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posted by chromas on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the my-shoes-are-too-tight dept.

‘Babylon 5’ Reboot in the Works at The CW

Original series creator J. Michael Straczynski will pen the script for the update.

The CW is heading to space.

The younger-skewing broadcaster is teaming with original series creator J. Michael Straczynski for a reboot of Babylon 5.

Described as a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the original, Straczynski will pen the script for a new potential version of the former syndicated drama from Warner Bros. TV. The new take revolves around John Sheridan (originally played by Bruce Boxleitner), an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space, a port of call for travelers, smugglers, corporate explorers and alien diplomats at a time of uneasy peace and the constant threat of war. His arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined, as an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us, putting Sheridan and the rest of the B5 crew in the line of fire as the last, best hope for the survival of the human race.

From Gizmodo:
Babylon 5 Is Getting Rebooted, With J. Michael Straczynski at the Helm

Variety reports that Warner Bros. has ordered a reboot of Babylon 5, produced and written by Straczynski as part of a deal between Warner Bros. TV and Straczynski’s Studio JMS. The series is not a continuation of the show, but a “from the ground up” reboot of the cult classic 1993 series, which ran across five seasons and seven made-for-TV movies until 1998.

[....] The series was beloved for its dark sci-fi plots and its approach to a massive, intertwined narrative over the course of its seasons and movies [...]

If only we could see the original vision of B5 as it would have been if no actors would have had to leave the show.

The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. -- Emperor Turhan


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:12AM (7 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:12AM (#1182105) Journal

    A reboot may be a good thing, if done well. But then, reboots are not always done well. Thus wait with your excitement until it is clear how it is done.

    That said, the fact that the original creator is on the team is a good sign.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:50AM

      by driverless (4770) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:50AM (#1182122)

      Another thing to wait with your excitement is whether it'll happen at all. This is a pre-pre-pre-announcement, there's absolutely nothing there except "JMS wants to come back with a B5 reboot". It'd be fantastic if it happened, but any jubilation would seem to be extremely premature.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by seeprime on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:25PM (4 children)

      by seeprime (5580) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:25PM (#1182270)

      All CW shows in the last five years, with the exception of Supernatural, have turned into low budget poorly written and "woke" series that have an excessive focus on non-traditional lifestyles for no other reason than to cater to said groups. I hope CW puts in the money, time and effort to make the new B5 as interesting and varied as Supernatural was for 15 years.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:53PM

        by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:53PM (#1182281) Journal

        Yes: it would be nice to see a Battlestar Galactica/Game of Thrones type of budget and 'care' (can't think of the right word) given to this.

        And Peter Jurasik as Londo. I love the way he 'tastes'. every. word. (Yeah......)

        But if J. is involved, i vote yes... reboot shmeboot. Just. Do. It.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:59PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:59PM (#1182335)

        I notice that "woke" is never ever defined, but its use in practice suggests "other people caring about things I don't want anyone to care about." Just like "snowflakes" and "political correctness" before.

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @12:56AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @12:56AM (#1182513)

          Wokeness is the idea that disparity in outcomes between identity groups is 100% attributable to the bigotry of those in positions of power. (Except in those instances when straight white non-trans men experience worse outcomes.) You're welcome.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @12:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @12:47AM (#1182509)

        Good Lord, I didn't realize Supernatural had been in production up until last year.

        How does it compare to X-Files in terms of "creature of the week" episodes versus ongoing story arc episodes?

        Did it get a proper ending? Did it have consensus dull spots?

        Would I be able to tell if it's something I'd enjoy by watching the first few episodes, or does it get considerably more engaging as it develops?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:13PM (#1182762)

      let's reboot firefly too

      this time, with more multiculturalisms and lesbians because the original had too many white folk and straight sex

      *mic drop*

      *run*

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:49AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:49AM (#1182120)

    How much I like reboots is closely associated with how much I liked the original.

    I loved Star Trek and hate the reboots, including the new shows which are reboot in all but name.
    I didn't like original Battlestar Galactica but I loved the reboot, at least the first few seasons when it was good.

    I didn't really see Babylon 5, but I knew someone who really loved it. I watched a couple of episodes but didn't like them. So I guess I expect to like this.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Opportunist on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:55AM

      by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:55AM (#1182125)

      B5 isn't a show where you can watch a few episodes and enjoy it, because the episodes by themselves only really start to make sense when you saw it all. That parallel will draw a lot of ire from the fans, but it's like watching 3 episodes of some long running telenovela. You couldn't even possibly fathom why anyone would want to sit through this boring drivel, while the person who has been watching for 10 years next to you goes bonkers over some throwaway line by a character that barely had 3 seconds of screen time.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Dale on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:26PM (6 children)

      by Dale (539) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:26PM (#1182200)

      Bab5 is hard for people that didn't already watch it. It had rubber suit monsters (budget issues) and the special effects have not aged as well as one might have hoped. The characters (and their growth over time) is amazing though. If you want to give it a good go you have to be able to get past the rubber suits and special effects. There was a list online as well that cut out the non-relevant storyline episodes (of which season 1/2 has a bunch) that will also help with the pacing a lot. My personal favorite bit in the whole series is the character changes of G'Kar from early series to where he ends. The dynamic of Londo and G'Kar specifically is amazing to watch over the whole course of the series. I have rarely found a more satisfying dynamic in TV.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:54PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:54PM (#1182209) Journal

        If you have HBO Max you can watch all of B5, including the pilot. It is in 3:4 format, but is beautifully remastered. Looks much better than the DVDs. Much better. I noticed a lot of color comes out that is missing in the DVDs. I've watched the DVDs a number of times.

