B5 Fans Recommend Other Works

[Von Bruno]

In following a link to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) in another thread within this forum it got me cruising the website. Before I knew it I was registering in order to leave a comment on the 1941 chapter-serial "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" (which I did).

Anyway, it got me thinking (which is sometimes a good thing )why not share a somewhat obscure gem by way of recommending it for others to check out, therefore, I am recommending "The Adventures of Captain Marvel." It's a wonderful and high quality production, and it is on dvd for less than 10 dollars.

Anyone else have a recommendation to make?

[grumbler]

This Island Earth. fairly cheesy, and not nearly as good as the book, but an interesting take on superhuman aliens and the "special quality" of humans.

[Doktor]

The Forbidden Planet.

[Spoo Junky]

I've always liked Logan's Run, even though it scared me as a kid

[elver]

Boondock Saints (Stylish low-budget action with a twist)
Requiem for a Dream (Has that "going to hell and liking it" feel to it, plus a nice soundtrack)
Pi (Wonderfully demented, excellent soundtrack)
Donnie Darko (Ditto. Nice ending, too)
The Cube (The most original movie I know, even though the sequel sucked)

As you can see, I'm not into sci-fi movies much. Can't find any good ones. Well, Pitch Black was nice, but not that nice. If you want sci-fi series, then get the four seasons of Farscape. Has a good story and a very experimental style, which is why I love it. It's anything but cliche. (First season's kinda slow, though. And the first episode of the fourth season is a huge gaping plot hole. But otherwise it's a great show.)

I guess that's about it.

[Von Bruno]

"This Island Earth" and "The Forbidden Plant" are both very good movies. How about "Earth VS The Flying Saucers" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still?" Both those films deserve a watching.

I was never to keen on "Logan's Run" but I know many people who love it. I read somewhere that it is going to be remade.

[LytaaaarGh]

dark City
dark stylish and wierd

[Dr Maturin]

The cult sci-fi anime Star Blazers. If you hate anime (I do) then don't worry...it's nothing like the rest of anime. There are three "series," the last of which I have not seen. The characters actually develop and die in this show.

The first series involves the spaceship Argo heading to a distant planet to pick up a cure for a sickened Earth, battling their enemies the Gamilons all along the way.

Similarities to B5:

Cure (Crusade)
Argo (Similar to Excalibur, including "main gun")
Planet bombs (Mass drivers)
Ongoing plot and character development

I have mentioned this show a few times before.

[bakana]

In the Book realm:
Look for Barry Hughart's "Bridge of Birds" trilogy.
The Story of the Stone (1988) and Eight Skilled Gentlemen (1990) are the other two titles.

It's a Sherlock Holmes tribute placed about 1000 years ago in a China that never was.
(The Gods are real and majick sometimes works.)
The adventures of Master Li (Holmes analog) and Number Ten Ox (his Watson) are both funny and quirky.

Bridge of Birds Review


In Anime, an interesting series (that I can't remember the Title of at this moment) involved telling the story of a War alternating the episodes so that Both sides of the conflict were shown.
I.E., neither side was "the bad guys". There were Heros on both sides.

Politics and greedy Politicians (again on Both Sides) were the Bad Guys.

[tlsmith1963]

Originally posted by Z'ha'dumDweller
The cult sci-fi anime Star Blazers. If you hate anime (I do) then don't worry...it's nothing like the rest of anime. There are three "series," the last of which I have not seen. The characters actually develop and die in this show.

The first series involves the spaceship Argo heading to a distant planet to pick up a cure for a sickened Earth, battling their enemies the Gamilons all along the way.

Similarities to B5:

Cure (Crusade)
Argo (Similar to Excalibur, including "main gun")
Planet bombs (Mass drivers)
Ongoing plot and character development

I have mentioned this show a few times before.

Another anime series: Cowboy Bebop. This one has lots of action, interesting characters, & great music. It introduced me to the music of Yoko Kanno, probably the best composer in Japan today. You should check out this series, even if you don't like anime. It will convert you.

Tammy

[Natxomann]

Tut , tut , you all are forgetting that masterpiece og British sci-fi : Blake's 7 , wich clearly influenced B5 and Crusade (take a good look at the Liberator , and compare it with the Excalibur , not to talk about flawed sci-fi heroes , and evil politicos) .

[Towelmaster]

O.K. Trying to avoid the obvious classics here of course...


