lurkers-guide/ftp/Usenet/jms97-12-usenet

JMS (and coproducer George Johnsen) Usenet messages for December 1997.


Date: 4 Dec 1997 23:30:40 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Sierra guide "easter egg" (Possible SiL spoiler?)

>Wording this carefully so as not to totally spoil the surprise for those who
>haven't found the "hidden" area, as well as to avoid what could be a *major*
>spoiler for the show... would this be the "multiple choice" answer section?

Yup.

And your conclusion is correct.


 jms

Date: 4 Dec 1997 23:30:25 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS  - Are these licensed?

Yep, the stand-ups are licensed and legal.


 jms

Date: 5 Dec 1997 20:35:53 -0700
Subject: Re: ATT: JMS: Inconsistencies in the Canon -- SPOILERS FOR "IN THE

I think that most of the inconsistencies you note are primarily due to the
translation from scrilt to print, prior to Peter seeing any of the actual
footage (it's never stated in the script, for instance, that any of the Grey
Council have seen Valen).

While Entil-zha has a vague translation, which is what is stated in"Dream,"
we've translated isil-zha ever since Marcus appeared in the show...Franklin
asks while they're in medlab, if you recall, and he points to the center stone
and says it's called isil-zha, meaning the future.


 jms

Date: 7 Dec 1997 00:14:42 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  Before the break

>Can you tell us which episodes are in 1).  writing, 2).  pre-production,
>3).  filming, 4).  post-production?

1) 517
2) 514
3) 513
4) 510-512 for editting, 507-509 for music and EFX.

Normally I'd be writing 518 right now, but I'm still playing catch-up after the
back and the flu hassles last month.  We're still 3 ahead, though, where most
shows the pages are landing on the stage during filming, and I'll be completely
caught-up and actually ahead after the Christmas break, which is when I'll turn
my attention to writing the 3rd TNT movie.


 jms

Date: 7 Dec 1997 00:14:50 -0700
Subject: Re: B5 Figures Question

They didn't individually number the boxes, apparently.


 jms

Date: 7 Dec 1997 00:15:28 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Six Flags B5-themed attractions?

No, no plans for any kind of B5 attraction or park.  Some folks from Vegas came
to us with an idea, but I nixed it for the same reasons I asked for the
withdrawl of the B5 shot glasses from Creation, I just don't think lining
something up with a Vegas operation is emblematic of what B5 stands for.

What we *are* working on is something still in the development stage, which is
a B5 showscan ride, the sort with the moveable seats, high-speed
high-resolution film and a high-definition big screen you find at places like
Universal Tours or elsewhere.  Here we could do something artistic, very
exciting, with a lot of extreme CGI and put  you in the middle of a big Shadow
battle on Mars, through the atmosphere of Jupiter, and ending at B5.

Heck, I'd ride that one.


 jms

Date: 7 Dec 1997 00:15:54 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  3rd TNT movie...

>	Is there a title, or even a working title yet?
Yes.
>	Is there a tentative airing date?
Under discussion.
>	Who will be in it, from B5: TOS? 
Ditto.
>	Will it involve the legendary and often-mentioned battle between the
"teeps" and the mundanes"?
Negative.




 jms

Date: 7 Dec 1997 00:17:03 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Music..

>You seem to be interested in music, and I was wondering if you have 
>ever heard the singer Lorena McKennit?
>
>If yes. What did you think of her? 

I'm aware of her work, and have enjoyed it.  As I've noted here before, I think
that some of the best single artist work in rock now is being done by women
artists: Meredith Brooks, Sarah Machlachlan (I think I misspelled that), Fiona
Apple, others.

Most of the good work coming from the guys these days seems to be coming from
groups...Squirrel Nut Zippers has finally crashed the mainstream, and if you
haven't checked out Cherry Poppin' Daddies, do so...it's a great mix of big
band sound with rock style lyrics (and some cover stuff) that's real nice.

I recently picked up a couple of Primus CDs and I'm still working out what I
think of them...on the one hand, there's some really interesting stuff going on
there, but it's completely weird. (Which is not a bad thing, btw.)  Their
"Professor Nutbutter's House of Treats" (especially the video) makes the hairs
on the back of my neck stand up...so I dunno...but it's interesting stuff. 
Also just picked up Sneaker Pimps, but haven't had a chance to listen to it
yet.

Because I don't have time to watch much TV or see movies, music is about the
only thing I have access to now since I can play it while I'm working.



 jms

Date: 8 Dec 1997 07:55:14 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Escape from B5?

