OK... anyone else thinks that changes in B5 were always for the worse?
Franklin instead of Kyle ( did they look for the only actor who could top Kyle's over the top performance?), Stoic Delen for annoying Delen, Under the gun sinclair for smily, the shadows for Clark as a villan, and then Clark for the Drazies, Marcus for Byron, and finally, JMS substituded Lochley for Ivanova :-(
I have to agree that I miss Sinclair. He(and the episode "Deathwalker") was the reason I became convinced that B5 was a show worth watching. I wonder how the story would have been different if Sinclair had remained Cmdr. of B5.
it would probably have been better
No, I don't think so. There were rumours for a while that Michael O'Hare and JMS had a falling out, but that was untrue. Sinclairs character was all planned out. I think they did well with him. Think about it, Sinclair was the more diplomatic type, needed when B5 was just coming online, trying to keep the peace. Sheridan was better suited when there was war coming.
Oh yes. Besides, the whole mystic Valen -angle needed a well loved character like Sinclair. Otherwise it would have been rather... well, just another weird plotline of the week instead of something truly heartbreaking.
I still miss him, though.
It would be interesting to know the original plan before the change. It was clear they were setting up a similar plot for Sinclair that was transferred to Sheridan. Sinclair's girlfriend, Catherine Sakai working for archeology corps would have certainly gone missing the second year ala Anna. I would theorize that Sinclair would have gone on to form the Army of Light, go on to start the IA and run it for twenty years, then "discover" he stole Babylon 4 took it back a 1000 years and did it all over again.
But there's the question of how Morden would have fit in. He was already on Babylon 5 working for the Shadows while Catherine was still around.
There probably would have been a different reveal in Catherine's fate. Might not have had much to to with Morden. I just think that since Sinclair was the main guy (Babylon Squared seemed to cinch that) that what we saw happen to Sheridan would have happened to Sinclair. I could be way off though. Sheridan could still have been introduced with the Anna/Shadows plot, but been a secondary figure to Sinclair. JMS swears that a "Sheridan" character would have been introduced in any case and Sinclair would have taken a back seat. I just don't believe that.
Maybe they would have used Carolyn Sykes instead as Sinclair's 'hook'.
I agree about Carolyn. Interesting how Sinclair/Sheridan and Sykes/Sakai all had same initials.
Based upon all the postings by JMS over the years, I would guess that Laurel would have been discovered to have the AP the second season and been removed. JMS has said that Ivanova would have been in Corwins place and moved up. It's also possible that a "Sheridan" character would have been in that position and been moved to second in command. That way Sinclair and "Sheridan" would coexist and follow their own arcs. Or "Sheridan" would have been introduced in Marcus's place and continued from there. Going back to established (after pilot) storylines, if Andrea Thompson had not left, Talia would probably have had her original personality restored with whatever Kosh had on that data crystal and she would have gone on to do what Lyta did. By leaving all JMS had to do was restore Lyta's arc that he began in the pilot. Sinclair was always going to be Valen and take B4, but whether this was to originally happen at the end of the series or the middle, JMS won't admit.