Sfdebris.net

At the end of this video, Chuck tries to explain what he doesn't like about early Babylon 5 and I'm in complete agreement with him.
However he describes it as 'inexplicably unpleasant to sit through', I'm not sure if he was trying to be polite or if he genuinely didn't know how to sum up the issues he has with the early episodes of the show but I personally don't feel that they are unexplainable.

Season 1 of the show has some effective, engaging and atmospheric episodes such as 'Midnight on the firing line', 'The sky full of stars', 'Shadows and Portents' and the one everybody loves 'Chrysalis' but it also has some terribly cheesy and awkward episodes like this one, 'Infection', 'Grail', 'TKO' and several others. I believe the good episodes work because they have better writing, characterisation, story and an overall stronger focus than the episodes that don't work, which feel a lot more pulpy, lazy and cliched in comparison. Season 1 is also hindered by the horribly dated special effects (which thankfully improved over the course of the show) and the main cast still getting to grips with their roles and the nature of the show (although it's not as bad here as it is on Farscape or Star Trek DS9)

I feel this episode tries too hard to be some kind of gritty noir in space (atleast within the limitations of its air time and network age rating) but due to the shows low budget, shaky guest actor performances, silly dialogue (the stuff with that alien fetishist guy was a bit over the top...) and overall uninteresting story, it falls flat. The sub plot with Garibaldi and Ivanova kind of saves it though, that was fairly well done, especially the scene with Ivanova and her dying father.

Signs and Portents was my favorite of Season 1. This one, I sometimes skip on series re-watches. I agree the sub plot buoys this up some but not enough to really rescue it. Sadly, it does contain some info that will be very plot-relevant later in the series.

I think the first 8-10 episodes are shit that includes the movie.

They just do not have the rhythm of modern TV editing and the actors are still learning how to deliver their lines.

I have to compare this to another dialogue driven politics heavy show, "The West Wing" whose creator also wrote something like 80 episodes and did at least a re-write on all of them thru season 4. West Wing had the budget which afforded it time to hammer out issues with the cast in regards to Aaron Sorkin's writing style (it also helped that a few members of the cast like Martin Sheen and Bradley Whitford had worked in Sorkin's plays and movies prior to the show). B5 did not have the pre-production time and budget to work it all out. Add to that Michael O'Hare being literally insane well...

There is also all the world building. Good lord there are 5 primary powers at the start, we are in the aftermath of a war from 10 years ago, and the Narn occupation from a century earlier, and the shadow war from 1000 years prior, there is a lot of shit going on. It is hard to fit that all in.

Rocketboy1313 wrote:I think the first 8-10 episodes are shit that includes the movie.

They just do not have the rhythm of modern TV editing and the actors are still learning how to deliver their lines.

I have to compare this to another dialogue driven politics heavy show, "The West Wing" whose creator also wrote something like 80 episodes and did at least a re-write on all of them thru season 4. West Wing had the budget which afforded it time to hammer out issues with the cast in regards to Aaron Sorkin's writing style (it also helped that a few members of the cast like Martin Sheen and Bradley Whitford had worked in Sorkin's plays and movies prior to the show). B5 did not have the pre-production time and budget to work it all out. Add to that Michael O'Hare being literally insane well...

There is also all the world building. Good lord there are 5 primary powers at the start, we are in the aftermath of a war from 10 years ago, and the Narn occupation from a century earlier, and the shadow war from 1000 years prior, there is a lot of shit going on. It is hard to fit that all in.

I agree with you there, as far as the world building was concerned, JMS did a fairly good job spreading it out over the first two seasons.