lurkers-guide/ftp/Usenet/jms98-09-usenet

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


Date: 3 Sep 1998 00:42:28 -0600
Subject: Re: to jms: westercon

Folks who came got a preview screening of Thirdspace.
 jms

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





Date: 3 Sep 1998 10:30:04 -0600
Subject: new psi corps novel out

Just for those who haven't heard yet, the newest B5 novel -- first in a trilogy
of books about the origins of the Psi Corps through and beyond the events of
the fifth season -- is out.  "Dark Genesis," by J. Gregory Keyes, from a jms
outline.  For my money, this is probably one of the best B5 novels ever done,
and it takes quite a risk, because even though you see ancestors of some of our
characters (the books cover about 80 years), there are none of the regulars in
it.  It's our first attempt to really flesh out the B5 universe and future
history.  

Anyway, it's a hell of a read, and I commend it to you without reservation.

 jms

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

Date: 3 Sep 1998 15:36:59 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS - B5 LaserDisc Commentary

Apparently Image has now confirmed with WB that the widescreen versions do
indeed exist, so that's good...on the other hand, they were produced in PAL
format for overseas, and it costs a few pennies here and there to convert them
to NTSC standard for American use, and WB is wondering if it's worth the time
and effort to do so.

So a bunch of emails to Image encouraging them to continue to press on this
issue might have some weight....

And yes, we've discussed adding further material, such as commentaries,
bloopers, lost scenes, whatever.

 jms

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





Date: 6 Sep 1998 17:53:28 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS - Comparisons

>Last night, I was browsing the latest issue of TV Guide (the Canadian
>Edition) and was intrigued by the description of Mercy Point's premise
>as:  "Think of it as ER meets Babylon 5."
>
>I'm just curious what your reaction is to new shows being compared to
>B5.  

I'm fine with it, though each show should be allowed to find its own identity,
it shouldn't have to feel (nor should its viewers have to feel) it must be
compared with B5.  

That we've been able to create a new paradigm in SF TV is a niceness, and the
notice is welcome and long-overdue.

 jms

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





Date: 12 Sep 1998 22:21:08 -0600
Subject: Re: jms- Some Dark Genesis Comments/Questions (Some spoilers)

The next book is in at the publisher, and I should be getting a copy of the
manuscript in the next week or so.

 jms

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





Date: 12 Sep 1998 22:22:27 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: SiL postproduction

>Aside from it being done later and any changes in technology or technique
>resulting from that, was anything done to Sleeping in Light in
>postproduction differently from how it would have been done had there been
>no fifth season?

Nope.

 jms

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





Date: 18 Sep 1998 11:47:49 -0600
Subject: Re: The death of ISN


Understand that video clips fall under the aegis of the various Guilds: screen
actors guild, directors guild, writers guild, others.  Even *we* can't take,
digitize, and put up digital clips of shows at ANY length on thestation.com. 
This has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that this is not
allowable by anyone, for any reason, other than WB itself.  To allow even a 10
second clip on a TV talk show, there have to be waivers (usually automatically
given) by the guilds; it's a contractual issue that supercedes anything and
everything else.

Attempts to broaden this out to anything else are invalid because everyone else
is being left alone, because nobody else is doing this.  The policy stands.


 jms

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

Date: 18 Sep 1998 11:50:14 -0600
Subject: Re: VORcon contract problems?


Apparently a number of people have not been confirmed for this, including
Damien London, who sent me a note to say that while someone had spoken to him
about this months back, nothing else ever happened, and he's definitely NOT
confirmed.

 jms

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

Date: 19 Sep 1998 18:09:34 -0600
Subject: Re: A word to the wise.



The TNT memo was apparently real, from within the network to others in the
network.  But the egregious points have gone away.  

Not only that, but they've allocated a huge chunk of change for us to upgrade
sets and add a bunch of new sets to the series, stuff we'd been planning to do
later, but can do now instead.  


 jms

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

Date: 21 Sep 1998 01:18:16 -0600
Subject: sleeping in light suggestion


I was watching "Sleeping in Light" again today (I have a tendency to run the
last ten minutes plus the credits over and over...to see if it'll stop getting
to me, and so far it hasn't), and had some thoughts on it for folks out there. 

