special Guest Star - ...........

[Jan]

Although I'd love to see some gust appearances from the original series, I really just want to see what an alternate universe's Babylon 5 would be like. I want to be surprised.

Completely agree! But this sort of thread reminds me of an episode JMS wanted to do but had nixed by the Powers That Be (don't recall if it was WB or PTEN): He wanted to do a dream episode where the actors played different characters. JMS showed the premise in the script books where G'Kar falls ill and has this dream:

The shape the dream takes is as follows: he
awakes in darkness, goes to the mirror, turns
on the lights...and he's human. He is in an
Earth uniform. He is Captain Jack Carr of the
Earth Alliance; his female Russian second in
command is Commander Dylan (a human version of
Delenn, played by Mira without makeup), and his
security chief is Len (the human version of
Londo, played by Peter without makeup). They
don't believe his story that this is a
dream...neither do the various ambassadors,
Minbari ambassador Sherdinn (Bruce in
prosthetics), Narn ambasador S'san (Claudia in
prosthetics), or Centauri ambassador Garbaldo
(Jerry in prosthetics).

Could have been so much fun!!

 

[LateArrival]

Although I'd love to see some gust appearances from the original series, I really just want to see what an alternate universe's Babylon 5 would be like. I want to be surprised.

Completely agree! But this sort of thread reminds me of an episode JMS wanted to do but had nixed by the Powers That Be (don't recall if it was WB or PTEN): He wanted to do a dream episode where the actors played different characters. JMS showed the premise in the script books where G'Kar falls ill and has this dream:

The shape the dream takes is as follows: he
awakes in darkness, goes to the mirror, turns
on the lights...and he's human. He is in an
Earth uniform. He is Captain Jack Carr of the
Earth Alliance; his female Russian second in
command is Commander Dylan (a human version of
Delenn, played by Mira without makeup), and his
security chief is Len (the human version of
Londo, played by Peter without makeup). They
don't believe his story that this is a
dream...neither do the various ambassadors,
Minbari ambassador Sherdinn (Bruce in
prosthetics), Narn ambasador S'san (Claudia in
prosthetics), or Centauri ambassador Garbaldo
(Jerry in prosthetics).

Could have been so much fun!!

Would also have been Revenge of the Makeup Trailers and the possible return of Abrahamo Lincolni.

I thought another reason it might have gotten the axe was it was considered Too Similar to the DS9 episode Far Beyond the Stars, although in that episode everyone was without makeup since it took place "in the 60s". B5's episode would have had the actors swapping roles while still keeping certain characters in makeup. Different concepts, but someone worried that it was Too Similar?

 

[Jan]

Although I'd love to see some gust appearances from the original series, I really just want to see what an alternate universe's Babylon 5 would be like. I want to be surprised.

Completely agree! But this sort of thread reminds me of an episode JMS wanted to do but had nixed by the Powers That Be (don't recall if it was WB or PTEN): He wanted to do a dream episode where the actors played different characters. JMS showed the premise in the script books where G'Kar falls ill and has this dream:

The shape the dream takes is as follows: he
awakes in darkness, goes to the mirror, turns
on the lights...and he's human. He is in an
Earth uniform. He is Captain Jack Carr of the
Earth Alliance; his female Russian second in
command is Commander Dylan (a human version of
Delenn, played by Mira without makeup), and his
security chief is Len (the human version of
Londo, played by Peter without makeup). They
don't believe his story that this is a
dream...neither do the various ambassadors,
Minbari ambassador Sherdinn (Bruce in
prosthetics), Narn ambasador S'san (Claudia in
prosthetics), or Centauri ambassador Garbaldo
(Jerry in prosthetics).

Could have been so much fun!!

Would also have been Revenge of the Makeup Trailers and the possible return of Abrahamo Lincolni.

I thought another reason it might have gotten the axe was it was considered Too Similar to the DS9 episode Far Beyond the Stars, although in that episode everyone was without makeup since it took place "in the 60s". B5's episode would have had the actors swapping roles while still keeping certain characters in makeup. Different concepts, but someone worried that it was Too Similar?

Perhaps. But since I'm the same age as JMS, I'd have to suppose that if he got the idea from anywhere, it would have been from the ensemble nature of the old Dark Shadows soap opera.

 

[KoshN]

Although I'd love to see some gust appearances from the original series, I really just want to see what an alternate universe's Babylon 5 would be like. I want to be surprised.

Completely agree! But this sort of thread reminds me of an episode JMS wanted to do but had nixed by the Powers That Be (don't recall if it was WB or PTEN): He wanted to do a dream episode where the actors played different characters. JMS showed the premise in the script books where G'Kar falls ill and has this dream:

The shape the dream takes is as follows: he
awakes in darkness, goes to the mirror, turns
on the lights...and he's human. He is in an
Earth uniform. He is Captain Jack Carr of the
Earth Alliance; his female Russian second in
command is Commander Dylan (a human version of
Delenn, played by Mira without makeup), and his
security chief is Len (the human version of
Londo, played by Peter without makeup). They
don't believe his story that this is a
dream...neither do the various ambassadors,
Minbari ambassador Sherdinn (Bruce in
prosthetics), Narn ambasador S'san (Claudia in
prosthetics), or Centauri ambassador Garbaldo
(Jerry in prosthetics).

Could have been so much fun!!

Garbaldo, :guffaw:

 

[hypatia]

The original Dark Shadows series is one of my guilty pleasures.

Regarding the dream episode: Wow, that would have been amazing! I can't imagine what the network didn't like about it. I was watching a You Tube interview with the actor who played Lennier (Bill Mumy) and apparently he HATED the makeup. I'm sure he'd have loved an episode that allowed him to play a human character.

