Me and my roomie just got done watching it.

It was mildly interesting to see a new B5 movie, but boy is really sucked. Or at least we thought so.

... boy _it_ really sucked... rather.

I for one liked it, epically the ending. With the kind of "respect for all life (even evil prisoners)" that shows like Star Trek continually have I loved that here is a captain who was willing to turn a prisoner of war (if you can call it a war) into a human bomb in order to save everyone else. Always great to see G'Kar again, and nice to see a ship that doesn't always work right.

Holy ••••, did this ever ••••. It sucked very badly. It made Brannon Braga look like Shakespeare. It was just that terrible.

What happened to you, JMS? Did you want to get out of having to do this series and Jeramiah at the same time?

I liked it as well. Not perfect (I found the weapons officer's 1-on-1 scenes with the Captain to be a bit stilted, and the non-humans seemed to be more bit parts than actual roles), but, overall, it shows some promise if it goes to series.

A couple of nits

1. According to the traitor, the Hand easily outrank the Shadows in the power and fear category. So, how were they driven off? Did most of the First Ones join together to drive them off? Are the Hand First Ones themselves?

2. Aside from the fact that the final shot of Babylon was telegraphed throughout the entire previous scene, there are a couple problems with the final shot. Where is Epsilon 3, the planet that the station orbits? The shot would suggest that the station is in the middle of nowhere. And why does the station not appear to be rotating at all? Without rotation, there's no gravity on the station.

My favorite moment was when G'Kar was walking around the grey council and lifts up one of the member's hood to see who it is.

From what I remember from the original series the First Ones referred to those who rose first in the Milky Way galaxy. The Hand could have risen in another galaxy so they would not be considered the first ones since they came from outside the galaxy.

Or even another dimention, remember those guys from Thirdspace.

I have not seen all of the episode yet unfortuantely. I do have a nit however

IF the Rangers live and die for the One, should not the One be in charge of punishing Rangers as well.

The one is like the main leader of the rangers (like the commander-in-cheif) meaning that he/she is so busy that most of them have never met him/her. Just like our modern millitary, that's why we have a chain of command, to handle things.

"And why does the station not appear to be rotating at all? Without rotation, there's no gravity on the station"

I just checked my copy.. The station is rotating, albeit slowly. It's kinda hard to see.

"Where is Epsilon 3, the planet that the station orbits?"

I noticed this too.. That shot of B5 at the end just didn't look right.

Note for the record

The One is Delenn, wife of John Sheridan

I thought Jet Li was "the one", just kidding. But seriously, I thought that Zathrose said Sinclair was the one who was. Delenn was the one now, and Sheridan was the one who will be. At this point isn't Sheridan the one.

Brian Yes but Delnn at this time is still Ranger One therefore she is the one.

John Sheridan will not be the one until 2279 two years before he dies

One of my favorite lines is from G'kar, who usually gets the best ones!
Turk: "Captain Bartell would like to speak with you."
G'Kar:"Of course. LOVE to stay. Can't. Have to go. Kiss, Kiss, Love, Love, Bye!" *followed by a kiss in the air."

Don't forget "The universe is such an interesting place, I wouldn't live anywhere else"

>From what I remember from the original series the First Ones referred to those who rose first in the Milky Way galaxy. The Hand could have risen in another galaxy so they would not be considered the first ones since they came from outside the galaxy.
-Anonymous

Possibly. However, they were, according to the storys related by G'Kar, "driven off". If they came from outside, I would suspect that they would have been "held back", unless they occupied the area for some time.

>Or even another dimention, remember those guys from Thirdspace.
-Brian Fitzgerald

I have done all that I could to blot that travesty from my mind. Thanks for the reminder, Brian. ;)

>I just checked my copy. The station is rotating, albeit slowly. It's kinda hard to see.
-Anonymous

You're right, it is moving. I would guess it's moving at about 1/10 speed (maybe slower). Maybe Lockley wanted to weigh less for her annual physical?

I thought, watching the scene in which the bad guys take the loaded life pod on board their ship, that they'd have scanned it for explosives beforehand; I would've.
Otherwise B5LOTR gets two thumbs up.
0
|-b-b
Guy: On the contrary--Braga should've been made to watch this to see how a pilot ep is DONE. And that's the bottom line...if you smell what I'm cooking.

