main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph For Justice, For Peace, For the Future- We Have Come Home: Babylon 5 (The Road Home animated film)

Discussion in 'Community' started by The2ndQuest , Jan 3, 2006.

  1. Rebel_Padawan

    Rebel_Padawan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 11, 2003
    Not long now unitll 'The Lost Tales'!
     
  2. Rebel_Spook

    Rebel_Spook Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 14, 2002
    YEah, I keep meaning to pre-order the DVD from Amazon. Maybe I'll throw the Legend of the Rangers DVD in as well to get the free shipping. That'll mean I have every B5/Crusade DVD out.
     
  3. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    I want to pre-order it, but I don't want to wait for it to ship (you think I'm gonna wait longer?! ;) ) and would rather just grab it as Best Buy or soemthing the day it comes out.
     
  4. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Speaking of which- Best Buy is advertising a free graphic novel tie in with The Lost Tales.

    Z-Minus 1 day!
     
  5. Rebel_Spook

    Rebel_Spook Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 14, 2002
    Too bad the Best Buy that is being built near me isn't close to being ready yet...
     
  6. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    And too bad my Best Buy couldn't find their copies of the graphic novel, arg.

    Anyways, just finished watching it- and it's quite good, I thought. The Lochley part is a smaller piece, and at first it's exorcism plotline feels a bit strange being explored in B5, but it takes what might have been a straight forward concept and spins it into some unexpected directions which ends up working very effectively. So, in a way, it's Thirdspace-esque being horror-like in nature, but more exorcist than lovecraft, and minus the action and huge space battle.

    Also some very nice touches with the new FX- most notably seeing the station rotating by Lochley's quarters' window, as well as the jumppoint vortex effect which really is now more reminiscent of the original designs with the colors being distinctive, but still has the realistic touches of gasous effects that Crusade and Legend of the Rangers explored.

    The Sheridan/Galen story is actually quite good though- it'd fit in with the regular series perfectly. Some good dilaogue as well as some funny lines (Sheridan's reactionary line in New York had me rolling, and it's hard to not grin like a bastard at Galen at the end). It also sets up a potential large story arc for this series to explore as it goes on (I'd imagine the suggested story including David Sheridan for a future installment would be a likely canidate to continue this plotline).

    Also, the FX folks showed some Starfury love for this story- the FX look really great, and the space battle, though brief, is quite good- even finally giving us a decent peak at some Warlocks in battle after being onscured in the background of A Call to Arms and cameoing as a glorified shuttle in Crusade.

    Only element introduced that seems odd is the quantumspace thing being a faster version of hyperspace, using the ame jump points. Didn't really seem to add much other than give Sheridan something to tease the reporter with. It looks pretty, though I would have been curious to see how hyperspace would be portrayed (would it be the hellish, blurry turbulence of Legend of the Rangers, or the calmer foreboding void of the other two series?).
     
  7. NJOfan215

    NJOfan215 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    My bestbuy didn't have the graphic novel either, but i think we are talking about the same store.

    I really enjoyed the lost tales. The dvd really had the same feel as the series. Both tales were very character focused and didn't really do a whole lot in terms of expanding the B5 universe, but both of the tales were an enjoyable watch. I hope we get some more of these.
     
  8. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    I think there's setup for expanson of tbe universe- we now have this dark future event that may or may not come to pass. Vintari and David will apparently be interacting a lot, which sets up David to continue this storyline if he appears, as JMS suggests he might, in a future installment. I can see a lot of play of the "is he going dark or he is changing" angle in ways that it won't feel like a retread of Londo's arc since it seems like it will depend on other people's actions and choices on whether or not Vintari's fate happens as it is foreseen, as opposed to his own choices like it was with Londo.

