9bc 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 04:23:55 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:09:15 -0400, Invid Fan wrote: >In article , shawn > wrote: > >> On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 05:19:17 GMT, Michael Johnson wrote: > >> >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. 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. >> >My feeling, looking at the show the way it played out, is that if >Sinclair had stayed a Sheridan-type character would have been brought >in as a main character late season 2 or early season 3. Sinclair was a >diplomat, not a fighter, although he was "looking for something to die >for". Probably captain of a ship siding with B5 during the civil war, >'Sheridan' would gradualy take over leadership until finally Sinclair >becomes Valen. Introduce Sheridan first episode of the second season... a couple episodes in have him leave to start the Rangers, he eventually becomes Valen. Catherine Sakai gets killed on an expedition run to the rim, of which there had been foreshadowing. All proceeds as we've seen. Why overcomplicate things? For anybody who understands what a 'trapdoor' is in the JMS sense... you would also understand that the Valen Arc was a trapdoor for the main character should he need to be replaced. A way of shoving him and his story offscreen for a year and a half(minus a mini-guest appearance) until his story could be resolved and disposed with in a two-parter. Hell.. the entire arc itself didn't appear in the story, not once, until the decision for season two and who would command B5 had been made. At that point its just a matter of who goes off to form the rangers and become Valen.. and who ends up winning the war and forming the Alliance. -MJ . 0