Slashdot Mirror
Two Sci-Fi Legends Slated To Return To TV
Two submissions hit the bin spreading news about the return of two sci-fi series to the small screen. This first announcement shouldn't be too much of a surprise for many of you. Silicon Avatar says: "Babylon 5 fans need not flounder about hoping to catch a Babylon 5 episode in syndication. The B5 powers that be have been working on a new installment in the ongoing arc. The Legend of the Rangers is a new movie-length episode in the Babylon 5 world. A trailer has been released, and you can find it at here". And this little tidbit from jcrash: "For those of us that remember what a Cylon is, Fox is resurrecting the Battlestar Galactica series. The evil Cylons with their L.E.D. eyes and 'By your command' are back to hunt down the Galactica as it searches for Earth. Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had and all the cool space series of the 70s will be renewed in the 21st century." Good news, indeed! The submissions mentioned no expected time frames for the release of either made-for-TV movie, but the indications are that both are pilots for proposed series. Legend of the Rangers will air on Sci-Fi channel while the new Galactica series will air jointly on Fox and the Sci-Fi channel.
"Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had"
You mean Twicky?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Two shots if :
A ship/fighter/shuttle has gravity without using centrifugal force.
Everyone speaks english in the universe.
A character can change his or her shape -- sleeps in a bucket or not
Three shots if:
Two species from two completely different planets can mate and have kids.
Beware of Sleestak
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
(did this post twice? If so, sorry. Slashcode puked "Invalid form key").
Lichtspruch von TRAV - sofortiger Rücksturz zur Erde, sämtliche Energie plus Schlafende...
:-)
Bügeleisen und Wasserhähne...
(For all non-german: Raumschiff Orion was a german SF-mini series at the end of the sixties iirc - way before startrek. The creators had generated a impressive and unique "technobabble" and, if you watch very closely, you could see that they used facets and flat-irons as intruments on the panels of the spacecrafts... yes those budget-cuts
Like Time Enough For Love? Or any of the following Heinlein books, which painfully attempted to inject Lazarus Long into every other storyline he'd written? Oh, yeah, great Science Fiction there without a hint of "space opera", from one of the widely acknowledged giants.... (sarcasm mode OFF)
There are absolute gems in every format, be it books, magazines, radio, film, TV, games... There's also absolute crap, and every shade in between. If you throw out any format without exception, you're missing out on a lot.
Fox is resurrecting the Battlestar Galactica series.
Great. Are they going to recycle the same 5 clips of ships shooting at eachother every episode like they did in the original series?
I say, let BG rest in peace. Either that, or air the original episodes in the 7 to 8 slot so that kids can enjoy them like I did when I was a kid. Run something new in prime time.
Hey, if they want to bring back a Sci-Fi series from the 70s, let it be the short-lived one where "Adam Quark" was the captain of a garbage ship and everybody took showers together for "number 11". Bill Clinton could star as Adam Quark, and you don't need much imagination to concoct a few good episodes with that. Hmmm... they should air that one 10-11 after you've sent the kids to bed... so I'm still not sure what Fox should stick in prime time.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Hey, Time Enough for Love wasnt a bad book. But it might be the last original thing he did. After thatm he degenerated into trying to tie every single book he ever wrote into one universe (And that started in 'The Number of the Beast'. The last chapter title 'L'envoi' should be excised along with ever novel published after that date)
Asimov also proved that Sci FI authors have some perverse need to link their best works. Did the R Daneel Olivaw/Lije Bailey stories REALLY need to be tied to Foundation? I thought not
As far as gems, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a wonderful bit of pulp sci fi, and is one of the best Sci Fi novels of all time.
That trailer looks pretty lame...
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
"Holloa! Starbuck's astir," said the rigger. "He's a lively chief mate that; good man, and a pious; but all alive now, I must turn to." And so saying he went on deck, and we followed.-- GOING ABOARD, Chapter 21, Moby Dick
The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit: /.'ers since Spring 2001.
Pissing off coffee drinking
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Worthy of mention is the non-BSG project Hatch is trying to get off the ground: The Great War of Magellan--which also stars Jason Carter.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Subtle?
A single, charismatic patriarch leads a ragged caravan across the desolate reaches of space to a holy land spoken of in prophecy. Sound like anyone you know?
Simply: The vast majority of people are morons.
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
Most certainly on a long term basis (i.e. a habitual drunk), but also supposedly with mild intoxication.
Hope I spelled alcohol right....
The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit: /.'ers since Spring 2001.
Pissing off coffee drinking
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Oh yes! There was a short made in 99 with Zienna Merton (Sandra Benes) where she said they were evacuating Alpha, but that the moon would swing past the planet in 25 years, and they might try to reinhabit the base at that point and return to Earth.
So there's a great way to start a new series with new actors.
Have you gotten the first two DVD box sets? It was like being rewound into the 70's and my childhood. I loved it!
And to the other responder, NicK Tate (Alan Carter) was Australian, but this was a British production.
The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit: /.'ers since Spring 2001.
Pissing off coffee drinking
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Zombies: Above and Br-ains!
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
The main reason that fans use "story arc" nearly exclusively is that JMS used it extensively. For those who don't know, the show's creator J. Michael Straczynski kept a very visible presence on the Net, especially in the B5 Usenet newsgroups. Especially early in the show, he engaged in a running give-and-take wherein he seemed genuinely interested in the feedback of the viewers. He also gave us a rare insight into the mechanics of producing a TV show, including the special challenges of a sci-fi show.
JMS used "arc" quite deliberately. To quote the poster,
For B5, in my opinion, this is actually true: The story didn't just progress linearly. Borrowing a line from literary criticism, there was a rising action, a crest, a climax, and a falling action/denoument. Also, characters and situations evolved in multiple directions and multiple manners. G'kar, for example, started as (deliberately) cardboard villian, moved through wary ally to noble warrior and eventually, priest. Londo Mollari, in JMS' phrasing went from "funny light" to "funny dark" to "serious dark" to just plain dark, toward an eventual redemption.These are significant character developments, and most of them seemed quite believable. This, BTW, is what helped B5 rise above "space opera" and into, dare one say it, epic. The themes were grand and sweeping, but the characters were individual and three-dimensional.
Now, that doesn't mean that one should ban all other references besides "arc". But it's a useful piece of jargon for what distinguished B5 from (nearly) all other sci-fi shows, and from the vast majority of TV shows, period. Useful jargon tends to propagate itself.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
But I don't think it has quite sunk in yet just how good JMS is. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population has trouble recognizing quality when they see it, and so if this new series doesn't do well, we may not see another.
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
Also take note (not quite science fiction tv, but...) Knight Rider is coming back with Hasselholf reprising his role as Micheal Knight.
i ly News/TVNotes010618.html
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/Da
ABC news story
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Well, to be honest, I hated the series precisely because it ignored so many laws of physics, military realities and other social constraints. I can't think of one thing that wasn't sidlined in favored of what the writers thought was a good plot.
My two pet peeves? First, why have pilots doing ground missions? The protagonists had officer's rank, yet they had gone though a simple boot camp instead of any sort of academy. If anything, roles in a military group are going to get more specialised, not less. Either have the heroes be pilots or groundpounders, not both!
Another problem was the old cliché: sound and shockwaves in vacuum. The worst example that comes to mind was finding a timebomb on a shuttle and throwing it out of the cargo door at the Last Second. That wasn't in itself so bad, but the "boom" and shaking camera were just too unrealistic. Instead, I would expect a flash followed by the white noise of shrapnel impacting on the hull (or even tearing micropunctures in the vacc suits of the heroes as they stand unprotected in the doorway!).
If you bring back Space, then fix those problems. Take care of the little things, like remembering the effects of thrust in a zero-G vacuum environment, the special stuff that happens on reentry, and whatnot. A good story (which Space did have) needs sound underpinnings to maintain Suspension of Disbelief.
After all, "2001" was suspenseful precicesly because Clarke and Kubrik tried to show just how alien an environment outer space is...
Thank you all for your suggestions :-)
Freedom: "I won't!"
Well obviously you're a troll but I still feel the need to point out that real player is free.
Not space shuttles, they where called Eagles.
