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• B5 & Lensmen

  joethebow > February 8th, 2005, 09:29 PM

  Hi guys, I'm new to this site but I'm a great fan of B5. It's not on TV right now and I'm reduced to watching SG1 but I know which show I'd rather watch.
  
  Anyway, I'm an old boy and in my youth I was a great fan of E E 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series and I always regreted that no one ever made a TV series or Films of the series, apart from an awful anime movie.
  
  That was untill I watched B5 and there were so many similarities that I feel JMS must have based B5, in part at least, on Lensman.
  
  In both there were 2 ancient races, good and evil, Humans played a pivotal roll. Rangers are simmilar to lensmen, It goes on and on.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take anything away from B5 I just wondered if anyone else had read Lensmen and had made the connection?

• B5 & Lensmen

  Arcadia > February 8th, 2005, 09:46 PM

  Welcome to SF-Fandom, Joethebow!
  
  I never read lensmen. You have an interesting theory about B5 and lensmen.

• B5 & Lensmen

  joethebow > February 8th, 2005, 09:56 PM

  If you havn't read Lensman you're missing a real treat. Doc wasn't a great writer by any means and his language left a lot to be desired but the story, well, it was a galactic space opera with huge intergalactic battles, a timeline, and interesting characters you'll never come across elsewhere, except perhaps B5.
  
  You can download the books from the Gnutella network, they're well worth reading.

• B5 & Lensmen

  Arcadia > February 8th, 2005, 10:43 PM

  Thanks for the tip !

• B5 & Lensmen

  inked > February 9th, 2005, 12:08 PM

  EE "Doc" Smith's works are excellent! I read them in the 1960's and have continually kept them in my personal library (replacing them now 3 times due to moves and water damage, etc). The Science Fiction Book Club has anthology editions available for THE LENSMEN series and the SKYLARK series.
  For sheer joy of reading science fiction, I highly recommend them! I last re-read them about 2 years ago!
  
  In my adolescence when I first read them, I wrote a fan letter to EE Smith. He had died but I received a lovely surprise in a handwritten response from his widow. I had suggested in my letter that a movie or series would be an excellent idea. That idea had been considered but was not active, if I recall the letter correctly now 35 years later. Of course, at that time, special FX were not what they are today.
  
  The japanese anime were very disappointing to me when I saw them. I think in the proper director's hands and with a sufficient budget for CGI, a very excellent and entertaining and profitable movie franchise is possible. Anyone heard any news in this regard?

• B5 & Lensmen

  Arcadia > February 9th, 2005, 05:07 PM

  This is a thread from the Babylon 5 Forum that I thought might be interesting to others who might find it in this forum.

• B5 & Lensmen

  SeaBoe > February 10th, 2005, 06:51 PM

  Doc's estate was managed for many, many years by his daughter, Verna Smith Trestrail. Since her death, I believe it's been in the hands of her son, Kim.
  
  The "awful anime" movie was made **WITHOUT** Verna's permission and against her wishes.
  
  Seaboe
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