lurkers-guide/guide/000

<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>

<blockquote><cite>
The Vorlon ambassador is nearly killed by an assassin shortly after arriving
at the station, and Commander Sinclair is the prime suspect.
</cite>

<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tomita,+Tamlyn">Tamlyn Tomita</a> as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima(*).
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Baron,+Blaire">Blaire Baron</a> as Carolyn Sykes(*).
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sekka,+Johnny">Johnny Sekka</a> as Dr. Benjamin Kyle(*).
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tallman,+Patricia">Patricia Tallman</a> as Lyta Alexander(*).
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Fleck,+John">John Fleck</a> as Del Varner.
<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Hampton,+Paul">Paul Hampton</a> as the Senator.
</blockquote>

<p>
(*) These characters were originally planned as recurring characters
throughout the series, but were replaced for various reasons.

<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/000">6.00</a>

Production number: 0 (Pilot)
Original air date: Feb 22, 1993
DVD release date: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NTNP/thelurkersguidet">December 4, 2001</a> (barebones)
                  <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002B15UQ/thelurkersguidet">August 17, 2004</a> (full-featured)

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Richard Compton
</pre>

<p>
<strong>Note: There are two versions of "The Gathering," the original one
as initially aired in 1993 and a reedited special edition first aired in
1998.  Items that only apply to one version are so marked.</strong>

<p>
<hr size=3>

<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>
<ul>

<li><A NAME="BP:1"> Earth has been keeping genetic records of</A>
telepaths for the last 6 generations.

<li><A NAME="BP:2"> The Psi Corps takes children with psi</A>
abilities when they are young and trains them to use this ability in a
very strict manner.  There are definite rules governing the use of
psi. No unauthorized mind scans.  No gambling.

<li><A NAME="BP:3"> All races but the Narn have telepathy.</A>

<li><A NAME="BP:4"> The Narn are a young but powerful</A>
civilization, with (G'Kar claims) unlimited manpower.

<li><A NAME="BP:5"> The Narn heard about the reason for the</A>
Minbari surrender in the Earth-Minbari war - a decision from their Grey Council (a
secret group of "holy men").

<li><A NAME="BP:6"> The Minbari are the oldest of the "five</A>
federations," and centuries ahead of the others technologically.

<li><A NAME="BP:7"> Londo says to Garibaldi: "You know why I am</A>
here?  I'm here to grovel before your wonderful Earth Alliance, in hopes
of attaching ourselves to your destiny.  [...]  There was a time, when
this whole <em>quadrant</em> belonged to us!  What are we now? Twelve worlds
and a thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and
stories, selling trinkets."

<li><A NAME="BP:8"> Centauri status is based on family</A>
history. Political and personal power must be built up over
generations.

<li><A NAME="BP:9"> The Narn were once enslaved by the Centauri</A>
and have only recently gained independence. This seems to be a sensitive
spot for the Narn, or at least G'Kar. (cf: <A HREF="001.html">"Midnight
on the Firing Line"</A>)

<li><A NAME="BP:10"> Sinclair fought in the last battle of the</A>
Earth-Minbari war, the Line. In the midst of battle, he blacked out while
attacking a Minbari warship and remained unconscious for 24 hrs. He has
no idea what happened to him during those 24 hrs. 
(cf: <A HREF="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</A>)

<li><A NAME="BP:11"> Takashima used to work at a corrupt mining</A>
station on Mars.  Refusing to go on the take, she was never going to get
promoted out of there.  She recounts lashing out and "breaking the
rules" out of frustration at it all.  However, Sinclair was her superior
there for a while, and he got her to shape up and play things by the
book.

<li><A NAME="BP:12"> Garibaldi has been "bounced from station to</A>
station" for a long time before Sinclair requested him for Babylon
5. (cf: <A HREF="011.html">"Survivors"</A>)
</ul>

<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:1">The Station</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Why was Babylon 5 <em>really</em> built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt, and
rebuilt, and... rebuilt?  Sinclair's story about human stubbornness
doesn't hold water.  B5 is a monstrous project, especially for a society
very recently decimated by war.  Yet it was made <em>five</em> times, the fifth
time from <em>SCRATCH</em>.

<li> Who sabotaged B1-B3, and why?  Who vanished B4, and why?

</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:2">The Minbari Assassin</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> How did the assassin get the voice and image of Sinclair in diplomatic
dress before he poisoned Kosh?  For everyone else he obviously
impersonated, we'd seen him in close proximity to them earlier.

<li> The assassin-as-Varner pointed a gadget at Lyta in the bazaar.  It
is widely assumed that this acquired her visual pattern for the
changeling net, but it could have been something else.

<li> Why did the assassin-as-Varner arrange to make Londo late for the
reception?  He kept Londo in a public place, making him unframeable.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:3">Takashima</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> What hold did G'Kar et al. have on her? (see 
<A HREF="#AN:2">Analysis</A>) Perhaps she <em>was</em> on the take in that
<A HREF="#BP:11">corrupt mining colony</A>, and she's still living on
the take today.

</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:10">Lyta Alexander</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Why was she talking to the assassin-as-Varner, as reported by Garibaldi
and Londo?  Garibaldi must have asked her at some point, but we never
get to see this.

<li> How was she involved?  (see <A HREF="#AN:3">Analysis</A>)
Perhaps her role was only passive - agree to scan Kosh if asked, report
any information she gathers (possibly via telepathy).
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:4">Sinclair</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Judging by <A HREF="#NO">the headlines of Universe Today</A>,
Babylon 5 is a very big deal back on Earth.  Why is Sinclair, a lowly
Commander, both in charge of the station and acting as the Earth
diplomat? (cf: <A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>)

<li> What happened to Sinclair on the Line? 
(cf: <A HREF="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</A>)

<li> What <em>is</em> the hole in his mind?  Is it simply the 24 hour
memory loss from his experience on the Line, or something more
significant?
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:5">Del Varner</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> According to Garibaldi's information, Del Varner would normally stay far
away from B5.  So, why was he recognized by a local tech (Eric)?
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:6">The Vorlons</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Why <em>did</em> they request that the monitors in the docking bay be turned
off?  Kosh was walking out in public, hidden safely in his encounter
suit.

<li> What is Kosh inside that suit anyway?  (cf.
<a href="../misc/lost-scenes.html#kosh">Lost Scenes from Babylon 5</a>)

<li>@@@883993127 How did the poison get through to Kosh?  He must have had his hand, or
whatever the limb was, completely outside his encounter suit.  Perhaps that
explains why the Vorlons wanted the monitors turned off; they didn't want
anyone else to see Kosh's hand.  In that case, why did they want Sinclair
to see it?
<strong>Special Edition (spoiler for a pivotal revelation later in the
series):</strong>
Kosh greeted what he thought was Sinclair by addressing him as "Entil-zha
Valen," indicating that he already knew Sinclair in some context.

<li> Is there anything to that legend about someone turning to stone when
they saw a Vorlon?  Have people ever gotten into situations where they
could <em>conceivably</em> have seen one?

