I hear a Babylon 5 reboot is in the works

[chaos42]

it will be interesting to see a new series plus i kind of hope we might get to see some of the abandoned plots or ideas he never used. Like the entire bit with kosh's hand being the part that was poisoned even though he was in his encounter suit or the bit with tali and kosh in death walker. i would like to see some of those things used.

[clearspira]

There are a few things that would almost certainly be better if it was made today. Like how Susan and Talia were clearly together for a while (JMS confirmed this was the intent) but they had to dance around it to get it past the censors.

Its also true though that even modern media seems to have a blindspot for bisexuals.

[hammerofglass]

I must inform you that you're manic right now.

Sorry, Mechanicus dad joke.

How's that a dad joke? A dad joke would be: "Hi Sober, I'm Dad."

Because I previously said "If not x, then..." and Yukaphile said not x. Stupid programming humor.

Same genre as "Grab a gallon of milk. If they have eggs get a dozen" "They had eggs so here's twelve gallons of milk"

[hammerofglass]

There are a few things that would almost certainly be better if it was made today. Like how Susan and Talia were clearly together for a while (JMS confirmed this was the intent) but they had to dance around it to get it past the censors.

Its also true though that even modern media seems to have a blindspot for bisexuals.

Sadly true. Which is weird given what a breakout character Jack Harkness was fifteen years ago.

[clearspira]

I think one thing that the new show could improve upon would be to show us more of the League/Alliance. Too often they were just background to the Narn/Centauri/Minbari triangle. The Abbai for example, who possess a natural matriarchy as the females outnumber the males 5 to 1 and are amphibious. You could do a lot of interesting things with them. In fact, i'm browsing through the Babylon 5 wiki as I write this, and there is a huge amount of backstory for these races that I do not remember at all from the series. Mating practices, history, culture, religion. So much of this could carry an episode.

I also wonder whether it would be kind of cool to carry out the original concept for Delenn which would be to have ''her'' actually be a ''him'' but played by an actress. He wasn't trans or anything, that was just what their people looked like. It would play well to today's politics of course, but I like it because its alien. B5 for the most part is like Star Trek in that the aliens do tend to be humans with nobbly foreheads.

BTW, this discussion really has reminded me of just how few of the original cast members are still left alive. This was a very unlucky show.

[Sojourna]

I always become nervous when there's talk of a reboot/remake of something I like, admittedly, but mention of The CW's involvement doesn't help either. It's JMS though, so hopefully it will avoid the usual CW tropes.

[Yukaphile]

They've wanted a female Doctor since the 1980s. I like it, as a concept. Same way I like going with the original concept for Delenn, as a trans person. Especially since I've always seen Jadzia as a trans allegory the straights can approach on their own terms. I doubt that original concept is going to be executed well, however, to the point it does actual trans representation a severe disservice since it's gonna be hamfisted AF to try to shove "you're awful because you're a transphobe" down your throat, and yet look at abusive parents giving their kids hormone therapy, like estrogen for boys and testosterone for girls. KIDS CAN NEVER BE TRANS. Ever. Kids are not sexual and do not think in those terms unless they've been molested, and whoever does that should burn. But I think if they wanna go with the surgery, great, and parents should try to be supportive - but they need to be informed adults to make the decision, not children. You need that perspective of at least a greater maturity than adolescence or pre-adolescence. But merely noting that you should NOT give kids hormone therapy is what gets you labeled transphobic these days by the reactionary Twitter hate mobs, rather than admitting you want them to be of a legal age of informed consent and to understand fully the consequences. Do you think that's going to be in any way good? Doubt it. Especially since Twitter in this day and age is to the big corporations what the religious preachers of the 1990s were. I said that a while back.

[Frustration]

Making a new show in the B5 universe: Potentially very good.

Making a B5-reboot: Very, very, very bad.

[Frustration]

Sadly true. Which is weird given what a breakout character Jack Harkness was fifteen years ago.

But Jack is an omnisexual, which isn't actually the same thing.

For too many people, Jack was just an example of "alternate sexualities are depraved". Although it was his ex who was the genuinely bizarre one.

[Al-1701]

I think I was misinterpreted as defending the fake outrage against the possibility of Sinclair/Sheridan not being white. I must ask this of those losing their shit over the very thought. What makes those characters necessarily white? Really, the only human character who was truly race-locked was Ivanova (Garibaldi and Takashima were kind of locked into place due to their names). Make Ivanova anything but a Russian Jew, and you have a completely different character. A Black Sinclair or Sheridan would only be superficially different from the white originals. If a Black actor is best suited for the role, "he originals were white" is the dumbest excuse to say no.

I do hope this is a chance for JMS to revive ideas that just couldn't be pulled off and expand on the different races. I agree with those who say we need more about the League and the EA beyond Earth and Mars.