B5 Movie bites the dust

POSTED BY: Misguided By Voices
UPDATED: Sunday, April 10, 2005 01:26
VIEWED: 5813
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JMS has posted that the project, TMoS did not come together. In the end, it wasn't a WB project at all, and the production company that optioned the rights could not get everything in place in time - the option ran out December 2004 and JMS extended it from there on gratis to give them another shot.

One interesting and cool point to come from this news - JMS owns the movie rights to B5, so they cannot do it if he isn't happy with it, and as he says, somewhere down the line someone will want to make this movie - the DVD box sets have grossed upwards of half a billion (yes, billion) dollars, excluding Season 5 to date.

"I threw up on your bed"

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I have bought (and thoroughly enjoyed) all the B5 boxsets. Gotta say though, I wasn't all that excited about TMoS. There are three movies JMS needs to make,IMHO. One about the telepath war, Lyta's fate, and Garibaldi's revenge on Bester; one about the curing of the Drahk plague, the secret of the technomages and the fate of the Excalibur's crew; and one about David's encounter with the Keeper Londo gave him, how Sheridan and Delenn became prisoners on Centauri Prime, and the final fight against the Drahk.

"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."

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Most of those are covered in the three book trilogies :-).

One trilogy covers Besters life, and the third book includes the final showdown between Bester and Garibaldi.

Another trilogy covers what happens to Londo after the end of the series, the third book of which covers those final days (and what happens to the Keeper/David, Sheridan/Delenn, and the Drakh).

The last trilogy is devoted to technomages, Galen in particular, and reveals all their dirty little secrets.

Not much about the telepath war or the Excalibur crew/the plague in there, but it's still a lot of stuff.

[I think TMoS would have covered the Drakh Plague somewhat].

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."

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I believe the plot line of TMoS was about the secret of the technomages and this would have been grounded in the events of the Drakh plague. Supposedly, the Drakh plague was just the hook for Crusade and would have been cured in the second season. However, the Excalibur crew were supposed to discover in the process a nasty shadow conspiracy at the centre of Earth Gov that would have had them fleeing for their lives and that's when the story would really have kicked into gear. Each of the main characters had a shadow in their past (e.g. Psi Corps for Matheson, the box for Gideon, the Tech for Galen) and I think that was to be the actual arc.

Such a shame that it didn't come to pass.

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Most of those are covered in the three book trilogies :-).

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This was my problem with season 5. It felt like JMS didn't want to deal with these topics because he had the stories earmarked for "other projects".

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Originally posted by Tomanta:
Most of those are covered in the three book trilogies :-).

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Thanks, I'll check those out.

"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."

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Originally posted by evilmike:

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Most of those are covered in the three book trilogies :-).

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This was my problem with season 5. It felt like JMS didn't want to deal with these topics because he had the stories earmarked for "other projects".

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Not quite so - Season 5 was, in part, condensed into the end of season 4 (IIRC, the last six of season four would have been the first six of five), and the telepath arc (which many disliked with a Jar-Jar level of intensity) would have been more spread out.

Watch the last six or so episodes of 5 though, where the series wraps up pretty much as JMS intended, and see some of the best stuff on the show (Fall of Centauri Prime in particular).

The story of B5 was always those 5 years, so anything before or after was always, at best, earmarked for side projects.

"I threw up on your bed"

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The story of B5 was always those 5 years, so anything before or after was always, at best, earmarked for side projects.

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Based on that, I think the series would have been better served if the story plans for season 5 were re-evaluated based on the extra room they had.

At the very least, they should have let Garibaldi get his revenge.

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Originally posted by evilmike:

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Based on that, I think the series would have been better served if the story plans for season 5 were re-evaluated based on the extra room they had.
At the very least, they should have let Garibaldi get his revenge.

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Why? Garibaldi getting his revenge would have been the old Mike - besides, he ended up in a position whereby he could watch over Bester and tweak at him if he ever tried anything, without sinking to violence. The arc that Garibaldi travelled to me is the one that least changed through the telling.

Putting one of the big "events" in season 5 as padding wouldn't have served it either, because then we'd have had something like the telepath war rushed onto the scene and off within a few episodes.

"I threw up on your bed"

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