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The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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JMS Usenet messages for January 1999.
Date: 2 Jan 1999 19:33:13 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS (please):Tears
Many thanks...and I hope JRRT isn't spinning in his hobbit hole over that one.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 2 Jan 1999 19:34:59 -0700
Subject: Re: Any ideas about the release dates of the novels?
>When is the second book of the Telepath Trilogy supposed to come out
Literally any time now.
, and
>when
>is the first novel of the Centauri Trilogy supposed to come out?
Spring.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 4 Jan 1999 14:59:31 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Budgets, Budgets, and more budgets!!!!
The B5 tv movies produced so far cost just a tick under $3 million.
We could almost certainly do a high-quality theatrical feature for about $35-40
million.
The average going price for a feature these days is $55 million.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 5 Jan 1999 09:29:42 -0700
Subject: note from jms re: evan chen
I posted this on Compuserve...just passing this along here as well on the topic
of the music for A CALL TO ARMS.
I suppose we could've stayed with the safe choice, with Chris, or done
a nice, safe, droning Voyager style score that you don't even notice, but
we're looking to take chances, and that means some people will like what you
do, some won't. Some won't like it because it's different. Neil Gaiman told
me that a number of fans of any form, including his own, say they want
something new and challenging that takes chances...but it they don't like the
form of that chance, they blame you for somehow doing it wrong...and they
want the next new thing to be just like the last thing you did.
I can't tell you the number of people who said "why can't you just do
the John Williams style music instead of this?" Because it's been done, and
it's cliche, and by god we're going to push what's "expected" to try some new
things. Otherwise what the hell's the point?
"Of course, you've been through this before. I seem to recall a lot of
people complaining when Christopher Franke replaced the composer for the
pilot. I don't doubt that a lot of the people screaming loudest now are the
very ones who complained about Franke when he started."
I don't know about the latter, but I can sure confirm the former. And
that's why I sometimes wish the viewer responses were logged as much as my
own have been. When we brought in Chris to replace Stewart Copeland, you
can't *believe* how much email I got from people saying to trash him, fire
him, it's that "euro-trash techno-crap" most called it. "He uses sounds and
banging instead of music," people complained (which he did mainly in the
first two seasons), "it's distracting and it's not appropriate, get rid of
him."
But we didn't. I told people to give him time to settle into the show,
and on the other hand to let them get used to a different kind of sound than
what they expected. ("I guess you couldn't afford to hire a real composer
like TNG uses," was another popular line.)
Evan ain't Chris, nor should he be, nor should he *have* to be. He is
a brilliantly talented composer. This is his first shot at a dramatic
series, and as he settles in (as Chris settled in), I think people are going
to be as loyal to what he's doing in Crusade as they were to Chris in B5.
He's a classically trained composer, who threw it all away to come study jazz
under some of the best jazz men in Chicago...washing dishes to support
himself when he had been at the top of his field in China...because he loves
music, and loves to experiment, and he took a chance.
In the course of Crusade, we're going to see some places we've never
seen before...and thanks to Evan, we're going to hear some things we've never
heard before. He's a find, and a genuine, fresh talent, and I stand behind
him 100%.
And the people who say they are fans of Chris Franke's should think
twice before doing to him what so many people did so rudely to Chris when he
first came aboard.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 10 Jan 1999 19:27:00 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: B5 Book Trilogies
The third trilogy (actually the second to go into the works) is a Technomage
trilogy, with Jeanne Cavelos writing.
Peter David is doing the Centauri trilogy.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 10 Jan 1999 23:57:37 -0700
Subject: Re: copyright ownership
Standard stuff: any studio owns all the rights to the show it makes. Paramount
owns ST, not Roddenberry's estate. Similarly, WB owns B5, lock, stock and
docking bay. They also own all the designs, the ship models, and all of that.
It's all copyrighted and trademarked, down to the schematics.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 11 Jan 1999 07:14:03 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Something Bugging me greatly!!!!!
Peter David has already done one script for Crusade, "Ruling from the Tomb,"
shot a few weeks ago. Looks good.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 13 Jan 1999 00:17:04 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS - MegaCon99
>As a viewer of B5 since the beginning, I was thrilled to see that you are
>finally making a trip to my part of the world at the MegaCon in Orlando
>March 5-7. I was wondering which day (or hopefully, days) that you will be
>speaking?
