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Rangers DVD coming to R1 in March

I watched this DVD for the first time last week. I enjoyed it. Obviously a pilot - too many characters with little to do. A simple plot with hints towards several arcs. I suspect that this is like "The Gathering", when re-watched at the end of the series you can spend the entire time playing spotting the foreshadowing.

My feel on the story is that the series was the Babylon 5 equivalent of Star Trek The Original Series; we are seeking out new life and new civilisation. The Hand’s lair will be discovered sometime in the first season.
 
I saw this the other day in HMV sees to have completely slipped by me but I have passed on it because:

1) It is rubbish
2) It was expensive
3) No extras

If the US version has some extras then I will pick that up otherwise wait till it enters the bargain bin. I wonder if it were to include a commentary track “Would JMS be constantly be saying what was I thinking, that was the dumbest thing I ever did, I am so sorry” like the Simpsons piss take of a Kevin Costner movie when Lisa sees a DVD for the first time.
 
In retrospect, LOTR really stinks. IF a series had spawned from it, I would have probably enjoyed it alot more. But when i think about it now, Sci Fi gave JMS a two hour tv movie, he of course tried to sell a series, which is the right thing to do, but with hindsight, how many of us wish that alloted time could have been spent on the telepath war or finishing crusade. LotR is a decent standalone story, but it is weak compared to babylon 5 and crusade, but the gathering wasn't that hot either.

I wish JMS had a chance to continue this series, because i'm sure i would have fell in love with it...but it wasn't mean't to be.

I won't be buying this, or crusade, it would just feel incomplete.
 
Sci Fi gave JMS a two hour tv movie, he of course tried to sell a series
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It isn't that Sci-Fi offered JMS a two hour movie and he decided to try to sell them a new series. They asked him for a pilot for a new series, period. He gave them a number of possible stories for the project, inlcuding a continuation of Crusade, and Rangers is the one they picked, so that's the one he wrote.

And I don't think the story of the Telepath War, with its backstory of the Vorlon Homeworld and the long series of Shadow Wars, could have been adequately told in a 90 minute, 3 or 4 million dollar, "2 hour" TV movie.

Regards,

Joe
 
I saw this the other day in HMV sees to have completely slipped by me but I have passed on it because:

1) It is rubbish
2) It was expensive
3) No extras

If the US version has some extras then I will pick that up otherwise wait till it enters the bargain bin.
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Can't disagree with any of that.


I wonder if it were to include a commentary track “Would JMS be constantly be saying what was I thinking, that was the dumbest thing I ever did, I am so sorry”
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Talk about never gonna happen! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
 
Sci Fi gave JMS a two hour tv movie, he of course tried to sell a series
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It isn't that Sci-Fi offered JMS a two hour movie and he decided to try to sell them a new series. They asked him for a pilot for a new series, period. He gave them a number of possible stories for the project, including a continuation of Crusade, and Rangers is the one they picked, so that's the one he wrote.
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All true. And the reason Sci-Fi didn't go with something that continued the Crusade storyline (<u>which would have made sense</u>) was because Warner Brothers would not let Sci-Fi/Universal/Vivendi own a piece of it.

Damn you, Warner Brothers! Damn you straight to hell!



And I don't think the story of the Telepath War, with its backstory of the Vorlon Homeworld and the long series of Shadow Wars, could have been adequately told in a 90 minute, 3 or 4 million dollar, "2 hour" TV movie.
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I agree completely. Hell, it wouldn't be easy to tell that story well in a >=2hr. >$50 Million theatrical movie.
 
And the reason Sci-Fi didn't go with something that continued the Crusade storyline (which would have made sense) was because Warner Brothers would not let Sci-Fi/Universal/Vivendi own a piece of it.
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No, that's the reason why they didn't go forward with the Rangers series, and also why the pilot was not adequately funded and couldn't get an budget bump or schedule extension to deal with the weapons system problem. WB and SFC could not reach an ownership deal at the pilot stage and never did later. If I recall correctly SFC simply passed on the whole idea of doing Crusade because at the time they commissioned the Rangers pilot Crusade had not yet been broadcast on Sci-Fi. They wanted the Rangers series based on B5's ratings, and didn't want to consider anything Crusade-related until they saw how the series did "on their air" - that is with SFC's base audience.

By the time the show did run on SFC they were haggling with WB over ownership of Rangers. Obviously if WB was not going to share ownership on a new series developed for and with SFC they were not going to do so with a proprety they already owned, but I doubt if SFC even asked at that point. The fact is SFC turned down Crusade for reasons of their own, initially (while leaving the door open should they make a deal for a Rangers series and the ratings justify a second B5 universe show.) Obviously WB's stance on the ownership of Rangers tipped the balance away from doing that series (although if the ratings had been great they probably would have gone ahead with the show despite not owning a piece.) But that had nothing directly to do with Crusade.

So other's no particular reason to damn WB on that score.

Regards,

Joe
 
If I recall correctly SFC simply passed on the whole idea of doing Crusade because at the time they commissioned the Rangers pilot Crusade had not yet been broadcast on Sci-
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Actually Sci Fi showed Crusade as early as 2001, IIRC Rangers wasn't made until 2002.
 
Actually Sci Fi showed Crusade as early as 2001, IIRC Rangers wasn't made until 2002.
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The Rangers pilot debuted in January 2002, and was oblviously made in 2001.

