Overall, the best sci fi show I’ve ever seen. Sure, I like Trek (for various reasons) - even managed to find glimmers in Voyager. But Bab 5 was better in many ways.
There were things that, in retrospect, were let downs. All the anticipation and the wrap up of the war with the Shadows was that? Talking all about “the Great Machine” on the planet, and all the technology hidden there, and then it never shows up again after season 2? I expected something from the weapons to be used in the Shadow war - nope.
I do think that JMS did a spectacular job adjusting his story to the unpredictable changes. First, the loss of Sinclair and having to create a new Captain, Sheridan. He surely didn’t anticipate that. In fact, I think his original storyline was to wait and not do the Bab 4 storyline (with the Great Machine and Valen) until the Finale. Look at what he did with Sheridan - getting “taken”. I’m convinced he intended that to be Sinclair going to be Valen. It makes even more symmetrical sense with D’Lenn being transformed to half human early, and then that energy being the transform later. So Sinclair would have had the 20 years or whatever living with a Minbari before becoming one. Look at the setup for that episode, and all the “Not The One” vs. “The One” stuff. Note how he had to somehow cobble up a three person “The One”. I thought that was pretty lame itself, but understood trying to make sense of what he’d already set up in the previous episode and all the later events.
Second, the departure of Talia Winters. Personally I thought the story excuse sucked big time. But the actress was leaving, he had to do something, and I liked the way he recovered by bringing back Lyta. He needed a telepath for the storyline, so his recovery was dragging her back, and using it as an excuse to build the TP/Vorlon connection. Nice recovery. Then was the questionable return for a fifth season. When he didn’t know it was going to happen, he struggled to compress the events for 2 seasons into one and isolate the key elements to end the story. Originally, I think the war would have lasted into season 5, and some of the other items would have been intermingled differently. I’m not sure, but it’s possible the whole TP storyline in season 5 was added because the other stuff was already concluded. And then in parallel was Claudia’s departure. He couldn’t kill her because he had already made the Finale where she’s alive in the future, so he had to give her a motivation to leave that was believable. Thus the death of someone close to her. And to make that more powerful, it was the sacrificial death.
dlb said:
That’s not the end of it. Claudia told the story. It began with a prank pulled on JMS by those two and a convention, where they arranged for the audience to greet him with silence. “And now, here’s JMS.” crickets So his revenge was that script. Eventually, at a convention in France Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurassic lip-locked for a couple minutes.
Along those lines, Claudia mentioned that JMS had an annoying habit of taking jokes of hers and making them happen. She said at one point she commented to him that Ivanova was too uptight, she should have sex with an alien or become a lesbian or something. Shortly thereafter was the Talia relationship. Similarly, she arranged with JMS to make a joke on Jason Carter (Marcus) that he was going to die. And then three weeks later they read the script where it happened.
(In case you haven’t guessed, she was at a convention not long ago that I attended.)
One comment about a way B5 is so much better than Trek - a military that actually seems like a military. They have real weapons. They actually use battle tactics. The closest thing to battle tactics in Trek is “evasive maneuvers”. Every once in a while they’ll make a coordinated attack, but that’s about it. 1. Take three hits. 2. Lose shields. 3. Fire back aimed at the enemy’s weapons. 4. “We’re being hailed.”
MGipson said:
Esprix said:
I asked her about that. First, when season 5 was not expected, she committed to doing a movie. Then season 5 was back on, she requested time off. Basically she wanted to do 8 of the 22 episodes. (Conveniently that’s how many Tracy Scoggins did.) Plus, she brought up the issue of the raise. Why? She was being paid beaucoups less than any of the other regulars. She was drastically underpaid compared to the others. So of course she wanted a raise. But JMS didn’t like her making those requests, and so he said no. She claims he’s a bit of an egomaniac. That’s her side of the story, anyway. Oh, there’s also a third reason she refuses to discuss with anyone - it’s personal.
As for her character moving on, the original idea was to have Ivanova take over B5. With her departure, he had to invent a way for a new character to be trusted by Sheridan so easily - and we get his third wife.
MGipson said:
Definitely agree.
whiterabbit said:
At the Houston con, she brought them, and was personalizing autographs. Everyone there would hear she was in Playboy and say “Wouldn’t it be funny to walk up and ask her to sign it?” Then I’d point out she brought them and was doing exactly that. Kinda ruins the joke.