Babylon 5 is going to be rebooted. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The CW is developing a “from-the-ground-up reboot” with series creator J. Michael Straczynski, which will follow Earthforce officer John Sheridan as he is assigned to the titular station—and the destiny that he faces after Earth finds itself locked into a war with an ancient civilization.
Straczynski created the original Babylon 5 in the early 1990s, and it ran from 1993 through 1998. It followed the crew of the Babylon 5 station, which was built after a devastating war between humanity and an alien civilization known as the Minbari, as a place where alien races could figure out ways to resolve their differences peacefully. The station was the fifth of a series (its predecessors were destroyed in various accidents or acts of sabotage), and served as a centerpoint in the midst of a variety of galactic conflicts.
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The original show has been hailed for its five-year story arc, in which we follow the crew of the station and its inhabitants as they contend with various (at times genocidal) wars, and find themselves in the midst of a bigger struggle between dark and light in the galaxy.
Over the years, there have been calls to bring back the series in some form, and Straczynski noted that the decision was out of his hands: Warner Brothers held the rights and just wasn’t interested in doing anything with the property. But serialized and streaming television has grown in the last decade, and it seems as though the studio has taken another look. Earlier this year, it brought Babylon 5 to HBO Max, introducing the series to a new generation of viewers.
What is a little surprising is that Straczynski and The CW appear to be going back to square one with the show, rather than building off of the original to some degree. The first show has a decades-long following, and it’ll take a lot of work for them to convince viewers that a second take on the story will be worth watching. The five-year story is particularly noteworthy, addressing issues big and small over its run, from the rise of fascism and prevalent nature of racism, to friendship and principles. A potential new series would have to figure out how to retell the story while also making it their own.
On the other hand, it represents a good opportunity to address some of the show’s charming oddities that haven’t aged well, like the costume and set design, as well as the CGI, all of which have a very ’90s aesthetic.
The CW doesn’t appear to have greenlit the series yet, but THR notes that The CW has a good track record of reviving franchises. We’ll have to see how that plays out for this one.
Hmmmm…..interesting. I can’t wait to see if it gets rebooted or not
I don’t see the point of a reboot.
I love this show. I think it was an ambitious project with multiple geniuses at the wheel and they pulled it off.
Saying a old show “haven’t aged well” and that the problem is the set design, the costumes and the CGI, it means the show is ultimately perfect (or as close as it can be); esthetic problems are not real problems.
Anyway, if JMS is involved, there is a chance its not a total write off. We’ll see.
Not a reboot but a next gen would be cool. The show had some great ideas.
So we’re not going to start with Jeffrey Sinclair as captain? Will the Valen storyline remain the same? Will Zathras say that someone is not the one? Poor Zathras.
Maybe this time also we get to see a better ending to the Shadow x Vorlon storyline that isn’t rushed due to fear of cancellation. If the story is cancelled, then we still have the original telling.
Let’s give a hooray for starfuries that follow physics in space!
Yeah, I don’t know why they have to start all over. It’s like reaching the end of a certain pre-Tolkien fantasy novel after hundreds of pages of adventures.
Well, I don’t envy whoever ends up getting cast as the new G’Kar.
The entire Main Cast is going to have that challenge, but I pity whoever has to follow the late Andreas Katsulas.
Mmm, conflicted.
The F/X haven’t aged all that well (4:3 aspect ratio on a shoestring budget), so I would love to see WB pony up to re-do all of those, so that we could see modern CGI with the original widescreen film stock.
But part of what made the show and story so impressive was its uniqueness for its era. I’m not sure you can recreate that, especially since much of that came from the creative efforts of key actors who are sadly no longer available.
Still, as long as JMS is involved it has the potential to be worthwhile.
Doubt. I realize that having actually seen the original, I’m not in the target audience but I don’t see how this is going to be a value added experience, even with JMS onboard.
On the other hand, telling the story to suit today’s audiences would be very different from the original. Especially since they could do all arc episodes all the time. I hope they don’t because that would get very heavy but they could
As long as they bring back Mac and Bo, I’ll be happy.
