The SF Site: Babylon 5.1 by Rick Norwood

Babylon 5.1
by Rick Norwood

SF on TV

Websites
Other Babylon 5.1 Columns
For more information, you can try the following sites:
Rick Norwood's Website
Worldwide TV Schedule
The Official Babylon 5 Website
The X-Files
Pocket Books: Star Trek
Paramount Star Trek

Ratings
Ratings are based on a four star system.
One star means that the commercials are more entertaining than the program.
Two stars watch if you have nothing better to do.
Three stars is good solid entertainment.
Four stars means you never dreamed television could be this good.

Star Trek XI, coming in 2008, will feature Kirk and Spock at Space Academy and their first space mission together. Berman & Braga are out. Lost's J.J. Abrams is in. If they do it right, it could be a lot of fun. By "right" I mean a great script that respects series lore and real actors instead of pretty boys in the lead roles. On the other hand, the writers', Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, also wrote The Legend of Zorro and The Island. Not encouraging. For a preview of the talent involved, see Mission Impossible 3, which has the same writers and director.

Christopher Eccleston is beginning to win me over in the role of the Doctor. I'm beginning to see just how needy the character is, how unlike the totally independent and sublimely confident previous incarnations of the Doctor, before Gallifrey and the other Time Lords were destroyed. Of course, just as I'm starting to like him, he is on his way out, and we will be seeing in his place David Tennant, and the promised return of Sarah Jane and K-9. I have to admit I never particularly cared for either.

What to watch in May? Hugo-nominated episodes and a series finale.

May 4
Smallville, "Oracle" by Caroline Dries

May 5
Doctor Who, "The Empty Child" by Steven Moffat, part 1 of 2, Hugo nominee

May 11
Smallville, "Vessel" by Kelly Souders & Brian Paterson, season finale.

May 12
Doctor Who, "The Doctor Dances" by Steven Moffat, part 2 of 2, Hugo nominee

May 19
Doctor Who, "Boom Town" by Russell T. Davies

May 26
Doctor Who, "Bad Wolf" by Russell T. Davies, part 1 of 2.

Coming in June, the new Doctor.

Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon.