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								Shane Shellenbarger                               about 900 words

								Appears soon in ConNotations


								 THE ELLISONIAN NAVIGATION by Shane Shellenbarger


								"This will be a manifesto about what we want the movie and the

								series to do.  It's like the early stages of Citizen Kane where

								Orson Wells has the 'Declaration of Principles'.  It will be, we

								hope, the kind of document that will be handed around, reprinted,

								and used by a lot of different shows to help make all science

								fiction on television more intelligent and less cliche' ridden."

								If J. Michael Straczynski's upcoming television show, Babylon 5,

								were a ship, then the chief navagator is Harlan Ellison and the

								chart is his manifesto.  Ellison says that the manifesto will be

								similar to the piece he wrote for Reginald Bretnor's 1979 edition

								of "Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and its Future" about

								writing fantasy for television, only more so.  "It will be an

								updating and expansion of that in terms of the kinds of things

								you want writers who are going to be wanting to write a series to

								know," says Ellison.  "It's difficult for people who are outside

								the genre to understand the rigors of writing fantasy and science

								fiction for television and it's even more difficult for those

								inside to understand the rigors of writing for television.  What

								this will be is a very long essay with specifics about the kinds

								of thing you should not write for science fiction or fantasy on

								television.  It's  going to talk about the logic of setting up

								situations: they have to be internally logical.  Just because

								it's fantasy or science fiction does not mean you can get away

								with illogic and craziness.  It's about the ethics of the

								program, trying to foster an interest in good, solid science

								instead of having explosions in space like Star Wars.  There are

								a number of aspects to it and we're going to cover them all.  It

								will probably go through two or three different versions because

								once I get done I'll say to Joe, 'What's missing and where do you

								need me to expand?'  Joe will tell me and I'll do that, then

								we'll go through it again, and again, and again.  Once we've done

								half-a-dozen drafts it should be ready for when the series goes."

								Ellison knows the shape of his manifesto, but still lacks the

								substance that will make Babylon 5 unique.  "Apart from having

								read Joe's pilot script, 'The Gathering', I have not yet seen the

								pilot and Joe doesn't want me to see it until they get a good

								answer print with music and the works," Ellison says.  "He's very

								cautious and before he ever got involved with this project we sat

								down and talked about my horrific experience on The Starlost,

								which in many ways parallels Joe's experience on Babylon 5,  I

								was able to tell Joe about the pitfalls I fell into and he has

								managed to sidestep them.  This show should go very, very well,

								indeed." As a creator who has had his work stolen more than once

								by Hollywood producers, Ellison has an opinion about a show

								positioned against Straczynski's Babylon 5.  "The thing that I

								find really offensive is that Paramount knew about Babylon 5 long

								before Deep Space Nine," Ellison says.  "They were warned, 'Why

								put together a series that's exactly like something else that's

								going to be on the air when you haven't got anything on paper

								yet, you can go any direction you want.'  You can't prove this,

								but there are a lot of us who feel that because they (Paramount)

								didn't have any original ideas they just kind of revamped Joe's

								idea in their own way and then months later said, 'Oh well, we're

								going to have to reject Babylon 5 because we have a show very

								much like it of our own.'  It's kind of a sad thing.  In fact,

								they asked me to write for Deep Space Nine.  We talked about me

								doing a show or two for them, even a story arc, but once Joe

								hired me to do the manifesto I just felt it would not be

								ethically correct." Even though he won't be writing for Deep

								Space Nine, Ellison's ties with the late Gene Roddenberry seem

								never to be severed.  "The book version of 'The City on the Edge

								of Forever' will be coming out soon and when that hits it's going

								to be a bombshell.  (After Roddenberry's death) I started from

								scratch again.  It's been a very difficult piece of writing,

								taking months and months.  Tom Maglioni is screaming, 'Everybody

								wants their book,' but it's got to be written right, otherwise I

								could be sued for libel.  I've got to write it very carefully and

								I'm just not going to be rushed on it." Estimates concerning the

								series start date vary, but Ellison has his own methods and he

								demonstrated them.  "all I know is that a number of the actors

								who were in the movie with term deals that put them in the series

								had asked for wavers to go and do shows during October, November,

								and December," Ellison says.  "They were all granted, but when

								one of them asked for a waver in January that one was refused.

								That indicates that they may want to be back at work by January

								and they don't want somebody off someplace else doing another

								show.  Having worked in the industry, about the only time they

								deny wavers is when it's going to conflict with their own

								schedule. With January quickly approaching, science fiction fans

								will soon know the course that has been charted for Babylon 5.