Normally I'm loath to link to AICN, but I haven't seen any other easy links, and someone pointed this out to me. I'm of two minds on the matter. First, it'll be wonderful to have a few more B5 tales going on. But... they're heading towards "Star Trek: The Geriatric Generation" territory here. Ten years on, there's going to be a lot of differences in the appearances. We'll see if they manage to take that into account.
As long as it's not crappy like "Legends of the Rangers," I'll be happy to watch (and buy)!
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Well, the article does say "The Lost Tales picks up several years after the events of the original", so I imagine that (unlike in a certain Trek series finale) the actors having aged wouldn't distract too much from it.
Still, no Franklin, no G'Kar... I dunno.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Production actually began last month in Vancouver, where JMS has an office.
I'm a yawner on this one - see the previous thread in the forum for my thoughts on it. There IS a relatively unexplored slab of time in the 2270s that hasn't been touched yet (Rangers and Crusade are both in the late 2260s or early 2270s, I think), so there room s for a little fun. "Little" being the operative word.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Galen & Eilerson meet Rebo & Zooty.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Omega: It has Galen. That makes it worth seeing.
In no way is that an acurate statement.
The only thing that might make this woth watching would be if it wraps up the whole "earth Plague" thing and maybe featured the Excalibur's crew (or at least a "they died saving the world" explanation...something.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Did you ever watch the JMS commentary on Crusade? he tells what the show was really about. The plaque would've been cured by about halfway through S2 or so, but the real premise of the show was that Excalibur's crew would find out nasty stuff about Earth using leftover Shadow tech & they would become disavowed by earth as renegades as they went after the...whatever the end prize was to be. The episode with robert Black was a gentle "first touch" on that.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
ALL of JMS's work is EXACTLY like that. Babylon 5 was like that. His treatment for the re-boot of TOS was like that. Rangers and Jeremiah would have been like that. Each one had a deceptive early plot that gave way to a deep dark major plot arc that always involved some previous evils or whatever.
I'm not bothering being frustrated by this lack of ingenuity, as I've long since accepted that JMS is not capable of it. Anyone willing to bet money that this limited two-parter sows the potential for more adventures later on? Involving a deep dark major plot arc that inolves some previous evils or whatever? I'm not.
Well, it's what happens when you make a comic book writer into a sci-fi TV writer- formula.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
What's been with all the JMS-bashing that seems to have become so fashionable in the past year? Maybe I can't make too much of a complaint or comparison because I've actually never had an opportunity to see any of his other work (I'm not a comic book fan, and don't get Showtime). And I certainly can't say that B5 wasn't without its share of quirks (I'll grant that the dialogue got a bit melodramatic at times).
But B5 pioneered the whole concept of the story arc for television series a full five to seven years before any other shows tried it. (DS9 made some halfhearted attempts in the second half of its run, to only limited success.) And the show was good. There was great drama, genuine mysteries, real character development, and even some social commentary (of a sorts).
Why bash the guy because he's got a formula that works? How many damn fairy tales begin with the words, "Once upon a time..."? Would it be a fairy tale if it DIDN'T start with those words? (That's just a rhetorical question, BTW.) Maybe he could be a little less obvious with some of his references (there were a few too many homages to Lord of the Rings, for example). But he still told some damn good stories. And after more than three thousand years of recorded literature, what HASN'T been ripped off these days, anyway?
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
If you use the same formula over and over again, it does not work.
I think JMS is a great plotter that could bea great writer if he had an editor/producer keeping his ego in check. Also, he tends to write himself into a corner and then deliver a very weak conclusion to a very well done build-up (see the whole "Shadow War" for the single worst plot resolution of all time).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
"If you use the same formula over and over again, it does not work."
Wouldn't that include all the shows that use the formula of "reset button at the end of every episode"? That is to say, almost every show ever?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: If you use the same formula over and over again, it does not work.
Okay, I'll just delete my entire recipe library now. Obviously I need to make things different every single time.
Sure, the resolution to the Shadow War was a bit sudden, but the whole POINT of it was that after the "clean" ending of a conflict, there's a whole big mess that needs fixing afterwards, and stuff you thought was solved comes back to bite you in the ass.
I sometimes think so many people complain because a show (not just B5, but anything) is so good, it's close to being "perfect" from some people's point of view that they fault it for not getting that last bit just right.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
I will be the first to credit B5 for what it did, and what it pioneered. I *liked* B5. However, I have not been able to get on board with anything he's done since. One reason among many is the aforementioned lack of originality in anything he's written after B5.
And I have always abhorred his crappy, cringe-inducing dialogue, which I've posted about before. The worst Voyager monologues never got that bad, unless it was some black and white episode which was SUPPOSED to be that bad. If he didn't insist on total creative control, he'd have a check or a balance in there somewhere. But no, so no.
posted
I dunno if you're including Crusade in that "everything after B5" comment, but if so, I don't think it would be (entirely) fair to criticize the development of the story. Crusade never got the chance to find its way, and it was the subject of outside interference from day one.
(Dialogue, I suppose I can understand for occasional scenes. But what about G'Kar's speeches, Delenn's musings, or Londo's posturings? There was some incredible stuff in there. Also, don't confuse bad writing with bad acting. A poor actor � and B5 occasionally went to the bargain basement for hiring � can easily torpedo mediocre dialogue.)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
