hypatia:
Jerry Doyle broke his wrist and his arm (two different falls when the same stuntman screwed up in two consecutive takes) while filming "Severed Dreams", not "Babylon Squared." (Garibaldi's timeflash was filmed for "B2" and the some of the footage reused - I think - in "WWE." The character of Zack hadn't even been introduced in S1.) It was the scene where the Narn charge ahead of security to engage Clark's troops, who boarded the station via a breaching pod.
Doyle also got a little carried away when filming the flashback where he is imprisoned in the round room during Garibaldi's "missing time." In one take when he ripped off the arm of the metal chair that he would use to smash the lights, he hit himself in the groin with it.
Claudia Christian wasn't hurt on-set. She had an accident while gardening and broke her foot one Sunday. JMS had to rewrite the episode so that Garibaldi rescues Ivanova, because Christian wasn't up to doing the stunts involved in the original version - where Ivanova escaped on her own. For all the scenes prior to the fight in the council room where "Susan" breaks her foot, Claudia was walking around on her broken foot with a cast under her boot.
Richard Biggs was never hurt on-set that I know of, but he did send a stuntman to the hospital. I'm pretty sure this happened in "Between the Darkness and the Light", when Franklin, Lyta and Garibaldi are sneaking through the tunnels on Mars, trying to reach Sheridan.
As originally scripted and blocked, the scene had Garibaldi taking out the two guards they run into on his own, and being wounded in the process. Biggs wanted to get into the action and argued that even though Franklin's a doctor he wouldn't just stand around hoping that Garibaldi could handle the guards all by himself. The director finally agreed.
On the first take Biggs, who is larger than he sometimes looks on-screen, and in very good shape, went overboard in the excitement of the moment and hit the stuntman harder than he meant to. He knocked the guy out with one punch. (When you see Franklin bending down to see if the "guard" is alright, Biggs is
not acting - the guy was lying there bleeding and unconcious, and Biggs was really worried about him.)
For a time they were concerned that the stuntman might lose his eye. He didn't, fortunately. The only serious damage was to his pride - being knocked cold by an actor and all. Needless to say Biggs never did another fight scene on
B5.
A number of people were
nearly hurt during the death of Kosh II. Somehow the pyrotechnic charge intended to blow his headpiece apart went off prematurely, before the area was cleared. The explosion on the second of the three Kosh-heads they had also went wrong and the director refused to risk trying it a third time, so the final version of the explosion in the episode is CGI, and rather unsatisfactory.
I'm sure there were other bumps and bruises along the way, but these are the only incidents that I can recall off the top of my head.
Regards,
Joe
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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
[This message has been edited by Joseph DeMartino (edited August 04, 2001).]