Babylon 5, Season 1, condensed

[Ubik]

I love PoI. I have not yet seen the final season, not yet available here, but I am introducing it to a friend of mine, having a day of watching 6-10 episodes each month.

As soon as I can get my hands on a DVD/BluRay season 5 set playable here I will get to it.

Looking forward to your friend's reaction to B5. Your revised list is not bad at all, if you find that you *must* reduce it.

All of POI is on Netflix I think. (sorry to slightly derail the thread!)

[babylonlurker]

All of POI is on Netflix I think. (sorry to slightly derail the thread!)

Not where I am located, unless it arrived less than 2 days ago. Omly 3 seasons here.

And now back to the original topic

[Jan]

Not wanting to stifle discussion but my feeling is that they either watch it all or not at all. Somebody once tried to find all the episodes with no arc in them and didn't find even one. So the times I've shared it with people I've told them that it was only for people smart enough to pay close attention and patient enough to get a great payoff and I thought they qualified. So far it's always worked. Flattery works wonders.

[alpha128]

I love PoI. I have not yet seen the final season. As soon as I can get my hands on a DVD/BluRay season 5 set playable here I will get to it.

I do not think you will be disappointed. Like B5, the POI series finale is very emotional.

Your revised list is not bad at all, if you find that you *must* reduce it.

Thanks for your input.

[alpha128]

Not wanting to stifle discussion but my feeling is that they either watch it all or not at all. Somebody once tried to find all the episodes with no arc in them and didn't find even one.

Perhaps. But there's arc and then there's ARC. If arc was sugar, some episodes would have a little sprinkled on top, while others would have half the bag dumped on them.

I think I'm going to follow the advice of the reviewer at the A.V. Club who divides first time viewers of "Midnight on the Firing Line" into three camps. He wrote:

"'Midnight On The Firing Line' is my test for new Babylon 5 viewers. The levels of potential and competence are subjective enough that I’d expect a variety of different reactions.

This was good! I’m interested in learning more right away

I can see the potential, but the entertainment doesn’t match it yet

This isn’t working for me, though there may be something to it"

Babylon 5: “Midnight On The Firing Line”/“Soul Hunter”

So, their initial reaction to "Midnight on the Firing Line" will guide which list we watch. If they're enthusiastic, we'll watch 'em all. If they can see potential but aren't thrilled, we'll go with my initial 16 episode list. If "Midnight" didn't work for them, we'll try the 12 episode revised list.

[Ubik]

So, their initial reaction to "Midnight on the Firing Line" will guide which list we watch. If they're enthusiastic, we'll watch 'em all. If they can see potential but aren't thrilled, we'll go with my initial 16 episode list. If "Midnight" didn't work for them, we'll try the 12 episode revised list.

I would still skip 'Infection' no matter what. Hahahaha...

Honestly, it put my friend right off the show, who is both deeply intelligent and loves SF. So beware! It should be kept in mind them we're all talking about B5 from the perspective of very invested fans. Let's face it, the beauty of the show is only really evident once you've seen it as a whole. S1 only really becomes 'excellent' when you can spot all the Easter eggs and foreshadowing. So, there would be a certain joy to going back and having a few new things to watch i think.

I've done quite a few Season 1 'Redux' viewings with friends and I honestly think it's the best way to hook them in. Your list looks good to me.

[alpha128]

I would still skip 'Infection' no matter what. Hahahaha...

I've done quite a few Season 1 'Redux' viewings with friends and I honestly think it's the best way to hook them in. Your list looks good to me.

But which one(s) look good? There are now two lists, "Initial List" and "Revised List". To recap:

INITIAL LIST - 16 out of 22 episodes (73%)

# Title Grade
1 Midnight on the Firing Line B
2 Soul Hunter C+
3 Born to the Purple C-
5 The Parliament of Dreams B+
6 Mind War B+
7 The War Prayer C
8 And The Sky Full Of Stars B+
11 Survivors C-
12 By Any Means Necessary A-
13 Signs and Portents B
17 Legacies B-
18 A Voice in the Wilderness part 1 B+
19 A Voice in the Wilderness part 2 A-
20 Babylon Squared A
21 The Quality of Mercy B
22 Chrysalis A

REVISED LIST - 12 out of 22 episodes (55%)

# Title Grade
1 Midnight on the Firing Line B
5 The Parliament of Dreams B+
6 Mind War B+
8 And The Sky Full Of Stars B+
12 By Any Means Necessary A-
13 Signs and Portents B
17 Legacies B-
18 A Voice in the Wilderness part 1 B+
19 A Voice in the Wilderness part 2 A-
20 Babylon Squared A
21 The Quality of Mercy B
22 Chrysalis A

The difference between the two is the "Initial List" includes the following four "C grade" episodes:

2 Soul Hunter: A fair amount of arc significance
3 Born to the Purple: Introduces Adira Tyree and shows the death of Ivanova's father
7 The War Prayer: Introduces the Home Guard and Londo's three wives, and gives a brief recap of "The Gathering"
11 Survivors: Introduces Garibaldi's alcoholism and foreshadows the events of "Chrysalis"

Based your own experience with "Season 1 'Redux' viewings with friends", do you think it's better to include those four episodes or skip them?

