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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Babylon 5

  
  

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13:03 / 01.02.04
Ah, what a lovely reminder of my second favourite sci-fi (sorry B5, I've been cheating on you with a rather more spritely young lass named Farscape).

Off the top of my head - some good points:
* Epic scale of story arcs
* Enchanting melancholy tone
* "Serious" sci-fi
* Great CGI space battles (well, they looked good at the time)
* Good characterisation - realistic (drug-taking, gambling, sex-obsessed) humans & aliens. What a fresh view that was after years of ST:TNG!
* Vorlons

Those bad points:
* Some truly terrible dialogue
* Babylon 5 itself seems to be constructed from thin cardboard hastily disguised under layers of lurid Miami Vice-style pastel splodges. Quite possibly the ugliest sets of any sci-fi series
* Individual episodes creep along painfully slowly and make little sense taken out of context
* Crusade
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
21:21 / 23.05.04
An email that someone passed on to me... In case anyone has forgotten, Richard Biggs was Dr. Stephen Franklin.

I was awakened today with several phone calls from cast members and Doug to pass along the terrible news that this morning, Richard Biggs passed away.

We're still gathering information, so take none of this as firm word, but what seems to have happened, happened quickly. He woke up, got up out of bed...and went down. The paramedics who showed up suggested it was either an aneurysm or a massive stroke.

His family members have been informed, and all of the the cast have, as far as we can determine, also been informed.

This is a terrible loss for all of us. Richard was a consummate professional but more than that he was an honorable, stand-up guy. If he gave you his word on something, you never had to wonder about it afterward. He was always helpful and supportive of all the cast, even those who only came in for one episode, always with a ready smile and determined to do whatever it took to make the scene work. He was, quite simply, a terrific guy, and everyone here is just devastated at the news.

More word as this develops. We may try to have some kind of fund raiser to help give whatever assistance may be helpful for his kids.

We all miss him terribly.

jms
 
 
Tom Tit's Tot: A Girl!
14:44 / 19.06.05
Because someone in another thread said...

/You take back every nasty insinuation you ever made about the godlike genius behind all five seasons of Babylon 5, RIGHT NOW./

Hahaha...

Oh I'm sorry, also the genius behind "Midnight Nation" and "Rising Stars."

Since I've never seen that show or any SF shows I'm not sure if you're serious?

Look, I used to hate Babylon 5. Deeply. I thought it was pretentious, dull, and everything that I dread in a sci-fi franchise. My partner, who has excellent taste, managed to cajole me into borrowing all five seasons from a friend and watching them consecutively.

After the first season, my thoughts were largely "Why the fuck am I watching this dreck?" the plots were flimsy, the lead was wooden to say the least, and the effects could have been done on a ZX Spectrum. But I stayed with it.

Second season. Still, not overly impressed, but really starting to love G'Kar and Londo as characters. Improving, so I stuck with it.

Third Season. Wow. So Good. How can they top it?

The final episode of the fourth season of B5 is the single most brilliant piece of sci-fi I have ever had the priviledge of seeing on a television screen. Seriously.

So, the fifth season was a disappointment after it, and having discussed B5 with haters and lovers alike, I quickly give my reasoning before fucking off again.

1. Unlike Star Trek, it has realism. Workers are exploited, the "federation" is corrupt, and racism is a huge problem all over the Universe.

2. Acting. G'Kar and Londo are characters you become so attached to, and the fact that their respective actors manage to convey such emotion through their costumes (G'Kar in particular) is impressive.

3. Direction. I don't actually think JMS is a brilliant director, or if he is, it hasn't been apparent in anything else he has done. Still, he manages to write himself out of difficult situations (actors leaving, mostly) in quite an elegant way.

4. Like someone already said, breadth. This, however, is also the weakness of B5, because it's most spectacular episodes are a crescendo, the episodes before are the movement leading to it. You need to watch the entire run (well, you can leave out season five because that telepath plot sucked so hard) in order to appreciate some of the brilliantly woven suggestions, thematic elements, and plotlines.

Anyway, just needed to say that. It's a good show, and I'd reccommend it to anyone who is willing to spend the time watching some less-impressive early series. It's worth the effort.
 
 
Keith, like a scientist
15:28 / 19.06.05
you have to admit the final 5-6 episodes of the fifth season made you cry really hard.

the entire tragedy of londo, everyone leaving, the goodbyes, the final damn episode...
 
 
penitentvandal
12:38 / 20.06.05
the effects could have been done on a ZX Spectrum

Apparently they were done on 16-bit computers, according to a mate of mine back in the day. I distinctly remember being on the bus with this guy once, and him going off on a rant about how they'd done all the stuff up to season three on an Atari ST, but that season four would be shit because they were doing that on an Amiga.

Y'know, there are times when you realise that Comic Book Guy isn't actually a fictional character...
 
 
Keith, like a scientist
13:40 / 15.02.06
We've lost G'Kar
 
 
Evil Scientist
13:46 / 15.02.06
What to say? Respects and best wishes to his family. The guy was a fine actor and one of the central reasons I started watching the show.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
20:09 / 15.02.06
Damn it!
 
 
doglikesparky
22:12 / 15.02.06
Yeah, that's no good at all. He was aces. Totally aces.

  
 
invisible_al
22:23 / 15.02.06
"No dictator... no invader... can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once - we will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years... we will be free."

Respect, there was actor and a half.
 
 
penitentvandal
08:34 / 16.02.06
Arse.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
11:05 / 16.02.06


This is making me more miserable everytime I read about it.
 
 
sleazenation
11:21 / 16.02.06
Sad news indeed, particularly coming at its does just two years after the Death of Richard Biggs...
 
