• The new B5TV.COM is here. We've replaced our 16 year old software with flashy new XenForo install. Registration is open again. Password resets will work again. More info here.

Miniseries Anyone?

E

ElScorcho

Regular
Whilst reading the TELEPATH WAR thread on this page it occured to me that saving this part of the B5 story for a movie might not be the best thing to do.

On my first impression of the series, I watched until the end of "Sleeping in Light" and remembered saying, "That's it? What happened to Londo and that thing on his neck? Did Lennier ever get vindicated? Did Garibaldi ever get to throw Bester out an airlock?" and most importantly, "What happened to Lyta and the telepaths?"

Thankfully, a few of the loose ends were wrapped up nicely in the Psi Corps and Centauri novels. But others were only hinted at. Yes, Crusade and Rangers would probably leaked more information, but alas...

Even so, that's still nearly half a decade between "River of Souls" and "A Call to Arms". That seems to me to be an awful long time to cram into one movie. Maybe the teep war would not last that long, but still - it seems that there is more than two hours worth of storytelling to be done there.

And Sci-Fi seems to like mini-series "events" rather than regular series right now. Hell, if it was a three parter, they'd have one of their marathons ready made!

Besides, I don't know what sort of market a B5 theatrical release would have. It doesn't have the same clout as Star Trek, but who could tell? To me, B5 works better on the televised medium. It would keep better continuity with the series itself rather than having to jazz up the fx and introduce characters the fans already know.

C'mon Sci-Fi, throw us a bone.
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Even so, that's still nearly half a decade between "River of Souls" and "A Call to Arms". That seems to me to be an awful long time to cram into one movie. Maybe the teep war would not last that long, but still - it seems that there is more than two hours worth of storytelling to be done there.

[/quote]I am sure there would be plenty of stuff for a miniseries - but from what we know, I don't think the telepath war lasted for very long.

Don't forget that the Rangers movie took place between River of Souls and A Call to Arms. IIRC, the Rangers movie took place some 2-3 years after Objects at Rest. By the time of the movie, the telepath war must have been fought and was, most likely, over - and if G'Kar and Lyta were on their travels for about 2 years, as planned, then it doesn't leave more than a few months for the period when the war could have taken place (considering Lyta would most likely have needed at least a little time preparing her side for it).

We can't know for sure, of course, but it seems that the telepath war - or at least the most important events of it - was condensed into a pretty short time period. If the potential telepath war movie (should it ever get made) mostly concentrates on just the key events of the war, not the whole time period between River of Souls and A Call to Arms (or even TLaDiS), then it should be possible to tell it in just one movie.

Although a miniseries idea sounds just as good or even better to me, as it would be more B5. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif
 
I'm only 5 episodes into the S5 telepath arc and already i can't stand Byron and his teeps. I can't see a teep movie or mini-series being very successful.

Gimme more jms but no more B5, i'd like to remember the series the way it was, not have all these crappy sequels like star trek does, which spoil the enjoyment of the original
 
Some kind of miniseries sounds an even better idea than trying to bring anything B5 related to the screen lack their of profoit .I'll take more Babylon 5 anything .I have to say this I like Byron and his teeps trying to better themselves in life .
 
Personally I'd like to see the 3rd book of the Centauri Trilogy done. It would tie up a couple of loose ends, and introduce David Sheridan.........and maybe his character could breath some life into.......Scifi's Lame Line-ups... /forums/images/icons/wink.gif
 
Here we go again. Hehe

I believe it has been established that the Telepath War took place during the years 2264 to 2265, which means it could have lasted anywhere from a couple of months to nearly two years. Since B5:LR occurred in 2265 (two years before the Drakh attack of "A Call to Arms"), I'd estimate the war at no more than one to one and 1/2 years in length.

G'Kar makes a cryptic reference to "a friend" (Lyta) in B5:LR. He says, <font class="small">Spoiler:</font>
<table bgcolor="#000000" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0"><tr bgcolor="#000000"><td bgcolor="#000000" id="spoiler"><font color="#000000"> "She's gone now.' </font></td></tr></table>


I agree, though. I would like to see a mini-series. I think a six-hour format would work nicely. It wouldn't be as epic as the show was, but it wouldn't feel as rushed as the previous movies. I've found that the 2-hour movies don't really offer the same type of enjoyment that the series did. The show offered twists and turns and changes of fate; the movies offered more in-your-face, slam-bam action (well, except for "River of Souls" /forums/images/icons/grin.gif ).

