I hope you guys will give this some consideration before dismissing it as another sales pitch or lecture.
Starting September 25th, the SciFi Channel will be showing reruns of Babylon 5 on weekdays at 7pm eastern.
I'm not going to go into a rant, trying to convince you of how good it is or how you'll miss out if you don't watch it (regardless of how strongly I may feel on the issue). The truth is, you can't convince someone to give something a chance when they're determined to do otherwise, because they'll only perceive it with a feeling of being "pressured" into it and won't really get what you're trying to tell them.
I wouldn't share this with just anyone because asking someone to share a great experience with you puts you in a vulnerable position. I don't have any illusions of having earned your respect or trust, so I guess what I'm asking for is a leap of faith. So if you believe nothing else that I say, believe this: If you watch B5 from beginning to end in it's entirety, you will NOT be sorry you did.
Babylon 5 is not just any show, it's a novel written for television. It has the benefit of great artistic integrity as the only show of it's kind has been created, written, and exec-produced almost entirely by one man (he wrote about 90 of 110 episodes, exec-produced all). It has a very rigorous story "arc" that has been worked out in great detail, to the last scene of the last episode, before a single frame was filmed. Quite simply, this is unlike anything that's been done before. Babylon 5 has, very profoundly, changed the face of scifi tv, much like the original Star Trek and the original Twilight Zone did in their respective times.
One thing to keep in mind is that J. Michael Straczynski's (the man behind the vision) approach is to get the audience comfortable with basic, seemingly "formula" stories, and then whack them upside the head when they're not looking. So this might require some patience, as it may be a while before you even suspect there is a huge monster of a plot lurking under the surface.
Thank you for you time. I hope I didn't bore you and here is a related link:
Introduction by JMS at the SciFi B5 site
Starting September 25th, the SciFi Channel will be showing reruns of Babylon 5 on weekdays at 7pm eastern.
I'm not going to go into a rant, trying to convince you of how good it is or how you'll miss out if you don't watch it (regardless of how strongly I may feel on the issue). The truth is, you can't convince someone to give something a chance when they're determined to do otherwise, because they'll only perceive it with a feeling of being "pressured" into it and won't really get what you're trying to tell them.
I wouldn't share this with just anyone because asking someone to share a great experience with you puts you in a vulnerable position. I don't have any illusions of having earned your respect or trust, so I guess what I'm asking for is a leap of faith. So if you believe nothing else that I say, believe this: If you watch B5 from beginning to end in it's entirety, you will NOT be sorry you did.
Babylon 5 is not just any show, it's a novel written for television. It has the benefit of great artistic integrity as the only show of it's kind has been created, written, and exec-produced almost entirely by one man (he wrote about 90 of 110 episodes, exec-produced all). It has a very rigorous story "arc" that has been worked out in great detail, to the last scene of the last episode, before a single frame was filmed. Quite simply, this is unlike anything that's been done before. Babylon 5 has, very profoundly, changed the face of scifi tv, much like the original Star Trek and the original Twilight Zone did in their respective times.
One thing to keep in mind is that J. Michael Straczynski's (the man behind the vision) approach is to get the audience comfortable with basic, seemingly "formula" stories, and then whack them upside the head when they're not looking. So this might require some patience, as it may be a while before you even suspect there is a huge monster of a plot lurking under the surface.
Thank you for you time. I hope I didn't bore you and here is a related link:
Introduction by JMS at the SciFi B5 site