... but Martin Landau is looking a little old nowadays. Still, Space1999 was pretty good, as Brit sci-fi goes.
Ummm, yeah the shadow virus is like pkunzipping itself. Do we still use that format so many hundred years in the future?
UghHURG! (lunch and pancreas get vomited up)
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
http://www.eringray.com/Photographs/Bushblk.jpg
Wow! ...better than I remembered. She's probably dog ugly now ...kinda like how Daisy Duke was once hot and when the reunion of Dukes of Hazard came on, she was a total dog.
As a barista emblazoned with a familiar logo!
They reused shots for economic reasons, as all sci-fi shows do from time to time, even B5. I agree that they did this too often in BSG. Each episode of BSG cost over a million bucks. To this day it is still one of the most expensive shows, on a per episode basis, ever aired. They only made 24 episodes despite a large and loyal fanbase.
Bullfrog
All I can say is that this is great news. I have to give mad props to B5 for having a planned story arc BEFORE the series was ever aired - it prevented some of the ludicrous plot holes that sometimes popped up star trek.
Plus, Battlestar Galactica was one of the best shows from the 70's! I wonder if they will all have the same hair, or those golf carts that went TWO miles per hour! Seriously, though - BG was like Voyager done overall WAY better with a smaller budget. Let's hope that happens again
When nuance becomes the only objective we lose the ability to function
So, has /. stooped to (vile ,disgusting) rumormongering? Or are these things actually going to happen?
People please submit URLs when you submit such juicy morsels.
Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
Galactica:
This is actually being done by USA Networks, which owns the Sci-Fi channel. It will air there, and Fox recently cut a deal to carry it simultaneously on their network. It appears it will be mostly new characters at some human colony, but recast versions of some of the BSG crew may show up from time to time.
B5LR:
TNT picked up the fifth season of B5 after the syndicator that carried it went under. However, B5 was a five year series, so it ended after one year on TNT. TNT funded several movies and eventually decided they wanted another series.
Crusade was the first B5 follow-up series. It was cancelled before the first episode aired, because the creator (JMS) refused to throw in lots of space battles and sex that TNT had asked for. They didn't bother to put much promotion behind the few episodes that they'd already bought, and they subsequently stuffed B5 reruns into early A.M. timeslots to get it out of the way.
When TNT's contract was up, B5 reruns jumped to the Sci-Fi channel, where they air in a good time slot. The first couple of runs through the series got better ratings than Sci-Fi's own series, so they picked up the Crusade reruns and ran them as well, getting similarly good results. Sci-Fi execs thought "hrm, there could be money in this".
So Sci-Fi ordered a new pilot. Principal photography recently finished and Sci-Fi reran Dune with an ad pointing to a secret web page with a preview (they did the same for Children of Dune). Sci-Fi is reportedly very happy with the dailys and may order the first season of the series before it even airs. Alternatively, they may wait for ratings.
B5LR is expected to air in December, which has been a good month for Sci-Fi (little of consequence is on the major networks then) with the series to follow next June (which is when Sci-Fi starts the new seasons). If the series goes well, it is believed that they want to pick up new episodes for Crusade for the following season (which would start in June 2003). Not coincidentally, that would syncronize the two series (LR starts before the date at which Crusade started, a few years after B5, and right after the Telephath Crisis).
So what is B5LR? It's a series about the Rangers, as they pick up the pieces after the Shadow War. They visit the various members of the Interstellar Alliance, getting rid of shadowtech, resolving border disputes, etc. There'll presumably be long-term story arcs of the sort JMS is famous for, but he's obviously not telling us what they are yet.
I actually saw a reasonable explanation of that in a SW novel. Seems that there's a collection of black holes called 'Kessel' that makes a region of space impassable.
The quote (roughly) was "The Falcon is so fast it made the Kessel run in under 4 parsecs."
The explanation was that the Falcon was so fast that it could skirt in closer to the cluster of black holes than anyone else, thereby shortening the arc around that sphere of space more than anyone else had.
Sounds like creative backpedalling, but at least it's consistent backpedalling.
Not A Sig
"Story arc" isn't a phrase that was invented for B5. It's a common term used in storytelling of all sorts - television, theater, movies, whatever.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The original was made by the BBC in the 70's, and shown in re-runs when Nickelodeon was just starting. They weren't producing any of their own stuff, yet.
Farscape's coming out on DVD, four discs so far, two episodes each. And unlike what you might expect for tv-based discs, these have notable extra features: ten minute pieces on a character/actor each disc; audio commentary by actors and directors...
And the Sci-fi Channel's web sub-site on Farscape (trivial url) will help fill in some more of the holes.
I'm a fairly recent convert to Farscape myself, so I think you will find it worth the effort.
Mashed potatoes can be your friends!
Hey that Gorgerous sidekick was none other than the beautiful Erin Gray!!! aka Wilma Deering!!!
Just in case anyone wanted to know!!!
Save Pangaea!! Stop Continental Drift!!
S'ok, it was my PC gene going berserk. I meant, "a minority in the USA (as opposed to in Bangladesh or Canada)". We tend to forget that "ethnic minority" is a meaninglessly ethnocentric term if left unqualified. For example, in some places in the USA, caucasian are an ethnic minority at the local level, while at a global scale, anyone except asians are a minority (depending on how widely you define asian, and on whether you think ethnicity is viewer objective, viewer subjective or subject subjective...).
Darn. Even as I take the piss out of Voyager, it infects me with it's PC doubletalk and makes me meander off topic. Will the madness never end? Give me WWF with rayguns!;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
There are so many events mentioned that take place after the end of Bab5 but are never shown-the telepath war, the Drakh war, does Sheridan & Delen's son become the host to a keeper, and so on, that fans are interested in. Maybe another movie or a miniseries would work in these instances.
Was it Campbell who said "Science-fiction is what science-fiction editors publish"?
__
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
What I want to know is HOW they managed to spend so much money and still have everything look so cheesy - especially with all the reused FX. Anyone have any details?
I'd love to have a look at JMS' timeline for the B5 universe. Just to find out why our sun goes nova a million years after the Shadow War.
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie
Or the classic bit of Star Wars fluff, that a single A-Wing crashing into the bridge of the largest battlsship in the imperial fleet could destroy the entire thing.
I watched that for the first time and just laughed quite loudly.
First Wave. Yeah, alien invasion all over again, but the more I watch the show the more I like it.
Message from those of us who were alive when BG first came out: The "movie" did not come before the television series. The movie was a re-edited version of the TV pilot episode. It was a desperate attempt to make some money on a (financial) flop series.
Buck Rogers, on the other hand, came out as a movie first (because they decided it would make more money). It was a TV pilot that was shown as movie first. BG was a TV pilot that came out as a movie after the first series was cancelled. It made enough money that the abysmal Galactica 1980 got the green light.
That is NOT going to happen.
Remember JMS and B5:Crusade?
He absolutely refused to turn his show into a sci-fi sexy shoot-em-up like TNT wanted. He said that he'd rather can the show then turn it into that, and that is exactly what happened. TNT didn't want a brain show, so they stopped funding it.
JMS, in my books, is one credible man who stands for what he believes in. I seriously doubt if this new series will turn into anything other than the amazing quality productions that the original B5 turned out to be.
If God gave us curiosity
Did the R Daneel Olivaw/Lije Bailey stories REALLY need to be tied to Foundation?
I bet it sold a lot of books though. Some fans probably hadn't had a chance to get at the empire series (I know I hadn't).
Ps. I think the most tenuous link was Daneel having priveledged access to Gaia.
If nothing else, it should give some competition to the latest Star Trek spin-off Enterprise, which bows next season
The first time I read that, I thought it said "Enterprise, which blows next season"...
"Really," I thought, "it's a bit early to be that harsh... we haven't even seen Enterprise yet!"
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I much preferred the arse-kicking Delenn to the soppy "Oh John!!" Delenn. The other great arse-kicking Delenn scene was the first time they meet the Drakh. Marvellous.
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
"Information wants to be paid"
The actors name is Richard Hatch btw.
And you can't leave out: Sheridan: "Just when things seem to start getting turned around life decides to kick you in the butt." Delen: "But what?" Sheridan:"What?"
It was because of the scandal that erupted when it was revealed that the show was based on the Book Of Mormon. There was a VERY strong negative reaction at the time. Does anyone know if the new version of the show will continue with the Mormon based theology?
StoneWolf
You forgot to mention the TITS AND ASS !
All I can remember is that the last episode I could stomach watching involved Halloween and Wolfman Jack.
*shudder*
DCMonkey
An anonymous coward already posted this, but didn't provide enough info.
Check out Independence War, by Particle Systems, published by Infogrames. You should be able to find a copy of the deluxe edition for quite a low price. They'll also be releasing Independence War II later this year - check out their web site at http://www.independencewar.com for more details.
-RickHunter
Well, in high school we figured the amount of velocity that a mosquito would have to carry in order to penetrate a VW mini-bus's windshield (wanted a near perpendicular impact). The value we came up with was just over the speed of sound (and assuming the VW was going 50mph). We never found a mosquito motivated enough to actually prove our math...
...but my point is, that, given thier shields were down (which they were...the bridge commander was yelling about it just before the A-Wing parked itself at the conn), and that the A-Wing was grooving along at a handsome rate, its not that impossible to pass through a few layers of glass and steel. The fighter's mass alone probably gave him the intertia neccesary.
My god. I can't believe I just spent five minutes of my life trying to defend a flippin' sci-fi movie.
I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.
http://www.section31.com
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
she is STILL a hottie after all these years.. Will "Faceman" be making a come back in BG ?? good god i hope not, heh heh
********* "Make it idiot proof, and they'll invent a better idiot"
I too have some advice, based on watching the Star Trek franchise.
Let's face it - Battlestar Galactica is cheesy pulp. Let's revel in it! I want to see chisel jawed men punching bug eyed monsters, and seven breasted bimbos in glittery unitards. I want WWF Iiiiin Spaaaaaace! ;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
lucite hardening... ... death ... ever!
must end life in classic Lorne Greene pose from "Battlestar Galactica."
Best
nevertheless, i do remember seeing bg on the scifi channel a few times two summers ago, it appealed to me in the weird sense that i didn't really want to change the channel.
--
steve
steve
C-x i ~/.sig
Yes, that was nice when they remembered to do it, but they weren't consistent.
Actually, there was at least one "flip and fire" in Space: Above and Beyond, when Chiggy Von Richthofen got nailed. Also, they had missiles, slug guns, LIDAR, ECM, even starfighters with guns on turrets. Nice.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I think the best slot and the worst slot for a TV show is following the NFL on Sunday. It's great when the games end on time but it sucks when there is overtime and they end up joining it in progress or skip it all together.
'Same speed C but faster'
I wish they'd bring that back, with or without a miraculous escape from the clutches death for Wang, Vansen, and Damphousse.
It was really less of a Science Fiction genre series and more of a Combat series which happened to have aliens and silicon-based beings. And a great ensemble cast.
Inventor of the LOLbalrog meme.
I don't have an URL for you (sorry), but Crusade really is an option. The timeframes of the two shows are set up to synchronize if Sci-Fi gives the go-ahead, and JMS has stated that this is his intention. If LR turns out to be a ratings disaster, Sci-Fi won't do it, but it's otherwise likely. (Unrelated: JMS has a third series (not B5) in the works for premium cable. He's also in charge of Spider-Man (the comic books, not the movie) and Rising Stars is being made into a movie.)
SPOILERS:
As for what happens on Crusade, JMS leaked some tidbits and make some scripts and short stories available for download. Looks like they find the cure in the second season, but it turns out not to be the neat fix they'd hoped for. Apparently, Dureena's people could be saved in time as well. Gideon gets shot be a sniper before Galen could save him after Gideon tries to tell the Mars government that Earth is using Shadow technology in lots of unspeakable ways (shadow-human hybrids, shadowtech ships, etc). At some point, they turn against Earth and make a run for it.
The technomage books indicate a race called the Taratamude provide the technology for the technomage implants, but the mages don't know how it works and researching it is forbidden. The guy in charge of the research project in Crusade tells Gideon that it's stolen shadowtech, and Galen doesn't deny it.
Turns out Gideon's ship that was destroyed (the one where he was the only survivor and Galen saved him years before) was destroyed by--*drumroll*--a shadowtech hybrid ship.
Gideon teams up with Bester to get certain alien healing technology. His crew helps Bester run and hide from Garibaldi and the war crimes tribunal.
Other spoilers:
Shortly after Ivanova left B5, she was given command of one of the first of the new Warlock-class Earth Alliance ships. Remember that Ivanova is secretly a weak telepath, so she has nightmares and bad feelings of the sort telepaths have around shadowtech. Sheridan comes aboard and recognizes the hidden Shadowtech instantly. In order to prevent nasty things from happening should the shadowtech be externally controlled, they put the second Kosh's ship in a docking bay of the Titans (Ivanova's ship) and it attacks and defeats the shadowtech.
Marcus was frozen by Ivanova. She became the leader of the Rangers later and ordered his body preserved until the could be brought back. They bring him back and he finds out that some neural scanning tech had been used to preserve part of her mind. He takes some of her hair from his uniform and the neural scan, uses it to clone her, refreezes himself until she reaches the proper age and the process is finished. They pull her out of the tank, he finds an empty planet, blows up their ship, and tells her they crashed after the battle in which she was injured. They apparently live out their lives together, happily ever after (never thought I'd use that phrase in a JMS universe).
The old dude was Lorne Greene, a Canadian, probably best known for his role as Ben Cartwright on the 60's NBC western Bonanza.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
"The producers cut of Babylon 5: The legend of the Rangers is now in hand, and goes to the network and studio today. I think it's a really kickass movie, and in terms of general production, performances, and stuff like that, it's probably right there with In The Beggining (not in scale of course, since ItB was just *huge* and sews up the B5 storyline in this big tapestry, they're two vastly different kinds of stories, but in terms of overall quality of production and how well it works)."
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Well said. He gave it far more credibility than it deserved. Replacements then?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Aw Crap!
Bab5 was the only reason I ordered cable and I was gonna cancel it tomorrow but I guess I'll keep it for one more month.
4. An inteligent race is humanoid.
4b. However they look they behave like humans...
--Bob
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
It's just started being rerun 6 nights a week in New Zealand. I'm amazed how well it holds up - most of the series I remember fondly from my childhood (6 Million Dollar Man, Buck Rodgers, et al) look like crap when I rewatch them, but B7 still looks fine. I guess that's what solid scriptwriting and competant actors having fun will do for you.
Galactica 1980. And the final episode "The Return of Starbuck" was actually pretty good. They should keep that one and make the rest of the series a dream (parallels to Dallas be damned!)
That was the brilliant thing about the pilot -- the refugees were tired, hungry, and unwashed. For some reason this went away (along with Cassiopia's status as a prostitute) when the weekly series began.
And why they were so damn inaccurate shots! I swear, every episode it would be like Starbuck, Apollo, Boomer and a couple "Red Shirts" against hundreds of Cylon Raiders! (Jolly and Green Bean were usually held in reserve for when Baltar had 5 base ships under his control and launched all of their squadrons against the Galactica.) Plus, there were three Cylons in those things! WTF?!?
And reuse the same 5 stock "space battle" scenes -- wave after wave of advancing Raiders; Viper shooting at Raider and missing; Viper shooting at Raider and hitting; Cylon hitting Viper wingman (bye-bye "Red Shirt"!); Viper hitting its "reverse" thrusters and coming up behind a Raider -- time after time!
What's the use of the truth if you can't tell a lie sometimes?
What we really need is for the BBC, not Fox to bring back the classic Dr. Who. Now that was a series with imagination, humor, action and it was just all out fun. the BBC is talking about resurrecting it, and even have an audio drama on the net coming soon. I am looking forward to BG and B5:LOTR, I just hope they are done right. With B5, there shouldn't be any problems, BG, we'll have to see.
> every time.
sure, as long as they're te same three . .
