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Concept: Babylon 5 - Recast?

Technobuilder

Technobuilder

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Rear Admiral
Time has taken it's toll and any chance of ever seeing Babylon 5 again, in any new form with it's original cast still intact has been severely affected.

Currently, 2 main character actors and at least 1 significant supporting character actor are dead (As far as I know.)

Andreas Katsulas, Richard Biggs, & Tim Choate

So with G'Kar, Doc Franklin, & Zathras gone from any future stories utilizing the original cast without recasting those particular roles...

And the only other likely option being to completely recast the show and more than likely go with a re-imaging similar in concept to Battlestar Galactica...

Who would be the best choice to (if not replace then) continue portraying these characters onscreen?

Who would even be able to fill G'Kar's boots? I can't even think of anyone that could hold a candle to Katsulas's performance myself.
 
You know, personally, my feeling is that B5 has told its story. There's really no need to go back and revisit it. It's a great story and very rewatchable.

I feel very similar about nuBGS. I adore that show. But I feel that it's story is really coming to a close, and that's good. I wouldn't want them to go back there (that's why I think it's a good thing "Caprica" has a very different setting although it's set in the same universe.

Essentially, I feel that the original BSG left enough space for a re-imagining. The setting provided great potential that the original ever only barely tapped into, I feel. So when nuBSG came along, it really had a reason to be there.

B5 was great. I don't think it really leaves any room for a re-imagining. It did what it did and it did it very well, I think.

No show's perfect. But then that's another discussion completely :D.

P.S.: I know it's kind of uncool to answer a thread by saying, well, I wouldn't do it in the first place. But that's just the way I feel about it. I can't really go much farther from there myself.
 
B5 is a great TV show, it doesn't really need remaking. Its extremely dated of course, but unlike nuBSG and its original, Babylon 5 is top top television - it'd be very hard to re-make it unless they just re-shot the series with new CGI and re-wrote the scripts so the dialogue is better than what it was, but trying to keep the important lines in there or the same meaning behind them. BSGing it wouldn't be good if they just totally re-wrote the story, but BSGing it would be good if they improved the CGI to what we saw in Lost Tales, and made it more realistic, even if it was already pretty realistic - it was still low budget, and sometimes the extras in certain episodes just completely SUCK.
 
I honestly don't think I'd watch B5 with someone else playing G'Kar. Katsulas was one of the best acters in the series, he took G'Kar and made that character his own. I don't think anyone can capture what he brought to the role.

Zathras because lame the more they brought him back. He eventually became a parody of himself. If I never see him again, it would be too soon. However, I don't fault the actor for a bad script & character direction.

B5 doesn't need remaking. While I agree with some it is dated, the story & theme itself still holds solid to this day. B5 deserves the praise Firefly gets.
 
I'm not against remakes/recasting in general as I've seen some great stuff come from it such as new BSG and the '91 Dark Shadows. Those were all done after it became impossible for the original cast to play their original roles, though and I think that had much to do with my acceptance.

I don't think we've reached that point yet with the B5 cast. Yes, the loss of Rick Biggs and Andreas Katsulas is major but I don't think it would be difficult to do a story where they didn't appear. JMS has said that no one else will ever play the role of G'Kar.

In another ten years it might be time to discuss a remake and complete recasting. For now I think the original holds up well.

Jan
 
B5 has told its tale, it would be pointless to continue it. And the more sequels are produced the higher the likelihood that those sequels will suck.

And as far as a "re-imagination" is concerned... well, try to bring that up in 20 years from now or so. The world, the sci-fi genre, and television in general must change significantly before a "re-imagination" makes sense in the first place. After all, there's a reason why nobody did a remake/re-imagination of BSG in the 80ies. What would have been the point? But even later on it should be some sort of original re-imagination concept with someone gifted in charge.
 
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I think there should really be a 25 year minimum period on remakes in general. Actually the thought of a "corrected" B5 twenty years from now is really exciting to me. It IS my all time favorite show but I also think there's a lot of things you could improve on it, correcting dropped plotlines/characters, fixing the Byron arc... It's the show that's nearest and dearest to my heart but all I can think about is how it should be perfect! ;)
 
As BIG a FAN of BABYLON 5 as I am, I would have to say that, IF and it's a pretty BIG if! This nu TREK film is even a moderate hit, the suits at WB will be looking for ANY sci-fi franchise they have ever produced to see if they can jump on the TREK bandwagon, and I think thay will be looking directly at B5! Now SHULD B5 come back just a little over a decade after the series finale? I dont know, maybe if they have the right producers like BSG has Then YES I would like to see it remade.
 
I don't think the show ever needs to be remade. The story was pretty well crafted and is the heart of the whole thing. Sure, a lot of the dialog wasn't always the greatest and the acting not always up to snuff, but in the grand scheme of things, those things are fairly insignificant. Certainly I'd like to see season five done better, and some of the plot whole filled-in. But, those kinds of problems are pretty much inevitable and there's no guarantee they would happen all over again in a remake.

I do dare say I wouldn't mind a Lucasesque upgrade to the eye-candy. Now before I get stoned to death, let me point out that all the effects on the show were technology based and when made said technology was in its infancy. It's come a long way in a decade. I think that alone is enough to warrent it. And really, anyone who says they would't love to see "Severed Dreams" done in modern CGI is not being 100% truthful. ;)
 
I'll bite. Let's hope my casting choices don't. :rommie: Going for a total recasting...

