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353 lines
14 KiB
353 lines
14 KiB
JMS on Genie
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September 1996
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 626 Tue Sep 03, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:14 EDT
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Thanks, all. We're very pleased and proud to have been recognized for
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the Hugo. It's a terrific validation of our work, and this is something
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that the fans made happen, and it's as much theirs as mine. It just
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reinforces that people can get together and accomplish something whenever
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they choose to do so
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Re: copyright infringement...no, you don't have to prove damages
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to win. Statutory fines exist, at $100,000 per infringement the minimum
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under the law. Additional penalties come from damages; the $100,000 is
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the minimum per. And one can argue that each distributed game would be an
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infringement...the math ain't favorable.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 644 Wed Sep 04, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:04 EDT
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Re: commercials...we don't make 'em, and have zero input into the
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construction of them. We're not allowed to get near it, that's strictly
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a Warnr Bros. thing.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 2
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Message 424 Tue Sep 03, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:16 EDT
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It's usually common for larger ships to drop their fighters just
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as they enter a jump point into normal space, so they can get an edge on
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the target rather than launching post-jump.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 647 Wed Sep 04, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:44 EDT
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Small corrections...the Hugo space ship is silver; 7 Hugos have
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been given previously to SF shows, 3 to the original TZ, 4 to ST (old and
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new). And yes, apparently the "Is There A God?" debate has become the
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con's #1 seller on tape, with Buzz Aldrin's speech second (I don't know
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whether to be pleased or chagrined), but we definitely didn't go to
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dinner afterward...we ended up at the same restaurant, but different
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tables on opposite sides of the restaurant.
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(Aside: I had to wolf down my food to get ready for the Hugo
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ceremony, and just as I was finishing, a fan had the waiter bring over a
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tray of food, christened spoo. I couldn't eat it, had to run, so I gave
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it to the fellow I'd been debating, explaining that it was "an act of
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atheist charity.")
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Aside to Mike Cooney...was there a message uptopic where you went
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over ways to more economically/reasonably portray, like, thousands of
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ships on-screen? Not that I have any reason for asking this question....
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 31
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Message 328 Fri Sep 06, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:19 EDT
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There's a term, for let's say England, when you're between rulers,
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one has passed along and the other is perhaps too young to rule, or they
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haven't yet decided on someone...a term for the person who's in charge in
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the interim, and I can't for the life of me think of that term. Anybody
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know what it is?
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 19, Topic 1
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Message 16 Sun Sep 08, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:15 EDT
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Stims take a while to work out of your system, to get totally
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flushed out (as will be noted shortly), but when they're gone, it's
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unpleasant.
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My own take on "And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which
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airs tomorrow in the UK...I like it. The Brother Theo stuff is a tad
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stilted in a couple of places, but it's only a couple of minutes, and the
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rest works real well. It's a very subversive episode in its way, and a
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part of it still creeps me out.
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jms
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SFRT I RoundTable
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Category 44, Topic 5
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Message 336 Sun Sep 08, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:17 EDT
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My guess is that for Necro, I'll be able to bring some clips from 4th
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season shows, the late 3rd season bloopers, some other stuff.
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jms
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(PS, Vampyr, good to meet you there...to put a face with the sharp
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analyses of stories. And thanks to all re: the Hugo.)
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 19, Topic 1
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Message 22 Sun Sep 08, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 21:57 EDT
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Well, sometimes you go along making an episode, and when it's all
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assembled -- which is really the only time you ever know if it's turned
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out the way you want -- it's kinda late to change much. You're filming
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the next episode, you can't go back and refilm it or rewrite it. So
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there's really very little you can do at that point.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 738 Wed Sep 11, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:04 EDT
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There's always a danger in making the show about the New Alien of
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the Week, which we tend to try to avoid. As for Hypernauts, yes, they
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showed a lot more virtual environments...but the resolution of those
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shots were nowhere near the level of resolution needed for a show like
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B5. They looked more plastic-y, more obviously CGI. The only way they
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could render that much material was to go for low-res stuff, and do other
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tricks. It also helped that they shot that show on *videotape*, which is
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far cheaper than film. If you did the Hypernauts EFX tricks on B5,
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they'd look very chintzy, for the most part.
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That said, we *are* going outside the station more and more in
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the last batch of year 3 episodes, and even moreso in the initial
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episodes of year 4. We go to Narn, more time is spent on Centauri Prime,
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Minbar, Mars, Earth, and elsewhere.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 453 Thu Sep 12, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:43 EDT
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Foundation also did the majority or all of the battle stuff in
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last week's Voyager.
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Re: NDE...Doug was very happy with that name, which they arrived
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at after long, long discussions...and just after they locked it down, I
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pointed out that NDE is also a term for Near Death Experience, which has
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since become how some of us refer to it. (Or a Near Doug Experience,
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which is kinda the same thing, only without the light show.)