<li> The Vorlons seem to be puppet thugs of the conspirators in the pilot,
yet clearly they do some things for their own reasons.  Why such secrecy
around their technological inferiors?  Why break the veil to send an
ambassador to B5?

<li> For that matter, why agree to ship Sinclair to their world?  Surely
that would mean him finding out about them.  Unless they never intended
to bring him there alive, of course.

<li> Did Delenn really tell Sinclair everything the Minbari know about the
Vorlons?  Either way, how much does he know now?

</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:7">The Minbari</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> Why did they surrender at the Line?  It's already pretty clear that
Sinclair had Something to do with it.  Furthermore, what was the real
reason the Minbari were fighting the war to begin with?
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:8">The Centauri</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Why have they fallen so far from power?  From Londo's stories it
seems <A HREF="#BP:7">they were a great Empire</A> within his
lifetime (which may be quite long, for all we know).
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="UQ:9">Miscellaneous</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> Why was the access panel outside Varner's quarters busted, by the
time Garibaldi arrived?  It probably has something to do with the
assassin <A HREF="#NO">using Takashima's clearance</A> to gain
entry.  Perhaps the panel keeps the only record, locally, of who's used
it, and thus breaking it would prevent the illegal entry from being
discovered.

<li> The very presence of a changeling net aboard the station invites us to
open the question, "Who else did we see that could have been that
Minbari in disguise?"

<li> Four major actors in the pilot left the production for various
reasons and do not have permanent roles in the series (though Lyta
Alexander reappeared later.)  However, since
<A HREF="#JS">jms slipped reasons</A> why in the B5 universe two of
the the characters no longer appear, it is meaningful to ask:
	<ul>
	<li> Why was Lyta Alexander replaced as station telepath?  Did she
	get in trouble for unauthorized mind-scanning after all, or was it
	because she's been in the mind of a Vorlon?

	<li> Why has Carolyn drifted out of Sinclair's life?
	</ul>
</ul>

<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>

<H3><A NAME="AN:1">The Plan</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> G'Kar et al. wanted to start a war between the EA and the Vorlons.
The primary plan was for Kosh to be dead; Takashima's announcement that
the Vorlons had forbidden the opening of his suit should have nailed that
coffin shut.  Framing Sinclair for the murder was probably also part of
the primary plan (the Vorlons' request that the bay monitors be turned
off could well have been a surprise to them).

<li> There may have been a secondary plan to achieve the same results:
having Lyta scan Kosh.  This could have been foreseen, impromptu, or
coincidence.

<li> The assassin was Minbari, which indicates a violent faction of the
Minbari still exists (cf: <A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker"</A>). The goals
of that group are unknown, but so are the goals of the mainstream
Minbari government.

<li> In particular, the Minbari warrior class may have had their own reasons
for getting Sinclair sent to the Vorlon homeworld.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:2">Takashima was somehow involved</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> The assassin <A HREF="#NO">used Takashima's palmed security access</A>
to gain entry to Varner's quarters.

<li> Takashima agreed to Kyle's plan of getting Lyta to scan Kosh even
though (by her own story) it went very much against her grain.  "I guess
I'm about due" is hardly a believable reason.

<li> Takashima broke into Varner's files.  260 years from now, would
someone be able to crack open a technology criminal's secure files in a
matter of hours without inside information?

<li> There were lots of instances when very recent information was used
to further <A HREF="#AN:1">the Plan</A>, for all of which
Takashima was in an ideal position to be responsible.
	<ul> 
	<li> The assassin met Kosh at the right docking bay at the right time.
 
	<li> In general, <A HREF="#AN:1">the Plan</A> proceeded
	smoothly in spite of Kosh's 48 hour early arrival (the angriest
	response we saw from Takashima was to this very discovery).
 
	<li> Sinclair was trapped in a lift at just the right time for just
	long enough, and the record cleared.
 
	<li> Someone actually contacted the Vorlons and told them about the
	poisoning, thus acquiring the predictable response that opening
	Kosh's suit is verboten.
 
	<li> Someone leaked - very quickly - the fact that Sinclair had
	been fingered by a witness.  This is what brought on the Vorlon
	cruisers.
 
	<li> G'Kar found out - again very quickly - that Kosh would recover
	from the poisoning ("There has been a complication").
	</ul>
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:3">Lyta may have been involved</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> She seems to have exchanged glances with the real Del Varner as she
walked off with Sinclair at the very beginning.  The two probably came
in on the same ship.

<li> Later, she's seen talking to the assassin-as-Varner.  Yet the
latter scans her image for the changeling net without her knowledge 
<A HREF="#UQ:2">(if that was what he was doing)</A>, so their level
of cooperation is mixed at most.

<li> The assassin, disguised as Lyta, didn't kill her in the ample moment
they shared outside the medlab.

<li> On the other hand, her conversation with G'Kar within "privacy" would
almost certainly have been very different if they were in cahoots.  So
perhaps she was only in contact with Del Varner and/or the assassin.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:4">The Minbari assassin</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> The assassin didn't need any special clearance to enter Varner's
quarters; he was expected.  So he must have <A HREF="#NO">used
Takashima's clearance</A> in order to leave a record of her entry at
that time.  Since <A HREF="#UQ:9">the panel was broken</A> before
this could be discovered, this suggests clandestine cross-purposes.

<li> "There is a hole in your mind" may have been his <em>response</em> to
Sinclair's question, "Why did you do it?"  Interesting.

<li> It was not part of the plan for the Minbari to set off his explosives.
Else why arrange to be able to get off the station?  So, they were just
to prevent his capture/interrogation.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:5">Sinclair is inexplicably trusting and friendly with Delenn</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> He would have sacrificed his life to kill a few more Minbari during the
war ten years ago, yet:

<li> He does not appear to be discomfited by Delenn's evasions in their
Garden conversations.

<li> When he encounters Delenn after escaping the exploding assassin, it
would have made sense for him to confront or question her, or at least
be suspicious.  Instead, he was relaxed and jovial.  Later, he made sure
Delenn knew he didn't hold her responsible.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:6">Delenn</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> "The power of one mind to change the universe" likely refers to
Sinclair.  (Recall the other Minbari's <A HREF="#AN:4">reference</A> 
to his mind.)

<li> There were two stones in the stone garden.

<li> She evades most of his questions, yet volunteers two big files
during the episode, and drops lots of other hints to him.  As with 
<A HREF="#UQ:7">her abstention on the council</A>, she seems subject
to contrary forces.  Keep him in the dark, yet point him toward the
light.

<li> She is a personally powerful representative of a very powerful
race.  Yet we don't observe her taking any active hand in the big
picture so far.

<li>@@@884027214 In the B5 council vote to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon homeworld,
an abstention was equivalent to a "No" (presumably abstentions are
interpreted to mean "None of the above" or "Take no action", whichever
is appropriate).  So, what conflict prevented Delenn from explicitly
voting against the motion?  <strong>Special Edition:</strong> Delenn claimed
she couldn't vote one way or the other because she didn't yet have all the
information at hand, and that her orders where Sinclair was concerned were
simply to observe, not interfere.

