Rangers was set in 2265, after the Teep War (2264-65) and before
ACtA (December 2266) and
Crusade (2267)
So anybody who happened to have died, say, during or around the time of the Teep War is
not going to be available, except possibly in flashbacks.
Depending on when the
Rangers series starts, and if JMS follows the pattern of "one year equals one season" (which is by no means certain, he ducked the question when I asked him about it on usenet some time ago), that would put the
Crusade overlap at S2 or S3 - which I'm sure is deliberate. (Gives JMS time to get
Rangers on its feet and step back into the executive producer role while devoting most of his time to
Crusade.)
Marcus is out of the question during the timeframe of the projected season any way you look at it. (Again, excepting flashbacks.) At the very least he's still a Rangersicle as late as 2281. More than likely he is simply dead and his cryo-preservation is simply an expression of Susan's inability to let go, and the last symbol of her only chance at true romance. (JMS wrote "Space, Time..." in such a way that you can either accept it as canon or ignore it. I prefer to ignore it. Either way, Marcus won't be joining the crew, unless he's hanging around with the ghosts of the
Liandra these days.
)
Given that the show is going to be
called Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers I think it would be difficult for them
not to put in at the station at least a few times per season. Martell and company are supposed to function primarily as a covert ops, intelligence-gathering unit, more like
Mission: Impossible than
Star Trek. It won't be a "ship show"
And the Ranger's mission is to help the Alliance members rebuild after the recent upheavals. It would make sense for
Liandra to have a "homeport" closer to the center of the action. Babylon 5, after all, was built where it was because it was equidistant between the homeworlds of the major governments, and convenient for the worlds of the old League. The station would also serve as a convenient meeting place for people in transit to various worlds. And, presumably, the Rangers must coordinate with the Chief of IA Covert Intelligence - who is still based on B5, AFAIK, for the reasons given above.
Bester is iffy. The Teep War is over and he's a wanted war criminal. We would have seen him once in
Crusade (but if I remember what I've heard about the script correctly, Galen wasn't
in that episode.) Given what we learn from the
Psi Corp Trilogy, I think having him found and released
twice would be pushing it. I suppose it is possible, but if so I wouldn't expect to see him on
Rangers more than once during the series' whole run. (Ditto
Crusade.)
OTOH, if
Rangers becomes a series, and does well, the chances of a
B5 theatrical film go up. Since that would almost certainly be the Teep War story, we'd
really get a lot of Bester.
G'Kar is slated to be a semi-regular (which is probably why he is in the pseudo-"credits" section of the movie.) Figure he'll be in at least a half-dozen episodes per year.
I'm sure Delenn will be worked in if at all possible. They needn't go to Mars to find Garibaldi. Between his far-flung business interests and his personal hunt for Bester, he could turn up anywhere, and they could easily meet him on B5. For the first couple of seasons, Stephen Franklin would also be available. I can't see Franklin spending all his time behind a desk on Earth, so they could plausibly run across him almost anywhere, negotiating for some newly discovered race's medical records, for instance. Sheridan is also a likely candidate for a guest shot.
Given the expense of flying the actors to Vancouver and housing them during the shoot, these folks probably won't just "pop up" in cameos. There would have to be a good reason to use them in a story, and they'd have to play a substantial part in it. For the same reason it is unlikely that more than one such guest star would appear in the same episode. I doubt the budget would stretch that far.
Regards,
Joe
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
[This message has been edited by Joseph DeMartino (edited January 23, 2002).]
