

#1
Posted 29 August 2017 - 01:34 AM
B5 was my first online fandom (of course, in 1994, it was likely most people's first online fandom). jms was an occasional participant, but not as active as the Andromeda staff that made Slipstream so special.
I dug up my old recordings, but over-the-air analog NTSC recorded from a a local UHF station was pretty ugly, especially up-rezzed to a modern big screen.
I dug up a free/legal streaming site (https://www.go90.com/shows/babylon5) showing all 5 seasons (but not movies), and as it turned out, not all the fuzziness was from my old recordings. The ancient CGI was designed to hide its flaws in the limits of 1994-era analog TV, and doesn't stand up well. The sets are a bit dark for my taste, and though they are more detailed, there's something about them that reminds me of Star Trek, remastered from three decades earlier. The acting also shared a bit of ST:TOS's occasional hokeyness. Did I say "shared"? More like "amplified".
In its defense, I was influenced by starting with my recording of S1, E1. After S1E3, I found the movie-length premiere, which put the series in context and made it all much more interesting.
I always did like Kosh, and it was funny how they made Delenn older, less attractive, and more alien in the movie vs the series.
In any case, it was a blast from my past, and I wondered if anyone else might be interested in rewatching/discussing it.
I always enjoy a show 10x as much when I can discuss and read the impressions of others.
#2
Posted 29 August 2017 - 07:34 AM
I do know that my version of the set is one of the first copies to be produced... later ones had the commentary removed.
I also have THE LOST TALES dvd.
Edited by FarscapeOne, 29 August 2017 - 07:34 AM.
#3
Posted 29 August 2017 - 09:02 AM
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Which is a problem....
if you're powerless." - Drago Museveni
'God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh' - Voltaire
'It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.' - the Terminator, about Humanity.
"Who knew the divine was such a dissolute, horny drunk? Although that would explain a hell of a lot about this series... " - Christopher, about Battlestar Galactica
#4
Posted 29 August 2017 - 04:58 PM
B5 was an amazing cautionary tale and it's almost scary how much of it has come true (and scarier how nobody listens to cautionary tales). It's kind of a shame that JMS has never been able to successfully expand the B5 Universe. There is much there that could be mined.
And while we have B5 to blame for the unfortunate tide of serialized storytelling that has swamped TV, B5 is still the only show that really did it right, because it's the only show that had everything planned out from day one.





#5
Posted 02 September 2017 - 01:51 PM
But in recent years I have really dialed back, finding it easier to 'go with the (narrative) flow'. I think they call this "senility".
But TV SF doesn't make it easy. Sometimes mere brain damage won't do. It demands complete brain death. Look at the world around you, and you'll see that it has worked. Idiocracy now seems an aspirational film.
For example, answer me this: if there were one place on B5 with structures/procedures for dealing with drugs/weapons/undesirables, where should it be?
a) a unisex Methane-breathers restroom (but face it, when it comes to restrooms, we're ALL methane breathers)
b) Ivanova's undergarments
c) any place in the Zocalo that serves Zima
d) that one room in Hydroponics where EVERYONE grows their contraband coffee plants
e) Customs/Immigrations
All good answers, but shockingly, I'm going with (e). Yet, scant minutes into the premiere, we have a mastermind [who cunningly smuggled narcotics onto the station in a transparent envelope in his breast pocket] take a hostage in Customs with a gun [that the scanners didn't detect] -- and Security can only offer the mindless weapon drawing that I'd expect if lovestruck Centauri teens doused themselves with gasoline in the Zocalo (a common Centauri teen tantrum. Centauri are so accustomed to accidental hairspray fires that it's considered harmless -- hence their adult hairlines)
Fortunately, Cmdr Jeffrey "Mary Sue" Sinclair is there to talk the smuggler down. Then Sinclair closes the scene by insulting our intelligence, saying that there are no drugs/guns on B5. The next scene adds injury to the insult, opening with Takeshima (the premiere's Ivanova) lecturing G'kar on how the scanners (which we just saw utterly fail) assure that no weapons are brought onto B5.
jms was the first showrunner I ever heard harp to the public on "show, don't tell", but sometimes he seems to think that means "show one thing, tell another". It's been over 20 years, but despite all the dialogue, I seem to recall B5 security being as porous as a Narn excuse for invasion. Similarly, just repeatedly saying "Sinclair likes to be hands-on" in no way excuses him running point on half the armed searches Down Below, squadron launches or bomb threats. It's like he rejects his own security/military forces and hierarchy, just because Earth Alliance won't let him dress them in Red Shirts. Well, except when he throws Garabaldi a bone, to justify hiring a guy who couldn't get a job as a Walmart greeter.
Okay, rant over.
As I said before, I rewatched episodes 1-3 before rewatching the premiere (mistakenly believing that "The Gathering" was one of the movies), and I felt the premiere really brought the whole show up a level. (The early episodes are largely meant to develop character and political background, building on the 2hr premiere. Without it, they seen a little insubstantial.) I *liked* the premiere quite a bit -- but the first few minutes were just silly.
[Edited to add:
Before I wrote "Ivanova's undergarments" I had written "Talia Winters' underwear", and apparently I didn't backspace over that phrase when I changed it. As a result. "Talia Winters' underwear" appeared at the end of the post. Naturally, I edited the post, and put as a reason "removed Talia Winters underwear" before I noticed what I had typed. That was too hilarious not to share.
Edited by Orpheus, 02 September 2017 - 01:57 PM.
Removed Talia Winters' underwear
#6
Posted 03 September 2017 - 01:32 PM
#7
Posted 03 September 2017 - 02:48 PM
Also loved her in the 80s version of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
#8
Posted 03 September 2017 - 05:07 PM
Orpheus, on 02 September 2017 - 01:51 PM, said:

