Legend of the Rangers discussion

[ruuger]

Time for the second to last 'episode'...

This is the discussion post for "Legend of the Rangers". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware. If you have any fanworks related to this episode, you can also leave links to them in this post.

The pilot episode for the second failed B5 spin-off - what do you think of it? Could it have been an interesting series? And how much did you love seeing G'Kar back? ;)

Summary:
A group of rangers battles an ancient foe with the help of G'Kar.

Extra reading:
The article for "Legend of the Rangers" at The Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

:-/

I do not feel very eloquent at this point, just having watched it for the first time; it will need to settle a bit.

Much of it seemed strained and pointless, and even the menace did not feel particularly menacing. I am not sure if the acting or the writing were to blame, probably both. G'Kar managed to get away with some pretty dodgy dialogue, but then AK was a fine actor. In some places I have the sneaking suspicion that he was not taking his lines quite as seriously as the writer may have wanted...

Also, I can't see the Rangers, Human, Minbari, or otherwise advocating pointless self-sacrifice, so much of the premise of the early part of the story did not work for me at all.

And the opening titles were awful - they should have stuck to the writing; the voiceovers somehow managed to trivialise the lines. Where is Mira Furlan when you need her???

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Sorry I haven’t been here the last few weeks, don’t have Crusade on DVD.

Anyway, this is my first viewing of Legend and…

Well, I had been warned it wasn’t very good, so it wasn’t as much of a letdown as it could have been. Still…

You know what really bothers me? (Besides the dodgy acting, plot, and visuals, of course.) One of the things that appeals to me about Babylon 5 – and Crusade, what little I’ve seen of it – is that it’s a show about adults. This, though… this feels like a show where Warren Keffer would be completely at home. None of the characters seem to have any maturity to them.

Honestly, I find myself wondering why this was a B5 spin-off in the first place. I’d have been much more willing to give it a chance if it was a completely original setting. As it is, it feels like the worst of both worlds – it doesn’t seem to be really capitalising on any of the interesting elements of the B5 setting, but because it’s stuck in the same universe, it all feels a little repetitive. The Gathering, after all, wasn’t a very good pilot, but it was interesting nonetheless because you wanted to know more about the different aliens being introduced. Here, we already know about the Alliance and the Rangers and the Narn and the Drazi, and it becomes a little pointless.

(Not to mention all the weird continuity errors – the Rangers, introduced as covert watchers, now have rules of engagement that would have the Klingons saying “Wait, that’s a little silly…”? The Drazi and the Narn are ‘recent members of the Alliance’, where by ‘recent’ we mean ‘founding members’? Minbar now apparently taking its architectural cues from Minas Morgul? Full sized warships regularly landing and taking off from planets surfaces?)

On the subject of ‘repetitive’ – The Hand feel like a particularly unimaginative hybrid of the Shadows and the Thirdspacers, without the menace of either. Goes back to what I was saying about not really using the B5 setting enough – the Shadows were introduced wiping out Narn military bases, the Thirdspacers were presented as a threat to the Vorlons, these guys… scare some goofy looking guys we’ve never seen before.

Positive things? Um, G’Kar’s always welcome, I guess – though most of his scenes felt more like “G’Kar’s greatest hits” than new material, re-treading dialogue from “Mind War” and “Revelations”.

Oh, and I had been warned about the kung-fu fire control system… but I hadn’t been warned that it’s presented with no context or explanation whatsoever. Having the episode abruptly shift from a normal bridge scene to Dodger whats-her-name punching ships to fire the weapons without any warning whatsoever… Honestly, I’m not even complaining, that was the most entertaining sequence in the entire thing.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of this. I would add that I really hope that the alien crew-member's apparent astonishing stupidity would have turned out to be a cultural misunderstanding. And the kung-fu fire control system struck me as being created purely as fanservice for genre fans who insist that every show have a "hot girl punching things" element.

[ruuger]

I often use Legend of the Rangers as an example of why limited budgets are a good thing. Then again, Voices in a Dark is a good example of the opposite since that one clearly suffers from it's shoestring budget.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Legend felt lower budget to me than B5 itself did - nothing I could point to, but the effects shots seemed less polished, the sets even smaller and there seemed like there were a lot less extras in the background...