Glad someone can see my point.
Remake of Babylon 5 ?
- Thread starter Lighthammer
- Start date
Glad someone can see my point.
^According to the designer, that's not a coincidence. 
You know, I've gotten through re-watching season 1 and the beginning of season 2 (like I usually do after watching the bulk of the action).
I keep noticing bits that, now years later, we can look at and realize they were parts originally intended for characters.
At this point, its not too hard to find a lot of the info originally intended for each of the characters, but I'd really love a compendium of what was meant to be.
PS Did anyone else notice that Montoya was the leader of the Mars provisional government who's sister died when marshal law was declared. Montoya was also the Ranger who trained Lenier in space combat during Season 5 who named the White Star after his dead sister. Could this be the same character ? Is the old leader of the Mars provisional government now a Ranger?
Another somewhat similar aspect --- it seems to me that JMS made an attempt to try to make Dr. Kyle the "medical whistle blower" who would have brought evidence to B5 regarding Vice President Clark's medical condition when he left Earthforce 1. In the third episode, when Dr. Franklin arrives, he mentions he talked to Dr. Kyle at the transfer point at Io and that he was promoted to the Presidential Staff. Anyone have any insight?
Something else also occurs to me. More often then not, when an actor left the series, JMS seemed to bring in the "next string" of characters that could fill that role in to replace them. It leaves me wondering; Talia Winters (along with Corwin) seems to be one of the few characters he just made up after the bible was done. Was Talia Winters originally a character JMS intended to introduce in another capacity or was this a character exclusively made up to take over the departure of Patricia Tallman?
I have to admit, I've been noticing a bunch of stuff similar to this with my mind currently thinking about B5 in these terms. I have to admit, the line between drawling conclusions based on knowing some of the original back story and looking for connections that may not exist to be blurred to me just now >.<
I keep noticing bits that, now years later, we can look at and realize they were parts originally intended for characters.
At this point, its not too hard to find a lot of the info originally intended for each of the characters, but I'd really love a compendium of what was meant to be.
PS Did anyone else notice that Montoya was the leader of the Mars provisional government who's sister died when marshal law was declared. Montoya was also the Ranger who trained Lenier in space combat during Season 5 who named the White Star after his dead sister. Could this be the same character ? Is the old leader of the Mars provisional government now a Ranger?
Another somewhat similar aspect --- it seems to me that JMS made an attempt to try to make Dr. Kyle the "medical whistle blower" who would have brought evidence to B5 regarding Vice President Clark's medical condition when he left Earthforce 1. In the third episode, when Dr. Franklin arrives, he mentions he talked to Dr. Kyle at the transfer point at Io and that he was promoted to the Presidential Staff. Anyone have any insight?
Something else also occurs to me. More often then not, when an actor left the series, JMS seemed to bring in the "next string" of characters that could fill that role in to replace them. It leaves me wondering; Talia Winters (along with Corwin) seems to be one of the few characters he just made up after the bible was done. Was Talia Winters originally a character JMS intended to introduce in another capacity or was this a character exclusively made up to take over the departure of Patricia Tallman?
I have to admit, I've been noticing a bunch of stuff similar to this with my mind currently thinking about B5 in these terms. I have to admit, the line between drawling conclusions based on knowing some of the original back story and looking for connections that may not exist to be blurred to me just now >.<
Never noticed that Montoya one before.
As for Dr. Kyle someone asked JMS at the time if his plan was to bring him back with the evidence; he said he actually hadn't thought of that and it would have been an interesting thing to do.
Talia was brought in because of the deal not being worked out with Pat at the time. Joe said in the script book commentary that the name Talia was an almost-anagram for Lyta.
As for Dr. Kyle someone asked JMS at the time if his plan was to bring him back with the evidence; he said he actually hadn't thought of that and it would have been an interesting thing to do.
Talia was brought in because of the deal not being worked out with Pat at the time. Joe said in the script book commentary that the name Talia was an almost-anagram for Lyta.
^According to the designer, that's not a coincidence.
