Anna Sheridan
From The Babylon Project
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- "You've got quite a brother there, Liz. I can't tell you how lucky I feel sometimes, even when he's not here. I just-- Someone said that love knows no borders...and ours certainly proves the point."
- – Anna Sheridan, 2256
Doctor Anna Sheridan was the second wife of John Sheridan and later an unwilling agent for the Shadows. She was a respected xeno-archaeologist and held at least one PHD.[1][2][3]
[edit] History
Anna was introduced to John Sheridan through his sister, Elizabeth Sheridan, one of her best friends and were married sometime after the Earth-Minbari War.[4][1]
In 2257, Anna was asked by Dr. Chang to join him on an expedition aboard the Icarus, an IPX exploratory ship, partly funded by Earthforce New Technologies. The mission would be to find and survey a newly discovered planet out on the Rim, codenamed Alpha Omega III. Unknown to Anna at the time, IPX sent the Icarus there after specifically tracking a Shadow vessel, found buried in Syria Planum to that world. During the journey to the rim, Anna befriend a Dr Morden, a fellow xeno-archaeologist on loan to IPX from Earthforce New Technologies. Shortly after setting down, the crew came into contact with the newly awakened Shadows.[1][2]
The Shadows offered the crew members a choice of serving them willingly. Anna was among those who refused. Rather than have her killed, the Shadows placed her inside one of their ships (as they used living beings as their central processing units). Once the Shadows learned who she was and her connection to Captain Sheridan in 2260, they removed her from the vessel. However, after being inside the ship for so long, her personality was completely destroyed. A new personality, one utterly dedicated to the Shadows and their mission, now existed.[5]
At the end of 2260, immediately following the Shadow's defeat at the Battle of Sector 83, Anna was sent to Babylon 5 to bring John Sheridan to Z'ha'dum. Unaware the crew knew how the Shadow vessels operated, she agreed to be inspected by Dr. Stephen Franklin. He quickly determined what had happened to her, and John could sense the woman he married was truly gone. Nevertheless, he went along with her to Z'ha'dum. She lead him inside the Shadows' capital city and introduced him to Justin. Along with Morden, the three explained the war from the Shadows' perspective.[6][5]
After calling them out on what they did to Anna, John attempted to flee. Anna pursued him to the edge of a great abyss, appealing to John to come back with her. Instead, he leaped into the chasm. Anna then died when the White Star came crashing down into the city, detonating two 500 megaton Thermonuclear devices.[5]
[edit] Behind the Scenes
- Anna Sheridan first appeared on a message recorded to Elizabeth Sheridan prior to her death in "Revelations" played by Beth Toussaint. When the time came for Anna to appear again Beth Toussaint wasn't available and so actress Melissa Gilbert (Bruce Boxleitner real life spouse) was cast in her place. Gilbert's first appearance as Anna was in War Without End, Part II (though only her shadow and voice were featured) before being fully revealed at the very end of "Shadow Dancing," and throughout the episode "Z'ha'dum".
- In addition to these appearances, Melissa Gilbert also re-shot Anna's message to Elizabeth Sheridan from "Revelations", which was cut together with the original footage of Bruce Boxleitner for a brief flashback scene in "Z'ha'dum". In the DVD commentary for that episode, J. Michael Straczynski slyly refers to the scene as a piece of "Soviet Revisionism" and mentions the possibility of inserting the re-shot footage into "Revelations".
- A photo of Melissa Gilbert also appeared in "In the Beginning" and her image was also used to portray Anna on both of the two different covers of Jeanne Cavelos's novel "The Shadow Within". It might also be worth noting that the wedding photo seen in "Z'ha'dum" was in fact from Bruce and Melissa's actual wedding.
