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B5:TLT - Show Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

Help me out those of you who follow JMS's net conversations closely: didn't JMS said WB was interested in talking, and that he himself just wasn't ready for a large commitment (for several reasons, I am sure, but partly it was just too soon after two of the key actors in the original B5 died).
I think this may be what you're thinking of. It's from the transcript of when he announced TLT at Comic-Con last year:
Anyway, they call every so often and want to do something with B5 and asked “Do you want to do a feature film?” and I thought about it for a while and I said, “No.” And here’s why: A) I don’t trust movies that much but B) most important, I can’t see the structure of a B5 movie right now as long as long as Andreas and Rick insist on staying dead. As much as B5 was about the stories of Sheridan and Delenn and those guys, there’s the Londo and G’Kar arc that was the clothes line from which I hung all that. And without G’Kar…maybe in a year or two I can start to see the structure of it but right now I can’t do something big right now. I’d love to but I can’t.

WB: “Do you want to do something else? Whatever you want to do, let’s do.”

So I thought about it and I came back to them and said, “Here’s what I’m thinking. When we did Babylon 5, what I liked were the small little stories that we did as ‘B’ plots and as short stories. What if we did a whole bunch of short films? Little mini-movies, each one worked around established B5 characters, not somebody else. One that’s worked around Sheridan, one that’s worked around Delenn, one that’s worked around Lochley or Garibaldi or whoever it is, and put these things out on DVDs and sell them to networks, whatever you want to do, make them short stories. An anthology show set in the Babylon 5 universe. They said, “Okay.” We already have a network that wants to carry them, by the way. We’re negotiating with them now. In addition to the network who wants to broadcast them, put them on DVD, three per DVD and sell them and build up an inventory of these: Babylon 5: the Lost Tales, basing a lot of them on stories I had for the series but never had a chance to actually put into gear-a bunch of different stories I never had time to produce.

And yea, I was thinking the same thing about why he might not be ready to show-run another complete series. Remember, even on these smaller stories, he wants other writers.
I don't recall him saying anything yet about other writers for the lost tales. Definitely other directors, though. And according to his spotlight at this year's SDCC, we should watch for word of a possible TV series-NOT B5 related-that has him excited about who he'd be working with.

I do recall he said years ago that B5 was great, wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime kind of an experience, but it also aged him rapidly and might have killed him, in time. :( So he's pretty much said he'll never quite do anything like that again. Pretty understandable of him.
It caused him heart trouble, in fact. He's said he'd never attempt anything nearly as complex as B5 again because if he did it really would kill him.

Jan
 
Well I watched them both last night and I liked them both for what they were. I think it would be safe to view both episodes of TLT as short stories. Kinda like F. Paul Wilson and his "Repairman Jack" short stories after "The Tomb". Not a whole novel but a bit piece set in the same universe.

I kind of like the idea of having short stories for the B5 universe.
 
Well I watched them both last night and I liked them both for what they were. I think it would be safe to view both episodes of TLT as short stories. Kinda like F. Paul Wilson and his "Repairman Jack" short stories after "The Tomb". Not a whole novel but a bit piece set in the same universe.

I kind of like the idea of having short stories for the B5 universe.

It may be that after having no good, new B5 universe stories for so many years (For me, it's been since the last episode of Crusade aired on TNT in first run, Sept. 1999.), and after having gotten used to B5 arc-style stories, even though we intellectually know that these were going to be "short stories", we're not satisfied by that. It's like giving an appetizer to a starving man, and then not following it up with a meal.
 
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I'm just disappointed really with the veracity of the two stories. Honestly, only a couple of storeis in the original series were this weak. The reason I say this is because, (as has been noted) usually JMS will steer clear of ramming religion down our throats and leave it up to the viewer to make up their own minds in due course. having "demons" stop by on B5 is like saying GOD exists, yes he does and so does HELL and Angels, Noah, Lot (and wife) and the whole motley ensemble from the Bible. We've had priests and all manner of holy men come and go on B5 but we've not often been made to "believe" all this old testament fire and brimstone stuff. Where exactly does this sit in the whole First Ones, Younger races deal? I thought the Vorlons posed as celestial beings to make people react more favourably to them. Now it seems that they did just that, POSE. If that's the case, wouldn't GOD be a little miffed that there's a whole race of beings out there running around pretending to be angels? And I thought GOD created the universe in it's entireity anyway. What's the special deal with Earth anyway?
Before I get too bogged down in theological musings, I'll come to the second story.
It's just not feasible that the Centauri wouold be able to attack earth like that. Need I mention the whole ISA business and the fact that in this timeline, it wasn't so long ago that Centauri Prime was nearly a pile of smoulderiung rubble, crippled by the cost of rebuilding and reaparations. Just where did this lovely new fleet come from?
Humbug..mutter mutter....
 
