Starlog July 1998

On screen & off, Bruce Boxleitner guides the way on Babylon 5.

It was the kind of premise that SF fans dream about: a meeting between the commanding officers of the Starship Enterprise and the space station Babylon 5. Not a dream, not an imaginary story, but an honest-to-God encounter between William Shatner -- a.k.a. James T. Kirk -- and Bruce Boxleitner, better known to B5 viewers as Captain John Sheridan. This epic meeting took place at a recent California horse show, and Boxleitner remembers being just as excited as the attendees about meeting one of the genre's most well-known icons.

"He was on a new horse he was getting for his wife," the actor relates, "and we both rode around the arena in front of the whole audience while everyone was warming up their horses in the arena. We were the captains riding, and it was fun. there were people in Starfleet uniforms, Klingons and all kinds of creatures walking around, mixed up with cowboy boots and hats. It was very surreal. I was riding around the arena, screaming, 'Klingons must die!' I think they were ready to shoot me."

New Commands

Looking at Babylon 5's fifth season, Boxleitner concedes that Sheridan - now president of the newly-formed Interstellar Alliance - has a noticeably reduced presence. "He does, and I think the producers are scared that I'm going to bring that up!" the actor laughs, instantly putting to rest any suggestion that his might be a problem for him. "I dominated the fourth season's end, but this is a big ensemble, and there are other storylines. Garibaldi has a terrific storyline this season, and I certainly come in, but again, it's a smaller role.

"I know people had some questions as they watched the fifth season, but we were establishing the Lochley [Tracy Scoggins], so other storylines had to take a back seat. That's fine with me. I feel secure enough that I'm not paranoid about being written out. the show as a whole has been so comfortable to work on. We don't have a back-breaking schedule, and because of our number of regulars, you're not over-used and tired, and you can have a home life, which is marvelous. I can't believe we're in the middle of the fifth season, and if this is all there is, my God, it went fast. When I first walked in here, I thought it wouldn't take, that this was a last desperate attempt and they were going to cancel Babylon 5 at the season's end. I was more than surprised when they got a pick-up."

Boxleitner had the unenviable talk of replacing Michael O'Hare, the show's original lead actor. The search for a replacement took months, but the producers chose Boxleitner, who came with an impressive list of film and TV credits to his name.

"There were other people interested, and I know a number of other people -- including Michael York -- who were up for it, but that might have been a little too Jean-Luc Picard for them," Boxleitner says. "Anyway, they went with the chin-up-front, all-American hero type. That seems to be my lot in life, and I'm not ashamed of it. I try to do it in the fine tradition of Captain Kirk, which is where we all draw from."

For Boxleitner's money, the fourth season of Babylon 5 is probably still the strongest, with the long-awaited end to the Shadow War, and the final battle with the forces of Earth's corrupt President Clark. The actor's finest moment of the season was doubtless "Intersections in Real Time," in which virtually the entire episode is a series of confrontations between a captured Sheridan and his Earth Force interrogator. "That turned out really well," recalls Boxleitner. "We had a wonderful actor, Raye birk, who came in at the last minute to play the interrogator. Another actor they really liked was cast, and then suddenly out of nowhere, they double-booked him, and he took the other job right when he was supposed to work for us. Birk jumped in within a day, not knowing the stuff because he thought he didn't get it, but he did a remarkable job.

"That was sort of our Manchurian Candidate period, that kind of psychological warfare they were doing on Sheridan, and it was some good stuff to play. some of it was very intense -- he loses it a few times. He has to beg and grovel, and he gets beaten mercilessly, and then it plunges on, with a real revenge story against Clark. Sheridan gets very Ahab-like, with the beard and everything else that comes into play. He doesn't shave anymore; he just gets obsessed with Clark, so it gets really intense."

Looking at the fourth season as a whole, the actor only has one regret, and it's a minor one. "I wish I understood episode #406 better," he admits, referring to the episode which brought about the end of the Vorlon/Shadow conflict, "but maybe I'm being picky. As a concept, I didn't quite fully understand the whole thing. I'm not disagreeing with it, I just thought since we led up to it so much, there would have been a _bigger_ finale. I'm just hired to say the words, though. it could have been drawn out more had we not been interrupted by the powers that be. nevertheless, we finally got to it. I felt a little vague on it, and maybe I would have liked to understand it better at the time so I could make some different choices."

