…not a joke. (I did check the forum, had assumed someone would have done this thread by now, but if I missed one, my apologies.)
JMS speaks at length about why he has chosen to do things the way he has here:
Claudia Christian talks about how her and many of the other surviving cast members have been in the loop for a while, and that JMS wants them all to play a part, but she has no idea what kind of part that will be.
Great Maker!
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
My question to Claudia Christian is “Have you got an agent that will negotiate you a better contract this time?”
You have always been here.
The timing is interesting. Straczynski had previously thrown in his hat to possibly be the next Doctor Who showrunner. But since Russell T. Davies is returning instead after Chibnall leaves, he must be free to do Babylon 5.
So sci-fi fans get RTD back on Doctor Who and JMS back for Babylon 5—though I wonder how fans feel about the latter being a “from-the-ground-up reboot,” even knowing Claudia Christian (and hopefully others from the original cast) will still be on the show.
…yeah, its not that. JMS said he has he’s been working on this for a while, and the cast were kept in the loop as well. It didn’t happen in the last few days. He only threw his hat into the Doctor Who ring because…why not? The opportunity doesn’t come up very often, so he thought he’d give it a go. But it wasn’t 'one of the other."
I’m not arguing that he didn’t plan on doing Babylon 5. I’m saying that perhaps he delayed his announcement a bit to let Doctor Who make their announcement first. It would avoid stepping on their announcement, and avoid speculation he was going to try and do both shows.
I personally don’t think he could have done both shows simultaneously. I think the quality of both shows would suffer. And I think he would know that, and would not try to do both at once. I suspect that, since he threw his hat in the ring, he was willing to delay Babylon 5 to be able to run Doctor Who.
Or, well, it’s possible that he didn’t actually plan on running Doctor Who now, but wanted to throw his hat in the ring to create buzz for both shows and get his name into the running for later. I dunno.
…nobody, even JMS, seriously thought he had a chance. But he thought: why not give it a go?
You are just overthinking this. JMS is pretty open about things on twitter and his own patreon. And he wouldn’t try and create buzz for a programme he isn’t actually a part of through a convoluted process of pretending to want to write for that show.
He talked through what he did. He asked his agents to investigate the Doctor Who opportunity, the BBC reached out, they had a courteous discussion that went nowhere. It was just a typical Hollywood interaction.
So I’m just watching B5 for the first time (on HBO Max), and I can see why he’d want to do a reboot. The show is in a 4:3 format with very cheesy looking CGI. That’s not exactly something that would entice many people to give it a watch. A ground up reboot may bring in a lot of people who normally would have been turned off by how the old show looked.
The scope and depth of B5 is quite amazing. I can’t imagine any writer trying to recreate the show with new characters and stories. The new show will always be critically compared to the original.
By reboot I guess that means entirely new aliens? A new mystery villain lurking in the Shadows?
I’d suggest shorter seasons. B5 sometimes seemed too slowly paced in the early seasons. Although we did learn there were important clues in the slower episodes. I’d be happy with 14 episodes a season.
Just in time to do the SFX:
“Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”
“No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow. What? Look, somebody’s got to have some damn perspective around here! Boom. Sooner or later. BOOM!”
Still trying to figure out how this will all work. I can’t imaging anyone else playing G’Kar – will it be a different alien species that will take the place of the Narn?
Brian
A number of the main actors from the original show have passed away (including Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Jeff Conaway, Stephen Furst, and Michael O’Hare, as well as Andreas Katsulas), while the others are now, of course, significantly older than their original characters were 25+ years ago. I would imagine that, if it’s a reboot of the original story, the main roles will be largely, if not entirely, recast, and any returning actors might well be playing different roles.
I hope their is a similar character as Kosh. The show needs a mysterious, powerful character that may or may not be there to help.
His environmental suit was so cheesy. They may do the new character CGI.
I’m having a hard time seeing what a reboot brings to the table, here. We already have Babylon 5, and aside from a few dated CGI sequences and an older aspect ratio, there’s not much wrong with it.
Some thoughts in no particular order:
No kidding (also, given how many drugs were involved, Claudia Christian has the liver of a Greek God). As a percentage, it was better to be a cast member of the original Star Trek, many of whom are still kicking well into their 80s and 90s. Walter Koenig looks to have avoided whatever B5 curse there is.
In fact, Shatner is planning to go into space. 
Of the nine actors who had significant roles in the original series (including Majel Barrett and Grace Lee Whitney, as well as the main seven), we didn’t lose one until 1999, over 30 years after the show ended, when DeForest Kelly passed away.
Heck, they still have nearly the entire bridge crew. Just missing the first/science officer.
I think this is exactly what it’s going to be. When i first heard about this I wondered if it would be a continuation 20 years later sort of thing. But the synopsis from the article (quoted by smapti upthread) is definitely signaling this is a retelling of the original story. Maybe the best comparison would be to BSG? Same basic premise with updated effects and more current storytelling sensibilities?
Is this strictly necessary? I don’t know, the original show is still very watchable to my eyes but if this introduces a new generation to B5, even more people discovering the original show, I don’t think that’s all bad.