NEW Babylon 5 Series

[Looney]

I really liked the first two seasons of Arrow, the first two or three seasons of The Flash, and the first two seasons of Legends of Tomorrow. Though they were all three superhero shows, they each had different tonal qualities. Because the network has had so many superhero shows, I think that suggests the network is very sci-fi friendly.

I haven't seen all of those, but I can agree on Arrow Season One being excellent as well as the first few seasons of The Flash. I didn't get into Legends of Tomorrow because I am not a fan of Time Travel and the like. But early Arrow was fantastic. Plus I felt Dylan Neal was absolutely great as Dr. Ivo and he should have been a series regular. I really enjoy his series The Gourmet Detective, but Ivo was definitely the best performance of his I've ever seen.

 

[Foxchild]

Anybody else hoping the Crusade storyline gets incorporated into this?

 

[hypatia]

...I note that the only confirmed character so far is Sheridan - not Sinclair. I am assuming that, as JMS has intimated previously, characters whose actors have passed away won't be rebooted. So there will be no Delenn, no Garibaldi, no G'Kar, no Franklin, no Vir etc in this new show? That in itself will drastically change the storyline from the original.

No kidding. It's an interesting gesture, and it makes sense. I mean, who else could pull off G'Kar?

 

[Jan]

Small reminder that JMS has only explicitly said that he'd never recast G'Kar. And that was when Katsulas was only the second major cast member to pass away. I'll be perfectly happy if he changes his mind about that. There are many wonderful and talented actors out there who could play G'Kar as well, if differently, as Katsulas.

 

[Kyehlar]

Small reminder that JMS has only explicitly said that he'd never recast G'Kar. And that was when Katsulas was only the second major cast member to pass away. I'll be perfectly happy if he changes his mind about that. There are many wonderful and talented actors out there who could play G'Kar as well, if differently, as Katsulas.

An excellent point. Perhaps that was in context to continuation rather than reboot. I don't know if you could tell the Babylon story without Londo and G'Kar unless you change the character's names and keep the core elements in place.

 

[Kyehlar]

Anybody else hoping the Crusade storyline gets incorporated into this?

Crusade should be kept from the core Babylon story. But if this series does well enough as Arrow did for the CW, there no reason why there couldn't be a spinoff in the Babylonverse like with Flash etc.

 

[Ubik]

Small reminder that JMS has only explicitly said that he'd never recast G'Kar. And that was when Katsulas was only the second major cast member to pass away. I'll be perfectly happy if he changes his mind about that. There are many wonderful and talented actors out there who could play G'Kar as well, if differently, as Katsulas.

An excellent point. Perhaps that was in context to continuation rather than reboot. I don't know if you could tell the Babylon story without Londo and G'Kar unless you change the character's names and keep the core elements in place.

Wild speculation on my part, but I kinda expect a lot of new characters that occupy the same kind of thematic roles as the existing show. So, the trajectory of say 'Londo' is roughly the same but it's 'Kronkulon, the Centauri Ambassador' or whatever, this time around.

 

[Kyehlar]

Curious as to whether the Centauri will give off as much Transylvanian vibes as their previous incarnation.

 

[Moonface]

Small reminder that JMS has only explicitly said that he'd never recast G'Kar. And that was when Katsulas was only the second major cast member to pass away. I'll be perfectly happy if he changes his mind about that. There are many wonderful and talented actors out there who could play G'Kar as well, if differently, as Katsulas.

An excellent point. Perhaps that was in context to continuation rather than reboot. I don't know if you could tell the Babylon story without Londo and G'Kar unless you change the character's names and keep the core elements in place.

Wild speculation on my part, but I kinda expect a lot of new characters that occupy the same kind of thematic roles as the existing show. So, the trajectory of say 'Londo' is roughly the same but it's 'Kronkulon, the Centauri Ambassador' or whatever, this time around.

Just wild guessing here, but wouldn't it be awesome if this time an other race would get the centauri arc? So JMS would keep fans guessing as to what goes on in this timeline?

