lurkers-guide/ftp/GEnie/jms94-06-15

Babylon 5 posts by JMS for June 15-30, 1994

This file includes a compilation of posts on GEnie by J. Michael
Straczynski in the Babylon 5 category.  The posts are copyright by JMS
(and compilation copyright is by GEnie). 


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Topic 1         Mon Oct 26, 1992
SF-MARSHALL [Dave ]          at 18:50 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 - The Series  (Non-Spoiler)

Welcome to the Babylon 5 category and main topic for the new series. Here is
the place for all general information on the series. Topic 2 is the location
for SPOILERS. And please, NO STORY IDEAS are to be posted either.
875 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 686       Wed Jun 15, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:54 EDT

     BTW...appropos of nothing...I would urge all and sundry to check out the
CBS special, "Murrow Vs. McCarthy," Wednesday night at 10/9 central.   If you
don't know who those two people are/were, all the more reason to watch.  Some
lessons must never be forgotten.

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 690       Thu Jun 16, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:04 EDT

     Here's just how stupid and tragic and destructive that period in our
history was, and how it affected somebody.

     I have a friend named Norman Corwin.  Some of you, probably the older
ones, will recognize the name; most won't.  Which is the greatest tragedy of
all.

     During the height of the radio drama period, Norman Corwin was *the* pre-
eminent radio drama writer, more widely listened to and respected than Orson
Welles, Arch Oboler or anyone else in the field.  There was simply no one
bigger.  He wrote comedies and dramas and jerimiads; when the UN needed a
cantata to symbolize their goals, they came to Norman; when the Germans
surrendered on VE day, our nation turned to Norman to write a piece that was
the ONLY radio broadcast/drama aired on all three radio networks, "On a Note
of Triumph."  He worked with the greatest stars of our country...Humphrey
Bogart, Clark Gable, and a list of our  greatest film and radio stars.

     He was, not to put too fine a point on it...*it*.  You couldn't get much
higher.

     Then came McCarthy, and his vile, paranoid, list-making progeny, who
deepened the wound in our nation's heart by multiplying it.  One such bastard
stepchild was a sleazy little rag called "Red Channels" (you get one guess
what the Red stood for).  It was published by the owner of a chain of
supermarkets.  Not a senator, not a congressman, not an FBI guy or anyone
elected to high office...the owner of a supermarket chain, who felt it his god-
given obligation to ferret out commies...meaning whoever he didn't much like.

     One issue of "Red Channels" included Norman Corwin's name in among the
lists and lists of names...since after all, he had spoken well of Russia
during World War II...in documentaries *commissioned by our own government* to
further our alliance against the Nazis.  But no matter that he was asked to do
it by his nation, no matter that we were allies once, if you spoke in *any*
way well of the Russian people...you were either a commie or a commie-
sympathizer.

     Norman was not blacklisted; that's what happened to those poor hapless
saps who went before McCarthy hoping for a square deal.  Norman was *grey-
listed*, not even accused, not summoned, but the fear of the time was so
palpable that even that one allegation was enough.

     And Norman's career...stopped.

     I cannot think of this without getting so angry that I can barely see the
monitor.

     If you don't know the work of Norman Corwin, go to your nearest local
library and look for his books, if they still have them.  Look for any
recordings of his radio dramas, particularly "On a Note of Triumph," which is
probably in the hands of university libraries.  If you want some small measure
of his influence on other writers, pick up a copy of "13 For Corwin," from
Barricade Books, where this man is celebrated in essays by Ray Bradbury, Studs
Terkel, Charles Kuralt, Norman Lear, Norman Cousins, Erik Barnouw, Philip
Dunne, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, among others.  Ask Walter Cronkite
what Norman meant to him.  Ask Ray about how he began his career as a writer
trying to write like Norman Corwin.

     Norman is currently in his early 80s.  He continues to write, and has two
books coming out soon, one a collection of his letters, the other an oral
history done by the Director's Guild.  I do not see him as often as I would
like, because we're both very busy.  But he is my friend, and he taught me
much of what it means to be a writer, and I commend his works to you with the
greatest enthusiasm conceivable.  I promise that you will not be disappointed.
There is a sheer and unmitigated power in his use of language that I haven't
seen anywhere else.

