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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: 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?"
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  • (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.