Re: OT: Babylon-5 (was Heads up: La Fiorina's book coming out nextweek)

Dave Froble wrote:
Ok, didn't know that. I took it as a comment that a flame war over what
was/is the best TV SF show was about to begin.


Nop. "And so it begins" refers to Kosh knowing that there is to be a
conflict with the "shadows" (the bad guys). And as he sees the first
signs of shadows emerging,he utters that sentence.

Babylon 5 was unique in that the full multi-year story line was written
before the first show, except for the additional season that was added
(the one with the telepaths essentially becoming terrorists). Note that
the series finale was actually shot as the end of the previous season.

The "full story" allow Kascinzky to insert clues right from the very
fist episode. So while each episode may have seemed to be "stand alone"
initially, one eventually realised that many clues had been seeded to
explian what was going on.

Note that Babylon 5 did not initially have much studio support. It was
not considered a big success. The follow on series (forget the name)
didn't last a full season, just the first 6 pilot episodes. And it was
just getting to a point where the storyline was starting to move with
all the story foundatiosn being fully laid.


babylon 5 also was one of the rare series that dealt with time travel
issues in a very logical way.


Recently saw an interesting interview of Terry Gilliam on the BBC (of
Monthy Python fame). he made the comment that now that the big studios
are all owned by multinationals, the heads of studios are just glorified
accountants that report to the multinational boards. They no longer have
the authority to take risks on new movies. You will no longer see any
"Titanic" or "Lors of the Rings" being funded. Instead you are seeing
"safe investments" such as remake of old movies, which ironically have
so far all flopped big time.

And to bring this in a VMS context, it is a bit like VMS management.
Their hands are tied and they are not allowed to take risks, do
marketing etc becauyse they report to the "big corporation" that owns
them and everything mucy be approved by the big owners who are busy with
other priorities.
.

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