>Don't I recall, somewhere in TNT's spin control words to the
>effect "we wanted an adventure series, and this wasn't what we
>expected" ?
>

Yup. They said the first episodes were "too intellectual" and didn't have any
action or humor.

But sooner or later these episodes have to air, and that kinda takes care of
that. As the remainder of these first 5 will show.

Aside from the fact that the action they wanted was fist-fights, they were
totally unable to visualize the EFX sequences. We put storyboard sequences
into the edited master so they'd have an idea, but they kept saying there's no
action...they looked at Racing and the one next week and said "no
action"...now, you look at those two (hell, those five) eps and tell me if
there's no action.

Best of all...after they stopped production after these first 5 were shot,
there were many demands made that, it was clear, had to be given or we would
not be allowed back into production. One of the notes that came...and I'm
quoting this verbatim...had to do with Dureena, who if you look here in these
episodes has a more exotic look, there's a bit more prosthetic work, and so
on.

TNT note: "Why do we have to go for the cliche that aliens always look
different than humans? Why can't she look just like a human but be alien by
her *attitude?*"

Hence her makeup was softened, the forehead prosthetic minimized almost to
invisibility, and the contact lenses minimized.

(As an aside...they *almost* didn't let us complete these five episodes. I
think they wanted to let nothing come out to contradict their cover story. The
only reason they got finished was that WB said that if they *didn't* let 'em
get finished, TNT would bear the brunt of the cost, and that was that.)


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

>> They're either all at this level or better (in my admittedly biased
>opinion).
>>
>> jms
>>
>
>Then it may be bittersweet.
>Saving the best for last...

You ever see "The Commitments?"

It's about this Irish rock group that gets together, and they're good, I mean,
they're *good*. But many factors begin to pull them apart, and eventually the
band falls apart.

One of them, who's been around a long time, goes to the guy who put it all
together, and can't believe what's happened, what they could've been...and he
says, "You gotta look at it this way. If you'd stayed together, you would've
been just one more successful band. Now...now it's myth."

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com