babylon 5-related stories
Posted Oct 25th 2009 10:03AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, TV on DVD, OpEd, Video, Reality-Free
While perusing around
SlashControl tonight, I nearly stopped breathing when I came across
Babylon 5. Not just a few episodes or even one or two seasons. All five seasons, 99 episodes total.
My sci-fi-loving mom taped the entire series on VHS, and I have the first few seasons on DVD. But what a thrill to find it on SlashControl. If you're not familiar with J. Michael Straczynski's groundbreaking show, it takes place in the year 2258, ten years after an Earth-Minbari War. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) takes command of a giant five-mile-long cylindrical space station, orbiting a planet in neutral space.
Continue reading What's Hot on SlashControl: Babylon 5
Posted Nov 23rd 2008 9:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Adult Swim, Doctor Who, South Park, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Chuck, Reality-Free, Star Trek: Original Series
In an attempt to do something a little different this year, I'm going to list the television shows past and present (and even future) that I am most thankful for at this time. Some I review for
TV Squad and some I don't. Some I used to and some I would if I were asked. Some I will never review because government agents have come to my house and pretty much told me forthright that if I reviewed them, they would have me detained. So, here goes:
South Park - The most insightful show on television. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are willing to take issues that the rest of the more liberal Hollywood view as simple and show their complexity by taking other sides. I don't think they're invited to a lot of Hollywood parties as a result, but it makes for great television.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles - it's been hit and miss story-wise, but the overall arc has been satisfying. Hopefully, the series will develop a reasonable ending to satisfy the fans once it is canceled due to poor ratings as a result of Fox moving it to the Friday Night Death Slot.
Continue reading What Brad is thankful for
Posted Nov 11th 2008 3:22PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
I was going to title this post "Louvre it to Beaver," but a quick check showed that 98% of the people doing the story on the web had already thought of that title. Everything moves so quickly these days.
Tony Dow, who played Beaver's older brother Wally Cleaver on the classic series
Leave it to Beaver, is also an artist, and he's going to have
one of his sculptures shown at the famed Paris museum The Louvre. It's an abstract sculpture titled "Unarmed Warrior."
Dow doesn't act much anymore, but he was busy behind the scenes of TV shows and movies while doing his artwork. He directed episodes of such shows as
Deep Space Nine,
Coach,
Crusade,
Get A Life,
Swamp Thing, and
Cover Me. He also did visual effects for the
Doctor Who TV movie in the 90s, as well as
Babylon 5.
So Dow didn't die from eating Pop Rocks, become a porn star, or end up dying in Vietnam, rumors which swirled around his
Beaver costars and aren't true.
Posted Sep 12th 2008 11:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Sure
Lost is a bona fide hit, but who remembers
Invasion? In fact, none of the sci fi series premiering that year (
Surface and
Threshold) made it beyond a single season. And yet, as Brad reported,
ABC is developing The Return, a series focusing on how the world handles an "alien landing." You know, like the classic
V mini-series of the '80s. In fact, the last episode of
V: The Series was called "The Return." Maybe this is a secret code name for the long teased
V return!
But that announcement got me thinking about all those sci fi and fantasy shows that never finish on television. It's a phenomenon us long-time science fiction/fantasy fans have learned to live with. We jump on any new genre show on television hoping against hope that the ratings will be strong enough that we'll get the whole story. Alas, we know that more often than not the plug will be pulled mid-stream and we'll be left wanting. And for every Joss Whedon who continues
Buffy and
Angel in comics, there are tons more who don't.
Continue reading Ten unfinished sci fi/fantasy series ... and I'm dying for resolution
Posted Aug 5th 2008 11:04AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
During our
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Retro Squad week, I put out a
call for an episode of Buffy a newbie could watch to get a feel for the show. And you guys came through in a big way. Most insisted it was a show that needed to be watched from the beginning, but at the same time warned that there was some cheese-factor in those early episodes. Your votes pushed me to "
Hush," which I found to be incredibly enjoyable and a perfect introduction to the cleverness and tone of the show. Even better, it made me that much more eager to go back and watch the entire run of the show.
In the comments to that piece Doug Nelson asked if someone could do something similar for
Babylon 5. That got me thinking about other serialized shows of this nature like
The X-Files,
The West Wing and to an extent
Doctor Who and
Quantum Leap. We're a community of TV-lovers here, so we should help each other out. Thus, the TVS Starter Kits. And for Doug Nelson, it starts with
Babylon 5.
Continue reading TVS Starter Kit: Babylon 5
Posted Jul 17th 2008 7:57AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Reality-Free
I've never interviewed
Babylon 5 creator
J. Michael Straczynski and don't know him personally, but he sure seems like one classy guy. He recently posted a note on
his web site, giving readers his thoughts on more
Babylon 5 DVDs.
In short, he's against it. He feels that offerings like the TV movie,
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, and the straight-to-DVD story,
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, take away from the strength of the original TV series.