</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:7">Londo</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> He fills Garibaldi's ears with stories of the good old days of
conquest. <A HREF="#BP:7"><em>Bygone</em> days, <em>unlike</em> the
way things are now.</A> He may be honest, or he may be trying to allay
suspicions.  More likely the former, since Garibaldi's suspicions don't
have much political significance.

<li> A heavy drinker and compulsive gambler.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:8">G'Kar</A></H3>
<ul>

<li> Notice his jollity in telling Takashima his transport will submit
to the weapons search (now that the assassin has successfully come
aboard).  True, if <A HREF="#AN:2">she was in cahoots with him</A>,
that little exchange was for show, as was their earlier confrontation at
Ops.  He's nonetheless consistently transparent in his emotional
states.

<li> A schemer and warmonger.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:9">Takashima</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Some of her ideas were faultlessly loyal to the EA (eg "You better
take a recorder - the way things are going you may need a witness.").
So, her heart's in the right place, at least.
</ul>

<H3><A NAME="AN:10">Garibaldi</A></H3>
<ul>
<li> Self-esteem trouble.  He's ready to give up on the investigation after
Varner's death.  He's used to failure at his other jobs.

<li> Garibaldi also messes up the investigation in several ways:
	<ul>
	<li> No guards around Kosh.
 
	<li> Losing sight of Varner while questioning Londo.
 
	<li> Not talking to Lyta about Varner while it's still relevant.
 
	<li> Not noticing <A HREF="#AN:2">all those Takashima timing
	and information clues</A>.
 
	<li> Lets the Commander get into a shooting fight with a superior
	foe, alone.
	</ul>
</ul>

<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> An <a href="/lurk/misc/lost-scenes.html#alternate-intro">alternate
introduction</a> was written, but not filmed.

<li> Universe Today main headline: Vorlons to Make Contact

<li> Universe Today sub-headline: Narn Protest of EA's B5 Heats

<li> Among the messages flashing by on Lyta's identicard: ELVIS STILL LIVES

<li> When the assassin scans his hand at Varner's door, words are
visible on the screen.  If you have a lucid pause function on your VCR,
you too will be able to read what they say - "Laurel Takashima
Cleared".

<li> Minbari ships have short-range FTL, or cloaking, or jamming
(Sinclair: "They came at us out of nowhere").  Basically, they can put
themselves right where they want to be without Starfuries noticing them
en route.

<li> Cruisers can "wait" in hyperspace outside a jump gate.

<li> Unscheduled uses of the jumpgates, at least during this earlier
part of B5's history, are practically unheard of.

<li>@@@883993127 <strong>Special Edition:</strong> Two plot points, Kyle's
use of stims to stay awake and Takashima's use of the Garden to grow coffee,
were both transferred to the characters who replaced them in the series.

<li>@@@884158807 Ed Wasser played C&amp;C technician Guerra, and later
went on to play Mr. Morden (first appearing in
<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents."</a>)
There's no evidence that the two characters are related, however.

</ul>

<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>
<ul>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> <em> What happened to the old characters on the pilot, not working
on the series?</em> <B>jms:</B> 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.

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> 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...

<p>
<li> Actually, I think we broke [the "Return of the Jedi"] record for ships 
on-screen in the pilot; Ron was rather pleased about it at the time.

<p>
<li> <em>Will there be a director's cut?</em><br>
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.

<p>
<li>
Beats me, but if you find an uncut version of B5, lemme know, because
I'D like one.

<p>
The problem is that, unlike a motion picture, where you produce a
cut on film, which you then trim down, we're editing on computerized
image files.  We don't get around to finally cutting the film until 
we've made our final edits.  So no complete version ever existed on 
film.  The most that could be done is get those 25 minutes and *build*
a new version with that footage...which would require additional 
scoring, editing, and other stuff.

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> I'm certainly not showing disdain for the missing material; I'm just
saying it ain't *there*.  Now, if B5 turns out to be a megahit, there
may be money set aside to re-edit the pilot some years down the road,
but I'm not currently counting on it.  My chief concern now has to be
the series.

<p>
<li> There was a reason we gave Londo the pilot opening monologue, yes.
And another reason why we're giving Sinclair the opening monologue
over credits of the first season, though with some differences.  
We're also considering rotating any such opening between other cast 
members as well, but *always* in the past-tense, "Babylon 5 *was*...."
We're dealing in future history here, and we plan to do some 
interesting things with that aspect.

<p>
<li> 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.
<p>
But there are reasons for everything....

<p>
<li> Oh, yeah, the "mission of destruction" thing ONLY relates to this
particular episode, the pilot.  It'll be gone from regular episodes.

<p>
<li> "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.
<p>
As for the Third Age, it's -- oh, darn, look at the time, have to go....

<p>
<li> <em>The alien section looked like a zoo!</em><br>
First, we decided that wasn't a right look for the alien sector, and
that's the corridor we blew up at the end.  But the reason it was 
designed that way is important.  Your reaction -- don't the aliens 
have any privacy? -- is a very human, and specifically a very 
*western* point of view.  Our feeling at the time was, why should 
alien quarters look at all like human quarters?  Shouldn't they have 
a different perspective than typical Western-style hotels?  (In some
degree, the quaters were patterned after Japanese mini-hotels, where
you get basically a slightly larger coffin-like setup, which you crawl
into like a torpedo tube, with a window at one end, which has a 
curtain, a TV over your head, and so on.  What we discovered is that
many people ask for more alien aliens, but when we delivered on that,
were asked why these things weren't more like what we expect, why 
aren't they like human quarters?  It's really a losing battle.)

<p>
The other point on this is that if you look closely, there are back
areas accessible to residents, which can in particular be seen in the
insectoid/antennae'd character's quarters.  The idea was that it would
be sort of a front porch, where for lack of much else to do, you'd sit
out on the porch, watching the passing parade.

<p>
But the reaction was less than favorable, we had to keep explaining
that this proceeds from an alien POV, and so our alien quarters are 
more like human quarters now, minus the alternate atmosphere stuff. 
I'm still not quite sure what to think of this.

<p>
<li> Actually, it's Kosh's ship that comes out of the jump gate backward,
engines forward to assist with deceleration.  The fighters don't want
to be slow-moving targets, so it stands to reason they wouldn't be
configured for rapid deceleration.  They want to get into position as
fast as possible.

<p>
<li> Kosh's ship had to decelerate in order to dock inside the station.
This is a reality of spaceflight...you must both accelerate and
decelerate.  Both take time.  Especially if you're going to dock.  
Plus there was time involved in setting up the docking procedure, 
turning over control to Babylon Control, lining up vectors and so on.

<p>
The fighters didn't have to worry about any of this.  They came
shooting through the gate and barely slowed at all, speeding over to
B5 and taking up position.

<p>
There have now been several situations in which we've been accused
of "mistakes" that have, instead, simply been things done 
scientifically  accurately.  I have to say (and this isn't directed at
you, just more of a general statement), we're not going to hand 
everyone everything on a silver platter, serving up pablum...the nature
of a *science fiction* series is that you should THINK about things.
The acceleration/deceleration thing is one example; some thought about
why this would be would have led to the answer.

