Reboot Crusade?

[Republibot 3.0]

Thanks to Jan's link here http://www.geekplanetonline.com/hos...The+Babble+On+Project)&utm_content=FeedBurner we now know JMS was planning a reboot of B5. An actual real reboot.

I'd assumed he meant "A clearing of the slate of all the stuff I did after B5 ended, and starting fresh." I was wrong.

But let's assume I was right: Let's say it's your job to reboot the post-B5 universe (But not B5 itself, whcih would remain the same) How would you go about it?

 

[KoshN]

Reshoot Crusade, i.e. the existing scripts, the unfilmed scripts and enough new scripts to make a Season 1, with new actors except for the Crusade actors who were in A Call to Arms, Peter Woodward and Carrie Dobro.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

Reshoot Crusade, i.e. the existing scripts, the unfilmed scripts and enough new scripts to make a Season 1, with new actors except for the Crusade actors who were in A Call to Arms, Peter Woodward and Carrie Dobro.

Yeah, that's the most obvious choice, but not the one I'd go with. If I did that, though, I'd keep Woodward and ditch Dobro. It'd be childsplay to edit her out of the existing footage and insert a new actress.

Me, personally, I'd probably keep the Drakh plague, but I'd ditch the ship-based approach.

Have you ever seen "Justice League Unlimited?" I'd do it something like that. B5 would be the base (Somewhat like the Watchtower in JLU) but not the focus of the story. The story would concern between 7 and 13 principle characters (Delenn as one of them) as they go about trying to find a cure, and also having various other adventures. We'd seldom have the whole gang together for every ep. (Probably just at the beginning, end, and midpoint of the seasons) Most of the time, it'd be small groups of our principles (A, B and C this week, D and E next, C,D, and F the week after that, etc) selected for their areas of expertise in that particular mission.

Delenn would give them their marching orders at the start of every episode, they'd go out and do stuff, win or lose, then report back in to Delenn at the end. Occasionally it'd be individual characters on solo adventures, but rarely. We don't need to see much of B5. That's my format.

I'd probably backdate it a bit, too. Instead of coming five years after the formation of the ISA, I'd have it come like immediately after "Objects at Rest." So earth is cut off because of the plague, and in the 2nd season, Bester's psicops take advantage of their isolation to kill "Blips," which prompts the war a little before Lyta was ready. So they've got two problems. Plus then I'd throw in all the stuff about the secret EA shadowtech base and the Technomages.

The premise of the first part of the series would be "When the cat's away, the mice will viciously kill each other for dominance before the cat returns."

 

[KoshN]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ship based approach. Just because it's been done before, mainly in Trek, who gives a damn? It hasn't been done in the Babylon 5 universe except for 13 episodes of Crusade, and the Rangers movie.

Besides, what ship-based sci-fi shows are in production on TV now? Crusade was ship-based. If Crusade was going to be rebooted, the reboot should be ship based.

 

[Jan]

I don't see that ship-based or not should be any more of an issue than hospital-based or police-station-based should. It's the sort of thinking that almost killed B5 before it happened. The studios were convinced that only one SF show could be on the air and that Trek was a 'non-replicating phenomenon'.

Jan

 

[Republibot 3.0]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ship based approach. Just because it's been done before, mainly in Trek, who gives a damn? It hasn't been done in the Babylon 5 universe except for 13 episodes of Crusade, and the Rangers movie.

Besides, what ship-based sci-fi shows are in production on TV now? Crusade was ship-based. If Crusade was going to be rebooted, the reboot should be ship based.

Doctor Who.

But let's assume you don't count that for some reason: that there's none on the air now doesn't change the fact that there have been two galacticas, five treks, one ship-based stargate show, Firefly, Red Dwarf, Farscape, Lost in Space, three star blazers, space: above and beyond, and a dozen others besides. It's been done. To death. For fifty years.

