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The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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===========================================================================
| This text is compiled from posts by J. Michael Straczynski on the Usenet
| group alt.tv.babylon-5. This document contains material Copyright 1993
| J. Michael Straczynski. He has given permission for his words to be
| redistributed online, as long as they are marked as being copyright JMS.
| This document, as well as other Babylon-5 related material, is available
| by anonymous FTP at ftp.hyperion.com.
===========================================================================
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Aug 1993 03:43:47 -0400
Subject: characters
You make some good points about the number of characters in the
show; it *is* an ensemble in the truest sense. Not every character will
appear in every show, only when they have something to *contribute* will
they be there. Also, it's possible to bring out something interesting
about a character without dedicating an entire episode to that character.
It is, as you say, a very large cast: on the EA side, you've got
Sinclair, Garibaldi, Ivanova and Franklin, with the telepath more or less
on that same side. Then on the alien side, you've got G'Kar and his
attache Ko'Dath, Londo and his attache Vir, Delenn and her attache Lennier,
Kosh and...nobody, really, plus other recurring alien characters such as
n'grath (a *very* non-humanoid and interesting character), and of course
Sinclair's recurring love interest, Catherine Sakai. That's 14 characters
right there. That's a lot of balls to keep up in the air at the same time,
and you have to use them carefully, to advance a given story, but also to
give them moments in which their personalities can really come through.
This is, as stated, a *big* show.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Aug 1993 03:45:48 -0400
Subject: Re: Rerun the Pilot!
The pilot will be rerun a couple more times between now and the
series going on-line, definitely in November. (And those who'
've been asking for x-y-z axis movement will get it, btw.)
The only hesitation I have about the pilot is that the series is
going to be *much* improved, and the pilot really will no longer be a real
indication of what we have in mind.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 4 Aug 1993 03:44:03 -0400
Subject: is there anyone on who doesn't
The situation you describe is essentially correct. One part of the
problem comes from the fact that there have been so few even reasonably
successful SF shows on television...and you can count the ones set in
space on the fingers of one hand. So with so few shows in this area, it
is inevitable that people will make comparisons. If SF space series were
as common place, and had had as many variations, as the cop show, or
the hospital show, I think you wouldn't really have this going on. (When
a new cop show comes on, people don't go around trying to figure out how
it compares to CANNON or POLICE STORY.)
If B5 succeeds, proving you can do SF space series for a reasonable
cost, I think you'll suddenly see a *lot* more of them. (Already people
are talking about the B5 "model" in terms of how to produce a show in this
genre without hitting hideous cost over-runs.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 5 Aug 1993 02:44:37 -0400
Subject: Re: JMS: Cast additions/change
Harlan is currently consulting on the series, and is even now
writing a script for us. So yes, he's definitely working away.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 5 Aug 1993 02:50:39 -0400
Subject: Wanted: Hardend Characters
We'll definitely be dealing with the aspects of how fighting in a war
can affect you. And this isn't just a vague promise: watch the end of the
third (currently) scheduled episode, "Infection," for a scene between
Sinclair and Garibaldi that really deals very straightforwardly with this
issue. It's a conversation you wouldn't expect to see in a show like this.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Aug 1993 01:51:25 -0400
Subject: Wanted: just a bit more reali
The main line I've been stressing with our writers and others who
we're working with is the goal of making our humans more human, and our
aliens more alien. Much of our life is focused around things that don't
generally show up in SF television...we cut ourselves shaving, we have to
find a bathroom, our shoes don't fit...and these are the elements that
help make a character more real somehow. So yes, we're very definitely
going for that aspect.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Aug 1993 01:14:59 -0400
Subject: A thousand thanks.
