Niners Unite...around Babylon 5!

[OmahaStar]

A Distant Star - God's on the station! And so is Riff!

Sheridan's old friend, Captain Jack Maynard, brings the Cortez to the station. The Crotez is an explorer-class ship, and they are so rare a person is considered lucky to see a ship of its class twice in their lifetime.

Maynard has seen strange things out on the Rim, where they've been exploring and star-charting. One of those things is a large, black, shiny alien. This alien, whatever it may have been, is seen again in HyperSpace by StarFury pilot Lt. Keffer.

Another great D.C. Fontana script, and 3.5/5

Now, to the God/Riff thing ... At the time I first saw this episode, I did not know who Russ Tamblyn was. Russ played Maynard, aka "Stinky" in this episode. Decades earlier, he played Riff in the movie West Side Story (which was directed by ST:TMP helmer Robert Wise). He later co-starred with his daughter Amblyn in her show "Joan of Arcadia" playing the dog-walking God avatar.

Favorite line from this episode --

Susan: "Suddenly, I am the expanding Russian frontier!"
Stephen: "But with very nice borders!"

 

[OmahaStar]

OmahaStar said:

lvsxy808 said:

OmahaStar said:
...for those who don't know, Julie Caitlin-Brown had to leave the role because the Narn makeup was severely affecting her skin, so it was for medical reasons. ...

Ah-ha! Caught you out on one. You're mixing Julie up with Mary Woronov, who played Ko'Dath. Mary was the one who had medical and/or claustrophobic problems - Julie opted out of the role of Na'Toth to concentrate on leading lady roles rather than supporting heavy-makeup roles.

Sorry for the hit-and-run. I've been lurking, enjoying the read, but can't join in cuz I don't have the DVDs cuz i'm poor.

You're correct about Mary having claustrophobic problems , but Julie did leave because of the makeup having such severe reactions to her skin. I'll try to find the interview this weekend.

Here's part of one I found --

Sadly, Chrysalis was destined to be Brown's final visit to B5 as a Narn. At the end of the show's first season, the actress reluctantly decided not to renew her contract with the show, due largely to the practical problems of wearing Na'Toth's extensive prosthetics and red contact lenses.

"You have to wear an awful lot of makeup to play Na'Toth," she explains. "It is a very, very demanding role. You're working 15 to 18 hours a day and you can't breathe. There were times when I couldn't see where I was going, because of the contact lenses - it was all just a red fuzz. And I lost so much weight working on the show, because I sweated it all away underneath that costume! So the makeup was probably the biggest deterrent for me; I couldn't sign on and say, 'Yes, I'll do this for 13 episodes for another four years'.

"I loved the character, and I truly cried when I turned the part down. I was sobbing. I remember calling my mother and telling her, 'I don't know what to do. This is one of the best-written characters I've ever come across. She's going to have a lot to do, but I just don't feel right.' She then advised me not to do it. But it was still a hard decision to make. I was honestly sobbing when I had to turn it down."

From here

This is from: "Na'Toth, Naturally", an interview with Caitlin Brown by David Basson. -- Published in Babylon 5, the official monthly magazine, #3, November 1997

Another thing I never knew was Julie wasn't the first Na'Toth.

When the weekly series of B5 originally entered production in the summer of 1993, Mary Wornov (of Eating Raoul fame) was set to play Ambassador G'Kar's (Andreas Katsulas) regular assistant, Ko'Dath. Although Wornov made her debut as Ko'Dath in the first season's third instalment, Born to the Purple, she later decided that she could not face the make-up process again and left the series. In response to Wornov's departure, series creator and executive producer J. Michael Straczynski created a second Narn diplomatic attache, Na'Toth, played by Susan Kellerman. Unfortunately on her first morning of filming Na'Toth's introductory episode, Parliament of Dreams, Kellerman suffered a bout of claustrophobia and decided to quit, leaving the show's producers with an unexpected gap on their call sheet.

 

[OmahaStar]

The Long Dark

Long before Earth had a First Contact with the Centauri, they sent out explorer ships in search of aliens in the galaxy. These ships were each inhabited by a crew in cryogenic sleeper chambers.

One of those ships, the Copernicus, has now arrived at Babylon 5. Inside is Mariah Cirrus, who is awoken from her sleep by the crew of the space station. We soon discover that an alien creature has been feeding on her. It is not disimilar to a space vampire.

This same creature, 12 years earlier, destroyed a colony of GROPOS (Ground Pounders), leaving only one person still alive, Amis. And now Amis is on the station, going bonkers because he can feel this vampire nearby.

