Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

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Crash
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Crash »

Well, I know this topic will interest Andy as this site was originally joined with one about bab5.I saw the lost tales and as with all the Babylon 5 movies it played well on my sentimental connection the series but was lacking on new content. It was basically two short and fairly pointless stories that weren't developed upon, I felt.HOWEVER - the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal. So for fans this is probably an interesting little interlude, probably not worth the £5 for the DVD but maybe worth downloading for the new CGI station and starfuries and the unbelievable intro-outro theme music.
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Shane
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Shane »

Yeah, probably going to buy the complete B5 on DVD soon, which also includes TLT.I've heard TLT is slightly average and more of a show reel for what could be done now, if they had more of a budget to play with.The trouble is JMS has given away such a large part of what has happened and will happen in the B5 universe that it's killed a lot of the suspense. It's the same with the endless Clone Wars material that is pumped out, we know the outcome now, so there's less of an interest.
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Crash
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Crash »

Did they ever kinda... round off Excalibur? Did they ever find the vaccine to the Drakh plague?You're right - they covered so many bases in the main series that it left them few places to go with spin-offs. Infact as soon as the drakh appeared the whole thing went downhill. That plus the battles in Excalibur were so so boring, infact the whole program was just so bland and uninteresting.I think a short series about the adventures of a normal earthforce ship would be good.
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by AndyThomas »

I've always been a fan of Christopher Franke's score for the series, and ironically my old compilation CDs end up with TLT's sleeves when iTunes tries to allocate them covers! I think you can buy the soundtrack on its own (hence the iTunes cover) so I might look at that - had the DVD for a while. I agree with what you say, it's not got the depth we've come to expect, but then nor did it have much in the way of a budget. Probably just a handful of real sets used.There are a lot of unanswered questions around Crusade, and I think some unfilmed scripts are around that resolve some of them. Crusade also suffered from funding and political (in terms of the studios) issues. Apparently the intention was that the Excalibur would have solved the Drakh plague and then gone on to do other things. There were certainly a lot of elements that had been identified, but stuff like what happened to John and Delenn's son was never fully explored. Certainly there'd be scope to do something more, but apparently Warners won't give JMS more than they did for TLT so no more DVD episodes are due, nor will he do a film unless he gets a decent budget. Plus, sadly, some key actors are no longer with us, so...One of these days I might get round to converting some episodes for my Touch, but I don't know if it would spoil the memory as effects work has come so far....?
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Crash
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Crash »

It's a pity the studios seem incapable of giving people what they want - like more babylon 5 that was as good as the original or more Star Trek that you can actually stand to watch.The same's true of the Japanese. Sunrise have been promising us a movie of Gundam SEED for years and where the devil is it?
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Shane
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Shane »

It's all been about diminishing returns when it comes to B5, arguably from the point when the Shadow War ended. The conclusion of the earth war and the final 5 episodes of season 5 were good, but the remaining material is average at best.The Deconstruction of Falling Stars is the main culprit for giving too much info away about the future, so what about the Drakh plague? Earth gets nuked in the future anyway.It should be just left alone now, it was great for it's time, but I think a show like Battlestar Galactica is the natural successor to B5, and that's almost completed it's run.



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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Crash »

I think Bab5 was at its best when they were fighting back against the Earth force, better than the shadows (partly 'cos the solution wasn't a total cop-out).I think the new BSG is awesome. It's just got more and more interesting with the Pegasus in series 2, freedom-fighting at the start of the 3rd series and the ending to series 4 is better than I ever expected.But I can understand why people hate it - it's really gritty and is a bit difficult to watch.Question is - what's gonna take over from BSG? Or are we gonna have to wait a long time?
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Shane »


(Crash Override @ Oct. 25 2008,20:42)QUOTEI think Bab5 was at its best when they were fighting back against the Earth force, better than the shadows (partly 'cos the solution wasn't a total cop-out).I'd agree with that, I've always felt that the final episodes of season 4, leaving out TDOFS, was some of the most exciting tv I've ever seen, but B5 was always about the Shadows, and yeah, the abrupt end to the war was a little convenient, but it was logical.It was never quite the same without the Shadows and Vorlons. I really liked the fact that one of the final battles of the Earth War was between Vorlon enhanced Minbari Whitestars and Earth cruisers augmented with Shadow tech. A little nod and wink to the fact that although the giants in the playground have gone, their legacy remains and that their ideology of strength through conflict is still firmly intact, despite Sheridan telling them all to get the hell out of his galaxy. (snigger)It'll be interesting to see what comes after BSG, I know that the live action Star Wars show is due in a few years time, although I must admit - I've had my fill of Star Wars for the time being.



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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by AndyThomas »

I think JMS felt he had to wrap up the Shadow War and still get the Earth War into Season 4, given that Season 5 was questionable (as I recall) right up until the last minute. But it was a reasonable way to finish it, even with First One support they were never going to be able to take out the Vorlons and the Shadows unless they took each other out. I do think the final reasoning with them could have been done better, the Shadows sounded like pathetic kittens at the end! I liked that White Star vs Advanced Destroyers scrap too, Ivanova unleashed! GOD sent me!
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Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

Post by Crash »

What do you make of the new Star Trek film?I was ready to hate it but it looks promising to me.
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