Utopia Talk / Politics / Babylon 5: The road home

Nimatzo iChihuaha	Fri May 19 14:45:57 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt27712788/ A few weeks ago JMS announced this animated movie, featuring the old cast. It is done and in the can to paraphrase, just waiting to be released. The reboot is waiting on the writers strike.
jergul large member	Fri May 19 16:27:20 I think the animated movie is a feeler to see if a B5 relaunch might have traction. I still watch B5 4 times a year (give or take). With Margaritas and problem solving global issues. I am on my 5th rerun and usually make it home by 4 am :). It started off with a mate of mine taping the series and waiting until I got to shore to watch it back in the midlate 90s. Traditions have to start somewhere.
tumbleweed the wanderer	Fri May 19 20:57:31 Londo was the most interesting character, should be about him not Sheridan I have the DVD set but it doesn’t include the pilot episode which is annoying
Seb Member	Sat May 20 02:17:30 "Isn't it strange, G'Kar? When we first met I had no power and all the choices I could ever want. And now I have all the power I could ever want and no choices at all. No choice at all."
Seb Member	Sat May 20 02:17:59 It was the pair of them.
Seb Member	Sat May 20 02:20:59 But their story is complete and whole and perfect. I don't really want to see anything else about Londo or G'Kar. I don't think there's more to tell. It's funny, paramount have turned star trek into an immensely valuable shared universe franchise. Babylon 5 had the much more interesting universe and Warner botched it.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sat May 20 05:21:58 I couldn't agree more, the Londo-G'kar story arc is a master piece and yes the B5 universe is much more interesting world to franchise. It had the realistic kind of dirt and grimness to it that Star Trek couldn't really front with all the shiny and clinically clean surface.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sat May 20 05:23:06 I am really looking forward to this animated movie. I am still recovering from what Apple did to The Foundation :,( that said Dune made me feel a bit better.
Seb Member	Sat May 20 08:04:26 I'd be quite interested in a story about how Vir liberates Centauri prime from the drakh.
Nimatzo iChihuaha	Sat May 20 09:15:33 Yepp and the whole Techno mage thing we only got a peek of. Was a sad day when Crusade was cancelled.
Seb Member	Mon May 22 04:48:17 I wasn't a fan of the techno mages. I didn't really feel they fit, for me at least, in the setting.
Paramount Member	Mon May 22 06:24:32 I don’t know anything about Babylon 5. Is it worth it? Is it better than Battlestar Galactica?
Seb Member	Mon May 22 07:24:15 Different. In some ways yes, in other ways no. Somewhere between star trek and BSG. Star Trek incredibly simplistic and optimistic, BSG was incredibly gritty and character driven. B5 was one of the first TV series to do long plot arcs that spanned multiple seasons (JMS, the showrunner plotted the whole 5 season arc out before he started) - and while a long way from the simplistic 90's trek in the complexity of the characters and sophistication of the story telling, it's filtered through what (post BSG) might feel slightly cheesy next to the dark, gritty and hyper-realistic like BSG is.
Seb Member	Mon May 22 07:25:42 One thing you will hear many fans of both saying is: "What if someone did a B5 remake, but in the style of BSG". And it would certainly lend itself to that. Because BSG plotting was terrible compared to the sophistication, complexity and foresight JMS brought to the table with B5.
Seb Member	Mon May 22 07:28:18 BTW, when I say "first TV series" I literally mean that. B5 won a retrospective award of "best TV shows as judged by TV producers" a few years ago precisely because it helped pave the way for the kinds of dramas HBO then went on to define like the Sopranos etc. that were structured around watching the entire run in chronological order rather than each episode being a near standalone that can be aired in a syndicated market.
Seb Member	Mon May 22 07:36:57 I guess in some ways you might watch B5 now and say "what's the big deal" because much of the stuff it did, it was pretty much the only TV show doing it, let alone the only sci-fi show doing it: extensive character development, tight plotting driven by the characters motivations and behaviours reaction to the context; and stuff that happened in previous episodes actually mattering - even seasons later, rather than being forgotten. One of the best examples of this were three time travel episode they did - which is actually all one "event" - where the characters interact with themselves at three different points in time - seasons apart. The first time you watch it, it's a fairly straight forward "oh noes, a temporal anomaly" in which a prior station that previously disappeared re-appears, evidently having fallen into a temporal anomally, in which some mysterious stuff happens that helps them out that isn't explained and doesn't make much sense. Then you see it from another perspective later on, and our protagonists are going back in time to prevent bad guys changing history - and you start to realise they are at least some of the mysterious things from the episode a season ago. And the the third time, you realise the whole temporal anomaly thing was caused by the good guys in the first place as part of a pre-destination paradox. And the best part is the way it is structured it is really clear that the very context specific reasons motivating the behaviours in the final episode mean that when he wrote the first episode, three seasons prior - he knew exactly how the whole shows mutli-season arc was going to a pretty fine level of detail. I don't think anyone has ever really managed to beat that one.
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