> It goes against the laws of physics that Cylon ships always explode
> the same way.
a) why are they exploding, anyway??? [ans: because damage was too expensive a special effect. see "Starman"]
b) sure they can, if your budget won't let you buy another firecracker and model
> If the Cylons have been around for a thousand, hell even a hundred
> years, their targeting software should be BETTER. It took us six years
> or so to go from Doom to UT.
They're running windows.
> In real life there will not be a nearby agricultural settlement when
> the Cylons nuke your aggro ships.
bah. It is well establised that even though it typically takes days to travel between star systems, in any emergency there is always a planet of the needed type previously overlooked by sensors within the five minutes of emergency power available . .
>Deus ex machina is not allowed!
correct. That's Greek mythology, not aztec/toltec/egyptian . . .
> Do not create a military relying solely on aircraft carriers.
I thought that it was just that everything else was destroyed. Hey, if you only have one ship . . . and if a single aircraft can destroy an opponent's carrier singlehandedly (ok, all of its aircraft were gone, but still . .
> If the Cylons knew that their Centurions couldn't aim for crap they
> would have (logically) programmed them to charge the enemy and then
> self-destruct.
They'd still miss . . .
> Why is the sole shielding available to an advanced carrier some
> steel welded to the front of the ship. Cain order electromagnetic
> shields up, why didn't anyone else do this?
Union rules. Trying to wipe out someone's job, are you? You will be contacted late at night.
> Why is the proportion of White to Black so horribly horribly
> unbalanced. Are the Capricans racist?
a) the black continent, err, planet was destroyed?
b) they were all employed by the "Blaxploitation" movies popular at the time.
> Where do the raw materials come from to continually replace
> destroyed Vipers?
spare parts from recycling Voyager's shuttles . . .
> How can an advanced society have absolutely no defense against an
> air raid? Were they using the National Missile Defense System? An
> episode established that the computers were tampered with?
It was a sneak attack at a peace conference. C'mon, if *you'd* been at war
for 1000 years, you'd let all the former bad guys past your systems,
wouldn't you? I'm sure the U.S. let everyone on the Iowa doze as it came into port for the surrender . . .
hawk, just helping out
I hear you, but I don't think it's going to happen. B5, Farscape and Space: Above and Beyond have/had those in various degrees, but none of them get viewing figures close to the dumbed down "particle of the week" tits and ass fest that is Voyager.
While I agree with you in principle, in practice the best we can probably hope for is that they make it dumb but fun. WWF with ray guns.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
With any luck, Sci-Fi will forget everything that happened there, or they could just say they left agents on the planet to speed up our evolution, while they ran away from Earth to keep the Cylons from invading it. Thant might work....on 2nd though, just forget about 1980. Perhaps it would work better as a remake from the beginning, then branch off into all of the new ideas.
You bring up a really excellent point AC.
The (leading question) is:
It is obvious that in 20 years (1979 to 1999) of 'progress', just about anything can be accomplished, so if we didn't have moonbase(s) in 20 years, why not?
I'll give you a hint? What has been the most distracting element in our Y.T.S.A. society in the past 30 years since landing on the moon? What could have stolen the dream of space exploration that was so hot when those guys stepped out in July '69?
The answer is not pretty for certain.
.
Oliver's Law: Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
I would like the Tomorrow People show brought back. I remember they had cool stun guns and could teleport anywhere on earth and I loved it when I was a child.
There was a new version made, about 7 years ago...
I would like the Tomorrow People show brought back. I remember they had cool stun guns and could teleport anywhere on earth and I loved it when I was a child. It was on TV 25 years ago and probably would look pretty cheezy today, but would be nice to see it and relive a bit of my childhood.
Probably the same place they get all their antimatter from... it doesn't grow on trees, you know ;).
What a great comment, to bad it came from an AC so I can't actually give him any credit.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Not only is she an accomplished actress, and damn fine looking, she is happily married and has two children. Beyond that, she could probably easily kick your ass. Erin Grey is a renaissance woman.
Steven
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
It's not at all B5 specific. (In fact, the first Google result is a Star Wars reference, ah, the irony.)
"Story arc" is a writing term; it refers to the structure of the plot, elements like exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. "Story line" just means the series of events. If I tell you about going to the grocery store on a typical day, there's a story line ("First I went to the produce section, then I got some rice...") but no arc; there's no conflict being resolved, no plot.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I remember in particular one episode where Starbuck got into a wild-west gunfight with a Cylon.
This would be the very last episode. Where the show had already been canceled and they decided to do something they wanted to do as an endpoint.
At least part of the death of Galactica 1980 was preasure from Universal to make it "educational"...
That DEFINITELY is the funniest B5 quote - I laughed so hard I hurt myself when I saw that the Furst (get it? :) time.
Worst episode ever!
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
As a raving Farscape fanatic (as raving as we get any way), I have to fervently, er, agree with you. ;)
Farscape isn't original. It's basically Buck Rogers with elements from the A Team or any other "Run away from the bad guys!" show. It's also not actually SF (see the sig), any more than a historical drama is a drama first, and a piece of history second. The plots are sometimes banal, occasionally complete rip offs, and the characters are stereotypes.
However! In the quality of scripting, dialogue, acting and cinematography, Farscape is streets ahead of written-by-committee, aimed-at-the-lowest-common-denominator pulp like Voyager, and still better than the suspiciously similar Andromeda. If only they'd get rid of the damn muppets...If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
God, and I thought today was already annoying...
Thanks for the depressing heads up dude.
---
It's a busy universe. Low budget, but busy. ;)
Also, they were probably building Eagles out of discarded Chinese take out boxes, toenail clippings and sticky tape. Just like Voyager did with photon/quantum/zorbatron torpedoes, remember? Oh, no, wait, we don't remember, because they never explained where they kept finding them. ;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
At least the question about Sheridan & Delen's son was answered in the "Legions of Fire" trilogy of Babylon 5 novels by Peter David (based on an outline by JMS). That story is tied in with the events leading up to Londo and G'Kar's fate (as shown in the "War Without End" 2-parter). The novels are officially part of B5 canon, so if you want to know what happened to David, check out the books!
Not even in retrospect... I knew it was flawed when I was watching it during its first season. My favorites:
-
A nuclear waste dummp blows up and sends the moon out of earth orbit at what must be relativistic velocities. The moon is an intact sphere (not blown to plasma), the people weren't crushed by the acceleration, and miraculously, it was aimed exaclty in the direction of numerous interesting planets and aliens.
-
They are critically short of space shuttles, but manage to lose one per episode. Somehow, next week, n-1 == n again.
Nevertheless, I'd really like to see this series again. Of all of the shows I saw as a kid, it really stood out as one of my favorites.I'm sorry, but they had as good a plot lines as WWF or Monday Nitro...
Amidst this Bab5 love fest, I must point that out. Now I enjoy all of them don't get me wrong. And I can enjoy some intelligence and universality behind the plot formulations that have been used since the beginning of time. But as far as intelligent, no. They are just plucking away at emotions like a one string guitar Appealing not to intelligence but to base emotion. Its what I like about Dragonball Z after all.
~^~~^~^^~~^
That while Voyager was on air, the world needed A Sci-Fi show.
Close - Kessel is a planet where they have spice mines. The rest is right. Which brings something to mind... WHY does every scifi show seem to call any sort of illegal or expensive drug 'spice'? Just an obHerbertRipoff, or what?
Screw this. I want Blake's 7 and I want it now!
You're making the mistake of thinking that the moderators actually know what "redundant" means.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Last year, Bravo ran the old Max Headroom series on Sunday(?) afternoons for a while. It was amazing how well they stood up a decade and a half later. Definitely a show too good for television.
(Now that we've got Flash banner ads, can blipverts be far behind?)
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
But for all you /.ers in Canada you can watch all the episodes for those series weekly and in the B5 case week nights on the Space channel.
Forever live the fighters!
"Story Arc" has nothing whatsoever to do with B5. It's a descriptive term for a central story running continuously in any kind of episodic fiction. Each episode has its own story line, but the arc connects them all. It may not be geometrically correct, but that's what it's called. And yes, this phrase has been overused in general over the last few years, but not just by B5. It's just one of those pieces of jargon that suddenly become widespread. Furthermore, when I get together with my fellow foaming-at-the-mouth Star Wars fanboys, we actually mention the SW story arcs quite a bit.
