I think Lyta was very mishandled in the series. She is used and discarded. Additionally, Lyta is in fact far more powerful than Bester because of what the Vorlons did to her. Recall the scene where she is talking about the size of weapons and she reveals how strong she really is-p-she's a doomsday weapon. I think she could have easily taken care of Bester one v one
agree, considering how the rest of the Babylon 5 crew treated each other like family and literally put their lives on the line to protect each other. They helped each other to overcome personal demons yet for some reason, they acted out of character by treating Lyta badly considering what she did for them. Think Sheridan and the others would have been more than willing to help her undermine Bester as they would have found more and more what his agenda was, so think I will just blame the writers on that, they drove Lyta down that route that was more plot driven that character driven.
Once Sheridan was a politician he had to tread carefully when it came to interfering in Earth affairs and the Psi Corps. But kicking Lyta out of her apartment seemed a little ungrateful. She deserved some kind of stipend for helping them save the freaking galaxy!
Yes I was wondering why Lyta was not used to control Bester. She could have removed all his PSI ability or at least Blocked him from ever using them again. Then having her do it while Face to face with Bester & he could NOT do anything about it! ;-)
Sheridan was a terrible politician, and the way he handled Lyta is one example of this. He leaves the most powerful telepath in the universe to sink or swim on her own, which creates an opening for Bester woo her back to the Corps. Sheridan should have made sure Lyta's loyalties were to him, instead of yielding them to most evil PsiCop in existence.
To me it seems that some of the personalities and side interests of the actors were brought up in the show - and Walter Koenig he has also written some stories so that means that he was into literature. Utilize the side parts of the characters. Garibaldi had his episodes of alcohol problems. And Jerry Doyle who played Garibaldi passed from alcohol related problems a few years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually did have some alcohol issues already when it was filmed and those episodes were at least a way to shake up that for a while. Andreas Katsulas passed from cancer and he did smoke a lot - but was a great actor nonetheless.
My favorite part of the book is at the end when Bester is buried, the French detective is there and see Garibaldi at the Graveyard with something in his hand - it's a wooden stake. Garibaldi puts the stake in the dirt over Bester's grave - right where his heart would be located. Mr. Garibaldi can hold a grudge with the best of them.
One of the many things about B5 I appreciated and loved was how nuanced all the characters were. There were layers upon layers on flawed characters. Compared to other contemporary shows (‘Star Trek’), it definitely was the precursor to the modern adult sci-fi show. Battlestar Galactica 2003, Expanse, etc, all can trace themselves to B5.
JMS set up a fantastic Universe with fascinating characters, Bester was a guy everyone hated but wss written and performed in a way i can of had to respect him. Loved the montage of Walter Koenig you used, its a shame B5 was treated the way it was because the story you laid out with OG actors would have been amazing. IF they do a remake i hope they realise how much story they have, one of the best thought out Universes in Sci fi.
You skipped what I consider the most tragic part of the Paris story. After Bester mindwipes the women he had fallen for he finally sees the portrait of him she had been painting and realizes that she had seen the truth of him. That she cared for him and would not give him up. Then he destroys the painting. Later at the trial, as he's telling the story painting himself as being correct, he sees the woman in the audience and she looks at him, her expression blank. She feels nothing for him. And he stumbles, finishing his story but with no real drive anymore.
That was the section that stayed with me - both the mindwipe, and the moment in the court. Also, given the timeline, Bester was in his 60s during season one of the show, so Garibaldi was fighting an octagenarian in the final book.
@@weejas Bester was born in 2189 so he was 69 when he came looking for Jason Ironheart. I always thought that it was an interesting choice to make the character that old, about 10 years older than Walter Koenig was at the time.
@@dlxmarksWe have no idea how humans age in the B5 universe. In the Honor Harrington universe, 90 year olds are basically middle-aged. And I seem to remember Delenn stating that the human life-exectancy was over 100 years old when Sheridan twlls her that he only had 20 years to live.
You forgot the lovely last laugh Bester got at the very end when he learned that he outlived Sheridan, who died just days before Bester did, and I recall he called Sheridan 'the one honest man' or something along those lines.
Bester assumes Sheridan would come and speak at his trial, even, and probably in his defence. Setting it after Sleeping in Light is an inspired choice because, honestly, I think Bester is right. I think Sheridan would be the kind of guy to get up there and do a Lee Adama on the stand.
Going to say it again, the end to the President Clarke arc was horribly mismanaged, because the liberation of earth should not have been the end of it, it should have been a precursor leading into the Telepath war, revealing how Psi Corps was the power behind the throne, and season five being the culmination of that then leading into the Drakh war from season six onwards, with the story being wrapped up in _Call to Arms_ which would have transitioned into Crusade, had the studio not done it dirty. It remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in Sci Fi history.
All thanks to idiots cancelling the show prematurely. JMS did the best he could since there was no advance notice about TNT swooping in at the very last minute as the series finale had already been shot by that point.
JMS thought he wouldn't get a S05 so he had to wrap it in S04 just in case. Also, the reason behind his rise were the shadows, since Morden was talking to him in the call intercepted by The Great Machine.
The mismanagement of the Clarke arc was due to the unstable hands at the studio initially saying 'wrap it up, season four is the end' then changing their mind well in to the fourth season when it was too late to walk back some of the situations (e.g. Sheridan was already in custody). This is why the pacing in season 4 feels 'too fast' and we get things like Bester monologueing to Garibaldi about his evil schemes (when normally we'd get to see Garibaldi work it out himself over several episodes). It's also why season five rehashes old ground with new faces - the mad centuari emperor is now the mad centauri regent. The evil shadows are now the evil shadows of the shadows (Drakh), and why the telepath storyline came out of nowhere and used several episodes to clumsily wander around. As for Crusade, I tried watching it last month and oh wow it was a let down. There, the production was plagued by issues such as 1) The studio somehow alienated the company or key staff that did the prosthetics so there were basically zero B5 alien species until mid season (we saw the BACK of two minbari and one halloween costume quality looking Gaim in episode six...) 2) The company that did the CGI went under and the originals were lost so all the special effects looked really weird and even worse than what they had several years earlier until after mid season plus 3) The studio managed to misfile some paperwork that resulted in the sets being shredded so the one time they finally visited babylon 5 it was just cheap walls thrown up in a warehouse and obviously slapped together compared to the original sets. Add to this an awkward story start to the season, ultimately only having 3 or 4 episodes of good solid sci fi in there and it was painful. You can safely not watch Crusade and won't miss anything from the B5 universe. I wish they had got a chance to stretch their legs, but the start was sabotaged by the studio, circumstance, and weak initial scripts.
