A new B5 series on the horizon?

[Neroon]

I can't see a reboot of B5 working, for one particular reason: Andreas Katsulas. How can you tell the story of B5 without G'Kar, and how can you have G'kar without Andreas?

Maybe I'm cold-blooded, but I can see it working without Katsulas, without G'Kar even. B5 to me goes beyond any one character and certainly beyond any one actor's interpretation of that character.

After seeing a character I'd always assumed was the most unrecastable of all - Spock - successfully recast, I'm very open minded about reboots, especially in the case where the actors are simply too old to reprise their roles, or have passed on, and therefore there's no shame in a reboot (even if it's a mild one, involving only recasting of existing roles).

I'd love to see more on the Telepath War and the Psi Corps.

Then I wouldn't call it a "reboot" so much as a "revival". Semantics, perhaps, but that original story just strikes me as needing G'Kar too much to be told without him. And as said before jms would never have the character of G'Kar without Andreas playing that role.


ETA: Don't get me wrong - I'm so eager for new B5 material that I'd give a reboot a shot. It just would not be my preferred way to go.

 

[Yoda]

Ahh, so the shhhh it's so secret maybe Babylon 5 project that just needed the Ts crossed suffered a massive pen fumble right at the end as usual and it isn't JMS's fault at all because all he ever does is tell the bestest stories and fight the man! What a shock

I'll give JMS this though, even though he isn't putting out jack shit that I'm actually interested in, he is still managing to be entertaining in his own way. No matter how much his homeboy Clint acknowledges his existence, or how much the Jans of the world display their creepy devotion, he'll always be hilariously insecure and come off as an ass.

Thanks JMS!

Eagerly awaiting the next B5 project,

Yoda

 

[Neroon]

No matter how much his homeboy Clint acknowledges his existence, or how much the Jans of the world display their creepy devotion

Cool it with the negative references to other members of this bbs.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Personally, I'd love a New Earth series, starring the million-years-later energy-being humans--one of whom, I'd bet, is David Sheridan. I don't expect this to happen.

A miniseries around the assorted time frames of 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars' would be fun. I'd enjoy an arc about rebuilding Earth after the great burn.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ That would be very cool I agree.

 

[Neroon]

Personally, I'd love a New Earth series, starring the million-years-later energy-being humans--one of whom, I'd bet, is David Sheridan. I don't expect this to happen.

A miniseries around the assorted time frames of 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars' would be fun. I'd enjoy an arc about rebuilding Earth after the great burn.

^ That would be very cool I agree.

Ditto. I always found that episode to be intriguing.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Actually I think the Burning Earth/New Earth stuff could be good for further "Lost Years" material but doubt that would happen.

 

[DarKush]

But at some point it rather comes off as pathetic. Fortunately he's found other stuff to do so it's not like he's fallen through the cracks and is desperate to revitalize his career but after 10+ years i'd give it a rest, enjoy fan admiration from time to time at B5 cons and move on.

Why not also look at the novel or comics route? I wonder if Dynamite, BOOM, or IDW, for example, if not Dark Horse would be interested in a B5 miniseries? That way you won't have to reboot or recast or whatever.

Though I'm not opposed to a reboot, despite it not having the original G'Kar and Londo actors in it, and the others also. I would be interested to see how B5 would go with better FX and JMS being able to tell a story fixing whatever perceived mistakes he found during the first run. I just as well wouldn't mind seeing a reboot of Crusade or Legends of the Rangers.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I brought up the books or comics route a couple pages ago. I don't think JMS is interested in that avenue any more for whatever reason.

 

[Skywalker]

I'd rather not see a reboot of the story told in the original series. I'd be more interested in jumping forward a hundred years or so and doing a new story with new characters, but influenced by what and who came before.

 

[Booked_moss]

From someone who in the past would have loved to see a new show I now think B5 has had its day (still rewatch every 6 months or so).

Do't think a reboot would work.
Dont think a set in B5s past story (such as dilgar war or Valen shadow war) would work as like Enterprise we know how the 'future' turns out. So even in that sort of story line you don't get the same tension.
Don't think a future B5 storyline would work because we know B5's future, because B5 gets shut down as its served it purpose, Alliance continues, at some point Humans have a civil war but alliance continues without most of them, humans go beyond the rim at some point. So timeline over.

Back to the reboot idea which seems to be referred to most, i just cannot see it working as an idea. I think it would be cancelled halfway through its first season.

Love the show but its had its day.

 

[Warped9]

Not sure. B5's big overall story is told, but a lot of other smaller scale stories could be told.

We know the Sun will one day swallow the Earth. Does that mean no stories of humanity on Earth can be told because we know the ultimate outcome? Of course not. You just change the focus of the story.

The Shadow Wars and even the Telepath War were but a few chapters in a long period of time, but there are other stories that could be told. Crusade was but one idea. There could be others.

 

[Reverend]

^Indeed. I've often said the Psi Corps books (the first in particular) would be well suited to an mini-series adaptation.

I have to say the claims that the repeated failure to get a B5 spin-off/continuation off the ground proves that JMS has run out of story ideas is just plain nonsense. Leaving aside for a second the fact that they failed for financial reasons, not creative ones; none of them ever got a chance to really *tell* their stories at all.

Crusade got the furthest and even then, the "real" story arc (the Earthforce/Shadow tech conspiracy) was just barely hinted at before the show was cancelled. I mean it'd be like if Babylon 5 had been cancelled just short of 'Signs & Portents'. How much of the real story of B5 would we have had then? Next to none of it and what little there was would have been only hints and out of context statements that only connect in retrospect.