JMS started negotiating the deal for Rangers over a year before the movie debuted. Sci-Fi hadn't even acquired the rights to the Crusade reruns at that point. JMS first hinted at the project in mid January 2001, and The Hollywood Reporter had a blind item about a new B5 project being made by JMS for Sci-Fi but he posted a "no comment" because there hadn't been an official announcement. On March 20th 2001 Sci-Fi did officially announce the TV movie, and by that tiime it had acquired Crusade but not yet aired it. Here's what JMS posted on March 21st 2001:

>Does the new Rangers movie ( possible series) mean that SFC doesn't
>want to do more Crusade? Don't get me wrong--I love the Rangers idea.
>I hate to see something (the Crusade story) left up in the air, though.
>

No, it doesn't...it doesn't have any impact on that project one way or another.
This is a B5 project based on the B5 ratings. Crusade hasn't even aired yet
on SFC.

jms
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Regards,

Joe
 
And the reason Sci-Fi didn't go with something that continued the Crusade storyline (which would have made sense) was because Warner Brothers would not let Sci-Fi/Universal/Vivendi own a piece of it.
Click to expand...

No, that's the reason why they didn't go forward with the Rangers series, and also why the pilot was not adequately funded and couldn't get an budget bump or schedule extension to deal with the weapons system problem. WB and SFC could not reach an ownership deal at the pilot stage and never did later. If I recall correctly SFC simply passed on the whole idea of doing Crusade because at the time they commissioned the Rangers pilot Crusade had not yet been broadcast on Sci-Fi. They wanted the Rangers series based on B5's ratings, and didn't want to consider anything Crusade-related until they saw how the series did "on their air" - that is with SFC's base audience.

By the time the show did run on SFC they were haggling with WB over ownership of Rangers. Obviously if WB was not going to share ownership on a new series developed for and with SFC they were not going to do so with a proprety they already owned, but I doubt if SFC even asked at that point. The fact is SFC turned down Crusade for reasons of their own, initially (while leaving the door open should they make a deal for a Rangers series and the ratings justify a second B5 universe show.) Obviously WB's stance on the ownership of Rangers tipped the balance away from doing that series (although if the ratings had been great they probably would have gone ahead with the show despite not owning a piece.) But that had nothing directly to do with Crusade.

So other's no particular reason to damn WB on that score.

Regards,

Joe
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I had a whole detailed reply typed out and then got "This form is no longer valid." response when I tried to post it. Now, I have th re-do all of it, except that I can't because I have to leave in 3 minutes. SHIT! This form time-out business sucks.

Re: Attn: JMS Promotion - 3/21/2001 6:52:00 PM

Subject: Re: Attn: JMS Promotion
Date: 3/21/2001 6:52:00 PM

JMS: "Writer's strike (if it happens) would be triggered on May 2nd, which is why the
script has to be totally finalized before then. The actor's strike (ditto)
would take place July 1st. We'd be finished well before this."

Crusade 1st aired on US Sci-Fi: April 9-12, 16-19, 23-26 & 30, 2001.

Rangers pilot 1st aired on US Sci-Fi: Jan. 19, 2002.

At the time that Crusade was 1st airing, the Rangers script might not have even been finished yet, let alone filming and post-production.

Sorry about not snipping, but I should have left 5 min. ago. I had it all prepared correctly, but then the Form No Longer Valid thing f*cked me. :mad:
 
Any word on whether LOTR still has it's subtitle "To Live and Die by Starlight"?
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Why not? "To Live and Die in Starlight" is its movie title, just like the rest of the TV movies have their titles.

The Gathering
Thirdspace
In the Beginning
The River of Souls
A Call to Arms
 
At the time that Crusade was 1st airing, the Rangers script might not have even been finished yet, let alone filming and post-production
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I can't believe you wrote an even longer and more detailed post about things that are completely irrevelent to the point I was making. I'm sorry that's been lost to posterity. :)

Now class, let's try to pay attention:

1. The claim was made that Sci-Fi chose to do the Rangers pilot instead of Crusade because Warner Bros. wouldn't give share ownership of the new version of Crusade.

2. The suggestion was made that this notion was supported by the fact that Crusade aired on Sci-Fi in 2001 and Rangers debuted in 2002.

3. I didn't try to prove anything based on when the script was written or when the filmed entered or completed production. I made the point that the deal for the new TV movie was made months before Sci-Fi had acquired the rights to Crusade, much less aired it. Therefore it isn't possible that they elected to go with Rangers only after WB refused to share ownership of Crusade, because the contracts on Rangers were signed months before Crusade was even seriously considered. It was not excluded from the talks by WB's greed but by Sci-Fi's decision to persue a "B5 project" first and only later consider airing Crusade and making further decisions based on the ratings.

So it is still irrational to blame WB for the problem and absolutely nothing in your last post alters any of the facts, the quotations I posted or my arguments. In fact, it doesn't even address any of them.

The fact that JMS was talking about the need to finalize the Rangers script by in March and that the deadline for doing so was right after the last episode of Crusade was due to air strengthens my argument, not yours. It demonstrates that the signed contracts were in place and that JMS was well along in the writing (since all TV movie scripts go through multliple drafts) before the first episode of Crusade aired on Sci-Fi, and we know they weren't going to make a decision about Crusade until after they saw the ratings. Q.E.D.

Regards,

Joe
 
Maybe this is the one I was remembering:
Subject: Re: JMS: Questions abour Sci-Fi channel

I'm still trying to get at the reason that the Sci-Fi Channel (US) passed on the Crusade idea and went with the B5: Legend of the Rangers (To Live and Die in Starlight) idea. JMS put up a post where he said he presented the Crusade idea to Sci-Fi first, and then when they didn't go for that he put forth the Rangers idea, but I can't find the post.

I asked JMS:
Subject: Attn. JMS - re. Sci-Fi Ch., Crusade and B5:LotR
...but it appears that he is not going to answer. Figures.

I don't care who "wins" the argument. I am trying to find the TRUTH with JMS posts/URLs to back it up.

If you reply, see if you can do so without being snide.
 
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