<p>
And, as evidenced by other messages here, others have taken the time
to look at it from that perspective.  Which I think is great.

<p>
<li> Re: the skin tab/Kosh's hand/encounter suit question...one of the
reasons I can't wait for the series to get on the air is so that we
can make one thing clear, once and for all: it is NOT an error, not a
plot hole, it is a plot POINT.  It is a question that our *characters*
will be asking each other.  How can this be?  This will come up more
than once, starting with "The Parliament of Dreams" episode.

<p>
<li> As for the Vorlon handshake (so to speak)...this will be dealt with
in the series.  You have to remember that the original plan was to air
the pilot and go *immediately* into series, where we'd bring up some 
of these questions.  There simply wasn't room to deal with EVERYTHING
in that short pilot...and where we DID try and cover everything, we 
got gigged for being expositional.

<p>
Now we have to re-establish a few things since there's been a gap in
time...but the poison incident will be raised in "The Parliament of
Dreams" script to start with, and move on from there.

<p>
<li> The Senator of the pilot, who was back on Earth, is someone who has
in past been someone that Sinclair has come to for backing on things;
he's the equivilent of someone on the Armed Services Committee, here
as one of those civilian Senators overseeing Earthforce.  He would not
be in any position to just come in and take over, any more than a 
Senator visiting a U.S. army base would be in a position to take over
the base if there were a problem with the ranking officer.  But he 
might be able to bring some force to bear back in Washington, which
might double-back to be of some use.

<p>
There are civilian branches and military branches, as with today, in
which the civilian branch oversees the military, but in very 
formalized ways.

<p>
<li> In the script, the privacy mode involved going from a standard
looking open booth to what suddenly looked like a flat black cube,
which you could neither hear nor see through.  The director decided
to try the lights.  It didn't work.  We're dropping it.

<p>
<li> You're right; the events of the Line are something that Sinclair
doesn't much like talking about, and has been advised *against* 
talking about.  When the Minbari surrendered, Earth put the best
possible spin on it, tried to make the survivors of the Line look 
like heroes, but there's a general sense of what happened.  And a 
great deal of dismay over it.

<p>
<li> Your assumption is correct; the assassin's weapon was a very small
one...limited power, and a charge-up sequence that becomes longer the
more it's used.  If the Minbari had shot Lyta, it would've taken too
long for the gun to power-up again for him to shoot Sinclair...and he
would've been captured.  We slightly expanded the power-up whine for 
each shot after the first one.  You'll note that the first shot, the
one that takes out Varner, is almost immediate.  Points and fires.
Gradually it takes longer, and finally the gun runs out altogether 
(which is why, though we probably should've been clearer in showing 
this, the assassin finally went hand-to-hand with Sinclair...the gun
was never meant as an assault weapon, more as a derringer, with a few
shots in case he got into trouble).

<p>
<li> As for Sinclair going after the Minbari assassin...there were several
reasons for this.  First, this was personal for him; if the guy
*wasn't* caught, he would be blamed for the death and sent to the 
Vorlon homeworld.  He had something very much at stake.  Second, if 
you have somebody with shapeshifting technology on board, the LAST 
thing you want is to send in a large group.  The tracking of the 
energy web used for the holographic effect was good, but only to a
certain point.  It could say "He's ten feet away," but if there's 5
guys within that range, it'll take you just long enough to react for
the assassin to wipe out the bunch of you before you figure out which
one he is.  But if there's only *two* of you, and you hear the shifter
is within 10 feet, you know *exactly* who it is and can react 
accordingly.  It seemed logical.  Also, you'd want someone there who 
you knew VERY well, in case there were a replacement...because while 
someone could emulate a face, they can't replicate memories, and
Sinclair or Garibaldi could quickly figure out if the other was an 
imposter.

<p>
Yes, I probably could've stopped to explain this...but I figured it
was readily apparent, and there was already enough exposition in the
pilot to stun a horse.

<p>
<li> "If JMS had not mentioned the hole in Sinclair's mind, what would
have been the reason for the assassin to try and kill Sinclair?"

<p>
Hello...did you see the same movie that I wrote?  The assassin was
not there to kill Sinclair.  He was there to kill Kosh.  He tried to
kill Kosh.  He tried to stay AWAY from Sinclair, did everything in his
power to avoid Sinclair, ran from Sinclair, and only finally 
encountered Sinclair when Sinclair came after HIM.  Then it was 
nominal self-defense.

<p>
Had the "hole in the mind" reference never been made, it would have
been clear -- at least clear to every other carbon-based lifeform who
saw the movie -- that the assassin 1) came to try and kill Kosh, 2) in
the hope of disrupting the purpose of Babylon 5, with the added 
benefit of 3) if he failed in his mission, setting up Sinclair to take
the rap for his actions.  At the very end, rather than be captured and
interrogated, the Minbari assassin killed himself with an implanted
bomb.  His comment to Sinclair at that moment was more of an "Up yours"
comment, designed to shatter Sinclair with the knowledge that he knew
something Sinclair didn't.

<p>
You keep saying he was there to kill Sinclair.  He wasn't.  He didn't.
He didn't try.  It makes it hard to have this conversation with you if
your comments don't touch reality at any two contiguous points.

<p>
<li> I never said that the [assassin's] intent wasn't to set up Sinclair;
I only said that he wasn't there to *kill* Sinclair.  That aspect of 
making Sinclair the patsy was very much part of the thing.  

<p>
<li> What Kyle suggests...is closer to the truth than might otherwise be
suspected.  We had filmed a scene -- which never made it into the
finished pilot -- where Garibaldi, growing suspicious of his boss -- 
confronts Sinclair in the core shuttle.  One of the alibis he checked
out doesn't hold up: Sinclair's.  The transport tube computer records
don't indicate any delay.  Sinclair suggests that there's either a 
problem with the system, or it's been deliberately altered to remove
that information.

<p>
It was, of course, the latter.

<p>
Now...stop and think about this for a moment.

<p>
The Observation Dome has equipment to detect approaching ships.  The
spider transport approaches without being noticed.  The surface of the
station would likely have sensors to detect something attaching itself
to the hull.  Somehow these were over-ridden.  The only time that 
anyone notices, up in the Dome, is later, when Laurel isn't there, 
interestingly enough.  Someone deliberately programmed the transport 
tube to delay Sinclair.  The assassin would have to know this in 
advance.

<p>
We saw Londo with the assassin.  We also saw Garibaldi, Lyta, Dr. Kyle
and -- later -- Sinclair with the assassin, each relating to him in
different ways.  Who was the one person we never saw with the assassin,
whose reactions might have told us something?  Who was the one put in
charge of the station when Sinclair was pulled out of circulation?

<p>
Laurel.

<p>
We had some...interesting things in mind for this character.  Now that
another character has come in, some things will be modified, but other
elements will come in to replace them.

