it's pretty easy to think season 4 was the last season
Season 4 should have just ended with just the Shadow war. Extend out that plot thread to just be season 4, which would be super easy to do with how much content you can milk from the shadow war as we saw DS9 do wonderfully with the dominion war, and end it with the original final episode of Season 4. Dragging it out with the shadow's "allies" was just nowhere near as threatening, entertaining or intellectually stimulating. Characters other than Mollari (the best character, fight me if you disagree) don't really have anywhere to go development wise and they just kind of meander or have massive character changes that make no sense (even Garabaldi's, fuck that stupid plot thread) to be quite honest.
as far as I understand that was mostly the plan, but they got word Season 4 was going to be the end so they rushed everything and were only left with a giant pile of B Plot for Season 5 after they got renewed
Its better if it just ends with the shadow war though. The shadow's allies would do the same crap they did in season 4 (except hopefully better paced), just under the shadow's control. I don't see the reason to end the shadow war and downgrade your antagonists. It would have also allowed way more time to set up the Vorlons heel turn, better developed Mollari's rise to power and create a more believable set up the "Not Federation" that would appear after the war.
Sinclair was originally replaced because of the actor's mental issues, that JMS only disclosed after his passing. But I love the way they wrote an exit for the character turning Sinclaire into Valen.I like B5 well enough, but even if DS9 (i.e. The best Star Trek) *did* rip it off- which is entirely possible. B5 is still fucking cursed.
Sinclair, G'Kar, Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin, Vir, Zack, Zathras, and plenty of others who were on this show have all died. Respectfully rest in peace. I still enjoyed the ride.
It was. I never saw any of Season 5 until years after the fact because my family didn't have cable. I never felt like I missed anything aside from the series finale (Sleeping in Light) which was filmed during Season 4 and bumped after word of renewal came. I had bought Sleeping in Light at some point on VHS and never saw Season 5 until streaming services came along.
Season 5 is mostly OK by Babylon 5 standards. The only thing that was truly , really bad about it was the extended Byron arc, which apparently only came about because IIRC JMS lost the outline to Season 5.
Byron was in the original outline, but Ivanova would've been the one to bang him as the rebound from Marcus. They actually cast Robin Atkin Downes specifically because he looked like Jason Carter. Claudia Christian's abrupt departure put the kibosh on that.
Even with his planning though, the only character he didn't create a "trapdoor" for (a character that is specifically created to replace another character in the event an actor is unable to reprise the role) in the season 1 finale was sinclair's actor and he was the only one who left. For completely understandable reasons, but its still shit luck.
I'd be fine with Video Toaster if it wasn't that shit cropjob for the boring shotsI was mildly offended by the special effects shots in the Bluray remaster of TNG being updated... but I think in the case of Babylon 5 I would welcome that approach (if we would ever be lucky enough to get a remaster of that). I remember catching a special on TV that (I think) aired after the pilot premiered showing how they made the AMAZING SPACESHIP SHOTS on fucking Video Toaster
There was some fuckery going on with the SFX. Essentially, it was something like the original SFX was in 4:3, but the 35mm reels were in 16:9. Unless you're going to buy the original VHS and LD releases (LD was spotty, only season 1, bits of season 2, and season 5) or have the old SVCD scene releases, it won't be so good. The DVDs are trash, btw.I was mildly offended by the special effects shots in the Bluray remaster of TNG being updated... but I think in the case of Babylon 5 I would welcome that approach (if we would ever be lucky enough to get a remaster of that). I remember catching a special on TV that (I think) aired after the pilot premiered showing how they made the AMAZING SPACESHIP SHOTS on fucking Video Toaster
That Cylon Plan meme hurts to this day. Let's plaster it on the opening credits but never come up with it.
No, they eventually "revealed" it. It was stupid.
