Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (1 Viewer)

[Andy_Bu]

wow, I never would have guessed that close to a million units would have been sold in the last year and a half (assumes ~$40 a pop for each season).

Thats an incredibly high total for a relatively niche product that has been in distribution for a while. Congrats to all involved.

Andy

 

[JediFonger]

lol. what was the thing about jackets?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[JediFonger]

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)

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[JediFonger]

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.

 

[TheLongshot]

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

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[MarkHarrison]

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.

 

[Harpozep]

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/

 

[JediFonger]

... you mean bruce willis?

 

[Harpozep]

Yeah!
Dat's da guy!

I used to confuse them a bit too .

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[JediFonger]

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

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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...

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

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

And those images ... interesting.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

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

 

[JediFonger]

resident B5 expert

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

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.