In my opinion, a mini-series would allow for greater characterization, depth, and plot complexity. The Telepath War is still a mystery. Lyta's armed uprising against PsiCorps wouldn't necessarily explain why Bester was wanted as a war criminal in 2265. It may have been a war on two fronts. The long hinted conflict between normals and mundanes may have provided Lyta with the perfect opportunity to wage her own battle of revenge while PsiCorps resources were divided.

Just speculation, of course. I'd love to see this story in any form - the bigger the better.
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
<font color="yellow"> Originally posted by ElScorcho: </font color>
On my first impression of the series, I watched until the end of "Sleeping in Light" and remembered saying, "That's it? What happened to Londo and that thing on his neck? Did Lennier ever get vindicated? Did Garibaldi ever get to throw Bester out an airlock?" and most importantly, "What happened to Lyta and the telepaths?"

[/quote]

Well, JMS has said he never intended to tie up all the loose ends.


</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
<font color="yellow"> Originally posted by ElScorcho: </font color>
Besides, I don't know what sort of market a B5 theatrical release would have. It doesn't have the same clout as Star Trek, but who could tell?

[/quote]

Who knows, until they try? If they could do "In the Beginning" as a single TV movie, I don't see why they couldn't do the Telepath War in a feature film of the same length.
 
Many of these ideas are great.

I just wish JMS had pursued them last year when SciFi expressed and interest in doing "something" B5 instead of doing a pilot for a new series.

The lost opportunities. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif
 
i don`t think it will happen for a while if ever , If it was to happen it would be good , but i forsee maybe 8 or 9 episodes maybe ??
 
Re: Here we go again. Hehe

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The long hinted conflict between normals and mundanes may have provided Lyta with the perfect opportunity to wage her own battle of revenge while PsiCorps resources were divided.

[/quote]

I've thought that too, B5 Obsessed. It was more than once when it was pointedly said in B5 that 'it is just a matter of time before there is war between the teeps and the normals'.

If there is a telepath war, I would think it is almost certainly going to be between the teeps and norms with, as you say, Lyta using this as a big break in her plans.

Maybe not. I'm just speculating, too. But it would make sense. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif
 
Re: Here we go again. Hehe

There are many good points made here. Like B5_Obsessed, I agree that the two-hour movies were not on par with the main series, more like double-episode specials if you will. And on further reflection, I've noticed that many of the series' miniarcs tended to flow generally through six episodes (hence the original packaging of the -cough- VHS tapes). So a six-hour minisereis would definitely be a great way to detail the story without rushing it.
 
Re: Here we go again. Hehe

The hints scattered throughout Crusade, the short stories and the novels seem to indicate that the Telepath War starts out as Lyta's rebellion in 2264 (Garibaldi has been preparing, financing, training and organizing her troops for two years, so they are pretty much ready to go when she gets back.) At some point, however, it clearly spreads, first involving the mundanes (which is why Psi Corps is disbanded and Bester sought for war crimes) and eventually the Interstellar Alliance. (Bester blames Sheridan's intervention for the Corps ultimate defeat.)

Regarding what form a future B5 project might take, consider the following: Sci-Fi is primarily interested in exploiting two categories name projects like Dune, or anything involving Speilberg, and properties already owned by Universal: Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Quantum Leap, Tremors. Even their mini-series tend to fall into one category or the other. Shows that they can share with USA Network (and which fall into both categories) like Stephen King's Dead Zone and Firestarter are also attractive. As contemporary and more mainstream features they are less of a production headache and attractive to a wider audience.

In other words, it doesn't look they'd have any great interest in a B5 mini-series, either. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

And the only kind of project that Warner Bros. can initiate on its own, without involving a TV network, is a feature film. A successful feature, of course, would probably interest Sci-Fi (or others) in a TV spin-off.

That's why I still think the DVDs are the key to any (near-term) future B5 might have. If they do well enough, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, Warner Bros. will know that they have a chance of getting their money back even if they don't make a lot on the domestic box office. (A number of recent films have made more money on DVD than they did in theaters - and that is just counting domestic receipts in both cases.) A modestly budgeted (say 30 to 50 million) B5 feature might look like much less of a risk to the studio in that case.