     Corwin.  Norman.  Look it up.

                                                              jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 695       Thu Jun 16, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 16:57 EDT

     Wayne...I'm sorry, but I don't define the "Fun Factor" in as narrow a way
as you do.

     On the referential stuff...you're wrong.  I view Delenn's comment about
"suffering the interference of others" in regards to matters of the soul in
"Believers" to be a reference to the Soul Hunter...later this season are
references, in dialogue, *specifically*, to Deathwalker, the labor
action/strike, Raghesh 3 and other areas seen before this season.   I just
wrote (and had to delete for time) a reference to the "Believers" story in a
season two script; it didn't show up there, but it will show up elsewhere.

     Your error was in jumping the gun.  Season ain't over yet.

     Frankly, you can only spend so much time referencing backstory; you have
a contemporary story to deal with, and should only reference a past story IF
it has a DIRECT bearing on the current story.  What you're asking for is an
agenda, a shopping list...there MUST be references to the past or it isn't
good, there MUST be injuries or death in a certain numerical proportion to the
series or it isn't good.

     I'm telling a story.  I don't have time, or inclination, to worry about
what your friends think the right percentage of death and injury should be in
a series.  There is a small percentage of fandom that measures its interest in
terms of how many people get killed, hurt or maimed, the "hurt/comfort"
fanzine types.  They think that's realism.  It's not.  It's the cheapest way
to get somebody's interest.  People also live to die of old age, too.

     So howzabout you just let me tell my story.  And wait for the rest of
this season, so you can see how you're wrong on the other point.

                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 705       Fri Jun 17, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:20 EDT

     If a question is directed specifically at me, yes, I'm more likely to
dive in.

     The story of how I met Norman is actually kinda funny...I was at San
Diego State University, in the Psychology department, when I heard that this
Norman Corwin fellow was going to be a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer that
semester, teaching writing in a couple of classes in the Telecommunications
and Film Department.  Curious, I went to the library to find out what I could
about him.  Opened up "Who's Who."  And the entry went on...and on...and
on...and my jaw dropped.  This was a WRITER.

     You could only take one, not both of the two sessions he was teaching
that semester.  Also, his classes were ONLY open to TCF majors, no one else.
AND, you had to submit a writing sample to get in.

     I was determined not only to get in, despite being in the wrong (and thus
closed) department, but also to take *both* classes.  I submitted a piece of
writing, and though I didn't hear anything from him personally, learned that
it passed muster.  But I still now had to get the computer cards (back when we
used such things) from the TCF department, which were, er, under lock and key.

     How I got my hands on the cards...is another story for another time.
Suffice to say if the Symbionese Liberation Army had had this kind of
technique, they'd still be around today.

     So...first day of his first session.  I'm there early.  He walks in.  And
you have to understand that Norman never just enters a room...he is a
*presence*.  Leonine and elegant.  And he went to the front of the room,
looked around, and said, "Is there a Joe Straczynski here?"

     I died.  "Well, this is it," I thought.  I'd been nabbed.  I raised my
hand.  "Could I see you outside?" he asked.  I stepped out into the hall,
where I was sure several department heads and, for all I knew, campus security
would be waiting.

     There was no one, just Norman and me.  "Listen, Joe," he said, "I read
over the material you sent in, and I just have to say that it's  really very
good, very professional, excellent writing.  So I was thinking that I'd very
much appreciate your help with the class, if you think you'd like to pitch in
a bit.  I think they could use your help."

     You could've knocked me over with a feather.

     Later, some in the TCF department figured out what I'd done, and began to
raise hell.  They went to Norman and felt I ought to be booted.   He felt that
I really should stay, and stay I did.

     He took me under his wing then, and for a long time thereafter.  He had
much to teach, and I had much to learn.  I thought I actually knew how to
write...five minutes with him taught me that I knew *nothing*.   Norman taught
by word, by edit, and by example.  I went out and read everything he had ever
written, and you could take any one of them and parse and study it over and
over, and still not be able to figure out how he did what he did...how, with
only a few words, he could evoke an image, trigger an emotion, grab you by the
shoulders and shake you.  It's the nearest thing to close-up magic I've ever
seen.  He's *that* good.

