For Lennier:
Babylon 5 Deserves to Continue
In recent letters sections, SF-fans have been upset at the direction TV science fiction has been going in. I am also not happy with the current direction. It seems as if series aren't given enough time to build an audience, or the series are dumbed-down after a season or two, [and they] no longer resemble the series they once were. It's tough to see this happening, and yet one saga could fill the void: Babylon 5.
In the last few years, two new B5 spinoff-ideas,
Crusade and
Legend of the Rangers, have disappeared because of network mistakes. The fans are still out there, we still hang out online and talk about B5, and yet people who have the power to keep the saga going keep blowing it. The fans are out there, and we still want more. When will anyone finally realize that something in the B5 universe could make money if given the chance? Maybe sales of the upcoming B5 season-one DVD box set could convince them. Here is our chance, B5 fans--when this set is released, buy it. If enough of the sets sell, maybe people will finally see that B5 deserves to go on.
Tammy Smith
Tlsmith1963ataoldotcom
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B5 is SCI FI's Last, Best Hope
The letters you publish are always interesting and well thought-out, but Kevin Ahearn's letter (
"SCI FI Needs to Make a Quantum Leap" ) was the first to give me that jaw-dropping, dumbfounded, "what are they thinking!?" feeling.
Bonnie Hammer and the SCI FI Channel want to make new series out of old Universal properties? Kevin's statement, "instead of taking stale handouts from the bottom of the feed barrel, Bonnie Hammer must mount an aggressive search for new material by new talent" is almost dead-on, missing the mark only by the fact that the SCI FI Channel already had the "new television experiences for a contemporary audience" that they are currently seeking to create:
Crusade and
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers.
Though Crusade has been out of production for a few years, it has already been reported that the cast would like to continue the series. Similarly, while Legend was a one-time movie, I'm sure that cast wouldn't mind progressing into a series. Combine either or both of these with the fact that JMS (Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski) says that he's at his best creatively when working on multiple projects, and the SCI FI Channel can reduce the amount of searching they have to do.
The SCI FI Channel has an opportunity to really set itself apart from other networks, where clones of whatever's hot at the nanosecond spring up all over the place, and otherwise good shows are yanked because the overnight ratings don't indicate it is a smash hit.
SCI FI Channel and Bonnie Hammer, please show us that you respect your audience. Whatever you pick, please choose wisely.
Roger Long
longrj2atgtedotnet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I figured putting the email addresses up here was OK, since they are up at Sci-Fi's page.
