B5:TLT Actual DISCUSSION Thread

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

.. and there's the IA, with Minbar and a gazillion other planets willing to pitch in in need.

In a society as heavily in space as the Earth Alliance is in B5, many production plants would already have been moved off Earth by default - just for the means of resources. Tearing asteroids and uninhabited planetoids apart for resources and polluting space makes a lot more sense than mining earth more and polluting it more.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Those photos were great. Its also really cool that they are shooting next to the Battlestar studios. I wonder if they are sharing effects houses?

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

The important thing to remember in the Severed Dreams fight is that B5 is the principle target. It is the most important asset. If ships get badly knocked up, they can use B5 as a port of call to repair (as the Narn heavy cruiser did the previous year). So if B5 got badly knocked about and put in a state that it could no longer be maintained, you lose a major asset in the your war... and with few home ports to repair at... that would mean big trouble. If I remember correctly, Orion 7 and Proxima 3 are the only other known breakaway colonies that don't get reclaimed immediately.

Who did New Jerusalem side with?

More importantly who did who did Disneyplanet side with?

I would imagine that Earth ships used B5 quite a bit during 2260/61 for refits, repairs and coordination... but we didn't get to see it because it wasn't necessary to further the plot. Nor was JMS in a position to muck about with niceties in season 4.

I would have liked to have seen a couple of renegade Earthforce ships take on the Shadows during Shadow Dancing or Into the Fire. Sure the Earthers are on a shoestring budget... but the Narn's sent the Ja'tok and another unidentified cruiser because they recognised the importance of B5's survival. Surely the rogue Earth skippers must have been told by sheridan that there was another war going on that was tying up B5's resources and that their help would be much appreciated.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

More importantly who did who did Disneyplanet side with?

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Are you kidding? Of course Disney was on the more conservative side (i.e., authoritarian).

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

I can just see the Nightwatch poster "Traitors Can't Hide" (with the giant hand grasping the little man from Severed Dreams), but instead the hand is a white four fingered glove.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Those photos were great. Its also really cool that they are shooting next to the Battlestar studios. I wonder if they are sharing effects houses?

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One of the primary effects houses working on BSG is Zoic I believe, who is LA based, so they probably won't be involved for that reason alone, since JMS said post production would be done in Vancouver too. However, and I posted this on the JMSNews forum before, IMDB now lists a VFX company for TLT, Atmosphere Visual Effect, who also did work on BSG.

This doesn't mean it's true though. Apparently our own Joe DeMartino added that to the TLT IMDB listing upon the assumption that someone who before him added two employees now working for Atmosphere to the IMDB TLT listing did so because he or she had actual information to that effect. So not exactly 100% confirmation, but the 2 employees listed for TLT were formerly part of GVFX, which did work on LotR before it went down a few years ago, so there's a connection there. And it's a Vancouver based VFX company that, at least according to their demo reel, has experience doing space based CGI work, and quite a bit of experience doing compositing. So it seems they are still a likely candidate, and a good fit for TLT's needs. For a bit more info, this is what I posted at JMSNews:

Though I know that information that appears only on IMDB is not always trustworthy, they have the VFX company listed now for TLT. A Atmosphere Visual Effects, who worked on shows like BSG and the Stargates before, although more in a suporting role it seems after looking through the IMDB listings (e.g. pretty sure the bulk of BSG's effects were done by Zoic Studios).

You can find their website here, and their demoreel is worth checking out. It didn't load for me in the website, so here's a direct link (right click, save as... for a 21mb quicktime video). They definitely did some cool stuff, and they did some neat composition work, both green screen and non green screen, which is a good thing with the amount of virtual sets TLT will apparently have. Leaps and leaps beyond Crusade's virtual set comp work, which I remember someone on the newsgroup citing as the reason for being a bit apprehensive of the amount of virtual sets in TLT that JMS had been talking about.