The last episode shot during the fourth season production block won't actually be seen until later this year. "Sleeping in Light" is an epilogue of sorts that takes place two decades after the Babylon 5 storyline, where a somewhat old Sheridan and his wife Delenn contemplate the end of their life together. Filming the episode was an emotional challenge for cast and crew, particularly since no one knew at the time if the show would return for a fifth season.

"You could sense that there was a great deal of concern and nostalgia," Boxleitner recalls, "and there were people crying, and we were all giving it our best. it was sad, because nobody wanted it to end. Everybody is having such a good time. Babylon 5 is one of the few shows where we really have a great group of people and there are very few prima donnas. We don't have any real -- pardon the word -- assholes. I've seen that on other shows, but as memory goes on, I tend to forget those things, and I _want_ to forget them. In the end, it's counterproductive."

Within days of finishing work on "Sleeping in Light," Boxleitner went right back into production on two B5 TV movies for TNT: Thirdspace, which takes place within the fourth-season continuity (and airs in July), and In the Beginning, a prequel to the events of Babylon 5. "We proceeded to the last episode, and then we knew we were doing two movies, so I had to shave all that off and go back to the beginning of the fourth-season look, and finally the buzz haircut for the prequel, so it was _very_ schizophrenic."

The actor is cheerfully pragmatic about going from the aging Sheridan of "Sleeping in Light" to a much younger version of his character for the prequel within the space of a few weeks. "I've got my mother's skin, so I can go either way. In how many TV series can you play three different versions of your character in such a short period of time? this whole last part of the season has been an absolute challenge, and really revitalized it for me. It has given me some extra things to do, instead of just being standard Sheridan going through the daily routine. I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man. It's perverse, but that's the way it is: THEY want to get the girl and WE want to get the scars, the hunchback and everything else.

"With In the Beginning, I just tried to come out, do it and see if it worked. There was no big difference in the way I played it. I just tried to play it a little lighter but also maybe as a guy looking to make his mark from this very serious situation. I have to say, it was exhausting. I was wiped out after In the Beginning, because Thirdspace was also pretty physical, and then with all the drama that was going on off-stage, whether we were going to get that fifth season."

Dark Campaigns

Boxleitner found it much more difficult dealing with the various behind-the-scenes crises during the fourth season hiatus, including the unexpected exit of Claudia Christian (who played Sheridan's second-in-command, Ivanova) from the series.

"It just seemed that this new relationship with TNT had started," Boxleitner says, "and I felt as desperate as Sheridan, trying to hold everybody together. Jerry Doyle [Garibaldi], who had two negotiations for the movies, was not happy with the outcome. It was upsetting to him; I was upset FOR him. It was all splintering apart when now was the time we really needed to be together. I was sitting in this room with Claudia when she was the first one to say, 'I'm signing up!' Claudia was probably my first real confidante here, and I played with her so much and joked with her. She was my good buddy, and I really loved her a lot. We carried that over into our roles. I miss her a great deal. Now Tracy has taken over that spot, and she's just wonderful and does a terrific job.

"I was really upset [by Christian's departure], and I wanted to know what her side of the story was, and when I heard it, I was even more upset because I didn't believe a lot of it. I wish her nothing but lick, and I think she's terrific, but maybe I did overreact at the time. I was so tired and it was the culmination of all these events, and [her reasons for leaving] was the real straw that broke the camel's back. She said she was shoved out, but I don't believe that. She was a popular character, so why would they want to do that? It's a tired story now, but all I'm saying is I wanted to keep it all together, and keep my arms around it, holding the alliance together. I knew what my character was going through, because everyone -- all my favorite people -- were splintering off."

Most of those problems were ironed out by the introduction of Scoggins as the station's new commanding officer, Captain Elizabeth Lochley. According to Boxleitner, "I probably clicked faster with her than anybody, because I knew exactly what she was going through. [Regarding the Christian situation], Tracy came in saying, ''I didn't do this, I just want that known, it's not my fault,' and I said, 'You're just a military officer reporting for duty,' and we had that added thing at the beginning that we knew each other a long time ago, so that was interesting. When you get a new character coming in, it puts a new spin on everybody else, and maybe that's healthy.

