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Horizon Burning posted:The alien species that has never been seen before and comes out of nowhere and almost destroys the headquarters of the Interstellar Alliance in the process but are never ever mentioned again always felt dumb to me. There's plenty of one-off aliens who pose a military threat and are never seen again, like the ones that kidnap Sheridan or the ones with the probe.
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Nov 10, 2019 17:22
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I think it's weird that after season 1, there's no real problems with raiders ever again. Which I know that those raiders were being sponsored by the shadows, but it still seems like if it was an issue back then, it should be possible for other groups to start operating. Organized crime in general practically disappears.
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Nov 10, 2019 17:45
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think it's weird that after season 1, there's no real problems with raiders ever again. I was just thinking how much I liked their return in Thirdspace, with Patrick Swayze's brother no less.
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Nov 10, 2019 17:46
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SlothfulCobra posted:I think it's weird that after season 1, there's no real problems with raiders ever again. I'm fairly sure they admitted somewhere - DVD commentary? - that the Raiders were largely something they'd throw in in season 1 to give some action beats.
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Nov 10, 2019 18:13
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I’d guess that little one off attacks like the aliens in View happen fairly regularly but we just don’t see them because usually they’re not pivotal to the larger show plot. Don’t the two schlubs say this is the third red alert this month or something?
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Nov 10, 2019 18:18
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Admittedly it's been a while since I watched S1, but wasn't a big part of the problem the fact that the raiders were attacking ships in deep space far from any bases? I remember the reveal of their mothership and it's destruction, and I can buy that a mothership would have been a very difficult thing for most raiders to obtain. Makes sense to me that raiders would become a minor problem after that.
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Nov 11, 2019 01:08
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FYI.. JMS just revealed that the script books are being rereleased. US$330 for the set. jms posted:A Babylon 5 Christmas Surprise….
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Nov 11, 2019 01:35
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S05E05 - Learning Curve "Captain, this is not about revenge." "Then what it is about?" "TERROR" Didn't see the one coming! This episode finally getting good, considering the terrible Aussie? accent? E: lmao this is some Liam Neeson poo poo! TraderStav fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Nov 11, 2019 |
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Nov 11, 2019 01:56
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nashona posted:FYI.. JMS just revealed that the script books are being rereleased. US$330 for the set. These are fascinating. I got the first release of them years ago when they came out and it was well worth the price of admission. Sadly this version doesn’t appear to have the volume 15 stuff, including the infamous Londo/G’Kar gently caress prank script, but it’s still some great stuff.
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Nov 11, 2019 02:45
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MrL_JaKiri posted:There's plenty of one-off aliens who pose a military threat and are never seen again, like the ones that kidnap Sheridan or the ones with the probe. The Streib are named and it's mentioned that the Minbari basically burned them back to their homeworld years ago and the ship that abducted Sheridan is them pushing their limits again. The Berserker Probe is a remnant of a dead civilization. Meanwhile, the red helmet guys have a big fleet but no one knows what they're called or where they come from.
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Nov 11, 2019 02:59
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Dang, I can't believe I don't remember any of this monk cloister subplot. Makes me wonder if there's any modern monastery that contracts out data entry or some poo poo. ]Shame it got dropped before G'kar had his breakthrough. Would've been interesting to see more alien religions get explored. It also makes me wonder more what the deal was with that "one moment of beauty" that Kosh showed Sheridan in season 2. Was it supposed to literally be the gregorian chanting, or was that just representative of something else? I guess the death of the mind stuff overshadowed them in my head. That's a whole bundle of sci fi questions all put on a plate without any good answers. Oh, and so now that Lita's around, it shows an interesting mistake of how Earth tried to regulate psychics by forcibly conscripting them all. No telepathy infringements are actually crimes if the corp's not involved.
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Nov 11, 2019 06:30
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nashona posted:FYI.. JMS just revealed that the script books are being rereleased. US$330 for the set. Wow, there's some shitheads in the comments who are salty about the perception that their "collector's items" might no longer be as exclusive as they thought they would. That is such a foreign concept to me.