People often ask if there's anything they can do in return for B5, something
I'd like and I do have some ideas, here at the end, regarding SiL.

I think it would be a wonderful thing if more folks than usual got together for
viewing parties on this one.  Not newcomers, not folks who haven't seen the
show, just the "family," if you will.  If B5 has helped to create communities,
then I think this last episode should be for that community.

I also think you'll find some interesting tie-offs in this show...something
about Minbari beliefs about souls born in the hearts of suns, and a pay-off to
why the narrations of this series have always been in the past tense, and a
gift to the crew of this show...to which end I *strongly* suggest that even if
you don't normally tape this series, that you do tape *this* episode so you can
go back and check some stuff at the end.

"Sleeping in Light" airs in just a little over two months, and every time I
look at it, it has the sense of something very special coming to its
conclusion.  It's so damned hard watching it...and yet there's something about
it that is massively uplifting at the same time.

Anyway, I was just thinking that often viewing parties are used to bring in new
folks to B5, but this one, I think, should be for the family.  Maybe local fan
groups want to get together, find someone with a good-sized TV, and watch. 
It's one of those Moments, I think, that will be remembered a long time
thereafter.

And I've got TNT's promise not to run a voice-over or squish the credits at the
end.

 jms

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

Date: 22 Sep 1998 14:57:20 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Outlining Dark Genesis?



I think my outlines for each of the Psi Corps novels was about ten pages each. 
It spelled out the broad strokes of what happened in each one of them, and left
Gregory to fill in the gaps and work out the details in conjunction with myself
and our reference editor, so that all the timelines jived and everything made
canonical sense.

 jms

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






From schillin@spock.usc.edu Tue Sep 22 14:56:28 1998
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From: schillin@spock.usc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Subject: Re: VORcon contract problems?
Subject: Re: VORcon contract problems?
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 23:28:43 +0100
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 23:28:43 +0100
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Britwombat wrote in message <19980917115255.03502.00000582@ng155.aol.com>...
>
>>
>>Has VORcon established contracts with the stars they have scheduled to
appear
>>next month? If not, how can you guarantee the convention will go on as
>>planned?
>>
>
>I was at Starcon at the end of August where Jason Carter was a guest.  He
was
>heavily promoting VorCon with his convention manager, Luther Trotter, and
>according to him, it is all confirmed.
>
>Cari

Luther is the co-organiser of VORcon, apparently.

Ali





From schillin@spock.usc.edu Tue Sep 22 14:56:36 1998
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From: schillin@spock.usc.edu
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Subject: Re: Fw: A word to the wise.
Subject: Re: Fw: A word to the wise.
Date: 21 Sep 1998 14:58:03 GMT
Date: 21 Sep 1998 14:58:03 GMT
Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Inc Raleigh, NC
Orig-From: berrpm@aur.alcatel.com (Patrick M. Berry)
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In article <007e01bde43e$cffe59a0$5e327118@cr1003146-a.crdva1.bc.wave.home.com>, "Jeff Vavasour" <jeffv@physics.ubc.ca> writes:
>     [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
>     [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
>     [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
> 
> Jms at B5 <jmsatb5@aol.com> wrote:
> >The TNT memo was apparently real, from within the network to others in the
> >network.  But the egregious points have gone away.  
> 
> Dare I ask, might the fan uproar have encouraged some reconsideration?

It's probably encouraged some reconsideration of their security measures.




From schillin@spock.usc.edu Tue Sep 22 14:56:38 1998
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From: schillin@spock.usc.edu
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Subject: *crunchcrunch*  What?? (was: ATTN JMS: Any more Crusade news?
Subject: *crunchcrunch*  What?? (was: ATTN JMS: Any more Crusade news?
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 13:29:40 -0700
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 13:29:40 -0700
Organization: PsiCorps
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Orig-From: Rat & Swan <labrat@pacbell.net>
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ck@zipcon.net wrote:
 
> See, it's not the coffee that's the problem for me, it's those damned
> styrofoam cups. Other people look at me strange the first time they see me
> finish one off, but I say, if you're going to enjoy a cup of coffee, you
> might as well get the whole experience.
 