The Psi Corp were never the power behind Clarke's throne. That was established when they found all the telepaths being shipped to be shadow pilots in season 3. Earth had multiple factions vying for power and control.
Just had a look, will try these books out. I'm looking for books with the depth of Peter F Hamilton (which, for me are the sci fi equivalents of Steven Erikson's Malazan books). Thanks for mentioning this.
@@tobyclayton2597 Thank you :) If you enjoy short stories, you can try one of my two anthologies. Both have big glossaries included to ease any new reader into the universe.
the statue of bester outside his jail cell is such a cool fucking thing and I've always liked it from a story perspective. B5 always had such a fantastic story...
thankyou for this update. I had never read the B5 books expecting 2nd rate badly written letdowns. Shows that the Vestor actor made the right choice for his career in not speaking out in the William Shatner/ origional Star Trek controversity. He saved his career unlike the other actor who was only remembered for his bitterness on how Shatner had mistreated them all.
When I found out Mira and Jerry had passed away .. It felt like I had lost a family member . REALLY sad . Brought so much to the SCI-FI family . Will be sorely missed . 💖😢
There are actually 102 people who were involved with Babylon 5 and the spinoffs who are no longer with us, from main stars, to guest stars, to bit players, to background extras, to behind the scenes crew workers, to directors and producers.
Remember loving the Psi-Corp trilogy when I read then after a watch through of the whole B5/Crusade saga many years back, Bester is such a great character, a real shame his Crusade appearance was not to be 😕
The Psi-Corp books were great, giving a history of the corp and teeps, Then what happens in the end of the series. It was so heartbreaking what he had to do to try to survive.
The contrast between those two as human beings is dramatic: Mira was almost bit saintly in here outlook toward others, especially after fleeing the Yugoslav wars, and to die from sucha preventable disease ugh. Jerry on the other hand was the archetypal obnoxious political conservative loudmouth - I believe he even had a radio show at one point.. Think Rush Limbaugh. [Mind you, I'm not addressing the policies involved, just his behavior]. Sadly he himself was the same alcoholic persona as Garibaldi. Knowing how unpleasant Andrea Thompson turned out to be, it's hard to imagine how their marriage ever survived at all.
Re-watching this video, and it’s an excellent and fascinating story between these two men. Garibadli would’ve kept that grudge for a millennia if need be. Bester did create his worst enemy out of his own arrogance. This could have been a stellar TV movie, especially with Walter & Jerry gnawing on this kind of material. Thanks again for the great video!
This video does a good job of pulling together the widely scattered fragments of the conclusions of Bester, Lyta Alexander, and Garibaldi's character arcs. In a way, the rise and fall of the Psi Corps was only a reflection of the conflicts among those three.
The Technomage Trilogy following Galen was brilliant as well, and helped to weave the B5 story more, considering their beginnings and leaving the shadows behind.
That was a really good job of weaving the two series and the books into a condensed story explaining all of the salient points! Now I have to look to see if you've done that with the other two wonderful trilogies.
Thank you for collecting the threads so well. I have heard that the Psi Corp trilogy is not as easy to get as it once was. Or any of the old B5 books. I hope those who missed out getting them find this video.
I always found it strange that the Shadow's influence on the Psi Corps wasn't brought up more. It seemed like a lot of their projects and their rise to power were a result of aid from the Shadows. They were selling telepaths to the Shadows to be made into CPU's for their ships. You would think that either some of their plans would have changed after the Shadows left or they would have worked with the Drakh to get more support and technology.
Thank you for this - My uncle turned me on to B5 during the second season, he lived long enough to see the finale but not the spinoff. No clue how this ended up in my YT feed but B5 remains an underrated gem of scifi
Considering our own situation over privacy, I always thought our timeline was pretty ripe for a Psi-Corp story. Even if it retread stories from the books or gave us a clearer picture about the end of the "Crisis," I would enjoy it.
That was a good one. And its consistent with the characters and how they think. I always thought that Lyta died in a tragic manner when G'kar talks about her as his travel companion who is no longer here it was always delivered with great sadness and regret. But I didn't think Lenier would be there with here in the last moments seem that even if he shamed the name of the Rangers well he made up for it still trying to the best to keep the peace but he did chose a side to work with.
Excellent video! And a great touch to use scenes from other movies to stand in for the Bester Movie that never was. I never read any of the B5 books, and I wasn't aware that there was a series that finalized the saga of Bester. So, thanks for the synopsis! I would have loved to see a movie or mini-series around this subject. And like Khan's story in Star Trek, Bester went from a position of almost ultimate power to defeat brought on mostly by his own hubris. And it's nice to know there was a conclusion, even if it was "only" in book form. By the way, is the book series worth reading?
So glad you liked the video! I re-read the books for the first time in years for this video. They are fun reads! Garibaldi and Bester feel very authentic and the author knows how to keep things moving. Book one is a good back story of how Earth reacts to the emergence of Telepaths. Book two reads like a series of interlinked short stories marking key moments in Bester’s life up until his first visit to B5. The third book is the best - it takes us beyond the events of the series and deals with a tighter, more contained narrative. All well worth a read!
I would second reading the books. Each one tells a self-contained story, and together they span about two centuries. We get to meet Lyta's maternal line, too. If you like B5 backstory, there's also a trilogy around Galen - "The passing of the techno-mages". It covers their origins, why they left, and why Galen stayed around to help. It's a bit grim in places, but still entertaining. If you're familiar with the Wheel of Time, there's a decent overlap in that in both series, those wielding this awesome power have very little idea how to do so, and are barely tapping the surface until they learn it properly.
Great videos. Any chance you can start using the upscaled version of Babylon 5 for your footage? That is literally my old feedback. Else again, great videos!
You missed one detail. In an article or story, the cemetery keeper where Bester is buried stares in disbelief as Garibaldi strides over to the grave, raises a hammer and pounds a wooden stake into Besters heart.
Oh my god.. Such BS. If we're to believe that there was still a fleet in season 5, that couldnt have happened as ALL the Vorlons were gone... and had been since Into The Fire S4,E6. I'm obsessive about this fictional universe, and have never heard anything of the sort.. Please provide SOME actual reference if you're going to throw such wild speculation out there.