I’m a huge Babylon 5 fan, and am currently am halfway through an HBO Max rewatch with my wife, who was never exposed to B5. She’s completely hooked. The series still holds up remarkably well. The writing was excellent, the actors fully embody their roles, and even the CGI is still impressive after you get past the early episodes.
I could see doing a proper remaster where they re-do all the digital effects from scratch, and thus be able to use the full widescreen live-action footage they originally shot. (As it is, the HBO Max version is by far the best version, having scanned the negatives of the original film stock in 4K, then cropping it back to 4:3 in order to match the original CGI shots which were only shot in 4:3).
But a reboot from the ground up? That makes no sense to me. I can’t conceive of anyone else playing John Sheridan, or Delenn, or Garibaldi or Ivanova. And for God’s sake, Peter Jurasik as Londo and Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar are absolute legends. It’s like recasting Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The combination of the story and those performances were what made B5 great.
Babylon 5 was always on the precipice back in the 90s. They had to fight to get renewed every year. It’s a miracle they got a second season at all, but back then the networks were much more likely to give shows time to develop; it wouldn’t happen today. Everyone on the show thought it would end after the 4th season when PTEN went under, to the point where JMS accelerated the story arc to bring major events forward in order to get the important story points resolved before it got canceled. TNT swooped in and got the show a 5th season at literally the 11th hour, after the 4th season had wrapped IIRC.
I get why JMS would want a second chance to correct some of those issues, fix mistakes, update things, but I think he does so at his peril. There are no guarantees in this life. If this gets off the ground (which is a very big IF), you are still subject to the same vicissitudes of life that were a factor the first time around. Studios get nervous and interfere. Lead actors have health or career problems that force them to leave the show. Budgets run out. And audiences are fickle. There’s no perfect B5 out there waiting to be made.. there’s just B5. And that’s all I ever needed/wanted.
I love the original series; I’ve probably watched it a dozen times or more, and I’ve introduced countless others to it over the years. And that said? I’m intrigued by what this could be, if it truly gets off the ground. I realize that being even cautiously optimistic about something is horribly out of fashion these days, where we are expected to hate and snark at everything new in a franchise, but it’s been a generation since the original. JMS has a couple decades of experience now that he didn’t have when writing and producing the original. I’m not the kind of person who thinks a reboot or reimagining has any impact whatsoever on the original, either.
@@@@@ 10: “But a reboot from the ground up? That makes no sense to me. I can’t conceive of anyone else playing John Sheridan, or Delenn, or Garibaldi or Ivanova. And for God’s sake, Peter Jurasik as Londo and Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar are absolute legends. It’s like recasting Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The combination of the story and those performances were what made B5 great.”
this, exactly.
@11:
JMS has a couple decades of experience now that he didn’t have when writing and producing the original. I’m not the kind of person who thinks a reboot or reimagining has any impact whatsoever on the original, either.
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.
Neither JMS or the industry had ever really tried something like Babylon 5, so it was a learning curve for all parties.
Now, with the changes in the industry and that experience, it would be a different creative experience.
I don’t know…
If JMS got an ironclad commitment for X number of episodes, it might work out ok. Limited series are very much a thing now, and stretching the story out to 110 episodes left room for a lot of filler (in my opinion). And even die hard fans can acknowledge that season 4 was a major rush job. The climax to the third age of mankind storyline, which should have been epic, ended up be 4 people talking to each other on a dark set.
In other words, there’s certainly room for a re-invention.
Of course, in Hollywood there’s no such thing as an ironclad guarantee of anything.
If I had heard Firefly was being rebooted, I’d be ecstatic! Why? Because the show just didn’t get the run it needed to be truly excellent and full featured story.
Babylong 5? Aside from the last season feeling a bit off, it got the run it needed to do a great job. on the other hand, it has been twenty years. Maybe it would be nice to see how a new generation of actors would take on the roles. See tweaks to stories to tie them in to the stories of the 2020s, because to me, good sci-fi has always been social commentary on it’s contemporary events.
