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BABYLON 5 - GRID EPSILON LOG
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REVISION ONE
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A guide to the characters and to the history of the station itself, as
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extracted from the GEnie posts of its creator, J. Michael Straczynski,
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with his permission. This file is copyright 1992 by J. Michael Straczynski,
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Phil Posner, and compilation copyright by GEnie.
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(Editor's note: I have made an effort to change as little as possible the
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contents and context of JMS's messages. The only changes made were
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organizational in nature, trying to find a logical place for each piece of
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information.
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By no means do I consider this complete. As JMS's posts continue to
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fascinate us here in 470/18/22 on GEnie, I fully expect that further
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relevant information will be appended, if not by me, then by others.)
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(Editor's note to Revision One - I have added to this file the
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announcements of cast and creative staff from JMS' posts at 470/18/22.
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Also new is the explanation of `jump points', added to the first section.
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At this time the filming of the pilot episode, "The Gathering", has just
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been completed, on time and on budget. We are all looking forward to its
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premiere in February 1993.)
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If STAR TREK was "Wagon Train to the Stars," then BABYLON 5 is Casablanca
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in space.
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BABYLON 5 - THE STATION
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BABYLON 5 is a space station in neutral space more or less central to all
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five of the different alliances, human or alien. To get to one or the
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other, you have to pass through this sector of space. Thus, Babylon 5 has
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been created as a sort of port-of-call for travellers, statesmen,
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emissaries, traders, refugees and other, less savory characters.
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Ten kilometers long and four kilometers wide, Babylon 5 is divided into
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separate, discreet sections that rotate at differing speeds to provide
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different gravities to accommodate those who come to the station.
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The station boasts living quarters, customs areas, docking bays, meeting
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areas, a casino, several bars/nightclubs, command and control domes fore
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and aft, a bazaar and a decent defensive grid. In addition, each of the
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various federations has one official representative aboard the station
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(with the station's commander representing the Earth Alliance), so that it
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also functions as a sort of mini-U.N.
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It is home to humans and aliens in various roles, some arriving or
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departing every day, others working there full-time. They live on the very
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edge of the frontier, in the sense that if they get into trouble, there's
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no one who can arrive in time to help them. Because of the nature of the
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travellers, they bring their stories with them to Babylon 5 rather than
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having to seek them out. The stories are of people in flight, seeking
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sanctuary; stories of smugglers, assassins, traders, mappers, dignitaries
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and others, all on urgent missions of one sort or another.
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It is humanity's last hope for peace, a single hope in the middle of an
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uneasy, fragile peace.
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And it *is* fragile, and dangerous. It is called BABYLON 5 because the
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first three efforts to build the station were sabotaged and destroyed. The
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fourth one disappeared without a trace 24 hours after becoming operational.
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No one knows what happened to it. All of which makes those involved with #5
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just a trifle uneasy.
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And *that*...is only the beginning of our story.
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As for locations inside B-5...we've designed a number of very different
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looks and locations to give it a non-claustrophobic feel. By virtue of
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being patterned physically after the work of such scientists as Gerard K.
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O'Neil, the absolute center of the elongated station (which revolves to
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provide gravity) is a sort of hollow-world look, with fields and hydroponic
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gardens along the 360-degree circular section (which is about a half-mile,
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or a mile across)...and as you get closer to the absolute center, where a
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transport tube cuts from one end of the station to the other, naturally you
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get less and less gravity until you can literally hang suspended. This
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area is known as the Garden.
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And there are living areas designed to accommodate different environments
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and atmospheres and conditions. The alien sectors are off-limits to humans
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without protection (breathing gear and other measures). Similarly, a heavy
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CO2 breather or methane breather would have to wear an encounter suit to
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travel among the humans on the station. In addition, the B-5 station is
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actually made up of several independent (though connected) sections, each
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revolving at a different speed in order to create alternative areas of
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gravity.
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Finally, on sets and the "look" of the place...again, there will be a mix.
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Parts of the station are still under construction, and parts are finished.
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Some sections are in daylight, some in night, alternating by level and
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sector. On the very outer ring, the viewports are in panels ON THE FLOOR,
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so you're looking down and out into space, revolving beneath your feet.
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Some places will be beautifully finished and neat, and other areas will be
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very rough and in-the-works. (Remember, B5 only recently went operational,
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and thus there are still some parts being constructed.)
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In talking with our production designer, John Iacovelli, the one term he
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kept using, over and over, was "travelogue." We should get a real sense in
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this show of a world turned inside out...with varying textures, lighting,
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angles, and a mix of looks. There will *not* be a homogeneous look to
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this place, if I or Iacovelli have anything to say about it. You can walk
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from the carefully and neatly appointed Council Chamber room, to the high-
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tech control room, to a section of the station under construction and
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exposing beams and wires, to the dark and noire-looking nightclub, to the
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Garden, to....
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You get the idea.
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Located quite some distance away from B5 (a safe distance in case something
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goes wrong) is the jump point, which is a device which creates an "exit-
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point" from hyperspace. It's tremendously powerful, allowing smaller ships
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to use the system without lugging around the massive amount of equipment
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and power sources to burst back in.
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The area itself is several miles across. You go into one at point A, and
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emerge at point B. Big ships -- BIG ships -- can create their own
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entrances and exits (which explains how the gates or jump points got
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somewhere), and they construct the gates as exploration continues, leaving
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gates the way you'd leave bread crumbs.
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At least, that's the theory.
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BTW...the Babylon 5 station isn't just floating there. It's at the L-5
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point in a binary star system between a moon and a barren, lifeless planet.
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Well, a *theoretically* barren and lifeless planet, anyway....
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But that's Year Two. The sun and planet have been named Tigris and
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Euphrates. The sector of space in which B5 is located is designated Grid
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Epsilon, at coordinates 470/18/22.
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THE BACKSTORY
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The date: 2257 A.D.
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We have gone to the stars, and found that we are not alone. We have moved
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quickly out, establishing relations with other civilizations that have let
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us leapfrog technologies via an information and cultural exchange with at
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least one other culture. Many contacts have been friendly. Some have not
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been quite so benign.
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THE EARTH/MINBARI WAR
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In 2245 or thereabouts, the Earth Alliance made First Contact with a race
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known as the Minbari. They were, at that time, only the second major
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civilization we'd encountered, though we had certainly come across a number
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of non-aligned worlds and smaller governments, one or two worlds each. The
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Minbari represent a *major* force on every level, resources, technology,
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sheer number of worlds involved, on and on.
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The Minbari are the oldest of the different alien civilizations, and
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largely kept to themselves. Their interests were (and are) in attaining
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perfection: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional. They answer to a
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Council of Elders, whose pronouncements are considered law in an almost
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biblical sense. Though deeply religious in their way, they have also
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pursued the ways of technology, and as such they are easily the most
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advanced of the various alliances. But they view technology as transitory,
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a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Like Tom Bombadil in LORD
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OF THE RINGS, they can hold the Ring of Technology but it has no hold over
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them.
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The Earth/Minbari war began as a misunderstanding. The first time a Terran
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ship encountered a Minbari starship, they studied each other closely. The
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Minbari ship made a move that they thought would be considered non-
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threatening. It wasn't. Even in the present of our story, no one is quite
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sure who fired first. The Minbari ship was greater in power, but taken by
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surprise, was destroyed, and the Earth ship limped back to base with tales
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of a terrible new enemy. Minbari ships, arriving to investigate, were
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interpreted to be the first wing of an invasion force by the base
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commander, and ships were launched in response before receiving formal
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authorization from Earth Central.
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The war put a great strain on the Minbari, who have always been strongly
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divided between the religious caste, and the military caste, who were now
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forced to work together. The religious caste were quietly opposed to the
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war, but were generally vague about their reasons when asked.
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The climax of the war was the Battle of the Line. Earth had all but lost
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the war. In a last-ditch attempt to save Homeworld, every available ship
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left in the armada was positioned around Earth itself. It was, everyone
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knew, a suicide mission. And that's, indeed, how the Battle of the Line
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started out to be.
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In the course of that battle, a lone ship -- a one-man fighter with very
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little in the way of armaments -- took several heavy hits. His instruments
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failing, other ships blowing up all around him, he aimed his ship at the
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nearest Minbari cruiser, deciding to ram it in the hopes of destroying at
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least that one ship. He kept his ship on course for as long as he could
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hold out. Then, abruptly, he blacked out.
