* New season shot 16x9?
Starman
that the new season is being shot in the new widescreen TV format of 16x9.
Is this true? Cool! I'd just like to know if it will be shown letterboxed
or pan&scan (YUCCH!) on its premiere broadcast.
...and WHY did they get rid of Ms. Tomita???????????????
===============================Mike Gaines==============================
= WHAT is your name? Captain Jean-Luc Picard =
= WHAT is your quest? I seek the Holy Grail =
= WHAT is the top velocity of a Bird of Prey? Romulan or Klingon? =
= I....I don't know...AAAHHHH!!!! =
=========================ren...@teak.njit.edu==========================
Jonathan Richards
> ...and WHY did they get rid of Ms. Tomita???????????????
ARGH. Why is everyone so sad that she won't be on the show. She was by far
the worst actor in the pilot. She utterly failed to deliver even a single
line believably. She's not even as good looking as her replacement, Claudia
Christian. All in all, I can't think of any conceivable reason to regret her
loss. The doctor, the love interest, and the psionic I'm reserving judgement
on until I see them in action, but it's just not physically possible for
anyone to act worse than Ms. Tomita did.
Sorry. Just had to get that off my chest.
--
Jonathan Richards
littl...@nwu.edu
"Have you ever seen a spleen that large?"
"Whoa, no .. not since breakfast."
strac...@genie.geis.com
HDTV is more of a standard, it'll be broadcast using the conventional
ratio. For those of us who've invested in solid entertainment systems and
good-sized TVs, we forget sometimes that most sets in use out there are
18" or thereabouts, and letterbox just makes the picture too small for
most viewers to handle. Once HDTV becomes more the standard, then it'll
be broadcast in that aspect ratio. However, on the theory that those who
buy laserdisks are better set-up for that kind of picture, it's my
understanding that the laserdisks of B5 the series will be in letterbox
format.
Re: Tamlyn Tomita...several things you have to understand. You can
have 8 really great actors, who all perform wonderfully individually, but
sometimes the result is more than, or less than, the sum of its parts. In
an ensemble like B5, you have to look at what kind of synergy is generated
by your cast. We felt strongly that the result didn't really reflect the
individual talents of our cast. Tamlyn's a terrific performer...and she
wasn't entirely happy with her performance. It's not the kind of role she
is really used to playing. Which is not to say that at some point she
might not return to the show in a different capacity....
jms
Mike Van Pelt
>... it's just not physically possible for
>anyone to act worse than Ms. Tomita did.
Here's someone who obviously missed Shelly Hack's "sterling"
performance in the premier of "Voyage to the Bottom of the
Acting Talent Pool."
Things we didn't know at the time, but which JMS has revealed,
shed new light on some aspects of Tamlyn Tomita's performance,
and why she may have acted it as she did. More than that,
I'll have to wait until I see the pilot again. The first
time, her performance did not stick out to me as being either
exceptionally good or execptionally bad. I liked the
character, though, and hope she turns up again.
--
Mike Van Pelt | What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth?
m...@netcom.com | Judging from realistic simulations involving a
KE6BVH | sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we
| can assume it will be pretty bad. -- Dave Barry
Roger Crew
>
Eek! Nothing against Tomita's looks or Christian's acting, but...
MORE UGLY WOMEN, PLEASE!
I'll take ugly women who can actually act over
models who only think they can.
--
Roger Crew OBEY MARRY AND REPRODUCE CONSUME STAY ASLEEP
Usenet: {arpa gateways, decwrl, uunet, rutgers}!cs.stanford.edu!crew
Internet: cr...@CS.Stanford.EDU
james r yingst
>
>Things we didn't know at the time, but which JMS has revealed,
>shed new light on some aspects of Tamlyn Tomita's performance,
>and why she may have acted it as she did.
If you're referring to the revelations about Takashima (sp?) possibly
betraying Sinclair et al, I'm pretty sure JMS indicated that Tamlyn had
not been aware of these facts about her character. Something about
wanting to preserve the "freshness" and "innocence" of her portrayal,
I think it was. Thus the hint about Takashima's other motivations
cannot be used as an excuse for Tamlyn's acting (assuming one is needed.)
Of course if I am in error on this, I trust Joe can step in to correct
me. :)
Personally I was one of those less than thrilled with Tamlyn's performance,
so I am not sorry she is gone. I notice she is in "The Joy Luck Club,"
which I haven't yet seen, and I hope I'll get a more favorable impression
of her acting when I do go to see it. The same goes for Roslyn (sp?)
Chao, a.k.a. Keiko on DS9, who is also in "Joy". (Ooh, look! A Trek-B5
connection! Someone go interview them to see how well they got along
during filming!) :-)
Jim Yingst
yin...@gas.uug.arizona.edu
Somebody
>Starman (ren...@teak.njit.edu) wrote:
>> ...and WHY did they get rid of Ms. Tomita???????????????
>on until I see them in action, but it's just not physically possible for
>anyone to act worse than Ms. Tomita did.
>Sorry. Just had to get that off my chest.