*squint*
Not sure about a reboot. The cast was Babylon 5 just as much as the writing, and to remake it with other people when we could just restore the original to full HD glory just feels… weird. Unless they decide to go the full BSG route and make a whole new show with the same name.
“Farscape.”
A re-boot?! Ugh!!
I will watch and no doubt love whatever they come up with, but would much prefer a continuation, not a reboot. Set a generation later, so what few original cast members remain can show up in guest roles occasionally. Call it Babylon 6, maybe.
I’m thinking this is a new story, not a re-cast. Unfortuneately a lot of the old cast has passed on. There are a lot of stories to be told in this universe, and certainly some surviving old characters could drop in from the old show. They tried with the spin-offs Crudade and Legend of the Rangers, but it never had enough time or funding to go anywhere. Surely something along that line could be created, using the same universe, lore, races, technology, and ideas.
Ooh, don’t know how I feel about this. I mean, I’m grateful for the possibility of more Babylon 5, but I just…can’t see how a reboot would represent an improvement on the original.
Yeah, the CG and visual effects didn’t age well. But in a CW budget, they won’t look much better. Also, slim chances of getting a guaranteed five year season comittement so no chance to fix what was rushed due to the fear of cancellation.
I would still be down with it if it don’t have to bow down to the CW formula of angsty angst just for angty angst sake (I looking at you The Flash… you were supposed to be a fun character that loves its powers).
@21: Same.
Especially because pretty much everything after the end of the main series was a miss, for me. Crusade got a bit of a raw deal, but it just never clicked for me. I never saw Legend of the Rangers, or the Lost Tales, but the less said about Thirdspace, the better.
B5 may have been lightning in a bottle. At the very least, it was a product of its time. I don’t know that I actually want to know what JMS would do differently now, or to see different takes on those characters.
Then again, there is always BSG as a counter-example. I didn’t initially think I wanted to see that reboot either, but I’m sure glad I eventually gave it a chance.
@10: Babylon 5 is super obscure to a general audience, though, and getting them to watch it, even with the recent HD remaster, is an uphill battle. The production design, CGI and heavily stylised dialogue are all acquired tastes by 2021 standards (and they were a bit by 1993 standards, for that matter). It’s a similar argument to why they rebooted BSG in 2003, because the 1978 original had dated poorly. I don’t think B5 has dated as badly as that, but it’s certainly a harder sell.
I see it as Warner Brothers and JMS having the chance to reboot interest in the show. If it flops after the first season but hooks in a couple million more people, they can go back and watch the original.
I’m also excited by the merchandising possibilities: Big Finish have been trying to do B5 audio dramas with the OG cast and Eaglemoss had pitched a full line of ship models like their Star Trek and BSG lines but had been shot down because it was an “inactive franchise.” That shouldn’t be a problem any more.
Anyways, I can’t imagine anyone but Mira Furlan playing Delenn, but since they’ll need to recast her anyways, I hope that JMS goes with his original plan and makes her a transgender character. Beyond this, I have no strong opinions.
@25 Babylon 5 had these queer representation ideas that mostly didn’t get the ground JMS wanted due to the mores of the times. Transgender Delenn, Ivanova x Talia romance, Marcus and Stephen doing undercover spy work as a gay couple (showing that gay marriage was not only legal, but completely accepted in the 2200s) and so on. Considering his work on Sense 8, I can see these ideas going way further than they did in the 90s.
@26/ Ryamano: Oh, you’re right. This reboot could be exceptionally queer. Well maybe it might be worthwhile after all.
Babylon 5 is perfect as it is.
This could be really awesome.
As long as they don’t what they did with the Kung Fu reboot it should be fine. That show is just silly.
By “From the ground up reboot” I wonder if they mean an all new cast of characters also. There may be some familiar characters but there will also probably be some other new characters taking the lead in a few areas.
This is the CW we are talking about here. I am skeptical right off the bat.
Think I’d prefer a new story entirely, not a reboot. What’s there left to say in the mega narrative? Some of the details and how they’re told would be different, but the overall arc still works.