A number of years back I read one of the scripts from Crusade that hadn't been filmed yet where Galen and Capt. Gideon find Bester on a planet hiding. It turns out to be an old Psi Corp black site. During the story you find out that the Techno Mages were using Shadow tech (implants), and that the Psi Corp was trying to figure out how they (Techno Mages) had done it without the side effects of being under its influences. You come to find out Galen had been modified, but was able to control the implanted Shadow tech. He finally confessed to Gideon about what was going on. And they caught Bester in the end as well. After that the script eluded to the next episode where Bester is taken to Earth for trial, but escapes. That's about all I remember. The big thing for me was finding Bester and that the Techno Mages used Shadow tech. Guess I'll have to read the books to really get all the details.
The Psi Corps Trilogy was GREAT and I would have LOVED to have seen this as a movie! I would like to know more why Lennier was with Lyta and fighting with her on this.
If you dig around a bit you'll find them floating around on the internet. Try googling 'Babylon 5 Psi Corp books pdf' and you might find them on the Internet Archive site.
JMS posted two unmade Crusde scripts to a defunct side named Book Face. One was Bester episode and one was the season finale. Both were amazing scripts. I havent been able to find them since.
I'd love to see more of Bester. One of the best characters ever. From any show. Unfortunately though I dont see anyone but Walter Koenig playing him so it would take some wizardly casting to pull it off.
This cobbled together conclusion reflecting the depth of the Babylon 5 universe is exactly why I would love to hear that J. Michael Straczynski was writing a new Star Wars trilogy!
I always assumed that the explosion that destroys the Psi Corp HQ is Lyta herself. NGL I hate Lennier dying in the end of the Telepath Crisis; personally it makes more sense for Lennier to make the ultimate sacrifice whilst rescuing Sheridan, Delenn and David from Centauri Prime; probably in a fight with pursuing Drakh forces. It also makes sense as Lennier and Vir were close friends and having them reunite to work in the Centauri resistance would be cool (JMS if you read any of this and want to change it, you have my permission to do so ;) ) The Psi Corp trilogy of books are excellent (as are the Centauri Prime and Technomage trilogies) and well worth a read, if you can find them.
Nah.. Lennier would never have gone back into Delenn's presence... especially with Sheridan always there with her. He was far too shamed by what he had done, and he would also know that SHE knew what he had done.
Because Sci-Fi shows are usually intelligently written and not geared toward the average television audience, and the series are shorter because ratings are more important than an intellegent audience. As an example: "Limitless"
i truly enjoyed this character driven show. I loved that if you missed a single episode, something three episodes later pops up. Extremely well written and acted. Battlestar Galactica was like this too. We don't have shows like this now, because of the Collectivist stain on everything beautiful or creative.
Yes, I think it would have been an excellent series. And an excellent story based on that character. A series and a story's set and a sci-fi setting, not based in huge space battles. But in a cyberpunk, ask type of fugitive on the run and detective drama. Was a touch of terrorist activity thrown in. It would have been a perfect series. On top of that, the book's story, the plot line, leaves a lot of information there that you can use for what if scenarios for those individuals who like fan fiction. After all the psychic Gustavo's life could have taken a radical turn at any point. His entire history could have been changed with something as simple as a sentence or a realization and acceptance of his own past. The entire telepath war could have been altered by a key placed individual who was in control of a small fleet sitting in hyperspace. He could have gone from one of the settings, worst villains to 1 of its greatest heroes with just a sentences, and a little bit of cognitive realization.
A potential Bester TV series/miniseries feels a bit like the follow-up "Kessler", to the BBC's seminal "The Secret Army" TV series from the late 1970s. In the follow-up we meet again the original series' main villain, Ludwig Kessler, now living in exile in Argentina or maybe some other south american country (I don't quite remember, this was a very long time ago now.) He has built himself a new life, he has a family who know nothing of his past, and as the episodes progress the past starts to catch up with him. Bester was a phenomenal villain, so expertly written by JMS, and played, by Walter Koenig. The Gods of Sci-Fi demand, I think, that this incredible character be given the sendoff he so well deserves.
It's a twisted version of The Fugitive. When I heard about JMS's plans for Bester's future I can't help but think of the Nazies that escaped to Argentina. I doubt that's a coincidence.
Fabulous story. Exquisitely detailed and exhaustively researched. How many hours did you pour into this production? I never really liked Garibaldi afte his treacherous Psi Corp time. It seems like Bester got off easy.
Thanks! I really went down the rabbit hole with this one - had a lot of fun doing it! The trickiest/most time consuming part was figuring out how to tell it visually. I wanted it to feel like you’d kind of seen this Bester movie that never existed.
Bester. A prime example of someone you would love to toss off a cliff. The character (who once was everyone's favorite helmsman) made for some really interesting episodes. B5. No.1. Peace
I didn't know any of this. Not about the spinoff, the books, none of it. Thanks for the info. On a side note, I'm still salty about how they handled Talia Winter. I get that they wanted to bring back Lyta or something and didn't need/want two sympathetic telepaths. But making her a sleeper agent that when activated destroys her original personality and in it's place is the agent, that was a crap way to write her out of the series.
Talia's character was written out because the actress wanted out, she didn't like her character and the level of screen time she was getting. It was a lucky coincidence that Lita's actress was available to return, it wasn't some evil plan. If anything, making her a sleeper agent allowed her to flex her acting in her last episode
This is a part of the story I'm not familiar with, so it's quite interesting to see these holes filled in. The only B5 novels I've read are the Legions Of Fire trilogy, and the novelisations of In The Beginning and A Call To Arms. Whether this story did Bester justice or not is impossible for me to say unless I get to read all this.
I have the Psi-Corp trilogy and it is a hell of a read. Bester and the Psi-Corp has always fascinated me. I know bringing back B5 is an up hill battle for JMS and very slim chance of a true revival. But I want to believe there are fans who would love to see a movie, show, or miniseries focused solely on the corp. The Corps is mother and The Corps is father. LOL
Its so frustrating that they didnt use one of their tv movies or video releases to wrap up the telepath stuff. Would have been more consequential than River of Souls or Lost Tales. Still, I’m glad we got that final book for some closure. If JMS authorized further novels I wonder if the audience would be big enough to make it worthwhile?
You were a bit incorrect in the 'clubfist' info... the reason for Bester's Club Fist... He sought a death dive - a telepathic link to a dying man to retrieve information... it turned out to be his father... as he died, he left a note in Bester's fist, but bester followed him into the realm of death itself for the info he wanted... he felt judged and felt souls trying to rend him, then he returned, but his fist was closed permanently around the note, and he had lost a bit of his soul... as mentioned by Lyta in her recollections of working with psi-cops... everything else you spoke of is accurate except for the last part... excellent video...
Bester epitomizes the phrase, "The villain is the hero of their own story." Bester truly believed he was doing the right thing for his people and that the ends justified the means. He was wrong....but that is what he believed with all of his heart and soul.