You have my promise on both counts. Frankly, if a common enemy came
along...in the B5 universe they'd all probably fall over each other trying
to sell each other out in hopes of being the one left standing when the
dust clears.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Aug 1993 01:03:49 -0400
Subject: Re: Wanted: less cheese, more
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?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Aug 1993 02:57:23 -0400
Subject: Re: Wanted: less cheese, more
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Aug 1993 00:58:02 -0400
Subject: Various Topics
1) Language. We don't have a universal translator. You either have
to speak English, Interlac, or Centauri, the three dominant languages. If
not, then you have to use a mechanical translator, which isn't set up for
every brand new language they encounter. I'd like to showcase at least
one episode in which communication is really a problem.
2) Yes, for the most part, we're looking at humanoids...but not in
all cases. Look for one character in particular, n'grath, who will make
his/its first appearance in the second episode. This thing definately
ain't human.
3) We have some interesting ideas for what can happen to the energy
question.
4) Our crew members do what they're assigned to do, what their rank
and designation specifies they should do.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Aug 1993 01:12:35 -0400
Subject: Upcoming Conventions?
I'll be at both WorldCon in San Francisco the first part of
September, and at Comic Con in a week or so. I'll be bringing the same
basic material to both places, so you don't have to do both. But I can
promise you'll find it interesting. At this point, in addition, it looks
like Michael O'Hare, Jerry Doyle, and Harlan Ellison will also be doing
the SDCC B5 presentation as well.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:10 -0400
Subject: One more *small* request of jm
I hate scripts that end with, "And they all laugh." Even when I was
working in animation, I avoided them. Thus far, all of our episodes are
slated to end with a tag, but in many cases -- and this is almost becoming
a theme or a setpiece for us -- there's a questioning element to the tag,
something unusual or offbeat that adds one other layer to what we've just
seen.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:38 -0400
Subject: Popularity of this group
It's all extrapolation, trying to keep an eye on what seems now to
be a realistic expectation of the future. The wild card, of course, is
the assumption in the B5 universe that we've also integrated a fair
amount of alien technology, which sort of jump-started our own space
exploration efforts. It vastly changes the whole equation....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:42 -0400
Subject: ftp.hyperion.com
With regrets, I can't provide gif images without PTEN (justifiably)
yelling on me. I'm working to try and change their opinion, but so far,
that's the policy.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:42:32 -0400
Subject: Re: A thousand thanks.
Somebody said that what they liked about the show was the sense that
it was altogether possible that you could turn on the show one day and
find that the whole station had vanished, with the word "Crotoan"
lasered onto a nearby asteroid. Anything can happen.
And as much as possible, I'm going to try to keep playing to that
aspect. Anyone is fair game. Characters should turn around, and become
something other than what they seem to be. And there can be even larger
changes wrought on the whole tapestry of the show, some of which will show
up in a *very* major way late in the third season. I like pulling the
rug out from under people.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Aug 1993 00:14:42 -0400
Subject: The Known Galaxy -- How much i
I'm still mapping that aspect out. We do make a distinction in the
series between space in general and "known space." In "Infection," one
character comments that he's come "halfway across known space" to see
someone. But the details of that are still being worked out.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Aug 1993 00:14:54 -0400
Subject: So who's Catherine Sakai?
Catherine Sakai is played by Julie Nickson Soul, an asian-american
actor who's done quite a bit of work in high-profile films. Her
character is never Cathy, only Catherine (occasionally Cath to Sinclair,
but *only* occasionally). She's a planetary surveyer, working for one
of the Earth corporations, looking for uninhabited worlds and asteroids
for exploitation.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 16 Aug 1993 00:27:02 -0400
Subject: Re: Aspirin (Was Re: One more
"But it still doesn't change the FACT that in a few hundred years,
aspirin WILL BE obsolete."
Don't suppose you'd be willing to produce the Journal of the American
Medical Association for Spring 2257 to back up your statement of *fact*
in this matter, would you?
The *fact* is that even now, we're re-discovering medicines and means
of healing that go back centuries. You may state clearly and with great
confidence your opinion...but that is all that it is, it is not "fact," as
you state.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 17 Aug 1993 01:44:34 -0400
Subject: Where can I find ???????
