Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Page 2

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Well, I'd be happy if he just sent over a note, as long as it is hand-delivered by Claudia Christian, Mira Furlan, Pat Tallman and Andrea Thompson. Ok, he can send Melissa along as well. He can keep Burce.

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

thanks for all the info, Joe.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

BTW, the "$44 million" in sales mentioned in the press release is a bit of an "oopsie" according to JMS. The figure refers only to sales for last year (not sure if that is worldwide or U.S. domestic.) The cumulative world wide gross to date is closer to $500 million. Given that the fifth season was released over two years ago and the sets are now selling at or close to retail these days, $44 million for last year isn't half bad.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I figured that was the case, since $44M seemed too low for Warner to be excited enough to go back to production on the series (in some fashion). However, $44M for last year is outstanding when you consider that the sets were released between 2002-2004. Glad that the DVDs have been so successful. No more deserves his success more than JMS.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

B5 in HD media!

hopefully JMS puts Lost Tales out on HD =).

PS did anyone read "Book of Lost Souls" by JMS? v. interesting themes.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Unlikely for the foreseeable future. This is WB's first venture into direct-to-DVD and they obviously want to reach the broadest audience - that means SD DVD. This is a direct-to-disc sequel to a cult TV show. You try releasing something like that into a niche market like that for hi-def DVD and you'll sell twelve copies. (Hell, even I wouldn't buy one because I don't have a hi-def DVD player.) If a hi-def only release is out of the question, a dual- (or tri-) inventory release highly unlikely. Why multiply your production, packaging and distribution costs when launching a new and untested product? See how it does in SD first, you can always come back and do an HD version later.

I think JMS is shooting in HD for two reasons:

1) Why not? Everything is going to be HD someday anyway, who not future proof the show. That's exactly the thinking that led him to shoot B5 in Super35 and compose the show for widescreen when laserdisc was the state-of-the art for home video.

2) They're still going to want to find a broadcast network or cable channel to carry the The Lost Tales and new product is expected to be in HD.

If the discs do well enough and the installed base of HDTVs and hi-def DVD players continues to expand, I wouldn't be surprised to see WB start offering later discs in both SD and HD formats and probably reissue the earliest discs in HD versions.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Whoops! Duplicate post. Never mind. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Tallman? Furlan??!! Not very picky are ya?

--
H

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I like redheads.

Especially this one:



She looked pretty good in the pictures linked to here, too.

And Mira is irresistably cute, for a Minbari, when she crinkles her eyes in a certain way.





BTW, here's the latest from JMS:

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Great news about the jackets.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

lol. what was the thing about jackets?

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Well, as JMS said in his post, there were fans back in the day who said that Bruce had left B5 at the end of season 5 on such bad terms with JMS and Babylonian Productions that he had burned all the costume and/or cast & crew jackets that he had accumulated over the 5 years. Now a lot of folks involved in the show were disappointed when JMS stuck to his guns when it came to ending the show after five years. But there were no such temper tantrums as burning jackets, and Bruce never told anyone that they'd all been "fired" (another rumor that went around, mostly on the U.K. newsgroup, at the time.)

Of course, nobody who believes this crap is going to be convinced by photos of Bruce and JMS with the new jackets. They'll just cry "photoshop" or claim that the jackets were manufactured at Area 51 by agents of the NSA and the Illuminatti, then hand-delivered to Bruce in Canada by Karl Rove and George Soros. Excuse me, I have to go polish my tin-foil hat now.

Later,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

how many times do you revisit B5 joe? =^).

i really like the last 2 episodes. it stirs the same carnal feelings i have when i was at the end of Lord of the Rings. of course, it's no secret that JMS loves LOTR and references many LOTR concepts in B5 =^) (Za'Hadum, Khazadum)

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I've lost track of how many times I've watched the whole series in reruns. I've probably been through the full DVD set in order three or four times.

And what, guys? No love for Pat or Mira?

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

what'd you think of the 5 or 6 standalone movies outside of B5 series? while i appreciate them, i don't think they are on the caliber as s2 through the first half of s4 dealing with the end of shadow wars.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Plenty of love for Pat. I have a weakness for redheads. Her presence in "The Gathering" kept me interested in the series, then she didn't make the cast! I do like that JMS did eventually bring her back.

BTW, what is that picture from?

Course, that needs to be followed up by Claudia Christian goodness:





Jason

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I'm pretty sure that's the remake of Night of the Living Dead. JMS saw Pat in that film and decided that she had the kind of large, expressive eyes that a telepath would have, and basically wrote the part of Lyta with her in mind.

I'll post some more Claudia goodness when I get home.

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I just hope this series comes off better than Legend of the Rangers. I saw that when it aired and picked it up on release day, but it wasn't the best material from the show. Hopefully these will be more in line quality wise with In the Beginning.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Any word on Garabaldi, Jerry Doyle? I forget what happened to his character in the original series. If he was not killed, I suppose he too could make a comeback.
These days he's a right wing talk jock, but not as nasty as Rush, Sean Hannity, or O' Reiley. I always liked his worki in the series.
http://www.jerrydoyle.com/

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

... you mean bruce willis?

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Yeah!
Dat's da guy!
I used to confuse them a bit too .

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Rangers was a pilot, and it had the weaknesses of most pilots - too much exposition, studio and network pressures, budget problems. (The production people - a new crew recruited in Vancouver - underestimated the cost of the weapons system described in JMS's script. Neither Sci-Fi nor Warner Bros. would pick up the extra cost, because they were still haggling over the shape of the eventual series deal. What ended up on screen was a last-minute improvisation literally worked out on the sound stage after they took an inventory of what equipment was available on the spot.) Frankly, as pilots go, I thought Rangers was better than The Gathering, especially the first version.

I think the thing had potential, especially given JMS's fondess for messing with people's expectations. B5 wasn't the show it seemed from the pilot or the first dozen episodes, Crusade would have changed direction radically by the end of the first season and the plague story would have been set aside in season two, and whatever a Rangers series would have been you can bet it wouldn't have been what the pilot suggested, and that "The Hand" wouldn't have been what their minion claimed they were.

The Lost Tales is an extension of the original series, not an attempt to launch a new 5-year arc with a new cast of characters. It is true that they're going to have to redo some stuff from scratch, but the core group of people involved in the project either worked on B5 itself or with JMS on Jeremiah, so there is continuity.

Anyway, I have no worries in this respect.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

although... parts of me get a little nervous when messing with an already well made series.

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The original plan (as noted above) was to do three stories on the first disc: One with Sheridan on Minbar, one with Lochley on B5, and one with Garibaldi on Mars. But as they got into pre-production they decided that the CGI and other elements for the Mars segment would be a) too ambitious for the first disc and b) that what was created wouldn't offer as many opportunties for reuse as the B5 and Minbar stuff would. (All the ship models, interiors, uniforms etc. from B5 can be used in virtually every future story, and much of the Minbari stuff would come in handy not only for future stories set on Minbar but for Minbari personnel and ships visiting B5.) So they decided to bump the Garibaldi segment to disc 2 (assuming there is one) and expand the other two stories to fill the screen time (and budget) that would have gone into the third segment.

Doyle was reportedly ticked off when Warner Bros. withdrew their offer (evidently contracts had not yet been signed) but they really didn't have a choice. His segment is not being shot for disc one and no decision has been made on disc two at this point, so it isn't like they can offer him a contract for that right now. They'll probably wait until they see how disc one sells - or at least until post is finished and they see how it looks before they make a decision about going forward. (They'll probably also use the finished film to try to find a TV partner, and this will also affect both the decision about disc two and beyond and the timing and production schedules.)

I'm sure that when JMS is ready to do the Garibaldi story (for which the script has already been written) that he and Doyle will work something out - just as I'm pretty sure that Claudia Christian will come back if JMS offers her a good Ivanova story. Just because there wasn't one in the first batch of three doesn't mean there won't be on down the line. (In fact, JMS wrote a short story where Ivanova returns to B5 during season 5 to get Sheridan's advice on a problem - and meets Lochley during the visit. )

Oh. Speaking of Claudia...

And Andrea...

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Why? They aren't "messing" with it. The original series is a complete work unto itself. It is finished and complete. Nothing that is done in the future can "ruin" them. Someone once tried to commiserate with hardboiled noir crime writer James M. Cain (Double Indemity, The Postman Always Rings Twice) about how the movies had ruined his books. He pointed to a shelf of over 50 volumes, all of his novels in various editions and many foreign translations. "They aren't ruined," he said, "They're right there, same as always." So it is with the Connery Bond films, the original Star Wars trilogy - and Babylon 5. It doesn't matter what comes after. The original remains as great as it always was.

These are just some additional stories, some unexplored by-ways off the main track of the story. And since they're being overseen by JMS there is no chance that the series continuity is going to be arbitrarily thrown out by new guys looking to put their stamp on the franchise or who just decide they don't care what the fans think. (Not that anything like that has ever happened to a TV SF property. I'm just saying... )

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Joseph - is there any information anywhere that you can point to about how Crusade would have changed direction?

And those images ... interesting.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Lots of hints and comments scattered here and there, but nothing definitive. Since TLT may give JMS the option of getting at some of those story elements in a different form, he probably won't be too forthcoming about them, either.

The plague was never more than the McGuffin, though, the thing everybody starts out chasing, much like the mystery of the Minbari Surrender or Sinclair's missing 24 hours in season one of B5. They seemed terribly important at the time, but ultimately turned out to be footnotes to a much larger story. If B5 had ended after 13 episodes were shot, we probably would never have known that.

But there are a few things that are clear not only from JMS's scattered posts and interviews, but from the authorized B5 novels published by Del Rey (and based on outlines written by JMS.) Those elements do fall into the category of spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the novels, so I'm reluctant to go into them.

I'll say this much. By the end of S1 Gideon would have lain wounded, perhaps mortally, after discovering a secret EarthForce military project dedicated to reverse engineering and adapting Shadow technology. He also would have learned a secret about Galen and the Technomages that would have driven a wedge between them. Finally an apparent cure to the plague would be discovered. But after it was administered and the quarrantine lifted, the crew of the Excalibur (commaned by Gideon? I think so, but I'm not certain) would have discovered the cure wasn't really what it appeared to be. Probably another left over bit of Shadowtech (or the product of EarthForce's black projects) it would have a potentially worse effect than the deadly plague. The crew would have been declared renegades, would have stolen the ship, and would then be involved in a race to find the real solution to the crisis, hunted on all sides, forced into deals with various devils, but probably getting some covert (and plausibly deniable) help from John Sheridan and the Interstellar Alliance, and Capt. Elizabeth Lochley of Babylon 5. (Who would finally face the same crisis Sheridan did, the one she escaped during the run-up to the Earth Civil War - a blatantly illegal or immoral order which would force her to choose sides.)

I still hope this story gets told somehow, somewhere. Maybe TLT can open the door.

Anyway, if you go to www.jmsnews.net and do a text search on "cure", you'll get a lot of posts where he discusses the issue.


The one of Claudia was more "interesting", but I did a little editing to make it acceptable for boards with "no nudity" rules. The one of Andrea is from NYPD Blue.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

resident B5 expert

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Thanks for that explanation, Joe. Shame he never got to explore that at the time - but it will be interesting to see whether he does get to come back to it in TLT.