![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockYou know how last week I said I wanted a grown-up fandom again? Well, at the moment I'm retro-fanning Babylon 5. I'm retro-fanning it like a champion. Two weeks and I'm already 1/4 way through season 3!
I remember really liking it when it aired, but I was a young teen at the time and my memory of it is pretty hazy. Upon rewatch, I've discovered that it is every bit as entertaining and sophisticated as I remember. Sure, the season 1 dialogue is a bit hokey and dated, but that gets fixed by season 2. The costumes and space ships aren't as cinematic as something like BSG, but the costumes and don't matter so much because you're there for the plot. And the plot? IS COMPLETELY GREAT. Better than I remember it. The continuity! I could sing about it for hours. The consistant, well-planned character development!
The romances that I don't even have to ship because the question isn't "will they get together? oh tension!"... in fact I don't wonder about that at all. I can see it coming very easily, because the show leaves no doubts even though it's been quite subtle with its foreshadowing. The tension isn't about whether there will be romance, but about whether that romance will survive war and disaster. If I remember, one romance does and another one doesn't. It's so much a fabric of the story that you can't doubt it, you just watch it unfold like a piece of candy from a wrapper.
Rewatching B5 has highlighted in my mind the main problem I've had with Battlestar Galactica from the beginning: BSG is good tv, but it's bad sci-fi. So much of their world-building doesn't make sense, and requires huge leaps of irrational thinking, and requires you to accept nonsensical choices and behavior in order to be able to understand it the NEXT time they make a nonsensical choice or behave absurdly. I like the actors, and the cinematography, but I can't like the story or how it handles the characters.
In comparison, B5 is like a breath of fresh air, albeit air that's been trapped in a bottle for posterity since the mid-90s. Sure, it doesn't reach the kind of heart-wrenching dramatic pitches that a show with the art/set budget of BSG goes for, but it does better with less, in the long run. What has struck me as particularly noticeable is that even though the costumes and computer graphics reflect what we could do ten years ago instead of what we have available now in terms of realism, and even though many of the aliens look very humanized, it doesn't matter because the story is so strong.
other little things:
-They used "fragging" or "fracking" 10 years before BSG did, but they didn't overuse it. Since most of the show in the first two seasons is about diplomatic meetings, they don't need to use it often because decorum and politeness is part of the job. (unless you're Commander Ivonova!)
- This show is The Lord of the Rings in space. I kid you not. It has its own half-human Arwen, two versions of Aragorn, an Eowyn, a Wormtongue, a joining of elves/humans via marriage, and someone falls into darkness. Actually, a lot of people do so, but one person literally dives like Gandalf did. They even have "Rangers" which do pretty much exactly the same thing as the Rangers in LOTR. Ironically, because there's two characters that reflect an Aragorn-ish role (as a Ranger and as a king) there's actually BOTH Aragorn/Arwen and Aragorn/Eowyn mirrored in the ships represented here. Of course, the show isn't exactly like LOTR, I mean the "elves" are aliens and the Shadows don't ride giant black horses, but if you're familiar with the books (particularly some obscure names) then you'll easily see the LOTR inspiration and homages within B5.
-The ever-present issues of homelessness, substance abuse, crime, classism, bigotry, and political corruption are part of the world of B5 and are woven into the setting. Most episodes touch on one of those issues in a big or small way, and certain things like addiction and corruption are elements of subplots that run through several seasons. Remember that terrible episode in season 2 of BSG when Lee hung out with prostitutes and went to the black market and shit and then felt all conflicted and guilty about it? B5 handles those issues regularly, and more intelligently. It doesn't exist as a place for one character to visit once to get some "development"... it's part of their world as much as the diplomatic meeting rooms and military ships.
I remember really liking it when it aired, but I was a young teen at the time and my memory of it is pretty hazy. Upon rewatch, I've discovered that it is every bit as entertaining and sophisticated as I remember. Sure, the season 1 dialogue is a bit hokey and dated, but that gets fixed by season 2. The costumes and space ships aren't as cinematic as something like BSG, but the costumes and don't matter so much because you're there for the plot. And the plot? IS COMPLETELY GREAT. Better than I remember it. The continuity! I could sing about it for hours. The consistant, well-planned character development!
