Babylon 5 'what if' question

[Jan]

The reason why JMS decided to make the change was in large part because hanging both the Minbari connection *and* the Shadow connection on Sinclair would simply have stretched the realms of possibility. He's said repeatedly that Anna and Sakai couldn't have fulfilled the same functions.

That's interesting. But then what WAS Sakai's purpose? I was mildly annoyed that they put her in peril in a plot completely unrelated to Sinclair and started to build up a relationship with G'Kar but as soon as Sinclair exited stage left she vanished as if she no longer had a purpose? It looked to me that they had been sowing the seeds for the Anna Sheriden plot and just dumped Sakai when she could no longer fulfill that role. I would have preferred it if she had been given one final guest appearance to complete her personal arc even if her ultimate fate remained unknown.

I think that's one of those things there was just never time of budget to do in the show since they had to ramp up again introducing the new captain. Sakai's fate is mostly covered in the novel "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" by Kathryn Drennan (at the time, Mrs. JMS). I highly recommend it.

Jan

 

[JoeD80]

It looked to me that they had been sowing the seeds for the Anna Sheriden plot and just dumped Sakai when she could no longer fulfill that role.

I think the only way this could work is if Sakai was already infected by Shadow implants, because the Shadow excavation on Mars already took place (Garibaldi's adventure with Sinclair on Mars mentioned in "Infection" takes place at the time of the Mars excavation) and the Shadows were running recon from Z'ha'dum in the first season (Morden is already converted to their side).

I would have preferred it if she had been given one final guest appearance to complete her personal arc even if her ultimate fate remained unknown.

Garibaldi mentions Sakai's disappearance in season 5 while in the Fresh Aire restaurant, noting how everything goes wrong when he eats there.

 

[DigificWriter]

Bringing up Anna Sheridan made me think of another thing that would probably change, at least pacing-wise, if Sheridan were part of the series from the beginning. Anna's death probably wouldn't happen until at least early S2, and Anna herself would probably have at least a couple of appearances on the series during S1 so as to develop and demonstrate the relationship between her and Sheridan so that we, as an audience, felt for Sheridan when he learned of his wife's death.

 

[JoeD80]

She was already dead even before the first season though. The timeline doesn't work out because Morden wouldn't be working for the Shadows unless Anna was already dead or if the plot was changed to where they didn't know each other and weren't on the same ship together or if we met Morden pre-Shadows as well.

 

[Reverend]

I had just assumed that Sakai would have originally been killed or captured by the Shadows sometime around late season 2. I don't think there's any particular need for her to have been involved with the Syria Planum dig or have a connection to Morden and the Icarus. She could still have come back at the end of season 3 with her brain freshly dry cleaned and things would have gone more or less as they did with Anna.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Speaking of Anna and Catherine, JMS's original 13-page treatment/series pitch states that Sinclair had a deceased wife whom he never quite got over. I don't have the treatment on hand to look up an exact quote, but the wife is mentioned towards the end of Sinclair's character description.

 

[JoeD80]

I had just assumed that Sakai would have originally been killed or captured by the Shadows sometime around late season 2.

In the outline in the script books, Catherine's fate if Sinclair is in place is mentioned:

during...the third/fourth season bridges...[Sinclair] is nearly destroyed when his lover, Catherine (who we will introduce in season one), is mind-raped and all memory of their relationship is wiped out. The only way he can restore her memory is to do the same thing to her all over again, put her through what is essentially a mind-rape, and he can't bring himself to do that.

Speaking of Anna and Catherine, JMS's original 13-page treatment/series pitch states that Sinclair had a deceased wife whom he never quite got over. I don't have the treatment on hand to look up an exact quote, but the wife is mentioned towards the end of Sinclair's character description.

From the treatment:

Commander Sinclair is quite attractive, a man widowed some years ago. He doesn't talk about it.
...
one sometimes gets the impression that he has never quite gotten over the loss of his wife.