        Also the special effects work better in the 3:4 format they were created in. No stretching or cropping.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:03AM (#1182626)

          This post reads like you've been listening to a bunch of Trump speeches lately.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:11PM

        by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:11PM (#1182300) Journal

        Yes: when G'Kar is told by one of his people that he hasn't suffered and all G'Kar can do is laugh/cry and walk away, his one eye taken from him..... very big changes from when we first see him.

        Londo has always been one of my favourites just for the way he talks: the way he enunciates his words, savouring every word, speaking it as if it is a morsel to enjoy. Sort of like a better speaking Captain Kirk.

        B5 can be hard to get into but no, you cant just watch a few episodes or it kind of sucks: watch the whole thing and it's like meeting God... (i guess... i don't believe but i want to..... wait, are we talking about X-Files???)

        :)

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:44PM (2 children)

        by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:44PM (#1182431)

        I just watched through DS9 for the first time, in its original run I moved someplace where it wasn't available and lost track. I've been searching for a new series to watch, maybe I'll finally give Babylon 5 a chance. As for the budgets and special effects, it may be just me but I am perfectly fine with the older efforts. Indeed, it is the more modern efforts that often seem far more contrived.

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:52PM (1 child)

          by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:52PM (#1182470) Journal

          Just remember: they foreshadow throughout the show and each episode builds on something, be it story arc or character development or whatever. A couple episodes missed or not watched carefully will mean you miss something, generally.

          Each episode may not be good on its own, but as a whole-- wow.

          The Shadow war builds slowly. G'Kar and Londo's relationship changes dramatically over a long time. Even little Vir goes from comedic effect to hero and finds his 'man-hood'. Everything builds over time and so is only enjoyed over time.

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @04:27AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @04:27AM (#1183027)

            Sounds a lot like Anime in Japan. They end a season and tie up story lines, then come back the next season with do overs, relationship changes and general plot reorg.. and you have to read the manga, play the video games, watch the OAV and pick up on the clues to understand why.

    • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:39PM

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:39PM (#1182251)

      I grew up watching Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and all sort of other sci-fi on the BBC in the '90s. There was a good mix of new (TNG, DS9, VOY, Farscape, Sliders) as well as old (Space 1999, Quantum Leap). I don't see a simple correlation between my enjoyment of originals and reboots; most of it seems to be down to my changing tastes as I've grown older.

      Having said that, I can't use the original as a guide to my expectations, because I've never seen the original Babylon 5. I first heard of it when a college friend had the DVD collection, but for whatever reason I didn't bite at the time. (I probably would have liked it too, given how I liked the slower, more-involved page of DS9. Though the CGI bits I did glance at looked a bit dated by then.)

      Today, with the news of this reboot, I've gone snooping around to find out why I never saw it the first time round. It turns out that it was never broadcast in my area (apart from subscription television). Go figure.

      On that basis, I'll wait for this adaptation to grace my television before eventually making a judgement.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:54PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:54PM (#1182285)

      I liked the original Battlestar Galactica. I won't say I liked it more than the remake, but the original was just right for me at the time. Of course, I was 12 years old then. I still like their uniforms better.

      The remake had Number Six and Number Eight, so it was alright, even with the shitty ending.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:20PM (2 children)

        by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:20PM (#1182305) Journal

        When i was a kid, Land of the Giants was the show we all watched rabidly.

        I watch it now and it's...uh.............meh. But when you look at it, it had, i think, the first black guy in a leadership role.

        It's like an Ed Wood movie: you can't look away but you can't not look away, lol.

        Surprised there wasn't a reboot of it.....3....2...1..

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:57AM (1 child)

          by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:57AM (#1182564) Homepage

          LOL, reminds me of the usual horrified review of "Hawk the Slayer" -- best awful movie ever. It's dreadful but you can't look away.

          And... Land of the Giants? Pfft. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel, that's where it was at. (Quick, which actor was in three different time travel productions?)

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:50AM (1 child)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:50AM (#1182121) Journal

    Battlestar Galactica was better. Less politics, more pew-pew. But then, it ends, where it started? Difficult to reboot that.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:27PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:27PM (#1182311) Journal

      It was better and it was worse.

      They should have planned BSG from the start like B5 but they didn't so it comes off as half-planned which it was.
      B5 was planned from the start and was good, then almost got cancelled, then wasn't which really f*cked things up a bit.

      B5 is great but could have been amazing: if only Paramount had grabbed it first and had done it justice.

      But when you think the Earth is at the center of everything......
      ............yeah, i got nothing. :)

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Opportunist on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:53AM (5 children)

    by Opportunist (5545) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:53AM (#1182124)

    One of the key features of B5 was that the plot was pretty complicated and that wanting to understand it drove the audience to watch. You would tune in week after week for a glimpse of information to put the puzzle together. Even though some of the plots for the episodes themselves were sometimes fairly weak, if not to say, nonsensical. But with every nonsensical plot, you'd receive a nugget of information for the big picture, and that kept the people watching.