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When he awoke, he was still in his ship. Drifting. He fired up the engines,
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ready to continue, only to discover two things: first, that he had been out
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of it for a full 24 hours. When he lost consciousness, he had 16 hours of
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oxygen left in his ship. When he awoke 24 hours later...he had 12 hours of
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oxygen left in his ship.
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Second...the war was over.
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And, incredibly, the Minbari had surrendered. On the very verge of success
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in the war, they had rolled over and sued for peace. No one in the Earth
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Alliance quite knew why, but they weren't about to debate the issue, and
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accepted minimal compensation for the war. The end of the war came with
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rumors of a major split between the military and the religious castes.
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Now, ten years later, the Earth Alliance is no closer to figuring out why
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the Minbari surrendered. It is, in fact, one of the great puzzles of that
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era, debated on a hundred different worlds. Only a few strange clues have
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slipped out. One is that the military genius who led the Minbari into the
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war committed suicide the day of the surrender, though it is unclear if his
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death took place before or after the surrender. And the rift between the
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military and religious castes apparently came to some sort of climax, with
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the religious caste taking complete control. There are rumors of some sort
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of religious vision, of a prophecy of great things, and a prophecy of
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complete doom. But since almost nothing is known of Minbari religion, what
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this might be, no one knows. There are also rumors that the military caste
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has created a secret group of warriors dedicated to destroying the peace
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and reviving the war.
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At the conclusion of the war, those Terrans who fought in the Battle of the
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Line were proclaimed heroes. One of these men was Captain Jeffrey
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Sinclair...the pilot who still cannot account for the 24 hours he was out
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of contact with Earth Central. It is this same Sinclair, now ranked as a
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Commander, who is now in charge of Babylon 5.
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As for the earth/minbari war, its repercussions will still be felt
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throughout the show, and in time will form a major plot point. There are
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also some deep resentments remaining on both sides that we'll have to deal
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with. The secret behind the Minbari surrender will gradually become clear,
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and will play a major role in our story. It will affect each of our main
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characters in a deeply profound way.
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In the interim, as we begin our story, there is an uneasy peace between the
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Earth Alliance and the four other alien governments. To help cement that
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peace, the EA has constructed BABYLON 5.
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THE EARTH ALLIANCE
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The Earth Alliance is a fairly new force among the various powers that
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populate our show. It is structured more or less along the lines of the
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Commonwealth of Independent States: there is one monolithic voice that
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speaks in terms of foreign policy, warfare, star travel, but within the
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framework of everything else -- domestic policy, economics and the like --
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the independent state makes its own rules.
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There are also a number of splinter groups in the world (or the universe, I
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suppose) of B-5. There are individuals who claim residency in no particular
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group or government, they're free-traders of the purest sort.
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There are colonies and fringe areas that consider themselves by and
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large to be independent. And, from time to time, there will be sparks of
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secession and the like. I've never much liked the Gleaming Steel Of A
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Perfect Federation approach; I like things a little more tentative, less
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sure. And for that matter, even WITHIN the E.A., there are factions and
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problems and power struggles and the like. Wheels within wheels.
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THE CHARACTERS
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COMMANDER JEFFREY SINCLAIR
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Commander Jeffrey Sinclair has come far in the 10 years since the war. He's
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had some rough times, but overall he's progressed. And he has at last been
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given a major assignment, perhaps the most important job of his life,
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concomitant with his promotion to Commander.
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Jeffrey Sinclair is the Commander in charge of the Babylon 5 space station.
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Although all parties agreed that the station (and its predecessors,
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Babylons 1 through 4) was always intended as a sort of mini-U.N. as well as
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a free-port, with an Ambassador from each different alien alliance
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present, the Minbari refused to name an ambassador until the station
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commander was named first.
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Shortly after Sinclair was named Commander, the Minbari assigned their
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first ambassador to the station. Sinclair, a hero of the Line, carries
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with him a lot of emotional and psychological baggage from that war. He's
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not happy with the term "war hero," since he saw what really happened on
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the Line, and knows it wasn't their combined bravery that drove off the
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Minbari. He feels deeply responsible for the deaths of his strike team on
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the Line, and is bothered by his inability to recall what happened during
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the 24 hours he was out of commission during the war.
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He's in his late thirties, good looking, but curiously haunted.
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The role of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair. The actor cast in that role is
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Michael O'Hare, who we discovered while casting out of New York, and who
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we have flown out to L.A. for this role. He's a classically trained actor,
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a graduate of Juliard, who just knocked us out when he came in to audition.
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He has a tremendous presence, and a voice vaguely reminiscent of Clint
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Eastwood at times. His face has a curiously haunted look, but at the same
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time is (I'm told by the women who go "yum" whenever he enters the room)
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quite appealing.
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Michael has appeared in such films as "By a Thread," "Short Term Bonds,"
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"Into Thin Air," "Pursuit," "The Promise," and others, as well as on
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television in "Blue Revolution," "Case of Deadly Force," "Rage of Angels,"
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"The Adams Chronicles," and in such episodic television shows as "The
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Equalizer," "L.A. Law," "Kate and Allie" and others.
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He is also a VERY accomplished stage actor, having appeared on Broadway to
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tremendous reviews in "A Few Good Men," "Players," "Man and Superman" and
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"Galileo," among many, many others.
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The one thing we did NOT want, which we knew from the start, was one more
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pretty-boy TV actor...we wanted someone with character in his face, with a
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broad dramatic range. And we got all of it in Michael O'Hare.
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DELENN - THE MINBARI AMBASSADOR
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His name is Delenn. And he stays very close to Commander Sinclair.
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Some say he is keeping a close eye on Sinclair.
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Some say he is Sinclair's friend. And some say there may well be something
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very lethal behind those unreadable Minbari eyes.
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But then, there are many others, including a shadow-group in the Earth
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Alliance, who would very much like to know what happened during the 24
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hours that disappeared from Commander Sinclair's life.
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Delenn is of a somewhat philosophical bent, but he takes great pleasure in
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his emotions. He is tall, slender, elegant, with obsidian-black eyes and
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an amazing strength that belies his appearance.
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A small joke in the script finds Delenn sitting quietly in the
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Garden, and someone asks him about it. He'd thought that Sinclair had
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named it after the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which he's read about...but
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it seems Sinclair named it after some other garden...a Square Garden of
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Madison, or something like that...and he's trying to find the cultural
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references and figure it out...probably thinks it's something to do with
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mythology....he only finds it a curious reference since this garden is
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*round*.
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The performer who will play Ambassador Delenn is Mira Furlan, whose work is
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extremely well known in Europe. A native Yuglosavian who has appeared in
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such highly regarded films as "When Father Was Away On Business" (which
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received the Palme D'Or at Cannes, as well as an Oscar nomination), "Three
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For Happiness" (which took the Grand Prix at the Valencia Film Festival),
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"Dear Video", "Southbound," "The Condemned," "The Beauty of Sin," and
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nearly a dozen others, ALL of them starring roles. There have also been
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starring roles in major European productions and half a dozen major film
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awards. BABYLON 5 will be Mira Furlan's entry into American television.
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Ideally, what you want to do when you create an alien character is to go
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for a look that's, well, *alien*, something that's not quite right about
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it. You can do this from the outside in, with really weird makeup, or from
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the inside out. We have some of the former, and Delenn is one of the
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latter.
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What we have, basically, is a female actor playing a male character. Women
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simply *move* differently than men do; the gestures, the tilt of the head,
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the smile, it's just a shade different. So you now take that, and wrap it
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inside a male character, aided by prosthetics to make the face and body
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more masculine. Now, when you look at the finished product, you are
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looking at a male, but there's something wrong about it somewhere, and it
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makes you a little uncertain. The first time I saw Mira in full makeup, it
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looked great. And there was something very unusual about it, that sense
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that your eyes and your brain are in conflict somewhere about what you're
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seeing.
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That was a decision made early on, and that's what's different about
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Delenn.
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VICE-COMMANDER LAUREL TAKASHIMA.
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As stated, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is the titular head of BABYLON 5. His
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concerns, though, tend to be more broad in scope...acting as the informal
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representative of the Earth Alliance, dealing with questions of policy and
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procedure, and keeping an eye on the Ambassadors.
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As a result, the day-to-day operations of the station are handled by Vice-
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Commander Laurel Takashima. (In case Sinclair is incapacitated or off-
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station Laurel is also empowered to take his place on the Council and speak
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for the E.A.)
