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errors in review of Babylon 5 Season 5 DVD set at amazon
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Posted by: rhuntington3

A reviewer writes

quote:

Season 5 starts off well, even though Ivanova is sorely missed, with 2 main story arcs beginning (Centauri/Drakh/Emperor Londo, and the preludes to the Telepath War). However, Sci-Fi Networks cancelled the 6th and subsequent seasons about half-way through season 5, and the last half of season 5 is turned into one long leave-taking. The new arcs are abruptly forgotten and there is a mad dash to tie up what loose ends are remaining and finish the series.

Sci-Fi didn't even cancel the series. B5 didn't even air on Sci-Fi until the well after the final season was shown on TNT. JMS never planned for 6th or 7th season of B5. It was set to go 5 years and it did. This reviewer didn't get his facts right. :down: :down: :down: :down:

Posted by: JPete03

Before I begin, let me say this is secondhand information from a huge B5 fan. However, I heard it a long time ago, so I don't know the specifics. If there's enough interest I'll try to research it better.

The creator was told sometime I believe during the 4th season, that the show would be cancelled midseason. He had to rewrite the last half of s4 into the first half of s4 and rush many storylines in order to somehow gives fans a finale to the show.

He was later told basically Oops, we were wrong, go ahead you get to finished (picked up by another network I think). So now he had rushed through many storylines, and had a whole lot of episodes to write.

That's the short of it. I can try to research the long of it if anyone wants.

He did all along intend for the show to be 5 seasons, but sometime during season 4 (maybe 5?) he was told he'd have to wrap up early, which makes some episodes seem rushed, and other slow.

Anyone know if I got it right?

- J

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

Close. What he did was take some plotlines that would have been introduced in Season 4, and paid off in Season 5, and delayed them until Season 5. And he took some plotlines that were already ongoing in Season 4 and would have extended into 5, and ended them in 4. Effectively, he divided the plotlines that originally would have run through 4 and 5 between the two seasons.

This all happened, however, before Season 4 ever began. It was never in danger of being canceled mid-season, but the ad-hoc network that B5 ran on folded, and there was no deal with anybody to pick up Season 5 when he started working on Season 4. So, being a fairly clever fellow, he structured it in such a way that Season 4 could end it, if necessary, but that it could continue through 5 if possible (as originally planned). He even had a floating series finale, filmed as the last episode of Season 4, which he specifically wrote to be the series finale no matter how long the show ran (as it turned out, he used it as the end of Season 5, and started Season 4 a week early).

Now, this was an imperfect solution (Season 5 in particular suffered, since it didn't have the kind of slow build-up that the earlier seasons enjoyed). But the effect on Season 4 has been exaggerated; JMS says that the abrupt end to the Shadow War was deliberate, and only happened about three weeks early because of the re-structuring. His intent all along was to have the BIG story be the conflict with Earth and the birth of the Federation (oops, I mean Alliance), with the Shadow War the backdrop against which the early parts of the story unfolded. In that respect, in my current re-viewing of Season 4 (on DVD), I'm finding it a lot better-structured than I did at the time, when I fell for the Shadow War ploy and was distracted from the really important goings-on. Dare I hope that Season 5 will improve as well on further reflection?

Posted by: zechman

What Rob said.... :D

Plus I'll add that it was Warner Brothers Television that ran the first four seasons in syndication. The fifth season was funded by TNT, who also re-aired the entire series for the first time and funded the "A Call to Arms" movie which set up the spin-off series Crusade. TNT quickly became B5 fans' least favorite network by cancelling Crusade before it even aired, due to creative control disputes with JMS.

The only thing SciFi ever did with Babylon 5 (aside from re-airing the series in the wide-screen format) was sponsor "The Legend of the Rangers" movie, which was a really a pilot for a new series. But they didn't pick up the series.

--Dwayne