General / Off-Topic Babylon 5 coming to Amazon prime this summer

[MickyG1982]

I remember Channel 4 used to air B5 at some horrible hour of the morning (something like 4 or 5am) and I would watch it religiously as a kid.

While I have to agree season 1 had a ropey start it did improve massively, ds9 had a similarly poor start too however. But the overarching storyline that was actually present from the get go really made it for me, even if there is the occasional absolute stinker of an episode...

Would I like to see a remake?

Possibly not, I think, however, that there is plenty of lore around the canon that a parallel series could fit into. I'd love to see the Mars breakaway from their point of view or even Babylon 4's journey through time and how it was involved in the first defeat of the shadows.

There is absolutely loads of room for both a prequel & sequel series at least.

 

[Geraldine]

Great to see the old show being introduced to a new audience and yes, likely my all time favorite too.
One of the best scenes that, even now after all these years, still gets my attention by way of the stunning delivery given in this monologue by the late and sadly missed actor Andreas Katsulas. Don't open this video if you have not watched the show before as it contains spoilers. You have been warned!

Spoiler

[video=youtube;9iCPsR_KTL4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iCPsR_KTL4[/video]

 

[MickyG1982]

Great to see the old show being introduced to a new audience and yes, likely my all time favorite too.
One of the best scenes that, even now after all these years, still gets my attention by way of the stunning delivery given in this monologue by the late and sadly missed actor Andreas Katsulas. Don't open this video if you have not watched the show before as it contains spoilers. You have been warned!

It's a real shame, around half the main cast are no longer with us now

 

[BigF]

It's a real shame, around half the main cast are no longer with us now

So true.

B5 is an excellent candidate to have Amazon or Netfix pick it up and do a reboot or continuation series, musch as has been done with Lost in Space and Reboot recently.

 

[Hessfire]

I cannot wait for this to come available - and I already own the full box set, movies, and Crusade box set.

I will say that I hope they don't do a reboot - a continuation or prequel series would be better as the actors that have gone beyond the Rim cannot (and should not) be recast - NOBODY can play G'Kar but Andreas.

 

[BigF]

Something that addresses what happened to Earth durring/after Crusades and or the other Babylon stations, as we were always told they did not do so well.

Maybe even the Mimbar war.

 

[seko]

Excellent news. I would like to see a 're-make' of the 'Martian Chronicles'

 

[Hessfire]

Something that addresses what happened to Earth durring/after Crusades and or the other Babylon stations, as we were always told they did not do so well.

Maybe even the Mimbar war.

I think the Minbari War would be too depressing - cause we got ours HANDED to us in no certain fashion.

But there is about 500 years post the cure to the Drakh Plague that could be covered well.

 

[metatheurgist]

I will say that I hope they don't do a reboot - a continuation or prequel series would be better as the actors that have gone beyond the Rim cannot (and should not) be recast - NOBODY can play G'Kar but Andreas.

Despite all the issues they had with cast and cancellation threats they still produced an amazing product. Rebooting it would be tremendously disrespectful.

 

[mossfoot]

I believe that Babylon 5 made Gene Rodenberry re-evaluate Star Trek. Prior to B5 almost all of the Star Trek episodes were stand alone stories, with no major background plot. After B5 started to become successful there were several Star Trek series that had a major underlying plot line, including ST-DS9 and Voyager.

actually...

[video=youtube_share;mtaDXnB1YsA]https://youtu.be/mtaDXnB1YsA[/video]



of couse as pointed out, Gene was dead by then, but the irony is that Gene got treated that way when he first pitched Star Trek, and the studio passed, then did Lost In Space instead

 

[Para Handy]

actually...

If she had met me in real life she would not have needed to be psychic to know what I was thinking. (... yeah I have a redhead issue, deal with it! )

 

[Vasco Sapien]

I have on DVD boxset. always loved the show.

Wish they would make a new series that follows on from season 5 and continues the story of the Alliance.