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Laurel can usually be found in the B5 Command and Control Room (also
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referred to as the Observation Dome), where ships are coming and going,
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keeping an eye on who's going where. All departments report directly to
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her, and she is answerable only to Sinclair and Earth Central. If, as
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happens early on in "The Gathering," a ship's crew refuses to submit to a
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weapons search (a requirement for coming aboard B5), she has the authority
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to lock them out. (To one complaining ambassador, she stands firm on this,
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though noting, "I'll be happy to send them a fruit basket if it'll make you
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feel any better. But other than that, they can sit out there for the next
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solar year for all I care.")
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She has considerable interaction with the ambassadors and others coming
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aboard the station. All day-to-day operations are very much her purview.
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She initially met Sinclair when she was assigned to Mars Security during
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the food riots of 2254.
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Laurel is a rarity among the B5 crew, in that she is one of the few
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actually born on Earth. (Sinclair was born on the Mars colony, for
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instance.) Thus, she has strong roots on Homeworld, which gives her a
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perspective that's quite important at times. She's tough, and smart, and
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resourceful (conning one of the hydroponics guys into setting aside a
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couple of planters on the QT to grow coffee beans...very much against
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policy, but if you report her, you can't have any). She has a long-standing
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relationship with an off-world mapper who works for the E.A., but is gone
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quite a lot of the time. If a fight should ever break out, she can take
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care of herself physically QUITE nicely.
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Laurel's job differs from Sinclair's in that his is more
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diplomatic/political, and is involved with the Big Picture of running B5,
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where Laurel is hands-on in terms of the day-to-day operations of actually
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managing the station. If an ambassador has a problem with what the E.A. is
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doing, he'll go through Sinclair first; if that same ambassador is annoyed
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that his resupply ship isn't being allowed to dock because they won't
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comply with the silly request for a weapons scan, that tends to be Laurel's
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problem to deal with.
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Naturally, there is some overlap and shifting of responsibility. If the
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station is ever attacked, she is as qualified to sit in the command chair
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and organize/dictate the defense as Sinclair. Having run Mars Colony
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Security for five years before coming to B5, she's quite capable of
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|
handling the tough stuff. She's in her early thirties.
|
|
|
|
Some of you here may have seen a WONDERFUL film entitled "Come See The
|
|
Paradise," starring Dennis Quaid, along with a fantastic performance by
|
|
Tamlyn Tomita. (The story concerned a young Japanese woman and her
|
|
husband, played by Quaid, and the internment camps of the second world
|
|
war.) She received rave notices for that performance, and for her many
|
|
other projects, including major roles in "Orange Curtain," "Hawaiian
|
|
Dream," "The Karate Kid II," and such television projects as "Quantum
|
|
Leap," "The Trials of Rosie O'Neil," "Tour of Duty," "Santa Barbara" (where
|
|
she was a series regular), and such TV movies as "Hiroshima," and "To Heal
|
|
A Nation."
|
|
|
|
Tamlyn Tomita has come aboard BABYLON 5 as Lieutenant-Commander Laurel
|
|
Takashima, who in concert with Commander Sinclair has primary
|
|
responsibility for running B5. She is a phenomenal performer, vastly
|
|
talented, with the strength of personality necessary for a job like the
|
|
one Laurel handles...we're absolutely thrilled to have her aboard.
|
|
|
|
Those of you who have seen her work will know how fortunate we are to have
|
|
her, and what presence and intelligence she will bring to that role. She's
|
|
just terrific.
|
|
|
|
|
|
AMBASSADOR LONDO MOLLARI
|
|
|
|
On the other end of the spectrum is Ambassador Londo Mollari, of the
|
|
Centauri Republic. Londo is the most human of all the various ambassadors,
|
|
and there's some speculation that we might be a long forgotten outpost of
|
|
the Republic.
|
|
|
|
Of course, the only ones MAKING that assertion are Londo's people, who have
|
|
much to gain in trying to convince others of that.
|
|
|
|
For a thousand years, the Centauri Republic was a force to be reckoned
|
|
with. Like the English empire once upon a time, it held hundreds of planets
|
|
in its control. It was a great military power. But slowly, as can happen,
|
|
they grew content, and lazy, and gradually their own empire began to slip
|
|
between their fingers. A world deciding to go rogue was troublesome, to be
|
|
sure, but it's SO far away, and it's SUCH a bother to go take care of it,
|
|
when we can easily get the same things from other places...let them go.
|
|
They'll come crawling back sooner or later.
|
|
|
|
As a result, they are now down to a Republic that consists of barely a
|
|
dozen systems and thirty worlds.
|
|
|
|
It was, interestingly enough, the Centauri Republic that was Earth's first
|
|
contact with another major government. The CR was well in advance of Earth
|
|
science, and we all considered them a terrible power...an illusion they
|
|
didn't exactly try to correct. Trade agreements were set up, and we gained
|
|
an ASTONISHING amount of technical know-how in a very short time, letting
|
|
us leap-frog a hundred years of progress in a single year. They were most
|
|
curious to get cultural stuff in return...music, art,
|
|
philosophy,literature..."native" trinkets that could be resold for more
|
|
money back on homeworld. In the thirty or forty years since then, however,
|
|
we've found out the truth, that the CR is really on its last legs. And
|
|
we've taken the technology we've gotten and perfected it, and now the Earth
|
|
Alliance is fast becoming oneof the dominant forces of this time. And the
|
|
Centauri Republic is trying to attach itself to us the way a ramora
|
|
attaches itself to a shark...for preservation, in this case.
|
|
|
|
They are governed by an emperor, and the government works mainly through
|
|
personal and family influence. It's a very indulgent society, and Londo
|
|
reflects that. Overweight, prone to gambling constantly (null-pool is his
|
|
favorite), and fond of women and drinks, he understands his role and
|
|
doesn't try to push it. Like his Republic, he subsists on old stories and
|
|
tales of former glory, remarking -- one night, when drunk -- "my god, we've
|
|
become a tourist attraction. See the Great Fallen Centauri Republic, open
|
|
nine to five...Earth Time." He is, by turns, a comic figure, and a tragic
|
|
figure. By our standards, he would be in his late fifties.
|
|
|
|
Oh, one other thing about Londo. He has a wife, his third, actually, on
|
|
Centauri Prime, and seven kids.
|
|
|
|
And he would sooner hurl himself into the sun than go anywhere near ANY of
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
Peter Jurasik will be playing the Centauri ambassador, Londo Mollari, a
|
|
role that calls for some degree of humor, but beneath that a layer of
|
|
something potentially not-good. He knocked us all out during auditions.
|
|
We locked him down instantly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
AMBASSADOR G'KARR
|
|
|
|
At one time, the Centauri Republic controlled most of what is now
|
|
inhabited space. As part of that, a race known as the Narns were
|
|
once very much under Centauri control, and they received in many
|
|
ways the most brutal treatment of any "protectorate" in Centauri
|
|
jurisdiction. A little under a hundred years ago, as the power of the
|
|
Centauri Republic was fading, the Narns broke their chains in open
|
|
revolution and expelled the occupying army, achieving independence. The
|
|
way they were able to achieve independence was through a strong military
|
|
mindset and sense of pride and destiny, a perception that has with time
|
|
become something darker and more menacing. Still smarting from two
|
|
centuries of occupation, they launched a major effort to build up their own
|
|
forces. They strip-mined their economy to get their hands on the latest
|
|
weapons tech, most of it illegally obtained. They began slowly to
|
|
convince themselves that they had a Destiny among the stars...a destiny of
|
|
conquest.
|
|
|
|
And over the last few decades, they have been tentatively extending
|
|
themselves, taking over unallied planets here and there on the fringe of
|
|
the Narn system, small places that offered strategic and economic value,
|
|
but which were too far away to fight for, and of too little importance to
|
|
the Centauri republic, which was busy dealing with its own internal
|
|
problems.
|
|
|
|
The Narn Regime now is in many ways the X-factor, the new kid on the block
|
|
with something to prove. They're growing awfully strong, awfully fast.
|
|
They're cunning, and determined, and quite deadly.
