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Jeremiah, a New Series from B5 Creator, Debuts Sunday
wka writes "This Usenet post, by J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5 ), outlines his new TV series Jeremiah . Based on a graphic novel series, it's a show 'about beginnings' after a killer virus has wiped out most of Earth's population, and it premieres on premium-cable channel Showtime Sunday night (regular airings to follow on Fridays). We can hope that the executives who interfered with Stargate SG-1 don't mess up this show."
Another serious setback for Linux is the lack of a journalling file system.
Yes yes I know it's a troll, but could you at least be a little more accurate?
--toq
Sounds like a similar premise to the excellent 70's BBC sci-fi "Survivors."
:)
Kind of a depressing theme, tho.
..there have been any number of killer virus stories on TV and none of them have been any good. Lets hope Strazynscki (sp?) doesn't end up falling from his divine pedestal like when Gerry Anderson did Space Precinct.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I don't know, there have been so many of these 'after the war/virus/plague/meteor/cmdr Taco/etc' stories that they're kind of boring. how about something different? B5 was good because it was a different story then TV has done before.
...when it was called "The Stand!"
cause designer babies won't get killer viruses...
;-)
Doesn't this seem surprisingly similiar to the B5 movie A Call to Arms and the series Crusade? I'd've thought JMS would be just a bit imaginative in thinking of new series.
I was pretty stoked reading the description so I flipped on over to the show's site.
Oh my word! Any excitement/interest I had died the moment I say Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner on the poster.
I predict the show will be short lived for very good reasons. No one wants to see Ricky Schroder on NYPD Blue, No one wants to see Doogie Howser all grown up-- and no one will want to see these 2 take a stab at being 'grown up'
.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Oh yeah, that's reliable ;)
(And this damn Slow Down page has come up four times and every damn time I have to retype this.)
Why do you never see any Sci-fi shows about what the near future could really be like (sure a virus COULD wipe out humanity)? Something based on the book snowcrash would be pretty cool.
Carpe meam simiam!
I was a faithful watcher of B5 and even the short-lived spin-off, and Legend of the Rangers.
What was the point of Legend of the Rangers? was it a pilot for an aborted series? Anyway, I will *not* be watching this new series, even though it sounds fairly interesting, and in the past you have delighted me with your story arcs and special effects, and colorful characters.
The reason is the network that's picking this up. I'm not going to subscribe to a general movie channel to watch a sci fi series. This show should be on the Scifi channel. Not Showtime. The best of luck to this latest endeavour. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I'd love to see an animated series based off of the 100 Bullets comic books
I guess it would have the same target audiance as Spawn.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
The show looks good, and if I had free time and got Showtime I might actually watch it. I think I'll just download it in a few months.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
The main guy (Jeremiah) is played by Luke Perry.... sorry, that kinda puts the series waaaaayyyyyy down there to begin with.
"And the Ground, Sown with Salt"...a very intense episode guest starring Jason Priestley
Your pain is only beginning.
'after a killer virus has wiped out most of Earth's population'
How about 'after a killer virus has wiped out all of the Earth's computers that run Windows'.
--> Starting weeknights on MSNBC
Checking out the few photos on the site, I noticed the Richard Deen Anderson-ish poses of Luke Perry, like in this photo that looks more like some SG1 episode... ;-)
coffee | nose > keyboard ©
I wonder if there will be characters that go back in time to try to get information about the virus, so they know how to stop it in the future, and get back on top, in charge of the planet. Terry Gilliam would be so proud.
I'm sorry sandwich! --Brak
But it *bugged* me. And it was beyond just the (extremely) crappy dialog, wooden acting and contrived plot happenings -- hell, if it were just that I wouldn't have liked TNG, either.
There was just something about the plot and characters that bothered the hell out of me, especially after JMS started writing all of the episodes. It got so bad that I would occassionally watch, but relied on episode guide websites to keep up with the happenings with the story arc.
Man, B5 bothered me. Yes, I'm aware that I sound a little on the neurotic side.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
yikes
I really liked it Babylon 5 but 'wipes it viruses for are the batch of the world' had been made to the death. Granted, Showtime starts pretty good Sci-Fi generally, but I do not know good all the sample with Luke Perry I can be.
I've read a book like this by some famous scifi author, (and that too recently), but cant remember which book it was.
The cool thing about that book is that only the kids survive, and they become savages. Lots of fucking and shit going on and canniblism. A few older folk surive (though which queery illnesses like Giantisim).
The guys on the space stations survice (Though during the war below they tried to destroy them). The book takes a look at 8 years of such destruction and how the guys above (adults) have been able to find anti-matter and make a drive that would take them to a new planet, and how the kids below are back to cave age, and how some of them try to destroy the space station and so on.
Anyone know what the name of this book is? I just read it one day when I was sick so have no idea who wrote it, though it's someone famous. And it was a good read. From what I hear from this series, it seems to be based on this book?!