I believe that my main presentation in the big room will be on Saturday;
there's one Sunday as well, but not as big a deal.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 13 Jan 1999 13:15:41 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS: Outside Writers I'd Like to See...
Peter David has done a script for Crusade this season, Larry DiTillio is
currently working on one, as is Richard Mueller, in addition to a couple of
scripts by Fiona Avery.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 13 Jan 1999 13:16:34 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Why, Joe, why?
So in other words, I cannot have or express an opinion of my own. You can say
that you do not like the CTA music, but I cannot say that I do not like the
droning Voyager music, is that it? The freedom of expression goes only one
direction?
Sorry, Von Bruno...that doesn't wash. Either it's a level playing field or it
ain't.
Go repress somebody else.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 13 Jan 1999 13:17:23 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS:News? Pretty Please?
>How's filming going? What episodes have you filmed lately?
We finished shooting #12 today. Tomorrow Stephen Furst begins shooting on
"Appearances and Other Deceits."
>(Or does that require Vorlon-level passcodes?)
>How are the old crew and the new cast interfacing?
They're getting along famously; the new cast are a very serious bunch, and
totally dedicated to the work.
>And how are you? Gotten any naps lately? :)
In May.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 13 Jan 1999 15:17:35 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Internet/Convention presence???
I think I'm going to end up doing fewer conventions than in previous years; to
some extent I think I may have gotten over-exposed, and over-personalized the
show when it's the show that should be at the focus. So yeah, overall I'll be
doing a bit less than usual for the next year or so.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 18 Jan 1999 23:22:00 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Matheson
>I noticed that the last name of the first officer of Excaliber in Crusade is
>Matheson. (Hes supposed to be a teep, I think, am i right?)
>
>Is this a nod towards legendary horror writer Richard matheson?
Yup. I fell in love with Matheson's work as a kid, and since we had Bester in
B5, I figured it might be good luck to have Matheson in Crusade.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 19 Jan 1999 17:18:41 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: River of Souls
>Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could shed any light on what
>happened to the "River of Souls" novel. According to Waldenbooks it was
>supposed to come out in mid-December; according to Amazon.com, it's not
>published until December 1999, and it isn't listed at all on the publishers'
>order form in the back of the "Call to Arms" novel. I'm asssuming it was
>canceled, but was wondering why.
>
We pulled the book. For a variety of reasons, it wasn't where we wanted it to
be, and the quality we needed it to be, so it was dropped. We hope we can try
and do something else with the novelist at some point in the future.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 19 Jan 1999 17:39:17 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JOE PLEASE!
>PLEASE! I know you couldn't stop the Big Breakfast debacle, but could you
>phone C4 and explain why this is so important to us? You're the only one
>they might listen to!
No one listen to Zathras....not C4...not any other kind of explosives or
gas...very sad...much hangings up at other end of phone...heard that C4 was
taken back in time, was center for great war of britfans...Zathras not know
what britfans means, but is sure it must be important to great war against
darkness....
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 19 Jan 1999 17:40:09 -0700
Subject: Re: JMS: A couple of Crusade questions
>Has the delay in starting the broadcast helped or hindered you in
>production? I can see how having some extra time in preparation can be
>a help, but I imagine it can also encourage a little too much fiddling
>around in search of perfection.
No real impact either way...we contract with our CGI and stuff to be done by a
given date, and that date can't be expanded without additional fees, so it will
still get done in the same amount of time.
>Question 2: assuming that the report of the content of "Appearances and
>Other Deceits" is correct, what was the creative process involved in
>coming up with this solution? Was it one of those blinding flashes of
>revelation or was it a more mundane logical solution?
I was just thinking about how to use the changes to the benefit of the story
rather than an annoyance, thought of my reaction to the level of annoyance,
wondered how Gideon would react, and just started giggling...figured I could
turn it around and in a sense take a shot across someone's bow...so there it
is.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 19 Jan 1999 20:31:29 -0700
Subject: Re: A thank you & a small history of the net
Thanks, I appreciate all of that. The Internet has had an effect on a lot of
people in that way, and though there's much negative, those elements do count
as positives.
