Subject:
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Re: Not the right way to exit?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:40:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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1990 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
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Three factors have always prevented me from enjoying the series. First, I
can’t stand most of the cast (Flounder and Tron and the woman from
The Hidden, et all). Second, I really
really really don’t like the CGI graphics, which to me always looked like a
sub-par game demo. And third, I was never really into the story, inasmuch as
I was able to get a handle on it.
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How much of it did you watch? I’ll admit that Bruce Boxleitner’s portrayal of
Sheriden was pretty cheesy coming out of the gate, but one of JMS’s commentary
tracks reveals that he specifically requested it be that way for the first few
eps of season 2. The logic there was that many viewers would only remember him
from Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and that by having him play Scarecrow-as-Sheriden
before moving Sheriden into his real character, those fans would buy into the
true Sheriden character a lot easier than if they’d started him out that way.
Also, given his long run serving on resource-deprived warships, it wasn’t
completely out of the question that he’d be going goofy over the “posh”
arrangements on B5, considering what he’d have been used to up until that point.
It’s like discovering how common oranges are in the US when you’ve lived your
entire life in Japan.
Now, I have since discovered that Claudia Christian is a fairly bland actress in
general, but Ivanova was the one absolute perfect role for her to play (largely
because JMS made a point of incorporating bits of the cast members’ real-life
personalities into their characters), and the writing was good enough to make up
for her short-comings. I still consider her to be one of the strongest female
sci-fi characters of all time (which is part of why Lochley was such a
let-down).
As for Vir...yes he played Flounder. And Gonzer. But Vir was meant to be a
comical character early on, and that’s exactly why his increasingly less
predictable actions as the seasons progressed had such profound impact. When
you consider the series as a whole, Vir shows quite a bit more character growth
than anyone else, and that’s saying a lot given that B5 was really the first
major sci-fi series that abandoned the “status-quo” tradition.
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I know that good CGI would have upped the cost per episode, but if you can’t
do it at least as well as the then-current Star Trek series, you’ll really
look lame by comparison. Also, I know that fans of the show adore the
conceived-as-a-whole storyline, and if you’re into that, then it’s fine. But
it just never appealed to me.
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The first two seasons were basically perched on the edge of then-current CGI
capabilities. The only computers that were able to handle the rigorous demands
of their SFX department at that time were Amigas. That was about the point when
someone realized that there was a real market for a state-of-the-art PC version
of the Video Toaster and actually developed and sold something better than the
dinosaur systems they’d been using until that point. The SFX improved greatly
through the course of the five years, but there’s no way even a Star Trek budget
could have produced the series with physical effects, and these guys were doing
it on quite a bit less. And they were sharing that tiny budget with a make-up
crew that put the entire ST franchise to shame, with a diversity and quantity of
background aliens that would have been right at home in a Star Wars movie.
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I also know that fans point to the real-world treatment of physics re:
spaceship flight etc., and I admit that that’s a good touch (nicely echoed in
the recent Battlestar Galactica miniseries). Out of curiosity (and because I
can’t remember), did the Starfuries make a noise while in space? I’m not
dissing them if they did, because almost all SF does it, too.
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Honestly, I can’t remember. If they did, Franke’s music (original compositions
tailored to every episode) probably covered most of it up. I do remember that
the Shadow ships sounded similar to TIE Fighters, but I believe that was
supposed to be a telepathic scream that you wouldn’t actually “hear”.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Not the right way to exit?
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| (...) Admittedly, not much. I caught bits of episodes here and there (which, I grant, is not the best way to get one's teeth into a longterm space opera). I saw a good bit of the pilot, one episode with Checkov, and a chunk of the finale. (...) I (...) (20 years ago, 21-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.geek, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Not the right way to exit?
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| (...) Three factors have always prevented me from enjoying the series. First, I can't stand most of the cast (Flounder and Tron and the woman from (URL) The Hidden,> et all). Second, I really really really don't like the CGI graphics, which to me (...) (20 years ago, 21-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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