Hey, there is some Heinlein kind of stuff in that book.
The main reason to pick a story about postapocalyptic humanity is that the sets are cheap and the costumes are rags. The downside is that no matter what your angle, a story based on the demise of billions of people is depressing.
e r.lkl/index.html]
William shatner says hes doesn't understand Star Trek's success. [http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/02/22/shatn
Well why should he? Is just an actor. But Gene Roddenberry knew.
Star trek has a very forward view of the future, one where there is hope and success. Based on humanity "working it out", not being "wiped out".
If you want to make a hit, do a show that is connected to the present, that shows the fruits of out labors and dreams, not the failure of them.
..that Captain Gideon and the crew of the Excalibur were unsuccessful in finding the cure for the Drakh plague.
Hrm, you don't normally suspect Showtime to be airing a sci-fi series. Guess they're trying to get lucky and pull off what HBO did with The Sopranos. Also, "jeremiah" is an awfully odd name for someone nowadays (i didnt see anywhere it said it was based in the past), doesn't seem very catchy either.
...is looking overrated.
B5 had me waaaaay wrapped up until the end of the shadow war. *THAT* so pissed me off with its ridiculous anticlimax ending I couldn't watch the end of the series.
Then there was Crusade...*flinch*
Then there was Legend of the Rangers...and, umm, bleh. Talk about introducing continuity errors!
Now. Luke Perry? ummmm...
Like I said...looking like the Brain Eater got him.
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
We can hope that the executives who interfered with Stargate SG-1 don't mess up this show.
Don't hold your breath buddy.
Everybody knows that we are the evil boys, making noise with deadly toys.
They have had radio ad's on one of the clear channel owned radio station for about 2 days now. Luke Perry says something to the effect of "I never thought I would make it this far dad..." or some sappy pesudo poetic junk that is supposed to peak our intrest. Needless to say the DJ's are making constant fun of it.
Vote early. Vote often. Vote CowboyNeal.
So don't you dare moderate me as redundant. No one makes the connection, and I'm not sure if it's there. But is this a Babylon 5 sequel? Nothing about the time period, or technology (except gasoline use, does that count?) rules it out. And we already know that much of earth would be devastated before the shadow virus was contained/fixed/cured.
Then again, am I getting this confused with the period when the rangers were working covertly to rebuild earth?
Please let there be a B5 sequel that doesn't suck. Please. Bringing back G'kar for a crappy pilot where you try to invent bad guys badder than the shadows just stinks.
Oh, whee. Showtime. I think that requires digital cable around here. Like I need to deal with set-top boxes..
Big B5 fan, Big H. Ellison(sp?) fan and so I took note of the credit to Ellison at the end of the B5 episodes. Ellison is a heavyweight writer compared to most of the TV fluff regurgitators. Yes, you can hurl fluff, it comes out soggy but dries quickly. It comes from the dust bunnies most TV writers inhaled when hidding/retreving their pron collections from under their beds. I always whimsically attributed the best of what was B5 to Ellison.
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
It's based on the belgian comic "Jeremiah" by Hermann. It's a pretty decent comic imho, but apparently Hermann didn't have a lot of control over the TV adaption... It'll probably be a while before I get to see it here in Belgium anyways... He also published a great comic about the war in Yugoslavia : Sarajevo Tango More info here (in french), here and here (dutch).
as I understand it this isn't all JMS own work. Jeremiah is based on Platinum Studios' graphic novel series by Belgian author Hermann Huppen.
http://www.comics2film.com/JeremiahArch.shtml
JMS: Lois Bujold called - whe wants her Vor back...
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
I enjoyed B5, despite the hoops you had to jump through to see it all in the UK.
I always thought JMS would do a good job with the Reality Dysfunction trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, if it was ever televised.
The books are pure space opera, with a bit of moral and social theme. But the universe and characters are just great. Giving the whole thing a Strazinsky (sp?) twist would work nicely.
Anyone else care to give there take on this?
Alex
could you imagine a beowulf cluster of those stargates off of SG-1? according to einstein's theory, you could travel back in time if you had multiple ones...
off-topic, sue me.
Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
It better be damn good. I'm talking so good that chicks will dig me more ;)
I love good science fiction, but face it. The acting and writing in the Babylon 5 series was bad. It was painful to watch - some of the most overused and obvious cliches passing for dialog.
And now what? A killer virus? Post-apocalyptic visions of the world with leather-clad heroes? Give me a break. That's just a lack of imagination.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Answer: The writers. It's all about the writers. It's always all about the writers. It's about the writers remembering one simple thing: the people sitting around the campfire asking the bard or shaman, "Tell us a story. Tell us a story about noble kings and fearsome battles and tender loves. Tell us a story about ourselves, our secret fears, our greatest hopes. Tell us a story.
