Babylon 5: Season Four Crunch

[Mr Light]

Season Four and Five Spoilers Everyone.

So I was playing around with the episode lists to figure out how Season Four and Five would have been if JMS had known for sure he was getting renewed for the last year.

In a quote he said the first thing he did was throw out the 6 standalones at the top each season so I put those back in where possible. He's said "Into the Fire" would have been a two parter. He said "In the Beginning" was originally part of "Atonement" and not a seperate movie. There's "In Valen's Name", a comic book which was supposed to be an episode, where the crew discovers the ancient ruins of Babylon 4 being raided by aliens, and we get some Valen and Zathras during the First Shadow War flashbacks. And also the Minbari Civil War was also supposed to actually, yknow, have a war in it. I cut out "Deconstruction" since it was only invented when "Sleeping in Light" shifted to the new Season Five.

I think we can all agree that the endings of the Shadow War and Earth War were a little rushed, and that the Byron episodes took a little long. I only have THREE Byron episodes here!!!

I basically tried to copy the Season Three model of the biggest event taking place at the midpoint (Severed Dreams - Into the Fire - Endgame). The only liberty I took was JMS once said he would have made "Intersections" the Season Four Finale but that didn't really fit into my model.

4X1 Hour of the Wolf
Shadow War / Standalone 1
Shadow War / Standalone 2
Shadow War / Standalone 3
Shadow War / Standalone 4
Whatever Happened?
Summoning
Falling Towards Apotheosis
Long Night
Into the Fire Part One
4X11 Into the Fire Part Two
Epiphanies
Atonement / In the Beginning Part One
Atonement / In the Beginning Part Two
Racing Mars
Lines of Communication
Conflicts of Interest
In Valen’s Name (Babylon 4 & Valen)
Rumors Bargains Lies
Minbari Civil War Battle
Moments of Transition
4X22 No Surrender No Retreat

5X1 Exercise of Vital Powers
Face of the Enemy
Earth War / Standalone 1
Earth War / Standalone 2
Earth War / Standalone 3
Intersections in Real Time
Between Dark Light Part One
Between Dark Light Part Two
Long Night Londo
Endgame Part One
5X11 Endgame Part Two
Rising Stars
No Compromises
Kingdom of the Blind
Tragedy Telepaths / Phoenix Rising
Ragged Edge
Meditations Abyss / Darkness Ascending (cutting Lennier's asteroid training)
All My Dreams Torn Asunder
Movements Fire Shadow
Fall Centauri Prime
Objects in Motion / Objects at Rest
5X22 Sleeping in Light

 

[chrisspringob]

The only liberty I took was JMS once said he would have made "Intersections" the Season Four Finale but that didn't really fit into my model.

On at least one occasion, JMS actually said that he intended to make "Face of the Enemy" the Season 4 finale. (Looks like that was in script book 10: http://www.jmsnews.com/Forums/archive/index.php?t-2196.html )

It's possible that he was just misremembering that years after the fact though. Or maybe he never really had a firm idea of which story would close out the season until *after* the Season 4 crunch happened.

 

[Christopher]

Contrary to the mythology that's grown up around B5 (partly abetted by JMS himself, I think), he wouldn't have had it broken down episode-by-episode that far in advance. He was too smart for that. He had a general idea of the flow of events but kept it loose enough to be adaptable. His long-range plans were more in terms of overall plot and character arcs than an episode-by-episode plan.

I seem to recall him saying that a number of things he did in Season 5 were things he'd originally intended to save for Crusade or other movies. So a lot of S5 episodes wouldn't have happened in this hypothetical scenario, at least not in B5 itself.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I'd have loved to see the "ruins of Babylon 4" story...That would've made a great TV movie instead of River of Souls.

 

[Mr Light]

^^ It's in the 3 issue comic book mini series "In Valen's Name". It came around 1999 I believe. I'm pretty sure there's a trade paperback of it.

 

[Mr Light]

I realize he didn't break it down by episodes but by events. It's a fun puzzle to decode since the events were always in such flux for such a pre-planned show. There's A) the "Gathering" Plan. B) the Season One Plan (having lost Lyta, Dr. Kyle, Carolyn). C) The Season Two Plan (having lost Sinclair and gained Sheridan). D) The Season Four Crunch Plan. Not to mention that originally it going to be TWO different series and the Shadows and Clark wouldn't even be defeated until the sequel series and the first one ends with B5 being destroyed by the Shadows and them still being outcasts from their own government. Makes you wonder how he would have filled up those first five years!

