1) The TNT movie, "A Call to Arms," a lead-in into the series, grossed a
rating of 2.8 with little to no promotion. While the TNT movie "Houdini"
grossed the same rating, with probably 100x the amount of publicity than
ACTA got (if you watched TNT, there wasn't a commercial break that
didn't have an add for it).
2) In 5 years, Babylon 5 has amassed a fan base that rivals Star Trek,
and Star Trek has 32 years to gather it's fans while B5 has only been
out for 6 years!
3) Babylon 5 has won critical acclaim and some even consider it the
greatest genera of the time.
4) Babylon 5 was won an Emmy award and 2 Hugo awards, the Academy Awards of
the SciFi universe. B5 has gone up against strong opponents like
Independence Day, Star Trek: First Contact, the DS9 episode Trial and
Tribbleations and The Visitor, plus some episodes of the X-Files.
5) The special effects and makeup divisions of Babylon 5 has started a
movement in FX. They were the first to use all CGI in production of the
space and battle effects. Nowadays, every effects companies (even ILM) has
switched around to CGI. The Star Wars Special Edition or any other recent Sci-fi movie or series would have never come about if it wasn't for CGI.
6) The special effects for Crusade are being aided by NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. This assures nearly flawless technical accuracy
never before seen in Science Fiction.
So please, watch this series with an open mind and do not judge this series before it starts.
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Daniel Henderson
Senior Babylon 5 Editor
http://www.myrkr.com
BTW, is Crusade airing internationally?
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
"Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!" - TMBG
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"I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"
- Monty Python & The Holy Grail
US: TNT, June 9, 10 pm ET
Canada: Space: The Imagination Station, June 12, 7PM ET with repeat Sunday at 2 am
Also on City TV, June 15, 8 pm
Germany: It seems that RTL has the rights to Crusade and the B5 movies, even though Pro7 aired Babylon 5. Most likely, RTL will dub the show
and sell it to Pro7.
England: Sky Channel has the rights to Crusade. The current plan is to air it Sunday, 4th July at 8pm.
France: Canal+, who aired Babylon 5, will most likely air Crusade, but this is as yet unconfirmed. (Canal+ is going to show River of Souls soon)
Finland: Finland's YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) has acquired the rights to all 5 of Babylon 5`s seasons (which they are currently showing the fourth season) and also to Crusade.
Australia: It seems that Channel 9 (which is currenlty showing season 5) will get the rights for Crusade, but its air date is yet unknown.
Israel: Since Channel 3 has shown all 5 seasons, and the fact that it only shows series, Crusade will land there. Still no dates known.
New Zealand: TVNZ Channel 2 is airing Season five, but no news if they will get Crusade.
South America: WBTV will air Season 5, and I guess Crusade too, since it is a Warner Bros. channel.
That's all the info on air dates that I have.
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Daniel Henderson
Senior Babylon 5 Editor
http://www.myrkr.com
And would be useless to terrestrials such as myself.
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"I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"
- Monty Python & The Holy Grail
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
"Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!" - TMBG
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"Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love."
--
Soul Coughing
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Daniel Henderson
Senior Babylon 5 Editor
http://www.myrkr.com
1.) B5's ratings haven't exactly been burning up the charts. However, to be fair, this doesn't mean as much to a cable station.
2.) Eh? I've never met anyone in real life who's even heard of B5, aside from my friend's brother. But again, to be fair, this isn't an indicator of quality either. The fanbase is limited, though, at least in the U.S.
3.) Some consider Rosie O'Donnell the queen of daytime television. Some think Total Request Live highlights original music.
4.) Judging from what actually gets the Hugo awards for dramatic presentations, that's not exactly good company. Besides, The Practice has won more Emmys. Does that make it a better show?
5.) If we're handing out awards for earliest CGI use, I think Tron and The Last Starfighter deserve a few...
6.) Now this I have heard, and it does sound very cool. I didn't see much evidence of it in tonight's episode, but I was only watching intermittently, and it didn't seem like a very FX heavy one anyway.
Now, as long as we're plugging shows, what you REALLY should be watching is The Prisoner marathon on TV Land.
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"Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love."
--
Soul Coughing
I'm certainly looking into getting satellite so I can watch Crusade. It's getting The X-Files' Sunday at 8 slot over the summer.
Annoying thing is, Crusade starts two weeks before they release "A Call To Arms" here on video. . . B(
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"I also received an interesting, if some-what perplexing, note from a 13-year-old lad who asked if I "had a clue." I fear I cannot adequately answer, as I am not aware of any immediate clues at hand; but that is not to say there are none present." - T. Herman Zweibel
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"Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love."