Or even another dimention, remember those guys from Thirdspace.
-Brian Fitzgerald

I have done all that I could to blot that travesty from my mind. Thanks for the reminder, Brian. ;)

speaking of which Thridspace ended with the vorlon saying something about those aliens being one of "so many mistakes", perhaps these aliens are another.

I thought, watching the scene in which the bad guys take the loaded life pod on board their ship, that they'd have scanned it for explosives beforehand; I would've.

The captian said that he couldn't use another big warhead like before, because they'd scan for it, so he used about 50 gernades skattered around instead. Perhaps whatever they use in their gernades is harder to pick up.

IF the Rangers live and die for the One, should not the One be in charge of punishing Rangers as well.

Bingo. It sure looked like the Grey Council was micromanaging the Rangers here, which is more than a little strange---sure, for the past millenium the Council has had bugetary authority over the Rangers, but now the Rangers defend the IA; they used to just fight Shadows for the Minbari. Even when the Rangers were exclusively Minbari the Council wasn't as actively involved with them (compare the scene in In the Beginning where the leader of the Rangers has an audience with the Council).

Did that whole business at the start about the main guy's "failure" seem a bit contrived? Since when have Rangers always won or died in every engagement? Notice how this never came up in any other combat situation in the movie---the choices presented were "fight, run, or hide" not "there's an enemy that outclasses us---let's attack until we're killed".

The Rangers conjecture, from going over the battle where the Valen was destroyed, that the baddies wanted the Valen to deploy its lifepods. Then they somehow conclude that this means that there was a spy on the Valen whose escape the baddies were abetting. Why didn't anyone think that the attackers just wanted to capture the delagates? A shipload of officials from all over the Alliance sounds worthy of capture to me.

Overall, I was happy. I especially liked the weapons control which, though sometimes seeming to be overly influenced by kung fu movies, is one of the very few extrapolations of fire control I've seen that actually seems realistic.

Finally got around to watching this. I wish they'd put "pilot for a proposed series" in big letters undernath the title. I didn't know that at the time I taped it.

Very average, but great SFX. I really disliked the fact of a crew of all 25-year-olds, and why they got the Hero-Captain to look exactly like Ray Liotta.

I thought "Legend of the Rangers" would be about the training, heritage, history, and development of one or more candidates. That may have been a lot more interesting, and maybe a little unique.

They reran this movie today, and I finally saw it. I do wish this had become a series, and I imagine the plotline of it would have dealt with the effort to integrate many different races into the Rangers. I liked that Tannier was in this, because I enjoyed how he still lives by the lesson he learned in Learning Curve.
On the topic of why the Grey Council discipines the Rangers, I think Delenn is still leader of the Council, and it's possible she chose to refer disciplinary problems to them.
I also think I understand why the Rangers are so harsh on people who run from a fight. In part, it is Minbari belief. Also, the Rangers are the Alliance's version of knights in shining armor. They seem designed to provide an example to others. They would also want any potential foes to be afraid to attack them. Running in the face of terrible odds doesn't inspire reverence or fear.

Has this legend of the rangers show just sunk and been cancelled in the U.S. I have been hearing the rumours of this new show by JMS being created, but in the U.K. there has been nothing. No legend of the Rangers pilot being shown or even a whispering of an air date. Absolute silence on the issue.

It was a TV movie that he hoped to turn into a TV series, but it never happened so all we have is the one movie.

Recently got the DVD and found it to be a bit feh. Anyway, a couple of thoughts on it.

If the Liandra was a Minbari design, why were the beds in the sickbay parallel to the floor rather than at an angle (as we saw in the original B5 series)?

Maybe it's just me, but the way the gunnery worked is just the silliest thing I've ever seen.

Amen, Gordon. I too bought the DVD a month or so ago, and didn't find anything in it worth commentating on!

Just one thing about these Hand chaps being stronger than the Shadows. Remember that we only hear this from somebody that works for them, maybe they were stretching things just a little bit in order to ensure the right degree of submission in their new pawn? The fact that they're never mentioned again in the wars between the Endgame and Sleeping in Light suggests that they can't have been all that dangerous.