Yuuuup. Exactly.
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
I'll add Blakes 7, which was made after Star Wars. Done on a shoestring budget and it showed. Thankfully, the writing was mostly solid. If you're used to theatrical performances, you can ignore the fact that the performance is taking place on a stage with a handful or props and token backdrops provided the script and actors are up to par. Often, I get the impression that a lot of people have never been to the theatre. I find theatrical drama much more engaging than most TV or movie drama. It just seems more visceral, not necessarily more intellectual.
I think theater feels more visceral because you actually are there, not just watching from afar through a tv. Theater creates an atmosphere, too. It also has the virtue of being something you can actually touch if you happen to walk by a stage. Touch makes things more real to us.
Story and actor's performance works wonders. Captain Scarlet's Mysterons were creepy alien invaders. Puppet show where the aliens were rings of light but the story and voice work sold that unstoppable alien menace. Space Battleship Yamato, a cartoon, more character driven drama than most shows. Well done for their type of media but obviously all looked unrealistic. The stories and characters made the types of media irrelevant to the enjoyment of the tale. The quality of the CGI is just about the last thing I care about because if the story is crap the technical brilliance of the CGI won't mean shit to me. Looking at you Avatar, you tedious savior trope.
You want to talk threadbare EFX, anyone remember The Starlost? The whole thing was shot with chroma-key! 
I used to be dumb. I thought 90s cgi was fucking amazing.
I still remember what i thought Babylon 5 looked like.
White Stars vs. Shadow Vessels.
My memories don't look a thing like the DVDs.
Although I haven't watched the remastered DVDs yet.
I just finished up another rewatch. This time of the remastered versions. Holy shit, B5 never looked so good. It was a bit difficult watching the movie DVDs afterwards with the huge difference in quality.
Now I can't wait to get the announcement for whatever the new hush-hush show is. I really hope we get an animated Telepath War. There would have to be a couple recasts unfortunately, but I really don't see how you do any stories at this point with some recasting. The only major arc I think they would completely avoid is the Legions of Fire story. Vir is pretty much the major player in that one, and I just don't see that recast happening for that particular story. Crusade is the other one I'd like to see wrapped up animated, but that ship has likely sailed in any form.
Now I can't wait to get the announcement for whatever the new hush-hush show is. I really hope we get an animated Telepath War. There would have to be a couple recasts unfortunately, but I really don't see how you do any stories at this point with some recasting. The only major arc I think they would completely avoid is the Legions of Fire story. Vir is pretty much the major player in that one, and I just don't see that recast happening for that particular story. Crusade is the other one I'd like to see wrapped up animated, but that ship has likely sailed in any form.
That was supposed to be such a breakthru then, after the minature-background-and-snorkel-cam thing was developed for Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. We thought it was amazing back then. IIRC, Starlost's problem (well, one of them) was using a camera with poor depth of field, so the backgrounds LOOKED like they were only a few feet deep, with only a short area in focus.You want to talk threadbare EFX, anyone remember The Starlost? The whole thing was shot with chroma-key!
Oddly some TV budgets did well for their time, in the 80s Jason Of Star Command for a 30 minute kids show had good effects for its ships and other stuff.
I just read that Evan Chen, the composer for Crusade, passed away suddenly last month at the age of 65.
While the score for Crusade was controversial, to say the least, I did feel like it was growing into itself even over the half-season the show was on the air (in much the same way Franke's music changed drastically from his style in season one of B5), and I think it was also ahead of its time, considering how a similar percussion-heavy, "world music" style became the hot thing in science fiction with Battlestar Galactica a half-decade later.
While the score for Crusade was controversial, to say the least, I did feel like it was growing into itself even over the half-season the show was on the air (in much the same way Franke's music changed drastically from his style in season one of B5), and I think it was also ahead of its time, considering how a similar percussion-heavy, "world music" style became the hot thing in science fiction with Battlestar Galactica a half-decade later.
I loved Evan Chen's score for Crusade. Very progressive, and I love prog like King Crimson, Secret Chiefs 3, Mr Bungle, John Zorn, etc. It's a style a lot of people into main stream music simply can't wrap their heads around, and I think that was the problem. Franke's music was good, but very straight ahead with a couple exceptions here and there. Evan will be missed 
I couldn't get into Chen's music for Crusade at all (perhaps it would have been easier if it hadn't been such a stylistic departure from Franke's work for B5?), but I am sorry to hear of his passing. I'd be willing to give his work a try removed from the context of the Babylon Five franchise.
Comment from Chris. "We saw Star Wars. It was like finding the USS Nimitz in your garden pond. We knew we had no chance of matching the fx, so tried other stuff, like funny lines."
I must say that the Vardan ship is fully the equal of anything since:
https://wearecult.rocks/a-matter-of-time-the-invasion-of-time-at-40
https://chrisbaer.net/mp/2020/11/14/doctor-who-project-the-invasion-of-time/
A personal article was recently put up about a member of the cast on Medium: “My Dad Starred in a Hit TV Show with a Severe Brain Injury”
Sorry to be coy about who it's referring to, but judging by the way it was written, the author apparently didn't want it to come up when you Google this actor's name, so I'm not going to mention it in the post with the actual link.
Sorry to be coy about who it's referring to, but judging by the way it was written, the author apparently didn't want it to come up when you Google this actor's name, so I'm not going to mention it in the post with the actual link.
Seems to be dead-in-the-water given the shake-up at the CW?
Jeez, the "Babylon 5 curse" just keeps giving and giving. A brain injury that alters ones personality can really tear families apart. It's sometimes almost as though the person you knew died and their body got hijacked by someone else. Quite sad.
I had no idea this happened. I met this person at DragonCon, and was one of the most energetic and fun people I ever had the pleasure of meeting and talking to. Definitely one of my favorites of all the people I've met over the years.
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