=========================================================================== | This text is compiled from posts by J. Michael Straczynski on the Usenet | group rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5. This document contains material Copyright | 1995 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 document, as well as other Babylon-5 related material, is available | by anonymous FTP at ftp.hyperion.com. =========================================================================== Date: 1 Jan 1995 04:56:39 -0500 Subject: Signal/Noise in B5 and commerc The signal/noise problem was of particular annoyance during the first four or five episodes. We deliver on perfect D2 digital masters. We kept seeing problems on broadcast that weren't there upon delivery. We did a thorough investigation, and learned that the people contracted with by PTEN/Warners to handle stuff like closed captioning, and transferring film, and reformatting for commercials, and adding commercials, were using ANALOG tape, for starters, and sometimes, we discovered to our horror, USED STOCK. It took us some time to fully detail and investigate the situation, with the result that several people found themselves with new bodily orifices chewed into their anatomy. By about episode four or five it began to look substantially better. jms Date: 1 Jan 1995 05:03:55 -0500 Subject: Attn JMS Credits cutoff!!! We're doing all we can on this, but the stations seem to do what they want. jms Date: 1 Jan 1995 19:51:53 -0500 Subject: ATTN: JMS Orson Scott Card/En Haven't read that one, no. jms Date: 1 Jan 1995 19:52:04 -0500 Subject: JMS: Re: B5 What will we do for an encore after the mid-season biggies? Just what we've been doing all along...just keep cranking up the volume.... jms Date: 2 Jan 1995 00:21:24 -0500 Subject: JMS! PREVIEW IDEA: Add backsto Unfortunately, the B5 previews/promos are done in-house by PTEN, and they jealously guard their authority over them. They'd never let us do them. jms Date: 2 Jan 1995 04:19:06 -0500 Subject: ATTN: JMS So many questions, so few answers I can give.... 1) In theory, yes, Sheridan should be around for the rest of the arc. 2) O'Hare is currently doing network guest-starring roles that will give him broader appeal (for instance, playing a great bad-guy on a coming episode of the Cosby Mysteries). 3) Senator Hidoshi is out of office. 4) Background walla is done by the background walla group. 5) You won't see Minbar this season, but you will almost certainly see it the first part of next season. You will, however, see Centauri Prime this season. 6) Lots of things will go BOOM soon. 7) The mess hall food is pretty good. 8) The D.Duck poster came from Warners, when we arranged (after much negotiation) to get the rights to use his character. (This is the first series, apparently, given the rights to do so.) jms Date: 2 Jan 1995 21:52:08 -0500 Subject: Origin of word "Vorlon" ...sounded cool.... jms Date: 2 Jan 1995 21:52:15 -0500 Subject: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Trekke First, so there's no error, I appreciate your effort here. But I still do disagree with your premise that "ST paved the way for B5." You can "stand by" your feeling as much as you want, but I was the one in the room with the network and studio execs telling me (and just about everyone else pitching SF space shows) that there was NO room in the marketplace for anything along these lines other than ST. Even when PTEN was launching B5, that was a concern stated by them over and over. There's what one feels SHOULD be correct, and there's what IS correct. This is the point where those two conflict. ST did not "legitimize SF drama for TV." Star Trek legitimizes and leads to more Star Trek. If people in Hollywood *really* felt the way you say, why has it taken *25 years* for another serious show like this to get made (again, leaving out Buck Rogers, which wasn't serious and frankly, to my mind, was only barely SF). We had to fight tooth and nail to get this show on the air, to overcome the ST shadow. We were told, specifically and repeatedly, that there IS no substantive interest in SF, and that ST isn't SF; ST is ST, and an interest in ST doesn't generally guarantee any kind of interest in another SF show. And certainly Paramount has done nothing but throw road blocks in front of us at every conceivable step of the way. I understand your feelings, and why you want to believe that your theory is true. But it simply isn't. jms Date: 2 Jan 1995 21:52:23 -0500 Subject: The Hugo Awards: Opinions Far be it from me to try and influence people's opinions. Well, all right...six inches away...but I'd tend to agree on the selection of "Chrysalis" out of all the season one episodes to nominate. I still tend to think it was the best of the batch (though "Babylon Squared" and "Signs and Portents" come darned close.) Question, though: are we sure that "Chrysalis" falls into the eligibility period for nomination? I know there's a cutoff date at some point, though it's probably the year's end, so we should be okay. jms Date: 3 Jan 1995 01:50:45 -0500 Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Battlestar Galactica really isn't applicable to this discussion because 1) the "arena" under discussion has always been Earth in its future with humanity as a spacefaring civilization, which comprises 95% of all written SF, but had not been done on TV since Trek, and 2) Battlestar was really more of a Star Wars "homage" (he said politely), that has nothing to do with ST in *any* event. jms Date: 3 Jan 1995 04:20:20 -0500 Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr You may want to convey to these individuals that Stewart also invited Doug to tea, something he wouldn't have done if he were just fibbing about his opinion to avoid a faux pas. In point of fact, we have had generally good relations with MANY of the actors involved with ST in one form or another. Rene Auberjenois (I know I just misspelled that, but it's late, nearly 1 a.m., and I'm too tired to go into the other room to get the right spelling) told both Mira Furlan, myself, her husband, and just about anyone else in sight that he's seen B5 and enjoys it immensely. We have had several actors involved with ST come by the B5 stages to look at the facilities and say hello. The actor who plays Quark (my apologies to the actor, but his name has just fallen out of my head) invited Peter Jurasik to a party at his place to comment on how much he enjoys the show. There is a small, vocal minority of Star Trek fans who hate B5 because it commits the ultimate crime for a show in Earth's future in space: it's not Star Trek. In some ways, I find it kind of amusing, along the lines of those in the 60s who said you could be a Beatles fan, or a Monkees fan, but not both. These are people who talk about Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, but choose not to practice it. They are the same sorts of people who were Lost in Space fans, and derided and insulted Star Trek because they considered it a cheap knock-off of LiS. (And yes, there were loads of critics and viewers who said this, and wrote reviews that said this, and wrote to fan publications saying it.) They are people who applaud ST because it was the work of one man with a vision, in its beginnings...and deride B5 which is a different vision. What the actors, and the writers involved with Star Trek understand, that this small, vocal minority of ST fans do not, is that COMPETITION LEADS TO IMPROVEMENT. These are people who want to see their characters stretched to new areas, given more to do...writers who want to take chances in their scripts and be bold...who have for much of the run of ST been held back by the corporate types who don't *want* changes, who don't want to take chances...and that's why you have a situation where Riker stays first officer for *seven years*, which fans complain about, and which would be the end of ANY officer's career in the real military. Where I come from, science fiction is the literature of open mindedness. It *welcomes* new ideas, and new approaches, and different views of our past, present and future. Are they so insecure with Star Trek that they must attack Babylon 5? If they are truly Star Trek fans, then they must know and appreciate the work done by people like Harlan Ellison and David Gerrold and Dorothy Fontana and Walter Koenig and, lately, Peter David...people who have not been well treated by Star Trek of late. We have given them the respect that is due them, allowing the writers the chance they often did not have, to experiment and to grow. When Walter Koenig did his first Babylon 5 episode, whenever he came to the table at lunch, those in the cast at the table would stand until he sat...common when junior officers are being joined by a senior officer. Dorothy, and David, and Walter, and Harlan, and others who were involved with the original Star Trek who have visited the set have said that they have only seen the atmosphere and warmth of this set on one other set in nearly thirty years...on the original Star Trek. Mark Hammil has come by the studio to pay his regards for the show; Leslie Stevens, co-creator/producer for The Outer Limits made a similar pilgrimage to say how much he enjoys the show, and how he feels that this is the future of where SF should be going in television. When we won the Emmy for Best Visual Effects for the first year in which we were eligible, it was the *first time* in six years that Star Trek had lost out. Now with a second Emmy, a Hugo nomination, an award from the Space Frontier Foundation for Best Vision of the Future, another award from the Cult TV convention in England (beating out NYPD Blue and DS9 for best new series)...we are being noticed. Even some reviewers who at first had the same disdain because we weren't Star Trek have begun to come around, and see us for what we ARE, not complain about what we are NOT. (Some complained in the beinning that we were just a rip-off of Star Trek: DS9, which since we were around in development for 5 years prior to DS9 is nonsense...and then when they tuned in, and saw that we weren't a ripoff, turned their noses up because we weren't doing things like they were done in Star Trek. I received mail and email from people complaining that we used hand-links when everyone KNEW that the REALITY of it was that in 200 years we'd be using the chest-pin communicators in Star Trek, "and every time I see you use this other thing, it breaks the illusion for me." Long story made short...we're *not* going away. We are telling a story, and we're going to tell that story until it's finished. If a few wish to be like the Lost in Space fans who refused to watch Star Trek when it came on, that's their right. Anyone who finds specific fault in an episode, and it IS a fault, not "Star Trek wouldn't have done it this way," that's also terrific. To not like a show simply because it isn't Star Trek is simple bigotry...and to them I can only say that Roddenberry would be *disgraced* by that attitude in people claiming to be fans of hsi work. jms Date: 3 Jan 1995 04:51:21 -0500 Subject: Re: ST-TNG vs. B5 fans "And the ACTORS occupy the same universe as you, me, and jms." Hrmmm...haven't known many actors, have you? jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Novels canon? Date: 3 Jan 1995 15:50:18 -0500 We're certainly exerting every effort to keep the novels (and the comic) canon. Ain't easy, but so far it's working. jms Subject: JMS: has comic been cancelled? Date: 3 Jan 1995 16:23:26 -0500 The comic has not been canceled, and is doing very well. jms Subject: Re: - JMS on Patrick Stewart/ Date: 3 Jan 1995 17:52:33 -0500 Got no problem with somebody not liking B5. Not a one. My only problem is when you have a few people so determined to protect the integrity of their fictional characters and their allegiance to one show that they must assume Stewart or someone else is lying, which then DIMINISHES the person's integrity. It seems to me a little like the old Vietnam idea of burning the village to save the village. I'm perfectly happy to let ANYONE not like B5 *on its own terms*. It's only when the clique mentality sets in that I have a problem with it...and again, this applies only to a fairly small (but *very* loud) portion of ST fans. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 3 Jan 1995 18:02:41 -0500 To Laurie Antoniou: many thanks. jms Subject: JMS: Season 2 filming Date: 3 Jan 1995 18:24:14 -0500 We are currently shooting number thirteen, editing number 12, mixing number 10, doing the EFX on number 11. Seventeen scripts are currently finished. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 3 Jan 1995 23:02:12 -0500 Thanks for reminding me; quite correct, Michael O'Hare was invited to take (and did take) a tour of the set for one of the Star Trek movies; I guess it would've been Generations. He went, and was well received, and Shatner said he liked the show. (Though *there*, I suspect, it may have been more politeness, given the reaction as it was expressed to me. But I could be wrong.) jms Subject: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Trekke Date: 3 Jan 1995 23:57:02 -0500 "Do you really believe that the First Run Syndication business as it now stands would be as big as it currently is if ST:TNG had flopped (and do you honestly believe that Warner would have given PTEN a second thought, let alone Babylon 5, if TNG hadn't been such a success in First Run Syndication?" Phillip Sral A fair question which deserves a fair response. For starters, the syndie business is *not* "as big" as described in your message. So the premise is incorrect on the face of it. The majority of new syndicated drama series introduced in the last couple of years have flopped and have either already been canceled, or are shortly awaiting same. The only shows that have shown success at all have been the various Star Trek incarnations, Baywatch, and now B5. Virtually everything else has crashed and burned in syndication. Second, B5 is not part of first run syndication. It is part of the consortium formed jointly by Warners and a station group which was then targeted to become a network. (The new official Warners network will likely supplant and replace PTEN in a few years, after the contracts run out. How that will affect B5 is anyone's guess.) The movement into such new networks has nothing to do with the success OR failure of shows like and including Star Trek. There's this little thing called the new "fin/syn rules," which recently got changed drastically. As of the ruling a couple of years ago, networks can now own more of the product they put on the air. Virtually all of it, in fact. What does this mean? That CBS can broadcast mainly shows made by in-house CBS outfits, rather than contracting with, say, Warners or Universal or other studios. This frankly scared the hell out of the studios, whose major business is making TV. So everyone started running around looking for ways to create venues independent of the networks...i.e., *new* networks, owned wholly or partly by the studios themselves, who could then create their OWN monopoly. (Ain't big business wonderful?) Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, (and Fox already there)...they're ALL getting into it. That was the single dominant reason why PTEN was formed. Sheer survival. Same with the Warners net, Paramount net, all the others. Networks need programming. All kinds programming. Dozens of shows were pitched to the PTEN executive committee, including B5. They chose this out of the rest of the pack *even though they were nervous about the perception that the market wouldn't sustain more than one such show*. They picked it for the simple reason that they liked it, and they believed in what we were going to try and do with the show. Two of our biggest boosters were the people behind the whole operation, Dick Robertson and Evan Thompson, who formed PTEN and from the start, really understood what we wanted to do with B5. ST was really either a) irrelevant to the process, or b) a hinderance to the process. I *know* you want to believe otherwise, and I do understand why, and I wish I could reinforce that because it doesn't change anything for us one way or another...but it simply didn't happen that way. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Season 2 filming Date: 4 Jan 1995 00:33:40 -0500 Currently shooting "Hunter, Prey." Then, probably in this order, "And Now for a Word" (also jms), "Knives" (Larry DiTillio), "There All The Honor Lies" (Peter David), and then "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" (jms). jms Subject: JMS-Centauri Jump Gates price? Date: 4 Jan 1995 00:33:50 -0500 We opened up trade relations with them to partially pay for the time we leased on Centauri jumpgates, and provided other services (of a benign nature). jms Subject: JMS: Personal re: Chris Franke Date: 5 Jan 1995 02:32:40 -0500 I genuinely have no idea if Chris is still doing "Mantis" or not; I know they're flailing right now in the ratings, and that they're making a lot of changes...basically, anything that ain't nailed down. (And anything that they can pry up ain't nailed down.) If one of those would be a change in composers, I wouldn't be at all surprised, given that scenario, but I honestly don't know one way or another; it's not something we tend to discuss. We talk B5 with Chris, period. I don't think the rest is any of my damned business. One rather wishes other people we both could name would adopt a similar philosophy.... jms Subject: Re: - JMS on Patrick Stewart/ Date: 5 Jan 1995 02:30:58 -0500 Re: "...some B5 fans who act the same way," I think there are in general fewer of them, mainly because we haven't been on 25 years and become an icon. And I generally discourage it; on CIS in particular, and here, I've noted that there are good people working hard on ST, but are being held back from doing all they're capable of doing by the studio's franchise approach. They should not catch the rap for this; it's unfair. I should also mention that the most vociferous B5 viewers in terms of ragging on Trek are generally those who are disenchanted and angry ST fans who feel they've been let down, and have something now to compare the other show with. This unhappiness was there a LONG time before B5 ever hit the screens. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 5 Jan 1995 04:51:51 -0500 My point sustains; getting a science fiction series on the air at all is mind-bogglingly difficult. Getting it past one season is damned near impossible. Of the series you named as examples of how SF has a market in TV -- Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, V, Salvage, Matthew Star, Flash, Greatest American Hero -- how many of those made it to or past a second season? Though I'm kinda fuzzy on Buck (my brain has mercifully excised most memories pertaining to that one), and Battlestar had a *revised* show as another season...insofar as I can recall, those are ALL one-season wonders. We're still talking apples and oranges. The common question, the real killer, is "Is the market big enough to sustain two SF shows, and is there a market for SF at ALL?" *Getting* a show doesn't prove that there is a market for SF; it only proves that somebody's going to try it again to find out. If a show doesn't last, dies quickly, then that proves the market's dead. This is one of the blind spots in TV logic which pertains mainly to the two groups you mention, SF and westerns. If a cop show goes on and flops, nobody says there's no market for cop shows; *that* show failed. If an SF series fails, the interpretation is that there's no market for SF. Also, in general, hollywood perceives all SF as more or less the same; it doesn't take into consideration, if an SF series dies, if it was a GOOD SF series or a BAD SF series. Nowhere was this more true than with the V series (not the mini, the Kenneth Johnson stuff, which was great), where one of the producers told me, "As long as we have aliens and space ships and ray guns, we'll get the SF audience GUARANTEED; it's the mainstream we have to work at." To understand this whole area, you have to stop thinking like a viewer and start thinking like a network programming exec. (Start by lowering your IQ about 15 points.) If a series runs only 1-2 years and fails, everybody loses; the studio and network will never recoup the expenses of production because these days you generally need 80-100 episodes of a series to syndicate it. Except for bargain-basement stuff like minimal fees for SciFi Channel reruns, you're dead. You're out MILLIONS of dollars. *NO AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION SERIES OTHER THAN STAR TREK HAS GONE ON FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS SINCE LOST IN SPACE*. We're talking here twenty-four YEARS of failure (from a network/studio financial point of view). This does not exactly encourage them to think there's much of a market. Throw Logan's Run and Amazing Stories and the new Twilight Zone into the mix. By entering its 2nd year, Babylon 5 has already beaten the odds. If we get year three (oh, yeah, and Time Trax also didn't make it), then as far as I know, we'll be the first nominally-hard SF series other than Trek to do it in nearly a quarter-century. (I'm excluding X-Files from this only because I don't quite think it fits as science fiction; I'm not quite sure what to classify it as other than Really Weird Shit, and a truly *nifty* TV series. I love it.) There are an *awful* lot of studio and network people watching us very closely; if we can be the first to break the curse, proving that there is a market for SF outside Star Trek that can sustain long enough for the studio to make back its money, I think you'll finally begin to see a lot more of it...and frankly, I can't wait; the more competition, the more SF, the better. jms Subject: Cortez- Awesome Ship Name! Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:57:00 -0500 BTW, just to note a little something you might not notice in the show...we've adopted the tradition of putting the symbol for a given ship onto the bar in Earhart's, as many real contemporary officers' clubs and airforce/naval base clubs put the logos or markings of big planes or ships that come through there. The Cortez symbol is the most visible among the various emblems you can see in a shot of the bar in "A Race Through Dark Places." It comes at the moment we follow *another* old military tradition. jms Subject: JMS: Syndication (Was: Re: JMS Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:57:08 -0500 Your assessment of the situation is more or less correct; it was the Paramount Theaters chain that was eventually divested from Paramount proper, since the government decided that it constituted a monopoly and couldn't be allowed to continue. (Ironically, it was this divestment that, having made Paramount Theaters an independent operation, later helped ABC come into reality, as they were able to invest in the fledgling network during a time it was struggling. This was viewed as a smart move by many, since common wisdom said that this new TV thing was never going to take off in people's homes, due to the expense in running land-lines to individual homes, broadcast being marginal technology then. They figured there would be TV Theaters, where you could come and pay and see TV shows, boxing, sporting events, name it. Universal spent major bucks on this, and even showed a major boxing event just this way as a test. And now, of course, with satellites, and pay TV, and people gathering at sports bars to watch pricey events, we've come full circle.) (Why do I *know* all this stuff, when I can't retain what I ate for lunch yesterday?) Because studios had a monopoly, yes, they could force less obviously commercial films down the throats of theaters. That changed with the new rules. TV now, though, won't go through the same cycle, I think, because a) none of the networks are stupid enough to become total monopolies and invite the FCC in, and b) TV as a mass medium will always be more easily targeted by special interest groups. jms Subject: JMS: Language on Bazaar sign i Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:57:17 -0500 I'll have to look at it again, but I'm reasonably certain that the second line in the bazaar sign is Centauri. jms Subject: JMS:Question on Production Sch Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:58:53 -0500 We don't shoot in lots of 6 or 12; we shoot 22 episodes straight through. The order in which they are run, and the pauses in between, do not in ANY way reflect the time period in which they are made. We shoot straight through, with pauses for Christmas break, and to give our crew and cast a one-week hiatus on either side (usually between episodes 8 and 9, and episodes 15 and 16), which helps keep them from burning out. You really have to shoot straight through, because of the vast amounts of money required to rent equipment, pay salaries for crew and cast, pay staff and other areas. Also, under Screen Actors Guild rules, if you hire someone for, say, 13 episodes, you must use them within a particular span of time. If you don't, you must pay them the balance of committed episodes by the end of that period. If you broke filming up as you suggest, you'd be in deep hock to your cast. And you really can't separate out SFX from shooting live-action; often you need to have the actors work with the effects in composite shots, and sometimes you need the effects to play on monitors visible on camera when you're shooting. All divisions are working at the same time, straight through. You need to have effects people around frequently while shooting; to make two separate sequences means you double the time period you have to pay your effects people. Here is the process of making B5 in metaphor...not only in terms of each season's production, but the history of this show overall. You hitch yourself to the front of a train. And you begin pulling. (In this case, I began pulling in 1987, but for purposes of the current discussion make that the start of each season.) Slowly, painfully, the train moves an inch. Then another. Gradually, over time, it begins picking up speed. For one brief instant there is an allowable moment of joy when both you and the train are going at the same, comfortable speed. Then it starts gaining on you, and you have to start walking faster, with the train bumping your heels, until finally you're running flat out, because you know that if you so much as stumble once, the train will roll right over you. Then the season ends, you get to catch your breath...and start it all over again. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Future Quest Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:59:03 -0500 Basically, they asked if they could use our sets for a PBS program, and we said sure. Not much more to it than that; I think we allowed them the use of our stages without rental charge, since it's a worthy cause. They were allowed to choose which shots to use. I wasn't in the show because I wasn't asked to be. Doesn't matter either way; ain't doing this to get my mug on TeeVee. The lawsuits over nationally induced cardiac infarction ALONE would kill our budget.... jms Subject: Re: JMS on Patrick Stewart/ Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:59:11 -0500 To Ted...unfortunately, syndication does not help gurantee any show's success, even requiring fewer ratings points. Most of the new dramas introduced in the last year or so in syndication have fallen by the wayside and have either been canceled, or are awaiting cancellation. jms Subject: Re: JMS:Question on Production Date: 6 Jan 1995 02:59:19 -0500 RE: "a TV episode usually takes 10-16 days to make," (Kokko), not quite correct. We do the actual on-stage shooting in 7 days. (Most shows are shot anywhere from 6-9 days per episode.) Then it takes another week or so to edit, then the producers re-edit, then you spot the show for visual EFX and music, CGI is working, you mix the episode...the actual time required to physically make an episode once you begin principal photography is closer to 6-8 weeks. jms Subject: JMS: a filming question Date: 7 Jan 1995 03:20:53 -0500 As I recall, Mira was not in prosthetics at the time, and was out of camera range even for when the shot gets shown in expanded letterbox form. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 7 Jan 1995 03:22:02 -0500 Just a note of clarification on the notice that TV frigntened the movie studios (that should be "frightened")...yes and no. In the beginning it mainly just frightened radio; Fred Allen (famous for the quote "TV is called a medium because it is neither rare nor well done") used to sport a button stating Stamp Out TV. The studios *loved* TV in the beginning; at the time when TV began to come out, the studios were suffering their worst years since the Great Depression. Universal Studios and Warner Bros. practically shut down altogether. The number of films being made was virtually nil. But they still had all these actors and writers and directors under contract, chewing up vast amounts of money at a time when the studios had zip coming in. So they quickly turned many of these people over toward making TV shows; this is one reason why so many of the early TV anthology programs had big-name actors...the studios were burning off expensive contractual obligations. Also, I'd suggest that serious SF was done prior to Forbidden Planet, including but not limited to Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, The Day the Earth Stood Still (still one of the finest such films ever made) and many others. jms Subject: Re: Date: 8 Jan 1995 00:11:19 -0500 In addition to the other good reasons for using Jupiter's moons that Nyrath stated, there's also the added element of energy (it's near Jupiter itself), and a base placed off Io would be somewhat more difficult to target from afar given the massive energy output from Jupiter, which would help mask things a bit. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 8 Jan 1995 00:14:07 -0500 The attribution to Ernie Kovacs of the "TV is a medium" line is incorrect. Ernie loved TV. Fred Allen hated it with a passion. jms Subject: Re: - JMS on Patrick Stewart/B Date: 8 Jan 1995 00:14:20 -0500 On the other hand, if one follows the logic that a ship traveling is more likely to encounter danger than a stationary vessel, then one must now make the leap in logic that a bus traveling from New Jersey to Connecticut will have more dangerous incidents in 24 hours than New York City. Bear in mind the crucial difference here...the Enterprise has maybe seven hundred, a thousand or so members of the same service, chosen for compatibility. Babylon 5 has roughly two hundred and fifty thousand humans and aliens on board at any given moment, many from races where there is conflict between them. I think the latter is bound to produce more and broader-based danger than the other. jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 8 Jan 1995 01:34:32 -0500 This to Frank Springall...we weren't *talking* about shows from other countries. We were addressing American-produced shows. Yes, we could drag Dr. Who in here, but that's not really the *point*. Doesn't mean that nothing produced outside the US is "interesting." Obviously it is. But that's simply not relevant to our discussion of the American television series, and how studios and networks *here* view the genre. jms Subject: ATTN: JMS Realistic Timescale Date: 8 Jan 1995 04:46:36 -0500 I took a fairly conservative timeline; as was mentioned in "The Long Dark," as late as 2150 we were mainly confined to our own solar system, using sub-light cryogenic exploration ships on one-way missions to go further. We got to leap-frog several hundred years of technology when we met the Centauri in 2151, who let us lease time on their jumpgates, and sold us the tech to make and maintain our own. Had the Centauri or some other species not tripped over us, I think we'd still be driving around our own solar system for the most part by 2200, with maybe an excursion or two to our nearest star. The space program is currently logjammed, and if it doesn't get cleared up soon, we're going to be left in the dust, literally as well as figuratively. We have to get NASA off its image of two guys standing on a Martian hill planting a flag to communities of people working and living in space. The space shuttle was primarily designed as part of a link; space shuttle builds space station; space station is hub for mars mission and lunar colony; lunar colony is hub for more mars missions and mars colony. But we lost that thread, and now it's been relegated to being a high-tech ferry service. jms Subject: JMS: Your views on trading cop Date: 10 Jan 1995 01:46:24 -0500 I agree with the policy of "Don't ask, don't tell." jms Subject: Re: JMS: Patrick Stewart/B5/Tr Date: 10 Jan 1995 23:53:20 -0500 Actually, there are a lot of resonances between the process of getting B5 on the air and getting the original Trek on. Both did considerable recasting after their pilots; both saw the series a full year after the first pilot (we kinda considered ep 1 of year 1 our second pilot); Trek ran into difficulty getting sold because of Lost in Space, and we had a hard time getting sold because of ST; when it went on the air, Star Trek was slammed by critics as being low-rent, cheesy, suited for saturday morning kiddie shows and nothing more than an attempt to cash in on Lost in Space, just as we got nailed by critics and charged with trying to cash in on ST; Trek was Roddenberry's singular vision, and B5 is another very singular vision, neither show a "committee" operation. There are more, but I think the point is there. jms Subject: Of Hair And Bone Date: 11 Jan 1995 00:21:55 -0500 When Delenn's structure changed, the epidermal layer on the head grew thinner; there is now a gap between the skin, and the bone which has grown out. Hair can be draped through it, or laid over it. jms Subject: Re: - JMS on Patrick Stewart Date: 11 Jan 1995 00:26:40 -0500 BTW, just as a switch-back to the original thread here...might intest folks to know that Michael O'Hare was invited by some of Patrick's Fan Club Members to see "A Christmas Carol," Stewart's reading, went backstage, met Patrick...and was subsequently invited to make an appearance at a local meeting of Stewart's fan club, where he was invited to come up on stage by Stewart, where the two shook hands and lots of photos were taken. (At a recent convention, btw, Michael and Avery Brooks hung out together, had drinks, and discussed the hassles of being the commander of a space station....) jms Subject: JMS: Starfury as logo Date: 11 Jan 1995 00:26:51 -0500 If we ever need a team name, I'll try to remember this.... jms Subject: Technomage Symbol Date: 11 Jan 1995 11:25:48 -0500 No, actually, the technomage symbol (all of them, actually, including the ones on the wall) are all derivations, specifically altered, of old runes and the like. In some cases, we removed words and inserted mathematical symbols. The fiery symbol is all one piece, and is also an old rune. jms Subject: JMS: Has season 2 been sold to Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:20:13 -0500 I haven't got a clue. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Actor in Eyes? Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:34:06 -0500 Don't recall off hand the name of the bartender, but it definitely wasn't Tim Choate. jms Subject: Re: Arc. Season II. Big Pict Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:34:19 -0500 We could not film anything extensive with Michael because we don't shoot on the Warners lot, where there are facilities available. We went our separate ways around late April/early May or so, after we had stopped shooting. We're a small operation; when we make the series, we rent our equipment from Panavision, our lights from other places, sound equipment, some props...anything we don't rent goes into storage. Our entire camera crew -- ALL of them -- were off doing another project. I understand your feelings, but there are certain realities we have to work with, and if the cast is gone off either on vacation, out of the country, or on other projects (as all of them were), all of our crew is gone, and all of our equipment is gone, it's kinda hard to oblige your request to do scenes with these characters. We had none of this back in our hands until we began shooting again in August, by which time Michael had long been in New York pursuing other projects. jms Subject: B5 on WB Network? Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:34:34 -0500 I would not count on B5 ending up on the Warners network; the two are very competitive (WB vs. PTEN), and WB is trying to form its own identity. And the ratings for B5 place it generally third in first-run dramatic syndication. jms Subject: Attn: JMS. counterculture on B Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:34:46 -0500 By 2259 the "counterculture" as we understand it is absolutely old fashioned and retrograde. Seems like everybody's working to get In, not be Out. Sort of an extreme gingrichification effect.... jms Subject: ATTN: JMS - Is there only one Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:38:22 -0500 The EA is the only government for planetary decisions; a few don't choose to subscribe back home, but then they're entirely cut out of from benefitting from star travel and other EA areas. jms Subject: JMS:Season 3 Date: 12 Jan 1995 04:38:34 -0500 We'll probably get official word yes/no come April/May, though we will probably have some unofficial hints come February/March. jms Subject: Diversity of B5 populace Date: 12 Jan 1995 18:30:20 -0500 Babylon 5 is not like your local community, with as wide-ranging a bunch of residents, including children. It's more like an airport, and you don't generally see a lot of kids living at airports (unless you live in a community much different from mine). There are two kinds of people in general at B5...those who live and work at the station (security guards, maintenance, dockworkers, other support staf) and people passing through en route to other places, on stop-over. It's a place where you come to do business deals, staying over for a day or two, and then leaving. You wouldn't tend to bring your kids to something like that, and families passing through go right from one ship to another, usually in a hurry to make their flight. And we've had plenty of older characters, so your sweepin generalization is inaccurate, as are most sweeping generalizations. From June Lockhart to Michael Ansara to Walter Koenig to Jane Carr to many others, we've gone beyond the 35-49 age range you cite. We've also had many ethnic groups, and featured them; in fact, virtually ALL of the relationships (with I think one exception) have so far been from different ethnic backgrounds (Sinclair and Sakai, Talia Winters and Jason Ironheart, Dr. Franklin and Lockhart's daughter). We've used asian actors (doctors in medlab, the scientist in "Voice," Taro Isogi in "Spider," Sakai), hispanic actors (in "By Any Means," Dr. Maya Hernandez in "Believers," Wanda DeJesus coming up in "Hunter, Prey"), and a lot of african american actors. We also populate all background shots with a wide mix of ethnic backgrounds. In short, we're already *doing* it. And we will continue to do more of it. (Why doesn't Ivanova have a Russian accent? Because she was raised overseas, and went to schools outside Russia, something we'll learn in a few episodes.) jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Re: B5 on WB Network Date: 12 Jan 1995 18:54:34 -0500 B5 dropped a bit in the recent ratings you mention because they're a) our reruns, and b) the Chrismas period, during which everything falls off. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Spec script guidelin Date: 12 Jan 1995 18:54:56 -0500 The spec script question is currently moot because we're full-up at this time. jms Subject: JMS: Costume Questions... Date: 12 Jan 1995 19:28:00 -0500 Argh; just sent my reply here to the wrong thread (read the Diversity in B5 thread). Brief version: leather all around, red piping to read better on camera, cleaner cuffs. The other reply is more detailed. jms Subject: Re: Diversity of B5 populace Date: 12 Jan 1995 19:30:02 -0500 My original reply somehow got bumped back; the panels on the uniforms are always leather. Correct on the red piping and other changes; one of the problems with last season's uniforms was that they kinda blurred on camera, and the details went away. The piping helps the details to pop a bit better on camera. The cuffs were changed because in the old version, the leather cuffs caused the cuffs to gather, and never looked clean or crisp, which a real uniform would. So we changed it. I've been told what the rest of the uniforms are made of, but for the life of me can't recall just now. jms Subject: Re: Attn: JMS. counterculture Date: 13 Jan 1995 01:51:25 -0500 This to Katherine Teague...you're among the first to pick up on a deliberate writer's choice in the writing of the series. In looking toward the period of B5, I tried to construct a society that had to come together on a planetary scale to fight a war for simple survival. My thinking was, "Okay, let's assume that formality has come back into vogue; clothes tend not to be revealing, lines are more streamlined or severe, people address each other or refer to each other formally ("Mr. Isogi," "Ms. Winters," and so on). I suppose a conservative could derive some satisfaction from this choice...though to quote Mephistophilis in "Faustus"......"Aye, think so still, 'till experience change thy mind." jms Subject: Season 3 Date: 13 Jan 1995 20:58:23 -0500 We'll know on a pickup come about April. jms Subject: JMS: Why only one telepath? Date: 13 Jan 1995 21:21:35 -0500 Actually, since there aren't that many telepaths around, they cost a LOT to lease. There probably should be more than one on B5, but the Corps hasn't gotten around to sending anybody else yet...so she's appropriately frazzled a lot of the time. Humans rarely do things the way they should, logically.... jms Subject: I need to know if this is true Date: 13 Jan 1995 21:19:52 -0500 Certainly, we're all big fans of Mark's work (currently enjoying him in Wing Commander 3), and should an opportunity come along, and a role good enough, we'd love to work with him. But at this moment, nothing is set. jms Subject: ATTN:JMS Stupid idea about KO Date: 14 Jan 1995 01:55:06 -0500 Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnope. jms Subject: Enjoying B5 is enjoying Life Date: 14 Jan 1995 01:58:39 -0500 Thanks; and funny thing is, having seen the next batch of episodes as many as 20 times in the process of putting them together, I'm still as excited about them now as in the beginning. jms Subject: B5 & ZIMA Date: 14 Jan 1995 02:24:12 -0500 There's no Zima on the show in BG because we just did it for funsies, and now having done it, it's over. jms Subject: Release of series onto Laser d Date: 15 Jan 1995 00:56:42 -0500 We do hope to have the (widescreen) disks out by summer or fall, once we finish re-transferring all the film stock back to its original format. The pilot can't be released in a producers' cut since it never existed in film, only in computer-image form on the Avid editing system. To do the full film would require completely re-editing the film and re-scoring, and we don't have the resources or budget for that. jms Subject: Starfuries on patrol. Date: 15 Jan 1995 00:56:32 -0500 The starfuries were deployed from lunar bases, also from carriers that dropped everything they had. Since this was a last-ditch effort, there was no point in keeping reserve starfuries on-board, and the big ships still made huge targets. This was almost entirely an offensive maneuver, not defensive. You pop everything you've got, figuring that probably nobody will make it back. jms Subject: ATT JMS: Instantaneous Communi Date: 15 Jan 1995 01:31:30 -0500 Tachyon-based transmission systems. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. jms Subject: Re: - JMS on Patrick Stewart Date: 15 Jan 1995 01:42:38 -0500 To the best of my knowledge, NONE of the ST actors have any problem with any of the B5 actors, and vice-versa. Much as some divisive fan would, as you say, like their characters to reflect their own feelings, the reality simply isn't there. jms Subject: Murder, He Wrote? (Re JMS) Date: 15 Jan 1995 01:46:59 -0500 Correct; I was a writer/producer on MURDER, SHE WROTE for two years, and wrote something like 10-12 episodes (I don't remember exac offhand). For the last 2 weeks or so, USA network has been hitting the seasons I worked on, so my name has been there a lot lately. jms Subject: Re: B5 & ZIMA Date: 15 Jan 1995 01:47:14 -0500 Tagging this here because I don't know where else to tag it...I just got a GEnie note saying that approximately 100 letters from the Internet gateway never got to me; many are just rec-arts, but there's also on the list headers from a4jinna, roland@festival, TrboTurtle, dd36+, northrup@ chuma, anewton, brauchfu, and others. Just a warning...stuff does get munched sometimes. jms Subject: Three Edged? Date: 15 Jan 1995 19:50:13 -0500 The metaphor functions on several levels: 1) in any argument, there is your side, and the other side, but if you're ever going to get past that and find agreement, or understanding, you must be open to a third idea, a compromise or intercession. 2) a real three-bladed or three-edged sword creates a wound that does not close again; knowledge, once received, and understood, is permanent and changes you forever. jms Subject: JMS: Do Doctors Still Speciali Date: 15 Jan 1995 19:56:33 -0500 Negative; your assumption is incorrect. Dr. Franklin is chief of staff of the medlab facility, and has been introduced as such. We have seen many other doctors, from Dr. Maya Hernandez to the asian doctor brought in to help save Garibaldi in "Chrysalis." There are probably about 100-150 doctors on B5, and we'll be showing more of them as we go on in the show. jms Subject: JMS: Jovian moons Date: 15 Jan 1995 19:54:53 -0500 I think we'll probably get around to showing more of the Jovian moons one of these days. We're also taking advantage of some of the recent Hubble photographs to scan them and use them as backgrounds in some far-space shots; there's one in "The Coming of Shadows," for instance. Real space is *very* nice looking in places. jms Subject: Attn JMS -- "Producer's cut" S Date: 15 Jan 1995 20:23:49 -0500 The various drafts of the script have all the missing scenes, and may in time become available directly through Babylonian Productions along with other scripts. The computer images are too grainy to ever be used in any kind of laserdisk or tape, very low-res. The whole issue of the pilot still rankles me, on a personal level. I was still fairly new to executive producing, and was more prone to just accept the word of the director or the editor that this was as good as the cut would get, this was how it should stay. I didn't speak up on some of my concerns, didn't just go in and re-edit the whole damned thing the way I felt I should have. It was my error, and there's no one else to blame for it. I've learned since to trust my instincts. So when John Copeland and I go in to edit the episodes, we edit these things so tight they scream. In retrospect, I probably could've fit in about 18 minutes of the 20 or so minutes we ended up cutting, by judicious editing, line-cutting, and just picking up the pace of the thing in every scene. It's one of those, "If I knew then what I know now..." situations. If we had the budget to re-edit the damned thing, which alas we don't, I can assure you it would be a VERY different-looking movie. My fault. Nobody else's. jms Subject: Re: Murder, He Wrote? (Re JMS) Date: 15 Jan 1995 22:25:11 -0500 We had one of the M,SW directors over recently, and he mentioned that Angela, as with you, considers "The Committee" to be the best episode of the series. I'm inclined to agree that it was probably one of the best scripts I did for the show, though I'm also particular toward "The Wind Around the Tower" and parts of "Incident in Lot 7." jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 15 Jan 1995 22:23:25 -0500 "Not to cast aspersions on the physique of JMS, but he's not the youngest buck in the forest, forest, nor the sveltest. What if he dies?" HEY! I'll have you know I'm just 40 years old, and at 6'5" I'm maybe ten pounds more than I should be. Granted it all seems to have settled in one or two places, but I attribute that to the gravitational influence of a pinhole black hole that must have drifted past recently. As to the question, "What if he dies?"...what happens is that they come and pick me up, bring me to the nearest mortuary, I'm autopsied, needles are inserted in my heel and elbow, the blood is removed from my body, embalming fluid is subsequently pumped in, I'm dressed in an ill-fitting suit, displayed briefly (against my wishes), shoved into a crematorium, my remains are transferred to ash, and I spend THE NEXT TEN THOUSAND YEARS HAUNTING YOUR ASS FOR ASKING A MORBID QUESTION LIKE THAT!!! All my notes are triple-encrypted. Only I know the password. So it's in the best interests of EVERYBODY to keep my ass ALIVE for the next 3.5 years. jms Subject: Personal Query from JMS Date: 15 Jan 1995 23:14:49 -0500 For a while now, I've been trying to find some old friends with whom I've lost all contact. Given the resource here, and the theory that we are all only 6 people away from anybody else...I thought I'd try it here. If anybody should know how to contact the following people, if y'all could send me a note I'd be greatly appreciative. Liz or Elizabeth Ochoa. Last known to be in San Diego. Red hair, Basque background. Rose tattoo on left wrist. Resided in San Diego from 1978 through 1981, had a 4-year old son named (I believe) Justin (who would now be about 19). Liz would be roughly 39-40 years old. Colleen Carnevale, also from San Diego, same age range. Blonde, and formerly, through her father, a member of the San Diego Yacht Club. She worked at the Whaley House up through about 1979, and worked as an Orientation Counselor at SDSU through about 1978. May be married now. Joanne Massie, formerly a high school teacher at Chula Vista High School, 1972. Last I'd heard she had moved to Texas around 1975. (Mrs. Massie was the one who got me into writing when I was just a kid, gave me the chance to follow my abilities.) Joe or Joseph Trez, 40-41, resident of Matawan, New Jersey in about 1970. Nothing since. Sherily Mattarocci, roughly 34, may now be married with a different name. Formerly from Bonita, California. (Oops, make that Sherilyn, not Sherily.) Marcus Manecke, former cult member (Children of God), 42-44, lived in religious commune (unrelated to CoG) in Chula Vista through 1978, may now be living in the New England area. He was also a musician. Any info should be sent via private email. These are all friends, just would like to find out whatever happened to them. Thanks. jms Subject: Re: Attn JMS -- "Producer's cu Date: 16 Jan 1995 04:50:59 -0500 It's a wonderful idea, and a kind suggestion, but it would have to come from Warners; a fundraiser wouldn't work. Maybe someday.... jms Subject: Outer Limits on Showtime: Whic Date: 16 Jan 1995 21:28:02 -0500 The Outer Limits series will not be remakes for the most part, though I hear they may consider one or two. Demon will definitely not be among them. I had great hopes for OL, because I'd like to see some good SF being done on cable, but I don't think so...first, they dumped Joe Stefano and Leslie Stevens, froze them out of the show, pretty cold thing to do to the producer/writers who created the thing (legal maneuvering now complete, I understand, and they'll finally get their proper credit on the show)...Michael Cassutt finally bolted from the show as primary writer/producer a while ago, wanting nothing more to do with it.... When B5 went on hiatus over the summer, the new OL team -- the same people who brought you Space Rangers -- called me in to become a consultant or producer on the show, even though they knew it'd mean dividing my time (which was why consultant was better). I met with them, and saw a breakdown of the stories they were planning to do. I can't remember the last time I was so completely appalled. I felt I could have nothing to do with the show in any way, manner, shape or form; I felt they had NO understanding of what the Outer Limits was supposed to be. Here's just ONE example of the stories they were putting forth (and I feel that I can quote this one because I know it didn't get used, for the singular reason that Cassutt, when he came aboard, insisted that it NOT be done, having the same horrified reaction that I did. But it's nonetheless emblematic of the rest of the stories. A guy's hang-gliding. Caught by a wind, he rises higher and higher until he passes out from lack of oxygen. Comes to descending toward a military base. He's captured by American soldiers, put in a cell...and in the cell across from him...is John F. Kennedy, who *didn't* die when the assassin's bullet hit his head. He was cryogenically suspended until he could be fixed up. Now this has been done, but Kennedy insists that they won't release him. Together, the two manage to escape...at which point the guy discovers that the reason that they had him in a cell was that Kennedy came through the surgery a homicidal maniac determined to destroy the world...and now it falls to this guy to kill Kennedy a second time. Go ahead...guess what the guys' last name just *happens* to be. Yep. Oswald. I told the producers, "If you do this story, the entire american viewing public will descend upon your offices, drag you out into the street, slap two telephone poles together and crucify you. And I will personally hand them the nails." So we'll see...I don't know how much Cassutt was able to deter them from their path, especially since he bolted, which means he probably wasn't able to do much. I'll take a look at it, because hope endures in the face of reason...but I think this is gonna be problematic. jms Subject: Attn: JMS Date: 16 Jan 1995 21:24:46 -0500 We'll work this into dialogue to make it clearer.... jms Subject: Intelligence at the "rim" Date: 16 Jan 1995 21:55:43 -0500 You won't have to wait for future seasons to find out what's going on out on the rim; you'll have a pretty good picture of it before the end of THIS season. jms Subject: Re: - JSM & The Arc - Date: 16 Jan 1995 21:55:30 -0500 Wow, what a detailed analysis.... Okay, some good thoughts here. Quick responses. The best way to approach this is to discuss my approach to writing in general. I've now written two published novels, and have a third ready to be written as soon as I have six months to a year to spare (i.e, not for a while yet). My structure is always very tight on these things, in the sense that I plan out the basic *spine* of the novel. I know I'm starting at point A, I want to end at point Z, and I want to hit a certain number of spots along the way. Then I start writing. Once I've committed to that STRUCTURE, everything else becomes expendable or fluid. I've ha background characters suddenly lurch into the foreground, and major characters (or characters I *thought* would be major) fall into the background. Sometimes, while chugging along the structure highway, I'll see something interesting just off the main road, and I'll go poke around in there for a while. Basically, I like being *surprised*. And I think, in general, that readers do as well. At no time do I diverge from where I want to go; the spine never alters. But the details are absolutely fluid. When I write an episode, I do exactly the same thing. I *HATE* to outline; I think it freezes the story too much. So in general I just sit down at the keyboard, knowing the title of the episode, the primary incidents that have to happen, and a few character moments, and stgart writing. And things suddenly occur to me, I get surprised by moments when the characters turn to me and say, "Hey, stupid, don't do THAT, do *THIS*." And I go where they tell me. The result is that the scripts I write tend to be VERY tight: they go where they're going, and move like a house afire...BUT there's the real sense that ANYdamnedthing can happen at any moment, because I'm not locked in. The same applies to the series overall. I know *exactly* where the series is going, the final denouement, the benchmarks of each season, and have brief synopses on most of the episodes. But you have to be open to surprises, have to allow yourself to be pulled one way or another on the details, otherwise you get predictable, and you lose the spark. Also, the reality is