</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Again, I haven't seen "Day of the Dead" in awhile, but I don't
recall any scene in that episode showing Londo and G'Kar returning from
anywhere. Instead they simply are there on the station, during the events
of the episode. This makes sense given that when the episode was shot,
that was the intent. So what we had (as the show originally aired) was a
sequence of their being on Centauri Prime, suddenly being on B5, back
on CP, and then finally returning from CP. But there weren't "two returns"
because there was no reason to show them returning when they shot
"DotD". The episode was written to take place after their return, and
happened to air before it. It isn't as if an additional scene were shot to
make it fit the broadcast order.
[/quote]
I checked my tapes last night, and it turns out that you're mostly (but not
completely) right. And I'm mostly (but not completely) wrong. You're
correct in saying that there's no "return" scene in DotD. There's talk
about Londo as eventual Emperor, but that doesn't tag it in any way in
terms of time frame. However, there *is* a scene near the beginning of
"The Ragged Edge" (beginning of Act 1 IIRC) in which you see Londo and
G'Kar disembarking from a ship that brought them back to B5. Yet the
originally conceived order would have been ItKotB - ToT - PR - DotD -
RE. So they *did* either move a scene over from one episode to the next
or rework the script of RE to include a "Londo and G'Kar return" scene to
fit the schedule change of DotD before ItKotB.
Because of this scene, neither the original TNT broadcast order nor the
"originally intended" broadcast order that SFC uses makes sense. The
only order that would make sense would be to either put DotD before
"Strange Relations" or after RE. That would explain why Kosh_N
suggested that DotD had to happen after RE.
Oh, and just to correct you on one more thing: /forums/images/icons/smile.gif
You said that as the show originally aired we had "a sequence of their
being on Centauri Prime, suddenly being on B5, back on CP, and then
finally returning from CP". Well, not exactly. We actually had a sequence
of them *leaving for CP* (in "Strange Relations"), then back on B5 (DotD),
etc. We never actually see them on CP in "Strange Relations". So maybe
their ship broke down and they had to go back to B5 for a while. That
would explain the original broadcast order. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The episode was pulled forward quite late in the day. TNT planned
to put the show on hiatus for a few weeks during the NBA playoffs, if
memory serves. That was contrary to their original plan of showing the
whole season straight through. It was agreed between TNT and JMS
that going into the break in the middle of a series of "down" episodes
would be a mistake. So the somewhat lighter "DotD" was move forward.
[/quote]
Specifically, what happened was this: They were originally going to show
all of Season 5 uninterrupted from January to June. But then because of
the NBA playoffs they decided to stop at 512, and hold the final ten
episodes of the season until the fall. (I remember nearly having a heart
attack when I read the updated schedule on the Lurker's Guide.) DotD
was originally intended to air as 511, but JMS preferred to avoid doing a
bunch of heavy episodes, followed by 1 light ep and then another heavy
ep. Better to do a light ep, and then four heavy ones in a row before the
big break.
Later on, the schedule was revised *again* so that they ran up through
*513* in April without a break, then break for NBA playoffs, then 514-517
in May-June. (And then the Final Five in October-November.) It's
unclear whether TPTB would have bothered moving DotD if they'd known
that that's what the final schedule would have looked like.