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- b5_jms_answers.txt JMS's Answers & Info about Babylon 5 09/25/94
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- This document contains a selection of actual quotes by J.Michael Straczynski,
- creator of Babylon 5, from Usenet, GEnie, and CIS groups. The latest version
- of this document can be found via anonymous FTP at ftp.hyperion.com.
-
- This document contains:
- * Extractions from the more-or-less complete GEnie/Usenet/CIS JMS archives.
- * An organized set of information & answers to questions, paraphrased here.
- * Fun tidbits of useful and useless information you may have missed.
- * Answers to questions you might have, so look in the FAQ and in here first!
- * Original typos and anachronisms. These are direct quotes, you see!
- * Some lead-ins from quotes may be confusing based on questions asked.
- * Minor spoilers (more like tidbits) for present and future episoded.
- * Keywords to help you find a subject. Search for an important word
- (singular, not plural, and lowercase) preceeded by the ~ mark.
- Examples : ~delenn ~g'kar ~twin-peaks
- * An index of keywords can be found at the end of the document.
- * An update -- many additions, some deletions -- of the 5/14/94 version.
- (most episode-specific stuff is gone; see the guide pages.)
-
- |
- | Changes: Took out much episode-specific stuff (better off in the guide
- | pages) and obsolete information, and added new information. Some general
- | information on season 2 exists, though season 1 is still the main topic.
- |
-
- This file contains material Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 by J. Michael
- Straczynski. He has given permission for his words to be redistributed
- online, as long as they are marked as being copyright JMS. This compilation
- is Copyright 1994 by Dan Wood, and may be distributed electronically.
-
- Comments, corrections, and additions are encouraged via e-mail. This document
- is being maintained by dan wood <danwood@pobox.com>. Thanks to David "jazz"
- Navas, Elana Beach, Kyle Haight, Michael "Admiral" Zecca, Michele Worley, Lee
- Whiteside, David Strauss, and the Psi Corps. And so it begins.....
-
- =============== Contents ===============
-
- I. Story
- II. Aliens
- General; Language; Vorlons; Centauri; Minbari; Narn
- III. Characters
- Delenn; Franklin; G'Kar; Garibaldi; Hernandez; Ivanova; Kosh;
- Lennier; Londo; n'grath; Na'Toth; Sakai; Sheridan; Sinclair
- IV. Technology
- Station; Ships; Jump Gates; Weapons; Communication; Medicine; Other
- V. Universe
- Vision; Earth Alliance; Psi-corps; Powers; Miscellaneous
- VI. The Pilot
- VII. The Episodes
- VIII. Books and Comics
- IX. Show Production
- Writing; Casting; Music; Visual Effects; Makeup; Sound; Editing;
- Video; Production; Promos
- X. Audience
- XI. Nitpicks
- XII. Will there be...?
- XIII. Products
- XIV. JMS Himself
- XV. Miscellany
- XVI. INDEX OF KEYWORDS
-
- =============== Story ===============
-
- ==== ~date ~episode ~time ~story ~2258 ~year ~month ~day
-
- ???? What will the timeline be in the B5 story?
-
- I'm working it so that real-time comes close to paralleling story-time in
- the series. The events of the series will pick up approximately six months
- after the events of the pilot. We'll have crossed into another year, so the
- first "year" in which the series takes place is 2258, year two of the series
- (if we get that far) would be 2259, and so on.
- ---
- No, we generally don't announce the day/month in the episodes, though
- sometimes dates or seasons are referred to tangentially or offhandedly. The
- real significant progression is year to year, which is why each year of the
- show will be marked in the opening narration and parallel real time (season 1:
- 2258, season 2: 2259, etc.).
- ---
- There will be some time between episodes in the B5 universe; in some
- cases it's about a week, in some cases much longer, as long as we end up
- covering roughly a year.
- ---
- Approximately nine months have passed since the time of the pilot and the
- birth of the series.
-
- ==== ~arc ~story ~five ~miss ~episode ~emerge ~change ~file
-
- ???? How is the B5 story going to be told? If B5 is a five-year arc,
- will I miss out if I miss some episodes?
-
- I've constructed the B5 writing scenario more or less as follows:
-
- 1) Each episode will be able to stand alone. If you come in on season
- two, without having seen anything else, you'll be able to get into it.
-
- 2) Questions asked in the course of an episode or a season will be
- answered in that episode or season.
-
- 3) BUT...if you continue to watch the show, then over time a story writ
- on a much larger scale will begin to emerge. Consider it like a triptych,
- something out of Hieronymous Bosch...each individual panel is sufficient unto
- itself, but put them all together, and suddenly you see connections and a
- whole picture that wasn't there a moment earlier.
-
- Relationships will change. People will live, and die. Alliances wll
- shift. And at one point or another, everything you THINK you know about these
- characters will be turned upside down.
- ---
- You have to understand the way this show is going to be structured. There
- aren't going generally going to be a lot of loose threads hanging around.
- Episodes will resolve themselves. It's just that, from time to time, we'll
- carom off some point that seems tangential, but which will later become
- significant. You don't have to watch every episode. Hell, if I do this right
- -- and this is one hell of a hat trick, lemme tell you, when it comes to
- structure -- you can even watch them out of ORDER, within a season, and still
- follow what's going on. The trick is to make it so that if something slips
- past, the viewer doesn't trip over it. And when you do an episode that you've
- set up before, that set-up should in some subtle, non-heavy-expository way, be
- re-established for those who might not have seen the episode.
-
- Telling people "This is a five year arc" in a big way almost as a warning
- is actually more destructive than constructive; it might lead people to think
- that they need to commit five years of their lives to get the whole story, and
- it's hard to get people to commit to even one ten-hour miniseries. You can
- watch any part you want, and get a good, solid, independently enjoyable
- hour-show out of it. You can come in at any point you want. The key is that
- the more you watch, the more you will pick up on the nuances and the threads
- we're going to be playing with. Generally, we're going to keep those threads
- a bit light in the first season, then begin to draw in more of the general
- story arc in the second and subsequent seasons. Let's use the first year to
- get the audience comfortable with the B5 universe, and with our characters,
- and in a handful of episodes, carefully begin leading everyone where we want
- them to go, so that when we start to accellerate things in year two, those
- who've been with us from the start can get right into it, and those who come
- to the show late can play catch up without any problem.
- ---
- The 5 year arc is worked out in considerable detail; 200 single spaced
- pages in a triple-encrypted file.
- ---
- There is a five-year story arc, yes. What's planned? Cool stuff.
- ---
- That said...I think the ending for the B5 storyline is pretty cool.
-
- That said...I don't think it's really about the ending. The ending is
- simply where the story finally stops. Look at the ending of THE LORD OF THE
- RINGS. Frodo back in the shire (though not entirely the same shire it was
- when he left), glad that it's all over.
- ---
- Will you be satisfied by the ending? More to the question, are you being
- satisfied by the beginning, and the journey so far? That's the more telling
- question. B5 is more about the journey than the destination, though you have
- to craft one hell of a climax and a solid ending nonetheless.
- ---
- I think maybe 45-50% of our subtext and allusions have been noted to
- date, which is *real* good.
- ---
- Actually, one follow-up...one thing we've been very careful about is that
- when something is referenced in episode 9 that took place in episode 3, you
- don't *have* to have seen episode 3 for it to make sense; the information you
- need is collapsed or somehow incorporated into the dialogue in episode 9.
- Meaning that while VCRs and repeated viewings and groups can help to *predict*
- stuff, you don't need to have seen ANY prior episodes of the show to enjoy any
- one episode of the show.
-
- But the *more* you watch, the more you get out of it.
-
- ==== ~arc ~twin-peaks
-
- ???? Watching Twin Peaks requires watching every episode, will B5 really
- be any different?
-
- The comment re: Twin Peaks is correct; I loved TP dearly, but if you
- missed one episode, you were screwed. The way the story is constructed, you
- can come in at any point, even miss episodes, and still be able to follow the
- thing. It's just that the *more* you watch, the more you'll get out of it.
- the more things you'll pick up on. It's a very difficult task from a writing
- point of view, but worth the effort, I think.
-
- ==== ~extend ~beyond ~more ~five ~series ~story ~thread ~franchise
-
- ???? Any chance of extending beyond five years?
-
- What happens at the end of the five year arc? The "Babylon 5" series
- ends...if I have anything to say about it (and I do). If something esle
- follows, we'll see what that is, but it won't be the same series, or the same
- title, or really the same characters.
-
- Barring that very distant possibility, at the end of the five year arc, I
- take a very, very, VERY long nap....
- ---
- Re: the end of the 5th year...I've noted before that there is a thread
- raised during the B5 run that could be extended into its own series. But it
- wouldn't be B5. The story of Babylon 5 ends at the end of the fifth year.
- regardless.
- ---
- I'm being very careful not to let B5 turn into a *franchise*. It's a
- story, created in X-parts, for television. This thing will turn into an
- industry over my dead body. The most that the framework will permit is a
- 2-hour TV movie that caps year 5. That's it.
-
- ==== ~season ~five ~year ~22
-
- ???? Though the story is locked into a five year time frame, is there a
- chance of more than 22 episodes per season?
-
- At this point, it's way too early to even *think* about topics like
- expanded seasons. Obviously, yes, we could easily expand each season's worth
- of episodes from a story point of view. That ain't no kind of problem. As
- for the rest...only time will tell.
-
- ==== ~philosophy ~holographic ~story ~arc ~episode ~image
-
- Had an interesting conversation today with one of our crew. I was
- talking to someone else about the writing philosophy on the show, and how it's
- comparable to a tryptich...you line up the stories and you begin to see a much
- broader story after a while. A series of interconnected images.
-
- And this crew person said that I was wrong, that wasn't how the show is
- being done. Now lemme tell you...we encourage people on every level to speak
- frankly, at any time, to any one, but it takes considerable cojones to say
- something like that to one's exec producer, that he has his own series wrong
- in the description. "Oh?" says I.
-
- He explains that what it is, is "holographic storytelling." I asked him
- what the hell this meant. He said that the image of pictures side by side.
- linear storytelling, wasn't right. That after he read two scripts, he went
- back and reread the first one, and now he could see things in it that he
- hadn't seen before. When he'd read three, again he glanced over the first.
- and new things had come out.
-
- "What it IS," he said, "is not side-by-side images, but *overlaping*
- images, like old fashioned photographic plates stacked up one on top of the
- other. Each has a piece of the whole picture. When you line them all up, one
- behind the other, and look through all of them at once, you realize what the
- picture is. It's three-dimensional storytelling."
-
- I had to think about that one a long time, but frankly, he's right, and
- I'm wrong. That *IS* what we're doing, and I've been describing it
- incorrectly all this time.
-
- Holographic storytelling...well, live and learn, I say.
-
- ==== ~story ~arc ~ditillio ~five ~lunatic
-
- Just recently, btw, I gave Larry DiTillio a printout with just a little
- of the coming 5 year arc...if he's going to story edit, he needs to know what
- lines not to cross, and I can't ride herd on that all the time. He took it
- home, read it. Called me. Didn't even say hello. Began the conversation
- with, "You are out of your f'ing mind." I asked for some small clarification
- of his position. He indicated that he thought it was absolutely great.
- something that'll really go down in the rolls when the final tally is done.
- "But you GOT to be out of your f'ing mind to try and pull something like this
- off. It *can* be done...but it takes a lunatic to do it."
-
- Sounds about right.
- ---
- Kiwi...understand that no changes are just made willy-nilly (to use your
- term). This is a STORY. As with any story, any novel, you have your moments
- of surprise, of sudden turns where you kick over all of the tables and watch
- the pieces scatter. But the writer already knows where the pieces will land.
- It's all according to plan. Nobody's going to be screwed over. Anymore than
- when somebody reading, say, a Stephen King book feels screwed over when
- suddenly Salem's Lot, a nice quiet little town, suddenly gets filled with
- undead and characters are suddenly going through some remarkable
- changes...it's all part of the story.
-
- ==== ~opening ~narration ~future ~history ~past ~tense
-
- ???? How does the narration relate to the telling of the story?
-
- My sense is that we have Sinclair narrating from some point in the
- future. The transition of grammar takes place as we push into the station.
- from the outside in. This was the last of the Babylon stations, and this
- particular segment of it is set in 2258. (Season two would say, "The year is
- 2259." And so on.)
-
- Many here will remember a show called "You Are There." The usual
- narrator would say, paraphrasing here but keeping the grammar, "The year 1776
- was crucial to our nation's history. The founding fathers were on the brink
- of declaring independence. It's a moment of great importance. The year is
- 1776...and You Are There." It's along those lines. The purpose of the
- narrative changes to transition us into the story.
- ---
- The tense shifts are intentional, and go with the scenes we're seeing.
- They're *supposed* to shift, with the visuals, in order to bring us into the
- present from the future, at which point this story is being introduced.
-
- ==== ~narration ~pilot ~opening ~londo ~history ~third ~age
-
- ???? Why did Londo do the narration in the pilot?
-
- Yeah, Londo seems like the *least* likely person to do the opening
- narration for a show like this; you don't even see him for nearly two full
- acts, and it's the kind of thing you'd expect the Commander to do.
-
- But there are reasons for everything....
- ---
- "Mankind" was being used by Londo specifically in relation to humans, not
- sentient aliens including his own race. Earthers. Which was one reason (of
- many) I wanted his character to be the narrator, someone looking in from the
- outside.
-
- As for the Third Age, it's -- oh, darn, look at the time, have to go....
-
- ==== ~narration ~season
-
- ???? What about narration for upcoming seasons?
-
- For the series, my feeling is that the intro should be as short as
- possible, almost more for mood than for information.
- ---
- The rotating narrator thing was something that I mentioned en passant at
- the LosCon screening of "Midnight." What I noted was that I was considering
- rotating the narrators each season; Londo for the pilot; Sinclair for year
- one; Ivanova for year two; Garibaldi for year three; G'Kar for year four; and
- Delenn for year five. Haven't decided yet if I'm going to do it or not....
- ---
- Yes, we will definitely be changing the narration each year; the year two
- narration will likely be shorter, with some personal touch (I'm in the process
- of writing it now), and it'll vary in phraseology with each new narrator.
- ---
- Second year narration will be Sheridan. Third year probably either
- Ivanova or Delenn. Fourth year G'Kar. Fifth year...possibly no one.
- ---
- Yes, we'll definitely be redesigning the opening sequence visually as
- well as in the narrative.
-
- ==== ~name ~babylon ~why ~myth ~history ~four
-
- ???? Why "Babylon 5"?
-
- Thing is, Babylon has become a myth that can be interpreted and
- re-interpreted a zillion ways, and can't be unmentioned forever because of one
- of those interpretations. That's why the name has come up more times than I
- want to think about, in song and story. (Remember the song "Babylon," by, I
- believe, Donovan?) We did a titles search before we began production, and the
- title Babylon 1 has been used 4 times, Babylon 2 has been used twice, Babylon
- 3 appears in a copyrighted song title, and Babylon 4 has also been used
- (though neither copyrighted nor trademarked, so we've taken that step). Which
- also goes to Somtow using a Babylon 5 in his story. It's a name that merits
- lots of re-interpretations.
- ---
- And here's a little something to consider. Some have noted the location
- of B5's namesake, it's proximity to the Tigres and Euphrates, that sort of
- thing...speculated on other aspects of the show...but much of what you need to
- know about what will eventually happen in the course of the B5 story arc is
- already available to you. In any decent desk encyclopedia.
-
- What, you thought I pulled the name Babylon out of a hat? Let's just say
- that there are going to be some interesting historical parallels....
- ---
- You have to really dig to get any good material on Babylon; it's not a
- big topic among commercial publishers, you really have to go for the academic
- publishing houses. (Beware of religious publishing houses in this area; they
- have their own spin on things that tends to infect the text.)
- ---
- Ancient Babylon kind of began with a good idea, to form a central
- location for business, commerce, trading...and gradually went downhill from
- there. The *idea* was solid, and that was the goal of the Babylon
- project...to form a place, a freeport, of trading, where cultures could come
- together. And it sounded exotic. Naturally, no one expects Babylon 5 to go
- the way of the original Babylon....
-
- After all, we're *so* much smarter now.
-
- ==== ~four ~story ~squared ~ditillio ~thornton ~three ~two ~one
-
- ???? Will we find out what happened to Babylon four, three, two, one?
-
- After the meeting, Ron Thornton and I were talking, and he said, "Okay.
- what's the deal on Babylon 4? I mean, are we ever going to see what happened
- to it, or see it again?"
-
- I smiled. "Do you REALLY want to know?"
-
- He considered it for a moment. I think he gets nervous when I smile like
- that. "Okay...sure."
-
- So I told him. And his eyes went wide as pancakes. It was a wonderful.
- Tex Avery effect. "Get out of here," he said, at first sure I was kidding. I
- explained that I was quite serious.
-
- Last I saw him, he was wandering off, muttering to himself, but growing
- increasingly enchanted with the idea....
- ---
- The EA has owned all of the Babylons; 1-3 were sabotaged early in
- construction, so it wasn't too much of a loss. They dumped a BIG budget into
- B4, and when that died, barely passed the budget for #5, skimping all the way.
- cutting it down to bare bones operating expenses. They will and would never
- approve a #6.
- ---
- B4 never got as far as having a commander attached to it. The last
- stages of construction on Babylon 4 were supervised by one Major Krantz.
- assigned specifically to that task. He managed to get the station completed.
- and on-line, and Earthforce was just beginning the process of selecting a
- commanding officer to run the station when, 24 hours after the station became
- operational, it vanished, taking roughly 1,200 of its skeleton crew with it
- (including Major Krantz).
- ---
- B1-B4 were located in roughly the same sector, with B4 using some of the
- materials from 1-3 leftover. B5 was constructed about 3 hours (traveling time
- in real-space) from the location of B4.
-
- ==== ~first ~season ~story ~squared ~who ~what ~why ~answer ~line
-
- ???? What will the first season be like? What kinds of things will happen?
-
- So far, this season you'll learn a lot about all the cultures of our
- ambassadors, especially the Big Four; you'll see the League of Non-Aligned
- Worlds in action; you'll learn a LOT about the Psi Corps, Earth government and
- economics, the inner workings of Babylon 5, the history of the Babylon
- project, Sinclair's background (also a lot about Ivanova's and Garibaldi's
- past)...you'll see a darker side of Londo, a lighter side of G'Kar, a more
- ambiguous side of Delenn, some very weird sides of Kosh...and you'll come away
- with a real sense of B5 as a *place*, a habitat, where things are, what they
- do, how it works. There will be an awful lot of action, and an even greater
- amount of humor...there are parts of the show that, even having seen them 16
- times, are still fall-down funny.
-
- Other than that...not much to say.
- ---
- Since Mike mentioned it...yes. "Babylon Squared" answers the B4
- question...though posing new questions about *why*. Basically, every question
- we ask going into the first season we will answer, because I don't think it's
- right or fair or smart to keep people hanging around 3 years to get a simple
- answer to a simple question. Season 1 of B5 is what I generally call the
- "what" season...you find out WHAT the Psi Corps is, WHAT happened at the
- Battle of the Line, WHAT happened to Babylon 4, and so on...whereas Season 2
- is the "why" season...WHY did that happen to Sinclair? And so on. New
- questions arise, and we proide new answers, generally within the course of the
- following season, but while at all times making sure that each episode stands
- alone, regardless of where and which season you enter the series as a viewer.
-
- (It's kinda like being one of those guys on the old Ed Sullivan show.
- spinning plates on top of long, thin rods...there's a LOT to keep in motion at
- all times.)
-
- I'd classify the pilot movie as "who."
- ---
- Season one will generally answer 90% of the questions raised in season
- one; season two will answer the remaining 10%, and answer 90% of the questions
- raised in season two...and so on. There will not be a sense of unfulfilled
- waiting.
- ---
- You will find out what happened to Sinclair, for starters, during the
- Earth/Minbari war. In that respect, the pilot movie is like the first chapter
- of a novel. For nearly 10 years, Sinclair has worked to convince himself that
- nothing happened to him on the Line other than what seems to be the case: that
- he blacked out for 24 hours. He's just managed to convince himself of this.
- Now, suddenly, someone comes into his life and with seven words -- you'll know
- them when you hear them -- completely unravels the self-deception. He knows
- then that something DID happen to him, that someone DID mess with his
- mind...and he is going to find out who, and why.
-
- This he will do. And the ramifications of that discovery will have a
- major influence on the series, on his relationships, and the future of not
- only his character but many others.
-
- You will see what a Vorlon is...and what it represents. And what it may
- have to do with our own saga, and a hidden relationship to some of our other
- characters (watch the reception scene carefully). We'll discover that there
- are MANY players in this game.
-
- One thing that separates this show from others is that on other shows.
- very often you do things to them to make for interesting drama...you take them
- prisoner, you make them kids, whatever...in this show, it's what's INSIDE the
- characters that will pose the greatest problems...and the greatest
- possibilities for drama. Most every major character is either running to, or
- away from something in their hearts, or their pasts, or their careers.
- Garibaldi's past will catch up with him in a very difficult way that will
- affect his role and make him a very different character for as much as a full
- season, and have lasting effects thereafter. Lyta will take part in a voyage
- of discovery that will very much change her character.
-
- Some of the established empires will fall. Some will rise. Hopes and
- fortunes will be alternately made or destroyed. At least one major group not
- yet known even to EXIST will make its presence known, but only gradually. Some
- characters will fall from grace. Others will make bargains whose full price
- they do not understand...but will eventually come to realize, and regret.
-
- At the end of the first season, one character will undergo a major, MAJOR
- change, which will start the show spinning on a very different axis. The first
- season will have some fairly conventional stories, but others will start the
- show gradually moving toward where I want it to go. One has to set these
- things up gradually. Events in the story -- which is very much the story of
- Jeffrey Sinclair -- will speed up in each subsequent season.
-
- Someone he considers a friend will betray him. Another will prove to be
- the exact opposite of what Sinclair believes to be true. Some will live. Some
- will die. He will be put through a crucible of terrible force, that will
- change him, and alter his destiny, in a profound and terrible way...if he goes
- one way, or the other, will determine not only his own fate, but that of
- millions of others. He will grow, and become stronger, better, wiser...or be
- destroyed by what fate is bringing his way. In sum, it is a story of hope
- against terrible adversity and overwhelming odds.
-
- That, in broad brush strokes, is a *taste* of what I plan to do with the
- series. I note this here because when the pilot airs, I am going to ask for
- your continued help in supporting the endeavor for the series, and it occurs
- to me that you ought to have at least SOME idea of what you're buying, and
- being asked to support. One should never be asked to sign a blank check on
- the bank of one's conscience.
-
- ==== ~second ~season
-
- ???? What kinds of stuff do we get in the second season?
-
- Overall title for season two: "The Coming of Shadows."
- ---
- Next season's last episode will not be a cliffhanger per se, but will,
- like "Chrysalis," just escalate the hell out of the show.
- ---
- Haven't yet seen or heard what the airdate schedule will be like for next
- year, but like you I hope it'll be with more new episodes straight through.
- and fewer interruptions by reruns.
- ---
- There will be 22 episodes in season two.
- ---
- Yes, in season two, we'll be seeing a lot of the jumpgates from up close,
- and straight through.
-
- ==== ~adult ~nudity ~mature
-
- ???? Will the show feature mature themes?
-
- You really have to do whatever's right by the story. Some adult themes
- have to be handled in an adult fashion. There are some very adult themes in
- B5. Some you may like, some you may not. I don't think we'll be able to go
- in for nudity or the like because I don't think the stations would permit it.
- If they did...I still don't know if I'd use it or not, because it would really
- depend on the story.
-
- ==== ~cliffhanger ~finale ~season ~end ~chapter ~change
-
- ???? Will seasons be ending in cliffhangers?
-
- As for "season finale cliffhangers," that depends on how you define that.
- If you mean a cliffhanger that, once resolved at the start of the next season.
- ends up having been more or less meaningless...no, we won't be doing that. But
- the end of each planned season will make a left turn designed to bring the
- show in new directions that will have long-erm (or long-term) effects on all
- of our characters.
-
- Whether it's a chapter ending in a book, or an act break in a TV series.
- you build to a moment of change and transition, upping the stakes at each
- turn. That's how our season-enders are constructed.
- ---
- RE: cliffhangers...not between episodes, certainly. Between seasons.
- it's...hard to explain. There are, or will be *changes* that happen from one
- season to another (as planned), specific events that take place that should
- bring one up short...but "cliffhanger" in the sense of leaving some guy
- hanging from a string over a lake of fire...no, no plans for such at this
- time.
-
- ==== ~lie ~truth ~pilot
-
- Matt: I like it when people lie in television, and we find out about it
- over time. The "lost colony" routine was one such. At one point, Garibaldi
- confronts Londo with this as reason for why he doesn't trust the Centauri.
- Londo shrugs it off as a "clerical error." There will be a few points in the
- series when we'll get information, and we'll buy into it...and discover after
- a while that that character bald-facedly lied to the other character (and, by
- proxy, to us). And naturally there will be consequences to this....
- ---
- Actually, at one point or another, just about *everyone* lied in the
- course of the pilot...including Sinclair, who lied to G'Kar, and of course
- Delenn lying to Sinclair in the Garden...and so on.
-
- Basically, I have this theory that there are five kinds of truth. (This
- is Joe's Theory of the Five Truths.) There is the truth you tell to casual
- strangers and acquaintances. There is the truth you tell to your general
- circle of friends and family members. There is the truth you tell to only one
- or two people in your entire life. There is the truth you tell to yourself.
- And finally, there is the truth that you do not admit even to yourself. And
- it's that fifth truth that provides some of the most interesting drama.....
-
- ==== ~laurel ~pilot ~abandon ~story ~inside ~assassin
-
- This isn't so much a spoiler, since it concerns an abandoned story like
- (or, let me rephrase that...a modified story line). I mention this here since
- I just mentioned it elsewhere, and might as well do so here.
-
- Think hard about the pilot for a moment. Whose job is it in the
- observation dome to monitor incoming ships...but apparently let the spider
- transport slip through unnoticed? The station's skin should have (and likely
- did) detect something clamping onto it...but apparently someone over-rode that
- for the spider transport. Someone had to PRE-arrange access via the computer
- for the assassin, since it easily palms its way into Varner's quarters. (And
- what is the name of the person the access computer recognizes?) Someone had
- to arrange for the transport tube to be delayed, and then *erase* that
- information from the computer system. Someone who knew *exactly* when the
- Vorlon ship would be docking. We see, at various times, the following people
- interacting with the assassin, in different capacities: Garibaldi, Lyta.
- G'Kar, Londo, Dr. Kyle, and of course, much later, Sinclair. Who did we never
- see in direct contact with the assassin? Who was put in charge of the station
- after Sinclair was removed?
-
- Do you notice a pattern developing? Do certain things here point to a
- certain individual...who may, or may not, have been acting on her own
- volition?
-
- And yes, this is something we planned to explore, though it wasn't on a
- *direct* line to the arc of our story. It definitely impinged upon it, of
- course. This has been modified due to the change in the character of the
- Lieutenant Commander, and this now won't go where it was going to go...but we
- still have some very interesting plans for our secondary character, not at all
- along the Takashima lines (which is why this isn't a spoiler), but certainly
- intriguing on their own terms.
- ---
- Now, I didn't say she was a villain. I said that certain things may or
- may not have been done of her own free will, her own volition. What this
- means...we'll see.
- ---
- The one thing that I dropped fairly completely due to the delay in
- getting the series going was the Laurel thread, which has now mutated and
- become something even more interesting, actually. It's something that's
- enabled me to now build in a trap door that you won't see for a long time.
- even though it's sitting there in plain sight.
-
- =============== Aliens ===============
-
- ======= General
-
- ==== ~variation ~alien ~diversity
-
- ???? Will there be diversity among aliens, just as there are among humans?
-
- Yes, I *strongly* believe that there has to be diversity among our alien
- races...accents, political beliefs, religion, name it. I think that is VERY
- important. Yes, from time to time, you want the monolithic, perfectly
- homogeneous aliens, but if so, you want them to stick out a bit in contrast to
- the rest.
- ---
- G'Kar has the dominant accent of his people.
-
- So does Kosh.
-
- ==== ~alien ~humanoid ~n'grath ~grail ~kosh ~oyster ~pak'ma'ra ~cgi ~shadow
-
- ???? Will we see really non-humanoid aliens?
-
- Re: Non-humanoid...bear in mind, you still haven't seen what Kosh is
- inside that suit...others, very non-humanoid, will make their appearances down
- the road...and there's one race that has not yet been heard from, one shadow
- government so secretive its existence is only whispered about, and when *they*
- make their appearance, and you finally see what *they* look like...well, let's
- just say that I've talked at some length with our EFX people, and it'll take
- about 2 years to work out how to do this and make it credible.
- ---
- What you have to understand, though, is that if you're going to have a
- character BE a character, alien or not, you've basically got two choices: put
- a human actor in makeup of some kind or other. or you use puppets or
- animatronics, and in general the technology to realize that still isn't enough
- to make it really lifelike.
- ---
- Okay, but now, the only problem is...let's say we take your advice, and
- build an alien around the design of an oyster. Now we have Sinclair having a
- converstion with an oyster. Can you *imagine* the audience reaction? Some
- things sound nice in theory, but when you build it, and try to play it for
- drama...it ends up very, very badly.
- ---
- On the other hand, the pak'ma'ra, which you'll get a good look at in
- "Legacies," are *quite* different from earth critters.
- ---
- We were going to have a CGI creature in the bar at one point, but vetoed
- it at the last minute. So it's not there. However, a CGI
- character/alien/critter does play a substantive on-camera role in one episode
- this season entitled "Grail."
- ---
- We've had other kinds of aliens, including the CGI creature in "Grail,"
- and we're doing more non-humanoid stuff in year two. mixing prosthetics with
- CGI.
-
- ==== ~alien ~drazi ~abbai ~fishhead ~pak'ma'ra
-
- ???? What are some of the non-aligned aliens?
