Showing posts with label Babylon 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babylon 5. Show all posts

Friday, July 21, 2023

Friday 5 for July 21: Scattergories Part 13



These are the answers to Scrivener's annual Friday 5 Scattergories questions which features the never changing nifty online random-letter generator.

My letter for 2023. I got a 3 letter sequence: btv

I'm going with the letter B Ernie.

1. What should you always be careful with?

Bullies. If you know someone who is a bully, the best thing to do is to avoid them whenever possible. I always take this to another level by avoiding "bully locations" such as...er... um Kalihi and Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki during the night time hours. Those areas and several others in Honolulu are high crime areas where bullies, drug pushers, gangs, etc. could strike at you in a very negative way. So yes... B is for BULLIES.

2. With whom would you like to have dinner?

Just off the top of my head, there is no one I personally know that whose name starts with the letter B. That said my other choice would be the actor Bruce Boxleitner. So B is for BRUCE BOXLEITNER... and we have a double B here. Yay!

3. What would you like to learn how to do?

Bake a cake or pie? Sounds delicious. I have never considered myself a cook. I can make edible stuff to just get by. Baking I don't have much patience for, but it does yield something delicious, most of the time... Oh and baked chicken I guess. That is good. B is for BAKE.

4. Where will you find what you’ve been looking all over for?

Ben Franklin Crafts store. I may be able to get some materials that I need to cut and shape and use to replace light baffles in several of my aging film cameras. B is for BEN FRANKLIN CRAFTS STORE.

B is also for Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

5. What do you dream about?












New BABYLON 5 movies and series is a dream every B5 fan like me wants

This year fans are getting a one-off animated Babylon 5 TV movie of the beloved sci-fi series that helped revolutionize episodic TV storytelling

The place is Earth 1993; The show is Babylon 5. It premiered on the now defunct PTEN network in 1993 (the pilot) and launched into a full blown TV series lasting 5 more years through 110 episodes.  Babylon 5 had a focused storyline with interesting characters, plots and sub-plots that carried from one episode to another forming a long, planned story arc that lasted for five years (seasons).

Babylon 5's creator and writer of nearly all of the episodes J. Michael Stravinsky (JMS), pitched the series as a "five year novel for television." First run episodes of the entire story ran from 1994 to 1998 on the PTEN network and TNT cable. The show was released to DVD and is streaming on TUBI TV and the Roku Channel.

After the original series finished its network run, a short-lived sequel series titled Crusade was produced for 13 episodes in 1999 before being cancelled by TNT.  Four made for TV movies were also produced and aired between 1998 and 2000 on TNT.

Warner Brothers television, the franchise rights owner to Babylon 5 announced a re-imagined series that is supposed to debut on the CW network written by JMS. Since 2020 the series is in development limbo due to a number of factors impacting the show's production.

This year a Babylon 5: The Road Home, an animated movie written by JMS will be released to home video and possibly run on a streaming service such as Amazon Prime. An official announcement regarding the movie's streaming schedule and channel has yet to come. Orders are now being taken for the DVD.

Speaking of which, JMS also announced that Babylon 5 will be released to Blu-Ray DVD for the first time ever. For many years fans had to be satisfied with releases on VHS and standard DVDs. I have all of the standard DVDs. 

Above: Civil war breaks out between the Earth Alliance and Babylon 5. This clip is from the Season 3 episode Severed Dreams which won a Hugo Award back in 1994. All of the music for Babylon 5 was composed by Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream.


Friday, June 26, 2020

Friday 5 for June 26: Tubular




1. What’s your least favorite episode of your favorite television program?

Babylon 5”, is one of my all time favorite TV shows ever. But just like any other show it did have a few dog episodes. The one that I don’t like is an episode called “Grey 17 is Missing”. It is about a big monster that lives an area of the space station called “down below” . Robert Englund, most well known for playing Freddy Kruger on the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies played an eccentric leader with a small band of followers. I like Englund’s performance on the old TV series “V” that ran from 1983 to 1984.

Babylon 5 is available for purchase from Amazon or streams for free on Comet TV and STIRR.

2. Across its series run, in what way did a favorite television program get worse?

Babylon 5” ran for five seasons and completed most of its pre-planned story arc. However the show was almost going to be cancelled during the fourth season. As a result a bunch of episodes that would close out the story was squeezed into Season 4 making it a blockbuster season. However after they got a 5th season, the writers and producers had to come up with additional content to finish the story out. The middle third of the 5th season spent too much time on a sub-arc dealing with rouge telepaths that were held up at the station. Don’t get me wrong, “Babylon 5” was still a great series. It is just that the 5th season was weaker than the previous 3 seasons (2 - 4) and matters were not helped when one of the key actors left the series at the end of the fourth year.

The X Files” which I loved got worse from Season 7 onward. Cast changes and the storyline got tired. By the first end of the series in year 9, I wasn’t watching it very much.

3. Among television programs you like very much, which ended far too soon?

FIREFLY… It was one of the greatest space adventures that was cancelled way too soon! Ugh!!!! The show ran for only 13 episodes. They released a movie called “Serenity” to wrap up loose ends. That was OK.

4. Among television programs you like very much, which dragged on for too long?

The X Files - see #2 above

5. What are some lines of dialogue you love from a favorite television program?

The exchange of dialogue between Mr. Morden and Centauri attaché Vir Kotto when Morden asks him “What do you want”? Babylon 5 fans love this exchange and later to see Vir’s wish come true.



6. My Bonus List: Top 10 TV Shows (Changes from time to time) - Yes I mostly like science fiction.
  1. Babylon 5
  2. Breaking Bad
  3. Star Trek The Next Generation
  4. The X Files
  5. Firefly
  6. Fringe
  7. Tales From the Loop
  8. Battlestar Galactica (re-imagined)
  9. Star Trek (classic)
  10. Star Trek Deep Space 9