lurkers-guide/ftp/CompuServe/cs97-11

JMS CompuServe messages for November 1997.  Collected by John Hardin
<jhardin@wolfenet.com>.



Date: 01 Nov 1997 22:26:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: SysOp Dupa T. Parrot <70040.104@compuserve.com>
Subject: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds

 SysOp Dupa T. Parrot <70040.104@compuserve.com> asks:
> What day/time will it be?

      Oops, I may have the wrong date, it may be next weekend.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 01 Nov 1997 22:26:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com>
Subject: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds

 Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is it possible that the Cable Ace awards are taking place this
> weekend but being televised at a later date? I could find no
> reference to them for this weekend in the TV Guide (and what with
> chasing B5 eps all over the schedule one becomes a rather intent
> reader of TV Guide <g>)?

      I think it's next week, I screwed up.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 01 Nov 1997 22:35:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Ronald Legro <75136.2066@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deconstruction

 Ronald Legro <75136.2066@compuserve.com> asks:
> Three-camera setup?
> Or just a well-done sim?
> The female senator?

      Stephen filmed that sequence by having all of the cast on the
set at the same time, running multiple film cameras to get each version
"live."

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 01 Nov 1997 22:26:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Doug Gordon <71610.247@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deconstruction

 Doug Gordon <71610.247@compuserve.com> asks:
> a direct decendant of Brother Theo's order on Babylon 5?
> And, if it doesn't reveal any great secrets, is there any chance
> we'll see Brother Theo in Season 5?

"By any chance, is the post-apocalyptic religious order shown in
"Deconstruction . ." a direct decendant of Brother Theo's order on
Babylon 5?"

      It's altogether possible....

      And Theo is only awaiting a story worth bringing him in for.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 01 Nov 1997 22:26:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: All 
Subject: New B5 Logo

{original post unavailable}

      I was advised to repost this here rather than the technical
section...

      A new Season 5 B5 logo will be debuting on the Cable Ace awards
in a snipped from the show...just a word to the wise....

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 02 Nov 1997 19:45:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Brent Barrett <75063.3305@compuserve.com>
Subject: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds

 Brent Barrett <75063.3305@compuserve.com> asks:
> The Ace Awards have honored such genre shows as The Outer Limits,
> if I'm not mistaken, so am I right in thinking that they might be
> more open than the Emmys to considering B5 for the more
> first-tier awards such as acting, writing and directing?

      I think we'll have better shots at everything, across the board,
once we're over on TNT.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 02 Nov 1997 19:45:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: faith manages

{original post unavailable}

      Exactly (and thanks).  A few people have interpreted the final
card as "meanspirited" (when it's on one level a reaction *to* five
years of constant carping and meanspiritedness from lots of sectors,
from the nets to the press and elsewhere)...but what it is, is a
statement of hope.  That whenever you try something different, there
are going to be naysayers, and people who say it can't be done, and
certainly can't be done by *you*.

      It ain't just B5, it's any dream out there.

      And in the end, they are wrong.

      Faith manages.

      That's the message of the card.

      That, and the truth that in 10 years the naysayers will be
forgotten, and made irrelevant...but the show, the *show*...goes on. 
And will be around long after they and I have gone to dust.  And all
people will know when they see that card, 50 years from now, was that
some jerks said it couldn't be done, and they were wrong, because they
are *always* wrong.  If you have the dream, the ability and the
passion, you can bring your dreams to life despite overwhelming
opposition.  That's the message.

      But for those on the other side, they will never see anything
other than meanspiritedness because that's all they can *ever*
see...because that's all they can bring to the table.

      There's an old saying about books, which I'll rephrase to
include B5: Babylon 5 is like a book, and a book is like a mirror: if
an ass peers in, you can't exactly expect an apostle to peer out.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 00:15:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: faith manages

{original post unavailable}

"Happily your note could only be read as mean-spirited by someone
feeling a bit guilty. It is a mirror: you get out of the comment what
you put into it's creation. You see it as a redemption/accomplishment
of a plan, I see it as a confirmation of my own fandom, and a critic
will see it as an insult on his/her own unkind words."

      Something for everyone....

"But have you had many negative comments about it? I hope not as many
as you've had positive."

      No, not that much...and what there is, is mainly from the
weasels for whom it was somewhat intended.

"BTW: was my interpretation of the fiery emergence of the Agamemnon an
over-interpretation on my part? Or will you remain enigmatic - it
means whatever it means!"

      It seemed an appropriate placeholder when WB told us we had to
omit Claudia's credit because she also appears in (the new) 522,
"Sleeping in Light," to avoid incurring fees.

"It's been said B5 represents a paradigm shift in science fiction -
and we're all better for it."

      Sometimes I think maybe we've actually done it....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 00:00:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Brent Barrett <75063.3305@compuserve.com>
Subject: A Call for Help

{original post had no questions}

      I'd just like to add that I've met Cecelia, and we've exchanged
any number of emails, and I've been following her condition for some
time.  If anybody out there is able to help, consider this a definite
encouragement to do so.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 02 Nov 1997 19:45:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com>
Subject: <Decon->/Recon-struction

{original post had no questions}

      Thanks...as always, thoughtful and cogent and pulling together a
lot of the threads introduced in the show.

      Stop that, you know the rules on being sensible on the nets....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 02 Nov 1997 19:45:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jose Cabanillas <71020.3316@compuserve.com>
Subject: Endgame:Teep & ?

 Jose Cabanillas <71020.3316@compuserve.com> asks:
> Second - will we ever see Major Morris again?
> Actor problems?

      The other teep was an extra, and extras generally go uncredited,
and there wasn't time to work in the other Major at this point.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 00:15:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: John Creigh <75270.423@compuserve.com>
Subject: <<DFS>> -Crusades?

 John Creigh <75270.423@compuserve.com> asks:
> is about?

      Thanks...no, that part isn't the crux of the Rangers series,
because that takes place 'way down the road, but monks have always been
around on the show, starting with Brother Theo, so I imagine we'll see
them in future.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:19:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: The Last ep (wow)

 (blocked) asks:
> Was this a deliberate act on the part of _Man_?
> they caused Sol to explode?
> Your input?

      If you play back the segment, the computer notes that the
"atypical solar emissions" are getting stronger...so clearly something
not natural is going on with the sun.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Last episode #

 (blocked) asks:
> Is this true?
> If so, why is B5 being discontinued?

      Nope, it's still going on...S5 begins next January on TNT.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Koslosky <102365.2062@compuserve.com>
Subject: DoFS

 Koslosky <102365.2062@compuserve.com> asks:
> What say ye?
> If you have time, after watching this ep half a dozen times, what
> were you attempting to convey?

