Babylon 5 Opening Themes

[glindros]

I do keep all of the season openers on my iPhone, and listen to them regularly.
My order according to the number of times played is:
Season 4
Season 5
Season 3
Season 2
Season 0 (The pilot with Londo's Narration)
Season 1

[Ninja_Squirrel]

I should have updated sooner, but the results of the Top 50 Genre Themes Countdown at TuningIntoSciFiTV.com have been out for a while.

They can be found here...

Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (50 - 41) podcast
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 2 (40 - 31) podcast
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 3 (30 - 21) podcast
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 4 (20 - 11) podcast
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 5 (10 - 01) podcast

Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (50 - 41) discussion thread
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (40 - 31) discussion thread
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (30 - 21) discussion thread
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (20 - 11) discussion thread
Top Genre Themes Countdown - Episode 1 (10 - 01) discussion thread

Babylon 5's opening themes made it to #8 out of 50, and the openings from seasons 3 & 4 were played on the countdown.

[Morden]

1. Season 5
2. Season 4
3. Season 2
4. Season 1
5. Season 3

Ah, well, I really like all of them...

On a sidenote: I always enjoyed the Crusade intro, nicely done was also the TLT intro, and... just to have mentioned it... LotR had a nice intro, compared to it's rest...

[SmileOfTheShadow]

To me, the opening theme and music is really about raw emotional response. I thought that the music for Season 4 had the biggest punch to it.

[Milkman]

This one was hard... in the end i voted for season 5. The narration was awesome, and the music... well the music sounds like achievement. Its like saying "our show lasted 5 years!!! GO TEAM!"

Season 1 was a 'new' type of tv music when i heard it. It made it stand out to me, and for that it should be given some credit. That being said, for me the season 2 theme is most iconic. Thats when i started to really make sure i saw every episode, mostly by recording it at like midnight. Yey for staying up late on weekends in high school so i found out how good this show was by accident. Which reminds me i need to make an effort to get those off VHS before those tapes go bad. Not sure we will ever get the originals like that available to purchase.

Oh and thanks for the tuning into sci-fi links.

[Ninja_Squirrel]

I'm not surprised season 5 came out on top even though I like season 4 a little better.

I asked this same question over at B5TV.com, and over there, I was the only person to vote for season 4, and season 3 came out on top.

I thought of bringing this up now because one of my favorite podcasts, Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV, just happens to be running a poll/survey during July of Top Genre Show Theme Songs that they're going to turn into a top 100 or top 50 countdown soon. You can find the voting rules and ballot form here:

http://tuningintoscifitv.com/polls-and-surveys/top-genre-show-themes

Interestingly, one of the rules is that you can vote for a show as a whole or for individual seasons, a rule probably meant to address rare shows like B5 that changed their opening theme every season.

Today is the last day of voting on Top Genre Show Themes over at the Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV podcast. At first, I struggled with whether to list two or three separate B5 openings on my ballot, to give extra weight to seasons 4 & 5 (and maybe 2), but there were too many other shows I wanted to include in my ballot. So, I voted for Babylon 5 as a whole but ranked it #1. Here's what my whole top themes ballot ended up as:

1. Babyon 5
2. Firefly
3. Star Trek: Enterprise
4. Quantum Leap
5. Highlander: The Series
6. Stargate: Atlantis
7. Alien Nation
8. The Greatest American Hero
9. Mystery Science Theater 3000
10. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 4 - 7)

[David Panzer]

Season 5's theme still gives me goosebumps and chills every time I hear it.

[valens_shadow]

Yes, that's the one. I meant to type DVD Suite but it came out DVD Theme.
Jan

That is a superb extra and the music's great, I hope one day a s1-5 edit is made or complete B5 edit.

It's ridiculously high on Amazon.

tell me about it

[Jan]

Did you mean the DVD suite extra on season 4, the 7 - 9 minute specially composed extra showing a condensed version of events from the beginning of the series up to series 4?

Yes, that's the one. I meant to type DVD Suite but it came out DVD Theme.

Got to agree the music in Sleeping in Light is so emotive. I wish I had the CD but no such luck.

