Better than Babylon 5.

I have just watched the Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers preview numerous times at Sci-Fi.com.

I've examined it as a graduate of Media Studies, as a retired actor (retired young thank you! ), and I've examined it as a fan experiencing a drought of B5.

I'm going out on a limb. I honestly believe that LotR will be better than Babylon 5.

I watched the preview so often, and I still wanted to keep watching it.

There is so much potential seeping out of that trailer, that if it does not get commissioned for a series I will be incredibly surprised.

It is engaging, the performances I observed - though brief - showed outstanding promise... the effects were exceptional!

Though I am looking forward to Enterprise when the tapes arrive in Australia (as a long time Star Trek fan), the previews I have seen of both series show me that Rangers will be a step above anything Enterprise is currently capable of giving an audience. Of late, Star Trek just seems like it's lost it's heart. It seems though that B5 is has a strong pulse!

I finally accept what many Star Trek fans have been saying for years - Bragga will be the death of Trek.

Babylon 5 was astounding television, but Rangers... it's going to blow the original series out the airlock.

It's incredible.

Please Sci-Fi, release it on video as soon as you air it in the US!

JMS, you've done it. Lightning can strike twice.

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Sheridan: "It's... damn inconvienient!"
Delenn: "The truth often is."

[This message has been edited by SataiDelenn (edited October 16, 2001).]

Could be a tough call, but as with everything experience goes along way and things they could not do five years ago they can do now so it might be alot better...

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"When it is time, come to this place, call our name, we will be here" -Walkers of Sigma957

SataiDelenn, you can tell all of this from a trailer? You are better than I, I can hardly make out the images, they fly by so fast. And I have not had the patience to figure out how to run it more slowly.

Trailers can be very deciptive. I've seen a few movies that looked great in trailers, but really were not that good in reality.

Now, I'm not saying that's what is hapenning here, I'm just pointing out that you have a lot of faith just from the trailer. It made me curious. What in particular impressed you? It's too brief to get any sense of acting, I would think. And the plot is certainly being guarded closely.

Anyhow, just curious. I, too, suspect that Rangers has even more potential than B5. If for no other reason than: JMS has been through the network bs before, and knows the ropes, so to speak.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

yeah I really enjoyed the 2nd trailer also. Everytime i watch it I get this shivers going through my body ..gettting all exited.

And that bit when G'kar says "what was his crime"

And the minbari guys says "staying alive"

I love it, the music that went along with it was fun also. It would be tough to beat babylon 5 but you never know

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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au

Hey, SataiDelenn-

I agree with you. Everything I hear, everything I see about this show screams potential. Screeches it. Shouts it from the hilltops.

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Ranger Channe, the next JMS, who walks in the dark places no one may enter, lives for the One, and dies for the chocolate cheesecake.

I'm not ready to call it better than B5 this early on.. after all, all we've seen so far is the trailer... but it does look great.. Of course it's great, JMS is behind it.

After watching that trailer, I'll be really upset if it doesn't become a series.

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Hypatia... that's a good question! What did make me get this feeling that it's going to be better than my beloved B5?

I was watching the scene someone mentioned above, where G'Kar says: "What was his crime?" And a Minbari responded with "Staying alive" and that really got me thinking. You know, it just sucked me in... how could that be a crime, what is it all about? Why would the Grey Council consider that an issue?

Everytime I saw Dylan on the screen I was rivetted by the presence he was exuding. I'm feel terrible about this, but I can't remember the actor's name... the red headed woman who says "Today is a good day to die", she captivated me as well. The chemistry that was so briefly seen between her and Dylan promises so much, and her performance had me looking out for her in the trailer.

I think the thing that captivated me most was the opening introduction to the trailor. I can't remember what the narrator says, but he concludes with "One thousand years of History". It just grabbed me and made me think that there are so many places this series could go, with everything that the Minbari have seen, everything the Rangers of the past have experienced... all of it before humanity took to the stars.

It seems to take B5 to the next level... and I honestly was wondering if JMS would be able to do that.

It's not a sequel... it seems like a companion peice, as good as, yet with an originality that has the potential to guarantee some incredible viewing!

I know what you mean about the trailor. The first time I downloaded it, the image was terrible. I downloaded the 3+meg version for Quicktime, made some adjustments to the monitor of my computer... and WOW! It was worth waiting for the download.

The only hangup I have about Rangers...

No Delenn!?

But I get the feeling my fav Minbari will make an appearance or two (or fifty... please...!)!

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Sheridan: "It's... damn inconvienient!"
Delenn: "The truth often is."

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> I'm feel terrible about this, but I can't remember the actor's name... the red headed woman who says "Today is a good day to die", she captivated me as well. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's Myriam Sirois, playing Sarah Cantrell, the weapons specialist. And I'm really looking forward to seeing her too. JMS has a thing for picking out good redheads.

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.

Thanks, Crazy... I'm sure Miriam is looking forward to being seen... with her clothes ON of course!

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Sheridan: "It's... damn inconvienient!"
Delenn: "The truth often is."