I don't see any reason why the next B5 project should somehow "have" to deal with the entire five years between Rangers and ACtA. It just has to tell a particular story, and tell it well. Heck, we didn't even get "the whole" story of the years the show did cover in detail. We saw almost nothing of the Mars revolt, little or nothing of life under Clarke on Earth, nothing at all of events on Proxima or the other colonies. The essence of story-telling is that is particular. The Grapes of Wrath is the story of the Joads, not a treatise on the Dust Bowl.

Comparing a "two-hour" TV movie to a theatrical film is specious. Give JMS 120 minutes, no requirement for an artificial climax every twelve minutes, and a decent budget, and we should end up with something far better than the average MOW. Especially given a story that he has already worked out, which involves the major regular characters from the series, and which he has been carefully saving all these years.

Regards,

Joe
 
I totally agree about the war starting with Lyta's rebellion and the mundanes being drawn in at a later time, it makes sense.

It is also possible I suppose that Lyta's band gathered support from mundane sympathisers, but most people usually talk and debate about things and debate them until something happens to draw them in, something touches home personally.

Maybe it will be like WW2. You could compare Lyta's brigade to the Brits, who took the fight to Germany, holding there own, but losing supplies due to U-boat raids. In the months before the US joined the war, the President actually contraversially ripped up a neutrality treaty (wasn't it the treaty of Versailles??), and started selling ships and weapons to Britain. Maybe Sheridan would do the same, seeing the plight of the free telepaths, he might decide to draw the Alliance in by assisting with supplies and information garnered from the Ranger fleet (It wouldn't be so unlikely because the telepath war would no doubt be spreading out of human space and drawing in other races, maybe alien races begin to question there own stance towards telepaths? It would pave the way for the alliance to become involved in the background, however louder voices in the Alliance would oppose direct action for fear of drawing the Alliance into yet another conflict, like what happened in the war.

Finally an event would happen to make Sheridan and the Alliance throw in their lot. Something like Pearl Harbour, maybe Psi Corp track down the rebel HQ and nuke it along with Lyta and a whole load of innocent mundanes who occupy the surrounding area. This would provide the same effect essentially as Pearl Harbour, inflaming a public response towards mutual enemies. Sorry my imagination is very powerful and I've probably gone hypernuts with an idea blast, please feel free to disassemble my comments.

By the way what determines whether something is a "war" in name, need not necessarily be due to the length of period it is thought over, don't forget there was the 6 day war. Sometimes it is the severity and the political implication that defines it.
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
On my first impression of the series, I watched until the end of "Sleeping in Light" and remembered saying, "That's it? What happened to Londo and that thing on his neck? Did Lennier ever get vindicated? Did Garibaldi ever get to throw Bester out an airlock?" and most importantly, "What happened to Lyta and the telepaths?"


[/quote]

One of the reasons I don't like S5 - it leaves too many unanswered questions. I get much more of a feeling of satisfaction by watching B5 without S5 (S4 ending with SiL).

Of course, if jms ever gets round to telling the Teep War story (and doesn' t create anymore unanswered questions in doing so) I will accept S5 as an essential piece of the B5 story......However, he sure seems to be taking his pretty time to get round to it!
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Well, JMS has said he never intended to tie up all the loose ends.

[/quote]

He stated very early on in the production of the series that the only question he wanted to leave at the end was "now what?". In other words, "that's that story finished, what do we watch now?". He always intended for B5 to be the first ever self-contained "novel" for TV.
 
Something I found on Midwinter.com...

What will be revealed over the course of the series? All of it.
By the time the series has run its five-year course (Neilsen willing), there will only be ONE unanswered question left: "NOW what?"
jms

"What will be revealed over the course of the series? All of it" sounds pretty conclusive to me.
 
I thought the Ranger movie took place after A Call to Arms. /forums/images/icons/confused.gif
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I thought the Ranger movie took place after A Call to Arms.

[/quote]

nup, totaly wrong their B5 2262, Crusade 2267, Rangers (i forget, but something like 2265)
 
Well I for one likes loose ends.
If everything gets tied up nicely and explained some of the mystery and fun goes out of it.
I rather want a welldone tv movie, and please make Crusade aviable as books.
It would be the only books of B5 character I would really want to read.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 431 (members: 0, guests: 431)

Share this page

Back
Top