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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 1994
| 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: 1 Feb 1994 04:14:51 -0500
Subject: Scientific nit-picking
Your description of Earth Standard Time (EST) is fairly accurate.
RE: the Raider ships...they turned by a less effective system of thrusters
put in here and there, not nearly as powerful as the systems used by the
Starfuries. The reason -- verifiable by the shape of the Raider ships --
is that Raider ships are handicapped by the fact that they're made to
function both in space *and* within an atmosphere (hence the aerodynamic
wing shapes), which gives it something of a problem when dealing with the
Starfuries, which are made ONLY for fighting in space, and are most
ideally suited to it. The Raider ships make compromises for greater
utility, which is generally okay unless they run into superior forces of
ships designed for spaceborne combat.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 04:17:14 -0500
Subject: Midnight Impressions (Possible
The quote is correct. And thanks for the feedback, and glad you
enjoyed the show. I think it's going to be quite a ride....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 04:32:40 -0500
Subject: Re: CRITICAL COMMENTS: "Midnig
We did the title sequence in letterbox as a partial nod to the fact
that we're shooting the series in that aspect ratio, though for now only
the regular portion is being broadcast.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 04:35:18 -0500
Subject: *SPOILERS*: MOTFL Episode guid
My suggestion: classify "Soul Hunter" under "Suspense."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 06:09:58 -0500
Subject: query to JMS.......
I don't believe in monolithic aliens who all talk exactly alike,
with the same accents, any more than I believe in humans who all talk
exactly alike. Hence, the difference between Vir and Londo.
When they're together in their quarters, they're talking in Centauri,
which we hear as English, as in WW II movies, the Germans are obviously
talking to each other in German, but we hear it in English. (The only
other alternative is to subtitle whole lengthy segments of the show, which
is both unworkable, awkward, and unfair to blind viewers.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 06:10:51 -0500
Subject: sinclair piloting a fighter in
You'll get a pretty good glimpse into why Sinclair jumps into a
fighter any chance he can get in "Infection." Part of it is to escape
from stuff...the other goes much deeper, and much darker....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 07:42:38 -0500
Subject: Re: +/- Review: Midnight (SPOI
The whole idea of Talia calling the Psi Corps and having Ivanova
removed for not liking her is, as you state, utterly absurd. Life is
like this...sometimes people don't get along. What do you do, call the
cops?
Second, Talia works for the Psi Corps, which is a *civilian*
organization regulated by the government (though it certainly makes it
(its) pretensions to military in dress and attitude). Ivanova is a
military officer. A civilian has no authority over that. The Psi Corps
does not issue orders to the Earthforce Military.
The problem that I see so often, with some exceptions, is that people
haven't stopped to think things through. They think, "Well, they should
just be able to go in and make things right." Wrong. This not only
doesn't happen in real life, it doesn't happen in 99% of all fiction.
It is an ST artifact that doesn't touch reality at any two contiguous
points.
Just about half of the questions raised could be answered with a
little thought, such as this one. Similarly, the "Why didn't the Council
see that Carn Mollari was being forced to read the statement, and act,"
without stopping to consider a) that not all aliens read human
expressions properly or well, b) suspicion isn't the same thing as
proof, c) the smaller worlds would be loathe to take on the Narns, and
d-f, which I'll list another time. The attitude again is, "Well, this
is *obviously* what's right, so they should do it." People rarely do
what is obviously right...and sometimes when they *do*, it's for the
wrong reasons.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 07:45:23 -0500
Subject: Re: Opening Narration
The rotating narrator thing was something that I mentioned en
passant at the LosCon screening of "Midnight." What I noted was that I
was considering rotating the narrators each season; Londo for the pilot;
Sinclair for year one; Ivanova for year two; Garibaldi for year three;
G'Kar for year four; and Delenn for year five. Haven't decided yet if
I'm going to do it or not....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 18:49:49 -0500
Subject: PRESSURE SUITS: COOL!!
Actually, as you'll see in "Sky," sometimes the Good Guys *do* get
their ships hit; sometimes they blow up and kill the person (as you will
see), and sometimes they do damage without destroying the ship, in which
case there is an eject mechanism that separates the cockpit part from
the rest of the fighter, which contains the volatile reactors.
So in those circumstances, a flight suit is a *very* good idea....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 18:50:33 -0500
Subject: WILL WE VISIT ANY PLANETS?
We will be visiting a planet in the two parter, "A Voice in the
Wilderness."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 18:51:00 -0500
Subject: Re: Midnight Comments (*SPOILE
The inconsistency you mention is not an inconsistency. One fighter
is always kept in lowered, launch-position when the others are out, so
that it's ready to drop at a moment's notice. The fighter you saw was
moving into standby position in case needed quickly.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 18:58:14 -0500
Subject: Transportation on Earth in the
There are *definitely* no transporters in the B5 universe.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 19:00:09 -0500
Subject: Series premier thoughts (some
Just a quick note re: the idea of sending B5 ships out to safeguard
all incoming ships...can't really be done. There are only a very small
number of fighters (comparatively speaking) on B5, and a *LOT* of ships
coming in on a daily basis. Once they're through the last gate, to B5,
they're safe. But there are gates in between, where they're vulnerable.
You'd have to safeguard the whole galaxy, practically. Can't be done.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 19:06:27 -0500
Subject: MOTFL's Title
"Midnight on the Firing Line" as a title was more my feelings about
the episode and the series. I knew we'd come under considerable fire,
figured it was cool.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 21:10:07 -0500
Subject: MOTFL Credits...
There are definitely more credits at the end of the episode; the
station is NOT alloweed to cut credits like that. They should be put on
notice. Call them, and tell us who did it.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 1 Feb 1994 21:21:19 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To Include Gay/B
I have not *made* a big issue out of this, and do not intend to do
so. In addition, when a certain characteristic is revealed in someone,
it won't be in the center of a story or made into a treatise because at
the time of our story it *isn't* an issue anymore, any more than being
left or right handed. No one frankly cares. And it will not be given
any more weight than that. It will be treated fairly off-handedly.
A note to those who have taken up this issue to popularize it: there
is a Monty Python sketch called "The Value of Not Being Seen." Those
who've seen it will get the reference. To the rest...until something is
done in a show, particularly something along these lines, it's best to
keep a fairly subdued profile, because if people start getting hincky
about something before we've shown how something is actually going to be
handled -- with taste, discretion and subtlty -- it might cause some folks
to bring pressure *not* to do it.
Let's all do one thing at a time...and let me do this according to
the schedule that's set out for this. Don't jump the gun.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 2 Feb 1994 06:06:55 -0500
Subject: Babylon 5 Writers Guide Re: Mi
Your pyramid of something happens, it's critical, confrontation,
resolution, is not something *bad* in shows...it happens to be universal
dramatic structure. Introduction of the problem, rising action, climax,
and denouement. If you don't think this is appropriate, then you are
dismissing literally 95% of all literature, all movies, ever created in
the history of mankind. So B5 meets the standards applied to literature.
I don't see a problem here.
The rest of your note is little more than specious and petty. And I
would defy you to find *any* way to categorize "The Parliament of Dreams"
by this breakdown. Is there anything that you would *not* just go ahead
and classify as a soap opera device? From your list, anything you decide
is soap opera goes on the list.
Specious and petty.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 2 Feb 1994 06:08:28 -0500
Subject: Re: Question to JMS (was Excel
Yeah, I keep flip-flopping on "Purple" and "Midnight" for the number
4 and 5 spots...they're prety close.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 2 Feb 1994 16:04:48 -0500
Subject: Re: About the RFD Process
Since you raised the question about the explosion of messages...I
have a small suggestion. Right now, when I log onto GEnie and get the
alt messages in my email via the Internet gateway, there are now about
200+ messages a day. I do read them all, but it's going to get a lot
busier.
If there is a message out there by someone that requires a response,
or is a specific question for me, if you could begin the note with JMS,
in the subject header, I'll know to read that one first. Others may have
to sit in the box for a day or so until I can do a massive read.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 14:47:29 -0500
Subject: Question about Kosh for JMS
Correct, Christopher Franke designed Kosh's voice.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 14:51:42 -0500
Subject: New GIFs
BTW, have named an Earth Alliance Cruiser Hyperion, in notation of
the library....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 15:10:07 -0500
Subject: Question re Earth Alliance
You are correct in that the Earth Alliance consists in the main of
humans. Aliens are generally not integrated into the system, except in
very low-level stuff. (In some bronze-tech worlds where humans have come
in and pulled an India/England relationship, you may have colonial
governors who are native aliens, but are basically puppets.) There's
more than just Mars, Earth and the Sol colonies; there are a number of
other worlds and systems out there into which Earth has made a dent.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 15:10:17 -0500
Subject: Re: Pain in the butt?
"...at least it has a fricative."
HEY!
Watch that kind of language.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 15:11:11 -0500
Subject: Re: USA Today Review--Londo is
Re: Londo as a romantic character...bless your heart. You are the
first to have nailed it absolutely on the head. If I had to write a
description of the character, I doubt I could have done any better than
what you just wrote. There are a *lot* of episodes that bring this out
in him, including the next one up, "Born to the Purple," which I suspect
will end virtually all of the hair jokes once and for all.