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 473 Fri Sep 13, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:59 EDT
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Today John Copeland and I did our producer's cut on the first
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episode of year 4, "The Hour of the Wolf." Granted my opinion is
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subjective and biased...but of all the first-episodes we've had each
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season, this one is the best. I was searching for the right word after
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looking at the director's cut, and finally came to it...maturity. It has
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a depth we've only skated through before, all meat, no filler. This one
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and the next batch are also all over the map, literally...B5, Narn,
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Centauri Prime, elsewhere...so it's a real challenge. But it looks great.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 482 Sat Sep 14, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:16 EDT
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Mike...on the one hand you keep asking for big battle set pieces,
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then you say you don't want a war story...you'll forgive me if I note that
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you're sending out mixed signals.
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You may also want to wait to see what we *do* rather than
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worrying now about what we *might* do.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 509 Sun Sep 15, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:44 EDT
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Also, what tends to happen is that a message of mine gets
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paraphrased or misremembered, and someone says, "Well, back in 1993, jms
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said..." and if they get it wrong, and I don't catch it, it becomes part
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of what's assumed is actually happening. It's like playing telegraph
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with 25,000 of your best friends....
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Small correction: my first on-line service was actually Compuserve,
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back around 1984-1985. I was one of the first to hit that service, I
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think, and certainly the first TV writer I knew over there.
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Re: the crew...nothing else has changed. We've still got John
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Flinn III as our DP, Ann Bruice-Aling as costumer, John Iacovelli as
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Great Maker of All Things Art, Chris Franke on music, optic
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nerve...they're all still here, all still doing great stuff. Directors
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for the fourth season include Mike Vejar, Jesus Trevino, David Eagle, and
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some new folks we're trying out, Kevin Dobson (not the actor), John
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Macpherson, and we may even let Stephen Furst do an episode, since he has
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a long background as a director for smaller films and theater.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 513 Sun Sep 15, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:22 EDT
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Actually, "Alas, Babylon" is a terrific book by Pat Frank, which
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came out in the late 60s, which I recommend to anyone. Great reading.
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Since first reading it as a kid, I must've reread it a dozen or more
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times over the years until the darned thing fell apart. (Paperback.)
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While at Worldcon, I picked up a first-edition hardcover of the book,
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and started reading it again while I was there...and fell right back into
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it again.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 2
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Message 527 Sun Sep 15, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:47 EDT
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The thing about "Believers" is that, really, nobody's right, and
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in their own way, from their point of view, everybody's right.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 2
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Message 536 Sun Sep 15, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 16:48 EDT
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Kwicker: exactly. Interestingly, one fan I ran into at Worldcon
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made the point that rather than moralizing or giving messages, B5's
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strength is in providing "meaning without judging." Kinda interesting....
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 600 Sat Sep 21, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 18:52 EDT
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You ever get one of those pieces of news that leaves you at once
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vaguely amused and horribly chagrined? Turns out in the October issue of
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BUZZ Magazine -- the high-style, fancy, New Yorker-in-aspiration LA
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magazine for rich folk -- they have the 100 Coolest People in LA. How do
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I know this, even though I don't subscribe? I got called by a friend.
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Yep...for the first time I am now officially cool.
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Still processing this one.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 2
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Message 588 Fri Sep 20, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:50 EDT
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More episode titles: #5, "The Long Night," #6, "Into the Fire,"
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#7 "Epiphanies," #8 "The Illusion of Truth."
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 619 Sat Sep 21, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:50 EDT
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Mike: you give me an extra million dollars an episode, and you
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can' have those scenes. We make this show for under $900,000 an
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episode. We're dancing as fast as we can. What they spent on ID4 is
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more than we've spent on all three years of B5.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 620 Sat Sep 21, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:55 EDT
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And just so you understand...it's not just a question of building
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sets. Yes, you start with that expense. Now add extras to populate the
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scenes. If you're going to have people being killed or even bumped
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around, you need stunt people, and that's very expensive if you start
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having more than 2-3 of them in a scene. Now there's the CGI. Now
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there's the cost of the pyrotechnics. And the staging. Crashes or big
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action (live, not CGI) scenes can take an entire day to set up. Yeah,
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you can get a 15 second BIG SCENE, but it'll cost you hideously, and
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it'll add an extra day to production, and you'll have to throw out other
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stuff.
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We save our big hits for where they will make the most impact,
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but again, this is TV, not a major feature film. The ST shows get about
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$1.2-1.4 million or more per episode, depending on circumstances. S:A&B
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cost $2 million an episode on average. Our budget is limited to under
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$900,000. We do the best we can with what we've got.
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jms
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SFRT II RoundTable
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Category 18, Topic 1
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Message 650 Mon Sep 23, 1996
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STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:47 EDT
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Mike: okay, I've been quiet, even though others have noted it,
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but you're straying again and again into story suggestions, how the next
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season should be done, what the environment should be like, even titles;
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stop it. I can't be blunter than that.
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Well, actually, I *can*...but the situation is born out of
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enthusiasm, and more or less forgiveable.
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As for GROPOS, that one episode was so far over budget that I had
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to write 2 smaller ones to make up for it, and the many people you saw
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were really just one small group that took forever to digitally composite
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into looking like a much bigger group.
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Mike, your suggestions on production are all well and good for a
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big budget movie. That's where your mindset is at. But this is a TV
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show. We have TV limitations. We have a budget below any other SF show
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around. We do the best we can. Please stop gigging us for things that we
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can't do, and no other TV show can do.
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jms
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