>I've noticed that a lot of artists have trouble escaping their creations
>and moving on. Some like the state of affairs, others don't:
>What about you? Is there life after B5, is it out of your reach, and how
>do you feel about the situation?

It's my sense that B5 will be kind of the capstone to my career; I will go on
and do other things, including books, other TV projects, plays, as I've always
done...but there's no doubt that B5 will loom large in that company.  And that
doesn't bother me at all.  If it were something I was ashamed of, then yeah,
it'd be a drag.  But that ain't the situation.

I have, at last count, about 8 different TV projects out there, several
different film scripts (just finishing up another this month), which have been
optioned at one point or another, I'm working on 2 books and a stage play, none
of which have *anything* to do with B5.  Some of them will go, and some won't. 
That's the writing life, it's a mug's game.

But the goal, at the end of the day, is to have enough stuff up on the shelf so
that, when you're gone, people can wander in and take it down and say, "Oh,
this is who that person was, and this is how he saw the world."  In that light,
B5 is one heck of a big item on the shelf, and I'm perfectly happy to be
associated with it.


 jms

Date: 9 Dec 1997 10:05:59 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  Could the dog be too heavy for the tail?

>the least successful of the novels, and comic books,
>were attempts at creating an original story based in the B5 Universe.
>However, with B5, the Arc itself is so stringient, that it
>makes it difficult to do the same thing.  Unless the B5 Universe is
>expanded further with Crusade and the B5 TNT movies, I suspect that B5
>novels will only succeed if they are parts of the Arc already set in
>place. 

I suppose ist's a matter of perspective.  B5 is future history; the events of
that history are set (to my mind, at least), but that isn't much different from
books about real history...there are a nearly infinite number of them, covering
every possible subject.  Each passing year provides enough grist for several
hundred books about the events that took place in that year.

If -- and this is shooting pretty damned high -- IF we were able to use these
books to fully flesh out a consistent universe, with a full and detailed and
self-referential history, BUT making each of them interesting and sufficiently
self-contained for the casual reader to get into them, and could do this over a
number of years, look at the huge tapestry you'd create.

That's the theory of what we're going to try and do with the Del Rey novels. 
We may succeed, we may fail, but it's going to be an interesting experiment.

For instance:

The first of the 3 trilogies from Del Rey is a Psi Corps story that spans about
a hundred years or so, from the early days of the Corps to the aftermath of the
Telepath War, with Bester being the linchpin in the storyline bridging all
three books.

To make them absolutely canonical, or as much as conceivable, I sat down and,
based on my background notes for the series, wrote the outlines for the first
two novels, and will be finishing up #3 shortly.  These will then be assigned
and fleshed out to novel length.

So we'll see if this works.


 jms

Date: 9 Dec 1997 10:08:25 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS  Writing quality

>Do you ever get sloppy when you're writing, especially on deadline,
>late at night, etc, and when/if it does happen, what do you do about it?
>
>

On deadline, no, but late, when I'm tired...it can happen to anyone.  What you
have to do is take steps to be self-correcting.

For starters, I never sit down to write a scene until I've finished working it
out in my head, which usually happens well before I get to a keyboard.  So if I
hit the keyboard late, it's not a question of being creative, it's remembering
precisely what I'd thought of earlier.  (Which is why my desk is a constant
clutter of post-it notes.)  

Even so, things can slip by, which is why my pattern of writing is to start the
day's writing by going over and rewriting the last 5-10 pages I've already
written, rather than just jumping right into the next scene.  I find this helps
me find any stupid stuff that slipped in, and I get back into the swing of the
writing again.  I trim and tighten, and I'm ready to go on the next section,
while being sure that the one preceding is solid.  Which is why, when the
script is finally published in-house for production, there's very little
revision done to it because it's already been revised several times in the
writing process.


 jms

Date: 9 Dec 1997 10:06:48 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Holiday celebration?

>I was just curious as to whether the cast and crew of B5 do anything to
>celebrate the holidays together before breaking for Christmas?  If so,
>what, party, exchange cards, etc?

Every year we give gifts to the crew, ranging from B5 jackets to fleece
sweaters to other cool stuff, and have a christmas party.

Fewer seem to survive them every year.


 jms

Date: 9 Dec 1997 19:48:19 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Franchising the Final Frontier

>Do you think that the Trek franchise, although a quality product, has grown a
>bit stale and overextended as of late?  Due to oversaturation caused partly
>by
>the large number of shows under the Trek umbrella (TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager)
>and
>also in part by too much product mass marketing
> it's reached a
>point where the franchise sustains the need for the productions and
overshadows
>them, rather than the other way around.