     Oddly enough, some of what he wrote could be considered (in the loosest
sense of the word) fantasy, of a sort.  No two pieces were ever quite
alike...hard dramas, delightful and fanciful pieces, jeremiads that thunder'd
and lightning'd and corrected like a caring but concerned father attempting to
pull his children, our nation, back from the brink.

     Long after the session, we continued and grew as friends, visiting,
having dinner, hanging out.  (Though it's not quite right to describe Norman
"hanging out;" somehow it just doesn't fit.)  He still teaches once in a while
at Idlwylde, by the way.

     To quote Ray Bradbury, "He taught us then not only how to open our
mouths, but how to insert bright pebbles beneath our tongues so that
eventually we might fire forth a sentence not only worth listening to but
thinking about."

     And, later: "When I published my first book, Dark Carnival, in 1947, I
somehow got Norman's phone number and address from a conniving secretary at
CBS Radio.  I sent Norman my book with a note saying, `If you like my book as
much as I love you and your work, please let me buy you a drink some
afternoon.'  A few days later, Norman called and said, `You're not buying me
drinks, I'm buying you *dinner*."  The dinner has lasted forever.  And what a
feast."

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 706       Fri Jun 17, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:49 EDT

      Since I'm talking about Norman Corwin, and like all writers
 he is best exemplified by his work...some samples.  Fragments.

      Some days after the first atomic bomb was exploded over
 Hiroshima, Norman wrote about the new power that had been unleashed.
 His words, in part:

 "...the atom can be more sullen than has yet been shown.

 Attack it with another thrust of algebraic symbols and the
  cutting edge of an equation, and there will be the grand
  reaction.

 The first news of it will arrive in your precinct as a shuddering
  in the sky:

 A glow, far off, brightening: heat beating outward in concentric
  waves: the atmosphere a band of fire: the seas themselves, the
  wet seas, tinder:

 The hills that looked on Christ will heave and crackle, and
  quarries vaporize as eagerly as the dust of Pharoahs:

 The earth, the tamed and tonsured earth, with all its gardens and
  substances, its places, breeds and patterns, its letters and its
  airs, will plummet out of grace; will fail its orbit,

 And soon enough will be a blistered ash, its moon trailing lonely
  and ungoverned, like a dog after its master's corpse.

 Do not smile, do not smile as though knowing better.
 It could happen.
 The model is any suicide.
 The model is Sampson, destroying the temple and himself...."


 The following is excerpted from Norman's book "Prayer for the 70s."

 "We print your name on dollars
 And are sure you stand over everything we say is under God
 And all nations assume you are on their side and always
  have been, war in and war out,
 And every religion understands you better than every other religion,
  and you in turn lean toward each with special inclinations.

 You are called upon to bless babies and aircraft carriers
 And you are ceremoniously and endlessly praised on the basis that
  flattery will get us somewhere.

 But there are those who pray as though tendering a bribe payable
  on installments
 So as to accumulate years in this life and credits in the next.
 Some of us make you out a broker who supplieth needs and wants;
 Attorney who defendeth against hard claims;
 Expunger of guilts who cleareth the conscience so we may be free
  to muck it up again;
 Housekeeper of the soul who cometh in to clean once a week;
 King of accountants auditing our secret selves,
 Liquidating our trespasses as we liquidate those who trespass
  against us,
 Keeping batteries of books filled with fateful identifications,
 Entering as much the fall of a sparrow as the crash of a plane.

 We have heard it said you are not so smart after all, since it is
  unlikely you could add as fast as a computer or remember half
  so much;
 And although you are known to be more than generous in the number and
  variety of species, there seems to be little rationale for the
  mosquito, and less for plague bacilli.

 There have been complaints against you, charges of malfeasance,
 Implications of sleeping on the job, trigger temper, pronenesss
  to vengeance,
 Tantrums of wrath that have consumed too many of the innocent with
  too few of the heinous.

 Some of your public begrudge you the benefit of doubt, and doubt
  your beneficence
 Protesting that it was antic of you to have sponsored us to begin
  with, if we are to swarm like maggots on a rind too meager to
  support our duplicating billions.
 Some say the noblest ideas were set down by man
 And that you have been served by holy ghost writers beyond your
  desserts.