    Likewise a David/Vintari story seems like it would be set on Minbar, which opens up the door for springboarding into a Delenn storyline. On the flipside, we know Peter J. has expressed interest in returning, so a Londo story could tie into this growing "Vintari arc" from the Centauri perspective, which could setup a Vir story, and if Vir and Vintari were to cross paths, it would be...interesting to se what path such an encounter might set Vintari upon.

    We also know Garabaldi will have a story in the next one on Mars which is supposed to be pretty big. I'm wondeirng if it might tie into the Teep War via flashbacks by involving Bester- IIRC, "The Fate of Bester" is set during this general timeframe so there could be a connection there.

    Really, the thing that I'm most intrigued about is the inclusion of Kosh and the Vorlon Homeworld in the opening credits sequence, which implies that's something that'll be explored in the TLT series, since it seems an odd choice to include in that sequence otherwise, especially given it's essentially our first real glimpse of the Vorlon Homeworld after much talk and mystery surrounding it, outside of that teep-tube memory flash Lyta had; to just reveal it here strikes me weird. Other than the "Vorlons made Teeps" backstory detail being only slightly relevant to the Teep War, I can't think of another reason it'd be able to tie into these others. But, suppsoedly Vol 2 will be more alien stories, so who knows? Maybe there'll be a short Vorlon flashback story- "Kosh wins on Jeopardy" sounds like a promising concept.
     
  9. Rebel_Padawan

    Rebel_Padawan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 11, 2003
    For a character like Sheridan who is supposed to die around the age of sixty (Bruce's current age is 57) he seems to be getting a lot of milage out of the character.
     
  10. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    The character still has 10 years to go at the point in time of TLT, plus the future events of War Without End and IN the Beginning's framing scenes are still about 5 years ahead of him.
     
  11. NJOfan215

    NJOfan215 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    I think the vorlon's legacy will be explored at some point. The quantum drive seems to suggest that the IA as gotten pretty good at using vorlon tech. I think they said something about going to the vorlon HW in this movie. Which is interesting because Leta said soemthing to the effect of the vorlon HW being off limits to us for a long time.

    I agree that there was set up for things to come in these DVD'S, but i'm starting to get a little annoyed. PArt of this isn't JMS's fault and part of it is, we have a bunch of dangaling plot lines lying around. I would like to know what happened with the Drahk plague and the crew of the excaliber, i would like to know about the telepath war, the third space aliens and what ever connection they have to the events in TLR (if any), what happened to the Liandra and things like that. While most of these aren't questions linked to B5 proper, i would still love to see the answers to them.

    I think Vitari's character could have some cool things to do in the future, and i do think there is some nice tention there in regaurds to his ultimate fate. I also think he could play a role in what ever is goinjg to happen with david and the keeper.
     
  12. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Yeah, in a way the Vintari storyline almost feels like it's "B5 Season 6" and is hinting at some of the stuff leading up to the future Londo scenes that we thought we'd see. It'd be fantatsic if a Londo story would allow them to dip into some of the events of the Centauri trilogy.

    And though I agree there are dangling plotlines I'd love to see resolved- Crusade first and foremost, we have ben at least hinted that the Teep war will be touched upon in a future volume.

    TLT seems to be doing what B5 does best- build up to a large story arc with a big payoff. It's only a question of if it'll continue to be able able to do so, unlike LOTR or Crusade.
     
  13. Kimball_Kinnison

    Kimball_Kinnison Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2001
    I got it from Best Buy. The graphic novel is inside the DVD case.

    Kimball Kinnison
     
  14. NJOfan215

    NJOfan215 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    I kind of figured that the inside thing was what they were talking about but the best buy employee lead me to believe that there was something else as well.
     
  15. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    JMS stopped production of all B5 novels in the works so that he could devote all his time to Lost Stories, then supervise the novels to make sure they could be cannon (i.e. fitting in with his views of the B5verse).

    The Book of G'Quan was originally going to be a one-off novel. Then he wanted to make it a trilogy, then he quashed it.

    And from what I've heard of Lost Stories, it was for nothing.