      Your friends should understand that the actors credits are
always given in an episode; so no, that wasn't Jason.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: SysOp Dupa T. Parrot <70040.104@compuserve.com>
Subject: The Gathering re-edit

 SysOp Dupa T. Parrot <70040.104@compuserve.com> asks:
> Will the 14 minutes being restored to "The Gathering" include
> Marianne Robertson's "hostage" scene?

"Will the 14 minutes being restored to "The Gathering" include
Marianne Robertson's "hostage" scene?"

      Yup.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: The One <Deconstruction>

 (blocked) asks:
> Is Sheridan the "One Who Will Be" because he stops the
> Vorlon/Shadow war and ends the reign of the First Ones? Is it
> because he is the founder of the new Interstellar Alliance? Or is
> there yet another (currently unrevealed) reason? Did Zathras see
> the founding of the new Alliance, or just the end of the
> Vorlon/Shadow war? Does "The One" take on a different meaning
> beyond the Sinclair/Valen-Delenn-Sheridan trilogy in the
> *future*?

1.  Is Sheridan the "One Who Will Be" because he stops the
Vorlon/Shadow war and ends the reign of the First Ones? Is it because
he is the founder of the new Interstellar Alliance?  Or is there yet
another (currently unrevealed) reason?

      That's part of it, and what he grows into.

2. Did Zathras see the founding of the new Alliance, or just the end
of the Vorlon/Shadow war?

      I think he had a sense of it.

3.  Does "The One" take on a different meaning beyond the
Sinclair/Valen-Delenn-Sheridan trilogy in the *future*?

      Depends on how you look at it.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Schmulenson <72447.224@compuserve.com>
Subject: The One <Deconstruction>

 Schmulenson <72447.224@compuserve.com> asks:
> I have a couple problems with deconstruction- I watched it twice
> and still can't figuer out how the future was transmitted? was it
> a sheridan dream and not a real future? The time periods seemed
> disjointed perhaps it needed two or three programs to develop? 
> There is also the one who is to come in the Grey council's circle
> of Naroon?
>  Phyllis

      The future wasn't being transmitted back; we were seeing the
records of the past from the point of view of the final character, one
million years hence, who has come to collect them prior to the final
chapter in Earth's history.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Deconstruction

{original post unavailable}

      No, Stephen also directed The Illusion of Truth.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 03 Nov 1997 23:47:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Bruce Scandariato <72571.1722@compuserve.com>
Subject: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds

 Bruce Scandariato <72571.1722@compuserve.com> asks:
> what, what????
> You screwed up????

      Of course I make the same mistake.

      I just never make the same mistake *twice*.

      I go on to find new ones....

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 04 Nov 1997 21:21:12 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Darkness

{original post unavailable}

"Well it's been a great ride and I have used up a lot of pantyhose!"

      Then I will be brief.

"What if anything do you have in store for us series or movie wise in
the future?"

      Well, there's Crusade (the follow-up series), the B5 prequel,
the 2nd B5 TV movie ThirdSpace, a third TNT movie now in development,
and several other series notions I have in various stages of
development, a couple of novels I'm working on, a play, WB wants to
talk about a B5 feature film....

      Other than that, not much.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Arthur Stoppe <73710.2014@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deconstruction

{original post had no questions}

      The painted letters were on the *right* side of the shuttle as
it went in.  The CGI inside the bay showed the left side.

      We don't miss these things.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 02:20:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Deconstruction

 (blocked) asks:
> What was the insignia on the Human "vorlon" ship as it apparently
> went with humanity beyond the rim? Is there a need for symbols in
> 1,000,000 years? Do the humans take their social grouping needs
> beyond the rim?

      It's a Ranger symbol.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Censors

 (blocked) asks:
> What scenes, if any, have you written in reference to that?
> IOW, what have you written that takes advantage of the lack of
> censors?

      Mainly it's been in terms of the violence and language...I don't
think we ever could've done G'Kar's whipping scene on network TV, for
instance.

      What I was thinking of at the time I said it, though, was the
sudden realization that I could have Cartagia talking to a bunch of
heads on his desk....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: George N. Ortiz <110060.613@compuserve.com>
Subject: B5 Sierra software?

 George N. Ortiz <110060.613@compuserve.com> asks:
> I think I already know the answer to this question but will ask
> it for the people who are not masochists and have Macintosh's;
> When will a Mac version of the B5 CD-Rom come out? I imagine a
> year after the Windoze version?

      The mac and pc versions of the B5 informational CDrom should be
out at the same time; they were designed for both platforms going in.

      They should be for sale around the 15th or so.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Neil S. Turkenkopf <102664.3532@compuserve.com>
Subject: Live chats OnLine

 Neil S. Turkenkopf <102664.3532@compuserve.com> asks:
> Do you by any chance sell prepaid admission tickets for the next
> one? One of the things I was gonna ask you,is: How's your back?

      The back is better, though I'm being careful.

      Now if only I could get over the last of the Martian Death
Flu....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Last episode #

 (blocked) asks:
> If WB is involved in making production decisions, why don' t they
> carry the show in their primary market? Is this a marketing
> decision, or was 5 years the predetermined duration of the
> original story line?

      B5 was always designed to be, and announced as, a 5 year story.

"If WB is involved in making production decisions, why don't they
carry the show in their primary market?"

      I don't know what you mean here by "primary market," since
"market" is usually taken to mean a particular area or region, so the
term is being used here incorrectly.  If you mean syndication, the
influx of new shows and the other mini-networks has chewed up available
time-slots...and remember, TNT is now owned by WB, so one could argue
about what is now their "primary" venue.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Paul McElligott <70007.3154@compuserve.com>
Subject: Last episode #

 Paul McElligott <70007.3154@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is TNT still trying to twist your arm to do a *sixth* season?

      I think they finally realized it's not something I want to
do....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: The Gathering re-edit

{original post unavailable}

"What else are these re-introduced cuts?"

      Watch and see.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Michael Beemer <71551.1670@compuserve.com>
Subject: <DOFS> - Bro. Theo

 Michael Beemer <71551.1670@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is this what was intended - in the passage of time this became
> only routine? Was the line played the way you intended?
>  - Was the incident 500 years earlier the "Great Burn" Theo is
> helping Earth recover from? Could one speculate that the "Great
> Burn" affected Earth terribly, but not all the colonies?
>  interstellar community?)

