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Him making a chart to show Ivanova where he fit in at the station's command structure is one of my favourite moments of the show.
His and the doctor's "honeymoon" trip to Mars had its moments as well.
"...and that's when I shot him, your honor."
"Marcus...this is one of those conversations that can only end, in a gunshot."
favorite scenes between Londo and G'Kar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1ccByc_mc
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And of course sad that two of the people there are no longer with us.Who died? How?
More then just a couple have passed,in no paticuallar order:
Andreas Katsulas: G'kar
Richard Biggs: Dr. Steven Franklin
Jeff Conaway: Zack Allen
Paul Winfield: General Richard Franklin, Dr. Franklin's dad.
Tim Choate: Zathras
May they RIP :(
Yup. And just a few weeks ago, Robin Sachs passed away, who played Minbari Grey Council member Hedronn in three episodes and renegade Narn captain (and later general) Na'Kal in another four. He was more famous as Ethan Rayne on BUFFY though.
When you compare similar shows - no-one from TNG or DS9's regular or recurring casts and only two from the original STAR TREK's from the 1960s - it's actually quite surprising that so many people from B5 have passed away.
My comment was a reference to the people at the convention who are no longer with us, namely Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs :(
I really enjoyed the show.
I seem to remember hearing somewhere, that NASA really liked the Starfury design. I believe MKS gave them the design with the caveat that when they were able to build a starfury, that they called it a star fury.
B5 is one of the few shows that came close to actual realistic space combat....
If you watch Starwars and Star Trek - space combat is done as if there is an atmosphere and the ships are flying..
With almost 0 friction and almost 0 gravity you can spin on a dime and change direction of travel up down left right in a fraction of time it takes an atmospheric craft to do so.
Which is why the Starfury is greater than any other space fighter in any other series. It is the first to actually perform as a 'space' fighter.
In the games the Starfury is one of the reasons Earth becomes a major player so quickly, despite having inferior technology. They are the only ones to have built a pure space fighter, and as such win most engagements except when faced with Minbari, who use gravitic tech.
And even the Minbari had to treat it with more than a little respect. Normally their Nials went through other species' fighters like a mowing machine, claiming kill-ratios of 19:1 or higher; the way the Starfury routinely held them to 11:1 was an eye-opener.
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Which is why the Starfury is greater than any other space fighter in any other series. It is the first to actually perform as a 'space' fighter.
In the games the Starfury is one of the reasons Earth becomes a major player so quickly, despite having inferior technology. They are the only ones to have built a pure space fighter, and as such win most engagements except when faced with Minbari, who use gravitic tech.
That's what happens when you're JMS and you go to NASA JPL to help your team with the actual "mechanics" of space :)
(and yet another reason to love the show!)
Which is why the Starfury is greater than any other space fighter in any other series. It is the first to actually perform as a 'space' fighter.
In the games the Starfury is one of the reasons Earth becomes a major player so quickly, despite having inferior technology. They are the only ones to have built a pure space fighter, and as such win most engagements except when faced with Minbari, who use gravitic tech.
IIRC, the Starfury is actually a Dilgar design. The Earth fighters originally used were a bit more like the Raider fighters, and were inferior to the Dilgar. Earth won the war because the Dilgar had massively overstretched themselves and Earth, in conjunction with the non-aligned worlds, was able to overwhelm them by sheer force of numbers (plus the deployment of the Nova-class destroyer in large numbers) as well as good strategy. The Earth Alliance basically nicked the Dilgar design and refined it for their own purposes.
That's what happens when you're JMS and you go to NASA JPL to help your team with the actual "mechanics" of space :)
I'm pretty sure this never happened, at least not a huge amount and not during the early years of the show. What did happen is that a lot of people at NASA were big fans of the show and in the second and third seasons started sending Hubble images along to be used as backgrounds for space shots. I think they also did respond a few times to queries later in the show's lifespan, but not at the start.
The Starfury was created entirely by the show's production designer Steve Burg (who recycled an unused idea he'd had whilst working on TERMINATOR 2) and Ron Thornton at Foundation Imaging, who created the final CGI model. It was also Thornton and his team who pushed the idea of having realistic physics and ship movement, and not using old corny standby like deflector shields and tractor beams (the original version of the pilot script had tractor beams to draw the ships into the docking bay).
It should be noted that the Starfury only ever went up against the Minbari Nial fighters, Raiders and a couple of miscellaneous alien races on the show (like the Streibs in 'All Alone in the Night', and they had heavy fire support from the Agamemnon in that battle). We never saw how they handled against Narn and especially Centauri fighters. The Centauri fighters - the Sentri class - were apparently much more maneuverable (Sheridan observed that their pilots could pull off extreme maneuvers and even black out because the fighter's computer system was good enough to take over).
The Minbari were pretty badass. One of their warcruisers took down a Shadow warship single-handed in 'Shadow Dancing'. They didn't seem to do much in the Shadow War, presumably because a full third of their forces (belonging to the warrior caste, presumably including most of the best ships) were missing.