I'm not saying TOS is a BAD show. I'm not saying SGU was a bad show. I'm not even saying that it can't be done interestingly (As per the original Macross.) I'm simply saying that "Oooh, cool, we've got a spaceship" is about as exciting nowadays as "Ooooh, cool, we've got a horse!" And we all know how popular westerns are on TV these days.

Part of what made B5 awesome was that it *DIDN'T* do what everyone else was doing. So it feels only right to me that its child should be something that likewise doesn't follow the pack.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I don't see that ship-based or not should be any more of an issue than hospital-based or police-station-based should. It's the sort of thinking that almost killed B5 before it happened. The studios were convinced that only one SF show could be on the air and that Trek was a 'non-replicating phenomenon'.

Jan

Where I come from (Nebraska) we use a different word for "Almost." It's called "Didn't." As in, "I almost got shot at!" Ah, so what you're saying is you didn't get shot at.

A studio DID see the value of it, they DID make the show.

Also, the idea of a station-based show was a major part of its sale to the studio as it's inherently cheaper to have people come to you and use your sets than it is to go build a new fake planet/city set every week.

 

[KoshN]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the ship based approach. Just because it's been done before, mainly in Trek, who gives a damn? It hasn't been done in the Babylon 5 universe except for 13 episodes of Crusade, and the Rangers movie.

Besides, what ship-based sci-fi shows are in production on TV now? Crusade was ship-based. If Crusade was going to be rebooted, the reboot should be ship based.

Doctor Who.

Good point. I haven't watched any Doctor Who since Season 6 Volume 2 Disc 2 on 04/19/2012, and that's why I didn't think of it.. Even now, Netflix (DVD) only has Season 7 Volume 1 (2 discs) available, and I put them near the top of my queue at #5 & #6.

But let's assume you don't count that for some reason:

I count it, but it's not the first show I think about when it comes to ship-based sci-fi. Yes, I know the TARDIS is a ship (bigger on the inside than the outside), but it looks like a old UK police box from the outside.

that there's none on the air now doesn't change the fact that there have been two galacticas, five treks, one ship-based stargate show, Firefly, Red Dwarf, Farscape, Lost in Space, three star blazers, space: above and beyond, and a dozen others besides. It's been done. To death. For fifty years.

That there are none on the air right now means that there is a vacuum in that particular niche right now. A Crusade reboot would have no ship-based sci-fi competition.

Crime dramas have been done to death for 60+ years and I still watch those (Currently in production: The Mentalist, Castle, NCIS, NCIS-LA, Person of Interest, Criminal Minds, CSI, Elementary, Justified and soon Intelligence). Monk was one of my favorite shows when it was on, and I own all eight seasons on DVD and am rewatching it from the beginning right now (currently on Season 2 Episode 5). I also liked CSI:NY. I also like Psych. I recently bought Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (starring Darren McGavin, 1958-1959), and have and have recently watched all six seasons of The Rockford Files and Movie Vol 1 (Vol. 2 still is not out on DVD.). I'm watching Arrow Season 1 via Netflix and finished Disc 2 last night.

I'm not saying TOS is a BAD show.

I loved it when it first aired and during the early to mid-1970s, I was the head of my own Star Trek fan club in high school. Now, I own all three seasons on the remastered DVDs and can barely manage to watch it. Sure, some of the effects look almost passable and the space shots and orbital shots look a lot better, but the sets are atrocious and a lot of the stories are simplistic and laughable, connect-the-dots for the viewer, and beat you over the head with the idea.

I'm not saying SGU was a bad show.

I'll say it. SGU was a bad show. BSG 2003+ turned into a bad show.

I'm not even saying that it can't be done interestingly (As per the original Macross.) I'm simply saying that "Oooh, cool, we've got a spaceship" is about as exciting nowadays as "Ooooh, cool, we've got a horse!" And we all know how popular westerns are on TV these days.

These things go in cycles. Ship-based sci-fi will be back. Right now, a Crusade reboot would have no ship-based sci-fi competition. However, Paramount would probably slap something together and rush it out the door once they got wind of a Warner Brothers "Crusade" reboot.

