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

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Okay, let's make it: Wednesday, March 28
at 9:00pm EDT. We can set that as the gathering time, with an eye towards starting the episode at 7:15pm to give folks a bit of time.

Does that sound reasonable? The time is pretty random. Whatever works for the most people

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Hirogen Alpha said:
And it makes me wonder if Sakai would have been the one to disappear at Zh’ha’dum only to reappear instead of Anne Sheridan in season three had Sinclair stuck around.

Not sure if JMS has ever addressed that explicitly, but I think that's what pretty much everyone assumes. Not only that, but that before Sakai, it would have been Carolyn Sykes from the "The Gathering". It's been a long time since I watched "The Gathering" or Season 1, but didn't both Sykes and Sakai pilot explorer ships? They seem like prime candidates for finding Z'ha'dum.

(Carolyn Sykes / Catherine Sakai? JMS likes to reuse many of the same letters of the alphabet when coming up with similar characters.)

Also, maybe Jan can answer this, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the original treatment for the series, written way back when JMS was still shopping the series around to networks, had Laurel Chang (who would eventually be renamed "Takashima", as in "The Gathering") being the one who would a love interest who was an explorer (and so maybe was originally supposed to be the one to find Z'ha'dum). Not sure if I'm remembering that correctly though.

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Well.... hopefully in a few months we'll have that 15th volume scriptbook to relate in detail the original story.... which ought to answer the questions you guys have posted.

 

[Lindley]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

There are some nice moments of continuity when Garibaldi and Lise eat in the Fresh Air Restaurant concerning Sakai—she disappeared over a year ago. Right around the time Sinclair became Valen. Is that dealt with in the comics or the books?

To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which follows Sinclair, Sakai, and Marcus through 2259.

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Neroon said:
Well.... hopefully in a few months we'll have that 15th volume scriptbook to relate in detail the original story.... which ought to answer the questions you guys have posted.

Except.....is there such a thing as "the original story"? JMS first came up with the idea of Babylon 5 in (I think) 1986. He was shopping it around to different studios by 1988, and Warner Bros. picked it up as a pilot in (again, I think, not 100% sure on the date) 1991, with the filming of "The Gathering" taking place in 1992 for broadcast in 1993. We know for a fact that certain story elements changed during those years before "The Gathering". Is "the original story" the story that existed in 1986, or the story that existed at the time "The Gathering" was filmed? Because Script Book 15 is supposed to have JMS's outline of the 5-year arc, written after filming was complete on "The Gathering". It's unclear that we'll ever get a complete list of all the different story permutations that existed in JMS's head even before "The Gathering" was written.

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Maybe we won't, but for now I will take whatever I can get. I do have the original pitch for the series, but I'm still interested in what we get in Vol 15.

 

[Jan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Neroon, have you picked up all of the volumes so far? Because if you have, I think you'll already see how JMS managed to keep going in the same direction even though the individual paths changed with circumstances.

Babylon5Scripts.com says this about the arc breakdown that will be in Volume 15:

» BREAKDOWN OF THE ENTIRE 5-YEAR STORY ARC WITH SINCLAIR
“For over ten years, fans have asked “What would Babylon 5 have been like had Sinclair stayed?” After we finished the movie, but before we got the series going, WB asked to see a breakdown on this five-year arc thingie. So I wrote a six or seven page, single spaced outline of the entire five years with Sinclair still in place. The document makes for fascinating reading when compared with the series as it developed. Not only that, but the same document has a brief outline for A POTENTIAL BABYLON 5 SEQUEL SERIES, which would have been entitled BABYLON PRIME.”

Interestingly, in the latest volume, #10, JMS included some notes about a spinoff series called "Babylon 5: Rangers" which is substantially different from "Crusade". If that series had happened, Season Five would have been profoundly different.

As JMS has said in the past, his whole purpose is to explain the process of writing and making TV and he's very good at it.

Jan

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

I do have all of the volumes released so far, that is up through vol 10. What I was looking for here was a simple, succinct explanation of the original outline, contained in one place.

 

[Mal]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Neroon said:
Okay, let's make it: Wednesday, March 28
at 9:00pm EDT. We can set that as the gathering time, with an eye towards starting the episode at 9:15pm

Wedneday March 28, 2007 at 9pm eastern time, 6 pacific.


count me in.

