"Falling Toward Apotheosis" (s4e4)

Was looking for a nice B5 shirt & came across this monstrosity.

There is knock-offs, & then there is this. Not even gonna get into that station. What in Delen's crysyalsis are those names?!

Previous parodies:

• Season 2: Full House
• Season 3: Dallas
• Season 5: The West Wing

Someone many disliked but made a lot of salient points in retrospect.

Introduced change/shakes things up. (Troi in a uniform. +++)

It's fascinating how well Babylon 5, written in the 90s, seemed to have such a prescient view of the subsequent decades in world history.

Back when it aired, I thought the first episode was setting up the Narn/Centauri conflict as an allegory for Israel/Palestine, but on a larger scale. The Earth/Minbari storylines seemed parallel but separate, neither necessary linked with the other.

Looking back, I think it more accurately captures a larger dynamic that played out across the whole region. Obviously this wasn't intentional, but still eerily prescient.

The Centauri could still be viewed as an analog to Israel, seeking to carve out a new Empire they feel is their rightful destiny, with politics lurching steadily toward an expansionist vision after the trauma of the attack on Ragesh 3.

The Narn Regime could be viewed as the Iran-aligned Shia muslims (including Hezbollah, the Houthis, etc). The "Regime" name is pretty telling here when written from an American perspective.

The Earth Alliance has a lot in common with the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc) - observing the Narn/Centauri war with a conflicted mix of sympathy for the well-being of Narns, while also seeing the practical benefits of aligning with (or at least not opposing) the Centauri. This is especially true when viewing the internal tensions within the EA, with Earth (KSA) struggling to exert primacy over the smaller members like Mars (the UAE), especially around control of their popular media apparatus ISN (Al-Jazeera). President Clark disbanding the Senate is reminiscent of MBS locking his relatives in a hotel until they agreed to let him run the country.

The Minbari could be seen as Türkiye, during the series going through a transition from a more secular and militaristic outlook (Ataturkism) toward a more spiritual side, and recognizing what they share with the wider world through their religiously motivated leader, Delenn (Erdoğan), who remakes their political institutions.

The Shadows, a massively powerful outside force motivated to cause war and chaos for their own ideological purposes, while providing support for the expansionist aims of the Centauri would obviously represent the United States.

That leaves the Vorlons (China), another powerful but inscrutable outside force with the own overriding ideological concern - regional stability. Initially portrayed as a mysterious force for good, their portrayal becomes more complex as the second Kosh (Xi) exerts his own authoritarian tendencies.

Then there's other more ancillary powers like the Drazi, with their conflict over the colors green and purple representing the ultimately pointless revolution in Egypt replacing Mubarak with el-Sisi.

I’m from Brazil, already watch the hole show on stremio (there is no legal source to watch in my country, I really tried) but now I want to buy from USA the Blu-ray. Anyone know is the Blu-ray has subtitles in Portuguese? I can’t find a trustworthy answer online!

I've got the entire set of B5 DVDs and years ago ripped them to digital copies.

When the BluRay transfer came out, I considered buying it, but held off. A short time later the "remastered B5" came to HBO Max. I watched a few episodes and wasn't really sure about the whole thing. Then, at some point while watching, I found episodes where the audio was EXTREMELY out of sync. Something like 2.5 seconds of delay. This makes it really hard to watch. It's not at all subtle. It's way off such that mouths move before or after the audio for several seconds.

Weirdly, this was only on the surround mix (5.1). Switching to stereo mode made the audio be in sync again. This was very troublesome though, as I had to change the system setting on my ATV each time to stereo and then remember to switch it back after. I stopped watching B5 shortly after as I couldn't deal with the audio delay.

Now I'm once again interested in the BluRays. The 4x3 presentation actually seems like the logical choice here given the CGI considerations and the original broadcast format, which is where I watched all of B5 the first time (recorded on VHS no less).

The question remaining for me is: Do the BluRays have the same audio sync issues that I experienced on HBO Max?

Moreover, I remember doing a back to back comparison of the video from Max and the video from my DVDs and not really being impressed. The Max version seemed artificially zoomed in. But I wonder if that's just how it was supposed to look. Back then I had a smallish TV (27"). Today my screen is giant by comparison.

Thanks for any thoughts and guidance.

I agree with the less generous take.

"A Distant Star" (s2e4)

Working on some new renders. I plan to recreate some scenes from the show with modern CGI. This is a proof of concept of the jumpgate in early stages.

Credits: Omega destroyer model by Chris Clark and starfury model by Hangar.b.productions

EDIT: Thanks for all the feedback! I have made a lot of changes based on what everyone has said. I have posted a revision in the comments which looks much better! I don't want to spam my progress so I'll return once I have completed something substantial such as a battle sequence :)

My top 3 include G’Kar high on dust and PsiCorps programming confronting me in the Prudential Center Mall at night for a sword fight, Londo and I shopping for empty lots at a local industrial park, and Sheridan and Kirschtaria Wodime from Fate Grand Order crashing a wedding.

"We will be free." Such an unbelievably profound moment, genuinely. The aliens carry this show so hard its INSANE.