Now there is a show they could bring back!
I miss all of the single shot interceptors and green liquid breathing aliens!
And who could forget the Thunderbird style models used to simulate real buildings!
Ahhhh! The good old days of TV.
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
In other words, it's almost a crap shoot, technologically, who has the advantage at the particular moment the show begins. Maybe the Colonies had just leapfrogged in jamming tech, whereas the Cylons were left with old systems. That could help explain the ridiculous kill ratios.
Not that I think the series creators had this in mind. It just amuses me to see people assume that technological advances would apply to only one half of the equation...
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
--
Death to Vermin.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
This is really cool I've only seen reruns. But would like to see a remade version of the show.
It is simply not possible, given the budget constraints of TV production, to have a "perfect" show, much less a Sci-Fi one. If you want to take the genre far too seriously like you seem to be doing above, then go right ahead, but don't expect me to sit around and listen to it.
"The Flash" of recent memory was the most expensive per-episode Sci-fi series to date, and it was mighty crappy.
It's sooo easy to bitch about something that was made over 20 years ago!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Thank god they are bringing that show back. Now, that Voyager is gone, the world needs another Sci-Fi show. -blister
-blister
hrrm.
...way to go, Buck!
Why is there only one Monopolies commission?
Why is the proportion of White to Black so horribly horribly unbalanced. Are the Capricans racist?
They're Mormons. I thought everyone knew that.
So you're saying you need a ECM BUSTA BUSTA BUSTA!!!
If you want science fiction, read some books instead. In general I find short fiction to be the most interesting, but your milage may vary.
Mod me down, I don't care. On this particular subject, I'm happy to be a troll.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
Lucas has to make a huge profit on each movie he does. He runs his own independant studio.
And Phantom Menace was only an introduction. Saying it's crap is like watching a third of a play and then complaining about how bad it was.
HOw did they do the Cylon voices in BG? I want to do voices like that. Yes, and I do want to hear a Cylon "HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!?!?"
I gotta go with two. The best is from the Hugo-winning episode Severed Dreams:
"Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, BE SOMEWHERE ELSE!"--Delenn
That and "No boom today. Maybe a boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow" --Ivanova
Cheers, PJ Dougherty
There weren't any links in the story, so does anyone have any that take people to the new info on the Battlestar Galactica TV movie/show (be it fact or rumor, I don't care). Thanks!
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
I would love to hear how Twiki would talk today. Possibly something like this?
"Bee-Dee Bee-Dee Bee-Dee, Bite my shiny metal ass, Buck!"
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
> I dont know.. I could never get around the Ponderosa angle.
LMAO. That was my take on it as well.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Actually I think that he's pretty good at his craft. He did a really good job in "Three Kings".
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
What, are you kidding? Remake intelligent SF shows that had something resembling an actual plot, with real characters? You haven't watched too much TV lately, have you?
KEWL!!!
Does this mean the Cylons will be running the trains in Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport again? The poor robot doodz have been retired since the 1996 Olympics, when the were replaced by "clearer, friendlier and effective voice[s]"
Long live the Imperious Leader!
Here's a link to some information about the new Battlestar Galactica series.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Frontier: Elite II introduced this realistic physics model to an extent, way back when. It sucked, mightily, and not just because the whole game was so long in development the rest of the world had evolved.
No way would that kind of thing be playable without good AI piloting the ship. Try X-Wing Alliance for an example of a not-so-good AI (the gun turrets in the YT1300/YT2000 freighters). Not that XWA claims to use realistic physics (just as well, considering the Nebulon B can flip 180 degrees in ~ 2 seconds. What's it doing, a micro-hyper-jump?)
Remember the episode where there were like, a dozen space midgets that they picked up and they were standing around whats-her-name and chanting 'Off think! Off think! Off think' to use their telekinetic powers to undress her because they were curious about human female physiology?
Remember that one?
It made me have funny feelings that I didn't quite understand at the time. I liked that episode.
point of view these production houses have. Rather than actually use their brains and those huge production budgets to come up with something new and *cool* they'd rather re-release old *Crap*.
Oh yeah, I used to love ALL those shows, but every generation needs something new, something which is the sci-fi hallmark of itself. Heck, Paramount may be making a vague effort in the form of the new "Star Trek: Enterprise", but you'd think that by now those supposed "entertainment genuises" could have come up with something other and more interesting than "Lothario in Space".. geeze!
Must be the same disease that made them re-make "Planet of the Apes" with Wahlberg as the star..
Heaven knows that the only thing worse is that I probably will end up wanting to see it because of cool clips and previews then end up finding out that all the cool scenes were in those clips.
"You're watching FOX ... shame on you!"
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Which is far too much explanation for what was intended to be a silly little linguisitic graffito.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Most of these issues come down to a lack of time and money. The creators of the show wanted another year or so to work on it, but the network wanted it now. Particularly script development. The reason for all the repeat FX shots was that they simply didn't have to time do do unique shots.
Why?
Its tme to look at new science fiction venues,
not resurect the old. Andromeda is probably
the first "Gen-X" in space series, where B-5,
and the 2nd through 4th Star Trek series were
"boomers and yuppies" in space.
---
..........The Legend Of The Rangers could easily turn into a new series. Judging by his comments, it looks like it will happen. The film itself is done, and it's being compared to In The Beginning quality-wise.
Then of course, SciFi is still thinking about bringing Crusade back.
Let's not forget the B5 feature film, which may very well see the light of day (but not for a few years).
It's a good time to be a B5 fan.
It's coming out on DVD in two weeks! That was one cool miniseries.
Wanted: One witty yet thought provoking
Is there anyone else who agrees a movie must be made? Any suggestions for lead actors?
IMO, if done correctly, a BG movie would trump Star Wars.
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
I can deal nicely with Babylon 5 returning, but Galactica? I can only hope that somehow they do a better job this time around than the first time, or it'll die faster than it did at first. I mean, yes, the Cylons were good villain material, but every week? It got old rather fast.
Kez
Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had...
I never thought Twiggy was all that good looking myself...
"He was a wise man who invented beer." -- Plato
...the wacky religious overtones? I recall something about this being due to the funding for the series coming from a Mormon leader or something like that. Anyone care to clarify / correct that?
there was a rising action, a crest, a climax, and a falling action/denoument This probably falls under redundant, but I have to say it anyway: Even without the story arc, it is nice to see some textbook writing in sci-fi. People aren't interested in a last second fix to some fictional space ship fifteen seconds before the credits roll. Fans want to know how the resolution of the story affects the characters. B5 is great about that.
-----
There was lots wrong with SAAB in terms of military realism. But the writing was marvelous. That's why I loved the show. I find the stilted, lame dialog of nearly all SF TV practically intolerable. SAAB, on the other hand, had writing of a poetic elegance and liveliness that you hardly ever see in an SF show, including B5. The characters didn't declaim; they talked. Producers Morgan and Wong wrote some of the best scripts for the X-Files, and they hired some excellent writers to do other scripts, including Marilyn Osborn, who wrote the best dramatic meditation on Christmas I've ever seen on TV, set in the middle of a war. Loved that show!
Hiawatha Bray
Tech Reporter
Boston Globe
Well, you certainly caught the aspect of the show that made it work for me...the story. Producers Morgan and Wong write rings around anybody else in SF TV, when it comes to strong stories and sharp dialog.
Hiawatha Bray
Tech Reporter
Boston Globe
JMS said that "we" supernova it on purpose...something about opening jumppoints next to the surface of the sun and bleeding off material. The idea (I guess) is to reduce the mass of the sun and/or set up some sort of resonant behavior which trips off a supernova. At that point, humans and Minbari have reached "First One" status...or "Second One" status...I guess. That is what JMS said. You can find his comments on midwinter.com for that ep.