 They say that the whole conspicuous distance between the worm and
  Einstein, the drone of the bee and Beethoven,
 The entire interval, has been filled with struggles trailing blood:
 Ages of frightened proto-men, heavy with ignorance, recoiling from
  fangs of fire, drowning in profligate floods, perishing in temblors,
  staggering into the unknown,
 Their wails and brute chants and broken grunts fructifying at last
 into songs and sonnets and hallelujahs to your glory.
 Well, dissidants suggest that during this grand span you sat it
  out; that in the vast meanwhile you went off to fish in deeper
  currents.

 Lately it is announced that you are dead
 Which means several things besides the receiver being off the hook
  when we dial you.
 It means that time must carry on by itself
 And stars pinwheel through incandescent deserts and bottomless voids,
  all on an orderly hunch;
 It means the arching upward from the mud has been a drunken course,
  and purposeless, and hardly worth the trip;
 It means the very mansion of existence has no windows, and is just
  a big white elephant, boarded up and haunted by your mistakes;
 It means that springtime is a come-on and a put-on, and not at all
  a show of dogged life, a riot of chlorophyll, a surge of sap and
  elixers from wells so deep no radar can ever return to tell what
  and where it touched;
 It means that the love of man and woman is a table of percentages,
  and their desire a disease of the id;
 It means that birth is a happening between pills
 And old age a phase held together by plastic parts;
 It means the heart of a man is replaceable as soon as the donor is
 legally dead
 And death is a package deal with the best advertised mortuary.

 So, God: if you are alive in that heaven we have come to know is
  spotty with systems of gravity, each pulling for itself,
 Then perhaps you must flex the muscle of divine authority to get
  back into office
 Because your antique miracles have been trumped by solemn science;
 Daily the patent office registers intenser magic than the burning bush:
 The serpent from the rod becomes a ruby laser;
 The leper is healed by mycins;
 The blind draw vision from an eye bank.

 That being the case, dear busy God, please manifest thyself again
  through one superlative, new-minted covenant:
 Create for the lot of us -- all nations indivisible -- an Act of God
  more stupendous than mere parting waters or a standing sun
 A miracle harder to come by, that would, if consummated, cause dry
  bones from all the hundred holocausts to meet and dance,
 And charter stars to sing together in the brightest chancel of
  imponderable space.

 And this is what that miracle would be:

 That man should love his kind in all his skins and pigments,
 And kill no more.

 Repeat:
 That we should love our kind
 And kill no more.

 Yes, granted, such a miracle is asking very much of you
 But it is long past time to ask."


 That, gentle readers...*that* is Norman Corwin.
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 748       Wed Jun 22, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:55 EDT

     Just got back from a whirlwind trip...too exhausted to write much now.
Grabbed a flight to Chicago last night, arriving around midnight, and came
back today around 8 p.m.  Basically 20 hours in Chicago and then turn right
around and come back to LA.  Without going into details (mainly because I
can't) at the moment, there's some non-B5 stuff brewing that could be
interesting.  (I may have to start two new topics here; TWCBN #2 and TWCBN #3,
for those who understand the reference.)

                                                                     jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 763       Thu Jun 23, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:25 EDT

     The 30s true story isn't SF.  The two other TWCBNs are.

     What would be considered SF within the B5 universe?  Ummmm....Trek?

     (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.)

                                                                   jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 772       Fri Jun 24, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:26 EDT

     Warner buys ads for those shows which are specifically produced BY
Warners, in-house.  We're an independent company providing programming FOR
them.  Slight distinction.

                                                                  jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 775       Fri Jun 24, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:48 EDT

     No more details for now, I'm afraid.  Just wanted to let y'all know that
something's cooking.  Two something's, actually.  We'll see....

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 780       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:39 EDT

     Arne: no, both Kung-Fu and Trax are *in-house* Warners shows (though one
is through Lorimar, which is still owned by Warners).

                                                                   jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 782       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:11 EDT

     Babylon 5 will *always* be my first priority; it's my baby.  The other
two TWCBNs, should they go, would inherit others who would be more involved in
the day-to-day running, which I would then oversee...as opposed to the direct,
hands-on way I deal with B5.