-
- Well, let's see...there's the Drazi (slightly purplish heads, the ones
- who beat the crap out of the guy in "War Prayer," and brought in the Drazi
- Sunhawk in "Deathwalker"), the pak'ma'ra (the ones who shuffle through frame
- in greenish robes, with tentacles where their mouths should be...and about
- whom there is something very weird, rather icky, which you'll see in
- "Legacies"), the Abbai, commonly known around the studio as "fishheads"...will
- post a fuller description later. Those are the ones you see mainly in DW.
-
- ==== ~drazi ~violent ~deathwalker ~prayer ~survivors ~sunhawk
-
- The Drazi are a very violent, ill-tempered species; they were the ones
- who first showed up in "Deathwalker" in a Sunhawk to threaten the station;
- they beat up the guy in "The War Prayer;" they show up here in "Survivors;"
- there's an episode about a form of martial arts among the aliens that has a
- Drazi going at it...if there's a fight around, you can often find a Drazi at
- the center of it or at least nearby.
-
- ==== ~second ~season ~alien
-
- ???? How about the second season? Even more aliens?
-
- At this point, not much in the way of new aliens planned; we'd like to
- get away from the alien-of-the-week story (which though we didn't do it a
- *lot*, we did it enough that I want to edge away from it a bit), and
- concentrate on the aliens we already have. If you just keep on throwing new
- aliens into the mix, soon it loses all impact. We decided to try a whole
- bunch of aliens over season one, and pick the ones that worked, which we would
- then work to refine and integrate more fully into the storyline. Right now.
- I think we've got about 15 races in addition to our primary groups (Narn.
- Minbari, Centauri). Concomitant with this, we'll be working to make the
- prosthetics far more detailed and better able to be used in a dramatic
- context.
-
- We scattergunned a lot in season one; now is the time to adjust, refine.
- focus and improve. We'll still do the occasional new group, I just don't want
- that to begin driving the show.
-
- ======= Language
-
- ==== ~language ~alien ~translation ~spelling ~english ~ambassador
-
- ???? How do languages get handled in B5?
-
- There are actually several languages heard on B5, though you have to work
- to hear them. (Those with surround will have an easier time.) For instance.
- in the customs area, announcements are made first in English, then in
- Interlac. In the bazaar area, you'll hear chirrups and whistles and clicks
- and a wide range of language-sounds.
- ---
- Re: language...if you're going to America from Russia as an ambassador.
- you're expected to know English fluently. B5 is funded by (mostly) and
- operated by Earth, and English is more or less the dominant language. Hence.
- they know it well enough to communicate with us. (BTW, this is already
- happening here...every airport on the planet, for example, uses english
- consistently in the control tower to planes, and more people outside
- english-speaking countries are educated in english than we are in alternate
- languages.)
- ---
- The language facilities of aliens will vary; probably the most fluent (by
- virtue of necessity) are the ambassadors, whose english is perfect or nearly
- so (cyberlink to the brain dumping the English equivilants of their own
- language and grammar directly into the brain, very expensive and not a little
- painful). The drawback is that some cultural references or some contextual
- areas may not be as clear as required. (Londo wondering about ramoras, Delenn
- unsure for a moment about poetry....)
- ---
- We've already instituted the need for translation devices on several
- characters. There are basically three dominant languages on B5, a kind of
- interstellar esperanto, Centauri, and English, which is the more or less
- official military/diplomatic language. But not everyone is going to know
- those languages, so you need another way. We have translation teams
- (referenced though not seen in "Soul Hunter"), and physical translation
- devices for use after we've had sufficient contact with a given group or
- individual to be able to decode two languages into one another.
-
- (Incidentally, we're going with a slightly different version of English
- for things like airlocks and such, alongside the visual pictograms. Not
- everyone who can speak english will have an immediate grasp of the intricacies
- of the language, and there have been multi cultural/esperanto like influences
- on English over the next 200 years. So for things like Universe Today, you
- have standard conventional English, since that's primarily an Earther-oriented
- publication. But then you have signs that read, for instance SECUR AREA, with
- an accent over the U. We've taken the liberty of simplifying some aspects of
- english for nonhumans, as well as trying to figure out how the impact of
- multi- culturalism might affect language ovese of 200 years.)
- ---
- Yeah, that's one thing I've kind of slated in as a B story in a given
- episode...an alien comes aboard and they just can't quite manage to
- communicate, it's just too damned foreign in its thinking. (What I'd love is
- for them to find out at the end that it's some other alien's damned cat or
- something, and they've been spending all this time trying to communicate with
- something that ain't sentient...but with aliens, how can you tell sometimes?)
- ---
- We're trying to work out the languages to some detail, but not as much as
- I'd like, at this point. It'll probably have to wait until the post-season
- hiatus before I can sit down and really start pulling together a rough
- dictionary of sorts.
-
- ==== ~native ~language ~subtitle
-
- ???? Will aliens speak in their native languages?
-
- I don't believe in monolithic aliens who all talk exactly alike, with the
- same accents, any more than I believe in humans who all talk exactly alike.
- Hence, the difference between Vir and Londo.
-
- When they're together in their quarters, they're talking in Centauri.
- which we hear as English, as in WW II movies, the Germans are obviously
- talking to each other in German, but we hear it in English. (The only other
- alternative is to subtitle whole lengthy segments of the show, which is both
- unworkable, awkward, and unfair to blind viewers.)
- ---
- No, it won't be rare. And that's the reason why we're NOT doing
- subtitles. This is the difference between something sounding neat on paper.
- but not in reality, and especially not on a TV series.
-
- If you're doing a feature film, and only have one or two shots of aliens
- talking in subtitles, for brief periods, you can do this; also if you're doing
- an SF series in which you're mainly talking to humans, and only rarely among
- your own kind.
-
- But in B5, a LOT of our time is spent with our various alien characters.
- And sometimes the conversation can get quite detailed, quite complex or
- political. In one script, for instance, there's a 2 1/2 minute scene with
- G'Kar and Na'Toth, followed by two lengthy scenes with Londo and Vir, and
- Delenn and Vir. So you're talking about maybe 5 minutes here. The
- conversation is very detailed, very elaborate. So are you a) going to put all
- of this complex dialogue on screen, line by line, and b) use subtitles for
- FIVE UNBROKEN MINUTES?
-
- You'd kill yourself as a series. No one would stand for it, and they'd
- be right. Again, not every good idea is a workable or practical idea.
-
- ==== ~n'grath ~language ~communicate
-
- ???? How does n'grath communicate?
-
- It speaks in cicada-like chirps and whistles, which are translated by the
- translation device on its chest (the lighted thingie).
-
- ==== ~kosh ~language ~communicate
-
- ???? How does Kosh communicate?
-
- Now that we've finished mixing some shows, we've now seen how Kosh
- speaks, followed through to the end. It's a very unusual system that he's got
- there, and it's *real* creepy to watch/listen to it. The kind of thing that
- makes your skin crawl after a while.
-
- I love it.
- ---
- Correct, Christopher Franke designed Kosh's voice.
-
- ======= Vorlons
-
- ==== ~kosh ~vorlon
-
- ???? When will we know about Kosh Naranek, and vorlons in general?
-
- There's simply nothing that I can say about Kosh just now.
- ---
- We will reveal what Kosh is a LOT sooner than year 5. Closer to the end
- of year 2.
- ---
- The Vorlons are the great unknown. They occupy a *huge* sector of space.
- No expedition ever sent to Vorlon space has ever returned, or sent back word.
- No human had ever even *seen* a Vorlon prior to Kosh's arrival on B5. Their
- technology is vastly superior to just about everyone else's. To unravel the
- mystery, to maybe get a *piece* of their tech, is more than sufficient
- inducement, I'd think.
- ---
- Kosh doesn't need an assistant. In fact, no one's *really* quite sure
- what it is Kosh *does* most of the day.
- ---
- Kosh is always and forever *exactly* what he appears to be, no less and
- no more. At the same time, Kosh is absolutely *nothing* like what he appears
- to be.
-
- These are not contradictory statements.
-
- And this is about the straightest answer I've given yet on the subject,
- believe it or not.
-
- ======= Centauri
-
- ==== ~centauri ~metaphor ~rome
-
- No, the closest parallel to the Centauri would, I suppose, be ancient
- Rome. I tend not to go that much to contemporary sources for metaphor, since
- it's too obvious and over-done. Much of what's in B5 is drawn from much older
- sources. The only exception, the only means of creating a metaphor for the
- present, is one that will take some time before it's even perceptible, though
- by the end of the season, you'll see what it is pretty clearly.
-
- ==== ~centauri ~hair ~jewelry ~ornamentation ~bald
-
- ???? How do centauri wear their hair?
-
- Centauri males wear their hair in this fashion, the length of which is
- determined by the person's status. Centauri women scorn such symbols of
- status and go bald except for a knot of hair from the back. (Sort of a
- peacock approach.)
- ---
- Certainly, you could wear your hair longer than your status permits, but
- it's like pretending to a status you don't have, which is viewed as pathetic.
- ---
- Londo's people go for jewelry and ornamentation such as medals and
- sunbursts and the like.
- ---
- It's a standard bed, works fine. Though we *did* have a thing in mind
- where Londo sits up in bed, having just had wonderful sex, and his hair is now
- hanging limp...but in a sudden burst of sanity we decided against it.
-
- ==== ~centauri ~sex
-
- ???? How many, um, tentacles do Centauri males have? What do females have?
-
- Centauri males have six.
- ---
- The awful thing is that the two women in props -- who were having FAR too
- much fun with this -- kept bringing me the tentacle to verify the shape. size,
- consistency, do we see veins or not....
- ---
- Centauri females, btw, have six narrow...ummm...slots on their backs.
- three on either side of the spine, right around the base of the spine.
- ---
- A sick thing that you should want to know these things; sicker still to
- come UP with these things....
-
- ======= Minbari
-
- ==== ~minbari ~caste ~military ~religious ~religion ~line
-
- The religious and military castes have rarely disagreed on anything.
- until the religious caste ordered the surrender at the Battle of the Line.
- Since then, things have not been proceeding as smoothly....
- ---
- The three main components of Minbari society are the religious caste, the
- warrior caste, and the workers...which aren't really a caste per se, which is
- why they're not often included. It's a very different. less influential part
- of their society.
- ---
- Valen was the one who brought Minbari civilization together. he is their
- Christ-figure.
- ---
- Generally, the religious caste takes precedence over the warrior caste.
-
- ==== ~ornamentation ~minbari ~texture
-
- Minbari don't do a lot of ornamentation, going instead for fabrics.
- textures and colors.
-
- ==== ~minbari ~clan ~name ~caste
-
- For those who might be interested, we've come up with some name for the
- various clans of the Minbari warrior caste. The primary five are the Star
- Riders (the oldest), the Moon Shields, the Wind Swords, the Night Walkers and
- the Fire Wings. (The first three refer to the early Minbari version of a
- mounted force, for which you need riders with shields and swords, with #4
- referring to foot soldiers, and the last to those whose clan first used flying
- machines in battle.)
-
- (Oh, and Star Riders refers to those mounted soldiers who were trained to
- use the stars for navigation. Behind them came the foot soldiers, who were
- expert at traveling by night.)
-
- ==== ~minbari ~head ~bone
-
- The bone that grows out of the back of Delenn's head is exactly that, not
- a decoration, but an actual part of the physiology. It will differ with
- various Minbari in size, configuration and texture (another Minbari seen in
- the show has a darker tint to the bone structure, it's cracked and so on). The
- thought is that it grows from the back of the skull structure, and comes
- forward with age. You can see the "root" of thed -- the -- structure whenever
- Delenn turns around.
-
- ==== ~minbari ~grey ~council
-
- For the most part, lower level types don't know the names of those in the
- Grey Council (speaking of Minbari for a moment). They are kept fairly
- anonymous to avoid the cult of personality arising. You'll see the full
- extent to which they preserve their anonymity in some of the upcoming
- episodes, specifically "Sky" and "Babylon Squared."
- ---
- A little aside for you...at one point this season, Delenn goes to the
- Grey Council. There's a ritual she has to observe when she joins the ranks of
- the Nine. Part of it is this statement she makes upon entering the circle: "I
- am Grey. I stand between the candle, and the star. We are Grey. We stand
- between the darkness, and the light."
-
- ==== ~minbari ~number ~triangle
-
- Yes, I would think it fair to say that the Minbari have a thing for
- triangles and things that come in threes.
- ---
- Minbari use base 11, not base 10, so twelve would be eleventy-first year,
- and so on.
- ---
- Minbari base eleven includes fingers and head, from which the principle
- of mathematics comes.
- ---
- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
-
- Eleventy-one, eleventy-two, eleventy-three, eleventy-four, eleventy-five.
- eleventy-six, eleventy-seven, eleventy-eight, eleventy-nine, eleventy-ten.
- twelfy
-
- Twelfty-one, twelfty-two, twelfy-three, twelfty-four, twelfty-five,
- twelfty-six, twelfty-seven, twelfty-eight, twelfty-nine, twelfty-ten.
-
- And so on.
-
- Who here still has a problem with this?
-
- ======= Narn
-
- ==== ~narn
-
- ???? Are the narns going to be more than just the "bad guys"?
-
- As for the Narns...yes, they are portrayed in a favorable light in many
- episodes, from "By Any Means" to "Chrysalis" and "Mind War," to name but a
- few. Nobody is just one thing on this show. Not nobody, not nohow.
-
- ==== ~narn ~religion ~diversity
-
- Actually, there are varying religions within the alien species as well;
- G'Kar is a follower of G'Quan, while Na'Toth's father followed G'Lan, and
- Na'Toth herself doesn't really believe in anything (this as noted in "By Any
- Means Necessary"). So that diversity isn't strictly or exclusively human.
-
- =============== Characters ===============
-
- ======= Delenn
-
- ==== ~delenn ~character ~makeup ~prosthetic ~female ~mask
-
- ???? Why did you change Delenn's look after the pilot?
-
- Once the decision was made to make her definitely female, that led us to
- modify the makeup. Also, the original make up was done with very little lead
- time, and some things we liked, some things we didn't. It's now sleeker.
- more attractive, and easier to apply and take off.
- ---
- Since we only really got a good look at one Minbari, it's kind of a moot
- point. The new lines are generally consistent throughout Minbari.
- ---
- We're also modifying the prosthetics a bit. Again, because Delenn is
- definitely female, we can use a little less in the way of heavy overlays on
- the head and face to convey ile keeping the desired androgynous look. This
- lets us get the same basic image, but make a lighter and more easily applied
- mask that will allow Mira greater degrees of comfort and free her up to act
- without being hampered in any way.
-
- ==== ~video ~croatia ~furlan
-
- I can't remember if I mentioned this here or not...but did I note that
- apparently the B5 pilot is the #1 best selling/renting tape these days in
- Croatia? What this means I have no idea....
- ---
- Mira was in a Croatian choir?! I didn't know this. She's never
- mentioned it. I know that she was an actress there, but this part is news to
- me. I must ask her about it when she comes in next week.
-
- ======= Franklin
-
- ==== ~franklin ~biggs
-
- For the role of Dr. Stephen Franklin we have found an intense and
- powerful african-american actor named Richard Biggs. He's younger, in his
- mid- to late thirties, dedicated, sharp and...again, the word I keep coming
- back to is *intense*. Consider a younger Dr. (and I'm going to misspell this)
- Debakke: self-assured, confident almost to a fault. He comes largely out of
- an experimental background, so his bedside manner isn't all it should be. He's
- often impatient. His character is the newest addition to the B5 "team" of
- characters, and this will lead to a fair amount of conflict.
- ---
- Just a word or two on Dr. Franklin. We're not bringing in someone who
- will play the role as a sloppy, floppy puppy with a ball. Dr. Franklin is
- someone who's a little on the arrogant side, very serious, very dedicated, and
- is frequently in opposition to the military side of B5. He's a very intense
- character, little in the way of bedside manner, invariably sure that he's
- right. And sometimes he is going to be very, very wrong...with some difficult
- and painful consequences.
-
- ======= G'Kar
-
- ==== ~g'kar
-
- We won't see G'Kar's mate this season.
- ---
- I believe G'Kar is about 50-60 in Earth terms, which is early middle age
- for Narns.
- ---
- I keep constantly fighting the urge to have G'Kar return from a trip to
- the Narn homeworld with a limp, a cane, and a (temporary) eyepatch, muttering.
- "Boy, the Thenta Makur have *no* sense of humor."
-
- (Now we'll see how many get *that* one.)
-
- ==== ~g'kar ~makeup ~prosthetic
-
- We're also doing some minor modifications to G'Kar's prosthetic, making
- the chin less squared, the mouth a little broader, and the whole thing again
- easier to put on and take off. It will also look far more realistic; parts of
- it LOOKED like a prosthetic when you got up close.
-
- It's one thing to throw heavy prosthetics on an actor who's only going to
- wear it for the 4 weeks required for the pilot. But to wear something day in
- and day out for 22 episodes...you have to think about that. Our own concern
- was making it look even *better* for both of them, and we've found a way to do
- that.
-
- ======= Garibaldi
-
- ==== ~garibaldi ~pilot ~alcohol
-
- Regarding Garibaldi...in the first hour-script that I've turned in, we do
- learn more about his past, and what brought him here. And yes, there were
- some lives involved, but he was framed. Doesn't mean he didn't screw up other
- things...and doesn't mean he won't screw up NOW, either. He's had a problem
- with alcohol, and it may come back. But there is a strong link to Sinclair
- that prompted him to give Garibaldi what is, essentially, his last chance.
- ---
- Brett: this isn't a case of jack-of-all-trades. Garibaldi *has* to be a
- qualified fighter pilot as head of security of a *space station* where
- problems can come up in the space surrounding the station. Also, as mentioned
- here before (I think) and certainly in one of our scripts, during the period
- between Garibaldi's last security job, and now, when eh (he) couldn't get a
- job as security chief, he was a pilot, running transport shuttles on a couple
- of ice mining operations. (It was not a good period for him.) Nothing is
- done arbitrarily with these characters. All three of our main EA characters
- -- Sinclair, Garibaldi and Ivanova -- are qualified fighter and transport
- pilots.
-
- ==== ~garibaldi ~shoe
-
- ???? Do Garibaldi's shoes have a custom tread?
-
- Don't know if GAribaldi's shoes have a custom tread or not; it's
- possible.
-
- ==== ~garibaldi ~red ~italian
-
- ???? Was Garibaldi's name taken from 19th century Italian hero Giuseppe,
- who once led a group of soldiers called the "red shirts?" Coincidence?
-
- The rest I can't comment upon, but for sure I took his name from the
- Italian hero you mention.
-
- ==== ~garibaldi ~relationship
-
- ???? Will Garibaldi get any relationship next year? [season 2]
-
- Garibaldi will get something going next season....
-
- ======= Hernandez
-
- ==== ~maya ~hernandez
-
- She's a medical doctor, running one of the many medlabs on B5. (Dr.
- Franklin, as chief of staff, runs the primary medlab, supervising other
- doctors on-station.)
-
- ======= Ivanova
-
- ==== ~ivanova ~russian ~christian
-
- Quick sketch of Ivanova: Russian, pessimistic, wry, very sharp. She
- isn't in "Believers" because there was a one-week overlap with a prior
- committment on a film project, which we accommodated. --
-
- Being of Byelorussian descent, I've always wanted to write for an ethnic
- Russian character. Not someone with an accent, any more than I have an accent
- even though I have a last name with 10,000 consonants and no vowels. There's a
- wry and formal and stiff-necked and sometimes very passionate streak that runs
- through the Russian spirit, and a certain rough-hewn mysticism, a sense of
- absolute fatality and doom punctuated by moments of great belief in humanity.
- It's a mix of traits you don't much see in American television.
-
- Which is why the new second in command is Lieutenant Commander Susan
- Ivanova, who will be played by Claudia Christian, a fantastic and very strong
- performer who just knocked us out of the room. Very much a commanding
- presence, a little quirky when she wants to be, a shade on the pessimistic
- side.
-
- Having come out of an Eastern European background, I've long lamented the
- stereotyped roles usually written for that kind of character, and look forward
- to drawing upon the real thing for her character.
- ---
- Claudia has settled nicely into the role, with this great edge to her
- performance. Pessimistic, fatalistic, occasionally sarcastic, but in a funny
- way...that can turn right around and tear your heart out.
- ---
- I like Ivanova as well; she's got a very sly, very *sharp* intelligence
- going there. She can deadpan you and whap you upside the head with a comment
- delivered almost as an aside, or an afterthought. It's the difference between
- wit and humor. She doesn't tell jokes, but she's got a great sense of wit.
- ---
- Here's what I find curious (not necessarily in direct response to
- anything you said, but in general on this topic)...is that when Ivanova makes
- her remark to Garibaldi about snapping his hands off at the wrists, many
- people have assumed that she was insulting him, berating him, being bitchy.
- truly disliking and threatening him.
-
- But the same words, put in the mouth of another male, wouldn't have drawn
- that reaction, and would've been classified under, "kidding around" or affable
- sarcasm.
-
- Which is exactly what it is in this case. In this place and this time.
- they're comfortable enough to mess with each other without it being taken
- seriously (among these characters, that is). There are times they kinda like
- to phuque with each other a bit, just for the hell of it, as comrades will
- sometimes do. ("Babylon Squared" has a great example of Sinclair and
- Garibaldi messing with Ivanova.)
- ---
- There's a Billy Joel song, where one particular lyric (and I'm quoting
- from memory) says, "You still have a pain inside you / That you carry with a
- certain pride / It's the only part / Of a broken heart / You could ever save."
- That's Ivanova.
-
- She's had her heart stomped on a lot. And she's been holding it in. Even
- with her father's death, she sucked in the pain, fought back the tears. There
- is one episode, which will be right at the end of the year, where she finds
- she can't run from her pain anymore...can't run from the tears...and deals
- with them in a scene that's very moving and absolutely brings tears to the
- eyes.
- ---
- Kwicker, Ivanova has *not* said stuff about being Russian "every other
- episode." I made the error of having her say it twice in the two-parter, now
- everybody's seeing it as a big thing. It was mentined in Soul Hunter.
- Survivors, and Voice, and insofar as I know, that's it. (I'll allow for the
- possibility of one more, even though I don't recall any others.) I don't
- think that 3-4 episodes in a 22 episode season quite qualifies as "every other
- episode."
- ---
- The main reason for the Lt. Cmdr. distinction in most circumstances is
- because otherwise you've got two Commanders on deck, and it helps to keep
- distinct which you're addressing. But we have some different ideas in mind for
- year two.
- ---
- And yes, Ivanova was born on Earth, in the Russian Consortium, though she
- was educated in large measure overseas.
-
- ======= Kosh
-
- ==== ~kosh ~word
-
- As reward for the humor, here's what Kosh will *really* say, when he
- utters the first words we hear. He's on the Observation Dome, looking out
- through the window as a ship passes overhead, the lights shining down at him
- through a window.
-
- "Ahhh....beautiful." Long beat as he looks around the place. Then: "I
- will miss this...when it is gone."
-
- And then he exits, as Garibaldi mutters to Ivanova, "I *really* hate it
- when he does that."
- ---
- The scene was trimmed for time. It may show up again later.
-
- ==== ~kosh ~writing
-
- The hardest part is always writing Kosh, because you have to be very
- careful how much you use him, and what he says. Too much and he loses his
- sense of mystery, and you don't want him spouting fortune-cookie type
- aphorisms. He has a very deliberate way of speaking in which everything.
- every smallest nuance and inflection means something, but sometimes not what
- it appears to mean, or comes at it from a very different angle than normal
- conversation. So I go as minimalist as possible, to get the meaning down to
- the smallest number of words possible. And in one scene, one of only two he
- appears in, I got him down to *one word*, and that one word -- and it's a
- totally inoffensive, neutral word on its own terms -- should scare the hell
- out of *everybody*.
-
- ==== ~kosh ~reception ~vorlon
-
- Here's one little extra for you: only one person aboard Babylon 5 has any
- idea of what a Vorlon is, inside that suit, and only one race has had dealings
- with the Vorlons before. Watch the reception at the end, and see if you
- notice anything unusual in the way the various people respond to Kosh.
- ---
- And who else isn't at the reception?
-
- ======= Lennier
-
- ==== ~lennier ~mumy ~minbari ~makeup
-
- Well, we finished casting for the role of Lennier, who is Delenn's
- aide/attache. We were looking for someone who could give us the most as a
- quiet, restrained, almost monk-like character, fairly innocent in his way.
-
- And in a very nice bit of synchronicity, the person who came in and
- knocked us out with his audition was Bill Mumy, who has now been cast in the
- role. Aside from his work in Lost in Space, Bill is a terrific actor whose
- role, I think, may sometimes have become a stumbling block from time to time.
- as did the roles of Shatner, Nimoy and others from Trek. Here he will be a
- very different kind of character, barely recognizeable beneath the Minbari
- makeup, and can show a very different sort of approach to his work. We're
- very excited to have him on the team. (I think it will also be good to have
- someone around from a prior successful SF TV series who can help our cast
- prepare for the reception this show is likely to receive...and I suspect that
- very few if any of them really understand yet what that will mean.)
- ---
- Mumy's role, to answer that question, is a recurring role; I think he'll
- be in about half a dozen episodes or so for us. To the best of my knowledge.
- this won't interfere with any other obligations Mumy has.
- ---
- BTW, this week will Bill Mumy's first week on B5, and he's done a very
- nifty job as Lennier. He brings a wonderful sense of absolute innocence...the
- proverbial innocent abroad...to Lennier's character. The Minbari prosthetics
- look great on him, enhancing the sense he brings to the character. He's also
- great with the cast, and keeping things up during shooting. At one point, as
- they're leaving camera, Delenn says to Lennier, who has just arrived at the
- station, "Now tell me of home; I have been away far too long." His ad-libbed
- off-camera response: "Beatlemania is back." (Another ad-lib for another shot:
- "Minimalls...they're everywhere," and "Well, we just got Pizza Hut and
- cable.")
-
- ======= Londo
-
- ==== ~londo
-
- Yeah, the more I delve into Londo's character, the more I find him
- intriguing. He mourns for the loss of his beloved Empire, and this makes him
- vulnerable to some dangerous temptations. There are a number of dark corners
- in his personality...but at the same time, a vulnerability, a sadness.
-
- In the B5 story arc, Londo goes through some *major* changes, some good.
- some tragic, some frightening. He becomes a major player, but not in the way
- he would ever have anticipated.
-
- (Hold back, Joe, you've got a long stretch ahead of you here....)
- ---
- Re: Londo as a romantic character...bless your heart. You are the first
- to have nailed it absolutely on the head. If I had to write a description of
- the character, I doubt I could have done any better than what you just wrote.
- There are a *lot* of episodes that bring this out in him, including the next
- one up, "Born to the Purple," which I suspect will end virtually all of the
- hair jokes once and for all.
- ---
- Actually, no, Londo was not based on Brother Theodore, who I only
- discovered some time later on Letterman. But Harlan and Peter David mentioned
- at the panel that Brother Theodore could make a swell brother for Londo in
- some episode, so this is something I may consider....
-
- ==== ~cast ~jurasik ~garibaldi
-
- Behind-the-scenes humor: because it had been so long since the pilot, it
- took a few of our actors a bit of time to get back into their characters, to
- find the characters' "fingerprints" for lack of a better term. This is quite
- understandable given the long waiting period. When he needed to find his
- character for a scene, Peter Jurasik mentioned that he would just stand up
- straight and yell, "MISter GariBALdi!" and he'd be right back in character.
- Sort of the B5 version of "Shazam!"
-
- Minus the lightning bolt, of course.
-
- ==== ~londo ~hair
-
- We're going to re-create an entire new hairpiece that will lay flatter
- and look better from the back, which I felt was one of its drawbacks. Also.
- we don't want to have Peter shave his head for the whole series, as he did for
- the pilot, so we're coming up with a longer prosthetic that'll come all the
- way over the top of the head to the eyebrows, where we'll blend it in
- unnoticeably. This will make Peter's life just that much easier.
- ---
- We're not changing Londo's hair to make it anything less than what it is.
- It'll still be as outrageous as it was in the pilot. What I was referring to
- specifically was the way it bunched up at the back of the head, just above the
- nape of the neck. What they had done was take a conventional wig and shove
- the hair up and lock it into place; in this case, we're stringing a new.
- custom wig that will gently come up in the back, as if growing naturally in
- that direction. The top part will be the same, it's only a matter of cleaning
- up the back, which simply didn't work aesthetically.
- ---
- I find it interesting that people can accept spots, scales, fur.
- foreheads, reptiles and parasites...but not a different style of hair, used to
- denote one's rank or position (as is done in some primitive societies right
- here). Look at the history of hair just around us in the last hundred or so
- years...long hair, powdered wigs, crew-cuts, braids, dreadlocks, spikes.
- mohawks....
-
- Among those I've talked to, it seems that folks from other places --
- England, Europe, some from Japan -- have *zero* problem with the hair. It
- seems genuinely an American reaction. I was talking to someone about this
- earlier this evening, and the comment came back that Americans in particular
- are absolutely *obsessed* with not being embarrassed, or being made fools of.
- When they (we) see someone who doesn't match our view of what's the norm, we
- imagine how we would feel in that position. And to make ourselves more
- secure, as in high school, we make fun of what would personally embarrass us.
- When the underground/subculture of the 60s got ANY chance to express its
- views, what did people focus on? Their hair. Sometimes other personal
- traits, but usually the hair. "Damn longhaired freaks."
-
- To see *hair*, of all things, being somehow less acceptable than funny
- foreheads, scales, or other aspects of alien-ness flatly astonishes me. (It
- was also pointed out to me that in the first season of the original Trek.
- there was a *lot* of mail to Paramount about losing the pointy ears on Spock.
- that they just looked stupid.)
-
- It just seems sad to me, and somehow informative, that people are unable
- to see past the hair to the person. Are we really that conservative and
- ethnocentric? I particularly feel strongly about this for Peter, who is
- absolutely *out there*, taking a great risk with this character, who is doing
- an amazing performance...and all people can talk about is the hair, as though
- that somehow diminishes the performance.
