Welcome to Show #255!
The new version of Lightwave has a B5-related testimonial from Ron Thornton!
Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer and Bret talk about the unproduced Crusade scripts that would have made up the Dureena Trilogy (the stories to explain her absence after her initial contract expired): “War Story”, “The Walls of Hell” and an untitled story by JMS.
Also discussed are three spec pitches by Richard Mueller, for “Fire in the Blood”, “House Odds”, and “Mixed Blessings”.
All of these scripts and treatments are currently available in Crusade: Other Voices, Vol 2
Also, folks preparing to review and discuss the comics and novels with us (or for us), get ready… your turn will be coming up soon!
Lurker’s Guide 2.0: Summer is expanding the documentation to be covered at Lurker’s Guide 2.0, the major change being converting the episode guide into a full Wiki with cross-referenced topics, tidbits and everything you’d want in a Wiki. She’s also still searching for pictures of rare collectibles, photos of magazine covers and toys, and all sorts of other B5 goodies that didn’t get included in the original guide during the years after Crusade. Let her know if you want to lend a hand.
More Parody/Filk Songs Wanted: If you know of any more B5-related fan songs out there, definitely let us know, so we can let other B5 fans know where to buy them! And if those CDs are out of print, let’s brainstorm on ways to get those songs back out there for fans!
Babylon Podcast Social Communities:
Twitter: @babylonpodcast
Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.
If you can, Please Donate to the show!
Promo: Dragon Page Cover to Cover
Promo: The Saturday B Movie Reel, presented by Promo: Tuning into Scifi Television
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS
The Dureena trilogy could have been an interesting tale, but it sounds like a very cliche sci-f plot device every used. I liked the first part of the episode, but the beaming up of Durenna while she is shouting sounds like something I saw on a bad 80s show. I would be ok with developing the Gideon and Matheson characters, but having the Apocalypse Box possess people and then take over the ship? How could they keep that as a plot device after that? The fact JMS wanted Dureena to have a special sword makes me a bit concerned as well. If anything, this could have been the episodes where people go, oh this is why they got canned.
As for the other three episodes. No desire to see the first one even with the shock ending. The second one wit the card game if they put that in as part of another story like the Dureena one with the thieves guild then I could see it being ok. An Ocean’s 11 episode would be cool since I don’t think the movie came out by then. I am sorta interested in the alien spaceport one. The gene splicing of other aliens like a Narn/Minbari or Centauri/Drazi could be cool to see. Plus, it would at least move focus back on the cure.
I think the more we see what Crusade was going to be like, the less it looks like a Babylon 5 project and just another space TV show. Granted, I have read the finale for the show and while that is interesting, I don’t know if that would be enough to have saved from what looked like a rather silly set of episodes. Also, another shadow Earth government using Shadow Tech. That seems very played out.