<p>
<li> I kept Tamlyn in the dark about a lot of this.  She even mentioned
this in an interview she gave somewhere.  I didn't want that knowledge
to make her play the role anything other than it should have been 
played:  as if absolutely innocent and sincere.  Sometimes you just 
gotta be sneaky....

<p>
<li> There was an element of saving her own life...and another aspect of
all this is that she may not have been acting entirely of her own
free will during the first half.  There may be some influences that 
will emerge later.

<p>
<li> Laurel was not being altogether honest, and was helping to cover the
activities of the person who was doing the assassination attempt.

<p>
(This, again, is a thread that would've come clear had we kept that
character; nobody was supposed to figure it out going in, but rather
put it together over time.)

<p>
<li> This has already been answered; had the character stayed with the
show, gradually it would have emerged that the assassin had access to
Laurel's codes because she provided them to him.

<p>
<li>
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.
<p>
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?
<p>
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?
<p>
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.

<p>
<li>
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.

<p>
<li> The scruffy person in the Varner files was the same homeless person
who we just happen to see sitting right outside Varner's quarters,
watching as he moves along.  This was played by Ron Thornton, because
we wouldn't be seeing him in a major role, we'd just have to know 
someone was there.

<p>
Again, this ties into a specific story line that has been modified
with a) the departure of Laurel, and b) the length of time since the 
pilot aired.  Who was the homeless man really?  It's no longer an 
issue, but it was related, yes.

<p>
But only in a very small way.

<p>
<li> "Would it be fair to compare the original ST pilot to B5's pilot?"

<p>
No, it would not.  Because there is nothing in common with them other
than that they are both SF.  You can compare TNG to DS9 to TOS,
because they're in the same universe.

<p>
Would it be fair to compare Cagney and Lacey with NYPD Blue?  After
all, they're both cop shows.  But in fact, they're not the same kind
of cop show; they share the same genre, but there ends the overlap. 
The two shows are distinct, separate entities, just as Harlan Ellison's
work is distinct from Bill Gibson's work, even though both incorporate
elements of SF.

<p>
The ST pilot existed in its own universe, and was primarily an action
show.  The B5 pilot exists in its own universe, and primarily sets the
stage for a political mystery/intrigue series.  It wasn't meant to 
serve the same functions as the ST pilot.

<p>
It seems to me that many SF fans continue to compare everything to
ST because that's their primary frame of reference, and they continue
to apply it whether it's relevant or not.  My suggestion...get another
frame of reference.

<p>
<li> Once again, there's a lot of false analogies here in any attempt to
compare pilots, as in this TOS and B5 thread.  You're talking about
transporters and other *technological* items.  And you're right, they
didn't explain their tech.  Neither did we, with the exception of the
changling net in the pilot, and only because it was a plot point.  We
didn't explain how the jump gates worked, how centrifugal force kept
the gravity in place, or any of that.

<p>
The difference isn't *technology*, it's *context*.  Once again, B5 is
in many ways a *political* story.  Consequently it's necessary to 
explain who the players are in some detail, something that ST didn't
have to worry about.  If you're reading a political thriller about the
U.S. and the (now defunct) USSR, it helps a lot to know who's who.

<p>
Also, when ST started, there wasn't really a clear agenda, a place
that they were going, story-wise.  B5 is a novel for TV.  And that 
puts on some pressures and problems other shows don't have.  Others
may not see it that way, but it isn't their call.  It's my call, and 
I stand behind it, even while seeing some of the flaws in the pilot.

<p>
All of which again points up the...well, *pointlessness* of trying
to compare the two shows.  Compare MASH to ALL IN THE FAMILY.  They're
both comedies.  The similarity ends there.  Everything doesn't have to
be comparable or dissectable (to coin a term) in reference to ST.

<p>
<li> Let me just, against my better wishes, dive in here for just a moment
moment on this discussion.  Especially as it relates to your slam
against the characters and characterizations on B5.

<p>
People keep comparing the B5 pilot to either the DS9 pilot or the TNG
pilot, often favorably, sometimes less so, but the reality is that the
B5 pilot had to suffer under a burden shared by neither of those two
other shows: establishing a whole new universe, especially given that
the B5 story is more of a political/action piece in which you really 
have to understand where everyone's coming from.  By the time they got
around to making the TNG pilot, just about everyone knew what a 
Klingon was, what the Federation was, what phasers and teleporters 
were...this was all established cultural coin.  When Jay Leno would
make jokes about Klingons on the Carson show (which it still was back
then), he didn't have to explain it to anyone.  There's 25 years of 
shared history informing the story.  Same in DS9.  Thus in neither 
pilot was that much really or substantially *new* introduced, they
didn't have to create the universe from scratch.

<p>
But that was exactly what was necessary for B5; the relationship
between the five various governments is important to understanding the
characters, and the show...as is the recent Earth/Minbari war, which
isn't just backstory, it's something that will grow to play an 
increasingly important role in the series as time passes.  So there 
had to be time spent establishing each of those relationships, the 
political backstory, the minor players.  AND we had to tell a fairly
complex story within that framework.

<p>
After you allocate the history of the B5 universe, for the
establishment of the plot, for the establishment of who our various
players are in relation to one another, you've got -- at MOST -- 3 
minutes left per character out of a 92 minute movie.  You can't
establish a lot of character in 3 minutes.

<p>
Which is what strikes me as unfair in this conversation.  You're
trying to compare 25-30 years of ST in its various incarnations, with
its delivery of characterization over A WEEKLY SERIES to a single
introductory TV movie of 92 minutes.

<p>
Plus, the pilot was never meant to be a stand-alone; it was meant to
get all the pieces moving, introduce us, and follow up the very next
week with *character-oriented stories*.  That was always the plan.
Had I known that it would be aired by itself, with a long delay until
the series, I would have totally restructured it to make it more of a
character story, and held off on the heavy background stuff until 
later.  And in addition to THAT, I again point to the 25 minutes of
good character stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor because
we were over, some of which has been shown to people at conventions. 
Some of them also felt as you do.  They saw the extra footage.  And
their reaction: "Oh, so THAT'S who that is!" And their opinions of the
characters did a fast turnaround.

<p>
So what I'm saying here, fundamentally, is this: let's compare apples
to apples and not apples to oranges.  You can't compare B5 to either 
TNG's or DS9's pilots, because they operated in pre-existing universes.
You can't compare the level of character  you get in a series to a TV
movie, because one is 92 minutes long, the other is 22 hours long 
times the number of seasons run.

<p>
If you want to compare things, and that's certainly your right, may I
suggest a moratorium on this entire discussion until the series comes
on the air?  That will allow you to compare series to series, which 
seems just a tad fairer to me.  Any seconds?

<p>
<li> 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. 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.

<p>
<li>
I wasn't gonna jump in here, but I have to at least answer your
question: "Where's the rest?"  The rest is in the series.  You haven't
seen the series yet.  You're comparing it against 7 years of TNG; 
rather consider if the ONLY thing you had EVER seen was "Farpoint." 
We had a massive burden: to build an entire universe, based around a
political drama, in basically 90+ minutes not counting commercials.
That meant that more time went into exposition and backstory than I'd
like.