Anyway...yes, and thank you, that's it *precisely*.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 15:11:12 -0500
Subject: Re: Centauri Hair??? (attn: JM
Generally speaking, yes, hair = status. Very peacock-ian (to coin a
phrase). Certainly, you could wear your hair longer than your status
permits, but it's like pretending to a status you don't have, which is
viewed as pathetic.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 15:31:16 -0500
Subject: My personal review of the B5 p
Sinclair's line, "Cut accelleration," was in regards to forward
momentum, so he could more easily spin the fighter around.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 16:59:51 -0500
Subject: Midnight on the Firing Li
Thanks. What you say is correct; we have to look to the past, and
determine its influence, and either learn from it, or be destroyed by
it.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:04:46 -0500
Subject: Millenial...?
The turn of the century with B5's conclusion is coincidence.
Mostly.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:05:07 -0500
Subject: BABYLON 5 PILOT EPISODE ON CFT
Most B5 viewers that I've heard from call themselves Fivers, when
they identify themselves as anything other than what they are, people of
infinite taste and sensibility....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:05:17 -0500
Subject: MOTFL's title (was Re: Musings
Ah, another Chapin fan. Yes, I definitely love his work, albet
there is, sadly, not nearly enough of it. Also Billy Joel, Indigo Girls,
everything except country.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:11:04 -0500
Subject: TV Guide advertisments?
Local ads are placed by local stations, not Warners. If there's no
ad in your local TV Guide edition, the problem lay with the local station.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:11:42 -0500
Subject: Centauri Precognition and Mili
Re: precog and Centauri...here, as best I can recall, is exactly
what I wrote for Londo: "My people, we have a way, you see...we know how,
and *SOMETIMES* even *when* we are going to die...."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:14:34 -0500
Subject: Questions for JMS
Starfuries dock in the central docking bay, are repaired, prepped
and lowered into the cobra bays. And yes, you'll see this.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:58:42 -0500
Subject: Midnight Complaints?
To have a station commander *and* a rep for Earth can be cumbersome
in many ways, when someone has to give orders. It's cleaner this way;
and no different than any of the sailing vessels of the 18th century and
before, when each captain was viewed as, and expected to perform as, the
official representative of his country.
There is, however, a second agenda at work here, which you'll find
out about a bit in "Raiding Party."
Re: Sinclair taking risks...watch "Infection" and its tag. As for
jumping in a fighter every show...no, that we don't do. Of the 17 or
so episodes we've shot to date, Sinclair only goes out in a fighter in
maybe 3 episodes. Ivanova, Garibaldi, or other fighter pilots go out
elsewhere.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 18:01:53 -0500
Subject: questions...
The item on the back of Sinclair's hand is a Link, which is their
personal communications system/powerbook/mainframe access system/pager.
The blue and green painting on the Starfury is probably the Sea
Witch, a personal design. The stylized EA seen on the wings, and on the
EA command staff, is the Earth Alliance symbol. (The EA silhouette is
then altered within the lines to accommodate different divisions, command
with a crosshatching, security with a gun sight, and so on.)
No comment.
Some alien fonts, yes.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 18:10:48 -0500
Subject: Re: Musings from my Garden. SP
Here's what I find curious (not necessarily in direct response to
anything you said, but in general on this topic)...is that when Ivanova
makes her remark to Garibaldi about snapping his hands off at the
wrists, many people have assumed that she was insulting him, berating
him, being bitchy, truly disliking and threatening him.
But the same words, put in the mouth of another male, wouldn't have
drawn that reaction, and would've been classified under, "kidding
around" or affable sarcasm.
Which is exactly what it is in this case. In this place and this
time, they're comfortable enough to mess with each other without it being
taken seriously (among these characters, that is). There are times they
kinda like to phuque with each other a bit, just for the hell of it, as
comrades will sometimes do. ("Babylon Squared" has a great example of
Sinclair and Garibaldi messing with Ivanova.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 20:35:26 -0500
Subject: nit-picking, my 2 cents worth.
We considered for a while using lots of subtitles, but the problem
is that this is a fairly dialogue-intensive show, and after about 10
exchanges of dialogue, it becomes hard to keep up with subtitles. The
other problem is that there is a large viewership, particularly in SF
circles, of blind people, and thus subtitles seemed a bit unfair.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 3 Feb 1994 23:20:38 -0500
Subject: Starfury launch sequence and m
Incorrect. The Starfuries are launched from the rotating part of
the station. They're launched from the cobra bays, which are the cobra
shaped projections alongside the round front of the station, and attached
to it. They definitely rotate.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 4 Feb 1994 01:20:44 -0500
Subject: So when does the merchandising
Frankly, I'm not in any hurry to see the show merchandised, though
we're up to our ears in inquiries. I think it's important, at least in
the early stages, to keep all that stuff at arm's length. Otherwise you
end up in a situation where the tail begins wagging the dog. Let's make
the series as good as we can, first, and then worry about the toys later.
jms*
(*who already has his B5 patches, watch, shirt, belt, mug....)
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 4 Feb 1994 21:30:37 -0500
Subject: Kosh's First Words
The scene was trimmed for time. It may show up again later.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 4 Feb 1994 21:46:42 -0500
Subject: What are those blue fins?
The blue fins at the back of B5 are, as I recall, for the purpose
of radiating internal heat out of and from B5.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 5 Feb 1994 06:43:00 -0500
Subject: Re: Opening Narration
Nope, "Purple" wasn't moved up to replace "Infection." The former
was always scheduled for #3, followed by the latter. The episodes for
this first batch were put together to alternate action/character,
so "Midnight" has lots of action, there's a fair amount in "Soul," so
we give a break in "Purple." Then lots of action in "Infection," not as
much in "Parliament," and "Mind War" is an absolute blow out.
These first six are really very much stand-alones, and fairly
straightforward. Starting with "Parliament," we *really* begin to cook,
though. The concern was that if we started out too complex, we might
lose a lot of people. Better to bring them in gradually. Starting from
"Parliament" onward, each episode gets more ambitious as well, in terms
of character, story, EFX, sets, you name it, to where we've got 3
stories running in "Mind War," all interesting, all with great
performances, nifty character moments, and killer EFX. That's why I've
made it a point to say, just stick with us for the first six. If you
don't like what you see after that...you're not going to. I don't think
anyone should support a show just because it's SF.
(Though that's not much of a risk here; I've *seen* "Parliament" and
"Mind War," y'see....)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 6 Feb 1994 18:52:28 -0500
Subject: MOTFL: Mars Colony & G'Kar's f
Just as an advisory, I'd ask you to be more careful in your
language, "...makes me wonder if JMS has lifted some ideas and milieu
from Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Red Mars.'"
I do not "lift" ideas. My ideas are my own. The B5 storyline goes
back 7 years. There seems to be some conception in the public eye that
TeeVee folks just sorta go out there, look at books, and start lifting
things. This is not only inaccurate, but I find it personally offensive.
Partly because I *know* Kim Stanley Robinson, albeit slightly.
I know you meant no harm, so don't take this as a flame. I just felt
that it required a response.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 02:15:55 -0500
Subject: prejudice in B5(was:Re: BABYLO
You may perceive "alien" as a negative word. It is also a correct
word. Now, one could refer to them as "atmospherically challenged," or
"genetically other-abled," or "adhering to DNAlternatives," but among
humans, talking to one another...they're aliens. And to them, WE'RE
aliens. No, it ain't polite. Who said it had to be?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 03:18:46 -0500
Subject: Replay in LA
B5 is replayed on Channel 13 at 11 p.m. Sunday nights.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 10:32:56 -0500
Subject: Clive Revill on next week's ep
Correct, Clive Revill is in "Born to the Purple" this week. We've
actually had a *lot* of quality actors, drawn by the material, in our
first season: Clive, David McCallum, David Warner, June Lockhart,
Theodore Bickell, Morgan Shepherd, William Sanderson, Judson Scott and
Walter Koenig, to name but a few.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 11:59:19 -0500
Subject: Re: Opening Narration
So who says that that order was final or official....?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 12:32:15 -0500
Subject: Where's JMS
The Genie/Internnet gateway was down for a few days, hence the
silence.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 7 Feb 1994 16:35:43 -0500
Subject: B5 comments (spoilers)
Just quickie responses: to your charge of sexism -- no female security
guards, no female pilots -- you've only seen two shows so far. In further
episodes, we DO have female security guards, AND female pilots (including
Ivanova, who goes into combat), AND female doctors (one of whom is
Hispanic, and plays a major part in an episode), and females in every
other capacity on board the station. Virtually every female shown on this
show has a career, responsibility, and for the most part is as content
with that career as the men are.
Further, not only are our cast members equally male and female,
we've taken this *behind* the camera...half or a little over half our crew
are female, many in non-traditional jobs (traditionally male in Hollywood
terms, in any event). It's not just wardrobe and makeup, it's set
and prop design, set *construction*, editorial, you name it.
As for the militarism needing to be repressed...there are already two
other shows which feature repressed (or absent) military aspects; let's
have something a little different. I don't think all SF shows should look
and feel alike.
As for the notion that it could use "a little of Trek's humanism,"
I don't much like the way that's been defined there. Seems to me that
that version of "humanism" is placid, unpassionate, orderly and for the
most part, with some exceptions, bloodless. To me, humanism means
embracing our flaws as well as our nobilities, and saying that we don't
have to shed our basic humanity in order to go to the stars, but that we
remain *humans*, with all that entails. And we somehow persevere in SPITE
of our flaws. I find the process of overcoming more interesting, and more
human, than assuming that we've already overcome everything.
The kind of humanism you're referring to isn't humanism, by my book.
It's "we should all be nice to one another, and nobody should have any
problems except the ones forced on us by bad guy aliens"...it's humanity
as written by Barney the Dinosaur.
