Announcing the Next Rewatch: Babylon 5!

Shiny cases are shiny.

Well, to those of you who followed the poll for what I would rewatch next, this should really come as no surprise. Babylon 5 took the lead early on in the voting and stayed ahead for pretty much the entire thing (although Quantum Leap did give it a last-minute run for its money, coming in only one vote behind). So, beginning next week, we will be starting up the new rewatch. Posts will still be on Mondays and Wednesdays and I think I'll stick to the same format I used with Stargate Atlantis (What Happened, Commentary, Favorite Quotes), although I might change it up once I start writing the fist post if it doesn't seem to fit the show as well.

Here's a brief description of the series (from the back of the first season box):

Babylon 5, a flashpoint for conflict located between five competing races, home to diplomats, smugglers, terrorists, and dreamers.... Combining action, adventure, drama, and state of-the-art effects, Babylon 5 has become a modern-day science fiction classic popular around the world.

Bear in mind, please, that these "state of-the-art effects" were circa 1994 when the show began airing. Just, beware. Also, if memory serves, there is judicious use of Stock! Footage!

Here's a slightly better summation, from IMDB:

In the year 2258, it is ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. Commander Sinclair takes command of a giant five-mile-long cylindrical space station, orbiting a planet in neutral space. At a crossroads of interstellar commerce and diplomacy, Cmdr Sinclair (2d season Captain Sheridan) must try to establish peace and prosperity between various interstellar empires, all the while fighting forces from within the Earth Alliance. It is a precarious command, particularly given that sabotage led to the destruction of Babylon stations 1, 2, and 3 and 4 vanished without trace.

Now, I have only seen this series once, so I fully admit there will be a lot of things that I have completely forgotten about and will seem totally new to me on that front. I think I am going to go ahead and declare this rewatch completely open for spoilers. I have a sneaking suspicion that no one will be following this rewatch if they haven't already seen the show. I think this will make the commentary section a bit more interesting (and amusing when you see just how hazy my memories of what happens actually are).

I will say that I do not actually have the TV movie/backdoor pilot "The Gathering" and I don't know that I ever realized that actually aired before the series started up. It isn't included in the DVD set for some reason and it doesn't look like I will be able to get a copy before next week either (not without ordering the entire set of movies that were made after the series wrapped up), so we will be starting with season one proper. Just an FYI. 

On that note, I think I'll close things out by disclosing ahead of time my three favorite characters from the series. They are G'Kar, Lennier, and Ivanova. It will be fun to see how and if that changes over the course of the rewatch!

Please join me here on Monday as we begin our journey with the crew of Babylon 5!