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Babylon 5: three seasons instead of five

I certainly think you could have done it in four seasons, JMS did such a good job of wrapping up the show when he thought it was cancelled (I think season 4 is actually my favourite, the need to condense things really has him focus and there's no Grey 17 is Missing style faff, everything is about building up to the big final) most of season 5 is not only redundant but quite bad as well.

And the good stuff, mostly around the fall of Centauri Prime and Londo, is still very nice, but considering the show as done still leaves various loose ends (either as a sign "Life goes on" or because JMS was expecting either Crusade or more TV-or even a theatrical-film to pick up on them) if the show had ended a year earlier without all those dots joined up I don't think it would have mattered that much.
 
Season 5 I kind of wish that the Telepath arc had been shortened and we had actually seen the Telepath War that was referred to in "Crusade".
 
Me too. The only good thing about the telepath arc was all the extra screen time Pat Tallman got.
 
Me too. The only good thing about the telepath arc was all the extra screen time Pat Tallman got.
*GASP* You didn't love the song? "We will all come together in a better place, a better place..." ;)

I didn't really mind the Telepath Arc, and I don't think it needed to be shortened, but, I do believe it would've definitely benefitted by being started earlier, slowly introduced at the end of S4 (While stretching the end of S4 Arcs into S5 a bit), as would have happened, had it not been for the threat of cancellation. The main problem with The Telepath Arc, I believe, is that it was out there by itself, front and center, as a cold start for S5, rather than being seemlessly blended into existing arcs. (And of course, we would've examined Ivanova's gift, had it not been for the cancellation screwing up communication for Claudia Christian being S5)
 
(And of course, we would've examined Ivanova's gift, had it not been for the cancellation screwing up communication for Claudia Christian being S5)

And again, though I missed Claudia, that foulup allowed more screen time for Pat, which made me happy.
 
A three-season "Babylon 5"? Sure, why not? After all, didn't JMS have a contingency plan for the show if it only ran three years instead of five.
 
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