Customer Reviews

Signs and Portents (Babylon 5: Season by Season, Book 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a really good book series for B5 fans. It makes a great companion & fun reading after you have watched each show. But I would recommend it mainly for those that have seen the series & are watching it again. The reason I say that is because it is laced with spoilers all throughout the commentaries. That's fine if you've seen the whole thing already, but it stinks if you are watching it for the first time. If you don't mind that sort of thing...go for it, but this is the only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. For a good "non-spoiler" companion guide, I highly recommend The Babylon File: The Definitive Unauthorized Guide to J. Michael Straczynski's TV Series Babylon 5 by Andy Lane Versions 1 & 2. He shows no mercy sometimes. If he does or doesn't like the show, he let's you know. But it's a blast to read.

Babylon 5 was unique in television. The main plot for the entire series was mapped out before the show even started. As a result, it developed a loyal fan base that still loves it.

This book is the first in a series of five episode guides to the series. Covering the first season, it has a separate chapter for each of the twenty-two episodes, plus the pilot. Each starts with a plot summary, but then goes into behind the scenes stories and commentaries. Through interviews with cast, crew, and creator J. Michael Straczynski, author Jane Killick is able to give a full picture of what went into each episode. Some of my favorite parts are the stories of bloopers or jokes the cast played on each other. I also find the summaries useful if I'm looking for a particular episode to rewatch.

Starting out the book is an interesting chapter about the five year struggle the producers had to get the show on the air. It really gave me a new appreciation for what JMS went through to make his vision a reality.

Also included is a season 1 overview. While I might not agree with all of the author's commentary, I find her perspective interesting.

Any fan will love to have this well researched book for a behind the scenes look at a wonderful piece of science fiction television history.

I have taped all of the shows, & proceed to watch them at my own leisure one by one. After watching each episode, I then read the synopsis of the episode out of the book. It tends to make some minute things come to life.Things that I consider minor, are shown to be of great importance by the creator. The insights on why things were done, the timing of those things, it was all very excellent. I reccommend it for any real Baylon 5 fan. There is sooo much to learn from this series of books.

This is an excellent reference book. I skipped the capsule descriptions of the episodes and went to the real meat: the behind-the-scenes stuff. Whether it's an anecdote by one of the actors/actresses, or getting into the nuts-and-bolts business of keeping the show on the air and staying within budget, this volume never failed to delight.

This is an episode guide done by an English writer. Thus the delay in getting this on the market for almost five years. Well worth the wait. One of my pet peeves with the Starlog series magazines and the Starlog general magazine as well, is the lack of complete credit lists of the artists and creative personnel. Nothing is more annoying to me than wondering all through an episode who someone is (as in-- I've seen that face before, or, who's that, they're really good?) and wanting to find out what else they've done (using the net of course) and then there is a swing insert preview or teaser at the end which squinches up the cast credits.
Or you missed the leading credits, but that doesn't matter anyway, because there are five or six guests in the opening credits and you don't know any of them by nane. And they go by too fast to write down. (Hercules and Xena do this scrunching all the time. Better to scrunch the chief grip, etc. )
These episode guide books are really handy for looking someone up, just as useful as the episode summaries themselves. In addition, there have well-written commentaries and analyses of the major themes of the series.
This series is so well packed that since I have been watching the reruns on TNT, I picked up on sub-texts and hints that were not returned to until the fourth season when there was doubt that a fifth would be done. I am looking forward to buying the last three books, I already have the first two.

This is a good reference to Season One, a must for anyone who is a fan of the show and definitely for those who don't have Internet access and/or haven't found the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. The summaries are good, though the reader has to skip over some of Killick's commentary regarding what was "good" and "bad" about certain episodes. What is most fascinating though is the behind-the-scenes commentary, finding out that Koenig WASN'T originally thought of for Bester, etc. The stories behind the stories are a good bonus to buy this book.

Jane Killick can actually write! She has provided 5 essential volumes to this series filled with insight and interviews. I have read all of the Stargate Illustrated Companions and they are very good. Jane's books are even better. I'm a latecomer to the show and to these books, but they are marvelous. 5 cheers for this book and the other four volumes. Exceptional.

