A new B5 series on the horizon?

[Harvey]

I think it was the AFC Championship game, not the Superbowl, that the pilot went against, but, yeah, not a brilliant scheduling plan by the Sci-Fi Channel.

This all seems to be much ado about nothing to me. There was a deal, it fell totally apart. I'll believe there's new B5 when I see it.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Easy solution: Recruit new writers. There's no law which says that JMS has to write almost 100% of the episodes again (except for his tendency to be a control freak).

Easy solution to what? He requires creative control (and I'm fine with that) but we don't know whether JMS planned to write most of the episodes for the failed project or not. And there's no easy solution or magic formula to something actually getting to the point of filming.

Jan

Easy solution to get new and fresh ideas on the show.

 

[Reverend]

^B5 has been many things, but I don't think it's ever been lacking in the ideas department.

 

[Jan]

^^Anyway, you need a show in order to need different writers.

At the MIT appearance a couple of years ago, JMS admitted that he allowed himself to be talked into things like the Lost Tales, despite an entirely inadequate budget, due to his love for the universe. Now he's realized that he needs to love it enough to stand his ground and ensure that whatever might come in the future will enhance the B5 legacy. I say, don't presume he's gone stale until you see what he does with a proper budget on a B5 project. I'm pretty sure that it'll blow us away.

Jan

 

[Triple-F]

Sorry, but you don’t need a big budget to tell a good story.

If the story requires cgi, a lot of extras, stunt men etc. and you don’t have the budget, then change the story! 12 Angry Men, Rope, Rear Window, purely dialog led stories with cleverly introduced narative. Hell, half of twilight zone fits into that category as well.

If you can’t tell a story without relying on visual gimmicks, then maybe that says something.

 

[nickyboy]

what's going on with Michael O'Hare?

 

[Sindatur]

what's going on with Michael O'Hare?

No one knows except those who suspected, and now that it's confirmed, they can help him, I believe.

But those non-specifics could fit 1000 scenarios, so no reason to knock yourself out theorizing.

JMS was concerned and now he's called off the search.

 

[Jan]

Sorry, but you don’t need a big budget to tell a good story.

If the story requires cgi, a lot of extras, stunt men etc. and you don’t have the budget, then change the story! 12 Angry Men, Rope, Rear Window, purely dialog led stories with cleverly introduced narative. Hell, half of twilight zone fits into that category as well.

If you can’t tell a story without relying on visual gimmicks, then maybe that says something.

Yeah, it's so easy to write a space battle without showing it. And you've actually made JMS's point - he wants to tell the best stories he can, not the ones affordable under an unreasonable budget.

But do get back to us when you've written as much as he has, okay?

what's going on with Michael O'Hare?

Unknown. Something caused JMS to become concerned and he enlisted the fan community to help him get in touch after convetional methods failed. He came back to say that Michael had been located but whatever the concern was turned out to be true. Fans are sending their best wishes but otherwise not speculating.

Jan

 

[timothy]

so are we talking reboot to the series set after crusade or a prelude story dealing with babylon 4? either way I am excited about what ever comes fortwith.

 

[JediKnightButler]

what's going on with Michael O'Hare?

No one knows except those who suspected, and now that it's confirmed, they can help him, I believe.

Did a Vorlon issue that press release or did JMS (or is there even a difference)?

 

[JoeD80]

Some cuts from a comment on Joe's facebook:

Re: B5...the studio offered a full season of a new and rebooted B5 as part of a new distribution venue they were creating
...
The negotiations...dragged on for over a year, we were told repeatedly this is going to happen, but finally, the participants couldn't make the math work. So we and the other three shows that they were hoping to put out there got set aside.
...
But again, B5 was never created to be a Deep Space Franchise, we wanted to do our 5 years and get out clean. That was my intent going into this, and if that's where this ends up, I'm happy to stick with that.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Wow. I don't know if I would be interested in seeing a rebooted "Babylon 5". The original is fine as it is. If JMS can't think of anything else original to do in his original universe then it's probably to admit that it's finished. Especially if he's not willing to explore other avenues like web series, comics, or books...but then maybe I'm overreacting to this news that it was a reboot he was working on.

 

[Reverend]

He also states: -

...At this point, I've told the studio that if this isn't going to move ahead, there's something else they need to consider and there's a very informal negotiation going on now in that regard. We'll see where it goes from there....

What this "something else" is and who this very informal negotiation is being held is anyone's guess.

Either way, I'm genuinely surprised that he'd go for the reboot option (assuming reboot means a square one remake.)

what's going on with Michael O'Hare?

No one knows except those who suspected, and now that it's confirmed, they can help him, I believe.

