brennen
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lurkers-guide


								<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>


								<blockquote><cite>

								The Vorlon ambassador is nearly killed by an assassin shortly after arriving

								at the station, and Commander Sinclair is the prime suspect.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tomita,+Tamlyn">Tamlyn Tomita</a> as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima(*).

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Baron,+Blaire">Blaire Baron</a> as Carolyn Sykes(*).

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Sekka,+Johnny">Johnny Sekka</a> as Dr. Benjamin Kyle(*).

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Tallman,+Patricia">Patricia Tallman</a> as Lyta Alexander(*).

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Fleck,+John">John Fleck</a> as Del Varner.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Hampton,+Paul">Paul Hampton</a> as the Senator.

								</blockquote>


								<p>

								(*) These characters were originally planned as recurring characters

								throughout the series, but were replaced for various reasons.


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/000">6.00</a>


								Production number: 0 (Pilot)

								Original air date: Feb 22, 1993

								DVD release date: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NTNP/thelurkersguidet">December 4, 2001</a> (barebones)

								                  <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002B15UQ/thelurkersguidet">August 17, 2004</a> (full-featured)


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by Richard Compton

								</pre>


								<p>

								<strong>Note: There are two versions of "The Gathering," the original one

								as initially aired in 1993 and a reedited special edition first aired in

								1998.  Items that only apply to one version are so marked.</strong>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


								<H2><A NAME="BP">Backplot</A></H2>

								<ul>


								<li><A NAME="BP:1"> Earth has been keeping genetic records of</A>

								telepaths for the last 6 generations.


								<li><A NAME="BP:2"> The Psi Corps takes children with psi</A>

								abilities when they are young and trains them to use this ability in a

								very strict manner.  There are definite rules governing the use of

								psi. No unauthorized mind scans.  No gambling.


								<li><A NAME="BP:3"> All races but the Narn have telepathy.</A>


								<li><A NAME="BP:4"> The Narn are a young but powerful</A>

								civilization, with (G'Kar claims) unlimited manpower.


								<li><A NAME="BP:5"> The Narn heard about the reason for the</A>

								Minbari surrender in the Earth-Minbari war - a decision from their Grey Council (a

								secret group of "holy men").


								<li><A NAME="BP:6"> The Minbari are the oldest of the "five</A>

								federations," and centuries ahead of the others technologically.


								<li><A NAME="BP:7"> Londo says to Garibaldi: "You know why I am</A>

								here?  I'm here to grovel before your wonderful Earth Alliance, in hopes

								of attaching ourselves to your destiny.  [...]  There was a time, when

								this whole <em>quadrant</em> belonged to us!  What are we now? Twelve worlds

								and a thousand monuments to past glories, living off memories and

								stories, selling trinkets."


								<li><A NAME="BP:8"> Centauri status is based on family</A>

								history. Political and personal power must be built up over

								generations.


								<li><A NAME="BP:9"> The Narn were once enslaved by the Centauri</A>

								and have only recently gained independence. This seems to be a sensitive

								spot for the Narn, or at least G'Kar. (cf: <A HREF="001.html">"Midnight

								on the Firing Line"</A>)


								<li><A NAME="BP:10"> Sinclair fought in the last battle of the</A>

								Earth-Minbari war, the Line. In the midst of battle, he blacked out while

								attacking a Minbari warship and remained unconscious for 24 hrs. He has

								no idea what happened to him during those 24 hrs.

								(cf: <A HREF="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</A>)


								<li><A NAME="BP:11"> Takashima used to work at a corrupt mining</A>

								station on Mars.  Refusing to go on the take, she was never going to get

								promoted out of there.  She recounts lashing out and "breaking the

								rules" out of frustration at it all.  However, Sinclair was her superior

								there for a while, and he got her to shape up and play things by the

								book.


								<li><A NAME="BP:12"> Garibaldi has been "bounced from station to</A>

								station" for a long time before Sinclair requested him for Babylon

								5. (cf: <A HREF="011.html">"Survivors"</A>)

								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="UQ">Unanswered Questions</A></H2>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:1">The Station</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Why was Babylon 5 <em>really</em> built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt, and

								rebuilt, and... rebuilt?  Sinclair's story about human stubbornness

								doesn't hold water.  B5 is a monstrous project, especially for a society

								very recently decimated by war.  Yet it was made <em>five</em> times, the fifth

								time from <em>SCRATCH</em>.


