marurun wrote:It's more than the world-building. The actors haven't quite found their characters yet, the budgets are scraping by, barely... The show looked worse in some ways than shows that were years older.
With the exception of Londo, who did indeed seem to suffer a bit of a character swap some time between the first and second seasons, I thought the characters were all pretty consistent throughout the run. There may have been a couple hiccups here and there at the beginning, but I notice that in a lot of shows, so it's really never bothered me.
As for the effects.. Eh. The CG effects were pretty good for the time, considering the budget, and really their greatest sin in that department was not filming those scenes at the same resolution as the rest of the show, thus creating a very jarring effect when you switch between actors and shots of the station. Other stuff just...doesn't really bother me. But then, I'm used to watching older shows and movies, so that could just be me.
Also, there felt like a lot of filler, at least compared to the rest of the series. And thing is, I was OK watching it, but I've seen the first few episodes turn far too many off from this series. One desperate watcher jumped to season 2 and was hooked by the end of the first episode.
Yeah, I file a bit of that under 'world building', but I can totally understand this happening. The meat of the story doesn't kick in until 3/4th of the way through the first season and personally I can enjoy a slow burn, but I can see how that could turn a lot of people off.
And... I don't like Sinclair. I just... don't like him. Season 1 feels like Star Trek lite. Season 2 feels like Babylon 5 rocks/Star Trek who?
Sinclair is sort of hit or miss. When I first watched the show I didn't care for him, but he's since grown on me a bit. Not a lot, mind, but a bit.
Funny enough, the last time I watched the show, I was talking to my mother ("What are you watching?" "Babylon 5"), a woman who hasn't seen a single episode since it first aired, and out of the blue she goes "I still liked the first guy better." So clearly, he has his fans
I also think season 5 was actually of decent quality. The stories and acting were decent. It was just so... extraneous.
When one of the highlights of the season is a guest spot by Penn and Teller, something may have gone slightly awry in your sci-fi show.