posted
And he CARED about the chain of command too. You knew that every time he said "Sir, with all due respect...", he'd make a senior officer look like a dork right after that.
Also, in one particular episode he DID write up a letter of resignation so he could plant a big wet one on Carter... Right before a time loop obliterated it from ever happening.
Costco in Canada has been liquidating all the old B5 DVD boxed sets at less than $30 a pop, so I finished my collection. It's just like I remembered - good, not great; horrible, stilted dialogue from almost everyone; and a good story that JMS has cloned for every one of his works since.
posted
Eek, not sure I like the cover art, though it does get across the idea of an anthology in that in looks like one of those 3-cheep-movies-on-a-disc type releases.
quote:Costco in Canada has been liquidating all the old B5 DVD boxed sets at less than $30 a pop, so I finished my collection. It's just like I remembered - good, not great; horrible, stilted dialogue from almost everyone; and a good story that JMS has cloned for every one of his works since.
I think the fairest, most unbiased thing i can say about B5 is that it was consistent. As you say not great, not bad, but overall they stayed on the right track and didn't wander about too much like most other sci-fi shows that last more than 3 years. By comparison; Galactica is great, but I'm buggered if it's consistent.
posted
Galactica is ass- I forsee a great lament for lost hours wasted watching a bad show, the like of which we've not seen since the pathetic end of The X Files.
I'll skip this B5 thing- unless the reviews here are glowing and suggest a return to something as good as B5's "shadow war" (prior to the assinine ending, that is). Only then will I fork out my ard earned currentcy for it (as there's a model kit I've waited a deacde for coming out next month).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Rev, I've watched my way through most of B5's S3 now, and my opinion hasn't changed... In fact, watching two or more epsiodes in a sitting has tended to reduce my opinion of jms' writing skills even further. The STORY is good, but the individual episodes leave much to be desired. There was an episode where Vir was marrying a psycho killer. Her dialogue took "speechifying" to a new level, with the equivalent of several pages of dialogue in ANY other show being uttered while Vir or whoever else in the scene just stared blankly (and not always at her). I actually cursed out loud at several point in that session because of the crappy dialogue.
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I never denied that the actual dialogue was lacking...at least I don't think I did. Anyway, most of the time it's saved by the delivery, especially in the case of Stephen Furst.
Keep in mind that most of the primary actors on B5 were either B movie types or low profile TV show/soap opera types. These people are very used to delivering verbal tripe with utter conviction and without suffering a brain haemorrhage. By comparison JMS's writing must seam like pure gold to a working actor. Also consider that JMS is also a comic book writer and while I'm by no stretch a comic book buff, from what I've seen most comic book dialogue is (sometimes by necessity) pretty piss poor. What keeps the reader coming back is the STORY and the CHARACTERS. Same applies to most forms of entertainment since you have to be really anal to watch a show purely for the quality of the dialogue.
posted
Or be watching The West Wing's first couple seasons. The dialog kicked ass.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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WizArtist II
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Only then will I fork out my ard earned currentcy for it (as there's a model kit I've waited a deacde for coming out next month).
And what kit would THAT be?
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: Or be watching The West Wing's first couple seasons. The dialog kicked ass.
Must confess I never got around to watching that show, though it does look really good. There's a lot of new shows in the last few years that I've missed out on for various reasons and part of the problem with the serial format that most of them seam to be using these days is that it's very difficult to get into it if you missed the first few episodes. Also the reason I missed out on 24 and I only got into Lost because my sister-in-law lent me the 1st season box set.
posted
I staunchly defend the dialogue of B5, I've just had the luxury of watching it from the beginning and while there are things like that unibrow gnome that talks through his nose, the many pearls more than make up for it.
Morewhat, I think Sinclair is one of the most underappreciated and venerable space captains ever. Sure, his laughter may sound like he's been smoking Winstons since age 4, but when he gets angry he's awesome.
There are a lot of good monologues in the first two seasons, more than I had ever known before rebooting. One of my favorites is G'Kar's ant-speech. First season has the best theme song.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
Negro, PLEASE. Airbody knows S3's joint is where it's AT.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Nim: I staunchly defend the dialogue of B5, I've just had the luxury of watching it from the beginning and while there are things like that unibrow gnome that talks through his nose, the many pearls more than make up for it.
Morewhat, I think Sinclair is one of the most underappreciated and venerable space captains ever. Sure, his laughter may sound like he's been smoking Winstons since age 4, but when he gets angry he's awesome.
There are a lot of good monologues in the first two seasons, more than I had ever known before rebooting. One of my favorites is G'Kar's ant-speech. First season has the best theme song.
I was caught it the whole 'anti-Sinclair' movement back in the day but having since caught a lot more repeated viewings of season 1 I REALLY REALLY like what Michael O'Hare did - it's a pitty he wasn't around more... then when Sheridan arrives in Season 2 it's REALLY REALLY jarring. He gets OK in season 3 and matures in season 4 - but since I really got into B5 originally around season 3 - I was TOTALLY on the Sheridan bandwagon.
With these new movies - is there definately a no go for Claudia Christian?? It'd be interesting to see a Sinclair based movie - maybe set in Season 1 or when he was the head of the Rangers or even as Valen!!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
The building blocks are already in place for a Valen story, so that would be prefereble. That is if O'Hare can be gotten back. Problem with that is that it can't feature Zathrus as I can't see anyone else carrying off that character.
As for Claudia, I don't think there's been any word either way, definate or otherwise. I'm sure if JMS has a story to tell and if Claudia wants to come back and if it fits into the budget then it'll happen.
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