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								   _Contents:_ [7]Overview - [8]Backplot - [9]Questions - [10]Analysis -

								   [11]Notes - [12]JMS


								     _________________________________________________________________


								Overview


								     The Vorlon ambassador is nearly killed by an assassin shortly after

								     arriving at the station, and Commander Sinclair is the prime

								     suspect. [13]Tamlyn Tomita as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima(*).

								     [14]Blaire Baron as Carolyn Sykes(*). [15]Johnny Sekka as Dr.

								     Benjamin Kyle(*). [16]Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander(*).

								     [17]John Fleck as Del Varner. [18]Paul Hampton as the Senator.


								   (*) These characters were originally planned as recurring characters

								   throughout the series, but were replaced for various reasons.

								[19]P5 Rating: [20]6.00


								Production number:  0 (Pilot)

								Original air date:  Feb 22, 1993


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by Richard Compton


								   _Note: There are two versions of "The Gathering," the original one as

								   initially aired in 1993 and a reedited special edition first aired in

								   1998. Items that only apply to one version are so marked._


								     _________________________________________________________________


								Backplot


								     * Earth has been keeping genetic records of telepaths for the last 6

								       generations.

								     * The Psi Corps takes children with psi abilities when they are

								       young and trains them to use this ability in a very strict manner.

								       There are definite rules governing the use of psi. No unauthorized

								       mind scans. No gambling.

								     * All races but the Narn have telepathy.

								     * The Narn are a young but powerful civilization, with (G'Kar

								       claims) unlimited manpower.

								     * The Narn heard about the reason for the Minbari surrender in the

								       Earth-Minbari war - a decision from their Grey Council (a secret

								       group of "holy men").

								     * The Minbari are the oldest of the "five federations," and

								       centuries ahead of the others technologically.

								     * Londo says to Garibaldi: "You know why I am here? I'm here to

								       grovel before your wonderful Earth Alliance, in hopes of attaching

								       ourselves to your destiny. [...] There was a time, when this whole

								       _quadrant_ belonged to us! What are we now? Twelve worlds and a

								       thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and

								       stories, selling trinkets."

								     * Centauri status is based on family history. Political and personal

								       power must be built up over generations.

								     * The Narn were once enslaved by the Centauri and have only recently

								       gained independence. This seems to be a sensitive spot for the

								       Narn, or at least G'Kar. (cf: [21]"Midnight on the Firing Line")

								     * Sinclair fought in the last battle of the Earth-Minbari war, the

								       Line. In the midst of battle, he blacked out while attacking a

								       Minbari warship and remained unconscious for 24 hrs. He has no

								       idea what happened to him during those 24 hrs. (cf: [22]"And the

								       Sky Full of Stars")

								     * Takashima used to work at a corrupt mining station on Mars.

								       Refusing to go on the take, she was never going to get promoted

								       out of there. She recounts lashing out and "breaking the rules"

								       out of frustration at it all. However, Sinclair was her superior

								       there for a while, and he got her to shape up and play things by

								       the book.

								     * Garibaldi has been "bounced from station to station" for a long

								       time before Sinclair requested him for Babylon 5. (cf:

								       [23]"Survivors")


								Unanswered Questions


								  The Station


								     * Why was Babylon 5 _really_ built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt, and

								       rebuilt, and... rebuilt? Sinclair's story about human stubbornness

								       doesn't hold water. B5 is a monstrous project, especially for a

								       society very recently decimated by war. Yet it was made _five_

								       times, the fifth time from _SCRATCH_.

								     * Who sabotaged B1-B3, and why? Who vanished B4, and why?


								  The Minbari Assassin


								     * How did the assassin get the voice and image of Sinclair in

								       diplomatic dress before he poisoned Kosh? For everyone else he

								       obviously impersonated, we'd seen him in close proximity to them

								       earlier.

								     * The assassin-as-Varner pointed a gadget at Lyta in the bazaar. It

								       is widely assumed that this acquired her visual pattern for the

								       changeling net, but it could have been something else.

								     * Why did the assassin-as-Varner arrange to make Londo late for the

								       reception? He kept Londo in a public place, making him

								       unframeable.


								  Takashima


								     * What hold did G'Kar et al. have on her? (see [24]Analysis) Perhaps

								       she _was_ on the take in that [25]corrupt mining colony, and she's

								       still living on the take today.


								  Lyta Alexander


								     * Why was she talking to the assassin-as-Varner, as reported by

								       Garibaldi and Londo? Garibaldi must have asked her at some point,

								       but we never get to see this.

								     * How was she involved? (see [26]Analysis) Perhaps her role was only

								       passive - agree to scan Kosh if asked, report any information she

								       gathers (possibly via telepathy).


								  Sinclair


								     * Judging by [27]the headlines of Universe Today, Babylon 5 is a

								       very big deal back on Earth. Why is Sinclair, a lowly Commander,

								       both in charge of the station and acting as the Earth diplomat?

								       (cf: [28]"Signs and Portents")

								     * What happened to Sinclair on the Line? (cf: [29]"And the Sky Full

								       of Stars")

								     * What _is_ the hole in his mind? Is it simply the 24 hour memory

								       loss from his experience on the Line, or something more

								       significant?


								  Del Varner


								     * According to Garibaldi's information, Del Varner would normally

								       stay far away from B5. So, why was he recognized by a local tech

								       (Eric)?


								  The Vorlons


								     * Why _did_ they request that the monitors in the docking bay be

								       turned off? Kosh was walking out in public, hidden safely in his

								       encounter suit.

								     * What is Kosh inside that suit anyway? (cf. [30]Lost Scenes from

								       Babylon 5)

								     * How did the poison get through to Kosh? He must have had his hand,

								       or whatever the limb was, completely outside his encounter suit.

								       Perhaps that explains why the Vorlons wanted the monitors turned

								       off; they didn't want anyone else to see Kosh's hand. In that

								       case, why did they want Sinclair to see it? _Special Edition

								       (spoiler for a pivotal revelation later in the series):_ Kosh

								       greeted what he thought was Sinclair by addressing him as

								       "Entil-zha Valen," indicating that he already knew Sinclair in

								       some context.

								     * Is there anything to that legend about someone turning to stone

								       when they saw a Vorlon? Have people ever gotten into situations

								       where they could _conceivably_ have seen one?

								     * The Vorlons seem to be puppet thugs of the conspirators in the

								       pilot, yet clearly they do some things for their own reasons. Why

								       such secrecy around their technological inferiors? Why break the

								       veil to send an ambassador to B5?

								     * For that matter, why agree to ship Sinclair to their world? Surely

								       that would mean him finding out about them. Unless they never

								       intended to bring him there alive, of course.

								     * Did Delenn really tell Sinclair everything the Minbari know about

								       the Vorlons? Either way, how much does he know now?


								  The Minbari


								     * Why did they surrender at the Line? It's already pretty clear that

								       Sinclair had Something to do with it. Furthermore, what was the

								       real reason the Minbari were fighting the war to begin with?


								  The Centauri


								     * Why have they fallen so far from power? From Londo's stories it

								       seems [31]they were a great Empire within his lifetime (which may

								       be quite long, for all we know).


								  Miscellaneous


								     * Why was the access panel outside Varner's quarters busted, by the

								       time Garibaldi arrived? It probably has something to do with the

								       assassin [32]using Takashima's clearance to gain entry. Perhaps

								       the panel keeps the only record, locally, of who's used it, and

								       thus breaking it would prevent the illegal entry from being

								       discovered.

								     * The very presence of a changeling net aboard the station invites

								       us to open the question, "Who else did we see that could have been

								       that Minbari in disguise?"

