this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
63 points (95.7% liked)
askchapo
23115 readers
227 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Oddly enough I think that the older B5 gets, the more forgivable the aged CGI is, because it's more and more obviously "of its time".
Another thing I really enjoy about it is how it gave actors a chance to break out of typecasting, both regulars and guests. JMS gave very good actors who never really got the break they deserved in more mainstream projects the opportunity to show what they could really do.
I haven't watched Babylon 5 (yet), but I had a similar experience with the old Dune miniseries. Yeah, the costuming's kind of silly at times, and the CGI environments look like a Command & Conquer cutscene (or just the actual Dune strategy game made by the C&C devs)... and that's a good thing! I genuinely find it kind of endearing, and to me the series was quite beautiful, honestly way more than the Villeneuve movies which just... didn't really do anything for me.
It's like puppetry, most puppets are obviously not meant to be photo-realistic representations of humans (or other creatures), and any sort of movements are going to look quite stilted in comparison to a real human with muscles, but that's part of the charm. It's its own separate artstyle, with its own vibe. Realism and high fidelity are themselves artistic choices, and going for unrealism and low fidelity is a perfectly valid choice as well (although of course, in those old TV series, it wasn't quite a choice so much as the technical limitations of the time - but some of the most beautiful art comes about due to limitations)
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: