New Babylon 5!

I am really happy about this... http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

From Scifi.com...

SCI FI To Air New Babylon 5

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is working on a two-hour telefilm called Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers that will premiere on SCI FI later this year. The film will take up the story of the legendary Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War.

This new chapter of the Babylon 5 story finds the mysterious Ranger force--a combination of humans and alien Minbari trained in space warfare as well as the unique alien philosophy of the Rangers and just about every conceivable form of martial arts--faced with deadly challenges in its attempt to create peace out of the war's destruction.

Babylon 5 cast members may appear in the movie, which will also serve as the pilot for a potential SCI FI Channel series. Douglas Netter is executive producing the series along with Straczynski.

Hugh here again... Does this mean that we have to call the first series B5:TOS!? http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif

Hugh





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"Sell your soul to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society... ASK ME HOW!"

Hugh,
Any word on the transmission date yet? or I am being a bit premature?
From the sounds of it, it sounds like an extremely good series concept, and I now it goes without saying, also a very good RPG setting.
Another that thought that just occured to me, perhaps Decipher could buy the license to the show and if they had managed to buy the ICON system license from WOTC, publish a B5 RPG.
Any comments or suggestions on how much modification we would need to do the system in order to use it for the B-5 universe.

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"Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
Cmmdr JT Wayland
Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

I might actually have to buy cable TV.

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:) <<<<

LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.

Does any one know if this is strictly a SCI-FI channel project or will it be open for syndication. Don't get the SCI-FI channel where I'm from.

I'm betting it'll be sci-fi int he States, prbably Space up in Canada...and I forget the station in Australia that's doing Farscape.

Oh, yeah...things are finally loking up big time for science fiction TV.

Anyone up for Decipher getting the rights to Babylon 5/Crusade/Rangers RPGs?

Always, I'm a BIG fan of EarthForce.

Always, I'm a BIG fan of EarthForce.

This was posted by regular Internet B5 poster Jim deMartino. He copied JMS' newsgroup announcement and put it on the Sci Fi B5 BBS:

http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1957/2593

Well, that's at least ONE weight off my chest....

To those who've heard the news already, and those just now finding out...the
SciFi Channel today announced that we have a new Babylon 5 TV movie going into
production that will also serve as a pilot for a likely new series.

The movie (and the series) is under the heading of BABYLON 5: THE LEGEND OF THE
RANGERS. The specific title for the 2-hour movie's story is "To Live and Die
in Starlight."

There isn't much I can tell you about the story because we're kinda keeping the
details under wraps as much as possible for the time being. What little I can
say....

It's set in the B5 universe just under 3 years after the events of "Objects at
Rest." At this point there's one major character from the B5 universe in the
script (a fan favorite). Where B5 was a heavy drama with some adventure/action
elements, this one is a little more skewed toward adventure with underlying
drama (which is about what you'd expect from the Anla-Shok).

We've been sitting on this information for a while now...such that we're
already well into pre-production. We'll be shooting this movie around mid-May,
well in advance of any potential actor's strike (the script is done and so far
everybody likes it a LOT).

We've already got designs coming in on a new ship, and a new *kind* of
ship...and we're going to be getting more into Minbari aesthetics, technologies
and philosophy.

It's got some great characters, and it's a lot of fun.

I have other news to announce on other fronts...have since the end of the year,
in fact...but I'm still sitting on the details awaiting another press release
from another studio. What I *can* say is that I have a firm GO order to
executive produce a new series (nominally SF) that will go into production
after the potential SAG strike. When that's finally over, if the strike indeed
happens, we pull the trigger and go into principal photography and it's an
order for a full season's worth of episodes.

I can't give you any details right now on the subject, title, studio or
network. That will have to await the studio's release...so don't even ask.

As far as doing both projects at the same time is concerned...it's actually
quite common, as testified to by folks like John Wells and Aaron Sorkin and
David Kelly and others. So there won't be any conflict.

More later.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

Psi-Corp RULES!!!!!!!


Chekov/Bester in '04!

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"What Prime Directive?" Captain David Clark, Captain of the S.S. Exodus

Quote:

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Originally posted by qerlin:
I'm betting it'll be sci-fi int he States, prbably Space up in Canada...and I forget the station in Australia that's doing Farscape.

Oh, yeah...things are finally loking up big time for science fiction TV.

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That'd be Foxtel...it's one of Rupert Murdoch's - since he owns half the world anyway, I don't think we'll have a problem getting "B5:Rangers" down here.