 

[The Evil Dead]

^^ It's in the 3 issue comic book mini series "In Valen's Name". It came around 1999 I believe. I'm pretty sure there's a trade paperback of it.

Yeah, I've read the Lurker's Guide entries on the episodes. I just think it'd have been a really cool episode of the show.

 

[Christopher]

I realize he didn't break it down by episodes but by events. It's a fun puzzle to decode since the events were always in such flux for such a pre-planned show. There's A) the "Gathering" Plan. B) the Season One Plan (having lost Lyta, Dr. Kyle, Carolyn). C) The Season Two Plan (having lost Sinclair and gained Sheridan). D) The Season Four Crunch Plan.

With other variations along the way, for instance, dropping Talia and bringing back Lyta, and introducing new characters season by season (Keffer, Marcus, etc.). It was really a lot less pre-planned than the mythology would have it. He knew what major story arcs he wanted to happen and where he wanted things to end up, but kept coming up with new and refined ideas for how that actually unfolded, which characters participated and played what roles, what specific events led to the intended outcomes, etc. And when he came up with new characters that worked well, he expanded their roles and fit them into the overall arc. For instance, Vir was never expected to become as major a character as he did.

 

[Jan]

From what I can tell from his posts and the script books, the overall arc was preplanned and there were certain beats that JMS wanted to have happen at certain times but if something happened and the person he had originally figured would do X-thing wasn't available, he'd move things around so that he still got to the same place by a different route.

Lyta is a good example. She was supposed to be enhanced by the Vorlons after her contact with Kosh in the pilot but when they couldn't make a deal and ended up with Talia, JMS had to figure out how to make her a super-teep and so the Jason Ironheart story was conceived.

Other times threads that he'd planned to have done by one person would have to switch to somebody else. Originally Takashima was supposed to be the one to betray Garibaldi but when she didn't carry over to the series that thread went to Garibaldi's aide rather than just sticking with the female second in command.

And every once in a while threads had to be dropped. After the second actor to play Draal wasn't available, JMS had to let his plans for that character go rather than figure out a way to explain a second change in appearance.

So while there was meticulous planning, with the bare bones of episodes planned out well in advance, things were left loose enough so that real life could be adapted for and cool new ideas could be worked in.

Jan

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah it's a real shame the Great Machine didn't get used in the Shadow War. I would rather have a third recast of the actor than just have it disappear like that. But why couldn't they have just regressed to the original actor, who then went on to appear twice in Season Three as the monk?

 

[Jan]

Possibly because they'd already made a big deal about how his appearance had changed once, it would have taken up still more story time to try to explain the regression?

Personally, I preferred the actor as Brother Theo.

Jan

 

[Christopher]

From what I can tell from his posts and the script books, the overall arc was preplanned and there were certain beats that JMS wanted to have happen at certain times but if something happened and the person he had originally figured would do X-thing wasn't available, he'd move things around so that he still got to the same place by a different route.

That's right. Just the overall arc and certain key beats. Some people seem to have the idea that every single episode was planned out before the first frame of film was shot, and that's just not how it works.

Lyta is a good example. She was supposed to be enhanced by the Vorlons after her contact with Kosh in the pilot but when they couldn't make a deal and ended up with Talia, JMS had to figure out how to make her a super-teep and so the Jason Ironheart story was conceived.

And then JMS and Andrea Thompson had their falling out, so he wrote her out by giving her the "mole" plot he'd originally intended for Takashima, and then he brought back Lyta as he'd originally intended, rendering the whole Ironheart thing kind of pointless. Not to mention that it scuttled the Ivanova-Talia romance storyline before it had gone beyond a subtle hint or two.

So while there was meticulous planning, with the bare bones of episodes planned out well in advance, things were left loose enough so that real life could be adapted for and cool new ideas could be worked in.

