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Television Media

Two Sci-Fi Legends Slated To Return To TV 273

Posted by Cliff from the vorlons-and-vipers dept.
Two submissions hit the bin spreading news about the return of two sci-fi series to the small screen. This first announcement shouldn't be too much of a surprise for many of you. Silicon Avatar says: "Babylon 5 fans need not flounder about hoping to catch a Babylon 5 episode in syndication. The B5 powers that be have been working on a new installment in the ongoing arc. The Legend of the Rangers is a new movie-length episode in the Babylon 5 world. A trailer has been released, and you can find it at here". And this little tidbit from jcrash: "For those of us that remember what a Cylon is, Fox is resurrecting the Battlestar Galactica series. The evil Cylons with their L.E.D. eyes and 'By your command' are back to hunt down the Galactica as it searches for Earth. Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had and all the cool space series of the 70s will be renewed in the 21st century." Good news, indeed! The submissions mentioned no expected time frames for the release of either made-for-TV movie, but the indications are that both are pilots for proposed series. Legend of the Rangers will air on Sci-Fi channel while the new Galactica series will air jointly on Fox and the Sci-Fi channel.
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Two Sci-Fi Legends Slated to Return to TV

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  • Re:Which is of course amazing..... (Score:3)

    by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @06:36PM (#112218) Homepage Journal
    Blockquoth the poster:
    Sounds more like he's searching than an atheist.
    Sounds more like religious experience is central to the human experience, which was the heart of B5. Don't confuse the author with his story. JMS said on several occasions that religion popped up because it resonates with us as human beings.

  • Fox is resurrecting the Battlestar Galactica series.

    Great. Are they going to recycle the same 5 clips of ships shooting at eachother every episode like they did in the original series?

    I say, let BG rest in peace. Either that, or air the original episodes in the 7 to 8 slot so that kids can enjoy them like I did when I was a kid. Run something new in prime time.

    Hey, if they want to bring back a Sci-Fi series from the 70s, let it be the short-lived one where "Adam Quark" was the captain of a garbage ship and everybody took showers together for "number 11". Bill Clinton could star as Adam Quark, and you don't need much imagination to concoct a few good episodes with that. Hmmm... they should air that one 10-11 after you've sent the kids to bed... so I'm still not sure what Fox should stick in prime time.

  • Hey, Time Enough for Love wasnt a bad book. But it might be the last original thing he did. After thatm he degenerated into trying to tie every single book he ever wrote into one universe (And that started in 'The Number of the Beast'. The last chapter title 'L'envoi' should be excised along with ever novel published after that date)

    Asimov also proved that Sci FI authors have some perverse need to link their best works. Did the R Daneel Olivaw/Lije Bailey stories REALLY need to be tied to Foundation? I thought not

    As far as gems, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a wonderful bit of pulp sci fi, and is one of the best Sci Fi novels of all time.
  • Starbucks be damned, keep Starbuck named "Starbuck".

    "Holloa! Starbuck's astir," said the rigger. "He's a lively chief mate that; good man, and a pious; but all alive now, I must turn to." And so saying he went on deck, and we followed.-- GOING ABOARD, Chapter 21, Moby Dick

  • you don't have space? Shit, they were playing B5 3 (re-runs and new ones every wednesday, so that meant 4) times a day while I was still living in BC.

    The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit:
    Pissing off coffee drinking /.'ers since Spring 2001.

  • Hey, don't knock it. It's not every SF actor who gets to make his own low-budget films starring big name actors. :) Hatch attended the local SF convention twice (most recently, Erin Gray from the Buck Rogers show was also there, as were a couple of the B5 crew--particularly Jason Carter), and apart from the BSG thing, he seemed pretty happy with the way his life is going. And that's the important thing, isn't it? It doesn't matter how successful you are as long as you're happy.

    Worthy of mention is the non-BSG project Hatch is trying to get off the ground: The Great War of Magellan [greatwarofmagellan.com]--which also stars Jason Carter.
    --

  • Don't worry they are subtle and you would not notice most of them

    Subtle?

    A single, charismatic patriarch leads a ragged caravan across the desolate reaches of space to a holy land spoken of in prophecy. Sound like anyone you know? [britannica.com]

  • Yes, perhaps they could call it "Space 2099" or something.

  • Incidentally, loss of spelling ability is the first (noticable) sign of excessive alcohol consumption.
    Most certainly on a long term basis (i.e. a habitual drunk), but also supposedly with mild intoxication.

    Hope I spelled alcohol right....

    The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit:
    Pissing off coffee drinking /.'ers since Spring 2001.

  • Hmm... I have a few episodes in DIVX format... Anybody else like to share? email me. replace the brackets too, in case you're wondering.

    The slashdot 2 minute between postings limit:
    Pissing off coffee drinking /.'ers since Spring 2001.

  • Re:"Story Arc" (Score:5)

    by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @06:54PM (#112235) Homepage Journal
    Hmmm. I didn't realize that I was a foaming-at-the-mouth B5 fanbody, but I am responding, so...

    The main reason that fans use "story arc" nearly exclusively is that JMS used it extensively. For those who don't know, the show's creator J. Michael Straczynski kept a very visible presence on the Net, especially in the B5 Usenet newsgroups. Especially early in the show, he engaged in a running give-and-take wherein he seemed genuinely interested in the feedback of the viewers. He also gave us a rare insight into the mechanics of producing a TV show, including the special challenges of a sci-fi show.

    JMS used "arc" quite deliberately. To quote the poster,

    Like a story *line* just won't cut it, nope, two dimensions are better than one
    For B5, in my opinion, this is actually true: The story didn't just progress linearly. Borrowing a line from literary criticism, there was a rising action, a crest, a climax, and a falling action/denoument. Also, characters and situations evolved in multiple directions and multiple manners. G'kar, for example, started as (deliberately) cardboard villian, moved through wary ally to noble warrior and eventually, priest. Londo Mollari, in JMS' phrasing went from "funny light" to "funny dark" to "serious dark" to just plain dark, toward an eventual redemption.