In any event -- and none of this is directed at you, it's more
generic woolgathering than anything else -- my feeling is that you've GOT
two shows already that advance that kind of thinking. We're not Trek, we
have no obligation to BE Trek, and if we just do what Trek is doing, what
is the point? It just becomes the same old thing. I didn't fight for
seven years to get this show on the air, to do Trek's vision of the
future.
(The funny thing, of course, is that when TNG went on the air, people
complained roundly about the lack of militarism and action in the show,
that Picard surrendered too quickly, that it was too passive and too
let's-all-be-nice. Now a show that has action and an element of military
is told that now we have to be like TNG is. TNG was faulted for not being
TOS. We're faulted for not being TNG. This stuff goes 'round and 'round.
The series will find its niche.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 8 Feb 1994 05:33:28 -0500
Subject: Soul Hunter -- B+ / D (Spoiler
When you say that you don't understand how the small thrust of the
coffin could've carried it away from the statino since "anything
released from the statin must also be in orbit," I can't help but wonder
how closely you were paying attention. A shuttle leaves B5, and moves
well away from the station, and the coffin is launched from the shuttle,
NOT from B5.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 8 Feb 1994 12:02:25 -0500
Subject: Music change from Gathering to
Copeland decided he wanted to tour, and do another album. That
kinda took care of doing this season. And in the long run, it's worked
out well, because Christopher Franke has in many ways, I think, far
exceeded what Stewart did for us, good as that was. There's some killer
stuff coming, very aggressive, very moving and powerful. His piece for
"And the Sky Full of Stars," -Requiem for the Line-, is brilliant, sad,
emotional, brave...just nifty.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 8 Feb 1994 13:07:08 -0500
Subject: Re: Midnight: thoughts...
Actually, only a portion of the music for any given episode of B5
consists of synthesized music. Much of it is performed by Christopher's
orchestra in Berlin, which is hooked via digital lines to his studio here
in town. Not all, certainly, but more than you might think is from that
live orchestra.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 8 Feb 1994 16:11:59 -0500
Subject: Re: Thoughts on why some "just
Your theory that the two different internal-mind views are
inconsistent is, of course, *entirely* contingent upon the assumption
that all minds work -- human and alien alike -- work the same way, see
themselves in the same way, perceive the world around them and their part
in that world in exactly the same way.
And, of course, if all minds thought exactly the same...we wouldn't
be having this disagreement about inconsistency, yes?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 00:55:55 -0500
Subject: teeny problem with soul hunter
There *is* a beep there; it's just soft. We learned after making
that episode that some stations crunch down the sound a bit, dropping the
highs. We later bumped up the lows to make it more apparent. It can be
heard in most stations, unless they crunch the sound.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 00:56:11 -0500
Subject: Ivanavah is my hero
I like Ivanova as well; she's got a very sly, very *sharp*
intelligence going there. She can deadpan you and whap you upside the
head with a comment delivered almost as an aside, or an afterthought.
It's the difference between wit and humor. She doesn't tell jokes, but
she's got a great sense of wit.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 00:59:40 -0500
Subject: soul hunter, ferengis & fired
First, I'm not "star trekkin" anyone re: the translation on the soul
hunter (not needing a machine). He *has* been to earth. Whether or not
I have the opportunity down the road to get into this, that happens to
be the truth within the B5 "backstory" that's been created. In other
episodes, when a translation machine is required, it's used. (In
addition to Kosh's and n'grath's translation devices, we use them in
other shows, as in "Legacies" with a race called the Pak'ma'ra.) In this
one instance, he knew the words. I don't consider that "star trekkin'
anybody.
Re: your statement that the headwear of the S.H. is "stolen" from
the Ferengi...may I be so bold as to respond to your rather loud note with
some volume of my own? To wit: watch something other than Star Trek, and
maybe spend a little time learning stuff about your own world. The
headware is based upon the kind used in various african and aboriginal
tribes. Trek didn't invent it; we have photos of its use through
history, as well as sketches going back further. As it happens, the
costume designer has never seen "DS9," doesn't watch TNG, has no idea
what a Ferengi is. Neither do I intend to not do something, based in
real history, just because some other show has done drawn on that same
background.
You clearly think that if something appeared in ST, then ST must have
invented it, and that if it appears anywhere else, it must've been
influence by ST. Wrong on both counts. I would suggest that you have
been watching too much ST, and not nearly enough of the Discovery
Channel.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 01:05:44 -0500
Subject: Q to JMS: Make-up Time
Makeup takes anywhere from 2-3 hours for our main characters on a
regular basis. In some cases, we've done something pretty close to full
body prosthetics on G'Kar, and that is nearly double the normal time.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 01:14:54 -0500
Subject: Re: Religion in B5 vs religion
Yes, ST says that religion is dead by the 23rd century, but a) this
ain't ST, and b) I think it's hogwash. I'm an atheist, and certainly I
wouldn't object to more people sharing that attitude. But the reality
is that the religious/spiritual impulse has been with us for as long as
we've been alive, and it's not going to just stop suddenly in the next
200 years. If anything, if you look at Eastern Europe, you're seeing a
resurgence there.
Your statement is predicated upon a) something massive and profound
permanently changing the belief system of b) every person on the planet.
At what point does it change for every single person on the planet? And
elsewhere? Where is the switch thrown?
People run into problems in extrapolation when they make the
assumption that things will be *drastically* different (barring some kine
(kind) of real disaster, obviously; if a meteor crashes into the central
United States, it's going to have a pretty substantial affect on the
people living there) from what's going on now. Fr'instance...the B&W
SF *musical* "Just Imagine," made in the 1930s, set in the 1980s. In
the movie, people have numbers instead of names, they eat pills instead
of food, all the usual cliches. And, of course, they were wrong.
You're looking at 200-300 years as if it's a long time, which is a
uniquely American point of view. Go to Europe some time, stand in
buildings that've been around longer than this nation, five, six, seven
hundred years. Go to New Grange in Ireland, stand as I did in the burial
mound, the oldest man-made structure in the *world*, made before metal
tools had been invented...and you get a sense of what *time* is. 300
years is a blink.
I am an atheist. But I'm also a writer. And a writer is charged
with the responsibility of being as honest as he can in his work. The
religious impulse, little as it appeals to me, remains one part of our
species' attempt to define itself, and our place in the universe. And
it must be dealt with with a modicum of respect, and honesty. What you
like in ST may be more what you like, what you hope, but neither of us
genuinely *knows* for certain what's going to happen 250 years from now,
so they're both equally valid views.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 01:14:54 -0500
Subject: Ship Type Grumbling
Re: non-sleek starships...the commercial transports we use (like the
one attacked in MOTFL), the Iksha Battleglobe ("Deathwalker"), a very
interesting ship in "Mind War," and a few others.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 09:41:35 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To elicit attent
"Tell you what, as soon as JMS publishes a note to the effect that
he's going to have a realistic hetero character, I'll send him a nice
note of appreciatoin and support, and see if I can get all the hetero
newspapers to carry articles about why we should give B5 a chance,
because it will have unfashionable hetero types in it."
I'm going to have a realistic hetero character in B5. Several, in
fact.
Your serve.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 09:53:42 -0500
Subject: JMS: Larry DiTillio, RPG?
No word yet on any B5 RPGs, though it would be a perfect candidate.
And Larry's the right one to write it (assuming I'm not keeping him busy
on other stuff).
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 10 Feb 1994 10:02:46 -0500
Subject: Re: USA Today Review--Londo is
The hairpiece used for Londo is woven backwards, so it'll hang
upward, for lack of a better term. Held in place with spray. The
costume is notable for its detail work...lots of medals, intricate
symbols (scarab/beetle type jewels on the shoulder and collar), with many
layers. Beyond that,it's kinda hard to describe.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 01:10:38 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To Include Gay/B
I must admit that I am amazed by your ability to fortell the future.
This must come in very handy in Vegas.
You start with an assumption of what I might do -- your opinion
based on what someone else has said -- then make that into a fact that I
AM going to do it, and then say you have trouble with my decision; you
assume it's going to be handled in a certain fashion, and then condemn
that fashion; you say that issues are going to be raised, and you have
trouble with that issue; you say the genetic factor will be brought up,
which hasn't been proven, and then question the ethics of doing so.
Let me state this as simply as possible:
1) You are wrong in just about every particular. You do not know
what I am going to do. To make a guess, based on zip from me, then
condemn actions based on a guess that is TOTALLY INACCURATE is truly
the ultimate straw-man. Let me restate: you are completely and totally
wrong in your speculations on the issues, and how this will be handled.
You don't have to guess, you don't have to assume, I'm telling you
straight out: you're wrong.
2) You're a boob. Please try to refrain from prophesy until and
unless you are biblically empowered by a considerably higher source.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 02:18:39 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To Include Gay/B
Let me respond only to two points in your message. The rest seem
hardly worthy of response.
I am not, as you imply, going for "brownie points" from anyone. I
am telling a story. I am telling the story that I've wanted to tell for
seven years. I have no interest in currying favor from any group, any
organization, any fringe or mainstream elements. You don't work for seven
years to create the chance to tell your own story just to turn it over to
the influence of others.
Did it every occur to you -- for even a *smidgen* of a second -- that
maybe, just maybe, what I'm doing with B5 is being done BECAUSE IT ADVANCES
THE STORY? Because it is a legitimate part of the story? You seem to
think that if someone does something in this area, it HAS to proceed from
either a personal political agenda, or the enforced agenda of others.
Which is a load of absolute and utter crap. I don't care who signs
on board, or who's offended. That's not my concern. My concern is in
telling a story, as best as I am able. Period.
