Dark Hero By Ian Spelling Starlog Science Fiction Explorer February 1996 Issue #11
(As station Babylon 5 becomes a war zone, Bruce Boxleitner explores the dangerous side of command.)
When Bruce Boxleitner joined the cast of Babylon 5 as Captain John Sheridan after the show's first season, succeeding Michael O'Hare's CaptainJeffrey Sinclair, some fans didn't take to Boxleitner right away. In fact,more than a few nasty letters made their way into the actor's mailbox.Now, with one full season under his belt, and Babylon 5 into a mostpromising beginning of its third season, Boxleitner happily reports thatthe negative mail has just about stopped, and fans have become to accepthim as leader of Babylon 5, both the show and the space station. Perhaps even more importantly, the actor has come to better accept himself in the role. "For me, it was a matter of fitting into the language of the show, of fitting into the mythology that [show creator/writer/producer ] J. Michael Straczyncki had devised. It was a daunting task. If you go back and watch my first few shows, I think you'll see that Sheridan has gotten more seasoned, just as I have," notes Boxleitner (who discussed B5 in STARLOG #213). "If anyone needs to compare Sheridan to Sinclair, Sheridan has become more the warrior, while Sinclair was more the diplomat. Sheridan can be a bit reckless. At times, he seems to shoot first and ask questions later. That, I think, is the result of the writers, Joe and the actor creating Sheridan as we go along. Joe gives me the character and the dialogue and I run with it." "Right now, I really want Joe to do that. It's not a collaborative process in that sense, and it shouldn't be - because this show is his baby and my job is to flesh out the character. If there's any collaboration, it's an indirect one. Joe's watching me and writing for me as Sheridan. Whatever the case, the fans have become very accepting of the character and what I have done with him since I got on the show."
Shadow Days
These Days, there's much going on aboard the space station that Sheridan commands. As the second season came to a close, the Narn had reluctantly surrendered to the Centauri, having been soundly defeated in battle by Centauri forces greatly bolstered by the powerful Shadows. Ambassador G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) was humiliated by the increasingly malevolent Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). The station had also become a home to the Rangers, a secret group of freedom fighters with whom Sheridan became allied through the intervention of Minbari Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan), Sheridan's closest friend aboard Babylon 5 and an ongoing romantic prospect. Beyond all of that, season two ended with both an attempt on Sheridan's life and the revealing of Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador. As season three began, it became obvious the Babylon 5's mission would have to change from standing as the "last best hope against the dark. In other words, Babylon 5 had to be transformed into a war zone. It's no surprise, then, when Boxleitner argues that Sheridan trusts no one aboard Babylon 5, with the possible exception of Delenn. Sheridan hardly trusts Security Chief Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) and worries that Garibaldi might start drinking again. Talia Winters (Andrea Thompson) was revealed to be a spy for the PsiCorps. And it seems that Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs), overburdened and putting in hopelessly long hours, may be addicted to stimulants. "It's getting very shaky," says Boxleitner, laughing. "Who can he trust anymore? Everyone is ripe for conspiracy. The way Joe is writing this stuff, I could be on the opposite side of Garibaldi and maybe even Delenn in a few weeks." The situation has prompted the usually positive Sheridan to reveal a bit more of his dark side than was on display upon his arrival aboard Babylon 5. Sheridan completely lost it, for example, in episode "In the Shadow of Za'ha'dum," in which he broke all the rules by illegally taking Morden (Ed Wasser) prisoner. So far, over the top did Sheridan go that Garibaldi, in good conscience, had to remove his badge and walk away. Luckily, Sheridan came to his senses, "Oh, Sheridan has a dark side. You have to realize he has been a soldier, and an excellent one at that. To some, he's a war hero, but to other characters on the station, he's a war criminal. The Minbari think that. The Centauri also do, especially now. Now that Babylon 5 has essentially left the Earth Alliance, even Earth considers me a man with a dark side. You'll certainly be seeing much more of that playing out during the third season, I promise you." As fans of Babylon 5 know, there almost wasn't a third season. The show can be as hard to find as a Shadow fighter, even for the most devout of fans. So, when the Prime Time Entertainment Network announced that they were holding the final four season two Babylon 5 episodes until the fall, fans started getting nervous. After all, Babylon 5 and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues were the only remaining series in PTEN's entertainment block and there was no guarantee that PTEN would survive or, if it did, that Babylon 5 would be renewed. Boxleitner was as concerned as the fans. "It scared the hell out of me, to tell you the truth. And Joe, too. We dodged a bullet. It had nothing to do with Babylon 5," he insists. "It all had to do with PTEN, payments, residuals and all that. It had nothing to do with the show's popularity. I do wish we were in more markets. I like our cult status, but I wish we had more exposure, like The X-Files does at Fox. Babylon 5 is just not in the largest markets. That's unfortunate because we have a good, imaginative show. The reaction from the fans, from their mail and their Internet comments, has finally convinced Warner Bros. [which produces Babylon 5] that they really have something with this show. I'm hopeful that Warner Bros. will keep us going should anything happen with PTEN."