    These are significant character developments, and most of them seemed quite believable. This, BTW, is what helped B5 rise above "space opera" and into, dare one say it, epic. The themes were grand and sweeping, but the characters were individual and three-dimensional.

    Now, that doesn't mean that one should ban all other references besides "arc". But it's a useful piece of jargon for what distinguished B5 from (nearly) all other sci-fi shows, and from the vast majority of TV shows, period. Useful jargon tends to propagate itself.

  • Also take note (not quite science fiction tv, but...) Knight Rider is coming back with Hasselholf reprising his role as Micheal Knight.

    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/Dai ly News/TVNotes010618.html

    ABC news story [go.com]

  • Thank you all for your suggestions :-)
  • As a barista emblazoned with a familiar logo!
  • Galactica:

    This is actually being done by USA Networks, which owns the Sci-Fi channel. It will air there, and Fox recently cut a deal to carry it simultaneously on their network. It appears it will be mostly new characters at some human colony, but recast versions of some of the BSG crew may show up from time to time.

    B5LR:

    TNT picked up the fifth season of B5 after the syndicator that carried it went under. However, B5 was a five year series, so it ended after one year on TNT. TNT funded several movies and eventually decided they wanted another series.

    Crusade was the first B5 follow-up series. It was cancelled before the first episode aired, because the creator (JMS) refused to throw in lots of space battles and sex that TNT had asked for. They didn't bother to put much promotion behind the few episodes that they'd already bought, and they subsequently stuffed B5 reruns into early A.M. timeslots to get it out of the way.

    When TNT's contract was up, B5 reruns jumped to the Sci-Fi channel, where they air in a good time slot. The first couple of runs through the series got better ratings than Sci-Fi's own series, so they picked up the Crusade reruns and ran them as well, getting similarly good results. Sci-Fi execs thought "hrm, there could be money in this".

    So Sci-Fi ordered a new pilot. Principal photography recently finished and Sci-Fi reran Dune with an ad pointing to a secret web page with a preview (they did the same for Children of Dune). Sci-Fi is reportedly very happy with the dailys and may order the first season of the series before it even airs. Alternatively, they may wait for ratings.

    B5LR is expected to air in December, which has been a good month for Sci-Fi (little of consequence is on the major networks then) with the series to follow next June (which is when Sci-Fi starts the new seasons). If the series goes well, it is believed that they want to pick up new episodes for Crusade for the following season (which would start in June 2003). Not coincidentally, that would syncronize the two series (LR starts before the date at which Crusade started, a few years after B5, and right after the Telephath Crisis).

    So what is B5LR? It's a series about the Rangers, as they pick up the pieces after the Shadow War. They visit the various members of the Interstellar Alliance, getting rid of shadowtech, resolving border disputes, etc. There'll presumably be long-term story arcs of the sort JMS is famous for, but he's obviously not telling us what they are yet.
  • Hey that Gorgerous sidekick was none other than the beautiful Erin Gray!!! aka Wilma Deering!!!

    Just in case anyone wanted to know!!!

    • Um, most of those "ethnic minorities" aren't US... maybe you meant that. It's early. Humor Gene fell off in my sleep

    S'ok, it was my PC gene going berserk. I meant, "a minority in the USA (as opposed to in Bangladesh or Canada)". We tend to forget that "ethnic minority" is a meaninglessly ethnocentric term if left unqualified. For example, in some places in the USA, caucasian are an ethnic minority at the local level, while at a global scale, anyone except asians are a minority (depending on how widely you define asian, and on whether you think ethnicity is viewer objective, viewer subjective or subject subjective...).

    Darn. Even as I take the piss out of Voyager, it infects me with it's PC doubletalk and makes me meander off topic. Will the madness never end? Give me WWF with rayguns!;)

  • Was it Campbell who said "Science-fiction is what science-fiction editors publish"?
    __
  • Check out the episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars." You've got a million years of history waiting to be told. :)

    I'd love to have a look at JMS' timeline for the B5 universe. Just to find out why our sun goes nova a million years after the Shadow War.

  • Message from those of us who were alive when BG first came out: The "movie" did not come before the television series. The movie was a re-edited version of the TV pilot episode. It was a desperate attempt to make some money on a (financial) flop series.

    Buck Rogers, on the other hand, came out as a movie first (because they decided it would make more money). It was a TV pilot that was shown as movie first. BG was a TV pilot that came out as a movie after the first series was cancelled. It made enough money that the abysmal Galactica 1980 got the green light.
  • The IGN article [ign.com] says, in part:

    If nothing else, it should give some competition to the latest Star Trek spin-off Enterprise, which bows next season

    The first time I read that, I thought it said "Enterprise, which blows next season"...

    "Really," I thought, "it's a bit early to be that harsh... we haven't even seen Enterprise yet!"

    steveha

  • Battlestar Galactica was taken off the air?

    It was because of the scandal that erupted when it was revealed that the show was based on the Book Of Mormon. There was a VERY strong negative reaction at the time. Does anyone know if the new version of the show will continue with the Mormon based theology?

    StoneWolf

  • You forgot to mention the TITS AND ASS !

  • Re:As long as they're bringing it back... (Score:4)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @03:44AM (#112280) Homepage
    • I have some advice for the new producers of BG, based on observation of original Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980.

    I too have some advice, based on watching the Star Trek franchise.

    • Put serious tits and ass in from day one.
    • Make the captain a bald black woman. Hell, make her a disabled lesbian single parent as well.
    • Put serious tits and ass in from day one.
    • Pick a new (US) ethnic minority to showcase. I'd suggest having a Bangladeshi, or Innuit or Yupik first officer. Who's also a robot. And an alien.
    • Put serious tits and ass in from day one.
    • Your teasers and promos should consist entirely of space dogfights and tits and ass.
    • Put serious tits and ass in from day one.
    • Whenever you run out of ideas, blow up the ship then claim it was all a dream, or a time travel episode, or a holodeck simulation.
    • Did I mention the importance of tits and ass?

