The ending of the first one was so stupid I don't trust them to do anything actually worthy of the title.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 10:59 am: Edit

Again Hollyweird needs to stop with the reboots. I find them to be no where near as good as the originals. Sure the special effects are going to be better, but that doesn't make the rest of it better. I'm also sick of their "messaging".

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 11:49 am: Edit

Some reboots have been pretty good. I liked Battlestar Galactica a lot better than the original. Well... up until the final season. Westworld and The Flash are also (IMO) better than the originals.

I've heard good things from some friends about She-ra and Voltron on Netflix but I'm not 12 anymore so haven't set aside the time to watch them.

I'm excited for the reboot of The 4400. It was an awesome show and deserved to be treated better than it was. Hopefully they handle it well.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 12:32 pm: Edit

They could have done better with B5: Crusade .....
Did they ever finish it... got caught up with something else (real life) toward the end of it....

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 01:33 pm: Edit

>> B5: Crusade .... Did they ever finish it...

B5 Crusade was never finished. It was cancelled and just ended after 13 episodes (about 1/2 of the first season).

I rather liked that show and would have liked to see it play out a few more seasons to a conclusion. Gary Cole I thought was a good choice for captain.

--Mike

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 02:02 pm: Edit

I read that as Gary Coleman at first. Something tells me it would have been a vastly different show. "Whatchoo talkin' bout , Galen?"

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 03:05 pm: Edit

Crusade was so awful I dropped it in 1.3 episodes.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 06:01 pm: Edit

B5: Legend of the Rangers was two of the worst hours of television I have ever seen.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 07:13 pm: Edit

So you've never seen Galactica 1980? I've never encountered anything that goes below that.

Time travelling space men fighting WWII nazis with invisible flying motorcycles? Somebody thought that was a good idea, and other people also thought it was good enough to film and broadcast on television.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - 07:42 pm: Edit

>> B5: Legend of the Rangers

I was pre-disposed to like this, however I couldn't even finish watching it. :-(

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 12:40 am: Edit

Just watched the first episode of LA BREA and love it.

By Eddie E Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 11:13 am: Edit

What we have to remember about the original B5 was that season 4 was going to be the last season according to the original plan. After it was in the books the gods from above saw it was so successful they wanted more, so MS had to come up with a story that at least looked like it was still related to the original that had ended in season 4, so we end up with a disjointed story that was really not related to the original story line.

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 11:38 am: Edit

My understanding was that it was always intended to be 5 seasons but JMS was concerned that the 5th season would not be greenlit so reordered the story somewhat to have it "conclude" in season 4 with an option to continue some plotlines in season 5.

To make matters worse, JMS removed most of the Psi Corps/Telepath War plotline from the 5th season so he could use it as the basis for a B5 feature film but later he decided the Psi Corps plotline was unsuitable for that purpose so the whole Psi War happens "off screen" in between B5 and Crusade which was really lame.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 12:13 pm: Edit

>> My understanding was that it was always intended to be 5 seasons

This is my understanding as well. The network B5 was on (PTEN) was experiencing financial problems, and ultimately could not fund a 5th season. So JMS condensed the story into 4 seasons, which I actually liked since S4 just goes at breakneck speed -- not much filler, almost all important story episodes.

B5 S5 was then picked up by another network (Turner) and the original story arc was over, so a new somewhat related mini-arc was created for S5. It didn't fit all that well and I found it unsatisfying, although I've talked with folks who liked it and view B5 S5 as more or less an extended denouement that lets you know how all the characters ultimately turned out.

So for me, the show is 4 seasons and ends with S05 E22 (which was filmed at the end of S4 as the 4 season show ender).

--Mike

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 12:22 am: Edit

I am doubtful about it's success. I think one of the big selling points for B5 was how the cast interactions just managed to hit it right out of the park. To be honest, I think that may be part of the reason why attempts at successor stories failed so badly (in addition to the fact that the storyline had more or less ended).

With respect to JMS, I think Tolkien had it right--sometimes, you end the book with "Well, I'm home" and that's the end. If people want to write further stories in their heads, that's fine, but not everything should be turned into an eternal franchise.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 01:37 am: Edit

>> I am doubtful about it's success.

I'd give it about a 25% chance of success. I'll watch the first couple of episodes to give it a chance. I'm hoping it will be interesting.

>> sometimes, you end the book with "Well, I'm home" and that's the end

I'm a big fan of the abandoned masterpiece. You don't always need to know what went on before, or after, or next door, or down the street, or what the mailman was doing while the story was running. Sometimes the story just ends where it ends, and let the audience fill in the blanks with their imaginations.

--Mike

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 02:14 am: Edit

Actually "Well, I'm home" wasn't the original ending to Lord of the Rings. There was an additional chapter featuring Sam and his family but the publisher thought the story had too many endings and convinced Tolkien to cut it. Having read it, I think I prefer Tolkien's original ending.

In some respects what JMS is trying to do can be compared to Tolkien's attempt to rewrite the Hobbit (the entire book, not just the Gollum chapter) to match the style of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien completed several chapters of the rewrite before a friend convinced him to abandon the project (Tolkien should have ignored that advice as well).

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 09:43 am: Edit

Speaking of rewriting....

Was in a Barnes & Noble the other week waiting for the mall to open....
Ran across a set of Star Wars books, redone in the Shakespeare format....
Read most of the originals, but not sure after scanning through one, I could stand that....

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 01:54 pm: Edit

I can't tell if that's awesome or the dumbest thing I've ever heard...

By Douglas Saldana (Dsal) on Saturday, October 02, 2021 - 02:18 pm: Edit

I saw a mash-up of Hamlet and Star Wars called "Hamluke" at a Fringe Festival. It was pretty entertaining.

Even better was "Tempests" a fringe adaptation of the film, Aliens, written as a sequel to Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest, with Miranda in the Sigourney Weaver role. To quote from their publicity materials:

"The story of Tempests picks up 20 years after the end of The Tempest to find Miranda returning to the island of her youth in the company of a fearsome group of marines. Their mission is to deal with a menace Miranda knows all too well: Fairies."

The play was writtern in iambic pentameter and Shakespearean prose but actually followed the script to Aliens very closely. Loved how the actors took it 100% seriously.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Sunday, October 03, 2021 - 12:56 am: Edit

LOL

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 09:21 am: Edit

The character of Zathras will not be included in the Babylon 5 reboot.

He is being replaced by Zathras.

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 09:49 am: Edit

LoL

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 01:39 pm: Edit

Jessica Orsini:

You made a mistake. It is "Zathras" not "Zathras."

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, October 04, 2021 - 03:29 pm: Edit

But you see, Petrick, I was referring not to "Zathras", nor to "Zathras", but rather to "Zathras".