[Ubik]

But which one(s) look good? There are now two lists, "Initial List" and "Revised List". To recap:

INITIAL LIST - 16 out of 22 episodes (73%)

# Title Grade
1 Midnight on the Firing Line B
2 Soul Hunter C+
3 Born to the Purple C-
5 The Parliament of Dreams B+
6 Mind War B+
7 The War Prayer C
8 And The Sky Full Of Stars B+
11 Survivors C-
12 By Any Means Necessary A-
13 Signs and Portents B
17 Legacies B-
18 A Voice in the Wilderness part 1 B+
19 A Voice in the Wilderness part 2 A-
20 Babylon Squared A
21 The Quality of Mercy B
22 Chrysalis A

REVISED LIST - 12 out of 22 episodes (55%)

# Title Grade
1 Midnight on the Firing Line B
5 The Parliament of Dreams B+
6 Mind War B+
8 And The Sky Full Of Stars B+
12 By Any Means Necessary A-
13 Signs and Portents B
17 Legacies B-
18 A Voice in the Wilderness part 1 B+
19 A Voice in the Wilderness part 2 A-
20 Babylon Squared A
21 The Quality of Mercy B
22 Chrysalis A

The difference between the two is the "Initial List" includes the following four "C grade" episodes:

2 Soul Hunter: A fair amount of arc significance
3 Born to the Purple: Introduces Adira Tyree and shows the death of Ivanova's father
7 The War Prayer: Introduces the Home Guard and Londo's three wives, and gives a brief recap of "The Gathering"
11 Survivors: Introduces Garibaldi's alcoholism and foreshadows the events of "Chrysalis"

Based your own experience with "Season 1 'Redux' viewings with friends", do you think it's better to include those four episodes or skip them?

I think it's perhaps best to just go with your gut and their initial reaction to each episode. If they are digging it, include those for sure... They're all fairly solid episodes.

It also depends on how well they cope with the hammier elements of the show. Much of William Morgan Sheppard's performance in Soul Hunter had me in stitches, probably for the wrong reasons. Do they like B-Movies? Are they able to deeply enjoy things which are flawed, yet succeed because they're doing good things with limited resources?

All depends on your audience really. Don't stress it too much, and let the show speak for itself. Always fun to include some triva too if that interests them (Lurker's guide stuff is always fun).

[alpha128]

I think it's perhaps best to just go with your gut and their initial reaction to each episode. If they are digging it, include those for sure... They're all fairly solid episodes.

OK. Fair enough.

Interestingly, I was searching this board and discovered an old thread on essentially the same topic: Guide for those who dislike Season 1...

Even more interesting is post #4 in that thread, which bears a startling resemblance to my REVISED LIST:

But I guess what your recommending is....

Midnight On The Firing Line
And The Sky Full Of Stars
Signs And Portents
Babylon Squared
Chrysalis

Then at least six more episodes like

"The Parliament of Dreams"
"Mind War"
"Deathwalker"
"Legacies"
"The Quality of Mercy"

http://jmsnews.com/forums/showpost.p...07&postcount=4

[Ubik]

Okay, maybe go with the revised list then? As I said, see how they react.

[alpha128]

Okay, maybe go with the revised list then? As I said, see how they react.

Yes, what I plan to do. I felt good about the initial list, but I feel just as good about the revised list. But they are both mystery fans, so having "And the Sky Full of Stars" as the fourth episode (instead of seventh) has a certain appeal.

We'll see how things shake out. Thanks.

[Ubik]

Would love to know how it goes... so do report back in this thread or elsewhere!

I am always intrigued to hear what others make of the show on a first viewing.

[Jan]

We'll see how things shake out. Thanks.

You're welcome to invite your newbie to join us here to share his/her thoughts and impressions. We'll gladly start a spoiler-free thread for them.

Jan

[alpha128]

Would love to know how it goes... so do report back in this thread or elsewhere!

You're welcome to invite your newbie to join us here to share his/her thoughts and impressions.

I don't think they would be interested in posting here. However, I will be happy to relay their impressions and post them in this thread as Ubik requested.

[Looney]

So I have been thinking about this from the perspective of my own experience of coming to love Babylon 5. I was only able to see a few scattered episodes of Season One back in 1994, due to various reason, and couldn't really sit down and get into the show until Season Two. This did not cause any problems with my love for the show in the slightest. It did make me DESPERATELY want to see every Season One episode about 4 episodes into Season Two, but that wasn't possible back then and I had to wait until VHS copies became available a couple of years later. While not ideal, it did make getting to catch up with Season One before the Series was over a fun experience. Having said this I guess it seems okay to skip some First Season episodes initially because hopefully the newbies will want to go back and watch them before you are even through Season Two. I mean I would never do it as long as I was with the person watching the shows, but I definitely understand trying to sell SciFi to people who aren't already into it is a TOUGH sell. I mean really, I am into SciFi and I will tell you right now you are usually wasting your time if you want me to watch anything involving time travel.