Babylon 5 Returns

Will it go the way of all reboots?

Babylon 5 is the best TV show I’ve ever seen.

It got me into writing. That’s a long story for another time. But between the creator, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) posting online about writing, the show, the world built up, I ended up sucked into this profession. He brought a five-year arc to American television, with a story built in from day one. It wasn’t going to be episodic, one damn thing after another episode plots, but character arcs and developments. I even liked the 1990s CGI.

It was fun.

This week, a reboot was announced. With JMS STILL AT THE HELM.

A reboot? You mean we might get JMS’ original vision of his five arc? The original plot that didn’t have actors drop out, or disappear, or come down with Schizophrenia? That would be amazing!

Wouldn’t it?

By and large, I am all about the “wait and see” approach. I really am. Because we could get JMS’s original story. I WANT to see how his original five-year arc would have played out before lead actor Michael O’Hare was hit with Schizophrenia and had to drop out at the end of the first year. I want to see how the character Lyta Alexander develops if she's on from the pilot to the end of her story, instead of being away two years. Or Na’Toth. How does JMS play the character of Laurel Takashima if she stayed on past the pilot? If Laurel’s character stays, will there be an Ivanova? Do we get original B5 actor Bill Mummy as President Clarke? Do we have Bruce Boxleitner as a Minbari? Is the character of Garibaldi less of a drunk because JMS won’t be concerned over the drinking of the actor who played him?

I’d love to see how any or all of that all plays out, only with updated graphics.

Season 1’s cast. Five out of eight actors are dead.

But concerns? Oh yeah. I have concerns.

To start with, Babylon 5 is being brought back on the CW. Now, sure, that’s great for B5 in terms of ratings—they don’t need any to survive. Just look at the ratings of any other CW show. Most of them would have been kicked off of any other network.

But the problem … have you seen CW shows? I’ve lost count of the CW properties that lost me in the first few minutes. Why? Because I do not want to see an opening with our title character boinking their anonymous one-night stand—man, or woman, or canine. Eventually, all CW shows turn into teenage soap operas, no matter how old the cast is.

Speaking of the cast, the average CW show is geared toward a younger audience. It usually means casting younger actors with less talent. Now, while I can’t imagine JMS casting subpar actors, that depends on who they can get, and what the talent pool is like.

Now, most detractors focus on “all reboots are garbage.” Correct. Most of them seem to be taking the original IP and wrecking it, whether it’s retconning original characters so that they’re worthless, or pushing a character of “approved subgroup” who the audience is supposed to root for, whether the audience likes them or not.

Those who are enthusiastic about a reboot argue “It’s still JMS.”

My question… the “wait and see” question… is, “Is he still JMS?”

That’s an honest question. Are we getting the JMS who ended the season one episode “Parliament of Dreams” with showing off all the world’s religions, because the main belief of Earth is “we put up with everyone”? Or are we getting the JMS of Sens8, where the trans narrator proudly proclaims “F*** God, He can go to Hell”?

Is this the JMS who has the character of Commander Sinclair trained by Jesuits, because his then-wife was Catholic? Or do we get something different, because his most recent girlfriend is an aggressive Leftist?

Are we getting the JMS who wrote his villain out of the 1984 handbook? Or are we getting Bernie Bro Joe, who spends his time on Twitter showing off that he doesn’t understand do economics, and the villain is “Orange Man Bad” because he won’t do the Green New Deal?

When Babylon 5 aired, it was suggested that a character was bi. When JMS says he’ll be “updating” the show, does that mean half the characters are now LGBTBBQ and the show is Leftist agit-prop? Or is that a vague, amorphous buzzword to assuage network executives?

Are we getting the JMS who gave us a military SciFi show that didn’t piss off anyone politically, and had Catholic monks on board his station? Or are we getting the Sens8 Bernie Bro who pisses on faith and anyone who disagrees with him politically?

Before you comment, no I cannot see JMS being the guy who takes his own original product and warping it into incoherence. I honestly can’t. I can’t see the guy who loved actor Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar and have it cast with someone not up to the part, or changing the character so he’s nothing like the original. I can’t imagine the JMS of B5 kowtowing to CW’s penchant for opening TV shows with sex scenes. I can’t see him disrespecting his own material like that.

But I don’t know if that’s the JMS we’re getting.

If we’re getting the original vision of B5 with better graphics and tighter writing? Sign me up.

What if JMS does his original Babylon 5 arc… but since CW shows run on no viewers, does that mean he finishes the five-year arc and then goes on to finish Crusade or the Legend of the Rangers spin-offs that were smothered in the cradle? Does he have TV movies that were supposed to be straight-to-DVD releases over a decade ago?

If that happens, I’m all in, doubling down, and I might even force myself to review it on YouTube.

But what if we’re getting Hollywood Joe and the worst of the CW?

The answer is that I don't know what it’s going to look like.

You don’t know either.

Maybe not even Joe knows that until the rubber meets the road (or in this case, the outline meets the screenplay).

So maybe everyone should calm down until the pilot airs. There are so many variables, I’ve barely scratched the surface. If this reboot is bad, we have the DVDs.

If it’s good, we can all be pleasantly surprised.