The romances that I don't even have to ship because the question isn't "will they get together? oh tension!"... in fact I don't wonder about that at all. I can see it coming very easily, because the show leaves no doubts even though it's been quite subtle with its foreshadowing. The tension isn't about whether there will be romance, but about whether that romance will survive war and disaster. If I remember, one romance does and another one doesn't. It's so much a fabric of the story that you can't doubt it, you just watch it unfold like a piece of candy from a wrapper.
Rewatching B5 has highlighted in my mind the main problem I've had with Battlestar Galactica from the beginning: BSG is good tv, but it's bad sci-fi. So much of their world-building doesn't make sense, and requires huge leaps of irrational thinking, and requires you to accept nonsensical choices and behavior in order to be able to understand it the NEXT time they make a nonsensical choice or behave absurdly. I like the actors, and the cinematography, but I can't like the story or how it handles the characters.
In comparison, B5 is like a breath of fresh air, albeit air that's been trapped in a bottle for posterity since the mid-90s. Sure, it doesn't reach the kind of heart-wrenching dramatic pitches that a show with the art/set budget of BSG goes for, but it does better with less, in the long run. What has struck me as particularly noticeable is that even though the costumes and computer graphics reflect what we could do ten years ago instead of what we have available now in terms of realism, and even though many of the aliens look very humanized, it doesn't matter because the story is so strong.
other little things:
-They used "fragging" or "fracking" 10 years before BSG did, but they didn't overuse it. Since most of the show in the first two seasons is about diplomatic meetings, they don't need to use it often because decorum and politeness is part of the job. (unless you're Commander Ivonova!)
- This show is The Lord of the Rings in space. I kid you not. It has its own half-human Arwen, two versions of Aragorn, an Eowyn, a Wormtongue, a joining of elves/humans via marriage, and someone falls into darkness. Actually, a lot of people do so, but one person literally dives like Gandalf did. They even have "Rangers" which do pretty much exactly the same thing as the Rangers in LOTR. Ironically, because there's two characters that reflect an Aragorn-ish role (as a Ranger and as a king) there's actually BOTH Aragorn/Arwen and Aragorn/Eowyn mirrored in the ships represented here. Of course, the show isn't exactly like LOTR, I mean the "elves" are aliens and the Shadows don't ride giant black horses, but if you're familiar with the books (particularly some obscure names) then you'll easily see the LOTR inspiration and homages within B5.
-The ever-present issues of homelessness, substance abuse, crime, classism, bigotry, and political corruption are part of the world of B5 and are woven into the setting. Most episodes touch on one of those issues in a big or small way, and certain things like addiction and corruption are elements of subplots that run through several seasons. Remember that terrible episode in season 2 of BSG when Lee hung out with prostitutes and went to the black market and shit and then felt all conflicted and guilty about it? B5 handles those issues regularly, and more intelligently. It doesn't exist as a place for one character to visit once to get some "development"... it's part of their world as much as the diplomatic meeting rooms and military ships.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 01:51 pm (UTC)At any rate, I kept pining and pining for Babylon 5 re-runs, but no one was running them, so I did what I do when I have a craving of this magnitude--I splurged. Bought the entire series on DVD and the movies. And yes that pilot movie and first season were a bit shaky, but by the start of the season 2, goddamn! At the cusp of 30, it's like I'm watching the show for the first time. I'm also reminded why I never felt a burgeoning desire to 'ship characters in this series, because B5 wasn't aimed at hormonally imbalanced 16 year olds. It was a show for ADULTS, with ADULTS dealing with ADULT relationships in an ADULT way. B5 was NOT a kiddie show and there were NO kiddies around to emphasize that point. B5 had plot, continuity, maturity, and all of the techno-speak to make this gear-head/geek-girl happy.
And now for a note on Avatar, why haven't Nick aired The Western Air Temple or The Firebending Masters?