Patricia Tallman asked us to ask you, the Babylon Podcast listeners and Babylon 5 fans, one question: What are your favorite Lyta episodes?
Here’s your chance to answer that question for her!
Lyta Alexander appeared in 24 episodes plus “The Gathering” and “Thirdspace”, so discuss amongst yourselves, or follow your heart… just cast your vote, and spread the word to any other Babylon 5 fans so they can weigh in as well.
Feel free to post this link on your own blogs and favorite B5 forums — this poll will stay open at least 30 days until May 9, midnight Pacific time. Some time after that, Pat will join us to discuss the results!
update (Jun 1, 2011): Now that we’ve talked with Pat about the initial poll results, the poll is open again, and will stay open for as long as people want to keep voting!
Follow Patricia on Twitter: http://twitter.com/patriciatallman
Out of all of the episodes and movies Lyta appeared in, you can choose your 10 favorites.
What are your favorite Lyta episodes? (Choose up to 10)
- S4: Endgame (7%, 84 Votes)
- S4: Between the Darkness and the Light (6%, 83 Votes)
- Thirdspace (6%, 78 Votes)
- S5: Objects in Motion (6%, 73 Votes)
- S4: The Hour of the Wolf (6%, 71 Votes)
- S5: The Wheel of Fire (5%, 70 Votes)
- S4: Into the Fire (5%, 69 Votes)
- S2: Divided Loyalties (5%, 65 Votes)
- S4: Falling Toward Apotheosis (4%, 57 Votes)
- S4: The Face of the Enemy (4%, 50 Votes)
- The Gathering (4%, 48 Votes)
- S3: Passing Through Gethsemane (4%, 46 Votes)
- S5: Phoenix Rising (4%, 46 Votes)
- S5: The Fall of Centauri Prime (4%, 46 Votes)
- S3: Walkabout (4%, 45 Votes)
- S4: Moments of Transition (4%, 45 Votes)
- S5: A Tragedy of Telepaths (3%, 43 Votes)
- S5: Movements of Fire and Shadow (3%, 37 Votes)
- S5: Secrets of the Soul (3%, 36 Votes)
- S4: The Summoning (3%, 36 Votes)
- S4: Epiphanies (3%, 36 Votes)
- S4: Exercise of Vital Powers (3%, 35 Votes)
- S5: Darkness Ascending (2%, 30 Votes)
- S5: In the Kingdom of the Blind (2%, 24 Votes)
- S5: The Paragon of Animals (1%, 19 Votes)
- S5: Strange Relations (1%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 240
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All of them. I couldn’t just pick one.
It’s okay, Joe — you’re allowed to pick up to 10 of them!
Great idea Summer. My favorite episode for Lyta is still Endgame. I love seeing her as action hero, but Thirdspace probably showcases her better.
Are we being asked to vote on our favourite Lyta appearances, or favourite episodes (in which Lyta happens to appear)? If the former, I may vote for less desirable episodes in which Pat Tallman gave a great performance. If the latter, I may vote for a favourite epsiode in which Lyta made a relatively insignificant appearance.
Favorite Lyta episodes/stories/performances, is how I interpreted Pat’s question to us. So it’s not so much the B5ness of the story, but the favorite appearance/performance of Lyta in the story.
– “They killed him… they tore him apart!” Great Lyta moment from “Walkabout”.
– “What do you know about hell? Do you want me to show it to you – mine and his?” That’s my favorite Lyta scene.
– The unspeakably intense scene in “Movements of Fire and Shadow” where Lyta makes the Drazi shoot himself also merits commendation.
– And of course, “Captain, they’re pissed” from “Into the Fire”!
Lyta avenging Kosh’s death maybe one of the best scenes in the five year run. It was basically what the fans wanted to do to the Shadows after Kosh’s death. Its too bad they did World Without End between Kosh’ Death and Walkabout. It would have had more raw emotions going into Walkabout instead of being blown away by everything in World Without End. Still, a great scene and probably Lyta’s best moment since we are totally with her in those moments.
The cute answer is that Pat’s favorite is “Divided Loyalties” because that was goodbye to Talia and hello Lyta!
I like “Moments of Transition” because it gives Pat a chance for some performance time with Walter Koenig as Bester. She shows more nuance in acting than was allowed in most episodes.
