{"id":13132,"date":"2008-07-14T10:48:18","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T17:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/07\/14\/its-that-or-nothing.html"},"modified":"2013-06-04T07:51:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T13:51:42","slug":"its_that_or_nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/14\/its_that_or_nothing.html","title":{"rendered":"“It’s that or nothing”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The end of Babylon 5<\/em>? Or just the end of low-budget B5 stuff? Quoth Joe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which, to Joe Straczynski’s mind, means a “full-featured, big-budget feature film.” <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[362,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-tv-babylon-5","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11514,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/10\/dvd_review_babylon_5_the.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":0},"title":"DVD Review: Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Aug-07 4:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of...","rel":"","context":"In "Babylon 5"","block_context":{"text":"Babylon 5","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-babylon-5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9342,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/25\/the_return_of_b.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":1},"title":"The Return of … Babylon 5?!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 25-Jul-06 1:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Woot-astic! Joe Straczynski, at the San Diego Comic-Con, announced all sorts of stuff.\u00a0 A correspondent to AICN recorded the following most significant item (to my mind): direct-to-DVD B5 releases\u00a0called...","rel":"","context":"In "Babylon 5"","block_context":{"text":"Babylon 5","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-babylon-5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129403,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/08\/b5-rewatch-4x14-moments-of-transition-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":2},"title":"B5 Rewatch: 4×14 "Moments of Transition"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Jan-16 12:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bester wants Lyta's body! Delenn cooks up an end to the Minbari Civil War! Sheridan decides to start the Earth Civil War!Crikey -- it's been how long since my last Babylon 5 rewatch? August? Crikey.Overall an episode with solid acting, from guest stars (Bester! Neroon!) and regulars alike, hampered only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129404,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/08\/b5-rewatch-4x14-moments-of-transition-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":3},"title":"B5 Rewatch: 4×14 "Moments of Transition"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Jan-16 7:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bester wants Lyta's body! Delenn cooks up an end to the Minbari Civil War! Sheridan decides to start the Earth Civil War!Crikey -- it's been how long since my last Babylon 5 rewatch? August? Crikey.Overall an episode with solid acting, from guest stars (Bester! Neroon!) and regulars alike, hampered only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40884,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/25\/b5-rewatch-s1e21-the-quality-of-mercy.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":4},"title":"B5 Rewatch: 1×21 "The Quality of Mercy"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jan-14 6:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fairly solid episode that suffers mostly from being in the middle of the end-of-season WHAM-fest, \"The Quality of Mercy\" combines a decent A-plot with a hilarious B-plot.On the \"A\" side, Dr. Franklin tries to uncover a medical fraud in Down Below, only to discover that June Lockhart actually has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40882,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/25\/b5-rewatch-s2e01-points-of-departure.html","url_meta":{"origin":13132,"position":5},"title":"B5 Rewatch: 2×01 "Points of Departure"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jan-14 6:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Nothing is the same any more,\" Sinclair said at the end of the previous episode. \u00a0It's now eight days later, Delenn's in a cocoon, G'kar is missing -- and Sinclair is gone. Few things happened on B5 that, at the time, were more controversial than the departure of Michael O'Hare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36937,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13132\/revisions\/36937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}