    The first 4 seasons of B5 are great. season 5 is tolerable, but disjointed--there's no overall arc or flavor to it, and it seems like it was slapped together on short notice (because it was). As for the rest... JMS had one idea. He used it up making seasons 1-4. This is why s5 is so incoherent. Then he went back to the well again for River of Souls, which stunk. He went back to the well again for Third Space, which had no real place in the B5 universe. Then he went back to the well again, and appears to have watched Starblazers in the meantime, and coopted that story (even a major speach in the beginning is almost identical) for Crusade. Unfortunately, he seems to have been a 1-trick pony, and doesn't seem to realize it.

    Oh well.
    We still have the original series.
    And I greatly prefer the un-mucked up version of The Gathering to the 'remastered' one, but then again, that's just the way I am.
     
  16. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Thirdspace has it's place in B5- it helped flesh out the portrayal of the Vorlons without directly using them, as well as, at least briefly though one-sided, the Zack/Lyta relationshop and if the Thirdspace aliens were in fact The Hand mentioned in Legend of the Rangers, there was definitely some potemtial for drawing Thirdspace into the greater narrative beyond it's originally intended "side adventure horror story".

    As for Crusade and that one speech, if it's what I think you're referring to, I wouldn't be surprised- "War Zone" was slapped together at the last moment to appease the TNT idiocy and was never meant to exist, which is why it remains such a terrible episode as well as a terrible introduction to the series (which itself was not recycled B5 plotlines and was actually a natural continuation and expansion of certain elements which was intended to exist practically from the start; though, in a way, most B5 continuations have in that they're mostly all based on the preexisting past and future histories outlined for B5's chronology).

    Obviously, though, Crusade was killed before it could dump the TNT virus plotline and have the chance to really show what it was about; subsequently Legend of the Rangers was an attempt to pick up those threads as well as harken back to the original higher concepts of empire building that Crusade was meant to aspire to, though LOTR's rushed and underbudgeted nature combined with a sad cosmic moment of bad scheduling led to less than spectacular results, unfortunately.
     
  17. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Crusade:
    We're going off into the uncharted regions of space to find a cure for the deadly plague. We have only 5 years... Off we go, into the Wild Black Yonder...


    Oh! we're returning home so we can have a cameo of the B5 Dr run an experiment. We need cameos of existing characters to boost ratings... :rolleyes:

    Off we go, with only 4 years, 6 months... [face_tired]

    Oh! we ran out of fuel... :eek:

    Off we go, with only 4 years, 4 months... [face_tired]

    Ran out of 2-ply Toilet Paper. Better turn around and head back... [face_not_talking]
     
  18. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Well they weren't just wandering around aimlessly in uncharted space- they relied on scouting reports from the Rangers (or, in Gideon's case, tips from the Apocalypse Box) to direct them to specific locations. In between they'd do some exploration themselves, sure, but it's not really stretching things to say they'd have to stop for supplies every now and then or offload/rotate specialty crew depending on the nature of the next mission. Even they have downtime, afterall.

    And, sure, the Doctor was a cameo- but I hardly think it was intended as a ratings boost, given the nature of the TNT production, and it's not like his involvement with the plague plotline isn't logical given his position after Season 5.

    But the plague would have been cured to some degree in the second season as the plot threads from the unfilmed second half of the first season began revving up the main shadow tech/black ops story arc.

    The plague was basicly like Sinclair's missing 24 hours- it may seem to be the focus of the series at first, but eventually is shown to not be that major as the actual main plotline kicks in.
     
  19. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    possiblly.
    I haven't seen the whole show. I just gave up on it after they decided to return to earth. Totally unnecessary to haul the exploration ship all the way home when another earthforce ship could have done the same job much more easily.

    But eh.
    Guess I wasn't the only one not interested in more of the show as it was...
     
