Doran, the reason I asked the question -- and if you come in here loaded for bear and start throwing around assumptions without a shred of actual, specific information you deserve the reply you get -- is that I wanted to see if you had an informed opinion or if you had no idea what the hell you were talking about. It's the latter.
If you or anyone else thinks that I'm going to simply redo the exact same story (your accusation) in the same way," same characters, same start point" (your words again)...that person is an idiot. There would be no point. Zero, none, nada.
Take G'Kar, for instance. In my notes, there is no new character named G'Kar because for my money, no one else can ever BE G'Kar, so G'Kar is a religious figure, a legend, not unlike G'Quon. Did you know that? No. Why? Because you don't have the freaking pages in front of you and you're acting like a hysteric.
Despite what some folks say, the fact is that saying "reboot" is like saying "science fiction," it means what you're pointing at, and there are all kinds of permutations of what that means. It (and remember we're talking about something that is not currently on the boards) can't be a straight-ahead sequel because the market can't sustain it when the show hasn't been on the air in the US in over a decade. That's never, ever going to fly. It can't be called Babylon 5 if there isn't a place called Babylon 5, so the station has to be in existence, otherwise you can't use that name. You could do a show about the telepath war, but you couldn't call it Babylon 5 unless there's a Babylon 5 there, otherwise it'll confuse the hell out of new audiences (oh, that's named for a station that used to be there in another series you never saw).
The challenge I set for myself in this is very simple: knowing what I know now, having grown a lot as a writer since 1992 (or for that matter the late 80s when I started writing the pilot), having the experience of the original show in what worked and what didn't, and with all the technology available to us now that wasn't there in 1992, if I were to put the show together right now, what would it look like? That, for my money, is what a reboot is.
So no, I don't like it when you come in here, Doran, and make baseless accusations about something you actually know nothing at all about. You made a direct statement that I was going to do the same thing in the same way with the same characters all over again, and that has NOTHING to do with what I have (or had) in mind.
You ask a smart-alec question, you get a smart-alec response. If you come in loaded for bear don't expect me to be a stationary target for your comments. And don't hide behind the "well, fans have a right to know" thing because I've been keeping the fans accurately in the know for decades. I respect the fans too much to do otherwise. The poor behavior is yours for making an accusation that had nothing to do with facts. Yes, fans have a right to speculate, and should, but when speculation arises, one asks a question, one doesn't come in with an accusation. There's this notion that I've fought for years, that a person can come into a web site or page and be as offensive or patronizing as they want, but if the other person responds in the way ANYONE would respond if you pulled that crap in person, somehow THAT'S the offense. Sorry, I don't buy into the bullshit.
If you want to know something, ask a fair question and I'll always provide a fair and reasoned response. I've been doing it since 1992. Act like a jerk, and I'll call you on it every time.
To everyone who is not Doran: we're talking about something that's a moot point at the moment anyway. The discussions I'm having with the studio are business oriented regarding B5 and not in terms of a specific new show or a new project. It may be a year before any of those talks go anywhere. So can we not burn down the town over something that's not actually being discussed at the moment?
