The end of Babylon 5? Or just the end of low-budget B5 stuff? Quoth Joe:
B5:TLT [The Lost Tales] was commissioned at a $2 million budget to, yet one more time, “test the waters” for B5. We did what we could with that, and that was that. As we did with Rangers, which also suffered from not having a lot of money because of concerns about “is there really a B5 audience?” Which is, of course, a foolish question from a studio that has never really understood what it has in B5.
Of late, there have been more discussions from WB about doing more DVDs, again at a low cost, or a cable thing, again with minimal investment.
So for the last few months, I’ve been giving this whole subject a lot of quiet thought. And I’ve come to a conclusion.
B5 as a five year story stands beautifully on its own. If anything else is to be continued from that story, it should be something that adds to the legacy of B5, rather than subtracts from it.
Which, to Joe Straczynski’s mind, means a “full-featured, big-budget feature film.”
Heaven knows he has enough on his plate — including a whole bunch of “full-featured, big-budget feature films” for some top stars. He doesn’t need the work. And he’s perfectly happy if, should a big B5 project never happen, that that be it for the story.
At the end of the day, for me, it’s not just a matter of getting more B5. It’s a matter of getting more *good* B5 that respects what came before it and doesn’t have to compromise visually or in terms of action. The original show deserves better than that, the surviving cast members deserve better than that, and the fans who have supported it over the years definitely deserve better than that. A lot better.
And that probably means that’s about that, since I don’t see WB ever figuring it all out unless JMS becomes more wildly successful than is ever likely to happen. A shame, but I understand, and even respect his call on this — even if the little fanboy in me would love to see anything else B5, the older fanboy thinks it’s the right decision.