Babylon 5

[LightPhoenix]

Seems to me you can skip the movies entirely, and not miss anything really important or particularly entertaining. The series stands on its own, and the movies are of markedly lesser quality.

I'll second this. In The Beginning is the only one that I really liked. The rest were decidedly meh.

Speaking to when to watch ITB, definitely last! There are spoilers even beyond the first two seasons (if I recall when a certain event happened correctly).

If you're going to watch Crusade, you should watch A Call To Arms, but it's not strictly necessary. Crusade has a decidedly different tone to it than B5, with more humor injected. It also suffers from the same lack of focus the first season of B5 has as well. That said, it's not awful and I think it stands fairly well. I think a lot of people were watching it and expecting basically a sequel to B5, and were disappointed when it wasn't. After you watch it, I suggest hitting up the Wikpedia page or a fansite to get some of the background and direction filled in.

 

[Blackrat]

Seems to me you can skip the movies entirely, and not miss anything really important or particularly entertaining. The series stands on its own, and the movies are of markedly lesser quality.

Every other but In the Beginning. That one is actually of the same (or possibly higher) entertainment quality than the series itself, and should be a must for anyone interested in B5. The other movies as you said are definetly of lesser quality and can be skipped without losing anything.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Concur with pretty much everything said so far. The series stands by itself, it's a masterpiece of sci-fi I wish we could get more of. Does tend to start off a bit slow but it's all necessary for the greatness to come. The movies are of mediocre to poor quality with the sole exception of In the Beginning which should really be watched after finishing the series because of the spoilers.

 

[Blackrat]

BTW, noticed your list missed The Lost Tales, first of which came out on DVD half a year ago. Now if you're intent on watching everything, it goes chronologically as the last of that list. But if you're not hard fan of the series who want's to see absolutely everything, I can't really recommend it. It is probably the worst of B5, right below The River of Souls. Now the second of those, whenever it comes out, if it comes out, is hopefully going to be better as it seems to have a story about Garibaldi, my favourite character in the series.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

You know, Amazon's got a great deal right now. You can get the whole series for about $200. As soon as we move to Phoenix I'm getting a job.

There's too much I've missed out on over they years. Babylon 5 has always interested me. and I'd love to get the series, but right now $200 is a serious investment (4 months worth of savings) I can't make. After all expenses, birthdays and other holidays I really only get $66 a month from my SSD.

But, I will get a job, and I will buy the series!

 

[Megaton]

I plan on Netflixing it pretty soon. I've also been interested in it for a while but never got around to watching it.

 

[Rackhir]

You know, Amazon's got a great deal right now. You can get the whole series for about $200. As soon as we move to Phoenix I'm getting a job.

There's too much I've missed out on over they years. Babylon 5 has always interested me. and I'd love to get the series, but right now $200 is a serious investment (4 months worth of savings) I can't make. After all expenses, birthdays and other holidays I really only get $66 a month from my SSD.

But, I will get a job, and I will buy the series!

Depending on your time frame, I have seen repeated sales of the B5 Season Boxed sets for $20 a pop. Since money is a concern I'd wait for one of those sales. They might not be until the Thanksgiving-Christmas time frame though.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think even the first season is better than most of the sci-fi out there today (and streets ahead of anything else at the time). I really liked Jeffrey Sinclair, and there were some brilliant non-arc episodes (Deathstalker & By Any Means Necessary, for instance).

I'd certainly recommend watching seasons 1-4 in order before watching anything else. I personally didn't like season 5 - I thought the delay in greenlighting it caused some unfortunate compromises and clumsy retconning (although others clearly liked it, so you need to watch it to make your mind up, I guess!)

Cheers

 

[stonegod]

I'd certainly recommend watching seasons 1-4 in order before watching anything else. I personally didn't like season 5 - I thought the delay in greenlighting it caused some unfortunate compromises and clumsy retconning (although others clearly liked it, so you need to watch it to make your mind up, I guess!)

Season 5 had its points, especially the arc of a certain Ranger. But if you'd refuse to see most of 5 (which I can see) you still have to see:
- Day of the Dead (Neil Giaman wrote it. 'nuf said)
- Sleeping in the Light (last episode, and actually finished during Season 4).

 

[LightPhoenix]

The Gathering can pretty much be skipped. It doesn't have the same polish and quality as the rest of the series. It serves as an introduction to several major characters, but really, Season One can do that just fine on its own. Actually, Season 1 does a better job of it IMO.

I agree with the rest of the post, but I disagree with this. The Gathering sets up a good deal of backstory for a couple of characters and has a fair bit of foreshadowing. Also, there's a moment in the second season (IIRC) that is pretty much completely set up in the pilot.