Come on guys, Ms Sirois is a talented actress and a lady, let's be more respectful.

(Yeah, that's right, I'm sucking up to the pretty actress. So sue me. )

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."

hmmm...though B5lr does look excellent, I doubt it will be better than a amazingly well written and acted 5 year story arc...but one can always hope.

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"Tho' much is taken,much abides; and tho' we are not that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson
A poem left by Jeff Sinclair for John Sheridan

Satai Delenn, after your praise for the trailer, I had to go check it out for myself.

I think you may be right! I was impressed.

It pains me to think of ANYTHING being better than the original Babylon 5, but I agree... if this goes to series, it has the potential to outdo it's parent!

Unbelievable! I guess it helps that I've always had a deep curiosity about the Rangers.

For me, the down point is... no Vorlons!


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“What a piece of work is man!
“How noble in reason. How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!”
William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'

[This message has been edited by Awen (edited October 16, 2001).]

G'Kars Eye... of course you're right, and I meant NO disrespect to Ms Sirios... (yeah, I'm sucking too! )

My only problem with the trailer, we didn't get to see anything but a flash of the other characters... and we Aussies have to wait a lot longer than you guys in the States!

I'm going to have no finger nails left by the time it gets Down Under!

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Sheridan: "It's... damn inconvienient!"
Delenn: "The truth often is."

[This message has been edited by SataiDelenn (edited October 16, 2001).]

What really made me blink was the fact that I don't usually feel such intensity from a trailer. It may be because I watched it a couple times and did screenshots, but I saw a lot of expression and *thereness* from the actors, and the special effects (which for me are secondary to the story) really seemed quite fantastic.

I don't know, I think it just clicked.

As I said before, I'm going to love the Sarah-As-The-Ship sequences. This hasn't been done before. It's new. It's awesome.

And we all know what happens whenever "something new" comes up in this business - it's disparaged, it's put down, and all of a sudden everyone else decides to copy it...

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Ranger Channe, the next JMS, who walks in the dark places no one may enter, lives for the One, and dies for the chocolate cheesecake.

I agree with you I certainly hope that Rangers does well and am looking forward to the coming year .

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One thing one needs think thuroughly about before one can talk about "better", is what exactly is better.

For example, I imagine the Rangers movie will blow goats as an interstellar politcal drama.

However, pacing, dialouge and characterization should be over all improved, as jms is a more experinced writer.
Then again, our brains work subjectively, and sometimes pure chance acomplishes something that skill could never do... And even though something is technically better... The "magic" isn't there...

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You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

I doubt it'll surpass B5 (JMS put his heart and soul into that afterall), but I'm sure it'll come close.

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No one here is exactly what he appears.
G'Kar - Andreas Katsulas

Nothing's the same anymore.
Commander Sinclair - Michael O'Hare

Babylon 5

Let's hope the magic is back for Rangers, then...?

I think the writing *will* be better, because JMS appears to be the kind of writer for whom Practice Makes Perfect, and he's had a helluva lot of Practice during and since B5.

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Ranger Channe, the next JMS, who walks in the dark places no one may enter, lives for the One, and dies for the chocolate cheesecake.

We will just have to wait and see. All I hope is that it will get a following.... enough to keep it going.

~M~

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~Master of Assassins, Thenta Map'kur~

"So .. When you were emperor, it meant something. Subduer of the Xon and the Shoggren. .. Now .. Ptttp! Anyone can be emperor. I can be emperor. Vir can be emperor. If Vir can be emperor, a small earth cat can be emperor..."

I guess what I mean by better is more in regards to the overall.

When I watched the trailor the scope of Rangers seemed to me to promise the return of epic storytelling to Science Fiction. One thousand years of history wrapped up in the mystery and intensity of Minbari faith, and the establishment of the caste systems has so much promise. We learned a lot about the Minbari in B5, but we only scratched the surface!

I do think that JMS will evolve this new series along the lines of a political drama, so much has happened in the world since he wrote it and it was filmed, and I am certain a writer of his calibre who always had something to say, will still have ideas to challenge and excite us. When he was formulating Rangers it was pre September 11. The world has changed now, and JMS is to me a very relevant man. I would be surprised if he is not tweaking Rangers and its storyline.

When I watched the trailor, what Rangers seemed to offer was the same intensity expressed in Babylon 5's characterisation - yet it seems that that intensity will be doubled if not trippled by the fact all the main characters are stuck together on a tiny, dysfunctional ship... rather than on a five mile long space station.

The person who said that 'better' depends on perception is definately right, I couldn't agree more, but taking into account what people have already mentioned... JMS has so much more to draw from now as a writer - his experience writing and producing five years of B5, his projects since then, his war with the studios, his MOTW's... and most importantly his time away from the Universe of B5.

I guess when I say 'better', I am really talking about a feeling. A gut reaction that is responding to something I can't find words for! I have nothing to back up my statement other than 'this feels like something extraordinary for television and science fiction.'

I'll stop now... or this will ramble on for an eternity!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings... I think I need more sleep!

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Sheridan: "It's... damn inconvienient!"
Delenn: "The truth often is."