How much do you think JMS might make changes? He prided B5 for having realistic, plausible future technology, but Star Trek is a bit on the "imaginary" tech side. Would he be okay with keeping transporters, holodecks, warp engines, etc.? Star Trek is too far along to dump artificial gravity, but would we ever see at least one race still use rotating sections?
First, have you seen Crusade? No real difference with Trek as far as artificial gravity, and the White Star has the same non-rotating gravity. Personally I don't see why, when we're talking about a universe with warp or jump gate technology that a means of non-centrifical force based technology is out of question.
As for warp-drive verses wormholes, there are some theorists who subscribe to both theories as having potential in the far off future. Both would require tremendous amounts of energy, but are mathematically possible. Actually warp drive seems more plausible now than it did when the original Trek was first released.
How is a holodeck imaginary tech? Basically holograms have already been created and if Trek is hundreds of years into the future. Nothing too extreme there.
I do agree that teleportation seems fanciful on a number of levels, but B5 does have it's share of fantasy elements. But I do agree that Baylon 5 seems to place a much greater nod on more immediate extentions of todays technology, but neither is exactly "2001: A Space Oddessey."
Would it most likely be another ship-based show? Would there be a story arc? Would there be a pre-determined number of seasons with a non-negotiable cut-off point (like the 5-year mark in Babylon 5), or would he be okay with the possibility of continually renewing actor contracts?
The original series of Star Trek was advertised as "a five year mission" and the spin-offs ran seven years. Enterprise was canceled before it reached seven years, but that was the original plan. Again, Crusade borrowed a LOT of the more obvious elements of Star Trek, but B5 more than had it's share of Trek-type aspects.
Just look at the original Trek series and B5. The Vulcans and Minbari have a LOT of similarities. Both have idealistic doctors. Sheridan and Kirk, besides the similar upbringings and career paths, aren't above breaking an order or two. And Troi of TNG was a telepath. The Chief-of-Security plays a vital role in each Trek series and B5.
Also, Trek has killed off characters involved in it's story arcs, so it's not like it would be unprecedented.
Rememeber that the main characters in B5 each made it to the end of the series, except those who left for non-story reasons. Ivanova and Talia wanted to leave the show. Sinclair left by mutual agreement between the actor and JMS. The actors from the pilot were mostly dropped by studio decision. Otherwise the actors advertised in the opening credits made it through the run of the show, through the full of their five-year contracts.
What JMS did effectively to create the illusion that no one was safe is to bring other complementary characters into the mix for a time and then kill them off. Star Trek has killed off quite a few characters after involving them in several arc-based episode, but I think the effect is neutralized by the fact that Trek has so many one-off episodes where a character will die.
So I think JMS could be just as effective with Trek.
Would there be a main enemy race like TOS's Klingons, TNG's Romulans & Borg, DS9's Cardassians & Dominion, Voyager's Kazons, and whatever it was Enterprise had? Or, would it be more like Babylon 5, where every race is part good, part bad, and every character is therefore also half & half?
Aren't the Shadows and there minions the main enemy race in B5? I never did see the "lighter" side of the Shadows. Also, Trek has been oft-criticised for softening it's enemy races by having episodes that show examples that not every individual within these "enemy" races is bad. Think of Garak in DS9. Or the borg from TNG that the Enterprise crew encounter in "I, Borg." Each of the races you described for Trek has at least one example to show that they are the entire race is not exactly as they appear. In my opinion, I think the Dominion is particularly interesting in this regard.
I think if you're more criticial in your approach to B5 you'd see that B5 isn't much different in this regard. The Minbari religious caste are each pretty much extentions of Delenn. The warrior caste are each rather arrogant. So on and so forth.
Where B5 is an improvement is that with Trek after you do have some of the more profound story-arc moments where it seems as if the characters will be forever shaped, too often the characters resort back to the way they were a few episodes later. This is very rare for B5. Voyager is the worst at this, but even DS9's Kira seems to fluctuate from seeing Cardassians as individuals to being a bigot and back again, without ever being forced to address things totally until right at the end of the series. JMS could definitely do something positve in this area.
What would a JMS Starfleet/Federation goverment look like? Would Admirals still be infamous for making bad decisions, or would they be more like seasoned war veterans? Would Starfleet uniforms still look like jumpsuits and leotards, or would he institute his "people still need pockets in the future" rule?
Personally I could care less about the pockets issue. To each their own I guess. I don't see Star Trek as charactering it's higher-ups as inept any more than Babylon 5, so nothing to add here.
I was just so surprised to hear that he took part in a Star Trek treatment, I can't help but wonder how much he would leave intact and how much he would shake things up. Apparently, JMS doesn't hate Trek, but considering the DS9 controversies and some other comments that have been made about the way the Trek franchise is run, surely he thinks the status quo isn't good enough.
Actually JMS has characterized the original Star Trek as "good as it gets." Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were his favorite television shows as a child. Again, I don't know how anyone who has watched the original Trek and TNG and Babylon 5 could not see obvious signs of influence. Remember that the original Star Trek was the first non-anthology science fiction program on American television and among the first examples of the genre in any medium to take an "adult" approach. Stanley Kubrick was even a fan and cast Gary Lockwood in his own space epic, "2001."
Besides the obvious superficial similarites with B5, TOS and TNG were the first science fiction series to give us the culture of aliens. Before aliens were just monsters or creatures that just acted "weird" in generic terms. But Trek dealt with alien religious practices, philosophical thought and rituals as well as individual quirks. B5 certainly owes a nod to this.
As for the B5 and DS9 controversy. Comments like this I find to be a disappointing aspect of JMS's personality. I work in the television/movie industry and there is NO WAY that Rick Berman or Michael Piller would have heard JMS's pitch of the series and whoever did hear the pitch would NEVER have approached Berman and Piller with the details. This simply would NOT happen. Why? Because they do not want to get sued. That's why when Trek was accepting script submitions from the public, no one connected with the production of the show was ever allowed to view the scripts until the studio would option the submition.
Regardless, when someone makes a pitch for a televison or film project they DO NOT break things down episode by episode. JMS would have spoke more about the look and feel of the show and the types of characters in very generic terms than get into much of the plot details. If you've ever seen the Robert Altman movie "The Player" it is an excellent example of the process.
Plus, JMS loves to brag about how nobody connected with B5 new what was going to happen next and couldn't wait for the next script. But somehow we're supposed to believe that the Trek producers had this information. Hun?
Remember that DS9 premiered BEFORE B5. So the Dominion were introduced before JMS introduced the Shadows. The Defiant preceded the White Star. If you look without prejudice you'll see that it went back and forth. So claiming that DS9 is nothing more than a rip-off is foolish.
Finally, what about JMS "borrowing" a number of elements from Tolkien? Or Asimov's Foundation books? Or Alfred Bester (science fiction writer from the 50's)? How about Dune? B5 was not created in a vacuum.
If JMS had a case he would have sued. If Rick Berman, who I wish were removed from the Trek job by the way, was the guy behind it why would JMS have approached HIM with a Trek series idea? It makes no sense.
Notice the trend? TNT was out to get JMS. Star Trek was out to get JMS. Showtime was out to get JMS. Rangers failed because of Sci Fi Channels scheduling. People in the business pay attention to this kind of stuff and it may cost him in the future. If he put forth a B5 type of series/sequel I could see that JMS's ego and reputation for being difficult to work with at times factoring into things.