I think (actually, I know) from conversations with many of the folks over at ST
that some of them are very aware of the problem, that there's a limit on how
often they can go to the well.  The sense among fans I speak to is that it's
become a license to print money, and that the driving force is avarice rather
than storytelling, with the result that the creative people are straitjacketed.

> With Crusade coming up, the TNT telefilms and
>the exposure of B5 on TNT in a larger market than in syndication, the
>prospect
>of a feature film looming on the horizon, and the introduction of model kits,
>reference and game CDs, and other collectibles, I wondered if you had similar
>concerns and reservations about B5 becoming a marketing franchise in the long
>run, if that franchising could possibly hurt either the quality of the shows
>and the products stemming from them (novels, etc.). and how you would address
those issues for the long-term?

Well, for starters remember that it's taken ST 30 years to get to this point of
saturation, and we're only 5 years in at this point, so in theory we've got 25
years to go before we become real pains in the ass.  But that aisde....

This is something that I've been wary and watchful of from the very first days
of the show, which is why I've dragged my feet on licensing for the most part
over the years, doing only a few things, seeing how they worked, they trying
other things, to see where we could control the quality.  It's trial and error,
but I'd rather do trial and error on a small scale and learn rather than on a
big scale and crash and burn.

I think it helps that there's one single voice behind all this, to make sure
that the story remains at the center of the thing, and the tail does not begin
wagging the dog.  What we do, should be cool stuff that I would like
personally, which I can promote honestly and say "this is cool."  And that's
where we're starting to get.

Basically, if we apply the same common sense approach used in making B5 to the
ancillary stuff, we should be okay.


 jms

Date: 11 Dec 1997 22:12:24 -0700
Subject: Re: Pegasus Publishing: A poor experience

There's two Pegasus companies out there (Pegasus? Pegasi?) and one is licensed,
one is not.  Be careful which is which.  The nonlicensed one has been only
trouble.


 jms

Date: 12 Dec 1997 22:39:11 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: credits on opening

Some actors just like being last 'cause they think it draws more attention to
the credit.


 jms

Date: 12 Dec 1997 22:40:24 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Falling off roofs just to see season 5

Be careful up there...those damn reindeer are capable of anything, especially
when they get too much rum up their snoots.


 jms

Date: 12 Dec 1997 22:41:08 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn:JMS:Excalibur

>Is the Excalibur that was given to Delenn in LDaA the "real" Excalibur or
>just a symbolic representation of it?
>
>

Since that wasn't really Arthur, the odds of that really being Excalibur are
substantially reduced.


 jms

Date: 12 Dec 1997 22:41:58 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: The real end of the series

>Since you're on ep 517, that must mean 521 is round the corner.. so I
>gotta wonder when it's gonna hit ya (and the rest of the cast and crew)
>that the end of writing, end of filming, end of post-production work, etc.
>is coming soon.

I dunno...on one level, I think everyone's too busy to give it much thought. 
On another, having gone through all this last season, I think to some extent
it's already been burned through, and we're past that stage now.  (Anger,
denial, depression, bargaining, acceptance - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.)

That there's going to be another TV movie is a big help for everyone, and the
prospect of Crusade keeping our crew busy is a help to them, and WB is still
muttering about a possible feature film which is keeping everyone's spirits
up...so it's surprisingly low key and okay.


 jms

Date: 13 Dec 1997 11:30:08 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  Does Harlan Also Want...

Harlan's gotten copies of the material, so there's no need for more, except to
thank those who sent stuff along on his behalf.


 jms

Date: 13 Dec 1997 11:41:44 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Moore Watchmen question

>I've read that you're a fan of Alan Moore (along with other comic book
>writers).  Can I assume that you've read  Alan Moore's "Watchmen" comic
>series,
>which I think was the best comic story ever?

Watchmen was bitching.  I think it redefined comics in much the same way as
Dark Knight did (though not followed up on as much, and alas too many
publishers thought that they could do DK by just getting dark and depressing
which is why a lot of them lost a lot of readers).  DK also holds up well.

>Also, what other comics had an impact on you?  You pull some of your
>writers from the comic medium, and you use comics for B5 storytelling.  Is
>there a reason you use so many comic writers on B5(Gaiman, David)? 

I think the Miracleman series by Moore is still one of the most brilliant
things I've ever read.  I'm partial to his work, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman,
Peter David and a few others.  I also thought that Mage was one of the best
books around (just this week discovered that apparently it is or has been
coming out again with a new sequence, so I'm going to have to to back into the
comics store again for the first time in a while).