"Tracy said she was extremely nervous, but boy, she must be one hell of a good actress. her first episode, when she reports to my office, I thought was fairly seamless. I think she felt at home after that first day, but that's what's marvelous about this group. Jerry auditioned her, and she was just what the doctor ordered: feisty, quick with a retort and very comfortable in her own skin."

Stirring up life on B5 further was the fact that Sheridan and Lochley had been married many years ago, a fact that series creator J. Michael Straczynski took his time in revealing. "Joe told me fairly early on, but his main emphasis is not to dwell on how we failed with this marriage. What Sheridan likes about her is she's a no-nonsense person, and she tells him, 'I'm not going to be your mouthpiece; in fact, I was on the other side of that little conflagration we had with Earth.' So that makes it even more interesting. I knew about it fairly early on, and we tried to play it as two people avoiding it -- 'We're good friends, and I can trust you to watch my back.' I think it's still an awkward thing, and if it was never brought up, Sheridan would have been just as happy."

Further Crusades

As Babylon 5 nears its end, Boxleitner is examining his options. One of them is the first in a possible series of books he's co-writing, which may eventually be brought to life as a film or TV project. The first book is an unusual blend of Western and SF genres, which Boxleitner finds very exciting. "It's a great mixture, and it's dark too. It takes place in 1891, so there's an element of The Wild Wild West in there and maybe a little Jules Verne or H.G.Wells. The hero of our story is a crash-landed messenger who's trying to warn Earth of an impending invasion, and he's down there in the Arizona territory. It has some great twists and really weird characters, including some bad-ass bounty hunters that make Boba Fett look tame. It'll have a real pulpy feel, a lot of gore, very violent -- like Terminator meets Unforgiven."

As for TNT's spin-off TV series, Babylon: Crusade, Boxleitner really isn't sure if he'll have any involvement, or for that matter if he should. "If it's about the Rangers would if not make sense that since we're the leaders, we'll just send them off on their way? Maybe we could make an appearance every once in a while. for the money these shows make, can they afford this cast? Most of them have a sixth-season clause, so I really don't know what's going to happen, but if TNT has just bought a winner, is it going to end now? You don't do that when you're just getting in bed with each other. If it's a wonderful relationship, do you say, 'Oh, by the way, did I tell you I'll be dead next year?'

"I honestly think we SHOULD wrap it up. Personally, I WOULDN'T want to see Babylon 5 go for a sixth season. That was the uniqueness of this, wasn't it? I once said something that I meant jokingly, but everybody got a little hot with me, that we're all getting to be middle-aged in this cast. There are not young hunks and hunkettes. Everyone is in their late 30s or in their 40s. How much more do we do in a genre that attracts mostly young boys? Our demographics are young guys, and they need somebody to identify with, young guys and girls, and maybe that's where the Rangers come in. With this role, that doesn't necessarily matter, because I don't have to be Captain Action, so I can age gracefully."

Although it's far too early to judge what effect Babylon 5 has had on his career, Boxleitner hopes it will provide an important stepping stone for the future., "This was a really good thing for me," he claims, "and it has made me eligible again for other series, I'm sure, because this show managed to be successful. I'm not saying it was successful because of ME, but it happened to hit its stride at that time, and I was able to add something to it, maybe more visibility. I'm hoping TNT, who happen to do my favorite stuff for television -- period-type things and historical dramas, which I love -- will cast me. Given my, that's all I would do in my career. In fact, I talked to the director of [Donald Maxwell], who'd preparing a prequel, and he said he would love to have me, so now I'm part of the TNT family."

Regardless, like the character that he has just spent four seasons playing on Babylon 5, Bruce Boxleitner looks to the future with great anticipation. "In this town, you can ALWAYS be reborn," he explains. "I reinvented myself with this show. I'll reinvent myself with something else, maybe some kind of family series. Everybody always wants to do the opposite of what they've been doing, but they've never allowed me to be the bad guy. They don't want to see me like that. I would love to do a Western again if Westerns came back into fashion. In television, the audience has to be comfortable with you, and I've managed to prove that I can be in American homes to some degree, and not necessarily where everyone knows me, either."