Thank God I got Foxtel hooked up in November!!!! http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif



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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

I don't want to sound dumb, but wasn't a B5 rpg already published? Because every once in a while I see the Babylon 5 Security Manual, and if I'm not mistaken when I glanced through it, I saw rpg rules on creating characters in it.

As for a B5 Rangers series, didn't Mr. Strazynski produce a very short lived series once before?

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"Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war..."
-Chang (ST VI)

There WAS a B5 RPG, though the B5 Secruity Manual had nothing to do with it. The RPG was called The Babylon Project, and most adventures were supposed to occur in the eleven years from the Earth-Minbari War through season two of Babylon 5. It was published by Chameleon-Eclectic games. Unfortunately, the game and company went under after only putting out the Core book, the Narrator's book and the Earthforce sourcebook. Their website is now a porn site, by the way.

But the Rangers adventures are more natural for RPGing. Helping people affected by the Shadow War or helping find a cure for the Drakh plague, it fits together well.

With JMS' input, such a game would surely be a hit! http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Name of the other show was 'Crusade', treefrog. And though it only made it 13 episodes before TNT torpedoed it, it was a GOOD show. The unproduced episodes JMS published on bookface.com showed us where the technomages got their tech (the shadows), and explained some of the dirty tricks Earthforce was playing during the Civil War.

It'll be showing on sci-fi soon.

What were these "dirty tricks" you mentioned that the EF used during the Civil War? Just checked the site bookface.com, but someone turfed it out of a airlock (no longer functioning).

Use the ICON system with the Earthforce Sourcebook for Starship combat. You'll be glad you did.

And B5 Wars is an EXCELLENT starship combat game.

First game I've ever seen that deals damage by type of weapon first and foremost - it highlights the difference between lasers (which can pierce through to the other side of the ship), pulse weapons, explosions (which do 'flash' damage splashing the outside of the ship but don't often affect core systems internally), etc.

Tres cool.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Christian:
First game I've ever seen that deals damage by type of weapon first and foremost

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Renegade Legion: Interceptor by FASA, cira 1988 did this. Way cool. Take a damage overlay template and "blow away" pieces of armor based on the "cone" of the weapon's damage type. Lasers go straight through (up and down), PPCs and EPCs do traditional cones, some inverted.

Awesome game. Still is.


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Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/sig_don.gif

All I have to say about the above is:

AVE RENEGADE LEGION!!!

My all time favourite Tactical "RPing" system. Wish they had kept it around, the RL universe was ten times better then BT.

B5 Wars rocks as well. I think they maybe going a little overboard with all the new alien vessels, but still a great game. I eagerly await GROPOS as well.

Ressurrecting this thread from the grave (the movie's tomorrow!)

Edit: and A Call to Arms is on tonight

Here's the stuff that was in the teleplays that never mkade it to screen for Crusade : the ship that kiled Cerberus -- the ship Gideon was an ensign on -- was an Earthforce prototype using Shadowtech...including making people into CPUs without the aid of the Shadows. They were still around during the first season. Gideon goes to expose them and gets sniped in the final episode of the first season (well...that was supposed to happen...)

The technomages are using Shadowtech -- that's why they had to clear out; the Shadows could find them and perhaps usurp control of the mages. It was one fo the mages working with the Shadows that killed Galen's girl.

Bester is still alive as of 2268 & on the run.

Well I hope this time they improve the looks of the show... I understand that they accomplished A LOT with the fraction of the budget that went with DS9 or Voyager, but look closely and you'll notice that wherever you are in the B5 Universe (the station, a Narn warship, on Minbar, etc) all the floors are made of black shiny tiles :)

Also, they used too many bright colours in the show, be it with the spaceships or the costumes.
And please, no more officers with mullets, like Sheridan once sported:D :D :D

Don't get me wrong, there was a time I actually preferred B5 over ST shows that were on the air at the time. But I never liked that Ranger/interstellar alliance business, too corny for me.

One thing though we have to hand over to JMS, apparently he has always been very receptive to RPG/wargames endeavours, making it much easier for companies like AOG (B5 Fleet Action is an awesome game BTW) to handle the licence.

Furthermore I liked how B5 was far less ideolistic about the future, which is comforting about ST, but yet unrealistic. There are still little dark secrets, religious differences, etc. etc.

Very pleasing.

But I will admit about that IA thing . . . WAY to corney . . . Federation with the realistic twist to it . . .

But the new project seems promising. Though, I wasn't that big fan of the Rangers except for Marcus . . . he was one cause of a debt to his late brother. Now there's modivation!

