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Babylon 5 Fans

post #1 of 12
6/30/07 at 5:20am
Thread Starter 
Anyone here a fan of Babylon 5? Only reason I bring it up is because they're actually coming out with a new DVD on July 31st, The Lost Tales. Personally, I'm keeping my arms and mind wide open for this new release. I haven't been a fan of the show for very long, (I was introduced to it recently), but I couldn't help myself from preordering it. I didn't even know about this DVD until I went to their website and saw that they had a section for this on it. I also read that each episode is going to revolve around a single character which is great in my opinion; it'll add much more background to the character, add much more to the series, and perhaps show the viewer something they didn't see before in the character. I can't wait, it's going to be amazing.
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post #2 of 12
6/30/07 at 6:50am
So look for Babylon 5: The Shill Invasion this summer, spamming a website near you.
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post #3 of 12
6/30/07 at 2:49pm
I myself am looking forward to it.
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post #4 of 12
6/30/07 at 8:19pm
I am a big B5 fan. I'm currently on my... God, ninth run through the entire series on DVD I think. (6 episodes from the end of S4 right now.) I love it. It's the best sci-fi show ever IMO. While dialogue is not JMS' strong suit (I'm not going to pretend that he's the Shakespeare of sci-fi, despite being a huge fan of the guy) he crafted a fantastic, multi-year arc... AH hell, you know all about it. Stuff in season 1 pays off in season 3. I love the show to bits. I really do.

And I really don't give a crap about the new DVD. MIGHT be a rental. Might not. Certainly won't buy it. Several reasons.

1) It's 76 minutes long. Not even the length of two episodes, and has two stories in it.
2) Sadly, for me, B5 without Richard Biggs (Doctor Franklin) or Andreas Katsulas (G'kar, possibly the great character in TV history for character development and evolution).
3) Fucking Scoggins... The very first new B5, and one of the stories is about that fucking interloper Lochley! What? They couldn't bury the hatchet with Claudia? No, it has to be Captain Not-Ivanova... Even if they can't get Claudia, they could have gone with Corwin instead and have him promoted, or... Basically anyone in C&C who isn't fucking Lochley!

To be honest, were it Ivanova and not Lochley, or Corwin as I suggested, that would be enough to seal the deal for me and I'd pick it up. My favourite characters in the show were Marcus, G'kar, Ivanova and Londo. Three of those won't be back. One is dead in reality. One is dead in character and in cryogenic suspension until they find a cure for death. One is god knows where in the B5-verse now, and the other is Londo, who is stuck on Centauri Prime as emperor...

Nah, this new stuff is B5-Lite. All the flavour. None of the calories.
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post #5 of 12
7/1/07 at 9:04am
Okay, I kept myself in check when Season 5 ended with various plotlines unresolved. It pissed me off, but I let it go.

However, I will be extremely fed up if JMS fails to use this DTV system to:

1) Tell the Fall of Centauri Prime Storyline (i.e. Sheridan and Delenn's capture, David's possession by the keeper, the burning of the capital, the redemption of Lennier, and the fates of Londo and G'Kar, with Katsulas inserted via WAR WITHOUT END clips and other trickery).

2) The fate of Bester and Garibaldi, being that the latter was doing his best to kill the former.

3) The Telepath War. I want to see it as a trilogy, with hopes that it plays better than the Clone War did (meaning the *idea* was more tantalizing than the outcome).

4) Crusade. Just tell us how the shit wrapped up, please.
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post #6 of 12
7/1/07 at 5:30pm
The fifth season pretty much ended my interest in this show. I haven't watched anything Babylon 5 related since. And I don't intend to start now.
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post #7 of 12
7/1/07 at 10:21pm
The 5th season was a letdown and it would have been so much better had they known they could have moved the EA Civil war to that season. However, I really liked the last 4 episodes of season 5, Objects in MOtion and Objects at rest were great and Sleeping in Light was just a heart breaking thing to watch and still probably my favorite series finale of all time.

