Principal Cast David Martel -- Dylan Neal Citizen G'Kar -- Andreas Katsulas Dulann -- Alex Zahara Sarah Cantrell -- Myriam Sirois Malcolm Bridges -- Dean Marshall Kitaro Sasaki -- Warren T. Takeuchi Na'Feel -- Jennie Rebecca Hogan Minister Kafta -- Mackenzie Gray Tafeek -- David Storch Firell -- Enid-raye Adams Tirk -- Gus Lynch Tannier -- Todd Sandomirsky Captain Bart Gregg -- Andrew A. Kavadas Minbari Crewman -- Simon Egan Sindell -- Bernard Cuffling Ranger -- Chris Robson Drazi Diplomat -- Rob Morton Cloaked Figure -- Eric Schneider Ratings Ratings are based on Rick's four star system. One star - the commercials are more entertaining than the viewing. Two stars - watch if you have nothing better to do. Three stars - good solid entertainment. Four stars - you never dreamed viewing could be this good.

Say it ain't so, Joe.

I remember reading an interview somewhere in which Joe Straczynski talks about calling up Harlan Ellison (before they had met) and saying, "Nobody will buy my stuff." And Harlan, ever the straight shooter, said, "That's because your stuff is shit."

And the story goes that J. Michael Straczynski then redoubled his efforts to not only write, but write stuff that was really good, and that's when he broke into television.

I wish he had remembered that lesson when he wrote "To Live and Die in Starlight", because it is not very good.

It is, for example, unacceptable to say, "Our new menace is just like the Shadows, but so much bigger and badder and older than the Shadows as to make the Shadows look small." That's not storytelling, that's writing on autopilot.

The whitebread hero has about as much personality as a vending machine, and the same goes for the obligatory one-of-each-suit crew. The new villains are uninteresting. The plot is an extended space battle. The subplot involves ghosts who cannot rest until their deaths are avenged. Really.

But the show is not a total loss, because it has G'Kar in it. All of the best parts of the script involve Narn or Drazi. G'Kar has more personality than all the other characters combined and the Drazi are always good for a laugh.

Also laughable, though unintentionally so, are the kung-fu space battles. I'm one of the few people I know who actually liked it when Riker broke out the Enterprise joy-stick, but chop socky space battles are too much even for me.

The big question is why? We know Straczynski can still write, because his comic book work is excellent. Was he too busy with other projects to give this one his full attention? That doesn't seem likely. This is his last best hope to get back into television. I do understand he has another pilot in the works, involving a plague that wipes out all the adults, leaving young people to try to rebuild civilization. Is he more interested in that than in Babylon 5? Or has he sold out? Did he look at the stellar ratings Enterprise is pulling down, and decide that fist fights and space battles is all the average viewer can handle? I hope not.

Quixotically, I hope enough people watched for the Sci-Fi Channel to turn Legend of the Rangers into a series. I'm assuming Straczynski's writing will improve if he can give the series his full attention. Meanwhile, we still have his Spiderman to look forward to.

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.