Remake of Babylon 5 ?

[Lighthammer]

Ok Babylon 5 fans --- what do you think about this?

Over the last few years I've watched Babylon 5 usually once a year. I keep finding year after year I feel like there's less episodes I want to watch.

More recently, I keep wondering to myself if the series might be due for a remake to clean up some earlier episodes were not as much happens and often served to introduce characters or remove characters JMS gained or lost access too during the series production.

It might be really cool to go back and redo Babylon 5 and base more closely to the original story bible (IE having Sinclair fulfilling the full role and Sheridan being more of a background character under General Haigh).

There's a few reasons I really hesitate to think this is an awesome idea in my mind:

#1.) First and foremost, I find it hard trying to imagine the series without people like Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle and Mira Furlan but more importantly with some of the actors who died over the years such as Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas and Jeff Conaway. The acting was really good from the main cast and its hard to imagine replacing them.

#2.) I wonder how the audience would react to a story meant to be but wasn't due to the need to change actors.

The advantages might outweigh the disadvantages though. A lot of unnecessary story can be removed if the series is redone and possibly even reduce each season to 13 episode seasons. The graphics and musical score could probably get a big budget increase. We could have more consistent characters instead of having to deal with major problems like Michael O'Hare getting cut. Finally, a lot of the bad dialogue or lousy motives for various acts can be cut. Let's face it, some scenes had really bad dialogue and the guest characters who were in those scenes usually acted like an ass purposely to move the story along and their motive were usually not something you'd expect a rationale person in their position to do.

I'm on the fence here. Part of me really would love to see the series redone, but on the same note, the lead actors in the series were just so -- good. It's not like Star Trek TOS were there's been a big leap in writing from then till now in which you can make better use of the actors. JMS did a FANTASTIC job on the scripts for the lead actors and their execution still rivals anything you see today.

What's everyone else's thoughts?

 

[Peacemaker]

No, I say leave it as is, including the 90's CGI fx - they give B5 a character all its own. I like that.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I see no reason to remake it if it's just going to be the same story. If you were to remake it, then take the basic premise and then go in different directions. Like NuBSG.

Other than that, leave it. I like it the way it is.

 

[Agenda]

No, but I'd like to see bad prequels unauthorized by JMS.

 

[RoJoHen]

Aside from the visuals, B5 is really one of those things that I just can't see being improved upon. Most of the actors were simply perfect for their roles, and the finale has such an emotional resonance that I don't think could be duplicated with a new series. Plus, B5 had such a unique and complex story. Would a remake simply be a re-telling of the story? If so, again, I can't see it being an improvement on the original. Or would they simply take the premise of B5 and tell a completely new story (like nuBSG)? In that case, I'd rather they just create a new series and leave B5 alone.

 

[DWF]

JMS already passed on an idea for a remake and I don't see one happening without him.

 

[clint g]

Aside from the visuals, B5 is really one of those things that I just can't see being improved upon. Most of the actors were simply perfect for their roles, and the finale has such an emotional resonance that I don't think could be duplicated with a new series. Plus, B5 had such a unique and complex story. Would a remake simply be a re-telling of the story? If so, again, I can't see it being an improvement on the original. Or would they simply take the premise of B5 and tell a completely new story (like nuBSG)? In that case, I'd rather they just create a new series and leave B5 alone.

Oh I can see ways that it can be improved. Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, but it was very clear that things didn't exactly go as planed production wise. The fifth season for instance.

I can see a Babylon 5 series with better network support surpassing the original.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd watch another series set in the B5 cosmos. I'd even be willing to watch characters from the original that are recast. If they can successfully recast Spock, they can recast anyone.

#1.) First and foremost, I find it hard trying to imagine the series without people like Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle and Mira Furlan but more importantly with some of the actors who died over the years such as Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas and Jeff Conaway. The acting was really good from the main cast and its hard to imagine replacing them.

Not to be rude to the original actors, but I'm sure most of those roles are eminently recastable. Hollywood abounds in actors of the same type and talent level, and even looks, as Boxleitner, Christian, Doyle, Biggs and Conaway. Or, let a new actor have the latitude to interpret the role in a somewhat new direction.

