Finally: Babylon 5 REMASTERED and Available for Streaming

Snarf Zagyg · Mar 1, 2021

Mallus said:
The acting from Jurasik and Katsulis was great. Furlann, too, considering her role was sorta Space Galadriel + Space Mom. My friends and I used to joke the actors on the show couldn't play convincing humans, but the people playing aliens were terrific.

(I guess Jerry Doyle playing Jerry Doyle was perfect as Garibaldi, since Garibaldi was just Jerry Doyle)

Heh. Bill Mumy FTW!

I will give credit to Michael O'Hare, who was excellent in an otherwise ... uneven .... first season.

And to Bruce Boxleitner, who was an excellent Sheridan.

But yes, a lot of the actors that were cult favorites on the human side, from Claudia Christian, to Jeff Conaway (RIP), were just not very good. Richard Biggs was ... serviceable in an underused role, and some (Patricia Tallman, Andrea Thompson, Jason Carter) were, um, oof.

I loved, absolutely loved, Walter Koenig playing against type though. Watching him chew the scenery is one of the great pleasures of the show.

Mallus · Mar 1, 2021

Umbran said:
How much is okay to pay for services for you? In a world where a coffee is several dollars, let us consider. Is $1.50 a reasonable price to pay for an hour's entertainment? Or maybe you figure $3 per day is a reasonable cost for media you consume?

I compare everything to food & booze.

So one month of commercial-free CBS for the new Star Trek series was $10. The price of fish and chips at my local. Or the price of 2 pints to go with it. So half the price of a single lunch out (sans tax and tip) in the Before Times!

Ryujin · Mar 1, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
Heh. Bill Mumy FTW!

I will give credit to Michael O'Hare, who was excellent in an otherwise ... uneven .... first season.

And to Bruce Boxleitner, who was an excellent Sheridan.

But yes, a lot of the actors that were cult favorites on the human side, from Claudia Christian, to Jeff Conaway (RIP), were just not very good. Richard Biggs was ... serviceable in an underused role, and some (Patricia Tallman, Andrea Thompson, Jason Carter) were, um, oof.

I loved, absolutely loved, Walter Koenig playing against type though. Watching him chew the scenery is one of the great pleasures of the show.

I always loved Andreas Katsulas' over the top style. He would occasionally show up in other SciFi productions like "Max Headroom" and "Alien Nation." And seeing Bill Mumy, all grown up from the kid "Lost in Space", from my childhood, was a treat, as was his cameo in the new "Lost in Space."

Umbran · Mar 1, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
Heh. Bill Mumy FTW!

I will give credit to Michael O'Hare, who was excellent in an otherwise ... uneven .... first season.

He always came off as a bit stiff, to me. But, he was battling such personal issues that I can't fault him for that.

Snarf Zagyg said:
And to Bruce Boxleitner, who was an excellent Sheridan.

He was great... except in the romance plot. I got the chemistry from her side, but never bought his.

Snarf Zagyg said:
But yes, a lot of the actors that were cult favorites on the human side, from Claudia Christian, to Jeff Conaway (RIP), were just not very good.

Christian seemed fine, for the role which was supposed to be a kind of uptight.

Snarf Zagyg said:
I loved, absolutely loved, Walter Koenig playing against type though. Watching him chew the scenery is one of the great pleasures of the show.

I think I get what you mean. The remarkable thing was how controlled and quiet he was while chewing scenery.

Zardnaar · Mar 1, 2021

Umbran said:
I want to follow up her on considering budgets for services...

How much is okay to pay for services for you? In a world where a coffee is several dollars, let us consider. Is $1.50 a reasonable price to pay for an hour's entertainment? Or maybe you figure $3 per day is a reasonable cost for media you consume?

At $3 per day, you can have Paramount+ ($5/month), Netflix ($9/month), Hulu ($6/mo) - and that's only from the budget from the first week!

It's not so much that they're cheap enough.

Problem is lots of places are now doing subscription services.

PS4+ subscription. Xbox gold subscription, game pass subscription, EA access subscription etc etc etc even ENworlds doing it.

Time is finite so something's has to give and it adds up fast. We kept the major ones and cut the others.

Disney+ initially couldn't even offer one show a week. Amazon barely has enough original stuff so once you watch the back catalogue......

Disney+ added Star and a lot of stuff my wife and myself want to see.

Umbran · Mar 1, 2021

Zardnaar said:
It's not so much that they're cheap enough.

Problem is lots of places are now doing subscription services.

PS4+ subscription. Xbox gold subscription, game pass subscription, EA access subscription etc etc etc even ENworlds doing it.

Time is finite so something's has to give and it adds up fast. We kept the major ones and cut the others.

And that's fine. The point is to actually think about the cost. This makes you think about it in comparison to other items.

You want to pay $30 for an RPG book? How many hours are you going to spend reading it and interacting with it? How many hours of media is it equivalent to? Is that game book worth six months of Star Trek viewing?

Or, turn that around - you were perfectly okay with buying that game book, and you are happy and satisfied with your purchase. Would you get as much or more out of six months of Trek? If yes, then the cost of Paramount+ should be okay.

There's a sort of false economy you can fall into if you aren't careful to compare the value to you. For example, if you spend a whole bunch on game books you don't use, but are avoiding media that you would love, because the subscriptions are "expensive", maybe that bears looking at.

Ryujin · Mar 1, 2021

There's also the fact that you own that game book and can come back to it 20 years later, if you like, whereas that streaming content is something that can be withdrawn at any moment. is it something that you want effectively in perpetuity, or is it just a thing of the fleeting moment? (Someone who was left with a sour taste in his mouth after the online 4e content that was supposed to be available "forever" was removed.)

Umbran · Mar 1, 2021

Ryujin said:
There's also the fact that you own that game book and can come back to it 20 years later, if you like...

So, definitely include the cost of storage of that physical object in as well. How many more square feet f house do you need for your gaming stuff that you worry about on a decades-long timescale?

-Someone who is looking at a cabinet full of music on CDs that hasn't been opened in a decade...

Ryujin · Mar 1, 2021

Umbran said:
So, definitely include the cost of storage of that physical object in as well. How many more square feet f house do you need for your gaming stuff that you worry about on a decades-long timescale?

-Someone who is looking at a cabinet full of music on CDs that hasn't been opened in a decade...

Or the DVD/Blu-Ray disks. Or, as is far more common these days, the digital files that you can actually own in perpetuity, and store on media that becomes ever more dense in storage capacity, virtually by the day.

Mallus · Mar 1, 2021

Snarf Zagyg said:
I will give credit to Michael O'Hare, who was excellent in an otherwise ... uneven .... first season.

I liked O'Hare as Sinclair. Honestly, I preferred Sinclair to Sheridan. O'Hare had a great voice, well-suited for Serious Science Fiction (which was also gonzo space opera).

Snarf Zagyg said:
But yes, a lot of the actors that were cult favorites on the human side, from Claudia Christian, to Jeff Conaway (RIP), were just not very good.

Conway was great on Taxi. On B5... not so much.

Snarf Zagyg said:
Richard Biggs was ... serviceable in an underused role, and some (Patricia Tallman, Andrea Thompson, Jason Carter) were, um, oof.

Enjoyed Biggs's very doctor-like performance as a doctor. Okay, I may have been exaggerating about the actors playing humans...

Snarf Zagyg said:
I loved, absolutely loved, Walter Koenig playing against type though. Watching him chew the scenery is one of the great pleasures of the show.

I grew up Kirk-era Star Trek. I prefer my science fiction with a giant side of ham.