I hope they aren’t stringing JMS along. There was a recent story about a chance he was being considered as the new showrunner of Doctor Who, which came across as such a long shot that it was almost cruel. (See comments by Joe Hill, who submitted spec scripts aided by Neil Gaiman and was told, “We don’t hire American writers.”)
Also agree with the comments about the casting of some of the roles, particularly G’kar and Londo, as nearly inconceivable.
Everyone will think about BSG as a way to mentally escape “please don’t do reboot” panic, including me. But still. No, I think I don’t want it. Especially now, when series tend to be gritty-dirty-sad. B5 was gritty enough and gave a more realistic portrayal of humans, and yet it was hopeful. I fear that the “hopeful” part isn’t very much in fashion now.
Better do reboots for those spin-off series that came up later, I trust JMS to make a great story.
Because I am a nerdy nerd-nerd, I want Babylon 5: The Radio Play. I have the BBC Lord of the Rings and also the Star Wars original trilogy with a lot of the original actors and they are both awesome. I bet a B5 radio play could be just as good.
Completely unecessary.
I follow JMS on Facebook, and he just left a long post. Definitely a reboot, using the basic storyline and characters, but not dedicated to doing things the same the second time through (he cited the new BSG compared to the old one as an example). Sounds interesting, and I look forward to seeing it!
Admittedly, it would be pretty funny if this announcement was immediately followed up by a hastily slapped together announcement of a Deep Space Nine reboot.
They have been talking about this for 10 yrs…I will believe it when I see it!!
We’ll see what happens.
But, yeah, a continuation makes less sense than a reboot. With more than half the original cast definitely not able to be used, you have to have tons of new characters anyway, and you’ll have to have new plot lines and stories for them anyway, and you have a different show anyway, no matter what.
We’ll see if JMS can bring new things to say. Some writers can only bring a limited number of stories to the table; others can do more. Certainly, the whole set up isn’t specific enough to preclude it…
I’m a bit on the fence on the reboot. B5 was like watching a well-written novel, with a cast of actors that would be difficult to replicate the life expressed in their characters.
If anything, B5 could be refreshed, like they did Star Trek TOS- new CGI where it can be tastefully fit in.
The series in the B5 universe, deserving of a reboot, is Crusade. It’s only season, of a 5-year arc, was rushed, and the story incomplete.
I must admit, my main response is to be slightly bemused. Babylon 5 was less of a series and more of a story. Even with obvious differences like Sheridan being there from the start, are they just going to tell the same story about the Shadow War and President Clark and Psi Corps and the Interstellar Alliance with a few details changed? Or are they going to take the basic rules of the universe and tell a completely different story? Keeping an open mind. It’ll probably be good, and having JMS on board is definitely a plus, but time will tell whether it will be sufficiently different from the original to stand out.
Should those of us who previously submitted proposals for a B5 rewatch on Tor.com brush them off?
If they take the concept in an interesting new direction, as the 2004 Battlestar Galactica did, then I’m all in. If they’re just going to retell the same story with different actors and better CGI (and hopefully better pacing!), then why?
I am a great fan of the show and I fear for the reboot.
One one hand its JMS’s baby and he can what he likes with it but on the other he kept us hooked for 5 years arguing about everything, waiting for the next penny to drop, going back and seeing things trailed seasons before suddenly come up, not knowing what whats going to happen. Can he do that again? I don’t think so.
It was as mentioned before that it was “lightning in a bottle” – everything came together at the right time. New and fresh and different to what had come before. Now its just another show.
Yeah they can do it but its not going to be the same.
So, i’ve recently completed a rewatch of the new remaster, alongside a friend who had never seen it. My immediate though on reaching the end was that i’d be interested to see a reboot.