Furlan, Katsulas and Jurasik (why not mention him?) are the ones I'd peg as hardest to recast, for the same reason as Spock: they're iconic alien roles that the actors made uniquely their own. But I wouldn't rule those roles out either. Just think, Quinto vs. Nimoy - different, yet still great and definitely "acceptible."

 

[RoJoHen]

Aside from the visuals, B5 is really one of those things that I just can't see being improved upon. Most of the actors were simply perfect for their roles, and the finale has such an emotional resonance that I don't think could be duplicated with a new series. Plus, B5 had such a unique and complex story. Would a remake simply be a re-telling of the story? If so, again, I can't see it being an improvement on the original. Or would they simply take the premise of B5 and tell a completely new story (like nuBSG)? In that case, I'd rather they just create a new series and leave B5 alone.

Oh I can see ways that it can be improved. Don't get me wrong, I loved the show, but it was very clear that things didn't exactly go as planed production wise. The fifth season for instance.

I can see a Babylon 5 series with better network support surpassing the original.

Yes, there are aspects of the show that could be improved, but I just don't see a remake being an improvement overall.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

A straight remake wouldn't be an improvement - the stories should be new.

 

[RoJoHen]

A straight remake wouldn't be an improvement - the stories should be new.

My problem with that, though, is that B5 is the story. It's just a show with a loose premise that can go anywhere. Remaking it would be like remaking Lord of the Rings. You can do it, but why? If you want to tell a different story, just create a different show.

 

[sonak]

no real need for it. It was a great show as it was, one of the best sci-fi shows ever. What's to re-do or improve about it?(except for the fifth season. If they want to re-make the fifth season I'm cool with that.)

 

[RandyS]

No, I say leave it as is, including the 90's CGI fx - they give B5 a character all its own. I like that.

Agreed.

If we're ever to see more of Babylon 5 (which I would love), let it be a continuation, or a "fill in the blanks" story, such as the twenty year period between "Objects at Rest" and "Sleeping in Light".

Although, considering 5's track record with continuations, maybe it's just better left as is.

Even more than a new movie or series, what I'd REALLY like is the return of the novels. They could REALLY accomplish alot there, and wouldn't have to worry about the actors who have passed on.

And maybe, we'll FINALLY get a story focuing on Clark and explaining his motives. I will never buy the "less is more" argument. There's a word for that: bullshit.

 

[Lighthammer]

In my mind, there's some serious benefits to attempting to redo the series.

The first and foremost that always comes to my mind when I think about this is that I'd love to see the story as it was meant to be told when it was originally broadcast. Anyone who knows the background story well enough and the intended direction knows we never actually got the story JMS intended to tell. He adapted the problems he had VERY WELL, but I've always been interested to see how things would play out if he didn't have those problems.

Beyond that --- moving forward in the B5 universe, one of the problems we've always seem to have with a new series is, JMS always seems to have a need to try to create a brand new thread that doesn't exist in the universe yet when there are plenty of threads to tug on to make a new story. Although I think it's possible to do a prequel or a story that takes place a decade or two in the future, I almost feel like building new stories would make it easier to branch out.

To be clear, as I suggested in my first post, I'm not personally sold on the idea, but I think there are plenty of clear benefits to rehashing the series, especially if its done up intended to be more of a mini-series format.

It's going on ten years now since the series premiered. It might just be time to give this series a way to be reborn.

 

[RandyS]

^You mean twenty years, don't you?

 

[Kegg]

Beyond that --- moving forward in the B5 universe, one of the problems we've always seem to have with a new series is, JMS always seems to have a need to try to create a brand new thread that doesn't exist in the universe yet when there are plenty of threads to tug on to make a new story.

This is absolutely true. One of the problems for making any sequel to Babylon 5 was for starters that really had a high bar in terms of the scope - the disappearance of beings who for coutless millennia had guided the younger races, including our own, and the triumph that would help solidify humanity's ultimate ascension into a state like those species. Somewhere in there there's wars that overturn the Minbari social order, a human civil war, a disaster inflicted on the Centauri empire, and the formation of a new interstellar amnity. B5 has a lot of scope, arguably more than any TV space opera around, and that scope is a major selling point... and difficult to keep doing indefinitely.

