How EPIC would this be? I know, I know, discussions don’t mean much, but doggone it …
Well, they could certainly do worse than bring in the guy who pretty much established the modern model of what a showrunner is.
I never watched Babylon 5 but always intended too as everyone said it was a good show. So I’d be excited to have JMS as showrunner for Doctor Who.
I am delighted to hear about JMS!
So… what are you waiting for? 
I’m waiting to hear that it’s really going to happen. Hearing it might just has me on eager tenterhooks. If it does … we all know how good JMS is at handling complex plots with long reaching threads.
Dude. It is still a good show, if not one of the best ever made. I think it’s available as a remaster on HBO Max and certainly on Amazon Prime. Do yourself an immense favor and watch it.
(Yes, I’m a big, big fan. Some of the best writing EVER.)
It is a good show, but…
It’s almost 30 years old. The acting ranged from spotty to over-the-top, to cringey. The CGI is not only dated, it was not very good even at the time.
But the writing is superb and the plotting very good*, so it’s enjoyable in spite of the drawbacks.
*Quality points deducted for the kerfuffle about five or four seasons and the choices JMS had to make, although he doesn’t deserve the blame. Much.
I like JMS a lot, though I’m a little skeptical that the BBC would put one of their best-known shows in the hands of an American (even one with an excellent track record).
Came here to say this. I’ve actually never seen Babylon 5, so I only know JMS from his stint writing Amazing Spider-Man. At least the beginning of it, around 9/11. I stopped collecting comics a few years later and from what I’ve heard he went totally off the rails. Either way, having an American showrunner for Doctor Who would be like casting someone not from the Commonwealth as James Bond.
In addition to writing comic books (Thor and Fantastic Four, as well) and novels, he’s been a prolific TV writer, story editor, and producer, going back to the 1980s on shows like Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote, as well as Babylon 5.
Neil Gaiman wrote an episode or two of Babylon 5, as well as Doctor Who. JMS has longtime ties to all aspects of SF TV, and he’s experienced the downsides of producing TV series and recovering from setbacks. He managed to replace the star of the show (Michael O’Hare) and then bring him back for a compelling storyline. He had to change his 5-year story arc because of unforeseen circumstances like top stars dropping out when B5 was in limbo and shopping for a new network. He took up comic book writing easily and scripted the best selling issues of Spider-Man. He’s been on many warfronts and came through with battle scars. I can’t think of anybody better to showrun Doctor Who.
My wife and I are currently watching B5 (she’s never seen it before, I watched it on Netflix DVD about 10 years ago) and one thing we are both noticing is how eerily prescient it was about what we saw with the Trump administration, Fox News, etc.
Agreed though that both the effects and the acting were a little cheesy in S1 but it definitely improved.
I think JMS would be an excellent choice to take over Doctor Who. But I’ll be surprised if it actually happens.
I’ll just comment that the run of the show and its spin-off “Crusade” (1993-1999) were a period of dramatic change in terms of computing power and CGI development. To give a bit of perspective, the CGI in “The Last Starfighter” was done with a Cray X-MP, which was one of the most powerful supercomputers of its day. It was the sort of thing that could only be done in a major motion picture.
By 1993, that level of CGI or something similar was doable for a syndicated science fiction series, not even a major network show. And it got considerably better over the course of the show, as the hardware improved along with the techniques for doing it. The pilot’s CGI was done on AMIGA computers, believe it or not, and then the first three seasons on Pentiums and DEC Alphas. It started out pretty good for a show of its size, and ended up with pretty stellar CGI, IMO.
It may have been OK CGI for its time - it still looked like crap during the whole run. I get that it was done for budgetary reasons, but looking at other SF shows and films before and contemporary that used miniatures, green screen / chroma key, and stop motion, it just looked fake. There was a fuzziness to all “exterior” shots and it was obvious how much footage was being recycled.
Again, it was a good show, in many ways ahead of its time, but a majority of the actors were simply not very good and there’s a reason most of them have not had a lot more starring roles and have been relegated to SF cons. I’ve seen clips with Patricia Tallman and she seems like a nice person, but her emoting when doing telepathy is bordering on silly. There are exceptions among the actors, but the over all feel is that JMS had a story to tell and if it meant having to skimp on acting talents and f/x, so be it.