Neither is the use of one of 2001's spacesuits (the blue one) in "War Without End."
NebulaClassGuy
Lieutenant Commander
This.
REALLY?
That whole thing played out like a gentle nod to Dr. Kyle and read like the part was scripted for him and they were forced to use another actor. Everything just lined up perfectly for it.
I mean the gentle hints of a stim addiction, the fact he was working for the president, the fact that he felt he could find refuge at B5...
I'm really sad to hear that it wasn't planned.
I'm interested in if anyone else can think of subtle things like these situations I pointed out.
If we continue to get people dwelling on the first post of this thread, I might start a new thread for this discussion.
I've started a B5 rewatch after having recently purchased all 5 seasons on DVD, and I personally think the SFX are fine even now.
I do still want to attempt a reboot, if only for the fun of it.
Speaking of, rewatching the series has given me some new ideas on what to do, mainly in terms of primary and recurring characters, and want to make Jack, Garibaldi's aide, one of the recurring characters for Season 1. However, I want to give him a last name, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.
I do still want to attempt a reboot, if only for the fun of it.
Speaking of, rewatching the series has given me some new ideas on what to do, mainly in terms of primary and recurring characters, and want to make Jack, Garibaldi's aide, one of the recurring characters for Season 1. However, I want to give him a last name, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.
Of all my favorite shows, B5 is probably the one I'd like to see remade the most, but if pressed, I couldn't give you a straight answer as to why. The most I can say is that it might be nice to see things like the Telepath War and the Centauri Prime arc in a filmed format. Having finished a rewatch just last night, I must say, Season 5 does get too much flak but it also feels like a lead-in to a Season 6 more than anything.
I know that was the plan, but obviously Crusade was in the works at the time and JMS said "more on the Telepath War will come from there", etc. so yeah.
I know that was the plan, but obviously Crusade was in the works at the time and JMS said "more on the Telepath War will come from there", etc. so yeah.
I've been thinking about this, and came up with a few ideas.
First off, things should be condensed and streamlined. I enjoyed B5's 1 season = 1 year approach for that particular show, but let's be honest: did it really feel like an entire year had gone by each season? certainly not to me. So scrap it. Things take as long as they need to take, more like on BSG (season 1 covered like 6 weeks, they had time skips if need be, or several episodes can cover a single day).
Next, the story and characters we eventually got are iconic. I know there are people who would love to see the show as originally intended (including me, but not for an actual reboot, more like if I traveled to an alternate universe one of the first things I'd do is buy the dvds of the original 5-year arc), but to me it just wouldn't be B5 without Sheridan, Ivanova, and others. So I would do something similar to the actual show, but with nods to the original storyline, and streamlined to make things less awkward, such as:
This first arc covers several episodes - Ambassadors arrive on Babylon 5. Midseason or so, Kosh is attacked, and Commander Sinclair is framed for it. The Agamemnon, led by Sheridan and Ivanova (who had previously shown up in the first episode at the very least), is dispatched to investigate. They and Garibaldi uncover a conspiracy within the EA government, including first officer Takashima. They can’t go public with their findings yet, so Sinclair has to go into hiding, first rooming with Garibaldi, then being granted asylum on Minbar, where he begins his Ranger training alongside Marcus. Takashima is reassigned by her unknown masters and becomes a recurring adversary (perhaps involved with the Night Watch?). Sheridan and Ivanova transfer to B5 to fill the power vacuum (perhaps there’s a battle in which the Agamemnon is destroyed?).
Alternately, Ivanova could be B5’s second officer and only Sheridan transfers, leaving the Agamemnon in the command of his XO, Elizabeth Lochley.
Sinclair continues to be a major character on the show even after he leaves the station. He slowly learns about the hole in his mind, and about the coming war against the Shadows. He, Sheridan, Delenn, and Kosh have their secret Army of Light conspiracy going from relatively early on.
Lyta Alexander has a second personality, “Talia,” programmed into her by the Psi Corps. However it ends up going, she takes the super-telepath storyline of the original series, while Ivanova takes the political telepath rebellion storyline (though hopefully without Byron).
