Babylon 5

I finished the whole series last Saturday. My quick impressions are simple:

1) The story, for the first four seasons, is as good as I remembered it.
2) The characters and their personal stories are also as good as I recalled them. Though for some reason I recalled Vir being present more often than he actually was (I don't get tired of the "I've never gotten past one" scene, either. "See, we have six, umm, ah... we have six.")
3) The fifth season was as tepid as I recalled.
4) The visual effects remain surprisingly good even after all this time. That's all the more impressive considering that a) the show had a rather low budget and 2) much of the CGI work they did was pioneering as far as TV goes.
5) There are a great many visual effects shots, some of them very, very impressive.
6) Having read the techno-mage trilogy and knowing where the story is going, one does see the Vorlons and Shadows very differently than on first viewing. I think there's far more behind killing Death Walker than what little Kosh said at the time.
7) Now I really want to know what would have taken place in the spinoff series "Crusade".

I'm not one to believe in curses, which shouldn't surprise anyone here, but sometimes I begin to wonder.

Jerry Doyle, who played Michael Garibaldi on B5, died today at age 60. I've no details as yet.