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Babylon 5 Movie Starts Filming in April
An anonymous reader writes "According to comingsoon.net, the first theatrical Babylon 5 movie, "The Memory of the Shadows" starts filming in April. The story was written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski."
woot
best...sci-fi...series...ever
Steven Beck will direct a big screen adaptation of the popular sci-fi TV series Babylon 5. The movie, titled The Memory of Shadows, is intended for theatrical release and was written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski. Production Weekly reports that the project starts filming this April in the UK.
In "Shadows," the technology of the ancient and extinct Shadow race is being unleashed upon the galaxy by an unknown force, and Earthforce intelligence officer Diane Baker, whose brother was recently killed in a mysterious explosion, it out to find out who is behind the intergalactic conspiracy.
Joining her is Galen, a techno-mage who has been charged with keeping the technology out of the hands of those who would abuse it.
From the article:
Joining her is Galen, a techno-mage who has been charged with keeping the technology out of the hands of those who would abuse it.
I don't recall, but isn't he the guy from Crusade? I only saw two episodes but that name sounds familiar.
While I was a devoted watcher of the Babylon 5 series from the first episode, even when my local syndicate started showing it at 1:30 am Sunday Morning, I've been disappointed in every one of the B5 Movies. In fact, I think each movie was progressively worse than the next.
Have things changed? I don't know. I certainly hope so, but B5 Fan that I am, I'm still probably going to wait until the dollar theatres for this one.
Unless the previews look absolutely fan-freaking-tastic, of course. Then I'll probably get suckered in, like always. *raises a fist at the sky and shakes it* I swore after Legend of the Rangers, never again. Damn you!
This now concludes our broadcast day.
Oddly, the first post to this slashdot story
was submitted 1000 years ago.
I'm not sure I'm going to want to see it when it comes out. Not because I don't like B5, but I don't get what's going on. I've tried several times to get into B5, but I keep finding myself not understanding what was going on. If I watch an episode in the middle of season 3, I don't get half the references to things that have happened already, so I don't understand what's being done in that episode. I have tried to watch it from the beginning when Sci-fi loops around and starts showing it from season 1 episode 1, but my schedule isn't such that I can set aside that same bit of time every day to watch it, so I invariably end up missing episodes. Being a poor student, I can't afford a TIVO, and I'm not going to buy a VCR just for this (and I'd probably forget to set it sooner or later anyway). Thus I'm continually left out of a series I really want to get into. So when this movie comes out, if I haven't seen B5 through, I don't know if I'd want to go to see this movie if I don't think I'd be able to get what they're talking about in the movie.
I was never into B5. It was cool and all, but the plots were so interwoven it never grabed me. (Maybe if I saw it from day one things would be diffrent) Aneway, will I need to do any serous catchup before this movie makes sence. BTW, the SCI-FI Icon is a guy from the original Star Trek. w00t! Sory, trekey moment has passed.
We are the Borg...
Crusade did have a Galen, played by british actor Peter Woodward, son of the other british actor Edward (affectionately known as edwoodwoodwoodwood). Same guy? Most probably although crusade was pretty much on a par with the dire made-for-tv movies.
Well, this is news that is long awaited. It looks like this may be a follow-on to the Crusade spin-off series since it is dealing with leftover Shadow technology. Plus Galen, being present in Crusade, draws a link between those two. There have been rumors that Lando might show up in it...and where he goes G'Kar goes too. JMS also made some comments a while back about having to rewrite the script some after Richard Biggs died (Dr. Franklin) so clearly it looks like some B5 crew from the original show might show up beyond the ambassadors.
Can't wait to hear more news.
*Waiting for JMS to release some info directly still
Most. Underrated. Series. Ever.
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
Not quite.
Clearly the best Sci Fi series ever is: Firefly :)
Seriously, if you haven't seen Firefly, rent all 4 disks from Netflix or something, you won't be disappointed. My favorite episode is the last on the disks: Objects In Space. All 9 main characters are interesting, complex, believable, and bounce off each in a manner consistent with their personalities. The action is great, plots are fairly unpredictable, and the writing is packed full of sharp humor.
