Elizabeth Lochley

[Delenn_of_Mir]

I just rewatched "A call to Arms" last night, which made me sad all over again that they cancelled "Crusade", but anyway this message is supposed to be about Lochley, who was in this movie.

I did love Ivanova. She was awesome in her role, and so of course I missed her when she was gone. I can't say that I cared for Lochley too much in season five just because of her attitude with Delenn. If Delenn doesn't like someone I don't like them either.

But then after the first few episodes she just kind of faded into the background it seemed to me. But after watching the Lost Tales, and the movies, Soulhunter, and A call to Arms I started to like and appreciate her character much more. I guess she grew on me

Anyway I was just wondering what the general consensus on her character was today. Did anyone else start out not caring for her but learn to enjoy her through the movies? And if they ever did anything new in the B5 universe would you want her character to be included?

I think it would be cool to have both Lochley and Ivanova together because I do like them both now.

[Jonas]

I think it was a mistake to replace Ivanova with another human female, but I do like Lochley. Doubly so because of The Lost Tales, which I love.

[Jan]

I really didn't miss Ivanova all that much so I think I was a little more open to Lochley.

I liked her from the get-go and very much enjoyed her interaction with the telepaths and Byron. I wasn't fond of the whole ex-wife sub-thread and thought it was kind of forced. Sometimes her humor didn't come over quite as well as it might have but I *loved* the way she gave as good as she got with Garibaldi.

Jan

[TurkishZath]

Enjoyed the back and forth with Garibaldi. Hated the crap with Gideon in Crusade, and mostly wasn't enamored with season 5 in general, nor her role in it.
I felt that there could have been more done with the fact that she was "on the other side" in the civil war, but also felt like the thread about trying to put those things behind the characters was decently done.
Really a 'meh' kind of feel. When thinking about the show in general, she's more of an afterthought than anything else. I associate her with the extra-series movies etc. which were never as great as the series itself.

[AmyG]

Like others, I enjoyed Lochley's banter with Garibaldi; you sensed a real grudging mutual admiration there. But I also disliked the ex-wife storyline. I think she and Gideon might eventually have been REALLY good together, but we didn't see enough of it to get that, IMHO.

[WorkerCaste]

Ummm. What they said (especially Amy)

I thought Lochley was getting pretty well developed given the constraints on screen time. She wasn't even in all the Season 5 eps and there were other story lines that had been set in motion long before she arrived. That really limited how much we could get to know her, but I did like the character. As with others here, I wish JMS hadn't gone for the ex-wife bit.

[Jonas]

I adore the ex-wife storyline, because it's a reminder that not everything in life is plot. Garibaldi's bafflement when he discovers the truth is priceless.

[DGTWoodward]

I feel that the sad truth is that Lockley was as good a job as JMS could with what he had to work with.

When CC left the show, right on the very last ridge of the last cusp of important deadlines as it turns out, so did JMS' ability (dare I proffer...desire?) to finish out her story properly.

She never really had much of a chance to meld with the show as a character in her own right seeing as parts of her story were bits of Ivanova and bits of Lyta. She was just a mish-mash.

The great thing about her is that, despite all that baggage that got dropped into Tracey's lap...she was able to pull something out of the character and make it her own.

Her chemistry with Jerry and the resultant fireworks on screen were excellent.
Her well presented, strong moral code speech in the dining hall was superb (and dear Jeff was great as the 'peacemaker' here too).

It is a great testament to Tracey as an actress that out of almost nothing, she pulled so much good stuff. Acting of worth, a character of worth.

I just think that it was a shame that she did not get used more than she actually was.

[JoeD80]

Her fiery character interactions with Garibaldi were written in the scripts. It's something Joe was looking for at audition time.

I love Lochley, and I think she was used just enough. I enjoyed seeing a new Captain because it's nice to see the crew actually change as compared to most other shows where you get the same people for the entire run.

As for her screen time, I think it would have been harder to add a new character to all 22 episodes and not distract from the other plots that had been building up for five seasons. The one thing I wish Ivanova was there for was being the one who has to call in Bester to take out the telepaths, but I think Lochley fit in with the crew just fine.

I also liked her in River of Souls

[Marsden]

I like Lochley. I didn't compare her directly to Ivanova as a character, just as a different person. And since I missed the whole CC not returning at the time I thought it made perfect sense for her to move on with a promotion and a ship of her own. It's true, people get different jobs and move on. Keeping someone on artificially is unrealistic*, and JMS doesn't do that.


* Riker gave up how many commands of his own? That was crazy.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I think it was a mistake to replace Ivanova with another human female, but I do like Lochley. Doubly so because of The Lost Tales, which I love.

Her character was very strong in TLT. I wish we would have gotten to see more of Lochley. Feel like the character still had a lot to offer.

[lotjx]

To me, Lochley was just an dark side version of Ivanova. She was not really trusting of the principal characters, had a good relationship with PSI Corp and was constantly making Earth friendly decisions. It was after Day of the Dead that I liked her more, but I liked her more in Crusade than in B5 mainly for being a familiar face. Being Sheridan's ex-wife was just tacted on to give her a secret that JMS felt almost every B5 character needed. I think they realized she was not working that well and faded her out in the middle of season 5 and they did a better job with her near the end.

Season 5 was just a mess at the beginning. They seemed to work its way out with focusing more on individual episodes in the middle to the great Centauri arc and the finale arc. I am sure if Claudia was there, the season would have had a better foot to start with.

[JoeD80]

I think they realized she was not working that well and faded her out in the middle of season 5 and they did a better job with her near the end.

It's just that Scoggins was contracted for 8 episodes.

[Morden]

I never cared much for Lochley in season 5, I never hated the role or the actress, but her introduction, the (at least in my opinion) forced confrontations with Garibaldi and her dealings with the telepaths and Bester never reallly worked for me. As for the ex-wife-part... well, that's one thing I still hate...
What I liked was her other-side-during-civil-war-element, but that didn't play out as much as I hoped besides in the over-used clashes with Garibaldi.
She grew on me a bit with "Day of the Dead", the movies and TLT, but would never make it into my favorites.

[valens_shadow]

I didn't particularly like her when she first came into the show. I also didn't particularly dislike.I actually started to grow to like her character during Crusade and more so through The Lost Tales. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of her character in the future but there are so many more characters I would prefer to see ahead of Lochley.