To your second point, that if violence on TV is open to congressional
inquiry, then nothing is wrong in "questioning (how) political and social
issues are presented in entertainment programming."
Well, I'm glad someone has finally come out of the woodwork on this
one.
This is exactly what happens in this situation. Everybody waves the
big VIOLENCE bugaboo around to get pressure built behind them...and then
they begin to use this huge stick to go after their OTHER agendas, the
legislation of ideas, curtailment of notions and issues that they don't
personally like. It's happened again and again, in comics, in kid's
programs, in libraries across the country, in the recording industry, and
now they're trying to do it to TV.
The hard part is always getting them to ADMIT that this is on their
minds.
Thank you for breaking the silence.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 06:07:47 -0500
Subject: Questions to JMS
The only meaning to "All alone in the night" is in its surface; no
hidden subtext. But it is a cool image.
There's simply nothing that I can say about Kosh just now.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 18:44:20 -0500
Subject: Re: Mojo answers FX question
Mojo is incorrect. The regular footage of live-action stuff on B5
is shot widescreen, with the regular aspect ratio emphasized generally
for initial broadcast in that format. We picked footage from various
scenes already shot for use in the main title sequence; compare Delenn
and Sinclair walking in the central corridor in the main title, with the
same identical shot in "Soul Hunter." The widescreen is not a cropped
image; there's more on either side. Ditto other shots in that opening.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 18:44:23 -0500
Subject: JMS: Starfury question
The engines being placed on the ends of the wings was primarily a
decision based on maneuverability; but as you say, it would also make
maintenance easier as well.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 18:44:42 -0500
Subject: Mojo answers FX question
Mojo...Mojo...c'mere, Mojo...I wanna talk to you...siddown...no,
look, I'm not gonna hurt you, Mojo...Mojo...we don't film the live
action stuff on this show in 3:1 aspect ratio. It's widescreen, Mojo.
Super 1:78:1. Go pick up a copy of dailies, Mojo, it's right at the
start of the tape. We crop the sides for normal broadcast. Look at the
main title, Mojo, notice a slight difference between the main title
shots from "Parliament" and the broadcast version in the episode
itself...like...IT'S SUBSTANTIALLY WIDER AT EITHER END?!
Don't run, Mojo...come back...stand still...it's just a baseball
bat, Mojo...we're gonna play a little game...Mojo...Mojo...COME BACK HERE!
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 18:45:05 -0500
Subject: JMS: Outtakes?
Yes, we're keeping the outtakes...somewhere. I should check, see
how much we've got now. Very funny stuff.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 11 Feb 1994 18:45:21 -0500
Subject: Re: Music change from Gatherin
The "Requiem for the Line" music appears in "And the Sky Full of
Stars," which airs in about 5 weeks.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 02:24:01 -0500
Subject: Re: soul hunter, ferengis & fi
You're correct; information is *not* willingly shared among the
various races. It's hoarded and used and sold. And yes, humans would
probably have *heard* of Soul Hunters, distantly, as a legend. I see no
reason why they would believe they existed, particularly with a title
like that, unless and until actually encountering one.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 02:27:57 -0500
Subject: JMS : Babylon 5 legal question
It's never come up, and probably never will, but in terms of
backstory, yes, it was legalized quite some time ago. There are only a
certain number of drugs not allowed on B5; those which would lead to
destructive, violent behavior that would disrupt the station, and Dust,
about which you won't be hearing for a while.
Near as I can figure, all grass makes you want to do is sit around
eating pizza and watching old Lucy reruns....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 02:28:29 -0500
Subject: JMS? Who's Vice-Pres.? :-)
The Earth Alliance Vice-President is a character named Morgan
Clark.
But you don't need to know that for a while yet....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 02:30:27 -0500
Subject: Re: Universe Today on paper?!
It's very easy to show things being different 250 years from now.
You just have people running around using numbers instead of names, have
people eating pills instead of hard food, using personal flyers, having
their children raised entirely by machine....
In fact, all of that has been done...in an SF musical called "JUst
Imagine," made in the 1930s, about life....in the 1980s. And it was
completely, totally off-base.
There's plenty of extrapolation in this show...phased plasma weapons,
hyperspace, the Psi Corps, other political areas, on and on...and that has
some great interest for me. But for me, what the show is *most* about is
how we are the same, not how we are different. A key theme in this series
is that this is US out there, in the stars, recognizeably US.
You cite the date 1721 as how things were "different." People got
married, held jobs, raised children, separated, had affairs, fought in
wars, read books and the few pamphlets that were available, corresponded,
on and on. We do those same things today. The *chrome* of technology has
changed, but our basic human nature has not. Nor will it in the next
250 years.
Re: "Universe Today." It's recycled material, light and portable,
read it and trash it. Even Asimov noted that there is nothing quite so
portable as a piece of paper, or as efficient. Computers were supposed to
end the paper mountains inside corporate offices. Have they? No. One
look at my (or any) office shows that computers have cause MORE paper
mountains, not fewer. So why not extrapolate to "newspapers" that are
tied into a major web, printed fresh in your quarters or thereabouts every
day, with all the news you'd like to see printed, and the stuff you don't
much care about left out? Customized newspapers, skewed toward your
interests. THAT is "UT." I just don't much want to sit there and explain
the darned thing because it's just more exposition.
And who says the Dodgers won't be here 200 years from now? They're
still going (reasonably) strong after nearly a century already. What
will suddenly happen in the world that all the world's baseball teams will
simply vanish? There seems to be this sense that at some point in the
coming future, somebody will throw a switch, and suddenly 90% of the
things we're familiar with will just vanish...and I think that's nonsense.
What I want to do with this show is to connect our past, our present,
and our future, melding familiar images with new ones. This isn't what
you're used to seeing. But it's what I want to *do* with it. Otherwise
all you have are unattainable futures about people who we barely recognize
as being humans, doing things we can't relate to. I'm sorry, but that
just doesn't interest me.
There's plenty of extrapolation coming down the road. The first and
foremost mistake people make about this show is seeing one or three
episodes, that this is all there's going to be. Wrong.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 05:15:04 -0500
Subject: Re: Concerns about Scientific
Re: the question of consistency/inconsistency in the B5 universe:
where you get inconsistency is generally when you have more than one
voice in the show, creation by committee or different administrations.
B5 is my show, and it's as consistent as I am...which means sometimes
you'll catch something small, a glitch between scripts written far apart
(calling the main console Station One instead of the Primary Console),
but on the big issues...I doubt very much it'll happen. I've thought out
this universe pretty thoroughly over the last 7 years.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 12 Feb 1994 05:17:03 -0500
Subject: June Lockhart (sp?)
June Lockhart is *not* a regular or recurring character on B5; she
appears in one episode, "The Quality of Mercy."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 00:42:08 -0500
Subject: Questions re Centauris in "Pur
The correct term is the Centauri Republic. It can be called an
empire, but that's the name. Trakis, Adira's owner, was not a Centauri,
but (and this is something we may bring up at some point down the road),
was at one point a Centauri slave.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:41:27 -0500
Subject: Shoes & foreheads
Don't know if GAribaldi's shoes have a custom tread or not; it's
possible. Londo's spots don't vary with stress; sometimes they come
through more depending on the lighting.
And yeah, I love the costuming.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:41:35 -0500
Subject: Commentary
Yes, I try to log on here about once a day, and though it's getting
tougher, I still read through *all* the messages in this area, though at
times I skim a bit. From my perspective, I try not to get in the way of
the discussion, by either encouraging or discouraging positive or
negative comments. If I think someone is being unfair, or is just coming
in to lob in a firecracker, watch everyone scatter and yell, and then run
away (as the occasional spineless mindfucker among us is wont to do), I
either fire back, or simply ignore the post.
The one major reason I decided to begin this interaction, despite
CONSIDERABLE discourgement and disbelief from my peers, is that I think it
may be of some use, and because I think that one should be willing to
stand publicly with what you create, and because though many criticisms
are issues of taste or subjective preference, sometimes (fairly often,
actually), I learn something from the discussion, or I'm corrected in
something, and that realignment is eventually reflected in the show. I'm
giving some serious thought to either revamping n'grath or killing him off
given the reaction (paired with my own). I won't be dictated to, but in
some cases, as with n'grath, I may be uncertain, but willing to try and
see if the experiment works. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and
the general perception here seems close to my own. In addition, I was
initially going to gloss over some of the legal aspects of the Psi Corps
in "The Quality of Mercy," but when so many people expressed interest in
how that worked, and when I saw some measure of confusion about it, I
took the time to indicate how the legal aspects work when it came time to
complete that script, thus answering the questions.
Sure, there've been more hostile or abusive or insulting messages
posted here, primarily to get a reaction...I've seen that game before, and
I'm neither impressed nor annoyed. The general level of the discussion
-- pro AND con -- is still generally of a high level, and quite
revealing. The experiment continues.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:48:40 -0500
Subject: Re: Soul Hunter
Re: Delenn's alien-esque qualities...I have two photos from the set
that are favorites. I was walking through the offices to the stage, when
I saw Mira in full make up in her Grey Council robes, picking up the day's
shooting schedule. I saw her, said hi from down the hall, raised the
camera. I snapped a picture. Raised the camera again. And in that one
instant, she straightened, lowered her chin, something about her face and
her body language absolutely altered. I snapped a second photo.
Photo #1 is a picture of Mira Furlan made up to look like a Minbari.
Photo #2 is a picture of Delenn.