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Nov 11, 2019 06:56
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:Wow, there's some shitheads in the comments who are salty about the perception that their "collector's items" might no longer be as exclusive as they thought they would. That is such a foreign concept to me. If volume 15 isn't included I don't see what the problem is. Besides not being able to overcharge someone wanting to do work with the scripts.
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Nov 11, 2019 07:11
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On paper, it makes total sense that B5 should have somebody there as an official government representative, since military officers aren't really qualified to act as ambassadors. Of course, when a "political officer" does show up, we've already been primed to know that the "civilian government" isn't exactly civilian, and it's probably one of those deals where the administration used a loophole to slide something in without going through any real approval process. Oh god, I misremembered this conversation as being with a reporter. Jeez. It's too real. A "mental illness" issue indeed. Well, that's not professional. That's not professional either, Zack. Ooh, these And Zack's a douche, but it's interesting that the show's building a really interesting case for him and his actions. His boss that he respects is leaving him high and dry on important things in dire times, while the fascists are bending over backwards to be nice and encourage all these officers to turn on their colleagues. And G'kar really wants in on the main plot.
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Nov 11, 2019 07:17
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SlothfulCobra posted:On paper, it makes total sense that B5 should have somebody there as an official government representative, since military officers aren't really qualified to act as ambassadors. On that point: I normally think of B5's situation as determined by the requirement by the Minbari that Sinclair run the station, be the official representative, etc., and then he gets replaced with Sheridan for all the reasons Sheridan's qualified. But if you're a starship captain, you might be making first contact with an alien race (which Sheridan did, at least once). So maybe command-track EarthForce officers are given unusually thorough training in dealing with alien races / foreign governments, compared to modern day. It'd still make sense to have a dedicated ambassador, separate from the station governor, though.
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Nov 11, 2019 07:38
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Vavrek posted:On that point: I normally think of B5's situation as determined by the requirement by the Minbari that Sinclair run the station, be the official representative, etc., and then he gets replaced with Sheridan for all the reasons Sheridan's qualified. But if you're a starship captain, you might be making first contact with an alien race (which Sheridan did, at least once). So maybe command-track EarthForce officers are given unusually thorough training in dealing with alien races / foreign governments, compared to modern day. Sinclair got both jobs because the Minbari wanted him there, Sheridan just got grandfathered in. Command-level officers would absolutely have first-contact training because Earth hasn't been out in space all that long (relatively speaking) and there's plenty of new cultures to stumble into. Plus wherever they are has to be a looong way from the nearest civilian ambassador for the job, so they need to be able to achieve something. Even if it's just "Please do not shoot us, we come and will leave in peace".
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Nov 11, 2019 09:58
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Narsham posted:If volume 15 isn't included I don't see what the problem is. Besides not being able to overcharge someone wanting to do work with the scripts. See if I read that correctly, JMS isn’t re-printing the script books, he’s publishing the scripts themselves. The script books have all sorts of commentary, extras, and photos which IMO is the really cool and interesting stuff, and the scripts themselves are just a sideline. Re-publishing the original script books themselves would be a slightly lovely thing to do since they swore up one side and down the other they’d never do that, but still only slightly. They still won’t be the original run so the sweaty nerds who complain about value (and then never sell them so value is actually meaningless) shouldn’t be too concerned. If these are just the scripts (which JMS would have every right to do whatever the gently caress he wants with) then the angry nerds are even more lovely because then they’re literally complaining that some one new has access to information they had for years. Either way the answer is nerds are lovely. (And yes I say this as an owner of the complete original set)
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Nov 11, 2019 11:14
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TraderStav posted:S05E05 - Learning Curve I really enjoyed the comment at the end when Michael and Zack are discussing the Minbari regarding that they will always finish a fight, even if it's to their own end. I sit here wondering if that is a reflection on past events or foreshadowing of what's to come.
