If you could create your own B5 spinoff...

[Deseret]

Honestly I think all the books should be disregarded as cannon... srry to anyone who likes them but I find them limiting to show or movie ideas and so avoid them completely.

 

[Jan]

Honestly I think all the books should be disregarded as cannon... srry to anyone who likes them but I find them limiting to show or movie ideas and so avoid them completely.

Am I reading this correctly and you haven't read the books? And yet you have the opinion that they shouldn't be considered canon even though the show's creator wrote outlines for 9 of them and has declared them canon?

Far from limiting anything, the three trilogies in particular expand the B5 story a *lot*.

Jan

 

[Galahad]

Honestly I think all the books should be disregarded as cannon... srry to anyone who likes them but I find them limiting to show or movie ideas and so avoid them completely.

Am I reading this correctly and you haven't read the books? And yet you have the opinion that they shouldn't be considered canon even though the show's creator wrote outlines for 9 of them and has declared them canon?

Far from limiting anything, the three trilogies in particular expand the B5 story a *lot*.

Jan

Don't forget "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" JMS explicitly states in the foreword that it is as close to canon as you can get.

 

[Deseret]

Yeah I've not read them, after reading the story synopsis of some of the books (can't remember for sure which ones since it's been a while) I was decidedly disappointed and refused to continue checking on them.

There are always pro's and con's to letting other authors write cannon material. What would happen if JMS wanted to do a story set same time as one of these "cannon books" but he had decided that he wanted to take the story and the characters in a different direction? He first would have to reconcile the difference somehow (which is difficult to do) and then continue his story OR he would have to completely negate the "cannon material" which would piss off any fans of that book and thus weaken his support base even if it's only by a little.

Essentially the years or group involved in the "cannon books" is simpler to avoid than work with for any authors perspective. I saw this problem a lot with the Star Trek books and thus decided that for myself "semi-cannon" is the way to go because it's easy to move around if needed.

 

[Galahad]

If I were to do a spin off series, I'd like to see the period of time where Earth is starting to emerge from the Great Burn... you could make it quasi fantasy. Tech stealers or other aliens (including the odd rogue technomage who keep trying to land on Earth to exploit the planets resources or people and it falls to the rangers who have been strategically placed on the planet to watch for these threats and defend against them... whilst trying to maintain their anonymity.

The beauty of it is that you could do something virtually Arthurian and yet utterly grounded in science fiction.

 

[darth_librarian]

If I were to do a spin off series, I'd like to see the period of time where Earth is starting to emerge from the Great Burn... you could make it quasi fantasy. Tech stealers or other aliens (including the odd rogue technomage who keep trying to land on Earth to exploit the planets resources or people and it falls to the rangers who have been strategically placed on the planet to watch for these threats and defend against them... whilst trying to maintain their anonymity.

The beauty of it is that you could do something virtually Arthurian and yet utterly grounded in science fiction.

I've often thought about this idea. Plenty of literautre that could be drawn on ...