--
Soul Coughing
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"Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us"
-Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
"Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!" - TMBG
Warped1701: Yes, War Zone will replay on Monday after WCW. Be careful as it has a tendancy to run over.
Sol System: As a rebuttle:
1) Yes, it is on a cable system. Plus, any show will have a ratings decrease with all the time changes TNT has done to it.
2) Fan base is not limited. When PTEN was discontinued for the WB, the fans joined together to save the show. And look what it has brought us, 4 TV movies, another season, and the starting of another B5 series. Fanbase is far from limited.
3) Well, JMS also has an asteroid named after him while Roddenberry only has his ashes in Earth orbit and Lucas has nothing.
4) Here's a list of shows B5 has beat for the Hugo awards:
1996:
Apollo 13
The Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Toy Story
12 Monkeys
*1997:
Independence Day
Mars Attacks!
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Trials and Tribbleations"
*= 2 additional B5 episodes (War Without End and Z'Ha'Dum) were also nominated but JMS declined.
This year, B5 been nominated again for the Hugo for Sleeping in Light. The only strong challenger it has is Star Trek: Insurrection, and if Severed Dreams could kill First Contact, it'll buzzsaw Insurrection with Sleeping in Light. Also, it's been nominated for 3 Saturn Awards for Best Cable Series, Best Actor, and Best Actress that I know of. I'm not sure about the rest.
5) Tron and Last Starfighter may have used it, but B5 made it practical. With a budget around $800,000 and doing all the FX shots they did even in Season 1 alone with models would have cost a fourtune. And if they could do it on their budget, larger FX companies sure could do it as well, hence Star Wars Special Editon.
6) Well all the shots of Mars, Ceti 4, and the background were FX shots. They looked pretty realistic. There also seemed to be more shots in this 1 hour episdoe than there was in the DS9 Finale. Plus, this is the episode that TNT wanted Crusade to be. Action, action, action, but minus the sex. If you want the real scoop, I have a copy of the DreamWatch article about Crusade's shutdown. It gets pretty vivid and sound almost like turning it into Voyager. Wait for Racing the Night, the episode that should have been the 1st.
As for The Prisoner, it's one of those SciFi series that I'd like to get into, but I can't see it anywhere. My cable provider doesn't gt TV Land.
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Daniel Henderson
Senior Babylon 5 Editor
http://www.myrkr.com
Strange coincidence, though - just as I dismiss Insurrection's chances, the Evian advert with Anthony Zerbe comes on!
Ok, let's look at it another way. Roddenberry has essentially created a media juggernaut. JMS has a comic book coming out.And Lucas? I wouldn't be surprised if he goes the way of L. Ron Hubbard.
4.) Actually, I think we're coming from vastly difference reference frames here. I take your data as proof of my point. B5 better than 12 Monkeys? Not bloody likely. (Though I am partial to Gilliam.)
Besides, The First One is right. Dark City should be the front runner for any award. Insurrection was fun, but it doesn't really deserve anything special.
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"Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love."
--
Soul Coughing
You guys call those good VFX? ReBoot's battle sequences are more compelling. They were a huge step backwards from B5.
This Gideon guy makes Sinclair look dynamic. God he's dreadful. Sure they didn't recast the role with a totem pole or something?
And the Drahk? They are so damn campy it wreaks havok on any sort of sci-fi credibility the show has. The makeup makes them look like something out of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
The gunfight was pathetic, whatever happened to the cool weapon SFX we saw on B5?
Dialog was usual JMS crap. Only this time, there wasn't an inkling of acting talent helping it to come out in a somewhat believable manner.
Don't get me started on the music. A bastardization of lame-ass poser-techno and the standard majestic sci-fi score run backwards through an amplifier.
Any sense of maturity that JMS's scifi occasisionally showed in B5 is gone. This is campy. Next week I bet they'll visit a planet where somebody will be turned into a gigantic carrot.
Suffice to say, Crusade makes B5 look positively regal. And if you know what I think of B5, that's hardly a complement.
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"A Star Wars picture that preaches against greed is a little like Bill Clinton in the pulpit for a chastity-begins-at-home campaign."
-Rex Murphy on Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
[This message was edited by The_Tom on June 13, 1999.]
My take on #1 is that this is the weakest of the bunch, because this is the only one written at the behest of TNT; it's exposition heavy, too much swaggering macho stuff, no real depth, just stuff
blowing up. The ones that follow are much better.
jms
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Daniel Henderson
Senior Babylon 5 Editor
http://www.myrkr.com