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

According to what I read of JMS' comments on The Lurker's Guide, apparently it was Walter's.

 

About halfway through season one now. Just finished the season's title episode in fact. I agree with T2Q that Sinclair and Garibaldi has grown on me quite a bit despite earlier reservations. Plus Morden is great as well, though I find that episode being followed up by a boxing episode to be a tad odd.

 

Regarding Season 1 (and a couple of thoughts on "TKO," the boxing-episode):

Because opinions vary so widely on the episodes and the seasons, I think the most useful thing to look at is the consensus view of fandom at large over the past 10 years. And there really is such a consensus. The interesting thing is, that if you look at the episodes that are almost universally considered "bad" ("bad" in this case meaning "sub-standard for Babylon 5"), you'll find three things:

1. There are very few of them. In the entire five-year, 110-episode run, I think there may be six or seven episodes that a clear majority of fans would point to as very weak.


2. All of them, without exception, have worthwhile elements, sometimes very worthwhile ones. (One of the most widely-panned episodes in Season 3 -- "Grey 17 is Missing" -- has a very shaky "A" story, but the "B" story is not only excellent in and of itself, it sets up an alliance that proves vital in S4.)


3. JMS himself will be one of the people piling on...and they are pretty much all scripts he wrote himself.

And don't forget what "bad" means in this context: "Routine," "standard," "I've seen this before."

"Infection," for example, could have shot for any of the Trek shows if you changed the names and a few details. It wouldn't have made a horrible Trek episode, just an unexceptional one. That's why it is such a bad B5 episode. B5 raised the bar. (Trek at its best produced great SF television. But the signal-to-noise ratio on every Trek show was a lot worse than on B5. There was a lower percentage of really good episodes in all the Trek shows, and much higher proportions of both "ho-hum" installments and absolute dogs.)

"TKO" was a standard "fish-out-of-water" and Rocky-style sports story. But the "B"-story did a lot to humanize Susan Ivanova, and it deepened her character. I'll put up with a standard bounce on a boxing movie to advance the development of a major character.

Similarly, "Infection" went beyond its clichéd "ancient weapon" story and its preachy "there-is-no-Master-Race" message to introduce the shady Interplanetary Expeditions, and have EarthGov's bio-weapons division show up to take possession of all the evil scientist's data. (This would be like Starfleet Intelligence showing up at the end of "The Doomsday Machine" to seize all of the records of the incident from the Enterprise computers, swear eveyone to secrecy, and then go off to try to duplicate the thing themselves.)

Even when re-watching the show from prequel/pilot to finale over a decade later, I've still never found myself skipping over episodes like "Infection" (as much as my brain screams otherwise) because the good elements in the ep barely -- just barely -- make the entire thing worth watching. Fortunately, the lion's share of the rest of the series is an entirely different story.

Particularly from Season 2 on. You're in for a ride.

 

So tell me about the B5 EU. I know JMS seems to have a lot stronger influence on the B5 EU that most other franchises.

 

Right from the very beginning of the show, JMS declared his intention to do things differently than the Star Trek people, and that was to have the non-filmic licensed fiction be virtually every bit as canonical as the actual filmed episodes themselves. There are a number of original novels published by Del Rey, novelizations of three of the TNT movies, around half-a-dozen short stories (several of them written by JMS himself), a monthly DC comic book series, and one DC mini-series.

All of them were either written directly by Joe personally, or else their authors were provided extremely detailed story-outlines straight from Joe on what he wanted to see in them, where they should go, where they should end up, and precisely how they would fit into the greater filmic B5 universe.

In effect, every storyline came personally from the series creator. For each separate novel, JMS wrote a structured, 30-page outline; the authors were free to bring their own personal creative flourishes to the books, but they still followed Joe's specifications to the letter on the broad beats. The earliest novels published by Dell didn't initially have this level of input; later on, Straczynski personally seized conceptual control over the novel-writing program, demanding that they fit into the canon of the universe.

It is true that if JMS ever does a future movie or TV project that overlaps with one of the books, and he decides to change some small element, he will. He treats his own writing in the same way. The destruction of the Black Star in In the Beginning doesn't quite match Sheridan's earlier description, because when it came time to actually show it, JMS took a different approach for dramatic reasons.

Similarly, Zathras's capture in "War Without End" contradicts the Babylon 4 commander's description of the same event in "Babylon Squared" -- because it would have taken too much time to show that version. But for the most part, the books that JMS has said are "canon" ARE canon, at least in the broad strokes, and as much a part of the "real" story as anything in the filmed TV series itself.

Because all the novels cover somewhat overlapping periods of time, there are only three pieces of advice I would give you:

1. Read The Shadow Within before the Technomage books, because Jeanne Cavelos wrote all four novels, and characters introduced in Shadow return in the Technomage volumes.


2. Read the Technomage books before you read the Centauri trilogy, both because they come first chronologically (the Technomage books run from 2257 to 2261, the Centauri books start in 2262), and because characters from the former appear in the latter.


3. To Dream in the City of Sorrows can be read pretty much anywhere you like.

I would also highly recommend the Psi Corps trilogy if you want to understand that part of the B5 universe. The books cover a period from the mid-22nd century, when verifiable Human telepaths first emerge into the population (right at the same time we make first contact with the Centauri), until 2282.

Many fans have picked this as their favorite of the three trilogies. The second two volumes, which focus on Bester and more familiar events, were more to my liking. BTW, don't expect to find out much about the Telepath War here. It takes place off-stage, in between volumes 2 and 3, and is frequently referred to, but not directly addressed, in the final book.

Like the Centauri and Technomage Trilogies, the Teep books by J. Gregory Keyes were based on outlines by JMS, and are considered canon.