Did a Vorlon issue that press release or did JMS (or is there even a difference)?

Whatever is or is not going on with O'Hare, it's none of our business. End of discussion.

Sorry, but you don’t need a big budget to tell a good story.

If the story requires cgi, a lot of extras, stunt men etc. and you don’t have the budget, then change the story! 12 Angry Men, Rope, Rear Window, purely dialog led stories with cleverly introduced narative. Hell, half of twilight zone fits into that category as well.

If you can’t tell a story without relying on visual gimmicks, then maybe that says something.

Yeah, it's so easy to write a space battle without showing it. And you've actually made JMS's point - he wants to tell the best stories he can, not the ones affordable under an unreasonable budget.

But do get back to us when you've written as much as he has, okay?

Now now you two, you're both right. Yes, it's true that a good story is a good story and the minimum you should really need to tell it is with ink on a page...but that's what they call a novel, not a TV show.

If you want something that involves a cast, sets, spaceships and music then you're going to have to hire people and that costs money. We've seen with Lost Tales what happens with B5 on an inadequate budget. The stories were modest, contained and character driven, what few actors there were did their usual best but there's no getting away from the fact that on what's supposed to be a city in space on the eve of a massive party, the place looked like a ghost town...or rather a ghost alley and door, since there wasn't enough set for a whole "town".

An adequate budget for a B5 series is not about being able to dazzle people with short attention spans, it's about having enough money to build enough sets, to hire enough extras to fill out the Zocalo, to pay the effects people to render more than just a handful of establishing shots. In short, enough to make a decent *show*. If story is all that's really important then we'd all still be crowding round the 'ole wireless, using our imaginations while listening to the Goon Show and getting paranoid about invaders from Mars.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Pretty much everything B5 after the original show has been dreadfully mediocre. Legend of the Rangers, the Lost Tales, River of Souls, etc.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'd definitely be interested in a new show set in the B5 Universe, but not a reboot-- there's no need of a reboot.

 

[SPCTRE]

This kinda scares me, I don't want to get my hopes up for nothing...

Same here

 

[JoeD80]

Probably should have made this part clear. Joe had his guarantees from WB; it was the deal between WB and their distribution system that couldn't be worked out:

The negotiations (not between us but between the participants of the venue) dragged on for over a year

 

[Triple-F]

The Michael O’Hare thing, like the new B5 project thing, is an example of something jms just does. At least that’s what it looks like – it’s not like there isn’t enough examples of it happening over the years.

He could have easily said something like – Thanks folks just to let you know I got hold of Michael O’Hare so you can call off the search. ; )

Instead he wrote.

Michael's situation has been determined, and he's still among the living, which is the good news, but the things that concerned me enough to begin the search have been borne out. I realize that that's a "what the hell?" kind of statement, but that's all I can say about it for the time being.

There’s that “all I can say about it for the time being”, again. He’s a wordsmith with a degree in psychology, so why does he keep doing that I wonder. Especially with something like this which is almost certainly a deeply personal issue concerning, presumably, a friend.

Oh has anyone downloaded the new jms app. ; )
http://androiddev.orkitra.com/download/apps/?appid=6648727411280262239
The two 5 year stories that originally made up B5 may not have been intended to be a franchise, but those books about the show are starting to look a bit like one, what is that now 25, 30. ; )

As for writing sci-fi with a large budget. Yep, one would help, but LoTR didn’t suffer from a low budget, it suffered from a clichéd, unimaginative and at times rather poorly written story.

Sorry, it may not sound like it, but I am a fan of B5, I enjoyed jms’s work on it but when something is badly written, it’s badly written. Pointing at the poor scheduling of it’s tv release, or another pilot he wrote nearly 10 years earlier, doesn’t change that.

Up thread it was suggested, at least as B5 goes, jms doesn’t have anything new to say. With this new B5 project being a re-boot, and the quality of past examples the evidence does seem to indicate that. Which is cool! So maybe it’s time to let B5 (and maybe a few B5 fans) go. I’m sure it won’t effect the sales of the next B5 book too much. ; )

 

[Admiral_Young]

I wonder if the reboot would have depicted "Babylon 5" as Joe originally intended as revealed in the script books? That MIGHT be interesting. I really don't know how a rebooted "Babylon 5" would be. After thinking about this since I first read those cuts from the fan page I honestly do not like the notion of a reboot. "Babylon 5" in it's original form is the story that JMS intended to tell (aside from the obvious changes to his original story) I see no point or reason to RETELL them even in a different form.

 

[Sindatur]

I wonder if Reboot means start over again and retell from the beginning or if it simply means start it back up again. I could totally see him wanting to start over again with Crusade, but, it sounds odd for B5 Proper.