Contents: Overview - Backplot - Questions - Analysis - Notes - JMS

Overview

The crew of a Ranger ship encounters an ancient, deadly foe. Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar.

Production number: ???
Original air date: January 19, 2002

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Mike Vejar

Plot Points

• A hostile race known as The Hand (or more fully, the Hand of God) was banished to a region outside of normal space a billion years ago. They have been searching for a way back ever since, and now appear to have found one.

Unanswered Questions

• What do The Hand want?
• Why do they need help from younger races, if they're as powerful as described?
• Who built the underground city, and how did they banish The Hand originally?
• How did The Hand escape their prison?
• What happened to Lyta such that G'Kar would describe her as "gone?"
• Who betrayed the previous crew of the Liandra, and why?

Analysis

• Knowledge of The Hand seems to be very limited, suggesting that the Vorlons either didn't know about them (possible, if their disappearance significantly predated the Vorlons' contact with other races) or didn't consider them enough of a threat to warrant mentioning to the Minbari.

• Some of the information that is known about The Hand is potentially wrong. They would have a vested interest in exaggerating their capabilities in an attempt to attract new servants, so they may not be the all-powerful force Minister Kafta described.

• Since Lorien claimed to be the oldest sentient being in the universe ("Into the Fire") he would have been around to see The Hand in action and might have been privy to whatever was done to defeat them. Did he mention them to Sheridan?

• If Delenn's speech at the end of "Rising Star" can be taken as her recollection of what happened in the twenty years after that episode, the conflict with The Hand won't be a huge, devastating one; she mentioned the Telepath War and the Drakh War but didn't specifically name any other major conflicts. Of course, it's possible that either of those wars also involved The Hand.

• The fire control system on the Liandra seems to be based on the idea of making maximum use of the Rangers' physical combat training. Arguably from a purely practical point of view, it would be more effective (and less physically exhausting) to let a computer handle target selection and firing control based on guidelines from the command crew. But the Rangers' combat techniques aren't purely pragmatic (for example, their use of fighting sticks rather than firearms) and appear to include the notion that fights should be personal, one-on-one affairs rather than remote-controlled proxy battles. Making a ship's weapons an extension of a weapon officer's body is consistent with that aesthetic.

Notes

• Official site

• Production start date: May 14

• The SciFi Channel's press release:

  Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is working on a two-hour telefilm called Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers that will premiere on SCI FI later this year. The film will take up the story of the legendary Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War.

  This new chapter of the Babylon 5 story finds the mysterious Ranger force--a combination of humans and alien Minbari trained in space warfare as well as the unique alien philosophy of the Rangers and just about every conceivable form of martial arts--faced with deadly challenges in its attempt to create peace out of the war's destruction.

  Babylon 5 cast members may appear in the movie, which will also serve as the pilot for a potential SCI FI Channel series. Douglas Netter is executive producing the series along with Straczynski.

• The air date was announced on July 10, 2001 at a press conference. SCI FI announced that they'll wait to see how well the movie does before deciding on a series.

jms speaks

• Well, that's at least ONE weight off my chest....

  To those who've heard the news already, and those just now finding out...the SciFi Channel today announced that we have a new Babylon 5 TV movie going into production that will also serve as a pilot for a likely new series.

  The movie (and the series) is under the heading of BABYLON 5: THE LEGEND OF THE RANGERS. The specific title for the 2-hour movie's story is "To Live and Die in Starlight."

  There isn't much I can tell you about the story because we're kinda keeping the details under wraps as much as possible for the time being. What little I can say....

  It's set in the B5 universe just under 3 years after the events of "Objects at Rest." At this point there's one major character from the B5 universe in the script (a fan favorite). Where B5 was a heavy drama with some adventure/action elements, this one is a little more skewed toward adventure with underlying drama (which is about what you'd expect from the Anla-Shok).

  We've been sitting on this information for a while now...such that we're already well into pre-production. We'll be shooting this movie around mid-May, well in advance of any potential actor's strike (the script is done and so far everybody likes it a LOT).

  We've already got designs coming in on a new ship, and a new *kind* of ship...and we're going to be getting more into Minbari aesthetics, technologies and philosophy.

  It's got some great characters, and it's a lot of fun.

  I have other news to announce on other fronts...have since the end of the year, in fact...but I'm still sitting on the details awaiting another press release from another studio. What I *can* say is that I have a firm GO order to executive produce a new series (nominally SF) that will go into production after the potential SAG strike. When that's finally over, if the strike indeed happens, we pull the trigger and go into principal photography and it's an order for a full season's worth of episodes.