-
- Amazing, really....
-
- ==== ~londo ~wife
-
- ???? What's up with Londo and his wives?
-
- ...moment in a script where Londo is talking about homeworld, where marriages
- are still arranged, to someone who doesn't want any part of that life. "Here,"
- he says, pointing to three photos, "these are my three wives: Pestilence.
- Famine and Death. You think I married them for their personalities? Their
- personalities could shatter entire *planets*. Arranged marriages, every one.
- But it worked out. They inspire me. Knowing they're at home, waiting for me.
- is what keeps me here, 75 light years away...."
- ---
- We'll see Londo's -- spouse/spouses, I'm avoiding saying which -- in
- time.
-
- ???? Was Londo's "It can't be that bad" wife one of the three?
-
- Actually, sadly, that was Londo's first wife, who he was forced to
- divorce later. Eventually I'll get into this.
-
- ======= n'grath
-
- ==== ~n'grath
-
- I would not describe n'grath as a "Mafia boss," since that's a very
- specific term. Nor is it really any kind of organization. He's a fixer.
- somebody you go to when you need something...a bodyguard, forged identicards.
- what-have-you.
- ---
- Garibaldi is quite aware of n'grath...and knowing that if he just
- vanished, somebody'd take his place in five minutes, prefers the trouble he
- knows to the trouble he'd have to track down.
-
- ======= Na'Toth
-
- ==== ~na'toth
-
- Replacing the character of Na'Toth could be done, but at this point she
- knows stuff that is important for us to have access to in year two. (Stuff
- mainly happening in "Chrysalis.")
-
- ======= Sakai
-
- ==== ~sakai ~caroline ~julia ~nickson ~sinclair
-
- Finally, having gone his separate ways with Caroline -- she wanted him to
- leave his job, he wouldn't -- Sinclair renews a longstanding relationship with
- Catherine Sakai, a role we are going to cast sometime fairly soon.
-
- Catherine works for an Earth Corp surveying asteroids and planets for
- minerological exploitation, making sure they're uninhabited, and finding items
- that might present the greatest possibility for profit.
- ---
- We've shot our first scenes between Sinclair and his new love interest.
- Catherine Sakai (as played by Julia Nickson). This is a very, very strong
- character, and she brings a wonderful vibrancy to Sakai. They have a unique
- relationship that looks and sounds like a real relationship, with all its ups
- and downs and dumb moments. One way that I've reinforced this is that...well.
- in the first episode in which they meet again (they were involved before).
- just about every scene between them is lifted almost directly from personal
- experience.
-
- And given some of the awkward, even painful conversations that take
- place, it was very, *very* hard to watch this being rehearsed. (Michael and
- Julia worked over a weekend with the director to get the nuances just right.)
- When it came time to shoot the scenes, much as I wanted to be on-set, I just
- couldn't do it. My heart just kept falling right down to my shoes. I can't
- wait for the first person to say "I don't buy this as a real relationship"
- just so's I can whap him upside the head. But I have a hunch that won't
- happen. It comes across as very real, and as a very vulnerable moment for
- both characters.
-
- "Write what you know," they said. Right. How about I just take a power
- drill and stick it in my ear...it'd be faster, less painful, and after a while
- I might even come to like it....
- ---
- Catherine Sakai is a surveyer. She has her own business. She has her
- own ship. In some episode, she has nothing whatsoever to do with the
- commander, she's off doing her own business. In "Mind War," as one example.
- we see her for 30 seconds with the commander in the morning, with both going
- off to their respective jobs, and that's it...the rest of the story she's in
- is exclusively hers, concerning something she runs into while on a survey run.
- ---
- Regarding Catherine Sakai...believe me, this ain't a consort kind of
- relationship. It will be monogamous, but difficult in many ways. This has
- been an on-again/off-again relationship between them for years, made up of
- three parts passion and two parts teeth. It will be a very fiery
- relationship. And this is a woman with her own business, her own ship, who
- comes and goes as she wishes. You have to understand that I love writing
- strong female characters, and Catherine will be probably one of the strongest.
-
- ==== ~catherine ~spousal ~overunit
-
- ???? Is Catherine based on your Spousal Overunit?
-
- Actually, no...Catherine Sakai is based more closely on another woman of
- my acquaintance, with whom I was involved for quite some time. And that's all
- you'll get out of me on the subject.
-
- ======= Sheridan
-
- ==== ~sheridan
-
- I have, btw, now seen the finished (minus music and some minimal EFX)
- first episode of B5 with Bruce. We did the producer's cut yesterday, and I
- have to say that I think it's very nice.
- ---
- And Bruce does a wonderful job in the role. He's brought a lot to the
- table, and I think people are going to be very pleased.
- ---
- Yes, Sheridan is descended from Gen. Philip John Sheridan of the Union
- Army.
- ---
- Sheridan, the universe willing, will be there throughout the rest of the
- B5 story.
- ---
- Only Ivanova has served with him before; Garibaldi doesn't know him from
- Adam, and this will lead to some awkwardness and questions of trust down the
- road.
- ---
- Sheridan is a soldier. A soldier is told, in wartime, THIS is your
- enemy. You kill the enemy or your enemy kills you. Afterward, you're in the
- same position American soldiers were in after the end of WW II when it came
- time to reconcile with the Germans and the Japanese. It can sometimes be very
- awkward...and sometimes reconciliation takes a while.
- ---
- Captain John Sheridan is a war hero, of sorts; he squeaked out the only
- real victory of the Earth/Minbari War. (Which means the Minbari don't
- generally like him a lot.) He did what he did because that's his job. He's a
- professional soldier. For the last two years, he's been commanding the
- Agamemmnon, a high-visibility Earthforce starship on deep patrol. As such, he
- has had to learn to work with a number of different races and species.
- ---
- "Sounds like a forumla to really PO the Minbari."
-
- Yup.
- ---
- In some ways, his character is somewhat more well-rounded than was the
- case with Sinclair, over whom a general sense of doom often seemed to hang.
- Sheridan is often very thoughtful and introspective; at other times, he can be
- just a bit eccentric; he leads by respecting those who work under him, and
- giving them room to grow; like any career officer, he HATES the bureaucracy
- with a passion, and this is the one thing that can drive him nuts; he knows
- that commanding B5 is a great opportunity, but he also knows that his presence
- brings certain complications with it, and he's very ambivilant about that
- aspect; he's the son of a diplomatic envoy who disappeared on his 21st
- birthday, running off to see (of all things) the new Dali Lama being
- installed; he has a very easygoing manner, and a great sense of humor. He
- quickly re-forms a friendship with Ivanova, for whom he has great respect and
- professional admiration. (For a time she served under him at Io.)
-
- ???? How critical to the B5 arc is Sheridan?
-
- How critical was Aragorn to the storyline of Lord of the Rings?
-
- ======= Sinclair
-
- ==== ~sinclair
-
- As I recall, the photo and article is about Sinclair's ancestor, who
- fought in the Battle of Britain. And the framed piece is indeed a Sinclair
- Aircraft logo.
- ---
- There is some history there with Sinclair's father, but I'm not getting
- into it this season because there are some other family issues involving our
- characters that I want to delve into initially, and I don't want to step in
- the same stream too many times, as it were.
- ---
- You won't see Sinclair's brother this season...and that's all I can say
- for now.
-
- =============== Technology ===============
-
- ======= Station
-
- ==== ~station ~technology ~size ~capacity ~layout ~sets
-
- ???? How big is the station? What parts are there?
-
- The station is a touch over 5 miles long. It can hold roughly 250,000
- humans and aliens (many of whom are in transit at any point).
- ---
- 250,000 is the *maximum* number of beings who can be there at one time;
- that's not necessarily the maximum number of living quarters. In some ways.
- B5 is like an airport; you come in, linger, then move on to your eventual
- destiny (catching a few winks in the customs area waiting for the right ship
- to come in or go out).
- ---
- The blue fins at the back of B5 are, as I recall, for the purpose of
- radiating internal heat out of and from B5.
- ---
- The Starfuries are launched from the rotating part of the station.
- They're launched from the cobra bays, which are the cobra shaped projections
- alongside the round front of the station, and attached to it.
- ---
- Many aliens (all who require alternate atmosphere) live in the alien
- sector. Those who can breathe oxygen can live in other areas, but tend to
- congregate with other non-humans in the oxygen sections of the alien sector.
- The ambassadors have their own environment supported quarters in the Green
- Sector, which is the high-security area for diplomats.
- ---
- The interior of the station does have some farm-land, orchards, an
- open-air hedge maze, and other green areas. We'll be seeing them in varying
- degrees of detail throughout the series. No specs are yet publicly available.
- ---
- Located above the station proper is the long zero-g cargo loading area.
- You'll see, in later episodes, ships pulling up in front of the area and
- offloading cargo. That is accessible from many parts of the station.
- ---
- The zero-g cargo section extends from the front of B5 well into the
- middle of the station, *inclusive* of red sector, which is below it.
- ---
- The 2.5 million tons of spinning *metal* refers only to that part. the
- metal casing. It doesn't include the furniture, the structures. the Garden,
- the 250,000 humans and aliens...so the total mass of the thing is MUCH greater
- than the 2.5 megatons. Also, the body was shoved out of the area around the
- cargo bay, non-rotating, which would also cut down on the momentum (as opposed
- to shoving out out of the rotating part, where it would speed away at 1g).
- ---
- On the one hand...we have more interior sets than any other series that I
- know of; 18 standing sets and 42 swing sets. And we're building a number of
- other sets for next year, including an Officer's Club. In addition to C&C,
- we've seen various holding cells, numerous quarters, a conference room,
- Sinclair's briefing room, the Council Chambers, the business room, two
- separate restaurants, the Zocalo, the Dark Star Club, the Casino, the Happy
- Daze Bar, Doug's Dugout Sports Bar, the Ombuds Courtroom, various DownBelow
- sectors...we've shown a *lot*.
- ---
- Medlab is the smaller facility exclusively for Dr. Franklin, as Chief of
- Staff. There are larger medical facilities, more like proper hospitals,
- elsewhere on the station.
- ---
- The CO's office next season will have a view of the Garden area, as will
- some other rooms.
-
- ==== ~own ~earth
-
- ???? Who owns the station?
-
- The station is owned by the Earth Alliance, and if you're going to be
- staying there, you pay a fee. Station employees are charged a fee against
- their salaries...which some of them aren't happy about.
-
- ==== ~move ~position
-
- ???? Will B5 ever be moving from its present position?
-
- Re: B5 and movement...no, it ain't going anywhere. Nor will it.
-
- ==== ~rotate
-
- The station was designed to rotate mainly because it's scientifically
- accurate. Afterward, we realized that, as you suggest, it *does* give the
- station a very dynamic look. Which only proves the point that if you take the
- time to actually do things correctly, to answer the next question, it works
- FOR you, not against you.
-
- ==== ~defense ~grid ~weapon
-
- The defense system for B5 consists of a system of moderate level
- defensive grids, hull-mounted weaponry (which is generally concealed behind
- large plates, which would be blown off with explosive bolts to reveal the
- weapons beneath), and a small number of individual fighter craft stored in a
- docking bay at the rear of the station.
- ---
- As for defense, you'll see a full demonstration of this in the first
- season; for now, let's just say that that smooth looking exterior is laced
- with sections that can open and reveal all kinds of interesting things.
- Imagine a five mile long Swiss Army knife....
-
- ==== ~computer ~voice
-
- The computer system is quite good, based on a crystalline technology
- that's a mesh between alien and human-developed stuff.
- ---
- The computer voice belongs to Haley, our script supervisor.
-
- ==== ~inside ~gravity ~garden ~illuminated
-
- Yes, there are definitely different levels in each section of B5.
-
- And yes again, down the road there will be both small flyers and
- individuals with air-packs in the zero-G section at the center of the Garden.
- Ron's worked out how to do it.
-
- How's it illuminated? Quite nicely, actually....
-
- ======= Ships
-
- ==== ~ship ~fighter ~starfury ~atmosphere ~wing ~fly
-
- The fighters are the SA-23E Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfuries, and B5 has four
- fighter wings, each with approximately 12 fighters.
- ---
- The starfuries are *only* non-atmosphere craft, and they can't hold more
- than one person. The other specs are over at Ron's, and I'll try to remember
- to snag them at some point.
- ---
- The fighters are built on a cross-wing structure (four wings), but very
- different from either X-wing or tie fighters. The four wings have fore, aft.
- top, bottom and side thrusters, so that they can move in any direction...they
- can fly left to right, turn backwards, and continue to fly left to right.
- flying backwards, and thus fire right to left. They're perfectly designed for
- zero-g environments.
- ---
- There are a number of influences that go into the markings on the
- Starfuries. (And not all 'furies are so marked; only those that are generally
- used by only one pilot, to whom the ship is assigned.) We took in general the
- WW II model, where pilots used to decorate their craft with nose art to
- personalize it. So some of it is of that flavor, while others echo more
- ancient heraldry. (Ivanova's 'fury has an old Russian two-headed eagle in
- stylized form.) Yes, again, an attempt to connect past, present and future.
- ---
- Your message is correct; there are various "weights" of Starfuries, some
- much more massive and impressive. The ones on B5 are light, fast, not overly
- complicated, and quick-strike machines. Another kind, which you'll see in the
- two-parter, has cockpits fore *and* aft, a two-person ship with much heavier
- shielding and armaments; the "Black Omega" version is made for top speed as an
- interceptor with advanced stealth components.
- ---
- Black Omega Starfuries are *hideously* expensive, rather like Stealth
- Bombers. They have to be carefully maintained, and their existence isn't
- generally trumpeted. (Like the Aurora, for instance.) They're not mainly a
- defensive system, but rather an infiltration unit used on black
- projects/covert missions. They're not really meant for an operation like B5.
- ---
- Definitely; there are additional fighters berthed inside Earthforce One,
- with a minimum four outside on constant patrol. In addition, it's got some
- pretty hefty defensive weaponry on board, though they're worked into the
- design so that they don't appear too obvious (bad for PR).
-
- ==== ~starfury ~launch ~bay ~pressurized ~dock ~grail ~fighter
-
- ???? How do starfuries launch?
-
- The bay is pressurized, with drop doors beneath each fighter. A ramp
- extends to the fighters individually, bringing on pilots. The bays are
- depressurized as the pilots (in flight suits) prepare. Then the drop doors
- open, the fighters pivot to nose-down position, and launch.
- ---
- The fighters are in regular configuration when the pilot boards. Then
- the drop doors open, the ship tilts down on a massive pair of arms, and then
- they're released, the centrifugal force of the station sending them out the
- drop doors.
- ---
- The starfury fighter is launched by a drop straight out, nose pointed
- "downward," toward space. Upon release, it flies pretty much straight out.
- still containing some of the momentum from the rotation, so it would appear to
- be going straight away from the station because its position in relation to
- the station, like a geosynchronous satellite, is still more or less correct.
- Shortly after getting out of the bay, the fighters fire up their engines.
- which lets them take any angle or direction they choose. So they can very
- quickly head away on any trajectory.
- ---
- There is nothing wrong with the launch sequence. It causes them to move
- directly away from the station, on a slight spiral, facing out to the stars
- from the pilot's POV. Whether or not it looks funky has little to do with
- whether or not this is the most efficient means of doing this. I think it's
- kind of funky that the space shuttle flies upside down while in orbit, its
- cargo bay facing down toward Earth, but that's the way it's done, and there
- are good reasons for it. We sat down for a very long time with a bunch of
- designers and techies who know physics and know math and know flight dynamics.
- we ran computer models, and the physics are right.
-
- ==== ~ship ~dock ~bay
-
- ???? How do ships dock?
-
- As you'll see in the series, we've worked out the docking bay stuff very
- clevely. A ship enters dead center. It is then taken and lowered into one of
- a number of different bays deeper within the station (by deeper I mean lower.
- more toward the hull). That's how we can have a series of different docking
- bays in the first place.
-
- There's a nifty CGI shot we'll be using at some point in the series where
- you can see the entirety of the docking bay, with the various ships arrayed
- inside. Then there are the more secure bays areas, with restricted access, as
- when Kosh arrived.
-
- ==== ~starfury ~dock ~bay ~enter
-
- ???? How do starfuries dock?
-
- The fighters enter via the main docking bay, where they are shunted back
- into the Starfury launch bays. (BTW, for those who've asked, and let it never
- be said that we're unresponsive...we asked Ron to develop a CGI sequence that
- shows how ships get from the interior of the main docking bay down to the
- customs and loading bays. I've seen it, and it looks pretty spiffy. Look for
- it in "Grail."
-
- ==== ~ship ~variety ~color ~witch ~starfury ~drazi ~sunhawk
-
- ???? Will there be a variety of spaceships?
-
- Yeah, we do a LOT of ships this season. I have gifs of them all, and
- some of them are mind-bogglingly nifty. What I like about Ron's work is that
- many of the space shots are works of art you could practically frame. And
- he's done one very important thing: he's brought COLOR into space, in a big
- way. Ships are personalized, painted, textured and made into things you enjoy
- looking at. The Starfury nicknamed the Sea Witch is a great example of
- this...as well as a bunch of others.
-
- Not all Starfuries are the same, btw...you'll be seeing a different
- category of them in "Mind War," and they're gorgeous. Also very scary. Not
- as scary, but more nifty, are the ones in "Survivors" and "Chrysalis."
-
- Ah LOVES spaceships....
- ---
- There are other kinds of fighters; it's a question of what's intended for
- use where. The Raider ships, and the Narn heavy fighters, are both
- atmospheric and non-atmospheric ships. Some fighters, such as B5's
- Starfuries, the Drazi Sunhawk, the Ipsha Battleglobe and others (you'll see
- the latter two in "Deathwalker") are configured only for non-atmosphere
- activities, and have different configurations.
- ---
- On the ships...when Ron was pulling together the ships for that episode.
- we talked about it on the phone for a while, and I have to take the rap for
- the saucers...which I still think are cool. I said, in essence, why the hell
- not? Ron thought it was a great idea, and went and made it real. I think if
- we ever see this kind of ship again, it'll need some more work, a little more
- weight and substance, some more detail, but they're okay.
-
- ==== ~civilian ~earth ~ship
-
- ???? Will there be starships from earth? civilian spacecraft?
-
- Re: starships from Earth...yes, you'll be seeing a wide range of ships.
- from smaller transports and trading vessels to big mothers. It is something
- of an empire, and the ships come in as many varied forms as we have cars and
- trucks and semis and tanks and on and on....
- ---
- Civilian spacecraft are fairly common; they're expensive, to be sure, and
- if you're just going from point a to point b, it makes more sense just to book
- passage on something, but many folks now make their living in space, so
- transport is required.
- ---
- BTW, have named an Earth Alliance Cruiser Hyperion, in notation of the
- library....
- ---
- The Hyperion is not typical; it's one of the ships that survived the War.
- Not many did. There are niftier, newer ships built in the last eleven years
- that you'll be seeing eventually.
-
- ==== ~ship ~cost ~economy
-
- Owning your own space ship isn't cheap, but it also isn't as expensive as
- it might be. The investment is about the same as starting up your own
- business. There's not a lot of civilian "touring cars," for lack of a better
- term; better to use the liners and shuttles. But for businesses, surveyers.
- explorers, traders and the like...yeah, they're within one's grasp. And these
- sorts of ships are pretty much all run by computer. No crew required. Just
- go from place to place. If it's a scientific survey ship, then you'll have
- some more.
-
- ==== ~vorlon ~ship
-
- And there *is* a utilitarian reason behind its design. In addition, we
- want to show something VERY alien in design and construction...and frankly.
- there's NO reason a ship that isn't ever going to enter atmosphere needs to
- look aerodynamic. In time, you'd move toward things that are visually or
- aesthetically interesting. In this culture (Vorlon), art and science are
- closely allied, so this extension into the look of their ships is quite
- natural. Concepts about what ships are have become very rigid and inflexible
- thanks to the preponderance of SF-TV shows. We want to loosen that up. And
- that look DOES, as stated, have a practical aspect about it as well, which
- will be seen down the road.
-
- ==== ~raider ~ship
-
- ???? How about the raider ships? Why so vulnerable?
-
- RE: the Raider ships...they turned by a less effective system of
- thrusters put in here and there, not nearly as powerful as the systems used by
- the Starfuries. The reason -- verifiable by the shape of the Raider ships --
- is that Raider ships are handicapped by the fact that they're made to function
- both in space *and* within an atmosphere (hence the aerodynamic wing shapes).
- which gives it something of a problem when dealing with the Starfuries, which
- are made ONLY for fighting in space, and are most ideally suited to it. The
- Raider ships make compromises for greater utility, which is generally okay
- unless they run into superior forces of ships designed for spaceborne combat.
-
- ======= Jump Gates
-
- ==== ~jump-gate ~hyperspace
-
- "What is the principle behind the jump gate?"
-
- Manufactured by Whammo.
-
- (Still working out the details.....)
- ---
- Re: jumpgates...I knew that multiples were used, but was still working
- out the *exact* details of how they work, and I hate to post anything until
- I'm 100% set, since this stuff tends to end up in FAQs....
- ---
- Jump gates aren't instantaneous; transit within a gate is usually a
- couple of days, though it seems a bit longer to those outside.
- ---
- Yes, most of the energy is expended getting in and out of hyperspace.
- with a fair amount being expended navigating through it.
-
- ==== ~jump-gate ~action
-
- And the action *doesn't* always happen conveniently located to a jump
- gate. Sometimes, it can take *hours* or even days to get to where a ship or
- other object is located.
-
- ==== ~jump-gate ~ship ~pay ~government ~bill
-
- ???? How does a ship pay for use of a jump gate?
-
- As soon as the ship comes through, its signature is registered and the
- fees debited against their account, if they have one at the station. If not.
- the incoming person is asked for payment before being allowed onto the
- station. In some cases, as with transports, corporations buy jump gate access
- in bulk, and then assign the routes to their various transports. (Believe it
- or not, this actually comes up in dialogue in "Midnight.")
-
- Ah, but remember, the government is the one who put the jump gate in; no
- one individual or corp could afford to do that. When your ship, if Earth
- registered, comes through, you're automatically billed, just like income
- tax...it goes against your credit. If you're not Earth registered, you pay
- when you arrive at an Earth port or orbital transfer station. Either way, you
- pay. If you try to land somewhere without proper authorization, you'll be
- arrested and your ship confiscated.
-
- Now, you could probably come through the gate, hang in space for a while.
- and go back in again (IF you're a non-Earth registered ship) and not pay
- anything...but in that case, what's the point? It'd be like taking a
- difficult trip in a small ship across the Atlantic, and not getting out or
- going ashore once you arrive.
-
- ==== ~jump-gate ~identify ~ship ~war ~minbari ~jump-point
-
- ???? How are ships identified when they come out of jump gates?
-
- 1) Jump gates can only give you the frequency identification of a given
- ship some minutes prior to exiting hyperspace; just as it's about to exit, you
- can get much more detailed information, such as silhouette, mass, and so on.
- By then it's pretty much out...but at least you know as soon as it's out what
- it is.
-
- 2) You can't just shut down a jump gate like a light bulb. It is a VERY
- powerful piece of equipment, and it takes a long time to shut down and a long
- time to start up again. It's like a nuclear or fusion reactor in that
- respect. If you shut it down, it'll *stay* down for some time, which may put
- you in a very bad position if you have to leave fast, and that's the only way
- out.
-
- (During the Earth/Minbari war, jump gates created by the Earth Alliance
- were programmed only to accept certain coded frequenies that were changed
- regularly. [That should read frequencies.] This helped prevent Minbari ships
- using EA gates.)
-
- 3) Really large ship, such as war cruisers and long-range explorer
- vessels are powerful enough to punch their own entance into hyperspace.
- creating a jump point. (Something you'll see happen in our first episode.
- btw.) They can go in and out of hyperspace on their own, so they don't
- strictly need a gate, which is primarily a) for smaller craft incapable of
- generating their own jump point, and b) to help larger craft conserve energy.
- The Vorlon fleet could have come in via its own jump point, but the gate was
- there, and it allowed them to separate their smaller attack fleet while in
- hyperspace, so they could all come out together, as opposed to releasing them
- after making their own jump point.
-
- ==== ~hyperspace ~jump-gate ~tot
-
- Travel from point A to point B takes some amount of time. But when
- you're near your destination, you can wait in hyperspace and choose to come
- out at a specific moment. There's considerable speculation that both the
- Minbari and Vorlons have ships standing by in hyperspace, at various
- locations, in case they're needed quickly. (In the pilot movie. Laurel
- Takashima even mentions that they are probably doing this.) It's a
- correlation to the TOT (Time On Target) philosophy; you can send ships in from
- various sectors, have them lurk in hyperspace, then all come out at once.
-
- ==== ~effect ~jump-gate
-
- We've made some minor modifications to the jumpgate effect, in the
- texture and color of the warp EFX. It looks a little less computer-y, and
- some science guys suggested that there should be red-shift built into the
- thing. So now when objects come *out* of hyperspace, and we're looking into
- the jumpgate, the warp effect is blue; when you enter the jumpgate, it shifts
- toward orange/red.
-
- ======= Weapons
-
- ==== ~weapon ~ppg [Phased Plasma Gun]
-
- PPG = Phased Plasma Gun, and yes, the settings work about the way you
- describe. At full settings, it burns right through the body (and you can see
- this in some shots, albeit briefly and discreetly). We also deal with the
- reality of what such a weapon *does* to you...internal burns, clothes melting
- into the skin, that sort of thing. We don't get gross about it, but we try to
- stay with the reality of what we're creating.
- ---
- Re: the PPG firing...we talked to some high-IQ types about how a
- plasma-firing weapon might work. There would be superheated bursts, some
- marginal escape of the gases used, and it would burn through the air, creating
- a small thunderclap-like sound. So this is what we did.
- ---
- The PPGs are Phased Plasma Guns, using superheated helium. It doesn't
- ricochet like conventional slugs, dissipates quickly after a hit, can be
- adjusted to produce surface damage, or cut straight through the body, or to
- make a big impact without burning through. At full strength, they burn
- straight through any kind of body, causing massive internal burns and damage
- to the internal organs. The clothes melt right into the skin. It's not a
- pretty thing. Generally they're operated at a lower or less lethal setting.
- ---
- The ripple is caused by heat from the discharge.
- ---
- There are definitely PPG assault rifles, which are visible in "Grail."
- They can fire faster than pistols, but I don't think they could handle the
- power-buildup to fire 3-6 per second. That's definitely slug-thrower turf.
-
- ======= Communication
-
- ==== ~communicate ~communicate
-
- We're using a tachyon communications system to handle the FTL problem
- regarding communications.
- ---
- Communications will be instantaneous in *most* cases. Once a ship enters
- hyperspace, however, communications can become more problematic.
- ---
- I've told our people that in season two (Neilsen willing), I want a new
- Babcom or general communications standby screen...and if I ever see the old
- one again, someone's going to get hurt....
-
- ==== ~communicator ~link
-
- ???? What's that thing on the back of [Sinclair's] hand?
-
- The item on the back of Sinclair's hand is a Link, which is their
- personal communications system/powerbook/mainframe access system/pager.
- ---
- It's made to be adhesive to skin, but easily removed.
-
- ======= Medicine
-
- ==== ~medicine ~technology ~surgery ~math
-
- ???? How do you envision medical technology?
-
- Our medical advisor tells us that regen technology should be well in hand
- within the next 100 years, so you can grow back damaged internal organs and
- the like, and avoid having to do transplants. Also that the system of surgery
- is moving toward non-invasive procedures, using light in more and different
- ways.
-
- He went on past that, but there was some math involved...
- ---
- Re: the medical tools...we brought in a medical science consultant, who
- helped us design our instruments. His sense was that we're moving more and
- more toward light as a system of treatment, non-invasive procedures, that sort
- of thing. No, there aren't anything like those devices in today's operating
- rooms...but this is 250 years from now. In any event, it *is* based on the
- latest info we're getting on new science from our medical advisor.
-
- ======= Other
-
- ==== ~gravity ~tractor
-
- ???? Does Earth have any kind of artificial gravity? Others?
-
- I've said that Earth tech doesn't have any kind of gravitational tech,
- including magnetic/tractor beams. The Minbari have a much greater control
- over and knowledge of gravitational science.
-
- ==== ~computer
-
- As for computer tech in 2258, it's something we're exploring for a story.
- Larry has an interesting idea or two on how to realize it visually, but it's
- hard to find something that's possibly accurate without making it godlike.
- Still, we're trying...
-
- =============== Universe ===============
-
- ======= Vision
-
- ==== ~universe ~human ~future ~vision
-
- What I want to do with this show is to connect our past, our present, and
- our future, melding familiar images with new ones. This isn't what you're
- used to seeing. But it's what I want to *do* with it. Otherwise all you have
- are unattainable futures about people who we barely recognize as being humans.
- doing things we can't relate to. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't interest
- me.
- ---
- The main line I've been stressing with our writers and others who we're
- working with is the goal of making our humans more human, and our aliens more
- alien. Much of our life is focused around things that don't generally show up
- in SF television...we cut ourselves shaving, we have to find a bathroom, our
- shoes don't fit...and these are the elements that help make a character more
- real somehow. So yes, we're very definitely going for that aspect.
-
- ==== ~human ~language ~history ~future
-
- I don't believe in the notion that, when we go to the stars, we have to
- leave behind our individual languages, and cultures, and ethnic backgrounds.
- and fashions of dress. We bring that with us as part of who and what we are.
- It's our differences that *strengthen* us. It's not all going to vanish in
- 200 years. There are cultures in the eastern part of the world that have
- survived with minor changes for literally thousands of years. 250 years is
- the blink of an eye. It's really a Western phenomenon; to us, 200 years is a
- long time, the whole history of our nation. That changes when you go outside.