Part of what made B5 awesome was that it *DIDN'T* do what everyone else was doing. So it feels only right to me that its child should be something that likewise doesn't follow the pack.

A Crusade reboot could always visit Babylon 5 every so often. It would be in the Babylon 5 universe after all. Remember it was TNT who wanted "Crusade" to sever almost all ties to "Babylon 5," not JMS.

 

[Ragzus]

I might focus more on the flight crew not so much on the ship and where it is going, but the characters would have conversations/interactions with the pilots and command staff often.

However if we take the story from the pilots point of view they are on stand by don't know what is happening and they are deployed fighting raiders, and you don't even need to show where they went.

we get their assumptions maybe sometimes they get told what happened and why they were there and other times so they can leave story holes sometimes and let the fans *guess* what is happening.

Battle star often did a lot with pilots and a lot of focus on them but we also had all the larger pictures and info from command driving the story i think if you cut that info off fans would make guesses and assumptions you could later reveal, While everyone may know the story you can still keep them guessing. - Its a big universe.

 

[Ragzus]

another point i thought of replying to the casting thread was ;

What i would love to see is a mixed race crew, and no not what you think LOL!
Instead of hiring token Asian token "black guy/African american" like many shows do and they're so bad for doing i'd like to poke fun at the shows that do by having "token narn, token centari etc"
and you can be fairly pointed about "WOW this is a pr wet dream but a logistical nightmare all these different races sounds like a great idea but you'd think they'd let us have the best man/woman for the job instead!"

There is no reason either that ships would be entirely manned by earth forces, Perhaps the tech in the new ships are jibberish and they need some minbari and older races to help keep the thing flying some episodes.
The more drastically different the cast even the sub characters *are* the better story options we have for popular characters.

Heck with the lack of action the Minbari warrior caste had during the shadow war perhaps they form an elite strike team aboard the ship under the loose "control" of the rangers, As there seems to be quite a difference between the training of the rangers and how warrior caste were trained it would be another great story for the background or otherwise.

Plus lets face it while the rangers had permission to poke around and patrol sectors and planets only really the races who live there can really know the ins and outs of their race the crew would have a vested interest in being not only a beacon to the ISA but being able to do their job of finding a cure as well as possible.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I'll reply to this later, when I can get to my PC. Tough to do a point by point reply on the Droid 4, especially when the physical keyboard is acting up.

Sure! I hate typing on a phone.

 

[KoshN]

I'll reply to this later, when I can get to my PC. Tough to do a point by point reply on the Droid 4, especially when the physical keyboard is acting up.

Sure! I hate typing on a phone.

My Droid 4's physical keyboard's backspace key, shift key, caps lock key and paste function sometimes work and sometimes FUBAR a post. This happened ever since the last automatic OS upgrade. The backspace key sometimes jumps to a different area and deletes characters further up in the post that you didn't want to delete. The backspace key almost seems to have a debouncing problem. The shift key sometimes just doesn't work and sometimes I have to use the Caps Lock key to get capital letters (and sometimes that doesn't work, either.) and I have to use the virtual keyboard to get shift characters {!@#$%^&*( and ) }. I HATE virtual keyboards!!! They always mess up my typing. The paste function doesn't paste where you want it to do so in posts. Instead, it pastes either just ahead of the first character in a post (e.g. , or somewhere randomly in the first line of text.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

e post that you didn't want to delete. The backspace key almost seems to have a debouncing problem. The shift key sometimes just doesn't work and sometimes I have to use the Caps Lock key to get capital letters (and sometimes that doesn't work, either.) and I have to use the virtual keyboard to get shift characters {!@#$%^&*( and ) }. I HATE virtual keyboards!!! They always mess up my typing. The paste function doesn't paste where you want it to do so in posts. Instead, it pastes either just ahead of the first character in a post (e.g. , or somewhere randomly in the first line of text.

Yeah. Pretty much if I can't sit at a physical keyboard and type with my physical fingers, I don't bother to do anything at all.