Sheridan - Ben Browder
Delenn - Zooey Deschanel (she's old enough for the role; she just looks young)
G'Kar - William Fitchner
Garibaldi - Neal McDonough
Ivanova - Clea DuVall
Londo - Adrian Pasdar (who says Londo can't be a hotty?)
Lennier - Connor Trinneer
Dr. Franklin - Harold Perrineau
Lyta - let's see what Katee Sackhoff can do, cast against type
Marcus Cole - Henry Ian Cusick
Zack Allan - Ian Somerhalder
Mr. Morden - Zach Levi - cast way against type :rommie:
Vir Cotto - Tyler Labine
Alfred Bester - Ken Leung
Kosh - Clancy Brown

I'm not going to recast characters like Sinclair and Lochley who were either replaced or invented because of recasting in the first place.
 
My first reaction is that the show is fine the way it is.... but then it hold a special place in my heart, much in the way that Star Trek does. Nothing will ever replace that. However... ;) ... that doesn't mean that eventually I won't be accepting of someone's attempt to remake it. For example, while I am still quite on the fence about this new Trek movie and whether it has the chops to take a place alongside the original, I'm happy to see the renewed interest in that original show, always a good thing. Maybe it won't replace the Shatner/Nimoy/Kelly version, but that doesn't mean there isn't room enough for an addition to the mansion.

The same goes for B5. Nothing will ever take the place of Katsulas/Jurasik/Boxleitner et al. Period. But you know... eventually it'd be intriguing to see something new.

And props to the suggestions of Eckhart and Browder as Sheridan.

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Not necessarily a recast, but I do feel that more can be done with Babylon 5. After all there is 20 years from the point when Sheridan and the rest left ("Objects at Rest") and when the station is scuttled. A new series could be set in a period, with a new cast, say when Colonel Lochley stands down as CO. It doesn't have to be a heavily plotted five-year arch, something a little looser.
 
Justtoyourleft said:
You know, personally, my feeling is that B5 has told its story. There's really no need to go back and revisit it. It's a great story and very rewatchable.

I feel very similar about nuBGS. I adore that show. But I feel that it's story is really coming to a close, and that's good. I wouldn't want them to go back there (that's why I think it's a good thing "Caprica" has a very different setting although it's set in the same universe.

Essentially, I feel that the original BSG left enough space for a re-imagining. The setting provided great potential that the original ever only barely tapped into, I feel. So when nuBSG came along, it really had a reason to be there.

B5 was great. I don't think it really leaves any room for a re-imagining. It did what it did and it did it very well, I think.

No show's perfect. But then that's another discussion completely :D.

P.S.: I know it's kind of uncool to answer a thread by saying, well, I wouldn't do it in the first place. But that's just the way I feel about it. I can't really go much farther from there myself.
Click to expand...

^No, no, no...

You're fine. It's totally cool.

Part of the question at its core is whether or not a recasted series/film would even be a worthwhile idea.

I myself, can't think of some of these character's being played by anyone else, but like others here have said, the reason I asked this question in the first place is because Babylon 5 is the type of property with the kind of scope that the question of "what to do next?" will always be on the table.

As a fan of the series, I think if they went with the Remastered CGI route, that would be almost as good as any new material they could produce and "fit" within continuity due to the current limitations (Namely the loss of G'Kar & Franklin)

It's interesting to see how most people feel on this issue.
 
CorporalClegg said:
And really, anyone who says they would't love to see "Severed Dreams" done in modern CGI is not being 100% truthful. ;)
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I wouldn't "love" to see "Severed Dreams" done in modern CGI. And I am being 100% truthful. :bolian:

Temis the Vorta said:
I'll bite. Let's hope my casting choices don't. :rommie: Going for a total recasting...
G'Kar - William Fitchner
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:guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw:

You'd recast a character played by someone as magnificent as Katsulas with a...lightweight like that?? Priceless. :lol:


Count me in with the crowd who can't see the need for this, even as an intellectual exercise. B5 wasn't perfect but it was damned close, and the casting was a huge part of that. Some sort of continuation, maybe, but a recast or "reimagining" or anything else isn't really necessary IMHO.
 
I'm fine with bringing in new actors to play new characters for other stories in the same universe, or even (maybe) recasting the original roles with new actors for a one-off story like the Telepath War (but then only if it's concluded that there's no way to bring the original cast back in a believable way, and I'm not sure we're quite there yet).

But what is actually being proposed here? Reimagining the entire 5 year series? I can't imagine that that's ever going to happen.

The thing is, you can't reimagine B5 in quite the same way Ron Moore did with BSG or J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek. In each of those cases, the franchise basically consists of a premise, a setting, and a set of characters. **B5 is a particular story**. It's a novel for television. An extremely long novel at that.

What would remaking it consist of? Would you just take the concept of Centauri, Narns, Minbari, and humans in a UN in space and make a completely new story out of it? Or would you remake the very same story, but with some different creative choices along the way? Because I can't imagine that the latter would work. A heavily arc-driven TV show that's produced for five years in which everyone already knows how the story turns out? Good luck with that.
 
^^^

Well, you could try to change the story arcs a bit. For instance, what about the Earth Alliance as "agents of chaos" for the Shadows? Instead of turning isolationist, the EA becames increasingly militarist and expansionist. Or mybe the Vorlons and Shadows have a different history or a slightly different motivation.
Just some random examples which come to my mind...
 
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