Sci-Fi Storm

-Tim Fleming

January 10, 2005

The ?Buck? stops at Warner Brothers

Vigilant fans today unveiled the second phase of their effort to
convince Warner Brothers to cast the original actors from the popular
five-year television series, “Babylon 5,” in the upcoming
franchise-based film ?The Memory of Shadows.? After leaks in December
indicated that familiar roles were to be recast with new actors (akin
to recasting someone else as Captain Kirk in “Star Trek: The Motion
Picture”), fans of the highly-regarded science fiction series created
by J. Michael Straczynski burned up the internet with their
displeasure. One particular message board registered more than 11,000
messages in a thread dedicated to complaints about the proposed
recasting.

Original cast members of “Babylon 5” include Bruce Boxleitner (long
known to tv fans from “Scarecrow and Mrs. King”), Mira Furlan
(currently featured in ABC’s runaway hit, “Lost”), Andreas Katsulas
(most famously the one-armed man in 1993’s “The Fugitive” with Harrison
Ford), Peter Jurasik (beloved as Sid the Snitch on “Hill Street
Blues”), Tracy Scoggins (the sultry-voiced, athletic beauty remembered
from “The Colbys” and “Dynasty”), and Peter Woodward (well known to
fans of ancient weaponry from his History Channel program, “Conquest”).

In this second-wave effort, fans designed “Babylon 5 Bucks” – funny
money intended for printing and sending to Warner Bros. as a reminder
and veiled warning about the potential income the fanbase can generate
for – or keep from – them. Warner Bros. rushed out the DVD boxsets of
the last four years of the 1993-1998 television show in a series of
rapid releases after what were reported as “staggering” sales of the
first season set. Clearly, the potential income in the hands of the
fans is indeed significant, and the studio has shown that this
particular audience is on their radar.

The “Babylon 5 Bucks,” and instructions for letter writing, can be
found at the main bastion of the campaign, the KeepB5Alive website
(www.keepb5alive.com). One such buck is a fanciful, futuristic design
of a credit chit that might have been used on the station itself,
containing a promise to Warner Bros. that the bearer will buy “at least
one ticket” to see the new film; the other is a set of five phony
million-dollar bills featuring actors from the original series and the
motto, “In Support of the Original Actors.”

Fans all over the vast reaches of the internet community are being
urged to send in their “Babylon 5 Bucks” and a letter to Warner Bros.
right away, in order to display graphically to the studio execs
returning to work after their holiday break that the fans of “Babylon
5” are willing, and eager, to put their money where their mouths are.