With the addition of Bruce Boxleitner as Captain John Sheridan,
series creator J. Michael Straczynski has found a central hero dynamic
enough to excite the series' regular audience, to draw in new viewers for
the show and to generate renewed media attention to the oft-struggling
Babylon 5. But apart from ratings and publicity, Boxleitner's Sheridan
has given Babylon 56 something much more important - a personal focal point
for the dramatic plot advances of the series' second season.
"I think Sheridan helped Joe (Straczynski) focus on a more personal
level on this big universe that he has painted and he's brought it all
down to a personal story," says Boxleitner. The actor has so thoroughly
and successfully defined this role that the readers of Sci-Fi Universe
voted Bruce Boxleitner best actor in a genre television series for 1995.
But even more than his heroic qualities, Boxleitner is drawn to Sheridan's
less-than-stellar characteristics.
"What I like about the characters on this series is that I love the
flaws that are being exposed. And you're going to find many more in Sheridan."
Boxleitner suspects that anyone who would choose to be posted to Straczynskis
fictional space station would have to be "pretty dysfunctional" to begin
with. "They're like pioneers, all alone in the night, " he says. "I really
believe our pioneer forefathers were a pretty paranoid group of individuals.
You'd have to be. You'd be way out on a frontier all by yourselves having
to make a go of it.
We're way, far away in this big tin can, and it requires a certain
human being that can take that loneliness. Each one of these characters
is a very lonely individual. No one has a successful love life. No one
really has family ties. Any ties to family are really strange ones."
Boxleitner reveals that one of these family relationships will be explored when Sheridan's father is introduced in a third-season episode. "His father's a diplomat who is now a farmer, a gentleman farmer up in some part of the States, and you're going to find out things about Sheridan through that relationship. But Sheridan's ties are really to his duties. I think the service has been his life and that causes him sometimes to be a little - there's a certain arrogance sometimes. He likes to pontificate. I mean, early on, Joe had me doing speeches from Abraham Lincoln."
Boxleitner sees the stress of his fictional alter-ego seeping through in some perhaps destructive ways. "I think he could find solace in drinking alone sometimes, suggests Boxleitner. "Garibaldi already does have an alcohol problem. He never touches it now, but if you've ever seen Sheridan drink - I chug it back. I went through most of a bottle of space vodka in one scene, but I think that comes from the loneliness. "I think he's a bit quick-tempered and is probably a little too impulsive in his decisions when cool and calmness should have prevailed. But the diplomatic role is not suited to Sheridan. He's not Jean-Luc Picard."
One oft he character's most personal wounds was re-opened this season
when Sheridan learned that his wife's fate may be tied to the Shadows,
with whom he is now at war. Says Boxleitner, " I think that revenge may
be a motive in much of what he's doing here." This will culminate in the
third season, when Sheridan pursues the truth about his wife to the Shadow
world of Za'ha'dum. "It may be our first big exterior," he says. "We're
gong to go to that planet and we're gonna settle that score. We'll find
out more about what happened. There's going to be some closure there for
Sheridan."
Boxleitner has defined Sheridan as a man searching for his faith. "The
thing that I want to work on personally, as an actor, is this loss of faith
which is slowly peeling back for Sheridan. When all that is gone, there's
going to be a new guy left standing there who's gonna have to rebuild."
Boxleitner spends lots of time talking with series creator J. Michael
Straczynski about Sheridan and his place in the Babylon 5 universe. One
of the central metaphors in Straczynski's story, Boxleitner's discovered,
is the Arthurian legend. "Joe loves mythology and I do too, " Boxleitner
says. "I've always been fascinated by these legendary characters and you
can see in many ways this story is the Arthurian tale. Something is about
to happen this season and at the end, we're going to have to rebuild Camelot."
Extending the metaphor, Boxleitner sees Sheridan as Arthur, Kosh as Merlin
and, "I think Delenn's going to be sort of the Guinevere of this thing.
We'll see them come closer and closer together. Where that's going to end
up, I don't know."
While Sheridan's relationship with Delenn has been only intimated thus far, it's the connection with Kosh that was most important in the second season. Says Boxleitner, "Sheridan had no spirituality whatsoever. That's what Kosh is providing for him. It's been a fascinating journey with Kosh. He takes me ahead and then he leads me on and then confuses me, stops me cold with one of his totally incredible sayings that make no sense. It's very much the Merlin and young Arthur relationship. Where it will lead, I have no idea. Joe has said from the very beginning that everyone isn't who they seem. He likes to take characters and then turn them right over on their heads to become their total opposite."
Boxleitner talks enthusiastically about Sheridan's future, but he's
sanguine enough to know that the end might well never be resolved. " I
really want to see Joe finish what he has to say with all of us, " says
Boxleitner. "This last season we were scared to death because we really
didn't think we were gonna get picked up and it had to do with the shakiness
of the PTEN network. But if something happens next year, I hope that Warner
Bros. moves us to the WB network.
I think they really are realizing what they've got with this show.
There's even been some talk of a film, between the fourth and fifth seasons.
It may happen and it might no. We've always been kind of the little underdog,
but we've all decided to wear it as a badge of honor."
Thanks, Nicky!
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