Cast update from JMS

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Just off the top of my head and in no real order... Dylan Neal is playing David Martel, our lead character, a Ranger who's come through some especially rough times; Alex Zahara is Dulann, a Minbari, his second; Myriam Sirois is Sarah Cantrell of Mars Dome One, weapons specialist; Enid Raye Adams is Firell, Minbari, a healer; Warren Takeuchi as Kitaro Sasaki of Earth, communication and translations; Dean Marshall as Malcolm Bridges, covert intelligence and infiltration; David Storch as Tafeek, Minbari, a political and first contact guy; and a Narn, Na'Feel (played by Jennie Hogan) and a Drazi, Tirk (played by Gus Lynch), both recent recruits/ members of the Rangers.

jms<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

Is it just me, or do some of these names seem familiar to names JMS has used in the past?

Examples...

DAVID Martel
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DAVID Corwin
Jeffrey DAVID Sinclair
DAVID Sheridan (John's dad)
DAVID Sheridan (John's son)

Dulann -- Delenn

SARA Cantrell -- SARAH Chambers (Crusade doctor)

Firell -- Findell (woosy Minbari from Meditations..Abyss)

Na'Feel and Tafeek -- Dureena Nafeel (who I believe was trained by Tafeek of Trapani 7 or something like that)


Despite how cool names like Sheridan, Garibaldi, Ivanova, G'Kar, Cartagi, Lorian, and Mollari are, JMS was even guilty of this during B5...

MinbARI
CentARI
BrakiRI
BravaRI (Centauri alcohol)
DrazI
FrazI (Narn fighter class)

J.S.: Jeff Sinclair
J.S.: John Sheridan
J.S.: Joe Straczynski


Don't get me wrong, when it comes to theme, plot, dialogue, and character development, JMS is a genius, but sometimes I think he's swimming in the shallow end of the name pool.

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Spelling corrections for my previous message:
Cartagia
Lorien

2 More Examples:
John Sheridan
John Matheson (Excalibur 1st Officer)

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Yeah, the guy seems to be repetitious with certain names. Especially David. And I'm to fond of the main Minbari in the show being named Dulann. (Just change the "u" and "a" for "e"'s and you get Delenn.) Na'Feel I also caught right away, and I knew there was something about Tafeek that bothered me.

Anyway, besides the stupid quibbles I've got with the names, I'm still psyched. For one thing, I thought there was only gonna be 1 Minbari in the show. Now there're gonna be 3. There's also gonna be a Narn Ranger. A FEMALE one to boot! (I've been itching for a regular female Narn character ever since Na'Toth. Caitlin Brown Na'Toth, anyway.) The Drazi Ranger I'm not to excited about, but that has more to do with the fact that I loathe Drazi with a passion. Nothing personal against the actor or the character.

Anyway, the crew composition looks to be pretty good. 4 Humans (3 male, 1 female), 3 Minbari (2 male, 1 female), 1 Narn (female), and 1 Drazi (male). There were a few surprises for me, though.

1. Myriam Syrois being Sara, while Enid-Raye Adams being the female Minbari Firell. Myriam's mostly done voicework, so I thought FOR SURE that she'd be doing an alien, as her voice would be pretty important under make-up. Well, I was wrong. But then again I'm biased. I think Enid-Raye Adams is absolutely GORGEOUS and I'd rather those looks of hers not be buried under make-up.

2. No mention of a telepath. Babylon 5 and Crusade both had telepaths, and I was SURE that JMS would continue the trend and that Rangers would have a telepath. No mention of one, yet. And I can't imagine which character could be one. Well, knowing JMS it'll probably be a surprise. Kind of like how John Matheson being a telepath was supposed to be a surprise. We may very well not know if one of the characters is a telepath until a couple episodes in should Rangers go to series. (If I had to guess I'd say Malcolm Bridges. Being a telepath would be a HUGE asset to a guy who's specialty is in covert intelligence and infiltration.)

One comment, though. What's up with Tafeek? He seems to be like the woman from tonights episode of Babylon 5. Namely a "Political Officer". Now, someone specialising in First Contact situations I can understand, but what's up with the political part of his description? Doesn't sound all that appealing to me. Who knows, though. He may end up being the Max Eilerson of the series. A Minbari who's a jerk. That'd be something.

Anyway, that's all I got for now.

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If your constantly dealing with other governments having a diplomat would not be a bad idea. After all both Sheridan and Sinclair filled this role on b5.