If you ever find the opportunity to get it for a decent price, do. It's ridiculously high on Amazon.

Jan

[valens_shadow]

My other favorite pieces of music from the show include the DVD theme (season 4, wasn't it?), Sleeping in Light episodic CD, Track 6 from the In the Beginning CD and the Late Delivery from Avalon episodic CD/


Jan

Did you mean the DVD suite extra on season 4, the 7 - 9 minute specially composed extra showing a condensed version of events from the beginning of the series up to series 4?

Got to agree the music in Sleeping in Light is so emotive. I wish I had the CD but no such luck.

[Jonas]

The fifth season intro is very moving, but I must say I love the atmosphere and texture of the first season intro very much. Especially how Michael O'Hare says the word "wanderers." Goosebumps.

[Lope de Aguirre]

From favorite to least favorite:

1. Season 5
2. Season 4
3. Season 1
4. Season 3
5. Season 2

[Jan]

Hi, Ninja_Squirrel! Great to see you back.

Season 5 is my favorite of the themes for much the same reasons valens_shadow mentioned. Least fave would probably be season 3 but not for any failing of its own - simply that I heard it so many times when listening to the B5 episodic CDs that I got tired of it.

My other favorite pieces of music from the show include the DVD theme (season 4, wasn't it?), Sleeping in Light episodic CD, Track 6 from the In the Beginning CD and the Late Delivery from Avalon episodic CD/

I'll have to check out some of the podcast links you gave, thanks. Welcome back.

Jan

[valens_shadow]

For me it would be between series 5 and series 2 being my favourite, with 5 edging it with the best music and a kind of greatest hits of the clips. "And so it begins..." I wish I could express my thoughts/emotions better but I just love that bit with the music.

My least favourite is series 3. I like the narration but I'm not keen on the music.

At this moment in time I couldn't decide between series 4 and series 1 but both are good title sequences.

[Ninja_Squirrel]

Forgive me if this has been a topic before, but I'm wondering how much everyone liked Babylon 5's opening themes and, since they're different every season, how they would rank them.

My ranking would be:

• #5: Season 1
• #4: Season 3
• #3: Season 2
• #2: Season 5
• #1: Season 4

All the opening themes are good, but season 4 has everything -- best music, best narration, and best images/clips. I especially love how each member of the cast got to read a snippet of the narration, and for the credits, they use a lot of excellent clips from throughout the show's run.

=====

I thought of bringing this up now because one of my favorite podcasts, Tuning Into Sci-Fi TV, just happens to be running a poll/survey during July of Top Genre Show Theme Songs that they're going to turn into a top 100 or top 50 countdown soon. You can find the voting rules and ballot form here:

http://tuningintoscifitv.com/polls-and-surveys/top-genre-show-themes

Interestingly, one of the rules is that you can vote for a show as a whole or for individual seasons, a rule probably meant to address rare shows like B5 that changed their opening theme every season.

The voting is probably intended for regular listeners of the podcast, but that doesn't seem to be a requirement, and it's a really good podcast, one of my favorites, so I would recommend it anyway.

In fact, this is the 2nd summer that the podcast has done a Babylon 5 re-watch (first-time watch for two of the co-hosts). This summer they are in season 3 (they skipped s1). The episodes that they're scheduled to discuss next are "Ceremonies of Light & Dark" and "Sic Transit Vir."

For a crash course on their Babylon 5 content, check out their B5-tagged blog items and Babylon 5 forum discussion. Not a lot of people are posting on B5 right now, so I'd love some company over there. (I go by "Todd W in NC" over there.)

A few months ago, they ran another survey for Top 100 Genre Shows of All Time, for which they did 11 very well produced editions of their podcast counting down the 100 best shows, plus 10 honorable mentions. Babylon 5 came in at #10. Each episode of the countdown, except the special wrap up episode, included 10 main shows plus one "Best of the Rest." They didn't just read the results; they included clips from the shows, commentary from the co-hosts and listeners, recaps of the previous countdown entries, reading of some listeners' ballots, etc. They were very well edited and some of the later ones ran over an hour long.