lurkers-guide/ftp/Usenet/jms98-07-usenet

JMS (and coproducer George Johnsen) Usenet messages for July 1998.


Date: 3 Jul 1998 15:12:16 -0600
Subject: Why More Producers Aren't Here

Here's a small slice of life to explain why more producers and cast members
aren't online.

I kept getting emails (and public postings) from a fellow going by the handle
of goodx6 here on AOL (goodx6@aol.com).  I have said before that I would rather
that general plot questions (which these were) would be addressed in the public
forums, but frankly, these were not questions that I really felt warranted
answering because much of it had been covered.  So I didn't answer, and spent
that time answering other questions.

More of the same exact emails continued to come in.  I ignored them.  The
person in question then *demanded* that I answer his emails and his public
messages.  I explained that I did not *have* to answer any questions at all,
and with limited time, tried to put my efforts and energies into questions we
hadn't already covered.  He sent another very harrassing note, and I plinked
him.

So today, I found out I couldn't get email (and there were several important B5
related emails that should have been here).  I found that I couldn't receive
ANY email because I had received nearly 1,000 emails from the same account
(masquerading under two different names, but sending identical emails) saying
that I was a queer for not answering goodx6's questions.  (The handles were
jesus4834 and TWare97181.)  Obviously goodx6 either asked this person to do
this, since the conversation was originally carried out in email, or they are
all the same person.

The assumption here seems to be that I am *required* to respond to inquiries,
and that if I don't, I'm entitled to be harrassed.  

This is not the first time this has happened to me.  And this will probably not
be the last.  It took me about 20 minutes to clear out my mailbox, deleting
almost 1,000 harrassing emails by hand, another 10 minutes to send on the info
to AOL's terms of service...and it shoved out all the online AOL email
backfiles, some of which I use for reference.

And this is the kind of thing that after a while makes one more convinced that
pulling away down the road is exactly the right thing to do.

 jms

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

Date: 7 Jul 1998 13:15:13 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS: in the spinoff...

My feeling for now is to make the feature, if one gets done, fairly
self-contained, since I imagine a lot of folks may go who haven't seen the
show.

 jms

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

Date: 8 Jul 1998 10:08:52 -0600
Subject: Re: ATT: JMS: A Challenge!

It would be a question of what the group of rogue telepaths had *done* prior to
his running into them.  If, for instance, they had killed any of his fellow Psi
Cops, I think (to turn a phrase on its head) the gloves would come off.

Byron's people weren't a threat to Psi Cops until the very end. 

 jms

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

Date: 8 Jul 1998 10:08:57 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: A curious new effect of watching B5

>Has exposure to "Babylon 5" innoculated me against the mass of US TV?

Maybe...meanwhile, continue to take two episodes and call me in the morning.

 jms

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

Date: 8 Jul 1998 19:11:44 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Thoughts and thanks

Thank you...as someone will note later this season, the part of me that is
going will very much miss the part of you all that is staying.

 jms

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

Date: 8 Jul 1998 19:12:30 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS and all other victims of cyberstalking

Thanks for the information...I'll be using it.


 jms

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

Date: 9 Jul 1998 17:27:50 -0600
Subject: Re: ANT JMS - how many Vorlons could dance on the head of a pin?

>How many Vorlons could dance on the head of a pin?

As many as want to.

 jms

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





Date: 10 Jul 1998 11:24:22 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN:JMS my deepest gratitude...

Thanks, that's great to hear, good luck.

 jms

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

Date: 11 Jul 1998 16:24:01 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS  The Kosh figure is hideous!!!!

I guess opinions vary...I think it looks kind cool.

Question: did you get the one that actually says Kosh, or the Vorlon Visitor
figure?  If the latter, the color scheme is off because it ain't Kosh.  The one
that says Kosh is pretty close, in my view.

Got mine the other day, and rather like it.

 jms

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

Date: 12 Jul 1998 03:53:52 -0600
Subject: Re: White's Guide exclusive figure

The only figure I know is the one that's out at most any comics store, so I
don't see how it's exclusive to them (and it looks like the regular one as
well).

 jms

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





Date: 12 Jul 1998 03:57:28 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Not WS LD's- what happened?

>Havne't seen any explanation of why you had no pull in this, after
>saying that you wanted to have WS LD's and DVD's.  We all thought your
>merchandise pull was sufficient that you wouldn't have let these new
>LD's go without the WS treatment.

WB is one of those big companies where one branch often doesn't know what the
other is doing.  No one told me about the LDs until I heard about it on the
nets, because it never occured to anyone to mention it.  (I've since mentioned
it to the folks at Image, so we'll see about the WS stuff.)  

What you have to understand is that the video aspect of the show is not
considered by contract a part of merchandising.  (I know, doesn't make any
sense, but it's one more way of keeping money out of the hands of the writers
involved.  Same with soundtracks, so I don't get a piece off either of those
except for the WGA mandated royalty, which is more or less zero.)  

