(B5) Legends of the Rangers

[Crothian]

Ya, I know we all talked about it at great length when it first was shown. I'm just watching it again (day of B5 movies, it was a good day) and was wondering if anyone has heard of this becomeing a series like was originally hoped.

 

[qstor]

Maybe the movie didnt do as well as the Sci-fi channel hoped in terms of viewers. There hasn't been anything on the lurkers guide to B5 about it or the sci-fi channel news updates.

Mike

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I was rather disapointed in it. The movie seems to be more of an opening to a new series than it appears to be a movie unto itself.

Also the whole concept of the movie was stupid. A super secret conference focused around what could be the new super evil foes and the only escort is a single broken down POS ship? I also found the virtual combat system to be very lame. The floating in VR throwing bolts made me feel like I was watching some poor Dragonball Z.

 

[qstor]

The ship was kind of lame too...where were the white stars? They should have used the Drac too instead of making up a new enemy race.

Mike

 

[Mouseferatu]

Unfortunately, LotR will not become a series. I'd have gotten cable just to have Sci-fi if it had, but since it's not, they've lost at least one potential subscriber. (Yeah, I know, big deal.)

According to JMS, the ratings were killed by the fact that, on the East Coast, LotR was up against one of the biggest football games in years. On the West Coast, the ratings were far better than expected, but the nationwide average was shot by the game.

That, combined with Sci-fi's statement that they're "moving away from space-oriented shows" was enough to tell JMS that they weren't going to want LotR as a series.

(Hello? Getting away from space-oriented shows? What channel is this again? Morons, the lot of 'em...)

 

[RatPunk]

That, combined with Sci-fi's statement that they're "moving away from space-oriented shows" was enough to tell JMS that they weren't going to want LotR as a series.

(Hello? Getting away from space-oriented shows? What channel is this again? Morons, the lot of 'em...)

Getting away from space-oriented shows?? This from the channel whose highest rated and most critically acclaimed show is Farscape...

Somehow, I'm not surprised though. I've found a lot of Sci-Fi's recent decisions to be questionable at best.

 

[Staffan]

Getting away from space-oriented shows?? This from the channel whose highest rated and most critically acclaimed show is Farscape...

Somehow, I'm not surprised though. I've found a lot of Sci-Fi's recent decisions to be questionable at best.

It is, of course as always a matter of money. Remember that a sound investment is not the one which brings you the biggest pile of dollars. It is the one that brings you the biggest pile of dollars compared to the dollars you put into the investment.

In other words, let's say that an episode of B5LOTR would cost Sci-fi $1M (I recall JMS mentioning long ago that B5 had an average budget of $800k per episode, and that was quite a few years ago) and bring in $1.5M in advertising revenue. However, another show might only cost $500k to make. Sure, it wouldn't get as big an audience, but they could still get $900k for it. On the surface, you might think that they'd do better with B5 since they would make a profit of $500k per episode as opposed to $400k per episode. However, in the case of B5 they only make a relative profit of 50%, while they make 80% for the other show - the other show is thus a better investment.

I still think that it sucks that both Crusade and Legend of the Rangers are dead, but such are the harsh economics. Space-based shows often have big FX, lots of CGI and require extensive make-up for various aliens. Other shows can be made cheaper and even if they don't draw as big an audience, they can be a better investment.

Another contributing factor to Sci-fi not picking up Legend is probably that Sci-fi is owned by Universal, whereas Legend and other B5 stuff would be made by WB. Sci-fi would of course be more likely to buy stuff from a company in the same "family".

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Not to mention that Legend of the Rangers and Crusade both sucked royally as movies compared to other B5 movies and Crusade followed up by sucking as a short series.

JMS did a wonderful job with his origional storyline. You could tell that he had carefully written and crafted it for years while he tried to convince someone to produce it.

The newer stuff looks to be created on the fly and is no better than Voyager drivel.

I would rather have B5 die now while I remember how great it was instead of seeing it slowly rot away via bad movies and spinoff series.

 

[Corinth]

Crusade's failure is all TNT's fault. This is a case of executive meddling resulting in a show's failure; JMS is blameless. B5:LOTR was a pilot, and it was no worse than "The Gathering" was for B5 back in the day. In this case, it was again executives who killed the show--this time, for different reasons--and it had nothing to do with JMS' ability.

JMS has enough on his plate right now anyway. He got his comic books, he's working on the HBO version of Jeremiah and he has other projects waiting in the wings. He's a busy man, and he has more than B5 to worry about. This is a good thing.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Crusades whole premise was to throw an odd crew together a-la Star Trek style. The addition of the techno-mage made it extremely obvious.

What made it worse was the budget was not up to snuff for what they wanted to do.