Crusade was a flop, but i kinda liked it.

 

[krylite]

actually...



of couse as pointed out, Gene was dead by then, but the irony is that Gene got treated that way when he first pitched Star Trek, and the studio passed, then did Lost In Space instead

True, Stracynski had quotes posts in the old internet back then that he had pitched B5 to Paramount tv execs back in the late 80's sometime. And a lot of the DS9 setup was seemingly () from the overall B5 story synopsis he handed them then didn't hear back. And old post by JMS here: (http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-21322&query=ds9) Besides the space station scenario, other details such as (spoilers for B5 story arcs):

Spoiler

the camo-shapeshifting tech character/vorlon with a mysterious background initially, became Odo. shadows/vorlons(who could dwell in the mysterious hyperspace) became the prophets dwelling in the wormhole. Lots of "prophecy" in the B5 arc with Valen and quasi-religious theme etc., but boiled down to "the Prophets" in DS9. Two alien races with a long history of grievances with contentions continue to play out on the station ie. Narn/Centauri to Bajoran/Kardassian (where more head-ridges type were reversed). Defiant ship made available for the principals, similar to Whitestar in season 3. Vorta/Jemhadar similar to subservient species of the Drakh to Shadows. JMS said a lot, but not the entire story was handed, which can be seen in how DS9 wrapped up the bare-thread prophets in the end. (of course in the end, DS9 had some of their own storylines and typical startrek standalones in the show)

A DS9 viewer completely new to Babylon 5 today can see the overwhelming similarities if they started watching B5 (LOTR in space).

If she had met me in real life she would not have needed to be psychic to know what I was thinking. (... yeah I have a redhead issue, deal with it! )

Yeah know what you mean. Her.. pretty presence was surely 'seen' and appreciated in the pilot, and her regular run in the third and fourth seasons

Wish they would make a new series that follows on from season 5 and continues the story of the Alliance.

Crusade was a flop, but i kinda liked it.

Too bad "Crusade" didn't make it, but was glad to see "Andromeda" evolve and continue a slightly similar type of show with big arcs, and some sci-fi politico..

 

[krylite]

In case for some who haven't seen it. The evolved original plan for the show, amazingly was for two series, Babylon5, then a follow up series "Babylon Prime".
Spoilers in the post of course: https://www.reddit.com/r/babylon5/comments/8hn0yk/babylon_5_the_original_plan_season_3/

my thoughts, also spoiler for those new to B5:

Spoiler

My own thoughts about the original plan especially if the character of Sinclair had stayed on, would be that Babylon 4 would be used to fight in a future war as hinted in the "Babylon Squared" flashes. I was mostly right, but didn't guess a second series was to be made about B4 becoming "Babylon Prime" and a second five year series starting off after Babylon5 gets destroyed in the first series finale. So in the end, as in the article, the story of both series got condensed into one with a lot of "Babylon Prime" packed into season 4. I guess I still like the way it turned out with putting Sinclair back in time 10k years to become Valen, but it could have been cool to see Babylon4 (it even looked like it had big thrusters) moving like a spaceship (a traveling orbis, ha!) ala "Crusade" in a more desperate dark war adventure for the cast and Sinclair becoming the prophesized future hero as originally hinted at in season one.

It also enlightens where the supposed story arc of DS9 Sisko being the "one" prophesized to defeat the pah-wraiths came from, similar to the original B5 storyline where Sinclair was prophesized to defeat the shadows (probably not mentioning a second "Babylon Prime" series, just a summary of Sinclair's character arc) , and not originally to become Valen in the past. So it makes more sense since Paramount (or at least Pillar , Braga, & Berman) had that original treatment from JMS in the late 80's correspond more to the original plans for Babylon 5 before the character changes due to O'Hare leaving and the show always in danger of cancellation each season end.

An article last week about the current quality of the Babylon 5 DVDs and the Amazon prime streams:
https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/22/babylon-5-digital-video-quality/