Continued good luck to you.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 19 Jan 1999 20:33:32 -0700
Subject: Re: jms- Megacon
>Fan-run cons are well-known, are non-profit 501(3)(c) organizations, are
>run by long running organizations, etc. JMS should know this, but for
>some reason he asserts that his test of their legitimacy is whether they
>are organized enough to pay him a large fee. He says, as I recall, that
>the test of gathering a large sum of money tests their organization. Or
>somesuch. I hope I have that wrong.
Yes, you have that wrong. You have that MASSIVELY wrong, on just about every
conceivable level. I never said what you represent above.
Further, the majority of the conventions I do each year ARE fan run
conventions. From Marcon to LosCon to Stellar Occasion to WishCon to a small
fan-run con in Calgary last year...from big ones to small ones, they are nearly
ALL fan-run cons.
As for fees...there are usually fees because I'm being asked to take away a
weekend, the only time I have a chance to rest up, and fly somewhere to,
essentially, perform. It's a very strenuous thing for me...I often lose as
much as 5-10 pounds over a weekend convention because I'm running my brains
out, sometimes from early morning to late evening with maybe a half-hour for a
fast bite at lunch and often going straight through dinner.
Even so, even with all that...it's a token fee, maybe one third what folks like
Bruce get (or even less), and it's a function of distance traveled. For
LosCon, and Gallifrey, and other local cons...there's no fee at all, because I
can go and come back. If it's cross country, then yeah, the fee goes up with
distance, because if I'm going to travel that far, I need to make sure that
there are going to be a reasonable number of people there. So that mitigates
toward cons that can afford a speaker's fee.
And again, I deliberately keep my fees to a fraction of what is generally
required by cast members for the very reason that it puts me in reach of
smaller conventions. I do this as an act of respect toward the fan run cons
across the country and elsewhere...so I take your comments here as a personal
slap in the face.
I never, ever, at any time said that a given fee somehow legitimizes a
convention. It's a stupid thing to say, and I never said it, never implied it.
Please refrain from attributing to me things I never said. I have a hard
enough time handling what I DO say to worry about all the ones I didn't say.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 23 Jan 1999 19:29:59 -0700
Subject: Re: Season 5 B5 cards
I agree, I'm pretty pleased with how this set came out. Some of the images are
still a bit dark for my tastes, something we tried to address as best we could
with screen grabs, but the set looks very nice. Though that one picture about
turning out the lights from SiL will doubtless just drive down the price of the
whole darned set....
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 23 Jan 1999 19:33:07 -0700
Subject: Re: Attn JMS: Gold Channel
We're totally revamping Gold Channel; you should see the new version fo it
shortly. It's going to be updated more frequently as well, with
behind-the-scenes photos from Crusade and elsewhere.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 24 Jan 1999 12:32:51 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS Quick Questions
>1) When you have to transfer the widescreen version of B5 to the regular
>aspect, do you have to pan and scan, or are the side of the screen just used
>as 'beauty space' when shot, and so can be clipped without damaging
>composition?
It's the latter, though we've been composing more for widescreen and actually
putting the edges to good use in Crusade.
>2) Back before B5 satarted and the media interest was muted at best,
>Cinefantastique put together a knock out B5-dedecated issue, with previews of
>most of the first season (when they were called things like 'The
>Ressurectionist' and 'Raiding Party'). Interviews, the whole works. Is
>anything similar planned around the start of Crusade?
Dunno...nobody's said anything about it to me thus far.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 24 Jan 1999 12:33:33 -0700
Subject: two jms quickies
1) For those who haven't heard, there are new Sifl and Ollie installments now
airing on MTV at 8:00 p.m. East and West Coast times. If you thought sock
puppets couldn't have their own talk show, well, you're just wrong, that's all.
It's a wonderful, funny, utterly demented program. Give it a shot.
2) Stephen Furst asked me to mention that a huge portion of the B5 cast who
attended VorCon here were stiffed for the bulk of their fees. Michael O'Hare,
Peter Jurasik, Mira, Bill, Pat, Jeffrey and others were never paid what they
were promised.