Night Falls
Now that Babylon 5 is airing a full slate of episodes, Boxleitner is breathing easier and looking forward to charting Sheridan's adventures over the next few months. Before addressing already aired third season episodes, the actor agrees to discuss some second season highlights, specifically "Divided Loyalities," "Long Twilight Struggle," "Comes the Inquisitor" and "The Fall of Night," the four episodes that concluded the season. Each of those outings offered viewers something new and different and, as always, kept fans wondering what might happen next. In the midst of all the second season build-up to Babylon 5's impending departure from the Earth Alliance, Straczynski dropped everything for "Comes the Inquisitor," a virtual stand-alone show in which Sheridan and Delenn, separately and together, were grilled and, in effect, tortured, by Sebastian, a mysterious inquisitor brought to the station by the Vorlons. Sebastian (Wayne Alexander), of course, turned out to be much better known by his 19th-century street moniker: Jack the Ripper, and Delenn, true to form, passed Sebastina's nasty little test and was allowed to live. "Those four shows were excellent. 'Divided Loyalties' had a major character leave the show. We found out something terrible about Talia Winters through Lyta Alexander that meant adios for Talia. That was another show where you saw outside events starting to turn Babylon 5 into a real pressure cooker," explains the actor. "Everyone thought they were being mind-scanned, which made it a very paranoid episode, which I liked. 'Long Twilight Struggle' was where we really got to see Londo going into the dark side. The Narn homeworld was just pounded into oblivion. Weren't those great special FX? It's proof that this show is just getting better and better. We also met the Rangers. By the way, the Rangers come straight from the J.R.R. Tolkien epic The Lord of the Rings. " 'Comes the Inquisitor' was a very strange episode, and what I especially liked about it was that it wasn't arc-related. Joe does that. It was a side story that took up a whole show. It really put Delenn and Sheridan to the test and it showed how their bond was growing. Wayne Alexander was great as out Jack the Ripper. Physically, 'Fall of Night' was one of my toughest shows. The falling sequence took forever. I was hung up by wires. Now I know what Mary Martin went through in Peter Pan. My back was killing me for days. I also loved the show's religious aspects, especially when Kosh was revealed. He was something different to everyone who saw what he did. It just blew me away, and I think the fans will agree with me." As for the first few third season episodes, Boxleitner is equally enthused about them. Already, Sheridan has become the recipient of a powerful new space vehicle, while Commander Ivanova (Claudia Christian) seems to be running the station more often than before. British actor Jason Carter has joined the cast as Marcus Cole, Sheridan's liaison to the Rangers. Sheridan and the other characters have been venturing off the space station with increasing frequency, often to Mars, while viewers couldn't help but notice the newfound abundance of special FX sequences. Season three officially kicked off last month with "Matters of Honor." That was the show in which Sheridan was given command of the White Star from the Minbari, who built the craft using a combination of Minbari and Vorlon technology. "It's an awesome piece of machinery that we use to really take the fight to the Centauri and the Shadow ships. The episode," notes Boxleitner, "really put Sheridan's warrior side to the test and called upon not just his defensive instincts, but also his offensive instincts." "In 'Convictions,' we have a bomber aboard who starts terrorizing the space station. Eventually, I have to get in with this guy, who has a detonator in one hand and a gun in the other. It's a good show. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the bad guy in Mortal Kombat, was another bad guy - not the bomber - in the show and he was great. It was a fun show with all the explosions, stunts, CGI and so on. 'A Day in the Strife' focuses on everything that goes on in one day. Everything goes crazy on the station all at once, which has Sheridan taking a lot of Advil. I have a near mutiny, riots. Then, an ambassador arrives to take away citizen G'Kar and put him in prison. So, I have to take a stand there and hide G'Kar out. More of that strange alliance between G'Kar and Sheridan is developed in that show. Andreas Katsulas is one of the best actors on the show. I think he gives an Emmy-worthy performance in that episode. He has turned G'Kar into such a noble, sympathetic, tragic figure. I don't want to give too much away, but G'Kar's day is coming again." Asked to drop a few more clues about upcoming developments, Boxleitner plays coy. After a bit of convincing, he relents, if only just a bit. "Try me," he offers. So, he's asked about the possibility of Sheridan and Delenn becoming romantically involved. "Something will happen in its own peculiar way, perhaps. It's a very innocent relationship, not the most '90s relationship. We haven't hopped into bed. Babylon 5 is definitely not Melrose Place in space. We're like a huge monastery in space. The relationship is changing and they're getting closer, but we're just not into the boy/girl kind of thing yet. In general, we need some kind of romance on the show. It's fun to play. But, more importantly, our audience is mostly male right now and its female audiences who run television. If we can attract a larger audience that way, then great." And what of the rumors that O'Hare will return as Sinclair for two episodes? "I'm anxious to have that happen. That's 95 percent a go," he reveals. "I liked what I saw of O'Hare's work. I can't wait to see Sheridan and Sinclair together. It will be interesting to see what Joe comes up with. I've always said that I thought Sinclair and Sheridan had worked together before, that the back story I had come up with is that Sinclair had been Sheridan's mentor. We may get to see if Joe agrees with me on that."