:thumbsup:

 

[The Habs Fan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

War Zone
Here begins Crusade. I liked this episode, but it had many problems, the biggest one being exposition. There was a little too much Exposition for my taste, but from what I gather from reading The Lurker's Guide, TNT specifically requested it have exposition-heavy dialogue. I like all the characters so far. The ones we saw the most of this episode were Gideon, Matheson, and Max Eilerson. All of them were very good in this episode. I especially like Matheson, who is a telepath, yet he's acting like a normal guy. What a nice change from Talia, Lyta, Bester, and Byron. Granted, he may have some quirks that show up in future episodes, but for right now, I like the way his character is. Eilerson surprised me as I thought he was just a one-off guest shot, not one of the main characters. Gideon seems to be a good Captain. Overall, despite it being a basic introductory episode, I still liked it and I'm looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Racing The Night
This is another good episode, hampered only by some cheesy SFX (specifically Galen's hologram. Poor old humunculus ). Not all the SFX was bad, particularly the space sequences. But I would have really liked to see this episode with a budget like Voyager's. After War Zone, the character introductions in this episode seem a little redundant, but JMS didn't want to write War Zone in the first place, so I can't hold that against this episode. I really liked all the characters again, particularly Galen. I like his superior attitude. Is he the Kosh of Crusade? Knows everything but says nothing? I also like the character conflicts that are already present. The one that has come to the forefront so far is Gideon and Eilerson. That will probably have some interesting results down the road. And the end with Gideon consulting his little box of horrors was very interesting. Is that some kind of Shadow technology? But why would he be consulting the Shadows to stop a plague of their making? Hopefully I find out that answer sometime in the next 11 episodes.

 

[Lindley]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

The box did seem to be of First One origin, but I don't recall any indications it was directly linked to the Shadows.

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

One thing I do know is that the voice of the Apocalypse box was eventually to end up being that of Capt. Gideon... which makes it all the more mysterious.

It's also possible that this was of Vorlon origin,, when you thin about it. Puzzling in its answers, never letting you in on all it knows. Even it's appearance looks organic and not unlike that of a Vorlon ship. Problem is that it was elusive where Galen was concerned..... but that's another story.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Lindley said:
The box did seem to be of First One origin, but I don't recall any indications it was directly linked to the Shadows.

I just automatically assumed the worse.

 

[Mal]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

the box seemed to take hold of the owner - like a drakh keeper. remember how happy the guy who lost it to gideon was? "i'm free!!!!!"

and then he died.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Jan said:

Interestingly, in the latest volume, #10, JMS included some notes about a spinoff series called "Babylon 5: Rangers" which is substantially different from "Crusade". If that series had happened, Season Five would have been profoundly different.

As JMS has said in the past, his whole purpose is to explain the process of writing and making TV and he's very good at it.

Jan

I'm planning on getting volume 10 but is there more detail you can spell out on this other spin-off?

 

[The Habs Fan]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

The Memory of War
I didn;t like this episode as much as I should have. It was good, but many things were confusing. Especially the whole action packed ending. I don't know if there were scenes cut out or what, but I was pretty confused with the final act. Forget about what I said earlier about Galen being this series' Kosh. I've changed my mind: Galen is Gandalf. That is who he's been reminding me of. We get another scene of the Apocalypse Box at the end, and this time it says to "don't trust Galen". I doubt a Vorlon box would say that, unless Galen was bad.

The Needs Of Earth
It's nice to see that pornography is still alive and well in the Babylon 5 universe. Who's my little Pak'ma'ra . Eilerson is one sick man. He's also quickly becoming my favourire character on Crusade. I like his superior attitude and his relationships with the other characters. This episode was very interesting, and had some great character moments for Matheson and Dureena Nafeel.

Voices From Down The Street
This episode, from the first time we see the tie-wearing aliens, to the alien puffing on a cigarette, I was laughing. This was obviously an X-Files spoof, and a pretty good one. The only negative aspect of this episode is it's 100% standalone.

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

And you thought you knew what that Pak'ma'ra hump was...

 

[Neroon]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

Incidentally..... I could use some additional help in filling out a survey for a B5 oriented game at an upcoming convention. It's a take-off of the "Family Feud" format, and it's called "Drazi Wars II"... because it's the second time we've had this particular version. The survey is very simple and straight-forward. Once I get the results compiled, I'll post them here for laughs. You'd be surprised at some of the answers I've already received.

Just PM me if you're interested. I don't want to take up space in the thread for something purely personal like this. I can email the survey or send it to you as a PM.

 

[chrisspringob]

Re: First time impressions from the Babylon 5 virgin

middyseafort said:

Jan said:

Interestingly, in the latest volume, #10, JMS included some notes about a spinoff series called "Babylon 5: Rangers" which is substantially different from "Crusade". If that series had happened, Season Five would have been profoundly different.

As JMS has said in the past, his whole purpose is to explain the process of writing and making TV and he's very good at it.

Jan

I'm planning on getting volume 10 but is there more detail you can spell out on this other spin-off?

I explain it all in detail in a separate thread in the Gen SF forum:

link