Subj : Re: OT - Babylon 5 (WAS Re: I BLAME BRAGA_ To : rec.arts.sf.tv,rec.arts.startrek.current,alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise,alt.tv.star-trek.voyager,alt.tv.star-trek.ds9 From : Michael Johnson Date : Mon Sep 12 2005 02:09:41 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.ds9 On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:32:32 -0400, shawn wrote: >On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 05:19:17 GMT, Michael Johnson wrote: > >>On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 00:55:29 -0400, "Anthony Cerrato" >> wrote: >> >>> >>>"Joe" wrote in message >>>news:1126291340.831335bd5a117b2f25555e2ba62337eb@teranews... >>>> > >>>At the time I thought he was terrible; he had that sort of >>>very quiet and withdrawn, over the top style of dramatic >>>acting; but later on I realized the direction may have >>>exaggerated that (the entire cast was pretty much over the >>>top in the first season but improved immensly >>>afterwards...he didn't change much though.) >>> Maybe you have it exactly right,; he just wasn't >>>comfortable in the role...although there was no logical >>>reason that he shouldn't be...that is what acting is about >>>after all. :) ...tonyC >> >>I would have agreed when the show was first one. But I rewatched >>season one and don't believe this in any way to be the case and think >>he got a bad rap for it. His style took some getting used to, but once >>I did I personally feel he is quite a bit better than Boxleitner. I >>also hadn't seen the season one episodes for qute a long time. > >I felt that way from the beginning. Given Sinclair's background and >the role he was supposed to have it made sense that he would be a more >reserved character. Boxleitner would have been much better if he could >have dialed down his portrayal a bit for the first year or two. Once >they got into the full blown Shadow war his over the top performances >worked much better. > >>Storywise... the story is stronger with Sinclair going the 5 years >>rather than Sheridan, with Sheridan setting up the Rangers and >>becoming Valen.. rather than vice versa. We got what we got and in the >>end.. it wasn't that bad at all. > >I would like to have seen Sinclair go further, but I can't see >Sheridan becoming Valen. He was too forthright to be a Minbari. So was Sinclair, really. I really think the Sinclair starting the Rangers was really a load of horseshit. Lets see.. you have a commander in Earth Force that nobody really likes, has few friends, and has been backed by the Minbari into his position and allowed to live on their homeworld. Doesn't this just scream.. I'm an Earther, i'll ditch my worldly possessions and go sign up to fight with Sinclair? Um.. no it doesn't.. so the question becomes how exactly does Sinclair recruit the new Earthers he claims to be bringing in while being locked to the Minbar homeworld as its ambassador. Sheridan on the otherhand has the stroke to bring people with him when he resigned Earth Force having learned the Icarus was destroyed by the Shadows. He's one of the few war heroes Earth has and the only person to have won a battle against the Minbari. He's the type of guy you'd follow without question and the perfect guy to start the Rangers... with him pulling Earthers and Delenn pulling in the Minbari. The way this works.. is that Sheridan gets introduced in Season 2 Episode 1. Points of Departure simply does not work as a story without him. It works just as it has, except he's not there to replace Sinclair... he's there to watch over and find out about the Trigati. Furthermore, he's the link between Hague to Sinclair and Hague still asks him to assess the trustworthiness of Sinclair and crew just as what happened. Two things are then added to early season two. The first is that Catherine Sakai gets sent out to the outer rim on one of her survey missions and then 'killed', with all the gnashing of teeth that brings for Sinclair with Delenn convincing him he needs to stay to help with the cause, the second is that "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" is moved up and used as the jumping off point for Sheridan. After it, he asks to learn to fight legends and ends up resigning Earth Force to head off to start the Rangers using his contacts and bring them to Minbar. Everything from that point pretty much carries on as is with Sheridan doing what Sinclair did, and Sinclair doing what Sheridan did. Those two adjustments are really all that is needed... any come to jesus sessions that need to be done to convince you of the validity of Sheridan as Valen is just a matter of writing + the acting to pull it off. >Even as a Warrior Caste he seems to blunt to become the famous Valen, while >Sinclair's personality easily fits my image of the Minbaris. Hmm.. Valen.. you mean that guy who ended up taking Babylon 4 and a war that was being lost and ended up engineering a win? That sounds like Sheridan... not Sinclair, sorry. The religious BS can come with time, not to mention if Sinclair can suddenly find Jesus in Delenn's temple in the year or so after Coming of Shadows.. so can Sheridan. Sinclair sure wasn't depicted as any type of religious figure in season one. Valen's name wasn't even spoken until Babylon Squared and all of the foreshadowing that I saw pointed away from him becoming Valen. "Soul Hunter" is about as clear cut as you can get in that he wasn't meant to be Valen. Its actually a stupid joke that they had to take "They're using you" out of its context in WWE to try to convince you that in some way it was foreshadowing for Valen. See.. the thing you have to understand is that the war 1000 years ago is where the leader gets dumped into a shooting war where he is on the losing side and he has to engineer military wins.. that's Sheridan.. its what he is trained to do. The one occuring now is mainly a strategic one... the leader has to pull together and convince lots of races to come and work together to fight against the Shadows. There weren't even many real military style victories for the Alliance short of Shadow Dancing. Its even the success of that coming together which not only is the key to victory, in having to convince the Shadows and Vorlons to go away.. but provides the basis for the Alliance that will last 1000 years. That's Sinclair. Both can be shoehorned as Sinclair goes back and Sheridan fights now... and that worked as a story decent enough.. but it goes against the grain of both of the characters. Don't get me wrong.. loved the show.. but every dynamic change that had to be covered by a trap door weakened the effectiveness of the story by having to introduce someone new and get them up to speed... while at the same time getting them to cover story threads that their character may not have originally been constructed to handle. Its just the price of dynamic TV.. and in the case of Sinclair -> Sheridan it was covered pretty well. Certainly not as bad as say Ivanova -> Lochley. -MJ .