      Yes, it was mainly Earth that bore the burden of the great Burn,
and yes, that was the one Garibaldi got into....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: faith manages

{original post unavailable}

      I think you can look at a *lot* of the pieces of that episode
and find some resonance there....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Craig M. Bobchin <102354.3246@compuserve.com>
Subject: <<DFS>> -Crusades?

 Craig M. Bobchin <102354.3246@compuserve.com> asks:
> My question, in light of the events of DoFS, is, isn't the climax
> of Crusade a foregone conclusion? I mean won't knowing how it will
> end ruin the suspense for people? But are there that many people
> who would feel the same?

      I don't think it's anticlimatic at all; putting on our logic
hats for the moment, do you really think that I intend to wipe out all
of humanity and decimate the earth in Crusade?  No.  In any show, this
is going to be a given, the question is how do you *get* there?  The
premise exists to push us out on a mission...it's what happens in
pursuit of that mission that's going to be especially interesting.

      As with Londo/G'Kar, you saw them strangling each other...but it
was in the learning of *how* and *why* this happened that the fun
started.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 02:20:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Nick and Toni Muller <75223.1575@compuserve.com>
Subject: >>Deconstruction<<

 Nick and Toni Muller <75223.1575@compuserve.com> asks:
> If and when will we learn what this is all about?

      When I write it.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 04 Nov 1997 22:11:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: All 
Subject: from jms on stuff

{original post unavailable}

      Some general stuff....

      Today, John Copeland and I finished re-editing "The Gathering,"
the B5 pilot movie.  While there were some areas we couldn't get into
because of the complexity in redoing the mix, virtually every scene got
tinkered with to one degree or another, and most important, the roughly
14 minutes of footage left out of the original version is now back in. 
The whole thing is tighter and faster, and there's more recent CGI,
we'll have Chris Franke re-score it, and it's just in general a lot
better.  (Some parts of it even make more sense now.)

      One additional change: because of the desire on PTEN's part to
have as many commercial breaks as possible, the 6-act script was
jerry-rigged and broken down into 9 acts.  One side-effect of this is
that 9 acts wears on you, and wears you out, more than the standard 6. 
You start to get a feeling of being led up to things too often, and
there isn't time to dwell on the acts you're in.  I was finally able,
with this re-edit, to move scenes back around again to what I
originally wanted in a 6-act structure (you'll see a number of scenes
juxtaposed from their original order).

      Anyway...the TNT Special Edition is much improved over the
original.

      Other stuff: the fanclub site continues to expand and improve. 
If you haven't been around in a while, you may want to check it out
again sometime soon (http://www.thestation.com).  The chat room is
running better than ever before, there are new graphics, and the B5
Emporium should be online in a matter of days allowing purchase of B5FC
stuff online with credit cards. (Mail order stuff is still being
processed.)

      Latest additions to the lineup: Psi Corps hats and pins, patches
of various sorts, Earth Alliance pins, Ship Recognition charts in
poster form, and others.

      Finally, I'll be a Guest of Honor at this year's LosCon, held
Thanksgiving weekend in L.A. at the Burbank Airport Hilton.  My 2-hour
B5 presentation will be Sunday afternoon, where I'll be showing clips
from the two TNT tv-movies (including lots of stuff from the finished
prequel), from upcoming S5 episodes, new bloopers and so on.  I'll also
be joined by John Copeland, producer, and Harlan Ellison, our
conceptual consultant.  This is always an SRO venue for us -- LosCon
has been a part of B5 from the start -- so you may want to get there
early.  (Or even go the day before; it's a fun convention.)

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 02:20:01 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: from jms on stuff

 (blocked) asks:
> Will you be the same when you go big business?
> Will you remeber to call home?

"Will you be the same when you go big business?"

      I suppose one could make the argument that I'm already "big
business" since the show is on worlwide and there's so much going on:
figures, models, books, soundtracks, you name it....

      But to your question....I'm too old and cranky to start changing
now. I is what I is.  Which is as scary a thought as I'm allowed to
have on medication....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 02:20:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Rising Star

 (blocked) asks:
> Will TNT be promoting the actors who did not survive the entire 5
> year arc in their ads? WIll they be involved in any active TNT or
> Babylonian promotions? Where's Zack?
> Where's Draal?

      Funny thing is, while re-editing the pilot this afternoon, there
was Sinclair saying, "Babylon 5 is more important than any of her crew,
am I CLEAR?"

"Will TNT be promoting the actors who did not survive the entire 5
year arc in their ads?  WIll they be involved in any active TNT or
Babylonian promotions?"

      Dunno...will be getting a clearer view of this in the coming
weeks.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 02:20:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Baseball 1,002,662

 (blocked) asks:
> Wasn't that an Atlanta Braves emblem on the side of the Human
> "vorlon" ship as it went beyond the Rim? Any time for another
> Sheridan batting practice on B5's field in S5?

"Wasn't that an Atlanta Braves emblem on the side of the Human
"vorlon" ship as it went beyond the Rim?"

      Even Zathras say, Braves suck.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 05 Nov 1997 12:55:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deconstruction

{original post had no questions}

      Actually, no, it wasn't an urban myth...the web site he found
the info on actually posted the pages of the textbook, as I recall.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 05 Nov 1997 12:54:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

 (blocked) asks:
> Can you please give me any insight on this book?
> PS, What was Jason Carter's reaction to his character being
> killed off?

      Kathryn's the big fan of Marcus Aurelius, though I'm familiar
with his work.  I can't recall offhand which part she was referring to,
though, but will ask.  (She tends to quote him to me all the time...I
think she's working on my moral and ethical development.)

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:44:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

 (blocked) asks:
> is a good example?

      Actually, I was watching a debate on PBS a few weeks ago, and
they made the point that Christianity may have been the *cause* of the
fall of the Roman Empire, rather than its saving grace...apparently it
began to take the church structure as its own model in how to operate
(when its own infrastructure began to collapse), and put religious
leaders into positions they should never have occupied for reasons of
simple incompetence, and in short order things began to fall apart.

      I wish I could've made that paragraph more sensible, but I was
writing while listening, and I only got the sense of it...perhaps
someone else out there who heard it can fill in the gaps, but that's
the gist of the idea.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:44:10 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Susan <100537.1517@compuserve.com>
Subject: B5 Sierra software?

 Susan <100537.1517@compuserve.com> asks:
> Will they be available via the Fan Club, as well?

      Yes, the informational CDrom will be available through retail,
through Sierra directly, and through the fan club (FC members will get
a discount).

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:44:12 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Will we see it again?