                                                                   jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 784       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 05:13 EDT

     BTW, before I forget (again....), I gave a brief interview to TV Guide's
Science Fiction column the other day, about the impact of the Moon landing
(speaking as the creator of an SF series).  Assuming that I said anything
reasonably coherent and nominally useful, it will likely appear in either the
next issue, or the one thereafter.

                                                        jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 788       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:56 EDT

     Amazing thing, innit...watching someone's brain explode....

     (And yes, Garibaldi was named after *the* Garibaldi of Italian military
history.)

                                                                 jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 800       Sun Jun 26, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:11 EDT

     Errrmmmmm...I don't recall promising to never replace an actor without
also replacing the character...I don't think I would limit my options in quite
that manner.  I think my comments were fairly specific to this situation.

                                                                jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 806       Sun Jun 26, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 17:26 EDT

     I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that the Sinclair situation is a spoiler
and shouldn't be mentioned here...that can't be done.  Further, as I
understand spoilers, they refer to plot more than casting.  And I try hard NOT
to throw spoilers into this topic.  The Sinclair situation was news, and it
had to be communicated to the largest number of people so they would get the
information straight from the source rather than having to find out through
rumors and back-channel sources that are usually more wrong than right.

     It was, in my view, a public service, and I stand by my decision to place
it here, rather than the spoilers section, where fewer read it and the
information would do less good.  Anyone who thinks that information can really
be contained is living in a dream world.

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 824       Mon Jun 27, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 20:32 EDT

     Sounds like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.  There ARE
going to be new episodes, starting next week with "Grail," and we're using the
same writers as last year -- me, Larry, DC Fontana, a couple others -- and
adding a couple who I kinda want to work with, such as Scott Frost (on outline
now) and Peter David (ditto).  I've learned that things tend to get awfully
muddy at the local station level....

                                                              jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 829       Mon Jun 27, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:57 EDT

     Any time you spend talking at length with local programming people, you
will generally walk away depressed, because the approach and the emphasis is
diametrically different from what interests those of us in this discussion.
I'm not saying it's bad, just different.  Fundamentally, the show is the show;
phone conversations, reviews, in the long run, none of it matters.  If the
show is good, it will go on; if not, not.

                                                                  jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 831       Tue Jun 28, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:12 EDT

     There was a heavy Frost that year; two Frosts, Mark and Scott, the Frost
brothers.  Scott subsequently went on to work for X-Files.

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 836       Tue Jun 28, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 17:52 EDT

     Remember when I said there are things you learn midway into a series that
you can learn no other way?  Yikes....

     As I've mentioned before, in our season ender, "Chrysalis," we tip over
every table we've got.  I'm talking here *major* stuff, that profoundly and
permanently affects many of our primary characters.  Well, you build that as a
two parter, and even *try* to resolve all of that in the second part.  It
doesn't work, because the repercussions are so substantial.  (What it is,
really, is something that'll be felt throughout the entire second season.)

     You can try to pack all the loose thread-tying into part two, but it's
like trying to pack 10 pounds of potatos into a 5 pound bag.  One other option
is making it a six parter, but *that's* really silly.  So what I'm doing, I've
decided, is to take the major elements and play them out over the first five
or so episodes.  This will give me time to give each of the threads the
necessary time to play out effectively, rather than rushing things.

     So Chrysalis stands alone as a season ender, and a prelude to the Big
Stuff in season two.  Episode 1 of year two, therefore, won't be "Chrysalis,
Part Two," but have its own title, allowing me to spread the stuff over the
next few episodes.  (Probable title: "Points of Departure.")

     I showed "Chrysalis" to some people the other day, and the reaction was
across the board astonishment.  Just stunned.  Which was pretty much the
desired result.  It's an absolute left-turn for the series.

     But because this is the non-spoiler area, I won't comment further.

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 849       Wed Jun 29, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:00 EDT

     Hmmmmm...is *that* who's been signing and cashing my residuals checks...?

                                                                    jms
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Category 18,  Topic 1
Message 853       Wed Jun 29, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:43 EDT

     There are those at the top of the stations, and those below.  What
matters proceeds from the top.

     Re: the comic...yes, there were discussions of other companies that were
bidding on it, but I probably shouldn't name who they were, as that might be
inappropriate.

