Babylon 5- The Lost Tales *SPOILERS*

[Joseph DeMartino Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Joseph DeMartino]

Hope JMS changes his mind and decides to bring back the characters of Dr Franklin and G'Kar.

I think JMS is doing the right thing and absolutely support his decision. To have new actors mixed in with the original cast would not work on a number of levels, and - as he has said repeatedly - he cannot write those characters now. Emotionally he is not capable of doing so. They were too bound up his own mind with the actors (who were his friends) for him to "turn their voices on in his head" again. He couldn't even face the task of writing around them when Warner Bros. offered him a feature film - which is the main reason we're getting The Lost Tales in the first place - the new anthology was JMS's suggested alternative to the feature film he wasn't ready to tackle yet.

And Andreas's G'Kar was so much more than make-up that I simply cannot envision any actor embodying that role again. As JMS will be the first to tell you it wasn't just his words that made the character. As with all the roles the words formed the basis of the performance, but as the show progressed the performances began to shape the words that were written for each character. Real-life qualities of the actors were written into their characters, and as the show progressed the distance between the two narrowed.

There will never be "another" G'Kar. There will never be "another" Franklin. Not while JMS has any say in the matter. And I think most fans will agree that that is as it should be.

"Here was a Caesar. When comes such another?"

Regards,

Joe

[SmileOfTheShadow Sleeping In Light Find all posts View Profile Close SmileOfTheShadow]

YAY!! Christopher Franke is doing the music!!!

Jan

I know! You have no idea how much that makes my day.

Jon

[SmileOfTheShadow Sleeping In Light Find all posts View Profile Close SmileOfTheShadow]

[QUOTE=Joseph DeMartino]I think JMS is doing the right thing and absolutely support his decision. To have new actors mixed in with the original cast would not work on a number of levels, and - as he has said repeatedly - he cannot write those characters now. Emotionally he is not capable of doing so. They were too bound up his own mind with the actors (who were his friends) for him to "turn their voices on in his head" again. He couldn't even face the task of writing around them when Warner Bros. offered him a feature film - which is the main reason we're getting The Lost Tales in the first place - the new anthology was JMS's suggested alternative to the feature film he wasn't ready to tackle yet.

And Andreas's G'Kar was so much more than make-up that I simply cannot envision any actor embodying that role again. As JMS will be the first to tell you it wasn't just his words that made the character. As with all the roles the words formed the basis of the performance, but as the show progressed the performances began to shape the words that were written for each character. Real-life qualities of the actors were written into their characters, and as the show progressed the distance between the two narrowed.

There will never be "another" G'Kar. There will never be "another" Franklin. Not while JMS has any say in the matter. And I think most fans will agree that that is as it should be.
QUOTE]

I agree with that. Though I would love to see those characters, those two actors were really what brought the show to life, and I think it would be pretty disrespectful to rescast them. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have someone you worked so close with for years die like that. I'd imagine it'd be hard to go back and write B5 again at all because it would obviously bring up their memories, though I'm glad JMS is doing that.


Jon

[Jan Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Jan]

I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have someone you worked so close with for years die like that. I'd imagine it'd be hard to go back and write B5 again at all because it would obviously bring up their memories, though I'm glad JMS is doing that.

That was why JMS turned down doing a feature film in favor of doing TLT. At least for now, while the loss is still so new, he said that he's not able to see a big B5 story. Maybe in a couple of years he will.

Jan

[Kloreep Rogue AI Find all posts View Profile Close Kloreep]

It indeed wouldn't be the same without Franke. I'm glad to hear they're trying to get him aboard.

And yes, recasting just wouldn't work. Perhaps someday their characters could reappear on the page, but no actor could replace either Mr. Biggs or Mr. Katsulas.

[Shabaz Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Shabaz]

If you'd look back a few pages, you'd see I was hoping that Franke would be back, so I'm really happy he almost definitely will be back too.

And I don't think the two characters should be recast either. As I said on another board, the only way I would want to see a story about them is if it is about the way these two men have touched other characters and the B5 universe in general. But it would be a hard thing to write, I think. Since talking about what the 2 character's left behind in the B5 universe would undoubtedly to some degree touch upon the two actors and what impressions they have left behind in our universe.

[Ranger1 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Ranger1]

Franke is in whoowhoooooooo, at least the music will kick ass!

[Harrdy Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Harrdy]

Franke! Yippey! Harrdy goes to Happy Land now 8-)



PeAcE

[Briosafreak Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Briosafreak]

Great news about the music! yay!

