Talia Winters
Encyclopedia
Talia Winters is a fictional character appearing on the science fiction
television show Babylon 5
during its first and second seasons. She was portrayed by actress Andrea Thompson
.
Ms. Winters was a licensed, commercial telepath from Earth and a member of the Psi Corps
organization. She was assigned to the Earth space station Babylon 5 in the year 2258 to serve as its second resident commercial telepath. Like all Psi Corps members, Winters' telepathic ability was numbered according to ability; Winters was classified as a P5, the level of most commercial telepaths. Typically, commercial telepaths were assigned to help two or more business parties broker deals, by monitoring their honesty during business negotiations.
, by J. Gregory Keyes, as being captured by Psi Cops in 2189, but spared the 're-education' camps by direct order of then Psi Corps Director Kevin Vacit, and enrolled in the Psi Corps Academy instead.), and accepted an internship in the commercial telepath division. During this internship, she met and befriended Lyta Alexander
, another P5 telepath who had transferred out of the Psi-Cop division.
Winters was involved in at least two romantic relationships during her years in the Psi Corps Academy. One was with Matthew Stoner, an advanced telepath who mentored her during her academic career. Winters and Stoner were quickly married after the Corps determined that the couple was likely to produce equally or more powerful telepathic offspring
. Their union was annulled
after Stoner left the Corps under mysterious circumstances; by this time Winters had learned for herself that they were not compatible. The other relationship was with Jason Ironheart, an instructor who later volunteered for genetic experimentation.
After completing her education, Winters entered the workforce as a commercial telepath. It was during this period that she met and befriended a businessman named Taro Isogi, who became a father-figure to her. She also took on occasional work in trial cases, scanning the minds of convicted criminals before their personalities were wiped and reprogrammed. The most terrifying experience of her life came when she had to scan a serial killer
- the experience haunted her for years afterwards and made her reluctant to pursue criminal work despite the high demand for telepaths.
Sometime before being stationed on Babylon 5, Winters was modified by Psi Corps to carry a hidden personality (a vague picture in one of the Babylon 5 comic books alludes to this manipulation, apparently taking place at Psi Corps headquarters on Mars
using Shadow
technology). This personality was hidden so deeply that it couldn't even show up on deep scans; Winters herself was unaware of its existence. The sleeper
could only assert control over the original if it perceived a threat to its existence - however, Winters would not remember any defensive actions the personality had taken. The Psi Corps intended to use this hidden personality as a spy until a password
was sent via telepathic link directly into Talia's mind. Once this took place, her original personality would be destroyed and the sleeper would take permanent control.
and Captain John Sheridan
) considered her a valuable ally despite her strong loyalty to Psi Corps. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
, who harbored a not-so-secret crush on Winters, was in frequent contact with her. Garibaldi would routinely flirt with her and show up in the stations' transport tubes just when she was about to board them. Although annoyed by his unsubtle advances, Winters remained friendly with him and used her Psi Corps connections to help him contact his former lover, Lise Hampton, during the riots on the Mars colony
.
Talia Winters's most complicated relationship was with Susan Ivanova
, the station's second-in-command. Initially, Ivanova was hostile to Winters' arrival and refused to acknowledge her presence. She quickly discovered that Ivanova's mother was a telepath who, rather than joining the Corps and leaving her family, submitted to a decade's worth of drug injections which dampened her spirit along with her abilities. Ivanova blamed Psi Corps for her mother's suicide
; her experience gave Talia her first opportunity to learn about the darker side of the Psi Corps. In Season 3, during a Mimbar ceremony Ivanova confesses to Delenn, that she thinks that she loved Talia Winters.
Also in 2258, Jason Ironheart arrived on the station in secret while on the run from the Psi Corps.
