The characters were too tall. It was a 2:1 rip off.^Nonsense...it's clearly an exact 1:1 Lord of the Rings rip-off!
A new B5 series on the horizon?
- Thread starter Reverend
- Start date
I'm going to guess you didn't see this note, depending on where google led you:
Source page:jms said:
http://www.cafepress.com/b5books/6587738
Thanks for the posted resource, JoeD80. And thank you David for thinking of that material, because it does provide interesting background for those unawares. I did replace the post with the link JoeD80 provided due to that copyright notice on that page, though.
If that's in anyway true, frankly I'm cool with him still doing that...Eh, I still think his original idea was a Star Trek "Birth of the Federation" story.
...so long as he changes the name of his lead character to Archer!
I actually think it would have made a good Trek series; it has the same (original) Trek optimism and maps easily to the Trekkieverse. I'm happy with it being its own little franchise, though.
Eh, I still think his original idea was a Star Trek "Birth of the Federation" story.
Minbari = Vulcan
Andorian = Centauri
Narn = Tellarite
Vorlon = Preservers
^^ Exactly what I was thinking. It maps out so perfectly. And all those "pure energy" life forms in TOS were First Ones who never left or snuck back. 
the minbari = elves
the narn = dwarfs
earth = humans
the drake = orcs
shadows = sauron
the centari = sauromon (I say that cause sauron uses sauromon the same way the shadows use the centari).
the vorlon = the entz's
the anlashak = rangers = (rangers)
I still say B5 has more The Lord Of The Rings in it if you look for it.
sinclair is bilbo and sheridan is frodo.
the narn = dwarfs
earth = humans
the drake = orcs
shadows = sauron
the centari = sauromon (I say that cause sauron uses sauromon the same way the shadows use the centari).
the vorlon = the entz's
the anlashak = rangers = (rangers)
I still say B5 has more The Lord Of The Rings in it if you look for it.
sinclair is bilbo and sheridan is frodo.
Although the name of the Rangers suggested it, the name Z'ha'dum being so similar to Khazad-dûm confirmed the Tolkien homage. I was less keen on the somewhat corny use of Jack the Ripper and Holy Grail elements in a couple of the episodes.
Fair enough if you liked them. I found those themes tired and derivative.
Actually no. IIRC JMS has said rather categorically that Z'ha'dum was not an *intentional* Tolkien homage.
Much has been made of the Tolkien parallels over the years and 99% of it is just overenthusiastic fans reading too much into it. You'll find more influence on B5 from the likes of Foundation, Lensman, some elements of Arthurian and Babylonian mythologies, Orwell's 1984, Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, some of H.P. Lovecraft's work and a host of other sources too numerous to get into.
People just like to pick on the odd Tolkien references as that's a source they're often more familiar with.
Yea, I seem to recall also, Zha'ha'dum was a coincidence according to him, but, I think he did acknowledge the Rangers homage.
Which doesn't really change the fact the series has a big Lord of the Rings influence. Obviously, there's a big (and far more pedantic, as Zapruder pointed out) dosing of Arthurian myth. Likewise, the Alfred Bester and Orwell fare likewise is as thinly fig-leafed, newspeak and Walter Koenig's character and so on. This said Babylonian stuff is fairly minimal, though, and is not a comparable influence to Tolkein - more of it comes from JMs's own insistence there's Babylonian inspirations then evidence of such. Frankly, the very name of the station seems to have more to do with the Tower of Babel (i.e. Babylon) story than anything Mespotamian-inspired.
So yeah. No, Sheridan's death and rebirth wasn't a Gandalf moment, but yes, lord of the Rings is one of the biggest touchstones for the series and to suggest otherwise is going too far in the other direction.
I know there were asimov releated material in B5 but more of his robot books than foundation. as far as lensman I did'nt recognize any refrence from it. thought there was a john carter of mars reference in the series.
In "A Spider in the Web", Taro Isogi refers to Amanda Carter's grandfather John. Then in the Crusade episode "Ruling from the Tomb" there were several different Mars references such as Burroughs Street, Bradbury Street and dandelion wine. Neither episode was written by JMS, though.
One of the funniest references I found that could only have been there for the amusement of the crew was on a case tag set dressing that I have which includes a number "THX 1138" on it. http://photos.b5archivist.com/GalleryFilmstrip.aspx?gallery=212359&mid=7083462&mt=Photo&ci=008
Jan
No wai. Vorlon would have been the Valar or perhaps the Noldor depending how you look at it. Minbari would have been Sindar or elves entirely if the Valar are on the table.
Outside of the name, not really.
Sheridan is nothing like the book Aragorn, who was always putting his thing down and telling everybody about his sword and lineage and had none of the self doubt that Vigo played up on the movies (and would be more like Sheridan).
In the past, folks have asked me to post when this sort of thing becomes available.
"Pleasure Thresholds: Pat Tallman's Babylon 5 Memoir" is now available for pre-order at www.B5Pat.com A new, uncensored, commentary on "Secrets of the Soul" and other audio/video goodies will be on the CD accompanying the book. Dual autographed by both Pat and JMS.
Jan
(yes, I'm part of the Scripts Team but not financially involved with this book)
"Pleasure Thresholds: Pat Tallman's Babylon 5 Memoir" is now available for pre-order at www.B5Pat.com A new, uncensored, commentary on "Secrets of the Soul" and other audio/video goodies will be on the CD accompanying the book. Dual autographed by both Pat and JMS.
Jan
(yes, I'm part of the Scripts Team but not financially involved with this book)