I loved Grendel, and some of the Grendel followups by diverse hands.  The
Aliens comics from Dark Horse are (were) great most of the time, taking the
storyline to new levels.  I enjoyed the heck out of Marvels, for the
photorealistic approach which took a mortal's eye view of superheros.  Ditto
for Uncle Sam and Kingdom Come.  And, of course, Cerebus; I think Dave Sim is
the only other person who can understand what it is to do a story of this scale
and duration.  Also enjoyed Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo.

Comics are a visual, concise medium, which is why I think the writers involved
can translate so well to television.


 jms

Date: 14 Dec 1997 14:11:13 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: B5 book submissions?

>Since you're riding herd on the new Babylon 5 novels
>to bring them more in line with series continuity and to create mini-
>arcs, is Del Rey actually accepting submissions for Babylon 5 novels,
>or are you or the editors assigning your story outlines to established
>writers?

At this point, I'm writing the outlines, which are being assigned to outside,
established writers.  I've already turned in the first two installments of the
first 3-volume series on the Psi Corps.


 jms

Date: 15 Dec 1997 05:04:53 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS or TNT People: Promo Question

If it's the one I'm thinking of...what happened was this: I never much liked
the way WB in general promoted the show, which was an all-action, no-thought
kind of approach.  Knowing TNT was going to be coming in, and not wanting to go
through the process of reinventing the wheel, I wrote up what I thought would
be a great approach to the commercials, and I made a version of it here, which
I showed at a couple of conventions, noting that this is how I'd like the show
to be promoted (showed it at Westercon, in fact).  

When I went to Atlanta to meet with the TNT folks, I brought it with me, and
showed it to them...and they loved it, and asked for copies.  What came out is
extremely similar to the structure of the one we did here...and it works great.
 It sells the overall story, the emotion, the rising and falling of
empires...all that.  They've been extremely open to our ideas and suggestions,
which is terrific.  I can't say enough good things about TNT.


 jms

Date: 15 Dec 1997 05:05:38 -0700
Subject: from jms re: email

Just a reminder that private email is expressly for matters of a private or
personal nature.  General questions about story, character, theme or plot
should be put forth in the public forums, so that others can benefit from the
answers and to help keep me from answering the same questions repeatedly in
private mail.  My mailbox is starting to fill up with this sort of mail, and
I'd rather not just ignore it, but rather redirect it.


 jms

Date: 15 Dec 1997 21:14:56 -0700
Subject: Re: Lockley

>What role did TNT picking
>up season 5 have to do with the casting of Tracy Scoggins?

Zip.

We picked her, she was the best person for the role, even Jerry felt that in
the audition, we told TNT this is who we want, and they said great.


 jms

Date: 15 Dec 1997 21:16:36 -0700
Subject: Re: ATT JMS: First scene?

>in more than one place you talk about
>B5 coming to you in a flash (in the shower! IIRC) So I have 2 questions:
>
>1) Will/has that scene actually make/made it into the show? or did it
>"wind up on the [virtual] cutting room floor"?

It wasn't *a* scene...it was sort of a general view of the whole thing, a sense
of the overall story, where it would go, who would be it...not any one
particular scene.



 jms

Date: 15 Dec 1997 21:23:34 -0700
Subject: Re: To JMS or anyone - UK viewer needs help!

Tell the other British fans they can relax; one of the ways I made sure that
neither WB nor anyone else could air Sleeping in Light was to simply not finish
it.  The shooting is done, obviously, and it's all edited together...but we
haven't even started rendering the CGI yet (no need to, and other stuff is
pressing), haven't done the audio mix, none of that.  Just a little
insurance....


 jms

Date: 16 Dec 1997 13:02:48 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: B5 fans not on cable or internet

> I would
>guess, however, that many B5 fans think
>it is over.  Is TNT doing anything to
>attact the attention of B5 fans who are
>not on cable or the internet?

I know, I hear from a lot of folks who *are* on the net and who think the show
has been canceled.  All TNT can do is what they're doing, a massive print and
TV ad campaign to let folks know.  There's a ten million dollar value campaign
behind the launch on TNT, print ads, bus ads, there will be commercials on ST
and X-Files, a four-page spread in Entertainment Weekly in the next week or so,
and I've been giving a busload of press interviews lately: TV Guide, USA Today,
Chicago Tribune, others, and I'll be shlepped out to NY sometime in January to
do more press stuff.  They're dedicated to really selling this thing.


 jms

Date: 17 Dec 1997 08:32:45 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: TNT versus WB

>Has TNT's involvement
>influenced your decision to go with a spinoff? 

