Babylon 5 – Are We Excited?

It’s finally happening. Babylon 5 is getting a “from-the-ground-up reboot” at the CW. Original series creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS from here on out) is back producing and showrunning.

Honestly, read his thread there, I’ll wait. He talks a lot about how he’s changed as a creator, how the new show will be different because of that, etc. It’s interesting to note that Claudia Christian (Ivanova) did say that JMS has kept her and the other original cast members in the loop. She even mentioned she was thrilled to be “uttering the great maker’s fabulous dialogue” again, so it’s clear she wants to be involved and *is* involved.

Sadly, as JMS pointed out, you can’t just do a continuation of the original show. So many of that original cast have passed away. Could you do a story about Londo with no G’Kar or Vir? So much of what made them work on the show was the chemistry between them. You could really see G’Kar just barely restraining himself from strangling Londo. That was impressive considering the makeup Andreas Katsulas had to endure to play the role. For their relationship to believably progress from that to where they were at the end of the show, not just any combination of actors could do that.

So…are we excited?

I’m trying to hold myself to cautious optimism. Having the original creator back is huge. JMS still has his fastball (see Sense8), so something new and good is definitely possible. More than anything, it’s the fact that Straczynski is coming back at all that has me excited. Consider this quote from him a few years ago:

The fact that JMS is ready to come back to Babylon 5, to me that means he has more to say. I’m ready to hear it.