Better to skip the first season than not watch at all.
I am someone who noped out of the show mid season one during its original broadcast run, despite being really psyched by the pilot, and fortunately gave it a second chance for season two when Boxleitner was brought in.
The first season can be hard to slog through due to the alternating wooden performance / theatre extreme facial expressions of the principal character.
I had really enjoyed the 90 minute pilot (with a different first officer) and was surprised how stiff he was when the first season.
While there’s a lot of important set up in the first season, if it’s too much of a barrier that you’re not watching B5 at all, better to skip ahead to season two.
All the more reason not to perpetuate a question on which the IP owner has a settled position. It wasn’t neutral.
I get that BBC has engaged an expert from the community, but in such a case the expert is under all the greater responsibility to ensure their neutrality. This isn’t presented as an opinion or perspective piece the way it might have been on the official site.
Had they written that there has been a long debate about TAS status, in part due to documentable statements by and those attributed to Roddenberry by his representative (I.e. Richard Arnold), and that there continues to be many fans that have reservations about its canonicity, that would be factual and neutral. This isn’t.
The name also reminded me of MGM’s incredibly influential mid 1950s groundbreaking high-end feature Forbidden Planet.
Any fan of Star Trek, Star Wars or other 60s and 70s science fiction who hasn’t seen Forbidden Planet should make the effort to hunt down a copy just to know where a lot of the tropes and design came from.
Watching the original Alien in a theatre with a group of friends, almost none of whom had any idea what was coming, is one of those indelible experiences of my youth.
So is lining up to see the original Star Wars (The Last Hope) after having been impressed by the trailer that was shown before ‘Robin and Marion’ the previous November. I never would have imagined after seeing it that the franchise would eventually evolve to be dystopian.
One great 70s science fiction movie that I only got to see later on television was Silent Running. It deserves more attention.