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edit: Actually, reading up on it, Zoic was the company who did the BSG miniseries and a good chunk of season 1, but they were becoming too expensive, so some later episodes in season 1 and later seasons were moved over to Canada, at the above mentioned Atmosphere, and Enigma Studios (who apparently also did a lot of the initial design work for the miniseries, and hence the entire show).

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

The two Atmosphere VFX employees who someone added to the IMDB listing also worked on Jeremiah, apparently for the now-defunct GVFX, so they may be well known to JMS and it would make sense that he'd "follow" them to the company where they are working now.

Atmosphere has an extensive resume of genre shows including Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Dead Like Me.

By the way, we used to have a GVFX employee who posted here when the site was still called B5:LR. I blush to admit that I've forgotten his handle and also lost his e-mail address in an ISP change. Hope he's landed on his feet and is doing good work for somebody out there.

Regards,

Joe

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Wow. Atmosphere's show reels are superb. It really is amazing how effects work has progressed from B5.

Its likely to be one or more of these Canadian firms doing the work, I can't seem myself being disappointed in the way i was with Legend of the Rangers. I only hope that strong editorial control is there, and that we do not have any more 80 foot long Minbari flighters that fly backwards...

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

I'm confused now.

Ive just looked up the army and navy rank structures and a navy Captain is the same rank as an army Colonel. In that case Lochely has not been promoted, just moved sideways.

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I read somewhere that the rank sctructure of the EA doesn't strictly adhere to an American system, it is more of an amalgamation of models. For example Majors outrank Captains on the show which is more in line with the British model.

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Wasn't Lianna Kemmer a Major, and Ivanova, a Commander outranked her, which is below a Captain? No?

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Wasn't Lianna Kemmer a Major, and Ivanova, a Commander outranked her, which is below a Captain? No?

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Again, you're confusing the naval and army ranks of captain. Also in S1 Ivanova was a Lt. Commander, not a full Commander. (But would be addressed as "commander", just as a Lt. Colonel will normally be addressed as "colonel")

Ivanova and Kenner were basically the same rank in their respective organizations. Kenner was one grade above an army or marine Captain. The equivalent navy rank to an army captain is full Lieutenant. Ivanova was two grades below an naval Captain. Kenner was likewise two grades below the army equivalent of a Navy Captain, which would be a full Colonel.

If Ivanova had authority over Kenner it was because B5 is Ivanova's post and she is part of the local chain of command, which Kenner wasn't. (If they wanted to figure out exactly who was senior in terms of the service, they'd have to compare service records to see when each of them reached their current rank. If Ivanova received her commission as Lt. Commander even a day before Kenner's promotion to Major became effective, Ivanova would be senior.)

Here is a chart of U.S. commissioned officer ranks and insignia showing which naval ranks are equivalent to which army/marine/air force ranks. And here is another comparing British and American ranks.

Regards,

Joe

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Wasn't Lianna Kemmer a Major, and Ivanova, a Commander outranked her, which is below a Captain? No?

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Again, you're confusing the naval and army ranks of captain. Also in S1 Ivanova was a Lt. Commander, not a full Commander. (But would be addressed as "commander", just as a Lt. Colonel will normally be addressed as "colonel")

Ivanova and Kenner were basically the same rank in their respective organizations. Kenner was one grade above an army or marine Captain. The equivalent navy rank to an army captain is full Lieutenant. Ivanova was two grades below an naval Captain. Kenner was likewise two grades below the army equivalent of a Navy Captain, which would be a full Colonel.

If Ivanova had authority over Kenner it was because B5 is Ivanova's post and she is part of the local chain of command, which Kenner wasn't. (If they wanted to figure out exactly who was senior in terms of the service, they'd have to compare service records to see when each of them reached their current rank. If Ivanova received her commission as Lt. Commander even a day before Kenner's promotion to Major became effective, Ivanova would be senior.)

Here is a chart of U.S. commissioned officer ranks and insignia showing which naval ranks are equivalent to which army/marine/air force ranks. And here is another comparing British and American ranks.