Damndest thing I'ved ever seen....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:50:06 -0500
Subject: JMS-questions for ya
There's still rock and roll, plus other new musical forms that have
come along, and still some franchises. TZ3 is being played on various
local stations, but not everywhere.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:50:15 -0500
Subject: JMS? Actors & Arcs
Some of the cast know the full extent of their character's story,
some know a little, some know very little. In those cases where we need
to set stuff up for down the line, we have to explain some of these
things. Some of the cast want to know their future, some don't.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 06:57:23 -0500
Subject: B5 Newbie with Brilliant
Correct: Tristan Rodgers makes an appearance in "The War Prayer."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 21:12:24 -0500
Subject: How much does one episode cost
The B5 budget is, alas, classified. As for more gif files...I
wouldn't be surprised to see them down the road a piece.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 21:12:29 -0500
Subject: Re: Starfury Launching
Negative. If you'll look to the right of your ascii drawing,
you'll see a square (round in the series) section. Several cobra-shaped
arms surround that section. That's where the fighters are launched.
You'll get a better view of this area as we go along, particularly in
an episode called "Survivors."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 21:22:37 -0500
Subject: Re: Ban on creative works? Huh
Let me put this another way, to see if this may have more influence
on your thoughts.
BABYLON 5 is owned by PTEN. The names, the characters, *and the
situations* are all part of what is owned through copyright, trademark
and other legal means. It can then choose to whom to license the right,
for a fee, to produce material within that universe...novels, comics,
whatever. That sub-entity then has the legal right to publish works that
use the B5 universe. (And it's not just the names; if every character is
the same, and the context is the same, and a work appears within that
context with the names just changed, it is still copyright infringement.)
It is in the vested interests of PTEN to maintain ownership of its
copyright and trademarks. Otherwise why should any publisher pay for the
rights to, say, publish novels in that universe? If a work appears in the
public domain, using copyrighted characters/situations, and is NOT gone
after legally, then that portion of the original creation has itself
slipped into public domain. PTEN is currently going after several of the
companies that have provided services to B5, and then have gone around and
published ads in various magazines using photos from B5 *without* the
PTEN copyright notice. Those specific images run the risk now of becoming
part of the public domain. This has to be stopped and will be stopped, by
PTEN.
I understand the need, the utility, and the fun of fanzines. I've
read many and own many. I, however, am not PTEN. I understand the
desire to play with the characters, in electronic or printed form. But
that has nothing to do with PTEN's desire to protect its copyright. The
electronic medium -- BBSing -- has been found in several court hearings
to constitute a form of publication. There are, in fact, now several
electronic publishers who circulate books/stories via this medium. Any
work appearing in this medium is subject to commonlaw copyright, so that
the writer of that work owns it...which brings that writer into direct
conflict if that work infringes upon the copyright of someone else.
If a flood of B5 stories (or camoflaged clones) began to appear on
this or any other net, it would force PTEN to intervene legally with
injunctions, cease-and-desist letters, and so on. My own feelings about
this really don't enter into it.
It becomes a two-sided risk. On my behalf, I would simply have to
withdraw rather than run the risk of being sued for something somebody
might write that I might have seen. It doesn't have to be proven that I
even saw it as long as I had *access* to seeing it. On the other hand,
those doing so run the risk of entanglements of their own.
Is it fun? No. Not for either of us. Part of the reason I created
the B5 universe was to see what other people would do with it. But this
is the law. And the law doesn't have to be fair. It simply is.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 21:22:38 -0500
Subject: Harlan Ellison and Babylon 5
Harlan is our conceptual consultant. His job is to sit perched on
my shoulder like Jiminy Cricket and point out to me the chuckholes,
detours, and disasters-in-the-making that I might otherwise stumble into
as I galumph my way through this show...and to harangue me and keep me
on the SF straight and narrow and to challenge me constantly to do better.
He also reviews stories, helped write the opening narration, has
given us several good concepts on the running of the B5 station, and
otherwise...well...consults conceptually.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 13 Feb 1994 22:17:43 -0500
Subject: Why do B5 command staff go out
Why Sinclair goes out on missions: someone here just left a far
better reply than I could write. Check it out.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 17:58:00 -0500
Subject: Did one need USA Today's Permi
"Universe Today" is a fictional newspaper, and thus no permission
was required.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 17:58:01 -0500
Subject: Babylon-5 Fan Clubs?
Since the series began to air, there's been a flood of mail and calls,
so some kind of organization will be necessary to handle this, though no
framework has been finalized yet.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 20:31:55 -0500
Subject: Re: B5 comments (spoilers)
You ask, "Why would the Earth Alliance act this way?" The question
is, why *wouldn't* they? Minus some limited supplementary contributions
from the Centauri and the Minbari, the EA pays for this. It's their
dollar, they get to call the shots. This isn't the Federation, where
everyone's equally part of things. The EA provides B5 as a service to
other species, and as a meeting place. It reflects the priorities and
to some extent the prejudices of those who built it. No, it's not a
perfect or polite setup. Nobody said it had to be. Nor do I feel it HAS
to be perfect or polite.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 20:43:26 -0500
Subject: Soul Hunter and General
Sinclair gets into some real strong arguments in many episodes; he
is almost *constantly* at odds with Dr. Franklin in "Believers" (and just
about loses it at one point), he's arguing and exhausted nearly the entire
episode for "By Any Means" (and *does* lose it at one point, in a way
that says get-the-hell-out, and is also weirdly funny). Anyway, it's
definitely there.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 22:17:47 -0500
Subject: I like everything but....
Errr....when the ships are hit, they don't just vanish/get totally
consumed; debris *does* fly off. Check again.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 22:32:37 -0500
Subject: Re: +/- Review: Midnight
The symbol Talia wears isn't a Link or any other kind of
communications system; it is *strictly* a form of identification, tagging
her as a telepath and a member of the Psi Corps. It serves no other
function.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 15 Feb 1994 22:32:42 -0500
Subject: Soul Hunter comments
In my original B5 material, the leader of the Grey Council was always
Dukhat, going back 7 years. I saw no reason to change it. The moment I
begin whipsawing my show back and forth to avoid tripping over somebody
else, I'm just going to end up tripping over my own two feet.
And that was Johnny Sekka's actual accent (he's Nigerian-born).
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:26:25 -0500
Subject: JMS Question: Earth Alliance
The EA is fairly large, but not on a par with the Centauri at this
point. There are various space platforms/colonies, colonies on the Moon,
Mars, a major transfer point off Io...they've gone in and "helped" a
number of bronze-tech worlds (that happened to have certain resources
useful to EA), and are generally spreading like mice in a cheese factory.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:26:34 -0500
Subject: JMS: What else is tabu here be
Fairly fleshed out stories or detailed suggestions are really the
only thing that would cause a problem...everything else seems to be fair
game.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:46:18 -0500
Subject: Re: +/- Review: Midnight
She wore the Psi symbol on her belt.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 10:53:30 -0500
Subject: B5 Versus Tekwar in LA
Forget B5 vs. Tekwar in the ratings...I just realized that one of our
best episodes in this first batch, "The Parliament of Dreams," is going
to go right up against the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan skating part of
the Olympics.
We're doomed.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 11:04:14 -0500
Subject: Re: JMS: Centauri Republic or
Sinclair functions within the parameters of Earthforce Command, but
much in the way as a provisional governor might function. He is answerable
both to his superior officers in Earthforce, *as well as* the Babylon 5
Senate Oversight and Appropriations Committee. A senatorial liaison often
works between Sinclair and Earthdome (the EA capital city).
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 11:09:35 -0500
Subject: JMS: Centauri Republic or Empi
It was a slip of the tongue, to some extent; it's the Centauri
Republic. And very definitely there's a Roman influence on that
particular civilization.
Re: scripts...a topic for another time....
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 02:18:40 -0500
Subject: "Bab" prefix
Re: your concern about putting "bab" in front of everything (the
message to which you responded mentioned babcommand, babalert, babguard
and so on)...it's not, and we don't. There is only one thing with that
previx, BabCom. That's all. There ain't no more. The person who
thought he heard bab-alert misheard MedAlert.
The concern as raised has *nothing* to do with our show.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 03:35:48 -0500
Subject: Christy Marx
Yes, this Christy Marx is the same as the one who writes games and
has written comics as well.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 03:35:39 -0500
Subject: Re: What are those blue fins?
For the record: B5 is *not* purely solar-powered. There's a HUGE
fusion reactor at the far end of the station that takes up almost that
entire long section.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 07:12:15 -0500
Subject: Babylon 5 '89
Don't really remember what the plan would've been if we'd gotten
the Go order years earlier; but one way or another we would've made it,
that's all I know. Nothing's stopping this thing.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 07:36:15 -0500
Subject: Re: Ban on creative works? Huh
"Why can't I write a story using the characters from B5 and publish
it here for all to read?"
Because it's a violation of copyright and trademark. What part of
that sentence don't you understand?
If you write a story and -- using your own terms -- "publish it here"
that instance of commonlaw copyright is a violation of the PTEN copyright
and trademark. My own personal feelings notwithstanding, *it's the law*.
The only thing that really bothers me in this whole conversation is
that I didn't want to get into a discussion of legalities, or lawyers, or
copyright infringement...all I said at the beginning was that I would like
to be here, to stay here, to participate in this experiment. And I asked,
as a courtesy, to be kept away from any story ideas because it opens me
up to legal liability. That's all. Just a courtesy, in exchange for the
3 hours a day I spend on this system, reading 500 messages a day now, to
keep the lines of communication open.
Why is the request for a courtesy insufficient, and people have to
go to the legal aspect?
