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Will the "Rangers" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

Yes .. G'Kar always made such a good Ranger. I just cannot imagine him without his Minbari pike.

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"Hello. I want to welcome back our viewers. We've been gone a long time."
 
Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

I hope we do see characters with contrary agendas, like Max Eilerson in Crusade, or rangers from races other than human and Minbari. I love B5 but I don't like the rangers much - aside for Marcus they just seem to be straightforward heroic types, without much personality - though i'm sure jms has something up his sleeve. From what's reported on this site, it looks like the main characters might just all be rangers - except for g'kar, who may not end up a title character in a potential series.

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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RMcD:
I love B5 but I don't like the rangers much - aside for Marcus they just seem to be straightforward heroic types, without much personality<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>The "without much personality" feeling comes from the fact that B5 didn't do much indepth exploration of them, but that would be one of the things this show would do.

And what we did see of the Rangers' philosopy, like Morra Dum - the application of terror in Learning Curve, was hardly what you'd expect from "straightforward heroic types".
 
Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

If you only saw Marcus after being beaten by Neroon when he gave his In Valen's name, live for the one speach you would probably think the same thing about him. We only got to see small snipets of other Rangers.

You also have to consider the influx of other races and less clearly defined roles. They have gone from fighting a mythic enemy to cleaning up the aftermath and maintaining the peace. This changes the dynamic of the situation.

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Bus
"The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana."
 
Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

Here's another question that I thought of that's related to the other topic I just started. Will there be any main characters on LOTR who are not Rangers? I ask this because one of the things that made the B5 cast so interesting to me was that there were characters that represented radically different agendas. This was also true to a more limited extent on Crusade. If all of the characters on LOTR are Rangers, then it might be more difficult to make them all unique and interesting.

An additional problem is that the Rangers that we've seen so far are all either trainee misfits or suave Jedi-types who always know exactly what to do and follow a strict code of honor. It's hard to imagine someone with as much "edge" as say, Gideon, being a Ranger, and that worries me slightly--because the rebelliousness of Gideon and other characters in the B5 universe is what made them so interesting.

One of the things that made The Phantom Menace a bit disappointing to me was the lack of a Han Solo-like character. Instead you had the upper classes of society and the Jedi, not the gritty rebels from the original trilogy. I have such great faith in JMS that I'm sure he'll avoid falling into a similar trap, but I'm wondering how exactly he's going to do it.


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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

But what we do see of the rangers post Marcus is quite worrying - Garibaldi uses them to beat up Lise's kidnappers on Mars in Rising Star before Mars has joined the alliance, and they turn horribly vigilante in Learning curve, which has to be the most morally corrupt episode of b5 ever, in my book. They're only accountable to a single leader, specist and unrepresentative of the member races, and they steamroll over local authority when it suits them. When the White Star fleet invades earth space in Rising Star the message seems to be *submit to our authority or face annihilation*.

Granted, that's a very biased view of them based on 2 or 3 episodes, but i'm still not fully convinced that a series focusing on our ranger heroes will necessarily be a good thing - unless it shows us a new side to their character.

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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

But you have to rember that the Rangers came from a Minbari origanisation, and the they have ery different values in many areas.

Take honor. To a Minbari, it is more important than what we consider basic rights, or somtimes even life itself (as noted in There All the Honor Lies, accusing a Minbari of lying could get you killed).
 
Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

It's standard fare to see Minbari and Humans being the good-guy Rangers. It would be interesting to mix it up a bit with some Narn and Drazi Rangers.

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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

If the show centers on a Rangers ship, then presumably the crew (and therefore most of the regulars) will be Rangers - just as on TNG the crew consisted of Starfleet officers. (Although it is possible that one or two "civilians" might be assigned to the crew, as Max, Dureena and Galen were on Crusade. I've never been sure if Chambers was EarthForce or not, so she may have been another.)

But it is hardly the case that Rangers will be the only people we ever see. Most of the guest cast each week will pretty much by definition be non-Rangers, since they're supposed to be out helping Alliance members recover from the Shadow War and the Centauri depredations. There will probably be other recurring characters, and perhaps even 10- or 12-episode per season regulars, who are not Rangers.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division

joseph-demartino@att.net
 
Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

I doubt Dr. Chambers was in EarthForce. As far as the Excalibur is concerned, it was a unique situation. Like having some IPX people aboard the ship, even though Explorer ships (as far as I can tell) don't have IPX people aboard. That's because they needed the BEST archaeological team they could find. And if the best team they could find was outside of EarthForce, then that's who they were gonna get. And thus we got Max Eilerson and co.

Same with Dr. Chambers. They needed the best doctor they could find for the mission because of the important role the doctor would play, and if the best doctor for the job wasn't a member of EarthForce then so be it. Now, she MAY be an EarthForce officer, but I doubt it since we never see her in uniform (While we almost ALWAYS saw Dr. Franklin in uniform). What's more likely is that she's a civilian. She also happened to have been the most qualified doctor they could find for the job.

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Re: Will the \"Rangers\" cast be entirely composed of Rangers?

JMS has just confirmed on the moderated newsgroup that though the majority of the cast are Minbari and human, there will be a Narn recruit and a Drazi recruit. Big smile
smile.gif


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