The experiments he had participated in had strengthened his abilities to the point where he could telekinetically manipulate matter at the subatomic level. Ironheart gave his lover two gifts as he transformed into a being of pure energy: her own minor telekinetic abilities, substantially less powerful (and therefore less dangerous) than Ironheart's, and the ability to block the scans of P12 (the highest rated) telepaths. Winters put these new abilities to use the following year when Psi Cop Al Bester
came to Babylon 5 to stop an underground railroad
that Ironheart had set up for runaway telepaths. Her experience with the fugitive telepaths finally made her aware of how corrupt the Psi Corps had become. It was this epiphany
that finally dissolved the tension between herself and Susan Ivanova; from that point on, the two women developed a mutual respect which later blossomed into a friendship, and eventually romance.
In 2259, dissident telepath Lyta Alexander
learned of the Psi Corps sleeper program while hiding out with members of the Mars rebellion.
Although she knew one such sleeper had been sent to Babylon 5 to spy on its command staff, she did not know the identity of the spy. Lyta traveled to Babylon 5 with the password that would activate the hidden personality. With the permission of Captain John Sheridan, Lyta sent the password into the minds of individuals among and close to the command staff. When she sent the password into Winters' mind, the hidden personality took full control of her psyche, effectively killing the Talia Winters that everyone had come to know.
Talia became hostile and returned to Earth
after the hidden personality took over. There were concerns among the stations' command staff over how much inside knowledge this new Ms. Winters could use against them. By that time, they had become convinced that then Vice President Clark had assassinated his predecessor with help from outsiders so he could assume the presidency, and they were clandestinely gathering evidence to that effect and making sure it got passed along to members of the military who felt the same, and who could discreetly get it to the right hands. The staff had just agreed to bring Talia in on the operation, and were on the verge of doing so when Lyta had arrived to inform them of the sleeper. Garibaldi himself had mused that if Lyta had come one week later, they'd all be standing in front of a summary court martial board, if not worse.
Psi Cop Bester hinted that she was dissected after arriving back on Earth:
Whether this was the truth or merely an attempt to anger her friends is left ambiguous.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television show Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
during its first and second seasons. She was portrayed by actress Andrea Thompson
Andrea Thompson
Rebecca Andrea Thompson is an American actress, known for her roles on the television series Falcon Crest, Babylon 5, JAG, 24, Heroes and NYPD Blue.-Early life:...
.
Ms. Winters was a licensed, commercial telepath from Earth and a member of the Psi Corps
Psi Corps
In the fictional universe of Babylon 5, the Psi Corps is an agency of the Earth Alliance responsible for all humans with telepathic or other para-psychological abilities anywhere within Earth controlled space. All persons with Psi abilities are required to either join the Corps, face lifetime...
organization. She was assigned to the Earth space station Babylon 5 in the year 2258 to serve as its second resident commercial telepath. Like all Psi Corps members, Winters' telepathic ability was numbered according to ability; Winters was classified as a P5, the level of most commercial telepaths. Typically, commercial telepaths were assigned to help two or more business parties broker deals, by monitoring their honesty during business negotiations.
Character backstory
Talia Winters's telepathic abilities manifested at age five. As required by law, her parents immediately sent her to be raised, educated, and trained in her gifts by the Psi Corps. An advanced telepath named Abby eased the frightened girl's transition during her first year. During this time Talia was also tested for telekinesis, but was disappointed to learn that she did not have enough to move even a penny. Over the years, Ms. Winters developed a strong loyalty to Psi Corps (in contrast to a possible grandparent, a rogue telepath named Jenny Winters, mentioned in the book Dark GenesisDark Genesis
-Disc two:Iced Earth remastered, 1991-Disc three:Night of the Stormrider remastered, 1992-Disc four:Burnt Offerings remastered, 1995-Disc five:Tribute to the Gods, 2002-Personnel:...
, by J. Gregory Keyes, as being captured by Psi Cops in 2189, but spared the 're-education' camps by direct order of then Psi Corps Director Kevin Vacit, and enrolled in the Psi Corps Academy instead.), and accepted an internship in the commercial telepath division. During this internship, she met and befriended Lyta Alexander
Lyta Alexander
Lyta Alexander is a character from the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Patricia Tallman.Lyta was introduced in the pilot episode "The Gathering" as a telepath assigned to the Babylon 5 space station by the Psi Corps, a fictional organization...
