Babylon 5 always finds a way back.
From even its earliest days, the series, created by J. Michael Straczynski, fought for every step. The result was a highly influential five-year series that sought to tell a tale with a defined beginning, middle, and end. It accomplished that, inspiring the trend toward serialized storytelling that followed. But as Straczynski stated back in the early days of the Internet, he worked out the history of B5‘s universe 1000 years in either direction, which means he can continue to tell stories in that setting provided the will is there on Warner Bros’ part. And, this time, it was Warner Bros. Animation who approached him with a chance to bring the series to animation with Babylon 5: The Road Home.
Because Straczynski wrote the film under the auspices of The Animation Guild, he was able to appear at Comic-Con International: San Diego to discuss the film alongside director Matt Peters this past Saturday. Sadly, as the voice cast were hired under SAG agreements, the current strike for better pay, AI protections, and clearer accounting meant the stars, like Bruce Boxleitner, could not make it down for the weekend. But as anyone who has ever seen JMS speak, he is a star all his own.
Picking up a few weeks after Boxleitner’s John Sheridan settles on the planet Minbar and assumes his duties as president of the Interstellar Alliance, a tachyon accident sends him careening through time and possibility. But Straczynski was quick to say it’s not necessarily a spin around the Multiverse. “I didn’t want to do Sheridan as a bunny rabbit. That’s going to happen in the sequel,” he joked. Instead of more standalone alternate realities, he wanted to explore “how different events would’ve unspooled in alternate timelines” with the Sheridan fans know as their guide.
“The fans all know how everything went in the show,” he continued. “So my thought was ‘let’s tweak it to one side and see what if it didn’t work out that way.'” Changes both small and grandiose occur as Sheridan tries to find his way back to the original series’ timeline.
Straczynski also referred to the film as a “joyful noise” and a celebration of the series and its fans. “[They’ve been] waiting patiently for something new in the Babylon 5 universe since the early Cretaceous Period. Here is your reward for all that patience and time and for being supportive.”
And as anyone who saw the film during its two screenings at Comic-Con, it is indeed a celebration of all things Babylon 5 — including actors from the original series who are, sadly, no longer with us. Since the program concluded in 1998, series regulars Andreas Katsulas, Richard Biggs, Michael O’Hare, Jerry O’Doyle, Richard Biggs, Jeff Conaway, Stephen Furst and key guest star Tim Choate all passed away. To Straczynski, continue on without them required the approval of the surviving cast members.
“Before I even wrote the first word of the script, I sent an email to all the cast members saying, ‘You may have to work with an actor who is playing one of our fallen friends. And if there’s anyone here who has a problem with that, who was not comfortable with that, we will not do this,'” he explained. The actors — which include Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Tracy Scoggins, Bill Mumy, Patricia Tallman, and Peter Jurasik — all said yes because “what they wanted to do was to offer this up as a testimony to those fallen friends.”
Both Straczynski and Peters agreed the best way to recast the roles was not to seek out impressions of the original actors, but find performers who “captured the essence of the character and the feeling of the character,” as Straczynski put it.
“[They] embellish the characters so that those characters could live on,” Peters added. And without giving away too much, we can say Phil LaMarr‘s take on Biggs’s Dr. Stephen Franklin is truly remarkable.
Straczynski continued, “All the actors who came on board understood the magnitude of their task to represent these fallen friends, and they really worked awfully hard to really create that stability.”
But the actors who do return also give fine performances, even if they were unsure they could recapture the sound of the characters at first. According to Peters, Jurasik in particular worried whether or not he could find the iconic Londo Mollari voice without taking the time to put “the whole headgear on, the makeup and everything.” The director even had a few key scenes from the original series queued up just in case, but within moments, Jurasik was back in character and ready to say “Mr. Garibaldi!” into the microphone.
Since the original series was set-bound — famously filmed at a former hot tub factory in Sun Valley, CA — with its vistas created via early attempts at computer effects and animation, Straczynski also saw the film as a way to open up the universe a little bit more. “[I told the animation team] feel free to not be precious about what we did. Keep the gist of it, keep the sensibility of it, keep the logic and the science behind it. But when you get down to the actual design elements, feel free to play.”
“I think [the film] is a very great stylized version of the show,” Peters said. “We have an opportunity to expand on the visual look of the show. We get a chance to be able to really embellish it with visual effects that maybe weren’t affordable to the original series. And we’re picking up right where season five left off. So you’re able to actually continue the story, but then come on board if you hadn’t seen the show before.”
“It was just an opportunity to celebrate it, just be able to make it look more fantastic,” he added.
As a newcomer to the Babylon 5 experience, Peters binged-watched the series and took note of classic creature designs — like the Narn and the Pak’Ma’ra — and details like Boxleitner being left-handed. Consequently, Sheridan is also left-handed, and his wrist-affixed communication device is placed on the right hand throughout the film to maintain that visual continuity with the show. But in doing the research, he became a great fan of the show and anticipates sitting down for a second watch with his wife. He also expects he will do regular rewatches, like he learned many other fans do every five years or so.
Those rewatches — and the way the original series cycles onto streaming platforms — help keep interest in the show alive and, as Straczynski mentioned, brings new people to Babylon 5. “We’ve been adding new fans consistently for a very long time,” he said. “I meet kids in college now or younger who grew up on the show and they’re as fanatical as their parents are, and I’m deeply sorry for that.”
Straczynski’s brand of humor is also in display in Babylon 5: The Road Home, which comes to disc and digital platforms on August 15th.
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