My personal guess is that the Rangers are tidying up. I think that they have learned first hand how very bad it is to allow advanced technology (Shadow tech, Vorlon tech, Telepathic ability, all of the crap Crusade was digging up) to fall into the hands of younger races. In Deconstruction, Earth and presumably the Sol system had been abandoned...humanity has "passed beyond the rim"...living in hyperspace or whatever the heck semi-deities do. I think that the Rangers came back to clean up...just to make sure that none of the advanced human tech lies around where younger races can find it. That is the lesson that humans and Minbari learned from the failure of the Shadows and Vorlons: Clean up after yourselves.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see the B5 universe back, but please forgive me a moment:
<Rant>
Yah! let's bring back more old TV series. Oh, and churn out a bunch of series that Gener Rodenbury didn't get around to bringing to television... And then make a bunch of movies based on old TV shows... Yah! This industry is going great guns.
</Rant>
oK. I feel nuch better now that I got that out of my system. You have to wonder though, why havn't we seen any truly new sci-fi in the last 5 years...? It's vary disappointing...
--
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Hey, what about the attractive Dr. Helena Something from Space: 1999? Speaking of which, there's another show I'm surprised they haven't tried to resurrect.
Just so long as they leave Maia or whatever the shapechanging alien lady's name was. Granted, the morphing effects would be much better than showing a close-up of her eye with the reflection of [insert creature here] in it, but morphing aliens have now been done to death especially by Star Trek.
ChodaBoy
ChodaBoy
- The preceding statement is the product of a deranged mind and the sole property of the voices in my head.
The evil Cylons with their L.E.D. eyes and 'By your command'
Or the Princess Cylon version: "As you wish..."
But when will they bring back Manamal and The Greatest American Hero those were to great shows.
Okay, I've got to ask. When and where was it said that Crusade might be coming back? PLEASE add a URL or something, cause I'd hate for this to just be a rumor. I'm still ticked that they canceled it just when the real story arc was about to begin. I mean, yeah, we all know that they're gonna wind up saving Earth in the end, just like we all knew Voyager was gonna get home, but like they said in the Voyager finale, "Maybe it's all about the journey." We wanna see it happen. Or at least, I do. But then again, that's just one geek's opinion.
I know, I know. They supposedly did bring it back by making the Dr. Who "made for t.v. movie". And who made it? ...Fox of course, blah. With a Tom Baker wannabe lookin' guy. The script was god awful. I would hate to see what they do to *smirk* Battle Star Galactica. That show sucked to begin with. BBC... help!
----Quid
----Quid
Less talk, more caffeine
His ideas for a Space: 1999 revival are pretty dubious. I rolled my eyes a couple times while reading that article. They need to come up with better for it to suceed.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
The TV Guide article is here.
The place I got these links as well as the repository of all B5 info is here.
My thing is I don't try to nitpick anything fiction because it's fiction gosh darn it! :) It doesn't HAVE to be correct in physics with me, it just has to be entertaining! I DO expect when they say one thing, to not turn around and negate it the next episode (this was done CONSTANTLY in Star Trek). Also, the Cylons being as bad shooters as they were is probably because it takes real people to do it better. Machines can't do everything better then us especially since we humans act in unpredictable way sometimes. The best thing about Battlestar Galactica was the unique universe they created. The Vipers were just plain cool looking, and the Cylons were too. The shuttles were kind of dorky looking, and the Battlestars, well, they were good looking, but I'd have to agree that the attacks it was dealt never looked serious enough to create the damage they had. I don't complain much about BG because I remember TV show effects SUCKED then. As long as what they bring out looks a whole lot better then the original (but with some Homage payed in looks....kind of like they way they brought trek back), they story lines aren't contrived, and the leave the freaking power ranger like team thing out of it (Team Knight Rider anyone....BLECH!) it will do well. TV is really without any good sci-fi stuff (unless you count the X-filish type of sci-fi which there's plenty o dat crap on sci-fi) now. Voyager bit the big one and I ain't holding my breath for Enterprise to do better. One word to UPN....get the show on at the SAME time everyweek on every affiliate. Make that a requirement! That's the main problem (other then show suckage) that had with Voyager..I never could keep track of when the dratted thing was on (no I don't own a Tivo yet and I don't want one until I can get one with AT LEAST 100 Gigs!). I just hope with all of this Sci-Fi stuff coming out this fall that we FINALLY get something worth watching (b5 was just too freaking confusing for me....I hate serial shows because I don't have time to watch the thing every freaking week). Good luck to Enterprise, the new BG and others including the return of Michael Knight (just promise me David Hasselhoff won't sing and I will watch the show...oh and make KITT BLACK BLACK BLACK!! :))
Gorkman
Does anyone else here wish that they would start thinking up cool new space series instead of resuscitating old ones (which will inevitably be not quite as cool as you remember)? I mean, I'll go see Star Trek XVIII or whatever they're up to now, but at the same time I wish that there were new series in the pipeline that were as cool as Trek used to be.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
I would love to see the Starlost remade - as it was originally conceived.
From http://www.snowcrest.net/fox/star.html
"The Starlost premiered on television loosely based on a concept created by Harlan Ellison.
Meticulously and lovingly devised by Ellison and brought to perfection by Scientific Advisor Ben Bova, the series promised to be a monumental step for SF television.
Ellison had contracted great SF writers such as A.E. Van Vogt, Frank Herbert, Joanna Russ, Thomas M. Disch, Alexei Panshin, Phillip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin to write storylines that would be scripted by the best Canadian writers available.
Douglas Trumbull would be Executive Producer and create the special effects via the Magicam system.
It looked good. It sounded good. It fell apart."
Can you imagine what it would have been like if they'd pulled it off!
B5 was great drama while it lasted, but ended for a reason. They ran out of ideas.
As for Galactica, a sorrier slurry of TV pablum was never served up. Except maybe for Buck Rogers or Lost in Space. Let's hope no advanced civilization ever tunes in on that garbage or they'll murder us in our sleep, to paraphrase Zappa.
Back to coding...
(A physics model I *ache for* in a space sim, by the way)
Freedom: "I won't!"
You know...I'm really sick of hearing that phrase in conjunction with Babylon 5. It's never a "planned 5-year story" or "fully preconceived" or any other such term, no...always a "story arc." Like a story *line* just won't cut it, nope, two dimensions are better than one. And how is it that this is exclusive, B5-specific jargon? You'll never hear mention of the Star Wars story arc, for instance.
Try it some time...mention the Babylon 5 "story line" (rather than arc) to a foaming-at-the-mouth B5 fanboy and watch as they actually correct you. It's fun!
While they're at it, show some serious cylon poontang. Not so rough - I'm denting!
Just call him Great Maker. :)
I remember from interviews a few years back that JMS had a detailed history written 1000 years both forward and backward from the B5 time. He had an outline sketch for 1,000,000 years either direction. This leaves room to put several large story arcs in.
There is no denying that Crusade was slaughtered. TNT stepped in and baught B5 when the previous producer was ready to pull the plug. They only wanted it for the syndication/repeat capability. It's good to see SciFi with now. This at least gives us a chance to see some decent new material.
World Beach List, my latest project.
I think the answer is yes.
It seems everyone here is lamenting the tendency to bring studd back from the dead, as it were. Frankly, if it's done right, I don't think it's a problem. Look at Star Trek. Everyone (except some TNG diehards) agrees that Wrath of Khan was the best feature ever made, even though it came some thirteen years after the series was cancelled. The feature films continued the original story and introduced to a whole new generation of fans.
I started watching Battlestar Galactica and other old series on the Sci-Fi Channel back in the mid-90's. All of these old "discarded" series have been extremely popular. Yes, they were corny, yes the f/x were cheesy, but they were fun! The danger here is that good ol' FOX will screw with it. Battlestar Galactica 90210 or some crap like that.
All I'm saying is, don't immediately knock it just because it's old or is being dredged up. I'm a history major (19th Century Europe), and I have to say that the old stuff is often a lot better (and yes, I know that it's mostly false nostalgia).
No statement is true, not even this one.
ROTFL.
:)
omg, thanks!
i remembered that voice again, after so many years!
gorgeous sidekick = Co. Wilma Deering = Erin Grey
drool...
Or, do you mean Twiki who was acted by Felix SIlla, but had the voice characterizations done by Mel Blanc?
______
______
Once: you're a philosopher. Twice: a pervert.
