Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
Oh I see plenty of Trek actors on the show. Of course the ones I didn't notice until later Lucille from "Arrested Development" in season 1 and Walt from "Breaking Bad" as a captain. Also for some reason I didn't know the pilot guy from season 2 we all hated was the same asshole guy from "Weird Science" that we also all hated. Took me years to understand that Sheridan's dad was Ron Howard's dad.
Jason
You're quite right. Don't know what I was thinking trying to compare air dates with script dates. So I gues my question is, what would you prefer to have been explored? I know that JMS was using the tele-movies to explory things he wanted to. So "what [did] you want?"
The PTEN to TNT changeover was between seasons 4 and 5. The SE of "The Gathering," "In the Beginning," and "Thirdspace" were all made to boost interest in B5 on the new network, along with daily reruns. I have no idea what the business rationale was for commissioning "River of Souls," maybe just that they had the third movie left on the initial contract and JMS had to make something, but there you go.
As for a better premise for that movie's slot (and, while we're at it, maybe we could think of an alternate "Thirdspace"), it does depend a bit on what the behind-the-scenes goals were. I remember one of the things JMS mentioned at the time is that he wanted to give the cast who hadn't been in the other two TNT movies a chance to shine (specifically mentioning Corwin), and there's also a question of how much budget there was for redressing sets. One idea would be to show what Lochley was doing during the Civil War, get a better sense of what was going on on the other side or the places Sheridan's march to the sea passed by. You'd lose the chance to show the rest of the cast, though. Well, maybe not. You could have a framing story set in season 5 or "season 6" with Garibaldi, Zack, and Corwin, something like BSG's "Razor."
Expanding our potential scope a bit, a movie covering, essentially, the third book of the Centauri Prime trilogy and covering everything that happened with Londo, G'Kar, the Drakh, David's Keeper, and everything else would probably have made a lot of people happy. And speaking of stuff that was done in prose, the comic where the crew discovers the thousand-year-old wreck of Babylon 4 would've been a lot better than Thirdspace, but I suppose a roadblock in front of that would be Michael O'Hare's availability for the Valen flashbacks.
Still, this is all speculation and nonsense. None of us were there, we don't know what was going on or what the requirements involved were. It's easy to say something more interesting could've been done, but it's hard to know.
Are the movies worth seeing? I’ve only seen that one in the future with the Jesse James reference.
I don't remember Jesse James, but all of the movies are worth seeing at least once, although Legend of the Rangers comes close to not being worth it. If G'Kar wasn't in it, I'd say no but you should see for yourself.
I've watched In the Beginning several times, I sometimes watch it at the beginning right before the Gathering if I'm doing a full rewatch. I watched River of Souls when it was on TNT and I bought the movie set DVD but I haven't watched it again. I try to shoe horn in Thirdspace in the fourth season but it's actually taking place between scenes in an episode and I don't stop the episode to watch it and then go back. And A Call to Arms is last, then I watch my Crusade DVDs. I watch A Call to Arms first when I'm in the mood to watch Crusade again.
I've watched In the Beginning several times, I sometimes watch it at the beginning right before the Gathering if I'm doing a full rewatch. I watched River of Souls when it was on TNT and I bought the movie set DVD but I haven't watched it again. I try to shoe horn in Thirdspace in the fourth season but it's actually taking place between scenes in an episode and I don't stop the episode to watch it and then go back. And A Call to Arms is last, then I watch my Crusade DVDs. I watch A Call to Arms first when I'm in the mood to watch Crusade again.
I need to try "Thirdspace" a few episodes earlier. Crusade has got me used to ignoring clothing, and if not for what Zach's wearing, I think it makes a lot of sense between "Epiphanies" and "Illusion of Truth," with all the talk of the embargo and ships being repaired in the latter episode.
I stole this word for word from the Lurker's Guide
This story took place after the Shadow War, but before the declaration of war against Earth. That puts it between "Into the Fire" and "Moments of Transition."