The Shadow Within is about Sheridan's first mission as commander of the EAS Agamemnon, Anna's (and Morden's) mission to Z'ha'dum, the Sheridans' marriage, Kosh, the nature of the Vorlon transport, and an attempt to sabotage Babylon 5. I'd read it.

The Teep books cover the most temporal ground. Volume One tells the story of the emergence of Human telepaths in the 2150s, and traces the impact this

 

Right, the TV movies are probably more optional than the series episodes, with the possible exception of A Call to Arms. Even The Gathering is more back-story than anything, because the original plan of shooting the pilot and then going right into production on the series was dropped. By the time PTEN aired the pilot, looked at the ratings and gave the final approval to Warner Brothers, nearly 8 months had gone by, actors were either unavailable or roles had been reconsidered, and various plot and production elements tweaked to the point where the series was very different from the TV movie that had spawned it.

While the events of TG are assumed to have happened, you don't need to have seen the movie to launch into the series -- "Midnight on the Firing Line" does just as good a job introducing the characters and basic situation for S1. With the show taking awhile to build up to its big arc-elements in Season 1, several of the major revelations made during the movies aren't even touched upon until much later in the show, enabling most folks to forget what they heard and saw in -- say -- the prequel by the time they finally hit Season 4. (And one reason that JMS recommends In the Beginning as a better intro to the series than The Gathering.)

Also, if you're a newbie to the show, you should be careful when listening to the commentaries and the other DVD extras.

Leave them all until the end. JMS and most of the cast approach the extras the way they would for a movie -- and nobody expects anyone to listen to the commentary track before watching the feature. So they all tend to assume that everybody's seen the entire series already (probably several times).

The psychology of actors (and some studio personnel) in this respect is interesting. Most of these guys had been doing convention appearances for a modestly successful cult-SF show for five to ten years at the time they did the interviews and commentaries. Their natural assumption was that only die-hard fans would spend $60 to $100 per season to own these shows.

They never seem to have thought that the sets -- once owned -- would be lent out to friends, or that some people who were curious about the show but never got into it might take a chance on the discs. This is one reason the entire industry grossly underestimated the potential market for TV on DVD in the first place, and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing full-season releases by the fans. (B5 being a specific instance of that, as anyone who participated in the WB live chats back in the late '90s will remember.)

 

So I finally finished season one last night. I agree with you guys that Sinclair did grow on me quite a bit through the season.

Highlights-

Anything involving G'Kar and Londo.
Bester.
Episodes with Morden.
"Bablyon Squared."

Lowlights-
"Infection."
G'Kar disappearing for some reason.

The Best- Lennier and Londo together. Very little needs to be said there.

 

LOL! I could never quite figure out if Lennier was being dead serious when he said that or if he was making it up to test Londo.

 

Oh when Talia reads Londo's thoughts about killing G'Kar, and G'Kar is screaming like a baby is quite comical as well. Season two is now on the top of my DVD want list.

 

Does anyone know if they're going to make another of the lost tales any time soon?

Or if they're going to be putting anymore of the books?

 

Ok so I finally got to see The Lost Tales - Voices in the Dark

First of all the special effects were brillaint (with the exception of the hanger bay) the external shots of Bab5 and all of the space eliments epsecially looked solid.
The Lockley story, was surprising. I will have to watch it again to fully grasp some of the dialogue, but it was a decent story even if it felt a little out of place. Lockley herself held her own quite well.
One thing which my Dad particularly found frustrating was the camera movements, at times they were a bit distracting.
Sheridan's story was slightly weaker, by that I mean the storyline seemed not as complex as the first. The characters, especially Galen and The Centauri Prince were great performances.

Watching these stories, it feels as though they aren't sure whether they want to be stand-alone stories or if they have the deliberate intention to be the start of an arcing plot.
Before I watched the the dvd I was under the impression that the 2 stories would be connected within the storylines, not that they simply happened to occur simultaneously. It disappointed me on that level.
Also I think I am to used to there being an ensemble cast, as it felt odd only concentrating on few characters without there being mutliple storylines.

Overall it was worth telling and the second story particularly felt right at home in the Baylon 5 universe!


For future installments I would love to see Delenn with 9yr old son David, also a Vir/Lennier combo would be interesting IMO. I also think the Centauri Prince (can't remember his name) should be a re-occuring character.

 

Word from JMS:

More B5: The Lost Tales is on the way. But he also says no Crusade revival, evereverever.

(The bigger article can be found here, despite AICN's faulty link.)

 

Hooray I've gotten season two on DVD.

 

Just from the first episode you can tell how much more emotionally vulnerable Sheridan is.

 

re TLT:

Actually, they were connected. Both dealt with the question, what is the nature of "evil", and how do you deal with it. In the first story, the idea that evil is somehow sent by God to keep humans humble and in their place, and that humanity can never evolve beyond it, is ultimately rejected. It is a "voice from the past". In the second, the idea that someone is somehow born with a seed of evil and that cannot be changed, but the only solution is to kill off the person in question, is ultimately rejected. This is the "voice from the future".

The second story was a bit too predictable for my tasted (at least for people familiar with JMS' writing). The first I found far more interesting, as it raised a number of questions, like whether people need miracles like the burning bush to have faith, what the problems of the Church are, and of course, what is "the lie" and most important, *why* is it.

 

Yes the themes of the story was a connection, but what I mean't was, I had been expecting for either story to have events which affected the outcome of the other story.

 

I just received the e-mail about Volumes 14 and 15. You can order them right now.

JMS will be personally signing all Vol. 15 copies, which means a three-week-or-so delay on shipping them out.