								<li> Who sabotaged B1-B3, and why?  Who vanished B4, and why?


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:2">The Minbari Assassin</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> How did the assassin get the voice and image of Sinclair in diplomatic

								dress before he poisoned Kosh?  For everyone else he obviously

								impersonated, we'd seen him in close proximity to them earlier.


								<li> The assassin-as-Varner pointed a gadget at Lyta in the bazaar.  It

								is widely assumed that this acquired her visual pattern for the

								changeling net, but it could have been something else.


								<li> Why did the assassin-as-Varner arrange to make Londo late for the

								reception?  He kept Londo in a public place, making him unframeable.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:3">Takashima</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> What hold did G'Kar et al. have on her? (see

								<A HREF="#AN:2">Analysis</A>) Perhaps she <em>was</em> on the take in that

								<A HREF="#BP:11">corrupt mining colony</A>, and she's still living on

								the take today.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:10">Lyta Alexander</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Why was she talking to the assassin-as-Varner, as reported by Garibaldi

								and Londo?  Garibaldi must have asked her at some point, but we never

								get to see this.


								<li> How was she involved?  (see <A HREF="#AN:3">Analysis</A>)

								Perhaps her role was only passive - agree to scan Kosh if asked, report

								any information she gathers (possibly via telepathy).

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:4">Sinclair</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Judging by <A HREF="#NO">the headlines of Universe Today</A>,

								Babylon 5 is a very big deal back on Earth.  Why is Sinclair, a lowly

								Commander, both in charge of the station and acting as the Earth

								diplomat? (cf: <A HREF="013.html">"Signs and Portents"</A>)


								<li> What happened to Sinclair on the Line?

								(cf: <A HREF="008.html">"And the Sky Full of Stars"</A>)


								<li> What <em>is</em> the hole in his mind?  Is it simply the 24 hour

								memory loss from his experience on the Line, or something more

								significant?

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:5">Del Varner</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> According to Garibaldi's information, Del Varner would normally stay far

								away from B5.  So, why was he recognized by a local tech (Eric)?

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:6">The Vorlons</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Why <em>did</em> they request that the monitors in the docking bay be turned

								off?  Kosh was walking out in public, hidden safely in his encounter

								suit.


								<li> What is Kosh inside that suit anyway?  (cf.

								<a href="../misc/lost-scenes.html#kosh">Lost Scenes from Babylon 5</a>)


								<li>@@@883993127 How did the poison get through to Kosh?  He must have had his hand, or

								whatever the limb was, completely outside his encounter suit.  Perhaps that

								explains why the Vorlons wanted the monitors turned off; they didn't want

								anyone else to see Kosh's hand.  In that case, why did they want Sinclair

								to see it?

								<strong>Special Edition (spoiler for a pivotal revelation later in the

								series):</strong>

								Kosh greeted what he thought was Sinclair by addressing him as "Entil-zha

								Valen," indicating that he already knew Sinclair in some context.


								<li> Is there anything to that legend about someone turning to stone when

								they saw a Vorlon?  Have people ever gotten into situations where they

								could <em>conceivably</em> have seen one?


								<li> The Vorlons seem to be puppet thugs of the conspirators in the pilot,

								yet clearly they do some things for their own reasons.  Why such secrecy

								around their technological inferiors?  Why break the veil to send an

								ambassador to B5?


								<li> For that matter, why agree to ship Sinclair to their world?  Surely

								that would mean him finding out about them.  Unless they never intended

								to bring him there alive, of course.


								<li> Did Delenn really tell Sinclair everything the Minbari know about the

								Vorlons?  Either way, how much does he know now?


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:7">The Minbari</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Why did they surrender at the Line?  It's already pretty clear that

								Sinclair had Something to do with it.  Furthermore, what was the real

								reason the Minbari were fighting the war to begin with?

