Niners Unite...around Babylon 5! - The Continuing Arc

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Hirogen Alpha said:
Are there summaries of those unfilmed scripts somewhere on the internet? Or should I just wait until the eventual script book release?

worldsofjms.com has reviews of the unfilmed scripts that includes some synopsizing, but it doesn't include that many details. The ideal solution is to wait until the script books come out, so you can read the scripts yourself, but that only works if you have the patience for that. If you're really eager to find out what happens, either myself or someone else who's read the scripts could give you a synopsis.

Oh, and if you intend to read the Technomage novel trilogy, I would avoid reading any synopsis of the script for "The End of the Line" (which was intended to be the Crusade Season 1 finale) until after you've done so. There's a big revelation about the Technomages that's made both in End of the Line and in the Technomage books, and it's a lot better to read that revelation either in the novels or in the End of the Line script than it is to just have someone tell you about it.

 

[Harvey]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

^^
I'll definitely be reading the Technomage books, but not until after the upcoming semester is over. I'll finish Crusade and hopefully book two of the Psi Corp Trilogy this week, but book three of the Psi Corp Trilogy, In the Beginning (which I've seen once, but not during this go-around) and the Technomage Trilogy will have to wait until December. Which works for me. Some B5 material to work through while I await word on further Lost Tales (fingers crossed).

So, I guess I won't be asking about those unfilmed scripts for a while then. But I will be offering short season by season write-ups that Neroon asked for a while back, probably after The Lost Tales live commentary on Thursday.

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Hirogen Alpha said:
Are there summaries of those unfilmed scripts somewhere on the internet? Or should I just wait until the eventual script book release?

Worlds of JMS has some good reviews that give some hints but they're not real synopses.

Jan

 

[Harvey]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

^^
Thanks for the link Jan.
-
Two down, one to go. This is almost it for my great Babylon 5 re-watch of '07. It's been a lot of fun. Can't wait for the live commentary.

"Patters of the Soul"

I liked this episode, though I didn't love it. The idea that Earth could still be trying to cover up past mistakes, even on the brink of death is an interesting one. It would have been interesting to see it revisited later in the series.

Dureena's people on the planet with one year to live give here some added motivation in finding a cure to the plague. It would have been interesting to see that played out, too.

And the end of this episode starts to offer a closer glimpse at Max--mainly, that he's not a complete asshole. This is something further developed in the next episode, but of course, it would have been interesting to see that played out over the course of a series, too (seeing a common theme yet?).

The cast is pretty good, too. Who knew that the alien bounty hunter from the X-Files could act? And a young Jubilee Early is fun, too (though Gideon sure convinces him to back down awful quick). Some parts aren't paced as well as they should, but it's still a pretty good episode. And it looks like Gideon's gambling has helped him out on a number of occasions. I wonder if we would have seen that cause trouble later in the series? Also, I wonder if we would have discovered the identity of his passcode source? If only it had lasted longer...

Grade: B+

"The Rules of the Game"

I've heard this mentioned as one of the lesser episodes of the series. Personally, I don't see it. "Visitors from Down the Street," "The Needs of Earth," and "The Well of Forever" were all lesser episodes (IMO). This one has some nice development for Gideon, Lochley, and Max. Plus, we get to see the inside of Babylon 5 (in full, populated form) one last time. I wish we could have seen Lochley/Gideon developed further (they have great chemistry here--surprisingly, I've really liked Lochley's character in her three Crusade episodes, and I hated, HATED her on Babylon 5).

Grade: A

Just one more to go.

 

[Lindley]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

The scripts can be found, although I don't think they're supposed to be available anymore.

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

They were available online at a website from which it was impossible to cut and paste, but someone actually typed them out word for word, and starting sending them around on various message boards. JMS then made it very clear that he didn't approve of the scripts being distributed like that and asked everyone to stop. Of course, it didn't completely stop....it just got driven underground.

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

I've seen some of those pirated ones and most of them are horrible. Bad formatting, one of them only had dialogue and no scene descriptions or stage directions. Blech.

Jan

 

[Elwin Ransom]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

I've heard several people mention a possible release of these scripts in a future script-book. Is this just speculation, or are there concrete plans? And if so, which scripts would be included?

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Not speculation. JMS has said that he plans to release his scripts for Crusade following the 14 volume B5 set. He's also said that at some point he plans on checking with the writers of the rest of the episodes about possibly publishing their scripts andy paying them ryoalties for them, too.

Jan

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Yeah, just to be clear, of the three unproduced Crusade scripts, two are written by JMS and one is written by Fiona Avery. So the two JMS ones will almost certainly be included in the future Crusade script book(s), but the Fiona Avery script would have to be approved by her, as Jan suggested.