As some note of how far off these things can be, a big full-page ad in Video
Magazine this month for the VHS tapes mentions that the show  is now on TNT,
instead of **UPN*** (it began on PTEN, which is WB, as opposed to UPN, which is
Paramount).

 jms

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





Date: 12 Jul 1998 04:00:03 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Not WS LD's- what happened?

PS...just to be clear, btw, the show *is* available in widescreen *right now*,
having worked with the WB high-tech boys to produce these versions over the
last year for HDTV and foreign use.  I've seen a couple of the finished
widescreen versions, and they're gorgeous.

 jms

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





Date: 12 Jul 1998 04:04:13 -0600
Subject: Re: Did you say...

>You were going to DragonCon because HE was going to be there? What be
>your plans as of late on that con? I'm seriously looking into going
>now....

Nope, won't be there.

 jms

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





Date: 14 Jul 1998 18:41:05 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:RE: OTHERSYDE

Thanks, it's a good book.  "Demon Night" was a first novel, and therefore kinda
rough in places.  "It's Getting Dark" has yet to be written.

 jms

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





Date: 14 Jul 1998 18:42:42 -0600
Subject: Re: Way cool promo with JMS

>And it had the added bonus
>of actually seeing JMS talk about the movie.  Now I have a face to put with
>the notes.

Yeah, well, nothing's perfect....

 jms

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





Date: 16 Jul 1998 00:22:19 -0600
Subject: Re: Thirdspace

Anybody can follow this movie and enjoy it; whether you've seen the show before
or not.

 jms

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





Date: 16 Jul 1998 00:23:05 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn:  JMS

>Do you watch your own shows after they are done?  If yes, (and I assume it is
>yes), have you ever been able to watch the show with fresh eyes?

I watch the episodes bunches of times; pieces during shooting in dailies, the
directors cut (twice, once to just watch, again to make my notes), again when
John and I do our producer's cut/edit, again when we do the audio spotting
(sound EFX and music), again when we mix the episode, again on VHS to check how
it sounds on a regular TV stereo, and again when it airs to check the
transmission.  That's 7 times just to start.

It takes me about a year or two to be able to really *see* the show,  to stop
anticipating each line before I hear it.

 jms

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

Date: 16 Jul 1998 00:25:45 -0600
Subject: Re: ATT JMS    Re: Demon Night

Thanks...apparently, some dealers are selling the book(s) for a couple hundred
bucks apiece, which I'm kind of chagrined about, wishing they were better
books.

Which is why the next one I write has got to be a good one, because a lot of
folks will probably pick it up as an act of faith and a compliment to B5, and I
don't want to disappoint them.

 jms

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





Date: 21 Jul 1998 11:12:17 -0600
Subject: Re: Thirdspace ( *Spoilers* )


























>Was it just me or did that dream scene with Ivanova and Vir looking at
>>the
>>tower and the buildings around it look like something out of one of Wayne
>>Barlowe's paintings?  

If you check the credits, you'll see that we engaged Wayne's services to help
us design both the creature, the artifact, and the dark city.

 jms

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

Date: 24 Jul 1998 14:05:22 -0600
Subject: Re: attnJMS:Gary Cole on Crusade?

Yes, I can confirm that Gary Cole has signed on to play Captain Matthew Gideon
of the Starship Excalibur in CRUSADE.  

We're very excited to  have him aboard.

 jms

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





Date: 24 Jul 1998 23:51:56 -0600
Subject: Re: Thirdspace--------Why?

Okay, you want an answer to this, I got an answer for you.

Because I felt like it.

Because I've done five years worth of angst and dark storytelling, and I wanted
to do one story that was just for fun.  

Because I'm a huge fan of the type of Cthulhu mythos stories done by H. P.
Lovecraft and August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany, and all
my life I wanted to just cut loose and do something like that.

Because I hadn't done a story like that for B5, and I want to try new things,
experiment, do a funny story, a spooky story, a high-tech story.

And because a show needs to be shaken up once in a while.  

A while back, Neil Gaiman pointed out to me that the problem with a certain
percentage of fandom is that they like your work for what it is, because it's
different, but then they won't tolerate any variation from what you're doing,
and what you've done in the past.  They condemn it because it isn't exactly
what they figured they would be getting.

No, this wasn't a huge part of the arc, which is one of the main complaints (as
is the case here).  So what?  Look, not everything that happens to me in my
life, or you in yours, is part of a specific thematic arc.  I came up with the
idea of a five year arc as a tool to give me MORE flexibility in storytelling,
to add a new tool to the form...not to find myself being told that if I do
something outside that very rigid arc that it's meaningless and shouldn't have
been made.

It was meant to be a light entertainment set in the B5 universe, nothing more,
nothing less.  That should be the purpose of the movies, to do some hard-arc
stuff, some lightly related stuff, and some stuff that is totally
self-contained...heavy stories and light stories, to provide the freedom to
*play* in the B5 universe.

And *that's* why I wrote the thing.  

And the ratings were terrific, with each quarter hour improving over the one
before, and I've gotten more positive email from people who have never watched
the show before than I have on anything else.  Because you don't have to know
the show to just sit back and enjoy this one.