No, the B5 story ends where it ends; I always wanted to do the follow-up story,
from the beginning, and said so...so it didn't really affect that one way or
another.

But certainly, TNT has been extremely supportive of the show, on every
imaginable level, and it's terrific.


 jms

Date: 17 Dec 1997 08:33:18 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS: how do execs constrain Voyager writers?

A studio can influence the direction of any TV series, and its writers, by
bouncing scripts that they don't like, by telling the producers what direction
to take the show...they can influence the tone, the kinds of stories told (safe
vs. controversial) because it's their money, and their show.


 jms

Date: 17 Dec 1997 08:34:33 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Final Scene in 522

The finale of 522 is just what I wanted it to be.


 jms

Date: 17 Dec 1997 08:34:57 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS -Starfury Model Question

The finished model just came in this week, with full shrink wrap, box, pieces,
everything...very nice.  There were some delays that came from our side, as we
worked to make it more authentic and more in keeping with how they look on
screen.  Revell was happy to cooperate, even if it delayed things a bit...with
the result that it's a better product.  (Among the things we asked for: to
reposition the forward guns, alter the tilt of the engines, texture under the
wings as well as on top, that sort of thing.)

Basically, I'd rather have it *right* than have it Tuesday.


 jms

Date: 17 Dec 1997 08:36:46 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: B5 fans not on cable or internet

Here's ironic...apparently the last ST cover didn't sell well at *all*, and
because of that, TV Guide has wondered if a B5 cover would sell well...again,
some of them have a hard time separating out one show from another, they seem
to think they're all the same.


 jms

Date: 18 Dec 1997 18:12:57 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  "In the Beginning" and the Hugo...next year?

>Just a quick question about which B5 episodes will be your
>choice for the Hugo ballot ( we all know you will get several nods)
>"The Face of the Enemy" would be my choice, with "Endgame" a
>close second.

Both those are good, "Face" could be best, but there's also "No Surrender, No
Retreat," which gets forgotten sometimes in this.

>Will "In the Beginning" be available for consideration this
>year, or next year?  I'm guessing the Jan. release makes it next year,
>but I'm not sure how they work things at the Hugos...

Yes, ItB will be eligible for the following year, as will Sleeping in Light,
which should make things interesting.


 jms

Date: 19 Dec 1997 15:08:29 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS Should Have Written B5 *MY* Way

BTW, the one big reason that Sakai could not have filled Anna Sheridan's role
in awakening the shadows...and this is the one thing that everyone who
advocates this theory tends to forget...is that they were *already up and
awake* in the first season, as we saw in "Signs and Portents."  They were up,
around, and had had some time to build stuff up, reclaim some of their ships,
and in other ways get organized and develop their contacts.  

Also, Morden was already working for them.


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 08:43:25 -0700
Subject: Re: attn jms: 3 Simple ???  In the Beginning SPOILER

>In the Beginning SPOILER
>
>
>S
>
>P
>
>O
>
>I
>
>L
>
>E
>
>R
>
>
>
>
>S
>
>P
>
>A
>
>C
>
>E
>
>
>Since only *you* can really give us definitive answers to these questions,
>I'm hoping you'll be feeling the generousity of the season....
>
>1.  Did Sinclair undergo a "preliminary psi probe" as assumed by Delenn in
>Peter David's novelization of In the Beginning (page 246)?

I don't have the book in front of me, but if that refers to the one after his
capture, then yes.
>
>2.  Is the Eartforce Academy two, three, or four years?
>
It varies depending on what aspect and how far you want to go and what your
goal is, as with some divisions of Officer Training School (OTC).




 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 08:44:14 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Season 5 wardrobe question

Sheridan: civvies (as President of the Interstellar Alliance).

Franklin and Zack: the black uniforms.

Lochley: in EA blues (and will stay that way).

Garibaldi:  civvies (for a different sort of position).


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 08:44:37 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN:JMS Entertainment Weekly

TNT has *definitely* stepped up to the plate on all counts.  They said they
intend for every person in the country to at least have *heard* of B5 by the
time they launch S5.


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 08:45:21 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  When do you feel most at home?

>When do you feel most at home during the creative process of
>the show?
>	Is it on the set...getting your hands dirty...actually seeing
>your vision come to life?
>	Or is it while you are writing...actually giving such
>wonderful life to the characters that inhabit that vision?

First and foremost, I'm a writer.  That's not just what I do, it's who and what
I *am*.  So of all the things I do, that's when I'm most in my element.  John
Flinn can beat me on stage in composing a shot, John Copeland can configure a
fight scene better in editing than I can (most days), Chris Franke can come up
with touches in music that I would never think of...