|
|
|
|
Which brings us to Ambassador G'Kar (pronounced Juh-KARR), of the Narn
|
|
Regime, married to a female war hero, whose fathers on both sides were also
|
|
distinguished veterans of a hundred campaigns. In the main, his task is to
|
|
use the facilities of B5 wherever possible to Narn advantage -- from
|
|
arranging tech-smuggling to military objectives and so on -- while doing
|
|
all possible to interfere with the basic purpose of the station, to create
|
|
the peace. Peace is not in their best interests, though they give the
|
|
opposite impression. They want to keep all sides divided and at each
|
|
others throats so that they're occupied while the Narns grow and expand
|
|
quietly in the background. The last thing they want is an alliance aimed
|
|
against them before they're ready. One last note about G'Kar...I
|
|
wanted to create someone specifically who folks would gradually come to
|
|
expect is behind anything that goes wrong or afoul. "Oh, he's the bad
|
|
guy." And to a large extent, for the first season, he will be...then
|
|
something quite surprising will happen, and everything you THINK you know
|
|
about Ambassador G'Kar will be turned completely upside down. We've all
|
|
seen the SF standard of The Villain Who Chews Scenery...I wanted to take
|
|
that and use it just long enough to get folks comfortable with the
|
|
convention...then pull the rug out from under them.
|
|
|
|
The actor who will portray Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn Regime is Andreas
|
|
Katsulas.
|
|
|
|
His film work includes the latest Woody Allen film, Blake Edwards'
|
|
"Sunset," as well as "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Communion," "Next of Kin"
|
|
and many others. On television, he has appeared in ST:TNG as Romulan
|
|
Commander Tomolak, ALIEN NATION, THE EQUALIZER, MAX HEADROOM, THE HUMAN
|
|
FACTOR and many more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE VORLONS
|
|
|
|
Let's talk about the Vorlons...because there ain't much we can SAY about
|
|
the Vorlons...because nobody KNOWS anything about them.
|
|
|
|
In our opening movie, everyone's awaiting the arrival of the fifth and
|
|
final ambassador (four if you don't count Sinclair) from the primary alien
|
|
governments. He is a Vorlon, a race we have tried, without much success,
|
|
to learn about ever since we first picked up their transmissions. Several
|
|
scout ships were sent on First Contact missions. All of them met with
|
|
unfortunate "accidents" upon entering Vorlon space.
|
|
The Vorlons tendered their most *sincere* apologies.
|
|
|
|
And suggested no further expeditions.
|
|
|
|
Now, at last, with B5 becoming functional, and all of the *other*
|
|
ambassadors in place, it no longer makes strategic sense to continue in
|
|
their isolation. So the arrival of the Vorlon is a Big Deal. No human has
|
|
ever even SEEN a Vorlon.
|
|
|
|
And they play it right up to the hilt. The ambassador -- Kosh Naranek --
|
|
maintains only audio contact with B5 as his ship makes the long voyage,
|
|
citing "problems" with audio. He clearly doesn't want to broadcast the
|
|
Vorlon face all over the quadrant. So no problem, after all, he has to
|
|
arrive eventually, and they'll see him then.
|
|
|
|
Not quite.
|
|
|
|
The ship arrives. The Vorlon ambassador emerges from his ship...and well,
|
|
y'see, he comes from a very different environment. Lots of methane and
|
|
CO2. Our atmosphere is poisonous to Vorlons. So he emerges wearing an
|
|
Encounter Suit...which covers every square inch of his body except for his
|
|
hands -- assuming those ARE his hands -- with a dark faceplate in the
|
|
front. The only place he can remove all of that is in his quarters, and
|
|
there are no vids in his quarters, no way to observe him or see his true
|
|
face.
|
|
|
|
So...even now, no human has STILL ever seen a Vorlon.
|
|
|
|
Well, that's not *entirely* true.
|
|
Legend has it that one human saw a Vorlon. A pilot who crashed, off
|
|
course, on a Vorlon colony.
|
|
|
|
According to that legend, the human who saw a Vorlon...was turned to stone.
|
|
But, after all, it's only a legend. At least, that's what our
|
|
resident xenobiologist sincerely *hopes* when he has to --
|
|
|
|
Oops. Not now. Later.
|
|
|
|
Early in the history of the B5 *series*, artwork was prepared that showed
|
|
what Kosh looked like under that encounter suit. It was designed as
|
|
deliberate misinformation. No one knows what a Vorlon looks like, not the
|
|
studio, not my associates...not even my Spousal Overunit. I've kept THAT
|
|
one a close and very careful secret. One that won't be revealed for about
|
|
a season, maybe a season and a half, depending. With luck, the surprise
|
|
will be considerable...and will take the show into a completely unexpected
|
|
direction.
|
|
|
|
By the way we've decided that Ambassador Kosh will be played by...himself.
|
|
|
|
Kosh *will* be a mechanical creation/operated by a (for lack of a better
|
|
term) puppeter inside, rather than an actor. Remember, he wears an
|
|
encounter suit at all times, so we won't see his face...as for the voice
|
|
question...he doesn't speak for the entire 2 hours. At the end, he makes
|
|
*one* gesture (no, not THAT gesture), and that's it. He *will* speak for
|
|
the series, and for that we will get a voice actor to loop it, but not now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
LYTA ALEXANDER - THE TELEPATH
|
|
|
|
The name of the station's resident rent-a-telepath is Lyta Alexander. She
|
|
works for B5, but she is available for businessmen who need to make sure
|
|
that the person across the table can really deliver what's promised.
|
|
(Note: she is not the only one, they're pretty common in business at this
|
|
time in the future.) Not an empath, by the way, but a proper, licensed
|
|
(Psi-Corps, Level 5) TELEPATH. Bound by all the regs of the P-C. No
|
|
random scanning, no access to the gaming tables, no unauthorized dipping,
|
|
all deals must be on record. And there's the privacy question that TNG has
|
|
never really dealt with. A telepath peeping into someone's mind or
|
|
emotions without that person's permission (or that of the next of kin) can
|
|
likely have his or her license revoked. It's a basic right of
|
|
privacy...whereas a Certain Other I can think of is constantly peeping into
|
|
people's emotions and feelings without so much as a by-your-leave. And,
|
|
again, this will be the very exacting reading of thoughts, rather than a,
|
|
"I sense discomfort" sort of thing. She's in her early thirties or late
|
|
twenties.
|
|
|
|
I'd created the role of Lyta Alexander (the rent-a-telepath) along with
|
|
every other character 'way back when. Between then and now, I saw the
|
|
remake of "Night of the Living Dead," and was blown out of the room by one
|
|
of the actors: Patricia Tallman. I'd always thought that Lyta should have
|
|
eyes somehow bigger than they should be (no makeup, just the perception),
|
|
should be a redhead, and should be physically capable of handling herself.
|
|
So when time came to revise the script, update it and stuff, as I wrote
|
|
Lyta's part, I kept thinking of Tallman (and expanding the part
|
|
commensurately).
|
|
|
|
As we began auditions, I kept an open mind...but always kinda hoped that
|
|
Patricia would be the one that we all liked. And, sonuvagun, that's how
|
|
it's worked out. So she's Lyta. (In addition to NOTLD, she's also
|
|
appeared in "Knightriders," "Roadhouse," "Monsignore," in the upcoming
|
|
"Army of Darkness," and in television on "Generations," "Tales from the
|
|
Darkside," "Texas" and "Guiding Light.")
|
|
|
|
Basically, about half our cast members have backgrounds in the genre, like
|
|
Katsulas and Tallman and, nominally, Tomita and Jurasik. The rest do not.
|
|
I think that makes for a good mix.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CAROLYN SYKES
|
|
|
|
Carolyn Sykes is Commander Sinclair's...darn, what's the right word these
|
|
days? Significant other? Lady-friend? Lover? Main squeeze? (I keep
|
|
having this recurrent flash from "Young Frankenstein," as Frau Blucher
|
|
calls out, "He vas....my BOYFRIEND!")
|
|
|
|
Carolyn has been romantically involved with Sinclair for a couple of years
|
|
when we meet her. She knows quite a bit about him, but there are some
|
|
things he still hasn't told her. They have a very adult, sexual
|
|
relationship, and they are both independent and equal. She is the owner,
|
|
and pilot, of the trading vessel ULYSSES...a self-made woman who's an
|
|
established and respected trader in a variety of goods. She works mainly
|
|
within the Earth Alliance colony worlds, though in the last few years she's
|
|
added routes in the Centauri sector.