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 07:12:15 -0500
Subject: Babylon 5 '89
Don't really remember what the plan would've been if we'd gotten
the Go order years earlier; but one way or another we would've made it,
that's all I know. Nothing's stopping this thing.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 17:47:25 -0500
Subject: JMS Question: Where Were They?
The Centauri Republic tended to go after species where they could get
some advantage; they'd find a world on the fringe of being able to hit
space, with a technological base, move in and take over. It's sharper
and easier than taking over a world without tech; not much to offer. By
the time we got to that point, they had begun the decline of their
empire, and basically greeted us with a shrug. And there is no EA rule
about non-interference. The only real rule applies to surveying distant
worlds for mineral resources, and a restriction against strip-mining
worlds that contain sentient life.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 21:15:59 -0500
Subject: JMS: "Infection" -- no spoiler
Thanks. Sinclair's final speech there is the simplest truth about
space exploration that I can think of...and the most compelling..and the
most overlooked. As Henry Kissinger once said, "It has the added benefit
of being true."
jms
10716
::::::::::::::
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 02:42:35 -0500
Subject: Born to the Purple (Minor Spo
Fabiana didn't shave her head to play Adira; that's a prosthetic
head piece. Ditto with all our Centauriy women. (Funnily enough, the one
time we DID have a bald woman as a background extra, those not in the
know on stage kept commenting on how fake the bald-cap looked....)
The planet behind B5 ain't the moon. This is a LOT further out.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 02:57:58 -0500
Subject: To JMS: They still use paper?
It's not a paper,but synthetic material. A customized (to each
person) copy of UT comes out in your quarters, you take it with you, read
it, dump it in the recycler and get it again the next day. And the
"help" given by EA to bronze-tech worlds is on a "whether you want it or
not" basis. No prime directive here.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 03:36:05 -0500
Subject: The annoying little space shot
We did a lot of exterior transitional shots in the first few eps of
B5 to reinforce where we are and what this is; it diminishes in frequency
the deeper into the series you get.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 04:42:36 -0500
Subject: Concerns about Scientific real
Let me ask you a question: let's say we zip back in time for a
moment. It's now the year 1944. Someone writes a science fiction story
about life 50 years from now, 1994. And in the course of that story,
which gets into nuclear powered vessels, Mars probes, space shuttles and
laser surgery...you get references to such outrageous ideas as Psychic
hotlines, crop circles, and other things.
Does it stop being a science fiction story? Perhaps...but it is
fundamentally more *real* than if you pretended none of that existed, or
tried to explain it all away. The universe it too big, and 110 episodes
is too short, to try and explain away *everything*. I think that there
should be mysteries.
Because mysteries will always be with us...and any attempt at SF that
tries to deny that basic element of our existence is being untruthful to
the history of human experience.
The whole science fiction/science fantasy argument is fairly recent
in SF, as various parties drew up sides and closed ranks. There's the
Analog crowd, and the F&SF crowd...prior to Campbell and a few others
really hammering down a set of rules, SF encompassed a whole *range* of
ideas, and freely crossed borders, using various elements. The classic
Mark Twain story, "Sold to Satan" (I'm pretty sure that's the title)
combines SF elements (the purposes of this new discovery called radium)
with the supernatural (said component is a prime ingredient in Satan's
physiology).
Now obviously I'm not going to do that, I have no desire to go that
far. But I don't think that you have to sit down and quantify every single
mystery in life and reduce it to a catchphrase or some technobabble; why
can't there still be wonders and mysteries and the unsolved in 2258, as
we have them today?
Because you could write that 1944 story about 1994 without crop
circles, or dial-a-psychic hotlines...and maybe it would be (by the
lights of some) valid SF, it would *not* be valid extrapolation. It would
ESPECIALLY not be valid social extrapolation. It comes down to: do you
want an agenda behind a story, or do you want a story about where people
may be in 200 years, and the kinds of things they might experience?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 05:22:29 -0500
Subject: (attn JMS) The New Group Debat
Correct: when we've told our five year story, the B5 series comes to
an end in terms of original episodes, and then will, like all other TV
series, go into long-term reruns. There's one possible spin-off that
has always been feasible, but it would not be a B5 series, rather following
one thread in a different direction. But that also has a definite end,
after which there *can't* be any more followups, for reasons I can't now
go into.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 06:11:25 -0500
Subject: Q: JMS: Station ownership
The EA has owned all of the Babylons; 1-3 were sabotaged early in
construction, so it wasn't too much of a loss. They dumped a BIG budget
into B4, and when that died, barely passed the budget for #5, skimping all
the way, cutting it down to bare bones operating expenses. They will and
would never approve a #6.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 11:17:48 -0500
Subject: JMS Query; ref n'grath
Garibaldi is quite aware of n'grath...and knowing that if he just
vanished, somebody'd take his place in five minutes, prefers the trouble
he knows to the trouble he'd have to track down.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 18 Feb 1994 17:35:18 -0500
Subject: Re: Ban on creative works? Huh
Obviously, I can't say anything officially here saying "Go write
fanfic to your heart's content." Because PTEN would (correctly) stick my
head on a pike in the middle of downtown Hollywood. However, let me be
ABSOLUTELY clear in this: I have NEVER said, "Don't write it." All that
I have EVER said is, "Don't put it in a place where I can see it or
stumble over it."
Email is a private system; so is a closed mailing list. I'm not
here to be PTEN's eyes and ears; I really don't care what happens out
there in that respect. My only real concern is that whatever it is that's
happening, *I don't see it.* It's better for all concerned if I don't
see it, or don't have access to it.
So on a personal level, I have no real problem with what you propose.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Feb 1994 05:29:46 -0500
Subject: Infection (spoilers)
I allow a small smile...in the course of any given script, I put in
little things that I figure nobody will ever notice, but which for me
help just a bit to keep on track with the character, and which may
resonate to anyone paying attention. You cite Sinclair's line about
joining Garibaldi "on the LINE," and Garibaldi noting that Sinclair keeps
putting his life "on the LINE," and the similarity to the phrase "the
Battle of the Line."
It was a throwaway...but a conscious one.
He's still fighting the same battle. He's never stopped. In one way
or another, he keeps putting himself out there, caught in a loop....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Feb 1994 05:59:26 -0500
Subject: Re: Talia's badge
The Psi Corps identification is worn both with pride and as a
warning or advisory to others. No bikini-tags yet.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Feb 1994 05:59:40 -0500
Subject: JMS: Psi Corps Symbol
Er...the symbol Lyta wears isn't "an interconnected IU that looks
an awful lot like the greek 'psi,'" ...it *IS* the Greek letter Psi, as
is appropriate for a group of telepaths. That was always our intent.
(Funnily enough, while in college getting my first degree in Clinical
Psychology, I belonged to Psi Chi, the national honor society in
psychology. Small world.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Feb 1994 21:04:34 -0500
Subject: Little touches I live for (spo
Re: "That kind of direction." Not to be nit-picky, but it was
scripted that we would come to G'Kar just as she got to that line. Not
everything is from the director....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 20 Feb 1994 21:05:30 -0500
Subject: JMS - two questions...
Don't know re: Harlan's photo. The reader doing the Tennyson piece
was just a regular voice-over actor. The piece is from "Ulysses."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 01:18:43 -0500
Subject: JMS: Generic EZ Q's
The Earth/Minbari war started with a Minbari first encounter (by us)
that went tragically wrong and resulted in a firefight, in which the
leader of the Grey Council was killed.
Kosh's ship is still on B5, except when he takes it out.
Virtually all of the B5 story takes place within one galaxy.
Yes, Earth religions have had to come to grips with the existence of
alien cultures; and religions from both sides have filtered into human an
alien life. We won't be dealing with that this season because we deal
with the topic of religion a lot this season, and don't want to get too
bogged down with it.
Franklin's associate wasn't a Foundationist, no.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 03:42:16 -0500
Subject: "Infections" vs. Guyver (spoi
I've never been a big fan of japanese animation, and have never heard
of Guyver before it came up in this discussion. (I actually thought that
the Guyver references were some kind of reference to McGuyver for a long
time, until finally I began to suss out that we were talking animation
here.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 04:47:58 -0500
Subject: Re: Infection <spoilers>
Re: the scene in which Sinclair tells an INS reporter that humanity
has to stay in space because eventually our local star will go out and
make futile our million-year struggle through evolution and blood, you
say, "It's also been done a zillion times before."
Name five.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:47:25 -0500
Subject: Re: Babylon 5 Grade Report: "M
For what it's worth, in "Raiding Party," there's a line or two of
dialogue mentioning that the Raider ships are meant for atmospheric and
space maneuvering, with the recommendation that someone "aim for the
airfoils," as that's the most vulnerable spot. So that *is* specified at
one point.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:47:31 -0500
Subject: JMS (et al.) A treatise on Cha
Your analysis sounds just about right on from where I sit....
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:47:35 -0500
Subject: I liked it.
Re: the shape of the doors...they're set to notch into the wall,
and in the case of depressurization, bolts shoot through the "teeth" that
insert into the wall, to lock it securely into place. It's much more
airtight that way than a conventional door that swings or opens in the
middle in case of an accident that opens a portion of the station to
vacuum.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:47:39 -0500
Subject: Re: "Midnight" reactions
There was a problem with the initial episodes using the garden: we
kept turning in good looking shots, and couldn't figure out why they
looked weird later. Turns out that the people at the color lab/video
transfer facility (one person in particular) kept adjusting the color and
gamma TO MATCH HIS MONITOR. We finally found out about this and yelled.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 04:47:42 -0500
Subject: Re: RFD: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylo
"I certainly hope B5 can do (Battlestar Galactica) justice!"