For alternate opinions, check out the reviews of the Firefly DVD's on Amazon: 1200 reviews, average rating: 5 stars
B5 I'd say would be close behind on the rating scale overall... Mostly I think for it's ambition, and intricate tapestry of dramatic plotlines.
wag more
bark less
This spring my boss at the Jet Propulsion Lab invited J. Michael Straczynski out for a tour of the place... I was very lucky to spend an afternoon with him and his wife (shameless pic!). I somehow managed to stave off most of the B5 references that came to me as we were showing him around (but alas I still came off as the fanboy I am).
I asked him what he thought about the upcoming movie project, whether he thought it would be good or not. He replied, "It's going to be shit." After a moment I caught the sarcasm and I realized that he would not be doing this movie if he didn't have a great story to tell.
Judging from the stories he has already told, I think it's going to be well worth the wait.
Cheers,
Justin Wick
For a minute I read that as "BabylonX" Movie starts filming...
;).
No such luck
Tim Choate (Zathras) also died recently in a motorcycle accident. :-( link
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
While you're waiting for the movie, check out the fan-created flight sim, complete with a detailed story, realistic physics, and great ship models:
http://ifh.firstones.com/
Enjoy!
Unfortunately, both B5 and Farscape suffer from the same problem: they start out bad but turn awesome later (In B5's case, REALLY bad). Firefly is great from beginning to regrettably short end, but they perhaps overdo the western theme a little and it puts some people off.
Here's my DeCSS mirror, where's yours?
In the beginning, I had my first taste of Babylon 5 while I was traveling. My own cable service wasn't showing B5 at the time, so I figured I'd check it out. It seemed bad to the extreme--a bunch of humans and aliens on a space station, with bad lighting and cheesy makeup. It felt like DS9 done on a really cheap budget. If you know the series, it was the last half of the Soul Hunter episode--definitely not the best intro for a newbie.
My second encounter with B5 was...let's say it was less negative. It was an episode with a character who wore a very 2001-ish astronaut's uniform, and unfortunately for me, it was an episode full of flashbacks and hints of things to come. The episode didn't totally grab me, but it intrigued me enough to seek out the show if the chance came.
It was the dawn of a new age. The TNT cable network picked up B5 and made it one of their flagship programs. Now I could watch the whole series from the beginning, and I could watch each episode 2 or 3 times a day. And that is exactly what I did. The first time I watched the whole series, I was blown away by the interweaving of plots, the complexity and ambiguity of the characters and the richness of the cultural allusions. The second time through, I could better appreciate all the clues and hints which I had missed. The third time through, and B5 lost a bit of its magic for me. I'd notice flaws in the writing or other faults.
Crusade, the spinoff series which followed B5, never grabbed my attention the same way. Crusade felt like so many random elements mixed together without ever truly blending.
I think I would watch a B5 movie, but then again, I'm familiar with the characters and the premise of the show. A big hurdle for a B5 theatrical release is how they can balance satisfying longtime B5 fans against the need to be accessible to people who have never watched the TV series. One of the strengths, and perhaps the strength of the show was its complexity, and I don't think that a 2 or 3 hour movie can encapsulate that.
Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
This means that while the pilot movies are filled with action, they tend to appear shallow and sometimes confusing to the casual viewer. Only further developments in the main story or careful analysis of the pilot will give you some clues. Let me give an example.
The B5 pilot The Gathering is filled with action, lots of characters and a convoluted plot. In the end it appears that "the bad guy" is G'Kar, having smuggled the assassin on the station. Well, yes. Except that G'Kar wasn't behind the turbolift sabotage. Working in the background, Lt. Commander Takashima was trying to escalate this conflict into a full-scale war. See See Lurker's Guide for an analysis. This plot point would later be rearranged and used in 2nd season.
The similarities in A Call to Arms and Legend of the Rangers suggest to me that the man has a massive story thought out; one which probably would last another 5 seasons and which he would like to tell us eagerly.
