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Gavin
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Well, I didn’t put an update in yesterday because I didn’t get time. Turned out to be a pretty hectic day all in all.

So what’s new? Well, I wanted to write a quick post regarding the cancellation of a Babylon 5 Theatrical movie that I heard about on Slashdot last night.

For someone who’s been a fan of Babylon 5 since it was first aired on Channel 4 in England way back in the early 90’s, I at first found it a bit of a bummer that “The Memory of Shadows” would never grace our screens. However, on deeper reflection I have to say that this is actually not a bad thing. First of all, the series just wouldn’t be the same without Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs passed away last year). This was sad news as he was one of my favorite characters. Also, Hollywood want to see a scifi movie have “big name actors”, and there was some discussion about recasting key characters with bigger names. Sure, many of the actors in B5 weren’t A-List actors, but they really made the best of the characters and made me believe in them as real people. They made the characters their own, and without their continued input I just couldn’t see it working well.

Besides, JMS has always excelled at producing extended stories (like the 5 year arc in B5)… a 2 hour movie would either (a) only appeal to die-hard fans with original actors and characters, or (b) be only a movie set in the B5 universe with new characters, and JMS has never exactly excelled at creating a whole new universe in 2 hours. Legend of the Rangers was close… but not quite.

Just my thoughts this Sunday morning.

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