    Let's face it - Battlestar Galactica is cheesy pulp. Let's revel in it! I want to see chisel jawed men punching bug eyed monsters, and seven breasted bimbos in glittery unitards. I want WWF Iiiiin Spaaaaaace! ;)

    • the Starfury fighters fire maneuvering thrusters to move, and doing that strafing thing where the ship is pointed at 90 degrees to the movement vector

    Yes, that was nice when they remembered to do it, but they weren't consistent.

    Actually, there was at least one "flip and fire" in Space: Above and Beyond, when Chiggy Von Richthofen got nailed. Also, they had missiles, slug guns, LIDAR, ECM, even starfighters with guns on turrets. Nice.

  • The old dude was Lorne Greene, a Canadian, probably best known for his role as Ben Cartwright on the 60's NBC western Bonanza.

  • Latest from JMS on Usenet (Score:3)

    by Rand Race ( 110288 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @08:48AM (#112287) Homepage
    From a link [about.com] at About.com [about.com] dated June 29th:

    "The producers cut of Babylon 5: The legend of the Rangers is now in hand, and goes to the network and studio today. I think it's a really kickass movie, and in terms of general production, performances, and stuff like that, it's probably right there with In The Beggining (not in scale of course, since ItB was just *huge* and sews up the B5 storyline in this big tapestry, they're two vastly different kinds of stories, but in terms of overall quality of production and how well it works)."

  • Re:Without Lorne Greene? (Score:3)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Tuesday July 03, 2001 @04:00AM (#112288) Homepage
    • It's hard for me to imagine Battlestar Galactica without the late Lorne Greene

    Well said. He gave it far more credibility than it deserved. Replacements then?

    • CGI Lorne
    • James Earl Jones.
    • Patrik Stewart (why not?)
    • Bill Shatner! (why not?)
    • Cowboy Neal
  • 4. An inteligent race is humanoid.

    4b. However they look they behave like humans...
  • > It is not plausible that three Vipers take off at the same time
    > every time.


    sure, as long as they're te same three . .


    > It goes against the laws of physics that Cylon ships always explode
    > the same way.


    a) why are they exploding, anyway??? [ans: because damage was too expensive a special effect. see "Starman"]
    b) sure they can, if your budget won't let you buy another firecracker and model


    > If the Cylons have been around for a thousand, hell even a hundred
    > years, their targeting software should be BETTER. It took us six years
    > or so to go from Doom to UT.


    They're running windows.


    > In real life there will not be a nearby agricultural settlement when
    > the Cylons nuke your aggro ships.


    bah. It is well establised that even though it typically takes days to travel between star systems, in any emergency there is always a planet of the needed type previously overlooked by sensors within the five minutes of emergency power available . . .[btw, during the entire series, did any regular shuttle ever return to Voyager? And how *did* they keep replacing them, if they were losing one every three weeks or so?]


    >Deus ex machina is not allowed!


    correct. That's Greek mythology, not aztec/toltec/egyptian . . .


    > Do not create a military relying solely on aircraft carriers.


    I thought that it was just that everything else was destroyed. Hey, if you only have one ship . . . and if a single aircraft can destroy an opponent's carrier singlehandedly (ok, all of its aircraft were gone, but still . . .)


    > If the Cylons knew that their Centurions couldn't aim for crap they
    > would have (logically) programmed them to charge the enemy and then
    > self-destruct.


    They'd still miss . . .


    > Why is the sole shielding available to an advanced carrier some
    > steel welded to the front of the ship. Cain order electromagnetic
    > shields up, why didn't anyone else do this?


    Union rules. Trying to wipe out someone's job, are you? You will be contacted late at night.


    > Why is the proportion of White to Black so horribly horribly
    > unbalanced. Are the Capricans racist?


    a) the black continent, err, planet was destroyed?
    b) they were all employed by the "Blaxploitation" movies popular at the time.


    > Where do the raw materials come from to continually replace
    > destroyed Vipers?


    spare parts from recycling Voyager's shuttles . . .


    > How can an advanced society have absolutely no defense against an
    > air raid? Were they using the National Missile Defense System? An
    > episode established that the computers were tampered with?


    It was a sneak attack at a peace conference. C'mon, if *you'd* been at war
    for 1000 years, you'd let all the former bad guys past your systems,
    wouldn't you? I'm sure the U.S. let everyone on the Iowa doze as it came into port for the surrender . . .


    hawk, just helping out

    • Fox, if you are listening, please do us a favor: create a show that will have some value after 20 years. I think things like _good_ plots and characters with character, not 2D stereo types, might be a good start

    I hear you, but I don't think it's going to happen. B5, Farscape and Space: Above and Beyond have/had those in various degrees, but none of them get viewing figures close to the dumbed down "particle of the week" tits and ass fest that is Voyager.

    While I agree with you in principle, in practice the best we can probably hope for is that they make it dumb but fun. WWF with ray guns.

  • I would like the Tomorrow People show brought back. I remember they had cool stun guns and could teleport anywhere on earth and I loved it when I was a child.

    There was a new version made, about 7 years ago...
    • Great. Are they going to recycle the same 5 clips of ships shooting at eachother every episode like they did in the original series?

    If they're going for total kitch, they should use the original clips, with some Episode 4.1 digital enhancement magic. ;)

    Either that, or render a whole bunch of shots that are different from each other by a barely noticable margin. :)

  • Sigh. We know the Slashdot editors don't read the articles. I had hoped for better from the comments. From the Biography on the page you linked to.

    In addition to raising two children, Erin and partner Mara Purl have co-written Act Right, a professional guide for actors. Erin and her husband the noted Cinematographer Richard Hissong are currently producing a video on one of her favorite subjects, Chi Kung & Tai Chi.

    Not only is she an accomplished actress, and damn fine looking, she is happily married and has two children. Beyond that, she could probably easily kick your ass. Erin Grey is a renaissance woman.

    Steven
  • Like a story *line* just won't cut it, nope, two dimensions are better than one. And how is it that this is exclusive, B5-specific jargon? You'll never hear mention of the Star Wars story arc, for instance.

    It's not at all B5 specific. [google.com] (In fact, the first Google result is a Star Wars reference, ah, the irony.)