Well, I just downloaded the trailor for LotR (That's: Legends of the Rangers...not Lord of the Rings :) )

It looks pretty good, though I'm worried it's going to be too "actiony", without enough plot/character concentration. Let's face it, one of the best things about B5 was the amazing, long-term story arc, something completely lacking in any other Sci-Fi series (except maybe the last couple of seasons of DS9).

I still reckon B5 was the best sci-fi show made - until the 5th season. Seasons 1 - 4 were brilliant, inspired science fiction. Season 5 was...well...largely garbage, IMO. I couldn't stand Captain Lochley - she looked like a Dallas supporting cast-member in an Earthforce uniform, and the whole telepath thing was badly done, IMO ("Remember Byron...Remember Byron...Remember Byron"...bleh!).

That said, there was a couple of crackers in there, but it was more like the first season of a ST series than the final season of the best SF made, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I was never impressed with Crusade. I didn't like the Captain (Gideon, was it?) - I kept seeing him as either the dad in the Brady Bunch Movie or Satan in American Gothic. Galen (the technomage) was pretty cool, but it annoyed me the way technomages became just another bunch of guys. I loved in B5 how they were mysterious and secretive...Galen made them too...well, human.

And that woman...the thief-type who joins the crew - the last of her race. Well, she just bugged me no end.

Rant over now...:)

My ratings, out of 10, for the sci-fi series'/movie spin-offs that I watch now, would be as follows, I think:

Star Trek: The Original Series...............5
Star Trek: The Motion Picture...................6
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan..................8
Star Trek: The Search for Spock...............6
Star Trek: The Voyage Home...................7
Star Trek: The Final Frontier....................2
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country......9
Star Trek: The Next Generation............8
Star Trek: Generations.............................7
Star Trek: First Contact............................9
Star Trek: Insurrection.............................7
Star Trek: Nemesis..................................TBA
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine..................8
Star Trek: Voyager................................6
Star Trek: Enterprise.............................TBA
Babylon 5: The Gathering.........................6
Babylon 5: (Seasons 1 - 4)....................9
Babylon 5: (Season 5)...........................6
Babylon 5: Thirdspace..............................7
Babylon 5: The River of Souls...................5
Babylon 5: In the Beginning.....................9
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms.........................5
Babylon 5: Crusade.................................4
Babylon 5: Legends of The Rangers........TBA
Stargate SG-1..........................................8


Hmmm...looking forward to seeing the "To Be Announced" ones ASAP!

I'll have to agree with the last commenter there.

Seasons 1-4 of B5 were great. Each character had their own unique flaws, and not everything was peachy. Furthermore, the underlining story arch and graduale evolution of each character was great. Not to mention. OK, so what does one do with Religion when one encounters other races? I Loved how they showed that in Season 3.

As far as Season 5 was concerned. I jumped ship from show one. Sad, sad, sad, how the mighty have fallen.

Captains. I would say that the first one was the best. The one who became Vahlen. No stick up his ass . . . a lot of questions, little answers. He was fresh, new . . . and I liked his Second in Command. Yay! An Asian! Female, and not to bad to boot. What more can you ask for.

However, I will admit my two favorite characters have to be the Centauri Ambassadors side kick. Lanier I think is his name. He has a good heart through out the entire show, some what blind loyalty, and always worried. Fun character to watch.

Also, another good character is Ivanava. No Nonsence Second in Command with a great sence of humor.

Anyone else here remember the 'Baberlon 5' teddy bear that they had at the end of one episode that ended up being sent out an air lock?

Now how classic is that when it hits the windshield of that patrolling starfury?

Quote:

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Originally posted by JALU3

Captains. I would say that the first one was the best. The one who became Vahlen. No stick up his ass . . . a lot of questions, little answers. He was fresh, new . . . and I liked his Second in Command. Yay! An Asian! Female, and not to bad to boot. What more can you ask for.

However, I will admit my two favorite characters have to be the Centauri Ambassadors side kick. Lanier I think is his name. He has a good heart through out the entire show, some what blind loyalty, and always worried. Fun character to watch.

Also, another good character is Ivanava. No Nonsence Second in Command with a great sence of humor.

Anyone else here remember the 'Baberlon 5' teddy bear that they had at the end of one episode that ended up being sent out an air lock?

Now how classic is that when it hits the windshield of that patrolling starfury?

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1) the character is Cmdr Jeffery Sinclair. Can't remember the name of his first XO, Lt. CMDR Nakashima...I think.

2)Lenier was the assistant to Delenn (Minbari Ambassador) the character you are thinking of is Vir Cotto assistant to Ambassador Londo Mollari.

