B5 versus ST:TNG

 Posted on 12/14/1999 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


Carolyn Dodson <76337.3460@compuserve.com> asks:
> In all fairness I will admit to one problem I have in B5 plotdom
> and I would like to know if this bothers anybody else? Has anyone
> ever raised this issue or read an explanation from JMS on this -
> Mr. Straczynski, are you out there - what's the deal? Is this
> going to be elaborated on in the "Legions of Fire" series?

"In all fairness I will admit to one problem I have in B5 plotdom and
I would like to know if this bothers anybody else? Why doesn't Sheridan
remember that Londo has a freakin Keeper. How can you go forward in
time and remember that Delenn says "do not go to Z'ha'dum" but you
forget that a one-eyed, ugly, creepy looking sucker is sticking out of
someone's neck. I mean I don't think that is something I would forget.
I mean Franklin found a Keeper on Mars and I assume he put it in a
report which I assume Sheridan read - he should be able to put 2 and 2
together. Has anyone ever raised this issue or read an explanation from
JMS on this - Mr. Straczynski, are you out there - what's the deal? Is
this going to be elaborated on in the "Legions of Fire" series? Just
wonderin'"

It's real simple. That vision was almost 20 years in the
future.

At what point should Sheridan assume the Keeper landed on Londo?
For all he knows, it got there a week before. Nothing in Londo's
behavior in the present B5 storyline says "keeper." People start wars
all the time without the necessity of having keepers. Londo has
certainly had his changes and swings in mood prior to having a Keeper.
WE know this because we have privileged information which Sheridan does
not.

If Londo had said "I got this thing in x-year," then that's one
thing, but absent that...there's no way for Sheridan to know that he
didn't get it 10 or 15 years down the line...and, equally, no way to
know what future events he might change -- possibly for the worse -- by
trying to warn Londo. (And, in fact, if he did try to tell Londo about
this, the Drakh would realize that Londo had been compromised, and they
would probably simply kill him and bring someone else into that
role...so Sheridan's right in that respect.)

jms