Same thing happened with B5. I couldn't watch it when it first started, and the few episodes I tried to watch didn't make sense. It wasn't until TNT started from the beginning that I had the chance to really understand. It is one of my very favorite show, now.
Perhaps, if Sci-Fi were to start from the beginning, or something, I might give it another chance. It does look good.
(Hear me out before you mod me down)
I was a big fan of BG back in the day. Then they started showing the reruns. Faux-wife and I sat down to watch it for old time nostalgia. It was the classic episode with the cross-shaped glowing white space ship that they show in the opening credits. Let me tell you something. It Sucked. It sucked more than anything I had seen in a long time. Faux-wife was deeply saddened to see a show she loved growing up as one of the worst pieces of TV sci-fi to ever be rebroadcast. The plot was sickly. The characters where two dimensional in the extreme. I was under the impression that I would be privilege to the benefit of watching it older and wiser. I would see new things I had missed before.
Some how I got just as much out the episode this time as I did when I saw it nearly 2 decades ago.
It is my hope that the new version of BG is not a special effects enhanced version of the old. Fox, if you are listening, please do us a favor: create a show that will have some value after 20 years. I think things like _good_ plots and characters with character, not 2D stereo types, might be a good start.
Ascii artist &
Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had ...
Ah, yes, Erin Gray.
I would drink her bath water.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
What is this B5 title I have never heard of: B5: To Live and Die in Starlight. Is Hyperion Bay related to B5? Probably not...
Edith Keeler Must Die
(A dildo-shaped robot.)
I wish they would stop treating Babylon 5 like it were Star Trek, in just the area where it was different. The really great thing about Babylon 5 was that it wasn't bitty and independent, it had a contained, thought-through, and predecided story-arc. This made for compulsive viewing, where you wanted to see just what happened next, rather than tuning in simply for a diversion for 45 minutes (which is a noble aim, don't get me wrong!). I really hope they don't go the Star Trek route, where it is acceptable to fob fans off with unrelated random episodes, and claim they're part of B5 just because they have the same characters / ideas in. More B5 would be great, but that means actual B5, not just B5-universe spin-offs...
The classic, I think, is Vir's answer to Morden's "What do you want?":
--
#/usr/bin/perl
require 6.0;
sed 's/In Soviet Russia/In NSA America/g' < yakov-smirnoff-jokes.txt
Buck Roger's gorgeous sidekick's name was Erin Gray. Don't ask me why I remember that. As an 8-year-old I had a crush on both her and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman).
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
Does anyone remember The Starlost? God forbid someone should come up with a plan to remake it. It looked like it was filmed on someone's Handcam. I remember one episode where some mad scientist was gonna unleash these giant trained bees to help him take over the ship. The special effect used to make these bees giant was to display some beehive footage on a large projection TV and pretend they were looking into the hive thru a window. That pretty much sums up the quality of the special effects on that show.
While I am at it, here is a link for Erin Grey's "Filmography": http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gray,+Erin. No picture of her there, but all it takes is a quick trip to google to pull up hundreds...
______
______
Once: you're a philosopher. Twice: a pervert.
.. Then let's at least bring back something halfway good. Bring back Space 1999, bring back (pauses for thought) (grind grind no other files found), uhhh, bring back Space 1999. (I'm speaking primarily of shows shown on US commercial networks, else I'd ask for the good Doctor back.)
Now, if we are willing to expand into the 80's, then (damn I wish I could do a <font> here) BRING BACK MAX!
(I could have been very sick and asked for Slavage 1 back, given how life imitates art, but I won't...)
www.eFax.com are spammers
The two hour telefilm is titled Babylon 5: To Live and Die in Starlight . The new series it is the pilot for is titled Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers .
Edith Keeler Must Die
Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had and all the cool space series of the 70s will be renewed in the 21st century.
What about Space1999? And whatever that show where they went "I said LUNCH not LAUNCH?
Oh right. You said COOL shows. I guess that rules out the Animated Star Trek, too. Oh well.
if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
Here is the link to the Usenet post by jms announcing the new series and its pilot movie.
</Karma whoring>
It was posted on March 20 of this year. Must be a slow day in the submission queue, I guess.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Ach ja, das waren noch Zeiten!
Farscape gets my vote for best Sci-fi on TV right now. Though the last episode I saw seemed to be rushing through the plot instead of squeezing the chracters in a really evil ethical dilemma. I hope the writing doesn't deteriorate as they get more successful.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
A few suggestions for the producers:
Miko O'Sullivan
Miko O'Sullivan
Another one: LONDO: It's like being nibbled to death by.. - Vir, what are those Earth creatures called, waddle, big bill, go quack?
VIR: (thinks) Cats.
LONDO: It's like being nibbled to death by cats.
Half Life - the TV series.
Where you follow the wacky Gordon Freeman and his happy-go-lucky Barney sidekicks on a no-holds-barred fight to escape the depths of the secret Black Mesa government research facililty and the clutches of the mysterious 'Administrator'.
Frequent travel to alien worlds and the unravelling of the evil plot to rule the world by harnessing an alien army... It would kick ass!
There were no chicks in the game, except for those big-titted black-op assasins, but surely the TV show could work some sexy scientists into the script.
Well, i think it'd be cool anyway.
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
BG and B5 though cute and clever, repsectiviely, don't hold a candle to Space: 1999 which is /so/ close to reality (in some ways) to be frightening.
:>
/rich/ and the Cyber Museum is a beauty .
I only know that I used to think "weird, they always have those communicators, imagine us having communicators?", back in the olden dayez.
And now everyone (at least here in YTSA) has the communicator!
So the question is, when will our communicators have video too? 2002, 2003, 2004? Anyone into placing bets? I'll setup a pool.cgi if there is _any_ response
Long live Space: 1999!
Google Category is
Oliver's Law: Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Damn straight, sir!
Especially when the story's universe has such a strong background and back story.
This is not like Star Trek: Generation 15, this is exploring the story of the Rangers. Their history was barely touched in B5 and Crusade, yet they have a 1000 year history. And they are truely badass!
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
No, no, by far the best Londo/G'Kar moment was stuck in the elevator.
Can anybody hear me? (I do!)
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
How dare you run a story about sci-fi legends without mentioning William "Iron Chef" Shatner. I don't think you understand the severity of what I'm talking about here.
Think about it:
Captain Kirk,
TAKING A BITE OUT OF A PEPPER!
You may be seated now.
For more information, click here.
Hoorah!
This is a self-referential sig
Check out Crusade for Crusade for nearly daily updates on new B5 movies/series/good stuff.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
But for all you /.ers in Canada you can watch all the episodes for those series weekly and in the B5 case week nights on the Space channel.
To my great chagrin, I ran across this tidbit on Space's website. Space will apparently stop running B5 on July 31. The license simply ran out. It may be some time before B5 comes back.
This thread is a good, informative read for you fellow Canuck B5 fans out there. If anyone in the Toronto area wants to get together to watch either the final ep on July 31, or the 5-episode farewell marathon on August 6, contact me and we'll try to arrange something. Might not be a bad call; if the final ep of TNG got the friggin' SkyDome, the final ep of B5 on Space can at least get someone's living room:)
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Yes, the idea of a force striking out to restore order isn't brand spanking new, but then, rarely are many stories out there, regardless of the media they're portrayed through.
It's somewhat ironic that a forum which is closely tied with the promotion of one of the advantages of open source software being the removal of the need to reinvent the wheel and build on the work of others, also being extremely hostile towards a series which seeks to do the same.
Basing a new series within the same universe as a previous one can be a very good thing, as much of the back story is already out there for the viewer in the know. And the Babylon 5 series has been well known for giving us the endings away early on, yet making the voyage to that ending all the more interesting. I do not doubt that we'll see the same attributes with the new story line.
Just because it's based in the same story universe does not automagically mean trash, just as "new" story backgrounds do not guarentee worthwhile work. Most stories, whether they're on television, movies or books are evolutionary, not revolutionary.
"...and all the cool space series of the 70s will be renewed in the 21st century."
True enough, we've got Dr. Who returning, new B5 and Battlestar Galactica, but this doesn't quite cover all of the bases.