  I can't give you any details right now on the subject, title, studio or network. That will have to await the studio's release...so don't even ask.

  As far as doing both projects at the same time is concerned...it's actually quite common, as testified to by folks like John Wells and Aaron Sorkin and David Kelly and others. So there won't be any conflict.

• Why such an inexperienced crew? Is it because the Rangers have had to expand like crazy, leading to a shortage of trained officers?
  Exactly, and after the shadow war, a lot of higher ranking/experienced rangers were dead, leading to getting promoted earlier.

  Also, the Liandra isn't like the Enterprise, it's more like a PT boat, and there's a huge difference between the captain of a PT boat and a captain of the John F. Kennedy, though both are technically captains on their vessels.

• The Valen didn't look like a Minbari ship.
  As Dulann mentioned in his talk with David in the hall, it was influenced by human military designers. David also made fun of it earlier.

  Where were the White Stars?
  The 80 or so surviving whitestars were either on station at Minbar or doing larger more important work. This was considered a milk run.

• The Liandra looked nothing like the Minbari ships from the Earth-Minbari War era.
  The Liandra is a Ranger ship. The Rangers, if we recall our history from In the Beginning, were not directly involved in Earth related hostilities during the Minbari War. The EM war was under the aegis of the Warrior caste.

  It is also, by design, a small, fast (crew of maybe 20) patrol ship designed to go on the edge, it's not meant to go out there and pulverize fleets. It would have been instantly outgunned and destroyed in the EM war's bigger battles.

  (One thing I'm curious about is the assumption that we've seen all of the Minbari ships. We've literally seen only a handful. Go to Jane's books on military weapons, planes in particular, and you get all *kinds* of variation...from ospreys to f16s to cargo jets to hovercraft...why should there be less variation in a more advanced society like the Minbari?)

  And the Valen was ugly.
  Yes. That was the intent. That's why David made fun of it on the balcony. Nobody likes it, it was a compromise between Humans and Minbari (which Dulann also mentions), more politically motivated than structurally sound. We won't be seeing its kind again.

• Why were the raiders able to hurt the Enfali?
  Even a lion can be brought down by a pack of smaller predators. The Enfalli was alone and the pursuit was a long one, and they just kept taking hit after hit.

  Raider ships don't have aft guns.
  Raider fighter craft come in as many variations as human fighter craft. The error is in thinking monolithically.

  Where was the White Star fleet?
  Bear in mind that there were only ever about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty whitestars built during the Shadow War. A LOT of those got wiped out during said war, so now you've got maybe 80 or so. You conserve your best ships for big jobs, you don't have them doing this kind of grunt work.

  Is Tannier the same character as the Tannier in "Learning Curve?"
  Meant to be the same character, but it's not the same actor.

  The hyperspace special effects looked different.
  Hyperspace is now *much* more complex than it was using lightwave, with more levels. It was always meant to look pretty hellish, but we could never quite pull it off with lightwave, it always looked 2d. This is more what I originally had in mind.

  In Dulann's vision, Minister Kafta's face was already beaten up, even though it hadn't happened yet.
  Recheck your tape...that shot ain't there.

  The Liandra is smaller than a White Star and has jump engines. But Sheridan was surprised about the White Star's ability to jump.
  He also didn't know everything about Minbari ships and classes.

  Why didn't the Valen fire a shot?
  The Valen never had time to fire; they were hit within a second of the hand ships coming out of hyperspace (actually *as* they were coming out)...the hits disabled most of the systems on the new ship (you can see eruptions all over the bridge). The weapons systems were intact elsewhere, but the control mechanisms were down. That's why they kept hammering the Valen, to make sure it wouldn't be able to fire.

  Why not just hide on the other side of the comet?
  Two-dimensional thinking. Only works if the comet is directly between you and the enemy. If it moves at any other angle, you're revealed.

  How is it possible to lose someone on such a small ship?
  Given the small ins and outs and access hatches and panels and sub-halls and the like...real possible.

  Why didn't the Leandra have beam weapons like other Minbari ships?
  Not a big enough ship with a big enough power source.

  The Liandra would never stand a chance against a Shadow battlecrab.
  It wasn't a shadow battlecrab. It was tough, but it wasn't one of those. The hand wouldn't give out that kind of power to flunkies.

Last update: May 27, 2024