Babylon 5 to be Rebooted on the CW

[Echowarrior]

What they should reboot is Crusade. That series never had a chance the first time around.

On the one hand, I'd like Crusade to get some sort of continuation. On the other, we know that the major plot thread established in the first season - the Drakh plague - was going to be solved by the middle of the show's second year, and it's a safe bet that the show's true major plot thread was going to be resolved more than adequately by the end of the series, and rebooting it at this point seems unnecessary.

I say, let them do the B5 reboot. After that, maybe JMS can take a crack at rebooting Crusade.

 

[The Predaking]

Well, I knew at some point there would be a new guy running the station. I looked up why Sinclair was removed from the show and it's a pretty sad reason. Hope I can warm up to the Scarecrow and Mrs. King guy because I really liked Sinclair.

I just read why he was replaced, and wow, that is sad. He did a great job in the series, but you will love captain Tron by the end of the show. Sheridian really owns the role.

 

[Kalidor]

Well season 2 is done and over. It was cool and unexpected to see Kosh bust out of his suit at the end. There are a lot of threads going on but at this stage it's hard to think of the Centaurans as anything but the bad guys.

I also like that even the seeming "filler" episodes tend to have a payoff in a later episode that goes back and references it. I just started season 3 and I'm looking forward to see what comes of that alien probe that tried to test them into oblivion.

Glad Talia is gone. Her character was almost completely 100% pointless and as little as she appeared I have no idea why she got top billing in the credits. I've warmed up to Sherridan but I still miss Sinclair.

 

[Ungnome]

The Centauri are complicated. Wouldn't call them out and out bad guys, though their government, especially at this point in the story, are quite bad. Besides they did produce Vir. That's not nothing.

 

[Glitch]

It was the Narn who were the villains, they tried to become what they perceived the Centauri to be and acted aggressively against multiple races including the Centauri, it was pointed out at the time that the Narn would have lost their war regardless of the Shadows interventions because their fleet was all heavy cruisers and fighters with no support ships.

 

[Echowarrior]

Centauri and Narn are no more good or evil than humans. None of the races on B5 can claim moral superiority over the others...though humans are generally better about admitting to their hypocrisy.

 

[Kalidor]

Well as a society they made the conscious effort to bomb the Narn into the stone age and round them up into camps and execute them on a whim for the "crimes" of breaking free of Centari control when they did it the first time a hundred years ago. I'd call that "the bad guys".

 

[Echowarrior]

Well as a society they made the conscious effort to bomb the Narn into the stone age and round them up into camps and execute them on a whim for the "crimes" of breaking free of Centari control when they did it the first time a hundred years ago. I'd call that "the bad guys".

True, but most if not all of the atrocities committed by the Centauri were done by their nobility. We have no idea what was going through the minds of the average Centauri on the street. And even then, there were Centauri nobles who were opposed to war with the Narn.

Spoiler

In any case, both races ended up falling short in the end. They were both dying peoples, even if only a scant few knew it.

 

[Ungnome]

Heck, the former Centauri emperor was about to make a formal apology to the Narn Regime for the original occupation before he died. All the powers in Babylon 5 are capable of acts of great compassion and horrible injustice. Heck, they all get their hands dirty in one way or the other by the end of the series.

 

[electricidad]

Well season 2 is done and over. It was cool and unexpected to see Kosh bust out of his suit at the end. There are a lot of threads going on but at this stage it's hard to think of the Centaurans as anything but the bad guys.

I also like that even the seeming "filler" episodes tend to have a payoff in a later episode that goes back and references it. I just started season 3 and I'm looking forward to see what comes of that alien probe that tried to test them into oblivion.

Glad Talia is gone. Her character was almost completely 100% pointless and as little as she appeared I have no idea why she got top billing in the credits. I've warmed up to Sherridan but I still miss Sinclair.

Damn, Kalidor. You're lucky. I've watched binged Babylon 5 a bunch of times--but nothing beats seeing this show for the first time. The world-building, deep characterizations and impossible situations that run the course of this show are satisfying.

Can't wait to see the reboot. I'm curious if JMS is going to feature new aliens as leads, or will stick to the Centauri, Mimbari, Narn, and humans.

 

[Echowarrior]

Can't wait to see the reboot. I'm curious if JMS is going to feature new aliens as leads, or will stick to the Centauri, Minbari, Narn, and humans.