 

[Markas]

The original Dark Shadows series is one of my guilty pleasures.

Interestingly, I am browsing some of the old Dark Shadows recently. It is on Tubi streaming channel for free.

 

[hypatia]

I dropped cable/satellite service and now I just use Hulu Plus.

 

[Looney]

Tom Zarek on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica leaps to mind -- a character far enough away from the actor's original role.

But heh, we've already got a B5 precedent for that, don't we? Koenig as Bester. I'm calling it now -- one of our beloved original cast will play a recurring villain!

So I was going back through this discussion. TOM ZAREK is a great example, but personally they really messed up that character. The first couple of episodes he was in were absolutely great, then (IMO like everything in new BSG) they totally screwed it up. Regardless, my hope is that all old cast members get big roles in the new series - bigger than what was given to Richard Hatch. I think there is plenty of room for any of them to come back as villains or whatever. I do have to admit the one person I would like to see come back as the same character is Koenig. You know I love every B5 character, but I still feel that in the grand scheme of things Koenig doesn't get the credit he deserves from the World for playing such a great villain. But I would be fine with him coming back as any character.

 

[Looney]

Just posting in a new thread so people might see it. Are you all hiding from me? :wtf:

 

[hypatia]

I am never sure if I should post here if I don’t have any real news. I keep looking at the thread’s title to see if any posts are there, in the never-ending hope that we might hear some news on a B5 reboot moving forward at whatever channel the CW was engulfed by.

I will keep looking at the thread. I’m as hard to shake off as a bad rash.

 

[Looney]

I’m as hard to shake off as a bad rash.

I believe someone did say that about you. :guffaw:

Well I keep posting because I want it to appear there are active threads. New Members and prospective members will likely be discouraged by seeing a bunch of threads no one has posted in lately. I just feel bad for them because they might end up talking to me.

You know I am going back through the show and it really is remarkable how many good guest stars they landed, GEOMETRY OF SHADOW with MICHAEL ANSARA last night. I REALLY can't wait to see whom the reboot comes up with. BUT I feel like original cast members have to have multi-episode arcs. They REALLY need to get on this so we can see what JMS comes up with for Walter Koenig. But Bruce, Claudia, Pat, Peter, Jason, Bill, and Andrea (if she wants to come back) all need multi-episode roles, and by multi-episode I mean at least 50each. Also would love for Tamlyn to get a substantial role. I think Josh Coxx would make a great villain - I only say this because, as I believe I might have referenced earlier, he had a great one-off villain role on REVOLUTION that should have become a series regular villain role.

 

[Springer]

I do wonder whether including actors from the original show would become a bit gimmicky. We'd be watching to see Boxleitner or Christian, and putting emphasis on that rather than the story or the character. So I could see an argument against doing that.

I suppose it depends on how it's done. Richard Hatch in nu-BSG is an example of how it's done right (well, at least until they just turned him into a villain)

 

[hypatia]

It would be a tricky balance (pleasing fans of the classic show while not pandering to them). I know when they rebooted Doctor Who they avoided bringing any of the older characters back to the show for some time. But I think in the end regretted not having Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart return. Later, they brought in one of his descendants (or relative of some kind, maybe niece?). I think a lot of us regretted missing a chance to see this beloved character again.

 

[LateArrival]

It would be a tricky balance (pleasing fans of the classic show while not pandering to them). I know when they rebooted Doctor Who they avoided bringing any of the older characters back to the show for some time. But I think in the end regretted not having Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart return. Later, they brought in one of his descendants (or relative of some kind, maybe niece?). I think a lot of us regretted missing a chance to see this beloved character again.

Was doing some off-topic reading as it appears they are bringing back two companions from the Classic series - Tegan and Ace - later this year. Was scrolling and clicking here-and-there and read that Nicholas Courtney made a brief appearance on screen as The Brigadier in the Dec 2008 (S2E11-12) episodes of the Sarah Jane Adventures. While the new series didn't revisit Classic characters that often, at least there are the Big Finish releases.

 

[hypatia]

Was doing some off-topic reading as it appears they are bringing back two companions from the Classic series - Tegan and Ace - later this year. Was scrolling and clicking here-and-there and read that Nicholas Courtney made a brief appearance on screen as The Brigadier in the Dec 2008 (S2E11-12) episodes of the Sarah Jane Adventures. While the new series didn't revisit Classic characters that often, at least there are the Big Finish releases.

Yes, I have heard something about them returning. I had wished Nyssa could return, too. But it will be great to see how the modern writing will deal with these headstrong characters.

I didn’t know about the Brigadier in The Sarah Jane Adventures. I’ll have to see if Hulu or HBO Max has that series. I’ve seen some of it, but not much. It was definitely made more for kids, but it looked like it might be fun. Thanks for sharing that, Late Arrival.

 

[hypatia]

to bring it back to on topic, I saw a YouTube video last night about the whole delay thing. I gather Stargate, Babylon 5 and another series are all in a holding pattern. So no new information, just that other series are in the same boat.

 

[Looney]

I don't know if I could take another Stargate series. I love SG-1 so dearly, but I also hate it sooooooooooooooooooooo much - as I have rambled on about many times. If there is a new Stargate Series then I'd like JMS to run it. If he can't then it needs to be me.

THERE WILL BE NO MENTION OF ASCENSION!!!!! (TAG THAT AS MY COPWRITE BECAUSE I AM GOING TO START MAKING T-SHIRTS FOR THE CAMPAIGN.)