Re: OT: Babylon-5 (was Heads up: La Fiorina's book coming out nextweek)

JF Mezei wrote:
Bill Todd wrote:
While B5 season 4 was quite good despite the last-minute collapse of two years' worth of material into one, I don't think Straczynski ever got back to his stride after that -


It was my understanding that he had planned a storyline over 4 seasons.

That understanding is incorrect.

The 5th season was an add on.

That is correct: since most of what had been season 5 was collapsed into season 4 when they were told after season 3 that there would be only one more year, not two more years, of air time, and then found out after season 4 was in the can that TNT would pick them up for a 5th season after all, most of season 5 was an add-on to the original story.

In fact, the last 2 hours of season 5 were
shot as part of season 4 (which is why you don't see any season 5 characters in the series finale).

Only the last episode in season 5 was originally shot for season 4.


So, once Straczynski found out he had to produce a season 5, he found himself having to create 2 additional hours at the end of season 4 to replace the series finale. So, season 4 would have been stretched, not compressed.

If your 'understanding' had been correct, perhaps - but it wasn't.

Straczynski said that he did most of his trimming (to fit two seasons into one) in the material prior to the last 4 episodes in season 4 (plus what became the last episode in season 5) - which would in the original time-line have been the last episodes in season 5, with a lot more fleshing-out of the material that led up to them.

- bill
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