If Pat is willing to join you for another interview, please give us a chance to submit questions.
Cheers!
Michael
Summer:
Picking 3 easy, not going over 10 very hard……
And some of mine are near bottom of current vote and some near top I hadn’t considered.
This is really hard. I’ll have to come back and finalize latter since all of the above is not an option.
–Jim
Alas my heart breaks to pick just 10! I made it thru, but it was not easy.
The one episode that I would vote for is one we never saw. I would have loved to see at least one episode of her travels with G’Kar. It was also so sad in “Sleeping in Light” that nobody had anything to say about her, and missing her. She existed to help save their collective butts, and nobody had even one word of regret to her exile.
Now, I have to review all the episodes to see which is which.
Jules, you forget that Zack’s invite never got to him, else he would have been there, and you can bet that he would have mentioned her. I’ve always believed that his sudden appearance at the end when Sheridan is saying goodbye to the station was an implied nod to someone remembering Lyta, in light of Sheridan’s comment about why the invite hadn’t been delivered.
Given that Lyta died in what was arguably a terrorist act, I have a hard time imagining someone at Sheridan’s last supper–even Zack–bringing up her name.
It all depends on how the history books were written. When you’re on the losing side, you’re a terrorist. When you’re on the winning side, you’re a freedom fighter (Founding Fathers, signers of the Declaration of Independence, rinse, repeat through history).
If the fall of the Psi Corps and rise of the structure that replaced it and at least a reasonable amount of respectful interaction between mundanes and telepaths was reached because of it, who other than JMS can honestly say how Lyta and the other rogue telepaths of the Psi Corps days are being remembered during the SiL timeframe?
Reference Deconstruction, 100 years later, when the “academics” had it all cockeyed, and Delenn’s reproachment of them because of it.
Here’s another wrinkle, too: after the debacle of the Telepath Colony on B5 and Lyta’s subsequent revelation as a potential “big weapon”, I would think that Sheridan (and by extension, the Interstellar Alliance) might distance himself from anything Lyta would be up to.
If we knew for a fact that she’d used herself as said doomsday weapon, that’s a possibility. But Zack loved Lyta, so I have to think that some part of him would still remember her fondly, even if the others wouldn’t have been inclined to mention her.
So while we’ll never know for sure (unless someone asks or has already asked JMS this question), I’m standing by my theory that Zack’s appearance at the end was a sideways wink to the fact that Lyta would also have been memorialized by someone at the dinner, if he’d been there.
For what it’s worth, the early drafts of “The Path of Sorrows” clearly indicate Lyta was the source of the explosion Matheson witnessed as he fled the Psi Corps base.
Make of that what you will.
Early drafts… that no one here, and possibly no one who wasn’t on the production staff, has even seen yet.
Thanks for that, Jason. Tease me HARDER, why don’tcha? 😉
But yes, that would be an interesting tidbit to argue over. Personally, I’m not sure why she’d blow herself up, unless her rage had just overtaken her reason by that time. I also think she’d be too strong for sleepers to have any affect on her at all, unless she was faking it to lull them into a false sense of security, to give herself the space she’d need to prepare for a final strike of some kind.
Psi Corps knew she’d been modified by Vorlons, so leaving her free would have been a tactical error. She should have gone into a stasis box immediately, if they were uncertain of just how far amped up she’d been… but I guess their overconfidence in their drugs and that they would prevail got the better of them?
WHy can’t I vote?
Love them al!
The survey ended at midnight Monday, alas. But I’m beginning to wonder if opening it again, and leaving it open after we chat with Pat might not be a fun thing!
I recently began watching the entire B5 series from the beginning on DVD and I have to say the show has definitely matured with age. I’m glad I forked out money for those box sets all those years ago – money well spent if you ask me!
Now I couldn’t single out a particular Lyta episode but her story arc is what makes her such a great character – we cannot help but be sympathetic toward her especially as she was taken more and more for granted and recieved little or no thanks in return for what she did for the rest of the crew. Indeed she was treated pretty badly by Sheridan so it was inevitable that the worm would turn as the telepath crisis developed in S5 till she finally took a stand for herself and her fellow telepaths. A fitting conclusion to the Lyta arc.
All credit to Pat Tallman and JMS for bringing us such a remarkable, strong yet also vulnerable character to the Babylon 5 universe.