Babylon 5 - Back to Season 1 (2258)

 

The Season 1 Cast

In case you've not come across it, Babylon 5 is a science-fiction series set in the later 2250s aboard a large diplomatic space station built to try and engender peace between the various polities and alien races. Run by the Earth Alliance, it's a crossroads in space. Ultimately, it will fail in its objective but out of that crucible a better future will emerge. The series ran for five seasons and ended up with several spin off movies and TV-series. The show has a harder-SF flavour than Star Trek. The show's creator pitched the series to Paramount; they rejected it but it was almost certainly an inspiration for Deep Space Nine which premiered just before Babylon 5. I much prefer Babylon 5.

One of my favourite SF series is Babylon 5. I've watched it fully at least three times (when it was transmitted, when I got it on VHS, when I got it on DVD) and recently I started to rewatch it on the HD stream from Amazon Prime. I picked it up reduced during the Black Friday events, only to find out the week after that it's gone on Prime for free. I'm not regretting it though.

The remaster to HD has been sensible and not letter-boxed the 4:3 print, although there are some widescreen elements (most notably the titles). The CGI may have been cleaned up, but I'm not certain on this. It certainly looks like a work of its time but still looks decent. Photorealistic, it isn't, but it works well.

Possibly the only disappointment is that the various TV movies etc haven't had the HD treatment, and the Gathering (the pilot) is missing from Prime (paid or free).

It's sad looking at the cast photo (along with the missing folks like the Jerry Doyle and Richard Biggs) and realising how many of them have subsequently passed away. I'm also going to call out Michael Hare who completed the series when going through a mental breakdown that only he and the show runner JMS knew about. I always liked his performance; he portrayed a compassionate, honourable but ultimately damaged man well.

The show is extremely clever in the way that it lays its trail of breadcrumbs out, and ends the first 21 episodes with the tables being turned over by events. I love the nascent relationships between G'Kar and Lando Mollari, and the undertone of menace. Of course, the initial threat appears to be the growing 'Home Guard' fascist nationalist xenophobic movement on Earth, but there are hints of more once Mr Morden arrives at the station.

If you've not watched this, it's a great chance to do it now. This season builds the characters and purpose of the station, and ends with the plot starting to accelerate.

A bonus to me is that my eldest (17) caught it a couple of episodes in, and has been hooked by it.

I left the show last night as 2259 started, and I'm sure we'll be back for more later this week.

23 December 2024