But behind the keyboard, nobody can touch me.  (Hmm...I wonder what my
subconscious would make of that statement; I think I just said more than I
wanted to.)  

Anyway...this is where I'm at home.  My goal is real simple: to write better
than anyone who can write faster than me, and faster than anyone who can write
better than me.


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 08:45:43 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn:  JMS -- Psi Corps pins

The Psi Corps pins are in, have been in for a couple of weeks now, and they're
just gorgeous...I don't know why they haven't been added to the Emporium yet,
they should be there now or soonish.  They're absolutely the same as the ones
we use in the show, same as with the Earthforce pins.

Among the crew, so far the Psi Corps hats have turned out to be the most
popular...they're buying 'em up fast.

BTW, down the road there may be a limited edition of the Psi Corps pins signed
by Walter....


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 19:47:45 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: what about Narn?

Yeah, we'll get back into a bit of the Narn thread in S5.


 jms

Date: 22 Dec 1997 19:48:51 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  I-Con

>>>I was wondering why you decided to not go to I-Con this year.
>>>

Wasn't invited.


 jms

Date: 23 Dec 1997 10:54:38 -0700
Subject: No Compromises. ( *Spoilers* )

> >1.  Is having such a large hole in the
>        story [is this a parallel to JeffreyS?]
>        gonna spoil Season 5 for us?
>
>        2. Should we just wait until TNT shows
>        the Final 4 again and *THEN* watch S5?

My gut reaction...because S5 starts pretty cleanly, and Sheridan's new
situation is set up right from the git-go, I think that you'd be okay to just
dive in.  Not knowing at the time that there'd be any kind of problem in the
airing of the final 4, but having learned from experience that nothing about
this show is EVER easy or predictable, I did sort of a primer about where
things stand now in the top of the teaser, done breathlessly by Corwin as
Lochley arrives.

(That ain't much of a spoiler since it happens in the first few minutes of the
show.)


 jms

-- 
* Jay Denebeim  Moderator       rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated *
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Date: 23 Dec 1997 09:51:58 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: 4 on the floor?

>1.  Is having such a large hole in the
>        story [is this a parallel to JeffreyS?]
>        gonna spoil Season 5 for us?
>
>        2. Should we just wait until TNT shows
>        the Final 4 again and *THEN* watch S5?

My gut reaction...because S5 starts pretty cleanly, and Sheridan's new
situation is set up right from the git-go, I think that you'd be okay to just
dive in.  Not knowing at the time that there'd be any kind of problem in the
airing of the final 4, but having learned from experience that nothing about
this show is EVER easy or predictable, I did sort of a primer about where
things stand now in the top of the teaser, done breathlessly by Corwin as
Lochley arrives.

(That ain't much of a spoiler since it happens in the first few minutes of the
show.)


 jms

Date: 23 Dec 1997 09:52:45 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Your involvement with Crusade

> If Crusade is a go, what will be your involvement with the 
>show compared to what you do on B5? The same? Much less?
>
>
I'll exec produce, same as with B5, develop the overall arc, as with B5 (though
it's not as rigorous an arc), do all the same stuff in editing, post, all the
same stuff.  About the only real difference I foresee would be my intent to
only write about half the episodes this time around; I'm looking forward to
seeing what other writers can do in the B5 universe.


 jms

Date: 23 Dec 1997 09:56:20 -0700
Subject: Re: Aargh! Screwed by WB!

>Warner Bros couldn't sell it to a nationally available station.
>N-o-o-o-o-o, that would have been too easy. They had to sell it to
>individual stations in the major markets. 

As I understand it, that's because the natinoal stations up there are less than
interested in general in taking syndicated American shows, and mainly want
American shows that have been on network TV (and American shows are becoming an
increasingly hard sell up there).

Translation: it ain't WB's fault.  I'm always more than happy to give them the
rap if it's deserved...this time, it ain't.


 jms

Date: 24 Dec 1997 08:29:55 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Who writes Season 5?

There's other material there, including Neil Gaiman's "Day of the Dead."


 jms

Date: 24 Dec 1997 08:30:15 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn: JMS

Galoob has announced they're ONLY doing Star Wars stuff.


 jms

Date: 26 Dec 1997 11:26:32 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Attempting the Improbable (another writing question)

>On a totally
>hypothetical, if you had accepted the exec producer, writer job at a
>suffering show (like SeaQuest, or Space Above and Beyond,) would you
>place your focus on creating quality within the individual episode, the
>season, or the story-arc. Or in other words, if a show is broke, how
>would you go about fixing it?

