Watching B5 Again

[crazyhorse]

I personaly believe Crusade is terrible as it started getting interesting as it was cancelled.You start getting into it and then no more.

Rangers is watchable and better than a lot of SciFi efforts though still not in the original B5 class.

I think all the films are good and have their good points and are well worth seeing.

I still don't believe anything new is being made

Not until I see it anyway

 

[KoshN]

I agree with Lyta.

Some actors don't do accents, always have some of the same of vocal mannerisms all of the time ......... *and* are very good actors who play very different characters.

Yeah, that's true, but the ones that can really get away with it are big names. For example, we expect Sean Connery to always sound like Sean Connery, i.e. same accent, and even accept him as Captain Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October.

However, accents can be toned down, ...mitigated. The big stars just don't feel the need to do it, or feel their fans expect to hear the actor's natural and often heavy accent. They don't have to chameleon themselves so much for a role, because they're bigger than the role. While I very much like Claudia Black and her accent (Hell, I find her voice and accent sexy.), she's not that big a star yet. For me, I guess her SG1 character came too soon after her Farscape character and looked (visual appearance, e.g. hair length, color and style, use of skintight, black leather outfits, etc.), and sounded (heavy accent) too much like Aeryn Sun, for me. I look at Vala and see a loosened up Aeryn Sun/Vash morph. That doesn't mean that I don't like Claudia Black with long, straight black hair and in skin tight black leather outfits, because I do. It's just that I wish her character in SG1 would have been visually and aurally more differentiated from Aeryn Sun. <shrug>

And neither one of them is *anything* like Aeryn Sun.

IIRC, Farscape did show the non-militaristic, mischeveous, playful side of Aeryn Sun, every now and then. That was a major part of Vash and Vala.

 

[crazyhorse]

The big stars just don't feel the need to do it, or feel their fans expect to hear the actor's natural and often heavy accent. They don't have to chameleon themselves so much for a role, because they're bigger than the role.

Brad Pit in Snatch did a not bad job though.

Accents are toned down so that films are more easily understood.

Big Sean speaks posh scottish,try trainspotting and Ewan Mcgregors accent there,even though heavily anglicised,to see other examples of actors being able to change dialect.

 

[hypatia]

I think I heard it mentioned once (possibly on TCM) that Clarke Gable absolutely refused to put on a southern accent for his role in "Gone With the Wind". I think I remember a comment made by the director being something like "great... they give me an English Scarlett and a Northern Rhett".

As much as I enjoyed Vivien Leigh's southern accent, I never really noticed Clarke's didn't fit in.

 

[PillowRock]

Yeah, that's true, but the ones that can really get away with it are big names.

No, it's not just the big names that can get away with it.

When has Pat Hingle ever sounded any different?

When has Jack Warden ever sounded like anything other than Jack Warden?

Or Florence Halop?

These are not "BIG", household names to the world at large. They are, however, very well respected character actors who have played a myriad of different characters over their decades long careers. And their voices and speech patterns do not "chameleon".

 

[KoshN]

Brad Pit in Snatch did a not bad job though.

Accents are toned down so that films are more easily understood.

Big Sean speaks posh scottish,try trainspotting and Ewan Mcgregors accent there,even though heavily anglicised,to see other examples of actors being able to change dialect.

Posh Scottish? What's that High Scottish, like High German vs. Low German?

How about Hugh Laurie in House M.D. or Louise Lombard in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas)? Both are British, with very nice British accents, but on House and CSI, their American accents sound perfectly fine to this American.

Hugh Laurie
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491402/
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Louise Lombard
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0518321/
Redbridge, Essex, England, UK

 

[KoshN]

No, it's not just the big names that can get away with it.

When has Pat Hingle ever sounded any different?

Who??? I just looked the name up on IMDb (Born: Denver, Colorado, USA) and still can't picture him in a role I've seen.

When has Jack Warden ever sounded like anything other than Jack Warden?

Well, that's a name I recognize, and IIRC his accent's ~NYC-ish. Born: Newark, New Jersey, USA. Close enough.

Or Florence Halop?

Who??? <IMDb to the rescue> Oh, the ~NYC-ish, shrew-like, woman baliff on Night Court. Born: Queens, New York, USA.

These are not "BIG", household names to the world at large. They are, however, very well respected character actors who have played a myriad of different characters over their decades long careers. And their voices and speech patterns do not "chameleon".

It's OK if you want to get pidgeon-holed as the actor to get if you want a certain accent. e.g. How many roles do you think Fran Drescher (Flushing, New York, USA) would be right for? Accents can be limiting, especially if the accent's extremely heavy and you're not a big name.

 

[GaribaldisHair]

Series 2 of the new Doctor Who was the first thing I had ever seen David Tennant in ... and it now seems weird to see him in anything else speaking in his natural Scottish accent.

Go figure.

 

[RMcD]

IMO most of the American, New Zealand and Australian actors in Lord of the Rings do a stellar job at doing a British accent (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are amazing). Gwyneth Paltrow does it very well too. Before that I thought that guy who played Spike in Buffy was the best fake Brit.

On the other hand I've never met anyone here who sounds remotely like Galen, and Peter Woodward is English (but that's classical training for you )

But I'm confused. Ewan McGregor is Scottish, surely his accent in Trainspotting is just his real accent (although maybe a bit exagerrated)? He does a poor impression of Alec Guiness too..