|
|
|
|
She's sophisticated, sharp, and no-nonsense...screw around with her too
|
|
much, change the terms of your agreement in hopes of taking unfair
|
|
advantage of her, and she'll jettison the cargo right into the sun. She
|
|
has a reputation to protect, and would rather lose the deal than be dealt
|
|
with unfairly. It sets a bad precedent...and on some of the worlds she has
|
|
to deal with, the perception of strength is vital.
|
|
|
|
Her feelings about Sinclair's position are mixed. On the one hand, she
|
|
feels that he's the right man for the job, and he's doing a terrific job.
|
|
On the other hand, she knows that part of him longs to be back in the
|
|
pilot's seat of a starship, and when things start to get bad, she offers
|
|
him that chance...to tell them all to piss off, and the two of them will
|
|
pool their resources, buy a bigger ship, and go off on their own.
|
|
Because of their schedule, she must find time together when they can,
|
|
stolen hours before the next run to another world, another system. They
|
|
are both supportive of each other, though that doesn't remove the
|
|
occasional conflict common to any relationship. She isn't dark and driven,
|
|
she's a strong female character who's *happy* in her work, she enjoys it --
|
|
the freedom, being responsible -- and wouldn't change it for the world.
|
|
|
|
They are very much involved with each other, but because of their different
|
|
lives, both know that there's every chance that this might all end between
|
|
them. So they don't often deal with that question, though it's a thought
|
|
that is sometimes expressed in the bedroom, at night, in soft tones. They
|
|
might drift apart, find someone else, or something could happen to one or
|
|
both of them; their jobs are not exactly conducive to longevity. So they
|
|
seize every moment and enjoy it as best they can. She's in her early or
|
|
middle thirties.
|
|
|
|
For Commander Sinclair's lady-friend, trader Carolyn Sykes, we have Blair
|
|
Baron. If you've seen "League Of Their Own," she's in the opening sequence
|
|
as the daughter who encourages her mother to go out and attend the Hall of
|
|
Fame opening.
|
|
|
|
|
|
DR. BENJAMIN KYLE
|
|
|
|
Dr. Benjamin Kyle is Babylon 5's resident xenobiologist. He's in his late
|
|
forties or early fifties, black, very thoughtful, very dignified...with a
|
|
sly sense of humor (not sarcasm) that tends to catch one off guard. He
|
|
began as a physician on Earth, and was a leading researcher into
|
|
xenobiology there, gaining a quick grasp of the ins and outs of the few
|
|
alien cultures that we (then) were in contact with. Naturally inquisitive,
|
|
early on as a much younger man he began to "hitch-hike" onto deep-space
|
|
ships, always hungry for new information that could be used by humans and
|
|
outworlders alike. (His deal was that he would act as ship's physician
|
|
without charge, in exchange for a bit of freedom whenever they made
|
|
planetfall somewhere.)
|
|
|
|
He has seen, catalogued and operated on more alien lifeforms than just
|
|
about any other Earther in this time. And had his share of close scrapes,
|
|
as well. Some races consider is sacrilege for any other race to "enter"
|
|
their bodies through surgery...Ben will take the risk if it means saving a
|
|
life.
|
|
|
|
He's detailed, methodical, single-minded...and if one route is closed,
|
|
he'll go another, even if it means getting into a fair amount of trouble.
|
|
(Which happens in the pilot.)
|
|
|
|
One scene omitted from the script for purposes of time is kind of
|
|
illustrative of Ben's humor. During a crisis -- there's someone in the
|
|
medical area (I'm being deliberately vague) who's in trouble, and Ben's on
|
|
stims, staying awake to see the patient through -- he at one point has to
|
|
talk to Sinclair.
|
|
|
|
Sinclair is asleep, Carolyn beside him, when the call comes in via the
|
|
bedside monitor. Noting Carolyn's state of undress, Sinclair tells the
|
|
monitor to receive the call, "audio only." Ben starts in on his
|
|
report...then stops. He can't see Sinclair. Sinclair, noting Carolyn who
|
|
stirs beside him, says, of the monitor, "Slight malfunction."
|
|
|
|
"Ah," Ben's voice comes..."Hello, Carolyn." He knows she's there, and
|
|
tells Sinclair c'mon, let me see you while I'm talking to you...I'm a
|
|
doctor, I'm not going to see anything I haven't seen before.
|
|
|
|
With a shrug from Carolyn, Sinclair switches on the video.
|
|
Ben's face appears on the monitor. He looks over to Carolyn. Smiles.
|
|
"Nice tan."
|
|
|
|
Carolyn's response...is best left unstated.
|
|
|
|
Ben volunteered to come to Babylon 5 for several reasons: as the best in
|
|
his field, he's most capable of dealing with any emergencies, and this is
|
|
the sort of place where that is most needed. In addition, he's getting a
|
|
little old to be hitch-hiking on starships...why not settle down
|
|
somewhere where the aliens come to *you* instead of the other way around?
|
|
|
|
He's single, his wife having passed away some five years ago, one more
|
|
reason he's come to B5. There's nothing left at home for him now that
|
|
she's gone. He has two grown children, one of whom is successful, the
|
|
other...well, less so.
|
|
|
|
He's been offered research grants from some of Earth's biggest
|
|
corporations, universities have offered him important posts, the government
|
|
would LOVE to have him come work for them (where, he suspects darkly, they
|
|
would have him work on alien biological warfare)...but he's said no to all
|
|
of them. His place is as a working physician and xenobiologist, at a place
|
|
where he will have ample time to study the new species they encounter, and
|
|
do his part for peace.
|
|
|
|
For the part of Dr. Benjamin Kyle we have Johnny Sekka, who has been
|
|
featured in such films as THE FEVER, HANKY PANKY, ASHANTI, A WARM DECEMBER,
|
|
THE SOUTHERN STAR, KHATROUM, WOMAN OF STRAW and others (working, along the
|
|
way, with such folks as Ryan O'Neal, Sidney Poitier, Orson Welles,
|
|
Laurence Olivier and Sean Connery, to name but a few), and in such
|
|
television projects as MASTER OF THE GAME, ROOTS: THE SECOND GENERATION,
|
|
KINGSTON CONFIDENTIAL and PASSION IN PARADISSE...Johnny Sekka comes out of
|
|
the Old Vic in London, the Royal Court theater, and the Strattford Theater,
|
|
classically trained.
|
|
|
|
He's a wonderful actor, with a great sense of elegance and style and
|
|
power. Like so many others, when he came in the door, we knew instantly
|
|
that this was the one for us. (And the kind of accent you wish every
|
|
doctor had...you'd trust him immediately.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECURITY CHIEF MICHAEL GARIBALDI
|
|
|
|
Michael has a long and not terribly salutory history. He's been bounced
|
|
from one job to another for years, always getting into trouble with
|
|
someone or other, usually because he won't back down from a fight, and
|
|
won't obey orders that involve hidden criminalities. He's also been
|
|
framed on occasion...all of which drove him into serious problems with
|
|
alcohol. He's largely overcome those problems...at least, so he now
|
|
believes.
|
|
|
|
When turned loose on a case, anyone and everyone is fair game, and no one
|
|
is presumed innocent until he has all the facts. He has little
|
|
respect for policy or diplomatic niceties. He's outwardly confident in his
|
|
abilities, but wracked internally by doubt.
|
|
He's in his late thirties or early forties, with a face lined by
|
|
the troubles he's survived. He was brought to B5 by Commander
|
|
Sinclair, over EA objections, because Sinclair wanted someone who would do
|
|
what was required, even if it involved him. Someone with allegiance only
|
|
to the truth. He got it. Now he has to figure out if that's
|
|
really such a good idea or not....
|
|
|
|
For Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, a series regular, we've tapped Jerry
|
|
Doyle. Probably a number of you may not be familiar with that name, but
|
|
he's been around a lot. He only got into the acting business about 2-3
|
|
years ago, but hit almost immediately, with major roles in such films as
|
|
"Kidnapped" and "Being in Time," and on television in "Reasonable Doubts,"
|
|
"Homefront," appearing 27 times in "Bold and the Beautiful," and in
|
|
"Moonlighting."
|
|
|
|
He's not only a fine actor, but a *very* strong personality, well suited to
|
|
work with the actor playing Commander Sinclair...about whom more later.