I'm just disappointed really with the veracity of the two stories. Honestly, only a couple of storeis in the original series were this weak. The reason I say this is because, (as has been noted) usually JMS will steer clear of ramming religion down our throats and leave it up to the viewer to make up their own minds in due course. having "demons" stop by on B5 is like saying GOD exists, yes he does and so does HELL and Angels, Noah, Lot (and wife) and the whole motley ensemble from the Bible. We've had priests and all manner of holy men come and go on B5 but we've not often been made to "believe" all this old testament fire and brimstone stuff. Where exactly does this sit in the whole First Ones, Younger races deal? I thought the Vorlons posed as celestial beings to make people react more favourably to them. Now it seems that they did just that, POSE. If that's the case, wouldn't GOD be a little miffed that there's a whole race of beings out there running around pretending to be angels? And I thought GOD created the universe in it's entireity anyway. What's the special deal with Earth anyway?
Before I get too bogged down in theological musings, I'll come to the second story.
It's just not feasible that the Centauri wouold be able to attack earth like that. Need I mention the whole ISA business and the fact that in this timeline, it wasn't so long ago that Centauri Prime was nearly a pile of smoulderiung rubble, crippled by the cost of rebuilding and reaparations. Just where did this lovely new fleet come from?
Humbug..mutter mutter....

Again, I'm still at a loss as to where the Lochley episode said that the God that mythology and Religion has been built around wasn't an alien posing to manipulate us and/or our society? We already know the Vorlons posed as Angels. Maybe when the Prophets were given their messages from God, it was really a Vorlon, and they caused us to create the bible and everything that goes with it, nothing in the episode says this isn't a possibility.

I just don't understand how someone can come away from that episode believing it confirms there really is/was a God who created man and the universe and everything else? If anything I would expect the complaints to come from the other side of the ideological aisle from people who have complete and total Faith in a God who created man and the universe and everything that goes with it because they see that the episode leaves the option that God never existed, but, humans were tricked into creating a religion by an old alien.
 
...having "demons" stop by on B5 is like saying GOD exists....

And having an angel fly up and save a man plummeting to his death on B5 is like saying God exists. Oh, wait, that angel was actually a far-advanced alien lifeform and not what it looked like on its surface. It couldn't possibly be something similar this time around.

...We've had priests and all manner of holy men come and go on B5 but we've not often been made to "believe" all this old testament fire and brimstone stuff....

We haven't been "made to 'believe'" this time either, but for some reason that's not stopping some people from jumping into that water on their own.

...I thought the Vorlons posed as celestial beings to make people react more favourably to them. Now it seems that they did just that, POSE. If that's the case, wouldn't GOD be a little miffed that there's a whole race of beings out there running around pretending to be angels?...

God's existence has no more definitively been established now than it ever has. And even if God did exist and was pissed at the Vorlons, would he be any more pissed at them pretending to be angels than he/she/it would be pissed over humans walking around pretending to speak for God.

...And I thought GOD created the universe in it's entireity anyway. What's the special deal with Earth anyway?....

Since you didn't elaborate, I'll have to assume that you think just because this story dealt with a "demon" that was cast down bound to Earth that you automatically think that no other planets had any "demons" cast down and bound to them. As Lochley realizes and explains, it's Earth's destruction in the destruction of the sun that's made Earth a suitable prison for the "demon". There could be "demons" stuck on Mercury and Venus too as far as we know, or on planets in other solar systems within range of the destructive regions of their respective stars.

...It's just not feasible that the Centauri wouold be able to attack earth like that. Need I mention the whole ISA business and the fact that in this timeline, it wasn't so long ago that Centauri Prime was nearly a pile of smoulderiung rubble, crippled by the cost of rebuilding and reaparations. Just where did this lovely new fleet come from?...

Because you're not shown every little detail of a possible attack, you can't imagine anything that would make it possible? Galen's predicted possible rise of Vintari to the throne occurs after the Centauri have booted the Drakh from Centauri Prime. The Centauri couldn't possibly come across any left over Shadow technology that the Drakh had with them and then study and develop that technology for their own uses could they? Of course they could. Or they could find a source of advanced weaponry elsewhere in the galaxy and/or from some other advanced alien group. There's plenty of possibilities. Vintari did tell Sheridan that he was fascinated with alien technology, after all.
 
It's just not feasible that the Centauri wouold be able to attack earth like that. Need I mention the whole ISA business and the fact that in this timeline, it wasn't so long ago that Centauri Prime was nearly a pile of smoulderiung rubble, crippled by the cost of rebuilding and reaparations. Just where did this lovely new fleet come from?
Humbug..mutter mutter....

