B5 Movie for Valen?

[Deathscytherick]

Hello,

I had just learned of JMS's site a few minutes ago and wanted to pose a question. Its open to discussion and interpretation, of course.

My question is simple: Has there ever been the possibility of a Babylon 5 movie centered over the arrival and influence of Valen (Jeffrey Sinclair) during/after Shadow War I?

I know of the DC Comic "In Valen's name" has very small details to fill in, it seemed more center on Babylon four's fate than on Valen's own fate.

[Radhil]

Although the fans seem to bring up that a lot as something they'd like to see, I don't recall a whole lot of feedback out of Joe on the issue. I get the impression that some things he'd like to keep a mystery, and this might be one of them.

Although, in as much In Valen's Name dealt with the final fate of B4, in between that comic's plot and the story laid out in To Dream In The City of Sorrows, a bit from one episode of Season 4... you can connect a lot of dots and more or less understand what happened with Valen after he stopped being Sinclair.

It's still possible to tell. Depending on how The Lost Tales does, maybe it's something we'll see.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I doubt very much that we will ever see a movie along those lines for one simply reason ... I doubt there would be enough interest in a SF movie featuring entirely non-human characters to make it a commercially worthwhile venture.

And without watching the series and understanding the significance of the story within the whole arc of B5, would it even be interesting enough ... or just another space war story.

B5 fans would lap it up, no doubt, but there aren't enough of us to make a movie a mainstream success by ourselves.

Perhaps JMS would put something into The Lost Tales if it becomes a successful ongoing series, or else (like the Vorlon homeworld) he is content to leave some mystery and allow the fans to imagine it for themselves.

[Kevin]

Although the fans seem to bring up that a lot as something they'd like to see, I don't recall a whole lot of feedback out of Joe on the issue. I get the impression that some things he'd like to keep a mystery, and this might be one of them.

Actually, he's made a couple comments worth hearing.

"I think there may be some way to tell the story of Valen down the road in one form or another."

Ed Brandt <[email protected]> asks:
> Also, I heard WAY back that there was a possible third movie in the plans that might touch on the Valen/Sinclair story?

There have been discussions, but nothing firm as of this time.

There's been a couple others, including a time when he got PO'd at a guy for making a story suggestion about it. I think the point here though is that there is a story worth telling, at least in his mind.

Although, in as much In Valen's Name dealt with the final fate of B4, in between that comic's plot and the story laid out in To Dream In The City of Sorrows, a bit from one episode of Season 4... you can connect a lot of dots and more or less understand what happened with Valen after he stopped being Sinclair.

That's not entierly true; besides the fact that we obviously don't really know the story of that war, which would be pretty entertaining, there is one distinct story (not counting that of his death, which the series and jms have seemed to imply was similar to what happened to Sheridan) that jms has deliberately not given us much on.

{original post unavailable}

"Considering how they refer to "The Children of VALEN" and don't bother to mention the name of the WIFE of Valen, I'd say patriarchal."

Or they pick the more well-known of the two. We often say "Mick Jagger's kid" because he's the more well known of the pair.

Or they could be rather subtly ignoring what they might consider just a bit of scandal....

What went on when Catherine Sakai and Sinclair were reunited, as well as the story of their children and Valen's years after the war has been one of those stories jms has held off saying anything about, and I've always felt that's probably because he feels it's a tale he might be able to get out on screen in one form or another, and I think the Lost Tales is an excellent format for it. I always felt the Valen story could have made a great tele movie (better then Thirdspace or River of Souls anyhow...), but it's even better suited to the types of stories jms wants to do with The Lost Tales, and it's my hope we'll see it.

Anyways, I think the point I wanted to make when I started with this post is that I don't think lack of story is, at all, the issue with giving us a Valen story. I'm more concerned with getting the actors needed to sign on; te actor who portrayed Zathras has passed on and Michael O'Hare seems to have dropped off the face of the earth and was one of the few actors not to do a single thing for the DVDs, which was a big let-down for me since he has always been one of my favourites.

Anyways. I'm hoping for it but not really counting on it to happen. I still think it'd be a great story to see.

[RMcD]

Might be good as a novel, but I think, for all the reasons you've just outlined above, it's never going to happen on screen.

Although perhaps we could still one day see a story set in that era, in which Valen, Sakai and Zathras are mentioned without appearing, but we learn more about that war from another perspective. That would make a good installment of TLT, I think..

[Lope de Aguirre]

What went on when Catherine Sakai and Sinclair were reunited, as well as the story of their children and Valen's years after the war has been one of those stories jms has held off saying anything about, and I've always felt that's probably because he feels it's a tale he might be able to get out on screen in one form or another, and I think the Lost Tales is an excellent format for it. I always felt the Valen story could have made a great tele movie (better then Thirdspace or River of Souls anyhow...), but it's even better suited to the types of stories jms wants to do with The Lost Tales, and it's my hope we'll see it.

I would LOVE to see the Valen story! I always liked Sinclair A LOT more than Sheridan and thought his character was one of the ddepest and best played of the entire show (but no comparison to Londo, Garibaldi and G'Kar of course - they got 5 seasons...)

Anyways, I think the point I wanted to make when I started with this post is that I don't think lack of story is, at all, the issue with giving us a Valen story. I'm more concerned with getting the actors needed to sign on; te actor who portrayed Zathras has passed on and Michael O'Hare seems to have dropped off the face of the earth and was one of the few actors not to do a single thing for the DVDs, which was a big let-down for me since he has always been one of my favourites.