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Actually, you can turn on a dime. You just still have the momentum so now you're going backwards. It makes more sense to use attitude jets to spin and then use the main engines to accelerate in the new direction (cancelling out your previous velocity as you do so), then to make the long sweeping turns you have to use in atmosphere.No you can't.. Because one thing that doesn't go away, is inertia. You can't turn on a dime in space. (for one thing, the G forces would pretty much mash any pilot inside) It's pretty well known that one of the goals that George Lucas had was he wanted to create a space version of World War 2 combat movies. And Star Wars today remains the only movie venue to have done so to the extent that he did.I really enjoyed the show.
I seem to remember hearing somewhere, that NASA really liked the Starfury design. I believe MKS gave them the design with the caveat that when they were able to build a starfury, that they called it a star fury.
B5 is one of the few shows that came close to actual realistic space combat....
If you watch Starwars and Star Trek - space combat is done as if there is an atmosphere and the ships are flying..
With almost 0 friction and almost 0 gravity you can spin on a dime and change direction of travel up down left right in a fraction of time it takes an atmospheric craft to do so.
It would depend on the position of the person shooting at your ship. With a wide sweeping turn, you do not reduce your velocity to zero, whereas spinning so you are traveling backwards and punching the engines to change the direction of your velocity would have you stationary at some point. The term "sitting duck" comes to mind ...
Now, being able to spin around and shoot at the ship chasing you without losing your forward velocity and then spinning again to maneuver and remain in motion the entire time is another matter entirely.
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I'd have to disagree with you. As velocity is relative, if you stop (and you would stop if you spun completely around so your facing was opposite of your heading and engaged your engines) the relative velocity between you and your opponent diminishes; a slower moving, and closer (as the distance between you and your opponent would decrease at a faster rate) target tends to be easier to hit than a faster one which is further away.
Additionally, just because you are looking at no (or little) friction in space, does not mean that you do not need to halt your velocity along your original vector in order to pull a full 180 and be heading back the way you came. The law of inertia still holds true in space.
Now, theoretically, one could attain speed along one vector, spin and then use directional thrusters to continue moving "backwards" but allow movement on the other two axes ... and just hope nothing is behind you. ;)
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but, back on the topic of the show ... while I do like the Starfury, for capital ships, I would have to go Narn all the way. While the Erathforce destroyers were impressive, and the Mimbari ships were powerful (I still can't get past the thought of flying around in a giant Angelfish), the Narn vessels had character ... though it could have been from the aesthetic of their standard coloration ... or the big ass forward facing particle cannon ...
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Let's not forget the various differences in how the races approached battle, which basically boiled down to "They're cool and all, but only Earthforce ships start firing BEFORE they exit the jump gate."
Humanity.
We're like Han Solo.
Now watching season 5...there is a noticeable decline in ..I dunno..watchableness..
I think part of it is that 1-4 built a certain momentum...they had to try and keep it going but the first episodes of season 5 seem disjointed somehow.
Now watching season 5...there is a noticeable decline in ..I dunno..watchableness..
I think part of it is that 1-4 built a certain momentum...they had to try and keep it going but the first episodes of season 5 seem disjointed somehow.
That's a common criticism, and the story of how it happened is kind'a famous. JMS wrote the whole show as a single overarching story told over five years. Problem was, at the start of the fourth season, he didn't know if the network was going to pay for the fifth/final season, so he had to cram all the wrap-up for the major plots into Season Four.
Then the show got picked up for the fifth year, and he had to stretch some hanging plot-threads to cover that gap. Unfortunately, the stretching shows.
I still think Season 5 is better than 99.9% of the junk out there and only pales in comparison to the other 4 seasons. Taken on its own there are some pretty good episodes in the last season. And I think the wrap up (the last handful of episods) was a really good way to end the series.
Greg
Basically, Season 5.0 (to use modern parlance) is rubbish. Several of the worst episodes of the entire series are in there, it has the worst long-running plot thread (the telepath stuff) and it has a fair bit of redundancy, reusing tropes and ideas JMS had already used at least once before (assassins, aliens attacking for no good reason, the Hyach situation being a mixture of the Centauri/Xon stuff). The only good episode in the bunch is the Neil Gaiman one.
Season 5.5 is an absolutely massive improvement, with the focus shifting back to the Centauri and the more traditional political/military angle.
Incidentally the best episode of the season. ^^
Incidentally the best episode of the season. ^^
And, see I found the whole mystical, talking to the dead bit to be completely out of place for B5. It was Gaiman, so it was well written. It i didn't care for the whole Reebo & Zooty bit or the dead come back to life stuff.
It's been a long time since I've watched S5 but I seem to remember thinking "The Long Night of Londo Molari" to be the best episode of the first half is S5.
Greg
I felt Gaiman's episode was 'out of synch' with the show, just like the season one episode with King Arthur...
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I'd have to disagree with you. As velocity is relative, if you stop (and you would stop if you spun completely around so your facing was opposite of your heading and engaged your engines) the relative velocity between you and your opponent diminishes; a slower moving, and closer (as the distance between you and your opponent would decrease at a faster rate) target tends to be easier to hit than a faster one which is further away.