Watch MST3k on CC tonight [friday] for some bad acting. Watch it again
Monday for some worse acting.
After watching, I dare you stand by your comment about bad acting :)
Bonus points if you can stay awake through the Castle of Fu Manchu :)
Dean Adams
strac...@genie.geis.com says...
>Tamlyn's a terrific performer...and she wasn't entirely happy with her
>performance. It's not the kind of role she is really used to playing.
>Which is not to say that at some point she might not return to the
>show in a different capacity....
I was impressed with her "performance" and some of her answers during
the B5 satellite tour, so perhaps that left me less inclined to join
in on the "frenzy" of Takishima-bashing that went on a while back.
I didn't think she was really all that bad...
But I was a LOT more sorry to hear that Patricia Tallman was
not coming back. I thought she was great, and really nailed
her character in quite a few scenes...
Jonathan Richards
> Watch MST3k on CC tonight [friday] for some bad acting. Watch it again
> Monday for some worse acting.
I would, except that our lame cable company doesn't carry that channel. :-)
--
Jonathan Richards
littl...@nwu.edu
"When will I learn? The answers to life's problems aren't at the
bottom of a bottle. They're on TV!"
vbcs...@vax.csun.edu
that HD TV is supposed to be better resolution than the current standard.
How does this starndard compare to my computer's 1024x768x256 mode?
Ron Jarrell
: Please explaain this 16x9 or 16:9 , whatever it is! I do understand
: that HD TV is supposed to be better resolution than the current standard.
: How does this starndard compare to my computer's 1024x768x256 mode?
1024x768x256 refers to 1024 pixels across, 768 down, and 256 colors.
TV has a heck of a lot more than 256 colors.
It doesn't relate much, except for this: if you express it as a ratio
of width to height: 1024:768, you get an aspect of about 1.3 times wider
than it is tall.
16:9 is about 1.7 times wider than it is tall.
Seen pictures of the widescreen TVs? HDTV, and similar standards, are
designed to be able to deliver a much wider pictures than the standard
TV screens 1.3:1.
If you've ever seen a letterboxed movie (one with the black bands at the
top and bottom), well, those are done because really wide screen movies
are shot at better than 2:1 (look at a theatre screen some time and compare
it to your TV.)
A widescreen TV can show many letter boxed movies in the more natural (for
film) wide rectangle, and dump the borders.
So when HDTV, or the letterboxed LD's come out, you'll be able to see even
MORE of the scene; the little stuff that Joe's director of photography,
set designers, and director stuck in on the sides. The main action,
of course, is taking place in that middle 1.3:1 rectangle that we all see;
but I'm sure there's some good bits waiting to be revealed off screen, but
not off tape..
Scott Emery
I just read the _Grid_Epsilon_log_, and was very
impressed by JMS's concept of a "Casablanca in space".
Casablanca always brings images to my mind of little
dark corners where nifty spy-like things are probably
going on. If you could just manage to overhear what
they were saying in the booth next to you, you could
make a fortune, or save somebody's life.
I like the atmosphere, but I have a question:
How DARK is it going to be?
Some shows are so consistently DARK that it is
downright depressing to watch them - and I usually
don't, even if the rest of the show is good.
Other shows are so consistently LIGHT that after a
while it gets numbingly *boring* (do you ever feel
that way about a certain wagon train to the stars?)
I don't mind "dipping into the darkness" in an episode
(something that STTNG hasn't done nearly enough,
IMHO) but there has to be a premise of hope for
the future-either for the race or the individual.
The Grid Epsilon Log made me think that *maybe* this
is what JMS and company are going to do. My
impression is that in the B-5 universe they're not living
in a perfect world, but it's not a radition-strewn toxic
waste dump either. The race has managed to do OK in
the last couple-hundred years and just might survive
for a couple hundred more.
It also seems that JMS has put an awful lot of thought into
the characters in the show. NO CARDBOARD CUTOUTS.
(But hopefully he's not going to the other extreme
either, by making everybody into headcases with gobs
of problems sticking to them.)
Starting out with good characters is a plus, and if I read
things right, it looks like the characters will even get to
GROW in this show. "Johnny grows up" is one of the
strongest story elements because everyone can relate
to it. The main characters don't seem to grow or change
much in the "wagon train" show: I hope they do in
"Casblanca".
Anyway, it's an opinion.
Good luck JMS.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Emery | Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.
(Yeah, we do real-time graphics. We have systems
that make Video Toasters look silly, but they cost
Five million dollars. Oh well. In a year or so we'll
have it down to under a million. -Then I can buy one
for my kids!)
Sem...@tau.sim.es.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
strac...@genie.geis.com
jms
msch...@eagle.wesleyan.edu
> --
> I like the atmosphere, but I have a question:
> How DARK is it going to be?
Joe has said, somewhere back a long the line, that it seems to be
averaging out to about 2 serious episodes, followed by one lighter episode.
And overall, the feeling is of hope, even if it gets rather dark at times...
<g>
Matt
msch...@eagle.wesleyan.edu
GEnie: M.SCHMITT4