IT would have been nice to have this all as a second series. But for various reasons, pretty much every Sci Fi series ends up leaving loose threads. Another one that really ticked me off was Enterprise. Lots of questions there too. But, the book series for Babylon 5 filled in most of the gaps, including what happened when Vir took on the Drakh and ended up as Emperor. So I guess i can be satisfied with that. One other thing, I've been reading Fan Fiction for years, (kept me sane on many an endless shift) and there are a lot of really well written stories that answer other questions.
This sounds like an interesting prospect for a B5 tv movie, but it'd required a budget that usually isn't available for B5 . Also, Bester's actor Walter Koenig is much to old to play the part . B5 got screwed from all sides, and it's still getting screwed -- with the fans who would like some ship merch getting screwed right along with them . Yet I'm not sure that they're any worse off than the current iterations of Trek .
Yes it did well with Bester and the rest. I did not keep up with things after the original series ended but I would love to know if Sheridan ever returned. He was of course my favorite.
Sad to hear of Lyta's death. I really liked her. The one time she really rubbed me up the wrong way, Sheridan put her in her place. I was really hoping that she would end up being a guiding hand to humanity, becoming worthy of being invited beyond the outer-rim.
I just started video. I'm hammered but I've seen every episode of Babylon Five and seen all the TV made movies. Haven't seen new cartoon yet. But I will be judging your video. Watched all 5 seasons and movies just the other day, no internet or phone connection. Was facing a disconnect in internet. The whole month of April.
Hell yeah they should have made that! It would have been better than " Lost Tales". I never got a chance to read the first two, but I HAVE read "Final Reckoning" three times. Just to let you know how good it is in my opinion, I'll share the only other books I've read three times. Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo ", Turtledoves's "Guns of the South" and the trilogy about the Centauri after Londo becomes emperor "Legions of Fire" by Peter David who happens to be a top notch favorite author of mine. So I hope you have a video about that! Vir's progression is amazing and makes him one of the MOST dynamic characters in a franchise FILLED with dynamic characters! Spoilers: his being the last emperor, what the technomage helped him do to Molari's ex-wife and of course his becoming a true hero really stick with me and I look at Vir differently when I watch B5 these days.
It sounds like a fitting end for Bester. Even down to the realization that the monument was about him. Was his fate just? Perhaps, perhaps not. But if it wasn't, then he disserved that last reward.
Oh hell yeah, the Fate of Bester should have been turned into a TV movie. This would have been better than the Babylon 5 Tales, that animated movie thing recently, Tales of the Rangers and River of Souls.
Two things. First, what happened to the Drakh who invaded Centauri Prime after Londo died and Vir took over? Second, how was the Drakh plaque on Earth cured? The B5 movie A Call To Arms showed the Drakh unleashing a plaque on Earth, and the Spin-off series Crusade ended before a cure was found. So, how was the plaque cured?
JMS planned on curing the plague within a few seasons of Crusade, then pivot to something else (he really wanted to focus on the Rangers more which I think was a mistake). As far as Centuri Prime goes, there are books about what happens, but ultimately Garibaldi helps Vir liberate Centuri Prime I think?
If there was ever a series that deserves a reboot, it's Babylon 5. Hell, I'd be happy with just an update to the CGI. The characters, indoor scenes, and overall plot are excellent by themselves. Just update the space battles and special effects, then re-release it as a Blue Ray set (yeah, I'm old) and I'd be throwing my money at it!
I think Lyta was very mishandled in the series. She is used and discarded. Additionally, Lyta is in fact far more powerful than Bester because of what the Vorlons did to her. Recall the scene where she is talking about the size of weapons and she reveals how strong she really is-p-she's a doomsday weapon. I think she could have easily taken care of Bester one v one
Lyta wasn't treated well by Sheridan at the end. She's a good example of the good person who got pushed too far and became evil.
agree, considering how the rest of the Babylon 5 crew treated each other like family and literally put their lives on the line to protect each other. They helped each other to overcome personal demons yet for some reason, they acted out of character by treating Lyta badly considering what she did for them. Think Sheridan and the others would have been more than willing to help her undermine Bester as they would have found more and more what his agenda was, so think I will just blame the writers on that, they drove Lyta down that route that was more plot driven that character driven.
Once Sheridan was a politician he had to tread carefully when it came to interfering in Earth affairs and the Psi Corps.
But kicking Lyta out of her apartment seemed a little ungrateful. She deserved some kind of stipend for helping them save the freaking galaxy!
Yes I was wondering why Lyta was not used to control Bester. She could have removed all his PSI ability or at least Blocked him from ever using them again. Then having her do it while Face to face with Bester & he could NOT do anything about it! ;-)
Sheridan was a terrible politician, and the way he handled Lyta is one example of this. He leaves the most powerful telepath in the universe to sink or swim on her own, which creates an opening for Bester woo her back to the Corps. Sheridan should have made sure Lyta's loyalties were to him, instead of yielding them to most evil PsiCop in existence.
Bester as a literary critic is is a stroke of genius.
To me it seems that some of the personalities and side interests of the actors were brought up in the show - and Walter Koenig he has also written some stories so that means that he was into literature. Utilize the side parts of the characters.
Garibaldi had his episodes of alcohol problems. And Jerry Doyle who played Garibaldi passed from alcohol related problems a few years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually did have some alcohol issues already when it was filmed and those episodes were at least a way to shake up that for a while. Andreas Katsulas passed from cancer and he did smoke a lot - but was a great actor nonetheless.
They still have newspapers in two hundred years? 😂
@@JosephDickson online newspapers...
Babylon 5 was THE BEST sci-fi series EVER!! JMS keeps getting screwed over and it pisses me off lol
@@scotttild AFAIK WB only owns the rights to a television series, while JMS still own the rights to movies.
My favorite part of the book is at the end when Bester is buried, the French detective is there and see Garibaldi at the Graveyard with something in his hand - it's a wooden stake.
Garibaldi puts the stake in the dirt over Bester's grave - right where his heart would be located. Mr. Garibaldi can hold a grudge with the best of them.
I've wondered about this for literal decades. Thank you for the story.
You are very welcome!
Love the little touch at the end of the last book. Garibaldi at Bester's grave.
He drives a stake through it right?
@@ianwright4255 Yeah. I always thought that was weird.
@@cugamer8862 He was treating Bester like a vampire.
Gotta make sure he doesn't come back!
This would have made a hell of an epilogue episode for B5.
I'd have watched it.
JMS introduced us to the tip of the iceberg. He or others could spend a lifetime on the rest of it.