On top of this is basically JMS's desire to keep telling those kinds of stories. You don't have to deal with impossibly ancient races or the fate of the human race in all space opera, certainly not all Babylon 5, but it was a well JMS returned to long after the Vorlons and Shadows had left the scene - the aliens from Thirdspace, the remnants of the Shadows with the Drakh, the (sigh) Hand....

So we're left with stories that feel like afterthoughts or side issues. It's entirely possible that a series within the existing Babylon 5 franchise might have worked (a non-screwed over Crusade, say) but all three revival efforts have been frankly pretty lackluster.

Would I be in favour of a rebooted B5? Sure. It would clean the slate of those problems and, working in a TV environment where dense narrative serialization is more common, a new B5 could benefit from its intended novelistic structure.

And would I have liked to see what JMS tried to make happen, what, last year? Also sure. It didn't work out, unfortunately, though, and I've long lost hope (really, since Lost Tales) that new B5 content is soemthing to look forward to. I'd absolutely watch a B5 remake... or prequel... or sidequel... but I won't be holding my breath.

 

[DarKush]

I would rather see more stories set in the B5 universe than remaking Babylon 5 itself. However it might be intriguing to see how a remake done with the benefit of hindsight, though unfortunately you couldn't bring all of the original cast together to do it.

 

[stj]

There are a few stories left, primarily the telepath war, but the creation and fate of the machine on epsilon indi and whether or not Susan Ivanova ends up in it again and what really happened with Clark, the Shadows and the Psi Corps. But by and large we know the final outcomes in the terms of who won and lost. What if we get those wretched technomages instead?

But a premium cable reboot with the same basic story told in three thirteen hour episodes could have a tightness commercial television would not allow.

 

[Kelthaz]

Over the last few years I've watched Babylon 5 usually once a year. I keep finding year after year I feel like there's less episodes I want to watch.

Who would have thought.

 

[Lighthammer]

But a premium cable reboot with the same basic story told in three thirteen hour episodes could have a tightness commercial television would not allow.

Not really when you account for all the episodes that occured exclusively to move characters forward.

A couple of major things to point out:

• JMS never intended to introduce Talya Winters. We wasted a lot of episodes building her up and breaking her down to he could rebuild Leta.
• JMS never intended to get rid of Sinclair. O'Hare did what JMS wanted in season 1 but TPTB didn't like it. This caused him to rebuild a new lead character and spend considerable time to close Sinclair's plot (very eloquently might I add!).
• Na'toth caused a lot of character building and story conclsuion too. That's another character JMS had to build up, get rid of, build a new charcter to replace and then finish up her story plot.
• The actor who played Sgt Welch decided to not stay around either, causing us to see a build of Zach Allen with a completely unrelaed plot. Heck, a large chunk of the security force didn't do what was intended!

Those are just a few plot points that were covered and required considerable screen time to cover the changing cast.

Heck, I think it would be interesting actually not having Ivoniva in favor or Takanoya. Even seeing Welch instead of Allen would be interesting.

I really find myself wondering how much screen time could be axed if JMS had his way and kept the characters he wanted from start to finish. At a very rough guestimation, I wonder if the series couldn't have been more cleanly started and wrapped up 32 - 52 episodes total.

In a lot of respects, if JMS was allowed to remake the series, I think there's certainly enough plot changes that could be done to make he series compelling and interesting to watch.

If the series was to be redone, I'd imagine a whole new cast should be picked, but it would be very interesting if JMS could work in some of the original actors as characters reprising different or similar roles. Seeing Bruce Boxleitner come back as Sheridan would be interesting if Sheridan takes on the original role (The Presidential whistle blower against Clark). Seeing Peter Jurasik come back as the reigning Emperor at the start of the series would also be interesting to see. Heck, I wonder if Bill Mumy wouldn't be really interesting to have run a completely different role. If he was a little learner today, it might be fun to see him actually reprise the role of Sinclair.

I think there's a lot of fun to be had here.