History WhatCouldHaveBeen / BabylonFive

* Remember that Talia had her Psi power boosted by Ironheart. When the actress left, they had to bring back Lyta and have her Psi boosted by the Vorlons in order to fill Talia's role. So Talia would've been in the Byron role: the advocate for rogue telapaths trying to form a colony on [=B5=], while Ivanova would've been [[LovedINotHonorMore torn between her feelings for Talia and her duty.]] That would've been much better, a-yup.

** "Value Judgements", by Fiona Avery: To open a telepathically-locked alien tomb, the crew seek out a seldom-seen local telepath who is rumored to be vastly-powerful--[[HijackedByGanon only to discover that it's Alfred Bester]], now on the run for war crimes he committed during the Telepath War. Bester uses the opportunity to try and manipulate Matheson. Walter Koenig had signed on to reprise his role as Bester from B5 and thought the script was the best he'd read from the franchise yet. The episode would also have explored Matheson's history as a Psi Corp telepath and how normal/telepath relations had changed (or not) in the intervening years.

* The captured Telepath Resistance member in Matheson's flashbacks to the Telepath War in "The Path of Sorrows" was originally going to be Lyta Alexander, but TNT couldn't be convinced to offer Creator/PatriciaTallman an appropriate salary.

* The captured Telepath Resistance member in Matheson's flashbacks to the Telepath War in "The Path of Sorrows" was originally going to be Lyta Alexander, but Warner Bros couldn't be convinced to offer Creator/PatriciaTallman an appropriate salary.

* The captured Telepath Resistance member in Matheson's flashbacks to the Telepath War in "The Path of Sorrows" was originally going to be Lyta Alexander.

* The role of Knight Two in "[[{{Recap/BabylonFiveS01E08AndTheSkyFullOfStars}} And the Sky, Full of Stars]]" was originally offered to Creator/PatrickMcGoohan (who couldn't fit it into his filming schedule) and then Creator/WalterKoenig (who was too ill to take it). Koenig, of course, was soon cast as Alfred Bester.

* Following Andrea Thompson's departure, Ivanova was supposed to become romantically involved with Byron the telepath, and have her latent powers awakened. When Claudia Christian left the show, the romance subplot was given to Lyta; she was originally going to have a platonic relationship with Byron, but still would have become one of his followers.

* Additionally, three scripts had been written and prepped for production when the show was cancelled, including the season finale. ''Side note'': After none of these story arcs came to fruition, writers attempted to include them in their ExpandedUniverse novels. ''The Passing of the Techno-Mages'' trilogy delves into the origin of the Technomages as tools of the Shadow. Also, the Earthforce/Shadow hybrid ship which destroyed the ''Cerberus'' meets a different end: it's destroyed shortly following [[EvilIsNotAToy a weapons overload.]]
** The cliffhanger would be resolved in Season 2 by transferring Gideon's consciousness into the Apocalypse Box until his body can be restored to life. As the result of embarassing their government, the ''Excalibur'' crew would be "black-balled" and become renegades much like B5's "Army of Light." Ultimately, the cure to the Drakh plague would have been discovered around the middle of the second season, since the [[GovernmentConspiracy Earthforce conspiracy]] was always meant to be the centerpiece of the show.

* General Hague was McLeaned because JMS was furious at his actor, Robert Foxworth, for being inescapably booked to guest star on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' after JMS was assured he would be available; Foxworth guest-starred in [=DS9's=] "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" two-parter at the same time that B5's "[[{{Recap/BabylonFiveS03E10SeveredDreams}} Severed Dreams]]" was to be filmed. Hague's [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacement]] Major Ryan was written with Everett [=McGill=] in mind; JMS had been very impressed by his talents on ''Series/TwinPeaks'', but he couldn't remember the actor's first name when discussing it with his casting director. She suggested he might be referring to ''Bruce'' [=McGill=], and by the time the mistake was discovered, it was too late to change it.

* Michael York, who showed up on B5 as a man [[NapoleonDelusion hallucinating]] that he was Myth/KingArthur, was available to return as Captain of the ''Excalibur''. But [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044321454681030657?s=20 TNT said no]], [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044327874067492865?s=20 because they didn't want to imply every starship captain in the future will be British]] (read: they didn't want to invite comparisons to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). TNT pushed for Creator/GaryCole [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044330006774595584?s=20 due to his "accessible" nature.]] Writer Janet Greek decided that Cole should be fired after she watched the first three episodes he filmed, to the point where she and other writers toyed with [[{{McLeaned}} killing him off]] in the {{cliffhanger}}, "The End of the Line".