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

BTW, JMS also said that he plans to include some of his notes on where the series would have gone in the Crusade script books, too.

Jan

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Also, JMS has indicated that he will use the Crusade script books to explain what would have happened with the rest of the Crusade arc:
link

Q:
> I haven't really been following the script books (due to monetary
> constraints on my part) but with all the recent Mongoose controversy, I
> was wondering if the eventual Crusade script book(s) will cover your
> thoughts on where Crusade would have gone beyond what we saw. Their
> books aside, was there a plan to tell us what *you* had planned for it
> or would that remain in your head only? I for one would love to read
> what was to come and might even pick them up to find out...
>

JMS:
I haven't written that intro yet, but my sense is that yeah, I will go
into some of the detail on that aspect of it. There's certainly
nothing to be lost by doing so, and I think people will find it
interesting...because the show as it would have eventually morphed
resembled the show that began almost not at all.

My request:

Those of us who've read the unproduced scripts and some of JMS's comments on the issue over the years have some idea of what JMS is talking about when he talks about the show changing significantly, but let's not talk about that here (unless we use spoiler code) because it could ruin surprises for Hirogen Alpha or anyone else who hasn't yet read the unproduced scripts and/or the Technomage books.

Edit: Jan beats me to the punch, but I provided the exact quotes from JMS, so that's why my post took longer to compose.

 

[Mal]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Lindley said:
The scripts can be found, although I don't think they're supposed to be available anymore.

they can be found.

the three Crusade episodes were called:

"To the Ends of the Earth"
"Value Judgements"
"End of the Line"


trust in the google. the google is good

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Jan said:
Not speculation. JMS has said that he plans to release his scripts for Crusade following the 14 volume B5 set. He's also said that at some point he plans on checking with the writers of the rest of the episodes about possibly publishing their scripts andy paying them ryoalties for them, too.

Hi Jan - forgive me for not being up to speed here (surprise ), but are there supposed to be MORE of these Lost Tales?

I just got the DVD the other day and am so excited about new B5. If you tell me there is 14 of them planned, that would make my week!

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

I'm not Jan, but I think I can answer:

JMS wants to do more of them, but WB has not yet greenlit any more of them. However, JMS has said that WB will decide on future installments based on sales for the first one, and their *expectation* (based on how well the regular series sold on DVD) is that sales will turn out to be good enough to justify making more.....but nothing official has been announced yet.

 

[Elwin Ransom]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Mal said:

Lindley said:
The scripts can be found, although I don't think they're supposed to be available anymore. [/quote

they can be found.

the three Crusade episodes were called:

"To the Ends of the Earth"
"Value Judgements"
"End of the Line"


trust in the google. the google is good

I've tried Google; no luck. Either they've gone away, or my search terms weren't up to snuff. Anyhoo, probably better off waiting for the script-book. Especially if the ones still available were badly re-typed by people who couldn't copy/paste from the site where they used to be.

 

[Mal]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

PKTrekGirl said:

Jan said:
Not speculation. JMS has said that he plans to release his scripts for Crusade following the 14 volume B5 set. He's also said that at some point he plans on checking with the writers of the rest of the episodes about possibly publishing their scripts andy paying them ryoalties for them, too.

Hi Jan - forgive me for not being up to speed here (surprise ), but are there supposed to be MORE of these Lost Tales?

I just got the DVD the other day and am so excited about new B5. If you tell me there is 14 of them planned, that would make my week!

i think there are 14 volumes of B5 script books, not 14 DVDs of The Lost Tales. sorry.

other than that, what chrissprinob said.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

chrisspringob said:
I'm not Jan, but I think I can answer:

JMS wants to do more of them, but WB has not yet greenlit any more of them. However, JMS has said that WB will decide on future installments based on sales for the first one, and their *expectation* (based on how well the regular series sold on DVD) is that sales will turn out to be good enough to justify making more.....but nothing official has been announced yet.

Well, that is good news - that he wants to make more of them. I think there are alot of good, untold stories in the B5 verse. Hope he gets a chance to tell more of them!

Thanks for your response!

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

There are some synopses of the unfilmed scripts that are *slightly* more detailed than what you can find at worldsofjms here:

http://users.chartertn.net/xrae/crusade1.htm

But it still only amounts to about 1 or 2 long paragraphs to explain each script. Hits all the major plot points though.

Also, just for nostalgia, here's what the bookface site looked like, though you can't access the scripts anymore:

http://www.abreckner.com/bookface/

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

If I hear anything I'll be sure to post it here. In the last few days I've been seeing more and more fans wondering what more they can do to encourage WB to greenlight more Lost Tales. If there's anything on that I'll post also.

Right now the moderated newsgroup where JMS posts is down because the server is being moved but hopefully if he hears anything he'll post there once it's back up.

Jan