Not everything should require that you do a massive amount of homework in order
to watch it; not everything has to be of the arc; not everything has to be
about angst.

I wrote this one just for fun.  

If you don't like it, fine; but to say it should not have been written, that
somehow it doesn't belong in the arc and therefore in your opinion shouldn't
exist, ain't your call to make, frankly, and just slaps on more limitations.

This is why there is so little divergence in the Star Trek shows; the studio
has learned that it has to more and more narrowly define what constitutes a
Star Trek story...and in time it becomes so narrow that you can't do much of
anything new in it.  

What the hell is the point of HAVING your own show if you can't from time to
time go out and just do a story that's completely off-base, just for fun, just
for yourself?  If nobody watches it, then you've got a problem...but in fact
this came out to be the 5th highest rated cable movie of the week, so by gosh a
lot of other people liked it as well.

I'm not defending the movie because there is nothing to defend.  It succeeded
for me, creatively, and it succeeded for TNT in the ratings, we got to test out
some new tech and CGI, and I got to fulfill a years-long desire to play with a
kind of Old Ones/Lovecraftian story.

Deal with it.

Maybe *you* want to so narrowly define the B5 universe that something like this
could not be done...but *I* have no interest in doing that.

The moment you lose the ability to change the format and play and tip-over the
whole thing, and do totally arbitrary things because they please you...you may
as well find yourself a comely shroud, because creatively you're dead.


 jms

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

Date: 26 Jul 1998 04:20:48 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Who Was Jack The Ripper Really???

Who was the one person whose wife actually wrote a letter to the London Times
suggesting that the ripper maybe was trying to tell them something, and that
maybe he'd stop if they listened?  Who was the last person to see at least two
of the victims alive on missions of mercy to the jail?  Who was reported to
have become unhinged by the filth in the area around the murders when he found
a rat in his breakfast? Who had medical experience? Who left England suddenly
after being questioned, with the murders stopping soon afterward?  Whose
transcripts of interviews with church officials and British police are *still*
kept under lock and key? Who is the sort of person who might say -- as the only
witness to hear the ripper reported hearing him remark to one of his victims --
"You would do anything but pray?"  Who had the same last name -- and was a
likely relative -- of the man living with the very last victim, the only one
killed in her room (suggesting she knew the killer)?

The Reverend Samuel Barnett.  That's my choice.  
 jms

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





Date: 26 Jul 1998 15:19:19 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: From UK: Final 5 - are they finished?

Yes, the episodes are finished, and in the can; have been for some time.  I
suspect, given the time frame here, that WB felt they should wait until the
final 5 are shown here for them to be shown overseas.

 jms

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





Date: 29 Jul 1998 16:12:59 -0600
Subject: Re: Cable Ace Awards?

>I was wondering when the cable ace awards are during the year.  It
>seems like a place ripe for B5 to pick up a few awards.

Absolutely.

Unfortunately, they just canceled the awards to fold cable into the regular
Emmys.

This is typical of our luck.

 jms

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





Date: 29 Jul 1998 16:14:27 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: B5 Making of?

>When B5 will show its final episode, it would be great to see a really big
>"B5-Making of" with behind the scenes-scenes, bluper (blooper?) reels and so
>on. I think that would be great for the fans.

I'll mention it.

>A week ago, "DF1", the german digital Pay-TV showed the whole 4th season at
>once (!!!) Yes, really! No kidding! no breaks, one episode after the other
>(I guess 18 or 22 hours.) 

Holy smokes...I wonder what the reaction was for folks seeing it that way.

 jms

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





Date: 29 Jul 1998 16:42:54 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Mind wanderings

I dunno...I don't like to spend a lot of time poking around in my subconscious
on these issues; there's albino alligators living down there, y'know.

 jms

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

Date: 30 Jul 1998 17:35:36 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Interesting B5 Experience

>I did some editing and found that I
>could fit a season on two T-160 cassettes (in the EP mode) if I only had one
>open/close credit per tape and cut all commercials.
>
>What I discovered is this, Babylon 5 really is incredible when viewed this
>way, it's like a 7h 35m movie!   

Exactly.  That was the challenge, to make it work on an episodic basis, but
then run together.  

This particularly works in S5 starting from about "Meditations" right through
"Sleeping in Light."  Just play it straight through, and it's one long episode.

 jms

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





Date: 30 Jul 1998 23:43:32 -0600
Subject: Re: jms-B5 Comic Collection?

Yes, they may collect other issues in future.

 jms

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





Date: 31 Jul 1998 17:17:23 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Bravo on acquiring Cole! A few questions, though...

>So - when will the series start? Have you any episodes written / or even
>started filming? Cole is to be the captain of what? A white star? A
>Terran Starship?  I'm anxious to start on this new adventure!

Begins airing January 6th; 6 episodes are now written; we start filming Monday;
and Cole's character is captain of the Excalibur, a prototype destroyer
combining human, Minbari and Vorlon tech.

 jms

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