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Doctor Zero posted:I don’t know if I’d call it unskippable. It adds a lot of details to the background of things already talked about in the series. It's unskippable in the sense that it has a lot of great scenes and some background that help give context to characters. Mainly Delenn.
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Oct 7, 2021 13:53
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V-Men posted:It's unskippable in the sense that it has a lot of great scenes and some background that help give context to characters. Mainly Delenn. The Delenn stuff is all in the series though, isn't it? (Battle of the Line stuff in S1, with context in S2, the rest in the episode with the dreaming in S4)
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Oct 7, 2021 14:13
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Wasn't the whole point of ItB to catch up new viewers on some of the major plot points and some background world building when the show went to TNT for S5?
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Oct 7, 2021 14:46
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Ok, I realize that I haven't seen it in probably 20 years, so I will go watch it. Perhaps I was too harsh at the time.
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Oct 7, 2021 14:54
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Doctor Zero posted:What I don’t like about it is how it connects characters who IMO should not have been, because they never talk about those connections in the series. A bit too retcon at times. This is a very fair criticism.
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Oct 7, 2021 14:57
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V-Men posted:And he has his own credit cards and keys...
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Oct 7, 2021 15:15
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Where can I go to read cool trivia about Babylon 5. I've read all the IMDB Trivia. I like now that I've finished the sereis reading all the behind the scenes stuff I find it interesting.
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Oct 7, 2021 15:33
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Hollismason posted:Where can I go to read cool trivia about Babylon 5. I've read all the IMDB Trivia. I like now that I've finished the sereis reading all the behind the scenes stuff I find it interesting. Well, there's the Lurker's Guide, for starters.
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Oct 7, 2021 15:35
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Jows posted:Wasn't the whole point of ItB to catch up new viewers on some of the major plot points and some background world building when the show went to TNT for S5? Yeah, the weird retcon background stuff I didn’t like but in the context of hooking new viewers, which is what it was really for, it’s fine. Other than that I really liked In the Beginning.
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Oct 7, 2021 19:56
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Well, there's the Lurker's Guide, for starters. Yeah that is amazing, just start at the beginning and work through. It's a neat window into 90s internet too.
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Oct 7, 2021 20:11
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I'll have to check it out. I like reading all the back story related to episodes.
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Oct 7, 2021 20:47
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Lurker's Guide compiles massive amounts of JMS' usenet posting about the series, it's a good read.
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Oct 7, 2021 21:43
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JMS is and was terminally online
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Oct 8, 2021 00:06
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If you want the absolute be-all end-all of B5 trivia and meticulousness, keep an eye on the B5 Preservation Project. The author is going through ALL of the remaining production notes, script versions, log sheets, conducting new interviews, etc. and compiling a per-episode guide to how exactly the sausage got made in excruciating detail. It's a long project and not the only thing he's working on, but the weekly updates have been coming out like clockwork for 116 weeks now and I have every hope of eventually getting a copy of the book out of it. Faith manages, as they say.
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Oct 8, 2021 00:12
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The United States posted:The movies are on iTunes, sold as a complete "season" pack for $30, which is absolutely more than they are worth. I will always ever so slightly boost Thirdspace as the most okay B5 TV movie. It's barely connected to anything in the franchise at all besides knowing who the characters are so you can just watch it whenever. A Call to Arms is... adequate, it at least serves to give some closure on the hanging Drakh thread from the seasons. I don't like them enough to even attempt to argue with a theoretical someone who thinks they are actually the worst things ever but I think they're worth trying if you liked Babylon 5.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:28
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Kibayasu posted:I will always ever so slightly boost Thirdspace as the most okay B5 TV movie. It's barely connected to anything in the franchise at all besides knowing who the characters are so you can just watch it whenever. A Call to Arms is... adequate, it at least serves to give some closure on the hanging Drakh thread from the seasons. yeah thirdspace is fine, it's like a long standalone episode.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:34
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I'll go one further and say River of Souls is worth at least one watch, even if only for Ian McShane and the holobrothel owner's lawyer.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:34
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Hollismason posted:I'll have to check it out. I like reading all the back story related to episodes. Don’t forget to preload your image cache.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:59
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That made a difference back then.