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Nov 11, 2019 13:27
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Sinclair got both jobs because the Minbari wanted him there, Sheridan just got grandfathered in. Command-level officers would absolutely have first-contact training because Earth hasn't been out in space all that long (relatively speaking) and there's plenty of new cultures to stumble into. Plus wherever they are has to be a looong way from the nearest civilian ambassador for the job, so they need to be able to achieve something. Even if it's just "Please do not shoot us, we come and will leave in peace". They mention early on - I think it's Soul Hunter - that Earthforce regs require a command-level officer be present if there's a possibility of a first contact situation. Given that the Minbari war was the result of a miscommunication during first contact, it's not surprising Earth would have policies to make sure any future contacts are handled by someone who knows what the hell they're doing...
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Nov 11, 2019 13:40
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JMS confirms that the books do not have the bonus content nor will volume 15 material be included. So it’s just nerds being butthurt. 
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Nov 11, 2019 15:07
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"Spousal unit" ewoo
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Nov 11, 2019 15:48
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TraderStav posted:"Spousal unit" ewoo That barely even registers as a nerd thing anymore.
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Nov 11, 2019 18:51
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Guy I know has literally never said "parents" in all the time I've known him, it's only "parental units" or simply "units"
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Nov 11, 2019 19:41
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TraderStav posted:"Spousal unit" ewoo I also like the “I’m going to TELL her what to buy”
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Nov 11, 2019 21:34
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Also 'upcoming Yule' rather than Christmas.
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Nov 11, 2019 21:54
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Doctor Zero posted:Re-publishing the original script books themselves would be a slightly lovely thing to do since they swore up one side and down the other they’d never do that, Why did they do that, anyway? That seems like such a weird promise to make in the first place.
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Nov 12, 2019 01:05
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:Why did they do that, anyway? That seems like such a weird promise to make in the first place. They wanted to be sincere about them being a very limited edition thing, plus to get the special 15th volume you did have to put down a not small amount of money up front I don't have crazy collector brain so it really wouldn't have upset me that much if they'd gone back on it, there's a lot of great behind the scenes stuff in them that I don't really think should be mostly inaccessible but I understand people who care.
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Nov 12, 2019 02:00
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I’m glad I got mine on the first print run but I wouldn’t begrudge the material being rereleased as ebooks or something. You could then chase the books if you want physical objects, or you could read the words on your computer if you want the information.
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Nov 12, 2019 02:09
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I really enjoy Lt. Corwin, and he's got such a great horrified  here that I decided to make a couple avatar-sized versions:  fake edit: made a third, to get even tighter on that 
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Nov 12, 2019 02:39
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I like how everybody was paranoid about Bester's first Season 3 visit to the station and how it was a political ploy against the station command, and then at the end, it turns out no, you idiots, he was totally straightforward, and the twist is that like every other time he came to the station, it was a psycorp program gone awry. He's just so nice about everything too. Oh god Marcus is such a dooork. Dig this weird alien bug plot though. You'd think that if they were meant to preserve knowledge throughout the eons, they'd start publishing books or something. Corwin's a different kind of dork. I wish the chevron guy on Stargate had this kind of dumb subplot.
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Nov 13, 2019 02:14
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One of the many koans of B5 is that Markus is very bad but Markus is also JMS's Mary sue.
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Nov 13, 2019 02:21
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Vavrek posted:As a postscript, this interesting and irritating detail: I remember hearing this a few times over the years, but I must admit, I never quite understood it. It's not like you couldn't render 16:9 graphics on a 4:3 screen, and Lightwave has always had a "safe zone" overlay for the screen edges. I guess I can see an argument for needing an actual reference monitor to do final checks on the output, but does that mean Foundation was never going to render anything in widescreen until a client bought them a monitor? Dirty fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Nov 13, 2019 |
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Nov 13, 2019 21:41
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It makes sense to me that if the whole reason you're doing something is to provide a higher quality image, you don't wanna just freeball it and accept the consequences. I remember hearing that Mainframe Entertainment didn't have equipment that could display the fully rendered shots before publishing when they made Reboot and Beast Wars, but those are children's cartoons with...dubious visual quality.