(whoah...must've hit him harder than I thought....)
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:24:06 -0500
Subject: Re: query to JMS.......
There are no immediate plans to expand on the Sinclair Aircraft
piece; some things are best just left there. The logo is real, btw; we
found it, and got permission to use it.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:24:13 -0500
Subject: Soul Hunter - A review of sort
Doing the intro was something that PTEN wants for all its shows; if
you check out Trax and Kung Fu, you'll see it there, as well. It's my
hope that we can trim the narration down by 1/2 in second and subsequent
seasons.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:24:57 -0500
Subject: WILL WE VISIT THE VEGITATED IN
Yes, we will. In addition to the Zen garden, and the Fresh Air
Restaurant, we'll be seeing the Orchard, the Pavillion, and the Maze,
though you won't see the last one there for some time. I don't think it
shows up until "Chrysalis."
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:25:00 -0500
Subject: JMS at Icon?
Yes, at this point, I do plan to be at Icon....
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 16 Feb 1994 05:26:22 -0500
Subject: Transfer point at Io
The transfer point off Io is a Jump Gate, the one most generally
used by Earthforce.
jms
(It's not on Io, it's on a station *off* Io.)
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 02:18:40 -0500
Subject: "Bab" prefix
Re: your concern about putting "bab" in front of everything (the
message to which you responded mentioned babcommand, babalert, babguard
and so on)...it's not, and we don't. There is only one thing with that
previx, BabCom. That's all. There ain't no more. The person who
thought he heard bab-alert misheard MedAlert.
The concern as raised has *nothing* to do with our show.
jms
From: straczynski@genie5.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 02:18:39 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To Include Gay/B
Let me respond only to two points in your message. The rest seem
hardly worthy of response.
I am not, as you imply, going for "brownie points" from anyone. I
am telling a story. I am telling the story that I've wanted to tell for
seven years. I have no interest in currying favor from any group, any
organization, any fringe or mainstream elements. You don't work for seven
years to create the chance to tell your own story just to turn it over to
the influence of others.
Did it every occur to you -- for even a *smidgen* of a second -- that
maybe, just maybe, what I'm doing with B5 is being done BECAUSE IT ADVANCES
THE STORY? Because it is a legitimate part of the story? You seem to
think that if someone does something in this area, it HAS to proceed from
either a personal political agenda, or the enforced agenda of others.
Which is a load of absolute and utter crap. I don't care who signs
on board, or who's offended. That's not my concern. My concern is in
telling a story, as best as I am able. Period.
To your second point, that if violence on TV is open to congressional
inquiry, then nothing is wrong in "questioning (how) political and social
issues are presented in entertainment programming."
Well, I'm glad someone has finally come out of the woodwork on this
one.
This is exactly what happens in this situation. Everybody waves the
big VIOLENCE bugaboo around to get pressure built behind them...and then
they begin to use this huge stick to go after their OTHER agendas, the
legislation of ideas, curtailment of notions and issues that they don't
personally like. It's happened again and again, in comics, in kid's
programs, in libraries across the country, in the recording industry, and
now they're trying to do it to TV.
The hard part is always getting them to ADMIT that this is on their
minds.
Thank you for breaking the silence.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 03:35:39 -0500
Subject: Re: What are those blue fins?
For the record: B5 is *not* purely solar-powered. There's a HUGE
fusion reactor at the far end of the station that takes up almost that
entire long section.
jms
From: straczynski@genie4.geis.com
Date: 17 Feb 1994 03:35:48 -0500
Subject: Christy Marx
Yes, this Christy Marx is the same as the one who writes games and
has written comics as well.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 08:10:21 -0500
Subject: B-5: What are they wearing on
The devices on the backs of their hands are Links, which function as
communications devices, interface with the B5 central computer, can access
the PA system and so on. They slap on and off easily.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 08:10:21 -0500
Subject: Re: Concerns about Scientific
Just a minor correction: I was never involved with the production or
writing of the original V series or miniseries; I was hired by Warners to
write a new (and as yet unproduced) 4-hour miniseries to revive the V
series in syndication. The project was shelved when it was realized that
it would be too expensive to try it for the syndicated market.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 21:57:42 -0500
Subject: JMS: Parliament?
A parliament is a gathering of officials, of representatives, which
matches the story in terms of representatives of different places, and
beliefs. The dreams are the belief systems.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 21 Feb 1994 22:10:25 -0500
Subject: B5 and Cronos
The only Cronos movie that I know of is "Kronos," a mexican-filmed
black and white film in which an alien device crash-lands and grows to
skyscraper size and begins stomping its way across Mexico...looked like
a cross between a rubik's cube and a peppermill.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 02:57:23 -0500
Subject: Re: Concerns about Scientific
"I object to the PSI stuff because the show was said to be SF."
Yes, and telepathy has been dealt with considerably throughout the
long history of SF. One of the finest novels in the genre is Alfred
Bester's "The Demolished Man." Telepathy has also been used as a valid
plot device in SF by Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Kurt Vonnegut, Brian
Aldiss, John Brunner, Kate Wilhelm, Robert Sheckley, Eric Frank Russell,
Walter M. Miller, Anne McCaffrey, Richard Matheson, Fritz Leiber and
Samuel Delaney, to name but a FEW.
If you want to argue that telepathy isn't a valid area for SF, or
doesn't qualify as SF, then your argument is with them, not with me.
And you'd lose.
(With luck, this will close this discussion once and for all.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 04:24:31 -0500
Subject: Re: No more gay talk and Ivano
Actually, Ivanova gets to play hero a *lot* in this first season;
in "Raiding Party," a little in "War Prayer," more in "Believers," and
"A Voice in the Wildereness," and "Legacies," and a whole bunch more.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 04:24:44 -0500
Subject: Stupid Question in "Infection"
Actually, the reporter's question was *not* (from a 2258 point of
view) stupid. Earth is far enough from the other major races not to
have to worry about iminent invasion. At the time of the story, there is
a VERY strong isolationist movement growing back home, which you'll hear
more about as we go in. Space travel is *expensive*, even in 2258, and
there are still a lot of problems to be resolved back home. While the
Earth administration in Earthdome keeps pressing to go further and
further, various nation/states in the Earth senate are taxed further to
finance explorations which they don't always share in equally, the Mars
Colony is threatening secession...things are falling apart by degrees.
So in light of all that, the question is *absolutely* valid.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 04:25:17 -0500
Subject: Re: MOJO responds to FX chat
Re: boring textbooks and keeping you away from physics....
Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing MOJO, one of the leading minds of
the 14th century.
I gotta get a bigger ball-bat.
Go ahead. Tell Ron you just wrote that here. But wait until I get
there first. This one I'd *pay* to see.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 04:25:31 -0500
Subject: Re: ALIEN ACCENTS
I quote your message verbatim: "What kind of accent (besides FAKE and
FORCED) does the membari (spelling?) lady use? I mean, what country on
earth did they model her character's accent from?"
(rolling up sleeves) Allow me to show you why you are an idiot.
There is a tendency, among the cerebrally impaired, to automatically
decide that whatever they don't like is fake, or forced, or cheesy, when
they are simply ignorant of what it means, or what it is. Because it
isn't instantly familiar, doesn't instantly match what they've seen before,
they -- like you -- assume it's being done incorrectly.
Mira Furlan is a native-born Yugoslavian (back when that was the
name of the country). She came to this country only a year or two ago,
fleeing for her life. She had been that nation's premiere actress, having
won any number of major awards, including the Palm d'Or at Cannes. But
because she refused to endorse either side in that bloodbath, she was
hunted by both.
The "fake and forced" accent to which you refer...is her native
accent.
Maybe next time you will take the required moment to *think* before
shooting off your mouth, and phrase your question in order to get the
required information before making allegations based on your own lack of
said information. One doesn't always have to attack something unfamiliar
or insult someone's ability just because you don't like something.
Because from time to time, you'll prove yourself a boob.
Like this time.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 04:26:45 -0500
Subject: Did you need Loyd's of London'
No need for Lloyd's permission, just for a casual reference.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 22 Feb 1994 23:16:20 -0500
Subject: (JMS) Research Grants
Thanks. And agreed; the state of research grants, particularly for
pure-research, but even for more practical applications, is in sorry
shape. Other nations invest *massive* amounts of money into research and
development, we invest pennies...and we wonder why we're falling behind.
No one's looking ahead. It's tragic, and worse than tragic, it's
dirt-stick-stone stupid. My condolences.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 00:32:10 -0500
Subject: SPOILERS:The Parliament of Dre
"There was one big plot hole: Na'Toth should not have had such an
easy time convincing the assassin that she had been assigned as backup."
Hmm...as I recall the episode, she *didn't* convince him at all, and
in fact was inches away from having him blow her brains out when G'Kar
came barrelling down the hall at them....
Just a thought.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 00:32:49 -0500
Subject: JMS: INFLUENCES BESIDES CLASSI
In terms of visual-media SF, there have been a lot of influences over
the years, mainly in informing my views of what constitutes SF. There are
the obvious influences from Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits, as well as
Blake's 7 and the Prisoner. Also loved Night Gallery, and still hold some
measure of appreciation for the Invaders. My favorite SF films are still
(for the most part) those from the fifties and sixties; 2001, The Day The
Earth Stood Still, Twenty Million Years to Earth and so on, though clearly
there's been a lot of good work since, with Aliens and the Terminator
films being favorites.
