Open B5 questions

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

I just read (against my usual rule against reading tie-in novels)' To Dream In The City Of Sorrows'. I liked it alot, It felt like watching a new episode of the series and did tie up alot of loose ends. But I still wish these plot lines had been tied up on on screen. The B5 tv movies were ok (In The Beginning and Thirdspace were very good infact.) but I'd rather have had the holes in the story arcs plugged before going off and doing new stuff. Hopefully if TMOS is a success JMS may get the backing to do something about that. I will try and seek out the trilogy of trilogys now and add them to my reading list of thousands.

[B5_Obsessed]

Originally posted by Z'ha'dumDweller
I have a question/thought on IIRT.

Okay, the Interrogator is trying to do his job, we know that much. Do you think it's possible that he was punished for not being successful in his task? I am coming up on that episode, so I will be able to offer more evidence when I watch it again, but last time something struck me in his words that he'd catch hell if he didn't get the job done.

Was he sent to Room 17? Was he fired? Demoted?

Thoughts?

I think his superiors would have been surprised if Sheridan HAD broken on the first attempt. It would have looked good on his resume, but it was statistically unlikely. As shown in the episode, the interrogation progress continues on and on in an effort to confuse, weaken and finally break the prisoner. In true tag team form, Interrogator #2 begins his work and starts the whole process over again. Meanwhile, Interrogator #1 was probably warming up another prisoner two doors down.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Jan
Welcome, Wataru!

Those are questions that everybody wondered after the series ended. They're answered in detail in the Centauri Prime Trilogy written by Peter David. You find out more about Londo's wife, Timov, too, and other loose ends are tied off.

I highly recommend it!

Jan

Thank you for that, I will definitely look for that.

Wataru

[bakana]

Shr'eshhhhhh, having large parts of the story told in Comics and Novels is the way JMS planned it from the beginning.
He is (and has always been) a Fan of all three forms and he wanted B5 to be a "multithreaded" experience.

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

I understand what you are say bakana but the B5 series was mean't to be a 5 yar tv novel with a beginning middle and end. When JMS had to move forward alot of the story when he thought season 5 wouldn't happen it left a hole which he filled with a few not too satisfactory stand alone episodes. We also had some none arc t.v. movies. Things like the keeper in the jar and Lennier's redemption should have either been resolved on screen or nor introduced at all. Every story should leave some questions unanswered but not huge plot developements like these. I'm all in favour of the comics and novels being tied close to the whole story, but the main aspects should have been seen on screen I'd rather have the centauri and telepath storylines resolved in tv movies than books and River of Souls, View from a Gallery etc would have made very good comic/novel stories.

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by Shr'eshhhhhh
I understand what you are say bakana but the B5 series was mean't to be a 5 yar tv novel with a beginning middle and end. When JMS had to move forward alot of the story when he thought season 5 wouldn't happen it left a hole which he filled with a few not too satisfactory stand alone episodes. We also had some none arc t.v. movies. Things like the keeper in the jar and Lennier's redemption should have either been resolved on screen or nor introduced at all. Every story should leave some questions unanswered but not huge plot developements like these. I'm all in favour of the comics and novels being tied close to the whole story, but the main aspects should have been seen on screen I'd rather have the centauri and telepath storylines resolved in tv movies than books and River of Souls, View from a Gallery etc would have made very good comic/novel stories.

JMS has said much on your question Shr'eshhhh:

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-10895

On the issue of unanswered questions, raised by some...the first question a writer has to answer is, "Who, ultimately, is my story about?" In any novel or short story or movie or TV series, who are the essential protagonists? B5 was always about the station, first and foremost, and the other main characters in this future history were Sheridan, Sinclair, Garibaldi, Delenn, Londo, G'Kar, Franklin and to an extent, Ivanova. Everyone else comes under the heading of minor or secondary characters...on the long-arc series level, the same as a guest star in a single episode of a regular series.

It would be impossible...let me say this again, impossible...to track the whole history of all of the other characters in this show; it would take another whole series just to do the Lyta/G'Kar adventures. We showed the resolution of all the main characters in the story. That was my primary obligation. We can take some secondary measures to fill in information on some of the secondary characters, but in a TV show there's only so much you can do. Hell, I've had people send me email demanding to know what happened to the people rescued from Babylon 4....c'mon, some common sense, please.

And on another level, I think it's better to let people make up their own ideas about what happened with folks like G'Kar and Lyta...

That said...that topic is closed, as far as I'm concerned. I told the stories of the main characters of the show, which is what was promised.

Go to the Lurker's Guide page for Sleeping in Light for many more...
I am satisfied with JMS's explanations and comments, like any good SF novel there's lots of background and characters that make the fictional universe seem more real and complete, one can only wonder what the authors notes are on those items only hinted at, and wonder at the work that must have gone into elaborating such cultures, technology and characters to use them only in a few lines or scenes. Many SF Universes give me that same sensation of secondary threads just resolved but not concluded (Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind, David Brin's Uplift series, Gregory Benford's Galactic Center, C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, etc.), that is part of the richness of it all, what makes it more believable for me, but the main plot of the story is resolved, and you can allow your imagination and reasoning from hints and information given to fill in some of the blanks, making it a more personal experience.

