lurkers-guide/ftp/ellison.txt

Shane Shellenbarger                               about 900 words 
Appears soon in ConNotations



 THE ELLISONIAN NAVIGATION by Shane Shellenbarger

"This will be a manifesto about what we want the movie and the 
series to do.  It's like the early stages of Citizen Kane where 
Orson Wells has the 'Declaration of Principles'.  It will be, we 
hope, the kind of document that will be handed around, reprinted, 
and used by a lot of different shows to help make all science 
fiction on television more intelligent and less cliche' ridden." 
If J. Michael Straczynski's upcoming television show, Babylon 5, 
were a ship, then the chief navagator is Harlan Ellison and the 
chart is his manifesto.  Ellison says that the manifesto will be 
similar to the piece he wrote for Reginald Bretnor's 1979 edition 
of "Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and its Future" about 
writing fantasy for television, only more so.  "It will be an 
updating and expansion of that in terms of the kinds of things 
you want writers who are going to be wanting to write a series to 
know," says Ellison.  "It's difficult for people who are outside 
the genre to understand the rigors of writing fantasy and science 
fiction for television and it's even more difficult for those 
inside to understand the rigors of writing for television.  What 
this will be is a very long essay with specifics about the kinds 
of thing you should not write for science fiction or fantasy on 
television.  It's  going to talk about the logic of setting up 
situations: they have to be internally logical.  Just because 
it's fantasy or science fiction does not mean you can get away 
with illogic and craziness.  It's about the ethics of the 
program, trying to foster an interest in good, solid science 
instead of having explosions in space like Star Wars.  There are 
a number of aspects to it and we're going to cover them all.  It 
will probably go through two or three different versions because 
once I get done I'll say to Joe, 'What's missing and where do you 
need me to expand?'  Joe will tell me and I'll do that, then 
we'll go through it again, and again, and again.  Once we've done 
half-a-dozen drafts it should be ready for when the series goes." 
Ellison knows the shape of his manifesto, but still lacks the 
substance that will make Babylon 5 unique.  "Apart from having 
read Joe's pilot script, 'The Gathering', I have not yet seen the 
pilot and Joe doesn't want me to see it until they get a good 
answer print with music and the works," Ellison says.  "He's very 
cautious and before he ever got involved with this project we sat 
down and talked about my horrific experience on The Starlost, 
which in many ways parallels Joe's experience on Babylon 5,  I 
was able to tell Joe about the pitfalls I fell into and he has 
managed to sidestep them.  This show should go very, very well, 
indeed." As a creator who has had his work stolen more than once 
by Hollywood producers, Ellison has an opinion about a show 
positioned against Straczynski's Babylon 5.  "The thing that I 
find really offensive is that Paramount knew about Babylon 5 long 
before Deep Space Nine," Ellison says.  "They were warned, 'Why 
put together a series that's exactly like something else that's 
going to be on the air when you haven't got anything on paper 
yet, you can go any direction you want.'  You can't prove this, 
but there are a lot of us who feel that because they (Paramount) 
didn't have any original ideas they just kind of revamped Joe's 
idea in their own way and then months later said, 'Oh well, we're 
going to have to reject Babylon 5 because we have a show very 
much like it of our own.'  It's kind of a sad thing.  In fact, 
they asked me to write for Deep Space Nine.  We talked about me 
doing a show or two for them, even a story arc, but once Joe 
hired me to do the manifesto I just felt it would not be 
ethically correct." Even though he won't be writing for Deep 
Space Nine, Ellison's ties with the late Gene Roddenberry seem 
never to be severed.  "The book version of 'The City on the Edge 
of Forever' will be coming out soon and when that hits it's going 
to be a bombshell.  (After Roddenberry's death) I started from 
scratch again.  It's been a very difficult piece of writing, 
taking months and months.  Tom Maglioni is screaming, 'Everybody 
wants their book,' but it's got to be written right, otherwise I 
could be sued for libel.  I've got to write it very carefully and 
I'm just not going to be rushed on it." Estimates concerning the 
series start date vary, but Ellison has his own methods and he 
demonstrated them.  "all I know is that a number of the actors 
who were in the movie with term deals that put them in the series 
had asked for wavers to go and do shows during October, November, 
and December," Ellison says.  "They were all granted, but when 
one of them asked for a waver in January that one was refused.  
That indicates that they may want to be back at work by January 
and they don't want somebody off someplace else doing another 
show.  Having worked in the industry, about the only time they 
deny wavers is when it's going to conflict with their own 
schedule. With January quickly approaching, science fiction fans 
will soon know the course that has been charted for Babylon 5.