Babylon 5

[Ray Hardgrit]

More Babylon 5 was definitely a good idea on paper, but it hasn't worked out so great in practice. Though I suppose part of the problem is that they were never able to continue the threads that had been set up, with each new project ignoring what the last had been doing.

 

[FredH]

More Babylon 5 was definitely a good idea on paper, but it hasn't worked out so great in practice. Though I suppose part of the problem is that they were never able to continue the threads that had been set up, with each new project ignoring what the last had been doing.

I personally think that slightly too strict control over the property probably had something to do with it. Trek and Wars and Who were very much kept afloat during their “fallow years” by both is-it-canonical-who-cares tie-in continuations and, at least in their base fandoms, increasingly prolific fan-generated stuff, fanfics and fan audios and films. B5 had almost no post-series tie-ins after the three book trilogies, and while there was and is fanfic, my understanding was that early fan productions in other media were fairly quickly shut down (I can think of one quite good audio continuation with Julian Bane that definitely was). So it wasn’t allowed to “percolate” the way the other IPs did.

Or I could be completely wrong, of course.

 

[David cgc]

That sounds right, I remember JMS taking a dim view of fanwork. I guess since he was never as interested in the “hardware” aspects of sci-fi, the CG fan-art scene escaped his ire. That community stayed pretty active for about a decade following the end of the show, but it also started to disperse eventually as people moved on and, surprisingly often, went pro. Hell, Rhys Salcombe just won an Oscar for working on Dune II.

 

[Booji]

Legend of the Rangers and Lost Tales sucked. Road Home, for a non-fan, is meh. That is why B5 is dead right now. JMS simply did a shit job whenever presented with an opportunity to continue things and his excuses have become eye rolling.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It's his franchise, if he doesn't want to support "Fan Works", it's his perogative.

We all saw what happens when the other major franchises allows "Fan Works" to happen and we see what happens to B5's long term popularity when it's not allowed.

 

[DonIago]

Legend of the Rangers and Lost Tales sucked. Road Home, for a non-fan, is meh. That is why B5 is dead right now. JMS simply did a shit job whenever presented with an opportunity to continue things and his excuses have become eye rolling.

I really wanted Road Home to rekindle my interest in the franchise a bit more than it ultimately succeeded in doing.

 

[FredH]

I really wanted Road Home to rekindle my interest in the franchise a bit more than it ultimately succeeded in doing.

True. I enjoyed it well enough as a one-off, but it seemed written entirely for us olds; I can’t imagine someone new to B5 being drawn in by it — which makes the apparent intention for it to maybe kick off an altered separate-timeline series even more odd. (Frankly, if you’re writing for the olds I’d have been more interested in a continuation of Lost Tales. Heck, I could see a good series with David Sheridan and Prince Vintari as the protagonists, on Minbar and possibly as Rangers.)

 

[DonIago]

I know they had to make it under certain constraints, but I didn't like it when those constraints became too obvious within the film, I very much didn't care for the way the Shadows were arguably refactored, and I found the ending intriguing but also a bit WTF in terms of the impact to the larger timeline that would ensue. IIRC there were also times when the humor probably should have been dialed back a bit.

I did, overall, find it very watchable...but not watchable enough that I've watched it more than the two times (one normal, one with commentary). It feels more like a pretty good S5 episode than a gripping S3 or S4 episode, I suppose you could say.

 

[Qonundrum]

I think the most embarrassing thing about the blu-ray is a tie between including the commercial bumpers and cropping "The Gathering" to 16x9 when it was the only B5 thing not shot for widescreen.

I kinda like the bumpers and miss them from the TNG releases. But it's ironic that they would crop the one story that wasn't filmed or meant to be widescreen, but then revert to the international cropped release for the blu-ray. The colors are far better, but the overall images are surprisingly soft and really grainy. But it was aired in 4:3 and the main scene detail is meant to be shown in that framing, even if there's sundry detail that would extend to 16:9. (All that said, the blu-ray still looks a lot better, but the grain and relative softness still took me for surprise initially.)

 

[StarMan]

There's a small YT reaction channel I follow called Court Reacts. She's currently about halfway through TNG and just started B5. This popped up a couple of days ago:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Legend. What a generous guy.

 

[David cgc]

In related news, JMS has announced that he's moved to England in the hopes of writing for British television:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Damn, he must really want that job as Doctor Who showrunner!

I don't know if this was a wise choice or not, but I hope it works out for him. And I do want to see what a JMS Doctor Who story looks like.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Damn, he must really want that job as Doctor Who showrunner!

Getting away from Clarke's Earthdome might be a bigger motive force.

 

[Steve Roby]

It's a brave thing to do, restarting your life and career at 70 in a new country. It's also hard not to think it's the end of any new Babylon 5 projects. Well, for me, anyway. For some, hope will spring eternal.

I don't think he'd be a good fit for Doctor Who, but a guy who worked on Murder, She Wrote might be a good catch for one of those cozy UK TV mystery series.

 

[JD]

Doctor Who was my first thought for what he would, but know now that he worked on Murder, She Wrote does open up some other possibilities.

 

[EmoBorg]

Jesse Gender's video about a major theme of Babylon 5. Its anti fascism.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[diankra]

I personally think that slightly too strict control over the property probably had something to do with it. Trek and Wars and Who were very much kept afloat during their “fallow years” by both is-it-canonical-who-cares tie-in continuations and, at least in their base fandoms, increasingly prolific fan-generated stuff, fanfics and fan audios and films. B5 had almost no post-series tie-ins after the three book trilogies, and while there was and is fanfic, my understanding was that early fan productions in other media were fairly quickly shut down (I can think of one quite good audio continuation with Julian Bane that definitely was). So it wasn’t allowed to “percolate” the way the other IPs did.

Or I could be completely wrong, of course.

There's an interesting quote from JMS maybe 30 years ago, saying it would get more interest in hindsight (Sorry, can't link the the comment). In practice it was a puzzle, and once we knew the answer interest waned. All that's left is a great SF series whose FX, while cutting edge a the time, are sometimes belittled.

 

[FredH]

There's an interesting quote from JMS maybe 30 years ago, saying it would get more interest in hindsight (Sorry, can't link the the comment). In practice it was a puzzle, and once we knew the answer interest waned. All that's left is a great SF series whose FX, while cutting edge a the time, are sometimes belittled.

I think the criticism I’ve seen of the effects is overdone — sure, it’s obvious CGI of the type they had at the time, but as such it looks fine. (Not to compare, but I’ve never had a problem with, say, old-school Doctor Who/Blakes 7 FX being obvious rubber monsters, hairdryers glued together to make a spaceship, etc. either. All special effects are stand-ins for reality in the end and we all know it, so I’m fine with that as long as it’s clear what the thing is supposed to be.)

 

[diankra]

I think the criticism I’ve seen of the effects is overdone — sure, it’s obvious CGI of the type they had at the time, but as such it looks fine. (Not to compare, but I’ve never had a problem with, say, old-school Doctor Who/Blakes 7 FX being obvious rubber monsters, hairdryers glued together to make a spaceship, etc. either. All special effects are stand-ins for reality in the end and we all know it, so I’m fine with that as long as it’s clear what the thing is supposed to be.)

Then girlfriend saw In The Beginning and though the CGI was game standard, but that was a TV show on a cinema screen. Also had Boxleitner and Doyle making jokes about how Cole's shows tended not to get a second season.