I still think that's an overstatement. It wasn't planned at the episode-by-episode level, not until the time came to break each season in turn. Or at most the flow of events was loosely worked out with lots of room allowed for the inevitable changes. The idea that JMS would've broken five whole seasons at the level of individual episodes before the series even went into production is just ludicrous. He's way too smart for that. As he says in his own book on scriptwriting, "No plan ever survives an encounter with the enemy." He knew from the start that he would need to make constant adjustments in his concept, not only in response to external considerations, but due to the fact that he'd continue to get new ideas, rethink his plans, and see ways to make them better. That's what writers do. We keep coming up with new ideas. Hopefully they get better over time. So you don't start a series with the assumption that it will stay exactly as you plan it from the beginning. You go in expecting to refine it as you go. And the best approach is to keep it as loosely defined as possible so that you don't waste effort coming up with detailed plans that you later have to scuttle. And JMS knew that all along. His plan wasn't "meticulous," it was loose and adaptable. Which was exactly the right way to do it.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm a little surprised that in the decade it took him to get the show off the ground he didn't come up with more details. I've been making my own show as a hobby off and on for the past 15 years and I've had every single episode locked down and summarized for many many years now, and I've written random scripts of the more momentous events in the meantime. Sure the concept has drastically changed every few years but I still know exactly what's going to happen. Obviously when it would come time to write the entire thing in progression things would change, but...

 

[Jan]

I'm a little surprised that in the decade it took him to get the show off the ground he didn't come up with more details.

It took five years to sell the show. And he did come up with plenty of details, they just weren't locked into episodes until it came time to plan the season which was *after* they got the pick-up order. What he would do is keep notes on 'A' stories and 'B' stories with beats and snippets of dialogue and when the time came he would arrange them into episodes. While there was the famous triple-encrypted computer file, the main notes were kept on index cards in a binder in his office. It was those index cards that were lost at the convention in Blackpool the same weekend as Claudia left the show.

Jan

 

[Mr Light]

Wow, I didn't know that. I thought it was only his recently jotted down S5 notes or something. Did those things just disappear into the ether? Was there any surfacing of information from it on the internet from the thief?

 

[Jan]

Wow, I didn't know that. I thought it was only his recently jotted down S5 notes or something. Did those things just disappear into the ether? Was there any surfacing of information from it on the internet from the thief?

Not a thief, a hotel housekeeper. JMS had been put into a better room than was allowed so while he was at the con the hotel changed his room. In the process, the cards were thrown away. Despite trying to find them in the trash, they were gone.

Jan

 

[Forbin]

In Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, the Dreamlord's realm includes a library of every book ever not written. Any ideas that, say, H.G. Wells or Jaquiline Suzanne may have had but never managed to get around to, exists there as a completed book.

Somewhere on those shelves are the complete scripts to 5 years of B5 as it would have existed if everything had gone as planned.

And the sci fi novel I've been working on since high school.

How cool would that be?

 

[sidious618]

Somewhere on those shelves are the complete scripts to 5 years of B5 as it would have existed if everything had gone as planned.

That doesn't mean it would've been a better show, though. Sometimes changes along the way can be an improvement.

 

[Christopher]

I'm a little surprised that in the decade it took him to get the show off the ground he didn't come up with more details. I've been making my own show as a hobby off and on for the past 15 years and I've had every single episode locked down and summarized for many many years now, and I've written random scripts of the more momentous events in the meantime. Sure the concept has drastically changed every few years but I still know exactly what's going to happen. Obviously when it would come time to write the entire thing in progression things would change, but...

Yeah, but that's the key: it's your hobby. It's at your discretion how much effort you put into it, and the effort is its own reward. For a professional, the effort is something you get paid for, and so it makes sense to manage your resources -- to save your effort for the things you know you'll get paid for. A professional can't afford to expend time and effort coming up with details that he knows he might not be able to use. If you spend a lot of time coming up with details and have to throw them out, that's wasted time and lost income.

That's one of the first things I learned from my editor when I started writing Trek novels: don't begin writing until you get approval, until you know that what you write is going to get paid for. Otherwise you're wasting effort.

I used to do the same thing you talk about, come up with all sorts of details in advance for how I wanted a series to unfold, and then abandon most of them as time went on. Now I've learned to keep things looser and trust myself to come up with the specifics of the plot when the time comes -- in large part because I simply don't have time to work out that many details on a spec project in advance when I have other paying work to keep me busy.

Bottom line, writing as a profession is very, very different from writing as a hobby.

 

[Harvey]

Possibly because they'd already made a big deal about how his appearance had changed once, it would have taken up still more story time to try to explain the regression?

Personally, I preferred the actor as Brother Theo.

Jan

Now, correct me if I'm wrong Jan, but didn't the actor not return to the role of Draal because he had trouble with the make-up? I thought Straczynski went to the trouble of creating Brother Theo just so he could be brought back, sans make-up?