								     * Four major actors in the pilot left the production for various

								       reasons and do not have permanent roles in the series (though Lyta

								       Alexander reappeared later.) However, since [33]jms slipped

								       reasons why in the B5 universe two of the the characters no longer

								       appear, it is meaningful to ask:

								          + Why was Lyta Alexander replaced as station telepath? Did she

								            get in trouble for unauthorized mind-scanning after all, or

								            was it because she's been in the mind of a Vorlon?

								          + Why has Carolyn drifted out of Sinclair's life?


								Analysis


								  The Plan


								     * G'Kar et al. wanted to start a war between the EA and the Vorlons.

								       The primary plan was for Kosh to be dead; Takashima's announcement

								       that the Vorlons had forbidden the opening of his suit should have

								       nailed that coffin shut. Framing Sinclair for the murder was

								       probably also part of the primary plan (the Vorlons' request that

								       the bay monitors be turned off could well have been a surprise to

								       them).

								     * There may have been a secondary plan to achieve the same results:

								       having Lyta scan Kosh. This could have been foreseen, impromptu,

								       or coincidence.

								     * The assassin was Minbari, which indicates a violent faction of the

								       Minbari still exists (cf: [34]"Deathwalker"). The goals of that

								       group are unknown, but so are the goals of the mainstream Minbari

								       government.

								     * In particular, the Minbari warrior class may have had their own

								       reasons for getting Sinclair sent to the Vorlon homeworld.


								  Takashima was somehow involved


								     * The assassin [35]used Takashima's palmed security access to gain

								       entry to Varner's quarters.

								     * Takashima agreed to Kyle's plan of getting Lyta to scan Kosh even

								       though (by her own story) it went very much against her grain. "I

								       guess I'm about due" is hardly a believable reason.

								     * Takashima broke into Varner's files. 260 years from now, would

								       someone be able to crack open a technology criminal's secure files

								       in a matter of hours without inside information?

								     * There were lots of instances when very recent information was used

								       to further [36]the Plan, for all of which Takashima was in an

								       ideal position to be responsible.

								          + The assassin met Kosh at the right docking bay at the right

								            time.

								          + In general, [37]the Plan proceeded smoothly in spite of

								            Kosh's 48 hour early arrival (the angriest response we saw

								            from Takashima was to this very discovery).

								          + Sinclair was trapped in a lift at just the right time for

								            just long enough, and the record cleared.

								          + Someone actually contacted the Vorlons and told them about

								            the poisoning, thus acquiring the predictable response that

								            opening Kosh's suit is verboten.

								          + Someone leaked - very quickly - the fact that Sinclair had

								            been fingered by a witness. This is what brought on the

								            Vorlon cruisers.

								          + G'Kar found out - again very quickly - that Kosh would

								            recover from the poisoning ("There has been a complication").


								  Lyta may have been involved


								     * She seems to have exchanged glances with the real Del Varner as

								       she walked off with Sinclair at the very beginning. The two

								       probably came in on the same ship.

								     * Later, she's seen talking to the assassin-as-Varner. Yet the

								       latter scans her image for the changeling net without her

								       knowledge [38](if that was what he was doing), so their level of

								       cooperation is mixed at most.

								     * The assassin, disguised as Lyta, didn't kill her in the ample

								       moment they shared outside the medlab.

								     * On the other hand, her conversation with G'Kar within "privacy"

								       would almost certainly have been very different if they were in

								       cahoots. So perhaps she was only in contact with Del Varner and/or

								       the assassin.


								  The Minbari assassin


								     * The assassin didn't need any special clearance to enter Varner's

								       quarters; he was expected. So he must have [39]used Takashima's

								       clearance in order to leave a record of her entry at that time.

								       Since [40]the panel was broken before this could be discovered,

								       this suggests clandestine cross-purposes.

								     * "There is a hole in your mind" may have been his _response_ to

								       Sinclair's question, "Why did you do it?" Interesting.

								     * It was not part of the plan for the Minbari to set off his

								       explosives. Else why arrange to be able to get off the station?

								       So, they were just to prevent his capture/interrogation.


								  Sinclair is inexplicably trusting and friendly with Delenn


								     * He would have sacrificed his life to kill a few more Minbari

								       during the war ten years ago, yet:

								     * He does not appear to be discomfited by Delenn's evasions in their

								       Garden conversations.

								     * When he encounters Delenn after escaping the exploding assassin,

								       it would have made sense for him to confront or question her, or

								       at least be suspicious. Instead, he was relaxed and jovial. Later,

								       he made sure Delenn knew he didn't hold her responsible.


								  Delenn


								     * "The power of one mind to change the universe" likely refers to

								       Sinclair. (Recall the other Minbari's [41]reference to his mind.)

								     * There were two stones in the stone garden.

								     * She evades most of his questions, yet volunteers two big files

								       during the episode, and drops lots of other hints to him. As with

								       [42]her abstention on the council, she seems subject to contrary

								       forces. Keep him in the dark, yet point him toward the light.

								     * She is a personally powerful representative of a very powerful

								       race. Yet we don't observe her taking any active hand in the big

								       picture so far.

								     * In the B5 council vote to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon

								       homeworld, an abstention was equivalent to a "No" (presumably

								       abstentions are interpreted to mean "None of the above" or "Take

								       no action", whichever is appropriate). So, what conflict prevented

								       Delenn from explicitly voting against the motion? _Special

								       Edition:_ Delenn claimed she couldn't vote one way or the other

								       because she didn't yet have all the information at hand, and that

								       her orders where Sinclair was concerned were simply to observe,

								       not interfere.


								  Londo


								     * He fills Garibaldi's ears with stories of the good old days of

								       conquest. [43]Bygone days, unlike the way things are now. He may

								       be honest, or he may be trying to allay suspicions. More likely

								       the former, since Garibaldi's suspicions don't have much political

								       significance.

								     * A heavy drinker and compulsive gambler.


								  G'Kar


								     * Notice his jollity in telling Takashima his transport will submit

								       to the weapons search (now that the assassin has successfully come

								       aboard). True, if [44]she was in cahoots with him, that little

								       exchange was for show, as was their earlier confrontation at Ops.

								       He's nonetheless consistently transparent in his emotional states.

								     * A schemer and warmonger.


								  Takashima


								     * Some of her ideas were faultlessly loyal to the EA (eg "You better

								       take a recorder - the way things are going you may need a

								       witness."). So, her heart's in the right place, at least.


								  Garibaldi


								     * Self-esteem trouble. He's ready to give up on the investigation

								       after Varner's death. He's used to failure at his other jobs.

								     * Garibaldi also messes up the investigation in several ways:

								          + No guards around Kosh.

								          + Losing sight of Varner while questioning Londo.

								          + Not talking to Lyta about Varner while it's still relevant.

								          + Not noticing [45]all those Takashima timing and information

								            clues.

								          + Lets the Commander get into a shooting fight with a superior

								            foe, alone.


								Notes


								     * An [46]alternate introduction was written, but not filmed.

								     * Universe Today main headline: Vorlons to Make Contact

								     * Universe Today sub-headline: Narn Protest of EA's B5 Heats

								     * Among the messages flashing by on Lyta's identicard: ELVIS STILL

								       LIVES

								     * When the assassin scans his hand at Varner's door, words are

								       visible on the screen. If you have a lucid pause function on your

								       VCR, you too will be able to read what they say - "Laurel

								       Takashima Cleared".

								     * Minbari ships have short-range FTL, or cloaking, or jamming

								       (Sinclair: "They came at us out of nowhere"). Basically, they can

								       put themselves right where they want to be without Starfuries

								       noticing them en route.

								     * Cruisers can "wait" in hyperspace outside a jump gate.

								     * Unscheduled uses of the jumpgates, at least during this earlier

								       part of B5's history, are practically unheard of.

								     * _Special Edition:_ Two plot points, Kyle's use of stims to stay

								       awake and Takashima's use of the Garden to grow coffee, were both

								       transferred to the characters who replaced them in the series.

								     * Ed Wasser played C&C technician Guerra, and later went on to play

								       Mr. Morden (first appearing in [47]"Signs and Portents.") There's

								       no evidence that the two characters are related, however.


								jms speaks


								     * Actually, at one point or another, just about *everyone* lied in

								       the course of the pilot...including Sinclair, who lied to G'Kar,

								       and of course Delenn lying to Sinclair in the Garden...and so on.

								     * The one thing that I dropped fairly completely due to the delay in

								       getting the series going was the Laurel thread, which has now

								       mutated and become something even more interesting, actually. It's

								       something that's enabled me to now build in a trap door that you

								       won't see for a long time, even though it's sitting there in plain

								       sight.

								     * _What happened to the old characters on the pilot, not working on

								       the series?_ _jms:_ On a classified mission (which I hope we will

								       be able to get into at some point), Laurel has been reassigned out

								       on the Rim, and Dr. Kyle is now working with the EA President on

								       the issue of alien migration to Earth, a growing problem to some,

								       a benefit to others.

								     * Pat Tallman passed on returning to the B5 project. Our new

								       telepath will be played by Andrea Thompson, with the character

								       name Talia Winters. Much of the Lyta arc will now go to Talia, but

								       there's now a different way of getting her into that arc.

								     * What it *does* give me, which is kinda nice, is that the only two

								       people to have ANY direct contact with a Vorlon have been

								       transferred back to Earth. Which plays wonderfully into something

								       sinister I'd kinda like to develop that the Earth Alliance is

								       working on behind the scenes...

								     * Actually, I think we broke [the "Return of the Jedi"] record for

								       ships on-screen in the pilot; Ron was rather pleased about it at

								       the time.

								     * _Will there be a director's cut?_

								       The odds are zero, since the first version of the B5 pilot existed

								       only as a computer-graphic file edited movie. It wasn't edited on

								       film, for real, until we'd pared it down. We'd have to go in and

								       totally re-edit and re-score, and I doubt that's going to happen.

								     * Beats me, but if you find an uncut version of B5, lemme know,

								       because I'D like one.

								       The problem is that, unlike a motion picture, where you produce a

								       cut on film, which you then trim down, we're editing on

								       computerized image files. We don't get around to finally cutting

								       the film until we've made our final edits. So no complete version

								       ever existed on film. The most that could be done is get those 25

								       minutes and *build* a new version with that footage...which would

								       require additional scoring, editing, and other stuff.

								     * The computerized cut of the pilot is now dumped out of memory, and

								       those portions only exist on a few VHS tapes of marginal quality.

								       Also, the footage in computer file form is *very* low grade, like

								       a poorly scanned gif file, very low resolution. It would be

								       useless on a laser disk.

								     * I'm certainly not showing disdain for the missing material; I'm

								       just saying it ain't *there*. Now, if B5 turns out to be a

								       megahit, there may be money set aside to re-edit the pilot some

								       years down the road, but I'm not currently counting on it. My

								       chief concern now has to be the series.

								     * There was a reason we gave Londo the pilot opening monologue, yes.

								       And another reason why we're giving Sinclair the opening monologue

								       over credits of the first season, though with some differences.

								       We're also considering rotating any such opening between other

								       cast members as well, but *always* in the past-tense, "Babylon 5

								       *was*...." We're dealing in future history here, and we plan to do

								       some interesting things with that aspect.

								     * Yeah, Londo seems like the *least* likely person to do the opening

								       narration for a show like this; you don't even see him for nearly

								       two full acts, and it's the kind of thing you'd expect the

								       Commander to do.

								       But there are reasons for everything....

								     * Oh, yeah, the "mission of destruction" thing ONLY relates to this

								       particular episode, the pilot. It'll be gone from regular

								       episodes.

								     * "Mankind" was being used by Londo specifically in relation to

								       humans, not sentient aliens including his own race. Earthers.

								       Which was one reason (of many) I wanted his character to be the

								       narrator, someone looking in from the outside.

								       As for the Third Age, it's -- oh, darn, look at the time, have to

								       go....

								     * _The alien section looked like a zoo!_

								       First, we decided that wasn't a right look for the alien sector,

								       and that's the corridor we blew up at the end. But the reason it

								       was designed that way is important. Your reaction -- don't the

								       aliens have any privacy? -- is a very human, and specifically a

								       very *western* point of view. Our feeling at the time was, why

								       should alien quarters look at all like human quarters? Shouldn't

								       they have a different perspective than typical Western-style

								       hotels? (In some degree, the quaters were patterned after Japanese

								       mini-hotels, where you get basically a slightly larger coffin-like

								       setup, which you crawl into like a torpedo tube, with a window at

								       one end, which has a curtain, a TV over your head, and so on. What

								       we discovered is that many people ask for more alien aliens, but

								       when we delivered on that, were asked why these things weren't

								       more like what we expect, why aren't they like human quarters?

								       It's really a losing battle.)

								       The other point on this is that if you look closely, there are

								       back areas accessible to residents, which can in particular be

								       seen in the insectoid/antennae'd character's quarters. The idea

								       was that it would be sort of a front porch, where for lack of much

								       else to do, you'd sit out on the porch, watching the passing

								       parade.

								       But the reaction was less than favorable, we had to keep

								       explaining that this proceeds from an alien POV, and so our alien

								       quarters are more like human quarters now, minus the alternate

								       atmosphere stuff. I'm still not quite sure what to think of this.

								     * Actually, it's Kosh's ship that comes out of the jump gate

								       backward, engines forward to assist with deceleration. The

								       fighters don't want to be slow-moving targets, so it stands to

								       reason they wouldn't be configured for rapid deceleration. They

								       want to get into position as fast as possible.

								     * Kosh's ship had to decelerate in order to dock inside the station.

								       This is a reality of spaceflight...you must both accelerate and

								       decelerate. Both take time. Especially if you're going to dock.

								       Plus there was time involved in setting up the docking procedure,

								       turning over control to Babylon Control, lining up vectors and so

								       on.

								       The fighters didn't have to worry about any of this. They came

								       shooting through the gate and barely slowed at all, speeding over

								       to B5 and taking up position.

								       There have now been several situations in which we've been accused

								       of "mistakes" that have, instead, simply been things done

								       scientifically accurately. I have to say (and this isn't directed

								       at you, just more of a general statement), we're not going to hand

								       everyone everything on a silver platter, serving up pablum...the

								       nature of a *science fiction* series is that you should THINK

								       about things. The acceleration/deceleration thing is one example;

								       some thought about why this would be would have led to the answer.

								       And, as evidenced by other messages here, others have taken the

								       time to look at it from that perspective. Which I think is great.

								     * Re: the skin tab/Kosh's hand/encounter suit question...one of the

								       reasons I can't wait for the series to get on the air is so that

								       we can make one thing clear, once and for all: it is NOT an error,

								       not a plot hole, it is a plot POINT. It is a question that our

								       *characters* will be asking each other. How can this be? This will

								       come up more than once, starting with "The Parliament of Dreams"

								       episode.

								     * As for the Vorlon handshake (so to speak)...this will be dealt

								       with in the series. You have to remember that the original plan

								       was to air the pilot and go *immediately* into series, where we'd

								       bring up some of these questions. There simply wasn't room to deal

								       with EVERYTHING in that short pilot...and where we DID try and

								       cover everything, we got gigged for being expositional.

								       Now we have to re-establish a few things since there's been a gap

								       in time...but the poison incident will be raised in "The

								       Parliament of Dreams" script to start with, and move on from

								       there.

								     * The Senator of the pilot, who was back on Earth, is someone who

								       has in past been someone that Sinclair has come to for backing on

								       things; he's the equivilent of someone on the Armed Services

								       Committee, here as one of those civilian Senators overseeing

								       Earthforce. He would not be in any position to just come in and

								       take over, any more than a Senator visiting a U.S. army base would

								       be in a position to take over the base if there were a problem

								       with the ranking officer. But he might be able to bring some force

								       to bear back in Washington, which might double-back to be of some

								       use.

								       There are civilian branches and military branches, as with today,

								       in which the civilian branch oversees the military, but in very

								       formalized ways.

								     * In the script, the privacy mode involved going from a standard

								       looking open booth to what suddenly looked like a flat black cube,

								       which you could neither hear nor see through. The director decided

								       to try the lights. It didn't work. We're dropping it.

								     * You're right; the events of the Line are something that Sinclair

								       doesn't much like talking about, and has been advised *against*

								       talking about. When the Minbari surrendered, Earth put the best

								       possible spin on it, tried to make the survivors of the Line look

								       like heroes, but there's a general sense of what happened. And a

								       great deal of dismay over it.

								     * Your assumption is correct; the assassin's weapon was a very small

								       one...limited power, and a charge-up sequence that becomes longer

								       the more it's used. If the Minbari had shot Lyta, it would've

								       taken too long for the gun to power-up again for him to shoot

								       Sinclair...and he would've been captured. We slightly expanded the

								       power-up whine for each shot after the first one. You'll note that

								       the first shot, the one that takes out Varner, is almost

								       immediate. Points and fires. Gradually it takes longer, and

								       finally the gun runs out altogether (which is why, though we

								       probably should've been clearer in showing this, the assassin

								       finally went hand-to-hand with Sinclair...the gun was never meant

								       as an assault weapon, more as a derringer, with a few shots in

								       case he got into trouble).

								     * As for Sinclair going after the Minbari assassin...there were

								       several reasons for this. First, this was personal for him; if the

								       guy *wasn't* caught, he would be blamed for the death and sent to

								       the Vorlon homeworld. He had something very much at stake. Second,

								       if you have somebody with shapeshifting technology on board, the

								       LAST thing you want is to send in a large group. The tracking of

								       the energy web used for the holographic effect was good, but only

								       to a certain point. It could say "He's ten feet away," but if

								       there's 5 guys within that range, it'll take you just long enough

								       to react for the assassin to wipe out the bunch of you before you

								       figure out which one he is. But if there's only *two* of you, and

								       you hear the shifter is within 10 feet, you know *exactly* who it

								       is and can react accordingly. It seemed logical. Also, you'd want

								       someone there who you knew VERY well, in case there were a

								       replacement...because while someone could emulate a face, they

								       can't replicate memories, and Sinclair or Garibaldi could quickly

								       figure out if the other was an imposter.

								       Yes, I probably could've stopped to explain this...but I figured

								       it was readily apparent, and there was already enough exposition

								       in the pilot to stun a horse.

								     * "If JMS had not mentioned the hole in Sinclair's mind, what would

								       have been the reason for the assassin to try and kill Sinclair?"

								       Hello...did you see the same movie that I wrote? The assassin was

								       not there to kill Sinclair. He was there to kill Kosh. He tried to

								       kill Kosh. He tried to stay AWAY from Sinclair, did everything in

								       his power to avoid Sinclair, ran from Sinclair, and only finally

								       encountered Sinclair when Sinclair came after HIM. Then it was

								       nominal self-defense.

								       Had the "hole in the mind" reference never been made, it would

								       have been clear -- at least clear to every other carbon-based

								       lifeform who saw the movie -- that the assassin 1) came to try and

								       kill Kosh, 2) in the hope of disrupting the purpose of Babylon 5,

								       with the added benefit of 3) if he failed in his mission, setting

								       up Sinclair to take the rap for his actions. At the very end,

								       rather than be captured and interrogated, the Minbari assassin

								       killed himself with an implanted bomb. His comment to Sinclair at

								       that moment was more of an "Up yours" comment, designed to shatter

								       Sinclair with the knowledge that he knew something Sinclair

								       didn't.

								       You keep saying he was there to kill Sinclair. He wasn't. He

								       didn't. He didn't try. It makes it hard to have this conversation

								       with you if your comments don't touch reality at any two

								       contiguous points.

								     * I never said that the [assassin's] intent wasn't to set up

								       Sinclair; I only said that he wasn't there to *kill* Sinclair.

								       That aspect of making Sinclair the patsy was very much part of the

								       thing.

								     * What Kyle suggests...is closer to the truth than might otherwise

								       be suspected. We had filmed a scene -- which never made it into

								       the finished pilot -- where Garibaldi, growing suspicious of his

								       boss -- confronts Sinclair in the core shuttle. One of the alibis

								       he checked out doesn't hold up: Sinclair's. The transport tube

								       computer records don't indicate any delay. Sinclair suggests that

								       there's either a problem with the system, or it's been

								       deliberately altered to remove that information.

								       It was, of course, the latter.

								       Now...stop and think about this for a moment.

								       The Observation Dome has equipment to detect approaching ships.

								       The spider transport approaches without being noticed. The surface

								       of the station would likely have sensors to detect something

								       attaching itself to the hull. Somehow these were over-ridden. The

								       only time that anyone notices, up in the Dome, is later, when

								       Laurel isn't there, interestingly enough. Someone deliberately

								       programmed the transport tube to delay Sinclair. The assassin

								       would have to know this in advance.

								       We saw Londo with the assassin. We also saw Garibaldi, Lyta, Dr.

								       Kyle and -- later -- Sinclair with the assassin, each relating to

								       him in different ways. Who was the one person we never saw with

								       the assassin, whose reactions might have told us something? Who

								       was the one put in charge of the station when Sinclair was pulled

								       out of circulation?

								       Laurel.

								       We had some...interesting things in mind for this character. Now

								       that another character has come in, some things will be modified,

								       but other elements will come in to replace them.

								     * I kept Tamlyn in the dark about a lot of this. She even mentioned

								       this in an interview she gave somewhere. I didn't want that

								       knowledge to make her play the role anything other than it should

								       have been played: as if absolutely innocent and sincere. Sometimes

								       you just gotta be sneaky....

								     * There was an element of saving her own life...and another aspect

								       of all this is that she may not have been acting entirely of her

								       own free will during the first half. There may be some influences

								       that will emerge later.

								     * Laurel was not being altogether honest, and was helping to cover

								       the activities of the person who was doing the assassination

								       attempt.

								       (This, again, is a thread that would've come clear had we kept

								       that character; nobody was supposed to figure it out going in, but

								       rather put it together over time.)

								     * This has already been answered; had the character stayed with the

								       show, gradually it would have emerged that the assassin had access

								       to Laurel's codes because she provided them to him.

								     * This isn't so much a spoiler, since it concerns an abandoned story

								       like (or, let me rephrase that...a modified story line). I mention

								       this here since I just mentioned it elsewhere, and might as well

								       do so here.

								       Think hard about the pilot for a moment. Whose job is it in the

								       observation dome to monitor incoming ships...but apparently let

								       the spider transport slip through unnoticed? The station's skin

								       should have (and likely did) detect something clamping onto

								       it...but apparently someone over-rode that for the spider

								       transport. Someone had to PRE-arrange access via the computer for

								       the assassin, since it easily palms its way into Varner's

								       quarters. (And what is the name of the person the access computer

								       recognizes?) Someone had to arrange for the transport tube to be

								       delayed, and then *erase* that information from the computer

								       system. Someone who knew *exactly* when the Vorlon ship would be

								       docking. We see, at various times, the following people

								       interacting with the assassin, in different capacities: Garibaldi,

								       Lyta, G'Kar, Londo, Dr. Kyle, and of course, much later, Sinclair.

