I'm kind of shocked with Star Trek and Star Wars coming back successfully, and new stuff like The Expanse doing well, that WB isn't more interested in doing something with Babylon 5.
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
- Start date
I'm not. It's clear they never understood Babylon 5.
Part of the problem is that the division of WB that makes TV shows *isn't* the part that originally backed B5 (something to do with the PTEN network, I forget the ins and outs), so if the TV people want to make the show it means they're "helping" a different division, and that ain't how the WB rolls. Ever wonder why Warner Home Video releases were almost always so minimum effort? This is why.
I swear if they didn't own Bugs Bunny they'd have gone out of business decades ago...
I just decided to do a B5 rewatch (via HBO Max), and my goal this time is to try and put my personal issues with Sleeping in Light being the Series Finale aside and resist the urge to disregard the Lurkers Guide Master List and move stuff around.
I've also decided to stick just to what's available on HBO Max (despite having the option of using the DVDs to watch the movies), which means only The Gathering-Sleeping in Light.
I've also decided to stick just to what's available on HBO Max (despite having the option of using the DVDs to watch the movies), which means only The Gathering-Sleeping in Light.
Star Wars and Star Trek have the benefit of nearly everyone, whether or not they're interested, has heard of them. Babylon 5 doesn't have that luxury. Scifi nerds over 30 have largely heard of it, and that's a pretty small fan base with not a lot of demographic wiggle room if it doesn't end up being raved about as the greatest thing ever.
Discovery pissed off a decent percentage of the fan base and was still considered successful enough to carry an entire streaming service.
Babylon 5 would need to please 90% of the fan base to break even.
Babylon 5 would need to please 90% of the fan base to break even.
It's probably worth remembering that Star Wars never really went away, and Star Trek while it did go dormant for like 5 years, it still had almost 40 years of pop culture inertia behind it with multiple successful spin-offs and movies numbering in double digits. Doctor Who is a bit more of a close comparison, but again, even while it's fanbase was on the verge of aging out when it came back it still had a HUGE pop culture generational cross-section, both in the UK and abroad.
Babylon 5 is at best considered a cult classic that had a good 5 year run, with OK ratings and some critical acclaim...followed by THREE failed spin-offs. It's not hard to see why it hasn't been picked up again. The profit potential seems minimal.
Babylon 5 is at best considered a cult classic that had a good 5 year run, with OK ratings and some critical acclaim...followed by THREE failed spin-offs. It's not hard to see why it hasn't been picked up again. The profit potential seems minimal.
Yeah...why don't you get back to us on that when you've got an *informed* opinion? Maybe after you read his upcoming novel "Together We Will Go", for instance.
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I know it looked like he was wearing a dress, but there's no need to call him "Miss Galen."
I'm very well-informed. I have seen the entirety of Babylon 5 and Crusade multiple times, I have read his (quite frankly Godawful) comics for both Marvel and DC. And I've read his Usenet posts from way back when.
Straczynski is a very, very talented ideas guy, but he recycles the same basic concepts with everything he writes. And he's an arrogant son of a bitch, as illustrated by his stupid snipes at the Marvel Comics writers and editors regarding sales after he left Spider-Man.
Got it. You're "well-informed" opinion is years out of date and based in large part on characters that didn't belong to him. What have you read of his original comics work? What about 'Jeremiah' and 'Sense8' for TV? 'Changeling' for feature film? See my previous comment.
To be fair, arrogance is a positive quality for an artist. If you’re not arrogant you’d never try to pull off something ambitious.
Interestingly, I found the second season of Jeremiah far better than the first and Sense8 was stunningly lovely on many levels. Diff'rent strokes, as they say.
Though B5 has a relatively small fanbase or relatively small popularity when it comes to genre fans or those in the know, I think about the original series of BSG. I would argue that BSG had even less of a footprint than B5 did. B5 got two (albeit failed) spinoffs, several television films, and a straight-to-DVD release over a decade or so ago, so it had more content out there than original BSG did (with just the original series and Galactica 1980; not counting toys, comics, and novels, because I know B5 also had comics and novels, not sure about toys though).
With an inkling of some genre knowledge out there, and a largely well-received parent series, I think B5 is in a stronger place for a reboot or reimagining than BSG was. That said, because B5 was better received, it might be harder from a creative standpoint to radically reimagine or reboot it.
With an inkling of some genre knowledge out there, and a largely well-received parent series, I think B5 is in a stronger place for a reboot or reimagining than BSG was. That said, because B5 was better received, it might be harder from a creative standpoint to radically reimagine or reboot it.
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