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Oct 8, 2021 03:59
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Winifred Madgers posted:I'll go one further and say River of Souls is worth at least one watch, even if only for Ian McShane and the holobrothel owner's lawyer. Not to mention Martin Sheen in his last "slumming it" role before The West Wing.
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Oct 8, 2021 09:48
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So I've been lagging in keeping up with the thread and just decided to throw on A Call To Arms for no real good reason. Man, it somehow feels more 90's than the rest of the show. Everything feels very very forced like you'd never really find in B5. If the main tract is epic poetry (because let's be honest, everything is huge and wild) then A Call To Arms feels like a screaming beat poet going off on one.
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Oct 8, 2021 11:43
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yeah but Tony Todd
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Oct 8, 2021 11:45
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V-Men posted:yeah but Tony Todd Genuinely one of my favorite things I remember from it (I'm legit 34 minutes deep) but I tell my niece the same thing about monsters when she gets scared at night. It works too. Edit: Ooof. I remember being way more tolerant of the score when I was a teen (I was that kid reading the Lurkers Guide like a drat addict). Even weirder is that I actually kinda like the Crusade main theme. EDIT THE SECOND (said in extreme Galen Voice): 47 minutes in, Sheridan on his poo poo is extremely good J33uk fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Oct 8, 2021 |
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Oct 8, 2021 11:52
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Hollismason posted:Where can I go to read cool trivia about Babylon 5. I've read all the IMDB Trivia. I like now that I've finished the sereis reading all the behind the scenes stuff I find it interesting. If you can get your hands on the script books, it has extensive commentary from JMS on each episode (that he wrote). Some of it you can dig out of the Lurker's guide, some of it you can't since it was written much later. I really enjoy reading those.
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Oct 8, 2021 15:14
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Grand Fromage posted:This was to be dealt with in Crusade, which only got a single partial season. And I have not watched it, I really should. I got through Legend of the Rangers, it can't be worse. Crusade is frustrating but well worth it. The main problem is several characters don’t get much development yet in the filmed stories and there’s only bare hints about where their personal stories might go. Suggestions: pick a watch order and use it, but maybe watch the “aired first” and “filmed to be aired first” episodes first. Because aside from the dodgy CGI, the episode made to be aired first largely avoids the early B5 problems, while the one actually aired first is full of network interference fingerprints (“we want a fist-fight! Add an ace pilot character who will be sexy and kewl!”). Also, do a bit of research into the bullshit notes JMS was getting so you can see how he’s trolling the network by adding things that otherwise seem weird. “Moar sex, esp alien sex” leads JMS to create a huge jellyfish in hyperspace that tries to hump the ship, for example. The episodes produced first represent what JMS wanted to do, and they mostly come late in the aired watch order, so be aware of that. The original Crusade DVDs had some commentary tracks from JMS, but WB violated their deal with him by editing out a few bits addressing TNT’s awfulness and replacing them with audio from interviews. JMS was furious and pulled his commentary from future pressings of the DVDs. I don’t know if they’re easily available, but they are worth doing a little digging for. Also, $30 for Lost Tales is a bit steep. WB, in 2007, giving JMS slightly more than twice the budget for a single episode of B5 in the 90s to produce twice as much content, but without any of the original sets, props, or even CGI models. (Most shows, and B5 was no exception, used the pilot to invest in sets and costumes and so on that could be reused throughout the series, and then purchased new sets and props each season to be reused as well.) Another useful point of comparison: WB budgeted $2 million in 2007 for the Lost Tales. The original pilot, The Gathering, which was the same length but produced in 1993, had $3.5 million dollars to work with. At least the DVD of Lost Tales has the JMS special features which amount to “here’s the entirely green-screen set we did because WB gave us so little money” and “here’s a sample of the B5 puppet theater I told them would be all I could afford to do on this budget.”