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:8">The Centauri</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Why have they fallen so far from power?  From Londo's stories it

								seems <A HREF="#BP:7">they were a great Empire</A> within his

								lifetime (which may be quite long, for all we know).

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="UQ:9">Miscellaneous</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Why was the access panel outside Varner's quarters busted, by the

								time Garibaldi arrived?  It probably has something to do with the

								assassin <A HREF="#NO">using Takashima's clearance</A> to gain

								entry.  Perhaps the panel keeps the only record, locally, of who's used

								it, and thus breaking it would prevent the illegal entry from being

								discovered.


								<li> The very presence of a changeling net aboard the station invites us to

								open the question, "Who else did we see that could have been that

								Minbari in disguise?"


								<li> Four major actors in the pilot left the production for various

								reasons and do not have permanent roles in the series (though Lyta

								Alexander reappeared later.)  However, since

								<A HREF="#JS">jms slipped reasons</A> why in the B5 universe two of

								the the characters no longer appear, it is meaningful to ask:

									<ul>

									<li> Why was Lyta Alexander replaced as station telepath?  Did she

									get in trouble for unauthorized mind-scanning after all, or was it

									because she's been in the mind of a Vorlon?


									<li> Why has Carolyn drifted out of Sinclair's life?

									</ul>

								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="AN">Analysis</A></H2>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:1">The Plan</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> G'Kar et al. wanted to start a war between the EA and the Vorlons.

								The primary plan was for Kosh to be dead; Takashima's announcement that

								the Vorlons had forbidden the opening of his suit should have nailed that

								coffin shut.  Framing Sinclair for the murder was probably also part of

								the primary plan (the Vorlons' request that the bay monitors be turned

								off could well have been a surprise to them).


								<li> There may have been a secondary plan to achieve the same results:

								having Lyta scan Kosh.  This could have been foreseen, impromptu, or

								coincidence.


								<li> The assassin was Minbari, which indicates a violent faction of the

								Minbari still exists (cf: <A HREF="009.html">"Deathwalker"</A>). The goals

								of that group are unknown, but so are the goals of the mainstream

								Minbari government.


								<li> In particular, the Minbari warrior class may have had their own reasons

								for getting Sinclair sent to the Vorlon homeworld.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:2">Takashima was somehow involved</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> The assassin <A HREF="#NO">used Takashima's palmed security access</A>

								to gain entry to Varner's quarters.


								<li> Takashima agreed to Kyle's plan of getting Lyta to scan Kosh even

								though (by her own story) it went very much against her grain.  "I guess

								I'm about due" is hardly a believable reason.


								<li> Takashima broke into Varner's files.  260 years from now, would

								someone be able to crack open a technology criminal's secure files in a

								matter of hours without inside information?


								<li> There were lots of instances when very recent information was used

								to further <A HREF="#AN:1">the Plan</A>, for all of which

								Takashima was in an ideal position to be responsible.

									<ul>

									<li> The assassin met Kosh at the right docking bay at the right time.


									<li> In general, <A HREF="#AN:1">the Plan</A> proceeded

									smoothly in spite of Kosh's 48 hour early arrival (the angriest

									response we saw from Takashima was to this very discovery).


									<li> Sinclair was trapped in a lift at just the right time for just

									long enough, and the record cleared.


									<li> Someone actually contacted the Vorlons and told them about the

									poisoning, thus acquiring the predictable response that opening

									Kosh's suit is verboten.


									<li> Someone leaked - very quickly - the fact that Sinclair had

									been fingered by a witness.  This is what brought on the Vorlon

									cruisers.


									<li> G'Kar found out - again very quickly - that Kosh would recover

									from the poisoning ("There has been a complication").

									</ul>

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:3">Lyta may have been involved</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> She seems to have exchanged glances with the real Del Varner as she

								walked off with Sinclair at the very beginning.  The two probably came

								in on the same ship.


								<li> Later, she's seen talking to the assassin-as-Varner.  Yet the

								latter scans her image for the changeling net without her knowledge

								<A HREF="#UQ:2">(if that was what he was doing)</A>, so their level

								of cooperation is mixed at most.


								<li> The assassin, disguised as Lyta, didn't kill her in the ample moment

								they shared outside the medlab.


