Text 16875, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-08-08 09:17:23 av robin.moss (3352.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 16874 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (3351.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: ATTN: JMS Re: "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales" - A Review (SPOILERWarnin
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On Aug 8, 6:59 am, b...@cs.berkeley.edu (Brian Harvey) wrote:
> "Mac Breck" <macthevor...@yahoo.com> writes:
> >Because they're tightwads and wanted JMS & Co. to pull off a miracle,
>
> There seems to be overwhelming agreement among us that TLT suffered in many
> ways from its budget constraints.  Not only did the visual appearance of the
> (virtual) sets come off badly [personally, I don't care much about that; I'm
> accustomed to live theater, where the sets are often quite sketchy], but
> many of us think that the acting [much more important!] suffered from being
> done almost entirely surrounded by green screen.
>
> My question is, will someone bring a well-chosen set of newsgroup messages
> to the attention of WB?  I, for one, was so disappointed by this DVD that
> I'll be disinclined to buy the next one unless I see a message from JMS
> promising that it'll be quite a lot better!  (As opposed to a reiteration
> of the fatuous enthusiasm in the DVD Extras about the joys of green-screen
> shooting -- or was I supposed to take that as sarcasm and it went over my
> head?)
>
> Actually, while I'm asking, I have another question.  Another trend I think
> I've seen on the newsgroup has been some dissatisfaction with with the JMS
> "short story" idea.  In some cases it's taken the form of explicit
> disagreement, but I take the various comments about how such-and-such would
> make a good starting point for another story arc as implicit disagreement
> as well.  And the several suggestions that had the two stories been intercut
> it would have looked much more like the B5 we know and love.  (Personally I
> think that had JMS written the script(s) with intercutting in mind, both
> stories would have been better written, too, especially the first one.)
> So, the question:  Any chance we can convince you to rethink the whole idea
> of unrelated complete-unto-themselves stories?  That's what those original
> Dell books were, complete-unto-themselves stories, and they suffered for it!
> The later books were part of the arc, and they benefited from it.

Well I can only speak for myself, but personally I:

a) was thrilled with the disc, and my enjoyment of it wasn't hampered
much by the limited budget (though more would definitely be good)

b) thought the acting was a particular strong point - the regulars
felt like they'd never left, and I'd say the guest stars were the most
consistently good of any B5 production I can remember

c) can't see the two stories working inter-cut at all as they are
(they are too disconnected in narrative, and *too much* mirrors of
each other in theme to feel like one story if stitched together, IMO)

and d) don't think they needed really to be written better (as an
inter-cut whole or otherwise) as I loved most of the dialogue and
characterisation, even if the plots were slightly lacking

so I'm afraid I can't support trying any kind of interference by
petition such as you describe.

Personally, for the time being I'm enjoying the Twilight Zone/SF
anthology feeling of TLT, as much as I'd like to see sweeping arc
stories again. Personally I don't think JMS is going to be able to
stop himself from slipping back into the connected, arc story-telling
mode eventually, it just sometimes takes a while for he and his arcs
to build up a head of steam. Also remember how he talked about turning
down the chance to make a feature film because it was too soon after
losing Rick and Andreas, and the fact that this is just the tentative
beginning of 21st century B5.

Assuming the discs continue to come, I'd predict (or hope for, maybe)
a few more anthology type TLT discs of one-offs, maybe with some
continuing or connected threads starting to come into play in them
after a while, before he brings his larger plans to bear and does
things like the Telepath War story that he's said he's already working
out how to do on DVD, and maybe some other bigger stories that turn
TLT discs into more like mini-series than anthology movies. And then
who knows, maybe it's feature time.

Regardless of what else happens though, I'll be enjoying Voices In The
Dark occasionally for years to come, and I can only feel sorry for
those that don't like it. :-(
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