    B5 was, in essence, much more like a mystery show rather than just a simple SciFi show. The mystery was what's behind the Shadows, what's the plan of the Vorlons, why did the Minbari surrender, what is Mr. Morden's agenda, and so on, and so forth. It was a show about politics, philosophy and skullduggery. That works once. Yes, you can rewatch it after knowing the plot already, because you want to see the little bits of information that you missed the first time around when you didn't understand why a gesture is important or how what you thought is a throwaway line is profoundly insightful.

    But you can't really redo it. If the plot does not change fundamentally, and if it does, what about it is B5 anymore, I highly doubt a lot of people would be intrigured.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:21AM (4 children)

      by zocalo (302) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:21AM (#1182128)
      You do it by aiming for a different target audience, specifically the *kids* of the original viewers who remember the show, create some free hype for the show, and prompt their kids to watch it - plus any new (or old) viewers that can be drawn in. You could, maybe, change around a few of the elements and send fans of the original a few curveballs - remember that neither the Shadows or Vorlons were particularly good or evil, they had just chosen their own approaches to driving the greater good and ultimately got lost in that and went to extremes in the name of their preferred approach. Taken to extremes, it wouldn't be too hard in that scenario to make Morden a hero and rework the Rangers into a fanatical brigade and villains akin to the Psy Corps, for instance. You'd almost certainly have different dynamics within the core cast as well, including the betrayals and maybe some of the backstories to better draw parallels with current events and social trends.

      I can easily see a lot of the original fans watching the reboot if it makes it to production; whether they continue watching though will depend on how well jms can keep true to the original while still throwing enough new twists in to keep them hooked. If he has the entire arc mapped out again up front, including the major changes, then I'd say the chances of that are probably pretty good. If I get the chance, I'll certainly be giving it a try.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:50PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:50PM (#1182229)

        If this goes ahead I will not be looking forward to this. B5 is not a show that can get remade and still remain B5. Many remakes are terrible, some remakes are good, but most of them are disappointing to fans of the originals because they don't have the same feel as the original. B5v2 will be a shadow (no pun intended) of the 90's B5 and everything will be changed except for the names. Expect drastic, ridiculous, & nonsensical changes to look, style, and feel in a similar way to what ST:Discovery did to the Klingons.

        Most of what makes B5 so great is not trendy in 2021. People today don't have enough patience for preconceived character growth that occurs over five years, no enough patience to wait three years for the whispers of signs and portents and prophecies in season 1&2 to evolve into major plots during seasons 4 & 5. Neither do viewers have patience to listen to long exquisite & expositive dialog. No more long drawn out emotionally moving speeches by G'Kar ("The future is always born in pain","There are mysteries in the universe that we still cannot explain, I find that both reassuring and terrifying."q/uq). Even Besters' drawn out "I miss you so much" soliloquy as he leans against his lover's cryo-tube will be shortened down in the remake to something like "Yo, my bitch is still alive. Word up!"

        Viewers today want continuous "fireworks" from the beginning of the show to the end, otherwise they get bored.

        A B5-remake will be a completely different show than our beloved 90s B5. Of course like all remakes today (or software UI updates ) the changes will be done for nothing more than the sake of change, instead of changing to provide specific & measurable improvement.

        • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM (#1182290)

          People today don't have enough patience for preconceived character growth that occurs over five years, no enough patience to wait three years for the whispers of signs and portents and prophecies in season 1&2 to evolve into major plots during seasons 4 & 5.

          You sure? Because that sounds like it could be written about Game of Thrones.

          • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:32PM

            by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:32PM (#1182314) Journal

            I was thinking of Lost:
            people tuned in week after week for years to find "they're angels". WTF?

            Write well and peeps will peep.

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:34AM

          by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:34AM (#1182697) Journal

          Most of what makes B5 so great is not trendy in 2021. People today don't have enough patience for preconceived character growth that occurs over five years, no enough patience to wait three years for the whispers of signs and portents and prophecies in season 1&2 to evolve into major plots during seasons 4 & 5

          I disagree. The thing that killed B5 originally was that people in the '90s didn't watch TV shows by the season, they watched them by the episode. Networks moved the air time for B5 around and so you'd usually miss a few episodes every season and that was incredibly bad for understanding the continuity. I bought the DVD boxed sets when they came out and watched each season in a short time and it was far better than watching it on TV one episode a week. B5 got a little bit of a renaissance in the early 2000s from people first watching it for the first time in this format.

          These days, 'binge watching' is a term: Most people watch shows on streaming platforms and will watch a season of a thing before moving onto the next one. There's a lot more appetite for shows that have whole-season storylines rather than a monster-of-the-week structure because most people watch a bunch of episodes in a row and a whole season in a few weeks rather than over the course of a year.

          --
          sudo mod me up
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by inertnet on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:59AM (6 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @07:59AM (#1182131) Journal

    The CW apparently is a television network, I had to google that.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:11AM (4 children)

      by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:11AM (#1182161) Journal

      If I remember correctly, it's a joint venture between CBS and WB, where the two companies try out weirder, more niche ideas and reboots. Stuff that probably wouldn't make it on their normal lineups. Most people would probably recognise them from either the long-running series Supernatural, or the various DC comics TV shows they've been fairly successful with (though some are better received than others).