{original post unavailable}

      Yes, that's the point...there will always be short-term
setbacks, but as long as we climb back a few inches higher than we were
before we fell down, we keep moving toward the goal of becoming a
better people, and getting off the planet.  Taking our place among the
stars.  While it's vaguely possible that I may *see* a Mars colony
sometime within my lifetime, I know that I will never live there...but
that ain't the point, it isn't a victory if *I* do it, and a failure if
*I* don't, it's if *we* do it or not.  Maybe we'll do it today, maybe
we'll do it tomorrow, the point is to decide to DO it, and then by god 
DO IT.

      And yeah, that little closing card is going to remain on the
show for its life...which will be long, long after its detractors (and
admittedly myself) have gone to dust.  On the one hand, it is a
statement of hope to anyone else out there who has a dream, to follow
it no matter who speaks against you, no matter the odds, no matter what
they say to or about you, no matter what roadblocks they throw in your
way.  What matters is that you remain true to your vision.

      On the other hand, for the reviewers and the pundits and the
critics and the net-stalkers who have done nothing but rag on this show
for five years straight, it is also a giant middle finger composed of
red neon fifty stories tall, that will burn forever in the night.

      In billiards, we call that a bank-shot.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:44:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Last episode #

{original post unavailable}

      Why did the story of Ishmael end at the last page of Moby Dick?

      Because that's when the story ended.

      A story is a slice of a continued and continuous world; the
world exists before, and continues after.  The story never ends; you
just pull out pieces of it long enough to tell to other humans, who are
finite and cannot wait for infinity to unravel itself and tell us what
everything meant. Certainly, amazing things would continue to happen in
the B5 universe.  But our telling of this piece of the story, is
finite.

      We are finite.  Zathras is finite.

      The story is eternal.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:44:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com>
Subject: Bar-Raising

{original post had no questions}

      I understand what the difficulty with that would be, and I'm
glad they stuck with it...it's gorgeous.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 06 Nov 1997 01:48:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Carl Cantarella <105030.3700@compuserve.com>
Subject: Babylon 5 TNT Site

 Carl Cantarella <105030.3700@compuserve.com> asks:
> Does it connect anywhere?

      The TNT site is not ready for anyone, and the information should
not have been released; they're just trying out the software, and the
log-ons are causing them problems (and some annoyance).  Please (to all
looking on) hold off on the TNT site until it's ready; there's nothing
there yet.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 06 Nov 1997 12:59:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Last episode #

 (blocked) asks:
> If "Deconstruction" was written as a hedge against the fifth
> season not being produced (as indicated in another comment),
> doesn't it disrupt the original story line? Where would the fourth
> season have ended if TNT had renewed the series earlier?

"lt writing a 5-year series if you're left hanging at the end of every
season. If "Deconstruction" was written as a hedge against the fifth
season not being produced (as indicated in another comment), doesn't it
disrupt the original story line?"

      You've got it backward; "Deconstruction" was written AFTER we
got word about the S5 renewal.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 1997 00:02:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

 (blocked) asks:
> Have you read Elaine Pagels book, "The Gnostic Gospels?"

      That's an odd perspective since so much of Medeival christianity
ran on money...pilgrims providing a constant stream of money to various
churches and shrines to saints, leading to competitions between
shrines, and (of all things) the "sub-letting" of shrines by taking the
bones of saint A and sending on bone to shrine B, another to shrine C,
and generating money in those regions.  And of course the buying of
spiritual favors, patrons, the rich folk sending others to do penance
for them...it was all about money.

      (Source: Finucane's MIRACLES AND PILGRIMS, a fascinating book,
btw.)

      Interesting aside...for the last 6-8 months, I've been doing a
fair amount of research into medieval England, especially the medieval
church, for a play I'm writing (which may become a novel if I'm not
careful).  Dumped several hundred dollars on a massive order from
Amazon.com back a few months ago to fill out what I needed.  That was
what tangentially led me into the post-Burn sequence in
"Deconstruction."  My brain has been full of monks for the last 8
months or so, and knowing the role they played in maintaining secular
knowledge from about 500 AD and for some time thereafter, that seemed 
the perfect route to go that would also resonate with the look of the
Rangers and the religious caste Minbari and the whole feel we were
setting up.

      It was only when I was about halfway into the act that I
thought, "Oh, crud, this is the same area Canticle explored."  And for
several days I set it aside and strongly considered dropping it, or
changing the venue (at one point considered setting it in the ruins of
a university, but I couldn't make that work realistically...who'd be
supporting a university in the ruins of a major nuclear war?  Who'd
have the *resources* I needed?  The church, or what would at least LOOK
like the church.  My sense of backstory here is that the Anla-shok
moved in and started little "abbeys" all over the place, using the 
church as cover, but rarely actually a part of it, which was why they
had not gotten their recognition, and would never get it.  Rome
probably didn't even know about them, or knew them only distantly.)

      Anyway...at the end of the day, I decided to leave it as it was,
since I'd gotten there on an independent road, we'd already had a
number of monks on B5, and there's been a LOT of theocratic science
fiction written beyond Canticle...Gather Darkness, aspects of
Foundation, others.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 1997 00:02:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Colin Heaps <100622.3610@compuserve.com>
Subject: Peter in N.S.N.R.

 Colin Heaps <100622.3610@compuserve.com> asks:
> Eh???
> Wassat??
>  - What about you??

      Thanks...will pass that along.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 1997 00:02:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Tom Knudsen <72347.1626@compuserve.com>
Subject: Last episode #

 Tom Knudsen <72347.1626@compuserve.com> asks:
> Speaking of which.....is there any news on Crusade yet?

"Speaking of which.....is there any news on Crusade yet?"

      Did you think I would forget to mention it?

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 1997 00:02:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: <DOFS> - Bro. Theo

{original post unavailable}

      Some probably would offer to help...but if technology is now
suspect, some might not want that help...other colonies might be of the
"screw 'em, they got what they deserved" perspective...often politics
gets in the way of charity.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 07 Nov 1997 11:37:09 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Vadim Naroditsky <72133.1175@compuserve.com>
Subject: "Destruction" from CIS?

 Vadim Naroditsky <72133.1175@compuserve.com> asks:
> inspired you to write this episode?

      One can find any number of pains in the butts reflected in that
show.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 1997 12:06:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

 (blocked) asks:
> What period is the book you just cited about?
> I'd bet it was from Roncesvalles (sp?) to the Rennaisance, or
> maybe 1000 to 1500? In your reading about medieval England, did
> you get Georges Duby's "William the Marshall?"