     The first issue of the B5 comic, which I've written, is entitled "In
Darkness Find Me," which is the flip-side of incidents that take place in the
first episode of year one.  And there's a smidge of information contained in
the book that's *not* in the episode.  I think the script came out pretty
well.  I've also written brief outlines for two subsequent four-issue cycles,
which are now being assigned to other writers for expansion into full outlines
and scripts.

                                                                jms
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Topic 2         Wed Nov 20, 1991
STARR [Arne]                 at 19:41 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 -- The Series!! >>SPOILERS<<

Babylon 5 offically became a series on May 28 '93. There will be 22 hour eps
for season one (in addition to the pilot). Airs Wednesdays at 8PM in most
places starting Jan. 26 '94.  This is the SPOILER topic where anything goes.

838 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 2
Message 818       Mon Jun 20, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:41 EDT

     Talked to him back when I was doing Twilight Zone, and he made it clear
that he has NO desire whatsoever to do TV in any way, manner, shape or form.
Unfortunate, really.  For TV.

                                                                    jms
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 ************
Topic 3         Tue Nov 03, 1992
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:09 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 - Computer SFX Tech-Talk   

Some of the new computer EFX used in BABYLON 5 will be revolutionary, a new
approach never seen before on this scale.  It's all new tech, and this topic
will try and address the new technologies involved.
606 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 3
Message 602       Sun Jun 19, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:08 EDT

     That's not really the kind of correction I was talking about.  I was
addressing more general, behavioral correction, rather than the debate over
episode stuff, or details, or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin
(answer: as many as want to).

     Because SF is supposedly about embracing differences, there is a tendency
-- usually well-intended -- to ignore it when someone acts boorishly, or
rudely, or stupidly.  I've been at many gatherings of SF folks which have been
great, until one or two people really start making it ugly for the rest, and
unlike non-SF gatherings, nobody says anything or does anything.

     There are certain types of behavior that the outside world (non-SF) does
not tolerate; and a small portion of fandom thinks that because SF is not like
the outside "mundane" world, those same rules don't apply, and they can do
this stuff.  It's a very small percentage that does this, but they tend to
hold the larger percentage hostage through the feeling of, "Well, I guess we
shouldn't say anything.  This is our sort of family."   Well, when part of a
family gets dysfunctional, you have to address it.

     Again, all this applies to only a very small number, but it's enough of a
number to be a problem.  And I'm not specifically associating the  original
message with that sort of thing, only saying that there is nothing wrong with
correction if it is done in a positive form.

                                                             jms
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Topic 4         Tue Nov 03, 1992
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:12 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 - Cast & Characters        

For discussion of the actors who will be bringing BABYLON 5 to life with their
performances...for information before, and discussion after the airing of "The
Gathering" pilot.
696 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 4
Message 665       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 22:45 EDT

     We'll know more about guest casting once more scripts are in and we begin
the casting process.  We can't really do that until we have dates on the
filming of scripted episodes.

                                                                   jms
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Category 18,  Topic 4
Message 671       Mon Jun 27, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 17:17 EDT

     Clarification: B5 in the UK is not on BBC, but Channel 4.

                                                               jms
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Topic 5         Tue Nov 03, 1992
T.ORTH [Mr. Rico]            (Forwarded)
Sub: Grid Epsilon Irregulars - News & Info.

This topic is for information about Babylon 5 fan groups, newsletters,
fanzines, get-togethers, B-5 at conventions, and other general fun.
635 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 5
Message 525       Wed Jun 15, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:42 EDT

     They are...all around you.

     And if they ate more fiber, they wouldn't *have* this problem.

                                                                  jms
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Category 18,  Topic 5
Message 575       Mon Jun 20, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 00:43 EDT

                                ahem.

                                                              jms
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Topic 9         Wed Nov 11, 1992
T.RESTIVO [Little Guy]       at 18:27 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 Humor                      

From *Beep Beep*, to Top Ten Lists, to full-blown parodies, this is where to
put your funny bone in writing!
624 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 9
Message 566       Sun Jun 19, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:39 EDT

     Okay, so I *know* it isn't funny, and I *know* it's tragic, and I KNOW
it's a terrible thing, and I *know* it's sick...but watching O.J. and Co.
speeding through Orange County and Santa Ana, all I could think was, "Hey, OJ!
You just killed your wife and her friend!  Now what're you gonna do?"

