With the announcement that Mira is not going to be in either of the two newest movies ("River of Souls" and "A Call to Arms") and the growing realization that she will not be in "Crusade", I thought I was going to be seriously bummed. Well, I am and then again strangely enough I'm not.

It does mean that I won't be watching either of the movies or "Crusade" as closely as I would have been had Mira been in them. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy jms's work and think it's some of the best television I have seen in a very long time, but for me Mira was the icing on the cake that elevated Babylon 5 from, "gee this is really good" to "there's no way in hell I can miss this." The appearance of "Delenn" in either of her incarnations (pre or post chrysalis) was guaranteed to make my heart beat just that little bit faster as I knew something magic was about to happen. Mira's flawless and seemingly effortless body language and her rare talent for being able to speak volumes without saying a word enthral and entrance me. They say the eyes are the windows of the soul, somehow Mira manages to let the soul of the characters she plays shine out, it's a rare gift few actors possess.

As much as I adore "Delenn", I do think I'm ready to move on, and I feel that Mira probably is too. Six years of playing a character, even a character as multifaceted as the Minbari Ambassador is a long run. "Delenn" was interesting, she was both tough and tender, soft and strong, vulnerable and powerful and Mira played all her sides and her kaleidoscope of emotions brilliantly and believably. I never doubted that the same woman who could express the beautiful childlike joy while releasing the souls at the end of "Soul Hunter", was also capable of scaring the living daylights out of an entire fleet of earthforce vessels with her "if you value your lives, be somewhere else" line, or being head over heels in love and softer than a whisper with the man she adored. Steel and velvet, satin and leather, lace and chains, a bit of everything wrapped in a beautiful bow.

Thinking about it I have already started to move on, I've begun to watch Mira in other roles, roles from her past, characters I've taken as deeply to heart as I did "Delenn". From the bold, brassy, brazen, blonde in "U raljama zivota" to the tough and tender lesbian prostitute in "Put na jug", to the irrepressible "Finke" in "Pismo-Glava", I've fallen in love with them all. Undoubtedly, the one who has touched me most deeply is "Jaglika", the culturally repressed innocent from "Lepota poroka" ("The Beauty of Vice"). It is no wonder to me that Mira won the zlatna arena for best actress in 1986 at Pula for this role - I can only imagine that she must have blown the competition out of the water. She absolutely mesmerizes me each and every time I watch it. I don't know what else to say about this performance, it's indescribably good. The role interestingly enough has very few lines in terms of what you'd expect for a lead character, but I don't think I noticed that until about the sixth time I'd seen it. The dialogue would be redundant, however, as there is never any doubt in my mind exactly what "Jaglika" is thinking and feeling at every moment in the film, all done with eyes, and body language. And I confess to having a very soft spot in my heart for the girl in "Dear Video", the last film she and Goran did before they left their homeland. When I think about the events that were happening in the Gajic's lives as they made this film "Jovanka" breaks my heart. All of her ladies are deliciously different and intriguingly real.

I'd like to see Mira tackle some new challenges, stage, screen or TV, I don't care, although personally I would like to have the opportunity to see her live on stage at least once. The thought of sitting in a darkened theatre and hearing that smoky, softly accented voice pouring out at me across the footlights is an experience I don't want to pass up. No matter what she does as a thespian, I'll be watching, and cheering. I hope she'll even do a little writing. If you've ever read her "Letter to my co-citizens", one of the most powerful pieces of prose I've ever experienced, you know she has a way with words. Who better to tell the story of her life and the events in the former-Yugoslavia than the lady herself? Then again, maybe she has other stories to tell, or points of view to share and I'd like to hear all of them. Most of all I want her to be happy, whatever she is doing and no matter where in the world she is. That is truly the most important thing to me. I wish her joy.

Now, if I could just find a copy of "Bunker Palace Hotel"............