babylon5

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5
Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski. The pilot episode was broadcast on February 22, 1993 in the US. The first season premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for the intended five seasons. Describing it as having “always been conceived as, fundamentally, a five-year story, a novel for television,” Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes, and served as executive producer, along with Douglas Netter.[2]

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Surprisingly enough, it has never been released into syndication.
Partially inspired by actress Claudia Christian’s viewing of the series, http://claudiachristian.net/, we too have started rewatching the series for the first time since it aired live.

S1E01- Midnight on the Firing Line
Pilot – The Gathering
S1E02 – Soul Hunter
S1E03 – Born to the Purple
S1E04 – Infection
S1E05 – The Parliament of Dreams

We are struck with the great job the actors have done in settling into their established? characters so quickly.
Babylon 5 is most famous for its superb epic story arcs. In these first few episodes we have been struck by the large number of plot hints and foreshadowing taking places, with payoffs sometimes well into the future, even seasons away!

The DVD collection quality is so-so but then again, not bad for a 20 year old television show. The initial special effects were good in the day and still mostly stand up. Makeup and costumes saw a huge leap from the pilot and first episode into the next few episodes.

This winter has been ideal to hunker down in the weather (a lot more cold and snow than the last decade) and binge-watch TV series (either new or old) in front of the fire.