Babylon 5 Discussion: Special Poll Edition!

For me, ME and B5 have a lot in common:

• Station on which the races of the galaxy meet for diplomacy
• Pre-existing FTL network of unknown origin
• Mysterious ancient races
• Humanity new in the galaxy, almost gets wiped out in catastrophic war.
• Iconic ship a collaboration between races.

Kind of hard to pick favorite characters as the show have a lot of good ones. G'Kar and Londo with their complex relationship was awesome, Ivanova funny and a badass and so on. Could probably say something good about most of them.

Well yeah, that's the thing, as I'm watching it, I'm like "this is Mass Effect, more or less". Less of course because that's what Mass Effect should've been.

The cycles, the greater unknowable powers trying to "guide us". And the solution, yeah it's not straightforward or as macho as some would maybe like. But you know what the difference is? It was built up!! Everything fit, there was nothing out of left field, everything was planned and executed beautifully (if a little rushed because no one escapes executive meddling). I'm watching it and I'm thinking why didn't you take more notes Bioware??

Oh and those season four and five finales. Deconstruction of Falling Stars is everything I want for the world, Sleeping in Light is everything I want for the characters.

My God...

Only thing I can think of is the interior of Cooper Station. 

I used Mollari as the surname to my KOTFE insta 60 in TOR when they introduced names with spaces.

What was the reference in Interstellar? I've only seen it once.

Also speaking of Mass Effect, where have we seen this before?

Great post! Allow me to elaborate on how I feel about the excerpted portion (regarding O'Hare):

I get the impression that it goes without saying in this thread, but *spoilers ahead!* (I mean, it's not like we haven't spoiled the crap out of the series at this point... but, for whatever reason, it makes me feel better to add that here. I'm complicated.)

Season one was awkward. It felt like JMS was still finding his way, that perhaps other writers brought different perspectives on some characters that clashed, and that the network was still ultimately in control (as would be the case until the end of season two, when they stopped trying to manipulate the story... mostly). The biggest problem with season one was Sinclair. O'Hare didn't do a bad job in my mind, at least, not so much as there was too much going on with Sinclair. That character was just too important, and at the crossroads of too many major story elements. He was the survivor of the Battle of the Line; he was/is/will be the most important figure in Minbari history (as we know it in the series); he becomes Ranger One; and, he's in charge of Babylon 5. And he has to have the personality and skills to back up each and every one of those points -- it's too much for one character! Near the end of season one I start to question if there is any problem he can't overcome through his superior tactics, or in hand to hand combat, or with his ace Star Fury skills, or diplomatically, or philosophically, or legally! His failure at the end of the first season isn't even really his failure, because the issues were beyond his control.

With Sinclair's departure, his roles are split among different characters in the series (the One becomes three, as it were... more like five), and we don't see another super character of his ilk again until Lorien (and at least he has an excuse for being super). What used to be Sinclair's roles/traits got split among Sheridan, Delenn, Ivanova, Garibaldi, and Sinclair, giving space for the cast to shine. It's possible that someone else might have been able to do a better job portraying the character of Sinclair, but my problem wasn't with O'Hare as much as it was with the character itself.

My biggest disappointment with the loss of Sinclair was that we also lost Catherine Sakai, who I am sure was being set up to be captured by the Shadows. I think JMS recovered well enough with Anna Sheridan, but with the additional history that we had with Sakai I think she would have made for a more interesting villain.

None of this is to say that I wasn't shocked with the abrupt replacement of Sinclair with Sheridan at the start of season two, either.

Nah, this is the real McCoy. That thing in ME3? It lacked the D * R * E * A * D   The thought of B5 Shadows never crossed my mind when I first saw it.

I wonder if any one here is aware of the Free Space 2 Babylon 5 project conversion several years ago. I play Free Space 2 and it's a great space sim that still looks good today. Volition Corporated was not able to produce a sequel so they released the source code, allowing fans to continue to build their respective stories, etc with FS2. Some created B5 stories with it.

I'm kind of jealous of people who only just came to B5. I'd like the thrill of watching seasons three and four for the first time to be fresh in my mind instead of a twenty year old memory. I'll have to re-watch my box sets. I don't think I've done it this decade.

Oh, and: *SPOILERS* all the things! (For a 20 year old TV show... yeah, I know).

The trapdoor planning was genius. Honestly I wish more shows were that well though out.

Yes Talia's empowerment came from Ironheart but with the later reveal that telepaths were due to Vorlon tampering to begin with, as well as Kosh restoring her backup she still could've been tied to the Vorlons the same way. On the other hand, the doomsday weapon stuff was season 5 which was meddled with quite a bit IRL so who knows what the original plan might've been?

I was comparing their characters more. Talia seemed more confident and self-reliant for most of her run whereas Lyta was more skittish and afraid. Of course that could be attributed to their differing circumstances- Lyta was on the wrong side of the law more and had been touched by a Vorlon, whereas Talia spent most of her time still with the Corps and Ironheart was a lot more familiar to her even transcended than Kosh was to Lyta. Plus there's the Control personality that might've influenced Talia subconsciously. Still even if we compare closer circumstances- Talia protecting the underground railroad for telepaths vs any of Lyta's actions pre-Byron, Talia still comes across as having more agency even though she's clearly scared, compared to Lyta who mostly just does what she's told.

Of course, that's not a knock on Lyta. She's had more jarring experiences earlier in her career than Talia has. And I really would've wanted to see her in action in the events after season 5. All that planning with Garibaldi and then the Telepath War... probably the biggest crime of or against this franchise is we never got to see the Telepath War.