Other clues allow it to be placed more precisely. It took place after "The Illusion of Truth" because that was the last time Zack wore his Earth Alliance uniform. Just after Zack was fitted with his new uniform in "Atonement," Delenn greeted Callenn and told him she'd be ready to leave for Minbar in one day, less than the amount of time elapsed in this story (Sheridan remarked to Trent that she'd had five days to examine the artifact.) It couldn't have taken place after "Atonement" since Dr. Franklin left in that episode before Delenn returned; the two of them weren't on the station at the same time again until after the declaration of war.
That puts "Thirdspace" between the first and second scenes of "Atonement" (a slight inconsistency since Callenn's ship can be seen to arrive in the opening shot, before Zack's fitting) unless Zack's visit to the Minbari tailors wasn't the first time he wore the uniform. If his visit was just an adjustment, possibly a result of being in fistfights in "Thirdspace," the story takes place between "The Illusion of Truth" and "Atonement."
This story took place after the Shadow War, but before the declaration of war against Earth. That puts it between "Into the Fire" and "Moments of Transition."
Other clues allow it to be placed more precisely. It took place after "The Illusion of Truth" because that was the last time Zack wore his Earth Alliance uniform. Just after Zack was fitted with his new uniform in "Atonement," Delenn greeted Callenn and told him she'd be ready to leave for Minbar in one day, less than the amount of time elapsed in this story (Sheridan remarked to Trent that she'd had five days to examine the artifact.) It couldn't have taken place after "Atonement" since Dr. Franklin left in that episode before Delenn returned; the two of them weren't on the station at the same time again until after the declaration of war.
That puts "Thirdspace" between the first and second scenes of "Atonement" (a slight inconsistency since Callenn's ship can be seen to arrive in the opening shot, before Zack's fitting) unless Zack's visit to the Minbari tailors wasn't the first time he wore the uniform. If his visit was just an adjustment, possibly a result of being in fistfights in "Thirdspace," the story takes place between "The Illusion of Truth" and "Atonement."
I mean, the captain blew up the other ship by sending bombs, then made the metaphor ‘Jesse James robbed the exact same train the exact same way, and nobody thought he would do it’, and blew up another ship by sending secret bombs.
That was Butch Cassidy, not Jesse James. And that's Legends of the Rangers, easily the worst of the lot.
The only movie I find exceptional is "In the Beginning". I don't own Crusade or I might be more likely to rewatch Call to Arms, though I find the score for that film exceptionally irksome.
Thirsdpace and River of Souls I find pretty unremarkable overall, though I'm significantly more likely to rewatch the former versus the latter.
LotR I completely forgot about when I initially composed this post, but I think I've actually seen it more than RoS. Barely.
Put another way, in terms of number of rewatches:
ItB: Many
CtA: Some
TS: A handful
LotR: Three times? Maybe?
RoS: A couple (possibly literally; as I'm not sure I've seen it more than twice)
Thirsdpace and River of Souls I find pretty unremarkable overall, though I'm significantly more likely to rewatch the former versus the latter.
LotR I completely forgot about when I initially composed this post, but I think I've actually seen it more than RoS. Barely.
Put another way, in terms of number of rewatches:
ItB: Many
CtA: Some
TS: A handful
LotR: Three times? Maybe?
RoS: A couple (possibly literally; as I'm not sure I've seen it more than twice)
"We were trying something different."
Thirdspace is merely okay, but, being a huge Pat fan, I love that Lyta had a lot to do in it. The elevator scene is wonderful.
River of Souls is just horrible.
"We were trying something different."
Thirdspace is merely okay, but, being a huge Pat fan, I love that Lyta had a lot to do in it. The elevator scene is wonderful.
River of Souls is just horrible.
I'm looking forward to seeing Call To Arms again because I remember that one being my favorite. Having just seen In The Beginning (to start this current rewatch), it was pretty good but I wouldn't say Great.
Why do all the karate aliens have such distinctly Asian accents?
Watching that episode, I thought they were trying to have a Kung Fu homage.
TKO also has the story about Ivanova being persuaded to sit shiva for her father but, all in all, it's a skippable episode. In the UK, I seem to recall Channel 4 showed it at a much later time than usual because of the violent content.
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