|
|
We'd gone through a number of actors for the role of Garibaldi -- something
|
|
like 25 or 30 -- many of whom were good, but he knocked us out. When
|
|
someone comes into audition, you usually do a "slate," meaning you stick
|
|
'em against a wall and ask them their name, their height, and which part
|
|
they're auditioning for. In this case, when asked "And which role are you
|
|
auditioning for?" he answered, "The role I'm going to get...Michael
|
|
Garibaldi." And he did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MORE ABOUT THE CREW
|
|
|
|
Insofar as crew relations are concerned...bear in mind that on any show, a
|
|
*lot* of that comes about as you introduce the characters, and the actors
|
|
get to know each other. Chemistry can't be predicted. What we do have,
|
|
for now, is that Laurel Takashima met Cmdr. Sinclair when she was working
|
|
Mars Colony security, and because she refused to go along with kickbacks
|
|
to some corrupt E.A. officials, was being held back. He was transferred
|
|
there in an advisory capacity, saw her potential, and pulled her back from
|
|
some potentially dangerous (and self-destructive) stuff she was getting
|
|
into out of frustration at being passed over repeatedly for promotion.
|
|
He's also known Garibaldi, the B5 security chief, for some time, but has
|
|
never actually worked with him for any prolonged period of time. He has
|
|
elected, over the objections of Earth Central, to give Garibaldi this
|
|
position, and it's his last chance to make good. But from time to time,
|
|
the requirements of a security chief don't reconcile with the needs of the
|
|
commander.
|
|
|
|
He's only recently begun working with the resident xenobiologist and the
|
|
newly-arrived station telepath.
|
|
|
|
Is there conflict between them? Yes, at times severe. They all deeply
|
|
respect one another, but conflict arises as it must given the situation,
|
|
and the close proximity, and the problems they encounter. The basic
|
|
requirement of ANY good drama is interpersonal conflict.
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE PRODUCTION STAFF
|
|
|
|
Doug Netter is Exec Producer on BABYLON 5. I am Co-Executive Producer. I
|
|
worked with Doug on several projects in the past, including CAPTAIN POWER,
|
|
where he was, again, producer. He's irascible, and every bit as much of a
|
|
pain in the butt as I am. He grouses, carries on... one day I expect to
|
|
wander into the offices and find him wearing a patch over one eye, a knife
|
|
between his teeth, talking to a parrot and preparing to board the building
|
|
next door.
|
|
|
|
And I trust him implicitly. Doug is a straight-shooter. I have three
|
|
rules I live by when I work on a project: I never lie, I never BS, and I
|
|
never, EVER bluff. Doug's the same way. When he tells you he will do X,
|
|
it happens. Period. He's a pro, and was previously the head of production
|
|
at MGM.
|
|
|
|
When we were working together on CP, Doug made me a promise. He said,
|
|
"Look, Joe, you know me, I'm not a writer, that's not what I'm good at. So
|
|
I will never give you a creative note. Production notes, hell yes.
|
|
Creative scripts notes...no."
|
|
|
|
And he kept that promise.
|
|
|
|
Which is why, when it came time to show someone what I'd come up with on
|
|
BABYLON 5, instead of going righ off the bat to a big studio or a
|
|
network...I went to Doug. He liked it, and we formed a partnership to
|
|
pruce the movie and the series. He's invested a lot of time and effort
|
|
over the last 4 years, when it seemed it would never happen, but he never
|
|
lost faith in the project.
|
|
|
|
We have a great relationship: we insult each other shamelessly. I've even
|
|
learned to somewhat mimic his voice, so I can return fire with his own
|
|
words, in his own voice. When our casting director met with us for the
|
|
first time and started going over how much she *loved* the script, he broke
|
|
in, "No, no, no, jeez, what're you saying, you can't say that, we NEVER say
|
|
that, I'm telling you you can't work with the man if you say that kind of
|
|
thing. You gotta tell him it's *sufficient*, but just barely, and with
|
|
luck we can save it in post. Jeez, no, don't ever do that again."
|
|
|
|
He's a very funny man.
|
|
|
|
I'm having him roughed up on Friday.
|
|
|
|
THAT'S who Doug Netter is.
|
|
|
|
Director: Richard Compton. One of the prime directors for The Equalizer
|
|
and Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.
|
|
|
|
Director of Cinematography: Billy Dickson. Billy has an amazing eye for
|
|
color and shadow and composition that many of you may have seen on the
|
|
Desperado programs. First-class.
|
|
|
|
EFX Director: Ron Thornton. Main EFX fellow behind The Addams Family,
|
|
Highlander II, Plymouth, Dr. Who The Movie and others.
|
|
|
|
Production Designer: John Iacovelli. Award winning production designer
|
|
direct from Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and other projects.
|
|
|
|
Production Manager/Line Producer: Bob Brown. Previously producer or
|
|
production manager on War of the Roses, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom,
|
|
Return of the Jedi, Iceman and the three Childs Play movies.
|
|
|
|
Casting Director: Mary Jo Slater. Mary Jo has cast untold numbers of
|
|
movies and TV programs, from the revived Dark Shadows to the recent
|
|
Intruders mini-series to Star Trek VI.
|
|
|
|
Plus others we've nabbed from James Cameron's company, Steven Spielberg's
|
|
company, George Lucas' company, Jim Henson's company, and others. Names as
|
|
I can release them.
|
|
|
|
Those of you into films may know the work of John Stiers, who's done most
|
|
of the physical SFX for the James Bond films, for Outland and other films.
|
|
He's an academy award winner who *never* works in television, out of
|
|
choice. Turns out, he heard of what we were doing with B5, and asked to
|
|
see a copy of the script, not believing what he'd heard, that anyone would
|
|
even TRY something like this for television. Read the script...and he's
|
|
aboard B5 in that capacity. Turned down a film job that would have paid 3
|
|
times as much. At the production meeting today, he commented that he
|
|
hasn't seen a group of people, or an operation, or an attitude like this in
|
|
television EVER...and that the last time he ran into something like this in
|
|
film was on the first James Bond movie, where everyone knew they were
|
|
creating something special.
|
|
|
|
|
|
HARLAN ELLISON
|
|
|
|
For the first time today, another writer was hired to write some material
|
|
for B5. This for the series down the road. Long before we can begin
|
|
hiring writers on the series, we need...well, not a bible, because that's
|
|
already written...and not a sample script, because that's already written
|
|
as well...but for lack of a better term, and since we're sticking with such
|
|
Biblical references as Babylon to start with, call it an Epistle.
|
|
Something which will spell out, for writers, what you should and should not
|
|
do in a science fiction television series...the dumbnesses to avoid, the
|
|
overused plots, the goals to aspire toward. Call it a manifesto of our
|
|
intentions. For something like this, I went to someone with the toughest
|
|
standards around. So yes, Harlan Ellison has been commissioned to write it.
|
|
And has accepted. And is starting posthaste.
|
|
|
|
If *that* doesn't tell writers we mean business, and set the standard of
|
|
what we intend to shoot for, I don't know what will.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE PHILOSOPHY
|
|
|
|
Given that the first 3 Babylon stations were destroyed, and the fourth
|
|
vanished...why rebuild it? Why make B5? It was an idea that was right,
|
|
and those responsible refused to knuckle under to what was, in effect,
|
|
terrorism. During WW II, someone asked Winston Churchill what he would do
|
|
if a V-2 took out Big Ben. "We shall rebuild it," he said. And what if
|
|
they knock THAT down? "We shall rebuild it again, and again, as many times
|
|
as is required. Because it is not theirs to destroy, it is OURS."
|
|
|
|
B5, at this crucial time, is the last, best hope for peace, and there are
|
|
people dedicated to pursuing that peace, whatever the cost, however many
|
|
times others may try to destroy it. Those aboard B5 know the risk, but
|
|
come because they believe in what it stands for, just as U.N. observers go
|
|
into a country knowing fully that they may be killed. Why more Babylons?
|
|
Why make more space shuttles after one blows up, even though you KNOW that
|
|
the odds indicate that at least one more will go, sooner or later?
|
|
Why continue with the Gemini space program even after those astronauts died
|
|
in that terrible fire?
|
|
|
|
Because the universe doesn't reward you for doing what's safe, and easy.
|
|
Because courage and persistence is what pulled us out of the seas and onto
|
|
land and dragged us through millions of years of evolution. What sets the
|
|
human race apart from everything else is our persistence, the stubborn,
|
|
noble dignity that propelled Washington's men, when offered the chance to
|
|
stand down during the revolutionary war, when they were tired and bleeding
|
|
and frostbitten, to refuse to knuckle under, and to go on.
