Babylon 5... reboot?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I’m not necessarily a fan of the “cameo” recastings, but the idea of Garret Wang as the new Bester? That has legs, IMHO.

Not sure why we get on to this particular Star Trek alumni, but considering who played Star Trek's Chekov in the Kelvin Timeline... It should obviously be Anton Yelchin. He even died way too early, fits right into a B5 cast.

Mustrum "Anton's fate always makes me particular sad - or angry - among the celebrity deaths, and I am just compensating with dark humor" Ridcully

 

[Mallus]

Who should replace Ellison as creative consultant? Ty Franck?

 

[Umbran]

Who should replace Ellison as creative consultant? Ty Franck?

I don't think that position will be needed this time around.

For the original, the overwhelming majority of the episodes were written by JMS himself (92 out of 110). In that situation, a writer can use someone to chew over ideas with - thus a creative consultant. But thirty years later, JMS is thirty years older. I don't know that he'll be personally in for that same kind of grueling pace, and maybe won't be writing quite so much of the story himself this time. That means having a writer's room - which means people to bounce ideas around with.

So, the question today may be - who will be in that writer's room?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It would be hard to replace Ellison, since many of the best great Sci-FiI writers similar to him also share with him the characteristic of being dead.

But I’m certain there are some young(er) guns out there up to the task. I wish I could suggest some, but most of my exposure to Ellison gas been through his work for TV & movies, not his actual writing.

If I were in his position and didn’t already have someone in mind, I’d start asking the editors for magazines like Asimov and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines, or anyone from the major genre awards committees for suggestions.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

As terrible as this is to bring up, I'm going to say it-

Babylon 5 was amazing.

B5 Crusade was ... less amazing. But you could blame TBS (or was it TNT), right?

The B5 Movies? Do we all remember those?

The first one was really, really good (In the Beginning). Then, they got progressively worse. By the time of The Lost Tales in 2007, with Lochley and demonic possession, it was scraping the bottom of the barrel.


....I guess what I'm trying to say is that while we can be cautiously and guardedly optimistic, past evidence is not proof that this is going to work out like we want.

 

[Willie the Duck]

As terrible as this is to bring up, I'm going to say it-

Babylon 5 was amazing.

B5 Crusade was ... less amazing. But you could blame TBS (or was it TNT), right?

The B5 Movies? Do we all remember those?

The first one was really, really good (In the Beginning). Then, they got progressively worse. By the time of The Lost Tales in 2007, with Lochley and demonic possession, it was scraping the bottom of the barrel.


....I guess what I'm trying to say is that while we can be cautiously and guardedly optimistic, past evidence is not proof that this is going to work out like we want.

I'm going to say even further -- Babylon 5 was amazing... when it was amazing. The other times... we usually gloss over them, or there's always an excuse -- actors stopped being available, network interference, the show was cancelled and then un-cancelled (of course there's no reason to believe that a reboot wouldn't have some or all of these things, or other similar issues). Babylon 5 is not unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that every time I run into a super-fan, their response is something akin to, "I love that show, except for...[something different for each one, but always something]." It is a flawed gem, with some really great pieces and some low parts as well (just less worst than other genre shows, where the low point is 'that one super-racist first season episode' or 'that one where a supposed good guy does something unforgivable but it's kinda forgotten later'). Perhaps worst of all for a reboot is that some of the most universally acclaimed parts of the original are the cast chemistry, individual actor talent, and specific moments or speeches (all things that could show up in a new project, but there's no specific reason to think so simply because it is nu-B5). Much like Firefly, it isn't the premise or the plot that was earth-shakingly brilliant, it was the particulars of the execution, which is a lot harder to replicate in a reboot (or at the very least, are not inherent to the property).

More power to JMS in getting this off the ground. I hope it does well. If it doesn't, it will not for me detract from the mostly-brilliant series he gave us in the 90s. I will always have that for which to thank him.

 

[Stalker0]

The B5 Movies? Do we all remember those?

In the Beginning was great. Honestly thirdspace was decent, I really loved the alien ships that had shields! Showed just how powerful that is, even if the shields themselves could only take 1 hit in most cases.

The rest.....yeah pretty bad.

 

[payn]

I really like Tony Curran in all the parts i've seen him in. I think he could fit into a nu-B5 somewhere.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Never got to see but maybe one of the movies.

Crusade suffered for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was it commonly got shuffled around the broadcast schedule, at least in our market. Several times I tuned in, only to find a repeat…and then later discovered the new episode was being broadcast later.

I thought it had real potential, but unlike B5 and other shows, wasn’t given time to really find its lace.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

In the Beginning was great. Honestly thirdspace was decent, I really loved the alien ships that had shields! Showed just how powerful that is, even if the shields themselves could only take 1 hit in most cases.

The rest.....yeah pretty bad.

In the Beginning ... I remember the first time seeing they Minbari War sequence and getting chills.

The rest ... I mean, Thirdspace was mediocre, and it was definitely the best one by far!