MovieChat Forums > Babylon 5 (1993) Discussion > Sci-Fi or soap?

Sci-Fi or soap?

posted 4 years ago by avortac4 (3529)
5 replies | jump to latest

It's been decades since I saw this show the last time, so I decided to give it another chance. Maybe I missed something back then, perhaps there's something good about it after all. So let's see.

I've been watching season one for awhile now, and so far, I haven't seen much of 'science fiction', but I have seen a lot of typical 'TV drama' crap that makes me groan and cringe at the same time. So far, there has been episodes about:

- Monster of the week
- Hospital drama (typical 'kid might die if their parents' get their religious way')
- Detective story
- 'A human gets superpowers and turns into a God in the end' (sigh)
(and for some reason, this same human/God doesn't come back to help when there's a war against shadows)
- Romantic drama number 1, 2, 3 and so on (with typical 'betrayal' crap)

Where's my plot advance 'foreshadowing' and 'science fiction' stuff? Just because the surrounding is in space and they use 'blasters' instead of guns, doesn't mean it's automatically the best science fiction.

Give me something I can use and I haven't seen before. Even TNG beats this soap opera trash in science fiction front. At least they had the gall to have super surreal episodes and actual grand, 'cosmic ideas', space exploration, otherplanetary visitations, etc.

All we get is Sinclair's girlfriend and Londo's girlfriend and political crap and hospital drama. Who the heck finds this entertaining, when you've seen it all so many times in other TV shows and soap operas?

Give me proper science fiction, please!

Oh well, if I remember correctly, the later seasons become a bit more interesting, entertaining and streamlined, but season one seems to be just very boring cringefest with all the typical 'will they strike or not', 'will they operate on the sick kid or not', 'will they hook up or not', etc.

The only interesting episode so far was the one with the memory probe stuff, but even that was so predictable and didn't really reveal anything that interesting. I wonder why they made season one so boring, you'd think the first season should be most interesting to draw in people, THEN it could become a bit more boring (but hopefully PURPOSEFULLY, not for the sake of these soap/romance/politics-episodes).

So far, it seems like I am just watching a predictable soap opera in space, some episodes almost feel like I am watching the Star Wars prequels with all this 'boring, prolonged negotiations with workers that want to strike' stuff.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

Season 1 sucks. So does season 5.

It is seasons 2 through 4 that are so good. Unfortunately, one needs the backdrop of the crappy S1 for the best viewing of the golden center of the series.

S1: C-
S2: A
S3: A+
S4: A+
S5: C

post series movies: C
Spinoffs: D

[–] R_Kane (15828) a year ago

I completely agree. Too many producers think that putting a mundane narrative in a futuristic environment will be “science fiction.” B5 was pure dreck soap opera—with dubious production values—IN SPACE. The same problem I have with Alien: it’s horror, not science fiction. Alien is the old “trapped in a house with a monster” trope. SF has dick to do with the narrative, and Dan O’Bannon has always been a misanthropic hack.

The final episode of the series was a disgrace. Let’s see: so he dies on the same day that the space station is decommissioned, and he leaves his beloved wife ALL ALONE so he can fly off to the space station and then vanish into thin air and deny her the comfort and closure of a funeral?! What a fucking asshole, both the writer and the character. I’m sad that Bruce Boxleitner agreed to this. I actually like Bruce “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” Boxleitner. I am shocked by how many glowing reviews this has on IMDb: “Best TV writing ever,” etc. perhaps B5 was ground-breaking for hiring so many shills. “Great special effects”?! Really?! Tell you what: I’ll put the Entirety of B5 up against the 1 movie of The Last Starfighter, which arguably had the most primitive FX of the new digital era but was groundbreaking for its time, and I double-dog guarantee you that Starfighter is in every way the more satisfying experience.

The tag line for Alien was, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” The tag line for B5 is, “In space, no one can hear you sneer.”

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Wrong, R_Kane. Babylon 5 was a great success, hugely popular among those who took the time to see the whole thing, and was a trendsetter, like using CGI instead of models and miniatures for special effects, and story arcs that could last over several seasons. And J. Michael Straczynski was the first showrunner to engage directly with fans on the Internet on a regular basis as well as single-handedly writing many, many episodes, even almost a whole season once.

Even if the special FX look ropey today, the characters are still compelling, like Londo and G'Kar, and the scope of the story was like a novel set in space. JMS spent years developing the story, and after pitching it to Paramount, they stole his ideas and made Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, his ideas were that good!

And the final episode, Sleeping in Light, is THE true tearjerker in sci-fi TV, and a perfect send-off for the station and the show.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Oh, and judging by your second paragraph, you obviously didn't WATCH the show. So don't bother speaking from ignorance.

[–] raymondoz2007 (2060) a year ago

DS9 is so much better.