Random questions about B5

[WorkerCaste]

Mr. Wells is a survivor. Good at telling which way the wind is blowing and making sure he's in a position to take advantage of it. He shows up again in Crusade proving that he survived the fall of the Clark regime, albeit with less power than when we saw him on B5.

[Jonas]

Time for another weird question. HA! What other kind do I ask?


This concerns Mr. Wells in "The Fall of Night". Does anyone think that Mr. Wells was really not that bad of a guy and didn't want Sheridan to be punished or was he just being the smarter/good guy to Mr. Lanz's bad/less smart guy.
Anyone have any thoughts?

Anyone at all?

I think he is the ultimate creep, a human Morden. Believes in nothing except power and position; smiles at your face while stabbing you in the back. Lantz is just a silly old fart who thinks he's doing the right thing.

[Marsden]

Time for another weird question. HA! What other kind do I ask?


This concerns Mr. Wells in "The Fall of Night". Does anyone think that Mr. Wells was really not that bad of a guy and didn't want Sheridan to be punished or was he just being the smarter/good guy to Mr. Lanz's bad/less smart guy.
Anyone have any thoughts?

Anyone at all?

[Marsden]

Actually that's Gianin Loffler. And yes it's the same character.

I got the actor's names wrong? but my question answered, thx.

I seem to be wrong about most things, if I were in B5 I'd be Zack's taylor (not the Minbari, the human one that isn't shown that can fit his uniform.)

[JoeD80]

played by Apesanahkwat in Chrysalis.

Actually that's Gianin Loffler. And yes it's the same character.

[TurkishZath]

Well, sorta.

I'm not sure I understand what faces you have to recognize to follow
"Race." Bester is re-introduced with an explanation, as is Jason. You
don't have to recognize the guy from "Chrysalis;" if you do, great, it
adds a level. If you don't, it still tracks. The only other characters
are our reglars; so I'm confused as to what there was left to confuse them.

-JMS
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
1/26/1995 8:30:00 AM

http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?ID=1-12285&topic=Science%20fiction

[babylonlurker]

Hello. New question: the person that speaks to Garibaldi in down below about Petrov and gives him the name Deveraux was played by Apesanahkwat in Chrysalis. Later then in season 2 in A Race Through Dark Places the same actor is one of the telepaths in the underground. Is this the same character? Beside the actor being the same the background is as well, so I'm thinking it is.

I would agree with that assessment, though it is not said anywhere I can recall.

[Marsden]

Hello. New question: the person that speaks to Garibaldi in down below about Petrov and gives him the name Deveraux was played by Apesanahkwat in Chrysalis. Later then in season 2 in A Race Through Dark Places the same actor is one of the telepaths in the underground. Is this the same character? Beside the actor being the same the background is as well, so I'm thinking it is.

[Jan]

Question...

Season 4, when Marcus gives his life for Ivanova, why don't the command staff, Delenn, Lennier etc etc, all give a little bit of their life energy to save him? I know they didn't know exactly how the machine works, but couldn't they have tried? They'd brought Garibaldi back between Sheridan and Franklin, so why not with Marcus?

While Garibaldi might still have been on station (I don't recall), the rest (Delenn, Lennier, Sheridan) were all off-station waging a war. By the time Franklin got back to the Station, Marcus had passed his life energy over to Ivanova and had been placed in cryo. Could they have taken him out and done it? Perhaps, but the decision had been made previously not to use it at all.

Jan

[Marsden]

I think Marcus was already "dead" as in clinically dead where Garibaldi was in a coma but with an uncertain prognosis. Maybe Marcus could have given half or 3/4 of his life but he didn't really know (actually no one knew for sure) how to stop it and it drained him completely.

[I, Zathras]

Good point with Garibaldi. I did know that it was a lot to do with the character being so closely tied with Ivanova (I remember hearing about the joke on set which was the death of Marcus and he went off to see JMS to see what was really happening, poor guy!)

I didn't know that he was considered to be a main cast member for Crusade though (I've read a little of the books from cafe press, but not all of it, studying is getting in the way goddamnit!) so its a shame it didn't happen for it. I always liked the characters of Marcus and Susan, so it was a shame things happened the way they did, but the resolution was very in keeping with their characters

[Capt.Montoya]

Question...

Season 4, when Marcus gives his life for Ivanova, why don't the command staff, Delenn, Lennier etc etc, all give a little bit of their life energy to save him? I know they didn't know exactly how the machine works, but couldn't they have tried? They'd brought Garibaldi back between Sheridan and Franklin, so why not with Marcus?

From the point of view within the story I'd say it was because Garibaldi was not near dead, only severely injured (I think the doc said 50% odds of recovery). Marcus was almost dead, given that Ivanova was about to die it would have taken almost all his "life force" to heal her. Given that they were not sure of how to operate the machine (as usual with second hand appliances you don't get the manuals) it's understandable they'd hesitate to use it for such an extreme case.

From a storytelling point of view I'd say it was because if they did that it would have made Marcus's sacrifice meaningless. Given that JMS avoided pressing reset buttons and tended to show that actions had consequences it was better to have Marcus give his life for his love, after Ivanova had almost sacrificed her life for duty (stopping the Earthforce vessels with Shadow Tech).

From a meta-point of view, JMS said somewhere that had he known Claudia Christian would leave he would not have killed Marcus. I seem to also remember reading that JMS told Jason Carter that he didn't have to worry that he'd bring him back in the fifth season (but without Ivanova around there was no way to do it and didn't happen). Also consider that the first proposal for Crusade included Marcus Cole as a character (presumably after being revived in the fifth season).

[I, Zathras]

Question...

Season 4, when Marcus gives his life for Ivanova, why don't the command staff, Delenn, Lennier etc etc, all give a little bit of their life energy to save him? I know they didn't know exactly how the machine works, but couldn't they have tried? They'd brought Garibaldi back between Sheridan and Franklin, so why not with Marcus?

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Not sure about the spit shining thing either ... I do wonder whether JMS has actually spent too much time over the years in the UK. In my limited military experience (which entailed spending a great deal of my time visiting or attending camps at RAF stations as an ATC cadet), lodgings were generally referred to as "billets", and were always to be "spit-shined".

And we literally spit-shined our shoes, unless there was a tap available in which case we used actual water rather than saliva. Only way to get the toe caps shiny enough to see the spot on the end of your nose.

[Marsden]

I know this is a strange question, but, were there any Chinese characters in B5? I don't remember any. It seems strange that Earth's biggest demographic isn't represented in the future. Don't misunderstand, there was plenty of different types of characters. Please don't find any type of offense, pretended or insinuated, I'm just curious. The one security guy that said Delenn has wings like a butterfly to distract Jack might have been Chinese, but he's the only one and I though he was Korean.