Franklin, in an episode where he is completely out of character for almost all the time he's onscreen, is hitting on the newly-widowed Cirrus. She has been inside cryo for well over 100 years. When she went in, the only life she knew involved her husband, who was in cryo next to her (and killed by the creature). To her, only the day before, her husband was alive and well, and now Franklin is trying to force himself onto her.

It seemed like he was just waiting for her to go back to sleep so he could take advantage of her. Completely and utterly out of character.

Now, I like the actress who plays Cirrus. Anne Marie Johnson played Mrs. Tibbs in the series In the Heat of the Night, a series I watched growing up. I loved her there, so of course it carries through to this. She's always great, as is Dwight Schultz, who puts in an insane performance as the former GROPOS, Amis.

Overall 2/5

 

[OmahaStar]

A Spider in the Web

Wow .. Loved this episode ... While others will do regular reviews of it, I'll talk about other things.

First, San Diego was shown as destroyed in this episode. Why? Well, it seems jms was mugged in San Diego years earlier, and he destroyed the city in repayment. The lesson here is to not cross jms.

Adrienne Barbeau, who is perhaps most widely known for playing daughter Carol on the 1970s series Maude, appears as former Free Mars member Amanda Carter. Adrienne also appeared in one of the Swamp Thing movies, as well as playing Sen. Creetak in DS9.

This is Jeff Conaway's first appearance as Zack Allen. Jeff campaigned for a role on the series because he watched it at home during the first season and wanted to be part of it. It paid off, since he became a series regular after this.

Bureau 13 was intended to become an ongoing plot in the series. However, after production was completed, they discovered a game out there with the same title existed, and so they were forced to drop it entirely. Years later, the producers of DS9 came up with the similarly-named group Section 31, which seemed to be a clone of 13.

And finally, Michael Bell, who plays Abel Horn here, and dies at the end of the episode, returns to the B5 universe in another role later in the series Crusade.

4/5 stars ... Up next, my favorite non-arc episode of the series, "Soul Mates"

 

[OmahaStar]

Rangers

This is a heads up for those in Region 1 who have seen the series already ... The last movie, Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in StarLight will be released tomorrow on dvd. There are *no* extras listed, not even a trailer, nor is there a commentary.

This is for Region 1 (US and Canada) ... Apparently, the rest of the world has had it since at least October of last year.

For those who have not been through the series before, don't watch this yet. It is set a few years after the end of the fifth season proper, and before the "Crusade" series starts.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: Rangers

Is there anyone else still participating, besides Vash, Gul Dukat, and me?

What's the hold up?

 

[Lindley]

Re: Rangers

I drop comments now and then, but I'm afraid I've gotten a bit ahead of the pack.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Re: Rangers

Actually, I'm behind in my reviews myself.

I've watched the episodes, but I've not posted about a few of them I've watched. Been a bit busy lately - had some business associates from Japan in town and was entertaining them for several days in the evenings, which is the only time I can watch episodes or get on TrekBBS.

But yeah, we need to check and see who is still here. Because if people are dropping out, then we need to come up with a new plan.

 

[Calhoun24]

Re: Rangers

Just finished seeing the First Season.

It did start off slow, but I like the fact that Sinclair is willing to defend the people of B5, even if it means firing upon a ship within his own military organization. I've never seen that before in Science Fiction.

I was sort of getting tired of the russian references that Ivanova was saying, but I think that was sort of the intent. (And I finally know what the "Ivanova is God" bit is all about.)

Not much else from the rest of the cast, but I do like the fact that they are preparing for an inevitable confrontation. The last episodes are evidence that this series, although slow at first, are just setting up the story for the plot payoffs later on.

Not bad at all...

Can't wait to crack open Season 2.

 

[Orac Zen]

Re: Rangers

OmahaStar said:
What's the hold up?

A rather busy offline life.


I'll try to get this week's episodes watched and commented on in the next few days.

 

[Gul Dukat]

Re: Rangers

I too have gotten rather far ahead. Remember, this is all new to me, and I want to know what happens next!

I just watched "Confessions and Lamentations" this morning. It kind of sucked, but I LOVED "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum." Best episode of the series so far. I'll get to the next 3 responses in a day or so. I didn't like them too much, so it's hard to get motivated.

 

[Gul Dukat]

Re: Rangers

A Distant Star

This may have been because I was a bit sleepy when viewing this ep., but I found it very boring. The bit about dieting while the scheming doctor spied on them seemed to have come from a sitcom. I wasn't very engaged in the plight of the lost ship because I was still trying to figure out what jumpgates/hyperspace actually are. There were remarks in previous episodes (I believe ep. 201) to a ship being "X jumps away."
But if these jumpgates are entrances to another dimension, and not artificial wormholes, as I had previously assumed, why would it take more than one jump? Just go from one exit to another.
Plus, though I could be wrong, the subplot about the Shadow ship seemed like they were just shoehorning in an "arc reference." Wow! They have jumpgates too! Big suprise.

The Long Dark

Well, it was better than TNG's "The Neutral Zone." It was a bit of a combination of that ep., "Skin of Evil" and that one where Keiko, Data, and Troi were possessed by alien spirits. Another loser of an episode. It was simply boring because I had seen this story told so many times in sci-fi, and it really isn't that good to warrant it. Like the last episode, the revelation that the ship was bound for Z'Ha'Dum seemed like an afterthought.
Also, Sheridan's a master of tactics. "Our PPG's don't hurt it! Let's shoot it more!" The fact that it worked is even sillier.

A Spider in the Web

Ah, I needed this one. While I still dislike the Talia character, this episode had some gold. Given my location I found the decimated San Diego a hoot (Is that the wrong reaction? Who cares), and I loved the idea of secret programs subverting B5 built into its computers, like when the Lazurus accessed the terminal with a code that seemed to activate a worm or another dormant program.
Plus, I like the bit about Sheridan collecting conspiracies. Though I may be wrong, I believe this was the episode where Sheridan stopped grinning like an idiot at every frakking thing.
In retrospect, while this episode is solid, I think it seems better because of the dreck that preceded it. Thankfully, things get a LOT better very soon.

 

[BigFoot]

Re: Rangers

PKTrekGirl said:
But yeah, we need to check and see who is still here. Because if people are dropping out, then we need to come up with a new plan.

I'm still here and right on schedule. I'm also reading the thread, I just don't usually post unless I have something meaningful to add to the discussion.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: Rangers

BigFoot said:

PKTrekGirl said:
But yeah, we need to check and see who is still here. Because if people are dropping out, then we need to come up with a new plan.

I'm still here and right on schedule. I'm also reading the thread, I just don't usually post unless I have something meaningful to add to the discussion.

When has that ever stopped someone in this place?

 

[Jan]

Re: Rangers

I'm here! I suddenly have gone from way behind to way ahead. I'll try to pay more attention to which episodes are scheduled for the week and post.

Jan

 

[Kira Nerys]

A distant star

I like this ep the thinly veiled refrences to the shadows the good build up continues.

The Long Dark
Nice halloween style ep on B5 and Doc Franklin gets a romance not much to say for this one either A plus.


A spider in the web
I liked all the Talia centered episodes too bad the actress decided to leave at the end could have been a great storyline .The introduction of Bureau 13 one of the best losses of season two .The destruction of San Diego and it being a wasteland I wish more of a background story could have been done more for this one.Triple A plus

 

[BigFoot]

Hey, I just I'd let everyone in here know that Amazon.com is selling all five season of B5 on DVD for $44.99 each. So I just ordered S1 and S5 which are still missing from my collection. Not bad considering just a few days the sets were selling for more then $80.

 

[OmahaStar]

OmahaStar said:
A Distant Star - God's on the station! And so is Riff!

Now, to the God/Riff thing ... At the time I first saw this episode, I did not know who Russ Tamblyn was. Russ played Maynard, aka "Stinky" in this episode. Decades earlier, he played Riff in the movie West Side Story (which was directed by ST:TMP helmer Robert Wise). He later co-starred with his daughter Amblyn in her show "Joan of Arcadia" playing the dog-walking God avatar.

I realize now I didn't say anything about this before, so I'm adding it in now ...

Russ Tamblyn - Captain Maynard in this episode - was Riff, one of the Jetts in the movie West Side Story.

3 years or so ago, Russ was here in town for the Omaha Film Event, a yearly event hosted by film historian Bruce Crawford. Before the movie presentation, he did a talk about the filming of the movie (in the opening dance number, there's a part where the group gets to the corner, then the point of view changes and they head around the corner. Those two scenes were filmed exactly 1 year apart, and in different states!).

Also there was Marnie Nixon, who was the singing voice for Natalie Wood's character, as well as Grandma Fa in the movie Mulan (and hundreds of other parts).

The night before the presentation, there was a small, intimate "meet and mingle" with those two. I was able to talk with Russ for over 20 minutes, about his stint on the series, and how he was a huge fan of the series, never missing an episode. He had every episode on tape (this was before the dvd release), and said he always wished he could have been brought back, but realized with the whole "explorer ship" concept, it wasn't going to happen.

He also loved that he was remembered for it, since "everybody" only remembers him as Riff. He was very nice, very charming, warm, and just plain friendly.

He's also a great singer.

I brought my friend Steve (who is also a total Fiver, and a musician too) along ... They had a piano, and someone had brought sheet music. Well, Marnie asked if anyone played, and Steve does ... so he did. I'll never forget having Steve sitting there playing the piano, with Marie and Russ singing music from West Side Story ... A great time was had by all.

Ah, memories.

 

[Lindley]

Re: Rangers

Gul Dukat said:
A Distant Star

This may have been because I was a bit sleepy when viewing this ep., but I found it very boring. The bit about dieting while the scheming doctor spied on them seemed to have come from a sitcom. I wasn't very engaged in the plight of the lost ship because I was still trying to figure out what jumpgates/hyperspace actually are. There were remarks in previous episodes (I believe ep. 201) to a ship being "X jumps away."
But if these jumpgates are entrances to another dimension, and not artificial wormholes, as I had previously assumed, why would it take more than one jump? Just go from one exit to another.

Warships and other "special purpose" ships can do that. Commercial vessels keep to the well-travelled trade routes, which includes periodic exits from hyperspace.

The references to "lock-on signals" in this episode should give you some idea of the setup; you can't navigate normally in hyperspace, so the only way to get anywhere is to lock on to the beacon of a jumpgate in the direction you want to go, fly to it, and then pick another jumpgate and head towards that one. Most commercial ships drop out of hyperspace at each of these Gates, since they're there anyway.

Plus, though I could be wrong, the subplot about the Shadow ship seemed like they were just shoehorning in an "arc reference." Wow! They have jumpgates too! Big suprise.

That will become important to a later storyline in the season.

Also, Sheridan's a master of tactics. "Our PPG's don't hurt it! Let's shoot it more!" The fact that it worked is even sillier.

Let's just say it doesn't always work.

A Spider in the Web

Ah, I needed this one. While I still dislike the Talia character, this episode had some gold. Given my location I found the decimated San Diego a hoot (Is that the wrong reaction? Who cares), and I loved the idea of secret programs subverting B5 built into its computers, like when the Lazurus accessed the terminal with a code that seemed to activate a worm or another dormant program.
Plus, I like the bit about Sheridan collecting conspiracies. Though I may be wrong, I believe this was the episode where Sheridan stopped grinning like an idiot at every frakking thing.
In retrospect, while this episode is solid, I think it seems better because of the dreck that preceded it. Thankfully, things get a LOT better very soon.

It's unfortunate that they had to drop the Bureau 13 storyline as a seperate entity; it essentially was rolled into the PsiCorps storyline later on.

 

[Autobot]

Re: Rangers

OmahaStar said:
Is there anyone else still participating, besides Vash, Gul Dukat, and me?

What's the hold up?

I'm looking forward to getting involved in this discussion. I was unaware of this group of Niners watching B5 until about a month ago, and have been eagerly trying to catch up so that I can participate too! I guess you could say I'm a Niner, and I am now watching Babylon 5 for the first time. Thanks for the great work on hiding spoilers, by the way!! I was aware of the program when it was on, but because I understood the storyline was quite continuous, I chose not to watch it at the time. But I was aware of a few plot items and cast changes throughout its run.

I have enjoyed reading all the past comments and reviews so far for season 1. (What happened to reporting on events of the episode by Jane the anchorwoman?) I especially like the little things that may escape my viewing, or have been forgotten already by my faulty memory circuits.

My thoughts so far on the series: After I had seen the first 8 episodes, I wasn't too thrilled with continuing on. But in a separate thread, Omahastar (I believe) told me to keep going! I had found the acting very poor up to then. Talia Winters -- the less the better. And Sinclair's wasn't great either. And pretty much any secondary-character who has a speaking role! I am enjoying the appearance so far of John Sheridan, played by Bruce Boxleitner, I much prefer him and his acting to that of Michael O'Hare.

Does anybody know what precipitated this change in leads on the show? Do we know if it was already predestined by JMS with this whole prophecy storyline, or was it needed for ratings purposes, to shake up the show for the better?

Looking forward watching A Distant Star, Long Dark, and Spider in the Web this week!