- I stood on the cobblestone walks of Trinity College in Dublin, and realized
- that on those same cobblestones some eager student raced across to the living
- quarters to announce news of a big revolution in the American colonies. I
- stood in the neolithic burial mounds at New Grange, the oldest man-made
- stuctures in the world, older even than the pyramids...and realized that in
- human terms, 250 years isn't even a blip. We're not going to change that
- much.
-
- 250 years ago, people worked, got married, had families, separated, had
- affairs, and hoped for a better world for their children. 250 years from now.
- it will be exactly the same. Only the chrome of technology will vary. For a
- good example of this, go find an SF movie musical called "Just Imagine" made
- in the 1930s. Set in the 1980s, it pictured a world of people with names
- instead of numbers, pills instead of food, and birth by machine. Much of TV
- SF makes the similar error.
-
- ==== ~station ~future ~realistic ~human ~fantasy
-
- On your point that B5 looks and feels and, arguably, *is* something that
- humanity could build, is nominally within our grasp...this is something that
- we've been building toward for a while, is part of what we want to do with the
- show. At a recent screening of some episodes for cast and crew, the one most
- frequent comment I got afterward was that it *felt* real, that this felt like
- how it might really be to work and live out on the fringe. Many SF futures
- are so far beyond our grasp as to enter the realm of unattainable
- fantasy...I'd like to point to something as more within our grasp, to remind
- us that we can do this, and that maybe we SHOULD do this.
-
- ==== ~religion
-
- ???? How do you tie religion into the story??
-
- Let me just lay the foundation here for a moment in the area of religion
- and Babylon 5. I'm an atheist, that simple. But that's me. If you look at
- the long history of human society, religion -- whether you describe that as
- organized, disorganized, or the various degrees of accepted superstition --
- has always been present. And it will be present 200 years from now. That may
- not thrill me, but when one is a writer, one must deal with realities, and
- that's one of them. To totally ignore that part of the human equation would
- be as false and wrong-headed as ignoring the fact that people get mad, or
- passionate, or strive for better lives.
-
- So we do deal with the questions of religion, and spirituality, and their
- definitions, without being abusive. A couple of stories on this area, like
- David Gerrold's "Believers" may be very controversial. On the other hand, my
- script for "The Parliament of Dreams" is a straight-ahead showcase, in which
- every species on B5 is encouraged to demonstrate his or her dominant belief
- system, as practiced back home. So we learn more about Minbari religion, more
- about the Centauri's rather Bacchanallian form of religion, along with others.
- And Sinclair is put in the difficult position of being asked to show what
- Earth's dominant belief system is. The solution to which is, I think, kinda
- cool.
-
- In the Babylon 5 universe, all the things that make us human -- our
- obsessions, our interests, our language, our culture, our flaws and our
- wonderfulnesses -- are all still intact.
- ---
- Yes, Earth religions have had to come to grips with the existence of
- alien cultures; and religions from both sides have filtered into human an
- alien life. We won't be dealing with that this season because we deal with
- the topic of religion a lot this season, and don't want to get too bogged down
- with it.
- ---
- Garibaldi is an agnostic. Ivanova is jewish. Sinclair was raised
- catholic and underwent training as a Jesuit. Dr. Franklin is a Foundationist.
- Catherine Sakai is buddhist.
- ---
- What kind of Jewish Ivanova is...is something she's trying to resolve in
- her own head.
- ---
- The Foundation is a new religion, started close to the year 2000, which
- gradually grew and achieved a fair amount of respectability over the following
- 200 years (as with mormonism, for instance).
- ---
- Great Maker is a term for the creator or god that has currency among many
- different races. Its origins are lost in history.
-
- ======= Earth Alliance
-
- ==== ~history ~earth ~2257 ~2258 ~year
-
- The history of Earth for about the last 100 years prior to the time of B5
- is broken out, and though it isn't laid out in detail in the series, it forms
- a reference backdrop for us, so it's all consistent when we refer to any part
- of it. The pilot was 2257, the first year of the series is 2258, year two
- would be 2259, and so on. The story requires 5 years of story time as well as
- 5 years of real time to tell. Things have to go through some real time lapse
- for the story to work out properly. Consequently, the narration at the top of
- the show ("...the year is 2258, the name of the place is Babylon 5") will be
- changed each season.
-
- ==== ~ea ~earth ~bronze ~mars ~moon ~colony ~io ~centauri
-
- ???? How big is the Earth Alliance?
-
- The EA is fairly large, but not on a par with the Centauri at this point.
- There are various space platforms/colonies, colonies on the Moon, Mars, a
- major transfer point off Io...they've gone in and "helped" a number of
- bronze-tech worlds (that happened to have certain resources useful to EA), and
- are generally spreading like mice in a cheese factory.
- ---
- You are correct in that the Earth Alliance consists in the main of
- humans. Aliens are generally not integrated into the system, except in very
- low-level stuff. (In some bronze-tech worlds where humans have come in and
- pulled an India/England relationship, you may have colonial governors who are
- native aliens, but are basically puppets.) There's more than just Mars, Earth
- and the Sol colonies; there are a number of other worlds and systems out there
- into which Earth has made a dent.
-
- ==== ~earth ~politics ~senate ~nation ~state ~earthdome
-
- ???? Will we be seeing Earth, or what's been happening on Earth, during
- the series?
-
- While we will not be *seeing* much of Earth in B5 (as in going there).
- what's going on back home will be a *constant* undercurrent to the series.
- You'll learn a lot about the state of Earth in 2258 in our universe during the
- course of the series.
- ---
- Actually, my plan is to show a *lot* of what's happening back on Earth.
- because that will tie into what happens on B5. Social changes, politics.
- religion, sports...again, this relates to one of the themes of B5 from my
- point of view, the continuance of our species,the thread that connects our
- past, our present and our future. And again, that's something that'll become
- fairly evident from episode one on.
- ---
- The questions concerned B5 and the political situation on Earth at this
- time. Back home, there is an Earth Senate, which is made up of elected
- representatives from each nation-state; the larger and more powerful the
- nation, the more reps they get. Which annoys the smaller nations no end. (And
- there's quite a bit of conflict between them; the smaller nation-states, with
- limited resources, keep grousing about why they should support B5 financially.
- as well as other space endeavors, when their economy really isn't set up to
- take as much advantage of the situation as the larger nation-states.
- ---
- The Earth government -- located in Earthdome -- is basically a republic,
- with reps from each nation serving as senators or in other capacities.
- ---
- Earthdome is on Earth. In what used to be Geneva.
- ---
- And of course there still *are* conflicts between Earth countries at the
- time of B5. Including conflicts over space. In a news broadcast featured
- prominently in the upcoming two-parter, because of another item in the
- broadcast that's important for that episode, it's noted that the
- representatives in Earthdome from several countries have pulled out in protest
- on the grounds that since they do not benefit equally from the exploitation of
- space, they should not be expected or required to help pay for it on an equal
- basis as everyone else.
-
- ==== ~fund ~economy ~ea ~four
-
- ???? Who funded the Babylon projects?
-
- The Earth Alliance funded the first few attempts exclusively; after
- they'd dumped all their money into B4, they needed outside funding to get B5
- going, and the Minbari were first to contribute money as a show of good faith.
- Then the Centauri added additional funding. Those are the only two other
- races that've contributed significantly.
-
- ==== ~found ~babylon
-
- ???? Who founded the Babylon project?
-
- David...what an absolutely wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
- question.
-
- I think I'll answer this in an episode next season.
-
- It's something that I've known, and just filed away, but yeah, this
- should be dealt with. And I'll do so. (Though now you have to wait to see it
- on TeeVee.)
-
- ==== ~rank ~military ~navy ~air ~badge ~uniform
-
- ???? What is the rank system on B5 based on?
-
- On the theory that some of the militaries have blended, the system of
- ranks is kind of a cross between the navy and the air force (at least the ones
- with which our characters will have any interaction).
- ---
- All Earthforce uniforms in this division are blue; EA marines are
- olive/brown; security and other NCO areas get grey. Within those areas, it's
- further subdivided, and is distinguishable by the horizontal bars below the EA
- insignia. Gold is command; silver is for command staff. (Ivanova, being in
- between, has a divided bar, half gold and half silver.) Red is medical, green
- is security. Yellow is for science division. The rank bars are on the
- shoulder.
- ---
- Sinclair and other officers are pure EA military, so they get the EA pins
- on the chest. (Also the techs wear them in the dome, and others in charge of
- various divisions.) Security is under the jurisdiction of EA, but are a
- separate component, staffed under B5 financing. These, and medical, and
- scientific and environmental and other areas have their own symbol, which is
- worn on their chest and shoulder. You can tell who works for EA because they
- have the EA also on their shoulder, whereas those who are employed directly by
- B5 have the B5 symbol on their shoulder.
-
- The patches connote specialization: command is a starburst, lines that
- radiate into every area; security is a gunsight/targeting symbol; medical is a
- stylized medicine symbol, and so on.
-
- Sinclair and Ivanova wear their officer's bars on their epaulets; not the
- triangular part per se, but the bars at the very far end of the epaulet, below
- the triangles.
-
- ==== ~earth ~alliance ~ea ~administration ~autonomy
-
- In most everyday situations B5 operates fairly autonomously; EA doesn't
- generally get involved unless there's a very good reason. And from time to
- time, they do. That happens right off the bat in the pilot movie, where they
- stomp down hard. They exercise other authority from time to time --
- "suggesting" that a group of Centauri representatives be given the VIP
- treatment in order to encourage them to invest and help to defray the cost of
- running B5 (an issue that never seems to come up in TV SF...just how much DOES
- the Enterprise cost to run?), and in the series, there's considerable conflict
- planned for down the road between those on B5 and the EA officials (especially
- since not everyone is 100% behind B5, and would love nothing more than to see
- it shut down).
-
- Wheels within wheels...that's the secret.
-
- ==== ~sinclair ~administration ~autonomy ~earthdome
-
- Sinclair functions within the parameters of Earthforce Command, but much
- in the way as a provisional governor might function. He is answerable both to
- his superior officers in Earthforce, *as well as* the Babylon 5 Senate
- Oversight and Appropriations Committee. A senatorial liaison often works
- between Sinclair and Earthdome (the EA capital city).
-
- ==== ~mars ~colony ~ea
-
- ???? Is the Mars Colony independent, part of Earth Alliance, or what?
-
- The status of the Mars Colony is in considerable debate in B5's time.
- It's chafing under the EA's tight controls. I wouldn't be surprised to see it
- try to secede at some point....
- ---
- The Mars Colony situation will be raising its ugly head on and off again
- for quite some time to come.
-
- ==== ~squadron ~patch ~fighter ~starfury ~line
-
- ???? Names of squadrons of Starfuries?
-
- BTW, for those who might be interested in such things...continuing the
- Earth tradition, all of our various fighter wings have their own names. The
- fighter unit that Ivanova belongs to, for instance, is the Ghost Riders. The
- name of Sinclair's Earth/Minbari War Fighter unit was Death's Hand. We've had
- patches made of these and other insignia, which get used at appropriate
- moments on their flight suits in the cockpit. (I don't remember offhand the
- name of the primary fighter unit on B5, which is technically Delta Wing, but
- it has a specific name beyond that, and it just fell out of my head.)
- ---
- BTW, today I was gifted by some folks in B5 with a collection of some of
- the patches we've used on the fighter pilot suits. You'll see these on the
- front breast and arms (both sides of each) of the suits, if only in the
- occasional glimpse. Even though they'll probably never bee fully seen, we
- felt the need to make 'em real looking and finish them off to the last
- stitched detail.
-
- These include the Earth Forces Off-World patch (gold-handled sword
- against a starburst within what looks like a cross between a mobius strip and
- human DNA), Earth Force Command (similar, but minus the starburst, with
- transverse red stripes against a black background), a B5 Fighter Wing Squadron
- patch (Flying Nightmares, B5FA-1013 on the outer ring, with a B5 symbol on the
- left side outlined by up-and-down red stripes, and on the right a black up and
- down stripe bordered by 2256), a rectangular Earth Alliance Fighter
- Identification patch (five-pointed command insignia circled by red and gold.
- overlaid with gold wings over Joe Straczynski), and the insignia worn by those
- on the Battle of the Line, a triangular patch with Star Fury on the upper left
- angle in silver on black, FA-23E in silver on black on the right upper angle.
- with the inner part of the triangle divided in two by a vertical silver
- stripe, blue on the left, gold on the right, over which is the design of one
- of the fighters in full accelleration, leaving trails behind it, with the
- squadron number 361st - TFS, with UGLY beneath it, and on the lower left angle
- of the patch, in black on silver, the words BUT WELL HUNG.
-
- Which refers, of course, to the figher craft itself.
-
- (They hang upside down prior to launch, you'll recall.)
-
- ======= Psi-corps
-
- ==== ~psi
-
- ???? Telepaths are common in the B5 universe, but not in the our reality...
-
- Interesting, innit, how they suddenly blossomed like that...?
- ---
- The whole telepathy issue is an interesting one in the universe of B5.
- There have always been attempts to prove the existence of telepathy, but in
- general the findings have been inconclusive. But about 125 years or so ago in
- B5's timeline (2100-2110 and thereabouts) the findings began suddenly to tilt.
- and full-blown telepaths began to be discovered. There were some abortive and
- confused attempts to legislate around this, most of which failed or were
- overturned in various courts of law. About 2150 or so, the government
- agencies that regulated and oversaw telepaths were rolled over into the newly
- established Psi Corps, which became a clearing house for locating.
- controlling, and licensing telepaths for commercial, some very restricted
- legal, and military purposes.
-
- ==== ~psi ~telepath ~rating ~legal ~scan
-
- ???? Where do psi-corps ratings come from? What are their legal
- restrictions?
-
- Psi Corps ratings are assigned from within the Academy, based on test
- results and personal interviews/training. Restrictions: NO unauthorized scans
- -- you need the permission of the person, tacit permission, or written
- permission of next of kin -- and no "dipping," going into other areas not
- relevant to the current scan. In criminal cases, psi's may not scan
- defendants during a trial or before to determine guilt or innocence, as this
- violates the right of due process. After a conviction, a psi may be called
- upon to function in various capactities (which will be seen in "The Quality of
- Mercy"). A psi *may* scan the victim of a crime unable to remember details of
- an attack, but that information must be backed up by physical evidence, or it
- is inadmissible.
- ---
- The number of psi's in each category, from 1-12, gets rarer as you get
- higher. Lots of folks have a minimal tendency, very few have any real talent.
- ---
- A Psi-rating comes through training and examination of a person's skills
- over time. Ivanova's mother never went through the full sequence to get
- rated. (Although they generally don't bother with P1s through P2s, so she was
- at least a P3 or above, in terms of raw ability.) A psi rating isn't
- hereditary.
- ---
- No, the accused cannot ask for a psi to validate his or her innocence;
- the trial can ONLY proceed on the basis of evidence. This is to prevent
- abuse, trials where a Psi looks at you and determines your guilt. When a life
- is at stake, you can't risk the possibility of some hidden agenda on the part
- of the telepath. You'd have to use a telepath to verify the first telepath's
- scan, and on and on. Best simply to exclude them from that aspect of the law.
- ---
- We're going to be doing a lot on the Psi Corps toward the middle of the
- series, btw. There's quite a bit in D.C. Fontana's new story, "Legacies," and
- in a script I just finished, "Mind War." The more I play around with the
- notion of legalized, licensed telepaths, the more room there is for all kinds
- of intrigue.
- ---
- As Walter says in "Mind War," about rogue telepaths, "Only Psi Cops are
- qualified to bring them down, so we're afforded greater...latitude." (That's
- a paraphrase from memory.)
-
- ======= Powers
-
- ==== ~league ~non-aligned ~world ~empire ~security ~council ~un
-
- There are more aliens than just the 5 major groups. In addition to them.
- there's *bunches* of oththe classification of the League of Non-Aligned
- Worlds. The Big Five constitute what is in essence the Security Counsel.
- while the rest are the General Assembly. We will see these groups
- participating in that capacity in "Midnight."
- ---
- It was Minbari Federation, Centauri Republic, Narn Regime, Vorlon Empire
- and Earth Alliance, for anyone keeping track. And yes, most all of them have
- some other alien species within their sphere of direct influence.
- ---
- Most of the non-aligned worlds have a less technologically advanced
- society, but mainly what constitutes membership in the Big 5 is the size of
- the government in question. If it's just one planet and maybe a sister world
- or two, that's not enough to qualify.
- ---
- The Babylon 5 Advisory Council and the League of Non-Aligned Worlds
- functions in much the same fashion as the Security Council and the General
- Assembly in the U.N. The smaller worlds and alliances can't weild as much
- power as any of the Big Five. Together, they as a group get a vote equal to
- one of the Big Five; they can deputize one of their number to speak for them
- and cast that vote, which can often break ties or create ties. It is not a
- terribly equitible situation, but it was the only workable solution that would
- be accepted by the other Ambassadors. We'll see them chafing at this in
- "Deathwalker."
-
- ==== ~peace ~war ~status ~alliance ~centauri ~narn ~vorlon ~minbari
-
- I'll have to be a little circumspect here (damn it, you're doing it
- again....). The Narn Regime is not currently at war with the Centauri
- Republic, which occuped the Narn homeworld for nearly a century before finally
- being driven off by the Narn resistance. Their resources depleted they are
- not currently in a position to make war on anyone; being naturally rather
- paranoid, and having just been more or less enslaved, they have a dread of
- other races getting together and possibly harming them, as well as a hunger
- for the technology that might protect them down the road (as Russia feared
- invasion its Eastern Front after WW2).
-
- There's a rough alliance between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri.
- since theirs was the first race we encountered. (They told us at that time
- that they were the biggest guys around, that they ran everything, that we were
- a lost colony of theirs...which eventually was disproven by genetic
- examination. The rest of their claims were also BS. They were trying to
- impress the natives.)
-
- There's some movement toward making nice with the Minbari, but also a
- GREAT deal of resistance, given the recent war.
- ---
- The Earth/Minbari war started with a Minbari first encounter (by us) that
- went tragically wrong and resulted in a firefight, in which the leader of the
- Grey Council was killed.
- ---
- The attack killed the Minbari leader, head of the Grey Council, Dukhat.
- the most evolved and wise soul of all the Minbari.
- ---
- The only questions I can remember...the vorlons have never fought a war
- with any other race. (At least none has ever been recorded.) And right now
- in the Minbari race there's a big split that took place after the
- Earth/Minbari war between the religious leaders and the military leaders.
- which culminated with the suicide of the Minbari commander at the conclusion
- of the war. They've now arrived at an uneasy truce, but with time, who knows?
- ---
- The minbari warrior caste leader who committed suicide rather than issue
- the surrender command was Sineval.
- ---
- ...and as far as Kosh goes, better to have him where you can see him.
- than not. They *are* a powerful group, and it wouldn't serve to ignore them.
- We courted them for 10 years for a first contact...and now we're stuck with
- them.
- ---
- The Earth/Minbari war lasted almost five years. The terms of surrender
- were conditional; there was to be no reparation. It was simply a cessation of
- hostilities. It was not a clear-cut issue of being beaten or doing the
- beating; it just stopped...which left a lot of people feeling about the same
- way some did after Vietnam. Peace with honor? Maybe, maybe not.
-
- ==== ~earth ~ea ~war ~dilgar ~deathwalker
-
- ???? Has Earth been in other wars besides the Minbari war?
-
- Earth has fougth in some other conflicts, on a smaller scale; prior to
- the Earth/Minbari war, they came to the assistance of the Non-Aligned Worlds
- against a race known as the Dilgar, which devastated whole worlds.
- ---
- The Dilgar War was one of the first conflicts that the EA got into, soon
- after establishing a presence in space. We mainly entered it to try and make
- a "rep" for ourselves, then got more morally involved when we saw what was
- going on. That and the Minbari War are the only real major conflicts Earth
- has been involved with, and Earth was not directly at risk in the Dilgar war.
- though if they hadn't been stopped, that might have changed eventually.
-
- ==== ~earth ~ea ~centauri
-
- ???? What was the Centauri relationship to Earth?
-
- The Centauri never really got around to us. They've been in a decline
- for a long time; the Narn occupation was one of the last of their imperialist
- rampages. Now they're pulling back further and further. And also as re:
- Earth...space is big. 100 years ago, we weren't putting out any radio or
- television or microwave transmissions; they can't check EVERY planet. We got
- overlooked for a long time by lots of different groups.
- ---
- While we were in an agrarian state, and an early industrial state, we a)
- were of very little use, b) had little to offer, and c) came at a time when
- the Centauri were starting to fall back into isolationism just a bit. The
- Narn had the misfortune to be strategically well located, had many resources
- the Centauri wanted, and provided other advantages. One doesn't just conquer
- worlds helter-skelter; it takes time, money, effort and some blood to conquer
- worlds. You only choose those which offer you enough to make the process
- worthwhile. That simple.
-
- ======= Miscellaneous
-
- ==== ~station ~distance ~earth ~star ~universe
-
- ???? Where in the galaxy is the station located?
-
- We're still in the process of drawing up a detailed starmap with the
- distances from B5 to each of our major governments, but we're looking at
- roughly 25 light years from Earth.
- ---
- We'll imply some of the geography in the series, but the interactive
- computer program coming out soon has a map of the station, and shows where
- what is in relation to everything else.
-
- ==== ~star ~location
-
- Yes, we're trying to use real stars and constellations in our script
- references, as well as indications of new ones that may have been discovered
- in the 200 years between now and the time of B5. (At one point, a
- tech-runner's background is being discussed, and they mention that he ran
- forbidden technology into the Vega and Proxima systems, for instance.) Which
- star is the one Babylon 5 orbits? One that hasn't been discovered at this
- point in time...but in about 50 years, it'll show up on the starcharts. It's
- a fairly small star, dwarfed and hidden by several nearby binaries that
- overwhelm the spectrum visible from Earth.
-
- Yeah, that's the ticket....
- ---
- The sector of space was chosen for B5 because a) it's pretty much in
- neutral territory, and b) of the neutral territory areas, this is the one that
- seems to have nothing of value in it, so nobody will be interested in fighting
- over what's there. This may not necessariliy be true in the future.
-
- ==== ~music
-
- ???? Does rock music still exist in the Babylon 5 universe?
-
- There's still rock and roll, plus other new musical forms that have come
- along, and still some franchises. TZ3 is being played on various local
- stations, but not everywhere.
-
- ==== ~drug
-
- ???? How about drugs? Has marijuana been legalized?
-
- It's never come up, and probably never will, but in terms of backstory.
- yes, it was legalized quite some time ago. There are only a certain number of
- drugs not allowed on B5; those which would lead to destructive, violent
- behavior that would disrupt the station, and Dust, about which you won't be
- hearing for a while.
-
- Near as I can figure, all grass makes you want to do is sit around eating
- pizza and watching old Lucy reruns....
-
- ==== ~money ~economy
-
- ???? How does the economic system work, on Earth and on the station?
-
- The Earth economy still runs on basic capitalism; the corporations
- under-write surveying and exploitation of planets, in some cases then selling
- what they find to the government in return for a piece of the profits, or via
- direct exploitation itself. (By law they're forbidden from exploiting or
- strip-mining worlds with sentient life.) There is also, as we discover in one
- episode, a big market for archaeologists who dig into now-dead worlds for
- whatever technology they can find, which might have been ancient there, but
- are new to us.
- ---
- Money works as in any large city. You come in with the money of your
- place of origin (assuming you haven't made adjustments prior to arriving), and
- exchange it for prevalent Earth value credits, as determined by the current
- exchange rate. You are issued a credit chit that has your name, ID, other
- information, including genetic information to prevent forgery, and that has
- your available credits as stored in the B5 computer. As you pay, as with any
- credit card, you whittle away at that amount until it's gone, at which point
- you either cash in more of your money...or go broke.
- ---
- The credit chits work differently depending on who you are. If you work
- for B5, your salary is tied into your credit chit, and you pay accordingly.
- If you're a visitor from elsewhere, bringing in non-Earth currency, you
- exchange that currency (as Aldous noted in "Grail"), much as you do now.
- Difference is, you turn in the currency at the B5 exchange. It is processed
- on the current rate of exchange. and you are issued a credit chit programmed
- with an amount equal to whatever you brought in. You use it the same way as a
- credit card. until it runs out, then it's rejected until you "recharge" it by
- exchanging more currency.
-
- It's also tied into your identicard, which has every available fact about
- you.
-
- Interestingly enough, I just saw an article in, I believe, WIRED. which
- noted that Sweden had just launched on a program of using this exact same
- device, same system, on a trial basis.
-
- ==== ~law ~ombuds
-
- Babylon 5 is a unique environment. There are only two basic types of
- people (speaking only of humans for now) around: those employed by EA or the
- station (conflict of interest), or travelers, who won't be around long enough
- for a prolonged trial. So in that kind of situation, the Ombuds arose...a
- 2258 version of a Circuit Court Judge.
-
- It's absolutely in line with what's been done in our own country.
-
- =============== Pilot ===============
-
- ==== ~pilot ~broadcast
-
- ???? Will the pilot movie of the week be broadcast again?
-
- The pilot MOW will eventually be re-broadcast, but as of this time I
- don't know when that will be.
-
- ==== ~pilot ~problem
-
- ???? What was wrong with the pilot?
-
- At risk of rehashing this one more time, what's missing from the pilot is
- 25 minutes of additional material that further fleshed out the characters.
-
- Each of the characters is being solidly rounded out in the series.
- showing multiple sides to each character. All I can say is that I think
- you'll like what we're doing.
- ---
- Re: the pilot...I've hashed and rehashed this, and the bottom line is to
- see what we do in the series and judge the series by the series. The DS9
- pilot had to explain very little that wasn't specific to the plotline: you
- already knew what a bajorran was, what a wormhole was, what the Federation
- was, what the cardassians were, on and on and on. Because they didn't have to
- introduce any of that, they could spend time on other character moments.
-
- We didn't have that luxury in the pilot. We had to do what, in essence.
- ST has done over 25 years: establish our universe, painting it in broad
- strokes, as broad're done with that aspect. And now we can do our
- character-based stories. Which is exactly what we're doing.
-
- ==== ~delay ~pilot ~series
-
- ???? Why the big delay between the pilot and the series?
-
- We'd always figured on going right to series, but once we had done the
- pilot, the studio said, in essence, "Well, we've got a pilot, we don't know if
- the market will sustain more than one space SF series, no other SF series has
- done well lately...maybe we ought to air the pilot first, and get the ratings.
- before committing to a series." And that's what happened...much to our
- consternation at first, but in the long run it was a blessing in disguise.
- because that interim period allowed us to really do a lot to make the show
- better.
- ---
- Actually, the funny thing is, I don't much mind if people who hadn't seen
- the pilot don't catch the rebroadcast. What we're doing now is SO radically
- better than the pilot that I almost can't watch it now.
-
- ==== ~miss ~old ~character ~laurel ~lyta ~talia ~kyle
-
- ???? What happened to the old characters on the pilot, not working
- on the series?
-
- On a classified mission (which I hope we will be able to get into at some
- point), Laurel has been reassigned out on the Rim, and Dr. Kyle is now working
- with the EA President on the issue of alien migration to Earth, a growing
- problem to some, a benefit to others.
- ---
- Pat Tallman passed on returning to the B5 project. Our new telepath
- will be played by Andrea Thompson, with the character name Talia Winters.
- ---
- Much of the Lyta arc will now go to Talia, but there's now a different
- way of getting her into that arc.
- ---
- What it *does* give me, which is kinda nice, is that the only two people
- to have ANY direct contact with a Vorlon...have been transferred back to
- Earth. Which plays wonderfully into something sinister I'd kinda like to
- develop that the Earth Alliance is working on behind the scenes....
-
- ==== ~story ~arc ~pilot
-
- ???? What is in the pilot, as it relates to the overall story?
-
- How much of the basic "saga" is in the pilot? Some...bits and pieces.
- The problem, always, is that we have a whole new universe to establish, with
- all the backstory that goes with that. As it is, it's fairly "information
- intensive," as one person put it. We find out about the Earth/Minbari war.
- the curious surrender, Sinclair's past, the missing 24 hours, the relations
- between the various governments and their own personal agendas, and a hint of
- what's to come. This while establishing the backstory of all our characters.
- and telling a story in present time (for them).
-
- I think you will find indications of what we've talked about for the
- series present in the pilot. Which is why it bears watching more than once;
- you'll pick up more information and more of a sense of the world the more
- closely you inspect it. (We tried to come up with a pilot that actually
- BENEFITS from close inspection, rather than falling apart if you look at it
- too closely.)
-
- =============== Episodes ===============
-
- ==== ~chrysalis ~impact
-
- Unrelated to anything that's preceded (thank goodness), here's a little
- something for consideration...thoughts to conjure with, when it comes to our
- season-ending episode/cliffhanger.
-
- On Power, leaving out the things that unnerved people too much to let me
- do, I was still able, in the final episode/cliffhanger of that first season.
- to destroy the protagonist's base of operations totally and completely and
- beyond recall, set up a major change in the antagonist's appearance (the final
- mechanized stages of Lyman Taggert), eliminate all or nearly all of our
- Jonathan Power's supply lines and support personnel, totally turn around the
- direction of the show, and kill one major regular character.
-
- So if that's what happens on a show where I'm not allowed full reign to
- do *everything* want...stop to consider for a moment what happens when there's
- no one to stop me from going all the way....
-
- "Chrysalis" is going to be one heck of an episode....
- ---
- I have just seen the director's cut of "Chrysalis," which will be the
- last episode of this season...and I think it has just displaced "Sky" as the
- most heavy-weight episode of the season. Even knowing what was coming, I just
- sat here, stunned, at the end of it. Seeing dailies, bits and pieces, doesn't
- really prepare you for the whole thing.
-
- What I like most about it are two things: one, by about halfway in, you
- really begin to understand that anything can happen, to anyone, and the rules
- that normally carry you through a television episode no longer apply. It's a
- very dangerous, dislocating feeling. Two: you get the very real feeling that.