 

[hypatia]

That could be very interesting. I wonder if they'll keep/use Bester.

 

[Kyehlar]

That could be very interesting. I wonder if they'll keep/use Bester.

The thing that I felt helped Bester work, was that Walter Koenig was so beloved as Chekov in Star Trek... and then he was a detestable little troll in B5 (YMMV). So whoever they get to play Bester in the new B5, they would have to be someone people would be all "Oh it's them! I love them in such and such..." Just before they do something to shatter their perceptions.

 

[Ubik]

An excellent point. Perhaps that was in context to continuation rather than reboot. I don't know if you could tell the Babylon story without Londo and G'Kar unless you change the character's names and keep the core elements in place.

Wild speculation on my part, but I kinda expect a lot of new characters that occupy the same kind of thematic roles as the existing show. So, the trajectory of say 'Londo' is roughly the same but it's 'Kronkulon, the Centauri Ambassador' or whatever, this time around.

Just wild guessing here, but wouldn't it be awesome if this time an other race would get the centauri arc? So JMS would keep fans guessing as to what goes on in this timeline?

Oh yes, now that would be an interesting switch up! There really is a LOT of scope for tinkering and making it something distinct from the original show. JMS has made it abundantly clear it will be different. It's weird seeing fans argue about actors and using old story lines. If I see 'do the Dilgar war' one more time I may scream...

That said, I would love to see more depth to the Telepath war / telepath arc, if it does indeed feature in this new iteration.

 

[Bester]

One thing that has me concerned. CW shows are only available in the US. But a large part of the B5 fanbase resides in the UK and other European territories. Does this make CW a poor choice for the revival?

 

[Jan]

One thing that has me concerned. CW shows are only available in the US. But a large part of the B5 fanbase resides in the UK and other European territories. Does this make CW a poor choice for the revival?

They're the one who asked for it. So it was the only choice. And I don't know it personally but I understand that lots of things migrate over to HBO Max from the CW.

 

[Bester]

Unfortunately, HBO Max is not available in the UK either. I'm just concerned that the show's chances of a long and fruitful life may be negatively affected if it is not made available in the UK market.

I appreciate that the CW approached JMS. But who's to say that he didn't or wouldn't get other offers following the recent success of B5 on Amazon/iTunes/HBO?

 

[Ubik]

Unfortunately, HBO Max is not available in the UK either. I'm just concerned that the show's chances of a long and fruitful life may be negatively affected if it is not made available in the UK market.

I appreciate that the CW approached JMS. But who's to say that he didn't or wouldn't get other offers following the recent success of B5 on Amazon/iTunes/HBO?

Pretty sure I've seen CW shows on Netflix UK in the past. Plus, with a VPN, no issues. It's what I do these days.


In fact yes, the Sabrina reboot and Arrow are both on Netflix UK.

 

[hypatia]

It's kind of infuriating that in this day we still have "Regions". It's getting in the way of our access to entertainment, and people willing to pay. I wanted to watch the film "Oldboy" but it's not available in my area.

Is this what NordVPN can help with? Am I allowed to ask that question, here?

 

[hypatia]

Anybody else hoping the Crusade storyline gets incorporated into this?

I'd love to see that, but I think isn't the direction they are going. And will we ever get the story of the Telepath War?

 

[Bester]

I have a VPN and it works pretty well with Netflix. But it's very hit-and-miss with other streaming services.

 

[Moonface]

It's kind of infuriating that in this day we still have "Regions".

Yes, it's really infuriating! No wonder people turn to VPNs and Piracy: Here we are, willing to pay for a certain content, only to be told "I'm sorry, we only can take your money if you're in the right area of the world." The CW Homepage does not even load at all here, it just tells me, that It'S only available in the US.
On Amazon prime I wanted to buy an episode of Columbo. The local Site did not have all episodes, so i figured: doesn't matter, I just buy it from the US site. Yeah, no way: I can only by it, if my IP and my credit card are US based.

That's so stupid for both sides!