Talia Winters Character Profile

Talia Winters was a commercial telepath on Babylon 5 during 2258 and 2259. She was played by Andrea Thompson.

Talia Winters seemed to have an intriguing life ahead of her, but it was tragically cut short.

Note: This is a complete biography of Talia Winters. Therefore, it contains spoilers for Seasons One and Two of Babylon 5. The biography is written in chronological order, so if you are watching Babylon 5 for the first time you can safely read the early parts of this article and stop before you reach the sections that would reveal events that you haven't seen on the show yet.

History

Talia Winters never knew her parents. She was taken into the Psi Corps when she was five years old. The only maternal figure she remembered was Abby, a telepath who used her powers to ease her fear when she first arrived and then guided her through her first year.

Talia was raised in the Corps, and was classified as a P5. In 2252 she entered the Psi Corps Intern Program where she worked with Lyta Alexander.

Talia participated in an arranged marriage with one of her instructors, Matthew Stoner, because the Psi Corps felt they were a good genetic match. The marriage was annulled when an experiment apparently cost Stoner his telepathic powers and he left the Psi Corps.

Talia fell in love with another instructor, Jason Ironheart. After she graduated in 2253 they only kept in touch through letters.

After graduation, Talia was assigned to Mars Colony where she worked on criminal cases. Without her knowledge, she was conditioned with a hidden sleeper personality that was unswervingly loyal to an organization known as Bureau 13.

In 2255, Talia was transferred to the EarthGov Political Affairs Office. Eventually, she settled on a career as a commercial telepath. She was posted to Babylon 5 in 2258.

The Commercial Telepath

As a commercial telepath, Talia Winters worked freelance to monitor business deals. Without scanning deeply, she would tell her clients whether the people they were dealing with were being honest.

During her first year on the station, Jason Ironheart arrived on the run from the Psi Cops. He had escaped from a secret experiment that was causing his telepathic abilities to increase exponentially. Before he evolved into a higher form of life, he granted her the power of telekinesis. Talia never told the Psi Corps about this power even though it was something they coveted.

Matthew Stoner showed up in 2259 promising Talia a procedure that would remove her telepathic powers so that she could leave the Psi Corps and live with him. With her faith in the Corps weakening, she agreed to join him. However, with help from Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, she learned that Stoner was still a member of the Psi Corps. The experiment had granted him empathic powers, and the Psi Corps wanted him and Talia to breed more empaths.

Talia's distrust of the Psi Corps became complete shortly thereafter when she joined with several rogue telepaths in Dr. Stephen Franklin's underground railroad to fool Psi Cop Alfred Bester into believing they were dead.

Talia Winter's relationship with Susan Ivanova got off to a rocky start due to Ivanova's innate distrust of the Psi Corps. However, over the following two years, their relationship grew to the point where they were able to confide in one another and even became intimate.

Control

Many of Talia's actions were influenced by the sleeper personality know as Control. The personality would speak to her in her dreams to guide her actions. It was also apparently able to take control of her body at times without her knowledge. In late 2259, she was close to being admitted into Captain Sheridan's conspiracy.

Lyta Alexander came to Babylon 5 as a rogue to warn Sheridan that there was a traitor in their midst. Lyta knew the telepathic password that would bring the sleeper personality to the surface. She transmitted the password to various members of the station's staff without success. When Talia entered the room, Lyta reflexively sent the password to her, revealing the sleeper personality. Control cursed Lyta for blowing her cover.

In a final act of spite, Control told Ivanova that Talia's kindness to her was encouraged by Control to get closer to Sheridan's conspiracy.

A Sad End to a Short Life

Talia Winters was sent back to Psi Corps for debriefing. On one of his subsequent visits, Bester tried to anger Garibaldi by implying that Talia was dissected. It was rumored that for a time Talia's brain resided in a jar on Bester's desk.