								       Who did we never see in direct contact with the assassin? Who was

								       put in charge of the station after Sinclair was removed?

								       Do you notice a pattern developing? Do certain things here point

								       to a certain individual...who may, or may not, have been acting on

								       her own volition?

								       And yes, this is something we planned to explore, though it wasn't

								       on a *direct* line to the arc of our story. It definitely impinged

								       upon it, of course. This has been modified due to the change in

								       the character of the Lieutenant Commander, and this now won't go

								       where it was going to go...but we still have some very interesting

								       plans for our secondary character, not at all along the Takashima

								       lines (which is why this isn't a spoiler), but certainly

								       intriguing on their own terms.

								     * Now, I didn't say she was a villain. I said that certain things

								       may or may not have been done of her own free will, her own

								       volition. What this means...we'll see.

								     * The scruffy person in the Varner files was the same homeless

								       person who we just happen to see sitting right outside Varner's

								       quarters, watching as he moves along. This was played by Ron

								       Thornton, because we wouldn't be seeing him in a major role, we'd

								       just have to know someone was there.

								       Again, this ties into a specific story line that has been modified

								       with a) the departure of Laurel, and b) the length of time since

								       the pilot aired. Who was the homeless man really? It's no longer

								       an issue, but it was related, yes.

								       But only in a very small way.

								     * "Would it be fair to compare the original ST pilot to B5's pilot?"

								       No, it would not. Because there is nothing in common with them

								       other than that they are both SF. You can compare TNG to DS9 to

								       TOS, because they're in the same universe.

								       Would it be fair to compare Cagney and Lacey with NYPD Blue? After

								       all, they're both cop shows. But in fact, they're not the same

								       kind of cop show; they share the same genre, but there ends the

								       overlap. The two shows are distinct, separate entities, just as

								       Harlan Ellison's work is distinct from Bill Gibson's work, even

								       though both incorporate elements of SF.

								       The ST pilot existed in its own universe, and was primarily an

								       action show. The B5 pilot exists in its own universe, and

								       primarily sets the stage for a political mystery/intrigue series.

								       It wasn't meant to serve the same functions as the ST pilot.

								       It seems to me that many SF fans continue to compare everything to

								       ST because that's their primary frame of reference, and they

								       continue to apply it whether it's relevant or not. My

								       suggestion...get another frame of reference.

								     * Once again, there's a lot of false analogies here in any attempt

								       to compare pilots, as in this TOS and B5 thread. You're talking

								       about transporters and other *technological* items. And you're

								       right, they didn't explain their tech. Neither did we, with the

								       exception of the changling net in the pilot, and only because it

								       was a plot point. We didn't explain how the jump gates worked, how

								       centrifugal force kept the gravity in place, or any of that.

								       The difference isn't *technology*, it's *context*. Once again, B5

								       is in many ways a *political* story. Consequently it's necessary

								       to explain who the players are in some detail, something that ST

								       didn't have to worry about. If you're reading a political thriller

								       about the U.S. and the (now defunct) USSR, it helps a lot to know

								       who's who.

								       Also, when ST started, there wasn't really a clear agenda, a place

								       that they were going, story-wise. B5 is a novel for TV. And that

								       puts on some pressures and problems other shows don't have. Others

								       may not see it that way, but it isn't their call. It's my call,

								       and I stand behind it, even while seeing some of the flaws in the

								       pilot.

								       All of which again points up the...well, *pointlessness* of trying

								       to compare the two shows. Compare MASH to ALL IN THE FAMILY.

								       They're both comedies. The similarity ends there. Everything

								       doesn't have to be comparable or dissectable (to coin a term) in

								       reference to ST.

								     * Let me just, against my better wishes, dive in here for just a

								       moment moment on this discussion. Especially as it relates to your

								       slam against the characters and characterizations on B5.

								       People keep comparing the B5 pilot to either the DS9 pilot or the

								       TNG pilot, often favorably, sometimes less so, but the reality is

								       that the B5 pilot had to suffer under a burden shared by neither

								       of those two other shows: establishing a whole new universe,

								       especially given that the B5 story is more of a political/action

								       piece in which you really have to understand where everyone's

								       coming from. By the time they got around to making the TNG pilot,

								       just about everyone knew what a Klingon was, what the Federation

								       was, what phasers and teleporters were...this was all established

								       cultural coin. When Jay Leno would make jokes about Klingons on

								       the Carson show (which it still was back then), he didn't have to

								       explain it to anyone. There's 25 years of shared history informing

								       the story. Same in DS9. Thus in neither pilot was that much really

								       or substantially *new* introduced, they didn't have to create the

								       universe from scratch.

								       But that was exactly what was necessary for B5; the relationship

								       between the five various governments is important to understanding

								       the characters, and the show...as is the recent Earth/Minbari war,

								       which isn't just backstory, it's something that will grow to play

								       an increasingly important role in the series as time passes. So

								       there had to be time spent establishing each of those

								       relationships, the political backstory, the minor players. AND we

								       had to tell a fairly complex story within that framework.

								       After you allocate the history of the B5 universe, for the

								       establishment of the plot, for the establishment of who our

								       various players are in relation to one another, you've got -- at

								       MOST -- 3 minutes left per character out of a 92 minute movie. You

								       can't establish a lot of character in 3 minutes.

								       Which is what strikes me as unfair in this conversation. You're

								       trying to compare 25-30 years of ST in its various incarnations,

								       with its delivery of characterization over A WEEKLY SERIES to a

								       single introductory TV movie of 92 minutes.

								       Plus, the pilot was never meant to be a stand-alone; it was meant

								       to get all the pieces moving, introduce us, and follow up the very

								       next week with *character-oriented stories*. That was always the

								       plan. Had I known that it would be aired by itself, with a long

								       delay until the series, I would have totally restructured it to

								       make it more of a character story, and held off on the heavy

								       background stuff until later. And in addition to THAT, I again

								       point to the 25 minutes of good character stuff that ended up on

								       the cutting room floor because we were over, some of which has

								       been shown to people at conventions. Some of them also felt as you

								       do. They saw the extra footage. And their reaction: "Oh, so THAT'S

								       who that is!" And their opinions of the characters did a fast

								       turnaround.

								       So what I'm saying here, fundamentally, is this: let's compare

								       apples to apples and not apples to oranges. You can't compare B5

								       to either TNG's or DS9's pilots, because they operated in

								       pre-existing universes. You can't compare the level of character

								       you get in a series to a TV movie, because one is 92 minutes long,

								       the other is 22 hours long times the number of seasons run.

								       If you want to compare things, and that's certainly your right,

								       may I suggest a moratorium on this entire discussion until the

								       series comes on the air? That will allow you to compare series to

								       series, which seems just a tad fairer to me. Any seconds?

								     * Re: the pilot...I've hashed and rehashed this, and the bottom line

								       is to see what we do in the series and judge the series by the

								       series. The DS9 pilot had to explain very little that wasn't

								       specific to the plotline: you already knew what a Bajorran was,

								       what a wormhole was, what the Federation was, what the Cardassians

								       were, on and on and on. Because they didn't have to introduce any

								       of that, they could spend time on other character moments. We

								       didn't have that luxury in the pilot. We had to do what, in

								       essence, ST has done over 25 years: establish our universe,

								       painting it in broad strokes, as broad're done with that aspect.

								       And now we can do our character-based stories. Which is exactly

								       what we're doing. Each of the characters is being solidly rounded

								       out in the series, showing multiple sides to each character. All I

								       can say is that I think you'll like what we're doing.

