By GustavoLeao / 12:10, 9 September 2007 / General Genre/SciFi

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The latest issue of Starburst magazine, out in the UK, features an exclusive interview with Babylon 5 producer J. Michael Straczynski, in which he talks about the direct-to-DVD movie Babylon 5 The Lost Tales. Here are few excerpts from the interview.

At one point, you were hoping to do a B5 feature, but that fell through. How did The Lost Tales come together ?

JMS : There were a couple of brief conversations about a feature film, but I didn't pursue one because a prior experience didn't work out too well and in the intervening period of time we lost Andreas (Katsulas) and Richard (Biggs). And I said to Warners that I really can't wrap my brain around a film as long as Andreas and Rick insist on staying dead. So, I said 'Well, what about doing a series of short stories centred around our surviving characters, those that are still with us ? Sort of an anthology kind of thing, a half hour to a hour per person ? In two hour increments ? We'd call it The Lost Tales. And they thought about it and said 'All right'. I said 'Good, I'll write it and produce and because it's the first one up and no one's done B5 in a while, I'll direct it. And they said 'OK'. Then I said 'I dont want any interference'. I wanted to do it my way. They said 'OK'. And that was that.

How pleased are you with the finished product ?

JMS : It's all turned in and done and I'm very, very happy with it. It looks very cool. We have about 200 effects shots in it. The station looks more real than it ever has before. The characters work very nicely. The mystery is there in some of it.  Crusade had its own feel and Rangers had its own feel, but this feels like Babylon 5, like we've gone back to it and opened that door again. So, to me, it's very satisfying. It feels like what the show should feel like. I think the fans who are eager to get more of that universe will be very happy with it.

Are you thinking about the next stories [for the next DVD] ? Would a Garibaldi story be in the mix if there's another DVD ?

JMS : Yeah, if we do another one I would definitely put the Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) story in and probably a Londo (Peter Jurasik). That would be my preference for the next two [...].

To read the full article, get the new issue of Starburst Magazine at your local newsstand.