No, we don't know where Rangers would have gone with the Hand as yet. We may find out more when the movie book comes out, hopefully this month.
Jan
B5 spinoff series Crusade not too shabby
- Thread starter Starfleet Engineer
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No, we don't know where Rangers would have gone with the Hand as yet. We may find out more when the movie book comes out, hopefully this month.
Jan
Yes, but on a less epic scale. It was like Babylon 5 - POWER RANGERS.
The example of jms doing the same thing here would be what -- that aliens that were really old existed in this series as well? If the Hand wasn't there then it would be G'Kar saying things he said before (like no one ever says the same thing twice), or the fact that the Rangers exist, or that there was a battle, or anything that resembled Babylon 5 would be claimed as jms doing the same thing again. jms is doing a 5-year arc again, he's already used that trick before! jms is quoting Mark Twain, not again! jms is using the English language once more, what's that about? Now, someone please point me to the correct Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors episode that Legend of the Rangers is lifted from.
If you want to direct personal messages to me, please PM. Otherwise I look forward to more comments on the subject at hand.
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In my service, you can usually expect to make / be selected for 'Captain' at about 22-24 years of service right now. Mind you, that's equivalent to a "full bird" Colonel in the other military services (except the USN, where it's also called 'Captain').
Of course, Gideon could also have been somewhat lower in rank, but still be referred to as 'Captain', since he was CO of the Excalibur. I never paid that much attention to the B5 rank/pin scheme, so this is only a possibility. There's also the Civil War / career attrition theory as mentioned above...
Cheers,
-CM-
Well, as I pointed out, to me the Hand felt like a retread of the Shadows: another old mysterious race suddenly popping up as antagonists. There are a multitude of other ways to bring an antagonist into a series, than them being old and mysterious. It just feels so presumptuous. This was already an aspect of the Shadows that I didn't necessarily like too much and then JMS seemed to do exactly the same again in LOTR. Like I said, it might have turned out completely different from the Shadow war had the series been picked up, but all we have to go by is what actually made it on screen, so that's what I judge. I do not see why this warrants such an overreaction on your side, nor do I know what "Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors" is or what it has to do with LOTR.
No, he defiantly had the rank insignia of a captain. As for the time span, I think it's stated that it's been 9 years since the destruction of the Cerberus, which is a little off since "A Call to Arms" took place on the 5th Anniversary of the ISA and that was at the end of the 4th season. So that would place the event early in season 1, BEFORE Clark offed Santiago and took office. Oh well.
As for how he advanced to fast...well let's pretend he was immediately promoted to Lieutenant following his debriefing, that leaves less than 9 years from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander to Commander to Captain. Perhaps it's a combination of his being fast tracked and the general climate during the Clark administration. Remember though that before Sheridan gave him the Excalibur he was the Captain of an explorer ship, not a destroyer, so perhaps that has some.
As for fast tracking, I'm pretty sure Ivanova was a Lt shortly before her transfer to B5 in 2258 and she made Captain four years later. Perhaps is a necessary policy that even more than a decade after the Earth-Minbari war Earthforce is still having to shore up it's numbers.
As for how he advanced to fast...well let's pretend he was immediately promoted to Lieutenant following his debriefing, that leaves less than 9 years from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander to Commander to Captain. Perhaps it's a combination of his being fast tracked and the general climate during the Clark administration. Remember though that before Sheridan gave him the Excalibur he was the Captain of an explorer ship, not a destroyer, so perhaps that has some.
As for fast tracking, I'm pretty sure Ivanova was a Lt shortly before her transfer to B5 in 2258 and she made Captain four years later. Perhaps is a necessary policy that even more than a decade after the Earth-Minbari war Earthforce is still having to shore up it's numbers.
Naw, Gideon was a Captain by rank as well as position. The insignia might confuse a few people since 1) the Crusade uniforms were fucked up anyway, and 2) an EarthForce Captain is comparable to an O-6 Navy captain but wears insignia (two silver bars) that we, the viewers, see as that of an O-3 Captain from the Army etc.
In fact, since EarthForce has an extra rank (Major) in between Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander, Gideon would be technically *higher* in rank than a US Navy captain would be.