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Nov 13, 2019 22:36
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Vavrek posted:I really enjoy Lt. Corwin, and he's got such a great horrified I'm curious if he was supposed to have a different/larger role in season 3/4. In season 3, when the command staff are interviewing the rest of the officers about how the feel about what President Clark is doing, their loyalties, etc... he toes the company line and is all, "Well we're just soldiers and we have to follow all the orders, sir!" and Ivanova sort of shakes her head towards Sheridan indicating he is NOT on their side. But then when they declare independence he just...is. I think he has one line about "well it's weird, but I guess I'm ok with it." I wonder if they meant for him to play a bigger role to highlight what the "average" officer in EarthForce was going through...genuinely conflicted feelings, especially since they're deprived of a lot of the info the senior staff had. I guess they sort of put that onto Zack, but he was involved with Nightwatch and sort of already figured out they were the bad guys We saw a few officers that reluctantly supported Clark (the commander of the fleet at Mars that got hosed by the telepaths, for instance, and Lockley, to a point) and we saw ones that were 100% Clark supporters, like Dr.Kelso, but we didn't get very many "well I guess Sheridan is right...I'll join up, but I'm not happy about it!" people. All his supporters seemed to be full-on "ra ra resistance!"
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Nov 14, 2019 15:41
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Dirty posted:I remember hearing this a few times over the years, but I must admit, I never quite understood it. It's not like you couldn't render 16:9 graphics on a 4:3 screen, and Lightwave has always had a "safe zone" overlay for the screen edges. I guess I can see an argument for needing an actual reference monitor to do final checks on the output, but does that mean Foundation was never going to render anything in widescreen until a client bought them a monitor? And then they were hosed over by their client anyway.
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Nov 14, 2019 16:35
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DrBouvenstein posted:I'm curious if he was supposed to have a different/larger role in season 3/4. Regarding that bit in S3: Corwin isn't a Clark loyalist. It's not that Ivanova's saying he's on the other side, just that Corwin's not the sort of independent thinker who'd be comfortable as part of a conspiracy. Some people you can't trust because they're unreliable, not because they're your enemy. He's not against them, and can clearly see that there serious problems back home, but he's someone who wants to be part of the larger group. With Sheridan and Ivanova as charismatic, respected leaders, an independent B5 is still a group to be a part of and loyal to. The avatar pics are taken from just as Ivanova is inviting him over to her quarters for coffee, real coffee. 
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Nov 15, 2019 04:04
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S05E10 Na'toth!!!!!
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Nov 15, 2019 04:37
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Payndz posted:VFX companies have a long and storied history of being hosed over financially by clients, so Foundation saying "We can totally do this, but we're not going to put our own money into something that's the client's responsibility" is fair enough. Yeah, and that's fair enough. It just feels like some of the story is missing. Like, if for the entire life of the contract, $5000 was the only cost associated with widescreen, then it seems like a strange sticking point after they must have already bought their own 4:3 reference screens, workstations, servers. Surely there must have been other ongoing costs for widescreen as well that made it prohibitive, like higher resolution and extra editing time spent cropping every rendered shot for 4:3? I don't know, I know a lot about rendering but very little about TV production, so I could be way off the mark.
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Nov 15, 2019 11:34
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Just got to the back end of s4, and man it's good. Intersections in real time is so powerful, and the space opera bits are firing on all cylinders. This is where I started watching it back when it was released, which is handy because it's the show at its best imo.
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Nov 16, 2019 21:51
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Dirty posted:Yeah, and that's fair enough. It just feels like some of the story is missing. Like, if for the entire life of the contract, $5000 was the only cost associated with widescreen, then it seems like a strange sticking point after they must have already bought their own 4:3 reference screens, workstations, servers. Surely there must have been other ongoing costs for widescreen as well that made it prohibitive, like higher resolution and extra editing time spent cropping every rendered shot for 4:3? I don't know, I know a lot about rendering but very little about TV production, so I could be way off the mark. The way getting hosed over in these situations happens is you start with "Well it's a small cost and I'll cover it for the sake of expedience" and it never stops. Basic professionalism involves nipping that in the bud asap.
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Nov 16, 2019 22:06
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