Failed Babylon 5 Projects: Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers
Ubiquitous
In January 2002, the Sci FI Channel aired an original, two hour, TV
movie titled Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. The TV movie was
intended as a backdoor pilot for a Babylon 5 spin-off series which never
materialised on the cable network. So what was the TV movie, and the
proposed series, about and why wasn�t the project ordered to series?
Origins
In April 2000, the Sci Fi channel acquired the rights to Babylon 5 and
spin-off series Crusade. When re-runs of Babylon 5 episodes began airing
on the cable network, they frequently outperformed the Sci Fi Channel�s
own original series in the ratings. Realising that there may in fact be
a market for more Babylon 5, Sci Fi executives approached J Michael
Straczynski in the spring of 2001 to see if he had any ideas for a new
project.
Straczynski had, since before the spin-off series Crusade, wanted to
create a series that focused on the activities of the Rangers. In fact,
his initial treatments for Crusade featured the Rangers searching for a
cure for the Drakh plague rather than a crew from earth, but that
initial treatment was turned down by TNT, who preferred a human centric
series.
After suggesting a Ranger centric project, the Sci Fi Channel
commissioned an outline, which Straczynski turned in some 48 hours
later. The network then commissioned a full script which was handed in
two weeks later. The reason for the quick turn around for both the
outline and the script was the possibility of a Writers Guild of America
strike which never happed. The network was very enthusiastic about
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers after reading the completed script
for the TV movie and almost immediately green-lit its production, which
commenced in May 2001 in Vancouver, Canada.
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers
The TV movie was written by J Michael Straczynski with Doug Netter and
Straczynski serving as executive producers on the project. Babylon 5:
The Legend of the Rangers starred Dylan Neal, Andreas Katsulas, Alex
Zahara, Myriam Sirois, Dean Marshall, Warren Takeuchi, Jennie Rebecca
Hogan, Mackenzie Gray, David Storch, Enid Raye-Adams and Gus Lynch.
Despite receiving star billing in the TV movie, Andreas Katsulas was
intended to be a recurring character on the series.
The TV movie itself revolves around David Martell, a Ranger who has been
disgraced after he disregarded one of the key tenants of the Rangers by
retreating from battle. After G�Kar speaks on his behalf, a decision is
made that Martell will not be kicked out of the Rangers and will,
instead, be given command of a vessel. Martell and his crew are then
assigned as the escort to another Ranger vessel, the Valen, which is
ferrying a party of ambassadors, including G�Kar, to a security briefing
on Beta Durani 7.
But when they arrive at the planet, they are intercepted by a powerful
and largely unknown alien race known only as �The Hand� who destroy both
the Valen and the planet below. Shortly prior to the destruction of the
Valen, the ambassadors and other diplomats flee the vessel, taking
refuge on board the Liandra. Now Martelll must fight off this new
powerful enemy in order to get the ambassadors back to Minbar in one
piece.
The proposed series would have revolved around the crew of Martell�s
ship, the Liandra, as they perform their duties for the Interstellar
Alliance and try to find out more about The Hand and the the threat they
may pose.
Interesting piece of trivia: In an interview J Michael Straczysnki
revealed that written in Minbari around the set of the Liandra were
various phrases such as "B5 lives!", "Joe's script locker" and, at the
request of Straczysnki himself due to the way the network had handled
Crusade, "F*** TNT!"
To Live and Die in Starlight?
There has been some confusion as to the actual title of the TV movie as
two names began circling in the summer of 2001; Babylon 5: The Legend of
the Ranger and To Live and Die in Starlight. JMS later clarified that if
the project received a series order from Sci Fi the title of the series
would be Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers while the pilot movie
would be titled To Live and Die in Starlight.
What Went Wrong?
There appears to be a multitude of reasons as to why Sci Fi opted not to
pick up Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers to series. Part of it was
corporate problems between Warner Brothers and the Sci Fi Channel and
part of it was the ratings for the TV movie and, believe it or not, the
two are more connected that you might think.
Let�s start with the corporate problems between Warner Brothers and the
Sci Fi Channel. When Straczynski laid out his outline for the project,
the Sci Fi channel approached Warner Brothers, who would own The Legend
of the Rangers, to license the series. Warner Brothers asked for, what
the Sci Fi channel considered to be, a large amount of money to license
the series. As such Sci Fi executives countered by suggesting that
rather than producing the project as a pilot, they produced it as a one
off TV movie, with the understanding that if Sci Fi liked what they saw
they would enter into good faith negotiations to acquire the series.
Now the ratings. Sci Fi scheduled Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers
to air on September 19, 2002. Unfortunately, the TV movie was competing
in it�s time slot against a major NFL game and, as such, delivered lower
ratings than Sci Fi had anticipated. The numbers Sci Fi had expected
were 2.6 million viewers or more, while due to the football game, the TV
movie averaged only 1.7 million viewers. The low ratings, coupled with
the high licensing fee Warner Brothers required, meant that the Sci Fi
channel could not justify picking up the project to series.
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