Oh, I don’t disagree that it was pretty rough. And I’m certainly not arguing that it was Ibsen or Shakespeare. It was in many respects a rather mediocre novel. But if you were to have a marathon viewing session through those 3 1/2 seasons (I did earlier this year), there’s a ton of stuff planted early on that doesn’t seem important at the time that you eventually “Oh!” about. And plenty of stuff that you think is planted that doesn’t, or that comes off oddly mostly because of the course changes. The Lurker’s Guide did an excellent job tracking both things.
The reality of writing for TV certainly wouldn’t allow production of a five year show completely unaltered from the plan going in at the beginning. It’s a minor miracle that B5 managed as closely as it did. But I still don’t know any other show that tried. (I stand corrected on serial narrative overall. Certainly nothing I’d personally watched before B5 aired was serial, and very little of I watched until the 00s at the earliest, but I tend to stick primarily to genre shows.)
B5 was awesome because it tried, goddamn it.
But it was very much a creature of its time, and I have zero desire for, or expectations of, a B5 movie.
“They have a plan.”
/I kid, I kid
I watched Babylon 5 for the first time this year. It took me a few months to get through the first season because jesus h christ. And I’m passing on watching the fifth. I wouldn’t have made it that far if it weren’t for reading along with the AV Club’s classic tv reviews and watching it from the perspective of television history and its awkward attempts at moving into serialized storytelling. It’s an interesting relic.
There’s stuff with lizard-man and hairdo-guy that I think still stands up as really great, and - arguably - ahead of its time television. But not enough so as to recommend the show to anyone in this day and age. And certainly not enough to anticipate a Babylon 5 movie. That would be insane.
You could skip the entire fifth season and not miss much (did I mention singing telepaths?) of anything. You might want to watch the very last episode though. I believe it was shot at the end of the 4th season as a series finale. It’s a nice wrap-up for things.