Early on, B5 was compared to Trek, but it turned out to be something different. I suspect that Crusade wouldn't have been your Trek clone, either. Myself, I can hardly wait for the movie and the eventual TV series.
Last episode? The episode you're describing was the season finale for season 3, right at the height of the shadow war story arc. There were two complete seasons after that...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
If it doesn't have Claudia Christian, I'm not gonna see it.
This guy is clearly a troll... As noted below he's talking about an Season 3 episode, while the entire series ran for 5 seasons.
Additionally, IIRC Starcraft came out in 1998, while the Babylon 5 show he's talking about aired two years earlier in 1996.
I'm a huge old school fan of Babylon 5. Old school in the sense that I started watching when it was in it's late first season / early second season, was back in 1994/1995 (or thereabouts). I'm sure there are plenty of more "seasoned" folks who started with the initial broadcast of the first episode.
As far as the popularity or "perceived quality" of Babylon 5's seasons go, I think a lot of fans (dare I say most?) would agree that it increased from season one through season three, each successive season being better than the previous.
To me personally this was the case all the way until the end of season four. But I realize not everyone prefers season four over season three. Many seem to like the grander scale of the Shadow War over the civil war.
The good thing about season four was that there were hardly any "filler" or non-arc episodes. I assume everyone knows the reason for this so I won't go into it any further (in short: the series was in danger of cancellation after season 4). This is also, at least in my mind, the root cause of the problem with season five.
JMS, having the initially well laid out and pre-planned story arc completed by the end of season four, was suddenly faced with the fact that the show was renewed for season five (thanks to TNT picking it up from Warner) and he had a very limited timeframe to come up with scripts and some sort of a mini story arc for the last season.
Add the very last minute leaving of Claudia Christian from the show (which forces JMS to toss out Ivanova's character and come up with a replacement) and you have a recipe if not for disaster, then at least for a "not so great" season. Under the circumstances I would say JMS did a decent job (I remember reading on the usenet B5 newsgroups that 4 or 5 hours a night was pretty much a good night's sleep for him at the time).
Now don't get me wrong, I hated (and still do) the whole Byron / Tragedy of telepaths subplot. A lot. I don't know anyone among my friends who likes it (and they're pretty much all big fans of B5). Imho the only good part about it is that the annoying teeps get what's coming to them. But the whole thing takes up only about eight episodes from the start of the season (which some will argue is 8 episodes too many). That still leaves almost two thirds to take care of the pretty decent mini arc dealing with the shadow tech and the Drakh's plot concerning Londo and the Centauri.
I think season five overall is a bit underrated. It has a host of good episodes (including one of my favourites, The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father) and the latter part of the season is pretty good with a nice build up to the Fall of Centauri Prime. Also, at this point in the series the "weight of history" (for lack of a better term) of the character's and their actions gives a lot of the scenes and drama some extra gravitas, which I like.
With this rather long and boring rambling I've hopefully arrived somewhere near my actual point. Which is that Babylon 5's main strength in my view is the pre- planned, conceived and written story arc that tells a great story and a bunch of smaller stories intertwined over a (long) period of 110 episodes. It allowes for such wonderful foreshadowing that carefully builds up to the dramatic and climactic events. This is very hard to replicate in the time constraints of a motion picture.
And this is the reason I believe the four TV-movies haven't been the best B5 can offer (although I personally like In the Beginning a lot). Also this fundamental issue or problem probably can't simply be undone with a larger budget (which the big screen adaptation will likely have compared to the TV-movies).
So with a somewhat spotty track record of B5 (TV) movies so far and the aforementioned problem my expectations are moderate at best. Having said that, I'll probably be in line to get a ticket to the premiere..
Btw, in case you already haven't done so, remember to check out The Lurker's Guide's page for The Memory of Shadows @ http://
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure of the former" - Albert Einstein
agree 100%. Bought the DVDs - well worth it. The humour is sharp, the technology not too unbelievable. Space is *silent*. They actually shutdown shipboard systems to avoid detection! Yes! No men in rubber suits! Guns that need oxygen to fire! Serenity is grungy, as it should be. Great characters, action, scripts.
