I also think that this Whovian tendency to first cast the next showrunner, whoever he might be (and wouldn't it be nice if it was a she? Speak about going back to the beginning and Verity Lambert!), as a savior and then as the ruiner of all things Who is just setting yourself up for fannish misery.
SERIOUSLY. And yes, also, that's disappointing -- it's not like there's a lack of female British showrunners now if it has to be a Brit! But I think they're hoping to go back to "this IS the New Who you remember."
I also assume Sheridan and Sinclair will end up as the same character, given that Sheridan was only introduced out of the necessity of Michael O'Hare's health state. But while I liked Sinclair and came around to liking Sheridan eventually (only to be annoyed by his Great Man of History treatment in the later seasons)
Yeah, I am hoping that's just garbled PR-speak, because the two characters were so different and the only things they had in common were "runs the station." And even then they had really different takes on how to do that. (Well I suppose they did both also have a Lost Female Human Love.) It would kinda be like "let's combine Ivanova and Garibaldi!" or even Ivanova and Lochley (and I liked Lochley).
the human characters, Bester excepted, weren't the main attractions of the show to me. Centauri and Narn forever, and the Minbari can come, too.
Back when I was still thinking of academia I kept wanting to pitch a paper on B5 called "The Human as Alien and Alien as Human." And didn't people say G'Kar/Londo was the real love story of the show? Certainly a lot of the best actors were aliens -- and Kosh, who was basically a stuntman in a suit, had a ton of personality just in how he was written. I could possibly deal with a Babylon 5 reboot that was more about the aliens, esp the perspective on this giant joint Earth/Minbari peacekeeping diplo/military station from the outside. Maybe.
it occurs to me that I can think of a remix/reboot/reimgaging/whatever we call it where I was invested in the original tale and yet liked the new, very different one (though the ending was getting a big point of the original wrong, so that excepted)
saturn reminded me of one for me -- 12 Monkeys the show! For YEARS I declared I would never see 12 Monkeys the movie because it was not La Jetee, and then I declared I would NEVER see 12 Monkeys the show because it was not the film. (What a culture vulture.) Then I finally got dragged into 12 Monkeys the show and loved it and I've rewatched the whole thing probably three times and the husband wants to start another one. But....none of those was the show of my heart Babylon 5 was.
That's just a big stumbling gate out of the block, keeping my own personal feelings out of it -- the actual devoted fans may be upset at any big changes and the people who just know about B5 as this antiquated classic may think it's not enough. Look at what happened when the BSG reboot genderflipped Starbuck, there are fanboys angry about that to this day. (BSG was great but I don't think I ever saw a single ep of the original, so for me it doesn't qualify as another take on something I loved.) But, to cross the streams LOLOL, RTD obviously did that in spades with New Who.
I do love your idea about JMS rebooting Blake's 7 tho. Or how about a spinoff of Sense8? (Where are my Sense8 DVDs, man? I can't find them even on those dodgy pirate sites.)
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Date: 2021-09-29 09:42 pm (UTC)SERIOUSLY. And yes, also, that's disappointing -- it's not like there's a lack of female British showrunners now if it has to be a Brit! But I think they're hoping to go back to "this IS the New Who you remember."
I also assume Sheridan and Sinclair will end up as the same character, given that Sheridan was only introduced out of the necessity of Michael O'Hare's health state. But while I liked Sinclair and came around to liking Sheridan eventually (only to be annoyed by his Great Man of History treatment in the later seasons)
Yeah, I am hoping that's just garbled PR-speak, because the two characters were so different and the only things they had in common were "runs the station." And even then they had really different takes on how to do that. (Well I suppose they did both also have a Lost Female Human Love.) It would kinda be like "let's combine Ivanova and Garibaldi!" or even Ivanova and Lochley (and I liked Lochley).
the human characters, Bester excepted, weren't the main attractions of the show to me. Centauri and Narn forever, and the Minbari can come, too.
Back when I was still thinking of academia I kept wanting to pitch a paper on B5 called "The Human as Alien and Alien as Human." And didn't people say G'Kar/Londo was the real love story of the show? Certainly a lot of the best actors were aliens -- and Kosh, who was basically a stuntman in a suit, had a ton of personality just in how he was written. I could possibly deal with a Babylon 5 reboot that was more about the aliens, esp the perspective on this giant joint Earth/Minbari peacekeeping diplo/military station from the outside. Maybe.
it occurs to me that I can think of a remix/reboot/reimgaging/whatever we call it where I was invested in the original tale and yet liked the new, very different one (though the ending was getting a big point of the original wrong, so that excepted)
saturn reminded me of one for me -- 12 Monkeys the show! For YEARS I declared I would never see 12 Monkeys the movie because it was not La Jetee, and then I declared I would NEVER see 12 Monkeys the show because it was not the film. (What a culture vulture.) Then I finally got dragged into 12 Monkeys the show and loved it and I've rewatched the whole thing probably three times and the husband wants to start another one. But....none of those was the show of my heart Babylon 5 was.
That's just a big stumbling gate out of the block, keeping my own personal feelings out of it -- the actual devoted fans may be upset at any big changes and the people who just know about B5 as this antiquated classic may think it's not enough. Look at what happened when the BSG reboot genderflipped Starbuck, there are fanboys angry about that to this day. (BSG was great but I don't think I ever saw a single ep of the original, so for me it doesn't qualify as another take on something I loved.) But, to cross the streams LOLOL, RTD obviously did that in spades with New Who.
I do love your idea about JMS rebooting Blake's 7 tho. Or how about a spinoff of Sense8? (Where are my Sense8 DVDs, man? I can't find them even on those dodgy pirate sites.)