I'm not an SF fanboy, but I do love good SF. There's so little of it about. JMS loves good SF too, and it shows in his storytelling. JMS also loves history, Scripture, legend, fable, and humanity. Humanity most of all. He once said
I am sitting eagerly by the fireside, awaiting any tale JMS wants to tell. Because when he's good, which is usually, he's one of the finest storytellers of our age.
A virus wipes out most everyone, giving us a chance to start fresh. What to get rid of?
RIAA and ICANN. Can certainly do without them!
Any other (light-hearted) suggestions?
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I hate to keep repeating Aristotle's line about there being only so many ideas.
The idea of a plague is in many films and shows, like in "12 Monkeys", in which the survivors live in a hermetically sealed underground world and go back in time to figure out how it started. In an episode of "The Outer Limits", a time protection organization goes back to prevent a plague, only to discover that they were in fact its source.
I'll be frank, I have ideas that are WAY to the 49th weird, out there. However, until we have some way to get past the funks we're in, folks are going to recycle the same ol' ideas in newer and hopefully more interesting and more realistic forms.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
Showtime is showing the first episode three times. With DirecTV I get both east and west coast showtimes, so a total of six showings.
All six are conflicted. Coincidence, or a purposeful attempt to make me go buy a dualduner PVR?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
Yeah, there were a lot of embarrassing moments in it, and quite a bit of trite dialog.
What was great about it was the it so devoutly tried to be good. There's so much crap on TV these days, that I just have to give JMS credit for sticking to his guns and telling a story.
Even if it was a bit of a cheesy space opera when all is said and done.
I guess what I'm waiting to hear is whether this series also is going to try to be good. I'm skeptical that the Showtime management will allow that.
But then I was skeptical when it was announced that Bruce Boxleitner was going to be the new lead on B5 too.
That's really just as scary as Luke Perry being in this one...
I've been watching a steady shift over the last several years from SciFi that had previously been kinda fun and thoughtful... to thinly veiled mastabation fodder for pimply faced boys, who have a small interest in science and a major interest in hot babes in tight rubber suits.
Some twenty-something executive at MGM, who retired as a teen-something executive at MTV, decides what "SG-1" needs is to off the geek and replace him with hot bods to make the pubescent crowd stay tuned. The last season of "Earth, Final Conflict" has been so nasty it makes peoples brains bleed. The last couple seasons of "Voyager" had degenerated into some kind of soap opera that just happened by chance, to be located somewhere in the galaxy other than Earth. What do all these things have in common? The same push to shift SciFi into some kind of primtime porn-light... all that's missing is the Ka-Chunka-Chunka music... Think about it... silly plots, no cohesive threads, flat acting, and lots of sexual titillation. Of course since it's aimed at young'ens, you got to keep the titillation to just pokes and peeks (you don't want the religious folks chasing you with torches and pitchforks), but the innuendo still lives.
I am so sick and tired of people doing stupid shit by rote, like there is some kind of magic in the act, without thought or consideration to impact or consequence. Screw with a good show to kick up the pimple demographic and oops there goes the adult and women viewers! Oh, so sorry! Take the brains out of a show, destroy the entire freaking premise, and make it about some foxy chick battling scantily clad sexy aliens. Scuse me while I puke...
The worst is a whole spate of new shows (most of which were thankfully stillborn), that didn't even bother to suck the brain out of a decent show, but just started off as a sexy SciFi/Fantasy babe doing whatever... They're not even waiting till they've suckered in a crowd of viewers now, they're just going straight after the pimply demographic.
I'll watch the first few episodes, beause I like to give folks an even break. However, I expect the producers of this show to give me something worth staying for. Something clever, thought provoking, a whole lot more than the tripe that is currently aimed at socially challenged pubescent geeks in dire need of a suitable sexual targets upon which to fixate. Dressing Penthouse Pets up in aluminum catsuits with flashing lights is not my idea of good SciFi...
Then again, who knows this may be just someone else's cup... all ya need is a little KY and some Oxy-Five?
If you watched OZ, you would know that Perry did a pretty good imitation of a grown up. When he gets a good writer, which JMS is, Perry will do just fine. Warner now, I have my doubts.
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
More information about the characters and story line can be found there. The original is in French, and the fish doesn't translate pictures yet, but you can find an example of the artwork on the site.
-- Did you try Tao3D? http://tao3d.sourceforge.net
I was never a big fan of B5 so I could care less that this new show is by the same guy.
So what do we have in the new show to sell it.
Well we have the creator of B5
We have Luke Parry
Post-apocalyptic.
Basicaly nothing
So what makes me this mad, that a show can be put on the air just becasue it has a name attached to it. Now I know this happena alot but come on the only reason any one will watch is the because of the name attached to it.
I still have to watch more then one episode of enterprise because I feel the same way about that as I do about this.
