So I started watching "Babylon 5" for the first time.

Why are you here?

Where are you going?

Do you have anything worth living for?

Who do you serve? and Who do you trust?

 

Let me just say, if you have the time to watch season one again after season four, and you'll see what an incredible job of world building was done in that first season.

 

^Totally true. And you watch it with new eyes, it's wonderful.

 

Been doing a bit of re-watching B5 myself as Watch are re-running it in the UK. Still in season one.

 

Man, this thread has me pondering a B5 Re-watch myself. It's been a good decade since the last time I did it so it's about time. Maybe I'll start it after I finish the Farscape Re-watch I just began a few weeks ago.

 

Also been doing a bit of a Farscape re-watch as well. Just towards the end of S1 of that show

 

Two words of foreshadow, my friend -

"Londo's penises".

Yup.

 

And Narn "breen".

Every race has their version.

 

Spoo

 

One version of the story, which makes total sense to me (though not sure if it's now proven not true, since we've been told now of O'Hare's illness), was that JMS came to realize that there was simply too much Arc for only a single character, and he had to introduce Sheridan at some point, anyways (though it might have been later, had Michael O'Hare not left the show after S1), because there was no way Sinclair could be used for everything he had in mind for the Lead.

 

^IIRC JMS's original plan was actually for ten years with the first five years about the rise of the Shadows and the second half with a timeskip in between about Sinclair and Delenn fighting the Shadows and their Centauri pawns in the future briefly alluded to in Babylon Squared.

It was a mutual parting apparently Michael O'Hare the actor had a very unfortunate history of mental illness and drug abuse.

 

There was *no* drug abuse involved. For the full story as told by JMS at the B5 20th anniversary celebration in Phoenix last year, here's an audio file of the entire panel. https://soundcloud.com/janmschroeder/pcc-promise-panel


Start at about 26:30 for JMS discussing Rick Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway (it's he who had addiction issues) and Michael O'Hare.


Jan

 

Just the mental illness, no drug problem.

 

I've never heard anything about a TEN YEAR series.

I VERY clearly recall JMS relaying the story about execs offering the actors a standard six year contract and JMS's gleeful retort that they would only need FIVE year contacts, as there was no story after year five.

So confident was he that that would be it.

 

There was an outline that JMS wrote between the Pilot and the first season which was published in Volume 15 of the B5 script books and it specified two series. Many things were the same as what we got but the biggest difference (aside from the change in commanders) was that B4 was taken into the future and was a base when the Minbari conflict re-ignites. The second series would have been called "Babylon Prime". No telling when he jettisoned much of that story but very likely O'Hare's illness was part of it.

Jan

 

Ummm...Guys, it's probably my fault for taking us into this tangent, but, let's not forget this a First Time Watch Thread, with the OP barely into Season 2, so, we should be careful what we reveal.

There's a Sentence or two (Maybe even 3?) in the posts since my last reply, that I would Spoiler, if they were my posts

 

I'm halfway through season 2...stuff be gettin real now yo...some sinister things going on at earth, but those ships that attacked the Narn colony, damn that was a heartbreaker, Londo is not on my like list right now, and poor Capt. Sheridan, just got there and he's being thrown into the Intergalactic Woodchipper. The part about having to "Rent" their quarters was hilarious. I love the detail of this show, I can see where Mass Effect got alot of it's inspiration from. I'm really liking this shor alot better than DS9, and I am a fan of DS9.

 

As people have said, TP, the Shakespearean sub-title for B5 would be 'The tragedy of Londo Mollari.' His mistakes, weaknesses and regrets are the story.

 

Agreed there are some lines that are boarding on being spoilerish.

 

You know, I STILL don't see that. I've been hearing how "Babylon 5 is really the story of Londo Mollari" for years now, and I just can't see it. I finished a re-watch of my B5 (and Crusade) DVD sets two weeks ago, and this time, mindful of that, I was watching for it, but I didn't see it. Babylon 5 is as much about Sinclair and Sheridan (and everybody else) as it is about Londo.

JMS said that he wanted Babylon 5 to do for science fiction what Hill Street Blues did for cop shows, and as far as that goes, yes, I see that comparison, but the whole "Babylon 5 is really Londo's story" just escapes me. It seems to me to be more about the esemble as a whole than any one character in particular.