Babylon 5's Greatest Actors and Characters

[vidar]

No human on the greatest list, - only aliens?!

 

[larper]

It takes a really good actor to emote through all of that makeup and prosth-....prothes..... latex stuff. So, the best acting came from them.<br /><br />Anyone can act human. It takes a good actor to make an alien be alien and human at the same time. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Vote </font><font color="#3366ff">Libertarian</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[vidar]

No wonder why all those xenophobic human organisations popped up. The human actors must have felt inferior.

 

[mo24]

I'll be the first. I liked John Sheridan the most (at least, I think that was his name - it's been so long since i've seen the series).<br /><br />I actually just bought the Babylon 5 DVD set a few days ago to watch again. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow.<br /><br />Babylon 5 was the only show I watched on TV for all of the seasons it aired. Before Stargate and BSG reared their heads on the SciFi channel, I would have said it was my favorite show of all time. Now, it's a tough call.<br /><br />I feel that the series as a whole deserved a lot more publicity than it received. If it wasn't for the novel-like nature of the series, I think it might have been the next biggest thing since StarWars. I know a lot of people started watching the show late in the series, and had trouble following the story, so they never really got into it.

 

[contracommando]

Garibaldi (played by Bruce Willis <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />)<br />Delen (Mira Furlan)<br />Londo (Peter Jurasik)<br />G’kar (Andreas Katsulas)<br /><br />

 

[larper]

Garibaldi was NOT played by Bruce Willis. That was Jerry Doyle. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Vote </font><font color="#3366ff">Libertarian</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[contracommando]

<i>“Garibaldi was NOT played by Bruce Willis. That was Jerry Doyle.”</i><br /> <br /><br />It was a joke, that’s why I put the smile by it………Doyle and Willis look similar to some.<br />

 

[alonzofyfe]

> "Garibaldi was NOT played by Bruce Willis. That was Jerry Doyle."<br /><br />Jerry Doyle was played by Bruce Willis? I thought he looked familiar.

 

[beartooth]

Won't ANYONE vote for "Mr. Bester?"

 

[CalliArcale]

I loved the episodes with Bester. Walter Koenig will forever be remembered for Ensign Pavel Chekov (complete with pseudo-Russian accent), but he stepped so perfectly into the role of Alfred Bester, Psi-Cop, that in many ways I think it's the role he was really born to play. It's obvious he's having the time of his life in the role, and that makes a big difference. It's also pretty amazing to see how well he can play a baddie -- especially one who's not always a bad guy, but simply operates according to a different set of morals, with different objectives in mind.<br /><br />Great character, great performance. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> When I think of Walter Koenig I actually no longer think first of Chekov. I think of Bester. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[contracommando]

I think that some ignore Bester because (at least to me) he was the type of character that both made you afraid of him and one that angered you-especially after what he did to Garibaldi.<br /><br />The role was well acted though, and the show definitely wouldn’t have been the same without him. <br />

 

[CalliArcale]

Which was exactly the point, of course. You're supposed to hate him, and Walter Koenig does a very good job of producing that emotion.<br /><br />Bester is a dangerous, dangerous person and no normal person should trust him. Frankly, few telepaths should trust him either, although he firmly believes he is looking out for their best interests. He is the sort of person who believes the ends justify the means, and who fully enjoys feeling his superiority over "mundanes". He genuinely believes in the Psi Corps -- "the Corps is mother, the Corps is father" -- and he believes that telepaths are fundamentally superior to mundanes. He enjoys tormenting mundanes, especially when he can get away with it legally, as in "Dust To Dust" when he convinced a criminal that he was reading the criminal's mind, even though he'd taken the sleeper drugs to temporarily suppress his talent. He enjoys sparring with Garibaldi; this is probably why he ultimately chose Garibaldi as the Corps' secret weapon. He is extremely condescending to people, especially mundanes, and he has very few scruples. Despite all this, he truly loves the Corps and cares deeply about other telepaths. In his own twisted logic, he feels this obliges him to hunt down and even kill "blips" (rogue telepaths).<br /><br />There's a wonderful trilogy of B5 novels about the rise and fall of Psi Corps. It skips over the Telepath War entirely (events which would have followed soon after Season 5; presumably if Crusade had gone on long enough, they'd have gotten to the telepath war). That was the biggest disappointment to me. But in the second and third books you get to know Bester, what makes him tick, why he's the way he is, and by the end, you *almost* pity him. The last book in the series is a classic tragedy, with Bester as the tragic hero. (Remember, heroes aren't neccesarily good guys. In literary terms, the hero is merely the protagonist, whether good or evil. In a tragedy, the hero is often a bad guy -- co <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[beartooth]

Despite all this, he truly loves the Corps and cares deeply about other telepaths.<br /><br />Well, see, there you go. he DOES have redeeming qualities!<br /><br /><br />Actually I only mentioned him as a joke. Look at what I've created...

 

[CalliArcale]

Well, you proved one thing -- people are definitely aware of Bester and have strong feelings about him. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[beartooth]

Maybe it's because he represents the dark side in all of us?

 

[SpaceKiwi]

For character development, there is simply no beating B5 I think. It was a character-driven show and the sci-fi aspect of it was almost incidental really. Such was the assortment of quality, strong characters that this thread would have arrived at an answer quicker if we had listed the 'duds' in the cast instead! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em><font size="2" color="#ff0000">Who is this superhero?  Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!</font></em></p><p><em><font size="2">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></em></p><p><font size="5">Bring Back The Black!</font></p> </div>