Can We Just Talk About How Great Babylon 5 Is ??

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Ok, so I'm only half way through watching season 2 for the first time ever (I'd been meaning to watch this for years), but I've already almost given up watching Andromeda alongside it (as I had originally begun to) because Babylon 5 is clearly in Stark Treks league (unfortunately nothing is allowed to equal star trek) and is just so much better than Andromeda that it's just making it look really bad (even though it's an ok TV show). Why did I waste my time with farscape, the terrible battlestar galactica reboot and who knows what other shows, when this was the one I needed to see.

I think it just shows a somewhat more realistic portrayal of a future we'll never have (not like that anyway) compared to Star Trek and that's in spite of the fact that its CGI special effects are clearly second rate in comparison to Star Trek.

I love Londa Mollari, G'kar and Susan Ivonova in particular as they're all quite funny and very interesting. The storylines are thus far fantastic, not shy of well placed humour and it deals with a lot of issues. I've loved almost every erpisode so far. As a franchise I just wish it had the same spin off potential as Star Trek did because only Stargate seems to come somewhat close to this and Babylon 5 only has 110 episodes whereas most Star Treks had over 170. Are there other scifi shows that can match Babylon 5 that people suggest I watch (admittedly I've not mentioned others I've liked, but it's an exciting series to watch).

"Was".

Babylon 5 WAS a great program, especially the original 1970s version with Lorne Green as Adama.

That's Battlestar Galactica you're thinking of Fnord. Babylon 5 was the one with the diplomatic space station. The show was well written for the most part. I had hoped that its sequel series Crusade would have done better though.

Ah, you're right. I confused the two. After a few decades, they all tend to blend together. B5 was cool, though (I reviewed a few episodes); but it was planned to run through its complete story arc in 5 years or so.

Again, it WAS a great series.

True and Crusade was supposed to be the next story arc in that universe hence being its own show. Unfortunately it just didn't catch on. Babylon 5 had many excellent episodes and most if not all of the main characters were well written. I have the entire series on DVD, one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Honestly, the one great thing about B5 is that you can watch the whole series 2-3 times and pick up on things you didn't catch in earlier viewings.

The story was that "complex" or "deep" with details. Each episode was it's own story but told something of the larger story arc.

...it's a rip off of Deep Space Nine.

(let the argument commence )

^While that may be your opinion, it may not be other people's opinion.

I've only watched a few episodes. I'm mostly a Trekkie/Whovian.

Lol, I was actually waiting for the super-fan type to show up and give me the entire six point speech on why my argument is flawed, complete with annotations and bibliography...come on, it's sci-fi and an autism site, that dude's bound to be here, it's inevitable.

I've watched the entirety of Star Trek (even the truly atrocious series like Enterprise), but only once, same with Babylon 5. Aside from coming out around the same time and both involving space stations there really are no similarities. I thought DS9 didn't get interesting until season 4 when they moved to a serial format and developed the Dominion plot line. I thought Babylon 5 should have ended by season 4. For having supposedly mapped out for five seasons, the last two were exceptionally weak. After the Vorlon and Shadow war ended and the entire meaning of life was revealed by the Ancient One, that was the appropriate point to call it good. Oh yeah, WARNING:spoilers.

Yeah thanks for warning me for spoilers....at the end of your post!!

Yer they're completely different shows with very little similarity between them (which is good considering they're both so good in their own ways). I agree with you that enterprise was pretty weak (had some good moments, but yer not wholly brilliant). My favourite was probably Star Trek TNG anyway.

Lol, but 1. there was a warning and 2. that warning was in large text. If anything you should be intrigued ("Who is this ancient one, and what is the meaning of life?").

Relax Aspie Guy, he hasn't actually spoiled anything.
As someone who has watched the whole series, I think what makes this such an awesome series, is that I could tell you how everything ends. (but I wont)

But even if I did it wouldn't really spoil it, because the series is more about *how* we go from A to B, rather than if we are going to B or to C.

JMS does this himself, I'm not sure if you've watched the prophecy episode (The one with the centauri eye) but if you have he basically sets up massive spoilers but he doesn't tell you *how* they happen.