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<html><head><title>Overview of the Babylon 5 storyline</title><map name="toplevel"><area shape="RECT" coords="0,0,99,23" href="/lurk/universe/intro.html" alt="Universe"><area shape="RECT" coords="100,0,199,23" href="/lurk/episodes.php" alt="Episodes"><area shape="RECT" coords="200,0,299,23" href="/lurk/making/creators.html" alt="People"><area shape="RECT" coords="300,0,399,23" href="/lurk/resources/online.html" alt="Resources"><area shape="RECT" coords="400,0,499,23" href="/lurk/reference/episodes.html" alt="Encyclopedia"><area shape="RECT" coords="0,24,499,31" nohref></map>
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<h1 align=center>Overview of the 5-year plan</h1>
<p align=center>	from J. Michael Straczynski, creator, writer and producer<br>			copyright 1993<p> 
	There has always been a plan for a series to follow. If anything,that was the point of the entire exercise...to tell a story. To create anovel for TV that would span five years, for which the pilot is the openingchapter. Having now seen, or about to see the foundation for that story,and before being asked to lend support to that series, you have a right tosome sense of what that series would entail, and what you're being askedto support. One should never sign a blank check on the bank of one'sconscience. So here's a preview.<p>
	You will find out what happened to Sinclair, for starters, duringthe Earth/Minbari war. For nearly 10 years, Sinclair has worked to convincehimself that nothing happened to him on the Line other than what seems tobe the case: that he blacked out for 24 hours. He's just managed to convincehimself of this. Now, suddenly, someone comes into his life and with sevenwords -- you'll know them when you hear them -- completely unravels theself-deception. He knows then that something DID happen to him, that someoneDID mess with his mind...and he is going to find out who, and why. <p>
	The ramifications of that discovery will have a major influence onthe series, on his relationships, and the future of not only his characterbut many others. <p>
	You will see what a Vorlon is...and what it represents. And whatit may have to do with our own saga, and a hidden relationship to some ofour other characters (watch the reception scene carefully). We'll discoverthat there are MANY players in this game. You'll find out what happened toBabylon 4, and it will call into question what is real, what is not, andthe ending of that episode is one that you have not seen before ontelevision. <p>
	We'll find that most every major character is running to, or awayfrom something in their hearts, or their pasts, or their careers.Garibaldi's checkered past will catch up with him in a way that willaffect his role and make him a very different character for as much as afull season, and have lasting effects thereafter. Lyta will take part ina voyage of discovery that will very much change her character. She willbe caught up in a web of intrigue and forced to betray the very peopleshe has come to care for. <p>
	We will see wheels within wheels, discover the secret groupsbehind the Earth and Minbari governments who suspect, with good reason,that one of the B5 crew may be a traitor, who sold out Earth during theEarth/Minbari war. <p>
	Some of the established empires in the pilot will fall. Somewill rise unexpectedly. Hopes and fortunes will be alternately made ordestroyed. At least one major race not yet known even to EXIST will makeits presence known, but only gradually. Some characters will fall fromgrace. Others will make bargains whose full price they do not understand,but will eventually come to realize, and regret. <p>
	At the end of the first season, one character will undergo aMAJOR change, which will start the show spinning on a very differentaxis. The first season will have some fairly conventional stories, butothers 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 isvery much the story of Jeffrey Sinclair -- will speed up in each subsequentseason. <p>
	Someone he considers a friend will betray him. Another will proveto be the exact opposite of what Sinclair believes to be true. Some willlive. 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 terribleway...if he goes one way, or the other, it will determine not only his ownfate, 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.  <p>
	Each of our characters will be tempted in a different way to allywith a dark force determined to once and for all destroy the peace. Somewill fall prey to the temptation, others will not, and pay the price fortheir resistance. <p>
	The homeworld of one of our major characters will be decimated.War will become inevitable. And when it comes, Babylon 5 will be foreverchanged. <p>
	That, in broad brush strokes, is a little of what I plan to dowith the series. It is, as stated, a novel for television, with adefinite beginning, middle and end.