Any time I state how bad B5 was I always here how it was pushing the edge with CG ships and what not. Well B5 Blow goats went it came to space ships.I have seen better stuff done in poser or bryce.
Dr. Suess: 'Gandalf, Gandalf! Take the ring! I am too small to carry this thing!' 'I can not, will not hold the One.
Because argh! It feels like that sometimes...
Hmmm,
a plague wiping out all adults leaving the kids to fend for themselves?
Woah!
That's straight off The Tribe.
But hey, at least it can't be worse, right?
Ooops,
hold that thought!
Luke Perry? Jason Priestly?
---- I've fallen, and I can't get up.
I still hold out a little hope for Enterprise, because I personally think the story idea about the first days of deep-space exploration is a good one, it does seem to be succumbing to the hormone craze you mention, in a way that even Voyager didn't (at least not initially). I hope they do more with their semi-coherant story arc of the "temporal cold war" in Enterprise, and it would be nice if they entered the Vulcan Symmetrists movement (Vulcan eco-terrorists trying to protect the "galactic ecology") that's taken up in William Shatner's Ashes of Eden trilogy. I don't know if this is an "official" part of the ST universe (but then, if Shatner writes it, it pretty much could be considered official.
Another show that has fallen to low heights is the current season of Andromeda. Although there I think there is a continuing arc, as I've read it's based on a "lost script" of Rodenberry's, as EFC was. About EFC, dammit, when is Street going to crack the last level of the riddle and we can be rid of the damn thing!
Oh, yes, here come the Star Trek trolls, who complain about Babylon 5's lack of character development (*rofl* - Watch any ST series), corny dialogue ("..nail your head to a table and set it on fire." seems better than, "Waah, prime directive, waah." to me..).. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
There's something that the Star Trek trolls should have figured out by now.
Star Trek is a space opera.
JMS creates science fiction.
From the description, I was hoping it was based on the "Eden," a manga currently running in Afternoon.
I don't care how good this show ends up being, that would have been better.
B5 was crusing fine until Season 4
Since then we had
- Angstmaster-2000 telepathic poets in space actually called Byron (start of B5 Season 5)
- Crusade, with special effects *worse* then then those available in computer games at the time. Oh and Technomages. Shudder. One of those shows not so much cancelled as dragged out the back and put out of our misery.
- The Legends of the Rangers Tae-Bo Weapons System, and a moral creed lifted straight out of "Galaxy Quest" (NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER SURRENDER!)
Give him a strict budget, some different writers and a pre-planned polished storyline, and he's fine.
Let him run free, and it's a disaster. I call it FrankHerbertitis (Frank Herbert + John Campbell [ed] = Dune. Frank Herbert on his own = Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune...)
On the bright side, at least we have Gene Roddenenbury back, in $pirit if not in flesh...
I was never able to resolve why I hated/loved B5 so much. I think I fell in love with the plot and the "universe" -- that is, the technology (there's something about slow, bulky ships launching those zippy little fighters), the telepaths and general environment of the show. The idea that nothing changes really was interesting against the utopian view of ST-TNG.
The thing that really brought the show down for me were:
Falling in love with an alien
Having that alien have REALLY stupid looking hair
Having horrible women actors who aren't convincing. Especially when they talk about technology.
The acting
The acting
The acting
Bruce Boxtleiner(sp?) is a great actor who can do many roles. A couple other good ones like g'kar and the doctor... others are good too. But sometimes it's just so contrived I either have to grimace or flip the channel. Otherwise it's "yes, I know what you're trying to say but man, that delivery sucked ass"
and secretly replaced by the Borg-resurrected clone of Gene Roddenberry (William Shatner expained this in his famous book cleverly disguised as fiction where he had the Borg resurrect Kirk) Needless to say, there is no danger of "the suits" ruining this series. It will be pronounced DOA.
Lets see:
ST:TOS had an episode involving a killer virus that killed everyone when they hit puberty. Things were looking pretty grim for the survivors until the Enterprise showed up.
Jeremiah: A killer virus wipes out everyone who has gone through puberty. In the premiere episode, we find out that the killer virus may return. (After killing off all the adults, the virus nipped on down to the pub for a quick pint, was delayed brefly by a Vogon contruction crew, but as now returned to hit on all the newly nubile sorts - Hey wait maybe this is just an "edgier" remake of Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius). It seems obvious that midway through the season Jeremiah will discover clues pointing to a secret hiding place of adult survivors in some form of suspended animation. So his original quest to "relocate" Valhalla will be replaced with his new "Search For (Dr) Spock", or perhaps it will be to find the mysterious "Jay Tee Kur Ok". We will eventually discover that the surviving adults are sleeping out the Apocalypse in orbit aboard the original space shuttle (the one that never flew under power - the one that only did glide tests - the one that was named "Enterprise". But someone forgot to wind their alarm clock so they are oversleeping...