<p>
In my view, we've now done that, we've laid the foundation, and now
we can sit back and tell stories...*character* based stories.  That's
what I'm best at, and that's what the writers I've chosen to use on 
the series are best at.

<p>
The "rest" you ask for is there..in the series.  But I'm not asking
you to take my word for it.  Check out the show.  Maybe you'll like
it.  And maybe you won't.  That's showbiz.  You don' like it, you 
don' gotta watch.  But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

<p>
The miracle of the B5 pilot is that it got done at *all*, given the
odds against us, given a team working together for the first time, 
without the benefit of an established universe, and actors who had 
never worked together before who had zero chance for rehearsal.  I'm
not apologizing for the pilot; it had flaws, but I'm very proud of a
lot that's in there.  

<p>
Do the math.  You have a little over 90 minutes.  You have to 
introduce 9 major characters in the course of that story.  That gives
you ten minutes of attention for any one character.  Now you've also
got to tell the backstory.  You've got to establish who the various 
players are.  You've got to put the present-tense story into motion,
with beginning, middle and end.  And now you're left with maybe 3-4
minutes of "quality time" with any one character.  If we only had 2 or
3 characters, then it's a very different story...but that isn't the 
universe we have to work in.

<p>
Now that the series is going ahead, we can spend an entire *episode*
dealing primarily with one character.  And do the same for others.  We
have the time.  And that's what's important.

<p>
One last observation: you repeat the notion that it's all a "reaction"
to TNG.  The treatment and screenply were complete and making the 
rounds in Hollywood in Spring 1987.  The basic material was written in
1986, at a point in some cases when TNG hadn't even *aired* yet.  So
it could hardly have been written as a reaction to something that 
hadn't been seen yet, could it?

<p>
<li>
You repeat several times your insistence that I study TNG to see
what they did right, use them as a roadmap.

<p>
Sorry.  I have no desire to study TNG.  I'm telling a different sort
of story, in a different universe.  What TNG does right or wrong is
more or less irrelevant to that universe.  That's like saying that
(just to pick two names at random) Orson Scott Card should study Poul
Anderson as a roadmap in his own novels.  This is utter nonsense.

<p>
A while ago, I got an email from someone who didn't like the pilot
(and it may have been on internet, btw) mainly because of the 
communication devices.  He said, and I'm paraphrasing from memory, 
that every time someone used the wrist-links, it broke the illusion
for him, since we all KNOW that by then the REALITY is that we'll be
using the chest communicators that TNG uses, and I should be sure to
include that in future episodes as a capitulation to that reality.

<p>
Sorry...TNG is a roadmap for TNG.  Not B5.

<p>
<li> The VOYAGER pilot is *$23 million*?!
<p>
The BABYLON 5 pilot was $3.5 million.
<p>
With $23 million, we could make 1.3 SEASONS of B5.  And have a bit
of money left over for a wrap party.
<p>
Amazing....

<p>
<li>
My feeling here is, don't worry about the show, regarding your
overcoming on the pilot.  Pilots are good, bad or uneven.  What matters
in the analysis is the series.  You can have a great pilot and a
disappointing series.  And vice-versa.  The series will air.  If it's
good, people will watch, whatever they may have thought about the
pilot.  If it ain't good, people won't watch, and deservedly so.  In 
other words, the ball's in our court now.

<p>
<li>
"The pilot wasn't good.  Face it!"

<p>
I'm at the head of the line to point out flaws in the pilot.  Flaws
that we've dealt with.  But a) it still holds up, and b) you are 
trying to make your opinion into *fact*.  It ain't.  An awful lot of
people liked the pilot a lot.  To them, it was good.  Maybe to you, 
it wasn't, but that's only true for you.  That you may think persimmon
yoghurt is the best flavor ever created doesn't make it true for 
everybody else.  Just a moment for perspective here....

<p>
<li> I was at the Emmys tonight for the presentation of the B5 Emmy, and
in the visual efx area, more than one shoe can get an Emmy.  So we got
one, DS9's pilot got one, and Lucas' Young Indy show got one.  (We sat
at the next table to Lucas and his bunch, in fact, and noted that he
watched the B5 footage with considerable interest.)  So when you come
right down to it, here we were, our first shot out of the box, and we
ended up on the same level of appreciation as Trek and Lucas.  Not too
dusty....

<p>
<li> And y'know...it's absolutely in keeping with the Straczynski luck,
and the history of this show, that the year B5 wins an Emmy is the 
first year that they DON'T do the recap of last night's technical 
awards.  Ah, well....

<p>
<li> I was asked to keep quite about this until April 23rd, which is when
the announcement is to be made at the Nebulas, but now that it's 
indeed the 23rd, and that announcement either has been made or is 
being made now, I'm pleased to report that the Babylon 5 pilot movie,
"The Gathering," has been nominated for a Hugo.
<p>
Since we're up against Jurassic Park, I think I pretty much know where
THAT award is going...but it is a tremendous honor and everyone 
involved with the show is very pleased by it.

<p>
<li> Thanks.  As it turns out -- I today saw the list of nominees -- B5 is
the ONLY TV-SF nominated for the Hugo.  The rest are all feature films
(JP, Addams Family, Nightmare Before Christmas, Groundhog Day).

<p>
<li>
Eric...nothing would gladden my heart more than if the B5 pilot won
a Hugo (except the series winning a Hugo, which I think is a bit
likelier, maybe).  It is the highest compliment that can be paid by
the SF community of readers and viewers.  But one must be realistic,
and I just don't see it outpulling Jurassic Park in the ballotting.
JP is the proverbial 500 pound gorilla.  Or the 50,000 pound T-Rex.
<p>
While we are only small mammals....granted we're mammals with guns
and an attitude, of course....

<p>
<li>
<em>JP won the Hugo</em>
<br>
Yep, that's pretty much what I said would happen.  And in my view,
JP probably deserves the Hugo more than "The Gathering."  Next year,
now, THAT is an open question....

<p>
<li> Nope, I was nowhere in the pilot, not under makeup, not nohow, not 
no-way.  Nor will I do so in the series.  That just ain't my thing.

<p>
<li> Side-note...Londo baring his teeth had nothing to do with Delenn's 
vote in "The Gathering."  That was gas.

<p>
<li> Both Christy Marx and Kathryn [Drennan, JMS's wife]
can both be *briefly* seen in the pilot
movie as BG in the casino...and in the main titles, Kathryn's back is
to the camera in the wide downshot, though you really can't make it 
out well in that one.  Also in the montage in the pilot movie, seated
at the bar under narration, the fellow with the beard, is art director
John Iacovelli.

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> The amount of contact required varies according to the telepath's
strength.  Lyta at P5 needs a little help.  A P10 could nail you from
across the room.

<p>
<li> The background on that business meeting is similar to all such uses of
telepaths: both sides agree to the presence of a telepath to monitor 
the negotiations.  If one were to demur, the deal would be off because
the person clearly has something to hide.  Which is why there is a 
good market for various kinds of shields that don't LOOK like or feel
like shields unless the telepath knows what to look for.  You can also
just try and hide it and hope that the telepath isn't looking too deep
or isn't really paying attention, which is what that guy was doing.
(May have been reciting the "tensor" rhyme trying to keep his brain 
occupied.)