I was a huge fan of B5 back when it first aired, and i’d still maintain that at its best, its still one of – if not the, best sci-fi series ever. But…. it is showing its age. Not just the shoddy CGI, sets and budget guest actors. There are a lot of filler episodes, a lot of ponderous dialogue, a lot of pseudo-philosophical speeches that go on…. and on… and on…
Also i don’t see how a continuation could work at this point. Unfortunately a lot of the actors have died, and almost all of the characters who are canonically still alive at this point are the ones who would have to be recast. I’m all for them cheating and having some kind of babylon 4 style incident and getting Ivonova back though…
Watched B5 then, spending more time in the B5 universe would be good. If JMS finds more to say, even better, if the reboot happens I’ll cheerfully give it a chance.
The CGI wasnt the best in season 1 and not until season 2 did you notice a real difference . Then the design of many of the ships was just fantastic
Hmm. The new Captain Sheridan sounds a bit like John Gideon from Crusade, what with the mysterious background. I wonder if he will have some form of Apocalypse Box as well?
@46Not sure on the project but I am looking forward to some great starship designs too! The new Babylon 5 needs to try to top the design of the Minbari ships for beauty and the Shadow ships for scary-ness.
On twitter JMS said that Babylon 5 the original tried to do innovative stuff in the 1990s, telling a mostly serialized story when most shows didn’t. Now he says that with experience he’s going to try to do something innovative again. Many shows nowadays tell a serialized story, full of mysteries and rife with speculation among its viewers. I’m curious for what he’s going to try now. It’s not going to to be the same thing as the original series with updated effects. He compared it to Battlestar Galactica and Westworld, in how those shows differed from the originals.
@48 it’d almost be as unusual if they kept the same structure of combined arc and episodic storytelling. Which I hope happens because all arc episodes all the time don’t give the characters time to breathe
How many Spider-Man reboots have there been? Superman? Batman? JMS has experience working with existing IP, and it seems like he can make this work. it will be strange but based on his prior work, I assume it’s going to be different than the original to avoid comparisons like “old” G’Kar versus “new” G’Kar. It was going to be tough to do any sort of continuation or sequel because of the numbers of actors who have passed since the original—its a surprising(and depressingly) small number who are still available from the core cast.
Why wouldn’t you just do a B6? Way more interesting than rehashing old stores.
@50. Birlan: perhaps too many in recent years. But those are just iterations of characters, not a full galactic storyline, with entire alien races involved, not just supporting characters. The world is much bigger and the ending is known for the Shadow War arc. Would it not be anti-climactic if it ends with another “Get off our lawn speech” from Sheridan? Or the episode featuring his death: will it still cause some of us to tear up? how far can JMS veer from major milestones?
As far as JMS citing Nu BSG and Westworld the series, I think that actually raises the stakes. The network may see it as a safe bet to reboot, but both those shows arguably disappeared up their own self-regard. I still like the BSG reboot, but many viewers complained about the ending. I wish they had done it differently, but they didn’t jettison the baggage from the old series, like the mystical angels, and ended up recreating the Book of Genesis.
Westworld became needlessly convoluted in season 2, just disguising the fact that jumbling up the pieces doesn’t mean there’s a good story underneath. Season 3 was initially exciting as it moved into the human world, but it was also disappointing. Even Jesse Pinkman couldn’t save it.
@41: Yes, please. I did a proposal for one a few months ago and it’d be nice to see more support for the idea.
@51: There was no B6. B5 was the last of the Babylon 5 stations, as the show told us hundreds of times.
No Babylon 5 fan would want to watch a reboot and feel as if they are being nibbled to death by cats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ66wHRhe2U
@41, @53: Yes to a rewatch!
No to B6, for the reason you describe. But I’d be fascinated by a B4 prequel! We’d see the early Minbari, and lots more of the Vorlons (and maybe even the Vorlon homeworld) who are meddling on lots of different planets, possibly even appearing on Earth.
Recasting Valen would be difficult, but at least it’s a new story in the universe.
I seem to be falling firmly into the emotional camp of “…. but why, though?” I mean of all the things I’ve seen and loved, Babylon 5 honestly seems least in need of a remake. And I’m getting thoroughly rebooted out. If this was “Straczynski announces new original science fiction project,” I would be bouncing off the ceiling in delight. As it is, I’m just… confused.
