Babylon 5 Direct-To-DVD Project In Production 194
ajs writes "As previously announced, 'Babylon 5: The Lost Tales' is a direct-to-DVD project based on the popular series from the mid-1990s. Lost Tales first DVD, titled 'Voices of the Dark' has now begun production. As usual, J. Michael Straczynski and Doug Netter will be running the show with Straczynski directing. The characters, President John Sheridan (Boxleitner), Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Scoggins) and the technomage Galen (Woodward) are returning. The Lost Tales is an anthology series of sorts with two movies (previously three) per DVD starting in 2007. Straczynski has commented on Usenet that a more CG-intensive installment is coming in the next batch, featuring the character of Michael Garibaldi (Doyle)."
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:2, Insightful)
Babylon 5's time... (Score:2, Insightful)
But we have also moved past that story into new and interesting stories with much higher production values. I hope for the series, but I think that when you go back and look at B5, you have to appreciate what it did, rather then what it is now (which is dated, and a bit cliched).
Not that I won't buy it anyways I suppose.
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:5, Insightful)
For me, the big appeal was that things of significant scope actually happened and the story progressed and changed with time. At the point that Babylon 5 came out, I was really fed up with the Star Trek franchise: Good acting and effects, but a horribly pedestrian and smarmy humanism seemed to infest most of the writing. It also pulled far too many punches. B5 made the universe seem strange and mysterious again, even if the acting was strictly community theater sometimes. War seemed dangerous, instead of a stageset for some belabored morality tale. It's dumb to say it was better than Star Trek, but B5 really spoke better to the sorts of stories I wanted to hear at that time.
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:3, Insightful)
Much like the current crop of popular tv shows such as Lost, Heroes, Jericho, 24, Prison Break, etc.
That said, it DID start off really slow in the first season. But the later seasons were some of the finest sci-fi I've ever seen on television.
Best of breed. (Score:3, Insightful)
I consider B5 to be one of the best sci-fi series ever made, and its long term story is one of the reasons for that.
I think that some other sci-fi series may have had a chance to come close to B5 (eg firefly) but never got the chance to last long enough.
Its a shame that it came to such a conclusion it was (would be) difficult to continue it. The creators do keep coming back to it, but never something quite so epic, and I had hoped that one of the spins offs (eg crusade) would have lived longer.
Anyway B5 will always remain as a definitive series for me.
This explains... (Score:2, Insightful)
I can only assume that either she asked for too much money to return, or she ticked somebody off during her time on the show. After seeing a glimpse of her temper, and her almost insignificant parts on other shows since B5, I think I know the answer.
I am glad to see the series revived somewhat though, for it was a decent sci-fi show. I do not think they will regret the decision of producing the direct-to-DVD shows. It will do well, just as the past DVD releases have I'm sure.
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:3, Insightful)
I would also add that the second season was also very, very dark. I know some friends who had a hard time watching the series because of all of the bad things that happened in the second season, but I guarantee you, the payoff in seasons 3 and 4 are worth it. You certainly cannot stop watching before you get to Severed Dreams [midwinter.com], the episode that forever hooked me to Babylon 5 never to recover. In order to truly enjoy the victory, you have to first taste the defeat.
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:3, Insightful)
It looks cheesey now only because everyone else followed behind and forged ahead building on the original.
A lot of groundbreaking stuff looks lame once everyone else joins in.
Re:Best of breed. (Score:3, Insightful)
I think quite the opposite. It was one story, to be told, and told well. JMS managed to do just that. It was never intended to be an endless many year long series. And just because it had a good storyline, a beginning, an end, and a very well done in-between, it will remain my all-time sci-fi favourite, despite my friendly
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing was, the early seasons of D29 followed the old Star Trek formula of pressing the "reset" button after every episode, while B5 went off on its arc, with massive plot elements changing from episode to episode. After a few seasons, it was clear that B5 was going somewhere, while DS9 was still mostly about some guys hanging out in Quark's bar. Cheers in space. Fun, and I watched it, but not great stuff.
But then, in the later seasons, even DS9 made itself a nice little plot arc, which I always saw as a late admission that the Babylon 5 way had something going for it.
Re:I never saw the appeal of this series (Score:4, Insightful)
I would still say that any sci-fi fan who has not watched the first four seasons of the series has missed out on something unique. It is no longer the series that you have to measure up to, but it used to be, and many of the later and in many ways better sci-fi shows owe a lot to this series. Nowadays writers and their vision for a series is trusted more and maybe, for some part, B5 helped pave the way.
It's Like Citizen Kane (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the same with B5 and scifi on TV. Ignore firefly, stargate, lost, the new BSG, farscape, and any of the recent stuff. B5 was a defining sci fi TV series in soo many ways, technical, plot, scope, etc. It really set the stage. Besides that, it was just a damn good show.