J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 has led the modern sci-fi series into the realms of being too complicated, confusing for newcomers and an inconvenience to watch, if you are to believe Jonathon Wright of The Guardian.

Whilst seemingly whining about the fact that the upcoming Torchwood: Children of Earth is a five-part story arc, Wright managed to weave in a reference to Babylon 5, laying blame at the feet of B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski for, believe it or not, leading the charge that has made any sci-fi series with a story arc potentially worth boycotting.

From The Guardian:

Personally, I blame J Michael Straczynski. Back in the early 1990s, Straczynski, or JMS as fans know him, created Babylon 5. When it was first shown on Channel 4, it looked like a science-fiction series about a space station. The CGI was a bit shonky, but it passed the time.

Inexorably, though, it became clear that JMS, a control freak who wrote 92 of the show’s 110 episodes himself, had an overarching vision. It involved a portentous brew of big themes – politics, destiny, war, peace, love. If you tried to start watching Babylon 5 with series three, you were left hopelessly confused.

It’s not just that story arcs are confusing for newcomers. Following the Babylon 5 template, they inevitably become sluggish and slow, weighed down by the baggage of past events.

To be honest, I’m not sure if Wright sincerely dislikes story arcs or if his article is actually a form of tongue in cheek sarcasm.  I imagine, from some of his other comments, that his view is a mixture of both.

I’d love to say I’ll be boycotting the [Torchwood: Children of Earth], but as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’d be fibbing. Still, I want to put down a marker: the next time a new science-fiction series comes along, I’m bailing out at the first hint of a story arc. Except (and you’d guess producers know this too) it’ll be too late by then – I’ll be hooked.

Whether his article is meant to be serious or not, I have only one comment of my own:

Three cheers for J. Michael Straczynski.

Source: The Guardian via io9

Transmorphers 2 poster (left), starring Bruce Boxleitner (right)

The Asylum have released the trailer to their Transmorphers sequel, Transmorphers 2: Fall of Man.

Yes, this movie is designed to capitilize on Transformers and yes, its straight-to-dvd release on June 30 is timed to coincide closely with the theatrical release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But you know, they don’t hide the fact so more power to them.

You might be surprised to learn that Babylon 5 and Tron star Bruce Boxleitner is in this movie.

Watch the trailer now:

If you’re interested, the entire original Transmorphers film has been available on YouTube for some time now.

You can preorder Transmorphers 2: Fall of Man at Amazon in time for its June 30 release.

NASA’s poll to seek input from the public to help them name the International Space Station’s Node 3 has now closed. 

Joss Whedon’s fan base has exerted itself to ensure that ‘Serenity‘ ended with a massively clear lead – 70% of all the votes cast.

Node 3 is a connecting module and cupola that once attached will allow astronauts a full panoramic view unrivalled by any spacecraft in history.  They’ll be able to observe and photograph Earth like never before.  The cupola will also contain a robotics workstation where astronauts will control the Space Stations robotic arm.

Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the Node 3 components during the STS-130 mission targeted for February 2010. 

NASA will announce the winning name in April 2009, although it would seem it’s a foregone conclusion…

All we need now is for them to change the name of the Space Sation to ‘Babylon 1′ and our task will be complete.

Here’s the sci fi news for the last few days that never made it to a full article, all in a nice neat summarized nutshell.  As usual, there’s no spoilers so read on safely:

Day One – NBC have given the green-light to a new pilot titled Day One.  Day One is sci-fi drama creation of Jesse Alexander (Heroes/ Alias / Lost).  The pilot will follow a group of survivors as they struggle in a post-apocalyptic Earth to both survive and discover the cause of the catastrophic event that has decimated the planet.  Sounds similar to Jericho on face value, but since there’s very little information available at this time, we’ll have to wait and cross our fingers for some originality.

Stargate Universe – Michael Shanks, aka Dr. Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1 looks set to make a cameo in Stargate Universe.  In an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire he said, “I talked to [executive producer] Brad Wright a couple of weeks ago, and he asked me if I’d be interested in doing a cameo in the Universe pilot, and I of course said I would be.  And there’s a great deal of talk about [it]. … They’ve got a script going and everything like that.”  However according to Gateworld it will most likely be a small part early on in the pilot given that there has been no indication that Daniel Jackson will join the crew of the ancient ship Destiny.  Makes sense. 

Forbidden Planet -  A remake of the popular 1956 film is on its way from Warner Brothers and the latest news is James Cameron (Aliens / The Abyss/ Terminator) has his eyes on the directors chair.  This would put Cameron in collaboration with J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5 / Changeling) who has written the story for the film.  Read the rest of this entry »

It has been fifteen years since Babylon 5 first aired on television and a decade since its five year story-arc ran its course.  The series has gathered thousands of fans and spawned some very average made-for-tv movies (although Babylon 5: In the Beginning was excellent).  In 2007 its creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) was handed a smallish $2M to produce a series of new Babylon 5 tales titled, well, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.  These didn’t go so well and in the end JMS announced to the world that he was putting Babylon 5 to rest.  Well sort of.

Just like the rest of us, JMS was happy with the original five year story of Babylon 5 and after receiving low budgets for all the B5 follow ups he decided subsequent B5 productions were doing more harm than good to the series.  With The Lost Tales not doing so well thanks in part to too small a budget, JMS decided that further B5 material would work against B5 than for.  He announced that he’d no longer go down the B5 path unless in the form of a big budget B5 movie.  No big budget movie, no more new B5.  For most fans, that news was taken as the nail in the coffin for the franchise.

But the nail may have just been pulled out.  JMS is the man behind the screenplay for Changeling and if you haven’t heard, Changeling has been nominated for a BAFTA award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.  Also, although not nominated for a screenplay Oscar, Changeling has received three Academy Award nominations.  Further, JMS has written the script for Forbidden Planet and it seems his script is something special (even James Cameron is taking notice).  All these new developments and as luck would have it, attention has now turned JMS’s way. Read the rest of this entry »