Long Tomorrows
Boxleitner's involvement with Babylon 5 doesn't end when he drives away from the show's soundstage at the day's end. Babylon 5 has tapped into the ancillary market, spawning selected spin-off merchandise like Babylon 5 comic books and novels. "I have all the comic books. I have the MicroMachines toys. I'm waiting to get the third Babylon 5 novel. I enjoy all of that, but I'm with Joe in thinking we shouldn't overdo the merchandising. We don't want to exploit it too much," he argues. "That said, I'm looking forward to a 120-card Babylon 5 card set that's coming out soon from Fleer. It's amazing to see yourself on that kind of thing. It reminds me of when I did TRON. I would walk into a video game arcade and there would be a TRON machine with my likeness all over it. It's a strange feeling. I also just did my first convention, which was also strange, but fun. I stood in front of all these fans talking and answering questions. After 90 minutes, I think they were getting the hook out to pull me off." Speaking of TRON, the 1982 Disney SF film in which he played the title character. Boxleitner says, "I'm glad I had that experience. I really had to use my imagination to pull off that role. It was all blue screens and having to act like something was actually there in front of me," he recalls. "It helped me prepare for Babylon 5. I think TRON was the granddaddy of Babylon 5 and other shows like it, in terms of the computer animation that can be put on film to take you to different worlds. TRON was almost a year in post-production and Babylon 5 takes about two weeks per episode. I actually saw TRON a few months ago. I watched it with my stepson [the son of his wife, actress Melissa Gilbert]. Some of it holds up pretty well. The CGI holds up, but the story could have been better. If it had a better story, it really could have been a big hit." Though TRON may be Boxleitner's best-known film, the actor is a television veteran who has starred in numerous TV movies, many of them westerns, not to mention such series as Bring 'Em Back Alive, How the West Was Won and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. "I have been Mr. Genre," he declares with self-deprecating laugh. "I've done science fiction, I've done Westerns. Bring 'Em Back Alive was sort of like Raiders of the Lost Ark for TV. I was a producer on that show. Don [Quantum Leap] Bellisario had offered me Tales of the Gold Monkey [which went to Stephen Collins], but I had a handshake commitment with CBS to do a series for them. That's how Frank Buck and Bring 'Em Back Alive came together. The pre-World War II era was fun, but there were certain location things we couldn't do convincingly and it just never found an audience. Besides, Buck could never buck Happy Days, which was still roaring along at the time. "Sheridan is actually a combination of all the genre roles I've played. He's an extension of the spy I played on Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I did the Gambler movies and How the West Was Won, and there's a bit of the cowboy in him. Like Buck Rogers, Sheridan is really just a cowboy in space." Returning to Babylon 5, Boxleitner once again expresses his belief that longtime fans are in for some rousing surprises this year and the newcomers will find that there is indeed SSSF life out there on the dial beyond Space: Above and Beyond and the current Star Trek incarnations. "I've heard Babylon 5 referred to as 'the poor man's Star Trek' and I don't buy it. We may not have Paramount behind us, but we're making a terrific show that's at least as inventive, creative and thought-provoking as Star Trek. We probably even take some chances Star Trek doesn't. So, 'Poor man's Trek?' I don't think so. Look, I'm going out on a limb here and say I think this will be our best season, the one in which we really break out," promises Bruce Boxleitner. "We have some good shows coming up, and Joe's imagination is just endless. We're all here as actors trying our best to bring reality to Joe's work because we trust Uncle Joe and know he'll take us to interesting places. "We have a great cast and we enjoy what we do, and the fans get out of it whatever they want to get out of it, which is great because there's so much to Babylon 5. So, I'm very excited and I hope our fans will be, too. And I'm hopeful we'll continue to grow and to attract new fans. Babylon 5 is really an underdog of a show, and that's OK. I'm just proud to be part of it."
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