One of the many things about B5 I appreciated and loved was how nuanced all the characters were. There were layers upon layers on flawed characters.
Compared to other contemporary shows (‘Star Trek’), it definitely was the precursor to the modern adult sci-fi show. Battlestar Galactica 2003, Expanse, etc, all can trace themselves to B5.
Walter Koenig broke out of his Star Trek typecasting with his Excellent portrayal of Bester.
9:42 Walter Koenig and Richard Hatch in the same scene together, pure awesomeness
'Inalienable' if you are a fan of trashy low budget sci-fi. A lot of familiar faces in it for 90s genre tv fans.
JMS set up a fantastic Universe with fascinating characters, Bester was a guy everyone hated but wss written and performed in a way i can of had to respect him. Loved the montage of Walter Koenig you used, its a shame B5 was treated the way it was because the story you laid out with OG actors would have been amazing. IF they do a remake i hope they realise how much story they have, one of the best thought out Universes in Sci fi.
You skipped what I consider the most tragic part of the Paris story.
After Bester mindwipes the women he had fallen for he finally sees the portrait of him she had been painting and realizes that she had seen the truth of him. That she cared for him and would not give him up.
Then he destroys the painting.
Later at the trial, as he's telling the story painting himself as being correct, he sees the woman in the audience and she looks at him, her expression blank. She feels nothing for him. And he stumbles, finishing his story but with no real drive anymore.
That was the section that stayed with me - both the mindwipe, and the moment in the court.
Also, given the timeline, Bester was in his 60s during season one of the show, so Garibaldi was fighting an octagenarian in the final book.
@@weejas Bester was born in 2189 so he was 69 when he came looking for Jason Ironheart. I always thought that it was an interesting choice to make the character that old, about 10 years older than Walter Koenig was at the time.
@@dlxmarksWe have no idea how humans age in the B5 universe. In the Honor Harrington universe, 90 year olds are basically middle-aged. And I seem to remember Delenn stating that the human life-exectancy was over 100 years old when Sheridan twlls her that he only had 20 years to live.
You forgot the lovely last laugh Bester got at the very end when he learned that he outlived Sheridan, who died just days before Bester did, and I recall he called Sheridan 'the one honest man' or something along those lines.
Bester assumes Sheridan would come and speak at his trial, even, and probably in his defence. Setting it after Sleeping in Light is an inspired choice because, honestly, I think Bester is right. I think Sheridan would be the kind of guy to get up there and do a Lee Adama on the stand.
@@scotttild How different from death that is may be anyone's guess.
@@scotttild Yes, but basically nobody knows that, everyone assumes he died.
There is one story where Bester is dead and Burried. Garibaldi shows up that night, in the rain (of course), and stabs a knife into the grave.
@@scotttild Or those little nanobots gave him a comforting hallucination before they all used the last of their energy to explode, vaporizing him.
That's... actually a pretty cool synopsis of how it all ended. I can accept that as a good story. Thank you for the telling of it.
You're very welcome!
Going to say it again, the end to the President Clarke arc was horribly mismanaged, because the liberation of earth should not have been the end of it, it should have been a precursor leading into the Telepath war, revealing how Psi Corps was the power behind the throne, and season five being the culmination of that then leading into the Drakh war from season six onwards, with the story being wrapped up in _Call to Arms_ which would have transitioned into Crusade, had the studio not done it dirty. It remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in Sci Fi history.
All thanks to idiots cancelling the show prematurely. JMS did the best he could since there was no advance notice about TNT swooping in at the very last minute as the series finale had already been shot by that point.
You have to remember that they were not sure they were getting a season five so they wrote it in case it ended in season four…
JMS thought he wouldn't get a S05 so he had to wrap it in S04 just in case. Also, the reason behind his rise were the shadows, since Morden was talking to him in the call intercepted by The Great Machine.
The mismanagement of the Clarke arc was due to the unstable hands at the studio initially saying 'wrap it up, season four is the end' then changing their mind well in to the fourth season when it was too late to walk back some of the situations (e.g. Sheridan was already in custody). This is why the pacing in season 4 feels 'too fast' and we get things like Bester monologueing to Garibaldi about his evil schemes (when normally we'd get to see Garibaldi work it out himself over several episodes). It's also why season five rehashes old ground with new faces - the mad centuari emperor is now the mad centauri regent. The evil shadows are now the evil shadows of the shadows (Drakh), and why the telepath storyline came out of nowhere and used several episodes to clumsily wander around. As for Crusade, I tried watching it last month and oh wow it was a let down. There, the production was plagued by issues such as 1) The studio somehow alienated the company or key staff that did the prosthetics so there were basically zero B5 alien species until mid season (we saw the BACK of two minbari and one halloween costume quality looking Gaim in episode six...) 2) The company that did the CGI went under and the originals were lost so all the special effects looked really weird and even worse than what they had several years earlier until after mid season plus 3) The studio managed to misfile some paperwork that resulted in the sets being shredded so the one time they finally visited babylon 5 it was just cheap walls thrown up in a warehouse and obviously slapped together compared to the original sets. Add to this an awkward story start to the season, ultimately only having 3 or 4 episodes of good solid sci fi in there and it was painful. You can safely not watch Crusade and won't miss anything from the B5 universe. I wish they had got a chance to stretch their legs, but the start was sabotaged by the studio, circumstance, and weak initial scripts.
The Psi Corp were never the power behind Clarke's throne. That was established when they found all the telepaths being shipped to be shadow pilots in season 3. Earth had multiple factions vying for power and control.
Babylon 5 is why I spent fifteen years learning and writing. Now I have a sci-fi series of my own.
I’d like to know the title.
@@Rgoid The Starshatter book series.
Just had a look, will try these books out. I'm looking for books with the depth of Peter F Hamilton (which, for me are the sci fi equivalents of Steven Erikson's Malazan books).
Thanks for mentioning this.
@@tobyclayton2597 I read The Reality Dysfunction the week it was released. The wait for the 2 following books felt like an eternity.
@@tobyclayton2597 Thank you :) If you enjoy short stories, you can try one of my two anthologies. Both have big glossaries included to ease any new reader into the universe.
Loved Babylon 5, but I was so peed off that we never ever got to see Bester get his just deserts in the series.
In my head Canon Bester is in Hell being punished by Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny with Garabalde pointing and laughing.
@@jamesms4 🤣🤣
I very much wish they had filmed this, Bester was such a perfect adversary and one of the characters really bringing the series a depth.
the statue of bester outside his jail cell is such a cool fucking thing and I've always liked it from a story perspective. B5 always had such a fantastic story...