Also, I like the idea of Minbari being androgynous, with Delenn being played by a woman, dubbed by a man, and becoming female after becoming half-human. Let’s go with that.
What do people think of this?
First off, things should be condensed and streamlined. I enjoyed B5's 1 season = 1 year approach for that particular show, but let's be honest: did it really feel like an entire year had gone by each season? certainly not to me. So scrap it. Things take as long as they need to take, more like on BSG (season 1 covered like 6 weeks, they had time skips if need be, or several episodes can cover a single day).
Next, the story and characters we eventually got are iconic. I know there are people who would love to see the show as originally intended (including me, but not for an actual reboot, more like if I traveled to an alternate universe one of the first things I'd do is buy the dvds of the original 5-year arc), but to me it just wouldn't be B5 without Sheridan, Ivanova, and others. So I would do something similar to the actual show, but with nods to the original storyline, and streamlined to make things less awkward, such as:
This first arc covers several episodes - Ambassadors arrive on Babylon 5. Midseason or so, Kosh is attacked, and Commander Sinclair is framed for it. The Agamemnon, led by Sheridan and Ivanova (who had previously shown up in the first episode at the very least), is dispatched to investigate. They and Garibaldi uncover a conspiracy within the EA government, including first officer Takashima. They can’t go public with their findings yet, so Sinclair has to go into hiding, first rooming with Garibaldi, then being granted asylum on Minbar, where he begins his Ranger training alongside Marcus. Takashima is reassigned by her unknown masters and becomes a recurring adversary (perhaps involved with the Night Watch?). Sheridan and Ivanova transfer to B5 to fill the power vacuum (perhaps there’s a battle in which the Agamemnon is destroyed?).
Alternately, Ivanova could be B5’s second officer and only Sheridan transfers, leaving the Agamemnon in the command of his XO, Elizabeth Lochley.
Sinclair continues to be a major character on the show even after he leaves the station. He slowly learns about the hole in his mind, and about the coming war against the Shadows. He, Sheridan, Delenn, and Kosh have their secret Army of Light conspiracy going from relatively early on.
Lyta Alexander has a second personality, “Talia,” programmed into her by the Psi Corps. However it ends up going, she takes the super-telepath storyline of the original series, while Ivanova takes the political telepath rebellion storyline (though hopefully without Byron).
Also, I like the idea of Minbari being androgynous, with Delenn being played by a woman, dubbed by a man, and becoming female after becoming half-human. Let’s go with that.
What do people think of this?
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I agree --- at some places in the story, Season 2 and Season 3 felt like they took 6 months and other places it feels like it must have been years.
I think when you pick things apart, there's certainly room for setting the series to different time standards and possibly thinking slightly harder on how long tings should take.
One big for instance that sticks out in my head is the episode Point of No Return in Season 3.
Based on everything that happened, we're led to believe that Delen went to the Grey Council Ship and organized 3 Minbari battle cruisers to come to the aid of B5 in the same time it took 3 Battle Cruisers from the EA to arrive at B5 from Proxima 3.
The time just doesn't work out =(.
I think everyone who watches that episode has no problem suspending disbelief here because of how well it's executed, but it simply could be better thought out from a time stand point.
Before I blast into this, I understand your sentiment and I'm largely playing devils advocate here.
The interesting thing about B5 is that in almost all cases, when an actor had to leave the show, JMS brought in another existing character from his story (that we obviously didn't see yet) to fill that roll.
Even back when we had Sinclair, Takashima, Garabaldi and Kyle running B5 in the pilot, it was always intended for Sheridan and Ivnova to become major (not necessarily main) characters in the series. Ivnova was always intended to replace Takashima and Sheridan was always meant to become president of the Interstellar alliance --- the devil is simply in the details.
I haven't ever heard / discovered weather Franklin was an intended character but as far as I know, Franklin simply assumed Kyle's story. All the hints are there in the pilot.