Quote
Garibaldi: That's the third time this week you've endangered your life to save me.
Sinclair: Don't mention it.
Garibaldi: I wasn't thanking you, I was pointing out that you're suicidal.
While I love B5 the way it turned out, I'm very sorry that Sinclair didn't continue as commander, or at least that he wasn't seen more often, because he was a fascinating character (played by a fascinating actor).
Quote
Before I wrote "Ivanova's undergarments" I had written "Talia Winters' underwear", and apparently I didn't backspace over that phrase when I changed it. As a result. "Talia Winters' underwear" appeared at the end of the post. Naturally, I edited the post, and put as a reason "removed Talia Winters underwear" before I noticed what I had typed. That was too hilarious not to share.






#9
Posted 03 September 2017 - 09:10 PM
I've also read that the reason Delenn was made up differently in the Premiere is that Mira Furlan was meant to be playing a male Minbari. Can anyone confirm this?
I liked Tallman, too. I seem to recall her being criticized for being (in real life) more of a stunt woman than an actress, but to me that only makes her more impressive.
I suppose I shouldn't complain about porous security when Andromeda pretty much had an open-door policy.
I see your point about Sinclair's personality. It was just hard for me to accept him being Johnny-on-the-spot because B5 was 5 miles (8km) long with ~50-80 concentric decks where it wasn't hollow. Base Commander is a huge responsibility; he shouldn't be "phoning it in by comm" while pinned down under hostile fire (He's a great leader, but maybe Col. Ari Ben Zayn was right about this military leadership experience). Yes, Kirk led too many away teams; Picard and Riker squared off over this early in TNG; and -in general- a leader who leads from HQ risks being marginalized in the audience's eyes.Then again, they didn't give Sinclair or Ivanova so much as a chair in C&C.
Takeshima, eh? I did not know that about you. I'd have figured you for a Lyta guy.
#10
Posted 04 September 2017 - 06:36 AM
#11
Posted 04 September 2017 - 07:21 AM
And Kirk never led an away team. He led landing parties.
"The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas." -- "H. G. Wells," Time After Time
Written Worlds -- My homepage and blog
Patreon Page -- Featuring reviews and original fiction
Facebook Author Page
#12
Posted 04 September 2017 - 03:55 PM
Orpheus, on 03 September 2017 - 09:10 PM, said:

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#13
Posted 04 September 2017 - 05:11 PM
RJDiogenes, on 04 September 2017 - 03:55 PM, said:
A master is the original print or recording from which all other copies are made. A backup copy of a master is, by definition, not a master.
"The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas." -- "H. G. Wells," Time After Time
Written Worlds -- My homepage and blog
Patreon Page -- Featuring reviews and original fiction
Facebook Author Page
#14
Posted 05 September 2017 - 11:42 AM
#15
Posted 10 September 2017 - 10:59 PM
As far as backups go: in 1992, when B5 was about to shoot, a "huge" commercial hard drive would've been a 2.1GB Seagate Barracuda or HP Kitty Hawk, MSRP near $1000. Each DVD in a season set contains 4.3GB compressed, which means about 20GB (10 drives) before mixing and compression. More realistically, it would have needed about 20GB of raw footage/sound PER EPISODE before editing (220 drives, or at least $150K in drives per season, buying in bulk). Worse, the series was almost certainly shot on film, so scanning to digital would itself have run millions per season -- and where would you store these expansive copies that would seem more secure than a studio vault? Yes, even fans knew studio vaults had a history of losing film for all eternity, especially to fire -- but to a producer, what could be more secure than a film vault, especially when digitizing and hard drives would have cost a good chunk of his season budget in the early seasons. If they'd decided to digitize the film as they went, and store multiple copies in off-site locations, B5 likely wouldn't have finished S1, much less enough for a commercially viable DVD set.
Heck, Joan d'Arc went up in flames (and she was, by all accounts a keeper for the ages) because we couldn't digitize/store her. We still can't.
#16
Posted 11 September 2017 - 07:04 AM
Orpheus, on 10 September 2017 - 10:59 PM, said:
She was never d'Archived?
"The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas." -- "H. G. Wells," Time After Time
Written Worlds -- My homepage and blog
Patreon Page -- Featuring reviews and original fiction
Facebook Author Page
#17
Posted 11 September 2017 - 06:30 PM
Orpheus, on 10 September 2017 - 10:59 PM, said:
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#18
Posted 11 September 2017 - 09:09 PM
Christopher, on 11 September 2017 - 07:04 AM, said:
LOL! Now that's a quote for Memorable Moments. Why did people quit submitting those?
#19
Posted 28 September 2017 - 05:53 PM
I got home after an all-nighter, had a modest adult beverage and started the B5 movie "River of Souls" to wind down for an early night (I have to get up at 3am)
Now I want you to imagine what I'm going to say next -- really imagine it.
President Josiah Bartlet as a Soul Hunter
Yup, the actor Martin Sheen played a Soul Hunter in the years between his roles in The American President and The West Wing. But that's not what I see. I see the leader of the free world.
As a Soul Hunter
I may never sleep again.
#20
Posted 28 September 2017 - 06:05 PM

I forgot about that. I've only seen the movie once, but I do have the DVD set. Maybe I'll pull it out and watch it again. FOR HALLOWEEN.






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