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Oct 8, 2021 15:16
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For my money, In the Beginning lands entirely because of the Battle of the Line. The president's last speech was moving, and the way they integrated the old scenes from And the Sky Full of Stars with the new material really worked for me. As for the rest? Ehh, could have been better. Having a lot of it focus on Sheridan, who made his name as the big drat hero of the Earth-Minbari War, and Delenn, who both started and stopped the war, was fair enough, but I think that bending over backwards to include most of the rest of the main cast was a mistake. Just bite the bullet and make it about new characters like the captain who screwed the pooch at first contact, because in that case we'll have no idea if they survive or not. Hell, if some of them DO survive, you've got a character you can bring back in season five if you like. Give me a Minbari warleader on the ground, maybe Branmer who's body is the focus of Legacies, or a Narn smuggling weapons in to EarthForce or some League of Non-Aligned Worlds folks helping evacuate humans to neutral territory as the Line happens. Stuff like that. I didn't really need Franklin, Susan, or even Londo or G'kar in this one, honestly. jng2058 fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Oct 8, 2021 |
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Oct 8, 2021 15:53
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Actors gotta get paid.
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Oct 8, 2021 16:07
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I am okay with seeing what G’Kar and Londo were doing, but it should have been separated by a degree or two and affected things indirectly.
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Oct 8, 2021 19:07
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ultrafilter posted:Actors gotta get paid. If they could stiff Doyle and Conaway, they could stiff the rest of the main cast. 
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Oct 8, 2021 19:45
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You're not wrong, the majority of the cast has been stiffed at this point. 
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Oct 9, 2021 03:34
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Watching In the Beginning. Its pretty good!
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Oct 9, 2021 03:48
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Q_res posted:You're not wrong, the majority of the cast has been stiffed at this point. rude
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Oct 9, 2021 03:50
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Hollismason posted:Watching In the Beginning. Its pretty good! I'm glad you like it! This thread has dogpiled me in the past for recommending it because they think it is terrible. Except for now, when people think it is good. I'm glad people are coming around because it is the best movie and pretty solid overall.
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Oct 9, 2021 04:11
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Midjack posted:rude ...but not inaccurate. 
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Oct 9, 2021 04:19
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OnlyBans posted:I'm glad you like it! This thread has dogpiled me in the past for recommending it because they think it is terrible. Except for now, when people think it is good. I'm glad people are coming around because it is the best movie and pretty solid overall. I like Sheridan with the buzzcut to signify he's younger. Overall its pretty good. I'm about half way through it.
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Oct 9, 2021 04:20
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OnlyBans posted:I'm glad you like it! This thread has dogpiled me in the past for recommending it because they think it is terrible. Except for now, when people think it is good. I'm glad people are coming around because it is the best movie and pretty solid overall. Who ever thought In the Beginning is terrible?  It's the only good movie.I do think the people who recommend watching it first, before the rest of the series, are wrong and bad.
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Oct 9, 2021 04:22
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In the Beginning was really good! I enjoyed it and it was good to watch some more Babylon 5. I don't think I would want to watch it before I watched the series.
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Oct 9, 2021 04:46
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Hollismason posted:In the Beginning was really good! I enjoyed it and it was good to watch some more Babylon 5. I don't think I would want to watch it before I watched the series. Yeah, it gives too much away to be a good starting place. When it aired is fine, though....right after season four. Maaaaaybe right after War Without End but certainly no earlier than that.
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Oct 9, 2021 05:34
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Spoilers can ruin things that rely on a twist. B5 isn't that though. B5 gets better the more you know. Giving people more to know helps draw them in.
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Oct 9, 2021 06:18
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I can let stuff like the revised version of The Gathering having Kosh say "Hello, Ranger One Valen" to Sinclair the first time he meets him slide because nobody will know what those words mean for years, but In The Beginning shows way too many cards to be watched first
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Oct 9, 2021 07:18
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