Hey Fist, I love it, although I can't imagine Delenn with Mira Furlan's superb vocal acting. :P
But I really do love it. It makes the show flow so much better. I admire JMS' dedication to patching in holes wherever holes were made, but damn, there are things about the show's execution I would love to have seen in their originally conceived form, because I watch those earliest hours, I read about the initial plans, and I think, "damn, that would have been a cooler way to lead into the wars. Much cooler."
The Takashima arc always makes me think of Boomer from nuBSG, and I can't be alone. And really, it's only slightly because they're both Asian actresses -- that just makes it all the more unparalleled! Sleeper agent storylines in a sci-fi series? Count me in. And yeah, Talia sort of fits, too, but that was handled abruptly as necessary. Nicely, but abruptly.
Speaking of Talia, the "Talia" personality within Lyta is an awesome idea. I dig.
More than anything, however, I really agree with you on the idea of Sinclair remaining a centrally seen character. I've read things where JMS is like, "I answered the question, didn't I? And a fantastic book covers everything, too. Enough is enough, it's done!" Well, yeah, and the book is amazing. (Haven't read the rest, but as per this forum's recommendations, I went ahead and tracked down To Dream, and it's exceptional.)
But still, as I said in another B5 topic a little while ago (my, quite a few! Happy 20th, B5!) I wanted to see it, darn it! I can't help myself, I'm an actor.
But I really do love it. It makes the show flow so much better. I admire JMS' dedication to patching in holes wherever holes were made, but damn, there are things about the show's execution I would love to have seen in their originally conceived form, because I watch those earliest hours, I read about the initial plans, and I think, "damn, that would have been a cooler way to lead into the wars. Much cooler."
The Takashima arc always makes me think of Boomer from nuBSG, and I can't be alone. And really, it's only slightly because they're both Asian actresses -- that just makes it all the more unparalleled! Sleeper agent storylines in a sci-fi series? Count me in. And yeah, Talia sort of fits, too, but that was handled abruptly as necessary. Nicely, but abruptly.
Speaking of Talia, the "Talia" personality within Lyta is an awesome idea. I dig.
More than anything, however, I really agree with you on the idea of Sinclair remaining a centrally seen character. I've read things where JMS is like, "I answered the question, didn't I? And a fantastic book covers everything, too. Enough is enough, it's done!" Well, yeah, and the book is amazing. (Haven't read the rest, but as per this forum's recommendations, I went ahead and tracked down To Dream, and it's exceptional.)
But still, as I said in another B5 topic a little while ago (my, quite a few! Happy 20th, B5!) I wanted to see it, darn it! I can't help myself, I'm an actor.
Doesn't have anything to do with looking "dated" to me. Sinclair's weird overacting in "Infection" is the only thing that hits me, and that has nothing to do with time periods of production.
Even the hilariously awful CG-dude-climbing-a-ladder in the docking bay as G'Kar and Lyta depart the station in late Season 5 is cheesy in a terribly good way.
^According to the designer, that's not a coincidence.
Neither is the use of one of 2001's spacesuits (the blue one) in "War Without End."
No actually, I think that was a coincidence. IIRC they couldn't afford to make their own spacesuits at that point and presumably redressing the starfury flightsuit wasn't suitable so they rented/bought that left-over '2010' costume from some prop house or another. Same deal as the old Starship Troopers costumes being recycled in the likes of Crusade and Firefly.
The head of the MPG was called Xavier Montoya while the Anla'Shok captain was Enrique Montoya. So no, not the same person.
Talia was a role replacement for Lyta, but she was also a partial plot replacement for Takashima, who was originally intended to be harbouring Control.
I'm not sure if anyone would be interested, but I sat down and thought about how I'd do the opening credits for a Babylon 5 reboot, and came up with the following idea:
Babylon 5 Season 1 Opening Credits (Reboot)
"It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind"
"Babylon 5 is open for business"
"I was there"
"I would never tell you anything that was not in your best interest"
"Blood calls out for blood"
"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
"There's something I still don't understand"
"Understanding is not required"
"It's all so brief, isn't it?
