Kosh and Talia

[Babylon 5 Aide]

What was the second part of Talia being scanned by the vicr for Kosh? I never saw that thread wrapped up. Any ideas?

 

[Greg Smith]

It was either a way for Kosh to restore Talia after the sleeper personality manifested or a way to turn Talia into a Vorlon servant (if Pat Tallman hadn't returned to the series and Andrea Thompson departed).

 

[Kizarvexis]

It was prep for Talia to become something big after Ironheart's gift. Here is where it starts off with jms' comments about Andrea replacing Pat after "The Gathering."

Pat Tallman passed on returning to the B5 project. Our new telepath will be played by Andrea Thompson, with the character name Talia Winters. Much of the Lyta arc will now go to Talia, but there's now a different way of getting her into that arc.

So, Pat (Lyta) passes on doing the series after the pilot. Andrea (Talia) takes over as station teep after Lyta is recalled to Earth. Ironheart gives Talia a gift and a few eps later Kosh investigates her using the vicar, Abbut. Andrea does almost two seasons as Talia, but Andrea leaves the show. Pat (Lyta) is brought back as Talia hits the trapdoor storywise. Lyta takes over as station teep in Season 3 as a Vorlon Servant as originally planned. Evidently, if Pat had done season 1 & 2, then Lyta would have been drawn to Kosh just like she described later about becoming a Vorlon Servant.

Kizarvexis

 

[Mongoose Si]

So, Pat (Lyta) passes on doing the series after the pilot. Andrea (Talia) takes over as station teep after Lyta is recalled to Earth. Ironheart gives Talia a gift and a few eps later Kosh investigates her using the vicar, Abbut. Andrea does almost two seasons as Talia, but Andrea leaves the show. Pat (Lyta) is brought back as Talia hits the trapdoor storywise. Lyta takes over as station teep in Season 3 as a Vorlon Servant as originally planned. Evidently, if Pat had done season 1 & 2, then Lyta would have been drawn to Kosh just like she described later about becoming a Vorlon Servant.

Kizarvexis

This was explained in the Babylon 5 Script books. From what I remmeber it went something like this:

JMS always wanted Pat to play the main teep. She also wanted to do it but, if I remember correctly, the "suits" and agents got invloved after the pilot and it all got messy from there. During season 2 Andrea basically wanted the show to become "The Talia Winters Show", obviously this wasn't going to happen so she left and as luck would have it, JMS managed to sort out the issues with Pat and she came back.

I always preferred Pat/Lyta to Andrea/Talia - a much better actor and character IMO