3) "Trust Ivanova..." Great character. One of my favourites to be sure.

4) Pilot "...Wait a second...There is something..." SMACK
Babylon control "Can you identify?"
Pilot "No sir, not on a bet. Heading back to the barn.":D :D :D

Thanks for the corrections . . . it's been so long.

But one other thing . . . Gotta Love Starfurries. Not as cool as lets say VF-19s from Macross . . . and not as well known as the X-Wing Fighter . . . but nice design and good for their size.

I have to wonder . . . if there was a cross over design in ST . . . would it work? I mean . . . we've shown the success of the Peregrine . . . but they're like flying Torpedo Gunships.

The Starfuries are the best overall in B5 Wars. The Minbari Nials have more fire power and stealth tech, the Narn Frazis are a little more armoured and the Centauri Sentris are nimble, but the Starfuries pack all those qualities (less the stealth tech) into one package. The T-Bolts have all the qualities of the Furies and the ability to enter atmosphere. One of the reasons I like the EarthForce so much.

Have you seen the specs for the New Warlock Class? I hear that Ivanova got the first command. Designed to actually do damage to planet based targets of considerable size and has enough fire power to make the Omega's Class Destroyers look like peashooting dingies. Furthermore they carry a fairly large complement of Starfurries and Tbolts.

But the best thing. Shipwide Artificial Gravity where needed, and partially based on Earth Based Research.

Oh, another thing . . . Love how the Fighter Jocks are. They where a uniform like those of Modern USAF fighter Jocks . . . Blue with 5-point white star neckerchifs to boot :-D.

And can someone tell me. On the Earth Force uniforms, there's the symbol for Earth Alliance on one of their upper sleeves. But what is that Winged one on the other upper sleeve?

The insignia of Earth Force;

Rank on shoulders.

EA insignia on left shoulder patch.

Wing insiginia on right shoulder patch=qualified pilot (shuttle, VTOL Attack Craft, fighter.)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Phantom


1) the character is Cmdr Jeffery Sinclair. Can't remember the name of his first XO, Lt. CMDR Nakashima...I think.

2)Lenier was the assistant to Delenn (Minbari Ambassador) the character you are thinking of is Vir Cotto assistant to Ambassador Londo Mollari.

3) "Trust Ivanova..." Great character. One of my favourites to be sure.

4) Pilot "...Wait a second...There is something..." SMACK
Babylon control "Can you identify?"
Pilot "No sir, not on a bet. Heading back to the barn.":D :D :D

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Not to mention that wonderful line from Ivanova in the same episode. When she sees the "Bear-B-Lon 5", and hears of the "B5" wares shop on the Zocalo, there's a nice little dig at Ds9:

"This isn't some...deep space franchise! This station is about something!"

hehehe...

Now this has gotten to your favorite lines . . . but I'm all for that.

B5 was a great show . . . and anything to keep this thread going is fine by me.

As for a good line.

Back in Season 4 I think it was . . . a Earth Alliance News reporter came on the station prior to B5 starting the campaign . . . and was interviewing/pestering Ivanova on the Command Deck (or what ever you call it) and then she theatens to throw him out the airlock.

Just then Sheridan came in and heard of this. And he says something like.

"Don't you know commander . . . we're already short of supplies . . . you know the procedure . . . strip him down take all his possetions, THEN throw him out the airlock."

Or something like that.

I Love the humor!

"No one listen to poor Zathras" :D

T minus 6 minutes to showtime!

Decent . . . hoped for better. But not half bad . . . give it a 6.

A decent pilot episode. I liked it; especially the interplay between the captain and his XO. Now let's hope enough people watched...we've been bereft of really good sci-fi on the TV since B5 went offline.

I liked it. I think Andreas Katsulas (aka G'kar) stole the show. He certainly had some good lines to deliver.

I'm with Qerlin. Let's hope enough people watched that a series comes out of this.

Good, solid pilot ep.

(SPOILER WARNING!) See... I learned!...

That VR weapons thing has got to go, though. It just looked silly.:rolleyes: I was waiting for her to shoot photon torpedos out of her @$$! :D

Hugh

Hmmm...it would be an interesting image, Hugh

Quote:

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Originally posted by Hugh Casey
Good, solid pilot ep.

(SPOILER WARNING!) See... I learned!...

That VR weapons thing has got to go, though. It just looked silly.:rolleyes: I was waiting for her to shoot photon torpedos out of her @$$! :D

Hugh

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Ditto, that was just lame & too weird for me to handle. :p