- after this episode, nothing is the same anymore. The show has taken a very
- profound and *irrevocable* turn that will have lasting effects on all of our
- characters. Of all the episodes so far, this one has the most feeling of
- being the chapter end in a novel.
-
- The really hard part will not avoiding the temptation to show this to
- people...because it really can't be allowed to get out prior to airing. There
- are too many twists and turns and revelations that spin one off into another.
-
- One other thing's certain: after you've seen "Chrysalis," you're going to
- want to go back and check out three prior episodes...because something that
- you will have read/interpreted one way, without question or hesitation
- accepting it as what it obviously appears to be, will suddenly be turned on
- its head, and a brand new interpretation will emerge. And it's *real*
- creepy....
- ---
- Re: the Oliver Stone thing...that's a comment made during the edit on
- "Chrysalis" as well. I'm dying to see how people will react to what's done
- and revealed and advanced in that episode, but we have to sit on it; though
- we'll be mixing and finishing it in the next few weeks, we won't be turning it
- over to PTEN until shortly before airdate, because we don't want this getting
- all over town. There's not a single major character who's not profoundly
- affected...or strongly set up for profound changes in the very near future.
-
- I love it...it's my favorite of the season, without question.
- ---
- I give y'all a little gift...Kosh's very last line of the season, in
- "Chrysalis."
-
- "You have...forgotten something."
-
- It's not nearly as straightforward as it looks, and that one line will
- carry with it *major* repercussions. (And no, it doesn't refer to the 24
- hours.)
- ---
- I am *not* teasing.
-
- Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch "Chrysalis" again.
-
- ==== ~demon ~ellison ~script
-
- [This refers to a potential sequel to Harlan Ellison's _Outer Limits_ episode.
- "Demon With a Glass Hand"]
-
- I thought long and hard about the question of mixing universes, and
- allowed it only in this one case, because the events that propelled Trent (the
- character from Demon) into the past (our present) don't take place for another
- thousand years or so. Thus it doesn't do my arc any harm at all. One could
- say that the events in "Demon" will happen at some point in the future of the
- B5 universe...unless some events change them. On this one occasion.
- therefore, I decided to allow it. But that's the ONLY one.
- ---
- We're still working out the dynamics of how these two universes would
- cross seamlessly, without doing damage to either. We've got some solid leads.
- but this is 'way too early to get into them. More down the road, one
- hopes....
- ---
- Yes, the two Harlan scripts are temporarily on hold, due to some health
- problems earlier this season (two heart procedures), the quake and his
- injuries there, and other stuff. He has, however, served very well as our
- consultant, and it has been more than worthwhile. His health permitting, we
- hope to continue the relationship in future.
- ---
- [Ed. note: as of Aug. 94 below]
-
- Harlan is currently writing the "Demon" sequel for us. He is on as
- Conceptual Consultant next year, and is working closely with us. But there
- are always people out to tear Harlan down, so I'd pretty much ignore these
- weasels.
-
- =============== Books and Comics ===============
-
- ==== ~books ~comics ~canon
-
- BTW, did I mention that DC is going to be doing a B5 comic? And that one
- of our own locals here on the net just may have a little something to do with
- it? And that Bill Mumy may write a bit for it, and Peter David, and me, and
- some other nifty writers?
- ---
- I work directly with DC on the comics line. I approve artwork. stories,
- script and cover art.
- ---
- I'm trying to make the B5 novels and comics as much canon as I can.
- Basically, they take place within B5 continuity, as episodes that might have
- been. The first four issues of the comic deal with issues that hit the
- series, but from another point of view/location. The novel uses B5 as
- background of an event that makes sense within B5 continuity, and may be
- referred to in future episodes (not as a requirement, but only as
- background...no different than when you have to give background on any episode
- of stuff that's happened in the past, like Ironheart's escape. for instance,
- which we don't have to see/read about, but knowing is nice).
-
- I *really* don't want these to be just throwaways media-tie-ins. I want
- them to stand on their own as good work, *and* be part of our universe.
-
- Thankfully, I no longer require sleep, and have transcended to a higher
- state of consciousness...ommmmmm....
- ---
- And yes, there is complete freedome to use Sinclair in the books since
- he's not entirely gone from the storyline at all, and still will carry a part.
- ---
- The comics series is free to bop forward and backward in time, all over
- the B5 universe, wherever the writer wants to take it.
-
- ==== ~line ~minbari ~war ~book
-
- ???? How about the Earth/Minbari war depicted in a book?
-
- Yeah, I had the same conversation...suggested a structure rather like the
- Winds of War, set during the Earth/Minbari War, in that we have all of our
- characters in different places, seeing the story and the war from their
- perspectives, and how their paths intersect during that time in odd or
- unlikely ways. Dell didn't think that was the way to go, that unless it was
- set in the present, people would feel disappointed.
-
- Oh, well...eventually we'll get around to that part of the story.
-
- =============== Show Production ===============
-
- ======= Writing
-
- ==== ~writing ~believers ~quality
-
- ???? What makes a good story?
-
- A lot of our episodes are constructed to work as mirrors; you see what
- you put into it. "Believers" has been interpreted as pro-religion. anti-
- religion, and religion-neutral..."Quality" has been interpreted. as you note,
- as pro-capital punishment, and anti-capital punishment. We do, as you say,
- much prefer to leave the decision on what things mean to the viewer to hash
- out.
-
- A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the
- occasional bar fight.
- ---
- One lovely thing about "Signs and Portents," which you picked up on. is
- something I like to play with; implying one thing while saying the opposite.
- Look at all the shadow's main representative, Morden, does: he asks people
- what they want; he gets tossed out of Delenn's quarters; he is pleasant in his
- demeanor at all times, never yells, always smiles, and is courteous; he takes
- an action which saves one of our main characters. Londo, from disgrace and
- resignation, and helps in the process of scragging the bad guys in the
- episode.
-
- And yet everyone walks away thinking that the shadows are bad. Which was
- of course the intent...by the way in which they did "good."
-
- Kosh prevents humanity from achieving immortality, scares the hell out of
- Talia, never gives anyone a straight answer, doesn't seem to mind it if people
- fear him...and we walk away with the presumption that he is good. by virtue of
- the way in which he did things that were "bad."
-
- In "The Quality of Mercy," I play a similar subtle game; the first time
- you hear about the alien device, you're told that it takes the life force from
- one person, killing them in the process, and gives it to someone suffering a
- terminal disease to restore them. And everybody goes "yuck, that's awful."
- But that is *exactly* what happens at the end, and the general reaction is,
- "That's good."
-
- This is something I do a lot in my scripts, which I don't generally see a
- lot of other people doing. You *really* have to construct the script very
- carefully to pull something like this off...a little game between me and the
- audience.
- ---
- If you look at my scripts, you'll find that generally I write very tight,
- I don't leave a lot of threads hanging as a rule. Same with the planned
- series. No important threads will be left hanging by the end of it all. And
- generally any really significant thread will be wrapped within a year of being
- introduced.
-
- ==== ~character
-
- ???? How did you create so many great characters?
-
- In a way, I kinda took a shortcut...the kind of shortcut that helps you
- make the characters more real. I basically peeled off aspects of my own
- background and divided it up among the characters.
-
- I have an Eastern European background; that brings with it a certain
- amount of pessimism, a somewhat sardonic humor, and a view of life that is
- somewhere between resignation and astonishment, and gave that to Ivanova.
-
- I was raised Catholic (though it wore off, I'm happy to report), so I
- gave some of that to Sinclair, escalating it to Jesuit training; gave him some
- of my fascination with history and religion and philosophy. I've also lost a
- lot of people over the years, and gave him some of the sadness that comes with
- that.
-
- One of the things that has constantly gotten me in deep trouble is that
- I'm basically a smartass; I always mouth off at *exactly* the wrong moment. So
- this went right to Garibaldi. along with my basic atheism.
-
- The alien ambassadors are less personally based, since there have to be
- some alien characteristics about them; a different culture that informs who
- and what they are. In those cases I kind of backtracked from what the species
- was. and tried to choose as typical a representative of that as I could.
- ---
- "Then explain Kosh."
-
- Okay...you got me.
- ---
- It's impossible not to have the characters change to varying degrees once
- you cast actors to play them. Gradually, Mira's personality has grown into
- Delenn, Andreas has added a lot to G'Kar, Garibaldi IS Doyle. and Boxleitner
- is bringing a lot to Sheridan. You get to hear the characters' voices more
- the deeper you go, season-wise, and that's great.
- ---
- Re: Sinclair/Garibaldi/Ivanova basically liking each other; this will
- tend to stay, for many reasons. One of the things that grates on mhy nerves
- about some dramatic TV is that they invent phony tensions and reasons for the
- main characters to bitch at each other, that generally don't mean a lot.
- Also, we see a lot of conflict in other shows, but not a whole lot of what
- *friendship* means. And loyalty. These three are friends, as well as
- co-officers; they will go to bat for one another, will if necessary die for
- one another. I find that a lovely emotion. There are plenty of others who
- argue with them, and plenty of other shows in which the main characters yell
- at each other all the time; why not explore the other end of the spectrum?
-
- I will grant you that this is one of the more idosyncratic parts of the
- show; I have always placed a very high premium on friendship...my friends know
- that they can call me at midnight, and even if they're on the other side of
- the country, or the planet, I'll be there on the first plane if they're in
- trouble. And I know I can do the same with them. For some reason friendship,
- and loyalty, have become kind of passe in TV, and movies, and many other
- areas, as I think of it. So for me, this becomes something worth
- communicating.
-
- Bear in mind, though, that after this season, Sinclair goes elsewhere.
- and suddenly there's a new dynamic introduced into the show, which no one is
- entirely sure how to deal with. It disrupts them, and that is for the good, I
- think, as they try and work it out and decide whether or not they can trust
- one another.
-
- ==== ~writing ~script
-
- ???? What makes up a script?
-
- Yes, this is the actual text of a script. And a script contains scene
- descriptions, dialogue, directions. (Contrary to popular opinion, the actors
- don't just make up their lines when they hit the stage, based on loose ideas
- by somebody.) My scripts tend to be *very* detailed, with camera movement
- suggestions, optical notes, indications of dissolves vs. cuts, on and on.
- ---
- A script page, single-spaced, works out to about the same wordage as a
- double-spaced prose fiction page, about 225-250 words per.
-
- ==== ~ad-lib
-
- ???? How much is ad-libbed?
-
- The notion of how much actors improvise on TV is *grossly* exaggerated.
- I have not worked on any show yet in which the actor is allowed to just change
- lines or wordings on set without first getting permission from the story
- editor or producer.
-
- The reason for this is very simple: episodes are not shot in order of
- scenes, but in order of location (i.e., all the mess hall shots are done in
- there, then you move the camera crew to another location, and you do all those
- scenes, then you interweave them in editing). It's VERY easy to lose track if
- you're shooting that way, and you can change a line in scene 9, from "He said
- it's the absolute truth" to "He said he wasn't lying," not realizing that
- *another* character in another scene has already said, or will say, "Like Mike
- said, it's the absolute truth," and now those two scenes don't match. Meaning
- you now have to go in and edit around it and loop the dialogue.
-
- Sometimes an actor may not fully realize that there's a clue, or a
- particular line that must be repeated. So the rule on EVERY show that I've
- ever worked on -- particularly the more technical ones -- have the same rule:
- absolutely NO changes allowed on set without consultation with the story
- editor/producer(s). That's the rule on B5. Murder She Wrote, the Twilight
- Zone...on and on and on.
-
- ==== ~ditillio ~ellison ~work ~writing ~production
-
- ???? Tell us about how you work with DiTillio and Ellison.
-
- We've recently, as of this past week, added a story editor to the staff.
- Larry DiTillio. Which now makes three. But there's an implicit understanding
- that this is a story that I want to tell, and I generally need to have final
- word on characters, stories and everything else that involves the scripts.
- Both Harlan and Larry are willing to defer to the reality that this is my
- universe. I don't mean that to sound like an ego thing, because it's not.
- It's no different than writing a novel; I know where the story has to go when
- it hits the end, and we have to be sure not to fall off the tracks. I didn't
- fight six years to get this show on the air to turn it over to a committee.
-
- I know already that that is going to be probably my biggest problem when
- it comes to this series: turning over parts of it to other people. Letting
- go. But it's necessary.
-
- It's important, though, to clarify the difference between letting people
- go where they want within a script, so that I can let Larry or Harlan or
- others have their own head, as opposed to general changes that might affect
- the story arc, which is a different category altogether. The two of them have
- already had some great ideas on fleshing out some of the characters now that
- they're established, have expanded the universe and clarified many of the
- rules, the ideas, background stuff and so on.
-
- I selected Larry as story editor because he's someone I've worked with
- dozens of times over nearly ten years; we know how one another works, to the
- point where we can shorthand a lot of stuff in meetings, which saves a lot of
- time. He's an excellent script doctor when it comes to rewriting freelance
- scripts. And he's one of the country's foremost role playing game designers;
- he's great on campaigns and coming up with huge sagas, and I need someone who
- can think on that kind of scale.
-
- The other reason I had for selecting Harlan and Larry to work with, aside
- from their skills as writers, is that they're both two very strong individuals
- who won't be intimidated...*can't* be intimidated...and will fight for what
- they think is right. I feel that's very important. So they both give me an
- endless hard time. Which is needed for the mix.
- ---
- Harlan is our conceptual consultant. His job is to sit perched on my
- shoulder like Jiminy Cricket and point out to me the chuckholes, detours, and
- disasters-in-the-making that I might otherwise stumble into as I galumph my
- way through this show...and to harangue me and keep me on the SF straight and
- narrow and to challenge me constantly to do better.
-
- He also reviews stories, helped write the opening narration, has given us
- several good concepts on the running of the B5 station, and
- otherwise...well...consults conceptually.
-
- ==== ~story ~writing ~credit ~share ~b-story
-
- There's some small amount of blurring that goes on in this show; a
- freelancer turns in a script, and things get added. For instance, there was a
- need to really tighten up the story in "Believers," which could best be done
- by bringing in a small B story, which would allow us to streamline and
- intensify the main story. So I wrote the B story and slipped it in. In
- "Grail," for instance, there's a courtroom scene with a character named Mr.
- Flinn that was added to the script (I won't reveal what happens, but it's very
- funny.)
-
- And of course nearly all of the freelance scripts have been based on
- assigned stories, something that's developed in-house (particularly if it's an
- arc story) and then given to a writer to do the full outline and script. So
- far the only story developed *outside* our offices first is D.C. Fontana's
- second script, "Legacies."
-
- In none of these, however, will you see more than one writer's name on
- the script. Just the writer who did the draft. This is a policy I've had for
- a long time, starting on JAKE. It's somewhat pro forma for some story editors
- or producers to do a rewrite, or add a scene, and then slap their name on the
- finished script...which cuts into the freelance writer's residuals forever
- thereafter. My feeling is that if you're on staff, you are being compensated
- well for your work, and should leave the freelancers alone. The residuals are
- really their only way of making any real money off these things. So we had a
- non-arbitration policy on JAKE, also on MURDER, and now on B5. You'll never
- see a gang credit on this show. Having been a freelancer myself, this sems
- the only fair way to run things.
-
- ==== ~fan ~script
-
- ???? What about fan-submitted scripts?
-
- Re: scripts...for the first year, there will be only two people on staff:
- me, and Harlan Ellison, as creative consultant. So the majority of the
- scripts will be freelance. For that first season, we've already locked down
- our writers. They will come from one of two groups: a) a small group of
- writers who I've worked with over the years and have trained to my tastes, and
- b) another small group of leading SF writers, many of whom don't work for TV
- anymore, but will break that absence for B5.
-
- Part of the reason for this is to establish ourselves firmly during the
- course of that first season, get our feet wet, firm up our identity, and other
- hits by the same name. It does no good for freelancers on the outside to try
- a script until they've seen at least one season, as well. Finally, because
- there will be a certain amount of continuity and developing storylines from
- episode to episode, that requires a certain degree of direction from in-house
- on stories. Very often we'll go to a writer and say, "Here...in this story, X
- has to happen. Beyond making sure that X is included, do what you want." An
- outsider won't have access to knowing what that X is.
-
- Still, there will be episodes totally separate from the arc, and those
- are far more wide open.
-
- One disservice that TNG has done the SF writing community is its -- in a
- way -- tendency to *use* SF fans as idea mills. Hundreds of scripts arrive
- each month, they're read through, good ideas are plucked out, they pay a
- couple hundred bucks for the premise, then write it in-house. Part of the
- reason they're always so desperate for material, and driven to this length of
- soliciting scripts from fans, is that they don't have a terrific reputation in
- the writing community. Some of it is undeserved, a hanger-on from previous
- administrations, and some of it seems to have some basis in terms of the fact
- that you will never have the chance to see your script through to the end.
-
- That problem does not exist with B5. Our writers are already lined up
- and ready to go.
-
- Starting with the second season, assuming we get that far, we will open
- things up more and be willing to look at finished scripts with a release form.
- I think that providing that opportunity is important. But it won't be such a
- cattle-call in the way it's handled.
-
- ======= Casting
-
- ==== ~cast ~future ~actor
-
- ???? Do the cast members know their characters' fates?
-
- Some of the cast know the full extent of their character's story, some
- know a little, some know very little. In those cases where we need to set
- stuff up for down the line, we have to explain some of these things. Some of
- the cast want to know their future, some don't.
-
- ==== ~ethnic ~casting ~minority ~culture ~hollywood ~international
-
- Good point, btw, about the international aspects, on many levels. I
- think that if we're going to fairly represent Earth in the future, you have to
- go beyond the "token" minority idea. Not just one black, or one asian, but
- *lots* of folks in a mix...and not just from those two fairly safe groups.
- When was the last time you saw a Moslem on Trek? Or a Jew? Did somebody
- launch a Pogrom when we weren't looking?
-
- That's the challenge...to be *truthfully* international, AND to show a
- true vision of the future, you're going to need Native Americans, Indians.
- Arabs, Africans, Hispanics, South Americans, Australians...on and on and on.
- Not to be politically correct (which I tend to think refers more to the way a
- character is *represented* than simply acknowledging his/her existence) but
- simply to include them as part of the human race as we go to the stars.
- ---
- The ethnic mix has nothing to do with any changes in the series. We
- ended up keeping the mix intact. Lost was one Caucasian woman, one black
- male, one asian female. What we're adding is one Caucasian woman (Lt.
- Commander Ivanova), one black male (Dr. Stephen Franklin), and one asian woman
- (Catherine Sakai). In addition, we're introducing a Hispanic doctor who will.
- we hope be a recurring character from time to time (look for her in
- "Believers" to start with). And we will be doing more of this, not just in
- small parts, but larger ones as well. We have been very careful to keep a mix
- of actors that reflects what our thesis is: that if we go to the stars, we're
- ALL going to the stars.
-
- In fact, we just recently -- when we found out it was going on --
- instructed our casting people not to put any ethnic background information
- into the breakdown sheets that go out to actor's agents. (In other words.
- usually you need a white male actor 30-40, with a mustache, that kind of
- specificity is commonplace in breakdowns.) We have instituted open
- casting...anyone, of any ethnic background, is eligible for any role at any
- time. We hope that this will *further* help us to broaden out the tapestry of
- our series.
-
- This is a very committed show, on a lot of different levels, with the
- idea of trying to live out what we're preaching. We have an almost equal
- breakdown of males to females in our crew and every aspect of our production.
- (I say almost equal because I'm *fairly* sure there are actually more women on
- the show, many in non-conventional jobs, than there are men.) Our casting is
- open. We've instituted recycling on an everyday basis. I'm working on
- getting the styrofoam cups at the snacks table replaced by recycleable paper
- cups, and trying to set up a deal where we can give any leftover food from the
- catering truck to a shelter. We've got women in the writer and director
- categories, and two of our three editors (a very dominantly male business) are
- women.
-
- I don't like the way Hollywood works either.
-
- That's why we're not DOING it that way.
- ---
- We've had no problem getting the word out, or getting people to
- understand our casting preferences. The usual reaction is pleased
- astonishment....
-
- ==== ~casting ~female
-
- ???? Okay, how about casting females in parts usually given to males?
-
- We do tend to try and stay open to gender stuff; usually there's a reason
- why someone is male or female, so it's cast that way. But as an example...in
- "Quality of Mercy," the role as originally written was for a father/daughter
- combination. In the process of casting, we thought, why not mother/daughter?
- So that's how it ended up. In "Points of Departure," we have one of your
- requests already taken care of...a part of a war cruiser commander who
- could've been male or female...cast female.
-
- ==== ~cameo ~crew ~netter ~bruice ~jms
-
- ???? Will B5 crew members be featured in the show? Will you do a cameo?
-
- Actually, thus far, nearly everyone on our crew has appeared in the
- background of one episode or another, except for me. Which is the way I like
- it....
- ---
- Nope, I don't do cameos; for me, it ruins the illusion.
- ---
- As a matter of fact, in a couple of episodes you'll see a photo of the
- Earth Alliance president. The photo itself is of Doug Netter, my associate on
- the show and fellow executive producer. (The woman running against the
- incumbent president in the election featured on "Midnight" is played, in
- photo, by our wardrobe designer, Ann Bruice.)
-
- ======= Music
-
- ==== ~franke ~line ~music ~composer
-
- ???? Tell us about B5's composer
-
- BTW, since as mentioned Stewart Copeland is going to be off touring and
- doing an album and other stuff, we've had to lock down someone else as our
- resident composer. Someone suggested here numerous times has now been
- confirmed: Christopher Franke, of Tangerine Dream, who has done the
- soundtracks for such projects as Thief, Angel Falls, Universal Soldier.
- Tommyknockers and others. In addition to being a solid percussion man and a
- great musician, he's a real techie, up on the latest technologies involving
- music and sound, and will be able to give B5 a VERY unique sound.
- ---
- It was the discussion early on here about composers, in which Chris
- Franke's name was mentioned, that bumped him to the top of our list and helped
- motivate us to take a look. One more way the interaction has been positive.
-
- And yes, he will be doing the entire season. And composing a new B5
- theme. (I keep suggesting something along the lines of "Bali High" from
- "South Pacific." They keep hitting me with week old halibut. "Babylonnnnnnn
- FiiiiiiIIIIve.....")
- ---
- Well, we deliver our first final finished totally done episode on about
- October 8th. Christopher Franke has some *great* ideas on how to handle the
- music, and plans a curious blending of music and sound effects in some places.
- plus instruments from other parts of the world not normally heard in the US.
- to try and create a "new music" kind of sound.
- ---
- The B5 soundtrack for the series is built from many different kinds of
- pieces, synthesized (based on one of the most extensive collection of
- musical/audio samples in the world, which Christopher has been in the process
- of collecting ever since he practically hand-assembled his first Moog), and
- symphonic, since we're using the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra for some elements
- of our score. It changes dramatically depending on the subject.
- ---
- Christopher Franke is developing themes for each of the characters, plus
- themes for the station, for space in general, and for our various
- aliens...something that carries a sense of the minbari, the grey council.
- others. He even wrote a wonderful little Narn libretto for G'Kar, a la
- Gilbert and Sullivan. Some elements carry across shows, but in each show
- there are new and different pieces that work wonderfully. He's nothing less
- than terrific.
- ---
- Actually, only a portion of the music for any given episode of B5
- consists of synthesized music. Much of it is performed by Christopher's
- orchestra in Berlin, which is hooked via digital lines to his studio here in
- town. Not all, certainly, but more than you might think is from that live
- orchestra.
- ---
- Frankly, in the long run, I'm *much* happier with Chris Franke. Stewart
- was more of the "let's make a library of music and draw from it and remix a
- lot" school. Nothing wrong with that, lots of shows do it. Chris, on the
- other hand, uses *very* little library stuff; each episode is scored
- individually, and the music is lush, driving, powerful. I couldn't be
- happier.
-
- ???? I hate that "okay, laugh now" music that you sometimes hear!
-
- After "Grail," we had a discussion with Chris about funny music. We do
- not anticipate further discussions. (In a full season of music for B5, this
- is the only discussion we've had of a critical nature, which is extraordinary
- for any series; he's done a lot of wonderful work for us.
-
- ======= Visual Effects
-
- ==== ~effect ~stock ~library ~establish ~planet
-
- ???? How much stock footage is used in establishing shots?
-
- We did some library stuff in the first few eps, but as we've ben (been)
- spending more time, we've built up more, and generally we have 3-4 new
- establishers per ep. So there's less and less of it the deeper you get into
- the series. (And when you come down to it, a shot of the station against a
- planet is going to be pretty much the same in general, unless there's specific
- activity going on around it.)
- ---
- We did a lot of exterior transitional shots in the first few eps of B5 to
- reinforce where we are and what this is; it diminishes in frequency the deeper
- into the series you get.
-
- ==== ~cgi ~signs ~squared ~wilderness ~chrysalis
-
- ???? Which episodes are heavy on effects?
-
- Yeah, I'd say if you're looking for some cool CGI, you'll see it in
- "Signs." I'd say overall that our most effects-heavy episodes are "Signs,"
- "Babylon Squared," "A Voice in the Wilderness" parts 1 and 2, and maybe
- "Chrysalis." The first three in particular are real blow-outs.
-
- ==== ~render ~station ~image ~cgi ~resolution
-
- Also, Ron did *substantial* modifications to the B5 station itself.
- making it the biggest single object to render. It has something like (and
- this is only my memory) 100 times the resolution of the station used in the
- pilot, so you can get right in close for paint-scraper shots. It's much more
- detailed and substantial looking.
- ---
- Not necessarily...it may have been 100-times in resolution, or it may
- have been 1000-times in resolution...actually, as I think of it (via the fog
- that's in my head) I think you're right...I knew there was a 1 and some 0s
- involved in it...and it was a big deal...so maybe it *was* 1,000x.
-
- ==== ~effect ~sky ~detail
-
- Spent a very, very, very long day today in editing...not out of any
- problems, but because of the *astonishing* amount of detail we're putting into
- "And the Sky Full of Stars." Leaving out all the live-action shots, there are
- 25 CGI shots in one and a half minutes in one sequence alone. (By way of
- comparison, there were 55 or so in the full two hour pilot for B5.) So we go
- frame by frame, making sure that everything meshes properly, through some
- pretty intense logistics. You'll understand when you see it.
-
- I've never seen the like of this particular episode before. It's a real
- gem.
-
- ==== ~render ~time ~cgi
-
- ???? How much time is needed to render the images?
-
- Re: time per scene rendering...you have to understand that the Toasters
- render 24 hours a day. Ron et al set 'em going before they leave for the
- night, and the next morning come in to pick up the finished scene. So you can
- do a LOT of CGI in the course of a week. Generally several minutes of new
- stuff per week...and yes, that includes long, panning shots. Trust me.
- there's a LOT of CGI in just about every episode of the series. A couple of
- character-based stories are light, but they're more than compensated for in
- heavy-CGI stories like "Midnight," "Sky," and "Raiding Party," to name a few.
- ---
- Here's a thought to conjure with. It takes about an hour to render a CGI
- frame that's very complex; 45 minutes if it's not terribly complex. With the
- new Screamer, we can cut down that time by about half, so that a highly
- complex scene can be rendered in 15-30 minutes. Average length for a CGI
- scene is about 60 frames, so figure 30 hours. You can do a full show's worth
- of CGI in about a week, give or take.
-
- Today we turn over the raw footage for a special scene that'll be in one
- of our episodes. (Several scenes, actually, in the same episode.) Ron's
- elves will be rendering 24 hours a day (on automatic at night) for the next
- THREE WEEKS to do something very special with this episode. If it's done
- right, it won't really draw attention to itself, it'll just be very, very
- cool.
-
- ==== ~cgi ~trek
-
- Here's a Joe Predicts for you: by this time next year, ST will have gone
- either completely to CGI, or 95% to CGI.
- ---
- Also...apparently, at a convention, Rick Sternbach from ST said that the
- ST shows (DS9 and, subsequently, Voyager) would be shifting over to primarily
- computer EFX rather than models. They're going to start coming over to OUR
- turf...and engaging in the usual learning curve, trial and erros, which we've
- already gone through.
-
- Me...I just sit here and smile...and on one level, despite the way it may
- appear, I'm pleased. It shows we were right. And if they start doing CGI.
- it'll force both sides to again be competitive in terms of doing more, pushing
- things. And that friendly competition is good for the blood, it should keep
- both shows on the cutting edge. It'll also enable other shows to come in
- using CGI, meaning more SF on the air.
-
- It also ties into what I've heard lately, that Paramount is getting
- hammered by some of the stations asking why the hell DS9 episodes often cost
- 1.7 to 2 million dollars an episode to produce, where B5 is doing more, with
- half the budget. I would love to hear the response to that.
- ---
- The funny part is that Berman and Pillar, according to mutual
- acquaintances and interviews, have been swearing up one side and down the
- other that they were never going CGI, were staying models. And now they are
- coming to play on *our* turf.
-
- Amblin's got Amigas with ten Screamers.
-
- We've got only one Screamer. But we've got Ron.
-
- ==== ~cgi ~crisp ~blurry
-
- ???? But the graphics look so darn crisp!
-
- Just a note...re: the CGI looking crisp and unblurred...the blurring
- you're used to seeing is an artifact of atmosphere. There is no air in space.
- and thus no blurring. (Check the latest NASA footage for more on this.)
- That's of course why they put Hubble in space, to avoid the problems of
- blurring caused by atmosphere.
-
- We probably could've put in atmospheric blurring to give it a different
- depth-of-field, but we have this bugaboo about being a -science- fiction
- show....
-
- ==== ~cgi ~quality
-
- The CGI are definitely getting better. Year One was more or less getting
- used to the software and learning what was capable. They've now gotten more
- sophisticated in their use of the equipment, more artistic in some ways...and
- the preliminary renderings I've seen for stuff in the beginning of year two is
- *very* cool. It has even more of a sense of mass, and weight, and solidity.
- ---
- We're re-doing *all* of our computer displays for next year, using some
- nifty graphic designs. Part of the problem is that the boys at Foundation
- were doing the displays, and they were swamped doing our main CGI, so that
- kinda fell by the wayside. This year we've got someone who does ONLY our
- computer screens with us in-house.
-
- Glad you liked the series font, btw; I picked it out me own self. It's
- Serpentine Medium, for anyone interested.
-
- ======= Makeup
-
- ==== ~makeup
-
- Makeup takes anywhere from 2-3 hours for our main characters on a regular
- basis. In some cases, we've done something pretty close to full body
- prosthetics on G'Kar, and that is nearly double the normal time.
-
- ==== ~mask ~prosthetic
-
- Re: prosthetics...there are two parts, the inner area, which is taken
- from a mold of the actor's face, and the outer part, which is sculpted. If
- you change actors, you do a different mold from the face of the actor to
- create the inner half, but you can keep the outer part the same (based on the
- sculpture). Usually you sculpt it to stay close to and accent the actor's
- features.
-
- ======= Sound
-
- ==== ~sound ~surround
-
- Just for clarification, while Chris does a great job on the music. the
- sound mix is done in the studio with our regular sound guys, who do the
- surround mix. We spend a *lot* of time getting the mix to sound just right,
- to take full advantage of the surround channels. A lot of the credit here
- goes to George Johnsen, our co-producer, who is an absolute perfectionist
- about this stuff.
-
- ==== ~gun ~blast ~ppg
-
- Our sound designer has finished working on the gun-sounds, and they sound
- very impressive. We've come up with a different way of handling the gun
- sequences -- firing, impact, and sound -- based more on how these things would
- actually work if they existed. And let me tell you, if you EVER ran into or
- heard one of these things coming your way, you'd get the hell out FAST. We
- actually sat down for hours and tried to determine the effects on impact, on
- firing, on the surrounding atmosphere, and how to avoid the 30 mph problem
- usually associated with TV lasers. (That is, you trace the "laser" across
- screen, you see it move, which means that this beam of light is moving slower
- than a bullet...which is silly.) By all rights, it should be nearly invisible
- and nearly instantaneous...but then you don't see anything. We've managed to
- come up with a nifty little solution to the problem.
-
- ==== ~walla ~ditillio ~zocalo ~surround
-
- BTW, for all you who ride the pause button and jack up the stereo volume
- (we're doing Dolby Surround, incidentally), I assigned Larry DiTillio to write
- a bunch of walla (background dialogue) for the Zocalo, the observation dome.
- customs and other areas. Some of it's sane...but the rest...oh, man....
-
- ==== ~sound ~space ~franke ~music
-
- ???? How do you deal with the issue of "sound in space"?
-
- And just so everybody knows...so you don't gig me on this later...I have
- spent more time than I want to *think* about lately talking with our sound
- people about the sound-in-space issue. We've literally spent HOURS locked up.
- discussing various options, middle grounds, extremes and some off-beat
- possibilities. I still don't know what we're going to do exactly, but for
- what it's worth, believe me, this has been examined to within an inch of its
- (and my) life. What it comes down to now is this: we will have all of the
- options we discussed available to us at the final mix-down, and we will try
- them in different combinations. Whatever works best is what we'll go with.
- And we won't know what that is until we get there.
- ---
- Today, at Christopher Franke's, I heard the music for "Soul Hunter," and
- it's brilliant. It's very hard to describe...it's not rock, but it's
- aggressive, and powerful, not at all synth sounding. And I think that he just
- may have resolved the sound in space question for the most part. He tried
- some things we discussed, and it works great. So this may be the solution
- we've been looking for. (Though the first one who tells me there's no
- orchestra in space gets it in the eye.)
- ---
- We've found that what works best is to play primarily music as our space
- action/sound bed, overlaying just a tad with tonalities that aren't sound
- effects per se in most cases, but more sound cues that suggest a particular
- effect.
-
- ======= Editing
-
- ==== ~edit ~shot ~film ~robot
-
- The editing, by the way, is a fascinating process. Television is the
- process of making choices: you choose how to write the scene, you choose who
- you want to play the scene, the actor chooses how he wants to play the
- character, the director chooses how to stage the scene, the cinematographer
- chooses how to light and frame the scene, and then you and the editor choose
- how to structure that scene using the finished film.
-
- What you have in your hands (not literally, since we're all computerized
- now, and hardly anyone uses film anymore in editing) is the film for a scene.
- You've got the master shot, showing everyone. You may have 1, 2 or 3 takes of
- that shot. Then you get the medium, close, and two-shots, as well as
- reverses. You get 2-3 of those, times the number of characters in the scene
- (i.e., 2 close-ups of Sinclair in the scene, 2 or 3 close-ups of Garibaldi.
- plus the over-the-shoulder shots of both, on and on). Though the staging is
- the same, the pacing of lines varies, the delivery varies, inflection, stance.
- attitude...there are subtle differences that become terribly important when
- you start cutting film. Maybe the first close-up has the intensity you want
- in the first half, but falls off in the second part, so now you use part two
- of take two, which *does* finish with the required intensity. But in that
- take, the actor visible in the same scene isn't quite where he's standing in
- the master shot, and you have to go back to the master for the next shot
- because that's where you need to see X entering the room....
-
- It's a complex, complicated, exhausting process that requires you to hold
- the various scenes and shots all in your head at the same time, particularly
- if you want to do any last-minute restructuring, or "borrow" a shot from
- another scene to fill out this scene because there was a problem on the angle
- in what you've got.
-
- But I'd be a liar if I didn't say it's an awful lot of fun. You can make
- a scene play 50 different ways, depending on how you edit it. And we've got
- some *great* editors working with us.
- ---
- We're using some state of the art computers for our editing work, in some
- ways in advance of EditDroid. The first line is the Avid editor, which
- digitizes all of the printed takes from an episode and stores them in
- full-motion video/audio the same way you store a .gif file. You can have
- instant access to everything; you don't have to swap disks in or out, and it's
- all immediate. Once you've edited the thing to where you want it, you save
- the information to the system. Then you provide all of the required prints to
- the major computer system at the editing house which then *automatically*
- assembles the entire cut overnight. Operates almost entirely without
- supervision. You come in in the morning, and your cut is waiting for you.
-
- we're able to stay further toward the cutting edge of technology because
- we're small, new, and can react faster than something that has to work through
- an entrenched studio bureaucracy that has already invested major bucks in its
- old systems, and doesn't want to re-tool since what it has basically works
- fine.
-
- ======= Video
-
- ==== ~30 ~24 ~frames
-
- ???? Is the show filmed at 30 frames per second[tv], or 24[movie]?
-
- We *did* shoot the pilot (and will shoot anything that follows) at 30. I
- remember because somebody or other groused about the extra film costs.
-
- ==== ~title ~opening ~ratio ~letterbox ~video ~composition ~hdtv ~laser
-
- Well, we've finished finalizing our main/opening titles sequence, and
- done the on-line editing, and now will put it into the process and start
- putting whole shows together. We've decided, in order to emphasize the
- cinematic aspects of our show, that it's taking more of a movie approach to TV
- SF...to do the main titles in letterbox format.
- ---
- Yes, the main titles will be in letterbox format for conventional
- televisions...we're taking the footage that we've shot in 16:9 aspect ratio.
- and shrinking it down just enough to fit, so there's black on top and bottom.
- the same way that, for instance, TNT shows movies in their full aspect ratio.
- And we've custom designed some CGI that also is in that format. (In the case
- of series footage that we're using, there you'll be able to compare the
- regular aspect ratio of the broadcast with what's in the main titles. In
- other words, there's a scene in "Parliament" of a Minbari gathering. In
- regular aspect, as part of the show, you'll see it one way. We've clipped a
- section of that for the main titles and used the full aspect ratio, and in
- that you'll see the far right and left sides normally clipped for standard TV
- aspect ratio.)
-
- Apparently this is also done on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, I learned the
- other day, so that'll give you some sense of it. It's very effective at
- giving a real cinematic feel to your main titles.
- ---
- RE: composition...the monitor on which the director and DP can watch and
- see what the camera sees has on it demarkations to show the regular aspect
- ratio, as well as the widescreen view. Which pretty much allows them to
- compose for both, for the most part.
- ---
- We're not shooting on videotape, so it's kind of a moot point. We're
- shooting on film, which can be converted to HDTV standards *very* easily. The
- pixel density is a function of where you go once you decide to convert the
- film. It's now being converted to video at standard resolution; when HDTV
- comes into existence commercially, the film will be reprocessed out and
- transferred to video at that level.
- ---
- We are shooting in 16:9 aspect ratio, cutting it down to normal TV aspect
- ratio for its initial broadcasts. When a) the laserdisks are in time
- released, and b) when HDTV becomes more of a standard, the full letterboxed
- aspect ratio will be available.
-
- ???? Why not just broadcast the episodes in letterbox?
-
- Given that most household TV sets are fairly small, no, it wouldn't be
- fair or prudent to begin broadcasting the episodes in letterbox at this time.
-
- ==== ~film ~image ~cgi
-
- ???? How would B5 computer images look on the big screen?
-
- Films are difficult because the level of resolution required to make an
- image that'll stand up to scrutiny on the big screen is still a major pain in
- the butt. But that'll change in time.
-
- ======= Production
-
- ==== ~schedule ~day ~daily
-
- For those who might be interested, I thought I'd pass along a quick view
- of the process of producing a show like B5, step by step (though briefly).
-
- Day Minus 21: The script is finalized and distributed to all cast and
- crew.
-
- Day Minus 14: The episode goes into serious pre-production, with meetings
- on visual effects, wardrobe, CGI and so on. Props are designed and
- construction begun on both props and wardrobe and any sets that are specific
- to that episode.
-
- Day Minus 10: Tone meeting with director and producers to make sure all
- parties see the story the same way. Casting, begun on day 14, is finalized
- about this time.
-
- Day Minus 6: Major production meeting with all departments, at which each
- scene is gone through in detail, examining and reinforcing what props.
- costumes, extras and lighting requirements are needed per scene.
-
- Day One: Filming Starts.
-
- Day Seven: Filming finishes. Editing has been going on since day 2, as
- dailies arrive at the studio, with editors making rough assemblies of the
- scenes as they come in.
-
- Day Eight/Nine: the director works with the editor to make the first.
- Director's Cut of the episode, relying to some degree on the preliminary
- Editor's Cut.
-
- Day 10/11: Producers begin making their cut. (Mainly me and John
- Copeland.) Sit with editor and view each scene, picking out various takes and
- angles, integrating CGI. Sometimes the cut varies a lot from the Director's
- Cut and is a whole new version...or it is very close to the Director's Cut.
- Producer's Cut finished around day 12/13.
-
- Day 15: Producer's Cut is sent to primary editing bay for on-line
- editing, at which the frames of actual film are slugged and readied for the
- real thing (as opposed to editing computer images on the Avid).
-
- Day 20: Episode is color-timed to make sure color values are correct.
-
- Day 25: Spotting session...producers, sound designer, composer, dialogue
- editors meet and review the on-line edit or CTM (color timed master) to
- determine where sound and music should be placed, the kind of sound or music
- required, and number of frames/seconds duration. Second spotting session with
- visual EFX supervisor to determine rotoscoping or other non-CGI EFX placement.
-
- Day 39: Final mix-down of all elements: music, sound, looping, visual
- effects and other elements. For this we sit in the mixing bay from 9 a.m. to
- 7 p.m. nonstop, bringing in lunch, to determine balance of sound to music.
- music to dialogue, which elements to use or lose, and so on.
-
- Day 46: Finished episode delivered to PTEN and in-house.
-
- Total time required: 57 days. And during this period, we are
- simultaneously editing at least 4-5 other shows, and have shot roughly another
- 6 episodes, which are also in various stages of editing.
-
- I've glossed over a few things, but that should give you some idea of the
- process and the highlights thereof.
-
- ==== ~production ~order
-
- ???? Are the episodes produced in the same order they are shown?
-
- The production order was determined only by production requirements, not
- the story. The airdate schedule is the one that matters.
-
- ==== ~dubbing ~adr ~dialog ~looping
-
- How much of any episode's dialogue is looped depends on whether or not
- the line was clear on the mike, if there was on off-camera noise, and other
- factors. Sometimes there's almost none, sometimes there's a lot.
-
- ==== ~black&white
-
- ???? Any chance of black and white segments?
-
- Actually, we came very close to doing a black-and-white segment this
- season, and might do so next.
-
- ==== ~production ~cost ~money ~schedule
-
- ???? How does B5 manages to keep costs so low compared to other shows?
-
- On this whole "costs less = not as good" question, the one thing that
- galls me is the knowledge, accumulated through 120+ produced TV episodes, that
- 30% *or more* of any show's budget is wasted. It comes because you don't get
- a script until maybe 3-4 days before you have to shoot, and everybody works
- round the clock, ringing in double- and triple-overtime on EFX, costumes.
- sets, you name it. So items that should by all rights cost maybe $150,000 end
- up costing you $300,000 or more.
-
- In B5, we're generally 3-5 scripts ahead of ourselves at any one moment.
- Directors and crew get their scripts *weeks* before we have to shoot. And
- even earlier than that, because I know what's coming down the road for the
- whole season, I can give someone literally *months* of advance warning on
- major EFX, or set requirements. As a result of all this, items that normally
- cost $150,000 either cost exactly that, or we actually end up *saving* a
- little money.
-
- A lot of television production is absolutely irresponsible. That we are
- penalized in the press for acting responsibly is something that I just can't
- figure....
- ---
- One nice thing about the way we're doing this show is that we don't just
- have to set up gags within an episode; we can set them up *weeks* ahead of
- time, as long as the payoff is self-contained, but then when you see the
- earlier shows, now you get more out of it.
-
- ==== ~schedule ~shooting ~season ~two ~year
-
- ???? How is shooting for season two scheduled?
-
- The time for prep on year two, if we were to get picked up, would be
- equal to year one, with the exception that we won't have to build all of these
- sets. We'll have more time in that sense. Again, the stories are pretty much
- mapped out for five years, so that's already done.
- ---
- P.S. So far the first 3-4 episodes of B5's second season are in
- real-time order, each separated by a week in story-time as well as in real
- time. It begins a few days into 2259, and the season would end just before
- the end of that year, with season three starting in 2260.
-
- ==== ~history ~paramount ~pitch
-
- Babylon 5 was conceived in 1986; the screenplay for the pilot (which was
- more or less what was shot) was written in 1987. Also in 1987, art was
- commissioned and used to help in pitches to networks and studios. The full
- project -- artwork, screenplay, series bible, treatment and sample stories --
- was shopped to several places, including Paramount in 1989.
- ---
- The first notes and drafts on Babylon 5 go back to 1976. though the first
- script wasn't finished until 1977/78.
-
- ==== ~jms ~producer ~production
-
- What do I do exactly? Aside from writing my own scripts, I assign
- stories to other writers, and select those writers to work with. (Because B5
- is tied to a story arc, many of our freelance scripts are based upon assigned
- stories.) I'm also involved in every single stage of the series production:
- minus any notes from the studio (which are minimal, our last project got no
- notes at all, they're leaving us very much alone), Doug and I have final say
- over jevery aspect of the series. (Generally Doug is more the businessman and
- deal maker, leaving most of the creative details to me.) I do casting, work
- with the art directors on graphics, approve and work with the set designers.
- wardrobe people, prosthetics team, computer graphics team, visual effects.
- every single department. I get final say on the editing of the shows.
- mussound effects, you name it.
-
- ==== ~netter ~partner ~producer ~production
-
- ???? What is your relationship with Doug Netter on the show?
-
- As for Doug, he's my equal partner in the project. Doug's been in the
- business as long as there's *been* a business, once serving as head of MGM. He
- was my producer on POWER, and he and I made a deal: he will never give me a
- creative note on that series. And he kept that promise. If it came in long.
- or short, or there was an effect we couldn't do, that was one thing, but
- creatively, he left me alone. "I'm not a writer, that's your job," he said.
- There are very few people in this town who'll deal straight with you, and
- Doug's one of them. So when I created B5, of all the choices available about
- who to partner up with, Doug was on top of the list. He handles most of the
- business stuff, and I handle the creative stuff. (Which isn't exactly true in
- some ways; I have to get into some of the business, and he has to get into
- some of the creative, but those are are general areas of expertise.)
-
- His name generally appears in books about the film business, and in one
- of these books, it explains that when he was at MGM, his nickname was the
- Rattlesnake...hence, Rattlesnake Productions.
-
- ==== ~budget
-
- ???? What's the budget of a B5 episode?
-
- The details of the budget per episide are classified...but you could
- easily take DS9's budget, cut it in half, and you'd still have more than we've
- got.
-
- Which is, again, part of the overall plan...if we can prove that you can
- do quality SF on a budget comparable to non-SF series, it'll open the gates
- for more shows down the road.
-
- ==== ~final ~cut ~executive
-
- And yes, in TV, it's the exec producer who generally gets the final cut.
- whereas in film it's often the director (or, in some cases, the studio).
-
- ==== ~pten
-
- So far, the network (PTEN) is letting us do everything we want to do.
- even going for our more dangerous stories. Which pleases me beyond anything I
- can convey to you. They're trusting us to do what we think is right.
- ---
- I think that the PRIMARY reason that B5 is as good as it has been is that
- we've been pretty much left to our own devices without much in the way of
- interference from the studio/network. The day a studio begins messing around
- with a show is when it pretty much becomes doomed.
-
- ==== ~studio ~set
-
- Preface: as has been stated before, since no studio facility was big
- enough for our purposes (we now have 20 standing sets and 57 swing sets, some
- 120' wide or more), we took over an industrial facility roughly the size of
- Latvia and built three soundproofed soundstages, costume facilities.
- construction areas, dubbing room, prosthetics wings, you name it. It's sort
- of a Lucas Ranch operation, everything under one roof.
-
- A number of shows have taken over and converted such facilities to shoot
- series, but I'm proud to note that this is the *first* such conversion to be
- finally, officially and formally redefined by the city as a working studio.
- It's the *first* new studio in town in something like 10 years. There's
- nothing else like it unless you want to actually go on the lot of a major
- studio. (And it has the advantage of being off the lot, away from people who
- might wander into your stage and, oh, start giving you notes. If you're a bit
- away, they have to drive over, and the hassle ain't worth it.)
- ---
- Ah! Now I begin to understand. Alas, my offices aren't on the Warners
- lot either; we're well and truly off-campus. Next time look up north a piece
- past the Universal Black Tower, and wave, I'll see you.
- ---
- The end of the central corridor was a painting; correct. And I never
- liked it. So over the break, we *built* another 15 or so feet to the end of
- the corridor, going up, so now it's quite real, and we can put stuff in there.
- Much improved.
-
- ======= Promos
-
- ==== ~promo ~trailer ~teaser
-
- ???? Who does the promos for the next episode? Why are they so inaccurate?
-
- The teasers and promos are put together by the Warner Bros. marketing and
- promotions department.
- ---
- I have nothing to do with the trailers, except to sit in awe and
- astonishment, trying to recognize my episode in the trailer, which is a chancy
- business at best.
- ---
- Warners sometimes feels the need to "enhance" the shows through the
- promos...and sometimes they enhance them right into an alternate dimension....
- ---
- We're trying to get Warners to re-evaluate their approach to the teasers.
-
- =============== Audience ===============
-
- ==== ~trek ~seaquest ~press ~publicity ~audience
-
- Had a reporter in here the other day, and he asked if it bothered me that
- other shows were getting all the ink...meaning, I suppose, TNG and DS9 and
- SQ:DSV...and my response really said it all, I think. It's like the Rocky
- movie. Let the other guys get all the press, do the big flashy stuff, wave
- around big budgets...we'll just stand here in a meat locker, pounding slabs of
- meat with our bare hands....
-
- ==== ~online ~warner ~pten ~demo ~computer ~platform
-
- The one thing that I'd like to point out is that Warner/PTEN isn't in the
- programming business. This isn't a normal part of their PR strategy. The only
- reason they have done this at all -- the B5 computer promo -- is in
- recognition of the online support here and elsewhere. They have had to
- contract out for this, and because this isn't a proven (yet) strategy, could
- only carve out so much for it. No, not every platform is covered; doubtless
- that will change with time. But it's generally never done at ALL. So I would
- just temper the discussion with that reality.
-
- ==== ~impact ~viewer
-
- ???? What kind of impact do you want the show to have on viewers?
-
- The other day, a reporter asked me what I wanted to accomplish with
- B5...and I remembered this commercial showing a viewer plastered against the
- wall opposite the TV...and that seemed about right. I don't want viewers to
- see a show and say, afterward, "Well, that was a nice story." There has to
- be more than that.
-
- And while we certainly have our episodes that are paced just a little
- more slowly, less intensely, because you have to have variation, have to allow
- time for character stories...there are some episodes, like "Sky," that just
- hit the viewer right between the eyes with a 2 by 4 *real* hard and say "HEY!
- PAY ATTENTION! WE'RE NOT KIDDING HERE!"
-
- Take no prisoners....
-
- ==== ~con ~convention
-
- ???? Will you be doing more con appearances?
-
- I still plan to continue to go to cons, but probably at a somewhat
- reduced level, simply due to the requirements of exec producing this show and
- writing a smidge over half the episodes. Probably hit the major cons.
- WorldCon and the like. And always, *always* ComicCon.
-
- ==== ~satellite ~iran ~iraq ~babylon
-
- Re: satellite...one of the more interesting stories I've heard lately is
- that B5 is *very* popular via satellite...in Iran and Iraq, both of whom lay
- claim of one sort or another to the original Babylon. Apparently that a
- Westerner has set a series in their well-remembered Babylon that is NOT a
- negative thing but a positive thing has got both countries quite pleasantly
- astonished.
-
- =============== Nitpicks ===============
-
- ==== ~rank ~admiral ~administrator ~sinclair ~ambassador ~nitpick
-
- ???? Why is Sinclair running this station? What rank would the
- administrator have been if it hadn't been Sinclair?
-
- As for Sinclair's status as both commander and ambassador...that is
- something we're going to deal with in the series. By all rights, he shouldn't
- even BE there. EA tried to stick an Admiral or some other high-ranking
- officer there. The first race to sign onto the station, the Minbari, had
- approval over who was sent to that post. They rejected everyone suggested.
- right down the line, until Sinclair. EA Officials are still wondering why HE
- was selected. (There is a reason.)
-
- That post was previously designed to either include representing Earth as
- an ambassador (to avoid in-station conflicts) or as an adjunct to one. And at
- one point, an ambassador will arrive, and they will hash this out once and for
- all.
-
- What you have picked up on are not flaws, but story points in the
- making...areas that will be explored down the road. These questions WILL be
- answered. It would have been very easy to make him Admiral or Ambassador
- Sinclair. He was given this lower rank for a reason...and there are an awful
- lot of people who look at this, and wonder if Sinclair isn't just a *tad* too
- cozy with their former enemies in the war, and just where ARE his loyalties.
- *really*?
- ---
- Is it a conflict of interest...yes and no. Sinclair functions much as a
- military governor in, for instance, California's past. Someone in this
- position may speak on behalf of his government with neighboring countrires,
- and represent others. Does it sometimes lead into a conflict of interest?
- Yes. Is it sometimes unfair? Yes. Which is kinda like life, and that's why
- I rather like putting him in an awkward position.
-
- ==== ~narration ~opening ~pten
-
- ???? Can't you cut down on the narration size?
-
- Doing the intro was something that PTEN wants for all its shows; if you
- check out Trax and Kung Fu, you'll see it there, as well. It's my hope that
- we can trim the narration down by 1/2 in second and subsequent seasons.
-
- ==== ~hyperspace ~travel ~light
-
- ???? Aren't ships subject to relativity by travelling faster than light?
-
- Actually, I'd argue that there's a difference between FTL travel, and
- removing oneself from the standard reference by entering hyperspace.
-
- ==== ~gloves
-
- ???? Why do so many characters wear gloves?
-
- Talia, like all Psi Corps members, wears gloves because she has to, when
- in public, to minimize physical contact and accidental scans. As for others
- wearing gloves...sometimes it's a fashion statement...and other times, well.
- space is very very cold....
-
- ==== ~door
-
- ???? Why are the doors shaped irregularly?
-
- Re: the shape of the doors...they're set to notch into the wall, and in
- the case of depressurization, bolts shoot through the "teeth" that insert into
- the wall, to lock it securely into place. It's much more airtight that way
- than a conventional door that swings or opens in the middle in case of an
- accident that opens a portion of the station to vacuum.
-
- ==== ~station ~atmosphere ~orbit ~ship ~planet
-
- ???? Why is Babylon 5 orbiting a planet, instead of being on a planet?
-
- Many of the huge transports that'll be coming to B5 were never meant to
- operate within an atmosphere, they're strictly deep range starships, to which
- you transfer using atmosphere-capable shuttles. We're not talking little
- flits, we're talking about ships that can be as big as a mile across. Dropping
- something that huge down into the gravity well of a planet is just unworkable.
- If you want something that can handle lots of big ships, it *has* to be in
- space...as in a station.
-
- You could park a big ship near a planet, and use lots of shuttles to
- unload it down to the planet (gravity well, heavy cargo, lots of fuel, lots of
- time, more accidents), then haul it right back *up* again when it's sold or
- transferred...or you could build a station in zero G where your big transport
- just parks alongside, loads or unloads its cargo in zero gravity, and transfer
- it where needed.
-
- And the atmosphere of the planet is no longer breathable.
- ---
- Yes, the nearby planet will eventually figure into the storyline. No, I
- cannot currently tell you how.
- ---
- The world B5 orbits is Epsilon 3.
-
- ==== ~lurker ~homeless ~station ~earth
-
- ???? What are lurkers? Why not send 'em back?
-
- Actually...y'know...it's funny, but I've been trying to come up with a
- name for the folks who just sorta roam B5, the "homeless" or others who have
- enough resources to get there in hopes of jobs or new worlds, and don't have
- enough to get off again...and who play a running game of tag of sorts with B5
- security..."Lurkers" ain't bad....
- ---
- Scenario Number One: sending the Lurkers back to Earth. Comes a call
- from Earth Central: "Hell, no, you're NOT shipping them back here, we're
- overcrowded enough as it is, we will NOT give you permission to send them back
- here."
-
- Scenario Number Two: turning them over to their representatives on B5.
- G'Kar: "Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention, Commander, I'll
- have him sent back at once." Beat. The commander leaves.
-
- G'Kar: "Get OUT of here and don't come back! I don't have time to deal
- with the likes of you, we're NOT paying to send you back to Homeworld, just
- get out!"
-
- ==== ~humanoid
-
- ???? There shouldn't be all these other aliens who look humanoid...
-
- Actually, I disagree...the basic "model" of the human form is very well
- tailored and may be more general than we might suspect. Legs for walking.
- probably two because all closed up sideways we present less of a silhouette
- for predators, and two legs are more nimble, can slip through narrower places
- than three. Arms to lift, and hands to manipulate objects (show me a culture
- without a good opposable thumb) required for the birth of technology. Sensors
- (eyes/ears/nose) at the very highest part of the body, best for observational
- purposes, hunting and the like.
-
- There are zillions of species on Earth, but you rarely seen anything
- above spider-level with more than six legs. Now, I'm not saying that it's
- impossible to have other forms, not at all...only that the humanoid form may
- in fact be far more common than anyone suspects.
-
- ==== ~starfury ~x-wing ~star ~war
-
- ???? Why do the starfury fighters look like X-wings from Star Wars?
-
- When we did the research on how a fighter could best operate in zero
- gravity, it seemed to require a four-wing axis with thrusters on every side.
- We've thus taken every possible step to make them NOT look like x-wings.
- particularly since there's no long, sleek forward section at *all*, it's a
- snub-nose, and the wings don't move, plus they have the unusual thruster
- combination.
-
- ==== ~constellation ~orion
-
- ???? I thought I saw Orion. Are you showing constellations?
-
- For starters, the Orion constellation would not look like the Orion
- constellation from another POV, say, 30 light years from here. Another
- cluster of stars might *look* the same, or similar, but anyone expecting to
- see the constellations as we recognize them from here is going to be
- disappointed.
-
- As far as I know, from what Ron's said re: constellations, while it may
- look like Orion, it isn't. It's perception, the mind looking for patterns it
- recognizes.
-
- ==== ~paper ~recycle
-
- ???? They're using paper in the 23rd century, e.g. Universe Today?
-
- It's not a paper,but synthetic material. A customized (to each person)
- copy of UT comes out in your quarters, you take it with you, read it, dump it
- in the recycler and get it again the next day.
-
- ==== ~cycle ~time
-
- ???? Why the inconsistent meaning of the word "cycle" as a unit of time?
-
- At one time we were working out what the time-reference would be on B5.
- One of the early things we talked about were cycles, but in fairly short order
- I decided against it because it didn't seem to mean much. But this was.
- sadly, after "Grail" had been produced, and we couldn't dub over the cycle
- references with anything else, so it stayed. It won't be appearing anywhere
- else henceforth. One of our few continuity glitches.
-
- =============== Will there be... ===============
-
- ==== ~holiday ~new-year
-
- ???? Will there be holiday celebrations on B5?
-
- We have a New Year's celebration in one episode later this season, and at
- some point will probably show other stuff next year.
- ---
- The new year's eve on B5 at the end of 2258 is definitely memorable.
-
- ==== ~rank ~ea
-
- ???? Will any high-ranking EA officers come to B5?
-
- Yes, there are instances where other EA officers come aboard with
- equivilent or close ranks to our characters. In one particular episode it
- makes for some considerable conflict....
-
- ==== ~sf ~sci-fi ~convention
-
- ???? How about a SF convention on the station?
-
- An SF convention on board Babylon 5...oh dear....(slapping self, bad jms.
- *bad* jms).
- ---
- I don't know, but I think I can be *reasonably* sure that there won't be
- anyone there selling Dianetics books in the dealer's room....
-
- ==== ~zero ~gravity ~garden
-
- We plan to do some such shots for the series, in the zero-g section of
- the garden, and possibly in the zero-g cargo section that rides on top of B5.