|
|
|
|
During WW II, again, there were cases of planes sent in to bomb strategic
|
|
sites...and when one batch was shot down, another wing went off. And
|
|
another. And another. Until finally SOMEONE got through. Because it had
|
|
to be done. The consequences were too terrible otherwise.
|
|
|
|
We have come into an age when it seems passion is passe, when the very
|
|
common coin of our shared humanity, the willingness to put our lives on the
|
|
line for a cause or a belief, seems somehow suspect. Why do people rebuild
|
|
BABYLON 5 even though it's not safe? Why do they go there when it's not
|
|
safe?
|
|
|
|
Because the Earth/Minbari war ALONE almost wiped out humanity. We can't
|
|
afford NOT to be there.
|
|
And these people are willing to put their lives on the line to see that
|
|
never happens again. Because they damn near won the first time, and the
|
|
next bunch might well finish the job.
|
|
|
|
One of my favorite pieces of verse is from Tennyson's ULYSSES. And it is
|
|
at the core of what BABYLON 5 is about. It concerns the final voyage of
|
|
Ulysses...older, tired, who has lost his family and most of his kingdom and
|
|
most of his men, betrayed and saddened...and he gathers up those few
|
|
surviving members from his earlier journey, and as they prepare to push
|
|
off, he concludes with a final benediction: "Though we are not now that
|
|
strength that in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we
|
|
are: one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate but
|
|
strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield."
|
|
|
|
Ethnic Diversity: yes, most definitely. Leaving the aliens aside for the
|
|
time being where sexuality may not necessarily be as we know it, and ethnic
|
|
background is a bit different, and since the question concerned itself with
|
|
humans...our *main characters* consist of the following: a male caucasian
|
|
commander; a female Japanese vice-commander; a male Italian security chief;
|
|
a black Xenobiologist male; a female telepath whose ethnic background we
|
|
haven't yet determined; a female caucasian trader (Sinclair's S.O.); and
|
|
(for the series, later) a female environmental specialist (probably
|
|
Hispanic). My feeling here is that we have *all* gone to the stars, and I
|
|
want there to be a good ethnic mix in both the main characters, and the
|
|
guest-starring and cameo actors. And I *especially* want to see a nearly
|
|
50/50 mix of men and women in equally significant jobs and
|
|
responsibilities.
|
|
|
|
Relationships: My sense of the story is that things are a lot more relaxed
|
|
in that respect. Some folks get married. Others don't. There are open-
|
|
ended relationships. It's not a big deal one way or another; there are
|
|
always going to be those who prefer monogamy, and those who tend to roam.
|
|
|
|
And bear in mind one *crucial* aspect to B5...there is a constant mix of
|
|
not only ethnic groups, but alien races, religions, thought, standards,
|
|
mores, and sexual practices. This will present a constant opportunity to
|
|
explore alternate ideas, and to mix-and-match. By our exposure, humans
|
|
may adopt some alien notions, and vice versa. B5 is the ultimate melting
|
|
pot, just as the early Ports of Call were a hodge-podge of dialects,
|
|
backgrounds, beliefs and other elements, whose only real commonality was
|
|
that their business or personal lives brought them to the same place at
|
|
the same time. Same with B5.
|
|
|
|
Re: action...a lot of the action will take place aboard B5, just as a lot
|
|
of the action in a cop show or mainstream drama takes place in a city...and
|
|
B5 is exactly that, a self-contained city or world of its own. There's
|
|
*plenty* of opportunity for drama in that, when you stop to consider the
|
|
staggering conflicts possible between people, races, and technologies.
|
|
But there will also be some action outside...there's a good amount of that
|
|
in the pilot movie, and there will be potential for more as we go along.
|
|
The one thing I want to *avoid* is the New Threat Of The Week story, in
|
|
terms of somebody attacking B5. I think that would get old REAL fast. The
|
|
best terrain for conflict is, as Fitzgerald said, the human (or alien)
|
|
heart in conflict with itself.
|
|
|
|
Will there be zealots? Oh, yes. To be sure. Keep an eye on the
|
|
Minbari....
|
|
|
|
Re: Fandom (ed): It's fun to see this sort of thing bouncing back from
|
|
the other side of the screen...though the comment about a fandom for a show
|
|
that doesn't exist yet is well taken. I don't *want* people signing on to
|
|
something they haven't seen yet, at least not to excess, because up until
|
|
the *minute* that we hit the airwaves, this is all just balloon juice. You
|
|
shouldn't give this project too much support, just as you shouldn't start
|
|
handing around blank checks that you've signed.
|
|
|
|
Let us *prove* what we can do. SF fans are *constantly* being hustled by
|
|
one person or company or another. They/you are shilled at conventions,
|
|
hyped on nonexistent projects, and get your hopes up only to have them
|
|
dashed. If what I write here is interesting, if it gives a sense of how
|
|
a show like this comes together...terrific. But the only thing that
|
|
fundamentally matters is what's on the screen. Until then, take everything
|
|
here with a pound of salt.
|
|
|
|
Force us to prove the point. If we are fortunate enough, once we hit the
|
|
air, to find fans and others who appreciate the show, we want those who
|
|
will challenge us and force us to put up or shut up. Because talk is
|
|
cheap. Mine included.
|
|
|
|
End of sermon.
|
|
|
|
Re: what I learned on my trips to conventions and appearing on WHY CAN'T
|
|
THEY GET IT RIGHT? panels...what I came away with was a general sense of
|
|
frustration from people who felt that in most cases, a show ends up being
|
|
either good SF and bad television, or good TV but bad SF, and why can't you
|
|
mix the two? They pointed to the lack of character conflict in TNG, noting
|
|
(correctly) that conflict is the core of ANY drama. They wondered --
|
|
repeatedly -- why it is that every time a decent concept comes along,
|
|
someone has to hobble it with kids or cute robots.
|
|
|
|
It was just a general sense of frustration that while SF in print (and to
|
|
SOME extent films) has grown up into adulthood, TV SF was still perceived
|
|
AND EXECUTED as though for kids, or without the grittiness or maturity of
|
|
the work you'd associate with Gibson or Sterling or Clarke. ST was, by
|
|
and large, an anomaly in that it treated SF with a modicum of respect.
|
|
There's not been much of that, the audience tended to feel.
|
|
|
|
Which made me all the more determined to try and bring SF into the
|
|
mainstream not by compromising the SF, but by -- as it were -- bringing the
|
|
mountain to Mohammed by incorporating elements that mainstream viewers
|
|
have come to expect from non-SF series: adult characters with adult
|
|
relationships, sexual and otherwise; interpersonal conflict; marriages and
|
|
divorces and pregnancies and all the other elements that are the common
|
|
coin of our shared humanity. People who live in a world that, unlike the
|
|
antiseptic Enterprise, requires courage and struggle and hope and joy and
|
|
effort, exactly as those elements are required in our own lives.
|
|
|
|
My models, in a way, are DRAGNET and HILL STREET BLUES. There was a time
|
|
when cop shows were viewed the same way SF shows are viewed now: of
|
|
interest only to people into police procedurals and mysteries, which was
|
|
considered a very small proportion of the audience. The along came
|
|
DRAGNET, which for the first time showed cops going on dates, having
|
|
divorces, barbeques, fights...and that show went through the roof because
|
|
it fleshed out the characters (for that time...yes, they're stiff and
|
|
cardboard now, but at that time they were revolutionary, and if you check
|
|
your TV history, you will find that DRAGNET is still considered the most
|
|
successful cop show ever produced for TV). HILL STREET BLUES was the final
|
|
culmination of that process, a model from which came shows like LA LAW and
|
|
ST. ELSEWHERE and others.
|
|
There is absolutely NO reason on earth why that same process cannot apply
|
|
to SF. And that is what we are pledged to do on this show. I expect
|
|
either to succeed -- astonishingly -- or fail, just as astonishingly. But
|
|
there won't be a middle ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
JMS on his approach to storytelling, after his comment that he knows the
|
|
first scene of the first season, and the last scene of the very last (year
|
|
five) season of the show, and the question "is every single episode mapped
|
|
out?":
|
|
|
|
I know where each season will end, and where the next season will begin.