If a show doesn't work, there's only one way to fix it...and it ain't adding
battles, or arcs, or chrome...it's the characters.  Audiences will tune in to
see what happens next to the characters they care about.  If that bond ain't
there...you've got nowhere to go.  It all proceeds from character.

As for SeaQuest, about the only thing that would've helped there would've been
depth charges.


 jms

Date: 26 Dec 1997 11:26:53 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Bucconeer

Yes, I'll definitely be at Worldcon.


 jms

Date: 26 Dec 1997 16:01:42 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Rewriting on cue?

>	Reading your script for "The Coming of Shadows" in "The
>Complete Book of Scriptwriting", one can see that lines were cut from
>the original show.
>	I was wondering...do you often changes lines and/or entire
>scenes on the set?  Anyone who writes always wants to improve on what
>they wrote AFTER they re-read it.
>	I keep wondering if any of the more memorable lines from the
>show were written on-the-fly during shooting.

No, never.  For starters, it's *vastly* unfair to the actors.  They have to
memorizes pages and pages of dialogue, and to hit them with new stuff on the
stage, when they haven't had a chance to digest the material and dig out the
subtext and themes, means the performance will not be as good regardless of the
material.

There is *no* improvising allowed on the set, either.  If an actor wants to
change even a word, the first AD has to come find me and get approval first.

Where you make the revisions are in the stages prior to when the actors get to
the stage.  A first draft is published, which goes to all the department heads.
 Between the first and the final drafts (we only do about 2 drafts here), you
have about a week to make any revisions you choose to make.  Bearing in mind
that I don't publish the first draft until I'm absolutely satisfied with it,
there ain't much that gets changed, usually bits of dialogue and production
related stuff.

The cuts you see were done in post-production, as the show is edited for time. 
We slice lines and bits to fit in the available time.


 jms

Date: 27 Dec 1997 12:48:32 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS Cookbook??

>Any news about when the Cookbook will be out?
>
>

I just finished my notes on it before we broke for the Xmas hiatus, so sometime
in the early Spring, I would think.


 jms

Date: 27 Dec 1997 12:48:53 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Actors and script changes

>Joe, you've mentioned this a number of times, that actors can't
>change the dialog without approval.  I'm wondering whether it's
>frequent for an actor to come and *ask* for a change, and whether
>they tend to get the change if they ask for it, and if the changes
>have made a difference.  Any memorable examples?

Yeah, in most cases, unless it's an egregious change, or one that changes the
meaning of a sentence, I usually go along with it.  It also doesn't happen very
often.  Usually they come in with a question about something if I'm setting up
a thread for the future, so they can give it the right subtext.


 jms

Date: 27 Dec 1997 12:49:54 -0700
Subject: Re: B5 CCG review

Steven:

Thanks for the review.  I'm not as up on card games as I'd like to be, and on
some of this I have to essentially take some of the stuff on game-play on
faith, because that's not something I know a lot about.  So it's good to know
it worked out.


 jms

Date: 27 Dec 1997 19:36:36 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:A Splendid Little Program..

>I had the sense that a small portion of the behind-the-camera shots came
>from episode shootings that haven't been aired.  Was I grossly mistaken?

No, you're correct...WB shot B-roll during other episodes in the past, and some
of that got used, and TNT sent a crew out as well to grab some stuff during the
last of season 4, including the two movies.
>Have you ever considered using Andreas in a part without
>makeup(ferinstance,as a close relative of a major character)?
>
>

Yeah, but he won't do it.
>And I am assuming this promotion show was shot before T.Scroggins joined
>the cast...Y/N is ok.

Yup.


 jms

Date: 28 Dec 1997 23:32:09 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Less of C-n-C this season?

The 8 episodes is the *minimum guaranteed*, not the maximum.


 jms

Date: 29 Dec 1997 13:35:26 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: I want my xmas stuff!!!

>My mom ordered me some stuff from the fan club for Christmas.  I got the 
>ship recognition chart and the calendar and they are very cool.  She 
>also got me a mebership, but never got any of the stuff from that, she 
>wrote snail-mail asking about it, but hasn't gotten any response.  

Because of the christmas rush, we got the actual gift items out first, and are
getting the memberships out afterward.  We should be catching up soon.



 jms

Date: 29 Dec 1997 13:35:47 -0700
Subject: Re: Running Time for "In the Beginning"

Dry time: 94 minutes 10 seconds.


 jms

Date: 29 Dec 1997 13:36:19 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Speaking at ICON 98

>The people at ICON say you weren't invited this spring because they don't
>like to have the same speakers two years in a row.