- My mandate to Ron is to come up with a way of doing it that looks good. Once
- we have that, we'll do the story.
-
- ==== ~time ~travel
-
- With only one exception, you won't see time travel anywhere in the
- five-year run of the B5 story.
-
- ==== ~sport ~recreation
-
- ???? Sports and recreation?
-
- Sports/recreation are things we're still trying to work out; not the
- conceptual part, but the part about "okay, how do we SHOOT this?" I'm not big
- on "virtual reality" parlors or combat...I think people will still be more
- interested in playing with real people than pixels. So we're trying to find
- ways we can visualize, in a TV series, things like zero-G tag or football.
- other sports that use our unique space environment. One possibility is now
- being worked on, and we'll see if we can work it out for this season. In any
- event, it's definitely something we're thinking about...I just don't want to
- rush into doing it until I know we can do it properly.
-
- ==== ~dead ~minor ~kill
-
- ???? In other shows, the characters that get killed off are always the
- anonymous, unknown characters. Will we see anybody get killed off
- that's not just a minor character?
-
- You'll get your wish...and you'll wish you hadn't....
- ---
- Matt: the most entertaining thing for a writer is creating a character;
- the second most entertaining thing is killing off a character. Believe me, as
- you'll see in the Fight To The Death in the pilot, I have no problem dropping
- a body. And as far as I'm concerned, only 2 or 3 characters in this series
- are indispensible...the rest are open to all kinds of interesting fates.
- ---
- The problem with episodic series is that, after a while, you know what
- the parameters are. You know THIS character won't ever be killed, and THAT
- base has got to remain, and THIS can't change. And you fall into a habit and
- into regular expectations. I *love* to blow up those sorts of expectations.
- Find the one thing that NO ONE thinks you're ever going to do in your
- show...and do it. It keeps EVERYBODY on their toes. If you can tune in and
- never know for sure what's going to happen, knowing that everyone and
- everything is fair game, it makes the tension in the show far more real. The
- reaction when Pilot/Jennifer Chase was killed off was astonishing...and when
- the base was destroyed with her. I was at a con when it was shown, and one
- person finally broke the stunned silence and said, "Jesus, they're not kidding
- around, this IS a war." Which was exactly the right response.
-
- How this will affect B5...wait and see.
-
- ==== ~ship ~enter ~leave ~hyperspace
-
- ???? Will we get to see the point of view of a ship leaving or entering
- hyperspace?
-
- At some point, we'll probably see what it looks like from the ship' POV
- leaving or entering hyperspace, yes.
-
- ==== ~gay
-
- ???? Will there be a gay character? When will we meet this character?
-
- (And at one point, we'll introduce a character -- assuming we haven't
- already -- who will be around for quite some time, and then we'll just drop.
- quite casually, that the character is gay. I think that this is much better
- than doing A Gay Story. Just drop it in and move on.)
- ---
- To give that information out now would defeat the dynamic of its
- revelation. There's some stuff I can talk about, some that I can't. That is
- one of them.
-
- And how do you know you haven't already seen this character?
- ---
- Let me put this as simply as I can...in the year 2258, nobody *cares*
- about your sexual orientation. It doesn't come up. No one makes an issue out
- of it. There are no discussions, no proclamations, no inquiries, no "how will
- they react?" It's like being left-handed or right-handed; no one really cares
- one way or another.
-
- Can we now move on past all of this?
-
- ==== ~tractor
-
- ???? Will there be tractor beams on the show?
-
- B5 doesn's have tractor beams; for the most part, they don't exist in
- Earth tech of 2258, though other species might have them. (There are
- differences in tech between races.)
-
- ==== ~mime
-
- ???? How about a planet of mimes?
-
- An entire planet of mimes.....AN ENTIRE PLANET OF MIMES!?!
-
- NUKE 'EM!
-
- NUKE 'EM TILL THEY GLOW THEN SHOOT 'EM IN THE DARK!
-
- YAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!
-
- ==== ~bigotry ~earth ~first ~hate ~crime ~alien
-
- ???? So, humans get together better in the future, is this universal?
-
- That doesn't mean that bigotry is going to disappear, however; lilke
- religion, there is some dark impulse there -- the tribal preservation
- instinct, or somedamnthing -- that keeps turning up. The target keeps
- changing, but the impulse remains. So likely it'll turn toward the new
- "different" people...the outsiders...aliens. I think you'll see a lot of
- people taking an "Earth First" (no relation to the current group) mentality.
- hate crimes against aliens, that sort of thing.
-
- ==== ~flashback ~past ~sinclair ~running
-
- ???? Are you going to use flashbacks to help tell the story?
-
- Mike: we're not going to see a lot of Sinclair in the past, only what is
- necessary to understand the present...and there are going to be
- transformations, but I prefer to see my transformations take place in the
- present, pointing toward the future, than in flashback.
-
- The difference, I suppose, is that in many shows, characters arrive at
- Point X in a series at the very beginning, and stay there for the duration.
- and we are sometimes shown what made them that way. In B5, what I'm trying
- for is to take a certain set of characters, and move them all toward
- substantive changes in their lives, their characters, their beliefs and their
- allegiances. Just about everyone on B5 is running to, or away from something.
- I don't want that simply as backdrop, I want that something to *catch up with
- them*. That, to me, is where the fun starts.
-
- ==== ~powerful ~being ~story ~alien
-
- ???? Will there be any stories about all-powerful beings?
-
- Mike: you needn't worry. I find all-powerful beings of any stripe
- incredibly boring. I find it more interesting when ordinary people are
- summoned to do extraordinary things, and must rise above their limitations
- without losing their limitations; succeeding in spite of them. Sinclair is a
- man, period. He may have a great calling ahead of him, as did Churchill or
- Lincoln or Alexander or (for all we know) Rondo Hatton, but they're all just
- men in the final analysis.
-
- ==== ~transporter ~transmitter ~matter
-
- ???? Will there be technology to transport matter?
-
- Definite no on the question of matter transmitters. That's a little too
- much in the magic/science-fantasy area for my preferences. Space travel is
- done in ships.
-
- ==== ~movie ~guest ~cast ~star
-
- ???? Can you cast movie stars as guests? DeVito? Lloyd? Gibson?
-
- The problem, of course, with DeVito or Lloyd or (as some suggested) Mel
- Gibson or others it that their salaries would be, individually, equal to our
- entire production budget for 3-4 episodes. Which means we'd have to shoot
- only 18 rather than 22.
-
- ==== ~clothes ~uniform
-
- ???? Will the crew wear anything besides crisp new uniforms?
-
- Finally...yes, there are leftover clothes. Why not? There are in real
- life. What you'll often see Sinclair wearing, when he's off duty in his
- quarters, is an old scruffy sweatshirt/sweater from the EA flight school.
-
- ==== ~morn ~norm
-
- ???? Will there be a "Norm/Morn" type in B5?
-
- What is a Norm/Morn type?
-
- ==== ~station ~inside ~garden ~life
-
- ???? Will we be seeing more of the vegitated inside of the station?
-
- Yes, we will. In addition to the Zen garden, and the Fresh Air
- Restaurant, we'll be seeing the Orchard, the Pavillion, and the Maze, though
- you won't see the last one there for some time. I don't think it shows up
- until "Chrysalis."
- ---
- There is some limited life within the garden...some birds (which you can
- hear sometimes), and insects, and the like. (In one shot you can see an
- insect fly off one of our actors. Yeah, sure, like we planned that....) It's
- generally one season in the Garden, and plants requiring variation are raised
- in a separate hydroponics area, such as the orchard (seen in "War Prayer").
- ---
- Re: the crops/parkland...no, there are no settlements there. You don't
- waste precious land needed for farming and oxygen reclamation and hydroponic
- gardens to throw up a shack or house. Those who work in the central Garden
- area live in standard B5 quarters. There are some recreational areas, a hedge
- maze (as you'll see later this season), and we're adjusting some of our sets
- to reveal more of the garden area. No one "camps out" on the surface; if they
- try, they're destroying precious crops, and are arrested.
-
- ==== ~cloaking
-
- ???? How about clocking technology?
-
- Who says you haven't already *seen* cloaking tech?
-
- =============== Products ===============
-
- ==== ~merchandizing ~product ~deal
-
- For me, merchandising is one of those aftershocks of the creative
- process, sort of an, "Oh, yeah, there's *that* part over there, too." I'm not
- disdainful of it, it's just not something that I think about a lot, because
- first and foremost it's a *distraction*. You start thinking about the
- *P*R*O*D*U*C*T* and not about the story. Then you start bending the story to
- work in the product.
-
- And that's something I've fought against as long as I've *been* in TV.
- When I was at Filmation, I fought tooth and nail against *any* interference in
- content from the sponsor, Mattel. Especially when they started forcing in
- characters simply so they could market them. That was the reason I resigned
- from Captain Power after the first season; my sense was that too much
- attention was being given to the merchandise aspect of the show, to the
- detriment of the series.
-
- If a deal is set, I want to be part of the process afterward to insure
- the quality of the product, so it won't be a slapdash or cheap thing. And it
- should be representative of the spirit of the show. But that, for me, is
- about it.
-
- ==== ~director ~pilot ~video ~release ~footage
-
- ???? What are the odds of a director's cut of the pilot being released
- which incorporates pilot footage which was removed?
-
- The odds are zero, since the first version of the B5 pilot existed only
- as a computer-graphic file edited movie. It wasn't edited on film, for real.
- until we'd pared it down. We'd have to go in and totally re-edit and
- re-score, and I doubt that's going to happen.
- ---
- The computerized cut of the pilot is now dumped out of memory, and those
- portions only exist on a few VHS tapes of marginal quality. Also, the footage
- in computer file form is *very* low grade, like a poorly scanned gif file.
- very low resolution. It would be useless on a laser disk.
-
- ==== ~script
-
- ???? Will you be releasing scripts?
-
- No plan to make the scripts available at this time, but who knows...?
-
- ==== ~laserdisc ~video ~release ~widescreen
-
- ???? How about laserdiscs?
-
- I'm led to understand that videotapes of B5 will be out sometime around
- the Fall or so, from first season. There will eventually be laserdisks, and
- the best part of *that* is that they'll be in the original letterbox format in
- which the show is actually filmed.
-
- In fact, in preparation for that, we've begun the process of transferring
- the videotape CGI effects to film, in correct aspect ratio to match the
- original live-action film. As we finish, this will all have to be
- quality-controlled, so though it's a burden, I've volunteered to get the first
- set of widescreen tapes so that I can screen them prior to final transfer to
- disk.
-
- ==== ~soundtrack
-
- I'm sure at some point there'll be a B5 soundtrack album, but when, I
- don't know. My guess is that it'll wait until we have more stuff from the
- series to plug in. I want to buy a copy for myself....
-
- ==== ~technical ~program ~cd-rom ~compton
-
- BTW, Compton's has signed to do a CD Rom of the Babylon 5 Universe, which
- is going to be VERY comprehensive...all the alien races, including the League
- of Non-aligned Worlds, background on the war, dictionaries, other reference
- stuff, you name it; it'll also be able to take advantage of the latest
- voice-recognition software, so you can run it exactly as the B5 computer is
- run. ("Computer, language search, "Satai.") There will even be some original
- CG and live-stuff shot for it. It should be a killer CD Rom. (Now if only I
- could get my system up and running....)
- ---
- Re: the CD-Rom...we're planning some very cool stuff. I've indicated on
- all pending licensing deals that I don't want them to be just one more media
- tie-in; they should have some independent value. So in this case, I really
- want to use it to de-mysticize what television is, and how it's produced.
- Something for educational purposes. So we'll track how the process is done.
- by taking a micro-example: from concept, to a scene in a script, to costume
- designs, production/set design, storyboards prosthetics, filming, editing.
- scoring and mixing. As a culmination of this, there will be 5-7 brief dailies
- shosts, all from the same scene. The job then is for the user to edit these
- dailies (establishing shot, medium close-up, close-ups, inserts and the like)
- into a *scene*. You can literally see the dozens of ways you can create a
- scene from the same footage. You can then play it back, possibly with some
- music, and see how it works...then play back the real scene as we did it, and
- compare and contrast.
- ---
- Last date I heard was January 1995, but the main problem is that there's
- just an awful lot of information to codify and assemble, and Compton's has
- been going through some personnel changes of late.
-
- ==== ~technical ~manual ~program
-
- I believe that Ron is working to put together a possible B5 tech manual
- sometime soonish.
-
- ==== ~game ~rpg [role-playing game]
-
- No word yet on any B5 RPGs, though it would be a perfect candidate. And
- Larry's the right one to write it (assuming I'm not keeping him busy on other
- stuff).
-
- ==== ~autocad ~ship ~release
-
- ???? Will Autocad documents of ship designs be made available?
-
- I really don't know if they'll be released as autocad stuff or not, but
- will try to remember to inquire.
-
- ==== ~blooper ~reel ~christmas
-
- ???? Will there be a blooper reel?
-
- The bloopers reel/christmas reel we did is just for internal use, I'm
- afraid (though it's *very* funny).
-
- ==== ~licensing ~pten ~warner
-
- PTEN licensing is handled by the Licensing Corporation of America, which
- can be reached via Warner Bros.
-
- ==== ~fan ~club
-
- ???? How about a fan club?
-
- Since the series began to air, there's been a flood of mail and calls, so
- some kind of organization will be necessary to handle this, though no
- framework has been finalized yet.
- ---
- We're in the process of setting up some kind of fan liaison office. which
- would do some limited sales stuff, just enough to pay its own way. Should
- this come about, we'll sell some of the B5 scripts through this office. (One
- difference between us and ST is that we will pay the freelance writers a
- *royalty* on any scripts of theirs we sell.) But this is still in the works.
-
- =============== JMS Himself ===============
-
- ==== ~jms ~kosh
-
- "JMS reminds me a little of Kosh...or is it the other way around?"
-
- If it helps, bear in mind in which brain Kosh was *created*, and where he
- resides in off-hours, in this big circle running around in my skull with
- Delenn, Kosh, G'Kar and Londo chasing one another endlessly, like white mice
- in a wheel....
-
- ==== ~favorite ~preference ~chrysalis ~sky ~jms
-
- ???? What are your favorite episodes of the season so far?
-
- By the way, if anyone's curious, here's how I'd rank the first six
- episodes in terms of my own personal preference, from 1-6: "The Parliament of
- Dreams," "Mind War," "Soul Hunter," "Born to the Purple," "Midnight on the
- Firing Line," and "Infection." We'll see how close this coincides with your
- own reactions.
- ---
- But I'd say that our two *best* so far are still "And the Sky Full of
- Stars" and "Chrysalis." I just watched a cut of "Chrysalis" today which
- finally had all the CGI in it, and had to scrape my brain off the opposing
- wall, it's *that* good.
-
- ==== ~satisfied
-
- ???? Are you satisfied with how the episodes have come out?
-
- Generally speaking, in television, you're lucky to get on screen about
- half of what you had in mind when you saw it in your head. So far, the
- average here is about 80%. In a very few cases, I don't think the finished
- episode delivers as well as it might on the script, but for the clear majority
- of them, the episodes come through. And in some cases, like "Sky" and
- "Parliament" and especially "Chrysalis," I got *over* 100% of what I had in
- mind...it came out even better than what I'd had in my head when I wrote it.
- It's a confluence of many factors...the guest star and how much he/she *gets*
- it, the EFX, the direction, and other things. But across the board, I'd have
- to say that I'm very satisfied.
-
- ==== ~success ~show ~rating
-
- ???? How would you rate the success of the show?
-
- I'm not sure, from my perspective, that there's any one definition of
- success that I'd use. There are several:
-
- 1) How much is the project in its final form what I conceived it to be?
- This is something that Harlan keeps hammering home at me, pointing to what
- happened to him on the Starlost by way of comparison...it was dreadful, and he
- had to take his name off it. It's the show I wanted to make, made the way I
- wanted to make it, so on that level, I'm content.
-
- 2) The ratings. Is what we conceived of interest to other people, or
- have we missed the mark? Television, like any other medium, is aimed at an
- audience. If the audience isn't there, then it comes down to "does the tree
- make a noise when it falls in an empty forest?" Whether it's good or bad
- becomes nominally irrlevant.
-
- And 3) Whether or not anyone talks about the show, or remembers the show.
- years down the road. Something can get a lot of attention, critical acclaim.
- ratings, be what the creators envisoned...and be gone in a year, the flavor of
- the month.
-
- If I had to pick one, it'd be #3. As an atheist, my sense is that one
- achieves immortality by the effect one has on others. If the show lives on
- beyond me, then I am satisfied. Twain observed: "If you want your work to
- live forever...and by forever I mean fifty years...it must neither overtly
- preach nor overtly teach...but it must *covertly* preach and *covertly*
- teach."
-
- ==== ~tv ~spinoff ~five
-
- ???? Do you want to keep writing for TV?
-
- It's hard, because as much as I enjoy TV, it's basically ephemeral; books
- stick around. And I got into this whole gig at the beginning by writing
- prose. Which is why, as I've noted before, if the B5 story goes its full
- length -- whether that's just 5 years, or with a possible spinoff, 10 years --
- when it's over, I'm retiring from TV. By that point, I will have said
- everything I want to say for TV. Then it's a house somewhere outside London
- or Cambridge, and novels. I figure I'll be about 50 at that point (assuming
- 10 years), and I'll have enough years left in me to tell some decent stories
- before it gets dark outside.
-
- ==== ~record ~activity ~genie ~chronology ~dailies
-
- ???? Are you keeping a record of your activities in the creation of B5?
-
- As for keeping a record...I try, if spottily. Oddly enough, the very
- best record of this process exists in the multi-megabytes that have been
- exchanged here, on GEnie and elsewhere. It's something of a living
- chronology. I try to take photos on the set (when I remember), and I'm
- keeping 1 copy of each day's dailies, instead of recycling the tapes.
-
- ==== ~past ~writing ~break ~start
-
- ???? What things have you worked on in the past? How did you break
- into writing?
-
- I've always found "how/when did you get your break into writing" to be a
- very weird question, at least in my case; like asking a doctor, "when did you
- get your break into foot surgery." It wasn't one thing at one time. This is
- a career that I've prepared for, and worked toward, and entered incrementally
- over a very long period. I always knew that I would be a writer, used to
- collect pencils and paperclips and could determine the better grade of erasers
- and #10 pencils at an age when most kids were still trying to figure out which
- end to hold. It's just a quirk.
-
- When I was 16, after having read comprehensively in every genre I could
- get my hands on, I decided that now was a good time to start. So I began
- writing. Short stories, poems, playlets, articles, you name it, I wrote it. I
- didn't show anyone at first, just kept slamming words together in the process
- of learning how to make little explosions of character and action. When I felt
- ready -- six months later -- I began showing it around. The high school I was
- attending began producing some of my one-acts, and commissioned a full play
- from me; I began selling articles to local newspapers and magazines; even
- placed a one-act with a local theater, which decided to produce it before
- discovering that I was only 17 years old. (When I showed up, they kept
- waiting for my parents to arrive, until I pointed out that *I* was the JMS on
- the script.)
-
- After that, it was just a process of *writing* and *sending it out*.
- There is no mystery, no big break, no sudden revelation or secret handshake.
- Bit by bit, I sold more articles, sold more plays, sold some short stories.
- and bit by bit, almost without noticing, the list of credits got longer until
- one day, people started asking me when I knew I'd Made It as a writer, when it
- hadn't ever occured to me that I *had* made it as a writer...I hadn't realized
- it'd happened.
-
- It's the difference, I suppose, between buying a finished house, and
- there it is...and watching the house go up brick by brick over a long period
- of time. At what point did it "become" a house?
-
- It's probably not a helpful answer, but it's the only one I have....
- ---
- Tolkien's work had a *profound* effect on me in college; as I later read
- all of the background material, the reams and reams of "history" that he wrote
- to background his novels, I began to realize that *that's* the way to do it.
- So I tried to take that kind of approach, filling out as much as humanly
- possible about the universe, characters and history. It's the only really
- sensible way to tackle something this large.
-
- ==== ~jms ~book
-
- ???? What did you read growing up?
-
- My favorite books when growing up: the Lord of the Rings trilogy. a
- Lovecraft anthology (The Color out of Space), and the Martian Chronicles.
-
- ==== ~straczynski ~jms ~name ~formality
-
- ???? Why "J. Michael Straczynski"? What do people call you? What do we call
- you? How is it pronounced?
-
- It's "J. Michael Straczynski" on title credits mainly because that's the
- way it looks best, frankly. Lets you sneak up on the whole name in
- progressively larger bites. Joe Michael Straczynski looks kinda dumb to me.
- also too long; Joe Straczynski is too short, and unbalanced in terms of layout
- (he said quickly). My friends call me Joe. My crew calls me Joe. One person
- on the crew kept calling me Mr. Straczynski, which you should try saying out
- loud sometime. Even *I* can't do it. It was so painful to listen to that
- after a while I kept calling back "Joe" at him until he got the message.
- ---
- I've never been real big on formality. And I know that typing
- Straczynski can be a fearsome thing indeed. Fingers were never meant to move
- in that particular configuration, I think, and more than one person has had to
- dial 911 with his nose when his fingers tangled on the keyboard.
-
- Point being..."Joe" is just fine. If there's another Joe in a thread (as
- above), "Mr. S." is is also fine if you need to make the distinction. (One or
- two have called me Big S. Some comment that I'm the biggest S in town...and I
- wish they wouldn't smile quite so broadly when they say it, or hold it quite
- so long.)
-
- In any event, we're all in this together, so I think we can let formality
- slide.
- ---
- Americanized version: struh-zin-ski.
-
- Byeloruss (native) version: strah-chin-ski.
-
- ==== ~straczynski ~power ~lingerie ~household
-
- ???? Is Straczynski a household name?
-
- I hate to burst any bubbles, but I can go just about anywhere in the U.S.
- and find that nobody knows the name Straczynski, and the only time I've caused
- a mob scene at a K-mart was in a tussle over the last Captain Power
- figures...or was that when I wandered into the lingerie section and...well.
- never mind.
-
- ==== ~role ~gerrold ~believers ~executive ~producer
-
- Here's one of those interesting little things that happen sometimes
- during production. We're shooting "Believers," David Gerrold's story. Now.
- when we break for lunch, we all eat together -- crew, cast, writers.
- producers, everybody -- in this little area behind the stage. I try to
- encourage everybody to stick around for lunch rather than split so that we can
- maintain that sense of being a real unit.
-
- Anyway, I'm sitting across from someone I've seen on set a few times.
- who's apparently the teacher for a young actor we're using (Jonathon Kaplan)
- in "Believers." I don't make a big deal out of my position on the show, dress
- like everybody else, so the guy sitting across from me at the table asks, "So.
- who do you play in this?"
-
- Unable to resist the temptation, I say, "I play the executive producer."
-
- ==== ~jms ~camera ~ellison ~tv
-
- ???? Wanna be on Tee Vee?
-
- As for me...the TV camera doesn't like me, it just sorta slides over me
- and adds 10 years to me. Complicated by the fact that when I'm shoved in
- front of a TeeVee camera, my head retracts like a turtle, my neck disappears.
- and everything goes everywhere. Harlan, on the other hand, is comfortable
- before a camera. The camera *loves* Harlan.
-
- ==== ~earthquake
-
- ???? How did you and Babylon 5 come through the big 1994 earthquake?
-
- Came through pretty much okay, all considered. At the house, the living
- room fireplace is now IN the living room (on the floor), the patio has
- separated from the rest of the house, there's major cracks all over the place.
- everything that was on shelves is now on the floor...but the stage came
- through okay, and we're back to shooting today, if possibly on a reduced
- schedule. (Everyone was given the option of not coming in today, but everyone
- wanted to show support, get back on the horse again, and get going. Some even
- came in on their own time Monday to help with cleanup.)
- ---
- The worst part of the quake, really, was that my house was without
- electricity until Midnight Thursday night. So I'd write (up against a real
- deadline because of the quake) at the office, charge up my notebook computer.
- go home, fire up the notebook, and write scripts by flashlight.
-
- ==== ~religion ~spirituality ~atheist
-
- ???? Where do you stand on religion?
-
- I am an atheist, a total atheist, and am more than happy. What I write
- is what I write, what I am is what I is.
-
- Yes, much of my own background goes into what I write. In the case of
- religion, and spirituality...a writer's job is to be as honest as he can in
- telling a story. My canvas (for lack of a less grandiose term) is the human
- condition. And since the dawn of sentience, humanity has been trying to
- figure out its place in the universe. The religious impulse is as much a part
- of that process as anything else, and it must be treated with integrity and
- respect, as I would have my own views respected. I try not to exclude
- something just because I don't agree with it, because that corrupts the whole
- purpose of writing, which requires an honest look at the subject.
-
- And as a writer, there are parts of the religious impulse that I want to
- examine, and explore, and raise questions about, just as much as I'd like to
- explore the scientific aspects of living in space, and the more personal.
- emotional repercussions of this. It's all a part of trying to figure out who.
- and what, and *why* we are.
- ---
- Actually, religion isn't totally irrelevant to B5 in that in several
- episodes we'll be dealing with, or touching upon that issue...there's a bit of
- it in "Soul Hunter," "By Any Means Necessary," "The Parliament of Dreams,"
- "Legacies," "Believers" and a couple of others.
- ---
- I've never felt the need, as a writer, to be didactic about this stuff.
- No, I don't believe in an afterlife...I also don't believe in the actual
- existence of Vorlons, either, but I write about them. I don't think it's a
- requirement. H.P. Lovecraft was one of our best writers of supernatural
- fiction, but I very much doubt that he believed in the Old Ones, or made
- bi-weekly offerings to Cthulhu.
-
- All areas of human endeavor should be open to exploration, discussion and
- analysis, for what we can learn from them.
-
- ==== ~nepotism ~drennan ~spousal ~means ~necessary
-
- One thing I can mention now, since it's nearly finished: see, I have this
- real problem with nepotism. Specifically...I hate it. As a result, I make
- people I know work twice as hard. The closer the tie, the more the person has
- to work to prove him or herself.
-
- Kathryn Drennan, my Spousal Overunit, is also a writer, and has written
- for many other shows, primarily in animation, but with some forays into other
- areas. (She was co-author on the Night Gallery series of articles I wrote for
- Twilight Zone Magazine, as one fr'instance, and was a producer with public
- televison for some time.)
-
- Anyway, she desperately wanted to write a B5 script. But because of my
- feelings about nepotism, I refused to give her an assignment. (I can be a
- REAL pain in the ass.) Something similar happened when I was working on The
- Real Ghostbusters; she loved the show, and wanted to write for it. I put her
- through the wringer: she had to submit written premises, just like any other
- freelance writer, which were then sent on to the producers for final approval.
- They did not know of any relation between her and me; they based their
- approval only on the merits of the story. Period. And she ended up writing
- two episodes: "Egon's Dragon" and "The Man Who Never Reached Home." (The
- former is considered a favorite by many viewers of the show.) Only long after
- we finished production did the exec producers on TRGBs learn that there was a
- relationship there; it was all based on the quality of the work.
-
- But in the case of B5, I *am* the exec producer, so it became more
- difficult. At first I said simply no. Finally, I set into place a number of
- conditions/provisions. NOT because she wouldn't do a great script, but only
- because I don't like the look of nepotism; I hate it, and I hate the way this
- town operates on the principles of nepotism. The conditions were that she had
- to write the script completely on spec, no assignment; not a spec outline.
- which is shorter, but a spec *script*. It would then have to pass muster
- in-house; if even one person thought it wasn't up to snuff, it got deep sixed.
- And revisions would not be handled by me, for the most part; she would have to
- work with Larry, who has a reputation (as Katherine Lawrence can attest) to
- not pulling his punches. No favoritism. Then the script would have to pass
- muster with Warners. IF, after all that, the script was approved, then it
- would be bought, and not a moment before. If anywhere along the line it
- didn't meet one of those criteria...then it would be a 50 page learning
- experience and nothing more.
-
- Well, I'm pleased to say that it *did* pass muster with everyone, and "By
- Any Means Necessary" is now over halfway through production, with a number of
- people -- including Michael O'Hare -- saying it's their favorite so far.
- mainly for very odd reasons. The premise is one that ST would never, EVER do.
- which is one thing I like about it; it also shows us more on the inner
- workings of B5, the blue-collar types who keep the whole place
- operational...and what happens when that falls apart. The B story gets into a
- confrontation between G'Kar and Londo when Londo interferes in an important
- Narn religious observation.
- ---
- Kathryn's last name is Drennan. Her full credit is Kathryn M. Drennan.
- Not Straczynski. Probably displaying considerable wisdom on her part. Ten
- thousand letters, no vowels.
-
- ==== ~favorite ~television ~prisoner
-
- ???? What's the coolest show ever made?
-
- Disagreement: the coolest show ever made is THE PRISONER. I hope to
- capture a little of the flavor of that show, mainly by playing a little with
- surrealism, what's real and what's not...but it'll pale beside that show. THE
- PRISONER, for me, is the perfect television program. I've never really seen
- its equal.
-
- ==== ~message ~comment ~online
-
- ???? Are you still keeping up with the online community?
-
- Yes, I try to log on here about once a day, and though it's getting
- tougher, I still read through *all* the messages in this area, though at times
- I skim a bit. From my perspective, I try not to get in the way of the
- discussion, by either encouraging or discouraging positive or negative
- comments. If I think someone is being unfair, or is just coming in to lob in
- a firecracker, watch everyone scatter and yell, and then run away (as the
- occasional spineless mindfucker among us is wont to do), I either fire back.
- or simply ignore the post.
