Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

Babylon 5 is getting rebooted, and series creator JMS is running the show

In 1994, J. Michael Straczynski (Sense8, Changeling) brought the world a science fiction show like nothing we’d ever seen. Babylon 5 told a single five-year story, filled with foreshadowing, deep political intrigue, and characters who grew and evolved, at a time when most TV shows still reset the agenda after every single episode. He wrote the vast majority of the award-winning show himself, and it appears he may be about to do it again — Warner Bros. Television is now in development on a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of Babylon 5 with Straczynski as writer and showrunner, designed to air on the CW.

Here’s the full description Warner Bros. provided to The Verge:

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.
That’s pretty much a dead-on description of the original show, minus some big surprises. So as a long-time fan myself, I have extremely mixed feelings!

In one sense, it’s pretty exciting because Straczynski told fans for years that Warner Bros. wanted nothing to do with the show ever again. “They literally told my agent ‘We have no plans, and no intentions, of letting anything else be done in terms of television with Babylon 5,’” he tweeted in 2018, and that seemed to be that.

In 1994, J. Michael Straczynski (Sense8, Changeling) brought the world a science fiction show like nothing we’d ever seen. Babylon 5 told a single five-year story, filled with foreshadowing, deep political intrigue, and characters who grew and evolved, at a time when most TV shows still reset the agenda after every single episode. He wrote the vast majority of the award-winning show himself, and it appears he may be about to do it again — Warner Bros. Television is now in development on a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of Babylon 5 with Straczynski as writer and showrunner, designed to air on the CW.

Here’s the full description Warner Bros. provided to The Verge:

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.
That’s pretty much a dead-on description of the original show, minus some big surprises. So as a long-time fan myself, I have extremely mixed feelings!

In one sense, it’s pretty exciting because Straczynski told fans for years that Warner Bros. wanted nothing to do with the show ever again. “They literally told my agent ‘We have no plans, and no intentions, of letting anything else be done in terms of television with Babylon 5,’” he tweeted in 2018, and that seemed to be that.

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!"

Doctor Phibes

Interesting! I hope they do a good job of it. When I watched B5, it was better than any sci-fi I'd ever seen on TV.

Catseye3

Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy! A dream come true!

That said, I hope with all my heart that the creators of the new show retain what I loved best about B5: Its warmth, its human-ness! I later watched a single episode of Battlestar Gallactica, and maybe I caught a bad one, but I found the storytelling so absolutely cold that I had no interest in watching more of it. B5 was full of small moments of anger, anxiety, pettiness, arrogance, humor, nobility, uncertainty, dumbness -- all the things you find in humans, and it worked perfectly. It drew you in and made you fall in love with the characters. If the new show didn't have that element, I'd rather they didn't do the new show at all, so bitterly disappointing would it be.

No, they can't go back into that river. It wouldn't work, for reasons even other than that so many of the actors are dead. Would you want to see an "updated" remake of G'Kar? Vir? It would be an awful discordancy. It would make me angry at the creators and turn me off the show.

Although, it would be cool if they could reprise Lando in some other capacity -- a promotion? -- and have him occasionally recollect interactions with Vir in the form of reminiscences, slugging in scenes from the original show, (including especially his calling Vir a moon-faced assassin of joy, LOL.) Such re-runs would be much beloved, I think.

Great news. Great!

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

There were several things that were amazing about the show.

JMS started with a premise: "I'm going to tell you a story, and it's going to take 5 years to do it."

JMS wrote most of the episodes himself, giving it continuity and insight that a "writers' room" might not have.

He planned for departures of characters, giving each of the main characters a "trap door," whereby a character can be replaced (like Sheridan's entry into season 2).

In the early days of the internet (1994), he was very very engaged on usenet where he discussed the show with randos who would comment, criticize and ask questions.

I hated the way Season 4 seemed to end the story, and then, Season 5 felt like it was tacked-on. I understand the politics of renewal, and with the uncertainty of renewal for a 5th season, he did what he could to try to give a satisfying, if not great, end to S4.

Today, most series of that nature run 10-13 episodes. I imagine high production costs are what set that limit. With the number of "non-arc" episodes in B5, I imagine a re-boot could easily fit into the 10-13 episode framework.

With JMS at the helm, I have little doubt that it will be faithful to the premise of the story he envisioned 25 years ago.

Hope he succeeds.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/babylon-5-reboot-the-cw-j-michael-straczynski-1235075236/

https://www.space.com/babylon-5-reboot-in-development

https://in.ign.com/babylon-5/167575/news/babylon-5-on-the-verge-of-being-rebooted-by-its-original-creator

Doctor Phibes

The casting in the original series was spectacular. I thought Bruce Boxleitner was a bit of a poor choice - a bit too all-American boy compared to Michael O'Hare, but pretty much everybody else was perfect. Who would have thought that Pavel Chekhov would be so damn creepy and evil once he put a wig on?

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@doctor-phibes I have to agree.

"Bester...." mwuahhhahhaa!

Also replacing Claudia Christian with Tracey Scoggins was a disaster, imo.

Catseye3

@george-k said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

Also replacing Claudia Christian with Tracey Scoggins was a disaster, imo.

Yep, zero charm.

Doctor Phibes

@george-k said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

Also replacing Claudia Christian with Tracey Scoggins was a disaster, imo.

Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. I try not to think too much about the 5th season of B5.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@doctor-phibes said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

Pavel Chekhov would be so damn creepy and evil once he put a wig on?

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Doctor Phibes

@george-k said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

Also replacing Claudia Christian with Tracey Scoggins was a disaster, imo.

My favourite ever episode was the one where Ivanova and Talia Winters got very friendly, and were lounging around together in satin night attire. The internal move playing in my head was something to behold.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@doctor-phibes said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

My favourite ever episode was the one where Ivanova and Talia Winters got very friendly, and were lounging around together in satin night attire. The internal move playing in my head was something to behold.

I don't remember that one. YouTube, please?

Catseye3

@george-k said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

I don't remember that one. YouTube, please?

Oh lord, now we've lost George for the rest of the day.

Doctor Phibes

@george-k said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

@doctor-phibes said in Hay, Dr. Phibes! Great Maker!:

My favourite ever episode was the one where Ivanova and Talia Winters got very friendly, and were lounging around together in satin night attire. The internal move playing in my head was something to behold.

I don't remember that one. YouTube, please?