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.
BTW...just to put the word out: someone stole a painstakingly painted
plaster cast of G'Kar -- full-size, head and neck -- from the B5 offices.
If *anyone* should offer this for sale anywhere, please be advised that
this stolen merchandise and should be reported.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 19 Aug 1993 01:41:54 -0400
Subject: Questions for JMS
Insofar as I know, Walker is mainly features PR and some network PR;
we fall under the PTEN jurisdiction, so I don't think he's involved. I
don't yet know how much promotional material will be made available; it's
a long ways until we go on the air, so there's time for that to get put
together.
For those who want to send mail to B5, best to use this address:
14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. My name or
B5 will suffice.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Aug 1993 02:56:03 -0400
Subject: Re: JMS: Last 2 weeks...
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Aug 1993 03:10:52 -0400
Subject: Re: JMS: Last 2 weeks...
The point you raise is absolutely accurate. When it comes to making
up names for civilizations, or characters, one goes for the *sound* of the
name or the sense of the name. "Minbar" is one of those terms whose
meaning, unlike Yangs and Coms (Yanks and Commies) is NOT well known; ask
any 100 people on the street, and it's *very* unlikely that ANY of them
would know what a minbar is. Because the Minbari are very spiritual (well,
half of them, anyway), and because I always liked the *sound* of the word
"minbar," that became the name. It has no dead-on meaning, there is no
translation, it doesn't describe what they are. I don't think it's as
blunt as the examples cited, because it's a *very* obscure term; in all
this time, only that ONE person recognized its origins.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Aug 1993 23:35:30 -0400
Subject: Re: pilot inconsistancy
I'm going to try this again; for some reason, the last several notes
I sent in reply to internet stuff hasn't gotten through.
The station *is* still rotating in the Vorlon attack scene. The
camera is more or less tracking with the rotation at that moment, but it
is moving. I was there at the early wireframe tests.
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:27:56 -0400
Subject: Re: A little scenario
Excuse me for being blunt, but since you're being blunt, you
shouldn't mind a blunt observation in return.
You are an idiot.
I have no problem with someone finding genuine faults with a show,
mine or otherwise...but it's something else again to *manufacture* faults,
and then make them into errors. I feel a little like Woody Allen in
MANHATTAN, listening to the fellow behind him in line mouthing on and on
about Marshall McCluhan's work, all of it absolutely wrong, until finally
Allen drags Marshall out from behind the nearest wall to say to him, in
essence, "You are an idiot."
You say, taking this as your premise, "it's pretty clear that a
Vorlon is the standard 'shimmering-electric-blue energy creature that just
happens to be humanoid.'" No, it's not. I don't care what you think,
that is most definitely NOT what Kosh is. So all of your error-finding
based on that assumption is strictly nonsense. I'm just amazed that you
can sit there and say, "Oh, yes, this is what it is," when it's not, and
at this moment only three people in the WORLD know what a Vorlon is.
You say that the Minbari "of course...should have had NO contact
with them." That's your assumption. Your assumption is deadass wrong.
Note how Delenn comes forth and bows to the Vorlon. There is some
familiarity there. We will be finding out just HOW much familiarity there
is down the road. That's what we have the series for. To develop these
kinds of things.
You complain about things you think are obvious (and by the way,
you're wrong in THAT message as well), but things that are subtle seem to
rocket over your head at something just short of lightspeed.
And that background of familiarity DOES explain how the assassin would
know how to hurt a Vorlon.
You have to understand that, despite being on televison, this is a
BOOK. It is a novel. You have seen only the prologue to the novel at
this juncture. To conclude everything that will happen based strictly on
that prologue is absurd. (And please don't throw "Well, that's all we've
HAD for a year" at me...it wasn't designed that way. It was designed to
go immediately into series, and begin both posing and answering some of
the questions raised, so that at this moment, we wouldn't be HAVING this
discussion. You can't blame us for a corporate decision.)