Matheson was a telepath because it was important to his story. It would have been part of the arc. JMS does not like dues ex machinas hanging around, and I am not at all surprised there is no telepath here. He has said in the past that if it wasn't necessary to the b5 arc there would not have been any telepathy in the b5 universe.

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Bus
"The electric yellow has got me by the brain banana."

Having read that JMS listed the cast "in no particular order", I will now try to read something into the order in which JMS listed the cast.

The "Show Overview" section of this website lists David, Dulann, and Sarah prominently, and the rest of the crew just in passing. The press release by the SciFi Channel that announced the cast listed Dylan Neal, Alex Zahara, and Myriam Sirois first, in that order. JMS listed David, Dulann, and Sarah (in that order) first when he explained the cast. So I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothesize that Dulann has the 2nd biggest role in "Rangers" and Sarah has the 3rd biggest role (maybe just for the TV movie, and not the series, or maybe for the series as well).
Two other points about the cast:

JMS didn't say anything about Mackenzie Gray. The SciFi Channel press release also said something like "Dylan Neal, [...etc.] join Mackenzie Gray and Andreas Katsulas...", segregating the last two from the rest of the cast list. This suggests to me that either Gray and Katsulas are notable cameos, with the other nine being the real stars of the TV movie, or Gray and Katsulas will be in the TV movie but not the series. Any other interpretations?

Has anyone else noticed the similarities between this crew and the crew of the upcoming Enterprise? They've both got a first officer who's from a race more advanced than humans. They've both got an Asian translator. They've both got a character named Malcolm. And they've both got a weapons specialist (which is notable because I don't recall a previous B5 or Trek showing having a regular with such a job).


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Well, in the new Star Trek the guy's called the "Armoury Officer". I assume, then, that the only new thing about that is the name. In other words, it's the Chief of Security with a different title. That's all. Nothing new about it at all. (Except for the fact that the Chief of Security is actually human. Not a member of a bad ass race like Klingon, Changeling, or Vulcan. Yeah, Tasha Yar was human, but she didn't last very long, now, did she?)

As for Mackenzie Gray, I agree that he's most likely not gonna be a regular cast member. From the moment I saw a picture of him I pretty much figured he'd be playing the Minbari Tannier. The one who gives David all his troubles. What can I say? Mackenzie Gray has "jerk" written all over his face. At least the man's got a niche.

As for the cast list, I think it's pretty obvious that JMS listed them in order of importance. Purposefully? Probably not. But when you list B5 characters in what order do you put them in? Alphabetical order? Nope. You list them in order of importance. (I.E. Sheridan would be first on the list, followed by Delenn. Then Ivanova, Garibaldi, etc) Then you get to a certain point when you're just reaching for any name. So undoubtedly the first handful of names on the list are the most important. As for the bottom half, I think that's fairly accurate, too, though I wouldn't call it exact. I know I don't expect to see Tafeek, much.

I think the point, though, is to show the varation that exists within the Ranger organization, itself. Up to this point, all we've seen is cardboard cut out Rangers. All of whom are pretty much the same. But now we've got healers, linguists, infiltrators, weapon specialists, etc. Shows us that there's more to Ranger training then just piloting White Stars and learning how to fight with a pike.

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I was commenting the other day that J is a recurring initial for lead characters.

B5: Jeffrey, John.
TOS: James
TNG: Jean Luc
VOY: Janeway
Stargate: Jack
Farscape: John

With DS9, Ben just missed the J. His dad is Joseph and his son is Jake.



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<font size="-2" color="silver">"The Babylon Project was our last, best, hope for peace.
A self-contained world five miles long, located in neutral
territory. A place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter
of a million humans and aliens. A shining beacon in space,
all alone in the night. It was the dawn of the third age of
mankind, the year the great war came upon us all. This is
the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is
2259: the name of the place is Babylon 5."

Yeah, but Benjamin does have a "J" in the middle of the name. It's okay; it took a while, but Sisko eventually became just as cool as the other "J" guys. Besides, DS9 earned the right to be special.

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>DS9 earned the right to be special.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unfortunately, Voyager most definitely did not.

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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.

-"Matters of Honor"

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DS9 earned the right to be special.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, Voyager most definitely did not.


F@&#ing A, Crazy!

Does any one know the meaning of the word anticlimactic?

Just watch the Voyager seies finale.



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THRAWN
Ardent follower of B5 and SW.

"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."
-George Carlin

Woowoo! Yea for the people with a name starting with "J"...which goes for my too, since my real name is Jennifer. *chuckles* I noticed that a lot of my netfriends had "J" names too...I guess "J" is just really a common letter for names.

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Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.