      From what I've seen they're very hit-or-miss with what they produce. Sometimes they strike gold, but other times a fun idea gets ruined by abysmal writing. They usually do pretty well with casting and the acting, though; it's almost always the writing that hurts, because when it's bad, it's really bad

      • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:00PM (3 children)

        by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:00PM (#1182337)

        So we can look forward to good things when they get a top-class writer.

        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:05PM

          by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:05PM (#1182412) Journal

          JMS IS a top writer!

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:41PM (1 child)

          by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:41PM (#1182454) Journal

          There's at least a chance of it, yeah. The network is less cancellation-happy than some (*cough* Fox) and tends to make shows with a 3-5 season plan, at least at the outset, which seems like a good fit for a B5 revival. And they can do good writing, especially in the shows with shorter seasons that have less filler. It leads to a sort of emotional whiplash, because their shows go from "Yep, you can tell CW wrote this garbage" to "Okay that was really fucking good. This is still a CW show, right?"

          And sometimes that happens on shows you wouldn't even expect to be any good. They got access to the Nancy Drew IP to make a live adaptation, set it a few years after the books with Nancy as an adult, and added supernatural/horror/suspense elements to it. It shouldn't be good, and has no right being even a little bit good, but it's legitimately well done and usually well written.

          • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:01PM

            by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:01PM (#1182473) Journal

            Executives are idiots (Firefly anyone?).

            One show i go to to show this is Black Sails. I loved that show, the tall ships, the characters, the idea of it being a prequel to Treasure Island....

            ....then the executives get involved and cancel it and end it so everyone ends up happy. Welp, the last time i read Treasure Island, it starts with everyone being THOROUGHLY PISSED!

            They ruined the entire BS franchise. Who would buy the box sets now? How could they do a sequel now (a long form of Treasure Island)? Ruined. No more money from the franchise.
            Can they even sell it to anyone else to make more money? (It even looked like they were thinking of giving Jack Rackam his own show, then nothing).

            Short-term thinking, the only kind of thinking some executives know (Firefly anyone?)

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:11PM (#1182213)

      What? You never watched 'the 100'?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:00AM (26 children)

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:00AM (#1182156)

    Considering that half the main cast is dead, not only in the show but in reality, I guess it was hard to just continue or make something new with them. That said this rebooting thing appears to be very hit and mostly miss when it's done. It never (or rarely) gets as good and it doesn't really attract a new following while at the same time also piss off the old following or fans. Why not just make something new? Why this urge to constantly reboot or prequel something instead of just continuing on. I guess it worked for BSG, that said I didn't care for the original and didn't care for the reboot either. So no counting for personal taste.

    That said I'll probably watch a few episodes, complain how it has been utterly dumbed down and ruined everything and how it is not the same anymore and then I'll gradually stop watching. Hopefully I'm wrong but I seriously doubt that since as noted by others the reboot is mostly doomed to flop.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:10AM (3 children)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:10AM (#1182159)

      > Why not just make something new?

      Free advertising. If they made a new show, it wouldn't be on SN, for example.

      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:18AM (2 children)

        by looorg (578) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:18AM (#1182164)

        As a general common that would probably be true. But if J. Michael Straczynski made a new show about the life of handpuppets in eastern Europe that would still probably make news here. Whatever he would do on TV would probably make the news. So no need to flog the B5 over and over again. I guess one could say that they already did the side projects of the parent show with all the (tv-) movies and Crusade so in that sense perhaps it makes sense to reboot. At least it's not a prequel (yet).

        • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:50AM (1 child)

          by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:50AM (#1182175)

          Babylon 4. Sounds like a boy band.

          • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:36PM

            by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:36PM (#1182315) Journal

            Babylon 4, with their newest song "Narns, and Vorlon and Centauri, oh my".

            --
            --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:19AM (8 children)

      by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:19AM (#1182166) Journal

      Why not just make something new?

      It's kind of their thing, from what I've seen: they get the rights to something and use it as the foundation of something new, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes it's an old TV show that's restarted and only uses the original idea as a starting point that goes in a new direction, and sometimes it's a comic IP that they'll follow loosely.

      Like I said in my other comment, from what I've seen they're usually good with casting good actors and most other aspects of production, but don't do the best job with some of the writing. Having JMS on board might avoid that problem, which gives a B5 reboot a better chance than I'd give it on the network without him. I don't think their writers could manage the kind of long-term plot investment that the series was known for without him around.

      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:25AM (6 children)

        by looorg (578) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:25AM (#1182167)

        Lets hope for the best then really. As you note perhaps the long term story (and plot) lines won't make it. That said Supernatural at least had seasonal arcs didn't it? That was on the same network. After all not a lot of shows get that many seasons these days it seems. The networks are fast on the chopping block when things don't instantly get the numbers or retain them.

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:17PM (4 children)

          by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:17PM (#1182242)

          Blarg, there I go posting before reading all the comments again.

          Yeah, Supes had season-long arcs, although they started getting a bit lazy with them towards the end. I want to say there were a few seasons where it was halfway through when the writers seemed to wake up and say "oh shit, we need a big bad guy".

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:23PM (3 children)

            by looorg (578) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:23PM (#1182245)

            Not all of them was great so to speak. I think I preferred the one of the early seasons, when it was more monster hunting and such. Then it was somewhat cheesy fun. When it evolved into the whole "we are going to save the whole world (parallel worlds and later the whole universe)" things somewhat went down hill. Still it's interesting that it lasted as long as it did. Not a lot of shows today get as many seasons as they did. Now it's the axe if it doesn't instantly perform masterfully out of the gate and keep that up for season after season.

            • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:40PM (2 children)

              by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:40PM (#1182276)

              While the first couple seasons were a bit too much on the bloody side for me, yeah, I'd broadly agree. The season with the Leviathans was where it started to fall apart IMO.

              Did you actually finish the show? When it just kept going and going, at a certain point I told myself I'd just have to see it through :) Working on the final season now and it's not bad so far.

              It's got to be trippy when your job when you were 23-38/27-42 wraps up and you're looking at the future.

              --
              "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
              • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:09PM

                by looorg (578) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:09PM (#1182343)

                Yes. Sort of. While I liked it at the beginning and usually watched those the longer the show went on I guess the more episodes I started to miss here and there. But I did watch the final once. I just didn't really get into the stories in the end. You sort of just watched cause you knew it was the end and you wanted to see how it ended.

                Yes God is a arsehole and he doesn't care

                That can only carry the show for so long or so many seasons.

                It's kind of weird when you think about it that you have sort of watched it then for more or less 15 years. One wonders what that does for the actors. Some of them appear to apparently like it, it's a steady gig for a long time. Some are probably now type-cast forever. They know it's coming to an end so I guess they sort of try their best to sort of go out strong, compared to other shows that sort of just get cancelled and then things just end very abruptly. Here I guess they could tie it all, or a lot of it, together. No matter how far fetched some story arcs was.

              • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:32PM

                by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:32PM (#1182447) Journal

                [I'm going to reply to both of you (tango and looorg) in this one comment just to avoid duplication]

                Supernatural at least had seasonal arcs didn't it?

                It did, and they try it with some of their other shows to varying degrees of success, usually due to writing quality issues. For example, having a season-long plot doesn't work well if you ignore it too much early on in favour of filler, then scramble to wrap everything up in the last few episodes of the season, leaving it feeling disjointed and incoherent.

                That's the thing about the writing on CW shows: when it's good, it's really good, but when it's bad, it's really bad.

                That, and Supernatural, which somehow dragged itself across the finish line of season 15 and they finally called it quits last year, LOL.

                Which is not to say I'm down on the show, but it's been clear it's been old and tired for like the last 5 seasons.

                I actually mentioned Supernatural in a different comment! I got into it via Netflix, along with a couple other CW things. It definitely dragged toward the end, but it makes sense why, with some context about the show's production and history. (More on that in a moment)

                Not all of them was great so to speak. I think I preferred the one of the early seasons, when it was more monster hunting and such. Then it was somewhat cheesy fun

                The season with the Leviathans was where it started to fall apart IMO.

                These are both because Supernatural was only supposed to run for five seasons. It had a definitive beginning, middle, and end, with the Heaven v. Hell apocalypse arc of season 5 being the show's climax. For those five seasons, the show's creator, Eric Kripke, was the showrunner and managed everything with a specific endgame in mind.

                Except the show was too popular to end. After his story was done, Kripke stepped down as showrunner and someone else took over, looking for a way to keep things going. I just checked and that person, Sera Gamble, handled seasons 6 and 7 (the Leviathan arc), and then they had a couple other changes after that. So Supernataural as it was originally intended was those first five seasons, and after that other people tried to find a way to keep it going.

                Something else that happened to the show was fan pandering, which seemed to affect the direction of the show over time. It ended up really popular with a younger female demographic despite the early, more gruesome content; a demographic that was really vocal on sites like tumblr, and very strongly into "shipping" the main characters.

                The earliest example I can think of is a prominent character from season...3 I think? Bela Talbot. She was supposed to be recurring, but there was a huge backlash over the character because she was a jerk to the Winchesters, and the vocal fans reacted very poorly to it, so they wrote her off the show permaturely. That sort of thing kept happening, with strong negative reactions especially to female characters and potential love interests. I guess the vocal fans didn't like "competition", because about the only female character that had a decent run on the show was the one prominently shown as lesbian, which meant she wasn't a threat to people's Dean/Castiel romance headcanons.

                The point here is that, especially after Kripke stepped down, they seemed to be really sensitive to appealing to and appeasing the vocal tumblr fanbase specifically, which led to some weirdness as the show went on.

                This has happened with some other CW shows as well. Their first DC comics show, Arrow (aka "we wanted to write Batman but only had access to the rights to Green Arrow") had a strong start, but leaned hard into pandering to a subset of the fanbase that was shipping the main character with the showrunner's attractive-nerdy-hacker-girl original character. It started out fine, the character was great, but over time they started modifying or neglecting other aspects of the show to make rom for more shipping-bait, and it hurt.

                The insane fan shipping thing is a common theme with these shows; with Flash, which started as a stealth pilot on Arrow, the shipping fans went from "vocal" to "hostile" there from what I understand, with cast members getting insults, threats, and even attempts to get them removed from the show by rabid shipper fans, all because they made the mistake of being female and potentially competition for someone's preferred ship.

                They also got a guy fired off the show by dredging up dumb, cringe-worthy "edgy comedian" tweets he made years before getting cast for the show. Entire plotlines shredded and thrown away in an abrupt dismissal, which didn't do any favours for the writing of that show.

                After all not a lot of shows get that many seasons these days it seems. The networks are fast on the chopping block when things don't instantly get the numbers or retain them.

                Ah yes, the Fox style of television management. RIP Firefly.