      You're correct; the part where the money got to be bigtime for
the church was in the 13th-15th centuries.  That was where the saint
business went bigtime, to the point where the church bosses had to
start hammering the local branches where the saints were getting too
powerful, and began creating challenges to the main line of authority.

      I love the competition that broke out among them...some saying
that their saint was better at miracles than the one down the road, and
if you're stupid enough to *go* to the one down the road, why, things
could actually get worse for you....

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 08 Nov 1997 01:36:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: DougP <70760.2440@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deconstruction

 DougP <70760.2440@compuserve.com> asks:
> Was that what you had in mind, or am I sitting too close to the
> screen again? Doug

      One can read that scene in many ways.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 08 Nov 1997 01:36:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com>
Subject: Live chats OnLine

 Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com> asks:
> You've got that too Joe?

      Yeah, I've got the last of it, and that was a big part of it,
the total and absolute fatigue.  Combined with only getting a few hours
sleep here and there, it's kinda taken a toll, but fortunately I'm at
the tail end of the thing finally, and should be back up to snuff in a
few days.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 08 Nov 1997 01:36:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com>
Subject: Live chats OnLine

 Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com> asks:
> You've got that too Joe?

      PS...chewable Vitamin C and Zinc lozenges.  Trust me on this.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 08 Nov 1997 01:36:03 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Stephen Burrow <70640.40@compuserve.com>
Subject: Sol going nova

 Stephen Burrow <70640.40@compuserve.com> asks:
> doing as the Vorlons and Shadows did when they left the galaxy,
> and destroying their home planet to prevent the younger races
> from obtaining their technology? Also, I have seen it suggested by
> others, but not confirmed by you: were the humans in fact leaving
> the galaxy, or simply relocating? Stephen Burrow

      No point in leaving the galaxy; stars go nova, it only affects
the immediate vicinity (big as that is).  By this point, they were in
the position of the Vorlons, and now have to take their (our) place
guiding the younger races, the next wave, while not getting in the way
and remembering the lesson of the shadow/vorlon conflict.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 09 Nov 1997 02:43:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Deconstruction

 (blocked) asks:
> Is it OK to ask how many of the remaining episodes are written at
> this time?

      I'm writing #14 right now.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 09 Nov 1997 22:47:01 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com>
Subject: Live chats OnLine

 Gardner L. Harris <76657.3333@compuserve.com> asks:
>  -Gardner L. Harris

      The zinc lozenges are absolutely positively the #1 item to have
as soon as you start to feel a cold or flu coming on.  Trust me, I've
learned the hard way on this one (and they can alleviate the symptoms a
bit once you've got it).  You can get the cherry flavored ones, which
take some of the onus off it (the throat-candies with zinc aren't as
effective, btw).  Alternate zinc lozenges (NOT the pill form, letting
the lozenge dissolve slowly in the mouth) and the vitamin C (ditto) as
often as you can, eating to counteract any acidic effect...and lemme
tell you, it makes a HUGE difference.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 10 Nov 1997 23:19:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com>
Subject: Rebo & Zooty

 Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com> asks:
> Were these two on your wish list or were they suggested by
> someone else? Is there something that they've done that I/we know
> about?

      Their name came up in discussions, and they just seemed a
perfect match.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 11 Nov 1997 12:44:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jonathan Kass <74130.443@compuserve.com>
Subject: Rising Star

{original post had no questions}

      Things can sometimes be black and white without being right or
wrong. If I say a thing is hot and dry and you say it is wet and cold,
those are bipolar distinctions; neither is morally right nor wrong, but
there is a very definite and demonstrable difference.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 11 Nov 1997 13:38:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com>
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

{original post had no questions}

"Neroon's description of it "We fight, they work, you pray." was
lifted whole from the church's description of proper societal roles.
You took it word for word (which I assume was the intention)."

      Actually...no, I wasn't even aware of that until you mentioned
it just now.  But I can see how it would fit.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 11 Nov 1997 13:38:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Paul McElligott <70007.3154@compuserve.com>
Subject: Gerrold's Tribute...

 Paul McElligott <70007.3154@compuserve.com> asks:
> How can you say no to someone who has such big sad brown eyes?
> ...are you going to stand for sort of thing?!

      There's nothing I can possibly say about that tribute that could
not be better said in open court before a jury.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 11 Nov 1997 13:38:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Kevin Kenney <104102.352@compuserve.com>
Subject: Rebo & Zooty

 Kevin Kenney <104102.352@compuserve.com> asks:
> Are you willing to tell us if both characters have lines or not?

      Do both characters have lines?

      Yes and no.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 12 Nov 1997 13:52:10 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

 (blocked) asks:
> Jeff Sigh Corps - Pat Tallman Division Great Maker huh?

"Personally, I'm quite amazed that he and the rest of the cast were
able to keep themselves from spouting off on the last day in
Blackpool."

      More or less.  I was talking to Julie Caitlin Brown the other
day, who commented that she saw Bruce shortly after learning of
Claudia's decision, and he was upset, angry, nearly in tears over the
whole thing.  A lot of people in the cast were very upset over her
decision.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 12 Nov 1997 13:52:10 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds

 (blocked) asks:
> Is this the same logo that appears on TNT's web site?

"Is this the same logo that appears on TNT's web site?"

      Negative.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 12 Nov 1997 23:01:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Bruce Scandariato <72571.1722@compuserve.com>
Subject: Sinclair

 Bruce Scandariato <72571.1722@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is the whole thread regarding Sinclair over with?
> Theres bound to be someone asking, "Whatever happened to
> Sinclair?"

      I generally try to avoid closing doors definitively.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 12 Nov 1997 13:59:09 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Ronald Legro <75136.2066@compuserve.com>
Subject: Will we see it again?

 Ronald Legro <75136.2066@compuserve.com> asks:
> Trek speaks to "what do you want?"
> Bill "Jump" Gates, "where do you want to go today?"), while B5 is
> "who are you?"

      Agreement on every point.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 12 Nov 1997 23:01:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jonathan Kass <74130.443@compuserve.com>
Subject: Rising Star

{original post had no questions}

"I'm not sure in this case that it was necessarily a "morally" right
or wrong position on either side"

      I'm back and forth, but on balance, yeah, I agree with that.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 13 Nov 1997 12:05:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Brian Kornfeld <75703.1340@compuserve.com>
Subject: roman-a-clef

 Brian Kornfeld <75703.1340@compuserve.com> asks:
> Can I be the only one to catch these 2 things here?
> Can a certain "conceptual consultant" with the same initials be
> the inspiration for this character? Coincidence?