 

[KoshN]

On the other hand I've never met anyone here who sounds remotely like Galen, and Peter Woodward is English (but that's classical training for you )

I find his speech patterns refreshing, crisp, clear and easy to understand. Ditto for Patrick Stewart.

 

[PillowRock]

It's OK if you want to get pidgeon-holed as the actor to get if you want a certain accent.

I picked those actors precisely because they never did get pidgeonholed. They all played a wide variety of characters.

The vast majority of roles don't come with any accent requirements.

It's not like Nicholson started out doing different accents and voices for every character and then stopped bothering once he be "too big of a star" to worry about it.

(And I can pretty much promise you that you've seen Pat Hingle, if you've seen any noticable number of movies over the last 3 or 4 decades. One role that comes to mind was Commissioner Gordon in the Micheal Keaton Batman movies. He was also one of the semi-stock players that kept showing up in various roles in Clint Eastwood movies for years. Among other things.)

 

[GKarsEye]

Well, if you really do want a show that's "intelligent" and has "real-life" characters, and are willing to go outside of sci-fi, then check out The Wire. It doesn't get any more real-life than that.

In terms of sci-fi TV, nothing even comes close to B5 and the first two seasons of original Trek, IMO, and yes I've seen a whole bunch.

Edit/addendum: damnit, hit "submit" too early...

Anyway, I know this is like blasphemy on a B5 board, but I wouldn't even recommend bothering with Crusade unless you're like really hardcore into B5 and just want to see everything. It's an arc-story show that got cut off after only 13 episodes, so it's pretty pointless. Yes, it had a lot of potential, but it didn't happen.

 

[RMcD]

I find his speech patterns refreshing, crisp, clear and easy to understand. Ditto for Patrick Stewart.

I'm not a Galen fan. Without wanting to be too hard on Peter Woodward, that guy always sounded to me like he was devoting too much of his attention to the technical theatrical delivery of his lines, while not paying enough attention to the content. Not to mention the character frequently came across as selfish, petulant, arrogant and bad tempered (intentionally perhaps, but it wasn't very endearing). David Allen Brooks was better at it - that guy had a knack for making the words sound like his own. Patrick Stewart does it right most of the time - he would have been good as Galen.

 

[KoshN]

I personaly believe Crusade is terrible as it started getting interesting as it was cancelled.You start getting into it and then no more.

What TNT-Atlanta did to Crusade was terrible, but if as you say, "Crusade is terrible." you'd never have started to get into it/found it interesting.

Rangers is watchable....

Ack! To me, it's like nails on the chalkboard, ala the torture scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075066/
when Dreyfuss tortures Professor Hugo Fassbender's daughter by scraping a knight's steel gauntlet on the chalkboard. Aaaaaaiiiiiieeeeee!

....and better than a lot of SciFi efforts

Better than The Sci-Fi Channel (US) Saturday Z-Movie Originals, maybe.

....though still not in the original B5 class.

...or Crusade's class. It's far below Crusade's class.

 

[KoshN]

I picked those actors precisely because they never did get pidgeonholed. They all played a wide variety of characters.

The vast majority of roles don't come with any accent requirements.

It's not like Nicholson started out doing different accents and voices for every character and then stopped bothering once he be "too big of a star" to worry about it.

I didn't say that every actor who is now a big star, started out doing different accents.

(And I can pretty much promise you that you've seen Pat Hingle, if you've seen any noticable number of movies over the last 3 or 4 decades. One role that comes to mind was Commissioner Gordon in the Micheal Keaton Batman movies. He was also one of the semi-stock players that kept showing up in various roles in Clint Eastwood movies for years. Among other things.)

From IMDB:
Batman & Robin (1997)* .... Commissioner James Gordon
Batman Forever (1995)** .... Commissioner Gordon
Batman Returns (1992)*** .... Commissioner Gordon
Batman (1989)*** .... Commissioner James Gordon

* George Clooney
** Val Kilmer
*** Michael Keaton

The Commissioner Gordon I remember, the one I can't seem to get past to remember Pat Hingle, is Neil Hamilton, the one from the 1966 Batman TV series.

 

[Babylon5fan07]

Hi Everyone.
I'm just rewatching all my B5 DVDs (the last one was "Sic Transit Vir").I don't mean to moan but since B5 ended,there hasn't been a quality show matching it.I don't want to be negative but I force myself to watch "Battlestar Galactica" or "Stargate".Since B5 there hasn't been a show of the same quality.All of them are at best average.Perhaps,B5 was one of its kind;the intelligent,thought-provoking show with real life characters.May be I'm getting old but I miss B5 and all it stood for.Warm greetings to all the B5 fans.
Anna

I've become a huge fan of the new Battlestar Galactica watching all 3 season already. Welcome Anna nice to see someone new here as well as myself even though I'm a couple months behind you. I have gotten another friend of mine and my supervisor into the new BSG show as well. But at the same time your right. B5 besides Star Trek and V is the best show ever. My wife owns the V series and to me it rivals B5 very much especially being that the episodes are being directed by Bruce Seth Green and stars multiple actors from the same show. B5 too me is Star Wars or Star Trek to many people. The only 3 shows that I may give a chance in the future are Smallville, 24 and Heroes..I've heard about Firefly as well but that was short lived so I may put that off for a year or so.

Alex