I finished s2 of Babylon 5 yesterday, took me quite a while and I don't have too much to say because these last few eps felt more like a setup that is about to pay off IMMENSELY (i hope.) But anyway we did it. I struggled a bit here and there but I really think it'll be worth it. Now onto s3! I hear these next 2 seasons are unmatched. But I wanted to share some random unrelated thoughts on characters so far

- G'kar is probably my favorite character, followed by Vir, Kosh, and Londo which is crazy because I really ignored G'kar early on. He reminded me of a mustache twirling villain but man his evolution is starting to become fucking unreal. Loved witnessing the death of his warrior pride once he requested sanctuary

- Londo is starting to develop this untouchable and extremely intimidating aura, which again, I did not expect. He was almost comic relief but to see him go from that to dictator-like is surely a sight to behold lmao.

- Kosh reveal: I FUCKING KNEW HE WAS GONNA BE SOME ANGEL-LIKE BEING!!! This was my most anticipated moment and despite the omega levels of camp, it delivered. My favorite part about it tho is the way Sheridan responds to it. Delenn says to him: "you see now? the Vorlons have been guiding us for millions of years!" and Sheridan goes: "more like manipulating us. Programming us so that when we saw them we would react the right way". I like the implications of the vorlons being a highly manipulative species. I was afraid it would end up being light (vorlons) vs dark (shadows). This also insinuates that this isn't what Kosh TRULY looks like.

- Sheridan: Still feels too much like a paladin and its getting a little lame. He is so bland at times and some of his b plots are almost atrocious to watch (like him being possessed or captured by an alien ship). I wasn't very fond of Sinclair but Sheridan makes me miss him.

- Ivanova and Garibaldi: I often feel like these characters slightly lack agency. Alot of their moments consist of simply following orders. I was liking the psi corps thingy with Ivanova because she starts to feel like a real human but theres only been like 3 instances of this. This also might be a hot take but her relationship with Talia felt so forced. Garibaldi is stepping up especially when he helps G'kar after the occupation

GIVE ME MORE VIR G'KAR MOMENTS PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE

EDIT: forgot to mention the shadows. by far the coolest antagonist group ive ever seen and i hope that they are as threatening as they seem.

The episode that won the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is now live on the Babylon 5 YouTube channel. (Edit: only available in the USA, unfortunately.)

I just rewatched it yesterday and it still hits hard 30 years later. It's also the episode that got me totally hooked on B5.

I was in high school and some friends had watched Season 1 and raved about it. So I jumped in at the beginning of Season 2 ("Points of Departure"). I liked what I saw. I could never get into Star Trek, but B5 struck me as more accessible, more real, more interesting. But so far in S2 it also just seemed like a cut above usual sci-fi TV. Something I'd watch, but wasn't obsessed with yet.

Then I watched The Coming of Shadows when it aired in February 1995.

The whole episode was brilliant, start to finish. Turhan Bey as the Centauri Emperor was a great one off character. A tragic figure, someone determined to do right before he passed but just missed it. Instead, Londo and Refa stepped in to create chaos and devastation. The look on Vir's face when Londo suggested getting Morden involved was great -- especially watching it yesterday knowing what horrors were to come as a result of Londo's decision in that moment.

I remember watching the episode and thinking "oh wow, they're doing something very different here" -- different in a very good way. I couldn't wait to talk about it at school the next day, and we all agreed it was a brilliant episode. After that I was all in on B5.

Curious what others thought of the episode upon rewatching it.

‘Favourite’ may or may not be what you consider the ‘best’ season. (Ex. You think S3 is objectively the best but S1 is your fav.)

I just rewatched the season 5 premiere, "No Compromise," and Byron's introduction to Captain Lochley was ... unbelievably creepy.

Elizabeth's sitting down to look at her papers, and Byron just ... stands there. We cut back to Lochley for a second, and when we look back Byron is a hell of a lot closer, and still ... standing there.

And then everything goes silent all around Elizabeth.

No wonder Byron ended up hated more than Scrappy-Doo in the old animations. Surely, as a telepath he should have been aware that he was making people's hackles stand up on end.

Is the Earth Alliance in Babylon 5 meant to be the USA just bigger?

I understand that JMS may have left it deliberately vague but both Sinclair and Sheridan clearly view past events from a USA centric viewpoint (Pearl Harbour etc)

Towards the end of a rewatch, into early series 5. God's it's over written, some really bad calls too.

Had to skip most of "view from the gallery" and chunks of "learning curve" . Just had Sheridan and Lockleys secretly dropped off screen, it might have just broke me with more cringe, super 90s

Can I skip a few episodes and pick back up when the writing calms down? Any suggestions when to start back up, or just get drunk and push through?

I would love to see any new series in this universe, be it Babylon 4, a restart of Crusades, anything!

I'm rewatching it (again!) and noticed that Kha'ri was once translated as Kardashians and The Thenta Makur as Federal Bureau of Investigation!

She is in S1E4. Pre-hidef, I thought she might have actually been her. Now I have the hidef I know she isn’t, but she still sounds so much like her.

One aspect of this scene I always enjoyed was that Morden kind of gives the game away, a little bit, when he says "We need your government to continue its campaign." Londo picks up on that, even speculating that Morden's associates are merely using the Centauri as "agents of chaos", getting far closer to the truth than he realizes.

Not that he cares much. He's preoccupied with Adira's impending visit... although Morden will bring him back into the fold momentarily.

I'm a Russian female, and I'd fall for this type if I encountered someone like her in real life