Books :

"Cities in flight" by James Blish. True B5-fans will love it. Ever since I read it Bliss Wagoner has been a hero of mine. Even more then Amalfi...

"Psyclone" by Greg Bear. Great book, they should turn it into a movie, it would beat the crap out of Stephen King...

"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. Second book in the "Ender-series". An absolutely awesome writer.

"Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Hungry sheep look up" by John Brunner. I can't even begin explaining these two books, you'll just have to read them. Suffice it to say that I had to buy new copies...


Movies :

"Soylent Green" of course...

And in the realm of the more obscure movies I quite liked "THX-1138".

[elver]

Originally posted by Z'ha'dumDweller
The cult sci-fi anime Star Blazers. If you hate anime (I do) then don't worry...it's nothing like the rest of anime. There are three "series," the last of which I have not seen. The characters actually develop and die in this show.

The first series involves the spaceship Argo heading to a distant planet to pick up a cure for a sickened Earth, battling their enemies the Gamilons all along the way.

Similarities to B5:

Cure (Crusade)
Argo (Similar to Excalibur, including "main gun")
Planet bombs (Mass drivers)
Ongoing plot and character development

I have mentioned this show a few times before.

As a side note, mass drivers actually exist in real life. Depending on the method of acceleration used, they're either called railguns or coilguns (also Gauss guns). I heard something about the US Navy outfitting their battleships with railgun-type mass drivers to deliver metal rods with so much kinetic energy that a conventional bomb would look like a sneeze compared to it.

Although I personally don't understand where the Centauri warships got the asteroids that supposedly were in orbit around Narn or how they used mass drivers to actually fire them, because a mass driver needs a very specific kind of metal projectile for it to work. (The projectile can't become magnetized itself.) Of course, you could pack the roid in a casing of sorts and then fire it that way, but the power requirements to accelerate it would be enormous.

You could possibly heat up the asteroid until you get ionized plasma and then fire that, but that's not exactly a mass driver anymore plus the plasma will only dissipate as soon as it reaches the atmosphere.

Indeed, theorethically, the plasma projectile from a PPG should have a practical range of about 50cm, not more.

In other words, Babylon 5 is very unrealistic

(Yup, that last bit was a joke :P)

[bakana]

I heard something about the US Navy outfitting their battleships with railgun-type mass drivers

The idea was written up in either Popular Science or Scientific American a few years ago, I believe.
The big stumbling blocks are the Power Plant and the necessity for special bracing of the rail gun.
If I remember right, the design called for the gun itself to be almost as long as the Ship.
(Longer rail, longer accelleration, higher "muzzle velocity".)

The Centauri Rail gun is actually a very Practical weapon for Space To Ground bombardment.
In such a weapon, the rocks are Cheap, pick 'em up on your way into the solar system.
The Casing can be a Cheap Casting.
Anything that will Conduct Electricity will work, although Copper would be better than aluminum.
And the energy required to launch one is actually Lower than firing a Missle.
You just need to get the rock moving on a correct trajectory towards your target.
It doesn't really matter if it's moving so Slowly that it will take a week to get there or so fast that it makes the trip in 20 minutes.
The Destructive energy of a Rock from orbit doesn't Come from the Rail Gun.
It comes from Gravity.
Drop a half ton rock from Orbit, even if it starts out at "5 mph", it still hits with tremendous force.
In fact, it rivals a Nuke in destructive effect.
Except that there isn't any Radiation.

Quadrupling the rock's speed at launch adds only a few percentage points to the destruction when it hits.
You get a much better "return on investment" if you drop Two rocks, than if you boost the speed of the one.

Remember, the big deal in the story was that Mass Drivers & Orbital Bombardment were Outlawed.
It was regarded as Murdering Civilians because the weapons destroyed entire Cities.
No one had a problem with killing Soldiers.
But, when Masss Drivers were used, there was no way to avoid killing Children.

[elver]

While almost any metal will work, there are some practicaly considerations. You have to find some alloy that is strongly affected by magnetic fields. (Excuse my lack of knowledge when it comes to physics terms...) This is so that the magnetic fields can do their work without energy going to waste. And it has to be the sort of an alloy that doesn't become magnetized -- doesn't become a magnet itself. Otherwise it'd be attracted to the firing coils and could even end up dragging the gun apart.

Also, capturing asteroids is way too hard without Minbari tractor beams and none of the other younger races seem to have those. For one, roids usually move rather fast -- about 40km/s to 60km/s on average. You could match speed and capture it, but that'd take too long. Not practical.