								     * I wasn't gonna jump in here, but I have to at least answer your

								       question: "Where's the rest?" The rest is in the series. You

								       haven't seen the series yet. You're comparing it against 7 years

								       of TNG; rather consider if the ONLY thing you had EVER seen was

								       "Farpoint." We had a massive burden: to build an entire universe,

								       based around a political drama, in basically 90+ minutes not

								       counting commercials. That meant that more time went into

								       exposition and backstory than I'd like.

								       In my view, we've now done that, we've laid the foundation, and

								       now we can sit back and tell stories...*character* based stories.

								       That's what I'm best at, and that's what the writers I've chosen

								       to use on the series are best at.

								       The "rest" you ask for is there..in the series. But I'm not asking

								       you to take my word for it. Check out the show. Maybe you'll like

								       it. And maybe you won't. That's showbiz. You don' like it, you

								       don' gotta watch. But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

								       The miracle of the B5 pilot is that it got done at *all*, given

								       the odds against us, given a team working together for the first

								       time, without the benefit of an established universe, and actors

								       who had never worked together before who had zero chance for

								       rehearsal. I'm not apologizing for the pilot; it had flaws, but

								       I'm very proud of a lot that's in there.

								       Do the math. You have a little over 90 minutes. You have to

								       introduce 9 major characters in the course of that story. That

								       gives you ten minutes of attention for any one character. Now

								       you've also got to tell the backstory. You've got to establish who

								       the various players are. You've got to put the present-tense story

								       into motion, with beginning, middle and end. And now you're left

								       with maybe 3-4 minutes of "quality time" with any one character.

								       If we only had 2 or 3 characters, then it's a very different

								       story...but that isn't the universe we have to work in.

								       Now that the series is going ahead, we can spend an entire

								       *episode* dealing primarily with one character. And do the same

								       for others. We have the time. And that's what's important.

								       One last observation: you repeat the notion that it's all a

								       "reaction" to TNG. The treatment and screenply were complete and

								       making the rounds in Hollywood in Spring 1987. The basic material

								       was written in 1986, at a point in some cases when TNG hadn't even

								       *aired* yet. So it could hardly have been written as a reaction to

								       something that hadn't been seen yet, could it?

								     * You repeat several times your insistence that I study TNG to see

								       what they did right, use them as a roadmap.

								       Sorry. I have no desire to study TNG. I'm telling a different sort

								       of story, in a different universe. What TNG does right or wrong is

								       more or less irrelevant to that universe. That's like saying that

								       (just to pick two names at random) Orson Scott Card should study

								       Poul Anderson as a roadmap in his own novels. This is utter

								       nonsense.

								       A while ago, I got an email from someone who didn't like the pilot

								       (and it may have been on internet, btw) mainly because of the

								       communication devices. He said, and I'm paraphrasing from memory,

								       that every time someone used the wrist-links, it broke the

								       illusion for him, since we all KNOW that by then the REALITY is

								       that we'll be using the chest communicators that TNG uses, and I

								       should be sure to include that in future episodes as a

								       capitulation to that reality.

								       Sorry...TNG is a roadmap for TNG. Not B5.

								     * The VOYAGER pilot is *$23 million*?!

								       The BABYLON 5 pilot was $3.5 million.

								       With $23 million, we could make 1.3 SEASONS of B5. And have a bit

								       of money left over for a wrap party.

								       Amazing....

								     * My feeling here is, don't worry about the show, regarding your

								       overcoming on the pilot. Pilots are good, bad or uneven. What

								       matters in the analysis is the series. You can have a great pilot

								       and a disappointing series. And vice-versa. The series will air.

								       If it's good, people will watch, whatever they may have thought

								       about the pilot. If it ain't good, people won't watch, and

								       deservedly so. In other words, the ball's in our court now.

								     * "The pilot wasn't good. Face it!"

								       I'm at the head of the line to point out flaws in the pilot. Flaws

								       that we've dealt with. But a) it still holds up, and b) you are

								       trying to make your opinion into *fact*. It ain't. An awful lot of

								       people liked the pilot a lot. To them, it was good. Maybe to you,

								       it wasn't, but that's only true for you. That you may think

								       persimmon yoghurt is the best flavor ever created doesn't make it

								       true for everybody else. Just a moment for perspective here....

								     * I was at the Emmys tonight for the presentation of the B5 Emmy,

								       and in the visual efx area, more than one shoe can get an Emmy. So

								       we got one, DS9's pilot got one, and Lucas' Young Indy show got

								       one. (We sat at the next table to Lucas and his bunch, in fact,

								       and noted that he watched the B5 footage with considerable

								       interest.) So when you come right down to it, here we were, our

								       first shot out of the box, and we ended up on the same level of

								       appreciation as Trek and Lucas. Not too dusty....

								     * And y'know...it's absolutely in keeping with the Straczynski luck,

								       and the history of this show, that the year B5 wins an Emmy is the

								       first year that they DON'T do the recap of last night's technical

								       awards. Ah, well....

								     * I was asked to keep quite about this until April 23rd, which is

								       when the announcement is to be made at the Nebulas, but now that

								       it's indeed the 23rd, and that announcement either has been made

								       or is being made now, I'm pleased to report that the Babylon 5

								       pilot movie, "The Gathering," has been nominated for a Hugo.

								       Since we're up against Jurassic Park, I think I pretty much know

								       where THAT award is going...but it is a tremendous honor and

								       everyone involved with the show is very pleased by it.

								     * Thanks. As it turns out -- I today saw the list of nominees -- B5

								       is the ONLY TV-SF nominated for the Hugo. The rest are all feature

								       films (JP, Addams Family, Nightmare Before Christmas, Groundhog

								       Day).

								     * Eric...nothing would gladden my heart more than if the B5 pilot

								       won a Hugo (except the series winning a Hugo, which I think is a

								       bit likelier, maybe). It is the highest compliment that can be

								       paid by the SF community of readers and viewers. But one must be

								       realistic, and I just don't see it outpulling Jurassic Park in the

								       ballotting. JP is the proverbial 500 pound gorilla. Or the 50,000

								       pound T-Rex.

								       While we are only small mammals....granted we're mammals with guns

								       and an attitude, of course....

								     * _JP won the Hugo_

								       Yep, that's pretty much what I said would happen. And in my view,

								       JP probably deserves the Hugo more than "The Gathering." Next

								       year, now, THAT is an open question....

								     * Nope, I was nowhere in the pilot, not under makeup, not nohow, not

								       no-way. Nor will I do so in the series. That just ain't my thing.

								     * Side-note...Londo baring his teeth had nothing to do with Delenn's

								       vote in "The Gathering." That was gas.

								     * Both Christy Marx and Kathryn [Drennan, JMS's wife] can both be

								       *briefly* seen in the pilot movie as BG in the casino...and in the

								       main titles, Kathryn's back is to the camera in the wide downshot,

								       though you really can't make it out well in that one. Also in the

								       montage in the pilot movie, seated at the bar under narration, the

								       fellow with the beard, is art director John Iacovelli.

								     * The most entertaining thing for a writer is creating a character;

								       the second most entertaining thing is killing off a character.

								       Believe me, as you'll see in the Fight To The Death in the pilot,

								       I have no problem dropping a body. And as far as I'm concerned,

								       only 2 or 3 characters in this series are indispensible...the rest

								       are open to all kinds of interesting fates.

								     * The amount of contact required varies according to the telepath's

								       strength. Lyta at P5 needs a little help. A P10 could nail you

								       from across the room.

								     * The background on that business meeting is similar to all such

								       uses of telepaths: both sides agree to the presence of a telepath

								       to monitor the negotiations. If one were to demur, the deal would

								       be off because the person clearly has something to hide. Which is

								       why there is a good market for various kinds of shields that don't

								       LOOK like or feel like shields unless the telepath knows what to

								       look for. You can also just try and hide it and hope that the

								       telepath isn't looking too deep or isn't really paying attention,

								       which is what that guy was doing. (May have been reciting the

								       "tensor" rhyme trying to keep his brain occupied.)