I’m definitely torn on this one. I find B5 to be a nearly perfect piece of work, even taking lesser episodes like Grail or the Byron ones into account. It had the best mixture of episodic and serialized storytelling I’ve seen on any sci-fi show. 22 episode seasons that felt perfectly balanced.
My fear is that a reboot would condense these to shorter seasons, losing a lot of what made the original so special.
But then again, this is being handled by Straczynski himself – and he did cite Moore’s BSG as an example of rebooting done right. I can’t recall the last time a reboot was made by the man who made the original work (other than maybe Casino Royale being handled by 007 veterans Martin Campbell and the Eon producers/writers). So with him onboard, I tend towards optimistic.
@57: The synchronicity with Russel T. Davies coming back to Doctor Who is interesting. There’s some speculation he’s going to do a very different job, based on the darker, more serious stuff he’s made since leaving DW.
It’s the CW, it’ll be all teen angsty, with lots of gratuitous sex and “smart” people making stupid decisions to drive the plot to new heights of stupid.
@57: I am dubious for the same reason; I found the BSG reboot to be unwatchable because:
* People doing stupid things for non-characterization-related reasons (we’re in a bunch of lifeboats with no destination and we’re critically short on everything, obvs. the first thing to do is get people to have more babies, instead of ordering everybody with a valuable skill to take an apprentice??? or asking the people from the so-called backwards planet to take a walk through the gardens of the fancy cruise ship to point out what was edible??? Nope)
* Onscreen torture and onscreen sex and onscreen sexy torture and that’s when I left the room and did not come back
* Dangling flapping plot threads–not as many as in, say, Lost, but too many for me
* The big revelation at the end of the series is a trope so moldy that not even JMS could make it look good
Hopefully JMS is seeing something that I’m not…
Does anyone honestly believe this would be anything other then a box-checking, agenda pushing, woke-fest nightmare? CW needs to fire all of their front-runners and writers… start from scratch on everything.
instead of B5… continue where they left off with Crusade
Seems a ridiculous idea, honestly.
People are comparing it to Battlestar Galactica, but there is no comparison. Original BSG was ancient TV that had eroded to resources that could be picked apart and put together anew. That is not the case with B5 which is a reasonably modern show that still stands up in its original form. Maybe in twenty years, or fifty.
@62 / Doggy: Yes, God, imagine Babylon 5 pushing some kind of Woke agenda! Like just imagine if they had some loony left story arc about having to overthrow a “fascist” President who just want to Make Earth Great Again by removing Alien influences? Imagine if they did an entire episode about the station Commander intervening in a strike on the workers’ behalf! Good lord, what’s next? Delenn overthrowing the Minbari government and installing a worker-controlled Grey Council? What is this, communism?
@65. Queen: Ha. I’d upvote if I could.
Yeah, that’s the problem with using zippy shorthand words like “woke”: B5 was woke before woke was a thing, I guess. Orwell would just nod his head at this: Newspeak designed to “diminish the range of thought.”
@57, Eduardo, I’m with you on this. The original is complete and whole, the sense of things coming to a conclusion in “Objects in motion” and “Objects at rest” is some of the most emotional television I’ve seen: people are moving on, and our little window into this world is being closed. They’ll carry on, and we get hints of what’s to come, but our time with them is over. Even the 110th best episode (“Grey 17 is missing”) isn’t that bad on rewatching…
I hope any reboot doesn’t disrespect the original.
I’ve never shied away from any new content from any IP that I’m a fan of.
I wonder why any fan does. Its not like there’s an opportunity cost here. The alternative is NOTHING.
Even if something new is done poorly, who cares? The alternative is NOTHING.
Even if you feel something is perfect and you are offended by a remake, who cares? You don’t have to read/watch it if you don’t want to! Pretend the remake / new content doesn’t exist to begin with.
Lately, I’ve read so much vitriol on the Foundation TV show and its just so odd to me how there could be any. Watch it as a different story or just don’t watch it if you are offended its not a faithful adaptation. Again, the alternative is NOTHING.