"And then you will die"
"They are alone"
"One question: why?"
"What do you want?"
"I suggest you remove your hand, Ambassador"
"I don't trust telepaths"
"Good ol' Psi Corps"
"They're using you"
"Will you follow me into fire?"
"Nothing's the same anymore"
"And so it begins"
Starring:
Christian Bale as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
Olivia Munn as Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima
Tahmot Penikett as Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Doctor Stephen Franklin
Scarlett Johansson as Talia Winters
With Joaquim de Almeida as G'Kar
Mark Sheppard as Londo Mollari
And Michelle Forbes as Delenn
I'm still working on an opening for a rebooted S2, and will post it once I've finalized it. In the meantime, I'd like everybody to weigh in on what I came up with, and see if you can figure out what quotes are attributed to whom.
Note: I modeled the opening after the original series' Season 5 opening, so picture a '2258' graphic appearing before the first quote.
Babylon 5 Season 1 Opening Credits (Reboot)
"It was the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind"
"Babylon 5 is open for business"
"I was there"
"I would never tell you anything that was not in your best interest"
"Blood calls out for blood"
"The wheel turns, does it not, Ambassador?"
"There's something I still don't understand"
"Understanding is not required"
"It's all so brief, isn't it?
"And then you will die"
"They are alone"
"One question: why?"
"What do you want?"
"I suggest you remove your hand, Ambassador"
"I don't trust telepaths"
"Good ol' Psi Corps"
"They're using you"
"Will you follow me into fire?"
"Nothing's the same anymore"
"And so it begins"
Starring:
Christian Bale as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair
Olivia Munn as Lieutenant Commander Laurel Takashima
Tahmot Penikett as Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Doctor Stephen Franklin
Scarlett Johansson as Talia Winters
With Joaquim de Almeida as G'Kar
Mark Sheppard as Londo Mollari
And Michelle Forbes as Delenn
I'm still working on an opening for a rebooted S2, and will post it once I've finalized it. In the meantime, I'd like everybody to weigh in on what I came up with, and see if you can figure out what quotes are attributed to whom.
Note: I modeled the opening after the original series' Season 5 opening, so picture a '2258' graphic appearing before the first quote.
I don't know what to say about the intro you typed out there --- I guess it comes down to the execution.
As far as the persons you pegged for each role, most look interesting, but I need to note a few.
Joaquim de Almeida and Mark Sheppard --- its hard to fill the role of G'Kar and Londo. Thats probably the hardest role to fill, hands down. I'd really have to think about this and think if I felt they (or any actor anyone would toss in here).
Michelle Forbs would NEVER do the role, but even at that, I don't know I would personally pick her. You'd really need someone who can project awe and wonder. I don't think Michelle Forbs even fits that role. She's too abrasive. I'm not even wholly sure Mira Furlan fully pulled off the role. The range of what's required for the character is extreme and off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone I would throw in there (albeit, I'm not the best person to think up potential actors for roles).
I do notice you're *REALLY* bent up on having Talia Winters over Lyta Alexander. I'm honestly curious why. At the end of the day, neither character was really well defined (certainly not as well as characters like Ivanova, Gerabaldi, G'kar or Londo). If you're bent up on qualities you are attributing to Talia, if you're talking about a reboot, everything is re-negotiable. Franklin / Kyle doesn't necessarily need to be Affrican American, Sinclair doesn't necessarily need to be Caucasian, Londo doesn't necessarily need to have a deep Slavic accent. The only place you're gonna get type-casted is when a character's last name REALLY implies a place of origin. Of the human cast, Takashima and Ivanova are the only two characters really type cast as Oriental and Russian respectively. Other then that, the sky is the limit. Moreover, the only real relationships that had a meaningful impact among the main characters was Sinclair and Delen and thus one of them must be male and one must be female. Heck, the CMO could be Stephany Franklin and be a Caucasian female.
