Things that make you think of B5 unexpectedly

[Jan]

One can wonder what Babylon 5 did.

Maybe he was just one of those who likes the space battles. Amazing...

[Ubik]

I have been working my way through ST: Enterprise, as it's currently on Netflix. It's not quite as big a disaster as I remember it being, and is fairly watchable when I need something throwaway.

But, who should appear but our own Andreas Katsulas playing Vissian Captain Drennik in the episode "Cogenitor". Andreas gets a few nice lines, and seems to have almost been type cast as the 'eloquent alien' after B5. The episode is solid, and reminded me a bit of 'Survivors' with a culture clash that results in a tragic death. It's a bit 'OBEY THE PRIME DIRECTIVE'... or else!

[Babel-17]

This thread is the closest fit for what happened to me today.

I was wearing one of my #FreeBabylon5 shirts today when I went to Subway for lunch and a man behind the counter asked me if it was about the TV show. Naturally I was happy to say yes. A bit later he came to my table and we talked about B5 and JMS' comics and such when I asked him if he'd seen Sense8 yet. My jaw nearly dropped when told me that no, he'd read what it was about and decided to not watch it because (and yes, this is a real quote) "...it'd make me pay attention and think."

I mean...why bother with JMS' work if you don't want to pay attention and think and feel??? And he was quite knowledgeable about JMS' work. I was stunned.

Maybe he was using a dash of irony? I'll guess that he read about the show, was a bit intimidated by its complexity, and what he actually means is that it would take a lot of effort to follow along, and when he comes home from work he doesn't want to work some more in order to be entertained.

Lol, trying to spin this as best as I can. I'm choosing to think that a B5 fan was merely having a less than eloquent moment. Not that a fan can't act like a jerk, but he did come over to the table to chat, which suggests a streak of niceness.

Maybe he'll binge watch it when he has a block of free time.

[Ubik]

Maybe he was using a dash of irony? I'll guess that he read about the show, was a bit intimidated by its complexity, and what he actually means is that it would take a lot of effort to follow along, and when he comes home from work he doesn't want to work some more in order to be entertained.

Lol, trying to spin this as best as I can. I'm choosing to think that a B5 fan was merely having a less than eloquent moment. Not that a fan can't act like a jerk, but he did come over to the table to chat, which suggests a streak of niceness.

Maybe he'll binge watch it when he has a block of free time.

I can never buy the 'too complex / confusing' argument with Sense8 because it really isn't. It's just a nice show, with a great concept that doesn't spoon feed you for the first few episodes. Even then, it's still pretty clear what's going on. B5 was great because it broke a lot of the rules of TV SF, so I can't understand someone not wanting to see that done again.

[Jan]

Maybe he was using a dash of irony? I'll guess that he read about the show, was a bit intimidated by its complexity, and what he actually means is that it would take a lot of effort to follow along, and when he comes home from work he doesn't want to work some more in order to be entertained.

I think you're probably right. I get the feeling he may be a 'TV in the background' sorta guy. But it seems to me that B5 wasn't a show you could fail to pay attention to, either.

[Looney]

So this is more thinking of something unexpectedly while I was watching Babylon 5.

I am currently away from home. I have been watching B5 on Go90 every night while I fall asleep. Last night I "unexpectedly" realized that I was watching Babylon 5 on my PHONE! This may not seem like much, but in my life it doesn't seem like that long ago I was feeling I might never see most of the show again. This would have been prior to the DVD release. In actual time it has been a long time, but as far as my life goes it doesn’t feel like that long ago. To go from a time when I worried whether or not I would ever see the show in its entirety again to watching it when I am away from home on my phone seems like a big leap in my life time.

I guess I am showing my age in that I grew up watching TV shows in an era when there was a high probability of never seeing them again after you saw them once, unless you were lucky enough to catch a random rerun. This explains why when I got the ability to do so I began taping just about every show I saw on VHS. Unfortunately with the random scheduling of the original run of B5 I did not get all of the episodes taped. (I REALLY need to go back through those tapes and see how much I do have.) It seems quite incredible to look back at that guy who tried to tape every episode of Babylon 5 when it was broadcast and introduce him to the guy who can lay in bed late at night and watch the show on his phone.

[Ubik]

It seems quite incredible to look back at that guy who tried to tape every episode of Babylon 5 when it was broadcast and introduce him to the guy who can lay in bed late at night and watch the show on his phone.

Yes, the technological leaps are pretty amazing when you put it into context. I remember trying to tape every TNG episode from BBC2 in my early teens, now all I do is press play on Netflix. The way we consume TV has changed so much!

[Melanie]

Not completely unexpected this time, but the first time I had Panna Cotta my first thought was "this looks about as wobbly as I've pictured Spoo being". By chance I came across a place that had it today and had some, since it's the closest thing to Centauri spoo my brain knows. I know you can make it according to the instructions in Dining on Babylon 5, but that will always be the second "Spoo" I found.

[nottenst]

I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but I thought I might as well put it here as well. I had misplaced something in the house and was furiously looking all over the place for it. Then a voice in my head said, "There is a hole in your mind."

About 10 minutes after hearing that familiar Minbari voice in my head, I did find what I was looking for.

[Looney]

OMG! Same thing has happened to me before. I've watched The Gathering too many times.

[B5-Stefan]

About 10 minutes after hearing that familiar Minbari voice in my head, I did find what I was looking for.

Well well

OMG! Same thing has happened to me before. I've watched The Gathering too many times.

Ah yes! I got it finally!
You both did Your post on the MAGIC date 07/17/17

JMS BIRTHDAY

That now really let me think of B5 quite expectedly ;-)
B5-Stefan

[Melanie]

I was watching something else and caught myself thinking "it's not a Shadow, it's just a shadow that looks like a Shadow".

[alpha128]

I was playing the classic on-line game "Rebuild", which is essentially "Zombie SimCity". It's a strategy game where you have to rebuild civilization after the Zombie Apocalypse.

You are given the option to name your city and leader. However, the names of all the other survivors are assigned randomly by the game.

Anyway, I was selecting survivors to work on a mission, when I noticed that one of my new recruits had a familiar name (yes, I know it's not exact):

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa419/alpha128_imdb/B5%20Rebuild/B5_reminder1.jpg

Given his military background, I decided to train him as a soldier at the school:

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa419/alpha128_imdb/B5%20Rebuild/B5_reminder2.jpg

Fortunately for him, he was recruited when my fort was well established and thus was able to avoid injury and death. But he did have a close call near the end of the game:

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa419/alpha128_imdb/B5%20Rebuild/B5_reminder3.jpg

[Melanie]

Not completely unexpected, but I got a purple name tag for my bag. Now I regret not getting the green bag that I considered.

[nottenst]

Not really unexpected per se, but as I hope can be seen in the photo, I put up a B5CCG poster for The Shadows card set at work in the MMS Flight Dynamics Operations Area before our first long shadows season in operations in 2015. (The screen at the left show several orbits of MMS including where there were maneuvers on two successive orbits.)

It is still there and there was a group of visitors dropping by today. One of them had been working during early operations. He noted that I still had my B5 poster up. One of the other people mentioned that "Babylon 5 is supposed to be the best SF show ever on television. .... At my previous job we had a discussion about the best SF show on television and the consensus went to Babylon 5." Indeed.