My personal favorite comment from JMS on this is the following:http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-10886

Dear Mr. Tolkien:

I just wanted to say that I think the way you ended THE LORD OF THE RINGS was crap. You didn't provide any closure. Instead of spending time with the hobbits clearing out the shire (come on, urban renwal in LoTR? give me a break) and lots of goodbyes, you SHOULD have shown me what happened to Tom Bombadil, he was an important part of the story, and you just left his story thread there unresolved.

You made a big deal out of the elves going to the west, but we never SAW it! We never found out what was there, or what Bilbo found when he got there, or what happened to the dwarves, or what happened to Merry and Pippin....

You betrayed your audience by not resolving every single plot thread you introduced in your book, and as a result, it is never going to be of value to anyone, ever, and will never go past its first printing.

[Radhil]

For a briefer and more direct statement, I think Joe actually said it better through Londo. From In The Beginning -

"The story is not over yet. The story is never over."

[Jan]

Originally posted by Radhil
For a briefer and more direct statement, I think Joe actually said it better through Londo. From In The Beginning -

"The story is not over yet. The story is never over."

...and to paraphrase that great philosopher Zathras:

"...which leads to the next, *great* story."

Jan

[WorkerCaste]

Originally posted by Jan
...and to paraphrase that great philosopher Zathras:

"...which leads to the next, *great* story."

Not a unique perspective in literature...

"Why, we're still part of the same story! ... Tell me about Frodo the Nine Fingered and the Ring of Doom"

"The road goes ever on..."

[jahkneebee]

Obviously, if the story and characters generate this much interest (even after so many years), it is a great story with fantastic characters that we all care so much about that we just won't let go.

I wanna see the G'kar/Lyta story played out to the end, BUT it never interfered with my enjoyment of (and my sorrow about) the way their arcs ended in the 'main' story. Their was no other answer for them, and that they ended up together was a bonus, a relief, and a zinger that makes me hungry for their next episode.

I truly hope that faith can manage to tell the story of their adventures.

[Jan]

Originally posted by jahkneebee
I wanna see the G'kar/Lyta story played out to the end, BUT it never interfered with my enjoyment of (and my sorrow about) the way their arcs ended in the 'main' story. Their was no other answer for them, and that they ended up together was a bonus, a relief, and a zinger that makes me hungry for their next episode.

I truly hope that faith can manage to tell the story of their adventures.

That's one I'd really like to see myself. Partly to see G'Kar more the way he was in the Rangers movie, also to see Lyta grow when she's with somebody who doesn't just want to use her abilities. Have you read the short story featuring them, jahkneebee?

Jan

[Dauriel]

Great stories are like life and never ended. When we're all born, it's like coming into the middle of a story. We have to catch up. "Who are all these people?" "What happened before?" As we grow older a lot in our life happens and not everything is resolved by the time we pass on. We don't always get answers to all of our questions.... And what fun would that be?

So the Babylon 5 story is like that.

[Capt.Montoya]

Here's a question that recently came to my mind... not one left unanswered, but one never addressed and which might only come from overanalyzing (I've been known to do that)

Why only have one resident telepath in the station?
It was a hub of commerce and diplomacy, with so many transactions going on I'd expect the services of a "lie-detector" person to be more in demand...

And why not have licensed telepaths from other races? In some cases aliens would rather have a non-human telepath oversee things.

Thoughts?

[Dr Maturin]

<<Why only have one resident telepath in the station?
It was a hub of commerce and diplomacy, with so many transactions going on I'd expect the services of a "lie-detector" person to be more in demand...>>

Well, I guess you'd have to figure out how many telepaths there are in Psi Corps, and how many there are available to send on long-term assignments. Remember, B5 was already up and running when Lyta showed up. Maybe it took that long to either find someone who wanted that post or to free up someone to head out there.

Also, maybe they knew not too many people could afford the price? I don't know.

<<And why not have licensed telepaths from other races? In some cases aliens would rather have a non-human telepath oversee things.>>

I'm sure they did. Centauri telepaths are controlled by their respective houses and sometimes are allowed to roam about on their own. Someone had to hire the guy in Passing Through Gethsemane. But I'm sure other races had telepaths on the station. We just didn't see them.

If not, perhaps that since B5 was an Earth-run facility, maybe a Psi Corps telepath was the only official telepath on board. Perhaps yet another advantage of being in the Corps is that you get monopolies on services at certain postings? I don't know about that one, but I am just proposing possibilities.

<<Thoughts?>>

No pun intended?

[bakana]

It was never made clear, but since, when she first arrived, Lyta was referred to as the "resident" telepath, it is entirely possible that there were other PsyCorps teeps passing thru all the time and Lyta (later Talia) functioned as a sort of "permanent" on board PsyCorps representative who would help make sure that Transient Teeps knew how to avoid the places likely to get them in trouble.
And would Bail them out of jail if they Did find themselves in trouble with Garibaldi.