Things you wish jms wrote more about

[glindros]

To reference yet another "Hand".
I'm rereading the Centauri Trilogy. There is a bit of dialog between Delenn and Sheridan about G'Kar being Sheridan's Hand. Sheridan mentions how the reference comes from The King's Hand - A trusted friend/servant who performes tasks the King is unable or unwilling to do.

[Jan]

I know this thread is mostly talking about what details of the B5 universe people would like fleshed out but...

I want more "Book of Lost Souls".

And more "Dream Police".

I'm not sure if I'd have appreciated both of these properly if not for the wonderful art but I keep hoping that both of them get expanded with more comics or even in other venues.

Jan

[glindros]

I know this thread is mostly talking about what details of the B5 universe people would like fleshed out but...

I want more "Book of Lost Souls".

And more "Dream Police".

I'm not sure if I'd have appreciated both of these properly if not for the wonderful art but I keep hoping that both of them get expanded with more comics or even in other venues.

Jan

I thought Dream police was supposed to be ongoing, but I only saw the single issue. Although it did prompt an "interesting" discussion with my wife. She categorized it as porn.

[Clark Kent]

For me, I wanted in episode set partially on Minbar either early third season or mid-second that revolved around Sinclair and somehow tied to something occurring on the station. Even going so far as having Sinclair resolved the "crisis" without the rest of the crew knowing. Only because I wanted to at least have one more Sinclair episode before his return to B5 in WWE, I & II.

I'd like to have seen an episode that JMS toyed with doing in the first season. According to a Cinefantastique article, he had this idea for Takashima coming back to the station in a battered Starfury and something chasing her down. The teaser would've began with Takashima arriving, bloody and bruised, then passing out after landing her 'fury.

Some of the premises for season two episodes in the Scriptbooks sound mighty interesting. I'd like to have seen some of those.

[JoeD80]

I thought Dream police was supposed to be ongoing, but I only saw the single issue.

I think it was meant to be a one-shot but with the hope of going to series.

According to a Cinefantastique article, he had this idea for Takashima coming back to the station in a battered Starfury and something chasing her down. The teaser would've began with Takashima arriving, bloody and bruised, then passing out after landing her 'fury.

I hadn't heard that one before. I suppose this probably would have had something to do with the classified mission she was supposed to be on. I want more Takashima!!

[Jan]

I thought Dream police was supposed to be ongoing, but I only saw the single issue.

It was only planned as a single, as I recall. Originally it was going to be the first in a sort of 'anthology' series of "Joe's Comics" back when he was with Top Cow.

At one point JMS said that it was in development as a feature film.

ETA: I was wrong. I just found this in the Hawthorne transcript:

Dream Police is a limited series that may become a full series. I wanted to do 'Dragnet in the Dreamscape'. (laughter) Yeah, you've got it, Joe Friday and his partner, and it's done in that voice: "It's ten o'clock, everyone's sleeping. I'm on the job". (something) At one point in the story, there's a creature rampaging down the street because some stupid parent taught her kid vivid dreaming. And the kid was taking over the dreamscape and they had to find a way to deal with this terrible thing. And (as characters) "One of us has to do it." "I can't, I can't do this, you have to do this." "Fine." And he finds the kid in the dreamscape watching the destruction all around him. And he tells him "I'm an officer of the law. Can I borrow your hand for a minute?", puts the hand in a pan of warm water. Suddenly this potty comes down the street wiping everything out. It's just, it's obscene. It's..it's...it's...(something). Mike Deodato's doing the artwork. It's a hoot; it's a fun thing.

Top Cow never put it out and Marvel did but now that JMS isn't exclusive with them last I heard it was up in the air whether they'd allow any more of his creator-owned books to come out. It's pretty doubtful.

Although it did prompt an "interesting" discussion with my wife. She categorized it as porn.

Wow, really? That would never have occurred to me.

I'm very happy that I managed to pick up some of the original art from that book. Especially cool was the double splash page of the Cerberus creature.

Jan

[JoeD80]

It was only planned as a single, as I recall. Originally it was going to be the first in a sort of 'anthology' series of "Joe's Comics" back when he was with Top Cow.

At one point JMS said that it was in development as a feature film.

ETA: I was wrong. I just found this in the Hawthorne transcript:

Actually you were right, I found the quote:

Plans are for Top Cow to do it as a one-shot; DP was never itself planned as an anthology, but rather one issue *in* that anthology.

Top Cow never put it out and Marvel did but now that JMS isn't exclusive with them last I heard it was up in the air whether they'd allow any more of his creator-owned books to come out. It's pretty doubtful.

On this issue earlier this year he said:

there's a deal on the table for both Dream Police and Rising Stars which I'm considering right now...

So maybe we'll hear more soon?

[rallytbk]

As jms built a rich world to write his stories in, he threw out details that were never delved into any further. I'm not thinking about big plot points like the telepath war, David finding a keeper, etc...., but some of the smaller details.

Some examples to me would be, a better backround and follow up on the raiders from seasons 1&2, actually hearing a Pak'ma'ra sing, Franklin's hitchiking on alien vessels, Londo meeting his wives.