Additionally, just because you are looking at no (or little) friction in space, does not mean that you do not need to halt your velocity along your original vector in order to pull a full 180 and be heading back the way you came. The law of inertia still holds true in space.
Now, theoretically, one could attain speed along one vector, spin and then use directional thrusters to continue moving "backwards" but allow movement on the other two axes ... and just hope nothing is behind you. ;)
Velocity is a vector. Meaning, it is speed with an assigned direction. Without air resistance and airfoils, the only thing to change your velocity in space is thrust or gravity. "An object in motion stays in motion" You don't need constant thrust to have velocity in space...there's nothing slowing you down. If you burn your engines for 1 minute to attain a certain velocity in a straight line, you need to burn them for a minute in the exact opposite direction just to come to a stop. You don't just thrust in a circle and assume your speed will translate to the new direction. THAT's inertia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_physics
So into the "good" part of Season 5, and part of the evidence against the centauri is weapons residue. I am trying to reconcile all the effort the centauri took to hide their actions against that basic identifier..and I conclude that they din't bother using other race's weapons and had always planned to blame it on the narns.
So into the "good" part of Season 5, and part of the evidence against the centauri is weapons residue. I am trying to reconcile all the effort the centauri took to hide their actions against that basic identifier..and I conclude that they din't bother using other race's weapons and had always planned to blame it on the narns.
The Centauri attacks were orchestrated by the Draak. They wanted the Centauri to be found out so that the rest of the Alliance would exact their revenge for them. Any blame on the Narn was an initial smokescreen until the "truth" came out.
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J. Michael Straczynski confirms the real reason Michael O'Hare left Babylon 5 between seasons.
Apparently O'Hare had a serious psychiastric issue whilst filming the series. He was being treated but he couldn't be treated in a manner that would have a noticeable impact without leaving the series. JMS offered to put the series on hold for him, but O'Hare didn't want to risk the show being cancelled and hundreds of people losing their jobs. So they came up with the plan for O'Hare to leave but to come back to round off his storyline later on.
This does chime with the hitherto conflicting reports from some of the other actors that O'Hare sometimes seemed out of it on set, and one other actor even accused him of being on drugs. It turns out this may be true, but it would have been medication rather than anything more criminal. JMS confirmed that he promised to take the secret to his grave, but O'Hare said he only needed to keep it until he reached 'his' grave. Since O'Hare passed away last September, JMS felt able to set the record straight. JMS praised O'Hare's honesty and professionalism in coming to him with the problem rather than trying to hide it away.
Holy frak. O.O Now don't that put a new light on things?
I remember not being too impressed with Babylon 5 when it first aired because I did not pick up on the whole story arc concept -- so the show seemed like it was going nowhere, and I lost interest halfway through the first season.
Then a couple of years later I saw the opening of an early 3rd season episode. I thought "WTF?" when I heard that line "Babylon 5 was our last great hope for peace.... It failed." and saw some action that was very different from the season 3 opening. From that point on I was hooked.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this." - Vir Cotto
** spoiler omitted **
But this was my favorite scene in the entire series, and one of the most epic call-backs I've ever seen in any media.
(my other favorite is when, SIX YEARS after the Simpsons episode where Principal Skinner is revealed to secretly be an imposter named Armin Tamzarian, and it is never mentioned again, Lisa Simpson's cat dies (several times over) until she gets a new one that looks like an earlier cat right at the end of the episode. Lisa elects to keep the cat and says "You're Snowball V, but to save money on a new bowl, let's just call you Snowball II and pretend this whole thing never happened." In an instance of meta-humor, Principal Skinner then stops by and asks Lisa "That's really a cheat, isn't it?" Lisa replies "I guess you're right, Principal Tamzarian." Skinner says something like, "I'll just keep on walking" and calls the new cat "Snowball II".)
I loved B5, been thinking about pulling out the series boxed sets for a fresh run through. I'm off for July/Aug, guess what I'll be watching. :)
Today is the second anniversary of Jeff Conaway's death. RIP Zack.
B5 seems to have a high mortality rate for its cast. Poor Jeff had a lot of personal problems he found difficult to deal with.
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I enjoyed the series greatly. It was the last series that my Dad followed with me and I am glad we got to see several of the episodes together. The show portrayed humanity and other races, which despite their flaws, still had people who chose to make a better future for others. So, as I reflect on the show and the members of the cast who are gone -- as well as thinking about others on this day - let me quote John Sheridan from the episode 'Sleeping in Light':
"To absent friends — in memory still bright."
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Today is the second anniversary of Jeff Conaway's death. RIP Zack.B5 seems to have a high mortality rate for its cast. Poor Jeff had a lot of personal problems he found difficult to deal with.
Related to this and the revelation about Michael O'Hare: link.
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Don't suppose anyone out there is still watching this thread, and might be interested in helping me tweak the Babylon 5 RPG (v2) to match a little more closely with Pathfinder than 3.5?
I'm getting a few of my friends into B5 now, with plans to start a game when we're through Season 4 at the latest, but they're just young enough to have never played any RPGs before Pathfinder, and even mentioning the "4+Int x4 at first level" skills thing made one of them do an honest-to-god spit-take over his pizza...