I have always been a fan of Babylon 5 when it was a show in Warner (in my country [Brazil] the 5 seasons were presented by cable in Warner Channel). I missed the show very much when it was finished in 1999. When I discovered the seasons in DVDs I bought ALL of them and ALL of the books of Jane Killick, each one per month. I became again fascinated with the universe that J. Michael Straczynski created, a very truthful scientific fiction and an amazing accomplishment for a TV show. The books of Jane Killick are guides episode-by-episode of the five seasons and have the same names of the Season. In Signs and Portents (the first one) the author presents herself and tells the reader why she has chosen to write about Babylon 5. The book has also a foreword of Michael O'Hare (Commander Sinclair) and bits of informations about the long and difficult journey that the creators of the series endured until they were able to shoot the first season. Each episode is resumed in a clear account of the story and after the resumé, the author includes interviews with the actors, writers, directors or other tid-bits of informations pertinents to the episode. The books are sucint, but very informative. I would like MORE photos, but..the DVDs have the images... But the books just resume the episode and comments about the arc of the story. They lack a psychological profile of the principal characters, as Deleen, Sheridan, Ivanova, Garibaldi, G'Kar and Londo. I also have the Watcher's Guide of Buffy and the Casefiles of Angel (other TV-series) and they have a more abrangent view about these shows. I missed a little biographical information about the actors, the directors and the writers, the psychological profile and development of the characters, especially because they have changed so much during the 5-year seasons, the sociological implications of the wars showed in the seasons (bits of commentaries of the auth or Michael Straczynski and of the actress Mira Furlan implies a parallel between the sociological themes in these seasons and the War in Serbia-Bosnia-Croatia and other wars that happened in the late 90s. Also the philosophy and the religious themes showed in the Seasons deserve more development and perhaps a detailed study , for example in the beautiful 3rd Season episode "Passing through the Gethsemane" Deleen tells a friar a little about the Minbari beliefs and these seemed to me like a buddist or hinduist point of view); I would like a commentary about the beliefs of these differents aliens planets as shown in these five seasons. Perhaps the author Michael Staczynski and others could write books about it. I have read the excelent books reviewing Buffy and Angel philosophy and psycology (Bite me! Seven Season of Buffy, Five Seasons of Angel and many others that many authors wrote about these two other series)and I think Babylon 5 deserves reviews about these themes. Besides that, Signs and Portents, and the four other books of Jane Killick, The Coming of Shadows (Season 2), Point of No Return (Season 3), No Surrender, no Retreat (Season 4) and The Wheel of Fire (Season 5) are an enjoyable companion guide to the 5 years of the Serie Babylon 5. I strongly recommend it to be read together with the DVD, seeing an episode and after reading the excelent commentaries of the author, albeit these are short. Please, Ms. Killick, write more about these seasons! A new book, perhaps a 10 years review of the show would be very welcome.
Obs: This review encompass all the five books because the style is much the same for these.
Deniza Futuro (Brazil)

The Babylon 5: Season by Season guidebooks are an essential read for fans of the TV series. Containing photos, interviews, essays, and in-depth rundowns of each episode, each book is indispensable for B5 vets and newbies alike. Strongly recommended.

"Who are you?" "What do you want?" These two questions, how they are answered, and in what order, define the televised novel Babylon 5. Be aware though. Answering these two questions is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

Babylon 5 is about choices made (in response to the two questions), opportunities lost, and the effect of these on the development of each character. This theme is brought to light in a nicely written book covering Babylon 5's first season (which has the same title as the book - "Signs and Portents") by Jane Killick. For each episode and the pilot, there is a synopsis which, along with a well thought out analysis, helps greatly in rationalizing and understanding the motives of each of the major characters and the various races. Numerous interviews with the actors, writers, directors, and series creator, J. Michael Straczynski, provide additional insight into the series direction and each character's actions. Killick's book also contains a comprehensive section devoted to the events that led up to Babylon 5's creation.

Because Babylon contains forshadowing of future events in almost every episode, I found that the book increased my understanding of the events taking place in the Babylon 5 universe considerably. From refreshing my memory about forgotten details, to pointing out what was overlooked in viewing the show, this book was an invaluable tool that could only have been made better by including more plot detail.

Overall, I have to rate this book a "must buy" for those with even a passing interest in the show. It is the first authorized book of its type and it doesn't rely heavily on information posted on the web or hearsay sources, but instead on exclusive first person interviews. This reason alone makes it worth the price.

No doubt about it, this book's a keeper (and you'll find out about those in the Season 3 book of the series - "Point of No Return").