One note about the cast
series is set LESS THAN TEN YEARS after the virus did its thing. Now humanity is being led by thirtysomething actors playing at most 23 year old characters. Call me an old fuddy duddy, but why not hire real 20-somethings? They could also have a few former female gymnasts as they would have deliberately delayed the onset of puberty through their strict training regimens, but that would be the only real possibility for using older cast members.
I'd heard a rumor that JMS might be involved in a series adaption of David Weber's Honor Harrington books. I'd have much rather seen that. Oh well, maybe Weber can get someone decent to do it as an anime series or as all CGI animation...
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Bring that one to life again instead of giving us more bad Sci-fi !!
You should already have a Dual-tuner PVR... The Hughes DirecTivo units are given away for free with a number of promotional deals, and cost around $100.00 even in commercial outlets.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Seriously, do we need another dreadfully boring Saturday afternoon Sci-Fi show?
It stars the unwatchable Luke Perry. Of course, I managed to love the first season of Babylon 5 despite the unwatchable Michael O'Hare... so I will give this one a go. Hey, I just upgraded my DirecTiVo to 225 hours, I got room for the entire B5 series and all the B5 movies (will SciFi run it once more so I can do this?) and still have plenty of room left over for Jeremiah, so why not?
/. Google groups... is that a first? By the way, how much do you think I could get on eBay for a TiVo filled with every B5 episode? (j/k :)
I notice we've managed to
Edith Keeler Must Die
Volkswagen is making T.V. shows now?
:)
Oh, wait. Nevermind...
Hmm...I initially read that as "New Series from BS creator".
Am I a hipster-doofus?
...you gotta watch.
:)
Hmmm...but then, maybe we have him to blame for all the tittilation about which an earlier post complained.
gm
Ad luna, Alicia! Ad luna!
It has no ressemblence whatsoever with the original graphic novel, which was a romantic, 1970's tasteful neo-celtic style story. This version is a shitty amrican-like mass-product, with the usual mandatory nigers and "hispanic" actors. And on top of all, the style is now much closer to "Battlefield Earth" than the real "Jeremiah". Shit on it.
"I still hold out a little hope for Enterprise, because I personally think the story idea about the first days of deep-space exploration is a good one, it does seem to be succumbing to the hormone craze you mention, in a way that even Voyager didn't (at least not initially)."
:)
First off, we should remember that scantily-clad women have been a staple of Star Trek since the beginning.
However, I'm personally holding out even more hope for Enterprise because I think they might be trying for a coherent series in the same vein of B5. There are what, 8 or 9 episodes out there right now? And we're already seeing quite a few references to previous episodes and some genuine character development. I have the feeling that it will at least be more coherent than DS9 was.
"I hope they do more with their semi-coherant story arc of the "temporal cold war" in Enterprise"
I can see that as something that will start to simmer a little more in the future, but Not Right Now. Still working on character development as well as pouring some more gasoline on the Vulcan/Andurian thing.
"and it would be nice if they entered the Vulcan Symmetrists movement"
Symmetrists, shymmetrists. Where's the Human-Romulan War? We need at least SOME ass-whipping in this show, and if we can't bitch-slap the Klingons (damn that was fun...) we should at least be allowed to vent our anti-pointy-ear agressions on those green-blooded SOB's.
"as I've read it's based on a "lost script" of Rodenberry's"
I'm not sure it was even on a script. But it was really a very basic idea at the very least.
I just wish networks would stop touting all these new sereii from a guy that's been dead for a while now. The longer he's been dead, the less of the new series will actually have been his idea, until we reach some new series (already done with Andromeda?) that's based on some joke Gene told in a bar forty years ago...
If so, on which channel?
HAHAHAHAHAH U SO GAY
If you've been keeping up with JMS's history with series, he doesn't take it up the ass just to ruin the story. He's been fighting the good fight to make sure his series doesn't get vamped up for bigger breasts and more action. If he doesn't like what the producers do, he says no (and it likely gets canned, like Crusade did).
As JMS has said, he's not going the TNT route again, and will never do a show unless he has complete control, which is why he's on Showtime. (Me wonders about why Showtime is screwing over SG-1, though.)
Zodiac Survey
No, what Shatner writes is not Canon. The only Canon is the shows and the movies, and not even all of the shows; the animated series is basically ignored.
(Computer graphics will have come of age when a Horta crewmember is shown in a Star Trek series as a normal, every-episode crew member.)
What I find sad is that the authors have no understanding of Vulcans, which are (or perhaps "were") as finely developed as the Klingons were in TNG. As I understand it, the Vulcans are basically the brain child of D.C. Fontana (I think the first name is Dorothy), who created wonderful back history for the species. For instance, one part that came out in the original series: Why are Vulcans so logical? Because they are extremely emotional, and tend to kill each other in their 'natural' state.
Perhaps at least that tidbit came out on tonight's episode; I couldn't bring myself to watch it. Apparently, neither could my TiVo; it recorded a re-run of Junkyard Wars, which was probably better anyhow.