      No, Henry Ellis was not in any way named for Harlan.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 14 Nov 1997 12:20:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com>
Subject: Merchandise - New

 Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com> asks:
> Has there been any more word?
> Does anyone know when that will be???
> Will these be available through the Fan Club, as well?

      The card game should be out shortly; the Sierra CD rom will be
available via retail, from Sierra directly, and from the B5 fan club at
a discount to members (and generally to non-members).  We should have
it in hand by the first of next week.  Keep an eye on the B5 fan club
website for more information (www.thestation.com), which will shortly
have an on-line credit card emporium to make ordering simpler.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 14 Nov 1997 12:49:04 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jonathan Kass <74130.443@compuserve.com>
Subject: DOFS - THANKS!

{original post unavailable}

      Re: speechwriters and others hanging around after the
fall...look at the remains of the Soviet Union.  After the fall of the
communist party, you'd think they would all have been run out of town
on a rail.  But many of them just shifted over and found similar
positions, or kept the communist party going, after everything they'd
done.

      The problem with most people is that they don't hold a grudge
near long enough.

      I'd have to check, but yeah, I believe we stuck a ranger symbol
on the encounter suit.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 14 Nov 1997 01:25:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com>
Subject: characters

 Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com> asks:
> When you create a character for a book, is it different when you
> create it for TV? When creating a character in a book, because
> you're not going to see it on the screen, you would tend to be
> more descriptive, yes? Does this make any sense?

      No, no difference at all, from my perspective.  You find out who
the character is, what they want, how far they'll go to get it, and how
far someone else will go to stop them...and the rest attends to itself.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Babylon 5 Videos

{original post unavailable}

      No, the tapes are for now only available through Columbia House.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: George Gillburg/CA <73137.1733@compuserve.com>
Subject: DOFS - THANKS!

{original post had no questions}

"I think one of the problems in N. Ireland is some people hold a
grudge for way too long."

      Granted.

      I was talking to one of the guys who worked on the shoot for
"The Quiet Man," filmed in Ireland.  At the end of the shoot, they were
going to have a huge wrap party, all the stars, crew, studio folk, the
whole bit.  A big deal, lots of money.  The guy was setting it up
through his aide over the phone from England, and after everything was
all set, just a few days before, he called himself just to make sure
everything was going ahead on schedule. The person in Ireland said it
was all fine, and could he have the name of the person to whom he was
speaking?

      "Cromwell," the guy said.

      They canceled the whole thing the instant he said that name.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: roman-a-clef

{original post unavailable}

"Have you determined the ultimate fate of Alfie Bester?"

      Yes.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com>
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

{original post had no questions}

"The fight work pray cycle representing Knights, Serfs and Clergy and
written *word for word* as Neroon said it is about *eight hundred*
years old.  I'll see if I can dig up an exact reference. I was certain
you cribbed it from the Dominicans."

      Nope...though the knights/serfs/clergy thing makes sense in that
context of work/serve/pray.  It's also warrior/worker/religious caste. 
It just kinda made sense when I thought it up.

      So now I have to figure out if I'm ahead of my time or behind my
time....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Marcus - ADD?(<Endgame>)

 (blocked) asks:
> Just out of curiosity, did you create the character of Marcus to
> be an ADD person?

      Vas machst du, "ADD person?"

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 16 Nov 1997 18:32:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com>
Subject: New B5 Logo

 Jan Robb <110543.731@compuserve.com> asks:
> Was it really there somewhere?

      Sigh...here's the situation.

      I am an idiot.

      I was told they wanted the clip for the Cable Ace Awards.  And
they did. And it was shown.  But apparently it went out on the
*unbroadcast* night, the day before, rather than the one they aired. 
They wanted to split up the B5 stuff for maximum result, so thaty had a
clip on the non-broadcast night, and Bruce for the broadcast night.

      Me, I'm just in perpetual night.

                                                yrs, the idiot,
                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 17 Nov 1997 23:02:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Brian Prothero <76711.663@compuserve.com>
Subject: Babylon 5 Videos

 Brian Prothero <76711.663@compuserve.com> asks:
> rather than VHS tape?

      One can only hope.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 17 Nov 1997 23:02:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com>
Subject: Marcus Aurelius

{original post had no questions}

      No, he didn't set up the castes, but he did come up with a
better way for them to work together constructively.  And yeah, that
model would fit.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 18 Nov 1997 22:54:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: New B5 Logo

{original post unavailable}

      No, that ain't the new logo.  Ah, well...all in good time.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 20 Nov 1997 18:18:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Lenier <101671.630@compuserve.com>
Subject: letter

 Lenier <101671.630@compuserve.com> asks:
> Also have you noticed that teh Babylon website has not been
> updated for 3 months?

      The Warner Bros. B5 site hasn't been updated, but the main B5
fan site, www.thestation.com is constantly being updated.  If you
haven't gotten your stuff yet, send a note to reelkosh@aol.com and
it'll be taken care of.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 00:09:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: SysOp Dupa T. Parrot <70040.104@compuserve.com>
Subject: Request from Harlan

{original post had no questions}

      Many thanks....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 00:09:02 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com>
Subject: directors

 Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com> asks:
> Who picks the director for the show?
> How is that done?
> Do you ever use fairly new people even though they might be young
> and have little experience? How much are you involved in the
> process? Have you heard of it?

      I and John Copeland select all of the directors on the show.

      Parenthetical to this: there are only 3 people who are in charge
of this show: me, my partner Doug Netter (who mainly gets into the
business aspect and casting), and producer John Copeland.  That's it. 
Ain't nobody else.  We're very producer light on this show.

      End parenthetical.

      We go for directors whose work we know as a rule.  In some
cases, an agent will send us a reel (clips) of a director whose work we
don't know, and if the material looks good, we'll sit down with the
director (whichever way he/she came in) and see if their philosophy of
production is the same as ours. If so, we give 'em a shot.  If they
work out, they do more; if not, not. We've actually got a pretty good
track record on picking directors, and have rarely made a mistake we
couldn't recover from.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 21 Nov 1997 15:28:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com>
Subject: Columbia House tape

 Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is the tape of 'The Gathering' from Columbia House going to
> include the new footage and new score, or is it going to be as
> originally aired? Di Conlin, TUS , Wielder of the Lesser Salmon of
> Discipline Supreme Dominatrix, RMES "Great Maker, huh?

      No, it'll be the original pilot.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 15:28:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com>
Subject: directors

 Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com> asks:
> How much longer do you shoot for?
> When do you break for the holidays and for how long?
> How much is left of the shooting season when you come back?

