Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time posting here. I have no idea how active the forums here still are, but figured I'd sign up to share my occasional B5/JMS related thoughts.
I began re-watching B5 with a friend a few weeks ago whilst on leave from work. He'd never seen it and appreciates good Sci-Fi, so it seemed like a no brainer. I used the tried and tested technique of compressing season one by cutting it down to only story arc relevant episodes only, thus leaving out some of the more clunky episodes that tend to put new viewers off. Needless to say, he loved it and he's now well into Season 4 and enjoying every minute.
Mid way through our re-watch, I had a rather unfortunate mountain biking accident and broke my collar bone. Since I am pretty much immobilised for a number of weeks I decided to continue re-watch myself. One thing that that occurred to me when viewing B5 again is that I've grown to love the flaws as much as the show's outright successes. I've always loved B-movies and outsider art, and for me B5 exists, at least partially in that sphere. It's honest, passionate art achieved with what limited resources were available at the time. All the things that used to make me cringe; the bad one liners, some of the sillier plot elements, the occasional hammy acting, now all seem like a total joy. It's part and parcel of the fun, backed up by a wonderfully ambitious story arc that I've never seen equaled by a SF TV series.
Out of curiosity, (and boredom), I also decided to give Crusade another look too. My memories of the series were somewhat hazy, and I remember not being overly impressed the first time around. I am roughly half way through, following the revised broadcast order. Not all of it has been good, but I just watched 'The Path of Sorrows' and it made me think... 'Ah, there's the JMS I know and love'... All in all, a very well constructed episode that set up many of the key puzzle pieces that would have no doubt played out in intriguing fashion had the series continued.
Having read about all the strife with TNT, I think the series was doomed to failure from the outset, but having seen the potential of the thing, it's very sad it wasn't given time to grow on a network that cared.
I was wondering, are the Crusade books available from the fan club worth the money, cause I'm curious to know more about the show. Would also love to read the un-filmed scripts, but they are hard to find online these days. Do they appear in these books?
Long time lurker, first time posting here. I have no idea how active the forums here still are, but figured I'd sign up to share my occasional B5/JMS related thoughts.
I began re-watching B5 with a friend a few weeks ago whilst on leave from work. He'd never seen it and appreciates good Sci-Fi, so it seemed like a no brainer. I used the tried and tested technique of compressing season one by cutting it down to only story arc relevant episodes only, thus leaving out some of the more clunky episodes that tend to put new viewers off. Needless to say, he loved it and he's now well into Season 4 and enjoying every minute.
Mid way through our re-watch, I had a rather unfortunate mountain biking accident and broke my collar bone. Since I am pretty much immobilised for a number of weeks I decided to continue re-watch myself. One thing that that occurred to me when viewing B5 again is that I've grown to love the flaws as much as the show's outright successes. I've always loved B-movies and outsider art, and for me B5 exists, at least partially in that sphere. It's honest, passionate art achieved with what limited resources were available at the time. All the things that used to make me cringe; the bad one liners, some of the sillier plot elements, the occasional hammy acting, now all seem like a total joy. It's part and parcel of the fun, backed up by a wonderfully ambitious story arc that I've never seen equaled by a SF TV series.
Out of curiosity, (and boredom), I also decided to give Crusade another look too. My memories of the series were somewhat hazy, and I remember not being overly impressed the first time around. I am roughly half way through, following the revised broadcast order. Not all of it has been good, but I just watched 'The Path of Sorrows' and it made me think... 'Ah, there's the JMS I know and love'... All in all, a very well constructed episode that set up many of the key puzzle pieces that would have no doubt played out in intriguing fashion had the series continued.
Having read about all the strife with TNT, I think the series was doomed to failure from the outset, but having seen the potential of the thing, it's very sad it wasn't given time to grow on a network that cared.
I was wondering, are the Crusade books available from the fan club worth the money, cause I'm curious to know more about the show. Would also love to read the un-filmed scripts, but they are hard to find online these days. Do they appear in these books?
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