I suppose people want their mind’s-eye grand alternative which I suppose they can’t understand will never, ever exist. Anything else is automatically bad. It seems a very sad way to see things.
I’m a sci-fi fan, but actually disliked the BSG reboot. I stopped watching it at some point, maybe halfway through. I’m still glad it was made though. It ended up being an option I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
A new B5 might be ultimately uninteresting to me. Please give me the option to find out.
I just hope they give Jason Carter a role.
Three cheers for J. Michael for getting this going. The original production always had a limited budget and was way before modern special effects. Seeing a well-done redo with another great cast will be most welcome and watched. Hopefully with some cameos of some the original cast and guest stars who are still alive. Of course many of the cast have passed away. Andreas Katsulas, G’Kar, will be difficult to replace.
Although I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie since the 60’s IMHO Babylon 5 is the best piece of science fiction ever put on the screen.
@70,
Hopefully with some cameos of some the original cast and guest stars who are still alive. Of course many of the cast have passed away. Andreas Katsulas, G’Kar, will be difficult to replace.
Claudia Christian stated on Twitter that Stracynski has been keeping them in the loop on the reboot’s development and he wants them involved with the show.
So I assume we’ll see some of the surviving actors pop up in cameos or guest/recurring roles. It’d be akin to Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek on Moore’s BSG.
It’d be funny as hell if Peter Juraski plays the new Refa or Cartagia.
On reflection, I think I’ve been misdirected by the word “reboot”. How many times have I wad and enjoyed a new version of an old story? “Jane Eyre” in space? A genderswapped “Red Riding Hood”? “Clueless” or “Ten Things I Hate About You”? Perhaps it won’t be so bad, if approached as a work in its own right…
I’m glad they reboot it. I always thought the show was incomplete and budget constrained, like, seriously constrained.
JMS wanted to do everything himself, which meant the writing was sub par. Not the story itself, but the way characters were written, dialogues etc. It all felt more like one voice trying to move forward the plot rather than real people talking with their own, unique voices. There was little that did not move forward the plot… little to fill in the details, to make characters come alive and feel real. And it seemed like they shot the rehearsals and called it a day. Of course, if you don’t have the budget, you can’t rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. You can’t do multiple takes until the actors got it right. etc. But this ultimately made for a flawed show, that had great potential but fell short.
And then there’s the fourth season (IIRC), which crammed the planned story of season 4 and 5 into one (as they wanted to cancel after season 4)… which very much lessened the impact.
As good as B5 was, as good as the ideas and the overall story arc were, it did have MANY problems related to micro managing and a very limited budget (and not knowing if they’d get to tell the entire story). If JMS is now able to let go, to be a showrunner with talented writers around him that he trusts, that have the time to fully work on dialogue etc. rather than just hammering down what is needed for the arc), this could make the new B5 the greatest sci fi show of all times. Plus they can probably make use of that Mandalorian studio for the sets. There’ll be better CGI too, of course (as long as they don’t hire anyone involved with Discovery or Picard). And hopefully the budget itself is bigger too, so the actors are given a chance to work on their performances and shine. Fingers crossed.
As good as B5 was, as good as the ideas and the overall story arc were, it did have MANY problems related to micro managing and a very limited budget (and not knowing if they’d get to tell the entire story). If JMS is now able to let go, to be a showrunner with talented writers around him that he trusts, that have the time to fully work on dialogue etc. rather than just hammering down what is needed for the arc), this could make the new B5 the greatest sci fi show of all times
I’d be surprised if JMS doesn’t delegate this time around.
With the original show, he was trying to achieve that dream goal of the 5-year novel for TV and breaking ground in American Genre TV that had never been attempted before.
Quality problems aside, that mission was more than accomplished. He doesn’t have to worry about that with the reboot.
Plus, from what I’ve heard, the Seasons 3/4 grind (unsurprisingly) did a number on his health. I doubt he’d want to go through that experience again.