      We'll be off for Thanksgiving weekend, then we shoot until
December 19th, which takes us through 514.  We're on hiatus until
January 2nd, then we come back and shoot 515-522 (actually the 21st
episode of S5 since 422 is now 522 and 501 was made 422), wrapping
production on March 20th.  Then we take a few weeks off to let the cast
and crew catch their breath, and shoot the third TNT TV-movie in April.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 22:06:01 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: directors

{original post unavailable}

      No, the third movie has yet to be shot.  Thirdspace and the
prequel are already filmed.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 15:28:00 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Lenier <101671.630@compuserve.com>
Subject: letter

 Lenier <101671.630@compuserve.com> asks:
> How do you find time to answer so many letters and messages, as
> well as write, produce, direct etc the best show on TV?

"Wow, a letter from the great maker himself!  How do you find time to
answer so many letters and messages, as well as write, produce, direct
etc the best show on TV?"

      Multiple personalities.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 21:42:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: STOP PRESSES!!

{original post had no questions}

      Apparently, this is news to the producers....

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 21 Nov 1997 21:42:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com>
Subject: I am not a Number !!!!

 PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com> asks:
> 'Where has Garibaldi's hair gone ?'

      Do me a favor.

      Join PEN International some time, as I did years ago.  Read the
accounts of how journalists and dissidents are put in small rooms, and
mentally, emotionally and physically turned inside-out by
interrogators. You'll find the same techniques used in this show
described in considerable detail there. Join Amnesty International
while you're at it, and read more about how this sort of thing is done
every day in dozens of countries around the world.

      And while you're at it...join the real world.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 22 Nov 1997 23:05:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Carl Cantarella <105030.3700@compuserve.com>
Subject: Where did B5 go?

 Carl Cantarella <105030.3700@compuserve.com> asks:
> Has anyone else heard something similar?

      Nope, totally untrue.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 22 Nov 1997 22:53:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Shane Shellenbarger <104305.3404@compuserve.com>
Subject: Voice-over on TNT ads

 Shane Shellenbarger <104305.3404@compuserve.com> asks:
> Joe, Is the voice-over on the TNT ad's being done by Ken Nordine
> of WORD JAZZ fame?

      I've actually no idea, TNT produced them and I didn't get that
info.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 22 Nov 1997 23:05:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Neil S. Turkenkopf <102664.3532@compuserve.com>
Subject: Emporium & ordering?

 Neil S. Turkenkopf <102664.3532@compuserve.com> asks:
> Any comments,suggestions?

      Send a note to reelkosh@aol.com with the full info, and it'll be
taken care of.

      BTW, the B5 emporium received 100+ orders in just the first 24
hours of operation, without any real publicity about it.  And all
orders went out the very next day.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 22 Nov 1997 22:53:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: directors

{original post unavailable}

"any idea when Channel 4 in the UK will show the movies?"

      No, that information has not yet found its way to me.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 22 Nov 1997 22:53:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Howard Cherniack <75026.3723@compuserve.com>
Subject: The Last ep (wow)

{original post had no questions}

      Thanks; it's one of the things I try to do sometimes...I
basically give you my playbook, I tell you I'm coming right up the
middle, which makes the challenge on this side that much harder...you
already know where I'm going to be, now I have to do it in such a way
that it comes as a surprise regardless.

      This is actually more a literary device than a TV device; there
are any number of books (and some movies) which start at the end,
proceed to the middle, and end on the beginning.

      Because my background is in theater and prose, my natural
inclination is to play with the form as much as possible.  So each
season there's been at least one episode that's "off-format" for
us...Intersections was one, And Now for a Word was another, The
Illusion of Truth, Deconstruction...and in S5 so far almost half the
episodes have been off-format in one fashion or another. With this as
the last year, I figure I may as well go for broke and try some unusual
things.  If you can't do these things when you're starting out, because
it's too odd, you should at least do them when you're doing well and 
can afford the risk.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 22 Nov 1997 22:53:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com>
Subject: directors

{original post had no questions}

"This sounds like the basis for a Danny Kaye patter song..."

      "The vessel with the pestle has the potion with the poison, the
flagon with the dragon holds the brew that is true...."

      Something is seriously wrong with me that I know that by heart.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 23 Nov 1997 15:44:06 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Phil Lenton <100572.61@compuserve.com>
Subject: Directors

 Phil Lenton <100572.61@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is Michael Vejar going to be directing any upcoming episodes of
> B5?

      Yup, Mike is doing a number of S5 episodes for us.  And he
directed the prequel.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 23 Nov 1997 20:59:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Alan L. Ravitch <73627.3126@compuserve.com>
Subject: Emporium CD-ROMs?

 Alan L. Ravitch <73627.3126@compuserve.com> asks:
> Sandy...will Emporium be offering the SoundSource CD-Rom
> Entertainment Utilities (esp the new one!) and the Interactive B5
> Guide?

      The informational CD rom is available at thestation.com...look
again under Media, it's toward the bottom.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 23 Nov 1997 20:59:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: SysOp Lee Whiteside <76711.2660@compuserve.com>
Subject: Emporium & ordering?

 SysOp Lee Whiteside <76711.2660@compuserve.com> asks:
> BTW, do you know if the fan club will have tables at either
> LosCon or the Creation Con next weekend?

      There should be a B5 fan club table at LosCon, yes.  Probably
not Creation Con.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 23 Nov 1997 20:59:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Claudia

{original post unavailable}

      The part of Lochley is very different from any of those roles;
it was almost certainly the character you were responding to.  Having
now seen her in a number of episodes, I think she's one of the best
additions we've had on the show, quite honestly.  And she's going to be
very popular...though in an offbeat sort of way, because of who *this*
character is.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 00:26:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com>
Subject: Columbia House tape

 Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com> asks:
> It's really making me crazy - please, what does it say???
> Di Conlin, TUS , Wielder of the Lesser Salmon of Discipline
> Supreme Dominatrix, RMES "Great Maker, huh?

      Sic transit ingloria mundi...thus passes the glory of the world.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Columbia House tape

 (blocked) asks:
> Did the sign actually say "ingloria?"

      It does say gloria...sorry, I had a brain-fart...see, there's a
famous New York Times headline pun that appeared the Monday that the
subways went on strike that slips into my brain whenever I write the
original latin version; the headline read SICK TRANSIT, INGLORIOUS
MONDAY.

      It's like one of songs you get in your head and it won't go
away.

      (The other famous Latin pun they did was on a building being
demolished, which read EDIFICE WRECKS.)

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Directors

 (blocked) asks:
> While you're on the subject, what about Janet Greek?