Wo, anyone else flashing back to their school history lessons? Rise of the Third Reich?
 
TLT is set 10 years after Centauri Prime was attacked by the Narn and Drazi. And Vitari is supposed to ascend to the throne and attack Earth another 20 (or was it another 30) years later. 30 or 40 years is an awful long time, anything can happen within that time
 
TLT is set 10 years after Centauri Prime was attacked by the Narn and Drazi. And Vitari is supposed to ascend to the throne and attack Earth another 20 (or was it another 30) years later. 30 or 40 years is an awful long time, anything can happen within that time

Actually it's 9 years. The attack happened near the end of the fifth season which was in 2262. This particular lost tale was in 2271. Other than that yea, the Centauri have 49 years to build up their firepower so it's plausible, plus if we take the events in the Centauri trilogy into account then by 2278 they have a very good head start with all those ships Durla was building to attack the alliance.
 
Actually it's 9 years. The attack happened near the end of the fifth season which was in 2262. This particular lost tale was in 2271. Other than that yea, the Centauri have 49 years to build up their firepower so it's plausible, plus if we take the events in the Centauri trilogy into account then by 2278 they have a very good head start with all those ships Durla was building to attack the alliance.


Thanks, except it should be 39 years, right?
 
I think this may be what you're thinking of. It's from the transcript of when he announced TLT at Comic-Con last year:

Anyway, they call every so often and want to do something with B5 and asked “Do you want to do a feature film?” and I thought about it for a while and I said, “No.” And here’s why: A) I don’t trust movies that much but B) most important, I can’t see the structure of a B5 movie right now as long as long as Andreas and Rick insist on staying dead. As much as B5 was about the stories of Sheridan and Delenn and those guys, there’s the Londo and G’Kar arc that was the clothes line from which I hung all that. And without G’Kar…maybe in a year or two I can start to see the structure of it but right now I can’t do something big right now. I’d love to but I can’t.

WB: “Do you want to do something else? Whatever you want to do, let’s do.”
....

I wish he would have said, "Re-start Crusade." ...if only to see the reaction. Hey, when someone offers you a blank check like that, you might as well go for it, and if they shoot it down, pretend you were kidding. ;)


I don't recall him saying anything yet about other writers for the lost tales. Definitely other directors, though. And according to his spotlight at this year's SDCC, we should watch for word of a possible TV series-NOT B5 related-that has him excited about who he'd be working with.

In light of what I said above, when wishing for stuff from the universe, maybe I should try REVERSE psychology! :rolleyes: "a possible TV series-NOT B5 related" ...oh yeah, that figures.
18.gif
 
I'm just disappointed really with the veracity of the two stories. Honestly, only a couple of storeis in the original series were this weak. The reason I say this is because, (as has been noted) usually JMS will steer clear of ramming religion down our throats and leave it up to the viewer to make up their own minds in due course. having "demons" stop by on B5 is like saying GOD exists, yes he does and so does HELL and Angels, Noah, Lot (and wife) and the whole motley ensemble from the Bible. We've had priests and all manner of holy men come and go on B5 but we've not often been made to "believe" all this old testament fire and brimstone stuff. Where exactly does this sit in the whole First Ones, Younger races deal? I thought the Vorlons posed as celestial beings to make people react more favourably to them. Now it seems that they did just that, POSE. If that's the case, wouldn't GOD be a little miffed that there's a whole race of beings out there running around pretending to be angels? And I thought GOD created the universe in it's entireity anyway. What's the special deal with Earth anyway?

Aren't you assuming that Lochley and the Father Cassidy are right, and that the being inside Burke is a demon? It could be that they're both wrong, and that it's playing them/toying with them. Just because it acted like the sedatives knocked it out, does that mean they really did?


What do we know? Not much, really.

Assuming that what Lochley found out wasn't a telepathic vision placed in her mind by the entity, it was on the transport, in Burke, when he was on his way back to Babylon 5. Does that prove that he picked up on Earth? Could it have been picked up similarly to the way the Shadow Soldier was picked up by the Copernicus in The Long Dark? Maybe it wants to get to Earth, and that it was playing Lochley & Father Cassidy to get there, but if so, why not just jump to somebody who's going to Earth?

It's possible that the being does not need any help from Father Cassidy to leave Burke.



It's just not feasible that the Centauri wouold be able to attack earth like that. Need I mention the whole ISA business and the fact that in this timeline, it wasn't so long ago that Centauri Prime was nearly a pile of smoulderiung rubble, crippled by the cost of rebuilding and reaparations. Just where did this lovely new fleet come from?
Humbug..mutter mutter....

