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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8379376" data-attributes="member: 907">Straczynski wrote every episode of seasons 3, 4, and 5 except one, which was written by Neil Gaiman (Day of the Dead, the episode with Penn & Teller as comedy duo Rebo & Zooty, plus assorted spooky stuff). The issues with season 5 can, I think, be traced to two things:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Padding. The original plan was to have season 4 end with Sheridan being captured by Earthforce, with the final episode of season 4 being Intersections in Real Time (the interrogation episode). Season 5 would then have had a structure similar to season 4, with the previous plot being resolved in episode 6ish. But instead, season 4 finished off at a breakneck pace and left season 5 hanging, so they had to pad that out a bit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Ivanova. Because of various issues, contract negotiations with Claudia Christian broke down, so she wasn't in season 5 (except for Sleeping In Light, which was shot as part of season 4). This meant that the station needed a new captain, which became Elizabeth Lochley, and that took some getting used to. Ivanova's intended arc for season 5 was then split between Lochley and Lyta (the Byron romance was originally going to be with Ivanova).</li> </ol>As for continuous plotlines, my preference is for a mix of "Big plot" episodes with smaller, more personal ones. I think Babylon 5 did pretty well on this front. The way I see it, the non-plot episodes are where we get to know the characters, which is why we care about what happens to them in the "big plot" episodes. Take Parliament of Dreams, for example. It's not an episode where much of import happens. But we learn some things about the Centauri (one of their major holidays is the celebration of a genocidal war against another species they used to share Centauri Prime with). We learn the Narn have a professional assassin class, and that using them is a semi-accepted part of politics. We meet the new attaches Na'Toth and Lennier, and we learn that (a) Delenn is titled Satai, and (b) she wants to keep that secret. We also meet Catherine Sakai, commander Sinclair's on-again/off-again girlfriend. Those are all things that tell us things about those characters, and bring us closer to them. This is something Straczynski has demonstrated mastery of, and something I think he could bring to Doctor Who.</blockquote>

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