The humour is a relief from the sheer po-faced gravitas of Voyager and a large part of the ST genre. Humour is what (mostly) set aside the first ST series, and is pretty much absent from the subsequent ST series.
And I definitely have the hots for Zoey. Whooey...
h
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
...although it was supposed to.
The fact is that news came through the series was gonna be cancelled while they were filming the early stories of season 4. So, in a truly Herculean effort, JMS rewrote the last *two* seasons on the fly, compressing them down into one season.
The Shadow War was supposed to take up the whole of S4 and the Earth Liberation War was supposed to be the main arc of season 5.
Then Sod's Law kicks into play and TNT announced they'd pick up the fifth season of B5 as the last episodes of S4 were airing. On the surface this was good news, but unfortunately JMS didn't have enough material left, he'd just filmed it all and used up all his good plotlines.
This is why season 4 seems rushed and flawed and why season 5 is a stinking pile of crap for the most part. It also explains the very odd series finale. Although it was shown at the end of S5, and appears like that in the boxsets, it was actually filmed at the end of series 4 but they held over transmission for the last year. That's why Claudia Christian appears in it when she'd been absent for the rest of the last series.
IMHO JMS shoulda ditched the (mostly) lousy plot he used for S5 and used that year to give us a B5 / Crusade hybrid series, kinda sneaking Crusade in the back door. Now that would've been a helluva series, but hindsight is a wonderful thing....
Please buy the DVDs in support of decent television programming.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
...nothing will ever surpass the greatness that was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
>>All five seasons of B5 were written before the shooting of the pilot episode.
Not quite - what there was was a consistent, single story arc which had FAR more detail than a typical series. The episodes were written on a season-by-season basis. JMS wrote the entirety of season 3 himself, but had help for some of the episodes in other seasons.
I agree that this approach allowed a much richer story to develop, and made it the best SF TV series we've seen yet.
[ flamebait]That said, the 1st and 5th seasons were comparatively weak (only on the level of good Star Trek, say) [ / flamebait]
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
One thing I did hear about crusade was that the cure to the drakh plague would be found quite early on, possibly first season and then they would deal with the little box that talks to the captain which would have even more serious repercussions than the plague.
But then, we knew it would be something bad due to the way it came into his posession.
Sigh...
B5 was really good in some places, really not good in other places. Firefly had 12 episodes, four of which I saw which were not entertaining whatsoever and Farscape never seemed to catch my interest, even though I love Sci-Fi and the Muppets. Personally, I liked Lexx, as insane as it was, more than any other of the aforementioned series.
The best Sci-Fi series EVER, would have to be Dr. Who. Dr. Who was doing EVERYTHING before EVERYONE else and has the best villains ever. Heck, Dr. Who even invented "The Matrix" in 1978, thanks to Douglas Addams. Also, Dr. Who was voted the most popular Sci-Fi show EVER by T.V. guide readers a few years back and is (once it comes back on the air in 2005) the longest running sci-fi show ever.
Also, ever Buffyverse/Firefly worshipper NEEDS to get "Blakes 7" on dvd to show them how a show like Firefly should be done properly. Blakes 7 is next to Dr.Who as one of the best Sci-fi shows ever made. It's finale in 1982 still holds records for one of the most watched BBC programs ever.
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
No Top 3 Sci Fi Series list is complete without Red Dwarf. A special-effects tour-de-force, RD combines a prophetic future vision with keen insights into the unchanging nature of man's relationship with technology. The only thing holding RD back from being a true contender is its lack of a sense of humor -- it does tend to take itself too seriously.
I loved Babylon 5 unreasonably, but I'm still convinced this movie will bomb because the things that made the series great are *gone*.