2271 - Galen shows Sheridan the vision.
2291 - Galen says Vintari becomes emperor in 20 years.
2301 - Galen says that the attack takes place in 30 years.


Minor, out-of-context spoiler from Legions of Fire trilogy:
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Read "Legions of Fire". ;) In 2278, they have a new fleet.


The vision Galen showed Sheridan was from 2301.
 
I just don't understand how someone can come away from that episode believing it confirms there really is/was a God who created man and the universe and everything else? If anything I would expect the complaints to come from the other side of the ideological aisle from people who have complete and total Faith in a God who created man and the universe and everything that goes with it because they see that the episode leaves the option that God never existed, but, humans were tricked into creating a religion by an old alien.

It's because some people are looking at like Lochley and Father Cassidy are right because what Lochley did, worked.

Maybe it didn't work, and whatever it was inside Burke, manipulated them Lochley and Father Cassidy into doing exactly what it wanted. Unless this connects to other stories in the B5 universe, we'll never know.

For me, it seemed too easy. Do you hear that ominous music starting to play in the background..... ;)
 
It's because some people are looking at like Lochley and Father Cassidy are right because what Lochley did, worked.

Maybe it didn't work, and whatever it was inside Burke, manipulated them Lochley and Father Cassidy into doing exactly what it wanted. Unless this connects to other stories in the B5 universe, we'll never know.

For me, it seemed too easy. Do you hear that ominous music starting to play in the background..... ;)


Hm, to me it seems the very fact that Lochley outsmarted it and isn't a Theologen leads it into being more likely it's not anything supernatural, just a manipulative alien.
 
Hm, to me it seems the very fact that Lochley outsmarted it

You're not getting what I'm saying. Maybe she didn't outsmart it. They're sending it back to Earth, to be exorcised, right? Maybe it wants to go to Earth.



and isn't a Theologen leads it into being more likely it's not anything supernatural, just a manipulative alien.

So you think that this is an easily outsmartable alien, and that JMS gave us a story like that?
 
You're not getting what I'm saying. Maybe she didn't outsmart it. They're sending it back to Earth, to be exorcised, right? Maybe it wants to go to Earth.





So you think that this is an easily outsmartable alien, and that JMS gave us a story like that?

Sorry, forgot to include the "if statement" to say "if she really outsmarted..."
 
ok. I'm open to persuasion with regard to the fact that it was Galen that showed Sheridan the glimpses of the future. What I fell I should point out though is that these lost tales are, if I understand the format correctly,a series of vignettes, all somehow related to each other. So therfore, after this one, when it's somebody elses turn, be it Garibaldi or Delenn or whomsever is next, We could have a follow up to the Ventari and Sheridan angle but I thought that they were first and foremost , stand alone stories in their own right. Open to interpretation is one thing in a series, quite another in a one off. I read the legions of fire BTW and it was good though ( you knew there was more) when Vir has a certain someone put the whammy on Lady M, they play it like it's forever, eternal and unending love. This ends poorly for her but in the series, Elric says that their order knows how to make somebody fall in love with you, and more importantly, words to make them go without pain.
Damn I should look up that quote!
Anyway I gues Vir was just being spiteful or something.
Prefered the technomage trilogy personally.
Not getting drawn back in to the theological debate. smokescreen or not :eek:)
 
What I fell I should point out though is that these lost tales are, if I understand the format correctly,a series of vignettes, all somehow related to each other.

From everything I've been reading about what jms has said the only way they will be related is that they all will be in the Babylon 5 universe, not that all the stories will be some grand arc like Babylon 5 the series or Crusade.

While it is true the stories that make up Voices in the Dark and (assuming jms doesn't change the script) Garibaldi's story share an overlap it was my impression that jms was just doing that because he thought it would be cool - not to do Babylon 5-lite.

The format is an anthology show and can go anywhere in the Babylon 5 time line jms wants.
 
That's absolutely true, and something that sadly might not have been clear to everyone for this first disc, leading to some being disappointed. On the other hand, the way Over There was told, and concluded, seems very B5 seedlaying to me, and could be continued upon should JMS so choose to. It features a lot of prophetic foreshadowing, without in the end actually resolving how the visions seen will pan out. We don't actually know whether Vintari will end up bombing Earth or not, there is no way to tell really from this first disc. What we got is the classic B5 vision without the exact context of what led up to said vision. And it seems to leave open some explicit and interesting hooks for future stories, should JMS choose to continue upon it. It seemed very much like the start of Vintari's story, and the story has left me wanting to see more of it.
 

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