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Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Babylon 5: I remember seeing previews for the pilot when I was 11 and being really excited about a new science fiction show. At that time, I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine regularly... and, while I enjoyed them, the Star Trek universe was a known quantity. I was eager to discover something new.
Unfortunately, Babylon 5: The Gathering straight up sucked. Many of the character designs were bad, the acting was awful, and I was utterly unenthralled. My great disappointment faded into forgetful ambivalence, and my 12th year was spent absorbed in the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In November of 1994, I was taking a computer class under the auspices of a teacher who was a sci-fi nut. She absolutely loved Babylon 5, and she hosted after-school parties after each new episode aired, screening them in the computer lab for those who had permission to stay. As a young geek, there was no way I was passing up teacher-sanctioned social geekery.
I don't remember which new episode we watched on the first viewing I attended; I do remember, though, that it was a double-header. She showed us "Babylon Squared" after the new episode and, in spite of Michael O'Hare's one-note performance, I was hooked by the end of the afternoon. (Especially knowing that Captain John Sheridan was on the way.)
I got my mom hooked along with me - she had long been a sci-fi fan as well anyway, and the idea thatScarecrow Bruce Boxleitner took over from the subpar Michael O'Hare was all she needed to hear. Thus began a journey in intense fandom love through my 17th year.
I keep meaning to revisit the series now, over a decade later, but I haven't managed to commit to it yet. From a few episodes I've randomly watched in the past couple of years, though, I think such a re-watch will be a mixed experience. I still love the characters and the concepts, but some of the writing makes me wince.
Quixote, on the other hand, answers Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Before the miniseries aired in 2003, he was firmly in the "Galactica in name only" camp. He was convinced it was the worst idea ever and would be horrible, but he was equally committed to watching the miniseries so he could complain on an informed level. Of course, by the time the second part ended, he was done and a BSG fan through and through. (I was also a big fan of BSG in the beginning, but it took "33" to sell me on it.)
( 30 Days of TV: The List )
Babylon 5: I remember seeing previews for the pilot when I was 11 and being really excited about a new science fiction show. At that time, I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine regularly... and, while I enjoyed them, the Star Trek universe was a known quantity. I was eager to discover something new.
Unfortunately, Babylon 5: The Gathering straight up sucked. Many of the character designs were bad, the acting was awful, and I was utterly unenthralled. My great disappointment faded into forgetful ambivalence, and my 12th year was spent absorbed in the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In November of 1994, I was taking a computer class under the auspices of a teacher who was a sci-fi nut. She absolutely loved Babylon 5, and she hosted after-school parties after each new episode aired, screening them in the computer lab for those who had permission to stay. As a young geek, there was no way I was passing up teacher-sanctioned social geekery.
I don't remember which new episode we watched on the first viewing I attended; I do remember, though, that it was a double-header. She showed us "Babylon Squared" after the new episode and, in spite of Michael O'Hare's one-note performance, I was hooked by the end of the afternoon. (Especially knowing that Captain John Sheridan was on the way.)
I got my mom hooked along with me - she had long been a sci-fi fan as well anyway, and the idea that
I keep meaning to revisit the series now, over a decade later, but I haven't managed to commit to it yet. From a few episodes I've randomly watched in the past couple of years, though, I think such a re-watch will be a mixed experience. I still love the characters and the concepts, but some of the writing makes me wince.
Quixote, on the other hand, answers Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Before the miniseries aired in 2003, he was firmly in the "Galactica in name only" camp. He was convinced it was the worst idea ever and would be horrible, but he was equally committed to watching the miniseries so he could complain on an informed level. Of course, by the time the second part ended, he was done and a BSG fan through and through. (I was also a big fan of BSG in the beginning, but it took "33" to sell me on it.)
( 30 Days of TV: The List )