He writes that
The Lost Tales was commissioned at a $2 million budget, and they did the best they could with it. Apparently, the studio wasn't sure there was an audience for
Babylon 5. Silly studio.
Continue reading Straczynski: It's a Babylon 5 feature film or nothing
Posted May 8th 2008 8:23AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Celebrities, Heroes, Casting, Reality-Free
Yes. It's starting to look like Summer 2007 when we feed you announcements about additions to the
Heroes cast at least twice a week. Earlier this week, I told you that
Friday Night Lights'
Brea Grant was joining the superheroes series as a character with the power of superspeed. Today, I'm letting you know that 57-year-old actor
Bruce Boxleitner (he'll turn 58 on May 12), was added to the cast of
Heroes.
Continue reading Yet another actor joins Heroes
Posted Dec 20th 2007 10:18AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Festivus
It's that festive time of year when children put tinsel on the television antennas and hang mistletoe over their favorite DVDs. Where celebrities check into rehab to spend the holidays with all their celebrity friends. And where the rest of America is invited to corporate non-specific, non-religious, non-alcoholic generic winter holiday luncheons where they can mingle with their co-workers and say things like "Remember when this company used to have real Christmas parties?"
But while political correctness may have ruined most holiday functions, nothing can ruin Festivus! That magical season in which TV Squadders hope and pray for televisions dreams come true. And I know just what I want...
Continue reading All Jason wants for Festivus
Posted Jul 30th 2007 6:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
- The Archie Show - Complete Series
- Babylon 5 - Lost Tales
- Dallas - Season 7
- Hawaii Five-0 - Season 2
- Popeye - Vol.1: 1933-38
- The Rhinemann Exchange - Complete Mini-Series
- Sabrina The Teenaged Witch - Season 2
- Sons of Hollywood - Season 1
- Space: 1999 - 30th Anniversary Set
- Thunderbirds - 40th Anniversary Set
Posted Mar 12th 2007 8:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, FOX, Family Guy, Animation
(S05E13) Ya know, no matter what part political affiliation you claim, I think we can all agree that Bill Clinton lends himself well to comedy. There's just enough hillbilly in his character to make him easy to laugh at.
Family Guy certainly isn't the first show to take a run at Clinton, and they've now featured the former president four or five times, but there's plenty of room at that party.
That's getting ahead of the game though. Before we could get to the Peter and Bill hijinks, there was the loosely relevant opening at the Quahog Marine Center. While it was a long way to go to get to the main plot, there were a lot of funny bits in that opening. Herbert at the fondle tank, Stewie's stripper line, and Seamus saving Peter from the octopus were all good bits. I especially liked the Wacky Wall Walker finish to that.
Continue reading Family Guy: Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey
Posted Nov 14th 2006 1:05PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, TV on DVD
Warner Home Video officially
announced the start of production on the new straight to DVD
Babylon 5 movie. News of the project has been floating around the internet for some time, but now some of the details are becoming a little clearer. Originally it was reported to include three new stories written by
B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. In this
post at jmsnews he mentions three half hour stories plus bonus material for the new DVD.
Now that production has begun, it appears that one of the three stories will be cut. Cinema Blend has a rundown of Straczynski's
latest postings on the subject. Apparently the Garibaldi story was the most complicated one to make, so it has been postponed for a possible later release. I assume that depends on how well
Lost Tales sells. It's also worth noting that JMS mentions
Battlestar Galactica when talking about how he wants to re-imagine the look of B5 using the latest technology.
I'll be interested to see how this all turns out. Not just for the new
Babylon 5 stories, but also because the idea of a straight to DVD/download series is one that has been kicked around for some time now. A successful launch for
Lost Tales could be another step in that direction.
Posted Feb 18th 2006 9:12AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows
Yet
another quiz to keep you occupied for a few minutes this weekend.
This time, it determines which sci fi crew you should be part of. Be truthful when you fill it out, because it's easy to
answer questions that would get you placed on a certain firefly-looking transport.
I was most compatible with
Babylon 5 and
Farscape, which I never
watched. Probably because I'm comfortable with really weird-looking aliens. I think the reason I didn't get on board
Serenity was because I wouldn't just follow a captain because he's the captain. And, I didn't get on the Nebuchadnezzar
with Neo because I don't have stellar computer skills.
Here are my results:
Continue reading Which Sci Fi crew should you be on?
Posted Feb 16th 2006 10:25PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Talent, Celebrities
Andreas Katsulas, who many sci-fans know
from his role as G'Kar on
Babylon 5, as well as guest spots on two
Star Trek series,
died of lung cancer on Feb. 13. He was 58. In
addition to his sci-fi roles, Katsuas also played the one-armed man in the movie version of
The Fugitive.
According to
his IMDb listing, Katsuas was a veteran character actor
who had roles in various TV shows and movies dating back to 1979. More information can be found on his
official web site.
[via
Trek Today... thanks to my brother Rich for the tip.]
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