that actors are human; there can be contract disputes, health problems, any number of things...so there have to be trap doors built into the storyline for *every single one of the characters* without exception. The closest comparison, I suppose, would be doing a story about World War II. The individual pieces can move around, people can come and go, live or die, suddenly be revealed to be counterspies...but the basic progression, the storyline of the war, is not changed. (Unless you're doing alternate history, which we're not.) When I write, I basically carry the whole storyline in my head, and I run the episode through that to make sure that it all parses. It's as if you've flashed back in time to WW II, and you're in a battalion going into Normandy Beach. You know that in the long run, the Allies will win the war...but you look around at the other people in the landing craft with you, and you have no idea which of them is going to make it through to the end. One is set. The other is fluid. The final destination of the story, and the chief points along the way...none of that has altered so much as an inch. Within that structure I may move some elments up, push some back; you have to find the *feel* of the story as you write it, something you can't prepare for until you're actually writing it. But the structure remains, giving me freedom to roam where I want...if I decide to kill off one of the three really major human characters in year three (and I'm NOT saying I'm planning on it, I'm just discussing hypotheticals), I can do it, and the overall storyline isn't touched. A destination may be fixed on the horizon...but sometimes the most fun you have is getting lost from time to time on the way there. jms Subject: Intelligence at the "rim" Date: 16 Jan 1995 21:55:43 -0500 You won't have to wait for future seasons to find out what's going on out on the rim; you'll have a pretty good picture of it before the end of THIS season. jms Subject: Attn JMS: Have You Read Pohl's Date: 17 Jan 1995 02:20:12 -0500 I've missed a fair amount of Pohl's work, including the "heechee" stuff...but in any event, the shadows are all mine. jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:23:55 -0500 Re: writing "The Quality of Mercy" while half-dead with the flu...my staff knows well enough to *never* get between me and a script. As Vir says, the consequences would be *profoundly* unfortunate. jms Subject: JMS: Sinclair leaving B5 Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:28:46 -0500 That story is absolutely, 100% bogus, and is one of a number of destructive, false rumors floating around right now. When we were contemplating what to do with the role of Sinclair, we called Michael in, and we talked about it. Nobody sent anybody a letter saying you're outta here. That's a flat-out lie, nothing less, and whoever told you (Chris) this is either misremembering or deliberately giving out false information. Nor have there been any problems between the company and Michael. This is claptrap, nothing less. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: UK con appearance Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:30:33 -0500 Unfortunately I don't have the info on the UK con in April in front of me, it's at the office. I can remember such things for only about 20 minutes when my brain seizes up and flushes the info. There have been inquiries about attending the Wolf 359 convention later in the year, but thus far I've heard nothing formal from the convention, or specifics on how this would be worked out. Be assured that there will probably be lots of info on this other con well before the April event (I keep thinking it's not far from Stratford-upon-Avon...). jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Londo's Spots? Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:35:20 -0500 Insofar as I know, the spots are still there; sometimes theyre (they're) more visible than other times, depending on lighting. jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:23:43 -0500 I'M FINE! DO YOU HEAR ME!? I'M ABSOLUTELY, BLOODY, BOLLICKY, BUGGERY JUST PERFECTLY AND ABSOLUTELY ****FINE!!!**** I'VE NEVER BEEN BETTER, I'M FINE...I'M....I'M.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH....... .................................................... jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Sheridan's name: Bla Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:48:44 -0500 Just coincidence in the name; he destroyed the Black Star, hence Starkiller. jms Subject: Re: Outer Limits on Showtime: Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:48:32 -0500 Basically, I hated everything about the story...it was one of the old "three word endings" that are symptomatic of bad SF ("The killer's... OSWALD!"), it destroys the Kennedy image for NO reason, it's a dumb idea, it has no dramatic progression of any kind...it's just a dumbness. I like alternative history stories as much as anybody; this one just was awful. jms Subject: JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:58:07 -0500 Re: the fate of any possible actor on the show...like I said, I've built in trap doors for everybody on the show with one fairly obvious exception. (Viz: me.) Hey, I've *read* Scherezade (though I can't spell it for squat); I ain't no fool. As for "all this attention"...you're still talking mainly about the online community; the majority of the American public still doesn't know the show even *exists*. But we're getting there. jms Subject: B5 mention in Akron Voyager Re Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:58:17 -0500 Would love a copy of the clip; can you send it to me via: 14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423? Much appreciated. jms Subject: Request: Rowan Atkinson on B5 Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:58:27 -0500 Would *love* to see Rowan do the show sometime; also Tom Baker, Meatloaf, Alice Cooper, John Cleese..... Maybe someday. jms Subject: Episode list for winning new c Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:58:39 -0500 I'd omit "War Prayer" and put in "The Parliament of Dreams." jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 01:58:49 -0500 (To Jim Batka...thanks.) jms Subject: Stun Settings? Date: 18 Jan 1995 02:23:11 -0500 Yes; a PPG shoots superheated helium at high velocity. You coul,d (could) lower the heat on the plasma, but still kick it out at the same velocity, so it wouldn't do as much damage, provided it didn't hit any exposed skin. jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 05:21:08 -0500 "Do we play taps now, or just space 'im?" (Go ahead, laugh...my hard disk gets cremated WITH me!) jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 18 Jan 1995 20:07:43 -0500 I hope to make this my last message on the subject, in hopes that this topic will finally...er...die off. It's really kinda morbid when you're on this end of the modem. Bottom line...it ain't a matter of making sure somebody gets my notes on the overall storyline. If you're a painter, you can give someone your notes on how to finish the painting in case something happens, but it won't be done *exactly* the way you would want it. So better to leave it unfinished, with that part which *is* finished being 100% what you wanted it to be, than let it be completed by others, and not necessarily as well. This show has to be done exactly, a certain way, or it won't be what I *want* it to be. My notes are for my own use. Maybe that sounds selfish or self-indulgent. Maybe it is. There are lots of writers out there as good or better than I am. That ain't the problem. Give 10 writers the same basic parameters and you'll get 10 different stories. This is my story. And where I go, it goes. jms Subject: The Crucible: ST vs. B5 Date: 18 Jan 1995 20:08:11 -0500 Bruce's thoughts in this thread are about the most cogent analysis of B5 (theme and direction) I've yet seen, insofar as these elements are concerned. Very precise. jms Subject: JMS: PTEN contact info? Date: 19 Jan 1995 02:18:06 -0500 Correct; Dick Robertson is President of Domestic TV for Warners, is at the address noted in your message, and is the one to continue to receive any good wishes for the show. jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 19 Jan 1995 03:25:59 -0500 "How about if I found out I have terminal cancer and am going to die in one month. Will you tell me how B5 is going to end?" My condolences to your survivors. jms Subject: JMS: Inspiration??? Date: 19 Jan 1995 22:38:50 -0500 I'd have to say no, the Prisoner didn't inspire me in creating B5. I enjoy the show, and nod toward it as a milestone in SF history, maybe the best show made to date, but inspiration on this....no. jms Subject: Re: B5 CREATOR COMMENTS ON VOY Date: 20 Jan 1995 02:14:37 -0500 "If memory serves, this is the first real praise (jms) has for ST. I think he is gaining real confidence about his own show." I think you're trying to connect two unrelated things. 1) I have always had confidence in my own show, or I wouldn' be here. 2) Up until now, minus some good things in TNG, there hasn't been very much noteworthy (imo) *about* ST that I could say. Now there is. jms Subject: ATTN AWK:Starfuries the only E Date: 20 Jan 1995 04:35:41 -0500 Obviously humans and the EA have other kinds of attack vessels; but the Starfuries are the ones most apt for protecting the station; it's a general purpose craft...not much use around Epsilon 3 for bombing runs. jms Subject: Attn JMS: did show concept cha Date: 20 Jan 1995 11:14:27 -0500 There was never any intention whatsoever of doing B5 within the context of the Star Trek universe. It was always intended as a wholly original concept. It was taken to a half dozen or more studios, and that included Paramount, yes, but Paramount doesn't just do Trek. I never wanted to tell this story in the ST universe because it *couldn't* be told there; the rules that confine story areas simply wouldn't let it happen. jms Subject: ATTN: JMS 2 questions. Date: 20 Jan 1995 17:36:34 -0500 I've picked several middle-names for Sheridan; now I'm waiting to see which he grows into. And to send stuff, send it along to me via: 14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Props question. Date: 20 Jan 1995 17:46:10 -0500 Links are held on in the real world with a non-abraisve chemical used to hold prosthetics; comes off fairly easily, doesn't pull hairs, doesn't cause long-term problems. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Book? Date: 20 Jan 1995 18:10:54 -0500 What I'll do years down the road is beyond my contemplation; I know I have enough material for several books, but whether they get written is anybody's guess. jms Subject: JMS: Will you sign my B5 comic Date: 20 Jan 1995 19:59:29 -0500 With a SASE, just to make it more guaranteed that I'll send it back, yes. jms Subject: Attn JMS: irony is our friend Date: 20 Jan 1995 20:34:50 -0500 Yeah, I don't doubt that Majel took some swipes at B5 (which show was that, btw?). She's long been very frangible about the whole issue. I think she doesn't like having her monopoly in any way threatened. Here's an example of how Majel is, which can be confirmed by others online who were there: when I went to debut the B5 pilot at Wishcon, she had the presentation right before mine. I had just under two hours to show the pilot, with maybe fifteen minutes of intro and technical setup. She was due to leave the stage at the top of the hour. After me, was scheduled the auction to raise money for terminally ill children, the purpose of the whole con. Remember that. So the top of the hour came. Majel didn't surrender the stage. Ten minutes after. Fifteen. Twenty. People began indicating for her to leave. She refused. She looked in my direction, said, "I see him back there, I know he's here," and kept *right* on talking. And talking. Finally, round about the half-hour mark, she finally stopped. So now there was NO time for any discussion from me at all, and even if we ran through the tech setup as fast as possible, we would still cut deep into the auction. It was a clear and obvious attempt to sabotage the showing, in front of a couple hundred witnesses. Though she has been known to go a bit over from time to time at other cons, her reference to me, and the length of the overage, clearly showed it was intentional. I told the convention people that I would be willing to only show the first hour of the pilot (its first screening anywhere), maybe try to find a time in the evening to show the rest. They insisted: show the whole thing, and we'll just take it out of the auction. Nonetheless, I kept my introductory comments as brief as possible, showed the pilot, and rather than keep the room tied up longer, crammed everybody who wanted to talk about it into a smaller room down the hall. Later, several people from the con confronted Majel with this, as she was signing autographs. They asked her point-blank if she'd done this *deliberately* to try and screw B5. She just smiled. Didn't matter that in the long run, her actions would just end up hurting the cause of aiding terminally ill children. Later, due to a lot of people being very upset by her behavior, she offered to write a note apologizing. Suffice to say it was never written. jms Subject: NetGhoddess Meriday's Portrait Date: 20 Jan 1995 21:45:49 -0500 That's a great portrait, Mike. BTW, I very much enjoyed Wizard of Speed and Time, and wish things could have gone better over the long haul. jms Subject: JMS: you knew this was coming. Date: 21 Jan 1995 00:25:57 -0500 I understand the reason behind such suggestions, but at the same time I don't want to be getting hundreds of these things in the mail to sign. So case by case. jms Subject: Defense Grid: big PPG's or pro Date: 21 Jan 1995 03:52:48 -0500 A current reply on the makeup of the defense grid would be obsolete within the next 3 new episodes, so I'll defer until then. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Diplomacy questions Date: 21 Jan 1995 03:52:37 -0500 There are various embassies and diplomatic missions on various worlds (Earth has the most; Universe Today had a story about a Minbari embassy being bombed). Because space on B5 is so tight, complete offices for every single ambassador would kill most of the available space; so they have access to the station's facilities for business rooms, meeting rooms, conference rooms and the like. jms Subject: ATTN, JMS: DEMON GLASS HAND II Date: 21 Jan 1995 19:50:45 -0500 Right now, we're moving fast toward accellerating and escalating the events of the overall arc, and having a hard time determining how to fit in a stand-alone in the last batch of episodes, so this may hav to wait. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Starfury Model Kit? Date: 21 Jan 1995 19:49:04 -0500 I keep waiting for a deal to get made for models...I think it'd be great.... jms Subject: JMS: Season 2 Finale title? Date: 22 Jan 1995 01:29:21 -0500 I have several titles for the last episode of this season; won't know which fits best until I get there in the writing. One possible title is "A Fall of Night," but I may not go with that one. jms Subject: Attn. JMS: Flashbacks? Date: 22 Jan 1995 01:29:40 -0500 I don't like loose threads hanging around, so all this will get tied up. In some cases, we'll see flashbacks to stuff that happened "around the corner," so to speak, and in others we'll have dialogue explanations. WE get the scoop on what question Delenn asked Kosh (via Lennier) before this season is out. jms Subject: Re: Outer Limits on Showtime: Date: 22 Jan 1995 01:29:06 -0500 The season of Twilight Zone that I story edited and wrote for (about 11 episodes or so) is in syndication currently, so may be showing up in your area somewhere. We did some nifty stuff, I think.... jms Subject: Chicago Convention from jms Date: 22 Jan 1995 03:16:11 -0500 For those who haven't haerd...there is going to be a major convention in Chicago on June 24th and 25th; particularly major for Babylon 5. Guests appearing at the convention include me, Michael O'Hare, Mira Furlan, Bill Mumy and Richard Biggs. This is the biggest gathering of B5 people since a surprise appearance at the San Diego Comic Con the summer we went on with the series. It's called The Big Bang Convention, and the other guests include Mark Hamill, John deLancie, Robert O'Reilly and others. Admission is $35 for general attendence (per day), $150 for VIP tickets, and $250 for Deluxe VIP. I'll be giving a seminar as part of the program for prospective television/film writers...a Q&A structure, not a workshop where scripts will be evaluated. The hotel is the Courtyard By Mariott in Elmhurst, with the con held at the Odeum in Villa Park. The VIP pass includes the writing seminar, an acting seminar (both are, I believe, also available to non-VIP guests for a small fee, around $20), a gambling riverboat outing with con guests, hotel accommodations for both nights, and other stuff. It's my understanding that the tickets for this convention are now available through Ticketron. They expect something on the order of 15,000 people to show up for this one. I understand they're also doing some performance stuff between guests, and are working hard to make this a real Event. jms Subject: X-Files win is good for B5 Date: 22 Jan 1995 07:41:58 -0500 X-FILES won the Golden Globe for Best Series?! No shit!? That's absolutely terrific. I hadn't heard this. Definitely deserved. jms Subject: Question from a Trekker Date: 22 Jan 1995 07:38:06 -0500 Jeffrey...this is just a question, not a flame. You say you wrote off B5 after one episode. How long did you give the first two ST series to get their sea-legs? jms Subject: Licensing & merchandise questi Date: 22 Jan 1995 09:08:51 -0500 B5 stuff has been selling well for all our licensees. I've been told that Creation has come back to license more stuff. I don't know how much ink All-U has been getting on its shirts, but I haven't head anything. jms Subject: Suger Ray Robinson on Babylon Date: 23 Jan 1995 00:49:34 -0500 It was Larry's idea to name the character Walker Smith, after Sugar Ray Robinson. jms Subject: Re: Chicago Convention from jm Date: 23 Jan 1995 00:50:18 -0500 Nothing slated for the Detroit area that I'm aware of. jms Subject: JMS: Sinclair in Twilight Zone Date: 23 Jan 1995 00:50:39 -0500 Actually, the doctor's name was St. Clair, not Sinclair, but it sounds like that...it's visible in the credits, though. jms Subject: Re: Chicago Convention from jm Date: 23 Jan 1995 00:49:57 -0500 I'll probably bring the blooper reel, a music video or two, and an unaired episode. jms Subject: Re: Chicago Convention from jm Date: 23 Jan 1995 04:18:40 -0500 To Howard Shubs...the Big Bang Convention is most emphatically NOT a Creation Convention, has nothing to do with Creation, and has stated an intention to do a very different kind of con unique to their approach. The one is totally unrelated to the other. jms Subject: Re: Homosexuality argument Date: 23 Jan 1995 04:16:51 -0500 ARE YOU PEOPLE ALL STILL ARGUING ABOUT THIS STUFF? OKAY, THAT'S IT. EVERYBODY CLEAR OUT. EVERYBODY OUTTA THE POOL. I DON'T WANT THIS JOINT BASHED UP AND BEAT UP EVERY TIME SOMEBODY DRAGS THIS ARGUMENT OUT OF THE CLOSET! THERE'S GOTTA BE AN ISSUES FORUM SOMEWHERE! IT'S LIKE THE GODDAMN DRAZI...EVERY FIVE YEARS YOU DIVIDE UP INTO TWO CAMPS AND BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA EACH OTHER! AND AS IVANOVA SAID, "GRANTED THE OTHER RACES WOULDN'T *MIND* IF YOU KILL ONE ANOTHER, EVEN THEY WOULD PREFER YOU DID SO *QUIETLY*." Okay? Take it outside, people. I don't care who's wrong, I don't care who's right, I don't care who had the last word or who got offended last. Take it outside. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Please verify about Date: 23 Jan 1995 04:51:37 -0500 Keffer wasn't added because fans thought that sending the commanding officer into battle was inappropriate. We will still continue to send our COs into battle when necessary. Throughout the season, we've tried to flesh out the command levels. We started with 2 starfury squadrons on B5, and added a third in "Survivors." Logically, those are going to have squad leaders. Adding in all three would be a stretch budget-wise, but we could at least add one, to show a different aspect of the crew. And, in truth, you wouldn't have command personnel leading every single routine mission. We'd kinda wanted to do this in the first year, but we didn't have the money for it. In year two, we did, and thus added him. Everyone who advertises on a show would like their products to be shown. Likewise, everyone advertising on B5 wanted their stuff shown. The good thing about this, for a show with a limited (non ST) budget is that you could have access to their products without having to pay a license fee. For fun, for instance, we stuck a Zima sign on the back of a couple of bars. When Kawasaki came on as a sponsor, Larry kinda got to wondering how on earth you could ever work in a motorcycle...and got a fun idea. So we went ahead and did it. We never had to do either of them, or ANY of them. My feeling since is that it probably wasn't worth doing it, best to leave this stuff out, and in year two we haven't done ANY of it. Basically, it was a whim. You'll note that SFU's description of the O'Hare situation doesn't quote anybody. There are several questionable conclusions in the article, though overall they did a good job. This, though, is one of them. They also mis-labled about 4 or 5 photographs. It also kinda bugs me just a little that they attribute all the setups on the visuals to the directors, when in nearly every case the script *specifically* describes how the shot should be set up. I don't mind sharing credit with directors on some of this stuff, because it's a collaboration...I just don't like it when ALL the credit goes to the director, who used a beam of stark white light in a scene, because it said in the script, "Sinclair stands in a beam of stark white light." jms Subject: ATTN: JMS - Christianity in 23 Date: 23 Jan 1995 17:09:18 -0500 Many religious types in 2259 feel that god has appeared to other worlds in different forms; others feel that it is their obligation to go out into the galaxy and bring the *right* word; in other cases, whole new schisms and belief systems sprouted once alien contact had been made, including Foundationalism, which Dr. Franklin belongs to (you'll hear more about this from Franklin later this season). jms Subject: UK: B5 coverage in `The Indepe Date: 23 Jan 1995 17:27:34 -0500 And from his statement "My theory is that the programe's a duffer," he tells you right there that he's never seen the damned thing. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Scheduling Date: 23 Jan 1995 17:28:11 -0500 Year 2 is 22 episodes. I don't think any of the breaks will be as long as year 1 since we started at a different time. jms Subject: Reasons why Bab 5 is crap Date: 23 Jan 1995 17:30:24 -0500 The majority of "flaws" you point out are, I'm afraid, rather inaccurate. 1) Doors that swing up. There's nobody just upstairs to be bothered by this; the levels are very well isolated from one another. Also, they don't go straight up, they're cantilevered, so they swing up and *sideways* out of the way. Also, from a technical standpoint, this is a better way of ensuring pressure door integrity. If there's a hull blown out, and your doors move sideways or meet in the middle, you're going to lose air. If the door drops down into place, and is held by inertia, no holes or lines, it's *solid*. (It's a solid seal, which is why you can hear it close.) It's got nothing to do with trying to not be like Trek; it's finding what's most accurate and doing it. 2) No, we're not borrowing ST's ideas. You say their communicators know automatically when you're talking to them. Ours don't. You have to physically toggle them. Then, once you've done so, you say, "Sheridan to Garibaldi." This verbally activates the system, and rings Garibaldi's Link. He toggles his Link and says, "Garibaldi, go." No AI is ever involved, really; it's a routing system. (And you'll note that Garibaldi doesn't hear the "Sheridan to Garibaldi" part, only the stuff after it beeps.) This is not only consistent with the rest of our tech, it's actually close to being workable *today*. 3) Re: aliens knowing about Earth...remember please that you're talking about AMBASSADORS here whose JOB it is to know all they can about their host. So they study. They don't know all of it; Londo and Vir got cats and ducks confused, and there's holes in their knowledge. That's why they keep studying, as with G'Kar reading Earth writings. If I am assigned as ambassador to Russia, I'd damned well better know as much as I can about the culture, the people, their history, their language, you name it. Same here. We have not yet to date shown non-ambassadors with this level of interest or knowledge about Earth. A lot of the "problems" you cite could simply be worked out by doing a little thought on the reasons behind such things, rather than just assuming that it's an error. About 90% of the criticism I see is kneejerk response, which when you point out how it makes sense if you just fire a few synapses, gets "Oh....yeah..." as a reply. 4) Zima was a gag. Zima be gone now. jms Subject: JMS on Homosexuality argument Date: 23 Jan 1995 22:53:53 -0500 If this argument hadn't come through here ten times before this, I might not have minded; but this is something like the 11th go-around on this, and the fact is that I have not yet seen ONE person change his or her views on the subject one way or another. It's NOT a dialogue; it's a series of monologues. People hit their marks, scream at the top of their lungs, while somebody on the other side does the same. The result is that it makes BOTH sides look like jerks, and the important information that needs to be communicated gets drowned in all the noise and vitriol. Once the conversation has descended to that level, NO good cause is served. Ironic thing is...the two sides have one thing in common. I've received angry and abusive letters from BOTH sides in the debate for my message. I've been called a fag-lover in one, and a right-winger in another. Anybody here remember an episode called "Infection?" Aside form its (from its) problems, there was one line in particular I'd like to cite for you: "You forgot the first rule of the fanatic: when you become obsessed with the enemy, you BECOME the enemy." All I hear around here is screaming, and y'know, you all sound alike after a while...and when both sides begin using the same tactics, the same flames, the same instant condemnation...congratulations, you have become the enemy in whose use of those same techniques you find such disgust. And this will probably get me *more* hate mail from both sides; which means I must be fairly close to the truth. If I can offend BOTH sides, then I'm doing my job properly. I wouldn't mind so much if this was new...but we're now in our ninth rerun of this conversation, and it's poisoning the well without changing one person's mind about much of anything. Enough is enough. It not about getting the truth out any longer; it's about who gets in the last word, and who's the most indignant, and who's a butthead and who's an asshole. This, to me, does not edify, ennoble or explicate the topic at hand. We are rapidly becoming a nation that is polarized along every possible line; gay vs. straight, feminist vs. conservative, pro-choice vs. anti-choice...in a nation of laws we have started to resort to acts of terror on large and small scales on either side of the spectrum. For two hundred years we prided ourselves on the idea -- sometimes flawed, and with occasional interruptions -- that we solved our problems at the ballot box, not with bullets or trunchens or muggings or firebombings. But now more and more both sides are frozen in concrete, opposing opinions are no longer tolerated or are proof of disloyalty or stupidity or cupidity or bigotry or immorality, people are reduced to stereotypes and jingoisms, everybody's demonized and nobody *listens*. We don't talk with each other, we yell AT each other. We are two steps away from madness and one step away from Beirut. In theory, people are here in this forum because they feel strongly about Babylon 5, and the optimistic (despite many obstacles) view of the future that we portray. Well, if you feel that