      Janet has done work for us this season, including "No
Compromises," the debut 5th season episode.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:07 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Claudia

 (blocked) asks:
> Does Tracy have an e-mail box at thestation?

      I'm not sure; if not, she will soon.  We've been trying to get
her online officially...I know she lurks about, and has an eye on AOL
and others, but I kinda need to nudge her out into the light a bit.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Creation Convention

{original post unavailable}

      Bruce mentioned about a week or two ago that he would be at
Creation this weekend.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Robert A. Matern <70012.3660@compuserve.com>
Subject: directors

{original post had no questions}

"Fatigue Psychosis, obviously!   YOU MUST SLEEP NOW...."

      Boy, don't I know it...worked all weekend on 515, "Meditations
on the Abyss," finished it at 2 a.m. last night (Sunday night/Monday
morning), turned my attention to finishing the outline for the second
B5 novel in the Psi Corps trilogy coming out next year from Del Rey
until 4 a.m., then from 4-4:45 a.m. viewed the director's cut of 510
and made my notes so I could go in this morning, getting up at 9 a.m.
to do my producer's cut.

      I hate Mondays.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 24 Nov 1997 23:11:08 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com>
Subject: a recommendation

 Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com> asks:
> Any coffee houses, hole-in-the-wall restaurants with really good
> food, anything like that you can recommend we check out?

      For hole-in-the-wall, try Salome Indian Restaurant at the corner
of Magnolia and Lankershim in Studio City...what I like about it is
that it doesn't back up and bite you an hour after eating it, which
(for me) a lot of Indian food does, though I'm very fond of it
nonetheless.  You don't go for the decor, but the food is great.  Try
the Chicken Tikka, the meat samosa for appetizer, or the Dal soup, the
Beef or Chicke Korma, Poori bread, maybe some nice vegetable biryani. 
I tend to eat there regularly.  (Another terrific Indian restaurant is
Taj Majal on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, around the 16000 block or so.
They do a mango-corn chowder that's terrific, and just about everything
else is good as well.)

      For Chinese, the Panda Inn in Glendale, at Wilson and Brand. 
They turned into a chain, but this is one of the original Panda Inns,
and the food is spectacular.  I recommend the Lemon Chicken, the Hot
Braised Sliced Fish, the Panda Beef (crispy, very nice), the Crab/Corn
soup, and if you like shrimp, the walnut shrimp is very nice.

      For coffee shops, Priscilla's in Toluca Lake (all these
references are in the Valley...I don't get out much) near Riverside and
Hollywood Way is a common hangout for studio types, and the Horseshoe
Cafe on Ventura near Van Nuys Boulevard is a trendy college place. 
Both make great mochas.

      Beyond that, I don't tend to go to clubs or trendoid places, I
stay home and I write.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 25 Nov 1997 13:58:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Lenier <101671.630@compuserve.com>
Subject: Episode Guide

{original post had no questions}

      There are 4 more new season 4 episodes coming.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 25 Nov 1997 13:58:14 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com>
Subject: I am not a Number !!!!

 PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com> asks:
> What's up Joe, hectic schedule or too many late nights on the web
> ?

"Touchy, touchy!  What's up Joe, hectic schedule or too many late
nights on the web?"

      No, I do sometimes get annoyed by people whose worldview is so
small that they think that interrogation began with "The Prisoner" TV
show and don't seem to know anything about the real world...and want to
narrow you down to their view by saying that what you did springs from
there, rather than the aforementioned real world.  Fine, I'm glad that
you've seen the Prisoner...now read a book or two about what happens to
political prisoners in the real world.  Then we'll talk.

     Further, as a writer you strive to create something
original...and when someone comes along and says, of something based on
the real world, on research, on stuff I encountered while getting my
degree in clinical psychology, on years spent supporting PEN and
Amnesty International, "Oh, you were just doing "The Prisoner"...it
tends to grate.

"So where did the inspiration for the interrogators attire come from.
You know dark suit, the hint of gold trim and buttons on the collar."

      Well, if you paid attention to the show you'd know that's a
standard business suit which we've used many times before and
thereafter; we literally pulled it off the rack in wardrobe.  You saw
that as a Prisoner suit because that's what you wanted to see.

      The problem isn't in the object being perceived; the problem is
in the narrow world view of the perceiver who bends everything to fit
what he knows.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 26 Nov 1997 12:57:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: I am not a Number !!!!

{original post had no questions}

      Thanks.  Yes, there are themes that are eternal and metamorphose
and are reinvented regularly; that's the point of myth and the art of
storytelling, so I agree with your premise.  Each generation sees these
elements differently.

                                                                  jms

------------------------------

Date: 26 Nov 1997 12:57:13 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com>
Subject: I am not a Number !!!!

 PAUL SHEWARD <100256.1563@compuserve.com> asks:
> So, why the problem with being 'associated' with The Prisoner
> anyway ? From The Prisoners 'Rover' killer beachballs, to the
> 'Glade' air freshener used as the drive section for the
> Liberator, so have we lost the ability to differentiate
> lampoonery from ridicule ? Do you think the producers of Voyager
> will be pleased or miffed to have parallels drawn between the
> 'year of hell' and B5 ?

      The *problem* is that it didn't happen that way, for starters,
and it makes it into something more appropos for a fanzine.  Basically,
if you spent all summer building a car, and somebody said you just
bought it from somebody else, no matter how nice that other car might
be, how good it would be to be associated with it...you put in a hell
of a lot of work building it, and to be offhandedly told otherwise is
annoying.

      And, again, it just diminishes the implications, makes it
safe...it's not about the real world, it's just about the Prisoner.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 29 Nov 1997 03:30:11 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: (blocked)
Subject: Between

{original post unavailable}

"What was needed was at least talk of a major Mars resistance attack
occuring at the same time to draw off the security."

      There was.  Go back to the scene on the Apollo when the first
word of attacks comes in...it says specifically that they're hitting a
number of places *including* a White Star hitting that particular base.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------



Date: 29 Nov 1997 23:03:05 -0700
From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
To: Kevin Kenney <104102.352@compuserve.com>
Subject: LOSCON: Sunday Still On?

 Kevin Kenney <104102.352@compuserve.com> asks:
> (My guess...) Will you still be there for the main talk Sunday?

      Yes, the Sunday 1:30 presentation is still on.  What follows
after is not clear; I'm supposed to be autographing, but the program
mentions the HE interview, so I'm not sure what's up there.  The
opening ceremony was over quickly, so you missed it...but I did a
couple of other panels during the day, as well as a quick blip-in at
Hour 25.

                                                                  jms


------------------------------