Posted on 07/30/2016 11:31:19 PM PDT by Paul R.
If it takes a whole season to set something up without anything entertainment. You’ve already lost more than half your prospective viewers.
Call it what you will, it’s a failing paradigm.
In my case 60 was the new 80. Now at 67.....it feels like 90.
So, by that reasoning, if a novel doesn’t go BANG on the first page/chapter, then it worthless. Not worth your time.
DS9 was a shiny object in a known universe. A universe known to pretty much anyone who enjoys SciFi. And that worked for you. And it worked for the show. They didn’t have to set much up.
I watched it. It was okay. As I said, B5 was better. A better story. JMS said that the whole thing came to him at once and unraveled in his mind. Like a thought ball.
He had the whole five year arc planned out. Five years. That’s how long it was going to take to make - tell - his video novel.
I’m sure if he had DS9/STNG budget, the SFX would have been more up to your standards. But that kind of money brings suits, suits who want control, and more shiny objects and less story.
I disagree with those that say nothing of any real importance doesn’t happen in the first season. Quite a bit does, but it’s subtle. It could have been something just said in passing that would come back later in a big way.
If you ever find the time, sit down and watch it from the beginning. Ignore the lack of shiny objects, take CGI in the context of the time, but follow the story. It’s a good story.
Novel has to hit me within the first few chapters. Yup. I will not suffer through crap to get to the little gem at the end. Has to have a build up.
I am not a big fan of DS9 as I said. It’s ‘ok’.
My Best scifi series had been Star Trek TOS, until it got, for the most part dated. TNG was a PC progressive fest. But had some interesting episodes. My new favorite ST is Enterprise. Lot less PC. Watched a few episodes of B5 the first season. Smelled. Never got me. Firefly was a great series that the then president of Fox should have been shot for cancelling......shot for that and cancelling Futurama. What a great Scifi comedy.
I can’t watch dr who....
I gag. Though I heard the new ones are good. I tried Red Dwarf. Not for me. 12 Monkeys is OK. I Like Gotham (Scifi? Not sure). The new Gallactica had potential (unlike the old childish one) but eventually went astray.
I’m waiting for someone to present the Foundation Trilogy (right I said trilogy). Great series of novels. The later ones were forced. Lot out there that can be presented on the big and small screen.
Just not gonna watch a series after I watched the first 3-4 episodes that smelled and continue to waste my time.
You must read short novels.
A little gem at the end? What like the last couple of chapters?
Sure, I can see not liking that.
In TV land, and the Bab5 universe, there were only five chapters, if you want to look at it that way. It picks up quite nicely, and a lot of boring little things in the fist chapter unfold later on.
Season two gets things rolling, and 3 & 4 are kick ass. The problem with season five was: The suits at the network. The threat of canceling after 4 changed things and made JMS try to wrap it up by four.
At least authors get to sell the book as a whole, not spool it out one chapter at a time.
Hollywood, sex drugs and rock and role - and shiny objects - rule their world.
As an aside, J. Michael Straczynski worked as a writer on one of the better cartoon series that came out in the ‘80’s, The Real Ghostbusters.
It was the first of three series, two of which were very good, and one of which, an effort to appeal to younger children, renamed ‘Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters’, was awful and hurt the franchise.
In any event, The Real Ghostbusters had darker, sometimes apocalyptic, themes that later showed up in B5. New York City was in decline, depopulated, and decaying. And while the Ghostbusters were winning battles, the feeling was they were losing the war.
The third series, Extreme Ghostbusters, didn’t have J. Michael Straczynski, but did keep his serious and developed dark story lines.
Interesting. Never saw those. Was working my but off and sitting in commuter traffic.
They ran in parallel (time-wise / both began in 1993) and, other than being set on a space station, if looked at in depth, were not very similar...
Besides, you look at human fashion and think Mollari was weird?
Yeah... And that’s a great quote!
Agreed. (But don’t forget “Who ARE you?”)
In B5, the setting, the battles, and so on, are just the backdrop. The story is the people, how doing the right thing even when it is difficult CAN make the world (universe) better, and so on. It could have been filmed in grainy B&W, and it would still be GREAT TV. With some work, it’d even be good on radio.
It appears our friend here is into “action” and shallow entertainment. You and I are into great storytelling. The kind that has you pondering it days, or years, later.
BTW, I’d surely argue with JMS a lot too. Aetheist, lib... But, he showed on B5 great respect for the military, religion (in at least some forms), distrust of government, and more...
Lesser known episodes like “Gropos” and “Confessions and Lamentations” had little “video action”, but are absolutely blow-you-away TV in the ways that count. Delenn’s “Don’t look away, Captain...” (willingness to sacrifice her own life) might seem “soapy” or “campy” to some, I suppose, who just want to see stuff blow up. I thought it was some of the most beautiful TV ever. It even straightened me out as to what I was looking for (and to my great thankfulness to God, mostly found) in a wife.
Vaquero is not ENTIRELY wrong — I’d seen bits and pieces of B5 the 1st season, but, never quite got into it or figured it out. (Was really busy, myself, too — not sure if I watched ANY stretch of TV over 30 minutes long, besides major news stories, perhaps, that year.)
But... then one evening I happened to catch (2nd Season) “All Alone In the Dark”. Bam! I was hooked. Not long afterward, I saw “Confessions and Lamentations”. Hook, line AND sinker...
Thanks!
Nowadays most series requires one to watch from the beginning. Many People wait until the series comes out in its entirety and watch marathon style.
I did that with Breaking Bad. Back when B5 came out with it was a new concept. Most shows could be watched as one offs.
If B5 is a 5 season novel as many have said, I suppose the only way to watch it properly is from first to last episode.
I will consider doing that....perhaps in the winter.
I’m a big fan of B5, but will admit the first season (although it sets things up) drags a bit, and has some disconnects. The 5th and final season struggles since most of the big themes have been wrapped up in 4. Seasons 2, 3, and 4 are very good.
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