Forum Overview :: Peter Molyneux's The Movies :: Have you seen Babylon 5 yet?

[quote name="Mischief Maker"]The problem with Star Trek was that it was originally the Twilight Zone with a recurring cast. The Federation was little more than a vague ideal of "in the future we'll put this racism bullshit behind us and start being awesome." The technology was suited to the episodes. Space was treated as huge and full of mystery. This fertile soil was given to great sci fi writers like Harlan Ellison and Richard Matheson and a classic was born. Toward the end of TNG they made the mistake of trying to flesh out the Federation, a job about as fraught with peril as fleshing out the Matrix's Zion. What's worse, space became a whole lot smaller and more comfortable. What an incredible disappointment DS9 and Voyager were when these doorways to worlds unthinkably far away were opened and all you found was more bumpy-headed humans. Remember when original Trek routinely had the ship bumping into gods, or friendly energy beings whose appearance, shades of lovecraft, would drive a man insane who looked upon them? I suppose DS9 redeemed itself by deconstructing the Federation, but taking apart something that was made up piecemeal over the course of a decade is like shooting fish in a barrel. As for Star Trek 11, I'd bring up the point made by Red Letter Media in the Star Wars reviews that the prequels treated Darth Vader with the import of pop culture instead of how important he was to the story. All you really need to know about Kirk is that Starfleet was a meritocracy and he was the youngest man to reach captain. This whole "destined to become captain" bullshit is right up there with making Darth Vader Space Jesus. At the same time, a dumb action movie exploring the political ramifications of Vulcan being destroyed on the already piecemeal frankenstein Federation is gonna be dumb as well. Kirk, Spock, and Bones aren't all that interesting by themselves, it's how they react to the weird shit of the week that's interesting. Also expect patronizing fanservice moments on the level of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's "Ix, I mean Ford..." Babylon 5, on the other hand, takes place in a setting that was made to be explored and challenged from the very start, and the results are so much better than DS9, acting aside. $7 for a month of Netflix Instant is totally worth it to watch that amazing show. Just remember that while the series doesn't pick up until season 2, season 1 is planting seeds that will bear important fruit later on.[/quote]