What We Left Behind - Documentary Update Confirms *Some* HD Remastering

I'm in for everything. The amount I donated to get a Blu-ray/DVD combo was more than fair in my opinion. I can't remember how much it was, but I don't remember regretting it one bit.

 

At the time I donated for the NYC premiere I wondered whether I was doing something extremely foolish. In the end I have no regrets, but it's probably still arguable whether that was the best use of my finances.

Also, if my timing had been off by about a minute then it would have been a significantly less cool time for me than it was.

IOW, I'm glad I did it, but for the amount I spent, luck was a bit of a factor as well.

 

I'm willing to contribute funds again too. The perks were excellent the first time around: the Blu-ray, the posters, the pins, the t-shirts.

I'd like to see the season eight ships in CG, especially the Emmett Till.

 

A good crowdfunding campaign goes a long way to generating and maintaining enthusiasm for a project. The idea that so many of the actors set up special events in order to raise more funds was encouraging. I didn't contribute a whole lot to WWLB (though I would have loved a home cooked meal from Nana), but I would like to see a new campaign for The Writers' Room. From what we have heard, the success of the Indiegogo campaign generally brought Zappone and Behr to rethink what expectations there were about the documentary, so hopefully another will make them more ambitious.

OTOH, I am a little disappointed from what I hear about the Voyager documentary. It feels like they have a shorter time table, and it's not clear how much time the performers, writers, and technical talent are contributing beyond sitting for interviews. Is there going to be a crowdfunding campaign? I find it strange that we haven't heard who the host will be. I would think that the ISB equivalent on Voyager would be Brannon Braga, but he did not seem too involved. Moreover, his little snark about how Voyager's doc would beat the writers' room seemed a little entitled. The whole project seems to lack inspiration.

 

Youtube now has this doc to watch for free, but with commercials. Enjoy.

 

So, Babylon 5 has been remastered by Warner Bros. Not for release on physical media but for HBO Max.

Come on Paramount\CBS, both DS9 & Voyager had higher ratings than B5!

 

Same bad acting and cheap sets, no?

 

Man, don't be like that.

 

No. Babylon 5 had great acting for the most part.

 

Babylon 5 leveraged some talented character actors and clever dialogue, but the acting was weak, especially at the top of the cast (1-4), with the exception of Mia Furlan. Perhaps actually shooting scenes several times might have helped. However, the talents of Doyle and Christian, and Boxleitner has all the charm of cardboard. What happened in the script didn't makeup for what happened on the stage.

 

And yet it has been remastered.

Perhaps there's hope for DS9 after all. Come on Paramount+, throw us a bone.

 

Huh. I would have said that some of the extras/guest stars delivered weak performances (especially earlier in the show's run), but if I was going to tag weak performances in the main cast, it wouldn't be those three.

 

Funny, I thought those three did a great job. They're basically playing themselves (especially Jerry Doyle) and the writing embraced that. Neither DS9 or Babylon 5 is Shakespeare and both have their share of bad acting, which in turn is both cringewothy and charming. Alexander Siddig and Terry Farrell weren't particularly strong when DS9 began and Avery Brooks walked a fine line between intense and over-the-top (and I say that as someone who thinks Sisko is Trek's best captain).

But defining a show with as many fine performances as B5 had as having bad acting (Andreas Katsulas, Peter Jurasik, and Mira Furlan alone make B5 a joy to watch from an acting perspective) seems like a bad faith argument.

 

Given that you have outrightly lied about what I have written,I don't have to take your claim that I have bad faith seriously. I explicitly left out all those actors.

 

I shouldn't have said "bad faith," it was too negative a claim and made assumptions about your intent I didn't have a right to. I'm sorry.

But I didn't lie, Bad Thoughts, I disagreed with you. There's a difference.

You did say there was "talented character acting and some clever dialog," but in the same sentence stated definitively the "acting was weak," which I took to mean (and still do) that you are defining the show as having bad acting.
You specifically called out Boxleitner, Christian, and Doyle as having the charm of cardboard; I disagreed and explained why. I offered counter-examples of actors on DS9 whose acting could be judged similarly (which is objective, of course). You only named Mira Furlan as being worthy, but in my view Katsulas and Jurasik were equally powerful and those performances are a hallmark of B5's quality, so I emphasised them.

 

I very specifically spoke of the 1-4 actors: Boxleitner, Doyle, Furlan, Christian. I also offered some praise to the character actors, which include Katsulas and Jurasik. You didn't make your argument without misrepresenting what I wrote.

 

Haha, I think we're at the "agree to disagree" part of the conversation. I apologize if it came off that way, but no misrepresentation was intended. I personally think my response was fair (outside the "bad faith" remark), but your mileage may vary.

 

No, your "quote" from Bad Thoughts changed what he said, adding names into the list of actors he thought were good. You misrepresented his post and message.

 

He directly quoted Bad Thoughts' post.