 
Keith, like a scientist
13:06 / 16.02.06
from the JMS mailing list:

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:52:01 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 41

Just over a year ago, Andreas Katsulas -- who loved smoking with a
passion that cannot be described -- was diagnosed with lung cancer,
which by then had already spread to other areas. He quit smoking at
once and went on a healthy diet and vitamin program, but there was
little hope of a good resolution even though the new regimen was very
good for him. When we spoke about it, he laughed, and said, "Now that
I'm dying I've never felt better!"

His spirits were always up and positive, putting everyone at ease about
his condition, because...well, that's the kind of person he was.

A couple of months ago, he and his wife convened a dinner with me,
Doug, and Peter Jurasik, which was filled with laughter and stories and
good food. He wanted to know all the stories we never told him
because, as he said, "Who am I going to tell?" So we did. Because we
knew we were saying goodbye, and there would not be a second chance.

Last night, in the company of his wife and family, Andreas closed his
eyes and went away.

He lived an amazing life...full of travel and wonder and good
work...was part of the world renowned Peter Brook company...he saw the
planet, loved and was loved, ate at great restaurants, smoked too many
cigarettes...he lived a life some people would die for.

And, sadly, due to the last part of that equation...he did.

Memorial arrangements are still being worked out, but will doubtless be
private.

Andreas is gone...and G'Kar with him, because no one else can ever play
that role, or ever will.

I will miss him terribly.



J. Michael Straczynski
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
07:57 / 05.08.07
Has anyone been downloading the Torrent of The Lost Tales? Can you tell me what I need in order to watch the damn thing?
 
 
sleazenation
09:23 / 05.08.07
I think the files currently being circulated have been compressed - yo'd need to uncomress them to view them, however I'm not entirely certain that they have been compressed very well and it may well be that you are better off waiting for a torrent that will download as a .avi file...
 
 
PatrickMM
03:23 / 06.08.07
Anyone actually seen the film? It wasn't as good as the best parts of the series, but was worlds better than Legend of the Rangers or Crusade. The Lochley one was mostly forgettable, but the Sheridan was a lot of fun, giving plenty of fun character shoutouts while still telling a new story. That said, I'm really hoping this was just a prelude to a Londo Lost Tale, other than G'Kar, he's the one I really want to see, and I wouldn't be expecting a G'Kar tale anytime soon. That said, Andreas gets a couple of great tributes on the DVD, both in the film itself and on the bonus features.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
06:49 / 06.08.07
I would be more than happy to buy the DVD but foolishly, or perhaps understandably, Warners don't seem to be releasing anything other than a R1 version, so I'm forced to resort to piracy. Or at least, I would be, if someone ripped it and put it out as an AVI, rather than a hundred different little files that I can't do anything with.
 
 
sleazenation
19:13 / 06.08.07
There are .avi torrents out there now available on the net - you could probably even use an aggregator such as Torrents.to to track one down if you were so motivated.

Yeah, it was fun. I dunno, I'm kind of enjoying the fact that odd B5 stories leak out ever few years. The Lost Tales were appeared to be on a pretty tight budget - particularly the first story, which takes place mainly in darkened rooms. The second story, as aluded to above was a bit more engaging and meaty. Both read like the short stories - no problem with that. I also got the impression that they were a chance for JMS and crew to play around with HD cameras and updated CGI.

The title sequence looked cheap, but I'd rather have cobbled together titles and an extra FX shot in the story than vice versa.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
08:08 / 11.08.07
Yeah, they were nice and okay for what they were considering a lot of the main cast are either busy doing other things or being dead (I would love to see an ending to the two main dangling stories, that of Crusade and the Drakh war at the end of Sheridan's life, but as JMS has said he wouldn't recast either Franklin or G'Kar I don't think we'll ever see that, even if there was a budget). It's nice to see what B5 looks like with the graphics you get these days.

The only problem I can see with this is that stories like this only interest the fans, which is why JMS got such a small budget and had to do 70 minutes of people talking to one another. If he could do something a bit larger scale and a bit more whizz-bang then he can perhaps pull in some new fans.
 
 
uncle retrospective
09:35 / 11.08.07
I enjoyed the Lost Tales but it just made me sad that that’s it for B5. After the horror of Legend of the Rangers it was so good to see some of what I loved about the series back again, but that it. That’s all we get. It’s just a tease.
Oh, I loved the “Up yours!” in New York. Brilliant and mad at the same time.
 
 
PatrickMM
17:55 / 11.08.07
Well, if the DVD bonus features and the end of the movie are to be believed, this won't be the end of Babylon 5, but the start of a series of these movies. I'm also really hoping that the next movie is a bit larger in scope. Of the cast, only Jurasik and Katsulas could make one of these sitting around and talking things completely interesting, so hopefully we'll get Londo in the next one.

And, I think it would still be possible to do the Drakh War on Centauri using the existing footage of G'Kar and building from there. Obviously, it'd be really frustrating not to have him back, but it would be possible, and that's one of the stories I'd be most interested in seeing.
 
 
sleazenation
22:36 / 11.08.07
I don't think you necessarily need to see G'kar or Dr Franklin to resolve either of the two main outstanding plotlines.

And yeah - I can see that this is meant to be a pilot for a new series of tales set in the B5 universe - I just don't have particularly high hopes, at least not for a TV series, but series of fan backed DVD releases... that might just be plausible...
 
  

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