These are some of the things you think about during casting. Consider for a second at one point Captain Janeway was a male captain, then they decided they liked an African American female Actor from Canada who they hired. She quit on the first day of filming and hired Kate Mulgrew and proceeded to rename the character through Kate's urgings as the characters name didn't really feel like it fit anymore.
I also notice you don't have Lenir or Vir. Both are big enough characters they really need to be filled. Na'Tooth was always intended to be a bigger part of the show but for one reason or another she kept getting the short end of the stick. Among similar characters, I'd probably consider someone for Ivanova too as she was always intended to be a primary character.
As far as the persons you pegged for each role, most look interesting, but I need to note a few.
Joaquim de Almeida and Mark Sheppard --- its hard to fill the role of G'Kar and Londo. Thats probably the hardest role to fill, hands down. I'd really have to think about this and think if I felt they (or any actor anyone would toss in here).
Michelle Forbs would NEVER do the role, but even at that, I don't know I would personally pick her. You'd really need someone who can project awe and wonder. I don't think Michelle Forbs even fits that role. She's too abrasive. I'm not even wholly sure Mira Furlan fully pulled off the role. The range of what's required for the character is extreme and off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone I would throw in there (albeit, I'm not the best person to think up potential actors for roles).
I do notice you're *REALLY* bent up on having Talia Winters over Lyta Alexander. I'm honestly curious why. At the end of the day, neither character was really well defined (certainly not as well as characters like Ivanova, Gerabaldi, G'kar or Londo). If you're bent up on qualities you are attributing to Talia, if you're talking about a reboot, everything is re-negotiable. Franklin / Kyle doesn't necessarily need to be Affrican American, Sinclair doesn't necessarily need to be Caucasian, Londo doesn't necessarily need to have a deep Slavic accent. The only place you're gonna get type-casted is when a character's last name REALLY implies a place of origin. Of the human cast, Takashima and Ivanova are the only two characters really type cast as Oriental and Russian respectively. Other then that, the sky is the limit. Moreover, the only real relationships that had a meaningful impact among the main characters was Sinclair and Delen and thus one of them must be male and one must be female. Heck, the CMO could be Stephany Franklin and be a Caucasian female.
These are some of the things you think about during casting. Consider for a second at one point Captain Janeway was a male captain, then they decided they liked an African American female Actor from Canada who they hired. She quit on the first day of filming and hired Kate Mulgrew and proceeded to rename the character through Kate's urgings as the characters name didn't really feel like it fit anymore.
I also notice you don't have Lenir or Vir. Both are big enough characters they really need to be filled. Na'Tooth was always intended to be a bigger part of the show but for one reason or another she kept getting the short end of the stick. Among similar characters, I'd probably consider someone for Ivanova too as she was always intended to be a primary character.
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^ All of the characters you mentioned would in fact be part of the series; I just chose to make them major recurring characters and feature their credits in scrolling-credit format (behind an 'Also Starring' header) immediately following the main title in exact emulation of what was done on the new Battlestar Galactica. Here is who I had in mind for each role:
Amy Adams as Lyta Alexander
Jamie Campbell-Bower as Lennier
Alan Tudyk as Vir Cotto
Tabrett Bethel as Na'Toth
Alessandra Torresani as Susan Ivanova
Catherine Sakai, Alfred Bester, and Morden would also feature as major recurring characters, so here's who I had in mind for those particular roles:
Grace Park as Catherine Sakai (I wanted someone who was close in age to Christian Bale)
Sasha Roiz as Morden
Bruce Boxleitner as Alfred Bester (I thought it would be fitting to cast someone from the original series in a recurring role the same way that BSG did, and immediately thought of Boxleitner)
I also envisioned Ardwright Chamberlain returning to once again voice the character of Kosh.
In terms of the casting, I spent a lot of time thinking about who I wanted in each role, and although I ultimately ended up coming to the realization that I'd cast a few of the roles too old (at one point John Schneider was my choice for Sinclair), I stand by the decisions I made.