Crusade had its moment's and some great B5 elements such as the The original destruction of The Cerbus, The Infinity Box, Gallen and his history. To bad TNT canceled it before the first episode even aired.
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post #8 of 12
7/1/07 at 11:13pm
After being so horribly disappointed in all the other B5 movies I have very little faith in this one being any good, especially without half the best characters. Sheridan and Delenn were fine and all but the meat of the show was always the supporting cast. With no Lennier, Ivanova, Marcus, G'Kar, Kosh, or Franklin its not even the same show. Itd be like making a Star Trek movie with just Kirk and Spock, that'd never work...oh wait...seriously? They did that? Well I still think its a bad idea.

Incidentally, I recently saw Claudia Christian at a convention in Orlando and heard the story of her falling out with JMS for the first time all the way through and it sounds like their is no chance of ever seeing her on the show again. Apparently he wont even let her publish a B5 book she wrote(written between novels of erotica I guess), which prompted her to offer to email it to people if they wanted to read it.
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post #9 of 12
7/2/07 at 5:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thalasi
Itd be like making a Star Trek movie with just Kirk and Spock, that'd never work...oh wait...seriously? They did that? Well I still think its a bad idea.
Um...no they didn't.
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post #10 of 12
7/2/07 at 5:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thalasi

Incidentally, I recently saw Claudia Christian at a convention in Orlando and heard the story of her falling out with JMS for the first time all the way through and it sounds like their is no chance of ever seeing her on the show again. Apparently he wont even let her publish a B5 book she wrote(written between novels of erotica I guess), which prompted her to offer to email it to people if they wanted to read it.

To be fair he shit canned the entire publishing house's line of B5 novels that included hers, because there was some dispute over the rights, and they were claiming the novels were canon when he didn't even know they were being made, and according to him they all read like bad fan fiction.


Edited to add some quotes for the sake of accuracy

Quote:
after making a number of rather controversial statements
about my involvement, which were not accurate, there were several
emails exchanged which resulted finally in my agreeing to give Mongoose
a second chance. The main concerns were that a) information given to
the fans should be accurate, b) the books should be canonical, and c)
the level of writing on the books had to be consistent with what's gone
before. To be fair they said they would work within the guidelines
they were given.

I made it very clear that I did not want any money off the deal, no
fees for myself, the purpose was to ensure the quality of the books.

The manuscripts came in on the books currently in progress, and
unfortunately the level of writing is at very best amateurish, on a
level somewhat below what one would find on the average fan-fiction
website. In some cases the manuscripts had net handles not even actual
names, they were unprofessionally put together and edited, and the
writing is just not there. This is not the sort of thing that can be
easily corrected with just some notes or asking for re-dos. They
haven't done much publishing in the area of fiction previous to this
time, and my feeling is that as well-intentioned as they might be, they
don't really have the chops when it comes to fiction. And their
statements on their website are again somewhat overstating the
situation and not being entirely accurate in the projects and processes
being announced.

So having given a second chance to this process, and again as well
intentioned as they may be, my sense is that this is going to be a case
of diminishing returns. Fiction is a far more subjective field than
putting together reference books, and you really have to trust the
tastes and perspective of your editorial staff, which for me,
subjectively, isn't here. So I've stepped back and said I really can't
be a part of this process because I can't endorse something if I don't
think the quality is going to be there. So it's between them and WB at
this point.

jms
Quote:
Nobody went out of their way to squash, squish or smush Claudia's
book. None of the Mongoose B5 novels are going ahead, hers or anybody
else's. There's nothing more to it than that.

jms
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post #11 of 12
7/2/07 at 10:09am
Mongooses are shitty writers anyway.
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post #12 of 12
7/2/07 at 10:26am

Babylon 5 Fans

...do not realize that they're too nerdy for Star Trek.
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