I doubt he's going to change things so much as to throw out all of the prominent elements from the original program. The Battlestar Galactica reboot didn't throw out the Cylons or the names and ranking conventions from the original program, after all.

 

[Kalidor]

Any that's a wrap for season 3. Centaris are still the bad guys, new uniforms and no more ties to Earth.

We got a good send off for Sinclair and they did a really good job of tying it all together with the episode the "Back to the Future 2"-d it with. Kosh was a huge surprise and as per usual there was at least 1 terrible episode in the season, but nothing terribly bad (It was the King Arthur episode).

Starting in on Season 4 now and so far so good. Centari are still the bad guys.

 

[The Predaking]

Any that's a wrap for season 3. Centaris are still the bad guys, new uniforms and no more ties to Earth.

We got a good send off for Sinclair and they did a really good job of tying it all together with the episode the "Back to the Future 2"-d it with. Kosh was a huge surprise and as per usual there was at least 1 terrible episode in the season, but nothing terribly bad (It was the King Arthur episode).

Starting in on Season 4 now and so far so good. Centari are still the bad guys.

I loved the King Arthur episode. It addresses this extreme guilt by the soldier and his PTSD and what it has done to his mind.

I loved the fight he the Narn ambassador get into.

 

[Kalidor]

Yes, I agree that I am a fan of Sir G'Kar

 

[Echowarrior]

If Season Three had a weak episode, it was "Grey 17 is Missing". And even that one had a strong B plot.

 

[Ironbite4]

Yes, I agree that I am a fan of Sir G'Kar

Everyone is a fan of G'Kar. Andreas Katsulas had this wonderful way of delivering all of G'Kar's lines that made you see how he was suffering and yet was all the more noble for it. The relationship between him and Lando was one of the best parts of the show.

Ironbite-equal parts hate and love that anyone could see.

 

[Ungnome]

Greatest set of frenemies in space opera history, imho.

 

[Kalidor]

Done with season 4. This season was hit and miss for me. I didn't care for the Garabaldi arc, even less so that when it got resolved by Bester's exposition dump. And then after that it was like nothing ever happened. Garabaldi was back on the team and there was no lingering drama or trauma regarding what he did. Same with Londo and G'Kar -they are just best buddies now getting into antics

I feel like the scope just got too big. The minor day to day things and details seem to be phased out completely. There's no more stories about the Narn or the Centauri - they just 'exist' and are completely ignored in story until they're not.

The entire story with the show seems done and everything has been wrapped up, with the exception of that creature that infected the regent on Centaur and Londo is suddenly emperor now, but still hangs out on B5 off screen until he is needed to be standing around. But will we see into the future where Sherridan time traveled to the point where Londo died and Vir took over the throne? Where Centaur is in ruins? I guess we'll see.

The show has lost its steam and its vision at this point. I honestly don't even look forward to season 5. Especially after watching the first episode where Ivanova is just in inexplicably "transferred" somewhere. What was the point in her not dying if she isn't even on the show any more? I know they're following up with some hints in season 4 about telepaths but that seems pretty underwhelming considering all that's come before.

The mystery and intrigue just seems sucked out and I feel like season 3 was the peak of when it was good.

 

[Dekafox]

That's one point where the reboot will undoubtedly do better - Season 4 didn't really get a chance to breathe, with the axe of cancellation hanging over it. It seems fairly obvious that the remainder of the Shadow war should have been Season 4 by itself, and season 5 would have been the campaign against President Clarke originally. But because of the threat of cancellation and TNT not jumping in until the literal last minute, JMS felt forced to smash it all in at the cost of the secondary stuff you mention for the sake of finishing the story.

As for Garabaldi, I recall feeling that there was still a rift between him and the rest of the group, even if it didn't realistically have much of an impact. That's presumably one of the threads that got cut for time.

The Ivanova thing was JMS using one of the "escape hatches" as the actor wasn't willing to come back for Season 5 when they actually got renewed. I don't recall the details - she may have made other commitments when they were racing through the plot to finish up since it looked like it was over, and wasn't willing to ditch those.

 

[Echowarrior]

From what I understand, Season Four was originally intended to end with "Intersections in Real Time". The Earth Alliance Civil War would have been concluded in Season Five, with the founding of the Interstellar Alliance filling up the rest of that year.