What if a BSG-styled remake of Babylon 5 was made?

[Jan]

I don't think B5 would necessarily have been better with more writers, but that is due to the circumstances, not because having just one writer is the superior solution in principle. On the contrary, I think provided some prerequisites are met, a team is likely to be better. What is needed is a plan, a team of regular staff writers who agree to said plan, and one or two persons who guide that team, and regular meetings to discuss how to proceed with the show.

I don't disagree with this but I don't think that a story as dense as B5 was could be done in only five years doing it that way. If the amount of time allowed were expanded (and granted, the five-year real-world limit wasn't necessary) I think it could work very well. I'm sure we'd see al lot more of the B5 universe explored if there were more time, too, and I think I'd enjoy that a lot.

Jan

 

[Booji]

What about the first 2 seasons?

dug it up until the Pegasus storyline got going, and then I went

anyhoo, your idea about Valen being Sinclair & Delenn's kid actually sounds good. Makes way more sense than the Minbari soul thing.

 

[Joe Washington]

What if Vir becomes Londo's nephew from Midnight on the Firing Line? To make him feel like he's made some good out of the Ragesh 3 mess, Londo takes on him as his aide. But it takes Vir a while to fully recover from his PTSD.

 

[Candlelight]

Okay, let's get rid of Sinclair altogether, which would be one thing that would make the remake more its own entity while still having a connection to the original somewhat.
With Sinclair out of the picture, Sheridan would be the commanding officer of Babylon 5 from the very beginning. He would be the one who formed the friendship with Garibaldi back on Mars and chose him to be the new head of security.

This is something I would've preferred in the version we got (casting issues aside). If Sheridan was in charge from the start, Sinclair could've been the ambassador assigned to the station, and appears in season one only.

Season two he goes to Minbar and effectively leaves the show as normal, but then a new pro-Clark ambassador arrives and gives Sheridan a headache - but is removed during season three, or switches sides.

 

[Anwar]

Sounds like a human take on the new Vorlon ambassador. Replacing a previous liked character with an unlikable darker militant one who gets removed later on.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

A team of RDM and JMS would be THE MOST AWESOME, KICKASS, team in all of science-fiction history, and would be a union so grand in it's pure awesomeness, that the universe itself would explode, from an inability to cope with such blinding grandeur.

No, it would be complete bullshit, and would result in the destruction of great characters (Delenn, G'Kar, Lennier, Londo, Vir) all because people like RDM don't like aliens and don't want them on the show, plus instead of Garibaldi overcoming his addiction, he'd be in his cups all the time, like Tigh. Again, no thanks on this remake-at least, not with RDM.

Those that don't like Babylon 5, hear me again; JMS's show may be wacky doodle, but it's his wacky doodle; you don't have to watch it if you don't want to. Remaking it to be like BSG would be ass, and would be a failure, so tough shit for you guys.

 

[dru]

Why does everything have to remade into Battlestar Galactica, B5 is fine just the way it is.

Amen.

Moore's series was not even successful except by the low standards of the SyFy Channel.

 

[dru]

(grr... double post)

 

[dru]

The original BSG was awful and couldn't be brought back without serious changes.

Funny that. Just a year before Fox & Universal had begun production and set building on a continuation, large elements of which ended up cribbed and reused in Moore's bastardization despite his protestations to the contrary.

Fondness for the original was the reason eyeballs looked at his miniseries and yet how significantly did ratings drop off over time for that supposed 'best show on tv'?

To answer the OT, no way should B5 is reimagined like that failed show. Besides andreas katsulas is irreplaceable.

 

[DarKush]

I would rather see a remake of Crusade.

 

[Anwar]

I would rather see a remake of Crusade.

I'm sure JMS would also like that, with himself in charge without any Exec Interference this time.

 

[clint g]

I would rather see a remake of Crusade.

If anything, i think Crusade would probably flow better as an RDM style remake than b5 would. That said, I'd rather NOT have RDM involved in anything B5 related. I know he has his fans but B5 was fine the way it was, there is no reason to make it darker and all RDMified.

 

[David cgc]

No, it would be complete bullshit, and would result in the destruction of great characters (Delenn, G'Kar, Lennier, Londo, Vir) all because people like RDM don't like aliens and don't want them on the show...

Yes, Ron Moore, the guy who wrote almost every klingon-focused episode on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, doesn't like aliens and doesn't want them in his shows.

...plus instead of Garibaldi overcoming his addiction, he'd be in his cups all the time, like Tigh.

Yes, because not only is Ron Moore constitutionally incapable of allowing a character to recover from an addiction (like, say, Starbuck quitting smoking), Garibaldi didn't ever relapse. Oh, wait.

Seriously, man, in Season 5, Garibaldi's alcoholism caused him to miss meetings, make an ass of himself and, oh, yes, fail to prevent a devastating interstellar war. At least Tigh was functional. It wasn't the booze that made him incompetent, it was Ellen.

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

i dont mean to offend you sir but theres no need for remakes of babylon 5 anytime soon. babylon 5 is perfectly fine. i like bsg too but i dont see any need to make a bsg type babylon 5.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I don't think a remake of Babylon 5 is needed or necessary. That being said, I'd like to see JMS take what he learned and do another novel-for-television but this time with a dedicated writing staff so he doesn't have to handle the majority of the writing.

 

[DigificWriter]

What aspects of the original show would be changed in this remake? Which aspects would you rather be changed? How gritty do it think it would be? Would it take the same kind of risks in storytelling the way Battlestar Galactica did? Would be the relationships between the characters be portrayed more realistically and develop more organically? Would be the humor less chessy and more sharp and witty like Joss Whedon's brand of humor in his shows?

Let the discussion begin.

I actually tried to create a 'virtual television' (read: script-based fanfiction) re-imagining of B5 with another poster from this board, but it didn't end up going anywhere. I still have a lot of the stuff we came up with, though, and wouldn't mind sharing it with you if you'd like.

 

[Joe Washington]

I would very much like that.

 

[DigificWriter]

Joe, send me an e-mail at digificwriter@hotmail.com, and I'll get the info to you.

 

[EnsignRicky]

I don't see the sense of remaking a show in the image of another's when it's own style was already pretty amazing. Battlestar is a great show, but how would Babylon 5 benefit from a cast of extremely alienated characters sitting around in their undershirts, drinking, smoking, cursing and screwing? That sort of thing might fly in some kind of Centauri spinoff, but as far as the core story goes, it was told and told well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If B5 is remade, here's one thing I dearly hope they get rid of:

Spoiler: MAJOR SPOILER for final episode

The fact that the whole of B5 is a documentary, made by the ISN network which is frequently seen in the series. We find this out in the closing credits of the final episode. In a nutshell: the whole thing is a holodeck program (at best), or a re-creation by actors (at worst. For example, when you watch an episode with Sheridan, you wouldn't be seeing Bruce Boxleitner play Sheridan - you're seeing Bruce playing an actor playing Sheridan). Whichever it was: I bloody well hated that shit. It totally ruined the whole show for me. I can't look at B5 the same ever again. It's as fake as 'These Are The Voyages...' - perhaps even more so, since at least TATV had real characters as well as holodeck recreations.