To quote another show in another universe..."It's a big galaxy..." Why not have more than three ancient and mysterious races is more the question, imo. Yes, three. The Vorlons were certainly old and mysterious. Ditto Lorien's race. Or many more, really. Nobody seemed to have any trouble with all of the First Ones races. All old, all mysterious - at least to us. So it was hardly just the antagonists that were old and mysterious.
I'm not sure what you mean by presumpuous but, 'Seemed'...as in "Nobody here is exactly what he appears" seemed, perhaps? As we're even reminded in the film?
I think the problem is that you're taking what Kafta said at face value. He was a member of a subjugated race so you wouldn't expect him to say that his masters were wimpy, would you? That's not meant sarcastically, btw. It's a matter of saving face for Kafta to convince the Humans that the Hand are the biggest, baddest race ever encountered.
Maybe it's just a matter of taste. I prefer my bad guys to reveal themselves and their motives more slowly and to be more complex than just some technologically equipped bullies. For me it's more fun that way.
At any rate, Rangers was a pilot and I think if fulfilled that duty just fine. Loading it up with too much would have ruined it for me. As it was, JMS had said that it would be less arc and less complex so I didn't expect it to be as portentious as B5.
Jan
Well a time of war can leader to rapid promotion as those higher up the line get knocked off - but I didn't think that Earthforce was involved that much in the Shadow War.
Also unless Gideon was a late enlister, for some-one of his age to have been a mere ensign at his age (mid - late 30s) would indicate a very unsuccessful career and unlikely to make captain in 6000 years let alone 6.
So it's more likely a pooch got screwed somewhere along the line because normally the at best you might get a couple of ranks high through field promotion and special circumstances (think Picard and the Stargazer) at the end of hositlities it's not unknown for demotions to occur.
Well we know Gideon has a chequered background, so it's possible he was demoted back down to Ensign some time prior to the incident in question. That in itself might explain how he got up to Captain so fast, given his previous experience, a pressing need for starship Captains and just possibly some less than legal leverage on Gideon's part.
As for the Rank structure, I have a whole thred on the subject somewhere, but in a nutshell I'm pretty sure an Earthforce Major comes between Captain and Colonel. Yes I know it's not the same as the US or British Navy, but guess what; it's Earthforce, not the Navy.
As for the Rank structure, I have a whole thred on the subject somewhere, but in a nutshell I'm pretty sure an Earthforce Major comes between Captain and Colonel. Yes I know it's not the same as the US or British Navy, but guess what; it's Earthforce, not the Navy.
I will type in ALL CAPS when I overreact so don't read loud emotions into my writing unless I emphasize them. However -- I have seen it mentioned at least five times on this board that jms just writes the same thing over and over again. It's not a response to the one message; it's a response to the cumulation of such messages, which is I why I didn't quote any particular post.
Jayce & the Wheeled Warriors is a sci-fi cartoon that jms wrote for.
Not in EarthForce, it doesn't. Captain goes straight to Colonel, then General.
An EF Major is between Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander.
A few reasons why:
- In an early episode (Eyes, I think) Ivanova leaves Ops and tells Major Whoeverthehellitis to take over for her. Now, if an EF Major outranked a Captain, he'd be in command of the whole station (Sinclair was only a Commander)...which is obviously impossible.
- Both the times we've seen Majors in command situations (Ryan in Severed Dreams, Krantz in WWE II) they always have Lieutenants as their XOs. (Ryan's was Bill Trainor, Krantz's was Cousin Brucie)
- Speaking of Krantz: When we first meet him (Babylon Squared) he salutes Sinclair, like a junior officer would.
- Go ahead, try and tell me that Maj. Lianna Kemmer (can't remember which episode...she's this kid who's a friend of Garibaldi's family) outranks a Captain. I dare you.
^ Ah, yes. Survivors. That also reminds me: Kemmer tries to order Ivanova around in that episode, and Ivanova refuses and isn't disciplined for it. Kemmer can't actually pull rank, since Ivanova outranks her.
I enjoyed Crusade, even though I knew it was canceled before it aired. I thought it gave a different kind of look at the B5 universe. On B5 everything (quite rightly) revolved around the station, Crusade gave us more of a look at the rest of the universe. I would have loved to see more of it.
Ahh well....
Ahh well....
Well, there's always Captain Power for that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Power_and_the_Soldiers_of_the_Future