								<li> On the other hand, her conversation with G'Kar within "privacy" would

								almost certainly have been very different if they were in cahoots.  So

								perhaps she was only in contact with Del Varner and/or the assassin.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:4">The Minbari assassin</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> The assassin didn't need any special clearance to enter Varner's

								quarters; he was expected.  So he must have <A HREF="#NO">used

								Takashima's clearance</A> in order to leave a record of her entry at

								that time.  Since <A HREF="#UQ:9">the panel was broken</A> before

								this could be discovered, this suggests clandestine cross-purposes.


								<li> "There is a hole in your mind" may have been his <em>response</em> to

								Sinclair's question, "Why did you do it?"  Interesting.


								<li> It was not part of the plan for the Minbari to set off his explosives.

								Else why arrange to be able to get off the station?  So, they were just

								to prevent his capture/interrogation.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:5">Sinclair is inexplicably trusting and friendly with Delenn</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> He would have sacrificed his life to kill a few more Minbari during the

								war ten years ago, yet:


								<li> He does not appear to be discomfited by Delenn's evasions in their

								Garden conversations.


								<li> When he encounters Delenn after escaping the exploding assassin, it

								would have made sense for him to confront or question her, or at least

								be suspicious.  Instead, he was relaxed and jovial.  Later, he made sure

								Delenn knew he didn't hold her responsible.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:6">Delenn</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> "The power of one mind to change the universe" likely refers to

								Sinclair.  (Recall the other Minbari's <A HREF="#AN:4">reference</A>

								to his mind.)


								<li> There were two stones in the stone garden.


								<li> She evades most of his questions, yet volunteers two big files

								during the episode, and drops lots of other hints to him.  As with

								<A HREF="#UQ:7">her abstention on the council</A>, she seems subject

								to contrary forces.  Keep him in the dark, yet point him toward the

								light.


								<li> She is a personally powerful representative of a very powerful

								race.  Yet we don't observe her taking any active hand in the big

								picture so far.


								<li>@@@884027214 In the B5 council vote to extradite Sinclair to the Vorlon homeworld,

								an abstention was equivalent to a "No" (presumably abstentions are

								interpreted to mean "None of the above" or "Take no action", whichever

								is appropriate).  So, what conflict prevented Delenn from explicitly

								voting against the motion?  <strong>Special Edition:</strong> Delenn claimed

								she couldn't vote one way or the other because she didn't yet have all the

								information at hand, and that her orders where Sinclair was concerned were

								simply to observe, not interfere.


								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:7">Londo</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> He fills Garibaldi's ears with stories of the good old days of

								conquest. <A HREF="#BP:7"><em>Bygone</em> days, <em>unlike</em> the

								way things are now.</A> He may be honest, or he may be trying to allay

								suspicions.  More likely the former, since Garibaldi's suspicions don't

								have much political significance.


								<li> A heavy drinker and compulsive gambler.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:8">G'Kar</A></H3>

								<ul>


								<li> Notice his jollity in telling Takashima his transport will submit

								to the weapons search (now that the assassin has successfully come

								aboard).  True, if <A HREF="#AN:2">she was in cahoots with him</A>,

								that little exchange was for show, as was their earlier confrontation at

								Ops.  He's nonetheless consistently transparent in his emotional

								states.


								<li> A schemer and warmonger.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:9">Takashima</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Some of her ideas were faultlessly loyal to the EA (eg "You better

								take a recorder - the way things are going you may need a witness.").

								So, her heart's in the right place, at least.

								</ul>


								<H3><A NAME="AN:10">Garibaldi</A></H3>

								<ul>

								<li> Self-esteem trouble.  He's ready to give up on the investigation after

								Varner's death.  He's used to failure at his other jobs.


								<li> Garibaldi also messes up the investigation in several ways:

									<ul>

									<li> No guards around Kosh.


									<li> Losing sight of Varner while questioning Londo.


									<li> Not talking to Lyta about Varner while it's still relevant.


									<li> Not noticing <A HREF="#AN:2">all those Takashima timing

									and information clues</A>.


									<li> Lets the Commander get into a shooting fight with a superior

									foe, alone.