, another P5 telepath who had transferred out of the Psi-Cop division.
Winters was involved in at least two romantic relationships during her years in the Psi Corps Academy. One was with Matthew Stoner, an advanced telepath who mentored her during her academic career. Winters and Stoner were quickly married after the Corps determined that the couple was likely to produce equally or more powerful telepathic offspring
Offspring
In biology, offspring is the product of reproduction, of a new organism produced by one or more parents.Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way...
. Their union was annulled
Annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place...
after Stoner left the Corps under mysterious circumstances; by this time Winters had learned for herself that they were not compatible. The other relationship was with Jason Ironheart, an instructor who later volunteered for genetic experimentation.
After completing her education, Winters entered the workforce as a commercial telepath. It was during this period that she met and befriended a businessman named Taro Isogi, who became a father-figure to her. She also took on occasional work in trial cases, scanning the minds of convicted criminals before their personalities were wiped and reprogrammed. The most terrifying experience of her life came when she had to scan a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
- the experience haunted her for years afterwards and made her reluctant to pursue criminal work despite the high demand for telepaths.
Sometime before being stationed on Babylon 5, Winters was modified by Psi Corps to carry a hidden personality (a vague picture in one of the Babylon 5 comic books alludes to this manipulation, apparently taking place at Psi Corps headquarters on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
using Shadow
Shadow (Babylon 5)
The Shadows are a fictional alien species in the science fiction television series Babylon 5. Their homeworld is Z'ha'dum. In contrast to the Vorlons, whose philosophy is represented by the question "Who are you?", that of the Shadows is represented by the question "What do you want?", centering...
technology). This personality was hidden so deeply that it couldn't even show up on deep scans; Winters herself was unaware of its existence. The sleeper
Sleeper
A sleeper is a person who is sleeping. It may also refer to:-Music:* Sleeper , a Britpop band in the 1990s* The Sleepers , a punk/post-punk band active from 1978 until 1981...
could only assert control over the original if it perceived a threat to its existence - however, Winters would not remember any defensive actions the personality had taken. The Psi Corps intended to use this hidden personality as a spy until a password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....
was sent via telepathic link directly into Talia's mind. Once this took place, her original personality would be destroyed and the sleeper would take permanent control.
Babylon 5 story arc
In 2258, Talia Winters arrived on Babylon 5 as its second resident commercial telepath. Her work on the station repeatedly brought her into contact with the command staff. Both of the station's commanding officers (Commander Jeffrey SinclairJeffrey Sinclair
Jeffrey Sinclair is a character in the fictional universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, played by actor Michael O'Hare. He was a regular in the first season of the show, as Commander of the Babylon 5 station, and made a number of guest appearances afterward.-Early life and...
and Captain John Sheridan
John Sheridan (Babylon 5)
John J. Sheridan is a lead character in the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Bruce Boxleitner. For most of the series, he is the commander of the Babylon 5 station; during the series' final season he is the President of the Interstellar...
) considered her a valuable ally despite her strong loyalty to Psi Corps. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
Michael Garibaldi
Michael Garibaldi is a lead fictional character in the universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Jerry Doyle.-Overview:...
, who harbored a not-so-secret crush on Winters, was in frequent contact with her. Garibaldi would routinely flirt with her and show up in the stations' transport tubes just when she was about to board them. Although annoyed by his unsubtle advances, Winters remained friendly with him and used her Psi Corps connections to help him contact his former lover, Lise Hampton, during the riots on the Mars colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
.
Talia Winters's most complicated relationship was with Susan Ivanova
Susan Ivanova
Susan Ivanova is a fictional character in the science fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Claudia Christian.-Character overview:...