If you ever see the book "Spock's World", by Fontana, pick it up. You'll be impressed by the true story of Vulcan. You'll wish you saw more of them. My greatest hope for Enterprise is that they'll eventually get around to exploring Vulcan, in a way that the original series could oly dream of... but what are the odds? The most nuanced charecterization I've seen of the Vulcan's so far on Enterprise is that they're jackasses.
Woo, there's some deep charecterization!
I'm losing interest fast; such damned shallow writing when there is such potential being *handed* to the writers on a silver platter is painful to watch.
He acquitted himself reasonably well in the last season of Oz. I'll give him a chance in this.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
("The mountains labored, and gave birth to a ridiculous mouse." From Q. Horatius Flaccus.)
That line just about sums up my opinion of "Babylon 5". After years of ceremonious buildup, and plenty of self-promotion from JMS on various online forums, after the mountains labored, they gave birth to a rather mean little story about how mankind is grown up now, and doesn't need the guidance of the wicked, bad, nasty, manipulative Shadows and Vorlons. Ugh. Let's not talk about Season Five, or all of the spinoffs from a show which, as an early episode reminded us, wasn't supposed to be just another "deep space franchise".
Add to this the fact that JMS's ear for dialogue, especially comic dialogue, was often terrible (I cringe at the thought of Bruce Boxleitner saying "Abso-fraggin-lutely"), and suddenly "Jeremiah" doesn't look like anything to get worked up about.
For those not familiar with Babylon 5 (your life is incomplete, by the way) it is a five year saga that takes place in space. I would say what it is about, but there are a large number of extremely complex and well written plots and sub plots, and even some very interesting (and logically plausible) explanations for what people here in the real world call religious experiences, such as seeing angels. The series is not theistic, per se, it is in many ways transcendant above such notions in that it ties many interesting alien and domestic religions in a very unique way, without really making them a central part of the series.
I very rarely watch any television...Actually, I never watch television, but this series is one that I swear by. It is a glorious masterpiece that, while it does have some flaws, is in my opinion the single best piece of science fiction every written for television or movie screen. (It isn't quite up there with the greatest SciFi books of all time, but it can hold its own)
The one big, important thing to remember:
Babylon 5 is a *SAGA*. If you start watching in the middle of a season, or even start watching during any episode but the first, you will have NFI what is going on. That is normal. If you turned to page 162 of the first book in the excellent "Foundation" series, you would similarly have no idea what is going on. Many people fault B5 for this, but I consider it one of its greatest strengths.
Star Trek, for example, has episodes which are very shallowly connected, in fact, they are very rarely connected at all. (I do like Star Trek quite a bit, though). Babylon 5 is like one ling movie, split into chunks over five years.
If you have even the slightest spectral of love for good science fiction or a good story, Babylon 5 is a series that you must watch. It is required viewing just like Tolkein, Asimov, and Heinlein is required reading.
If you are a step further, if you are a adamant fan of science fiction, your life is not complete until you see at least seasons 1-4 of this saga.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I have read this book, and once you get past the really boring and tedious first half or so, you do get some interesting Vulcan history.
However, it was written by Diane Duane, rather then D.C. Fontana (who wrote some of the best Trek episodes.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Last year while in Europe i saw a similar series being shown...except they involved 13-17 year olds as actors (plot has been the same) and there were more than 40 episodes...Does anyone know the title?
Live for the present, learn from the past, and dream of the future!
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but it seems like JMS is far more suited to comic books than television. I don't mean that as any sort of a put down. I LOVE JMS's comic books, from Rising Stars to Spider-Man to the old Star Trek comic he wrote. But much of the dialogue that works so well on the page seems to come off as corny, off-putting, or downright foolish when spoken by actors. (Sadly, I believe the same may be true of another favorite author of mine, Peter David.) Without actors like Peter Jurasik and the great Andreas Katsulas (who can spit out with reasonable dignity whatever garbage he's given), how much of the dialogue on B5 couldn't have been pulled off successfully. Much of it wasn't (i.e., "Abso-fraggin-lutely", "Butt butt butt...", "General Hague is coming, and HELL is coming with him", etc.). Again, don't get me wrong, I loved to watch Babylon 5 and see the story unfold. JMS is a master plotter. But his dialogue is frequently more suited to the printed page. Still don't believe me? Why do so many B5 fans detest Season 5, the movies, Crusade, and now LOTR? We don't see any of the epic plots really unfolding, excepting the excellent last half-dozen B5s. I'll probably watch Jeremiah when it comes to syndication. But my hopes aren't particularly high.
There's nothing you have that they can't take away: Absolute zero, Gentle Jack, bottom line.
Jaremiah is a comic book series from -probably- the best living Belgian comic book artist. It caused a lot of scepsis here in Belgium when we learned that Kurdy, Jeremiah's sidekick, would be black in the TV series, which he isn't in the comic book. Just to finetune the product to the USA market. Pffffff...
Tom
ps another Belgian comic book of which the persons and the setting was made into a TV series is Largo Winch. In this case the actors Largo and Simon look remarkably like their comic book heroes.
Is there an implication that women are not adults? The term for people who are not yet women is "girls". Perhaps you should meet some.
A fifty hour version of Stephen Kings "The Stand"
The tv series is based on an excellent comic by
Hermann.
The site of his publisher has some outtakes from the comic strip:
album 20
album 21
--Ives
...that JMS still has his grudge against SFX magazine. How petty does that look?
"Information wants to be paid"
I'm a big fan of the comic this is based on: http://www.hermannhuppen.com/intro_english.php3
It's a really really good comic, I really hope the series will be equally good. But i Doubt it.
The adaptation of another comic-series i love, Largo winch, was TERRIBLE
The CG effects were bad too, but that's for another comment.
- Derci
________________________
Ani meod ohev burekasim!
-- The ballad of arrivederci
Anyways, I was showing her the Net & demonstrating Google by looking for Jeremiah-related stuff; we found a preview announcement of the film. She read the synopsis / setup for the film & says this is (a) changed a lot, and (b) based on the first half of the first issue. So, original comic book much better than p8in-off TV show / movie... film at 11.
Anyone have news on the long-awaited Watchmen film? I'm just re-reading it, I always forget how excellent it is. Alan Moore knows the score...
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
He had complete creative control and chose Luke Perry as the lead?
The possibility of a virus or other pathogen doing something severe to the world's population is a very serious threat, simply because history tends to repeat itself. The last really big death toll we had was in the 'Spanish flu' epidemic of 1918, which killed something in the region of 80 million people over a couple of years. And the larger the world's population gets, the greater the risk. Here are a few of the potential contenders:
Influenza: It could happen again, simply because the vast majority of the influenza family have yet to cross over to humans from their pig/avian/other hosts and when a new disease does cross (called a 'zoonosis') it can be extremely lethal, like the Hong Kong 'chicken flu' of 1997 which had a high fatality rate but was fortunately nipped in the bud due to its inability to cross from one human host to another.
Ebola: Currently a small killer, but a very efficient one. Too efficient, in fact - most people killed by it die within 8 days. All it needs is a slight alteration to its life-cycle involving a longer latency phase and it could be a world beater.
Smallpox: The possibility of a new outbreak from some unknown source clearly exists. There is also next to no remaining resistance, and it could travel all over the world extremely rapidly with a high fataility rate (just look at what happened when Europeans took it to the Americas). Vaccine stocks do exist in some Western nations, but only enough to cover a small, hermetically sealed population. In the event of a pandemic, more would have to be manufactured and fast, but it would still only save a fraction of the victims. Smallpox also leaves many survivors crippled, creating a burden for the rest.
HIV: In the unlikely event of this developing a better transmission system, this could be even more disastrous than it has already been and is set to become. But as it stands it's already bad enough.
I could go on, but I'm starting to depress myself. I don't like to predict the future, but I do think we should try to do something to acknowledge these threats and stave them off. (Despite the slightly sick theory of one of my friends that the only way we could ever attain a utopian society would be if some event happened to indiscriminately wipe out the vast majority of the world's population).
Let's hope it doesn't happen soon.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
So JMS is "utterly incapable" of forgiveness, eh? What a terrible burden it must be for him, to carry all that resentment around with him. (Certainly this explains why he didn't take criticism of his show too well.)
An incomparably finer storyteller in a different age once wrote some words which JMS should take to heart, they start like this: "The quality of mercy is not strained..."
(Oh, and one more thing: "one of the finest storytellers of our age"? Your judgment is abandoning you, Bill. Just because he's an atheist doesn't make him a good writer. And anybody who could write "Thirdspace" isn't that fine a storyteller.)
Officer: "Sorry, chief, I didn't mean to kill him..."
Chief: "You shot him in a vital organ!"
Officer: "How was I supposed to know his brain was in his armpit?"
Space Precinct was a fun show. A lot of people don't know it, but of the people I've met, most of those liked it.
Actually, JMS said that there were two reasons he decided to do this new show:
1) Complete creative control
2) Big budget. He could make "his idea" of the show a reality.
That's it. JMS already _had_ his SG-1/Andromeda with "Crusade". He is not going to have another tussle with the suits like with TNT.
Older and wiser is the key.
Unfortunately, Showtime is only available in digital on my cable system, so the analog Luddite cheapskate that I am, I'll wait until it hits syndication and/or video.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
After all, they managed to mess up Largo Winch as well. As a Belgian, I've been reading Largo and Jeremiah since the first albums came out, and they (and a lot of other Belgian 'comics' - though I find that word demeaning of the genre in this case) are truly excellent stories.