    "Story arc" is a writing term; it refers to the structure of the plot, elements like exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement [towson.edu]. "Story line" just means the series of events. If I tell you about going to the grocery store on a typical day, there's a story line ("First I went to the produce section, then I got some rice...") but no arc; there's no conflict being resolved, no plot.

    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

  • I remember in particular one episode where Starbuck got into a wild-west gunfight with a Cylon.

    This would be the very last episode. Where the show had already been canceled and they decided to do something they wanted to do as an endpoint.
    At least part of the death of Galactica 1980 was preasure from Universal to make it "educational"...
    • And I respectfully disagree with the other earlier poster about Farscape. I do not consider that a piece of quality sci-fi

    As a raving Farscape fanatic (as raving as we get any way), I have to fervently, er, agree with you. ;)

    Farscape isn't original. It's basically Buck Rogers with elements from the A Team or any other "Run away from the bad guys!" show. It's also not actually SF (see the sig), any more than a historical drama is a drama first, and a piece of history second. The plots are sometimes banal, occasionally complete rip offs, and the characters are stereotypes.

    However! In the quality of scripting, dialogue, acting and cinematography, Farscape is streets ahead of written-by-committee, aimed-at-the-lowest-common-denominator pulp like Voyager, and still better than the suspiciously similar Andromeda. If only they'd get rid of the damn muppets... ;)
    • Re. Space 1999: and miraculously, it was aimed exaclty in the direction of numerous interesting planets and aliens. They are critically short of space shuttles, but manage to lose one per episode. Somehow, next week, n-1 == n again

    It's a busy universe. Low budget, but busy. ;)

    Also, they were probably building Eagles out of discarded Chinese take out boxes, toenail clippings and sticky tape. Just like Voyager did with photon/quantum/zorbatron torpedoes, remember? Oh, no, wait, we don't remember, because they never explained where they kept finding them. ;)

  • The science was, in retrospect, a bit flawed.

    Not even in retrospect... I knew it was flawed when I was watching it during its first season. My favorites:

    • A nuclear waste dummp blows up and sends the moon out of earth orbit at what must be relativistic velocities. The moon is an intact sphere (not blown to plasma), the people weren't crushed by the acceleration, and miraculously, it was aimed exaclty in the direction of numerous interesting planets and aliens.
    • They are critically short of space shuttles, but manage to lose one per episode. Somehow, next week, n-1 == n again.
    Nevertheless, I'd really like to see this series again. Of all of the shows I saw as a kid, it really stood out as one of my favorites.
  • RING BACK MAX!

    Last year, Bravo ran the old Max Headroom series on Sunday(?) afternoons for a while. It was amazing how well they stood up a decade and a half later. Definitely a show too good for television.

    (Now that we've got Flash banner ads, can blipverts [maxheadroom.com] be far behind?)

    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

  • Blockquoth the poster:
    If the Cylons have been around for a thousand, hell even a hundred years, their targeting software should be BETTER. It took us six years or so to go from Doom to UT.
    Of course, if the Colonies have been around for a thousand, heck, even a hundred years, they might have invented ECM (electronic countermeasures, also known as jamming). And the Cylons would have invented ECCM (counter-jamming), and the Colonies would have improved their jamming...

    In other words, it's almost a crap shoot, technologically, who has the advantage at the particular moment the show begins. Maybe the Colonies had just leapfrogged in jamming tech, whereas the Cylons were left with old systems. That could help explain the ridiculous kill ratios.

    Not that I think the series creators had this in mind. It just amuses me to see people assume that technological advances would apply to only one half of the equation...

  • This is not "informative," it's nitpicking.

    It is simply not possible, given the budget constraints of TV production, to have a "perfect" show, much less a Sci-Fi one. If you want to take the genre far too seriously like you seem to be doing above, then go right ahead, but don't expect me to sit around and listen to it.

    "The Flash" of recent memory was the most expensive per-episode Sci-fi series to date, and it was mighty crappy.

    It's sooo easy to bitch about something that was made over 20 years ago!

  • Thank god they are bringing that show back. Now, that Voyager is gone, the world needs another Sci-Fi show. -blister
    -blister
  • Absolute, complete bullshit. Where'd you come up with this drivel?
  • So you're saying you need a ECM BUSTA BUSTA BUSTA!!!

  • I wouldn't call it science fiction (Score:3)

    by blang ( 450736 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:14PM (#112336)
    These programs are boring soap operas in an outer space setting. Which is why they are called space operas. Calling it science fiction is very pretentious and a disservice to the genre.

    If you want science fiction, read some books instead. In general I find short fiction to be the most interesting, but your milage may vary.

    Mod me down, I don't care. On this particular subject, I'm happy to be a troll.

  • HOw did they do the Cylon voices in BG? I want to do voices like that. Yes, and I do want to hear a Cylon "HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!?!?"

  • There weren't any links in the story, so does anyone have any that take people to the new info on the Battlestar Galactica TV movie/show (be it fact or rumor, I don't care). Thanks!

  • I would love to hear how Twiki would talk today. Possibly something like this?

    "Bee-Dee Bee-Dee Bee-Dee, Bite my shiny metal ass, Buck!"

    --
  • Crusade never got a chance, the last episode made (last shown at least, I think they made those crap episodes TNT wanted afterwards) was the first in the big story arc. From what I gather they never find the cure (Garibaldi's company does) and desert Earthforce to hunt down some sort of shadow minions. LotR (not Lord of the Rings, but Legend of the Rangers... acronym conflict!!) if it lasts as a series will overlap with Crusade's time frame so we may get to see some of the story that TNT ruined.

  • "Wahlberg is a decent, if simple, actor despite his past. "

    Actually I think that he's pretty good at his craft. He did a really good job in "Three Kings".

