Rebooting a Classic in Babylon 5
To be clear up front: I was more than 20 years late to the joy that is Babylon 5, and I only came to it because Rob Schamberger pushed me, and pushed hard, to watch it. I’m no expert, I’m not a long-time fan of the series, but I am rabid in my love of what was achieved by J. Michael Straczynski and his company of actors and the crew. At only three watch-throughs, I’m still a newbie and I’m still discovering nuance every time. I’m behind the so-called ‘real’ fans, but I’m a real fan, too.
Vorlons, man. And just wait until you meet Zathras.There are so many things others have said about B5 that echo exactly what I feel about the show, so I won’t go into that here. Instead, I’ll confess that I didn’t watch in its original run. I had access, PNET was on our cable provider in the 90s, but I was a snob in 1993. I wrote it off as a poor man’s Star Trek and forgot about it. Occasionally I would pass it while I was channel surfing and would gloss over it after less than two minutes. Bruce Boxleitner? That guy from Scarecrow and Mrs. King? (Yeah, I know he was Tron, too, but S&MK was more recent and stuck in my head. Nah, no thanks. Not for me.
Bottom line: I didn’t get what JMS was doing with Babylon 5. It was over my head, and in my judgmental haste, I was never going to give it a chance.
Fast forward to 2018 when Rob and I are at Minsky’s catching up and talking about all things science fiction. He starts to tell me everything he loves about B5 and it sounds interesting to me. This is 20 years after the show has ended and I’m intrigued. I agreed to give it a shot. He lent me his precious DVDs and I watched.
First season is rough, to be sure, but it finds its legs about halfway through and the acting gets slightly better. However, it’s the story between Londo and G’Kar that fascinates me. (I didn’t know about the trials and tribulations of lead Michael O’Hare then, and now that I do, his performance is beyond impressive.) As the second season progresses, I am deeply drawn to Boxleitner’s John Sheridan and I see the influences that JMS has pulled from. By the end of season 2, I’m hopelessly in love with all the characters, no matter how inexpertly played.
Yeah, it’s Penn and Teller. It’s also the episode that Neil Gaiman wrote.If you haven’t watched, you should know that Walter Koenig, Star Trek’s Chekhov, is a villain that will scare you as much as endear you. You should know that there are true Shakespearean moments and real emotions that you will experience if you allow yourself to should you endeavor to watch this groundbreaking series.
And it’s truly groundbreaking. It had a story that was planned for five years (starting in 1993), something that had never been done before on episodic TV. It was the first show to use CGI extensively for the ships and it looks pretty good in the remaster on HBOMax if you want to watch it there. My god, Bill Mumy is fantastic as his character’s love is unrequited. But the aforementioned Londo, played by Peter Jurasik, is the real star, supported perfectly by Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar, who embodies the human condition more so than any other character in the cast.
Look, just watch. You’ll get the episodes where Wayne Alexander will blow you away with his understated performances in several roles. You’ll get a sense of “this was made when?” as the politics of the show play out. If you’re interested in watching a great story, watch Babylon 5. It’s not perfect, but it will reward you if you stick with it. I promise. You won’t be sorry.
The Grey Council is… no. Sorry. Spoilers.As for the reboot announced today? I’m in. JMS is going to be showrunner and it’ll be a masterclass in how to do it should the CW pick up the pilot. I’m crossing my fingers and hopeful that we’re going to see a new version of the story I’ve come to love as much as my favorite science fictions, one that will exceed my expectations.
For those of you who fear it will be ‘woke’, you need to watch the original series with different eyes. It’s more than ‘woke’, it’s clear-eyed and deliberate.