<p>
<li> The encounter suit opened at the touch of a button (you can hear him
press the button with a *click*).  Only for Lyta did it open on its 
own.

<p>
<li> Here's the one thing that amazes me, speaking of seeing the pilot for
the gadzillionth time...there is one great big huge gaping visual
anomaly/inconsistency in the pilot that so far no one has noticed.  
It's so massive that when I first saw it, I just about fell out of my
chair.   But the director said "No one's ever gonna see it, no one's
ever gonna notice it, *trust* me on this."  I was absolutely convinced
that he was wrong.  Apparently he was right.  At some point in the
future I'll tell you what it is...and when you see it, you're going to
wonder how the hell you avoided seeing it before, it's *that* big.  
But not for a while yet.   (And the few smaller things mentioned here
...ain't it.)

<p>
<li> For the record...thtch has something to do with the second trial 
scene.

<p>
<li>
It's the overhead shot of the courtroom; we didn't have a second 
establisher, so we used the one of Kyle even though Sinclair was on
the stand.

<p>
<li> Actually, "beep-beep" was always there in the script; it was the part
where we learn AFTER that that Sinclair only told G'Kar about the
homing beacon, didn't really plant it, that came up during filming.

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> 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).
<p>
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.)

<p>
<li> 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.

<p>
<li> Agreed, the pilot movie was much darker...unfortunately, it was SO 
dark that we actually veered into what're called "illegal blacks," 
that is, the picture is too dark, and this causes problems with 
foreign distributers.  (This is what they tell me, and through an act
of faith I have come to believe them.)  We're still about a half-stop
or full stop below what's typical.  Be advised that many stations,
when they broadcast the show, pump up the brightness a *lot*.  They
just dial it up.

<p>
<li>
Laurel was not standing upside down in relation to the station's
rotation.  The docking bay, at the center of the station, for zero-g,
was above her head, her feet pointed down, toward the rim of the
station, in correct orientation.  Just FYI.

<p>
<li>
We'd originally planned to go for a more vague sexuality for Delenn;
a male physically and primarily in the voice, on top of the natural
female movements one gets from an actress.  In post-production, 
however, we couldn't get the voice to sound as good and male as we'd
wanted.  In addition, a couple of convention showing of a rough cut 
saw people responding VERY strongly to her voice as it was, so we 
finally decided to let it stand and change the one reference to "he"
to "she," and that was the end of it.

<p>
<li>
Delenn was originally going to be a fairly sexually-ambiguous
character...a male character, played by a female, with a computer 
altered voice...but we couldn't make the alteration sound good enough
to satisfy us, so we left her a her.

<p>
<li>
Kosh will "speak" in the series.  After a fashion.  But not as you
might expect.  Suffice to say we've seen the final effect now in the
mix of finished episodes, and it's *real* creepy.

<p>
<li>
Your memory is faulty.  It was stated in the pilot that Kosh's ship
took roughly 4 days to travel via hyperspace to B5.  That's from 
Vorlon space; we don't know where the fleet was when it entered jump.
Because such ships can make their own jump points, it could've been a
lot closer to B5 space when it went in.  (And was.)

<p>
<li>
Okay, okay, 8 days not four...I knew it weren't no 3 weeks, though.
The one thing to remember is that travel in hyperspace isn't the main
problem; the real problem, time-wise, is the period required to get 
from a world to its nearest jump gate.  It might take 4 days to travel
from World X to the gate, and 1 day to B5 in hyperspace...while 
another race, 1 day from the gate, and 1 day to B5 in hyperspace, only
has 2 travel days.

<p>
<li>
As I've noted elsewhere, G'Kar made mention of the need for genetic
alteration/modification during the scene with Lyta.  Beyond that,
though, G'Kar's personal perversion is sex with humans, which no one
else seems quite able to understand....

<p>
<li>
Garibaldi was named after the famous Italian war hero of the same
name.

</ul>

<h3>Special Edition (spoilers for future episodes)</h3>

<ul>

<p>
<li>@@@857153237 
"Now that TNT has set a definite date for airing the
series, have they given you a 'go' for re-editing The Gathering? If so,
how much will you be able to put back (the character stuff with Sinclair?)
Might you even re-score it with Christopher Franke music?"

<p>
We're still negotiating that out, but in hopes of this going, we've begun
redigitizing the footage so we can get into the main scenes we want to
work on.

<p>
<li>@@@857547322 
We're also going to update the CGI, if we can do this.

<p>
<li>@@@857554301 <em>Why were any important scenes cut?</em><br>
The fault was mine, not the suits.

<p>
Prior to exec producing B5, I had never edited a show before,
never had final cut before...had never even been IN an editing room for
more than 5 minutes before.  So here I am, given the director's
cut...and I know it's real slow, but I haven't done this before, so I
don't trust my instincts.  I let it go with very minimal changes.

<p>
And I've been kicking myself ever since.  I should've followed
my instincts, but instead I deferred to the director's cut.

<p>
It's a mistake I have never made since.

<p>
Even so, that first cut just gnaws at me...I *know* I can make
it better, stronger, even if only a bit in a few places, that would
help salve my soul over this thing.

<P>
<li> @@@859779286 
<em>Would you use new music by Christopher Franke?</em><br>
Yeah, Chris would re-score it.

<p>
<li>@@@876776558 
<em>Is the reedit a dead deal?</em><br>
No, the funding was approved, and we're working on it now.

<p>
<li>@@@877368299 
Yep, we're working on the re-edit now.  There's still just so
much that can be done, we can't shoot new material...but it's still
going to be tighter, with additional material, new music, and new CGI
in many places.

<p>
<li>@@@878327316 
Basically, it's new scenes with the characters, new CGI in many
places, and new music.

<p>
<li>@@@878327426 
<em>What was wrong with the original?</em><br>
I was new at exec producing, and deferred 'way too much to the
director, whose cut was, frankly, slow and left all the best character
moments on the cutting room floor.  We lost 14 minutes of good stuff,
which is now going to go back and we're going to tighten and make it
better, the way we do our cuts on all the episodes.

<p>
<li>@@@878758531 
"Will the 14 minutes being restored to "The Gathering" include
Marianne Robertson's "hostage" scene?"

<p>
Yup.

<p>
<li>@@@878843594 
Today, John Copeland and I finished re-editing "The Gathering,"
the B5 pilot movie.  While there were some areas we couldn't get into
because of the complexity in redoing the mix, virtually every scene got
tinkered with to one degree or another, and most important, the roughly
14 minutes of footage left out of the original version is now back in. 
The whole thing is tighter and faster, and there's more recent CGI,
we'll have Chris Franke re-score it, and it's just in general a lot
better.  (Some parts of it even make more sense now.)