  • I really expected SciFi channel to run this series all throughout 1999, but it didn't happen. Why? Probably some legal bullshit.
  • Here's a link [battlestargalactica.com] to some information about the new Battlestar Galactica series.
  • That's going to be rather difficult,considering some of the original actors are *DEAD*.
    Even the dead actors make an appearance in Richard Hatch's Galactica Second Coming trailer (which can only be seen at conventions Hatch attends in person, due to SAG restrictions and such). It contains John Colicos's last performance before he died, and also has an appearance by Lorne Greene in the form of stock footage from the original Galactica movie (with permission obtained from Greene's family). Hatch has said that there could have been more appearances by those actors, with the aid of stock footage and CGI, in the Second Coming series as he conceived it.
    --

  • The Buck Rogers show made me feel funny... (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:16PM (#112353)
    Remember the episode where there were like, a dozen space midgets that they picked up and they were standing around whats-her-name and chanting 'Off think! Off think! Off think' to use their telekinetic powers to undress her because they were curious about human female physiology?
    Remember that one?
    It made me have funny feelings that I didn't quite understand at the time. I liked that episode.

  • What a sad and pathetic (Score:3)

    by _Mustang ( 96904 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:17PM (#112354)
    point of view these production houses have. Rather than actually use their brains and those huge production budgets to come up with something new and *cool* they'd rather re-release old *Crap*.

    Oh yeah, I used to love ALL those shows, but every generation needs something new, something which is the sci-fi hallmark of itself. Heck, Paramount may be making a vague effort in the form of the new "Star Trek: Enterprise", but you'd think that by now those supposed "entertainment genuises" could have come up with something other and more interesting than "Lothario in Space".. geeze!

    Must be the same disease that made them re-make "Planet of the Apes" with Wahlberg as the star..
    Heaven knows that the only thing worse is that I probably will end up wanting to see it because of cool clips and previews then end up finding out that all the cool scenes were in those clips.
  • Like the Dr. Who movie.

    "You're watching FOX ... shame on you!"

  • Blockquoth the poster:
    Uh, no. The poster did not blockquote anything. YOU did. The poster merely stated, in a non-block-quoted format.
    Um, no, but thanks for playing. Admittedly I am playing with words using "blockquoth" as modeled on "quoth". But consider, if you will, that famous line from Poe's "The Raven":
    Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."
    Obviously the raven is not quoting anyone; nor is the narrator stating that the raven quoted someone. Rather the narrator is quoting the raven. That's why the quotation marks are there. Likewise, I was quoting the original poster; hence the blockquote format.

    Which is far too much explanation for what was intended to be a silly little linguisitic graffito.

  • Its tme to look at new science fiction venues,
    not resurect the old. Andromeda is probably
    the first "Gen-X" in space series, where B-5,
    and the 2nd through 4th Star Trek series were
    "boomers and yuppies" in space.
  • ..........The Legend Of The Rangers could easily turn into a new series. Judging by his comments, it looks like it will happen. The film itself is done, and it's being compared to In The Beginning quality-wise.

    Then of course, SciFi is still thinking about bringing Crusade back.

    Let's not forget the B5 feature film, which may very well see the light of day (but not for a few years).

    It's a good time to be a B5 fan.
  • Is there anyone else who agrees a movie must be made? Any suggestions for lead actors?

    IMO, if done correctly, a BG movie would trump Star Wars.
  • ...the wacky religious overtones? I recall something about this being due to the funding for the series coming from a Mormon leader or something like that. Anyone care to clarify / correct that?

  • Re:Battlestar Galactica (Score:4)

    by Gogo Dodo ( 129808 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:24PM (#112373)
    IGN has coverage at http://scifi.ign.com/tv/7058.html [ign.com]

  • B5 (and Legend of the Rangers) links (Score:4)

    by rhea ( 104104 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:26PM (#112385) Homepage
    The official Sci-Fi website for this new tv movie is here [scifi.com] (for those who can't truncate the URL of the trailer).

    The TV Guide article is here [tvguide.com].

    The place I got these links as well as the repository of all B5 info is here [midwinter.com].

  • My thing is I don't try to nitpick anything fiction because it's fiction gosh darn it! :) It doesn't HAVE to be correct in physics with me, it just has to be entertaining! I DO expect when they say one thing, to not turn around and negate it the next episode (this was done CONSTANTLY in Star Trek). Also, the Cylons being as bad shooters as they were is probably because it takes real people to do it better. Machines can't do everything better then us especially since we humans act in unpredictable way sometimes. The best thing about Battlestar Galactica was the unique universe they created. The Vipers were just plain cool looking, and the Cylons were too. The shuttles were kind of dorky looking, and the Battlestars, well, they were good looking, but I'd have to agree that the attacks it was dealt never looked serious enough to create the damage they had. I don't complain much about BG because I remember TV show effects SUCKED then. As long as what they bring out looks a whole lot better then the original (but with some Homage payed in looks....kind of like they way they brought trek back), they story lines aren't contrived, and the leave the freaking power ranger like team thing out of it (Team Knight Rider anyone....BLECH!) it will do well. TV is really without any good sci-fi stuff (unless you count the X-filish type of sci-fi which there's plenty o dat crap on sci-fi) now. Voyager bit the big one and I ain't holding my breath for Enterprise to do better. One word to UPN....get the show on at the SAME time everyweek on every affiliate. Make that a requirement! That's the main problem (other then show suckage) that had with Voyager..I never could keep track of when the dratted thing was on (no I don't own a Tivo yet and I don't want one until I can get one with AT LEAST 100 Gigs!). I just hope with all of this Sci-Fi stuff coming out this fall that we FINALLY get something worth watching (b5 was just too freaking confusing for me....I hate serial shows because I don't have time to watch the thing every freaking week). Good luck to Enterprise, the new BG and others including the return of Michael Knight (just promise me David Hasselhoff won't sing and I will watch the show...oh and make KITT BLACK BLACK BLACK!! :))
  • I dunno about Battlestar Galactica (As the Space Channel ads here put it "Who knew the future would look so much like the 70's?") but Bab5 was much "harder" SF than a lot of stuff on TV. Just watching the Starfury fighters fire maneuvering thrusters to move, and doing that strafing thing where the ship is pointed at 90 degrees to the movement vector and blasting away, reminds me how "soft" Star Wars and Trek really are :-) What? Spaceships don't fly the way airplanes do? Who knew! Even "Space: Above and Beyond" didn't have that degree of "realism".