Yes, we’d all seen that statue outside PsiCorps since B5. The fact that it’s Bester but nobody knows was a great twist,
Pretty good Bester video. I really enjoyed watching it this morning. Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
thankyou for this update. I had never read the B5 books expecting 2nd rate badly written letdowns.
Shows that the Vestor actor made the right choice for his career in not speaking out in the William Shatner/ origional Star Trek controversity. He saved his career unlike the other actor who was only remembered for his bitterness on how Shatner had mistreated them all.
When I found out Mira and Jerry had passed away .. It felt like I had lost a family member . REALLY sad . Brought so much to the SCI-FI family . Will be sorely missed . 💖😢
There are actually 102 people who were involved with Babylon 5 and the spinoffs who are no longer with us, from main stars, to guest stars, to bit players, to background extras, to behind the scenes crew workers, to directors and producers.
Remember loving the Psi-Corp trilogy when I read then after a watch through of the whole B5/Crusade saga many years back, Bester is such a great character, a real shame his Crusade appearance was not to be 😕
Wow, that brings a lot back, thanks for tying it all together.
Seven words to make algorithms love you.
How is the road to Tinue?
This was absolutely beautiful man 👏👏👏
The Psi-Corp books were great, giving a history of the corp and teeps, Then what happens in the end of the series. It was so heartbreaking what he had to do to try to survive.
I am very sad that these books are all out of print now. I didn't get to read them all back in the day.
The contrast between those two as human beings is dramatic:
Mira was almost bit saintly in here outlook toward others, especially after fleeing the Yugoslav wars, and to die from sucha preventable disease ugh.
Jerry on the other hand was the archetypal obnoxious political conservative loudmouth - I believe he even had a radio show at one point.. Think Rush Limbaugh. [Mind you, I'm not addressing the policies involved, just his behavior]. Sadly he himself was the same alcoholic persona as Garibaldi. Knowing how unpleasant Andrea Thompson turned out to be, it's hard to imagine how their marriage ever survived at all.
Re-watching this video, and it’s an excellent and fascinating story between these two men. Garibadli would’ve kept that grudge for a millennia if need be. Bester did create his worst enemy out of his own arrogance. This could have been a stellar TV movie, especially with Walter & Jerry gnawing on this kind of material. Thanks again for the great video!
This was great the clips you used helped elevate the story. Very clever.
This video does a good job of pulling together the widely scattered fragments of the conclusions of Bester, Lyta Alexander, and Garibaldi's character arcs. In a way, the rise and fall of the Psi Corps was only a reflection of the conflicts among those three.
Well told and great visuals. Excellent editing here. I enjoyed how you pulled the story together from the somewhat fragmented references.
Definitely worth a tv movie. It's a great story! They should do the Centaury Trilogy too.
The Technomage Trilogy following Galen was brilliant as well, and helped to weave the B5 story more, considering their beginnings and leaving the shadows behind.
@@JonBowe I got that too. But I somehow am not able to finish it. It just cant keep my attention. Which is sad. :(
That was a really good job of weaving the two series and the books into a condensed story explaining all of the salient points! Now I have to look to see if you've done that with the other two wonderful trilogies.
I plan to! But in the meantime you can check out the rest of my B5 playlist
Thank you for collecting the threads so well. I have heard that the Psi Corp trilogy is not as easy to get as it once was. Or any of the old B5 books. I hope those who missed out getting them find this video.
I think adapting the man hunt for Bester with flashbacks to his origin story would have been a great TV movie!!
That's absolutely the way to adapt it!
Walter Koenig is on record preferring B5.
That ending for Bester is about what I thought. Loss of his powers. I agree, Lyta treatment she got smacked of racism.
This is so good. JMS is a genius of a writer. He and Jos Whedon created some of the best genre fiction on the small screen in the 90s.
Great video! Thanks, wish they had made a movie like that!
I always found it strange that the Shadow's influence on the Psi Corps wasn't brought up more. It seemed like a lot of their projects and their rise to power were a result of aid from the Shadows. They were selling telepaths to the Shadows to be made into CPU's for their ships. You would think that either some of their plans would have changed after the Shadows left or they would have worked with the Drakh to get more support and technology.
Thank you for this - My uncle turned me on to B5 during the second season, he lived long enough to see the finale but not the spinoff. No clue how this ended up in my YT feed but B5 remains an underrated gem of scifi
More B5 is always needed!
Including whole Crusade story line…
Considering our own situation over privacy, I always thought our timeline was pretty ripe for a Psi-Corp story. Even if it retread stories from the books or gave us a clearer picture about the end of the "Crisis," I would enjoy it.
I liked it when Lyta mind slapped Bestor...
Nicely done. The Bab5 fan thoroughly enjoys your videos.
my beloved just gave me these three books! *Dark Genesis, Deadly Relations,* and *Final Reckoning*
Enjoy!
@@martincoiner971 they are well woth the Read
I invested in the omnibus of this and the Centauri trilogy, hardbound.. Worthy investment that is far more durable thatn paperbacks
That was a good one. And its consistent with the characters and how they think. I always thought that Lyta died in a tragic manner when G'kar talks about her as his travel companion who is no longer here it was always delivered with great sadness and regret. But I didn't think Lenier would be there with here in the last moments seem that even if he shamed the name of the Rangers well he made up for it still trying to the best to keep the peace but he did chose a side to work with.
Excellent video! And a great touch to use scenes from other movies to stand in for the Bester Movie that never was.
I never read any of the B5 books, and I wasn't aware that there was a series that finalized the saga of Bester. So, thanks for the synopsis!
I would have loved to see a movie or mini-series around this subject. And like Khan's story in Star Trek, Bester went from a position of almost ultimate power to defeat brought on mostly by his own hubris. And it's nice to know there was a conclusion, even if it was "only" in book form.
By the way, is the book series worth reading?
So glad you liked the video!
I re-read the books for the first time in years for this video. They are fun reads! Garibaldi and Bester feel very authentic and the author knows how to keep things moving.
Book one is a good back story of how Earth reacts to the emergence of Telepaths.
Book two reads like a series of interlinked short stories marking key moments in Bester’s life up until his first visit to B5.
The third book is the best - it takes us beyond the events of the series and deals with a tighter, more contained narrative.
All well worth a read!
I would second reading the books. Each one tells a self-contained story, and together they span about two centuries. We get to meet Lyta's maternal line, too.
