New Babylon 5!

[Hugh Casey]

I am really happy about this...

From Scifi.com...

SCI FI To Air New Babylon 5

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is working on a two-hour telefilm called Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers that will premiere on SCI FI later this year. The film will take up the story of the legendary Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War.

This new chapter of the Babylon 5 story finds the mysterious Ranger force--a combination of humans and alien Minbari trained in space warfare as well as the unique alien philosophy of the Rangers and just about every conceivable form of martial arts--faced with deadly challenges in its attempt to create peace out of the war's destruction.

Babylon 5 cast members may appear in the movie, which will also serve as the pilot for a potential SCI FI Channel series. Douglas Netter is executive producing the series along with Straczynski.

Hugh here again... Does this mean that we have to call the first series B5:TOS!?

Hugh





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"Sell your soul to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society... ASK ME HOW!"

[Cmmdr JT Wayland]

Hugh,
Any word on the transmission date yet? or I am being a bit premature?
From the sounds of it, it sounds like an extremely good series concept, and I now it goes without saying, also a very good RPG setting.
Another that thought that just occured to me, perhaps Decipher could buy the license to the show and if they had managed to buy the ICON system license from WOTC, publish a B5 RPG.
Any comments or suggestions on how much modification we would need to do the system in order to use it for the B-5 universe.

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"Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
Cmmdr JT Wayland
Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

[Sarge]

I might actually have to buy cable TV.

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<<<<

LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.

[Phantom]

Does any one know if this is strictly a SCI-FI channel project or will it be open for syndication. Don't get the SCI-FI channel where I'm from.

[qerlin]

I'm betting it'll be sci-fi int he States, prbably Space up in Canada...and I forget the station in Australia that's doing Farscape.

Oh, yeah...things are finally loking up big time for science fiction TV.

[Caretaker]

Anyone up for Decipher getting the rights to Babylon 5/Crusade/Rangers RPGs?

[Phantom]

Always, I'm a BIG fan of EarthForce.

[Phantom]

Always, I'm a BIG fan of EarthForce.

[Caretaker]

This was posted by regular Internet B5 poster Jim deMartino. He copied JMS' newsgroup announcement and put it on the Sci Fi B5 BBS:

http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/1957/2593

Well, that's at least ONE weight off my chest....

To those who've heard the news already, and those just now finding out...the
SciFi Channel today announced that we have a new Babylon 5 TV movie going into
production that will also serve as a pilot for a likely new series.

The movie (and the series) is under the heading of BABYLON 5: THE LEGEND OF THE
RANGERS. The specific title for the 2-hour movie's story is "To Live and Die
in Starlight."

There isn't much I can tell you about the story because we're kinda keeping the
details under wraps as much as possible for the time being. What little I can
say....

It's set in the B5 universe just under 3 years after the events of "Objects at
Rest." At this point there's one major character from the B5 universe in the
script (a fan favorite). Where B5 was a heavy drama with some adventure/action
elements, this one is a little more skewed toward adventure with underlying
drama (which is about what you'd expect from the Anla-Shok).

We've been sitting on this information for a while now...such that we're
already well into pre-production. We'll be shooting this movie around mid-May,
well in advance of any potential actor's strike (the script is done and so far
everybody likes it a LOT).

We've already got designs coming in on a new ship, and a new *kind* of
ship...and we're going to be getting more into Minbari aesthetics, technologies
and philosophy.

It's got some great characters, and it's a lot of fun.

I have other news to announce on other fronts...have since the end of the year,
in fact...but I'm still sitting on the details awaiting another press release
from another studio. What I *can* say is that I have a firm GO order to
executive produce a new series (nominally SF) that will go into production
after the potential SAG strike. When that's finally over, if the strike indeed
happens, we pull the trigger and go into principal photography and it's an
order for a full season's worth of episodes.

I can't give you any details right now on the subject, title, studio or
network. That will have to await the studio's release...so don't even ask.

As far as doing both projects at the same time is concerned...it's actually
quite common, as testified to by folks like John Wells and Aaron Sorkin and
David Kelly and others. So there won't be any conflict.

More later.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

[ChildrenofKhan]

Psi-Corp RULES!!!!!!!


Chekov/Bester in '04!

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"What Prime Directive?" Captain David Clark, Captain of the S.S. Exodus

[Aldaron]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by qerlin:
I'm betting it'll be sci-fi int he States, prbably Space up in Canada...and I forget the station in Australia that's doing Farscape.

Oh, yeah...things are finally loking up big time for science fiction TV.</font>

That'd be Foxtel...it's one of Rupert Murdoch's - since he owns half the world anyway, I don't think we'll have a problem getting "B5:Rangers" down here.

Thank God I got Foxtel hooked up in November!!!!



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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

[Treefrog]

I don't want to sound dumb, but wasn't a B5 rpg already published? Because every once in a while I see the Babylon 5 Security Manual, and if I'm not mistaken when I glanced through it, I saw rpg rules on creating characters in it.

As for a B5 Rangers series, didn't Mr. Strazynski produce a very short lived series once before?

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"Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war..."
-Chang (ST VI)

[Caretaker]

There WAS a B5 RPG, though the B5 Secruity Manual had nothing to do with it. The RPG was called The Babylon Project, and most adventures were supposed to occur in the eleven years from the Earth-Minbari War through season two of Babylon 5. It was published by Chameleon-Eclectic games. Unfortunately, the game and company went under after only putting out the Core book, the Narrator's book and the Earthforce sourcebook. Their website is now a porn site, by the way.

But the Rangers adventures are more natural for RPGing. Helping people affected by the Shadow War or helping find a cure for the Drakh plague, it fits together well.

With JMS' input, such a game would surely be a hit!

[qerlin]

Name of the other show was 'Crusade', treefrog. And though it only made it 13 episodes before TNT torpedoed it, it was a GOOD show. The unproduced episodes JMS published on bookface.com showed us where the technomages got their tech (the shadows), and explained some of the dirty tricks Earthforce was playing during the Civil War.

It'll be showing on sci-fi soon.

[Phantom]

What were these "dirty tricks" you mentioned that the EF used during the Civil War? Just checked the site bookface.com, but someone turfed it out of a airlock (no longer functioning).