And like don't get me wrong I'm not trying to criticize the cast members because for the most part they either had legitimate medical issues or were being paid shit (they all were) or in this case I guess Andrea Thompson being married to Jerry Doyle made things uncomfortable in addition to that, but like, god damn
Michael O Hare was just a straight up better lead actor than Bruce Boxleitner. Sorry Bruce but holy shit him having to leave downgraded the whole show. Maybe he gets better later on but he really feels like K-mart Captain Kirk
Now Andrea Thompson is gone and it just totally ruined her entire character arc and robbed us of a gay romance that they only even started to explicitly show in this episode! And it just doesn't make any sense within the show. She's supposed to have been like super scanned and modified by her psionically ascended lover in season 1, and he just like, didn't notice that she had this whole ass programmed personality riding along? We're robbed of any payoff to that, and in this episode, like, I dunno. It's just weird because it's explicitly stated that the telepathic password will trigger the sleeper personality and destroy the initial personality and literally not a single person is like, "wait, won't that effectively kill that person?"
I read something claiming Andrea Thompson wanted more screen time and JMS said no or something and if that's the case idk, big fuck up there, I didn't particularly like her character that much but I spent like half of both seasons going "What, did they forget they've got a Station Telepath?" So IMO she should have had more screen time like, by default.
In lamenting these cast changes i realize na'toth's actress left after season 1 and i didn't even realize because there's hardly been any na'toth. Shit sucks i liked her
I also saw redditors talking about even more cast changes fucking up the show like lol god damn babylon 5 had it rough
The cast changes were basically all forced on JMS by outside factors. He's actually quite well known for his good working relationships with actors, making accommodations for schedules, asking their advice on dialogue choices, etc.
O'Hare's worsening mental health issues are the most well known but there were many others, like Furst's short-lived TV sitcom attempt which meant he was basically just doing cameos on B5 for awhile before coming back full-time.
Na'toth's first actor had to stop playing the part because of health issues with the Narn makeup. She came back for a significant guest role as a human in a later episode.
Thompson left largely because she wanted to try a journalism career, which she turned out not to be very good at. There's clips floating around on youtube of her work. Her divorce of Doyle was the big factor in why she didn't return.
I think Boxleitner's slightly hammy style is perfect for the type of character Sheridan becomes. He's a good fit for the long arc even if it seems like a jarring change at the moment.