								     * The encounter suit opened at the touch of a button (you can hear

								       him press the button with a *click*). Only for Lyta did it open on

								       its own.

								     * Here's the one thing that amazes me, speaking of seeing the pilot

								       for the gadzillionth time...there is one great big huge gaping

								       visual anomaly/inconsistency in the pilot that so far no one has

								       noticed. It's so massive that when I first saw it, I just about

								       fell out of my chair. But the director said "No one's ever gonna

								       see it, no one's ever gonna notice it, *trust* me on this." I was

								       absolutely convinced that he was wrong. Apparently he was right.

								       At some point in the future I'll tell you what it is...and when

								       you see it, you're going to wonder how the hell you avoided seeing

								       it before, it's *that* big. But not for a while yet. (And the few

								       smaller things mentioned here ...ain't it.)

								     * For the record...thtch has something to do with the second trial

								       scene.

								     * It's the overhead shot of the courtroom; we didn't have a second

								       establisher, so we used the one of Kyle even though Sinclair was

								       on the stand.

								     * Actually, "beep-beep" was always there in the script; it was the

								       part where we learn AFTER that that Sinclair only told G'Kar about

								       the homing beacon, didn't really plant it, that came up during

								       filming.

								     * Here's one little extra for you: only one person aboard Babylon 5

								       has any idea of what a Vorlon is, inside that suit, and only one

								       race has had dealings with the Vorlons before. Watch the reception

								       at the end, and see if you notice anything unusual in the way the

								       various people respond to Kosh.

								     * How much of the basic "saga" is in the pilot? Some...bits and

								       pieces. The problem, always, is that we have a whole new universe

								       to establish, with all the backstory that goes with that. As it

								       is, it's fairly "information intensive," as one person put it. We

								       find out about the Earth/Minbari war, the curious surrender,

								       Sinclair's past, the missing 24 hours, the relations between the

								       various governments and their own personal agendas, and a hint of

								       what's to come. This while establishing the backstory of all our

								       characters, and telling a story in present time (for them).

								       I think you will find indications of what we've talked about for

								       the series present in the pilot. Which is why it bears watching

								       more than once; you'll pick up more information and more of a

								       sense of the world the more closely you inspect it. (We tried to

								       come up with a pilot that actually BENEFITS from close inspection,

								       rather than falling apart if you look at it too closely.)

								     * Actually, the funny thing is, I don't much mind if people who

								       hadn't seen the pilot don't catch the rebroadcast. What we're

								       doing now is SO radically better than the pilot that I almost

								       can't watch it now.

								     * Agreed, the pilot movie was much darker...unfortunately, it was SO

								       dark that we actually veered into what're called "illegal blacks,"

								       that is, the picture is too dark, and this causes problems with

								       foreign distributers. (This is what they tell me, and through an

								       act of faith I have come to believe them.) We're still about a

								       half-stop or full stop below what's typical. Be advised that many

								       stations, when they broadcast the show, pump up the brightness a

								       *lot*. They just dial it up.

								     * Laurel was not standing upside down in relation to the station's

								       rotation. The docking bay, at the center of the station, for

								       zero-g, was above her head, her feet pointed down, toward the rim

								       of the station, in correct orientation. Just FYI.

								     * We'd originally planned to go for a more vague sexuality for

								       Delenn; a male physically and primarily in the voice, on top of

								       the natural female movements one gets from an actress. In

								       post-production, however, we couldn't get the voice to sound as

								       good and male as we'd wanted. In addition, a couple of convention

								       showing of a rough cut saw people responding VERY strongly to her

								       voice as it was, so we finally decided to let it stand and change

								       the one reference to "he" to "she," and that was the end of it.

								     * Delenn was originally going to be a fairly sexually-ambiguous

								       character...a male character, played by a female, with a computer

								       altered voice...but we couldn't make the alteration sound good

								       enough to satisfy us, so we left her a her.

								     * Kosh will "speak" in the series. After a fashion. But not as you

								       might expect. Suffice to say we've seen the final effect now in

								       the mix of finished episodes, and it's *real* creepy.

								     * Your memory is faulty. It was stated in the pilot that Kosh's ship

								       took roughly 4 days to travel via hyperspace to B5. That's from

								       Vorlon space; we don't know where the fleet was when it entered

								       jump. Because such ships can make their own jump points, it

								       could've been a lot closer to B5 space when it went in. (And was.)

								     * Okay, okay, 8 days not four...I knew it weren't no 3 weeks,

								       though. The one thing to remember is that travel in hyperspace

								       isn't the main problem; the real problem, time-wise, is the period

								       required to get from a world to its nearest jump gate. It might

								       take 4 days to travel from World X to the gate, and 1 day to B5 in

								       hyperspace...while another race, 1 day from the gate, and 1 day to

								       B5 in hyperspace, only has 2 travel days.

								     * As I've noted elsewhere, G'Kar made mention of the need for

								       genetic alteration/modification during the scene with Lyta. Beyond

								       that, though, G'Kar's personal perversion is sex with humans,

								       which no one else seems quite able to understand....

								     * Garibaldi was named after the famous Italian war hero of the same

								       name.


								  Special Edition (spoilers for future episodes)


								     * "Now that TNT has set a definite date for airing the series, have

								       they given you a 'go' for re-editing The Gathering? If so, how

								       much will you be able to put back (the character stuff with

								       Sinclair?) Might you even re-score it with Christopher Franke

								       music?"

								       We're still negotiating that out, but in hopes of this going,

								       we've begun redigitizing the footage so we can get into the main

								       scenes we want to work on.

								     * We're also going to update the CGI, if we can do this.

								     * _Why were any important scenes cut?_

								       The fault was mine, not the suits.

								       Prior to exec producing B5, I had never edited a show before,

								       never had final cut before...had never even been IN an editing

								       room for more than 5 minutes before. So here I am, given the

								       director's cut...and I know it's real slow, but I haven't done

								       this before, so I don't trust my instincts. I let it go with very

								       minimal changes.

								       And I've been kicking myself ever since. I should've followed my

								       instincts, but instead I deferred to the director's cut.

								       It's a mistake I have never made since.

								       Even so, that first cut just gnaws at me...I *know* I can make it

								       better, stronger, even if only a bit in a few places, that would

								       help salve my soul over this thing.

								     * _Would you use new music by Christopher Franke?_

								       Yeah, Chris would re-score it.

								     * _Is the reedit a dead deal?_

								       No, the funding was approved, and we're working on it now.

								     * Yep, we're working on the re-edit now. There's still just so much

								       that can be done, we can't shoot new material...but it's still

								       going to be tighter, with additional material, new music, and new

								       CGI in many places.

								     * Basically, it's new scenes with the characters, new CGI in many

								       places, and new music.

								     * _What was wrong with the original?_

								       I was new at exec producing, and deferred 'way too much to the

								       director, whose cut was, frankly, slow and left all the best

								       character moments on the cutting room floor. We lost 14 minutes of

								       good stuff, which is now going to go back and we're going to

								       tighten and make it better, the way we do our cuts on all the

								       episodes.

								     * "Will the 14 minutes being restored to "The Gathering" include

								       Marianne Robertson's "hostage" scene?"

								       Yup.

								     * Today, John Copeland and I finished re-editing "The Gathering,"

								       the B5 pilot movie. While there were some areas we couldn't get

								       into because of the complexity in redoing the mix, virtually every

								       scene got tinkered with to one degree or another, and most

								       important, the roughly 14 minutes of footage left out of the

								       original version is now back in. The whole thing is tighter and

								       faster, and there's more recent CGI, we'll have Chris Franke

								       re-score it, and it's just in general a lot better. (Some parts of

								       it even make more sense now.)