So in any event, your entire 1-2-3 progression, based as it is on
completely erroneous and presumptuous assumptions is totally wrong. You
will simply have to wait and see how it ends, as with any story. If you
don't, if this message has pissed you off, that's life.
In future, comment on *actual aspects of the production* all you
like...but try to refrain from cooking up some weird scenario in your own
mind, slapping it as an overlay onto my show, and somehow twisting things
around to make it look like we're doing something dumb, when in fact your
message doesn't touch reality at any two contiguous points.
How's THAT for a review?
(Oh, and a P.S. to those who parroted the comments of Jeff Jarvis at
TV Guide about the "cheesy" special effects/CGI in the B5 pilot: we just
received word that we've won an Emmy for Best Special Effects in a TV
Movie.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:28:36 -0400
Subject: Re: Strange Things
"I could swear I saw ships leaving B5 after Sinclair ordered it
closed." To which you reply, "I agree, and I mentioned it before."
Yes, you did. Just one problem. There ARE no such shots of any
ships entering B5. You have some shots of ships in a holding pattern
outside, waiting until all is cleared, or heading on to secondary bases.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:42:49 -0400
Subject: Confirmation requested... Koen
Whoever posted the note re: Walter Koenig is baldfacedly lying.
Walter was in my office just this afternoon, in fact. He's doing well,
exercising, walking around, and looks great...a hell of a lot better than
I would look under those conditions, that's for sure.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:43:01 -0400
Subject: Re: "Silence" in Babylon-5
"Another one of those 'all alien men want Earth women' type things,
if you'll disregard the psi-stuff for now."
In other words, disregard what is going to be probably one of the
most dominant themes that will emerge in the entire series. Disregard
what you WANT to disregard in order to make a critical comment.
I look forward to embarrassing the hell out of you by about this time
next year....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 28 Aug 1993 01:13:48 -0400
Subject: Re: inconsistancy in pilot
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 28 Aug 1993 01:16:00 -0400
Subject: Re: A little scenario
We're definitely populating the show with ethnic groups from all
over the place, including some not generally found in futuristic SF, so
yes, we plan to do that.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:15:37 -0400
Subject: Re: A little scenario
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:15:43 -0400
Subject: Re: A little scenario
What you propose in your scenario is not it...but it does show that
you're thinking along similar lines to what we're going to be doing. That
kind of thing, and the inner workings you describe, are very close to the
surface of our story, and what we have in mind. Or, said more succinctly:
yes, you get it.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:45:55 -0400
Subject: Jeff Jarvis, ET. AL. :-(
Paramount spends *vast* amounts of money advertising TNG and DS9.
Also, from time to time, personal relationships between journalists and
those they cover can influence their perceptions. Beyond that...your
guess is as good as mine.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 29 Aug 1993 03:45:53 -0400
Subject: Re: Babylon 5 Computer
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 30 Aug 1993 00:45:50 -0400
Subject: Re: Babylon 5 Computer
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....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 30 Aug 1993 01:43:14 -0400
Subject: Takashima (was Re: Babylon 5 C
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 30 Aug 1993 04:25:08 -0400
Subject: Homosexuality in Space!
My feeling is that the best way of handling this question is to have
a character, someone we see more than once, who we eventually learn is
bi or gay. This seems to me a much more intrinsically powerful statement
than doing a "gay" story. So that's what we're going to do.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 31 Aug 1993 01:30:54 -0400
Subject: Re: A little scenario
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.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 31 Aug 1993 01:32:18 -0400
Subject: Kosh's reception
And who else isn't at the reception?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 31 Aug 1993 04:24:38 -0400
Subject: The Opening momnologue (was: i
You're right; in my head, I was thinking "surviving characters,"
but that does complicate the issue enormously. Perhaps it's best to stay
with the one voice for now after all....
jms