So this is not Sword and Sorcery. But B5 was a great television series in the 90’s. It was groundbreaking in having a defined story arc for its entire run, and the tightness of the continuity during that run. With very few exceptions, you can tell where any given episode falls in the timeline of its 5 year span, because the status quo on the show changed every few weeks.
That was why I loved it from the first season, when it was still rough but you could see that it was not just hinting, but building toward something epic. Ultimately, it all felt rushed toward the end of the fourth season, when it was not going to get renewed for its last year and the show’s creator, Joe Straczynski, moved events forward and compressed them so that the main storyline would be resolved, and the fans would not be left hanging.
The fifth season was ultimately renewed, on a different network, and a rather disappointing series of storylines rounded out the saga as it all felt like filler. But that might be fodder for another time.
There had been a few projects after the main series wrapped up, and some of them were OK, but none matched the granduer of that initial 4 season run.
Fast forward 30ish years. There were a few teases and hints there was something else in the pipeline, and a few weeks ago the trailer for a new animated movie dropped. I watched it on youtube, and saw a few reactions.
It is the easiest thing in the world to be negative. And I am about to do the easiest thing in the world.
The premise of the movie is that John Sheridan, the central character from the series, has become lost in space-time and must find his way back to his own reality through a series of alternate realities and what if scenarios.
This stinks.
The basis of the series was that every episode counts. It all happens, and it all affects the larger storyline. That was what made the show great.
This movie is going to be filled with meaningless scenarios with no impact on the greater story at all. We know what happens, we already saw the culmination in the last episode of the series (which had actually been filmed as the last episode of the fourth season, but got pushed to the end of the fifth upon the season’s renewal).
Sheridan lives.
There is absolutely no chance he will be lost in space time, and absolutely no chance any of these what if scenarios will matter to the B5 universe.
I get it, we get to hear his voice, and those of the surviving actors in their iconic roles again. And that is worth it to a lot of people.
But to me, this is a flaccid, meaningless coda to one of the greatest series that ever graced the small screen. It goes against everything that made the series what it was.