Tamlyn Tomita's acting in B5 The Gathering
Is it just me, or his her acting really bad in this B5 pilot? It feels kind of bland, without emotion.
shareProbably why they replaced her in the series with Ivanova, which was an excellent decision.
share
MovieChat Forums > The Gathering (1993) Discussion > Tamlyn Tomita's acting in B5 The Gatheri...
I thought everyones acting was a bit bland. In the series the actors really grew in their characters.
sharewhile Tamlyn Tomita did ok, Claudia was simply able to produce a much better character. Does anyone know what happened to Tamlyn's character (was she sent off on another transfer, killed off, did she leave because she realised that Ivanova was 'God' etc)
share>>Does anyone know what happened to Tamlyn's character (was she sent off on another transfer, killed off, did she leave because she realised that Ivanova was 'God' etc)<<
Evidently JMS had toyed with the idea of bringing her back in some capacity, possibly as a one-time-only guest star or something. As such he didn't talk about her too much because her character was still "Open" and might possibly recur.
He did mention that she was re-assigned, and also (much later) he mentioned that she was intended to be revealed as a traitor, had she stayed on the show. So presumably she would have been the one that shot Garibaldi in the back, but no one on the show would have known it until she was revealed much later on as a traitor in late season 2 or early season 3. (A bit of suppositon on my part there, but not too much)
She was going to be the one who shot Garibaldi in the back & also would have been the "traitor" that Talia eventually became, thanks to her implanted "control" personality. It's not clear weather or not it would have involved mind control and implanted personalities or just her having other loyalties. Of course we don't know how much of that JMS had already planned out; he does like to be rather coy about what was planned from the start and what parts he came up with mid story.
I do know that JMS says he always planned on loosing her and replacing her with Ivanova. Susan's origional introduction was going to be the story arc that eventually became Corwin; an operations officer who starts out in the background saying things like "unknown object emerging from the jump gate, Commander" who slowly develops into an important character who they have to decide weather or not to bring in on their "conspiracy of light."
Personally I would have liked to have seen her character return in "Severed Dreams" as the captain of the Alexander, who dies in a suicide run on an attacking Earth force destroyer. It would have been a harder hit for those of us who followed the show from the beginning.
I also wonder if she was considered to return in season 5 to replace Ivanova after Claudia Christian left because of contract disputes.
It was planned, as Takeshima's handprint ID appears on screen when the assassin enters a set of quarters. You have to freeze-frame, but you can see it.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
The whole pilot was bland and dry. I am surprised it was every approved for a season but so glad it was...
Compare the Gathering's acting with the acting in the Battlesar Galactica remake pilot...and imagine what they could do today with Babylon 5 if they had a budget and better directors (they already have the best writer: JMS!)
Don't be too hard on the pilot. At the time this was like nothing we had seen before.
I am watching the "special edition" now. While it fits more neatly with the series, I am not a fan. It just seems wrong. The scenes I am used to have been cut or removed. The new ones seem out of place.
I think she just got a lot of bad lines, plus they overemphasized how Japanese her character was. I mean come on, a bamboo flute? Okay I get it she's Asian!
I absolutely hated Michael O'Hare from the start. I was so glad when Boxleitner showed up. I mean if you can get out-acted by Bruce Boxleitner, you need to hang up your acting gloves immediately.
I just watched it again today, noticed Ed Wasser (Morden) in it as a B5 technican, but as one of the posters said or most did, the pilot was pretty dry, I guess cause was trying to explain the whole concept and idea of the series to everyone.
Thank god thought they changed the makeup on Delenn, in the pilot it really is...
I agree on all counts, Savage.
This is the only thing I ever liked Boxleitner in.
Carpe Noctem!
I think O'Hare gets a bit of a bad rap. He was wrong for the "action hero" role that Boxleitner fulfilled, but he was fine as a station commander and for a spiritual human who become Valen.. Sinclair worked better as a secondary character/guest star, rather than the series lead.
If you ask me, JMS got the backgrounds a bit mixed up, based on my experience as a Naval officer. Sinclair was supposed to be the fighter pilot, but he was rather reserved and thoughtful, while military fighter pilots tend to be very self-confident and often boisterous. Sheridan was supposed to be a "ship driver", yet his personality better fit a fighter jock. Ship commanders tend to be a bit more analytical and reserved, compared to fighter jocks, so Sinclair always seemed more like ship driver, to me.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
Yeah, the acting was somewhat bland and uninspired, but so was the whole cast. It may have been premature to replace her because with time she would have grown into the part. The series was great but there were some executive decisions that should not have been made. Tamlyn Tomita's being replaced was one that could be excused but the male lead several episodes into the first season?
Barack Obama 2008!!!
It was very wooden, but no one was all that good.
They mostly come out at night . . . mostly . . .
The suits at Warner Brothers decided that her original performance was too butch, and ordered that she rerecord all her lines to sound more feminine. She and Joe Straczynski were furious about this, but them that has the gold makes the rules. Naturally, the result was less than ideal.
shareThey were all a bit wooden especially Tomita, but to me Tallman was the worst of all. It's incredible how much better the series was than this.
shareTomita's spectacular woodenness had little to do with re-looping. She just couldn't deliver a line. She practically paused after every word and placed emphasis in all the. wrong. places. That's when she was paying attention (see the scene in her quarters with Johnny Sekka). Her robo-acting is one of the guilty joys of watching the pilot and reason enough to return to it every now and then.
shareActing: 2-3. Character: 8-9
Claudia Christian was much better at this. Same kind of character, though. Everyone in the pilot was pretty bad, with a few exceptions (Peter Jurasik did okay). I think the show still would've been good if she'd remained, but they would have had to make changes... substantial changes, but not quite to the Asian-woman-becomes-white-Russian-woman extreme.
Sickness will surely take the mime where mimes can't usually go.
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