If you like B5 backstory, there's also a trilogy around Galen - "The passing of the techno-mages". It covers their origins, why they left, and why Galen stayed around to help. It's a bit grim in places, but still entertaining. If you're familiar with the Wheel of Time, there's a decent overlap in that in both series, those wielding this awesome power have very little idea how to do so, and are barely tapping the surface until they learn it properly.
Q. What's the difference between a pitbull and Michael Garibaldi?
A. A pitbull eventually lets go of you.
A Pitbull can't drink the entire bar and still cause you hell?
Great videos. Any chance you can start using the upscaled version of Babylon 5 for your footage? That is literally my old feedback. Else again, great videos!
i loved this arc, hope this gets love in future adaptations
Great work!
Thanks!
You missed one detail. In an article or story, the cemetery keeper where Bester is buried stares in disbelief as Garibaldi strides over to the grave, raises a hammer and pounds a wooden stake into Besters heart.
Just come across your channel, love the videos - thank you so much, great production values and really well researched.
Bester hinted that the Psi Corp fleet was destroyed by the Vorlons after they accidentally attacked a Vorlon
Oh my god.. Such BS. If we're to believe that there was still a fleet in season 5, that couldnt have happened as ALL the Vorlons were gone... and had been since Into The Fire S4,E6. I'm obsessive about this fictional universe, and have never heard anything of the sort.. Please provide SOME actual reference if you're going to throw such wild speculation out there.
Probably the best sci-fi I have seen, sad it never reached its full potential
A number of years back I read one of the scripts from Crusade that hadn't been filmed yet where Galen and Capt. Gideon find Bester on a planet hiding. It turns out to be an old Psi Corp black site. During the story you find out that the Techno Mages were using Shadow tech (implants), and that the Psi Corp was trying to figure out how they (Techno Mages) had done it without the side effects of being under its influences.
You come to find out Galen had been modified, but was able to control the implanted Shadow tech. He finally confessed to Gideon about what was going on. And they caught Bester in the end as well.
After that the script eluded to the next episode where Bester is taken to Earth for trial, but escapes.
That's about all I remember. The big thing for me was finding Bester and that the Techno Mages used Shadow tech. Guess I'll have to read the books to really get all the details.
The Psi Corps Trilogy was GREAT and I would have LOVED to have seen this as a movie! I would like to know more why Lennier was with Lyta and fighting with her on this.
These B5 videos have been great. And Damn these books are hard to find now.
If you dig around a bit you'll find them floating around on the internet.
Try googling 'Babylon 5 Psi Corp books pdf' and you might find them on the Internet Archive site.
@@Phintasmo Thank you, found those one!
Thank you for refreshing my interest in this wonderful story
Please do a overview of the centari prime trilogy of novels
And the Technomage Trilogy please. For completeness 😊
Definitely plan to do these at some point.
Need more b5 content in my life
Great Summary! Thank you!
JMS posted two unmade Crusde scripts to a defunct side named Book Face. One was Bester episode and one was the season finale. Both were amazing scripts. I havent been able to find them since.
I'd love to see more of Bester. One of the best characters ever. From any show. Unfortunately though I dont see anyone but Walter Koenig playing him so it would take some wizardly casting to pull it off.
This cobbled together conclusion reflecting the depth of the Babylon 5 universe is exactly why I would love to hear that J. Michael Straczynski was writing a new Star Wars trilogy!
I always assumed that the explosion that destroys the Psi Corp HQ is Lyta herself.
NGL I hate Lennier dying in the end of the Telepath Crisis; personally it makes more sense for Lennier to make the ultimate sacrifice whilst rescuing Sheridan, Delenn and David from Centauri Prime; probably in a fight with pursuing Drakh forces. It also makes sense as Lennier and Vir were close friends and having them reunite to work in the Centauri resistance would be cool (JMS if you read any of this and want to change it, you have my permission to do so ;) )
The Psi Corp trilogy of books are excellent (as are the Centauri Prime and Technomage trilogies) and well worth a read, if you can find them.
Nah.. Lennier would never have gone back into Delenn's presence... especially with Sheridan always there with her. He was far too shamed by what he had done, and he would also know that SHE knew what he had done.
Very interesting, I certainly like the whole concept.
Good research man thank you
Yes...they need to complete the series. Why do the studios always screw up science fiction shows?
Because Sci-Fi shows are usually intelligently written and not geared toward the average television audience, and the series are shorter because ratings are more important than an intellegent audience. As an example: "Limitless"
i truly enjoyed this character driven show. I loved that if you missed a single episode, something three episodes later pops up. Extremely well written and acted.
Battlestar Galactica was like this too.
We don't have shows like this now, because of the Collectivist stain on everything beautiful or creative.
Yes, I think it would have been an excellent series. And an excellent story based on that character. A series and a story's set and a sci-fi setting, not based in huge space battles. But in a cyberpunk, ask type of fugitive on the run and detective drama. Was a touch of terrorist activity thrown in. It would have been a perfect series.
On top of that, the book's story, the plot line, leaves a lot of information there that you can use for what if scenarios for those individuals who like fan fiction. After all the psychic Gustavo's life could have taken a radical turn at any point. His entire history could have been changed with something as simple as a sentence or a realization and acceptance of his own past. The entire telepath war could have been altered by a key placed individual who was in control of a small fleet sitting in hyperspace. He could have gone from one of the settings, worst villains to 1 of its greatest heroes with just a sentences, and a little bit of cognitive realization.
A potential Bester TV series/miniseries feels a bit like the follow-up "Kessler", to the BBC's seminal "The Secret Army" TV series from the late 1970s. In the follow-up we meet again the original series' main villain, Ludwig Kessler, now living in exile in Argentina or maybe some other south american country (I don't quite remember, this was a very long time ago now.) He has built himself a new life, he has a family who know nothing of his past, and as the episodes progress the past starts to catch up with him.
Bester was a phenomenal villain, so expertly written by JMS, and played, by Walter Koenig. The Gods of Sci-Fi demand, I think, that this incredible character be given the sendoff he so well deserves.
It's a twisted version of The Fugitive. When I heard about JMS's plans for Bester's future I can't help but think of the Nazies that escaped to Argentina. I doubt that's a coincidence.
Fabulous story. Exquisitely detailed and exhaustively researched. How many hours did you pour into this production? I never really liked Garibaldi afte his treacherous Psi Corp time. It seems like Bester got off easy.
Thanks! I really went down the rabbit hole with this one - had a lot of fun doing it!
The trickiest/most time consuming part was figuring out how to tell it visually. I wanted it to feel like you’d kind of seen this Bester movie that never existed.
Bester. A prime example of someone you would love to toss off a cliff. The character (who once was everyone's favorite helmsman) made for some really interesting episodes. B5. No.1. Peace
I didn't know any of this. Not about the spinoff, the books, none of it. Thanks for the info. On a side note, I'm still salty about how they handled Talia Winter. I get that they wanted to bring back Lyta or something and didn't need/want two sympathetic telepaths. But making her a sleeper agent that when activated destroys her original personality and in it's place is the agent, that was a crap way to write her out of the series.
Talia's character was written out because the actress wanted out, she didn't like her character and the level of screen time she was getting. It was a lucky coincidence that Lita's actress was available to return, it wasn't some evil plan. If anything, making her a sleeper agent allowed her to flex her acting in her last episode
This is a part of the story I'm not familiar with, so it's quite interesting to see these holes filled in. The only B5 novels I've read are the Legions Of Fire trilogy, and the novelisations of In The Beginning and A Call To Arms.
Whether this story did Bester justice or not is impossible for me to say unless I get to read all this.
thank you for the nice video
This was one of my favorite sci fi series of all time, Make this into a movie for sure!!!!
I have the Psi-Corp trilogy and it is a hell of a read. Bester and the Psi-Corp has always fascinated me. I know bringing back B5 is an up hill battle for JMS and very slim chance of a true revival. But I want to believe there are fans who would love to see a movie, show, or miniseries focused solely on the corp. The Corps is mother and The Corps is father. LOL
Its so frustrating that they didnt use one of their tv movies or video releases to wrap up the telepath stuff.
Would have been more consequential than River of Souls or Lost Tales.
Still, I’m glad we got that final book for some closure.
If JMS authorized further novels I wonder if the audience would be big enough to make it worthwhile?
You were a bit incorrect in the 'clubfist' info... the reason for Bester's Club Fist... He sought a death dive - a telepathic link to a dying man to retrieve information... it turned out to be his father... as he died, he left a note in Bester's fist, but bester followed him into the realm of death itself for the info he wanted... he felt judged and felt souls trying to rend him, then he returned, but his fist was closed permanently around the note, and he had lost a bit of his soul... as mentioned by Lyta in her recollections of working with psi-cops... everything else you spoke of is accurate except for the last part... excellent video...
Great recap I always wondered…
Thank you for this! I always wondered but never tracked down any of the books to find out. #highfive
Bester epitomizes the phrase, "The villain is the hero of their own story."
Bester truly believed he was doing the right thing for his people and that the ends justified the means.
He was wrong....but that is what he believed with all of his heart and soul.
😎😎😎😎😎😎😎AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME VID. MAN WHAT AN ENDING.
IT would have been nice to have this all as a second series. But for various reasons, pretty much every Sci Fi series ends up leaving loose threads. Another one that really ticked me off was Enterprise. Lots of questions there too. But, the book series for Babylon 5 filled in most of the gaps, including what happened when Vir took on the Drakh and ended up as Emperor. So I guess i can be satisfied with that. One other thing, I've been reading Fan Fiction for years, (kept me sane on many an endless shift) and there are a lot of really well written stories that answer other questions.
Just curious where you found good bab5 fanfic. I found most underwhelming.
Good Stuff... thanks.
This sounds like an interesting prospect for a B5 tv movie, but it'd required a budget that usually isn't available for B5 . Also, Bester's actor Walter Koenig is much to old to play the part .
B5 got screwed from all sides, and it's still getting screwed -- with the fans who would like some ship merch getting screwed right along with them .
Yet I'm not sure that they're any worse off than the current iterations of Trek .
Walter koenig did a excellent portrayal of alfred bester. Like the type of calculative powered villain to go THROUGH not AROUND.
The way you explained works for me.
Not sure how the would have filmed it or if they could have gotten from Monster to misunderstood orphan.
🤔😎🤔
Yes it did well with Bester and the rest. I did not keep up with things after the original series ended but I would love to know if Sheridan ever returned. He was of course my favorite.
Sad to hear of Lyta's death. I really liked her. The one time she really rubbed me up the wrong way, Sheridan put her in her place.
I was really hoping that she would end up being a guiding hand to humanity, becoming worthy of being invited beyond the outer-rim.
the books were excellent. i read them years ago, it was a good conclusion to bester's story arc.
I just started video. I'm hammered but I've seen every episode of Babylon Five and seen all the TV made movies. Haven't seen new cartoon yet. But I will be judging your video. Watched all 5 seasons and movies just the other day, no internet or phone connection. Was facing a disconnect in internet. The whole month of April.
Hell yeah they should have made that! It would have been better than " Lost Tales". I never got a chance to read the first two, but I HAVE read "Final Reckoning" three times. Just to let you know how good it is in my opinion, I'll share the only other books I've read three times. Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo ", Turtledoves's "Guns of the South" and the trilogy about the Centauri after Londo becomes emperor "Legions of Fire" by Peter David who happens to be a top notch favorite author of mine. So I hope you have a video about that! Vir's progression is amazing and makes him one of the MOST dynamic characters in a franchise FILLED with dynamic characters!
Spoilers: his being the last emperor, what the technomage helped him do to Molari's ex-wife and of course his becoming a true hero really stick with me and I look at Vir differently when I watch B5 these days.
It sounds like a fitting end for Bester. Even down to the realization that the monument was about him. Was his fate just? Perhaps, perhaps not. But if it wasn't, then he disserved that last reward.
Good review. Way to gather up every thread!
Thanks!
Oh hell yeah, the Fate of Bester should have been turned into a TV movie. This would have been better than the Babylon 5 Tales, that animated movie thing recently, Tales of the Rangers and River of Souls.
That would have been great to see on the screen.
Two things. First, what happened to the Drakh who invaded Centauri Prime after Londo died and Vir took over? Second, how was the Drakh plaque on Earth cured? The B5 movie A Call To Arms showed the Drakh unleashing a plaque on Earth, and the Spin-off series Crusade ended before a cure was found. So, how was the plaque cured?
JMS planned on curing the plague within a few seasons of Crusade, then pivot to something else (he really wanted to focus on the Rangers more which I think was a mistake). As far as Centuri Prime goes, there are books about what happens, but ultimately Garibaldi helps Vir liberate Centuri Prime I think?
A brilliant exposition.l always wanted Lyta to escape to Centuri Prime,and live undercover with Zac,who would have protected,cherished ans loved her.
If there was ever a series that deserves a reboot, it's Babylon 5. Hell, I'd be happy with just an update to the CGI. The characters, indoor scenes, and overall plot are excellent by themselves. Just update the space battles and special effects, then re-release it as a Blue Ray set (yeah, I'm old) and I'd be throwing my money at it!