20 years time jump during the arc

[flobo]

I've always felt that the legion of fire storyline (David's abduction, Londo/G'kar death/Centauri Prime Liberation/Vir ascension to emperor) should have been shown on TV somehow, since it felt integral to the storyline, much more so than what was released on the other canon books.

After again going though the scripts books, it looks like to me like JMS tried for a long time to incorporate it into the story somehow.

There was the first idea, when it was part of the Babylon Prime storyline after B4 jumped into the future. I had read about that online years ago.

I had always figured that was it, but reading JMS note on late season 3, he says he considered having the characters travel though time 20 years into the future after Sheridan go the Zahadum.

There's nothing else on the subject, making me wonder how it would have played out.

Would the war have continued in the 20 years period ? How would have things progressed from there ?

My guess would be that the cast would probably have freed the worlds from the shadow's influence over season 4 (except centauri prime), then created the alliance, and the show would have ended with the legion of fire storyline and Londo-G'kar death.

[JoeD80]

Um Sheridan did go to the future, in "War Without End". That is certainly what the season 3 note is referring to. JMS just moved the spot where it happened.

[Jan]

I've always felt that the legion of fire storyline (David's abduction, Londo/G'kar death/Centauri Prime Liberation/Vir ascension to emperor) should have been shown on TV somehow, since it felt integral to the storyline, much more so than what was released on the other canon books.

I think in the end he decided to stick with the plan to have the show only be a 'documentary' of the key five years. To open it up that way wouldn't have fit. As it was, 'Deconstruction' was a bit of an anomaly. And thanks to Sheridan's flash-forward, we did know that David would be okay.

[flobo]

Um Sheridan did go to the future, in "War Without End". That is certainly what the season 3 note is referring to. JMS just moved the spot where it happened.

The season 3 note is clear. Sheridan dies in Zahadum, the shadows attack B5, the rest of the cast escape into the rift to the future (twenty years later) and then sheridan is revived there.

I think in the end he decided to stick with the plan to have the show only be a 'documentary' of the key five years. To open it up that way wouldn't have fit. As it was, 'Deconstruction' was a bit of an anomaly. And thanks to Sheridan's flash-forward, we did know that David would be okay.

True, and i prefer it the way we got as well. But i love to read in the notes about all the different directions the show might have been going to.

[Jan]

True, and i prefer it the way we got as well. But i love to read in the notes about all the different directions the show might have been going to.

Yeah...when JMS says he's got a mind like a bucket full of snakes - I believe him!!! Those books sure show the miracle it is that B5 came out with as few hiccups as it did, huh?

[JasonDavis]

As outlined at the outset of season five, there would have been a further David Sheridan (the younger)/time travel beat in the middle of the final year when a figure purporting to be David traveled back from the future to avert the creation of the Interstellar Alliance.

I imagine David's keeper might have been motivating the attempt to derail an anti-Drakh future, but there's so little information on that aborted storyline that I can only really speculate.

Still, it would have brought the future to the past in much the same way that "War Without End" brought the present to the future.

[JoeD80]

The season 3 note is clear. Sheridan dies in Zahadum, the shadows attack B5, the rest of the cast escape into the rift to the future (twenty years later) and then sheridan is revived there.

JMS has said many times over that he never follows his outlines exactly. For a good example - another note in the season-3 notes is that Bester will be part of the Shadow Cabinet - but then he ends up against the Shadows in "Ship of Tears" - the opposite of what he outlined.

I had to go back and look exactly what the outline said:

(Possible element: fleeing after Sheridan's death, they escape into B4's still-unstable time rift, emerging 20 years later, where Sheridan, vastly changed, is revived, and things are very interesting indeed. This may get postponed until year four.)

There isn't really anything there to indicate who "they" is.

So what happens in War Without End? - Sheridan goes to the future, things are "interesting indeed". Also, what Sheridan sees in the future is in the 5-year arc outline - Londo with the keeper. The fact that this ends up tied to Babylon 4 and not to Z'ha'dum does not mean this idea is unused; it's there, just in a different way (and still tied to B4).

-----

ETA: on the original point though, it definitely seems like David was intended to be explored as a character in the series at some point, even a couple of points being written out on the season five notecards (what Jason references above), and we did not end up seeing much of the David character, only a few hints. That would have been interesting to see.