    (A physics model I *ache for* in a space sim, by the way)

  • All I have to say is give this show a chance, mainly because of Stryzinski (spelling way wrong). He does have a vision and an arc.

    Just call him Great Maker. :)

    I remember from interviews a few years back that JMS had a detailed history written 1000 years both forward and backward from the B5 time. He had an outline sketch for 1,000,000 years either direction. This leaves room to put several large story arcs in.

    There is no denying that Crusade was slaughtered. TNT stepped in and baught B5 when the previous producer was ready to pull the plug. They only wanted it for the syndication/repeat capability. It's good to see SciFi with now. This at least gives us a chance to see some decent new material.

  • The Salt Lake City Tribune and the local TV stations news shows in SLC.

  • Erm, you mean like the fundamental plot hole introduced in the pilot? You remember, the one where a normal being was able to apply a poison to Kosh by injecting it into him through his encounter suit?!

    Nice try, but that one is long since resolved. In the words of the producer [midwinter.com]: "Remember, they do have a certain physicality about them, even in that form, and the nature of the poison was such that it would affect that kind of life form using a crystalline base (note in the pilot the screen reads analyzing crystalline structure, and you filter light or refract or distort it using a crystalline structure)."

    (don't get me started on that whole Valen/Sinclair thing - a major flaw in there if you look),

    Where? You were aware that that was part of the arc from the very beginning, yes?
    --
    #/usr/bin/perl
    require 6.0;

  • (Hear me out before you mod me down)

    I was a big fan of BG back in the day. Then they started showing the reruns. Faux-wife and I sat down to watch it for old time nostalgia. It was the classic episode with the cross-shaped glowing white space ship that they show in the opening credits. Let me tell you something. It Sucked. It sucked more than anything I had seen in a long time. Faux-wife was deeply saddened to see a show she loved growing up as one of the worst pieces of TV sci-fi to ever be rebroadcast. The plot was sickly. The characters where two dimensional in the extreme. I was under the impression that I would be privilege to the benefit of watching it older and wiser. I would see new things I had missed before.
    Some how I got just as much out the episode this time as I did when I saw it nearly 2 decades ago.

    It is my hope that the new version of BG is not a special effects enhanced version of the old. Fox, if you are listening, please do us a favor: create a show that will have some value after 20 years. I think things like _good_ plots and characters with character, not 2D stereo types, might be a good start.

  • Now we just need Buck Rogers to return with that gorgeous sidekick he had ...

    Ah, yes, Erin Gray [eringray.com].

    I would drink her bath water.

  • Oh dear, more Babylon 5... (Score:4)

    by SmileyBen ( 56580 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:41PM (#112411) Homepage
    I wish they would stop treating Babylon 5 like it were Star Trek, in just the area where it was different. The really great thing about Babylon 5 was that it wasn't bitty and independent, it had a contained, thought-through, and predecided story-arc. This made for compulsive viewing, where you wanted to see just what happened next, rather than tuning in simply for a diversion for 45 minutes (which is a noble aim, don't get me wrong!). I really hope they don't go the Star Trek route, where it is acceptable to fob fans off with unrelated random episodes, and claim they're part of B5 just because they have the same characters / ideas in. More B5 would be great, but that means actual B5, not just B5-universe spin-offs...
  • Buck Roger's gorgeous sidekick's name was Erin Gray. Don't ask me why I remember that. As an 8-year-old I had a crush on both her and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman).
  • The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 has this to say [midwinter.com] about The Legend of the Rangers. If you look in the 'JMS Speaks' section of the page (towards the bottom) he says:
    • To those who've heard the news already, and those just now finding out...the SciFi Channel today announced that we have a new Babylon 5 TV movie going into production that will also serve as a pilot for a likely new series.

    • The movie (and the series) is under the heading of BABYLON 5: THE LEGEND OF THE RANGERS. The specific title for the 2-hour movie's story is "To Live and Die in Starlight."
  • Forgot the Twiki link: http://www.jeffbots.com/twiki.html [jeffbots.com]

    While I am at it, here is a link for Erin Grey's "Filmography": http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gray,+Erin [imdb.com]. No picture of her there, but all it takes is a quick trip to google to pull up hundreds...

    ______

  • Re:Battlestar Galactica (Score:4)

    by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @04:47PM (#112420) Homepage Journal
    Though it's not specifically devoted to the new incarnation that Brian Singer is putting together, BattlestarGalactica.com [battlestargalactica.com] has been at the center of keeping BSG fandom alive for years now, in conjunction with actor Richard Hatch (who played Apollo, not the Survivor guy).

    Note that though the new show guys are making noises about how they're going to be faithful to the original, and feature some of the original characters, they still haven't cast any of the original actors yet . . .
    --

  • .. Then let's at least bring back something halfway good. Bring back Space 1999, bring back (pauses for thought) (grind grind no other files found), uhhh, bring back Space 1999. (I'm speaking primarily of shows shown on US commercial networks, else I'd ask for the good Doctor back.)

    Now, if we are willing to expand into the 80's, then (damn I wish I could do a <font> here) BRING BACK MAX!

    (I could have been very sick and asked for Slavage 1 back, given how life imitates art [slashdot.org], but I won't...)
  • ...What? Spaceships don't fly the way airplanes do? Who knew! Even "Space: Above and Beyond" didn't have that degree of "realism". (A physics model I *ache for* in a space sim, by the way)

    Try Terminus. The physics used is like those starfuries (turn off your inertial compensator, which itself acts realistically - just your ships computer nav system utilizing your ships thrusters to keep you moving in the direction you are pointed. Turn it off, as you should to properly maneuver and fight, and you get the real physics

  • From the perspective of an 8-year-old easily impressed by special effects. unfortunately that's pretty much all there was of Battlestar Galactica. The plot mostly consisted of filler designed to get us as quickly as possible to the next point where they could show off some special effects.

