Blog #29: Babylon 5 (DS9's Competition)?

Part I: My Pre-Discussion Of 'Babylon 5' 
 
Shortly after the launch of DS9 in the spring of 1993 there was a TV movie that made it's premiere, and it was called 'Babylon 5'. To be honest I was not impressed. The story was bad, the make-up looked terrible and and special effects were not even close to being as good as DS9. Despite all this the movie was enough to convince someone at Warner Brothers to invest in a TV season and in January 1994 'Babylon 5' the TV series was born.
 
 
 
They really cleaned up the TV series from what the TV movie had been. the special effects, although not DS9 quality were a lot better. B5 was one of the first space series to use all digital fx, which really made them pioneers in the field. As the series progressed the special effects got pretty solid and looked good, but the first few season did not look as good as their DS9 counterpart.  The make up got better for the series, especially with regards to the Minbari, Narn and Centauri characters. The costumes even got better. They recast some key characters in particular they brought in Claudia Christian to play Lt Commander Susan Ivanava. She was a great actress and was a great addition to the series. The show lasted 4 seasons in syndication, then in the 5th and final season they were brought to the TNT Cable Network, where they also aired past episodes along with 4 original B5 TV movies.
 
This was a great series and I have only scratched the surface of my discussion for the series. Be on the look-out for future blog posts where I finish discussing this show.
 
In Valens name!
Location: Barrhead, AB, Canada

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