(OT) B5: Legend of the Rangers (spoilers)

[LightPhoenix]

So if the series runs two seasons, they'll be able to do all the episodes they had originally intended for Crusade? Do you think that was intentional?

Yes and no.

The timing was intentional only in that JMS specifically avoided the Telepath War.

And no, JMS will definitely not be able to tell Crusade's story in Legend of the Rangers except by reference. Most everyone in Crusade is much too important to the storyline, especially Lochley, Gideon, Galen, and Dureena. Unless JMS has the crew of the Excaliber storm the Liandra, there's a snowball's chance in hell.

As for other people appearing in Legend of the Rangers (to address a thought farther back), anyone is possible, except for Londo, Lennier, Lyta, and probably Franklin. All of them are specifically in other places during the events of Rangers.

LightPhoenix

 

[TBoarder]

And no, JMS will definitely not be able to tell Crusade's story in Legend of the Rangers except by reference.

I may be remembering wrong, but I read in an interview that if Legends of the Rangers is picked up as a series, JMS will take the opportunity to resolve the Drakh plague somehow. He mentioned the fact that since Crusade starts in what will be year 3 of B5:LotR, it gives him an opportunity to give the Crusade arc some closure. Probably not with the characters, but with Earth itself.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I may be remembering wrong, but I read in an interview that if Legends of the Rangers is picked up as a series, JMS will take the opportunity to resolve the Drakh plague somehow. He mentioned the fact that since Crusade starts in what will be year 3 of B5:LotR, it gives him an opportunity to give the Crusade arc some closure. Probably not with the characters, but with Earth itself.

Yeah, if JMS is still working on the same calendar, and I suspect he is, there will be a resolution of the Drakh Plague in Legend of the Rangers.

LightPhoenix

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Finally got a chance to watch it. I enjoyed it. A few random thoughts:

* 20 years old is old for a ship, particularly a Minbari ship? That just seemed odd to me.

* I liked the lead actor. He had a lot of screen presence.

* I also liked the first officer - Dulann, was it? Anyway, I found the dry sense of humor and low-key horseplay between him and the captain to have a ring of truth to it; that is, it almost felt like how real friends would hit each other with zingers. Problem is, the character was hobbled with the "hovering on death's door" storyline, which I felt hurt the development of the character - we just get to really liking the guy, and he's mostly delirious or unconscious for half the film.

* As mentioned earlier in the thread, the Rangers sure don't seem very elite to me. I mean, we had two of them taken out by a diplomat! OK, so the guy MAY have been a highly trained secret agent, but they sure didn't establish that very well in the story if that was the case.

* The Drazi - Turks? - didn't seem very Ranger-like at all. I'm not saying Rangers can't be dumb, but come on...

* The ship was, for the most part, pretty cool. However, I have gotten very tired of the "leaving before all systems are installed or ready" device that seems to be a pre-requisite for any scifi series lately. The Star Trek movies set a bad precedent for this, what with the Enterprise being in sad shape for, let's see, the first three movies, and absent for almost the entire 4th. When will film and TV makers get the idea that ships are characters themselves in these shows and movies? A lot of us would like to see the main ship do some butt-kicking once in a while. I mean, the Millennium Falcon may have acted and looked like junk, but it got the job done when it needed doing.

* The fire control system is weird. Is it meant to be a system that was used on ships at one time, but was dropped for modern ships? If not, why wouldn't the ships of B5 - like the Whitestars - use it? It is an interesting idea.

* In general, I liked the attitudes of all the crew. It seemed rather realistic in nature for them to act the way they did.

* The bit about the Rangers never retreating reflected something about the Minbari that has been a recurring theme with them for the history of B5 shows - they're extraordinarily stubborn, and love adhering to rules. This makes sense when you consider that they were the "proteges" of the Vorlons, the Law side of the Law-Chaos conflict between the Vorlons and Shadows. The Minbari are a very Lawful race, in D&D alignment terms. At their worst, they were extremely Lawful Neutral - during the Earth-Minbari War. At their best, they are Lawful Good - during the Shadow War.

 

[tsadkiel]

* I also liked the first officer - Dulann, was it? Anyway, I found the dry sense of humor and low-key horseplay between him and the captain to have a ring of truth to it; that is, it almost felt like how real friends would hit each other with zingers.

I found the chemistry between the captain and first officer to be very reminiscent of Kirk and Spock, and I suspect that was deliberate on JMS's part.

 

[Umbran]

All you guys who are picking on Turk, the Drazi, should take a moment to listen every once in a while...

G'Kar has said it more than once. He specifically said it so that it'd apply to this show - No one is exactly as he appears. How much more clearly could he have stated it?

 

[William Ronald]

I liked Dulann, but hated him being out of it so much. I do have some problems with the VR combat system, and how it responds to muscle movements. I wonder how you get a ship that is sneaking up on yours from behind.

The Drazzi seemed to be reasonably intelligent in the original series but very stubborn. (The whole Green Drazi vs. Purple Drazi showed how stubbort they can be. It was a good satire on some of our own world's seemingly intractable political problems.) Perhaps Tirk has more depth than is hinted at. I would help so. However, he might need to be replaced for a series.

Sarah needs to be better developed. If her character was any more intense and angry, she would explode in a fireball.

If they go with a series, maybe give the ship a serious overhaul or upgrade to a better ship. (There might be some way to explain the ghosts if JMS still wants to use them in the series. The ship could be called the Liandra II and the ghosts are concerned about the crew.)

I suspect that the Hand is the race from Thirdspace. I also suspect there might be a few more ancients or old ones left in the galaxy than the Rangers know. (That was part of the point of Crusade: Find someone or something to counter the Drakh plague.)

If this does become a series, maybe they could have one or two actors from Crusade do a cameo.

 

[Kesh]

I rather liked it, though it did have a very different feel than either B5 or Crusade. And I've got my own angles on a few things:

* Turk - We barely saw him at all. I'm waiting until the series gets approved, because I have a feeling that JMS had something special in mind with this character. He wouldn't have become a Ranger if he couldn't keep up...

* Sarah - Interesting character, but yes, the actress needs to hold back a little. The screaming in the firing system was too much...

* Firing system - I thought about this a lot. I was strange, but I came up with a possible answer... On smaller ships, most guns are fixed in place. To aim the gun, you aim the whole ship at your target. On larger ships, you can afford the manpower to put people in individual gunnery positions manning turrets. But, how do you allow one person on a small ship to handle multiple omnidirectional guns? If you had seperate controls for each one, it would overwhelm a single person, and if they're fire-linked you lose control. The 'virtual belly gun' allows one person to aim and fire multiple weapons systems easily.

As to why not put that on bigger ships: those ships tend to have different types of weapons, and bigger firing arcs. It's actually easier to let one person handle one gun in those situations, though in desperation you could let one crewmember handle them. And maybe the big Minbari ships use this system for their individual gunners.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

 

[Black Omega]

I enjoyed the movie, but then I've enjoyed all the B5 movies. Not as good as the series, though. Even Crusades started slow for me but started to grow on me. Great to see G'Kar back, it's a shame we can't get anything with Londo in.

*spoilers* Soooo glad that wasn't Lyta and this is after she's bit the dust. The character was so annoying and hard to sympathize with by the end, it's makes me blad Bester outlived her.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Ahhhh, he hates Lyta!!!!

Sorry, have a thing for red-headed women .

Umbran, it would be nice is that wasn't said all the time - it's like a bloody mantra. That line in particular upset me, because we've heard it SO many times before.

LightPhoenix