  20. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    If watched in a proper episode order, and factoring in the unfilmed scripts if you can get your hands ona copy, it's actually quite a solid half-season, but without those scripts, shown in the TNT episode order, I wouldn't blame people for not tuning in- you have the atrocious War Zone as an introduction, all the black uniform episodes frontloaded, inventions being used in episodes before the episodes in which they invent them, etc.

    The episode that brings them back to Earth for the research experiment actually does make some sense- the Excalibur was the best ship suited for plague research and had technologies onboard that other vessels wouldn't have, and was far more capable of holding off a large Drahk assault while maintaining secrecy of the mission.

    The only episode that things felt a little weird was when they were brought back to Mars for that conference, but I would chalk that up to down time between leads mostly- but I think even Gideon remarks there that he feels their time is being wasted there.

    Crusade, as it stands now, is more about the characters in the glimpses we're given of them. Gideon's interactions with the crew members all have interesting elements to them- his loyalty and respect to Mattheson, his strained but patient friendship with Galen, likewise Dureena's curious growing apprenticeship under Galen was heading places, but I think the existing 12 (not counting WZ) episodes really shine on Max- if watched in the right order, he has a fantastic little character going from the total self-centered jerk but warming up to the other sides of his humanity as he's forced to rely on and protect others he find shimself caring about, as well as forced to confront people's sacrifices for him which he never expected or wanted. Only Doctor Chambers really didn't have much going for her (and the actress playing her was weak compared to the rest of the cast).

    had it been given the chance, it looks like it would have been a natural extension and exploration of the B5 universe- delving into the events of and aftermath of the Telepath War, Garibaldi's pursuit of Bester, the nature and mission of the Technomages, Earthforce's consequences for messing with shadowtech, etc. And, I presume, it would have evntually integrated JMS's initial "empire building" motif, and i suspect Dureena would have played a large part of that given she was to acquire "the sword", which implies it's something significant to the core of what crusade would be about, given that it's in the title logo itself.
     
  21. Gennosuke

    Gennosuke Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2007
    I missed the fifth season when it was first aired (has it really been nine years?), I just recently picked it up on DVD and watched it from beginning to end. It was good and all, I just regret not seeing Bester get his come-uppance- I would have enjoyed Garibaldi putting a PPG bolt through his smug face, guess I'm bloodthirsty that way. And didn't they say Psi-Corps had been disbanded in Crusade?
     
  22. EllenRipley

    EllenRipley Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Aug 24, 2007
    Does your 5th season set have the beginning missing off one of the episodes? I think it's "The Fall of Centauri Prime".

    I watched Legend of the Rangers for the first time a few weeks ago. What's everyone's opinions of it? I thought it was quite fun as pilots go, in a cheesy sort of way. That gun turret idea was just plain stupid though. o_O
     
  23. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    LOTR wasn't as bad as some people say- but it was obviously designed a s apilot, so a lot of it's potential was never fully realized (including dumping the VR gun turret they were forced to throw together at the last moment). It certainly had some fun characters, and the whole "same trick twice" twist was quite good. If The Hand had been revealed to be related to the Thirdspace aliens, it would have tied things together nicely, though. It did suffer from an overuse of the Ranger motto, however.
     
  24. Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon

    Jedi_Keiran_Halcyon Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 17, 2000
    This is probably old news for most of you, but I thought I'd mention it just in case:

    I just rented the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. Not a great movie, but one of the special features is 'news' coverage of the zombie plague, featuring a news anchor played by none other than Dr. Steven Franklin himself, Richard Biggs, in what I believe was one of his last filmed appearances.

    The real treat, however, is when Biggs introduces a voice message from the President of the United States at the end of the piece. And the POTUS just happens to sound an awful lot like the President of a certain Interstellar Alliance...
     
  25. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    JMS: However, despite this, [WB] are most pleased as [TLT] sales have been
    several orders of magnitude beyond what they anticipated.

    More on this when I know more about what this actually *means*.