                Anyway, CW's actually pretty good about not abruptly canceling shows. They seem to actually pay attention to online streaming views as well as live watching, and a lot of their shows do well as streaming offerings from what I understand. They seem to go for 3-5 seasons pretty reliably, sometimes more, as a result, often with a set beginning/middle/end plan.

                Lets hope for the best then really.

                If they get the writing right (and with JMS, maybe) there's some hope, I think. Like I said, they seem to build at least some of their shows as a long-form, multi-season story, at least initially. That's the kind of format that B5 followed, so it seems like a good fit

                Though, like Supernatural, sometimes those concrete story plans turn into a show that lasts far longer than originally intended.

                Finally, if either of you are interested in a sort of spiritual successor to Supernatural, check out CW's "Nancy Drew" show. Yes, that Nancy Drew, from the kids' mystery books. No, that's not a joke. I watched a couple episodes out of a sense of morbid "stare at the train wreck" curiosity, and it ended up being legitimately good. In a way it fills the same niche that early Supernatural did, but with more suspense/horror and less gore.

                Spoiler-free explanation is that it's set years after the things that happened in the books, Nancy's an adult, kind of a smug know-it-all, and it ends up biting her in the ass because there's some truth to some of the supernatural stuff, so her Scooby Doo "debunk the ghost, solve hte mystery" thing sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

                The idea of Nancy Drew with horror elements sounds fucking insane, but it works, and makes the character less of a Mary Sue.

        • (Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:34PM

          by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:34PM (#1182450) Journal

          Heads up so you know I didn't ignore you: I didn't want to duplicate a lot of the same content, so I responded to both you and tango in this comment [soylentnews.org].

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:11PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:11PM (#1182237)

        It's kind of their thing, from what I've seen: they get the rights to something and use it as the foundation of something new, to varying degrees of success.

        That, and Supernatural, which somehow dragged itself across the finish line of season 15 and they finally called it quits last year, LOL.

        Which is not to say I'm down on the show, but it's been clear it's been old and tired for like the last 5 seasons. Just now finally watching the last season, which seems to have gotten a little pep injected into it once they decided to end things.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:25AM

      by loonycyborg (6905) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @11:25AM (#1182168)

      I'm pretty sure JMS wouldn't do as good job at it as before since doing the same thing all over again is boring. Also times and expectations have changed so the new B5 won't be as groundbreaking as old one was. Those concerns affect all reboots.

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:07PM (8 children)

      by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:07PM (#1182234)

      At least the original creator is involved (significantly, it sounds like!), which is more than you can say about the vast majority of reboots.

      But yeah, that's why I didn't watch Star Trek: Discovery or Picard. Watched somebody review them and they said it was a pile of suck, so evidently my suspicion of them shitting on my good memories was warranted.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM (5 children)

        by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM (#1182291)

        I have found that reviewers are completely worthless as far as knowing what I'm going to like or not. More often than not it's being reviewed by someone who has vastly different tastes than I do. There are also far too many reviewers who suffer from "it's not the old shows" or "omg itz wooooooke" disease. Others are so completely clueless about the show that they simply don't get it (I still remember the old TV Guide review of ST: Voyager that panned Tim Russ' "wooden and emotionless" portrayal of Tuvok).

        I found that I enjoyed Discovery well enough, and I absolutely loved Picard. You may not, and that's perfectly fine! Just don't give too much credence to reviewers; decide for yourself.

        I will very likely watch a B5 reboot, as I also loved watching the original.

        --
        The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:45PM (2 children)

          by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:45PM (#1182321) Journal

          The one reviewer i saw said that B5 was a comedy. Wow.

          I'll take a reboot too: if it's good, good...even if different. I enjoyed BSG original (when i was a teen i guess?) and BSG reboot.

          I loved STOS and am enjoying the reboots: different, but enjoyable. Orville... :)

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:12PM (1 child)

            by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:12PM (#1182347)

            Orville is fun, but it's not technically a reboot. More "in the style of"...although Trek was never comedic.

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
            • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:00PM

              by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:00PM (#1182410) Journal

              Yeah, sorry. That was just an after-add-on thought.

              --
              --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:10PM (1 child)

          by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:10PM (#1182344)

          I have found that reviewers are completely worthless as far as knowing what I'm going to like or not. More often than not it's being reviewed by someone who has vastly different tastes than I do.

          I mean, professional critics, sure. Here I'm talking about RedLetterMedia, a bunch of rough Wisconsinite guys who were already Star Trek fans, so I trust their reviews of Discovery and Picard.

          There are also far too many reviewers who suffer from "it's not the old shows"

          Putting a bit of a new spin on stuff is fine, but when it goes as far as "they're shitting all over the core things that make the original what it was", at some point you have to draw the line.

          I found that I enjoyed Discovery well enough

          I think they liked season 2 better than 1, although the plot still sounded like a huge mess.

          and I absolutely loved Picard

          Ah yes, the Star Trek where former captains are living in a trailer (they have currency now...?) and addicted to drugs, the Federation has a race of slave robots and wouldn't lift a finger to help the Romulans evacuate their homeworld (why couldn't they do it themselves either?), and there's a torture porn scene where a Borg gets its eyeball ripped out onscreen while screaming. But at least they found a way to crowbar in inept social commentary about refugees in between the fight scenes, which is why we watch Star Trek after all /s

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:32PM

            by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:32PM (#1182448)

            I don't know anything about RedLetterMedia, but they possibly sound like "not the old shows" types. Still, better than the "pros".

