Babylon 5 reboot?

RobDogDog · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:27

Trig said:
Oh jesus, its going to be a teen drama....

I still haven't forgiven them for what they did to Arrow.

Steampunk · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:50

RobDogDog said:
I still haven't forgiven them for what they did to Arrow.

All the CW series are like that, because they have a stated aim of getting a predominantly female audience, and that apparently is only done with representation, not good stories or characters. That's why all the Arrowverse shows have gone down the pan.

Even the likes of Westworld started very well, then went woke in the second series and crashed and burned as ideology took the place of storytelling. I think the last good reboot that wasn't all about tearing down what had gone before was probably Battlestar Galactica.

Trig · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:55

Yeha but you can have representation and a good story, I quite liked Sense8 for instance..

MonkeyBasher · 28 Sep 2021 at 16:15

Its going to be rubbish ... , but on the other hand we could have Claudia Christian as the commander.

pecnarf · 28 Sep 2021 at 16:26

from what i read so far on this suppose reboot that it hasn't been given a series order yet, just a pilot episode. JMS will write and possible produce. I quote what the reboot description is listed as being so far, "In a from-the-ground-up reboot of the original series, John Sheridan, an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background, 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."

pecnarf · 28 Sep 2021 at 16:49

also bare in mind that there isn't too many of the original cast that still alive, so those are still alive maybe have cameo on the new show. but it going to be hard to find an actor who can portray Alfred Bester like what Walter Koenig did with the character.

Droolinggimp · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:06

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Considering they are 26 years old,they still look pretty decent IMHO. There also seems to be a better master of the original series too on HBO Max:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_oFTEAU9O8

It was made with Lightwave 3D modelling and rendering program on Amiga 4000/40s. I know, I had the same program and a Amiga 4000/40. Lightwave cost me £900 back in the day and not sure how much the Amiga cost but it was a good few grand. The LW program had pre modelled B5 ships and scenes to mess around with. I made my own space battle. took nearly 4 days to render a 45 second 3d animation. It was awesome.

Ceryndrion · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:17

When I saw that JMS is at the helm I was yay! When I saw that it was the CW I was boo! When I saw that they are giving JMS 'creative freedom' I thought Hmmm!

All in all, I don't know what to think, if they pull off a Galactica then I will certainly give it a chance, but I fear that the CW will do something to balls it up royally.

alchal · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:54

The bar is set so high with the original that they will never reach it with a re make.

Efour said:
All vorlons will be idolised for being gender fluid, not just straight up god's.

LoL

SkeeterUK · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:19

Its happened rather quick as i thought he was going to apply to be show runner for doctor who a few weeks ago.

SkeeterUK · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:25

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/27/...boot-j-michael-straczynski-warner-bros-the-cw

A few hours after we published this post, Straczynski tweeted his answer:

To answer all the questions, yes, it’s true, Babylon 5 is in active development as a series for the CW. We have some serious fans over at the network, and they’re eager to see this show happen. I’m hip deep into writing the pilot now, and will be running the series upon pickup. The network understands the uniqueness of Babylon 5 and is giving me a great deal of latitude with the storytelling.

As noted in the announcement, this is a reboot from the ground up rather than a continuation, for several reasons. Heraclitus wrote “You cannot step in the same river twice, for the river has changed, and you have changed.” In the years since B5, I’ve done a ton of other TV shows and movies, adding an equal number of tools to my toolbox, all of which I can bring to bear on one singular question: if I were creating Babylon 5 today, for the first time, knowing what I now know as a writer, what would it look like? How would it use all the storytelling tools and technological resources available in 2021 that were not on hand then?

How can it be used to reflect the world in which we live, and the questions we are asking and confronting every day? Fans regularly point out how prescient the show was and is of our current world; it would be fun to take a shot at looking further down the road. So we will not be retelling the same story in the same way because of what Heraclitus said about the river. There would be no fun and no surprises. Better to go the way of Westworld or Battlestar Galactica where you take the original elements that are evergreens and put them in a blender with a ton of new, challenging ideas, to create something fresh yet familiar. To those asking why not just do a continuation, for a network series like this, it can’t be done because over half our cast are still stubbornly on the other side of the Rim.

