rickkarrer

I am very grateful that this was made, especially considering it's been so long since we've had anything from the Babylon 5 universe. I am a big fan of the show, and I've seen every episode, movie, and spin-off. This had a little fan service in it, which I don't think it's a terrible thing at all, considering there's a chance it could be the last time we ever get anything from this universe, but there are a few things I'd change. Overall, I'm really glad we got this.

With some changes to the plight, this could've easily been a good two-parter from the original series, a season cliffhanger, or easily one of the Syfy channel movies that were made after the show ended. Without getting into story specifics, in its current form, this seemed to be a "let's give it one last hurrah, just in case they never let us do this again", but also a way to test the waters to see if B5 is still a viable franchise.

I'd love to see WB do a whole series of animated Babylon 5 stories, there is so much left to tell with the fallout of the Shadow War, and the minions the Shadows left behind, and the early days of the Interstellar Alliance. A lot of things were hinted at in the finale of season 4 (when they thought they weren't going to get picked up for season 5), and I'm sure there's a lot of material that Straczynski has left to give us.

My only real criticism is that the humor was very juvenile--I guess you could say--and not as witty as the original show's was (no, there were a few that landed pretty well). I'm not sure if I necessarily blame Straczynski for that, I see it as a very bad trend in animation, in general. The original series always had great jokes at just the right time, whereas the dialogue and humor this movie were more akin to shows like Avatar and the Dragon Prince, where it feels forced, and hits at all the wrong times. I know it's animation, but I don't really think there's a sizable audience under 35 that's watching this movie. I'd say the humor was geared towards preteens, where is most of the audience for this are probably 40+. The physics were off as well, but I have to go back and watch the originals show, as my current understanding of quantum physics is substantially better than when that show aired lol. All sci-fi makes up and/or exaggerates science, and that's perfectly fine, it's just some of their foreshadowing and emphasis on quantum physics and causality was cringe worthy to me, when you consider advance alien species and future humans are explaining them to you. Maybe if they did a series, they could hire a science consultant.

So, if you even like the original show, I think you'll enjoy this. If you LOVED the original show, I think you should go buy this movie right now. I jumped on it as soon as I found out this was happening. The extras are really good, about 17 minutes of talking about her behind the scenes process, and started out by mentioning all the actors who are no longer here to reprise their roles. I watched it immediately after the movie.

I'm very grateful to WB for producing this, Straczynski for still giving us B5, the actors that came back (and brought their love of the characters with them), and everyone who is involved in making this. I would absolutely be in for a series and/or more movies.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go back and watch some of my favorite episodes,

I hate to decide when we're only on episode 5 of 10, but I don't seeing getting much better. The story greatly conflicts with everything else in the franchise (even the movie), the acting is on par with Disney kids' shows, the forced humor is total crap, and it's probably racist.

The plot completely undermines the origin (ironically) of the movie and series. [spoiler-ish, but not really] Why would they need Dr Jackson to figure out how to work the gate in the 1990s the it was already unlocked in the 30s/40? (or whatever decade this takes place in). Are they just suddenly going to forget everything that happened at the end of this series via amnesia/memory wipe? If so, that's a weak plot device. They powered the gate with a car?? NO way! Also, Wasif just happens to casually mention the 7th symbol might be different? Why was Jackson a big deal is it seems obvious for everyone else to figure out the gate??

The acting is truly like watching a Disney channel or Nick TV show, over gesturing and over stating all the lines. I'm not sure I blame the actors, I blame the studio. They're trying to capture the subtle humor that SG1 started, but they're dialing it up to 10. What made the humor good in the original shows was that the subtleness was used to slightly lighted the gave situations they were it, and that humor was part of Jack's character, he was someone that used humor to avoid his feelings. This show doesn't understand that, and just runs with it. I guess they've never heard of the "straight man"? I'm just waiting for a laugh track to play at any moment.

Also, I'm realizing the Wasif character is probably racist. I can't say I knew any young Egyptian men in the time period this show takes place, but I do know an Egyptian family, and they're just like everyone else, nothing like that's portrayed here. We don't need to make the only brown person the dumb comedy relief.

Overall, I'm ok with the format: a short web episodes and a low budget. They're just trying to test the waters, and I'm happy about that. It's just that overall I'm betting this is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen-it lacks real creative vision, with little to no effort into fitting it into the overall canon.

I want more Stargate, I will pay for more Stargate, but not this.