Anime has never really done much for me, I'm afraid. It's hard to
really say why; it's not that it offends me or anything, it just hasn't
pushed the same buttons for me that other venues have.
jms
::::::::::::::
gain, putting in
phasing problems and other stuff. We're trying to backtrack further and
keep it from happening again. (Part of the problem apparently sets in
when they do the closed-captioning duping.)
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 15:50:16 -0500
Subject: Re: BABYLON 5 To Include Gay/B
Let me put this as simply as I can...in the year 2258, nobody *cares*
about your sexual orientation. It doesn't come up. No one makes an issue
out of it. There are no discussions, no proclamations, no inquiries, no
"how will they react?" It's like being left-handed or right-handed; no
one really cares one way or another.
Can we now move on past all of this?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 15:53:58 -0500
Subject: B5mojo: Some things I want to
You've already got your wish. You'll see big ships going *boom* in
"A Voice in the Wilderness" and firing at each other, and the between the
fins movement and other stuff even more outrageous in "Raiding Party."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 16:25:38 -0500
Subject: "Collision course" in SH (spoi
Re: why soul hunter #1's ship was out of control...the second soul
hunter comments that they've been tracking him, and caught up with him a
few days ago. They attacked, "and he escaped, his ship damaged." That
is what brought him here...and led his pursuers to this place as well.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 23 Feb 1994 19:27:51 -0500
Subject: JMS: talkshows
Jerry Doyle was recently on the Dini Petty show up in Canada, but as
far as I know, no talk show bookings yet, though a few things are in the
discussions phase.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 24 Feb 1994 05:24:35 -0500
Subject: Re: JMS: Are you pulling a "St
In your complaints regarding the commander flying off on occasional
missions (and he only does it about 3 times out of 22 episodes, so I
hardly see this as a problem), you are forgetting several other *realities*
of military life. If you're a pilot, even as a commander, you have to
log in X-number of hours flying time per month in order to continue to
qualify for flight pay. This is a *requirement*. And it doesn't just
mean flying around the station a few times.
Second, many commanders -- as recently as Vietnam and afterward --
did and continue to go out on missions and sorties because it is rather
expected of them, and because it maintains the respect of the rest of
the squadron(s).
Third, and possibly most important, Earthforce is the same as the
contermporary Air Force in one important respect: promotion up the ranks
is tied *directly* to combat experience and, in this case, combat
flying. That's why women fighter pilots and helicopter pilots have been
fighting so *vigorously* to be allowed to fly combat missions; they know
that they can't be promoted fully up the line without that. Sinclair has
no desire to be a commander all his life, he'd like to move on. Hence
it behooves him to get in combat time whenever possible.
Your statement that it "doesn't wash" has nothing to do with how
the military *actually* works, and everything to do with the skewed and
inaccurate portrayal of the military that you get from Trek. This is
absolutely legitimate, and the B5 mailbox these days is partly crammed
with letters from vets thanking us for getting this part right.
I suppose I could mention this in passing in dialogue, but then it
becomes a matter of sticking in dialogue not because it's important to an
episode, but because some folks would like things explained to them. I
don't think that's my responsibility.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 24 Feb 1994 10:49:18 -0500
Subject: JMS: Are you pulling a "Star
I answered you elsewhere here on this topic earlier this evening. To
just nit for a moment, to say that Sinclair picks up "every derelict
ship" seems a little unfair...he's picked up *one*, and only one, and
only picks up one this entire season. Why him? A) Because he's good at
it, B) he could use the flight pay, C) it'll look good on his record, and
D) because as he says as he leaves, it's a potential first-contact
situation. (NOt to mention E, that he has a death-wish.)
I would submit to you that this is NOT the same as having one
character do a zillion different jobs on the station. I think that you're
reacting to something you've seen on Trek, and are assuming based on an
example of one that we're doing it in B5 as well. We're not. Also, in
"Purple," Garibaldi sends a different team out to handle the gunfire, so
there are others who do things. Question becomes, how many new and
recurring characters do you want to introduce? There are currently *14*
regular and recurring characters on B5, and there are many folks who are
saying that's too many. As it is, we do introduce an aide to Garibaldi
who takes care of some stuff for him. Just as Sinclair delegates to
Ivanova, and Ivanova delegates to the observation dome techs.
I just feel that you're leaping to a conclusion based on a paucity of
evidence, built upon your experiences with another show. We're simply not
doing this.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 24 Feb 1994 10:49:19 -0500
Subject: Earthdome: where is it?
Earthdome is on Earth. In what used to be Geneva.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 00:42:46 -0500
Subject: JMS: Parliament? Dreams?
You'll get more on the varied Narn beliefs in "By Any Means
Necessary."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 00:42:50 -0500
Subject: General questions for JMS
I could've written B5 as a novel per se, as you say, having written
published novels before...and it would've been one more SF novel. No one
has really attempted this kind of multi-year story, on this kind of scale
before for American TV. (The closest I can come to in terms of other
shows is, interestingly enough, "Brisco County Jr." I've been very
pleased to see them developing a real story over time.) It's more of a
real challenge to try and do it for TV, for starters, and B5 has always
struck me as better *suited* for TV. Generally I can get a good sense of
what medium a story belongs in, and this one felt like TV.) I enjoy
challenges, and doing a show like B5 for TV is a *real* challenge.
As for the characters, for the largest part they were created new
when they came into replace those characters who were removed from the
story arc. There's not much carry-over.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 10:08:16 -0500
Subject: Re: JMS: "See you next Wednesd
No, Wednesday was just the day she was due to return; she mentions
that her next job has to be finished by Tuesday, and this makes
Wednesday the next day she could see him.
I'm not terribly enamored of Landis, and would not deliberately
stick ANY reference to his work in an episode of mine.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 10:08:45 -0500
Subject: Something I'd like to see (was
You've already seen a non-O2 alien wearing a breather in an O2
section; one of the two victims walking down a hall in "Infection" just
before they get smeared. Also an alien or two in the gallery in
"Midnight," though I don't know how clearly they can be seen. We do it
from time to time....
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 10:08:49 -0500
Subject: Telepath a bad idea?
The point you raise is exactly correct; which is why we've set up
the Psi Corps in such a way as to *prevent* them from becoming a deus ex
machina all the time. This is what's always bothered me about the way
"empaths" are treated on ST; it's a terrible invasion of privacy. The Psi
Corps has strict rules about who can and can't be scanned, and under what
conditions. In "Purple," she couldn't just go scan Trakis; she had to be
hired, had to be already engaged in a business capacity, and had to find
it *only* in surface thoughts, no deliberate poking. And this is the ONLY
-- repeat, the ONLY -- time this is done in the entire season, aside from
the accidental run-in with Londo in the pilot episode.
We'll get deeper into the rules and regs of the Psi Corps as we go,
further establishing that there's a lot they're expressly forbidden from
doing by law.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 10:10:12 -0500
Subject: JMS: Some questions
We won't see G'Kar's mate this season. In time. And yes, we will
learn a little more about telepaths in the other species, and how they
work, in "Legacies" and in "Eyes."
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 13:36:29 -0500
Subject: RE: BTTP and semi-clad women (
I confess I don't see the problem. In real life, some women are
scientists, and doctors, and atheletes...and some women dance in bars,
some women hook part- or full-time. Some men are scholars and diplomats
and teachers...and some men are gigolos and thieves and *also* dance in
bars. Where exactly is the problem in portraying both sides of this?
Have we become so concerned with being politically correct that we can
not show a legitimate part of human existence?
B5 has all kinds, and both sides of all kinds. Male and female,
equally. I "chose" exotic dancers for a kind of sleazy, not-entirely
legitimate operation, a backroom club. What would one *expect* to find
there? Opera singers? You look at the situation, and you choose
what is *appropriate to the situation*.
I would also point out that the dancers didn't "eagerly rush
forward to betray their friend." Londo was trying to find Adira in hopes
of helping her. He didn't say he was going to do anything bad to her,
and he was probably known to more than a few of them. He was simply
trying to find her. The coin was an added incentive. Back when I was an
investigative reporter, I did some research on strip joints while I was
living in SAn Diego. Spent a LOT of time talking to nude dancers (when
they had their clothes on, I hasten to add). And 99.9% of them had a
rule: you want to ask questions, you pay. That simple. That's how this
stuff *works*. My job is to keep the B5 reality as close as possible to
our reality in that respect.
Some of them probably wanted to help, knowing Londo was okay. Some
probably didn't care. And some probably would've betrayed her at the
tip of a coin. Life's like that. So again, where in this is the
problem?
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 16:35:53 -0500
Subject: Re: JMS Attn -- Re: Babylon 5
The video noise and audio problem is apparently happening between
the time we deliver the episode on D2s and when it's uplinked to the
stations. Apparently the show goes through 5 more generations, in order
to add in commercials (1 pass), add in closed-captioning (another copy),
and so on. We're trying to track it down and see where in the process
the glitch is happening.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 25 Feb 1994 16:56:35 -0500
Subject: Comments on "Infection"
In your review of "Infection," you ask where are the floating
recorders we saw in the pilot. Just as a point of reference...they were
in "Infection," in the last scene with the reporter.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 26 Feb 1994 00:23:58 -0500
Subject: Where is that weapon?
The weapon to which you refer was not part of B5; it was on Space
Rangers, and was shown as part of an overall SF-TV report.
jms
From: straczynski@genie.geis.com
Date: 26 Feb 1994 06:12:53 -0500
Subject: What's Spoo?
Re: your desire to make and eat spoo at home...deponds on whether or
not you ever want to have children later....
jms