Text 16852, 176 rader
Skriven 2007-08-07 14:27:18 av Josh Hill (3329.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 16844 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (3321.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" - A Review
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On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:32:39 -0700, StarFuryG7@aol.com wrote:

>***SPOILER Warning: I don't give much away, but read at your own risk
>nonetheless if you haven't seen this movie as yet.***
>
>        Okay--what we have here in my view is an A-story and a B-story
>and a failure to incorporate and edit the two together to make one
>interwoven picture rather than showing the two stories back-to-back
>individually. During the television series we often saw episodes in
>which this was rather commonplace: an A-story and a B-story, with the
>A-story being the primary, more central focus, while the B-story
>provided the viewer with something else to pay attention to and take
>note of, but which was of lesser importance. Why Joe didn't do it that
>way here I can only guess. His direction was fair, but since "Babylon
>5" has been out of commission for nearly a decade (not counting either
>"Crusade" or "Legend of the Rangers," both of which were spin-offs
>with different casts and characters while nevertheless inhabiting the
>same universe), I also wonder if this feature would have fared
>somewhat better with an experienced director, preferably one who had
>helmed episodes of the original series, taking the reigns instead.
>        Lochley's story lacked the feel of the station somehow despite
>the scenery being accurate, and in that initial scene in the docking
>bay, Tracy Scoggins and Alan Scarfe (a fine actor) came off as though
>they were just reciting lines and were less than comfortable in their
>respective roles. This may have had a lot to do with the fact that
>both actors were performing on a bare green screen stage, without the
>benefit of an actual constructed set around them to help give them a
>feel for where they were supposed to be and put them in the right mood
>to more properly deliver their lines. But regardless of the reason,
>another take should have been done of that scene. (An experienced
>director probably would have noticed this immediately and likely would
>have re-shot the scene, although I understand that Joe and the crew
>were working under tight time and budget constraints.)
>        The ending to this first story was also very anticlimactic,
>and came across as a Twilight Zone episode that just didn't quite cut
>it. And given the long gap since the series left the air, Joe
>definitely should have offered up something with more of an adrenaline
>surge to it. The dialogue was for the most part quite good in many
>places, but it lacked much needed action.

In all fairness (since I'm guilty of raising the A/B plot issue), JMS
wrote that he decided on a "short story" format rather than
conventional episodes while he rethought the series in light of the
unfortunate deaths. So the format choice constitutes both a practical
limitation and is a creative premise.

While it seems to me that you can get away with a lesser story in a
"B" plot than in a tightly focused, unified teleplay of the Twilight
Zone sort, I wonder if the Abraham story didn't /gain/ dramatic
intensity as a result of the concentrated between Sheridan and the
Prince. A case perhaps in which a small cast and a linear format
increase dramatic tension.

>        In the Sheridan story, which was much better than the first,
>you could feel things picking up, and this truly started to feel like
>a "Babylon 5" feature, but again, it lacked action unfortunately.
>Boxleitner seemed very comfortable in the role, as though he had never
>left it in fact, and that was good to see. I believe he really likes
>his character. I was also unexpectedly impressed by the actor who
>portrayed the Centauri Prince, mainly because his accent was so
>reminiscent of Peter Jurasik in the role of Londo Molari and so
>utterly dead-on in that regard that I was forced to wonder whether
>this actor was a longstanding fan of "Babylon 5" himself. In that
>respect, he was utterly superb in the role he played.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who was impressed by the accent. I
thought Keegan Macintosh did a wonderful job overall. One of the
reasons the scene worked so well is that although he's still in his
20's, according to IMDB, he's able to transform his expression in a
wink of the eye from boyish innocence to Cartagian malignancy. A
bravura performance, as I thought was Boxtleitner's (what is it about
B5 and hard-to-spell names, anyway?). Like a fine wine, he seems to
have improved with age.

