I wrote,

Part of me loves B7 because it was part of my youth. I didn't have to

make

excuses for the dodgy sets and less-than-special effects - I had grown up watching 'Doctor Who', and it was just the normal thing. Newer fans must have tougher time of it, used to the glories of Babylon 5, Farscape and ST:TNG. They have to work a great deal harder to suspend their disbelief, something which we pretty much took for granted.

then Anna wrote:

I saw B7 for the first time in 1998, having been just too young to see it the first time around. I started watching it, oddly enough, because there was an informal "So, did you see Babylon 5 last night?" discussion group that happened during morning coffee at work. Someone mentioned that there was an old BBC series that was just as good, and lent me her tapes.

Perhaps years of Doctor Who inured me to dodgy sets, but I think that B7 still stands on its own merits, in competition with SF series made today. It's a character-driven show, and (as I was thinking only the other day while watching 'Enterprise') Really Shiney FX don't provide character.

Dodgy though they are, I have a certain fondness for the sets/SFX. It can be fashionable to knock them, but the designers and producers of the stuff were doing the best they could with very limited resources, and you have to admire them for trying so hard. And of course, this forced the writers to keep our attention on the characters by writing them so well. Mind you, I always think B7 is terrific for bangs. There's nothing like a really good explosion to add a bit of realism. Though I love Babylon 5, and watch ST in various flavours, I sometimes find myself longing for a wideswept quarry to make an appearance just to get the characters out of the studio into the fresh air.

Mel

"So, I'm not alone after all." Avon, Horizon.

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