Re: Afraid of the \"more action\"....
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SataiDelenn:
Warren and others, I agree with you.
I also agree regarding Crusade.
I am often surprised at the posts I see wanting Crusade to come back.
Except for Galen, Dureena and Max, every character was a tired retread and completely forgetable. I know I will incur someones ire somewhere, but season one of B5 was immeasurably better than season one of Crusade. The first thirteen episodes were better than Crusades.
The Apocalypse Box? I tried to be intrigued, but not enough to make me watch.
Gideon, sure, he was cute... but there was a litte too much of Sheridan's "screw you" attitude in him to get me emotionally involved... *pines for the likes of Sinclair*
Sarah Chambers... flat.
Matheson... two-dimensional (flat).
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I agree with you on Chambers, but not Gideon, Matheson, or the Apocalypse Box. The problem with Matheson is that he needed to see more action. He was relegated mostly to the sidelines. We'd have seen more of the box revealed over time. I thought Gideon was just fine, overall.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
I just can't bring myself to watch the episodes again. After it aired, I left it a year. Recently I re-hired the tapes, hoping my opinion of such a great writer's work would change... and I was even more disappointed.
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Re-hired? What? Rented? They're not available over here in the US, in any form.
Anyway, your reaction is exactly opposite of mine. I like the episodes
more as I rewatch them, catch more of the dialogue, and
even more now that I've read the first two Technomage books. Originally, when I saw the episodes on TNT, I didn't like
some of them, and here's what I thought:
War Zone - disliked mostly for the guest cast, and the fights, and news footage. Eilerson shines in this episode.
The Long Road - OK, but didn't seem to be enough to fill an episode. It feeds the idea that the Technomages are relatively powerless and are just tricksters and illusionists (which we
KNOW is
not true). Read Technomage books 1 & 2, and then re-watch this one.
The Well of Forever - didn't seem to be enough to fill an episode. We went that far,
for that??? Read Technomage books 1 & 2, and then re-watch this one.
The Path of Sorrows - I've
LOVED this episode from Day 1. Read Technomage books 1 & 2, and then re-watch this one.
Patterns of the Soul - I really liked this episode, but they used the virus shield, which they hadn't found yet! Argh! This was because of the TNT order. It was also nice to see Brian Thompson in a non-villian/non-thug role.
Ruling from the Tomb - I hated this episode. Chambers speech at the conference? What was she going to say? They've found didly so far! This was
another problem caused by the damn TNT order. The remainder of the show was about religious fanatics (Good thing it's not being aired this week!).
Rules of the Game - disliked it. Never cared for Lochley. It never got too much into the Lorkans, but that probably would have been revisited in future Crusade episodes. Loved the Eilerson thread, but didn't see the Chambers being involved.
Appearances and Other Deceits - The part of Gideon authorizing self-destruct blew it for me. He what!?! He
can't do that! He shouldn't even SAY that! Earth is depending on Excalibur and her crew. The Eilerson part was great though, as was Gideon at the end.
Racing the Night - One
BIG nit: The Excalibur is being pulled toward the planet. It's engines
cannot maintain orbit against the pull. So, they use the main guns to knock out the thing on the planet that's pulling them down
??? What???
As soon as the engine power was shunted to the main guns, they should have accelerated rapidly toward the planet. What happened? Did the planet reduce the attractive force as soon as Excalibur quit resisting? If so somebody should have said that. Except for that one bit, I loved the episode.
The Memory of War - I've
LOVED this episode from Day 1.
The Needs of Earth - We went that far,
for that??? Now, I like the Matheson parts of this episode.
Visitors from Down the Street - I found it a bit corny, and the alien head gear looked like cheap Halloween masks. OTOH, a lot of the quotes were precious (The truth...is...out of fashion. The truth...has never been in anyone's best interests.) At least Matheson got to do a little teep work.
Each Night I Dream of Home - Glad to see Franklin. Good space battle, but they
missed the Drakh mothership with the main gun (but it still blew up; maybe it scared them into blowing up). At least we learn more about the plague.
They have GOT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE TARGETING SYSTEMS FOR THE MAIN GUNS ON THE EXCALIBUR. They missed that huge target in the deathcloud. They missed the Drakh mothership that they followed into it's jump point. The targeting on the Victory class has always seemed clumsy to me. Remember Drake in A Call to Arms. "Target at ## by ## by ##." Where was he getting the numbers. What readout? Seems like an awfully slow and clumsy way to do things, especially in the heat of a battle.
Now, as I watch the episodes in the JMS order, they make more sense. Having just read the Centauri Prime trilogy and the first two books of the Technomage trilogy, I'm going to rewatch the Crusade episodes again. Even with the TNT mandated stuff, they beat 99% of what's on TV today.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
I'm sorry. It was a wonderful concept, with beautiful sets (if I had a favourite character in Crusade it would be the Excalibur), that had sadly lacking characters and intensley average storylines.
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Well, the beauty shots against the various nebulae were great.
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Need I even mention that totally dismal X-Files parody? That ranks as the worst hour of television I have ever endured, with the hope "It has to get better!" Infection... TKO and Grey 17 Is Missing were so much better than that. There was no point to the episode other than to have a childish dig at Star Trek and the Prime Directive at the end.
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Too much is made of this "dig." Like I said, I thought the alien headgear looked cheap. Still, there were other redeeming parts of the ep. This was meant to be a fun episode, and given all the
CRAP that JMS was having to put up with from TNT, I can see why he wanted to do a lighter ep.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
I don't want a more action oriented series. Science Fiction is as much about challenging you as it is about special effects.
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I agree with Joe D w.r.t. Crusade.
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In a full on action series, character and story can suffer. Plus, we will get tired of space battle and hand to hand combat after space battle and hand to hand combat scene. There is only so much you can do as a Director before the audience just goes - oh... ANOTHER fight scene! *yawn*
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That was what TNT wanted, and what JMS thankfully didn't give them.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>
But... I honestly do not think that pure straight forward action is what JMS was referring to. I think he was more hinting that the new series (when we get it) will have a different pace, and a different tone to Babylon 5.
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As long as TNT is
NOT involved, I don't think we B5 fans need to be worried. I think Rangers will be paced like JMS
wanted to do with Crusade. We probably won't have arcs spanning four years, but we probably
will have arcs spanning a couple years. It probably won't be two and three episode "arcs" like some shows do.
------------------
KoshN
----------------
Vorlon Empire
"To Live and Die in Starlight"
pilot movie for the new series
"Babylon 5 - The Legend of the Rangers"
January 2, 2002 on The Sci-Fi Channel.
http://www.scifi.com/b5rangers/
[This message has been edited by KoshN (edited September 16, 2001).]
