn't like her? I mean, having telepathy and all. (Addendum, later on: oh, so I guess she has to touch a person to read them.)

4. Well now, the be-mohawked Centauri aliens are certainly playing to the back row, aren't they? I certainly wouldn't accuse either of them of underacting. (I actually started enjoying their performance more by thinking of their scenes as a stage play on film.)

5. So they solved the A plot (the Narn attack on the colony world) thanks to the B plot (it turns out the pirates are buying their weapons from the Narn). Good on them for bringing the threads together, but it's still kind of an unsatisfying ending since it's really a total coincidence. The two chains of events were unrelated except for both happening to involve Narn.

Overall reaction: I give this episode 2 out of 5 Babylons, and I'm being a little generous with that because it's not unusual for pilot episodes to be kind of wonky. I can see how the characters could have some potential, but this episode was... kind of dire. I'll keep watching, but... it DOES get better than this, right?


P.S. Are the Narn from the planet Narnia? (I figure I'm the one millionth person to make that obvious joke. What's my prize?)

MrL_JaKiri posted:

Well, not everyone - but William Forward 100% did

Blindeye posted:

They will explain why there are slums but if you want to know now people often show up looking for jobs and have no money for fare to get off the station, or worked on the construction of the station and had no money to leave

Jedit posted:

It's a standard part of a TV actor's contract that they get paid for every episode on which they are credited, whether they appear or not. They are also not able to work on other projects on shooting days in case rewrites require them on set.

Powered Descent posted:

Oh yeaaaah, I remember hearing that Chekov is a recurring character on this show. Neat. Got some good background on telepaths and the psi-corps and all that, although the guy evolving into pure energy or whatever feels kind of like a retread of the TNG episode where a fugitive with mysteriously-expanding psychic powers that people fear evolves into pure energy. Ah well. As for what Catherine encountered at Sigma 3.1416, I guess this is where I follow the thread title and speculate that it was a Zorlon? Whatever it was, I liked G'Kar's ant explanation.

Vavrek posted:

That might be it. I was phone posting and didn't look up to confirm who did what. (I did think those two had similar reactions, but couldn't remember which was which and just guessed.)

discoukulele posted:

I lol'd that the Streib are Greys

Jedit posted:

That spoiler is actually in S1, so it's not a risk for discouke. Good shout on warning others, though.

Lawman 0 posted:

The audio is completely desynced lol.
It's basically unwatchable.

discoukulele posted:

lmao I was just told that Zack is Kenickie from Grease

Alhazred posted:

And they're really ugly

Torrannor posted:

I really, really appreciate every new watcher sharing their first time reactions with us. I know there's not a lot of feedback, but that's because we're trying very hard not to spoil anything.

Have with with the next few episodes, they're all really good except for one.

discoukulele posted:

Oh poo poo, White Star fleet!

Sweevo posted:

TKO: The Ivanova stuff is good, but the fighting plot is one of the lamest parts of the entire series. This episode is what people are thinking of when they (wrongly) claim S1 sucks and tell new viewers to skip it.

discoukulele posted:

Sweet, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I think that I might actually go ahead and watch Thirdspace and In The Beginning before I start the next season.