Babylon 5: The Road Home (animated tribute film sort of)

[JasonPratt]

Warner Brothers and original showrunner/writer J Michael Straczynski teamed up last year for a sort of tribute film to Babylon 5 (perhaps due to rumors of a possible reboot), called The Road Home. I didn't get around to it last year, but finally watched it tonight. At 79 minutes (including end credits), it sure doesn't overstay its welcome, but despite some catastrophic destruction neither is it very meaningful -- because the destruction is timey wimey alt history that happens entirely by accident.

The main point of the plot is almost explicitly "don't you remember loving this series and its characters, and you'd like to see them again?" Most of the surviving actors return to their roles, and get to hang around together in various scenarios. The faux voice actors subbing in for departed cast, are variable in quality, either absolutely or between (sometimes within) scenes. The plot is whoops, there was an accident that Commander Sheridan shouldn't have been around without special protection, but he and his wife truly love each other so don't worry the entire universe won't end. (Which doesn't really make much sense in JMS' cosmology for the show, but I appreciate the idea.) Animation art design is mostly good, although figure animation gets very janky at times, and character designs often only vaguely resemble the characters even at the time frame the movie is set in. If anyone likes Zathras (excuse me, I think this one is Zaaa-thras), he's a hoot as usual. A Lost In Space joke is made, but not by Bill Mumy oddly enough. (When I say this joke is made, I mean EXCPLITLY ABOUT THE TELEVISION SERIES, as an acknowledgment that B5 is also a TV show, as a 4th wall break.)

There are plot holes and overconvenient timing which also sometimes serves to pad out the running time here and there.

I realize I sound rather ambivalent about it. That's because I am!  You get an animation budget to produce an extended episode or two-parter (in effect), and didn't bother with a better story than this, J? Okay you can throw a moon at a planet now, but it overtly doesn't mean anything in the end, so... the final scene isn't even set in the main storyline but is just an excuse to sightsee the characters being charactery for three minutes. Sure it's nice, but I can do that by watching my discs sometime.

Hard C. If you like the series, and want to see a lightweight tribute by the cast and showrunner, I recommend finding it streaming somewhere, ideally for free (with commercials), or a cheap rent. I can easily imagine watching any of the real episodes again, even the admittedly poor ones; but not this. I'll probably throw it away rather than take up a slot I could use for saving something else.

And that's sad.

[Destraex]

I have been meaning to watch Bab5 again and crusader I think it was with the new graphics.
But have been watching the 90s star trek tv series instead. Why does the old stuff feel so good? The new stuff for most shows just feels awful.

[JasonPratt]

Mostly better writing. Maybe because the writers are people who really lived, back then.

Consider how epic the original Land of the Lost truly was, especially when watched in its proper sequence (though deferring the finale of Season One to the end of Season Two), created as a joint project by seasoned Star Trek alumni for the most part -- compared to any of its attempted reboots. A lot of writing for genre spec today amounts to the same loose trite tripe as would have been expected for LotL originally and which was produced for its reboot attempts eventually.

But the times have poisoned even good writers from back then. I can enjoy and appreciate RTD's Doctor Who and JMS' Bab5 back then despite ideological disagreements; I can still enjoy them today. Their work today, not so much. That's a damned shame, but not from lack of wanting to on my side.

[Redwolf]

Why does the old stuff feel so good? The new stuff for most shows just feels awful.

Internal consistency within the show gets thrown out in favor of fistfights and flashy effects.

Science fiction in particular is vulnerable to this. Storytelling is about what people do to deal within the constraints of a particular environment. If you constantly change that environment with cross-starsystem transporters or whatever you invalidate the decisions and hence the characters.

[JasonPratt]

Similar problems with magic; when I was writing my novels, I had to keep notes about what various characters could and could not do (maybe yet).