, the station's second-in-command. Initially, Ivanova was hostile to Winters' arrival and refused to acknowledge her presence. She quickly discovered that Ivanova's mother was a telepath who, rather than joining the Corps and leaving her family, submitted to a decade's worth of drug injections which dampened her spirit along with her abilities. Ivanova blamed Psi Corps for her mother's suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
; her experience gave Talia her first opportunity to learn about the darker side of the Psi Corps. In Season 3, during a Mimbar ceremony Ivanova confesses to Delenn, that she thinks that she loved Talia Winters.
Also in 2258, Jason Ironheart arrived on the station in secret while on the run from the Psi Corps.
The experiments he had participated in had strengthened his abilities to the point where he could telekinetically manipulate matter at the subatomic level. Ironheart gave his lover two gifts as he transformed into a being of pure energy: her own minor telekinetic abilities, substantially less powerful (and therefore less dangerous) than Ironheart's, and the ability to block the scans of P12 (the highest rated) telepaths. Winters put these new abilities to use the following year when Psi Cop Al Bester
Alfred Bester (Babylon 5)
Alfred Bester is a Babylon 5 character played by Walter Koenig. He is a senior Psi Cop and a recurring antagonist in the series. J. Michael Straczynski named the character after the science fiction writer Alfred Bester, since telepathy is a recurring theme in his work .-Early Life and Career:The...
came to Babylon 5 to stop an underground railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
that Ironheart had set up for runaway telepaths. Her experience with the fugitive telepaths finally made her aware of how corrupt the Psi Corps had become. It was this epiphany
Epiphany (feeling)
An epiphany is the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something...
that finally dissolved the tension between herself and Susan Ivanova; from that point on, the two women developed a mutual respect which later blossomed into a friendship, and eventually romance.
In 2259, dissident telepath Lyta Alexander
Lyta Alexander
Lyta Alexander is a character from the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Patricia Tallman.Lyta was introduced in the pilot episode "The Gathering" as a telepath assigned to the Babylon 5 space station by the Psi Corps, a fictional organization...
learned of the Psi Corps sleeper program while hiding out with members of the Mars rebellion.
Although she knew one such sleeper had been sent to Babylon 5 to spy on its command staff, she did not know the identity of the spy. Lyta traveled to Babylon 5 with the password that would activate the hidden personality. With the permission of Captain John Sheridan, Lyta sent the password into the minds of individuals among and close to the command staff. When she sent the password into Winters' mind, the hidden personality took full control of her psyche, effectively killing the Talia Winters that everyone had come to know.
Talia became hostile and returned to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
after the hidden personality took over. There were concerns among the stations' command staff over how much inside knowledge this new Ms. Winters could use against them. By that time, they had become convinced that then Vice President Clark had assassinated his predecessor with help from outsiders so he could assume the presidency, and they were clandestinely gathering evidence to that effect and making sure it got passed along to members of the military who felt the same, and who could discreetly get it to the right hands. The staff had just agreed to bring Talia in on the operation, and were on the verge of doing so when Lyta had arrived to inform them of the sleeper. Garibaldi himself had mused that if Lyta had come one week later, they'd all be standing in front of a summary court martial board, if not worse.
Psi Cop Bester hinted that she was dissected after arriving back on Earth:
Whether this was the truth or merely an attempt to anger her friends is left ambiguous.
Production Note
- The exchange between Kosh and Abbut, monitored by Talia Winters in the episode, "DeathwalkerDeathwalker"Deathwalker" is an episode from the first season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.-Synopsis:Na'Toth spots an alien Dilgar woman disembarking from a Minbari ship, and reacts violently, attacking the woman, whom she calls "Deathwalker". She goes wild shouting "Deathwalker" and...
", was to provide a means of how Kosh would have eventually restored Talia to her real personality using the data recorded by Abbut. However, the departure of Andrea Thompson, the actress playing Talia, at the end of the second season meant that this would never be put into motion.