								       One additional change: because of the desire on PTEN's part to

								       have as many commercial breaks as possible, the 6-act script was

								       jerry-rigged and broken down into 9 acts. One side-effect of this

								       is that 9 acts wears on you, and wears you out, more than the

								       standard 6. You start to get a feeling of being led up to things

								       too often, and there isn't time to dwell on the acts you're in. I

								       was finally able, with this re-edit, to move scenes back around

								       again to what I originally wanted in a 6-act structure (you'll see

								       a number of scenes juxtaposed from their original order).

								       Anyway...the TNT Special Edition is much improved over the

								       original.

								     * _What will be cut to make room for the new footage?_

								       Not much, just little snippets of things...the show was *very*

								       slow paced, and once you pick up the pacing within scenes, whole

								       vast tracts of time appear.

								     * you spare a few words on how you went about the re-edit? Did you

								       start with what you wanted to get back in, or trying to find out

								       how much time you could recapture?"

								       The first thing I did was to sit down with the editor assigned to

								       the re-edit, Suzie, and go through the original script for the

								       pilot. My first words to her were, "Put everyhing in that ain't

								       there." To that end, she redigitized all of the footage from

								       missing scenes, and had available all of the available footage of

								       the other scenes for digitizing as we went.

								       Note that I said all the *available* footage. The folks at WB who

								       held custody of the film (we don't keep that stuff, we're not

								       allowed to by contract, they store film, negative, prints, all

								       that stuff) put the negative canisters into storage...and at one

								       point in the intervening 4 years, there had been water damage, and

								       on another occasion, apparently rats had gotten in there and

								       chewed some of the original negatives (and in most cases there

								       weren't positive struck of those takes).

								       Take your reaction to the foregoing, put it in front of the Hubble

								       telescope, and you will have mine.

								       However, we lucked out...where there were some takes that are

								       gone, we were able to find enough others (masters instead of a

								       two-shot, or a close-up instead of an over-shoulder) and B-camera

								       footage that we were able to build solid versions of those scenes.

								       We didn't always have as many choices as we're used to but there

								       was more than enough for our needs.

								       Suzi then dumped all of the newly edited additional scenes into

								       the existing pilot, and that gave us the new running time (we

								       added about 14 minutes). So at that point, John and I went in and

								       worked to slice down the previously existing scenes, doing what we

								       do with B5: tightening every loose screw and nut as much as we

								       could. One or two incidental, unimportant scenes in the original

								       pilot went out, because they added nothing and shouldn't have been

								       there in the first place (a total of about 3 minutes). The

								       remaining 11 minutes we made up in just tightening scenes, which

								       were *so* lax and slow that it's amazing at times.

								       In some cases, we substituted one take for another in the

								       pre-existing pilot when we had a better reaction, or played scenes

								       closer for more intimacy. (One of the problems with the pilot is

								       that it kept the audience far from the action, and the actors far

								       from each other, something we changed in our shooting style for

								       the series...here we tried to change it when we could and when we

								       had the coverage.)

								       Tiny example: when Kosh falls down upon arriving at B5, that

								       sequence ends with a big honking wide downshot of a nearly empty

								       docking bay, with Kosh far from us, and Sinclair looking down

								       (away from us) when he says "Damn." Then we go from that to a wide

								       shot of the medlab. Same framing. So I had Suzie look for a take

								       where we panned up from a close on Kosh, to a close on Sinclair

								       for that line, so it's more immediate, more personal, and the jump

								       to the next scene doesn't feel like the one before.

								       See, directors like to stay wide in their cuts, so you can see

								       their nifty camera angles, see the set, the lighting...but after

								       you've established where we are, most people want to see the

								       *characters*, not the walls or how the camera moves. That was what

								       we tried to fix where we could.

								       We couldn't totally re-edit the pilot, because we hadn't been

								       given the money for something that intensive (the main expense is

								       in opening up all the audio stems in the sound mix). But all the

								       stuff I wanted back in, is now in, and the scenes I wanted to fix,

								       I fixed.

								       I also got the thing back to its original format. All TV movies

								       are 6 acts. Because PTEN wanted more commercial breaks, I had to

								       re-jig the structure of the thing into 9 acts, which meant moving

								       some scenes into places where they weren't as effective, and

								       frankly after 9 acts you just get tired of watching. Here I was

								       able to move scenes around and get back to the original 6 act

								       structure that was intended for the thing, and that alone makes a

								       huge difference in how the film feels.

								       One of the biggest changes is the one least immediately apparent.

								       After we finished the original pilot, some folks at WB felt that

								       Laurel was too...strong. They will rarely put it in terms quite as

								       blatant as that, but that was the message...she was "unlikeable,

								       unsympathetic, harsh." Meaning some of the guys felt she was too

								       strong, let's cut to the chase, okay?

								       They wanted her to loop her lines, soften their (her) delivery. I

								       fought this tooth and nail. I fought this until finally I was

								       pulled aside and it was communicated to me that B5 was, after all,

								       still an unknown property, could be a big failure, and if we ever

								       wanted to see this thing on the air, we'd accommodate this note

								       (which was, I have to admit on balance, one of the few they had).

								       The advice was, in essence, "Pick your battles."

								       So, reluctantly, I let it get looped by Tamlyn.

								       But now, when the re-edit was commissioned, and with the person at

								       the studio who insisted on this now no longer AT the studio, I

								       told Suzie, "Screw it, put back her original production track and

								       trash the loops." Instantly, Laurel's energy level comes up, the

								       performance is better...it just *feels* more natural now.

								       So basically, we did a lot...some of it may not be immediately

								       apparent (improving a sound here, altering coverage, adding

								       additional sound layers, redoing a composite shot of the garden),

								       but over the duration of watching it, it's just *better*. It's

								       still a *tad* slower around the middle than I would've liked, but

								       that's a WP (writer problem), nothing that can be fixed in an

								       edit. It's just exposition-dense there, and nothing of a sort that

								       can be cut.

								     * "Also, the reworking of Sinclair's narration of the Battle of the

								       Line, with Requiem for the Line and the battle transmissions was

								       just gripping, it really showcased Michael O'Hare's strengths as

								       an actor."

								       Yeah, that was an experiment I wanted to try. When we did the

								       audio spotting (me sitting with the sound folks, Chris, others), I

								       explained what I wanted done with that scene, and they kinda got

								       it but were a little dubious as to whether or not this could or

								       would work. When we came to the day of the audio mix, it was kind

								       of a jumble...so I worked with the music and the voices to

								       basically fill in the gaps between Sinclair's words. Then I backed

								       up and chose the ones that most related to what he had just said,

								       or was about to just say. It took about half an hour to get that

								       30 second piece down pat.

								       One of the least visible things I do is mess with the music and

								       how the music lays out on the track. I'm often at the front of the

								       mixing room, working with the mixers, bringing up one instrument

								       (percussion, for instance), bringing down the horns for one piece,

								       up in another. In "In the Beginning," for instance, there was

								       percussion all through the Battle of the Line itself...and we had

								       big EFX of guns and explosions going off, and the two muddied

								       together. So I went with the explosions for the first of it, then

								       replaced some of the gunfire/explosions with percussion, then

								       ducked down the SFX altogether and just let the music take it. You

								       kind of have to be a conductor in these instances.

								     * _Why would Kosh tell Sinclair he was Valen?_

								       Internal dialogue...what he was thinking, his reaction.


								     _________________________________________________________________


								   Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan _matt@uhs.uchicago.edu_


								      [53]Last update: January 12, 1998


								References


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