Babylon Who

[GreyLord]

I didn't really care for B5. The best season was season 4. If I recall, Straczynski wrote most of that season. He is at his best when he has a single solitary solid plotline that goes continuously through, if that season is any indication. Season 5 falls off the cliff abominably.

It could be interesting if he took over Who. First, there's the entire fan backlash of the final episode that we saw last...still not sure how they will recover from it. It's an interesting premise they raised there, but destroying Gallifrey yet again probably doesn't sit well, especially the way they did it (Gallifrey basically fell more easily than Earth or almost any other planet for no good reason or logic from what I can tell...and I think there are others who are FAR more unsettled [or even upset] about how it was handled).

They've written themselves into a hole they have.

How they get out of it in the next season could leave me wondering if they would do better turning it over to him or not.

I think if he does become the lead that he could write a stellar plot going through the series. As long as it's one continuous plot episode after another (similar to season 4) he probably could do decently. It's the stand alone episodes that I'd be concerned about.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

JMS couldn't afford to live on what the BBC would pay him.

 

[Staffan]

I didn't really care for B5. The best season was season 4. If I recall, Straczynski wrote most of that season. He is at his best when he has a single solitary solid plotline that goes continuously through, if that season is any indication. Season 5 falls off the cliff abominably.

Straczynski wrote every episode of seasons 3, 4, and 5 except one, which was written by Neil Gaiman (Day of the Dead, the episode with Penn & Teller as comedy duo Rebo & Zooty, plus assorted spooky stuff). The issues with season 5 can, I think, be traced to two things:

1. Padding. The original plan was to have season 4 end with Sheridan being captured by Earthforce, with the final episode of season 4 being Intersections in Real Time (the interrogation episode). Season 5 would then have had a structure similar to season 4, with the previous plot being resolved in episode 6ish. But instead, season 4 finished off at a breakneck pace and left season 5 hanging, so they had to pad that out a bit.
2. Ivanova. Because of various issues, contract negotiations with Claudia Christian broke down, so she wasn't in season 5 (except for Sleeping In Light, which was shot as part of season 4). This meant that the station needed a new captain, which became Elizabeth Lochley, and that took some getting used to. Ivanova's intended arc for season 5 was then split between Lochley and Lyta (the Byron romance was originally going to be with Ivanova).

As for continuous plotlines, my preference is for a mix of "Big plot" episodes with smaller, more personal ones. I think Babylon 5 did pretty well on this front. The way I see it, the non-plot episodes are where we get to know the characters, which is why we care about what happens to them in the "big plot" episodes. Take Parliament of Dreams, for example. It's not an episode where much of import happens. But we learn some things about the Centauri (one of their major holidays is the celebration of a genocidal war against another species they used to share Centauri Prime with). We learn the Narn have a professional assassin class, and that using them is a semi-accepted part of politics. We meet the new attaches Na'Toth and Lennier, and we learn that (a) Delenn is titled Satai, and (b) she wants to keep that secret. We also meet Catherine Sakai, commander Sinclair's on-again/off-again girlfriend. Those are all things that tell us things about those characters, and bring us closer to them. This is something Straczynski has demonstrated mastery of, and something I think he could bring to Doctor Who.

 

[Umbran]

I didn't really care for B5. The best season was season 4. If I recall, Straczynski wrote most of that season. He is at his best when he has a single solitary solid plotline that goes continuously through, if that season is any indication. Season 5 falls off the cliff abominably.

So, let us remember what happened here. JMS started with a 5 year plan for the series arc, in great detail. Between Seasons 3 and 4, the studio (Warner Brothers) decided that they were going to end after the 4th season. So, JMS wrote Season 4 assuming it would be the last one, accelerating the storyline to complete major plot arcs, and they produced that season.

But then, TNT came in to pick up the show, and they were given a season 5 again... after he'd resolved the central arcs, and he had to re-expand the show to fill another season. If you think Season 5 is a bit lackluster, that's why.

 

[Hex08]

Why not? You were happy to level similar accusations at the network. What I stated matches my memory of what happened at the time, and I was a massive B5 fan then, and keeping as much in the loop as possible.

Here is a collection of news articles documenting what seems to have happened.
Crusade Cancellation

 

[MarkB]

Here is a collection of news articles documenting what seems to have happened.
Crusade Cancellation

Yeah, I remember all the stuff about the studio wanting lots of changes. But I also remember how, even right from the start, there was a complete disconnect between the type of show JMS was producing and the type of show TNT actually broadcast.

One interpretation is that they didn't know what they wanted, and kept coming up with new demands for the show. Another is that they very much did know what they wanted, and kept trying to drag him back to delivering the type of show they'd originally been told they'd be getting.

 

[Umbran]

One interpretation is that they didn't know what they wanted, and kept coming up with new demands for the show. Another is that they very much did know what they wanted, and kept trying to drag him back to delivering the type of show they'd originally been told they'd be getting.

Except, of course, that wasn't the kind of show B5 had been, or that JMS had been involved with. His other big live-action credits at the time had been the new Twilight Zone, Jake and the Fatman, and Murder, She Wrote - he wasn't known for action and sex. The network would have been dumb to ask him to make that kind of show, because he had no history in doing so successfully.

But, you can go ahead and believe what you like.

 

[Staffan]

Except, of course, that wasn't the kind of show B5 had been, or that JMS had been involved with. His other big live-action credits at the time had been the new Twilight Zone, Jake and the Fatman, and Murder, She Wrote - he wasn't known for action and sex.

I don't know. This scene was pretty steamy.

 

[Ryujin]

I don't know. This scene was pretty steamy.

Claudia Christian has pulled off some stellar comedy moments, over the years, and her deadpan delivery as Ivanova was always excellent. Pit about "Starhyke."

 

[Umbran]

I don't know. This scene was pretty steamy.

I said "wasn't" because, well, have you seen Sense8?