:)
When Largo aired overhere, at first I didn't even have a clue that it actually had anything to do with the books - the few previews I'd seen didn't seem to have any relation to them
When I finally caught on, I tried to watch, but it was such junk compared to the books that I didn't last 5 minutes.
Now they're airing Jeremiah. Just hearing the news made me go 'hmmmm', and now that I've seen the website, I'm not even going to watch the first episode - Luke bloody Perry as Jeremiah ? Goddess, you might just as well try to pass off Hulk Hogan as a ballerina ! I'm not even going to comment on Kurdy...
The best advice I can give my non-Belgian fellow geeks is this : Get your hands on the original series of the books - learn Dutch or French if you have to, and read those. You'll be reading and re-reading them time and again, and you won't even think of the TV series.
Just like Manga is a genre in and of itself, that cannot be duplicated by others (presumably due to the totally different culture/mindset), so are Belgian (and French) 'comics' an artform that is very hard to duplicate.
Just as the name 'Manga' stems from the original japanese word for the art, I would suggest using something other that 'comics' to indicate this very specific genre, something derived of the dutch name 'strip' or the french 'Bande dessinee'. Both mean something like 'band of drawings', and stem from the original format these appeared in in the papers, as a band of several frames from the story - not unlike today's webcomics, but part of a larger story, not standalone skits.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Being as my name is Jeremiah I thought I was getting personalized articles here on /. Way to scare the coffee out of my this morning.
I can tell you this much, if it directs attention from the "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" song I'm vexed with I'll watch every day.
OK, it's been a couple years now and I'm fuzzy on the details. But Crusade sucked because the TV executives wanted more action, less thinking. JMS was against this, he wanted to tell his typical stories. But the Powers That Be wanted gunfights. And it showed, big time. You could tell what was JMS, and what was some clueless executive, as you watched the show.
I suspect details are at The Lurkers Guide
And FWIW, I'm one who wishes it were on a regular network also. I don't get Showtime, and won't be subscribing just for 1 show. So I guess I'm either stuck with the edited version on regular TV in a year (like Outer Limits), or I can rent the DVDs a year after the fact (Sopranos, Sex and the City).
snotnose
"...so I would write of priests and monks and Minbari..."
BTW, something that fits in with the religious examples used in his comments, the word Minbari comes from minbar, the pulpit in a mosque.
Seems much like the New Zealand series "The Tribe" there a plague wipes out all the parents, the kids in it act very well and it has run 4 series now on Channel 5 in the UK.c hannel5.co.uk/milkshake/the_tribe/spla sh.php
http://213.86.54.16/tribeworld/
http://www.
For instance, one part that came out in the original series: Why are Vulcans so logical? Because they are extremely emotional, and tend to kill each other in their 'natural' state.
Perhaps at least that tidbit came out on tonight's episode;
It did--despite having enjoyed the show up until this point, I was mentally cringing after the previews for this episode. The story hinted at by the previews had little relation to the story that actually occured.
The outcome of the story was that there is a reason for T'Pol (and by extension, Vulcans) to be as they are; that if you think the veiled arrogance they've been getting from the Vulcans is bad, what is possible could be worse. Perhaps some Vulcans (as possibly protrayed in the substory of the engineer with the dying father) can integrate their logic and emotions, but the point of the story was that it doesn't seem desirable/attainable for most other Vulcans (the male that ended up abusing T'Pol and tossing Archer across the room.) The risk of such exploration of emotion is very high, and the question is whether it is too high. The answer I believe the episode gave was a tentative yes.
And we saw more of the dark side of Vulcans--perhaps the results of the barely under control Vulcan xenophobia hinted at in the original series, and more directly addressed in the novel Spock's World. The bizarre rumours about human behaviors which are detailed and enforced by Vulcan scientists, the way that these rumours have found a place in Vulcan society. They were dealt with in a light-hearted manner, by a character intelligent enough and curious enough to grasp that the stories might be a load of bullshit, but despite using discussion of these rumours to add some humour to the episode, what they point to is disturbing. Logic does not equal common sense. Vulcan logic does not prevent the development of stereotypes, nor the utterly illogical beliefs based upon them.
Hey all, . .
I'm a fan of this series from New Zeland called "the Tribe" and I was just wanting to let you know about it. I read your review of the showtime series Jeremiah and wanted to tell you that this plot seems like a rehash of the series the tribe. If you want more info about this series you can go to the website www.tribeworld.com
Also there are many fans of the series here in the US and one website devoted to the tribe is
www.tribereddragon.com
It is a great series and I wanted to inform the rest of the world about it.
Amit
Aka Newtype on the Tribe Red Dragon BB.
Sounds like the movie 12 Monkeys to me. It does sound interesting though. Now I have to call and see how much Showtime is going to add to my Cable Bill!
and I just watched it, and it roxked.