|
|
Those episodes are locks. Within each season, I have set aside
|
|
benchmarks...certain events that much happen at some point in that given
|
|
season. Assuming a 22 episode season, about half, or 11 out of each 22,
|
|
will be benchmark episodes. The other 11 will be up for grabs in terms of
|
|
the general arc of the show. I think you *have* to be open to what some
|
|
freelancer hits you with unexpectedly, be open to surprises and things you
|
|
never considered.
|
|
|
|
It's a very fine line. The goal is that if you didn't know about the
|
|
show, had no sense of history or any of the characters, you could tune in
|
|
to Episode 18, Season 3, and be able to enjoy the show *immediately*. The
|
|
problem with a show like, say, TWIN PEAKS (which I enjoyed enormously, by
|
|
the way), was that if you missed an episode or two, you were pretty much
|
|
lost.
|
|
|
|
Each and every episode of B5 ***must*** be able to stand completely on its
|
|
own.
|
|
|
|
What happens is that you start laying down threads that, over time, as you
|
|
watch more and more episodes, tells a much larger story. The more you
|
|
watch, the more you'll get out of it. If you watch one, you'll be able to
|
|
enjoy that one strictly on its own terms.
|
|
|
|
It's a trick I learned while writing/story editing, of all things, The Real
|
|
Ghostbusters. Those were written on two levels; one for younger viewers,
|
|
one for older. If you didn't get the older stuff, it didn't get in the way
|
|
of enjoying the show. If you *did* get the more sophisticated stuff, it
|
|
added another *layer* to the experience.
|
|
|
|
Another comparison, out of my league as it might be, would be the
|
|
Hieronymous Bosch painting, Garden of Earthly Delights. You can go in to
|
|
any panel or section of that triptych, and that could almost be a painting
|
|
on its own terms, it's so detailed. When you pull back, though, you begin
|
|
to see a much larger story, a wider and more varied tapestry.
|
|
|
|
It's a challenge, from a writing point of view, but it's eminently do-able.
|
|
We started to do some of that in Power; that show changed dramatically at
|
|
the end of season one, and we were starting to develop threads that, in
|
|
toto, would tell a much different story. There were clues all over the
|
|
place. (Soaron saying, of his programming, "There is something in my
|
|
program I do not understand...there is something in the dark," referring,
|
|
as we would later discover, to a program that would force him to kill
|
|
Dredd; the fate of Power's mother; the *real* agenda behind what was going
|
|
on; wheels inside wheels inside wheels....)
|
|
|
|
Maybe it's my Eastern European heritage, but I *love* sagas, and B5 will
|
|
present a chance to tell that kind of saga. When I was assigned the V
|
|
miniseries job, I took a similar approach, trying to create a whole and
|
|
consistent world.
|
|
|
|
But this is hardly revelation; the world of SF print has been doing this
|
|
now ever since the Lensman books. The job now is translating that approach
|
|
to television, and bring it up to, oh, at least where SF was 20 years
|
|
ago....
|
|
|
|
|
|
"What about sin?"
|
|
|
|
Personally, I'm for it.
|
|
|
|
There's nothing more boring than someone who's overcome all his or
|
|
her vices...so all of our characters will be prey to one problem or
|
|
another. Ambassador Londo Mollari has a BIG gambling problem (and a
|
|
secondary problem with women), Garibaldi has a history with alcohol and
|
|
other substances that almost got him kicked out of his prior jobs...I find
|
|
the most interesting people those who are always fighting to be better, to
|
|
be more, to avoid falling into vice despite terrible temptation.
|
|
|
|
And some will not survive that temptation.
|
|
|
|
At the central core of our humanity is the fact that we are flawed, and
|
|
it's overcoming those flaws that makes for real drama. Or, in some cases,
|
|
being overcome BY those flaws.
|
|
|
|
You have to understand the key issue that has always been, and will always
|
|
be, at the *heart* of Babylon 5. In 99.9% of all SF-TV in the last twenty
|
|
years or so, there have always been the Noble Good Guys and the Awful Bad
|
|
Guys. I don't buy that. Whether it's 20 years from now or 200, we will
|
|
still be humans. Some will be better or more noble than others, and some
|
|
will be constantly on the lookout for the next scam, the next vice, the
|
|
next thrill or danger or target.
|
|
|
|
In Babylon 5, I want to hew as closely as possible to how REAL people would
|
|
react in this situation. I haven't labored at this for four years to do
|
|
one more Good Guy In Shoot-Em-Ups With The Bad Guys Show.
|
|
|
|
Garibaldi will lapse in his rehabilitation. Londo will get in very serious
|
|
trouble because of his vices. Laurel will have a run-in with certain
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chemicals. Even Sinclair will fall prey to a weakness of his own. The
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question is...what do each of them now DO about it? THAT is what makes it
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|
interesting.
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There's a short story entitled "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg," by Mark
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Twain. In that story, we meet a town of people who have put up a sign
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|
outside their town, "Lead Us Not Into Temptation." And they have
|
|
scrupulously avoided temptation for years. One day, into this town of
|
|
self-proclaimed and self-satisfied virtue comes temptation, in the form of
|
|
a bag of gold which someone, offering the right phrase, is supposed to
|
|
collect. The man who really left it (and we find later it's lead), gives
|
|
the town's most virtuous people fake phrases, to see if they will try and
|
|
collect that which is not theirs.
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|
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|
Every one of them fall for it...and the town is embarrassed and
|
|
ashamed...and many are wonderfully vindicated by this. And now the sign in
|
|
front of the town reads, "Lead us INTO Temptation." Because it's only when
|
|
we are truly tested that our virtue means a damn thing.
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|
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|
"The human heart in conflict with itself," William Faulkner said, is the
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|
only thing worth writing about. Mainstream shows explore that question in
|
|
hospitals, in police stations, in lawyers offices, on the frontier. Now B5
|
|
will explore it on the frontier of space, in a self-contained world of its
|
|
own. If that wasn't the whole point, I'd have given up on this a long long
|
|
time ago.
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|
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|
There's one final thing to consider: many of the SF shows of the past have
|
|
been produced by people who knew nothing of the genre, or who held outright
|
|
contempt for the genre. I'm a fan. I came up through the ranks of SF shows
|
|
hating some and loving those few that treated its audience as though they
|
|
were reasonably intelligent. THE PRISONER is, to my mind, one of the
|
|
finest examples of television storytelling.
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|
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|
As a fan, I want it done *right*. Virtually every member of our production
|
|
team is a fan. This is almost unheard-of in television. And they all have
|
|
a point to prove...that you *can* do good SF on television and have it be
|
|
successful, WITHOUT talking down, WITHOUT filling the show with cute kids
|
|
or robots, WITHOUT turning every episode into a shoot-em-up, and WITHOUT
|
|
getting pompous or self-impressed.
|
|
|
|
For four years, this has been our dream, our child, awaiting birth.
|
|
|
|
We hope that it will be well received, given a good home, and nourished so
|
|
that it can grow strong.
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|
|
|
ADDITIONAL READING
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|
|
|
STARLOG #182 - September 1992. Pg.34, "Where Empires Touch", by Lawrence
|
|
V. Conley.
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|
|
|
WRITER'S DIGEST - October 1992. Pg.64, "Selling a Space Station" by J.
|
|
Michael Straczynski.
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|
|
|
CINEFANTASTIQUE - December 1992. Pg.16 "Babylon 5" by Mark Altman.
|
|
|
|
STARLOG SPECTACULAR - January 1993. Pg. 52 etc. "Foundation and Empire"
|
|
by Adam Lebowitz.
|
|
|
|
THE BABYLON 5 NEWSLETTER - Subscriptions: $5 USA, $6 Canada, check or m.o.
|
|
payable to C. Marx to BABYLON 5 NEWSLETTER, c/o Christy Marx, Box 2325,
|
|
Oakhurst, CA 93644.
|
|
==========================================================================
|
|
This file comes from the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable (SFRT, page
|
|
470) on GEnie, and is Copyright (c) 1992 by GEnie.
|
|
|
|
***
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To sign up on GEnie, follow these simple steps:
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1. Set your communications software for half-duplex (local echo), at 300,
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2. Dial toll free: 1-800-638-8369 (or in Canada, 1-800-387- 8330). Upon
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connection, enter HHH
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3. At the U#= prompt, enter XTX99381,SFRT then press <RETURN>.
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4. Have a major credit card ready. In the U.S., you may also use your
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checking account number.
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For more information in the United States or Canada, call 1-800-638-
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9636 or write: GEnie, c/o GE Information Services, P.O. Box 6403,
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