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Ok. Babylon 5: best, smartest, most important SF show of the '90s, the biggest watershed in the genre since Trek, and arguably the most influential, too, directly, or indirectly. No question about any of that, I totally believe it. And I'd love to see more.

But let's back up a bit: if you could do it all over again, what would you change? Don't say "Season 5" or "Rangers," 'cuz that's too easy and not terribly useful. What would you un-do if you could, and what would you insert if you could?

I guess what I'm asking is: if you had your druthers, how would you do B5? If it was yours to remake, how would you do it?

I've got two ideas in mind, two different ways to go about it, one horribly unrealistic, the other more straightforward. I'd be interested in hearing you all's takes on it, though.
 
Ok, fine.

There's two ways you can do it: A straight reboot, and a more elaborate franchise.

Personally I favor the straight reboot, 110 episodes, 5 season format, but I think I'd change it up a bit. Firstly with the more dense-packed writing and direction in modern shows.

Secondly, I'd keep all the elements that worked, and dump the ones that didn't, obviously, and streamline it overall. I'd conflate some others.

1) Sheridan would be captain all along. Sinclair would be the earth ambasador to B5, on the council. Once Sinclair is removed from the council, he'd be sent to Minbar and put on a "Helo Plot" (As I call 'em), and Sheridan would pick up the council duties as opposed to just running the station.

2) Takishima would be the XO of the station. She's loyal to earth, and joins nightwatch, and has the role of the unnamed Sergent dude who butts heads with Garibaldi in season 3: the local party boss/coordinator, I guess you'd say. When the station goes rogue, she immediately quits, and repeatedly tries to sieze command of the station. I'd have an arc of her hiding and heading up a resistence for a few episodes until Garibaldi takes her down. All this would be more dramatic because Takishima and Garibaldi would have been an item for a while.

3) Sheridan and Ivonova were very briefly married after the war. He was telling her about the death of her brother, stuff happened, it was a mistake, start to finish, it lasted less than a year. No feelings for each other. Ivonova would be introduced to the show in the mid-2nd season as a lieson between General Hague's Conspiracy of LIght and Sheridan's chapter. Their relationship would be professional, but awkward and cold. In the 3rd season, she'd be bumped up to 3rd in command, and when Takishima quits, she takes over as XO. Her relationship with Sheridan would gradually become chummy, but they never broadcast their past. DeLenn finds out much like she did, and is not amused, much like she wasn't with Lochley.

4) Catherine Sakai (or Carolyn Sykes) is a Psicorps mole.

5) Lyta is the station's teep for the full run of the show. She will gradually become more self-assured, independent, and ultimately lead a Telepath Revolution, which will take place during the course of the show, and be resolved by the end of the series.

6) ALL the arcs will be resolved. No Drakh. Some ships may be seen slinking off at one point, but we don't get an elaborate build up of a new foe that's never going to get anywhere.

7) Dr. Kyle is a father figure for Sheridan. Best buddies with Sheridan's dad, who died in the Dilgar war. Made a point of taking care of the boy when home on leave. When Sheridan had his first command, he chose Kyle as his CMO, and he did again on B5. During season 4, he'll be captured, and Sheridan will go in to rescue him, get caught, etc. Kyle will not go back on active duty after this.

8) Dr. Franklin will be introduced as Kyle's 2nd in season 3, and will take over as CMO in Kyle's absence in Season 4.

9) The arc would be stepped up a bit. Season 1 is similar to what we saw, Season 2 is the conspiracy of light stuff and the reformation of the Rangers, and would end with the start of the civil war. Season 3 would have the big differences. Around 7 episodes in, B5 would actually be destroyed by the shadows. We'd have a 7-ep "On the run" arc, where Garibaldi disappears, and the surviving principles eventually convene on Minbar, travel back in time to steal B4, and bring it back to the present to continue the war. So B4 would be the primary dramatic location from season 3, episode 15 on to the end of the series. Season 4 is much like what we got, though the war would spill over into the first third of season 5.

10) Following the war (Around ep 7), we'd deal with the formation of the ISA, and the Centauri crisis (No, I don't know what would precipitate it. Probably just hard feelings iwth all the people they've ruined), but there'd also be a sense of all the kids leaving home. All the surviving cast members would get an A-plot where they're moving on to other things, or, in the case of Dr. Franklin and Captain Ivonova, they're settling into their jobs on B5 for the long haul. So, for instance, Garibaldi leaves the station, is in charge of Edgars, and in the end of his episode, we get a series of flash-forwards as to what his life will be like. Ditto all the other characters.

11) Epsilon Eridani III would be terraformed by Draal and function as the headquarters of the ISA. It makes no sense for it to be on Minbar.

12) Season 5, ep 19 is basically "Objects at Rest." Episodes 20 and 21 are set 15 years later, when the gang is reunited to rescue David Sheridan from the Centauri (Ok, fine, you can have the Drakh). We'd still have all the flashforwards we saw earlier, but here they'd pay off in the resolution of the Centauri/Drakh (Or whomever) plots. Episode 22 is Sleeping In Light, but iwth one major difference: B4 isn't blown up, it's taken back in time by Sinclair/Valen to fight in the previous shadow war as it's no longer needed in the present.

13) We'd have a better soundtrack.

Whadya' think?
 
Shorter seasons and almost all episodes strongly arc related.

Better dialogue and humor. Also a better resolution to the shadow war.
 

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