Regards,

Joe

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All that aside, Major Kemmer still didn't outrank a Captain, in the joined heirarchy in B5, if she was only on equal footing with a Lt Commander, which was the point I was making. Or did I go the wrong way with your explanation, and you were saying she was an Army Major, which outranks an Army Captain, and I was talking about a Navy Captain?

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Or did I go the wrong way with your explanation, and you were saying she was an Army Major, which outranks an Army Captain, and I was talking about a Navy Captain?

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Exactly, because there is no such thing as a "Navy" Major. She would outrank a Captain commanding a company of Gropos (Army/Marines), but not a Captain commanding a starship (Navy). Earthforce is a combined service but it still uses the rank structure originally associated with its component parts (ocean navy to space navy, and ground forces) in the 2260s and the consolidation is still on-going.

(In some navies marine captains in transit are given a temporary and utterly meaningless "promotion" to major because there is only one captain aboard ship. They revert to their actual rank as soon as their feet touch dry land. )

Regards,

Joe

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

what did people make of my comments about b5 as a military asset and the desire to have seen Earthforce ships engaged in the Shadow War.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

what did people make of my comments about b5 as a military asset and the desire to have seen Earthforce ships engaged in the Shadow War.

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We ignored them. Why?

I would have liked to have seen a couple of renegade Earthforce ships take on the Shadows during Shadow Dancing or Into the Fire.

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There were no renegade EarthForce ships at the time. The open break with the Clark regime and the civil war came after the end of the Shadow War. There was political resistance and coordination, but no mutinies or ships refusing direct orders. Clark would have had good reason to keep his forces away from Babylon 5 (it would not have been a routine patrol area for EarthForce since it is neutral territory) and well away from anywhere they might run into conflict with his friends the Shadows. There were no Earth military ships available to Sheridan until after the First Ones had departed.

Regards,

Joe

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Galahad, your post was sensible, well thought out, and not at all picayune. We therefore ignored it and settled on something that was the exact opposite.

You're quite right. The Alexander should have put in an appearance for the "Shadow Dancing" battle.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

Galahad, your post was sensible, well thought out, and not at all picayune.

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And therefore threatens to screw up our whole system. What's wrong with you?

Joe

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

One last thing about the timing of TLT...whether it's in 2271 or 2272. JMS had previously said that TLT picks up "in real time" after "Objects at Rest". Most assumed that he meant that the story would take place *immediately* after OaR. But now that we have more information, it appears that "real time" means that, since this DVD will be released in 2007, nine years after Season 5 aired, it will take place approximately nine years after Season 5. That would argue for 2271, but I agree that JMS may have been speaking very approximately, so 2272 remains a possibility.

Either way, it looks like the actors' aging will be perfectly (or nearly perfectly) synchronized with the aging of their characters. They'll be playing their characters as they were about 9 years after we saw them in Objects at Rest, and it happens to be at least somewhat close to that long since OaR was filmed.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

What about Bill Mumy? any word on/from him? Hard to imagine B5 without Lennier in there somewhere.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

JMS indicated that one of the trilogies in the TLT series that he would like to do at some point would be a Minbari trilogy, featuring Delenn, Lennier, and Sheridan (obviously, Sheridan is human, but it would be a Sheridan story that deals with the Minbari). No indication as to when in the series this would happen though.

Re: JMS\'s 12/1 post

There's nothing to hear about at this point, with regards to Mumy or anybody else. Nobody knows if there is going to be a disc two or when it might go into production. There are no scripts, and no budget, no nothing. Neither JMS nor Warner Bros. can offer Mumy a contract or even check his availability or interest at this point. What are they going to ask, "Are you free in 2007?"

As for Lennier - depends on the time periods JMS wants to cover and the stories he wants to tell. This isn't going to be B5 in the sense of an ongoing series. It is going to be a collection of vignettes, JMS has hinted that we might see some glimpses of the Teep War, so that could mean an appearance by Lennier down the road.

Regards,

Joe