As a bit of an addendum to my previous post: One thing I will say about 'River of Souls' that gives it merit is Martin Sheen being 110% into playing a Soul Hunter. I don't know why, but he seemed to really dig the role, and it's kind of adorable. And I suppose the US audience might get a kick out of seeing Ian McShane before he was famous...though for us Brits it was always a case of "oh hey, what's Lovejoy doing there?" One more caveat I'd put on reading the Centauri books: pay absolutely no attention to the dates given or even the chronology of events. I don't know how or why David managed to get it so garbled, but it's a mess. All the dates are off by at least a year and IIRC at one point he depicts two scenes from an episode late in season 5 (from Londo's perspective, for context)...but in the book they're spread several months apart. It's all a bit strange and normally it wouldn't be much of an issue but the book is full of specific dates like the whole thing is a diary....which it kind of is. Characterisation is mostly right on the money though. You can definitely hear Londo's "voice" in a way only JMS could do better. Vir less so, but close enough.
Another vote for recommending the Centauri trilogy. I really enjoyed those books. I thought the antagonist was quite good and wish we had gotten to see them in live-action.
IIRC, Sheen was asked to play the archaeologist, and the producers were surprised when his agent rang up to say "Yes, he'll do it, but have you cast the soul hunter yet? Because he'd love to play that character." Something similar happened on the Who story Androzani, where Christopher Gable was offered Salateen (his ballet background made sense for distinguishing between real and android), but then asked if they'd cast anyone as Jek.
It´s a shame somebody hasn´t done novelisation of the remaining Crusade arc (well, almost the whole thing, really), with the exception of Technomages origin explination being used.
Oh, this thread pumped me. I´m definitely watching Crusade now. I´ve only seen War zone, many years earlier.
I generally pretend "Warzone" doesn't exist. In my personal ordering of the episodes, I just removed it from contention entirely. "Racing the Night" is a much better opener, and the fact that it's so obviously an opener with all the exposition in it makes it weird to put it anywhere else.
"WAR ZONE" was an episode essentially forced on JMS by TNT, including the pilot character. (What is it with networks wanting a hotshot pilot as part of their cast? Keffer was created exactly for the same reason.)
Oh yes, I know this... But I am completionist. Today I´ve watched it again and starting The Long Road...
Ironically, there are still some B5 episodes (most of them in season 5) I haven´t watched. but there´s never too late.
There were episodes of B5 that I never watched until I was showing a friend the series for the first time. There are episodes of B5 that I would have been content not to have watched.
I think that's a good idea. Wouldn't mind seeing a novelization of the "Memory of Shadows" purported B5 movie idea I read about years ago. Though "Legends of the Rangers" was much maligned-I actually thought it wasn't bad-and I wouldn't mind seeing what JMS had in store with that series, in either a novel, comic, or even if he put it on a blog or in a podcast. Up the thread I saw some talk about the B5 films. I still haven't seen all of the one with Martin Sheen (though I can't say I didn't see it all back in the day but can't remember that I did) but I loved "In the Beginning" and also really enjoyed "Call to Arms" (Tony Todd's captain character was an inspiration for my fan fiction lead character in my Dark Territory series). I re-watched "The Gathering" (special edition or whatever it's named) a couple months back and I still found it enjoyable. I've re-watched a bit of "Thirdspace" but haven't finished it to say if I still think it holds up. At the time I really liked the Thirdspace aliens and wanted to see more of them. I thought it was a missed opportunity. Perhaps they would've wound up being the LOTR's "Hand" villains. I liked Crusade and wish it had gotten the support it deserved. I was more a fan of Galen in the B5 straight-to-video short with him, Sheridan, and the Centauri prince than I was when he was on Crusade though.
OK, so I went back on my word a little and watched Racing Night instead... In Valen´s name, somebody didn´t want this as series opening??? I think many of us can agree that a lot of TNT executives would deserve something like this.
I can still hear a constant, steady invective from Danny DeVito explaining how unfuckable Jeff Conaway is, in the back of my brain.
People openly talking about who they masturbate to is why the population of women here has dwindled over the years. No one cares what gets you going.
^Thank you. For my future reference...and I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to pin you down here, because that's not my intent: Are posts along the lines of "I watched TV Show X Because Actor Y was hot" considered reportable? Is it reportable if they start to feel like they're becoming the dominant theme of a thread? I'm only asking because this wasn't the first and likely won't be the last time I see this (It would be nice to see a thread about Helen Noel that never touched on her looks...), and I just want to know whether I should be reporting it if I see it happening. Thanks again.
Case by case basis, but there's a handy-dandy report button underneath each post, feel free to use it. It's my job to read each one.