>I also liked the
>scene between Sheridan and the reporter early on (and yes, that was
>the actress from "Stargate SG-1" if anyone was wondering, not that I
>really cared because I never liked that series anyway, and stopped
>watching it ages ago, back when it was still airing on Showtime.) That
>scene may have struck people as just a throw-in of little or no value
>to the overall plot, but it adequately served as a reintroduction to
>Sheridan's character, briefly covering the long ten-year gap
>(practically) since we last saw him. It was also nice to see that he
>hadn't lost his sense of humor after all this time (I rather enjoyed
>what he did to the reporter at the end of that scene, and for me
>personally, it harkened back to "The Illusion of Truth," and even
>though it wasn't the same reporter, she still got what she deserved.)

>        The special effects work was good, and it pains me to say
>this, especially since it was one of the better attributes of this
>production, but I nevertheless think the CGI work in "Legend of the
>Rangers" was better. Part of this may well have had to do with the
>production budget for this feature. I know, for example, that the
>people working on producing the special effects here were putting in
>overtime at no charge in order to get the work done, and the lack of a
>budget showed, even though Straczynski and his team were able to
>squeak by and finish out this feature. That's not necessarily saying
>much, however. Why would Warner Bros. issue an enthusiastic press
>release concerning their venturing into the direct-to-DVD market
>beginning with this release, and then not provide adequate funds to
>make the production a bit more impressive? After all, it probably
>wouldn't have taken a whole lot more in order to accomplish that
>particular goal. Think of what Babylonian Productions was able to
>accomplish less than ten years ago with a budget of under a million
>dollars an episode for the television series. The sparseness of a set
>for Sheridan's interview with the ISN reporter was but one example,
>although JMS did a pretty good job of trying to address it by talking
>about the Minbari's Spartan way of living, which also had the
>convenience of being true within the context of the series.
>        At any rate, this story, as with the first, was also
>anticlimactic unfortunately. Sheridan does the nice thing rather than
>behaving as just a cold-blooded murderer. Did anyone not see that
>coming?

Yeah, that was a weak point for me as well. I mean, if I guess how a
show's going to end, you know it's a cliche . . .

> And both Sheridan and Lochley, in each story, have revelations
>based on the words of their counterparts that lead them to a way to
>try and resolve the situation.  It smacked a little too much of the
>written workings of a singular mind.

I saw it as parallelism: they're both "third way" stories, as were
some of the original B5 episodes.

>        I liked the battle sequence in space in this second story, but
>it was too short and seemed out of place. More of that would have been
>nice, however, especially if it was contextually relevant to the
>story.
>
>A few other things that bothered me:
>
>        Why was Galen able to see thirty years into the future even
>though he's a techno-mage?

JMS explained that yesterday -- time travel is, in the B5 universe,
scientifically possible.

>        Wouldn't Sheridan have some apprehension about taking the
>Centauri Prince into his home knowing what Galen said he saw as his
>future?

Murder and the destruction of New York are pretty powerful motivators.
(I say "pretty powerful" because no one would complain at all if the
Centauri destroyed that white building with a sloped front, or the
pink post office building that looks like a powder puff . . .)

>     I want to see more, and I'd love to see the Station bustling with
>activity especially the next time. I realize this was something of an
>experiment, but more money and resources should have been devoted to
>its development. A non-initiated, non-fan of this saga who decided to
>buy this DVD and give it a look just wouldn't have been grabbed by it,
>sadly. On the plus side, however, is that we know this will be sold to
>the Sci Fi Channel and other Basic Cable and syndicated stations
>throughout the country and will air as a ninety-minute commercial
>movie, even though it's two stories in one. (I'd love to edit this one
>myself, and weave the two episodes together more dynamically for my
>own private collection.)
>
>Overall Grade opinion: B-

While I agree on the whole with your review, I'd assign it a better
grade. Partly a gut feeling -- the Lochley story didn't transcend the
OK, but the Sheridan story had I thought moments of intense power.
Partly it's that I think it should be compared to what's out there,
rather than the very best of B5. Besides, it didn't have a single
gloppid egg.

-- 
Josh

"Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is
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