[DGTWoodward A Fan Of Pioneer Find all posts View Profile Close DGTWoodward]

This is now getting REALLY exciting

[AmyG Goddess of Good Taste Find all posts View Profile Close AmyG]

Another update from JMS:

Subject: Re: Further B5:TLT update from jms
From: [email protected]
Date: Today 3:52 AM
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Fast follow-up....

Just got back tonight from Vancouver, and we've now nailed down/hired
nearly all of our key department heads and the Director of Photography
who I'll be working with closely during production. We spent today in
the first informal production meeting going over how we're going to
shoot this, reviewing the storyboards, determining what's going to be
green screen and what's going to be practical set...this should be a
pretty cool looking project, with some sights we haven't really seen
before as well as some more familiar sights.

What I can say about the three episodes is that we go to Mars, Minbar
and of course B5, we introduce a new kind of Minbari cruiser, and
there's a rather startling sequence on Earth. I've decided to shoot
each segment a little differently from each other, so they each have
their own visual style that complements that particular story. On
Monday the B5 team up north will be checking out the stages, and about
a week or so from now the actual B5 offices will open up and folks will
start moving in.

It's starting to feel a lot like fun.

We'll also be working with WB to put together a special reel from the
shoot that we can bring to debut at San Diego Comic Con next year.

Meanwhile, not only has the Universal feature deal noted in another
thread been finalized, so I'm writing that now, but the Paramount
feature deal has *also* been closed, so now there are two big-budget
feature screenplay assignments that I have to write, the first due by
late November/early December, the second one sometime to be delivered
shortly after the first of the year. A third assignment is kind of
nibbling around the edges which could be very cool, even though I
couldn't start writing it until I finish the other two, which means
it'd have to be spring 2007 to turn in the script if the assignment
comes in.

Finally, now that Ron has said it's okay to bring in other directors on
Changeling, there's been a small flood of a-list directors coming
around to try and pick up the assignment. Part of the attraction is
not just the script, but the acting talent involved...as noted in the
LA Times piece, Reece Witherspoon (and two other oscar-winning leading
female actors) are extremely interested in the lead role. I imagine
we'll start having meetings in the next few weeks to narrow down the
list of directors.

It's crazy-busy, but good.

jms

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[Sigma Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Sigma]

Considering what Peter Jurasik said that first DVD is about humans, then

Minbari = Sheridan?
Mars = Garibaldi?
B5 = Lochley?

I can hope.

[Shabaz Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Shabaz]

Considering what Peter Jurasik said that first DVD is about humans, then

Minbari = Sheridan?
Mars = Garibaldi?
B5 = Lochley?

I can hope.

That was my guess as well, also based on him mentioning that specific group in Dreamwatch, but I didn't mention it on the newsgroup since I thought it might get a bit too close to story ideas.

I'm kind of curious what the Earth sequence will be.

[Joseph DeMartino Confirmed User Find all posts View Profile Close Joseph DeMartino]

I agree with the suggestions made above, especially given JMS's stated desire to "cycle through the regulars" and Peter J's comment that the first batch would deal with the Humans. Didn't JMS also say that the first group would deal with issues of command? That would make Lochley more likely in my mind than Zack, for instance.

I thought it might get a bit too close to story ideas.

If it were, the mods would have bounced it. Besides, the definition of a story idea on the mod is pretty clear:

A "Story Idea" can be the description of a new character or event
in the show, the exact scripting of a scene, or any detailed
discussion of events which have not already appeared in an aired
show, been described on-line by show production staff, or
specifically predicted by dialog and events in shows already aired.
(Obviously, "joke" entries, outlandish dialogue, situations that will
not occur in the series, and parodies, may be acceptable.)

Speculation is allowed, however. The difference between speculation
and a story idea is that a speculation is directly supported by
events or dialog on the show or stated on-line by show production
staff.

We know that after 2262 Sheridan is based on Minbar, Garibaldi on Mars and Lochley on B5. It could hardly be a story idea to speculate that a story set in one of those places might involve one of those characters - especially given Peter Jurassik's comments (never contradicted by JMS) that the first batch would be about humans, which makes it that much more likely that the Minbari story would focus on Sheridan and the B5 story on Lochley, because the other likely candidates are aliens and thus excluded. To say "I hope (or think) that the Minbar story will be about Sheridan" is legitimate speculationi. To say "I hope the Minbar story will be about Sheridan having trouble adapting to life on the planet" or "I hope the Mars story is about Garibaldi connecting one of Edgar's black projects to Shadowtech" is a story idea.

Regards,

Joe

(Who just reviewed this whole issue in another context with Amy and some of the mods. )

[Jan Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Jan]

Thanks for the reminder of what constitutes a story idea, Joe. This seems to be a good time to remind people that we also steer clear of story ideas here on the off chance that JMS might ever come to visit.

Jan