> *burp*

Huh? (blinking) B-but you're making it sound as if Styrofoam ISN'T
supposed to be eaten!

What do I do with all these packing peanuts and clam dip?

Guess I'll have to call the family and tell 'em to stay home. Party's
off 'til we find some crisps...

I have to say that from context alone, one can NEVER tell for sure what
Earthers consider to be food! Hph!

Swan


Psi Corps

Date: 22 Sep 1998 19:22:53 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: galen


> i'm
>looking forward to "crusade" because of the galen-character.  i saw a
>clip of galen at westercon, and i was really impressed.  is peter
>woodward doing as well in the role as you had hoped?

Peter is superb as Galen, utterly brilliant.  I think we lucked into a
character and an actor that is going to be extremely popular with fans.  I
couldn't be happier with his work to date; I'd put his work up there with Peter
Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas, easily.

>also, i live in the san diego area.  when did you move here, how long
>did you live here, and did you like it?

I lived in San Diego a few times, the last being from about 1974 to 1981.  I
actually rather enjoyed living there (I went to and graduated from San Diego
State during that time).  I cut my teeth as a journalist there, and got my
first stage credits.  I felt that the town was a little too provincial, and
still is a bit, but would've stayed if what I wanted to do could be done there,
but living in LA is necessary to work in TV.  Figures that they'd upgrade the
place just after I left....

 jms

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

Date: 22 Sep 1998 23:32:06 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS - production halted?


Yeah, actually I mentioned this in passing a couple of days ago on
Compuserve...wasn't that big a deal, but to recap for here:

In addition to the Christmas break, we have always taken a one-week hiatus in
the middle of shooting to avoid burning out cast and crew.  This was true of B5
throughout its history.  One week in the fall, one in the spring.

TNT has allocated additional money to build some major (large) new sets that we
had thought we'd have to wait until season 2 to implement, and to improve some
of the sets.  (We were always fighting to spiff up sets throughout B5, and we
always had to bring in our new sets gradually, like Earharts and the War Room
and others.) 

Since they're going to give us the money for that now, we figued we'd extend
the hiatus by a few weeks (a paid break for most of the actual shooting crew),
though we still have the art department, costume, construction, props and
several other departments still working away to build the sets and stuff.

We start shooting again October 19th.

 jms

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





Date: 23 Sep 1998 17:30:52 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Sleeping in Light the day before Thanksgiving (US)?


>I looked at my calendar, and the schedule for the final episodes puts
>"Sleeping in Light" on the day before Thanksgiving.  That's a lousy
>place to put a season/series finale--lots of people are
>traveling/visiting family on that date.
>

On the other hand, not everybody has family to travel to, or the means to
travel.  So perhaps a family gathering of another type, particularly among
folks new to each other in local fan areas, might be even more appropros.

 jms

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





Date: 25 Sep 1998 23:36:43 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn Joe: SIL viewing parties


>But what I want to
>suggest is that not only do we set up viewing parties at homes, but maybe
>at Sports Bars as well, as long as it is cleared with the places to avoid
>scheduling conflicts with a sporting event.

Given the content, and the likely reaction of fans to that content, a sports
bar is probably the *least* correct venue....

 jms

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





Date: 28 Sep 1998 18:29:03 -0600
Subject: Re: Attn Joe: SIL viewing parties


>Great. We're gonna cry, aren't we?
>
Yup.

At least twice.

 jms

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





Date: 29 Sep 1998 16:03:25 -0600
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: songwriting


>i read at the lurker's guide that you once wrote a song with a member of
>the busboys.  what music-performer would you most like to write a song
>for?

I ain't that good to write for the people I like to listen to...

 jms

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