you only run a show twice....
Sep. 28th, 2021 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBe on the road for a week, and what happens? A fannish timeloop, it feels like.
1) Doctor Who
The announcement that RTD will produce not only the next Doctor Who anniversary special but also the next seasons is on the one hand a blatant BBC confession of being in a panic and/or unable (unwilling?) of hiring a completely new showrunner. (I had seen on twitter in the weeks leading up to this that JMS was interested, which would certainly have been an intriguing mix, but I presume they decided the "American!!!!" backlash wasn't worth it. (Or maybe he withdrew because of point 2.)
Otoh, I do feel cautiously optimistic and looking foward to this. It's been 12 years, more than enough time to, to coin a phrase, regenerate, and also, I loved what RTD did in the last five years or so - the various miniseries - Years and Years, A Very Englsh Scandal and It's a Sin were all fascinating must-watchs for me, and I also dug his version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. All these projects were different from each other, and each showed a creative mind on top of his game, with his flaws kept under control (possibly because the miniseries format and the limited budget meant there was no room for self indulgence). All of which could mean he's able to approach the Whoverse with new stories, not simply a rerun of his previous highlights (and lowlights).
Moreover, the man has a tendency to bring in actors he's worked before. Personally, I'm holding out for Lydia West who was both in Years and Years and It's a Sin (either as a Companion or a guest star), Ben Wishaw (guest star), and Nathaniel Curtis (guest star or Companion).
Characters he may or may not bring back: Here I'm hoping for Clyde and Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures. Possibly also Luke. One or all in an episode would be lovely. And speaking of SJA, so sadly cut off due to Elisabeth Sladen's death, he was able to bring back Jo Grant for a two parter there, so maybe he can lure Katy Manning into the main show as well?
Not looking foward to: the inevitable rehash of the Moffat vs Davies fandom wars - which usually ignore that the two of them are in a mutual admiration society - but I just won't read any of the posts marked to be about that tiring subject, and I should be good. BTW, perhaps the most damming thing said about the Chibnall era is that no one seems to be writing "Chibnall vs RTD and/or Moffat" posts.
2. Babylon 5
So JMS has announced there will be a complete B5 reboot/reimagining (the way the Ron Moore headed BSG was a reboot of the Lorne Greene BSG, or the JJ Abrams movies were a reboot of the TOS Star Trek) , to be financed by the CW and headed by himself. My first instinctive reaction to hearing this was "Do not want". Because B5 isn't Star Trek or BSG, thought I, but thinking about further, I realised what I mean is that I don't feel possessive about the TOS version of ST, and have no feelings at all about the few pieces I've watched of the original Battlestar Galactica, so of course I didn't mind the way I do the idea of a rebooted Babylon 5. Also I wonder whether JMS said yes because of his ongoing bad situation with Warner Brothers and their non-marketing of B5.
Then again: It's been decades for him, he says he does it to answer the question "if you could do it all over again, what would you do differently from today's pov?", and I can't imagine he'd want to do anything not feeling creatively challenging to him. Also, I can imagine several of the arcs which had to be aborted because of rl circumstances (actors leaving, near cancellation a season early) feel like they want to be written out. (Though please, no Ivanova/Byron. Susan had a lucky escape there.)
(On a more silly note: maybe President Clark will now be a former reality tv star whose campaign motto is Make Earth Great Again.)
But...but...but... the actors. Most of all Londo, G'Kar and Vir. Right now, I cannot imagine anyone else playing these roles. Undoubtedly, I'll come around if someone gifted does - but right now? I'm fretting.
1) Doctor Who
The announcement that RTD will produce not only the next Doctor Who anniversary special but also the next seasons is on the one hand a blatant BBC confession of being in a panic and/or unable (unwilling?) of hiring a completely new showrunner. (I had seen on twitter in the weeks leading up to this that JMS was interested, which would certainly have been an intriguing mix, but I presume they decided the "American!!!!" backlash wasn't worth it. (Or maybe he withdrew because of point 2.)
Otoh, I do feel cautiously optimistic and looking foward to this. It's been 12 years, more than enough time to, to coin a phrase, regenerate, and also, I loved what RTD did in the last five years or so - the various miniseries - Years and Years, A Very Englsh Scandal and It's a Sin were all fascinating must-watchs for me, and I also dug his version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. All these projects were different from each other, and each showed a creative mind on top of his game, with his flaws kept under control (possibly because the miniseries format and the limited budget meant there was no room for self indulgence). All of which could mean he's able to approach the Whoverse with new stories, not simply a rerun of his previous highlights (and lowlights).
Moreover, the man has a tendency to bring in actors he's worked before. Personally, I'm holding out for Lydia West who was both in Years and Years and It's a Sin (either as a Companion or a guest star), Ben Wishaw (guest star), and Nathaniel Curtis (guest star or Companion).
Characters he may or may not bring back: Here I'm hoping for Clyde and Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures. Possibly also Luke. One or all in an episode would be lovely. And speaking of SJA, so sadly cut off due to Elisabeth Sladen's death, he was able to bring back Jo Grant for a two parter there, so maybe he can lure Katy Manning into the main show as well?
Not looking foward to: the inevitable rehash of the Moffat vs Davies fandom wars - which usually ignore that the two of them are in a mutual admiration society - but I just won't read any of the posts marked to be about that tiring subject, and I should be good. BTW, perhaps the most damming thing said about the Chibnall era is that no one seems to be writing "Chibnall vs RTD and/or Moffat" posts.
2. Babylon 5
So JMS has announced there will be a complete B5 reboot/reimagining (the way the Ron Moore headed BSG was a reboot of the Lorne Greene BSG, or the JJ Abrams movies were a reboot of the TOS Star Trek) , to be financed by the CW and headed by himself. My first instinctive reaction to hearing this was "Do not want". Because B5 isn't Star Trek or BSG, thought I, but thinking about further, I realised what I mean is that I don't feel possessive about the TOS version of ST, and have no feelings at all about the few pieces I've watched of the original Battlestar Galactica, so of course I didn't mind the way I do the idea of a rebooted Babylon 5. Also I wonder whether JMS said yes because of his ongoing bad situation with Warner Brothers and their non-marketing of B5.
Then again: It's been decades for him, he says he does it to answer the question "if you could do it all over again, what would you do differently from today's pov?", and I can't imagine he'd want to do anything not feeling creatively challenging to him. Also, I can imagine several of the arcs which had to be aborted because of rl circumstances (actors leaving, near cancellation a season early) feel like they want to be written out. (Though please, no Ivanova/Byron. Susan had a lucky escape there.)
(On a more silly note: maybe President Clark will now be a former reality tv star whose campaign motto is Make Earth Great Again.)
But...but...but... the actors. Most of all Londo, G'Kar and Vir. Right now, I cannot imagine anyone else playing these roles. Undoubtedly, I'll come around if someone gifted does - but right now? I'm fretting.
no subject
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.)