<h2>Has the show deviated from the original idea?</h2>
<em>May 10, 1996 response to a viewer question: some of the above seems tonot apply any more.  Is the series off track?</em>
<p>It's a fair question.  I'm going to try and deal with it asbest I can. The problem, first and foremost, is trying to explain thecraft of writing to someone who isn't a writer.  This isn't intended asa slight; if a brain surgeon tried to explain his work to me, I'd beabout as much in the dark.  I have no idea where music comes from; Ican sit with Chris Franke for hours, trying to understand that process.I never will.  I'm not hardwired that way. I *am* hardwired forwriting.  So it's not a judgment, just a minor truth.
<p>The creative process is fluid.  Has to be.  Consider for amoment the position in which I find myself.  Let's say I'm writing anovel.  I start with a fairly clear notion of where I'm going.  Sixchapters in, I get a better way of doing something, so I go back andrevise chapters 1-5, so it now all fits; you never see what wentbefore.  Now, compare that to a situation where you're publishing eachchapter as you go, and you can't go back and change anything. (This ispretty much the situation Dickens found himself in, as he published hisworks chapter by chapter; you can never back up, only go forward.)
<p>At the same time, because we're using actors who have reallives of their own, to whom things happen -- broken limbs, healthproblems that may preclude appearing in a given episode, sudden careerchanges, you name it -- you have real-life obstacles constantly in yourway.
<p>The closest thing I can compare this to...is if you're onstage, in front of a large audience, and you have to do a veryelaborate dance...and all the while people are throwing bowling ballsand chainsaws at you.  You either learn how to accommodate all that,and keep pretty much on rhythm, or you're dead.
<p>This show was originally conceived in 1986/87.  About 10 yearsago. Back then, all TV episodic stuff was done pretty much from oneperson's point of view, your nominal hero.  Yes, you'd occasionallydive outside that for a quick scene with other characters, usually toset up something, but for the most part, it was about that one person. In MURDER, SHE WROTE, Jessica Fletcher was always at the heart of everyepisode; you had the occasional guest character with whom she'dinteract, and the recurring supporting cast, but none of them everchanged, and none of them ever really took center stage for more than afew minutes at a time.  That's how TV has been done up until now.
<p>Novels, on the other hand, are often omniscient in narrativestructure, and you blip in and out of multiple points of view.  THESTAND, for instance.
<p>Now, I've done both; I've written novels and I've written TV. When it came time to pull together B5 initially, you go into the "okay,who is the TV point of view character" question.  Which was Londo'snarration, and which was the way I'd learned to write TV all theseyears.  Once the series got going, it quickly became apparent that I'dhave to learn a whole new way of writing TV that was a lot more likewhat I'd been writing in my novels, which were multi-POV huge stories. It's a kind of writing that's never really been done before forAmerican TV; and I had to somewhat invent that style or form of writingas I went, in front of millions of viewers.
<p>You can't prepare for something like this, as much as you try,because it's never been done before.
<p>(On reflection, probably the closest thing to what I've beendoing here was the miniseries The Winds of War, in terms of themultiple viewpoints involved.)
<p>Also, in the last 10 years, I've become a better writer,learned more about my craft, added more tools to my toolbox.  Thatmeans being able to perceive better ways of doing things now than Icould've seen before.
<p>So here we are.  I sit at my word processor with my notes from1986, and I see a better way of doing something from those notes...do Igo with what's there, or do I strike off and do the better approach,PROVIDED that it still takes me where I want to go in the arc?  Toignore it is to be inflexible.
<p>I've stayed fluid.  It's the same way I write a novel.  You'rejust seeing the *process* acted out right in front of you, a processwhich normally the public never gets to see.  That, I think, is somepart of what you're reacting to.
<p><em>[Text removed to avoid spoilers -- see the<a href="/lurk/find/CompuServe/cs96-05/85.html">original message</a>]</em>
<p>It's not just a matter of "living in interesting times."  Whatmakes a story is *causality*.  A sequence of linked events.  "The kingdied, and then the queen died" is not a story.  "The king died, andthen the queen died of grief" is a story.  It is an arc, however small.
<p>Finally, I'd just note the posts -- public and private -- fromfolks who have sat down and watched the *whole show* as a unit, onceper day, or several per day...and the linked aspect, the real *arc* ofthe show, becomes far more apparent when watched that way right now. It's there.
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<h5>Last update:May 12, 1996
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