Regarding Mark Sheppard and Michelle Forbes, I felt that both were strong enough actors that they would be more than capable of disappearing into the roles of Londo and Delenn, respectively, and tried not to let their previous performances 'typecast' them even though the roles of Londo and Delenn are very different from anything they've previously done or are known for.
As for Joaquim de Almeida, his casting was actually suggested to me by someone with whom I had been collaborating on this reboot. I wasn't familiar with his work, but the person who suggested him was and felt that he would be a perfect fit for the role.
Going back to the above re: the characters you mentioned, they actually each have a quote featured in the opening monologue (as do Sakai and Morden), but I'm not going to tell you which quote is attributed to which character.
Amy Adams as Lyta Alexander
Jamie Campbell-Bower as Lennier
Alan Tudyk as Vir Cotto
Tabrett Bethel as Na'Toth
Alessandra Torresani as Susan Ivanova
Catherine Sakai, Alfred Bester, and Morden would also feature as major recurring characters, so here's who I had in mind for those particular roles:
Grace Park as Catherine Sakai (I wanted someone who was close in age to Christian Bale)
Sasha Roiz as Morden
Bruce Boxleitner as Alfred Bester (I thought it would be fitting to cast someone from the original series in a recurring role the same way that BSG did, and immediately thought of Boxleitner)
I also envisioned Ardwright Chamberlain returning to once again voice the character of Kosh.
In terms of the casting, I spent a lot of time thinking about who I wanted in each role, and although I ultimately ended up coming to the realization that I'd cast a few of the roles too old (at one point John Schneider was my choice for Sinclair), I stand by the decisions I made.
Regarding Mark Sheppard and Michelle Forbes, I felt that both were strong enough actors that they would be more than capable of disappearing into the roles of Londo and Delenn, respectively, and tried not to let their previous performances 'typecast' them even though the roles of Londo and Delenn are very different from anything they've previously done or are known for.
As for Joaquim de Almeida, his casting was actually suggested to me by someone with whom I had been collaborating on this reboot. I wasn't familiar with his work, but the person who suggested him was and felt that he would be a perfect fit for the role.
Going back to the above re: the characters you mentioned, they actually each have a quote featured in the opening monologue (as do Sakai and Morden), but I'm not going to tell you which quote is attributed to which character.
A remake of B5 seems difficult to do while actually keeping it as B5.
It was a deeply mediocre show that accumulated a devoted fan base due to a few factors:
1. It was counterprogramming to Star Trek, which was about the only other space opera available at the time.
2. Its slavish devotion to a long-term storyline was rather unique for sci-fi TV at the time (but had been done by other TV dramas for over a decade.)
3. Jurasik and Katsulas elevated otherwise cringeworthy dialogue and formed a charismatic relationship. The rest of the acting was mediocre to terrible.
That sci-fi fans heap so much praise on B5 isn't indicate of B5's quality, but rather how piss-poor TV space opera was as of the mid-1990s. Space opera didn't really get elevated again until shows like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica came around, and even then I think they were a few years behind the prevailing TV storytelling conventions.
It would be interesting to see a space opera that is on the same level as something like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or The Wire. I don't think B5 could be that without a tremendous amount of overhauling.
It was a deeply mediocre show that accumulated a devoted fan base due to a few factors:
1. It was counterprogramming to Star Trek, which was about the only other space opera available at the time.
2. Its slavish devotion to a long-term storyline was rather unique for sci-fi TV at the time (but had been done by other TV dramas for over a decade.)
3. Jurasik and Katsulas elevated otherwise cringeworthy dialogue and formed a charismatic relationship. The rest of the acting was mediocre to terrible.
That sci-fi fans heap so much praise on B5 isn't indicate of B5's quality, but rather how piss-poor TV space opera was as of the mid-1990s. Space opera didn't really get elevated again until shows like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica came around, and even then I think they were a few years behind the prevailing TV storytelling conventions.
It would be interesting to see a space opera that is on the same level as something like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or The Wire. I don't think B5 could be that without a tremendous amount of overhauling.