Do you refer to the interviews and commentaries for the DVDs?
I'm not at all suprised that O'Hare wasn't around for free at that time but I expect he would say yes for a TV-Movie, Direct to DVD production or a Motion Picture about Valen - man that's the most interesting untold B% part for me!!!
I would love to see Michael O'Hare as Valen/Sinclair and Julia Nickson-Soul as Catherine Sackai.
They should show a bit of/like the stuff from "To Dream in the City of Sorrwos" with Markus, Kosh and Co.

[Deathscytherick]

Sakai proof?

[QUOTE=Kevin;37135]

What went on when Catherine Sakai and Sinclair were reunited, as well as the story of their children and Valen's years after the war has been one of those stories jms has held off saying anything about, and I've always felt that's probably because he feels it's a tale he might be able to get out on screen in one form or another, and I think the Lost Tales is an excellent format for it.

[QUOTE]

I must have missed this, but where did it say that Sakai and Sinclair actually found eachother again after the events in "To Dream In the City of Sorrow"? It was hinted in the "In Valen's name" but I dont recall where it actually was stated Valen/Sinclair found Sakai and was able to be with her since she was not Mimbari.

"If my people found a human on board, they would never had accepted the station...." is what Delenn said just as the Whitestar was leaving B4 in the temporal field. How would they react to a human and their greatest leader being together?

[vacantlook]

I must have missed this, but where did it say that Sakai and Sinclair actually found eachother again after the events in "To Dream In the City of Sorrow"?

On the last two pages of To Dream In The City Of Sorrows, Marcus is handed an envelope described well enough to make it clear that it's the same kind of envelope that Sinclair opens in War Without End. Inside is a note that says "From both of us,...." It's taken that Sinclair is writing on behalf of himself and Sakai in the past during his time as Valen.

I find this comment by jms particularly interesting.

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Did Sakai become Minbari too?

[...]

No, she didn't. Which was part of the scandal that later came.

[Kevin]

I must have missed this, but where did it say that Sakai and Sinclair actually found eachother again after the events in "To Dream In the City of Sorrow"? It was hinted in the "In Valen's name" but I dont recall where it actually was stated Valen/Sinclair found Sakai and was able to be with her since she was not Mimbari.

Reread the end of "To Dream in the City of Sorrows." The note Marcus recieves from Valen at the end makes it pretty damn clear he somehow meets up with Sakai.

Also, much of the point of that book is giving Sinclair stronger motivation to embrace his path as "the arrow that springs from the bow", an analogy he uses for himself in WWE but critizes and resists when first used in To Dream in the City of Sorrows. So, him embracing his path with this far-out hope of reuniting with Sakai is much of the point of the book. I'm not at home atm so I'm without my copy of the book to quote away with, but just reread the end; it's made pretty clear.

"If my people found a human on board, they would never had accepted the station...." is what Delenn said just as the Whitestar was leaving B4 in the temporal field. How would they react to a human and their greatest leader being together?

Badly. Which is exactly the point, thus the reason for the scandal. Also probably the main reason why their children were ostracized and had to hide out in the colony worlds for a few generations, which I believe is mentioned in Atonement. (Again, not at home, so without resources usually used to go quoting away ;P)

Anyways... again, it's a story that we've been given a fair amount of hints on, but still don't know much about, and thus the story could warrant being told in some medium. I remain, as always, convinced that it's got a lot of drama behind it to be interesting, but it's not something I'm holding out much hope for anymore.

[Deathscytherick]

Subject to interpretation?

On the last two pages of To Dream In The City Of Sorrows, Marcus is handed an envelope described well enough to make it clear that it's the same kind of envelope that Sinclair opens in War Without End. Inside is a note that says "From both of us,...." It's taken that Sinclair is writing on behalf of himself and Sakai in the past during his time as Valen.

I find this comment by jms particularly interesting.

Hmm, When I read that portion of the book, I had believed it was Sinclair being polite and always keeping Sakai in the "present" tense, so to speak (seeing he was in the past).

[Kevin]

I find this comment by jms particularly interesting.

Ah yeah, that's the good one that I was looking for earlier but didn't have enough time to find It's obvious he's got a story there, and I think it's definetly a good one, tis just too bad we probably won't get to hear it.

[Kevin]

Hmm, When I read that portion of the book, I had believed it was Sinclair being polite and always keeping Sakai in the "present" tense, so to speak (seeing he was in the past).

Yeah, that was, uh, not what the author intended Again, it was meant to mean he was with Sakai where he was now.

I'll throw in another jms quote for fun that tends to settle the question of whether or not Valen ever ended up with Sakai.

(blocked) asks:
> at the end was Sinclair referring to Catherine Sakai?
> And if so did she arrive before or after he did?
> CT, so what else is new?

She arrived after.

jms

[raw_bean]

Hmm, When I read that portion of the book, I had believed it was Sinclair being polite and always keeping Sakai in the "present" tense, so to speak (seeing he was in the past).

Occam's Razor is your friend!

[Harrdy]

I have a nice idea how it would be quite possible for a story to expand on Valen, but I was already once "burned" for posting story ideas, so will only say archeologic dig and cuts to the time... and hope that is not to much information?! As the same technique was already used once (for the future) and proved interresting...

PeAcE

[nottenst]

My question is simple: Has there ever been the possibility of a Babylon 5 movie centered over the arrival and influence of Valen (Jeffrey Sinclair) during/after Shadow War I?

At one time the first Shadow War was one of the possibilities of a spin-off show. I got this firsthand from Mojo (the SFX guy). They had modeled B4 to have thrusters and so forth in preparation for that.

Neil