way, I suggest you ALL damn well start BUILDING the future instead of TEARING APART the present, start talking TO one another not AT one another, because the future ain't gonna GET here otherwise. If people want to discuss this area in calm, measured tones, with some measure of respect, fine. (And this applies to ALL areas of current hot debate, not just this one.) If all you want to do is yell, over and over and over...frankly, take a hike. There is a line between doing something for a cause, and saying you're doing something for a cause when you're just doing it out of ego, bruised or otherwise. Parse your soul and act accordingly. jms Subject: JMS: B5's Epsilon 3 in SQ6? Date: 24 Jan 1995 02:28:03 -0500 I doubt very much that's Epsilon 3. jms Subject: Re: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 24 Jan 1995 02:49:22 -0500 "..it's still unfinished. A shame if B5 were to turn out the same way." (sound of meaty fists clapping together) Yeah...nice place y'got here...drapes, yeah, I like dat, real purty...be a real shame if something were to, maybe, *happen* to it, y'know? So...you wanna put these jukeboxes in your diner or not...? jms Subject: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate the A Date: 24 Jan 1995 05:03:35 -0500 I may not have been clear in my meaning when I said "accellerating the arc." This doesn't mean doing anything ahead of schedule; it just means that now we begin cranking the story into a higher intensity level. We've been kind of floating toward our destination...now we begin the process of accellerating. If you recall Literary Structure from English Lit 101, there's the Introduction, the Rising Action, the Complication, the Climax, and the Denouement. Year one up through about the first eight episodes of year two are Introduction; we are now in Rising Action stage. Remember that this is structured like a novel, and you'll generally have some idea of where you stand in the progression. jms Subject: Bruce Boxleitner at MOC in Jul Date: 24 Jan 1995 05:03:51 -0500 Cool...that's quite a lineup of guests. jms Subject: TKO and Ivanova Date: 24 Jan 1995 05:20:32 -0500 If the deceased has been dead for quite a while, the period during which one must sit shiva is greatly reduced to a day or so, I'm told. jms Subject: Re: Reasons why Bab 5 is crap Date: 24 Jan 1995 05:20:45 -0500 I would suggest that this whole discussion kinda misses the point, as tends to happen. Sure, I could stick in lots of references to ancient stuff...but why is it on Trek nothing of cultural value seems to have taken place after Shakespeare? Doing antiquity is easy. Modern is harder. But the whole POINT of the exercise goes to the heart of the show's philosophy: I'm trying, rather desperately, to connect our present to our future, to say that's US out there, building the future, recognizeably us. We've lost the thread of continuity that ties us to the future. I'm trying with this show to tie the two pieces of the string together again. We have lots of ties to our ancient past (and I try to work those in as well, cultural and literary references), but it's the *future* that we seem to have lost touch with today, in our present. So I'm trying to knit those together. jms Subject: ATTN: JMS - CANADA Date: 24 Jan 1995 05:20:58 -0500 "Have you ever mentioned Canada in B5?" No, but I've mentioned San Diego. Would you like me to extend the honor up north? ("Okay, Rudy, load up another one of them five-hundred megaton jobs.") Just kidding...I'm pleased that it's going over well in Canada, and will see what I can do to nod in that direction without irradiating the place. jms Subject: Re: Reasons why Bab 5 is crap Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:04:06 -0500 How they know the person has finished talking is a) we either have our characters physically toggle off their Link, or b) when you drop your arm, it senses the change in gravity and orientation like a phone being hung up, and closes the connectoin. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: reading SF Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:45:02 -0500 One of the drawbacks to producing/writing a series is that it leaves you no time for...well, for *anything* else. Thus I haven't been able to do much reading of late, though I keep buying books for when I have free time. I love reading other authors; I like to be amazed. I'd certainly recommend the works of Jonathan Carroll, particularly THE LAND OF LAUGHS if you can find it, or any of his later novels (VOICE OF OUR SHADOWS is also quite nice). He's a contemporary-dark-fantasy writer who is *breathtakingly* good. Most of the reading I do now is nonfiction, just to give the brain a break from storytelling. I *strongly* commend THE LETTERS OF NORMAN CORWIN to anyone out there. Also currently reading Hunter S. Thompson's new book, BETTER THAN SEX, just finished a book (alas I've just forgotten the title) by a woman raised in the Mormon church about her life in that world. Also working my way through Ed Morrow's GRIM REAPER'S BOOK OF DAYS. jms Subject: ATTN JMS Is there a Canada in Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:45:41 -0500 Actually, the Blue Jays were sold to the Mars Consortium in 2200, and are currently vying for the Worlds Series. jms Subject: ATTN JMS:Cameos Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:45:56 -0500 The only cast member to make a non-prosthetic appearance in a show is Caitlin Brown, who will appear as a lawyer in an upcoming episode. jms Subject: JMS: Babcom '95 & blooper reel Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:45:22 -0500 I do plan to bring the reel, yes. jms Subject: JMS: how much of story was pit Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:52:36 -0500 Generally speaking, I didn't have to reveal much of the arc at all; the show was sold on the strength of the characters and current stories. jms Subject: CGI Sinclair/Ivanova/Delenn/Lo Date: 25 Jan 1995 01:57:36 -0500 We'll be seeing more planet stuff shortly. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t Date: 25 Jan 1995 02:15:01 -0500 I actually didn't go to any of the major film/sports schools; not UCLA or USC. I attended (in order) Kankakee Community College, Kankakee, Illinois; Richland Junior College, Dallas, Texas; Southwestern Junior College, Chula Vista, CA; and finally San Diego State University. Loved all my writing and literature courses. jms Subject: JMS: Thoughts on second issue Date: 25 Jan 1995 03:32:01 -0500 Thanks, we're getting there.... jms Subject: Blast from the present Date: 25 Jan 1995 03:59:50 -0500 Thanks, and welcome. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t Date: 25 Jan 1995 05:20:13 -0500 "What was the spark that ignited your desire to create B5?" It was a number of things, actually, that all came together at the same time. 1) I'd just gotten off an SF series (Captain Power) where the budget was out of control half the time. It made me nuts. I come from this very old fashioned school of thought that says if somebody gives you X-million dollars to make a series, it behooves you to act RESPONSIBLY. Then I looked around more and found that virtually ALL sf series had gone and were going over budget, mainly because they weren't planned out properly. The emphasis was on just selling the idea, who cares what happens next. Whatever one might think of the episode, the 1/2 hour "Nightcrawlers" installment of the new TWILIGHT ZONE cost a tick over ONE MILLION DOLLARS. That's nuts. I kept thinking, "There has to be a sensible way to do an sF series that's responsible, and by virtue of showing it CAN be done responsibly, help to create MORE sf from other people, since the industry overall is afraid of it." 2) I'd interviewed and known too many SF producers who knew absolutely NOTHING about the genre, didn't respect the genre, just wanted to collect the bucks and get out. 3) As a lifelong SF fan myself, I loved the sagas, the huge cycles: Foundation, Childhood's End, Lord of the Rings, Dune, and kept wondering, "Why hasn't someone done this for TV?" To which the only answer is, "Nobody's tried." Those elements just kept niggling at me until finally I sat down and worked out first how to design a series responsibly, then came up with the concept for the storyline. (Learn from mainstream TV: don't go in search of new worlds, building them anew each week, create a place where the stories come to YOU, as they do in a hospital, a police station, a law office. This led me to a space station.) Once I had the locale, I began to populate it with characters, and sketch out directions that might be interesting. I dragged out my notes on religion, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, science (the ones that didn't make my head explode), and started stitching together a crazy quilt pattern that eventually formed a picture. Once I had that picture in my head, once I knew what the major theme was, the rest fell into place. All at once, I saw the full five year story in a flash, and I frantically began scribbling down notes. I spent the next couple of years just expanding upon what I saw in that flash, building out the characters, the conflicts, the changes in alliance, shoring up the thematic elements which will only really become apparent over time. In a way, in the midst of this, it was Tennyson's "Ulysses" that more surely pointed me toward the heartmeat core of the story, which is why I've quoted it in the pilot, in the series, and in issue #1 of the comic. I knew, instantly, that this show might well be impossible to sell; that I could invest years of my life into the task, only to fail in the end. And, in fact, it took *five years* to finally get this anywhere. During that time, had I dropped it, I could've likely sold two or three other more conventional series. But like Sinclair, I strapped myself into this particular Starfury, pointed myself at my target, and swore not to flinch, no matter what. (In discussions about this with Michael, we agreed that only he and I were really entitled to wear the patches from the Battle of the Line.) For a long time, a lot of people told me to drop it. My agent said, "Kiddo, you know I love the project, but I think you've got to face reality. It's not going to happen. I have several other gigs you could take if you'd drop this for a while. Maybe later you can try again." Friends, family, acquaintances, network suits, studio suits, Major Agencies...everyone said let it go. It's been four years, going on five. How much longer are you going to DO this? As long as it TAKES, goddamn it. I knew that there was a story I wanted to tell, something that I wanted to SAY. And there is nothing more essentially deadly than someone who believes, rightly or wrongly, that he's on a mission, grandiose and possibly stupid as that sounds. I also wanted to make this show because I wanted to SEE it as a viewer. Several years ago, I was looking for a particular kind of book to read. Couldn't find it. So I wrote it, then shoved it in a closet. My agent heard about it a year or two later, dragged it out, read it, and sold it. Go figure. Also, you have to understand...when I was a very young kid, I went to visit my grandfather's grave. My grandfater was an alcoholic who died in the gutter. Literally. And was buried in a pauper's grave. Ever been to a pauper's grave? Lead pipe. Brass number. You check the roster to find out who's buried. No name, no date. He passed through his life without leaving footprints. It terrified me beyond the capacity of words to convey to you. I swore, at that moment, that I wouldn't go down like that, that I'd leave a mark, somehow, that I'd been here. And on one level, that's what Babylon 5 is to me. See, that's why nothing stops me...it's not about money, or fame, or merchandising...there's nothing they can use agains] me. Whether I stand or fall doesn't matter. If I write hard, if I work hard, what I have created will survive me. Even when I'm forgotten, this will go on. I will have left my mark. That, at least, is the conceit I allow myself in the Hour of the Wolf, when everything looks futile, and I doubt myself the most. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: *what* kind of speci Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:10:58 -0500 Minbari are mammals, definitely; structural and skeletal variations (horn-like bone growth on the head, a slightly more raised and obvious spinal structure, different blood type), and probably in many ways the most biologically similar. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:34:00 -0500 Yes, we'll see the rings in time. And no plans for a book down the road...one crisis at a time. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Jerry Doyle, Sto Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:35:50 -0500 Correct: Jerry Doyle was at one point a stockbroker. He has since reformed. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: reading SF Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:37:43 -0500 "Why bother with the vasectomy?" Who can remember...? jms Subject: JMS: Your Show is Number one w Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:39:33 -0500 My regards to your wonderfully discerning organization.... jms Subject: JMS: THANK YOU FOR B5 FROM HA Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:46:59 -0500 Thank you. Have had only passing experience with Robotech; I've just never been able to get into Anime. Glad to hear that 38 supports the show; I hear they're okay people. In any event...thanks again for the encouragement. It helps. jms Subject: JMS: Richland College question Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:50:34 -0500 I remember little of the classes at Richland College except for a few; one was a History of English Literature class, which introduced me to Keats and Yeats and Tennyson and Shelley through an instructor who *loved* his work and the writers in question. He just breathed life into the words, and he encouraged me strongly to pursue my writing. Beyond that, there were mainly classes in psychology, sociology, some math stuff, and philosophy. One was a History of Greek Philosophy course (Thales to Aristotle), which I just loved. By virtue of taking a LOT of electives over the years in areas that interested me, I kinda ended up with a classical education. It's more breadth than depth, but it gives me the tools I need (over the course of four colleges/universities and a couple of degrees) to find whatever more is necessary for stories or scripts. The best thing about the year or so I spent at Richland was that at this time (around 1973), beat poetry was still in vogue (well, it was OUT of vogue everywhere else, but trends always start and finish first on the coasts, then work their way inland from there), and every day at noon by the commons there would be performances of beat poetry, which led me to explore Ginsburg and Ferlinghetti ("This Life Is Not A Circus Where" and "Christ Came Down" being two favorites) and other contemporaries. I've always been naturally curious about stuff, and to me the college experience was the chance to find out about *anything*. So I just dived in and took it for all it was worth. If I'm going on about this a bit, it's because I know there are lots of folks here who are currently in or entering college. If you only see the parking lot and the cafeteria and the bathrooms and the classrooms of the courses you have to take...you're missing the point. It's an *amazing* opportunity that will likely not come your way again in such plentitude. Take courses in areas outside your major, even if just to audit them. There are amazing opportunities you can mine if you're a writer, also...college newspapers, magazines, low power local/college radio and TV stations, theater department productions, on and on and on. Granted...a lot of college was a pain in the ass. I took a lot of stuff I didn't want, didn't need, and have never used because they were required for my major. (One semester, just to get RID of some of this stuff, I took 24 units -- crashing classes over my 16 unit limit in order to sneak past the rules -- at one time, while working part time. It was a profound mistake, since it included 8 units of German and classes in Statistical Psychology, Biology and other stuff. Major brain-fry.) But overall, the experience was rewarding, and I encourage a generalist approach to others. If you're going to be there, ENJOY it. jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:50:06 -0500 The story is still going where I wanted it to go, but in general it is even better than I'd hoped it would be. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: What finally sold B5 Date: 26 Jan 1995 04:50:19 -0500 What made all the difference was finding people who *understood* what we were trying to do. In general, you know instantly if an exec Gets It or not. Most didn't. The first one to Get It was Evan Thompson, head of Chris-Craft Television, who put us onto Dick Robertson at Warner Bros. We didn't know at the time that PTEN was in the works (a joint venture between the two), but when it appeared, we were in line to get on. We did multiple pitches to the station group's executive committee, and were pleased to see that they, too, Got It. Once we proved that we could a) do the pilot, and b) do it for the budget, we got the Go for series. jms Subject: Of Zima and Kawasaki Date: 27 Jan 1995 03:52:20 -0500 Correct. We received not a dime from Zime or Kawasaki. And believe me, if we had, I wouldn't be bashful about saying so. Anybody wants to help finance this show and make it even better, bring 'em in. Just hasn't happened. jms Subject: Attn: JMS...the best laid plan Date: 27 Jan 1995 03:52:33 -0500 I'm awestruck...simply awestruck. We should all wear white for the duration of the convention. I'll send a memo on that at once. jms Subject: Off Topic? Date: 27 Jan 1995 03:52:05 -0500 Sci-Fi Channel has indicated many times that they would like t acquire Captain Power, but (in what I must say I think is a doofy move) the producer won't release the show unless SFC agrees to finance new eps. Cart before the horse, if you ask me. Get the show on first, create the need, THEN do more. Doofy, I tell you. Doofy, doofy, doofy. Maybe even doofiest. jms Subject: ATTN: JMS Big Bang con Date: 27 Jan 1995 05:00:47 -0500 I'm *terrible* at gambling. I might as well just pile the money on the coffetable and put a match to it. Which is why I generally stay far away, or allow only small amounts of money (have actually only gambled a couple of times, been to Vegas only once). I'm basically an obsessive- compulsive personality, and the LAST thing you want to do is hand someone like that a drink, a cigarette, a joint or a pair of dice (which is why I don't generally drink, smoke, do drugs or gamble). I'd rather direct that obsessive behavior toward writing. jms Subject: JMS: What about alien doctors Date: 27 Jan 1995 05:13:19 -0500 As it happens, I'm writing a script right *now* that deals with the question of alien doctors. I live to serve.... jms Subject: "Shadows" request from jms Date: 27 Jan 1995 05:15:10 -0500 A request for those who'll be seeing "The Coming of Shadows" on the satellite uplink tomorrow. There's a lot of stuff in that episode, and it's probably the best one of the series to date. It has a lot of sudden twists and turns that even "WARNING: SPOILER" in message headers won't keep from accidentally spilling out. Thus, I'd like to make a request I don't generally make: if those who get the satellite feed could hold off on ANY plot revelations for a few days, until it starts airing, I would *very* much appreciate it. After you've seen the ep, you'll understand why I ask this. General comments (liked it/hated it), or private email with questions or responses...all terrific. I'd just like to try and keep this one as close to my vest as possible for a bit. jms Subject: Run Thru Dark Places -spoiler Date: 26 Jan 1995 19:23:06 -0500 Two corrections: Talia did not walk off with Bester; they took two different routes away. Check the tape. Also, there was no reason for Ivanova to object to Talia taking off her gloves; she wasn't going to be scanned. jms Subject: Re: A Race Through Dark Places Date: 26 Jan 1995 19:29:18 -0500 B5 operates on EST, Earth Standard Time, as noted in episodes. So they do have day and night cycles. And it's the fear of what psi might do if they DID join together that worries people, and why we have a Psi-Corps. Which is what Talia says. jms Subject: JMS: Babylon 5 and new watcher Date: 26 Jan 1995 19:30:57 -0500 I'm not sure I understand what faces you have to recognize to follow "Race." Bester is re-introduced with an explanation, as is Jason. You don't have to recognize the guy from "Chrysalis;" if you do, great, it adds a level. If you don't, it still tracks. The only other characters are our reglars; so I'm confused as to what there was left to confuse them. jms Subject: Religion and First Contact.... Date: 27 Jan 1995 03:27:44 -0500 First Contact did factionalize or even destroy some religions; others sprung up afterward. Others assimmilated the notion. Franklin belongs to one that came up after First Contact. jms Subject: Re: A RACE THROUGH DARK PLACES Date: 27 Jan 1995 15:57:33 -0500 You can generally squeeze 20-25 pops out of a standard PPG energy cap. It won't need to be recharged for quite a while. And there you just slap a new one in and drop the old one in a recharge bin. jms Subject: A fan letter, or THANKS JMS! Date: 27 Jan 1995 17:58:27 -0500 You're very much welcome, thanks. jms Subject: ATTN: JMS on publicity Date: 28 Jan 1995 05:54:07 -0500 Let me be clear on this: we will take ANY opportunity, any help in getting the word out. In many ways we are treated with a "stealth publicity" campaign by some within the studio; keep a low profile, or else god forbid somebody might write an article. So all aid -- putting the word out, asking local papers for coverage, writing to magazines, anything and everything -- is appreciated. jms Subject: Minor UK publicity for B5 Date: 28 Jan 1995 22:13:53 -0500 I'd love if I could get copies of those two clips sent to me at 14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. Many, many thanks. jms Subject: JMS: episode SKIPPED IN DENVER Date: 29 Jan 1995 01:03:42 -0500 Apparently the station mixed up the two tapes. I am *profoundly* bugged. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: When did you go to r Date: 29 Jan 1995 01:39:57 -0500 Okay...Kankakee in 1972-73; Richland 1973-1974; Southwestern 1974-1976; SDSU 1976-1977. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: O'Hare presence = s Date: 29 Jan 1995 03:51:48 -0500 I have never stated, at any time, any specifics about the amount or duration of Sinclair's presence in the B5 storyline yet to come because a) there are things I wish to withhold, and b) some things must remain fluid because if Michael should get, for instance, a major role on a big network series offered to him, and with no guarantees of B5 next season, he would have to take it. There are certain things planned, but I don't generally pin this stuff down until I'm absolutely sure I've nailed down all the corners. We *will* see him briefly this season, and we will see more of him soon. Beyond that I haven't commented, and won't comment. jms Subject: A NOVEL Date: 29 Jan 1995 06:09:46 -0500 "I WILL WRITE A SEQUEL TO THE POPULAR MOVIE & NOVEL BABYLON 5." Nope. jms Subject: JMS: Switched Episode Order? [ Date: 29 Jan 1995 06:14:32 -0500 Yes, originally, "Soul Mates" was to air after "Race." At that time, PTEN was initially going to show just 6 new episodes, and we would have come in after the rerun break with "Race," then "Soul." When the ratings came in and looked good, they didn't want to interfere with the growth, and indicated they wanted to show 7 new eps in the first batch. "Race," as you can see, was a very complex episode visually, and the only way to get it ready to run #7 in the first batch would've been to compromise the integrity of the show, and we simply won't do that for ANY reason. "Soul Mates," on the other hand, required very little in the way of post production, so that was moved forward into the #7 slot. jms Subject: BABYLON 5...AFTER THE METAL WA Date: 29 Jan 1995 06:14:41 -0500 Yes, I worked on CAPTAIN POWER, and stuck the reference to Babylon 5 into one of my scripts as a nod to the future; did the same in one of my novels, OTHERSYDE. Sort of a Tuckerism-before-the-fact. (One good thing about this is that it inadvertantly ended up helping make it clear to people that I was working on this sucker since 1986/87 or so.) jms Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Why Accelerate t Date: 30 Jan 1995 01:59:38 -0500 My first novel was DEMON NIGHT, published in hardcover by E. P. Dutton, and nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers of America. jms Subject: Attn. JMS S.EFX error in RTDP Date: 30 Jan 1995 03:02:31 -0500 The doorbell *is* there. Recently, though, the satellite uplink company used by PTEN changed some of its audio feed channels; if your local station or whoever downlinked it didn't catch it, some audio got missed. jms Subject: Bester, Our Favorite Storm Tro Date: 30 Jan 1995 03:03:00 -0500 Bester's name was my idea. jms Subject: How Many *** To Screw In A Lig Date: 30 Jan 1995 03:03:18 -0500 Q: How many telepaths does it take to scew in a lightbulb? A: (Also, what do you call a Minbari floating dead in the ocean? A minbuoy.) jms Subject: KCOP 13 (Was: Re: IMHO's on A Date: 30 Jan 1995 03:17:45 -0500 In editing, we always left black and let an act end properly; we were aghast at the clipping at the end of various acts. We think some of it happened at the firm that drops in the national sponsor's commercials. jms Subject: Something amusing waiting for Date: 31 Jan 1995 01:08:59 -0500 "Who's the K?" Easy...the Kook who came up with this idea. jms Subject: ATTN JMS: New PPG effects perm Date: 31 Jan 1995 01:31:24 -0500 Kevin kind of got overtaxed with stuff; however, he is doing a few things for us now here and there, and we're now using the same techniques for the new PPG blasts, so it should look normal next time you see them. jsm Subject: ATTN JMS:What goes through you Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:42:34 -0500 "What goes through your head?" Wolverines, mainly. Sundays we get possoms. jms Subject: JMS: Sheridan's lightbulb joke Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:43:05 -0500 Actually, a number of people hit on the basic idea of the Minbari surrender; there was some of this over on GEnie as well. It's really the obvious joke. I went for it as well, and appended the last part to set it apart. jms Subject: Race through dark places comme Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:46:24 -0500 Also, bear in mind that Bester's parting shot in "Mind War" was exactly that, in essence an "Up yours" but subtle. There was no reason for that to be given to anyone in "Race." jms Subject: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:57:44 -0500 All TV series are in essence owned by the studio that produces them. Hence, B5 is copyrighted and owned by Warner Bros./PTEN. jms Subject: JMS: Military model for Earthf Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:58:06 -0500 Your analysis is not far off the mark. There's some of the Stalinist approach, also some of the early Roman approach, where there was a great deal of overlap between senators and the military. Because of having to pull so many different traditions together, I also figure it's kind of a hodge-podge, each division pulling for its own identity which may or may not be somewhat obsolete by now. jms Subject: JMS: Repeats and Canonical Ep Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:57:24 -0500 All episodes will tend to be repeated in original airdate order; but this doesn't bother me particularly, since if the series can't survive being viewed out of order, then it's flawed. And yes, I believe they'll be picking up season 1's last reruns after the end of season 2. jms Subject: Att'n JMS: Death and Dyin Date: 31 Jan 1995 17:57:44 -0500 All TV series are in essence owned by the studio that produces them. Hence, B5 is copyrighted and owned by Warner Bros./PTEN. jms Subject: Ellison, guns and breaking win Date: 31 Jan 1995 22:20:25 -0500 The PPG is a jms addition, dating back to before the pilot. jms