<p>
One additional change: because of the desire on PTEN's part to
have as many commercial breaks as possible, the 6-act script was
jerry-rigged and broken down into 9 acts.  One side-effect of this is
that 9 acts wears on you, and wears you out, more than the standard 6. 
You start to get a feeling of being led up to things too often, and
there isn't time to dwell on the acts you're in.  I was finally able,
with this re-edit, to move scenes back around again to what I
originally wanted in a 6-act structure (you'll see a number of scenes
juxtaposed from their original order).

<p>
Anyway...the TNT Special Edition is much improved over the
original.

<p>
<li>@@@880391734 
<em>What will be cut to make room for the new footage?</em><br>
Not much, just little snippets of things...the show was *very* slow paced, and
once you pick up the pacing within scenes, whole vast tracts of time appear.

<p>
<li>@@@882987588 you spare a few words on how you went about the re-edit?  Did you
start with what you wanted to get back in, or trying to find out how
much time you could recapture?"

<p>
The first thing I did was to sit down with the editor assigned
to the re-edit, Suzie, and go through the original script for the
pilot.  My first words to her were, "Put everyhing in that ain't
there."  To that end, she redigitized all of the footage from missing
scenes, and had available all of the available footage of the other
scenes for digitizing as we went.

<p>
Note that I said all the *available* footage.  The folks at WB
who held custody of the film (we don't keep that stuff, we're not
allowed to by contract, they store film, negative, prints, all that
stuff) put the negative canisters into storage...and at one point in
the intervening 4 years, there had been water damage, and on another
occasion, apparently rats had gotten in there and chewed some of the
original negatives (and in most cases there weren't positive struck of
those takes).

<p>
Take your reaction to the foregoing, put it in front of the
Hubble telescope, and you will have mine.

<p>
However, we lucked out...where there were some takes that are
gone, we were able to find enough others (masters instead of a
two-shot, or a close-up instead of an over-shoulder) and B-camera
footage that we were able to build solid versions of those scenes.  We
didn't always have as many choices as we're used to but there was more
than enough for our needs.

<p>
Suzi then dumped all of the newly edited additional scenes into
the existing pilot, and that gave us the new running time (we added
about 14 minutes).  So at that point, John and I went in and worked to
slice down the previously existing scenes, doing what we do with B5:
tightening every loose screw and nut as much as we could.  One or two
incidental, unimportant scenes in the original pilot went out, because
they added nothing and shouldn't have been there in the first place (a
total of about 3 minutes).  The remaining 11 minutes we made up in just
tightening scenes, which were *so* lax and slow that it's amazing at
times.

<p>
In some cases, we substituted one take for another in the
pre-existing pilot when we had a better reaction, or played scenes
closer for more intimacy.  (One of the problems with the pilot is that
it kept the audience far from the action, and the actors far from each
other, something we changed in our shooting style for the series...here
we tried to change it when we could and when we had the coverage.)

<p>
Tiny example: when Kosh falls down upon arriving at B5, that
sequence ends with a big honking wide downshot of a nearly empty
docking bay, with Kosh far from us, and Sinclair looking down (away
from us) when he says "Damn." Then we go from that to a wide shot of
the medlab.  Same framing. So I had Suzie look for a take where we
panned up from a close on Kosh, to a close on Sinclair for that line,
so it's more immediate, more personal, and the jump to the next scene
doesn't feel like the one before.

<p>
See, directors like to stay wide in their cuts, so you can see
their nifty camera angles, see the set, the lighting...but after you've
established where we are, most people want to see the *characters*, not
the walls or how the camera moves.  That was what we tried to fix where
we could.

<p>
We couldn't totally re-edit the pilot, because we hadn't been
given the money for something that intensive (the main expense is in
opening up all the audio stems in the sound mix).  But all the stuff I
wanted back in, is now in, and the scenes I wanted to fix, I fixed.

<p>
I also got the thing back to its original format.  All TV movies
are 6 acts.  Because PTEN wanted more commercial breaks, I had to
re-jig the structure of the thing into 9 acts, which meant moving some
scenes into places where they weren't as effective, and frankly after 9
acts you just get tired of watching.  Here I was able to move scenes
around and get back to the original 6 act structure that was intended
for the thing, and that alone makes a huge difference in how the film
feels.

<p>
One of the biggest changes is the one least immediately
apparent. After we finished the original pilot, some folks at WB felt
that Laurel was too...strong.  They will rarely put it in terms quite
as blatant as that, but that was the message...she was "unlikeable,
unsympathetic, harsh."  Meaning some of the guys felt she was too
strong, let's cut to the chase, okay?

<p>
They wanted her to loop her lines, soften their (her) delivery. 
I fought this tooth and nail.  I fought this until finally I was pulled
aside and it was communicated to me that B5 was, after all, still an
unknown property, could be a big failure, and if we ever wanted to see
this thing on the air, we'd accommodate this note (which was, I have to
admit on balance, one of the few they had).  The advice was, in
essence, "Pick your battles."

<p>
So, reluctantly, I let it get looped by Tamlyn.

<p>
But now, when the re-edit was commissioned, and with the person
at the studio who insisted on this now no longer AT the studio, I told
Suzie, "Screw it, put back her original production track and trash the
loops."  Instantly, Laurel's energy level comes up, the performance is
better...it just *feels* more natural now.

<p>
So basically, we did a lot...some of it may not be immediately
apparent (improving a sound here, altering coverage, adding additional
sound layers, redoing a composite shot of the garden), but over the
duration of watching it, it's just *better*.  It's still a *tad* slower
around the middle than I would've liked, but that's a WP (writer
problem), nothing that can be fixed in an edit.  It's just
exposition-dense there, and nothing of a sort that can be cut.

<p>
<li>@@@884632930 
"Also, the reworking of Sinclair's narration of the Battle of the
Line, with Requiem for the Line and the battle transmissions was just
gripping, it really showcased Michael O'Hare's strengths as an actor."

<p>
Yeah, that was an experiment I wanted to try.  When we did the
audio spotting (me sitting with the sound folks, Chris, others), I
explained what I wanted done with that scene, and they kinda got it but
were a little dubious as to whether or not this could or would work. 
When we came to the day of the audio mix, it was kind of a jumble...so
I worked with the music and the voices to basically fill in the gaps
between Sinclair's words.  Then I backed up and chose the ones that
most related to what he had just said, or was about to just say.  It
took about half an hour to get that 30 second piece down pat.

<p>
One of the least visible things I do is mess with the music and
how the music lays out on the track.  I'm often at the front of the
mixing room, working with the mixers, bringing up one instrument
(percussion, for instance), bringing down the horns for one piece, up
in another.  In "In the Beginning," for instance, there was percussion
all through the Battle of the Line itself...and we had big EFX of guns
and explosions going off, and the two muddied together.  So I went with
the explosions for the first of it, then replaced some of the
gunfire/explosions with percussion, then ducked down the SFX altogether
and just let the music take it.  You kind of have to be a conductor in
these instances.

<p>
<li>@@@884020341 
<em>Why would Kosh <em>tell</em> Sinclair he was Valen?</em><br>
Internal dialogue...what he was thinking, his reaction.

</ul>

<HR>
Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mattryan@pobox.com</i>