    Farscape gets my vote for best Sci-fi on TV right now. Though the last episode I saw seemed to be rushing through the plot instead of squeezing the chracters in a really evil ethical dilemma. I hope the writing doesn't deteriorate as they get more successful.

  • The previos poster is correct. I did forget about Stargate-SG1. That is an exceptional show, but I think it's in it's sixth season. I was talking about shows started in the past 5 years.

    And I respectfully disagree with the other earlier poster about Farscape. I do not consider that a piece of quality sci-fi, but to be fair, that's just a personal judgement and more or less imaterial to my argument.

    --CTH


    --
  • I am thrilled that BattleStar Galactica is getting another shot. I always felt that BG was an excellent premise that just needed better writers to make it work. If they can avoid being campy and slipping into deus ex machina solutions they might pull it off.

    A few suggestions for the producers:

    • Do not let them ever find Earth. Galactica '82 (81? 83?) was an offense against decency.

    • If refugees are supposed to be tired, hungry, unwashed, don't let them look like runway models (except for the emaciated part).

    • Starbucks be damned, keep Starbuck named "Starbuck".

    • Do not hire any writers from Star Trek Voyager

    • Try to find a plausible explanation for why the Cylons are zealously searching for the remnants of humanity in order to destroy then, and occasionally find the rag-tag fleet of presumably old slow ships, but don't gang up on them and blow them into dust.

    • Recognize the reality that if the Twelve Colonies of Man (ahem, take a hint from ST:TNG, the Twelve Colonies of Humanity) is wiped out, Colonial currency will be worthless. You'll just have to come up with something else for Starbuck to gamble with.

    • At least once an episode, have that bitchin' shot of the fighter taking off down the launch tunnels.


    Miko O'Sullivan

  • I was a big fan of BG back in the day. Then they started showing the reruns. Faux-wife and I sat down to watch it for old time nostalgia. It was the classic episode with the cross-shaped glowing white space ship that they show in the opening credits. Let me tell you something. It Sucked. It sucked more than anything I had seen in a long time. Faux-wife was deeply saddened to see a show she loved growing up as one of the worst pieces of TV sci-fi to ever be rebroadcast. The plot was sickly. The characters where two dimensional in the extreme. I was under the impression that I would be privilege to the benefit of watching it older and wiser. I would see new things I had missed before.

    Battlestar Galactica was NOT the worst SF series of all time. Its semi-sequel Galactica '80 (with a premise that appeared a few months earlier as a parody in Cracked magazine #159!) was at least an order of magnitude worse than the original series.

    At least the original series killed off Rick Springfield in the first episode! :-)

  • Half Life - the TV series.

    Where you follow the wacky Gordon Freeman and his happy-go-lucky Barney sidekicks on a no-holds-barred fight to escape the depths of the secret Black Mesa government research facililty and the clutches of the mysterious 'Administrator'.

    Frequent travel to alien worlds and the unravelling of the evil plot to rule the world by harnessing an alien army... It would kick ass!

    There were no chicks in the game, except for those big-titted black-op assasins, but surely the TV show could work some sexy scientists into the script.

    Well, i think it'd be cool anyway.

  • Not for much longer (Score:3)

    by Platinum Dragon ( 34829 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @05:14PM (#112443) Journal
    But for all you /.ers in Canada you can watch all the episodes for those series weekly and in the B5 case week nights on the Space channel.

    To my great chagrin, I ran across this tidbit [spacecast.com] on Space's website [spacecast.com]. Space will apparently stop running B5 on July 31. The license simply ran out. It may be some time before B5 comes back.

    This thread [chumcity.net] is a good, informative read for you fellow Canuck B5 fans out there. If anyone in the Toronto area wants to get together to watch either the final ep on July 31, or the 5-episode farewell marathon on August 6, contact me and we'll try to arrange something. Might not be a bad call; if the final ep of TNG got the friggin' SkyDome, the final ep of B5 on Space can at least get someone's living room:)
  • Reading through the website for the Babylon 5 Ranger telelmovie, it notes that the story takes place two years after the original B5 series ended, with the Rangers seeking to help worlds recover from the massive interstellar war with the Shadows.

    Yes, the idea of a force striking out to restore order isn't brand spanking new, but then, rarely are many stories out there, regardless of the media they're portrayed through.

    It's somewhat ironic that a forum which is closely tied with the promotion of one of the advantages of open source software being the removal of the need to reinvent the wheel and build on the work of others, also being extremely hostile towards a series which seeks to do the same.

    Basing a new series within the same universe as a previous one can be a very good thing, as much of the back story is already out there for the viewer in the know. And the Babylon 5 series has been well known for giving us the endings away early on, yet making the voyage to that ending all the more interesting. I do not doubt that we'll see the same attributes with the new story line.

    Just because it's based in the same story universe does not automagically mean trash, just as "new" story backgrounds do not guarentee worthwhile work. Most stories, whether they're on television, movies or books are evolutionary, not revolutionary.

  • I liked Babylon 5 well enough. Another "movie" wouldn't be a bad thing. But I'd really like to see MJS go on to other things rather than do another series.

    As for Battlestar Galactica . . . oh, please! This show stunk to high heaven. Bad science, old cliches, cardboard characters, endlessly recycled special effect sequences . . . ugh.

    The only reason it's being considered for revival is nostalgia of folks who were undemanding kids in the late 70s. Even with new special effects and the looser standards of the Aughts, it won't be the same, kiddies! You're grown-ups now. You should want, and deserve, something better.

    There are so many possibilities in SF . . . why dredge up this stinkbomb? Babylon 5 proved we can do better. I'm sure we can do better still.

    Stefan

  • Without Lorne Greene? (Score:3)

    by po8 ( 187055 ) on Monday July 02, 2001 @05:17PM (#112448)

    It's hard for me to imagine Battlestar Galactica without the late Lorne Greene [imdb.com]. In my opinion, his controlled acting and powerful stage presence elevated the show far beyond what the scripts and characters deserved: I suspect he will be greatly missed in the new series.

  • ..."Legend of the POWER RANGERS"!!!

