I know about that, YogSosoth, but I am willing to bet that there were a ton of minor and some fairly major changes to that storyline made over the years. I, for one, remain unconvinced that the introduction of Sheridan was anything but the result of unexpectedly losing O’Hare for whatever reason that was (from what I know, nobody’s ever really said and doesn’t want to, fine by me). I also think it was a vast improvement in the long run for the show. Give the man a A+ for how that got handled, at least on the casting front.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole “one wife from each caste” thing was something that he figured out about when he was trying to figure out how the heck to do the 5th season and realizing he needed a new station commander.
Sheridan was a push from the studio - they didn’t like the guy who played Sinclair and Boxleitner had some minor established celebrity. There was a webpage dedicated to the various known changes made from the original planned series but I’d have no idea where to look now. It’s remarkable how closely he came to telling the original planned story given all of the various problems that cropped up during production.
I’ve been Netflixing all of the Hawaii Five-0 seasons as they come out on DVD. It’s a kick to catch a couple of appearances by a young Bruce Boxleitner with surfer dude hair.
It’s kind of sad that, for a show that isn’t THAT old, three people are dead.
Richard Biggs - Dr. Franklin
Andreas Katsulas - Ambassador G’Kar
Tim Choate - Zathras
I hated the Space-Boxing TKO, but the Ivanova backstory with the Rabbi and the death of her father is possibly the best stuff in S1, so I tend to just PALTR in the Space-Boxing while enjoying the other bit.
Grey 17 Is Missing is dumb (really dumb. Garibaldi makes a semi-auto cannon? They don’t realize that how many more cubic miles of air is being reprocessed than they should have space for?) and has no redeeming qualities.
I’ve now watched TKO again. The most unintentionally funny thing about the episode isn’t the writing or the acting; it’s the prominently displayed Zima signs in the background in several scenes. Yeah, that’s the drink of the future…
One of the very rare cases where the studio was right about something. The guy who played Sinclair was fucking awful. I’m amazed he ever got cast in anything above community theater level, let alone lead in a television show.
Described by IMDB as “an active member of New York theater groups”,
But yeah. After B5, only one role, 2 episodes on Law & Order as the victim’s father. Before B5, such sterling roles as “thug on subway train” in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.
He always sounded to me like the dad on the Brady Bunch, but without the passion or conviction that Papa Brady had.
Seriously–y’know how they had him deliver end-of-episode homilies? (“Well Captain, looks like the Pack-Mara and the Gai’m have finally stopped their war.”/ “Yes. Mr. Garribaldi. If only everyone could learn that it’s better to…work together than to…stand apart.”)? Imagine him preceding them with “So, Greg, Marsha…”
Whatever of the movies was the pilot (not the ‘here’s what the S2-5 people were doing during the Minbari war’ one, the other beginning one), Commander Jeff was about one ‘dude’ away from a full Lebowski. Any more laid back and he’d tumble off the station to the planet below.
I still haven’t seen S1, so maybe that was par for the course. Now I want to go buy it since notNetflix is taking its sweet ass time in delivering it.
There are a couple of times where I don’t like his acting, like in Babylon Squared where he’s trying to get the pillar off of Zathras and the weird look on his face that’s supposed to be him straining his muscles. And in season 2 the episode where the ranger gives Garibaldi a data crystal that contains a message from Sinclaire. His acting is pretty bad there. But I liked him over-all in season 1.
Well, I’m into season 3 now and up to episode 8 where they discovered the Shadow ship on Mars in the flashback and one on Ganymede in the present (B5 present, not ours).
Overall a great few episodes so far, with lots of dark stuff like Night Watch building in the background.
It’s been a long time since I watched this on tv, so I can’t rememeber whether Zack does the right thing or not.
I don’t think O’Hare is that wooden. He’s a bit 1950s-sitcom-dad (you could easily see him with the pipe and cardigan, having a talk with little Billy about taking responsibility for the window he broke with his baseball) but he’s not nearly as jarring as some of the guest stars they’ve had on. The guy who played Walker Smith, the young girl from Legacies - they put in some very stilted performances indeed.
Nearly finished with Season One which, if you know what’s coming, is actually pretty heavyhanded at setting up the various plot arcs and general foreshadowing. I am amusing myself by counting all the times anyone says “Watch your back!” or similar to Garibaldi throughout the season - probably about half a dozen so far.
I saw much more detailed rules for a B5 drinking game, once. My favorite bit I can remember is “Sip whenever Vir does something cowardly. Sip whenever he does something brave. Chug whenever he does both at once.”.
I thought that the show needed more imagination on some of their words. For instance, if you’re really tired but need to stay awake, you inject some stims. Yeah, obviously they’re stimulants, but that’s the best name they could come up with? And “Down below”? Brilliant!
I know, they aren’t that bad, but I just wish the writers would have tried a little bit harder.
I’ve just finished season 3. “Watch your back” is pretty much season 1 but “straight to hell” goes on and on.
Some further thoughts: As I said before, Michael O’Hare, while never going to win an acting award, had to fight his way through some pretty kludgy writing. JMS simply doesn’t have a light touch for foreshadowing and early plot arc set up. It’s like getting bricks of exposition thrown at your head. “This is a significant event! Pay attention!” <THUMP> And since season 1 was all set up, there were a lot of bricks being thrown. Seasons 2 and 3 sail along much better once the story starts moving, although you still get the occasional brick thump - the start of the Nightwatch story, or the moralizing at the end of the otherwise-excellent “Confessions and Lamentations”.
Tim Choate as Zathras is hilarious. The writing is funny. The deadpan delivery is funnier. It all works. “Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people’s needs. Very sad life… probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry.” It’s hard to deliver that and get laughs but boy howdy, Choate does it.
And this remains one of the most kickass moments in sci-fi history: