HAMMER TIME FOR B5 : LEGEND OF THE RANGERS? 

Babylon 5 fans have been anxiously waiting the final word on the future of the new B 5 series, B5 Legend Of The Rangers, this month they may have gotten as good an answer as they'll ever get.

Ever since January fans have been waiting for news on the fate of the new series.

A heart breaking blow was felt when the pilot tele-movie, "B5 : Legend Of the Rangers To Live And Die In Starlight," got only a 1.7 Neilson rating when it ran unexpectedly against the NFL play offs.

Then on April 2, 2002 came the SciFi Channel press releases on shows for the new season. B5 Legend Of The Rangers ( B5LR ) was conspicuously absent.

 This was followed on April 4, 2002 by a newsgroup post by the creator, Joseph Michael Straczynski ( JMS ) that, "The SciFi Channel has indicated that it's moving away from space shows, with all the hardware / alien stuff that goes with it. (This as per its recent announcement about upcoming shows.)"

The SciFi Channel has been silent on the issue. So we went to the fans to see what they think.

Billy Bob: " ' Moving away from space shows?"  What are they thinking? Next they'll call it the Medium Horror Channel !"

Janet : I knew this was coming.  When they ran the "SciFi.com The Future is now" commercial during re-runs of B5 but changed it to, " SciFi.com The Future is No," That was a big clue.

Weird Al : "We knew man.  The weekend after the pilot the Hammer lady was at the car wash.  She went in with B5 wrap and came out without it.  I said to myself, "Like wow, Hammer I am Super Freaked."

Weird Bob : "A definite bummer man and we weren't the only fans on a downer.  The next day Hammer drove by with the car wrapped in "Firestater" wrap.  The Fire Department guys weren't down with that.  They blew that away with the hose, and well you could say the 'hosed' the car.  You'd have to see it to believe it man.  They trashed the sucker."

Did you say anything to them?

Weird Bob : "Like yah, I said "U Can’t Touch This !"  Didn't work for me anymore than it did for the other Hammer guy.  Pretty bad Rap Man."

We'll continue to follow the story, but it doesn't look good.

Published on : April 28, 2002
Updated : June 26, 2002

Bonnie Hammer

Opps !