									</ul>

								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="NO">Notes</A></H2>

								<ul>

								<li> An <a href="/lurk/misc/lost-scenes.html#alternate-intro">alternate

								introduction</a> was written, but not filmed.


								<li> Universe Today main headline: Vorlons to Make Contact


								<li> Universe Today sub-headline: Narn Protest of EA's B5 Heats


								<li> Among the messages flashing by on Lyta's identicard: ELVIS STILL LIVES


								<li> When the assassin scans his hand at Varner's door, words are

								visible on the screen.  If you have a lucid pause function on your VCR,

								you too will be able to read what they say - "Laurel Takashima

								Cleared".


								<li> Minbari ships have short-range FTL, or cloaking, or jamming

								(Sinclair: "They came at us out of nowhere").  Basically, they can put

								themselves right where they want to be without Starfuries noticing them

								en route.


								<li> Cruisers can "wait" in hyperspace outside a jump gate.


								<li> Unscheduled uses of the jumpgates, at least during this earlier

								part of B5's history, are practically unheard of.


								<li>@@@883993127 <strong>Special Edition:</strong> Two plot points, Kyle's

								use of stims to stay awake and Takashima's use of the Garden to grow coffee,

								were both transferred to the characters who replaced them in the series.


								<li>@@@884158807 Ed Wasser played C&amp;C technician Guerra, and later

								went on to play Mr. Morden (first appearing in

								<a href="013.html">"Signs and Portents."</a>)

								There's no evidence that the two characters are related, however.


								</ul>


								<H2><A NAME="JS">jms speaks</A></H2>

								<ul>

								<li> Actually, at one point or another, just about *everyone* lied

								in the course of the pilot...including Sinclair, who lied to G'Kar, and

								of course Delenn lying to Sinclair in the Garden...and so on.


								<p>

								<li> The one thing that I dropped fairly completely due to the

								delay in getting the series going was the Laurel thread, which has now

								mutated and become something even more interesting, actually.  It's

								something that's enabled me to now build in a trap door that you won't

								see for a long time, even though it's sitting there in plain sight.


								<p>

								<li> <em> What happened to the old characters on the pilot, not working

								on the series?</em> <B>jms:</B> On a classified mission (which I hope we

								will be able to get into at some point), Laurel has been reassigned out

								on the Rim, and Dr. Kyle is now working with the EA President on the

								issue of alien migration to Earth, a growing problem to some, a benefit

								to others.


								<p>

								<li> Pat Tallman passed on returning to the B5 project.  Our new

								telepath will be played by Andrea Thompson, with the character name

								Talia Winters.  Much of the Lyta arc will now go to Talia, but there's

								now a different way of getting her into that arc.


								<p>

								<li> What it *does* give me, which is kinda nice, is that the only two people to

								have ANY direct contact with a Vorlon have been transferred back to Earth.

								Which plays wonderfully into something sinister I'd kinda like to develop

								that the Earth Alliance is working on behind the scenes...


								<p>

								<li> Actually, I think we broke [the "Return of the Jedi"] record for ships

								on-screen in the pilot; Ron was rather pleased about it at the time.


								<p>

								<li> <em>Will there be a director's cut?</em><br>

								The odds are zero, since the first version of the B5 pilot existed

								only as a computer-graphic file edited movie.  It wasn't edited on

								film, for real, until we'd pared it down.  We'd have to go in and

								totally re-edit and re-score, and I doubt that's going to happen.


								<p>

								<li>

								Beats me, but if you find an uncut version of B5, lemme know, because

								I'D like one.


								<p>

								The problem is that, unlike a motion picture, where you produce a

								cut on film, which you then trim down, we're editing on computerized

								image files.  We don't get around to finally cutting the film until

								we've made our final edits.  So no complete version ever existed on

								film.  The most that could be done is get those 25 minutes and *build*

								a new version with that footage...which would require additional

								scoring, editing, and other stuff.


								<p>

								<li> The computerized cut of the pilot is now dumped out of memory, and

								those portions only exist on a few VHS tapes of marginal quality.

								Also, the footage in computer file form is *very* low grade, like a

								poorly scanned gif file, very low resolution.  It would be useless on

								a laser disk.