I for one would like to see Space 1999 again. Hell, I don't even need new episodes; I'd just like to see it in syndication again. This was one of the first shows that gave us a cast that showed that not all astronatus are Buck Rogers or Captain Kirk, and that not everything gets fixed at the end of an episode. It, like B5, sets up a multi-year story arc, much like a good set of novels will spell out a long storyline.
The science was, in retrospect, a bit flawed. However, being based on the moon, it did give us astronomy club geeks a tangible object to look at and remind us daily of why we want to ride in space and get off of this rock.
Memes don't exist. Tell your friends.
As for Battlestar Galactica . . . oh, please! This show stunk to high heaven. Bad science, old cliches, cardboard characters, endlessly recycled special effect sequences . . . ugh.
The only reason it's being considered for revival is nostalgia of folks who were undemanding kids in the late 70s. Even with new special effects and the looser standards of the Aughts, it won't be the same, kiddies! You're grown-ups now. You should want, and deserve, something better.
There are so many possibilities in SF . . . why dredge up this stinkbomb? Babylon 5 proved we can do better. I'm sure we can do better still.
Stefan
It's hard for me to imagine Battlestar Galactica without the late Lorne Greene. In my opinion, his controlled acting and powerful stage presence elevated the show far beyond what the scripts and characters deserved: I suspect he will be greatly missed in the new series.
Okay, so this week we take two of the great 70's space series and bring them back, well technically one. But okay, so we bring back Battlestar Galactica, possibly by popular demand. But in reality for those little lovely statistics we call RATINGS! Yes Ratings is what Fox is looking for and possibly a re-newed Battlestar Galatica holds the key to gaining those ratings that they honestly don't need. Star Trek is really the only 70's space series that made it with huge succes back into modern day with TNG. and I've watched the idea get beaten to death by Voyager ( duh George I wonder why it got canceled) (Shut Up Lennie!#@) But the new idea for a prequel seems okay, kind of cliche` but Im interested in seeing it. Babylon 5, I have not heard about it for years now, I know its on, but if its such a good show why aren't I hearing this everyday through the normal channels of anoying advertisements ? Babylon 5's new idea isn't going to give it life, we're gunna beat the idea untill its dead and thats whats gunna happen, same with Battlestar Galactica they just got a late start about beating the dog excretment out of that idea. My Friends, You Can Bring A Horse To Water, But You Can't Make It Drink.
"He Who Laughs Last, Is Just A Hand In The Bush" - Ozzy Osbourne
...What I want is some Blake's 7 action. That show was great.
--Gfunk
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
..."Legend of the POWER RANGERS"!!!
;-)
Today's disgusting, worthless trash TV is tomorrow's disgusting, worthless nostalgia TV.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
It is not plausible that three Vipers take off at the same time every time.
It goes against the laws of physics that Cylon ships always explode the same way.
The above also applies to Colonial Vipers.
If the Cylons have been around for a thousand, hell even a hundred years, their targeting software should be BETTER. It took us six years or so to go from Doom to UT.
In real life there will not be a nearby agricultural settlement when the Cylons nuke your aggro ships.
It is not permissible to use the above storyline twice.
Deus ex machina is not allowed!
Please read above in case you missed it.
Do not create a military relying solely on aircraft carriers.
Do not make these carriers so weak that a couple of laser blasts to the bridge causes them to explode in three entirely separate places.
Microns, Centons, and Sectons are not interchangeable.
If the Cylons knew that their Centurions couldn't aim for crap they would have (logically) programmed them to charge the enemy and then self-destruct.
Laser turrets and missile turrets are not interchangeable.
Why is the sole shielding available to an advanced carrier some steel welded to the front of the ship. Cain order electromagnetic shields up, why didn't anyone else do this?
Why do so many freighters look like the Gemini freighter?
Didn't that aggro ship get killed twice?
Where do the raw materials come from to continually replace destroyed Vipers?
Why is the proportion of White to Black so horribly horribly unbalanced. Are the Capricans racist?
Any particular reason that fighters armed with lasers have "hundred-megon" loads?
How can an advanced society have absolutely no defense against an air raid? Were they using the National Missile Defense System? An episode established that the computers were tampered with? Are there no sysadmins? Stupid NT/IIS handed Caprica to the Cylons then?
Ugh, end rant.No statement is true, not even this one.
Wasn't that Erin Gray?
She STILL looks good!
The revolution will NOT be televised.
People give mixed reviews to Farscape... but I love it. I catch it on the scifi channel... Impressive effects if you ask me and I love the aliens
Lando: "I hate my life"
:)
G'Kar: "So Do I"
God I can't wait for more Babylon 5 it was the best Sci-Fi Series Ever..bar none.
Blakes Seven is on six nights a week here on one of the smaller stations. And Buck Rogers is on every Saturday night.
He did make a polite 'no comment' when someone asked him about this very subject when I saw him at Marcon a couple of years back.
Vermifax
Vermifax
Logout
Anybody else remember this godawful show? The BG characters had to pretend to integrate with normal 20th-century humans while really fighting off the Cylon invasion of Earth. I remember in particular one episode where Starbuck got into a wild-west gunfight with a Cylon. Even at the time (I was ten), I remember thinking it was a ripoff of a Trek episode (which, as I realized later, was a ripoff of various other shows of the time). But what I really want to know is: If they found Earth back in 1980, why the hell did they leave it 20 years later? No, wait, don't answer that....
Go Lance Armstrong!
On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
Most drinking games are show spacific. How about a general Sci-Fi one?
,i.e. "early 21st century"
Take a shot anytime:
1. The captin dose something that might break a sweat.
2. An explostion in space can be heard.
3. Another dimention opens up.
4. An inteligent race is humanoid.
5. An inteligent race does us a favor by looking humanoid.
6. There is a referance to the time you live in
7. There is an airodynamic space ship. What a drag.
Ascii artist &
And see also:
Space1999.org
Space1999.net
For "Battlestar Galactica" check out:
BattlestarGalactica.com
BattlestarPegasus.com
Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue.
Twiki didn't speak english but something along the lines of beedeebeedeebeedee. Later on in the series he developed the ability to talk. Mel Blanc gave twiki his voice. Twiki's girlfriend was Tina and her 'sound' was boodeeboodeeboodee.
Vermifax
Vermifax
Logout
Actually, JMS has commented that they'd save earth in the 2nd or 3rd season (of a 5 year arc) and that the whole arc was about much much more. The save Earth plot was just an introduction to give them something to do to get out there and discover the rest of the plot.
I hope they just pretend those horrible horrible Battlestar Galactica shows from the 80's where they made it to earth are just forgotten. Gawd those motorcycles, how embarassing. Unfortunately, that was the only Galactica show my fiance has ever seen so now it's a hard sell. Ugh.
Show me an effect without cause and then I'll believe in chaos.
While I was impressed with the vision and scope of the B5 series, I'm revolted by the notion of sending $20 to a right wingnut group whose anti-open source work couldn't be more blatant. I refuse to view anything presented by "real" networks. "That's Big-Boot-Ay" -- John
Feel free to mod me down, but what the fuck! Where the hell did anyone mention Crusade for Crusade before (at a +1 setting, at least!)!!!
Now I understand wh mods are so derided here- I read through the post, saw nothing about a source I know of, and I get modded down for being REDUNDENT!!! Where the hell was this mentioned before? Sorry, I'm not going to browse at -32 to find any possible mention of some website. Hey Taco & Hemos, you should start placing more emphasis on positive mods rather than bullshit negative mods. I want the asshole who modded me down (not that he can, but get a friend to do it, fuck-nut asshole) to show me where the fuck I was redundent!
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Makes perfect sense to me. More sense than the ST* series' still using light-years for measuring distance in a Federation made up of a multitude of species, planets, et cetra, all of which would have their own different "year". Even "kiloseconds" or "megaseconds" would have made more sense, though it would have deprived Spock and Data of the fun of dividing by 60, 3600, 86400, and whateverthehell a solar year is in seconds when answering questions irritatingly precisely.
Don't get me started on Star Wars' Hans Solo using "parsecs" as a measure of time.