     "I'm going to Disneyland!"

                       jm(I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry)s
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Category 18,  Topic 9
Message 611       Wed Jun 29, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:02 EDT

     The Minbari Virus: decides at the last moment *not* to infect your
computer, but refuses to explain why.

     (Waitaminnit...what the hell am *I* doing contributing to this...?!)

                                                                  jms
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Topic 11        Sat Nov 14, 1992
J.SHEEN1 [Leviathan]         at 18:09 EST
Sub: B5 Adrift!                           

 BABYLON 5 Topic Drift
 If you feel like talking about it, but it doesn't fit anywhere else... If its
only connection to B-5 is that you thought of it in this CAT...
 This is where to come and get it out.
523 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 11
Message 489       Wed Jun 15, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 19:03 EDT

     The extra footage helps the Abyss a *lot*.

                                                         jms
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Topic 13        Mon Nov 23, 1992
T.ORTH [Mr. Rico]            at 21:00 EST
Sub: Babylon 5 - Science & Technology     

Jump gates, nanotech, high-tech weapons, starship drives, sound in space, and
other subjects of science and technology in Babylon 5.
442 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 13
Message 432       Sun Jun 19, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 04:37 EDT

     No, in an operation like this, you would sub-contract out stuff like dock-
work, food preparation and other areas under government contract, but the
techs working in C&C are strictly Earthforce.

                                                                jms
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Topic 25        Fri Mar 12, 1993
S.SHELLENBAR [>> SHANE <<]   at 08:47 EST
Sub: J. Michael Straczynski Speaks in Public

This is the place to find out where and when JMS will be appearing next.  JMS
has honed his skills as a public speaker and is taking his act on the road.
535 message(s) total.
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Category 18,  Topic 25
Message 518       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:12 EDT

     No details yet; panels and a B5 presentation for sure, though.

                                                          jms
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Category 18,  Topic 25
Message 521       Sat Jun 25, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 18:59 EDT

     Won't be at Westercon since that's the same weekend as the Chicago Comic
Con, which I'll be attending, partly to do some work, partly because Harlan's
guest of honor and he's my buddy.  However, I can say that Larry DiTillio
*will* be attending Westercon in my absence.

     God help you.

                                                           jms
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Category 18,  Topic 25
Message 528       Mon Jun 27, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:58 EDT

     I'm less than thrilled with the 1:30 Friday timeslot, frankly, and our
initial conversations had set this for Saturday.  Will investigate.

                                                               jms
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Category 18,  Topic 25
Message 532       Wed Jun 29, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:03 EDT

     Apparently the B5 ep will be rerun sometime Saturday evening; check for
times upon arrival.

                                                                 jms
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Topic 9         Sat Oct 16, 1993
STARR [Arne]                 at 22:58 EDT
Sub: And the Sky Full of Stars  (#106)    

by JMS. Time to find out about Sinclair's "hole in his mind".
322 message(s) total.
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Category 19,  Topic 9
Message 305       Thu Jun 23, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 03:30 EDT

     He says, "Minbari...broken through...have to get to my ship."

                                                                 jms
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Category 19,  Topic 9
Message 307       Thu Jun 23, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 23:31 EDT

     (smile)...call it a bit of fore*shadow*ing....

                                                           jms
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Category 19,  Topic 9
Message 317       Mon Jun 27, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 01:04 EDT

     Re: QAQAs...why do I suddenly have this image in my head of B5 viewers
making duck sounds at the conclusion of episodes...?

                                                                  jms
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Topic 16        Sun Apr 17, 1994
STARR [Arne]                 at 23:42 EDT
Sub: Signs and Portents (#116)            

by JMS. Directed by Janet Greek.  Co-starring Gerrit Graham.
197 message(s) total.
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Category 19,  Topic 16
Message 193       Fri Jun 17, 1994
STRACZYNSKI [Joe]            at 16:37 EDT

     Actually, that's what *really* happened to Babylon 4...it was replaced by
Folger's Crystals, to see if anyone would notice.


                                                                  jms