-
- The one major reason I decided to begin this interaction, despite
- CONSIDERABLE discourgement and disbelief from my peers, is that I think it may
- be of some use, and because I think that one should be willing to stand
- publicly with what you create, and because though many criticisms are issues
- of taste or subjective preference, sometimes (fairly often, actually), I learn
- something from the discussion, or I'm corrected in something, and that
- realignment is eventually reflected in the show. I'm giving some serious
- thought to either revamping n'grath or killing him off given the reaction
- (paired with my own). I won't be dictated to, but in some cases, as with
- n'grath, I may be uncertain, but willing to try and see if the experiment
- works. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and the general perception
- here seems close to my own. In addition, I was initially going to gloss over
- some of the legal aspects of the Psi Corps in "The Quality of Mercy," but when
- so many people expressed interest in how that worked, and when I saw some
- measure of confusion about it, I took the time to indicate how the legal
- aspects work when it came time to complete that script, thus answering the
- questions.
-
- Sure, there've been more hostile or abusive or insulting messages posted
- here, primarily to get a reaction...I've seen that game before, and I'm
- neither impressed nor annoyed. The general level of the discussion -- pro AND
- con -- is still generally of a high level, and quite revealing. The
- experiment continues.
- ---
- BTW...someone dropped me an email note mentioning in passing that
- somewhere else there's a discussion going on about *this* discussion, and
- indicating that my presence here inhibits criticism of B5.
-
- First, if I believed that, I wouldn't be here. Second...it ain't true.
-
- Along with logging on here and on a number of other systems under my own
- name, there are a few BBSs -- regional and national -- which have B5
- discussions giong on where I also hang out...but either under a pseudonym, or
- without leaving messages, thus no one knows I'm lurking. I do this in order
- to get an unbiased view of the show, without my presence affecting the
- discussion one way or another. Call it a control group, if you will.
-
- And on those forums where I'm not known to be there, what you get are
- generally "I liked it" or "I didn't like it," about as broad as that. Very
- little of the (to use the phrase of others) nits and detailed analyses that go
- on on the systems where I *am* known to hang out. Since there's a conduit for
- direct feedback to the show, people here and on the other services where I'm
- on as myself tend to provide MORE criticism of the show, not less. In some
- cases, the occasional person may feel that he HAS to find something to nit at.
- because there is the implicit request for feedback.
-
- Nor do I try to get in the way of negative feedback; if I think that
- someone is getting personal in an attack, or making an unfair accusation, or
- blaming me for something that the show never did...I fire back. I try to
- answer all questions as non-judgmentally as possible, and if someone asks if
- something's going to be done, point to the forthcoming episode where it *is*
- done.
-
- I don't try to change people's opinions here (I let the show do that).
- don't try to intimidate people into silence (I don't think it's *possible* to
- intimidate this particular group in *any* event), and I have a much lower
- estimation for those who skulk off in dark corners to mutter their criticisms
- of the discussion here than speak openly. I'm insulted by the allegation, and
- frankly think that anyone here who has been taking part in the discussion here
- should feel insulted about being portrayed as spineless and toadying, which is
- the implicit statement behind the allegation.
-
- If I *ever* got the impression that my presence here was inhibiting an
- open discussion, inhibiting criticism, I'd log off. But near as I can tell.
- being here *encourages* criticism, in greater volume than elsewhere. The day
- that changes, I'm outta here.
-
- ==== ~online ~newsgroup ~internet ~genie
-
- ???? What do you get from hanging out in the Babylon 5 newsgroup?
-
- What do I get from the newsgroup? A "sense of the room," primarily, I
- suppose. And knowing that someone's looking over your shoulder, and that this
- person is *right in your face*, and you can't avoid it, and you will havae to
- answer hard questions if you screw up, tends to keep you honest. One can hide
- behind isolation. One of the problems in TV is that if you get to a position
- high enough, lots of people around you start saying everything's just
- wonderful, you get "yes-men" and nobody tells you the truth anymore. I don't
- think I have that problem here. If anything, it's just the opposite; because
- I expect criticism...or, more accurately, because people *expect* that I
- expect criticism, that critiques are expected of them, there's MORE of it than
- on the systems where I lurk and my presence isn't generally known.
-
- Beyond that...I've always felt that SF fans, particular SF media fans.
- are the most exploited group of viewers around. They're expected to watch the
- show, pony up the dough for merchandise, then shut up and be good little
- viewers. It's very difficult at times -- emotionally, and in terms of time
- and energy -- to stick around (there are currently 1,154 messages in my GEnie
- internet mailbox), but I think that it's important to keep with it. Because
- it's a way of showing respect to the viewer, to be open and accountable and
- responsive. Sometimes I get cranky, but I'm human, and that'll happen from
- time to time. Usually I avoid that.
-
- It just seems the courteous and proper thing to do. Does that make ANY
- kind of sense to anybody...?
- ---
- Best thing about the net is that it forces you to ask questions. The job
- of the writer is to come up with every possible question about your character
- and your world, and answer it, giving both greater verasimilitude. But nobody
- can come up with EVERY conceivable question; but on the nets, you get
- questions you never *dreamed* of. Which helps.
- ---
- Well, now, lemme defend the Internet for a second...what I find most
- interesting about it is that most of the Internet stuff comes in via major
- colleges, universities, research labs and the like. So when you're dealing
- with a lot of people of college age, you're going to encounter rough spots.
- BUT...what you *also* get are people who are pretty sharp, have access to
- research material, are academics and scientists and research students...and
- lemme tell you, they keep you on your toes.
-
- It's easy to hang out in a room where people are generally nice to
- you...and certainly relaxing; I tend to come here more with a sense of
- relaxing with friends, where there is some measure of "put up the persona and
- perform" on Internet...but one should be open to the tough stuff as well.
- Granted, at times it makes me cranky, and I probably respond with more heat
- than I'd like...but again, that's really more the exception than the rule.
- There's a lot of nifty people there.
- ---
- "And jms seems to be doing just fine...right, Joe?"
-
- Yeah...absolutely...fine...look, hand me those crayons, okay...though I
- don't know why...the black one's all flat and you can't make good lines with
- it and they won't let me sharpen it because the last time I used the sharpener
- I put Nurse Filbee's finger in it but that wasn't my fault, she pointed it at
- me, so if I just have the crayons, the ones with the good points, I can get
- this done, get this done, on deadline, the deadlines are important, do you
- like the peach color or the green for the rabbit...?
-
- What was the question again?
-
- ==== ~story ~idea ~online
-
- ???? Have you had problems with story ideas slipping through?
-
- I have thus far changed about 3 or 4 minor elements because someone
- posted what could constitute a story idea that came uncomfortably close to
- what we were doing this season. Fortunately, they were small things, and
- didn't affect anything substantial, but it is kind of a pain in the ass.
-
- ==== ~online ~speculation
-
- ???? Has anybody online speculated correctly what's gonna happen?
-
- Nothing on any of the systems, no. But at one convention back east, I
- was standing waiting to go on at a presentation, and a young woman came up to
- me and laid out a conjecture that was 100% right in every single aspect. She'd
- pegged it precisely. I tried to conceal my growing horror. Then she said.
- "But *nobody* would be crazy enough to try something like that, so THAT can't
- be it." And with that, she toddled off...and I made no effort to correct her
- assumption.
-
- ==== ~online ~flaming ~offend
-
- ???? With all this criticism online, you must be immune from flaming.
-
- Immune from flaming? Hardly. I've been flamed so much, if I even so
- much as *touch* a Jiffy-Pop Popcorn shaker it goes off....
- ---
- I work with Larry DiTillio. Nothing offends me.
-
- ==== ~critic
-
- ???? How do you deal with all the critics in the media?
-
- Here is the one and only thing I really have to say about critics (at
- least until otherwise provoked).
-
- When "Lost in Space" went on the air, every critic hated it; they hated
- the cast, they hated the writing, they hated the sets...they panned it
- royally. About a year later, when LiS was a big hit, and was selling magazine
- covers, a lot changed. Then "Star Trek" appeared...and was crucified by the
- critics. They hated the cast, they hated the writing, they hated the
- sets...TV Guide in particular. They roundly dismissed it as an attempt to
- cash in on "Lost in Space"'s success. Critics attacked Patrick Stewart in
- TNG for being stiff and unappealing, attacked DS9 on similar grounds.....
-
- They *always* attack SF. Always have, always will. And always unfairly.
- ---
- I'm hesitant to get into the question of critics, and why they say what
- they say, because obviously anything I say is going to proceed from an agenda.
- and a certain bias on my part. So if we accept that going in, then I suppose
- I can speculate a little....
-
- As has been pointed out here by others, SF television has a history of
- getting crummy reviews. I haven't seen one SF show, however good or bad, that
- didn't start out getting *creamed* by reviewers. Some of the TNG original
- reviews that've been posted here are a hell of a lot worse than most of what
- the critics have said about us. The majority of them do not like SF, don't
- care for SF, don't understand SF, and want to stick it in a pigeon hole, "Oh.
- it's like this." What they don't recognize, they try to make fit their
- preconceptions...or they pan it.
-
- Also, there's the issue of pride. A lot of critics are (now) saying that
- TNG is this wonderful show (where once they derided it). Same with DS9, and
- that everything else is crap. Anything that might be perceived by them as a
- threat *to their published opinion* is something that they will attack.
-
- Mind, I'm separating out those who might not particularly like the show
- from those who are going out of their way to assassinate the series before it
- even gets going. I'd point to the USA Today review that just came out as
- emblematic of that approach. He says that yes, it might get the ratings, it
- might succeed, but you should in essence be ashamed if that happens. People
- have targeted this show with *incredible* vehemence bordering on character
- assassination.
-
- I'd separate this out from some reviews that've come in, in the LA Times.
- and Hollywood Reporter, that didn't gush, that raised concerns, some of which
- I agree with. They were actual analyses of the show, it's strengths and
- weaknesses, which are helpful, I think, to us and to the viewer. I've *been*
- a reviewer, and I'm sorry, but the equivilent of "IT SUCKS" isn't a review.
- It's a Beavis line.
-
- Beyond that, deponent sayeth not.
-
- ==== ~favorite ~music ~country
-
- ???? Favorite kinds of music?
-
- I have very weird, very eccentric and eclectic tastes in music. In
- addition to Meatloaf, I'm big on Leon Redbone, Indigo Girls, Enya, I'm
- starting to like Digable Planets...classical, jazz, big band, hard rock.
- celtic, blues, just about anything *except* country, which I couldn't warm up
- to even if I were cremated in a crate of Garth Brooks albums.
-
- ==== ~asteroid ~story ~arc
-
- ???? What happens to Babylon 5 if...say, you're walking down the street
- and a wandering asteroid crash lands on you, three years into the
- story arc?
-
- What happens is this:
-
- First they scrape up my remains. Then they put me in the morgue. After a
- cursory examination, the death is ruled an act of god, which is the ultimate
- insult to an atheist. Then they stick a big needle in one arm, and in my
- heel, and embalm what's left of me. Then there's a service. All of my
- friends come. What they do with the rest of the rows after one is filled is
- anyone's guess. Rent them out, I guess. Next they plant me. I lay there for
- a while, gradually coming to the realization that when they stuck me in this
- crummy suit, they yanked the pants into my butt and now I have to go through
- all eternity with a snuggie. In time I get really annoyed by this, my essence
- rises up out of the coffin, AND HAUNTS YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFE!
-
- Or, put another way, if you want to see the end of the story, it's in
- your vested interest to keep my ass ALIVE for the next 4.5 years.
-
- Ever read Sheherazade? Think about it.
- ---
- My notes are in a secure place.
-
- ==== ~tv ~retire ~spinoff
-
- ???? Do you plan on doing any more TV shows after B5?
-
- It's hard, because as much as I enjoy TV, it's basically ephemeral; books
- stick around. And I got into this whole gig at the beginning by writing
- prose. Which is why, as I've noted before, if the B5 story goes its full
- length -- whether that's just 5 years, or with a possible spinoff, 10 years --
- when it's over, I'm retiring from TV. By that point, I will have said
- everything I want to say for TV. Then it's a house somewhere outside London
- or Cambridge, and novels. I figure I'll be about 50 at that point (assuming
- 10 years), and I'll have enough years left in me to tell some decent stories
- before it gets dark outside.
-
- ==== ~pet ~cat
-
- ???? Do you like pets?
-
- Pets is okay. Ah lahkes pets. Pets be cool. And cats be coolest.
-
- ==== ~math ~jms
-
- ???? How good are you at math?
-
- Joe does not learn math in one episode. Joe does not learn math in one
- *year*. I took bonehead math in college three -- count 'em three -- times.
- and only passed the third semester because the class was taught by the same
- instructor, and the third time I wandered into his class, he siad, (or said).
- "Here...just go, I'll give you a C, just...leave."
- ---
- MATH! MATH! YOU SAID THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY MATH ON THIS TEST! I DIDN'T
- STUDY! HOW MUCH OF MY GRADE WILL THIS BE?! AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!
-
- ==== ~sleep
-
- ???? Are you exhausted from all this work?
-
- I am. I'm exhausted all the time...running on 3-4 hours of sleep a
- night, producing during the day, writing all night...but it *is* fun. The
- only hard part is that because of my close involvement in this show, and
- creating the characters, and assigning the stories, and working with the
- actors...I have Londo and G'Kar and Kosh and Garibaldi and all the rest
- running around in my head and yelling at each other 24 hours a day, and
- sometimes that can make you just a little nuts...you wanna tell them to shut
- the hell up for five minutes...and then they look at you with this wounded
- expression...you ever see a Narn sulk? It's not a pretty sight.
- ---
- Yeah, easy for YOU to say, KAL...I've got Londo, Garibaldi, G'Kar, Kosh
- and half the Psi-Corps running around inside my head and yelling at each other
- 24 hours a day...YOU try to sleep with all that racket.
-
- I either need to find a better neighborhood, or a worse one, I can't
- decide....
-
- "AH, my GOOD, CLOSE FRIEND, GariBALdi --"
-
- That's it! Everybody outta the pool......!
-
- ==== ~hat ~paramount ~merchandizing
-
- John Copeland, our producer, shows me something that John Iacovelli came
- into the office bearing...a B5 cap. It's a very nice Babylon 5 cap.
- Stitching's a little off, though, I notice...not bad, but noticeable. I learn
- it's commercially available. Well, still and all, not a bad thing, I decide,
- trying to figure out why John's smiling at me in this really weird fashion.
- People have been asking for B5 caps, and now they can buy them through, it
- seems, Creation Entertainment, as this was bought at a Creation store in
- Glendale (Sci-Fi Universe), and it's a Creation produced item, under their
- license....
-
- Then the tag hanging from the back of the cap slips out into my hand,
- dangling from that little white-plastic-string-thingie they stick through
- labels.
-
- And what does the label on that white-plastic-string-thingie say?
-
- OFFICIAL LICENSED PRODUCT, PARAMOUNT TELEVISION.
-
- We never get a break...never...ever...the horror...the horror....
-
- ..eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeee........
-
- =============== Miscellany ===============
-
- ==== ~misc ~fan ~fiver
-
- ???? What do Babylon 5 fans call themselves? What do you call them?
-
- Most B5 viewers that I've heard from call themselves Fivers, when they
- identify themselves as anything other than what they are, people of infinite
- taste and sensibility....
- ---
- I think the term usually used to describe B5 viewers is, "People Of
- Incredible Taste, Perception and Discretion."
-
- ==== ~motto ~kid ~robot ~filk ~song [science-fiction folk-singing]
-
- Re: kids/robots...the exact phrasing of that has gone through various
- permutations and paraphrasings; the specific line is "No kids or cute robots."
- The latter specifically entails entities such as Twiki (got the spelling right
- this time, thanks to whoever corrected me), who should be run down by a truck
- at the first opportunity. (In fact, I can say without hesitation that if you
- ever DO see what passes for a cute robot on this show, keep a close eye on it.
- because you'll probably see somebody drop an anvil on it REAL fast.)
-
- So this allows us to explore the question of robotics, but to do so in a
- fairly serious context. Because logically, 200+ years in the future there are
- going to be some changes; robotics will be more common, though likely in some
- different form. (If you've seen the promos or the pilot, you've seen the
- maintenance 'bot that checks out the hull of B5; it has arms, it moves, it's
- independent, it's a robot. It just doesn't begin its report with
- "Bida-bida-bida.")
-
- On the topic of kids...it's a deliberate decision to steer clear of that
- part, not because I think it's invalid, but because a) it's been done on
- another show, and its spinoff, rather intensively, and b) it's part of the SF
- stereotype, "We have to have kids because SF is a kid's genre."
-
- Might there be a story about a family of refugees who come seeking
- sanctuary, or opportunity elsewhere? Of course. But any kids in that family
- won't be at the *center* of the story. And they'll be gone by the end of the
- episode. It's also a matter of context; absent the scenario just posed, this
- is a place for businessmen, travelers, mappers, traders, diplomats and others.
- it's not a place for kids. It's also potentially a very DANGEROUS place.
- ---
- Hmm...maybe I should amend it to "No cute kids, no cute robots, and no
- filkers, ever...."
-
- Nothing personal, but given the choice between listening to two hours of
- filking, and having my eyeballs scooped out, popped, spread on toast as jam
- and fed to me for breakfast...I'll take the latter.
-
- ==== ~spoo
-
- ???? What is spoo?
-
- Spoo is. What else can one say about spoo?
- ---
- Re: your desire to make and eat spoo at home...deponds on whether or not
- you ever want to have children later....
-
- ==== ~strong ~women
-
- Re: B5's roster of strong women characters...this is something of a
- bugaboo/obsession with me. I *love* writing strong women. (For that matter.
- I love strong-willed, independent, smart women in real life as well; I love
- being outsmarted, love it when someone can go toe-to-toe with me on
- something.) Generally, and this isn't entirely intentional, women on shows I
- work on tend to get some of the best lines, as is often the case with Ivanova.
- It's not a case of being "one of the boys," but being one of the *people*.
- There's a subtle difference.
-
- The women I write are often very close to many of the women I've been
- involved with over the years. So far, no one's sued....
-
- ==== ~pc ~politically ~correct
-
- ???? Are you trying to be politically correct?
-
- I take great joy in being politically *incorrect* at every possible
- opportunity. I believe in the motto someone at the BBC once voice: "There
- are some people we WANT to offend."
-
- ==== ~crew ~softball ~five
-
- Now here's comedy...we're fielding a Babylon 5 softball as one of the
- showbiz leagues. (Many shows in town have softball teams, and th ey've
- organized into something that has grown quite substantially into a Big Deal.)
- We're making up jerseys for the team, and on the front there will be the B5
- logo, and on the back, for the team player number, there will be 5. That's
- all. The only number. Which will make calling the game a WONDERFUL
- challenge..."And on shortstop we've got number five...out in center field is
- number five...with number five pitching and catching."
-
- Everything about this show is surreal.
-
- BTW...our first game is against the SeaQuest team.
-
- ==== ~cricket ~set ~film
-
- You wanna hear really dopey? Of all the things that can bug you --
- literally, in this case -- it's always the small ones that get under your
- skin. The goofy ones.
-
- Take crickets for instance.
-
- Crickets. Cute little critters, welcoming the twilight, equipped with
- top hat and umbrella to usher Pinnochio into his long-sought humanity....
- Crickets.
-
- Ah hates crickets.
-
- A cricket family -- at least one that we know of -- moved into a corner
- of one of our sets. The medlab, to be precise. Now, when we're moving things
- around, building stuff, moving stuff, it's silent, as a cricket will generally
- be when made nervous. But make it all nice and quiet -- as you would do for.
- say, filming -- and he becomes downright rambunctious. And sure enough, there
- is is, deep in the audio background on a few shots. Oh, we can hide the audio
- easily enough...but Getting The Cricket has become something of a cause around
- here.
-
- We absolutely cannot find him. I stood back there for ten minutes, eyes
- closed, trying to triangulate and draw a bead on the little sucker. We've
- tried exterminators, smoke, nitrogen, assassins and psychics; we've tried
- scaring him and coaxing him, to no avail. He is as invisible as god but with
- a MUCH louder voice.
-
- You ever fire up a daily to hear, at the top of the take, the off screen
- director saying, as fast as he can, "Okaythecricket'ssilent,ACTION!"
-
- Like I said...not really a problem, just one of those little things that
- niggle at you when there's nothing else going on. So we're going to wait him
- out.
-
- Anybody know offhand the lifespan of your average cricket...?
-
- ==== ~millenium
-
- The turn of the century with B5's conclusion is coincidence.
-
- Mostly.
-
- ==== ~o'hare ~communicator
-
- Funny aside...on Friday, my accountant and his 10 year old son came by
- the set for a tour. His son was wog-boggled by everything. At one point in
- the filming, Michael O'Hare came over and struck up a conversation with the
- kid. The kid asked what that thing is on the back of Sinclair's hand. "That's
- my communications device," O'Hare said. The kid looked chagrined, glanced
- around, whispered to Michael to lean down, and explained -- to save Michael
- further embarrassment in future -- that the communicator was on his *chest*.
-
- I would give my soul for a photograph of Michael's face at that moment.
-
- ==== ~o'hare ~brother ~f-14 ~starfury
-
- As it happens, btw, Michael O'Hare's brother is a Commander in the
- Gunfighters fighter squadron, running weapons, mainly, and flying an F-14. At
- some point we'll probably stick him in a B5 cockpit, and stick Michael in an
- F-14 cockpit....
-
- ==== ~stolen ~g'kar ~mask ~makeup
-
- Incidentally...as long as I'm here...an advisory. We've got about as
- much security as anyone can *have* on a stage...but as with TNG and other SF
- shows, we've had our share of things suddenly vanishing. We lost a biggie the
- other day, swiped by someone. As mentioned, we re-examined G'Kar's
- makeup/prosthetic, and did some minor redesigning. Prior to final approval, a
- full-size (head and neck) sculpture was done, painstakingly hand-painted.
- There's only the one. And someone swiped it, right out of Doug Netter's
- office, where it was hanging on the wall. I couldn't even begin to tell you
- how much it's worth; just the physical value alone would be considerable, let
- alone collector's value.
-
- I'm putting this out here so that, if anyone here should see it at a
- convention, or a dealer's room, you should know that it's stolen merchandise.
- and should be reported to the police. There's no chance of mistaking this for
- something else, since there's literally only the one in existence.
-
- ==== ~theological ~crew ~soul
-
- ???? What's this about a crew member leaving for "theological" problems
- with "Soul Hunter"?
-
- One person at a post production house we've used has indicated that he
- has "theological problems" with working on that episode; not because it's
- *against* what he believes -- he's worked on horror movies and stuff with
- devils and the like -- but because it takes a point of view he doesn't much
- like...in that he has to sit and defend the whole *context* of his
- ideas...meaning, it's making him think. He can just poo-poo the stuff against
- what he believes, support what he does believe in...but he isn't quite sure
- where this show comes down, or where it makes *him* come down. I've had any
- number of problems with people on a show before, but this is the first time
- I've run into a theological problem.
-
- ==== ~nonsense ~correct ~destruct
-
- If what you think I said is correct, then what you think I said is what I
- said. If what I might have said was not correct, then what I might have said
- is not what I said, incorrectly.
-
- This message will self-destruct as soon as anyone manages to parse the
- grammar....
-
- ==== ~inside ~joke
-
- ???? Will there be in-jokes?
-
- There are a lot of little in-jokes...but I'd rather let you see them than
- ruin the surprise.
- ---
- We sneak in GEnie coordinates from time to time....
- ---
- By the way...just for funsies I slipped a reference into one of our
- scripts to a location being at grid coordinates 471-18-25.
-
- ==== ~fun ~skirt ~pajama ~londo ~walrus ~pants
-
- Today was "Men In Skirts Day" for many in the Babylon 5 crew.
-
- There are some things man was not meant to know....
- ---
- Re: the crew...today was Pajama Day. Don't ask.
- ---
- Our head of post production, associate producer George Johnsen, pulled a
- number on me today that just struck me as hilarious, and I pass it on to you.
- (We do a lot of silly stuff behind the scenes.)
-
- Take your hands. Fold in the thumb until it's pointing in toward the
- palm of your hand, but not entirely. Fan out your other four fingers on each
- hand as far as you can. Now put the two hands together so that the index
- fingers touch, and the pinkies are on either side of one another (i.e., you've
- formed a crown or fan). Raise your hands so that your wrists are settling on
- either side of the top of your head.
-
- Now look at the person sitting next to you and say, "Live, Londo, and
- Prosper." This is the unofficial B5 crew greeting. Apparently some have been
- doing it when they arrive for work in the morning.
-
- We're a sick bunch, but we're fun.
- ---
- Funny...I sometimes make up little clips from shows and put them to music
- for myself or for convention appearances...and I was giving some serious
- thought to assembling a montage and using "I Am the Walrus" by the Beatles as
- the music...and then realized that it would probably give away too much if I
- composed the pictures correctly with the lyrics.
-
- I am the walrus...coo-coo ka choo....
- ---
- During the con appearance, Jerry told a story that *I* hadn't heard
- before. There's a scene in the script "Midnight on the Firing Line" in which
- Talia (Andrea) goes into a transport tube, finds Garibaldi, and asks some
- questions about Ivanova. They rehearsed it several times, this being Andrea's
- first time on the set, and filmed one take. She comes down the hall, comes to
- thepen...and Garibaldi's pants are down around his ankles. Needless to say.
- that shot did NOT end up in dailies....
-
- ==== ~fart
-
- How You Know You're Finally Going Bananas, by JMS.
-
- So there I was, lying abed, at 3 a.m., unable to sleep, and I come up
- with the Fart Classification System (FCS). Basically, they break down into
- three categories: small farts are squibs, medium farts are crackers, and
- really huge farts are zeppelins.
-
- I desperately need to get a life....
-
- ==== ~flu ~nyquil
-
- Cooney: I wasn't offended...very little offends me...EXCEPT THIS DAMNED
- FLU THAT REFUSES TO GO AWAY, AND EVERY NIGHT IT'S FEVER TIME, AND I'M GOING
- OUT OF MY MIND, YOU HEAR? I'M GOING MAD! I'M SPENDING MY DAYS AND NIGHTS
- TRYING TO WRITE IN TWO STATES OF MIND: DELUSIONAL OR CONFUSED (which on the up
- side is one more state of mind than is normal for me) AND I'M TIRED OF IT, YOU
- HEAR? TIRED OF IT!
- ---
- ....courtesy of NyQuil.
-
- The colors, man, check out the *colllllllllllllooooorrrrrsssss*****...
-
- ("May induce drowsiness" my ass...you're lucky if you make it across the
- room with this stuff....)
-
- ==== ~more
-
- ???? Do you have anything more to say?
-
- Don't know really how much more there is to say; it's getting to that
- time when all the worthwhile talking will be done by the series itself.
-
- =============== INDEX OF KEYWORDS ===============
-
- 22 2257 2258 24 30
- abandon abbai action activity actor
- ad-lib administration administrator admiral adr
- adult age air alcohol alien
- alliance ambassador answer arc assassin
- asteroid atheist atmosphere audience autocad
- autonomy b-story babylon badge bald
- bay being believers beyond biggs
- bigotry bill black&white blast blooper
- blurry bone book books break
- broadcast bronze brother bruice budget
- cameo camera canon capacity caroline
- cast caste casting cat catherine
- cd-rom centauri cgi change chapter
- character christian christmas chronology chrysalis
- civilian clan cliffhanger cloaking clothes
- club colony color comics comment
- communicate communicator composer composition compton
- computer con constellation convention correct
- cost council country credit crew
- cricket crime crisp critic croatia
- culture cut cycle dailies daily
- date day dead deal deathwalker
- defense delay delenn demo demon
- destruct detail dialog dilgar director
- distance ditillio diversity dock door
- drazi drennan drug dubbing ea
- earth earthdome earthquake economy edit
- effect ellison emerge empire end
- english enter episode establish ethnic
- executive extend f-14 fan fantasy
- fart favorite female fighter file
- filk film final finale first
- fishhead five fiver flaming flashback
- flu fly footage formality found
- four frames franchise franke franklin
- fun fund furlan future g'kar
- game garden garibaldi gay genie
- gerrold gloves government grail gravity
- grey grid guest gun hair
- hat hate hdtv head hernandez
- history holiday hollywood holographic homeless
- household human humanoid hyperspace idea
- identify illuminated image impact inside
- international internet io iran iraq
- italian ivanova jewelry jms joke
- julia jump-gate jump-point jurasik kid
- kill kosh kyle language laser
- laserdisc launch laurel law layout
- league leave legal lennier letterbox
- library licensing lie life light
- line lingerie link location londo
- looping lunatic lurker lyta makeup
- manual mars mask math matter
- mature maya means medicine merchandizing
- message metaphor military millenium mime
- minbari minor minority misc miss
- money month moon more morn
- motto move movie mumy music
- myth n'grath na'toth name narn
- narration nation native navy necessary
- nepotism netter new-year newsgroup nickson
- nitpick non-aligned nonsense norm nudity
- number nyquil o'hare offend old
- ombuds one online opening orbit
- order orion ornamentation overunit own
- oyster pajama pak'ma'ra pants paper
- paramount partner past patch pay
- pc peace pet philosophy pilot
- pitch planet platform politically politics
- position power powerful ppg prayer
- preference press pressurized prisoner problem
- producer product production program promo
- prosthetic psi pten publicity quality
- raider rank rating ratio realistic
- reception record recreation recycle red
- reel relationship release religion religious
- render resolution retire robot role
- rome rotate rpg running russian
- sakai satellite satisfied scan schedule
- sci-fi script seaquest season second
- security senate series set sets
- sex sf shadow share sheridan
- ship shoe shooting shot show
- signs sinclair size skirt sky
- sleep softball song soul sound
- soundtrack space speculation spelling spinoff
- spirituality spoo sport spousal squadron
- squared star starfury start state
- station status stock stolen story
- straczynski strong studio subtitle success
- sunhawk surgery surround survivors talia
- teaser technical technology telepath television
- tense texture theological third thornton
- thread three time title tot
- tractor trailer translation transmitter transporter
- travel trek triangle truth tv
- twin-peaks two un uniform universe
- variation variety video viewer violent
- vision voice vorlon walla walrus
- war warner weapon what who
- why widescreen wife wilderness wing
- witch women word work world
- writing x-wing year zero zocalo
-
- ------------------------- Also Sprach Straczynski. --------------------------
-
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