            If the shows are breaking new ground, then "shitting on what came before" is entirely subjective. I didn't see much of that in the new shows. If anything they took quite a bit of effort to fit them into existing canon.

            Discovery season 2 was an improvement over 1. ST:D season 1 was WAY better than TNG season 1 IMHO. I had no trouble following the plot for Discovery.

            If you expected ST:Picard to be TNG Season 8 I can see why you didn't like it. The story went into why those things happened, and they seemed plausible to me. I did NOT care for the giant standoff between cookie-cutter fleets, but whatever, nothing's perfect.

            --
            The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:03PM (#1182292)

        At least the original creator is involved (significantly, it sounds like!),

        I've been burned too many times by terrible prequels, worse sequels, reboots, remakes, alternate universes, alternate timelines to get excited over a Babylon 5 reboot in any way even if JMS is involved.

        Remember, when we were so ecstatic that Lucas was directing the Star Wars prequels? We expected the newness of ANH, the maturity of ESB, and the awesome stomach-sinking-feeling-inducing space battles and closure from ROTJ. We expected everything that made Star Wars great, but with even more great.

        Instead we got "Meesa eesa, Anni-popanni", a Jedi order where everyone seems angry behave more like a cult than noble knights in shining armor, and the anticlimactic fight on hovering surfboards over lava. Oh and the hilariously infamous "Noooooooooooo" by Darth Vader.

        To quote Londo:"I don't like the sound of this Vir. No, i do not like the sound of this at all."

      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:49PM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:49PM (#1182935) Homepage Journal

        Picard was very good. And quite different from the usual Star Trek format.

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:03AM (2 children)

      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:03AM (#1182566) Homepage

      Agreed with that. I'd rather see an extension from the same base than a reboot. Give us something new extrapolated from the old-and-familiar, and you get the best of both worlds -- the old viewers not pissed that you ruined it, and the new viewers enjoying it for itself.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:25AM (1 child)

        by looorg (578) on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:25AM (#1182696)

        I don't really have a good reason for why they couldn't do say "Babylon 5 - the next generation", or whatever the equivalent would be from a Star Trek perspective. People liked TOS and people liked TNG, one sort of built on the other in that it shared a continuing universe. There should be ample threads about in the story etc to continue. Make a skip a hundred years into the future or something. They could build a Babylon-6 by then if they wanted to or some other thing. Instead of trying to update and reinvent (or retell) the same thing again with the same characters just played by new people. Find some new people. Make new stories. Isn't that what they are supposed to do.

        But as noted now a few times, I guess we wait and see. After all this won't make the screen for at least another year or two or however long it takes.

        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:12PM

          by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:12PM (#1182826) Homepage

          Yeah, that's about the long and the short.... haven't seen the other extended bits, but I loved Crusade, and it showed how the universe could easily expand with new characters and ideas. Babylon-6 would be a great title, instantly obvious what it is to anyone who ever saw the original. Build on the old to bring us something new, don't break it with a reboot.

          But yeah, it's all speculation at this point, so we'll see in due course.

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by GlennC on Tuesday September 28 2021, @12:14PM (4 children)

    by GlennC (3656) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @12:14PM (#1182181)

    I have watched every episode except for "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?" I enjoyed the movies as well.

    I don't expect this reboot to be the same as the original, and that's okay.

    I have grown older, as has JMS. Technology has improved, and the cast will not be the same as the original, which means the performances will be different.

    It will be what it will be. If it is a percentage of what the original was to me, then it will be good.

    --
    Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:45PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:45PM (#1182226)

      But how will you know what happened to Mr. Garibaldi?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:23PM (#1182246)

        Mr. Garibaldi went completely baldy in S4 & S5.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:47PM (1 child)

      by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:47PM (#1182325) Journal

      Why miss ONE episode? Watch it, dude! :)

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by GlennC on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:33PM

        by GlennC (3656) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:33PM (#1182359)

        Next time I binge it, I will.

        --
        Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 28 2021, @12:57PM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @12:57PM (#1182192)

    Claudia Christian said on her social media that she doesn't know anything more than the general public about this. Which means that her and the rest of the old cast that are still on this side of the rim probably aren't going to get more than a cameo at most.

    And the fact is, they need to get the Londo-G'Kar dynamic just right in order for the show to work at all.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:04PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:04PM (#1182233)

      Claudia Christian said on her social media that she doesn't know anything more than the general public about this. Which means that her and the rest of the old cast that are still on this side of the rim probably aren't going to get more than a cameo at most.

      Is that surprising? She's 56, and this is the CW; of course they're going to recast a bunch of hip 20somethings in the main roles.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:06PM

      by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @06:06PM (#1182340)

      Jms said actors would show up at auditions and he would just know they were the character.

      Even the ones who are still alive despite the B5 Curse are about a quarter century older. The only way to do it is new blood and it will be a delightful surprise if it works as well as the original casing.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Snort on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:54PM

    by Snort (5141) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @01:54PM (#1182210)

    It will have a good couple episodes to start and then descend rapidly into a pile of suck.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:57PM (3 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:57PM (#1182260) Journal

    B5 is my favorite sci-fi series. It was ground-breaking. Its future was not utopian, but recognizable. But what I came to love about it most was the dynamic between its supporting characters. G'kar and Molari were frenemies of the first order, and the moments of pure hatred, and friendship that passed between them were gems. The unrequited love between Marcus and Ivanova. The redemption of Garibaldi. The scenes with Zathras.