Another thing: other posts analyze why the series peaked at season three. I always wondered about that. The answer, it appears, is that Straczinsky was screwed around by Warner Bros and could never be sure if the series would continue as planned or be axed early. Way to go, Warner, there's nothing quite like shitting on your own doorstep is there? How ironic that the very worst thing that can happen to TV, is TV executives.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since the very same dynamic operates in the movie industry. Just look at Highlander II (oops, sorry for reminding you...).
As others have pointed out, the episodes were written a season at a time. This partly explains why season 5 was only OK compared to the brilliant seasons 3 and 4: they suspected that they might not be able to make it, so the final episode (ultimately shown as the final ep of season 5 when it did go ahead) was actually filmed at the end of season 4, and a lot of the details seem to have been moved forward a series to guarantee that they were there. Series 5 didn't fit in as well as the others, because most of it was expendable to the main story arc.
Personally, I would rather they hadn't made that final episode anyway, nor the official final episode to season 4 (the one jumping into the future more and more). IMHO, they should either have done season 5 properly, or have finished everything with Sheridan and Delenn on the ship on the way back to B5, with a stronger voice-over about space being ours to look after now. Alas, the TV execs apparently didn't leave this as an option they could plan for in advance.
The looking into the future episodes, particularly those so far ahead that all my favourite characters are long-dead and the universe has moved on, always diminished the scale of the main series to me, rather than showing how worthwhile it had all been as I suspect JMS intended. Far better to set another series slightly after the original -- as Crusade would have been, and the film apparently will be -- where you've got the grand framework of the main series as a backdrop, making a difference.
Oh, and the fates of Marcus and Lennier -- the only two truly honourable characters in the whole series -- were very sad, too. Their destinies may have been perfect for the reality of the series, but if we can save the whole universe, couldn't they at least have found room for two characters in five whole series to have the happy endings they deserved?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
See if I make any effort to save your ass next leap....
What, no Telepath War?
Now, I'm more of a B5 fan than most people and I love the idea of the upcoming telepath war and all, but I don't think two hours of people opening their eyes real wide while giving a stern look to someone and having the other person fall over dead makes good movie watching.
But why is the rum gone?
True. If it wasn't for the fact the Blake's 7 was the best sci-fi series ever.
Where are they going to get the Amiga/Toasters?
Although your a troll, I'll feed you...
This is a common criticism of B5, and it shows an utter lack of understanding of the series, and life in general.
Life is about evolution and development, in the greater sense as well as a personal sense. One of the biggest steps any person makes is stepping out of the shadows of their parents (pun intended) and walking off that cliff to fly (or fall) on their own. This is a concept that every person should be able to relate to (of course, I'm telilng this to an audience of geeks, the very people who rarely leave their parents' house!).
B5 took this story and expanded it to galactic proportions, literally. If your mind is capable of thinking in larger terms, then you see the parallel and appreciate it.
The conclusion of the Shadow war would have been SO much worse if they HAD been able to defeat both the Shadows and Vorlons through the use of force. The Shadows were only ever defeated in the past because the Vorlons had helped, but fighting both is an impossible task (they probably could not have defeated the Shadows militarily alone frankly). It HAD to end in some other way, and, as JMS has stated, they had to think their way out of it. They had to understand.
This is the same thing that happens for real kids... They rebel, they want to get out on their own, but the real point of epiphany is usually some years later when they realize that their parents were trying to help them all along, not oppress them, but now they are on their own and have to rely on themselves. That's when the rebellious teenagers become good children again, but now as self-sufficient adults.
B5 took this a step further and asked the question, what if we had two sets of parents with diametrically opposed points of view on how to raise the kids? The kids get caught in the middle obviously, the kids have to fight for the freedom, so to speak, and he parents lose their way because it becomes more about proving their point is right over the other parents.
If you don't get this, think it through. That of course is the whole point! Suffice it to say though that the Shadow war couldn't have ended any other way without sucking and making the entire thing a shame. This is, contrary to what many people say, the one ending that doesn't do that, but you have to understand it to see that.