* Delenn was going to start the show as androgynous-looking male, and become outwardly-female following her end-of-Season transformation, while keeping the same actress throughout. They couldn't get the voice effects right to change her pitch to "male", so they decided to just make her female from the start, ''e.g'' re-dubbing one line to change a "he" to "she". Another issue was that Mira Furlan, not knowing about the story arc, was understandably confused and uncomfortable about why they even hired her if they were going to cover her face ''and'' modulate her voice. They changed the female Minbari makeup to appear more feminine after the {{pilot movie}}.

* Alsto torpedoed by ExecutiveMeddling, JMS had a MusicalEpisode planned.

* The role of Knight Two in "[[{{Recap/BabylonFiveS01E08AndTheSkyFullOfStars}} And the Sky, Full of Stars]]" was originally offered to [[Series/ThePrisoner1967 Patrick McGoohan]] (who couldn't fit it into his filming schedule) and then Creator/WalterKoenig (who was too ill to take it). Koenig, of course, was soon cast as Alfred Bester.

* Michael York, who showed up on B5 as a man [[NapoleonDelusion hallucinating]] that he was Myth/KingArthur, was available to return as Captain of the ''Excalibur''. But [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044321454681030657?s=20 TNT said no]], [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044327874067492865?s=20 because they didn't want to imply every starship captain in the future will be British]] (read: they didn't want to invite comparisons to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). TNT pushed for Creator/GaryCole [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044330006774595584?s=20 due to his "accessible" nature.]] Writer Janet Greek decided that Cole should be fired after she watched the first three episodes he filmed, to the point where she and other writers toyed with [[{McLeaned}} killing him off]] in the {{cliffhanger}}, "The End of the Line".

* Michael York, who showed up on B5 as a man [[NapoleonDelusion hallucinating]] that he was Myth/KingArthur, was available to return as Captain of the ''Excalibur''. But [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044321454681030657?s=20 TNT said no]], [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044327874067492865?s=20 because they didn't want to imply every starship captain in the future will be British]] (read: they didn't want to invite comparisons to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). TNT pushed for Creator/GaryCole [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044330006774595584?s=20 due to his "accessible" nature.]] Writer Janet Greek decided that Cole should be fired after she watched the first three episodes he filmed, to the point where she and other writers toyed with killing him off for real in the {{cliffhanger}}, "The End of the Line".

* Michael York, who showed up on B5 as a man [[NapoleonDelusion hallucinating]] that he was Myth/KingArthur, was available to return as Captain of the ''Excalibur''. But [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044321454681030657?s=20 TNT said no]], [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044327874067492865?s=20 because they didn't want to imply every starship captain in the future will be British]] (read: they didn't want to invite comparisons to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). TNT pushed for Creator/GaryCole [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044330006774595584?s=20 due to his "accessible" nature.]] Writer Janet Greek decided that Cole should be fired after she watched the first three episodes he filmed, to the point where she and other writers toyed with killing him off for real in the {{cliffhanger}}. (See "The End of the Line" below.)

** "Value Judgements", by Fiona Avery: To open a telepathically-locked alien tomb, the crew seek out a seldom-seen local telepath who is rumored to be vastly-powerful--[[HijackedByGanon only to discover that it's Alfred Bester]], now on the run for war crimes he committed during the Telepath War. Bester uses the opportunity to try and manipulate Matheson. Walter Koenig had signed on to reprise his role as Bester from B5 and thought the script was the best he'd read from the franchise yet. (D'oh!) The episode would also have explored Matheson's history as a Psi Corp telepath and how normal/telepath relations had changed (or not) in the intervening years.

* Michael York, who showed up on B5 as a man [[NapoleonDelusion hallucinating]] that he was Myth/KingArthur, was available to return as Captain of the ''Excalibur'', which sounds... oddly-badass. But [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044321454681030657?s=20 TNT said no]], [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044327874067492865?s=20 because they didn't want to imply every starship captain in the future will be British]] (read: they didn't want to invite comparisons to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''). TNT pushed for Creator/GaryCole [[https://twitter.com/straczynski/status/1044330006774595584?s=20 due to his "accessible" nature.]] Writer Janet Greek decided that Cole should be fired after she watched the first three episodes he filmed, to the point where she and other writers toyed with killing him off for real in the {{cliffhanger}}. (See "The End of the Line" below.)

!!Departures

[[foldercontrol]

!!Casting

!!Main series

!!''Babylon Prime''

!!''Crusade''

** "Value Judgements", by Fiona Avery: To open a telepathically-locked alien tomb, the crew seek out a seldom-seen local telepath who is rumored to be vastly powerful--only to discover that it's Alfred Bester, now on the run for war crimes he committed during the Telepath War. Bester uses the opportunity to try and manipulate Matheson. Walter Koenig had signed on to reprise his role as Bester from B5 and thought the script was the best he'd read from the franchise yet. (D'oh!) The episode would also have explored Matheson's history as a Psi Corp telepath and how normal/telepath relations had changed (or not) in the intervening years.