J. Michael Straczynski's "new" Babylon 5 graphic novel?

[Jan]

^^ Whoever he learned editing from deserves a lot of thanks, that's for sure. I learned a major respect for the art of editing when doing the Joe Cuts for the script books. Shaving a word here, a phrase there, a reaction somewhere else would give us those episodes that seemed to have two hours of story in the 42-43 minutes we actually had while still allowing for character moments.

Jan

 

[Reverend]

I've never seen the TNT re-edit of the pilot. How much does it improve the story?

The addition of Franke's score alone constitutes a threefold improvement. Other than that it's a matter of replacing a few of the creaky old establishing shots with newer ones, editing around the alien muppets and aforementioned Gorilla plus (along with numerous edits) the inclusion of a scene where Sinclair describes the Battle of the Line to Carolyn (complete with audio from "And the Sky Full of Stars") and Takashima's dialogue is restored to it's original state.
In short: much better.
Of course there's nothing that could be done about the early makeup, the pre-retcon costumes and props or that irritatingly smug expression that seamed to be permanently plastered all over Del Varner's face.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

that irritatingly smug expression that seamed to be permanently plastered all over Del Varner's face.

When has John Fleck ever played anyone who did NOT have an irritatingly smug expression? You can read it even when he played Silik...

 

[Christopher]

The addition of Franke's score alone constitutes a threefold improvement.

To each his own. I wasn't initially fond of Copeland's score for the pilot, since it was such a departure from the orchestral sound I was used to, but it was ten times better than Franke's tedious, whining, repetitive atmospherics. I mean, 70% of what Franke did was the same two "bong... bing..." notes over and over again. It got infuriating listening to those same two notes every week for five years. Compared to that, Copeland's pilot score is wonderful. It's got energy and imagination and variety.

 

[Candlelight]

The addition of Franke's score alone constitutes a threefold improvement. Other than that it's a matter of replacing a few of the creaky old establishing shots with newer ones, editing around the alien muppets and aforementioned Gorilla plus (along with numerous edits) the inclusion of a scene where Sinclair describes the Battle of the Line to Carolyn (complete with audio from "And the Sky Full of Stars") and Takashima's dialogue is restored to it's original state.
In short: much better.

There's also a hostage scene restored isn't there, starring the often-seen-in-season-one C&C tech Marrianne somebody?

What did they change with Takeshima's dialogue?

 

[Jan]

There's also a hostage scene restored isn't there, starring the often-seen-in-season-one C&C tech Marrianne somebody?

Yes, the dust smuggler in the Customs area took a woman hostage and Sinclair talked him down.

What did they change with Takeshima's dialogue?

WB thougth that her delivery was too strong and not 'likeable' enough so her entire performance was looped to a softer tone. Later on, they wanted the character replaced because she wasn't believable as a Commander which wouldn't have been the case if they'd left her performance alone.

Jan

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The addition of Franke's score alone constitutes a threefold improvement.

To each his own. I wasn't initially fond of Copeland's score for the pilot, since it was such a departure from the orchestral sound I was used to, but it was ten times better than Franke's tedious, whining, repetitive atmospherics. I mean, 70% of what Franke did was the same two "bong... bing..." notes over and over again. It got infuriating listening to those same two notes every week for five years. Compared to that, Copeland's pilot score is wonderful. It's got energy and imagination and variety.

Fo'sho. I've already stated many times my preference for Copeland's score over Franke's in the series proper. Put it simply: it was kinetic and different from the usual "sci-fi" soundtrack. The guitar riffs. It must be the guitar riffs.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, It's the riffs...mostly.

More of a tonal thing I suppose, as from a technical standpoint there's nothing "wrong" with the score, it just didn't suit the tone of B5 plus a lot of that "kinetic" feel was mismatched with what was, lets be honest, somewhat ponderous visuals. Imagine if someone re-scored '2001: A Space Odyssey' with thrash metal. An extreme example, but the effect of disparity (for me at least) would be pretty much the same.

Of course I realise that since I didn't see the pilot movie until well after seeing a good chunk of the series that I'm totally biased as to what the music should sound like. I just can't help that I don't like it, regardless of the reason.

 

[USS KG5]

I actually enjoyed LOTR when I saw it again, it was a fun little action piece, if one composed of recycled ideas and dialogue.

Well my principle problems would be: -

1. The "never retreat" macguffin makes no sense whatsoever, internally in the B5 universe or just plot-wise, just none. What kind of military force could survive with such a singularly daft doctrine? Even the Japanese retreated on and off!
2. The rest of the story is pretty silly as well.
3. The acting is generally pretty awful.
4. The incredibly silly weapons fired with martial arts crap. This is a great example of a concept that seemed cool when someone thought of it but really should have been dropped at pre-production.

I could go on...

It is a shame really as a Rangers based series could have been pretty good, but ultimately when the pilot shows this little potential (mysterious baddies in black ships, hmm) and this little originality, it is probably good we did not get a series.

Crusade had a lot more going for it and tanked after all!

 

[Jan]

Crusade had a lot more going for it and tanked after all!

It didn't tank. It was cancelled months before a single episode aired thanks to TNT's machinations.
Jan

 

[USS KG5]

Crusade had a lot more going for it and tanked after all!

It didn't tank. It was cancelled months before a single episode aired thanks to TNT's machinations.
Jan

I put everything JMS says these days through an extremely fine bullshit filter, and I think his intransigence over changes to his show caused as much trouble as the network's silly demands.

 

[Jan]

^^ Suffice to say that in reading JMS' posts in real time since 1996, I've independently verified what he's posted enough times that I generally believe what he says while allowing for a grain of salt for the natural tendency to portray oneself in a good light.

Without being there, we can't really know which of TNT's demands might have been reasonable or not but my likelihood of believing in TNT was vastly diminished by the memo brought to light by AICN (iirc), and *not* by JMS. This memo that JMS posted doesn't seem all that intransigent to me.

Lastly, upon first viewing Crusade, my impression of the black uniform episodes was that they were 'watered down', just not up to the standards I'd gotten used to in B5. That memo explained a lot of why that was to my mind and when the 'bellhop' uniform episodes came along I was much happier with the quality.

I have all of the drafts of all of the Crusade scripts that were published to the crew. At some point, perhaps when JMS does the Crusade script books, I'm hoping to do a comparison between all drafts of at least one episode to map the changes.

Jan

 

[Candlelight]

This memo that JMS posted doesn't seem all that intransigent to me.

JE-SUS. I work in TV and see memos like that all the time so I know what he's been through, but damn, that is more interferrence than I've experienced.

I have all of the drafts of all of the Crusade scripts that were published to the crew.

I hate you and love you all at the same time.

 

[Mr Light]

^ What do you do in television?

 

[Candlelight]

Used to do editing, camera, directing, now I work in the IT department (within the same company), although I still do hands on stuff from time to time.

http://www.nhnz.tv/home

Plus scriptwriting in my spare time.

Of which I have none, thanks to a 16-month-old daughter.