    Today's disgusting, worthless trash TV is tomorrow's disgusting, worthless nostalgia TV. ;-)

    -Kasreyn
  • Buck Roger's gorgeous sidekick's name was Erin Gray. Don't ask me why I remember that. As an 8-year-old I had a crush on both her and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman).

    I thought Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) was much better. Erin Gray's character was such an icy glacier that I thought she was UN-sexy. But then I was 15 years old, so the motherly personality of Colonel Wilma Deering wasn't very endearing. But I agree with you about Lynda Carter.

    Of course in the second season they decided to completely scrap it as an action show (maybe the FX for those fighter ship battles ate up too much of the budget) and turned it into a lame Star Trek clone. They basically just left Princess Ardala and all that interplanetary squabble behind in favor of the "Planet of the Week Club".

  • I have some advice for the new producers of BG, based on observation of original Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980 .

    It is not plausible that three Vipers take off at the same time every time.

    It goes against the laws of physics that Cylon ships always explode the same way.

    The above also applies to Colonial Vipers.

    If the Cylons have been around for a thousand, hell even a hundred years, their targeting software should be BETTER. It took us six years or so to go from Doom to UT.

    In real life there will not be a nearby agricultural settlement when the Cylons nuke your aggro ships.

    It is not permissible to use the above storyline twice.

    Deus ex machina is not allowed!

    Please read above in case you missed it.

    Do not create a military relying solely on aircraft carriers.

    Do not make these carriers so weak that a couple of laser blasts to the bridge causes them to explode in three entirely separate places.

    Microns, Centons, and Sectons are not interchangeable.

    If the Cylons knew that their Centurions couldn't aim for crap they would have (logically) programmed them to charge the enemy and then self-destruct.

    Laser turrets and missile turrets are not interchangeable.

    Why is the sole shielding available to an advanced carrier some steel welded to the front of the ship. Cain order electromagnetic shields up, why didn't anyone else do this?

    Why do so many freighters look like the Gemini freighter?

    Didn't that aggro ship get killed twice?

    Where do the raw materials come from to continually replace destroyed Vipers?

    Why is the proportion of White to Black so horribly horribly unbalanced. Are the Capricans racist?

    Any particular reason that fighters armed with lasers have "hundred-megon" loads?

    How can an advanced society have absolutely no defense against an air raid? Were they using the National Missile Defense System? An episode established that the computers were tampered with? Are there no sysadmins? Stupid NT/IIS handed Caprica to the Cylons then?

    Ugh, end rant.
  • Wasn't that Erin Gray [eringray.com]?

    She STILL looks good!
  • Now, if we are willing to expand into the 80's, then (damn I wish I could do a here) BRING BACK MAX!

    DVD box!!!
    DVD box!!!
    DVD box!!!

    I did manage to record most of the shows, but I missed the last five or six, including the one where Max falls in love with a computer. But that was back in the days when VHS tapes cost enough that I always recorded in 6-hour mode, so they're really lo-rez.

    And I'm still pissed that Buckaroo Banzai and (I think) UHF are both in rights limbo as far as getting on DVD is concerened. BB was part of a dozen or so movie deal where one of the movies had a problem with the rights, so of course every one of them in the entire deal has been fucked up for years.

  • I liked Babylon 5 well enough. Another "movie" wouldn't be a bad thing. But I'd really like to see MJS go on to other things rather than do another series.

    Joe isn't into recycling stuff. Crusade was very different from B5, in cast and feel, despite being in the same universe. I'm sure Rangers will also be a show of its own.

    For non B5-related stuff by JMS, check out Amazing Spiderman (for which he writes these days), Rising Stars, or Midnight Nation.

  • I understand that you would not go and investigate the background, but being a big B5 fan, I have. The original creative force behind B5, JMS, is behind the Ranger's show. I don't know if you saw any of the Crusade episodes, but if you followed that travesty, you will never watch TNT/TBS again.

    All I have to say is give this show a chance, mainly because of Stryzinski (spelling way wrong). He does have a vision and an arc. It may go stale, but from I've read of his remarks, he is still going into (somewhat) fresh territory (I say "somewhat" because no matter what he does, there will be people who will find parallels with something done in the past- mainly because they will compare new stuff to 1 of 6 broad categories).
  • No, not Erin Gray. I forget her name, but she always said "beedeebeedee...What's up, Buck?" And she didn't really look so hot.
  • ...in that you can't go three episodes of B5 without religion in it. Sounds more like he's searching than an atheist.

    He did make a polite 'no comment' when someone asked him about this very subject when I saw him at Marcon a couple of years back.

    Vermifax

  • As I recall, when they made the show, they had no budget for doing any special effects or space shots, so all that footage was reused from the movie.
  • BattleStar Galactica was, in a nutshell, a search for a lost tribe of humanity. This tribe had left man kind ages before and settled in a far arm of the galaxy.

    The lost tribe being Terran humanity of course. When the intrepid crew of the BG finally found earth, they shot all the script writers and we got Galactica: 1980 (or similar, those brain cells were put out to pasture long ago).

    This, of course, parallels the lost tribe of Israel, although in the Torah, the Jews don'y fly starfighters and the goyim have more than one eye.

    Were there religious overtones in BG? Very slight, if there were. It certainly wasn't deeply allegorical to anything.

    dave "by your command"
  • And CAPTAIN POWER! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! Really REALLY torqued me off when they never continued that show; I thought it was a powerful ending, what with Jennifer dying off and all. That show was WAY too good for ostensibly being nothing more than a vehicle to sell toys. And such cool toys at that.
  • Anybody else remember this godawful show? The BG characters had to pretend to integrate with normal 20th-century humans while really fighting off the Cylon invasion of Earth. I remember in particular one episode where Starbuck got into a wild-west gunfight with a Cylon. Even at the time (I was ten), I remember thinking it was a ripoff of a Trek episode (which, as I realized later, was a ripoff of various other shows of the time). But what I really want to know is: If they found Earth back in 1980, why the hell did they leave it 20 years later? No, wait, don't answer that....

    Go Lance Armstrong!

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