    A reboot would beat the original on special effects, but those performances are like catching lightning in a bottle--you might not be able to do it again. JMS's stewardship does give them a much better chance, but can he withstand the prevailing tides in Hollywood to stay true to his own vision? I don't know.

    Well, on the bright side, maybe they can cast someone cuter to play Delenn. (Yes, it is shallow.)

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by theluggage on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:01PM (1 child)

      by theluggage (1797) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:01PM (#1182288)

      but can he withstand the prevailing tides in Hollywood to stay true to his own vision?

      Remember that JMS was also involved in Sense8 which kinda ticked all the diversity boxes, invented some new ones and ticked those too (and I thought the first season was pretty good, until S2 dropped the ball - which also seems to be the prevailing tide these days)

      Well, on the bright side, maybe they can cast someone cuter to play Delenn. (Yes, it is shallow.)

      It's pretty well documented that, in the original plan, Delenn was supposed to start out male and change gender at the end of S1 but that was abandoned due to technical problems with voice treatment. In 2021, not casting a trans person in the role would seem careless... Whether that precludes "cute" is up to you.

      • (Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:02PM

        by Marand (1081) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:02PM (#1182464) Journal

        Remember that JMS was also involved in Sense8 which kinda ticked all the diversity boxes, invented some new ones and ticked those too (and I thought the first season was pretty good, until S2 dropped the ball - which also seems to be the prevailing tide these days)

        Sense8 was a weird one. JMS was involved, yes, but also the Wachowskis, and you could tell which side a lot of the show's influences came from pretty easily. Plus one of the cast was being written as a self-insert Mary Sue character for one of the Wachowski's, which dragged the story down a bit for the first few episodes. Once that character's "let me tell the author's very important story" arc got handled, though, some of the Mary Sue-ness disappeared from the writing and she became a much better character. It felt like a different show almost once past that point.

        Still, ignoring the rough start, the overall worldbuilding, lore, fight choreography, and cinematography was amazing for the show. The Wachowskis did what they're good at, making the show a beautiful spectacle with great fights, with JMS doing heavy lifting on the worldbuilding aspect.

        The characters were mostly good as well, though some of them felt a little bland at times. Having a cast of 8 protagonists that spend most of the show completely separated is a hard thing to do, and some of their stories kind of fell flat. Not necessarily bad, just not as interesting and felt like they were taking away from the more interesting subplots. All said, though, it was a very good show that was interesting because of, but also hurt by, its unorthodox storytelling.

        I'm sad it got canceled abruptly, because the setting it was building up was weird and fun.

    • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:11PM

      by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:11PM (#1182299)

      Agreed, until your last sentence...

      Dude... who in the heck are you thinking of that would be "cuter" than Mira Furlan? I get it, eye of the beholder and all, but the last thing I'd use to describe her would be "not cute".

      --
      The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:25PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @04:25PM (#1182271)

    The pain will be seeing how bad the reboot turned out because they changed and removed everything that made B5 great.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:51PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @05:51PM (#1182328) Journal

      Without the loooooong story arcs, is it really Babylon 5?

      I'd want to see it.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:43PM (#1182430)
    B5 was outstanding. JMS does not need to do it again. The amazing cast they put together did so well the first time.

    Surprisingly, this does not seem to have come up yet. Why not continue where things left off? Crusade was cancelled before completing its first season (like Firefly...) Wouldn't it be more satisfying to fork from that point and add to the story?

    Additionally, the novels are enjoyable and their authors did a good job capturing the personalities of the characters from the show. For fans looking for more beyond the show and its related movies, try some of the novels.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:59AM (#1182587)

      Investors want ROI, not art.

  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:09PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Tuesday September 28 2021, @09:09PM (#1182438)

    I dislike the themes and social commentary of the original. Well that's a bit harsh - some episodes had thoughtful themes and character development that gave the issues much more than a surface-skimming, PC, progressive cult platitude-infused treatment so common today.

    I can't imagine our current culture will produce anything I would enjoy.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:46PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:46PM (#1182896)

    Anyone have a torrent to original b5, willing to share a link or magnet? I can't stream it in my country outside of a couple of super sketchy websites that I bet don't actually have the rights, and would rather pull a few random eps than ebay for physical media blindly.

    I mean, I wouldn't ebay. I have one friend swearing by it and one saying meh and some of you seem both ways. Needs a taste test.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:55PM (1 child)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 29 2021, @09:55PM (#1182939) Homepage Journal

      The first season was weak compared to the rest. It really took off when Straczynski started writing all the episodes.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:40PM (#1182974)

        Helps me know which eps to sample, thanks.

        TPB has only the made for tv movies - is B5 really a "be in the USA and get HBO or bust" deal? Lame.

  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday September 29 2021, @10:00PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 29 2021, @10:00PM (#1182942) Homepage Journal

    Straczynski has said that the new show will not be the same.
    He says that it cannot be the same.
    It will probably be as good, given his capability as a writer.
    I would not be surprised if it had completely different story arcs.
    I will watch it if I get the chance. I will not expect the same story with new special effects.

    -- hendrik

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