As for LotR; that had even less of a chance. All we got was some rumblings of some new (or possibly very old) race on the prowl who may or may not have been as scary as their servants like to claim (conspicuously loudly, one might say) and some scraps of hints of double dealing from within the rangers. We had about as much clue of B5's potential by the end of 'The Gathering', no?

Oh and anyone who claims that JMS has done nothing since 1999 but coast along on his success with B5 and milk the franchise for all it's worth is just plain ignorant.

 

[Kegg]

I have to say the claims that the repeated failure to get a B5 spin-off/continuation off the ground proves that JMS has run out of story ideas is just plain nonsense. Leaving aside for a second the fact that they failed for financial reasons, not creative ones; none of them ever got a chance to really *tell* their stories at all.

That's kind of confusing the two lines of argument, there. To suggest that JMS didn't have anything terribly interesting to do with the Babylon 5 universe would not be a judgement on the various spinoffs because they failed, but because it was felt that those spinoffs weren't good.

Moreover, the crux of my own argument does go back to the feeling that JMS leans on Babylon 5's metastory, which has mapped out his whole universe, and efforts to tell similar epic stories about ancient civilizations - which also include the telefilms "Thirdspace" and "River of Souls" - kind of suck, and feel a little like shoehorning something.

Could someone tell stories set in the existing Babylon 5 universe? Sure. But it wouldn't be the story, how the Vorlons and Shadows left and how the age changed and how humanity eventually becomes Vorlons themselves. The really big cosmic points of that arc have been mapped out.

And this wouldn't be so big an issue were it not for the fact that with Crusade and Legend of the Rangers JMS clearly was trying to tell another 'epic' story, and in Legend's case, a villain that's little more than warmed over Shadows.

Since this is the kind of story JMS wants to do with the Babylon 5 universe, he'd be better off rebooting it and starting fresh.

 

[Triple-F]

As for LotR; that had even less of a chance. All we got was some rumblings of some new (or possibly very old) race on the prowl who may or may not have been as scary as their servants like to claim (conspicuously loudly, one might say) and some scraps of hints of double dealing from within the rangers. We had about as much clue of B5's potential by the end of 'The Gathering', no?

You can’t seriously be suggesting that jms does not understand the importance of writing a strong, entertaining stand-alone pilot to a new series.

The problem with Legend of The Rangers was not that it was the first part of some epic tail that we (the studio and network) should accept on faith would become another classic. It wasn’t because of dodgy scheduling or low budget. It was because it was unimaginative and frankly not very well written.

Assuming that jms would have wanted the series to have been picked up – and since by then he was both an experienced executive producer and television writer – he would have created the best standalone story he was capable of. If it wasn’t then why bother making it.

It was not very good. Which does at least lend credulity to the suggestion that he’s told his B5 story and doesn’t have a lot left in the tank – as far as Babylon 5 goes. Why is that such a difficult idea to entertain. It doesn’t mean he is talentless, it doesn’t mean he’s washed up as a writer, it only means he’s told that particular story, sold the scripts and a few behind the scenes do-da’s and it’s possibly time to move on.

 

[DWF]

I can't see Legend Of The Rangers as a standalone since it was meant as a possible start to a new series. It did introduce some interesting new characters but was pretty repetitive in that we learn of yet another all power ancient race even more powerful than the Shadows one not previously mentioned of course.

 

[Warped9]

Instead of having yet another old race never before mentioned you could simply go with a new upstart race that catches everyone by surprise. that is if one was inclined to go that route rather than try for a different kind of story.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I can't see Legend Of The Rangers as a standalone since it was meant as a possible start to a new series. It did introduce some interesting new characters but was pretty repetitive in that we learn of yet another all power ancient race even more powerful than the Shadows one not previously mentioned of course.

To be fair, as Reverend hints, we don't know where the series might have gone with this Hand business. It's certainly possible they'd have been just a repeat of the Shadows (they seemed to want to sell themselves as such in-story), but surely it's just as possible something far more original was going on? The Hand Servitor made some "tremble-before-us" claims but without an actual series who can tell whether it's the truth or merely a Wizard of Oz situation? Ultimately, unless someone has some insight into what was planned for the potential series, I don't think we can really say how original or repetitive it would have been.

Of course, that does leave Triple-F's point that if the pilot falls short as a standalone, any plans beyond that don't matter. So maybe it was a misfire to have the repetitive element of dark, powerful ancient races even if the actual series was going to pull the rug out deliberately and reveal the repetition was a ruse.

As for the news, I'm interested, but I'm also comfortable with Babylon Five, the series, the five seasons, as a complete story that was told, told well and is now over. So I look forward to seeing what JMS comes up with, but I am somewhat wary - if there was any Sci-fi that didn't require spin-offs and expanded universes, I'd say it's B5. That doesn't mean they can't be done, or can't be done well, but B5 was always a single story to me, one tale that was told. I liked "Crusade" and even "Legend..." for what they were, but I think there can only be one B5 for me. We'll see though, won't we?

 

[zakkrusz]

Another would be most appreciated. Maybe I should bump Crusade up in my Netflix queue then?

 

[Jan]

Another would be most appreciated. Maybe I should bump Crusade up in my Netflix queue then?

No hurry. Anything that's currently under discussion is a long time away.

Jan