Part: The First
Got the first disc of the first season of Babylon 5 this week. I've only watched a handful of episodes so far and I'm really not sure what I think yet. At this point I'm pretty underwhelmed. So far, concepts are strong, plots are pretty interesting BUT the dialog is beyond hackneyed and the acting is so sub-competent I can almost hear the radar klaxons pinging in the background.
Of course, here comes the inevitable Star Trek comparison: I think what saved the early ST:TNG is the fact that those fools could ACT. They could spit out the inane treknobabble about warp coils, dilithiam crystals, and subspace disturbances and you totally buy it because it doesn't sound like they're regurgitating dialog. They're talking about the stuff that any crew would talk about on a Starfleet vessel. (Quick sidebar: WTF is subspace, beyond the catchall cause of and solution to every damn thing on that show!) Maybe that's what made Wesley and Tasha stick out so badly in those early episodes, they couldn't close the sale.
In know Babylon 5 gained a HUGE following as it went along so, i'm willing to give it the benifit of the doubt. Unfortunatly that's not always a great test, for every Buffy, Twin Peaks or Xina, there's a Highlander, Beastmaster, or Dr. Who. We'll see how it goes.
p.s. This Commander Sinclair is the putziest putzer that's ever putzed. It's almost as if a first season Will Riker were given an actual command. All in all, though, he's still better than Janeway...
# posted by uuuhyeah @ 9:08 AM
