A lot of what JoeD is advocating below is what I am advocating as option 2 in Post #6 of this thread. Grrrr, I really hate to reply to these, but I have to address some of the points. Replies to three posts in one....
Best bet: forget they ever existed, start over.
Not
all of it. There were some good scripts there, some in the TNT Black Uniform group. Not all of the Black Uniform episodes were bad. In fact,
The Path of Sorrows is one of my favorite episodes.
(This isn't saying that you can't use any of the original cast who happen to be available, but you recast where necessary.)
But where you could get the original cast, and you think they did a good job, get 'em.
Why insist on hanging onto the first 13, half of which were subpar to begin with?
Even the subpar scripts had their good points. e.g the Eilerson scenes of
Ruling from the Tomb.
It makes a lot more sense to reshoot the salvagable scripts from the first batch with a new or partially new cast....
Which ones do you consider salvagable? The Fashion Designer thread of
Appearances and Other Deceits is no longer necessary if you don't have the accursed uniform change, but the alien invasion thread could be used. Perhaps, JMS could write a different B-thread for the episode.
At least a reboot keeps the cool ship and the intriguing characters. Somehow
Battlestar Galactica managed to pull off a reboot, despite the worst fears of its fans. There's no reason why
Crusade couldn't do a better job - despite the fears of anal-retentive fans who cannot tolerate change in any form.
You can't be talking about me here, because my option 2
is a reshoot. I want to keep that cool ship and those intriguing characters. However, I think the reshot Crusade (or whatever name they pick), should blend well with the look of the existing Babylon 5 universe.
That's also my main idea. Mine has the advantage of doing this by allowing JMS to tell the "Crusade" story in the context of a show called Crusade and following his originally planned story arcs.
Again, what would be so horrible about just setting the original 13 aside and shooting "Racing the Night" with a new or partially new cast and bringing Crusade back as a new series without trying to tie it into the earlier continuity?
Not all aspects of the earlier continuity, e.g. the uniform change. Use the black uniforms for all the episodes. Jettison the fashion designer bit, and the laundry accident bit from
To the Ends of the Earth. Jettison all the crappy bits of
War Zone (the fight scenes, the Earth in panic stuff, the tie between Ensign James and Mr. Ames, etc.). There's a lot of the
War Zone script that could be kept. Write new, good scenes to replace the bad.
(Message edited to remove the imaginary debate with KoshN that I was having in my head after losing track of which Vorlon I was speaking to. A thousand apologies to both.)
You are absolutely right and I do mostly humbly apologize. In writing what you did you covered so many of the familiar tropes favored by another of your species that I completely lost track of which Vorlon was which. I should know to check the names by now, and I just screwed up.
I will edit my earlier message to remove comments not really directed at you, while retaining my argument on the facts.
You were imaginarily and reflexively arguing with me when in fact we were agreeing on a lot of things?
With Crusade he'd be restarting a show that lasted half a season and aired the better part of a decade ago. Since it is unlikely that he'd be able to assemble the entire original cast,...
But it would be a good thing to strive for, to try to get the original cast back. Some of them did a terrific job (e.g. Gary Cole, Daniel Dae Kim, Carrie Dobro, David Allen Brooks and Peter Woodward). Hell, I'd even go for getting Alex Mendoza back, as long as they glued that strip of hair in place. :devil:
...or that he'd be able to match the look and feel of the original to such a degree that anyone could air the 13 episodes from 1999 and then show a 2008 or 2009 episode the following week,
That's why I suggested a reshoot, starting from the beginning. It reduces the problem of matching the looks.
... he'd have two choices: Find some elaborate way to explain all the differences
No, not good. Simplicity is a thing of beauty, and the complex can look ham-handed and contrived.
... or simply wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.
...with the salvagable scripts, including scripts that could be used whole
and those that could be fixed (scenes deleted, new scenes written).
Given that hardly anyone who would be the potential audience for a new series now would even have heard of the original show, I don't see why JMS wouldn't just cut his losses (especially since only 5 of the original episodes were really the show he wanted to make) rather than toss all the TNT-influenced scripts and start over telling the story he wanted to tell.
The "rather than" doesn't parse. Perhaps you meant "and" ? Some of those TNT-influenced scripts worked. e.g.
The Well of Forever TNT gave JMS lemons (notes), and he made lemonade. <thumbs up>
Production Order:
101 The Needs of Earth (Script OK as-is.)
102 The Memory of War (Script OK as-is.)
103 Racing the Night (Script OK as-is.)
104 Visitors from Down the Street (Script OK as-is, but please rework the rubber fishing worm headgear!
)
105 Each Night I Dream of Home (Reshoot sans Dr. Franklin.
)
The first production shutdown.
106 The Well of Forever (Script OK as-is.)
107 The Long Road (Script OK as-is.)
108 War Zone (Delete the TNT crap and rework the script.)
109 The Path of Sorrows (Script OK as-is. Maybe get Pat this time.
)
110 Patterns of the Soul (Script OK as-is.)
111 Ruling from the Tomb (God, I hated most of this.)
112 The Rules of the Game (Script OK as-is. Recast Polix.
)
113 Appearances and Other Deceits (Lose the fashion designer bit.)
Unfilmed Scripts:
Value Judgements (Yay Bester! Script OK as-is.)
To the Ends of the Earth (Delete the laundry accident stuff.)
End of the Line (Script OK as-is.)