Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-02-06 (Thursday)
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2025 17:21:16 -0800
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 74
Message-ID: <vo6bic$3o13v$1@dont-email.me>
References: <UBI20250206@dont-email.me> <vo521m$3gru0$1@dont-email.me>
 <vo57ld$3i0j8$1@dont-email.me> <vo5e44$3j6p0$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 02:21:18 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="768567d8f3bb27151e127c5c563ced88";
	logging-data="3933311"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+YKfMq6UsOerOWOV0QDUIz0y5xG6//tWE="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:A7GDeKdssgpKAKf4MgtGFLRSeRA=
X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 250207-6, 2/7/2025), Outbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
Content-Language: en-US
In-Reply-To: <vo5e44$3j6p0$1@dont-email.me>
Bytes: 4912

On 2/7/2025 8:58 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> 
>> Babylon 5 (blu-ray) - "Rising Star" Season 4, penultimate episode.  With
>> the liberation of Earth complete, Earth has to decide what to do about
>> Sheridan.  Meanwhile back on B5 the aliens form a new alliance, and it's
>> going to need a leader.  And Ivanova is clumsily written out of the
>> show.  :-/
> 
> Claudia Christian wouldn't come to terms. She wanted paid time off
> during production weeks, which would have forced production to increase
> the pay for the other actors with triggers in their contracts to avoid
> favoritism for specific actors. After she'd rejected the contract, Jeff
> Conaway tried to talk her into renewing anyway. There was a lot of back
> and forth nonsense that the renewal offers didn't give the actors enough
> time to reconsider, given that the show had been cancelled but there was
> still time to offer new contracts to actors if the show were to go back
> into production, which is what happened with the TNT 22-episode order.
> 
> I wasn't sympathetic toward her position and I have no idea what she
> wanted to do that year in preference to Babylon 5.
> 

I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember the controversy at the 
time with her wanting time off to film something else.  The way I recall 
it he offered her his word that he wouldn't write her into the episodes, 
but she wanted something in writing which he couldn't do for contractual 
reasons.  It's all a bit fuzzy, but I *think* I sided with her at the 
time, although obviously bummed she didn't come back.

>> "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" - The hastily shot replacement
>> season 4 finale once season 5 was confirmed.  This episode reveals the
>> future history of B5 and Earth up to a million years in the future.  A
>> bit depressing at times, but OK.  I actually like this episode better
>> than the real finale that was shot and won't be shown until the end of
>> season 5.  Claudia Christian (Ivanova) was missed.
> 
> Ahem. This wasn't hastily shot. THe show had resumed production and this
> was the episode they made available to fulfill the obligation to PTEN.

Thanks for clearing that up.

> Straczynski insisted that this script was intended although it would
> have been further back had they gotten the season 5 episode order months
> earlier.
> 
> All Season 5 episodes had a compressed production schedule because they
> were shooting one day less per production week.
> 
> I didn't care for it. I thought it was largely self indulgent as the
> fictional critics were representations of critics that Straczynski had
> over the years, so the script had a lot of pettiness. He got his dream
> project into production and broadcast. Don't let critics distract you.
> 

It took me a minute to figure out which fictional critics you were 
talking about.  I think I liked the episode a lot more when I first saw 
it.  This time it was just OK.

>> "No Compromises" Season 5, episode 1 - Sheridan tries to get sworn in as
>> the president of the Interstellar Alliance while dodging an assassin.
>> B5 also agrees to be a safe haven for telepaths. And B5 has a new
>> captain from Earth.
> 
> I liked the actress. I didn't care for the way she was written in a lot
> of episodes.
> 
> Do you have enough alchohol to watch the Byron episodes so you don't
> have to remember him?


I won't be using the "play all" button for season 5.  That's for sure! 
I had no intention of watching so many season 3 and 4 episodes, but once 
they got going, season 4 in particular, it was hard to skip any.