What little things would you have liked to have seen followed up?

(I apologize if there is a thread like this already.)

Two examples that recently came to mind...
1) In the episode - "knives" the alien entity left a dead Markab and entered John Sheridan for the purpose of going home... then in the next episode "Confessions and Lamentations" Markabs are killed by the Dark Angel of Drafa... Coincidence? Then a comment was made that it was rumored the Vorlons infected/poisoned the Markabs... Very interesting considering that the entity was sort of a Volon like entity and went the time rift (forward or backward in time).

2) Talia Winters - What happened to her and the sleeper program? Jason Ironheart gave her a gift... Then Lyta Alexander forced her sleeper program out... What happened to her, did she regain her personality... and what of the data crystal Kosh made? Was it used to help her or destroy her?

"And what was on that data crystal he gave you?"
"Reflection. Surprise. Terror. For the future."
-- Talia Winters and Kosh in Babylon 5:"Divided Loyalties"

Those are just two for now...

[Capt.Montoya]

Regarding your #2...
I think that JMS said that by awakening the sleeper personality in Talia the original was erased, Ironheart's gift and all (can't find a quote to confirm, might be just my opinion).
The recording made by Kosh had nothing to do with helping or destroying Talia, it was made for Vorlon interests.
Kosh recorded Talia because the Vorlons would realize that she had been changed by Ironheart and would be interested in knowing what were those changes (given that they created TPs and TKs) "for the future" to introduce that in other races or to keep manipulating humans.

The recording of Talia also served plot purposes, to be able to return the original Talia personality if Andrea Thompson had stayed in the show or the character of Lyta had not come back to replace her.

As for #1, I don't think there's much base to your speculation. Talk about the "Dark Angel of Drafa" was allegorical, like calling the disease a "boogeyman". But Drafa (the disease) was real, and biological. The episode itself establishes that the disease originated naturally in the Markab homeworld (think Ebola, Black Plague, HIV, Avian flu, all rolled into one: if that were to happen it could be the Drafa equivalent for humanity).

[JoeD80]

The recording of Talia also served plot purposes, to be able to return the original Talia personality if Andrea Thompson had stayed in the show or the character of Lyta had not come back to replace her.

I hear this one a lot, but I've never seen jms mention this as the reason for the recording made in "Deathwalker". The 2nd season episode of "Divided Loyalties" was written after Andrea Thompson was already on her way off the show (jms mentions this in the script books as the reason for writing that episode), and if she had stayed on the show her primary personality may not have met the same fate.

[brian]

Would love to see the Dilgar war.

[Hipapheralkuspo]

what about the Great Machine on Epsilon 3 under Babylon 5? That could be pretty interesting

Or how Lyta died? I think it was in the book of "Fate of Bester" - he told Garibaldi that Lyta has been killed because she overestimated her powers (or something like that)

or some prequel - between "Legions of Fire" trilogy where there are new technomages (and Galen himself has an apprentice) and "The Passing of the Technomages" where it was said that there will be no more of their kind, since Shadow technology has been destroyed on Z'ha'dum...

or more stories about Great War 1 000 years ago (especially about Valen and Catherine Sakai, who disappeared in time rift in the book "To Dream in the City of Sorrows")

[Spoo Junky]

2) Talia Winters - What happened to her and the sleeper program? Jason Ironheart gave her a gift... Then Lyta Alexander forced her sleeper program out... What happened to her, did she regain her personality... and what of the data crystal Kosh made? Was it used to help her or destroy her?

I recall Bester saying to Garibaldi that she was "dissected". Not sure if she really was, or if Bester was just trying to get under Garibaldi's skin.

[Ranger 6 and 7/8]

I recall Bester saying to Garibaldi that she was "dissected". Not sure if she really was, or if Bester was just trying to get under Garibaldi's skin.

I would say she was dissected psychically. and that it was also to get under Garibaldi's skin because there was the underlying love he was feeling for Talia from the beginning, which it woudn't have taken a P1 to pick up on.

I would liked to see more on the Teep war as well. We know it happened between the end of the Season 5 and "A Call to Arms", because the Teep on the Excalibur said he knew it would take a while for people to get used to a telepath in the regular miitary "since the disolvement of the Psi Corp"

[Clark Kent]

I hadn't heard that one before. I suppose this probably would have had something to do with the classified mission she was supposed to be on. I want more Takashima!!

Since I moved back to San Diego, I've found all my old B5 mags. Here's the quote from the article:

Excerpt from "Casting Changes: New Faces were brought on board after the pilot to enliven the mix" by Mark A. Altman from "Challenging Star Trek: Babylon 5" (main article also by Altman), Cinefantastique, Vol. 25, #2 -- pg. 61

Straczynski added that he'd consider bringing back one or more of the characters in the future, "I think that it would be great down the road because there are definitely ways they could fill in," he said. "There are some revelations about Laurel I'd love to make. There are about ten things that point to the fact that she was involved with the conspiracy, perhaps not of her own volition. I can bring her back for an episode where a ship comes in, the door opens and Laurel Takashima is bloody and battered and passes out and there's your teaser. Now something is chasing her back to Babylon 5."