How do you telling continuing story of our original Londo without the original Vir? Or G’Kar? How do you tell Sheridan’s story without Delenn? Or the story of B5 without Franklin? Garibaldi? Zack?

The original Babylon 5 was ridiculously innovative: the first to use CGI to create ships and characters, and among the very first to shoot widescreen with a vigorous 5.1 mix. Most of all, for the first time, Babylon 5 introduced viewers accustomed to episodic television to the concept of a five-year arc with a pre-planned beginning, middle and end…creating a brand new paradigm for television storytelling that has subsequently become the norm. That tradition for innovation will continue in this new iteration, and I hope to create additional new forms of storytelling that will further push the television medium to the edge of what’s possible.

Let me conclude by just saying how supportive and enthusiastic everyone at the CW has been and is being with this project. They understand the unique position Babylon 5 occupies both in television and with its legions of fans, and are doing everything they can to ensure the maximum in creative freedom, a new story that will bring in new viewers while honoring all that has come before.

Onward!

Just noticed this just now so thought id post/share it here.

Trig · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:33

Having read that, its the CW bit that's putting me off, they have a habit of ruining things..

Steampunk · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:36

SkeeterUK said:
Its happened rather quick as i thought he was going to apply to be show runner for doctor who a few weeks ago.

The BBC told him they had their own process to go through. Apparently RTD and Moffat wanted to go back to fix what Chibnal has broken, even though RTD said he never would.

SkeeterUK · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:38

One thing that worrys me. He made Crusade after b5 and well i dunno about the rest of you but i thought that was pretty bad, i didnt like their casting which is probs a big reason why i didnt like it but also it didnt follow very well in the episodes iirc and it was never concluded as it got canned. So if he made and wrote Crusade, does he really have it in him still to make something like the original b5 concept and pull it off?

Also i wonder what the budget is for the new b5, will it be a mill per episode, or more? I think when i was watching scott bakula interview lately he mentioned enterprise was around near 2 mill a episode i think and the last season about 700k pe.

Steampunk · 28 Sep 2021 at 18:43

SkeeterUK said:
So if he made and wrote Crusade, does he really have it in him still to make something like the original b5 concept and pull it off?

Everyone loves JMS because of B5, but in his long body of work, there's been some real stinkers too, particularly some stuff in his comic book writing that everyone hated. JMS is great, but he's not perfect, and the CW is not to be trusted with anything.

pecnarf · 28 Sep 2021 at 19:35

Crusade and legends of the rangers I read he didn’t have the same free reign nor budget that he had when doing b5

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:26

Droolinggimp said:
It was made with Lightwave 3D modelling and rendering program on Amiga 4000/40s. I know, I had the same program and a Amiga 4000/40. Lightwave cost me £900 back in the day and not sure how much the Amiga cost but it was a good few grand. The LW program had pre modelled B5 ships and scenes to mess around with. I made my own space battle. took nearly 4 days to render a 45 second 3d animation. It was awesome.

It shows you how cutting edge the effects were for the time!

SkeeterUK said:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/27/...boot-j-michael-straczynski-warner-bros-the-cw

Just noticed this just now so thought id post/share it here.

IMHO,he could have done a series about the Earth-Dilgar war or the Earth-Minbari war??

Steampunk · 28 Sep 2021 at 22:00

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
It shows you how cutting edge the effects were for the time!

Quite possibly still better than the cheap-ass effects they have on CW shows.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 28 Sep 2021 at 22:11

Steampunk said:
Quite possibly still better than the cheap-ass effects they have on CW shows.

Crusade and The Lost Tales did improve on the effects of the original series with relatively shoe-string budgets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYUAsy7RUqg

Hades · 29 Sep 2021 at 10:43

I have a bad feeling about this Chewie.

However I'm hoping they might pull it out of the bag like Battlestar Gallactica did.