That the cast nonetheless came out and peformed and did their all for the fans
in spite of this says a lot for them, I think.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 24 Jan 1999 18:01:45 -0700
Subject: Re: Interesting JMS Quote and Crusade
>> I saw this in my archives and found it interesting in
>> respect of the mess Crusade got into having to reshoot
>> material to insert into existing awful episodes.
Nothing was reshot to be inserted into prior episodes. The episodes are being
aired as originally written and edited. No changes have been made, no
additional material filmed.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 26 Jan 1999 08:55:07 -0700
Subject: Re: Evan Chen Not on CRUSADE yet!!!!!!
If I thought Evan Chen was an error, whether I chose to admit it or not, I
would not have him on as composer on the series.
But it was not an error, as testified by the many folks who've come out of the
woodwork (many of them musicians) to say that they loved the music on ACTA.
Your opinion is your opinion, and that's fine...but there are other opinions
just as valid. So don't use your opinion as proof that an error of fact has
taken place, and thus that I'm not admitting it somehow being indicative that
I've changed.
And Evan *is* doing the music on the series. We've scored three so far, and he
continues to improve with every episode, as Chris Franke improved with every
episode. WB thinks he's a genuine find.
We will soon be putting up the main title for CRUSADE on thestation.com, and
you can see some more of what he's doing musically, and I have to say it's
great.
I have no intention of making a change in composers for CRUSADE.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 26 Jan 1999 22:03:45 -0700
Subject: Re: Evan Chen Not on CRUSADE yet!!!!!!
>Will the Crusade opening theme and opening credits change with every season,
>like
>B5?
Dunno yet...probably, though to what extent, I don't know. We just finished
this one, and it was the toughest one we've done, and the most unusual, so I
don't even want to think about the next one yet.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 26 Jan 1999 22:07:39 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS, was Re: Ramming Speed
Since this debate began, I've heard from any number of people...and any number
of military types who actually would be in a position to either hear this, or
say this.
And it's totally a reasonable line. Some, including former commanders on
shipboard and ordinary sailer-types noted that there are two Really Worrisome
Orders: the first is "Emergency speed," which means "kill warning bells,
disable safety systems, give her everything she's got and let me know just
beore the engines burn out."
The other is...ramming speed. Which means "kill warning bells, disable safety
systems, full emergency speed, today is a good day to die."
The basic delineation is that when you're in battle, you use the bare miminum
of words to express what you're trying to say, because seconds can mean the
difference between life and death and success and failure.
One could, indeed, make the longer, more involved statements others have said
they'd've preferred...but by that time, there would be no surviving ship to
give the order to. Further, you want to give the crew the minimum possible
time to think about what these orders *mean*...so you keep it short and sharp
and rely on their training to get them to do what the order implies.
Yes, it's an old-fashioned term...but there's such a thing as tradition in
military language, where ships have decks even though they're not wooden decks
anymore...and there isn't a naval officer anywhere who on leaving port doesn't
say "set sail," even though he could be commanding a nuclear vessel without a
sail in sight.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 27 Jan 1999 17:42:43 -0700
Subject: Re: Evan Chen Not on CRUSADE yet!!!!!! (Ramming Speed Comment)
>Um, this is a non-existent concept. It is meaningless. The only
>possible maximum speed is light speed. This is simple ninth-grade
>physics. What part of this do you not understand?
>
>So long as thrust is applied, your speed increases. It continues to
>increase forever, never quite reaching lightspeed. How many times must
>people state simple facts of physics?
This is true only if you do continue to maintain thrust without ever turning
off your engines. Which means you would burn out your engines, or run out of
fuel.
This is a pedantic point. Maximum speed would refer to what this given
starship can do in regular operations, with finite fuel and common-sense
applied to how long and how hard you burn the engines. A Starfury knows what
its maximum speed is if it ever hopes to return home; it's the OPERATING system
we're talking about, not the greater laws of physics in the universe. A pilot
just needs to know "How fast can I push this puppy?" Yeah, a jet fighter can
exceed specs...and he'll black out, burn out, and crash.
This is a case of not seeing forest for the trees.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 27 Jan 1999 17:44:24 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Sheridan a bit too grey?
Actually, I believe that's Bruce's natural color.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Date: 29 Jan 1999 00:31:20 -0700
Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Comicon
Yes, I do plan to be at ComicCon.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com