Which is perfectly understandable; I didn't say there was anything amiss in not
being invited.  Someone asked why I wasn't going to be there, and that was the
answer.  I wouldn't expect them to invite the same folks two years running.

>But what really got my attention was the fact that they're going to have
>Claudia Christian instead. Is she going to be representing the show?
>Because if she isn't, you should know that this is the impression the
>ICON people are giving.

Claudia is certainly capable of representing and discussing her experiences and
time on the first 4 years of the show.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 30 Dec 1997 08:36:48 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Ch 4 has Season 6!! Starfury kits out in UK and alcohol

>Is it normal for the writer/creator to have as much
>input and power as you seem to?

In TV, the writer/producer is the one in charge.  The more producer-heavy a
show is, the more that gets spread around.  Certainly folks like Bochco and
Kelley are unchallenged in this respect; ditto Chris Carter . It's simply a
matter of whether or not it's sufficiently important to you that you'll fight
like hell to maintain control.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 30 Dec 1997 08:37:10 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  Where is Jerry Doyle?

There were some contract hassles, and Jerry ended up not being in either of
them (the blame tends to go with the agent at the time, which Jerry
acknowledges, and that situation has been changed).  He and we definitely would
like him to be in #3.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 30 Dec 1997 08:37:22 -0700
Subject: B5 Starfury Models Out

I'm hearing from the UK that the first Revell model, the Starfury, is out and
for sale there.  Which means it may well be available here now as well.  Anyone
out there confirm this?

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 30 Dec 1997 08:30:23 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Your goal for CRUSADE

>You've been fortunate to accomplish everything you set out to do with
>BABYLON 5.  So, what's your goal for CRUSADE?  Aside from continuing the
>year-to-year improvement?  If the BABYLON 5 story is about the need for
>community and the need to look toward the horizon, what is the CRUSADE
>story about?

What I want to do with Crusade is take the tools we learned to use in B5 and
apply them in a different (and in some ways, more ambitious) manner.  It'll
have an arc, now that we've shown that it works, but not as rigorous an
arc...less overtly political but more thematic.  Also, after 5 years of
angst-driven storytelling, I'd like to see if I can use the same tools to do
something a little more fun.  I've lived in the dark side of the B5 universe
for a long time, and while there's plenty of darkness still out there, I kinda
want to go and do something a bit more adventurous...and which explores all the
places in the B5 universe that we've heard about, but never seen.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 30 Dec 1997 22:27:38 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS' ego trip

Point one: I had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the Guide except
to review some of Bruce's on-camera narration for fact-checking purposes.  I
didn't see it until it was done.

Point two: "now I have to go to all the trouble of either buying illegal
drugs...or become a serial killer."

Wouldn't you find either option redundent?


 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 09:00:37 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Your goal for CRUSADE

I started including a sig on the net because I kept getting emails asking for
the address of the fanclub site, and my own, so I figured this would take care
of it.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 09:01:02 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN TNT PARTYGOERS! Bring your camcorders! :-D

Better still...how about folks bring digital cameras as well and take jpg shots
of the various parties and upload 'em here?

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 09:03:00 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:  Save me from Trek merchandize, please!

We'll be doing more stuff, gradually...I'd just prefer to do this stuff slowly,
and do it right, than dump a whole lotta stuff out at once.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 14:51:07 -0700
Subject: Re: The Guide Special

>Actually, it made me wonder if leaving was her choice.

Give me one good reason, ANY good reason, why WB or I (and those are the only
two forces involved) would want her to leave.  If either of those had wanted
her to go, then we wouldn't have been so upset when it was announced in the
trades that she was leaving, now would we?  WB wouldn't have extended its offer
to her until the very last minute, would they?  (Why put ANY offer out to her
at ALL if they didn't want her back?  Remember, becasue she opted not to sign
the extension, she was not an employee of B5 when she left.)  And I certainly
wouldn't have been sitting across from her in a hotel pub in Blackpool at
midnight trying to understand why she was leaving, and urging her to call her
agent so she could stay, would I?

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 14:51:13 -0700
Subject: Re: attn: jms and everyone: revised episodes

That ain't revisionist history...them's typos.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

Date: 31 Dec 1997 14:54:07 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN:JMS- YOU and your CABLE!

>And it's not only that, but ALL the cartoons!
>("What's that, Avenger?  Bird-Boy's in trouble?")  And NOW it seems that I'm
>going to have to watch B5 every day of the week!  This new season better be
>pretty good, because my family's brains are turning to mush!

Ruh-roh....


 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com