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
Ambasador Kosh comes out of the closet
The Psi Corps Trilogy:
Dark Genesis
Deadly Relations
Final Reckoning
The first two books actually take place before most of the actual series, but there's some really good backstory involving the founding of the Psi Corps, and Bester's upbringing. The last book actually takes place near the end of the series, and ties up a lot of the litte loose ends left by the series. While the third book is the only one directly dealing with the Garabaldi/Bester situation, the first two are crucial for a plot point near the end of the book.
Legions of Fire (aka: The Centauri Prime Trilogy)
The Long Night of Centauri Prime
Armies of Light and Dark
Out of the Darkness
I'm still reading through these books, myself. This trilogy focuses on the events on Centauri Prime between the episdodes The Fall of Centauri Prime and Sleeping in Light. While there aren't as many unanswered questions regarding that storyline, it's been a good read so far, and hopefully the few unanswered questions (especially from War Without End) will get some answers by the time I get through the third book.
There's also a couple stand-alone novels that fill in some more of the series' backstory...
The Shadow Within shows what John and Anna Sheridan were doing during the expedition to Z'ha'dum. It's a good book, but not quite as essential to the overall plot as some of the others. You do get some pretty neat insight into one of the characters from the series, though.
To Dream In the City of Sorrows shows us what Sinclair was up to between the end of the first season and War Without End. Much like The Shadow Within, it's really more about filling in the backstory than resolving loose ends, but it's still worth checking out. There's also a trilogy of books revolving around the Techno-Mages, but I have yet to get around to those. For some reason, I was never a fan of them beyond their one episode in the second season of the show. I always felt them to be a little out of place in the B5 universe, and their frequent occurance in a lot of the more recent B5 stuff just seems like they're being crammed in. This is possibly why I'm not overly stoked about the brief description that we have of TMoS so far. It just seems like it's more likely to be a random story that just happens to take place in the B5 universe, instead of an extension on the original series. What I really would have liked to have seen is more elaboration on the Telepath War that takes place between the last two episodes of the series. There's some information about it in the last book of the Psi Corps trilogy, but not a whole lot.
The Lurker's Guide (already in the threads)
B5 quotes
More quotes
I Found Her - Free great B5 game (worthed a look)
Probably much more interesting links. I *really* liked B5. It helped me see things differently and actively participated in my "growing up". I published a Babylon 5 book of quotes if you're interested. Like many others, I fear a movie won't be good enough. One of the strengths of B5 was telling a story over countless episodes, not only 2 hours. Time will say.
"We create the future, with our words, our deeds and with our beliefs"
- Lady Ladira, B5: "Signs and Portents"
Animoog.org
...yes at least the mods keep us happy after the The Babylon 5 Combat Simulator was canceled by Sierra.
I'm looking forward to the fan film Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning getting Finnished.
Movies on another site, the space battles, are kind of amusing, but pretty silly.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
I have always loved "SF on a grand scale" as Greg Benford would put it; the Lensman and Skylark series of Doc Smith, and Benford's Galactic Center series are some of my favorites.
Slightly offtopic, have you tried the following?
-The "Reality Dysfunction" trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
-David Weber's Honor Harrington series (first two novels available online at the Baen Free Library), starts with "On Basilisk Station"
-The Gap series by Stephen R.Donaldson
-The Miles Vorkosigan Series by Lois Mc Master Bujold
C - the footgun of programming languages
jjjjjjjjjooooooooocccccccckkkkkkkkkks sss!</scream>
And finally... "I could have at least boffed him."
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
And, with that, her White Star begins opening a serious can of whoop-ass on the Earthforce ships...
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Last episode? The episode you're describing was the season finale for season 3, right at the height of the shadow war story arc. There were two complete seasons after that...
IIRC, on one run of the show on Channel 4 in the UK, Babylon 5 was originally only aired up to season 3, and they couldn't get the rights for seasons 4 and 5. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility for some people to think that S3 was the last season of the show.
A B5 synopses page contains a summary of the next-to-last S3 episode, and at the bottom there's a bit of explanation of what happened with Channel 4.
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG