Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Page 3

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

JMS and Fiona Avery made three unfilmed Crusade scripts available on a supposedly download-proof website (Bookface.com) that later went out of business. They were free to read, and I still remember them vividly. When it was announced that the site was coming down, some enterprising fans managed to archive the scripts by the simple expedient of doing screen grabs of the page graphics and then running them through an OCR program and manually correcting them in Word. They circulated as *.doc files on the web and via e-mail briefly until JMS politely but firmly asked that fans stop passing them around.

I suspect that JMS's two, at least, will be included when he gets around to publishing his scripts from the series. (I'm hoping the success of the B5 scriptbooks will convince some of the other writers to take a stab a publishing through CafePress.)

The first JMS episode was a story from a little past the mid-point of the season. (The 13 existing episodes were not intended to air as the first 13. There were unfilmed episodes that would have taken place in between them.) In it Gideon discovers that the mystery ship that destroyed the Cerberus and killed everyone aboard except him is still out there - and that while he loses its trail, he may have discovered a way to detect it the next time he's close.

A few episodes later the crew would have encountered fugitive war criminal Alfred Bester, tried and conviicted in absentia for his actions in the Telepath War. Wanted by both EarthGov and the Interstellar Alliance (not to mention a certain vengeful billionaire named Garibaldi) Bester has stayed one step ahead of everybody. Now he is the only chance Gideon has of getting past a psychic lock that guards an alien vault that may contain a cure to the plague. Would bring a genocidal maniac to justice, or give him up for the chance of saving every living creature on Earth?

Finally there was JMS's season finale in which Gideon finds that mystery ship and tracks it to its base - where he learns that it was an EarrthForce experiment gone bad, and the destruction of Cerberus a horrible accident. He also learns something that Galen never wanted him to know, and they both discover another experiment more horrible in its implications than anything seen since the Shadows themselves departed. After escaping to Mars (and dimissing Galen from Excalbur) Gideon travels to Mars where he plans to expose everything he's learned at a conference on the plague. But he's shot by a sniper just before he enters the chamber (and just before Galen, who has followed him, can intervene.) The episode ends with Gideon on the ground perhaps dead or dying and the mission of Excalibur in shambles.

Cool stuff indeed. Let's all meet in Atlanta and burn down TNT, shall we?

(Actually, JMS nuked the place in one of his comic books. No hard feelings there. None at all. )

Later,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Pardon the interruption: Just a FYI for those wanting to snag B5 season sets, they are $29.99 each at Amazon right now.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Never apologize for trying to save people money, especially B5 fans, who tend not to have very much.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

which comic joe?

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I honestly don't know. I quit collecting comic books many years ago when I was out of work and forced to sell my then-extensive collection cheap. Never had the heart to get back into it, even when JMS started doing a lot of comic book work. It might have been Rising Stars or another title. I just heard about it and maybe saw a few panels from the relevent page reproduced somewhere.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I'd just like to pipe up at this point in order to agree with Joe.

Pat Tallman is HOT. Redheads rule!

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Joe,

I'm well aware of all the details and reasons for some of the issues I have with it (like you, I watched B5 live, then multiple times in reruns and taped recordings, then watched the DVDs multiple times and even watched the whole series with a groub of newbies here at work over a two year period [which was the BEST way to revisit this series]). But at the end of the day, I'm a viewer and my opinion is that Rangers was weak. I had full confidence that it could have grown into something great (like Crusade could have). I never doubted the potential. But that potential doesn't make it a better pilot movie. Despite all the explanations, it was still weak.

But for the sake of argument, let me revise my statement. I hope this project turns out better than Thirdspace and River of Souls.

And for the record, I own all three of those movies and have watched, end enjoyed them, multiple times. And I will continue to buy anything B5 related that he releases in the future. It is still my favorite TV series.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Oh, of course. One cannot argue matters of taste. (If you like chocoloate ice cream and I prefer vanilla I can hardly persuade you by reasoned argument or appeal to undeniable facts to switch to my side.) But since people invariably lurk in these threads, I always try to respond to strongly negative reactions to any of the films (which all have their virtues as well as their weaknesses) with something positive so as not to leave people with the impression that something like the Rangers pilot is irredeemably bad and not worth their time. Because someone else might quite enjoy it if they give it a chance. I found myself liking River of Souls a lot more the last time I watched it (and I haven't watched it often at all) than I ever had before. So even tastes can change. I just don't want possible new viewers to be put off by the discussions among other fans. (On the other hand I have no trouble trashing all of the Dell paperbacks save for the two canon novels later reprinted by Del Rey, because the ones that are well-written deviate too far from the show, and the ones that hew closer to the show are badly written. )

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I had the same reaction to River of Souls. I really enjoy it now. I found the opposite to be true of Thirdspace, which I liked the first time or two I saw it, but liked less when I saw it again on DVD.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Sam Favate wrote (post #69):


I haven't seen it for a while, so, I can't say with 100% accuracy whether my attitude toward it would have changed, but I never could take any kind of liking to River of Souls. Thirdspace, on the other hand, while not the best of the B5 movies, is still my favorite and I can't see that ever changing (unless, of course, there are more such movies). I seem to be in the vast minority here, but I like the whole Lovecraftian mood and villains of the piece (reminiscent of those of the "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum"-episode). Could (and would) you please tell me, in whatever detail you care to enter into, what you do not like about it? (That goes for others as well, by the way).

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

What I didn't like about Thirdspace (and River of Souls to some degree) is that it wasn't a Babylon 5 story. It was a sci-fi story that took place in the Babylon 5 universe. But that story could have been easily adapted to be on Star Trek for instance.

Compare that to In the Beginning (my favorite) or even A Call to Arms. Those are stories dealing directly with the people and events of the Babylon 5 universe. In the Beginning couldn't work on a Trek show. It would be meaningless without the framework that B5 provides.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

actually, i didn't like any of the movies. i liked the series itself... but all the other ancillary stuff was... well i wasn't as good.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

The latest update:

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

For those interested, there has been a trailer for this movie posted. I am getting really excited. It looks good to me, although I haven't seen the trailer in HD.

Babylon 5 : Lost Tales clip

From what I can see, it looks like the new HD rendered cgi looks pretty good.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Hopefully, this will do well enough for more direct-to-dvd movies. Or even better a theatrical release. I want to see Garibaldi back. Especially, since Jerry loved the show and how many times he tried to get it back on.

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me2 =).

i bought 2 copies. one for myself, one for my local library that lends out many DVDs.

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Anybody have a link or two to more shots of the 'Women of Babylon 5'? Oh, un-edited would be very nice......... .

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Ask and ye shall receive.

Safe for work pics:













Not safe for work links:

Andrea Thompson 1
Andrea Thompson 2
Andrea Thompson 3
Andrea Thompson 4
Andrea Thompson 5
Andrea Thompson 6
Andrea Thompson 7

Claudia Christian 1
Claudia Christian 2
Claudia Christian 3
Claudia Christian 4

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I am looking forward to The Lost Tales and I only hope that they will include Claudia Christian in one even though she had a falling out with JMS.

I recently tried to watch Crusade for the very first time and thought it was just horrible. Let's hope this fares better.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Crusade is really two shows - the one JMS wanted to make and the one that TNT forced him to make instead. JMS's show is represented by the first five episodes shot. If you have access to the discs, find the episode "Racing the Night" and watch it and the next four episodes if you want to see what JMS had in mind.

If you started with "War Zone", the TNT-mandated first episode, you're not really seeing Crusade. (The show was originally planned to open in the middle of the action, about six months into the mission with the character relationships already established. A Call to Arms was supposed to air immediately before the debut episode, which would catch everyone up on the background of the plague story.)

TNT later changed its mind and insisted on a different approach and decided it needed an episode to introduce the characters and the mission. They also insisted on the opening fist fight and adding the montage of rioting on Earth at the very last minute - without providing the extra time or money needed to do that right.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I enjoyed Crusade and I'm still mad the show was never given a chance to succeed.

Looking forward to Lost Tales - another week to go. Anyone know what the plans are to show these on TV? SciFi? USA? TNT ?

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I'm not aware of any plans to air the first two Lost Tales on television, although I suppose JMS could be saving an announcement on that front for the San Diego Comic Con this coming weekend. (The very venue where TLT was first announced a mere twelve months ago )

Don't forget that the production and FX issues that led them to trim the inaugural disc from three stories to two also reduced the total amount of story time. Whereas they probably would have ended up with about 90 minutes or a little more for the three story format, disc one is timing out at around 75 minutes. Most "two hour" TV movies are 92 to 94 minutes long, and I think that played a part in how TLT was designed. (Most stations these days prefer two hour to ninety-minute TV movies because most of them don't have many half-hour sitcoms on their schedules, and those that do usually pair them. A 90-minute movie is just too hard to squeeze into the regular rotation.)

Since WB designed the project to be self-sustaining without TV sales (assuming disc sales meet expectations) the lack of TV exposure isn't that much of an issue. Presumably if this disc succeeds and TLT goes into production on some kind of regular schedule, a network or cable station might take a look at it, airing it like Columbo or Jessie Stone or any other series of TV movies. We'll have to see.


Well, Claudia did participate in the DVD extras, and JMS often singled her out for praise in his commentary tracks on both the episodes and the TV movies. He's indicated that he'd be open to working with her again if the story were right and all the details could be worked out. For her part she sounded a bit miffed that she hadn't been contacted by WB or JMS when planning for TLT started, which would indicate interest, at least. (Of course they didn't contact her, because none of the stories they were contemplating for the first two batches of stories involved Ivanova. We'll have to see what the future holds.)

And what? No love for the pictures? I'll have you all know I spent minutes putting those links together.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Eh, I have the Playboy issue on my bookshelf.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

joe, just admit it... you are jms

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

I think JMS mentioned that some kind of subtle reference to their absence would be made, but there can't be any reference to either character's "death" because in the established series timeline neither one of them has died by late 2272 / early 2273. (Which is when the 10th anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance would be celebrated. G'Kar dies in 2278, and Franklin is still alive in 2281, as seen in "Sleeping in Light".)

If it followed the B5 pattern of one year per season, Crusade would likely had ended around 2271/72. So yes, I would expect at least some oblique references to events from the series, especially given that both Sheridan and Lochley would have provided covert aid to the crew of the Excalibur after they became outlaws early in season 2. But I doubt much will be given away, since JMS has to be hoping that success with TLT will give him a chance of telling that story in some form.

Regards,

Joe

P.S.


Ah, but do you have whatever art magazine published Andrea's photo shoot?

Fans of Ms. Thompson should note some new/repaired links in my earlier post.

Re: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

That would be great. I hope TLT will be a huge success, allowing JMS to revisit not only Excalibur, but tell plenty of other "lost tales" of B5 too.

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Claudia was at Shore Leave in Maryland the weekend of the 14th this month. I asked her about the possibility of appearing in a future Lost Tales and she thought that Joe would never invite her. She thinks he is too upset about the events between season 4 and 5. She said he does not forget such things. Of course until we know whether WB is happy with the sales everything is pure speculation.

Neil