“Running a show with crap effects” puts Doctor Who right in JMS’s wheelhouse! 
I disagree with you here. The writing varied wildly and was many times subpar-to-incompetent. I heard that plotting was superb, but I couldn’t get past the rest of the faults long enough to find out.
I think he might be great for the season long (or perhaps multi-season) arc, but I don’t have a lot of trust in his ability to recognize/refine a good script at the episode level.
I’ll still probably watch it.
To be faiiiiirrrr, JMS discussed CGI and pointed out it was in its infancy when Bab5 was airing. He said rendering of a space battle could take overnight, so they were pressed for time. They planned at the beginning which episodes would have space battles and post-production virtually took all season to produce. Plus, skinning and modeling technology was primitive compared to today’s CGI.
JMS wasn’t trying to make Bab 5 look cheap. Every SF TV series has horror stories about running out of special FX budget and having to use crap like pipe cleaners and chewing gum to finish their projects.
Put me in the excited camp. My wife and I just rewatched bab5 and it held up very well. As others said, JMS was prescient on FOX news and other topics of today.
Can Babylon 5 be cringey? Yes. In many ways. CGI, acting, or writing.
CGI: To us, the CGI looked unfinished, as if it was the rough draft and not the final polish when compared to today’s CGI. It was amazing back then, and yes I watched many, but not all, seasons when they originally aired.
Acting: I am finding out, in my rewatch, how subjective this is. I did not like Michael O’Hare’s take on things and liked Boxleitner more. This time around? I understood better what O’Hare brought to it and thought it was much better and cringed more at Boxleitner. Together, they made a very interesting contrast between a more seasoned warrior and a young one who still felt he had something to prove.
Writing: Wow. So, overall, still the best show for setting out to tell a story and doing it. Seasons one to four are a masterpiece of it. The setups that occur and the payoffs are phenomenal. Season five seemed like a long epilogue that didn’t make as much sense, although I won’t pull it apart here. Yes, there are some cringe worthy 90s style episodes and dialog. Yes, some episodes were tough. However, JMS really brought it together and made it work overall.
Not only did we rewatch the pilot movie and every episode but they all had some good things that I didn’t notice before. Really happy that we did that because there was always something that came up later.
So, on topic, if JMS brought this to Doctor Who? I would love it. I liked all of the actors who have played the Doctor but I haven’t always been happy with the writers/showrunners since RTD. I think JMS could do it.
Similar to your take on it, when I watched B5 when it originally aired, back in the '90s, I did not like O’Hare’s acting at all (I called him “Commander Wood”, due to his stilted performances), and far preferred Boxleitner.
What none of us fans knew back then, and what wasn’t made public until O’Hare’s death in 2012, was that he was suffering from severe mental illness while they were producing the first season, which was making it difficult to work. He left the series to seek treatment, and asked JMS to reveal the real reason why after his death.
Not to be an ass, but what were you expecting from a show that broadcast a quarter century ago? 2021 level CGI? It was fine when compared to CGI of its era- good even. Maybe not up to the standards of practical effects, but considerably cheaper.
There was good reason for that; the show was in jeopardy of not being renewed during the fourth season, so JMS wrote that season such that if it wasn’t renewed for a fifth season, everything would be wrapped up adequately. Then they ended up renewing for the fifth season, and it was after the conclusion of the main series, and was ‘extra’.
I think JMS would be a fine showrunner for Doctor Who. He’s got the chops for it, and the experience, and apparently the interest in the source material.
I apologize for not being more clear. It was absolutely cutting edge at the time. I was partially responding to Charlie_Tan about how he didn’t think it was good CGI at the time when it was. I was not clear on that. I also didn’t say that the CGI now didn’t look bad so much as unfinished to us today. It wasn’t distracting to me mainly because I grew up on Classic Doctor Who. 
@kenobi_65 I did hear about Michael O"Hare’s condition later and yes given what he had, he did well. I also like the story that JMS told O’Hare he would keep his secret until JMS’ death and O’Hare said to only keep it until O’Hare’s own.