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.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
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
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.
"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.
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
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.
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.
IGN has coverage at http://scifi.ign.com/tv/7058.html
The TV Guide article is here.
The place I got these links as well as the repository of all B5 info is here.
(A physics model I *ache for* in a space sim, by the way)
Freedom: "I won't!"
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...
if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
Note that though the new show guys are making noises about how they're going to be faithful to the original, and feature some of the original characters, they still haven't cast any of the original actors yet . . .
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
A few suggestions for the producers:
Miko O'Sullivan
Miko O'Sullivan
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.
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.
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.