								<p>

								<li> I'm certainly not showing disdain for the missing material; I'm just

								saying it ain't *there*.  Now, if B5 turns out to be a megahit, there

								may be money set aside to re-edit the pilot some years down the road,

								but I'm not currently counting on it.  My chief concern now has to be

								the series.


								<p>

								<li> There was a reason we gave Londo the pilot opening monologue, yes.

								And another reason why we're giving Sinclair the opening monologue

								over credits of the first season, though with some differences.

								We're also considering rotating any such opening between other cast

								members as well, but *always* in the past-tense, "Babylon 5 *was*...."

								We're dealing in future history here, and we plan to do some

								interesting things with that aspect.


								<p>

								<li> Yeah, Londo seems like the *least* likely person to do the opening

								narration for a show like this; you don't even see him for nearly two

								full acts, and it's the kind of thing you'd expect the Commander to do.

								<p>

								But there are reasons for everything....


								<p>

								<li> Oh, yeah, the "mission of destruction" thing ONLY relates to this

								particular episode, the pilot.  It'll be gone from regular episodes.


								<p>

								<li> "Mankind" was being used by Londo specifically in relation to humans,

								not sentient aliens including his own race.  Earthers.  Which was one

								reason (of many) I wanted his character to be the narrator, someone

								looking in from the outside.

								<p>

								As for the Third Age, it's -- oh, darn, look at the time, have to go....


								<p>

								<li> <em>The alien section looked like a zoo!</em><br>

								First, we decided that wasn't a right look for the alien sector, and

								that's the corridor we blew up at the end.  But the reason it was

								designed that way is important.  Your reaction -- don't the aliens

								have any privacy? -- is a very human, and specifically a very

								*western* point of view.  Our feeling at the time was, why should

								alien quarters look at all like human quarters?  Shouldn't they have

								a different perspective than typical Western-style hotels?  (In some

								degree, the quaters were patterned after Japanese mini-hotels, where

								you get basically a slightly larger coffin-like setup, which you crawl

								into like a torpedo tube, with a window at one end, which has a

								curtain, a TV over your head, and so on.  What we discovered is that

								many people ask for more alien aliens, but when we delivered on that,

								were asked why these things weren't more like what we expect, why

								aren't they like human quarters?  It's really a losing battle.)


								<p>

								The other point on this is that if you look closely, there are back

								areas accessible to residents, which can in particular be seen in the

								insectoid/antennae'd character's quarters.  The idea was that it would

								be sort of a front porch, where for lack of much else to do, you'd sit

								out on the porch, watching the passing parade.


								<p>

								But the reaction was less than favorable, we had to keep explaining

								that this proceeds from an alien POV, and so our alien quarters are

								more like human quarters now, minus the alternate atmosphere stuff.

								I'm still not quite sure what to think of this.


								<p>

								<li> Actually, it's Kosh's ship that comes out of the jump gate backward,

								engines forward to assist with deceleration.  The fighters don't want

								to be slow-moving targets, so it stands to reason they wouldn't be

								configured for rapid deceleration.  They want to get into position as

								fast as possible.


								<p>

								<li> Kosh's ship had to decelerate in order to dock inside the station.

								This is a reality of spaceflight...you must both accelerate and

								decelerate.  Both take time.  Especially if you're going to dock.

								Plus there was time involved in setting up the docking procedure,

								turning over control to Babylon Control, lining up vectors and so on.


								<p>

								The fighters didn't have to worry about any of this.  They came

								shooting through the gate and barely slowed at all, speeding over to

								B5 and taking up position.


								<p>

								There have now been several situations in which we've been accused

								of "mistakes" that have, instead, simply been things done

								scientifically  accurately.  I have to say (and this isn't directed at

								you, just more of a general statement), we're not going to hand

								everyone everything on a silver platter, serving up pablum...the nature

								of a *science fiction* series is that you should THINK about things.

								The acceleration/deceleration thing is one example; some thought about

								why this would be would have led to the answer.


								<p>

								And, as evidenced by other messages here, others have taken the time

								to look at it from that perspective.  Which I think is great.


								<p>

								<li> Re: the skin tab/Kosh's hand/encounter suit question...one of the

								reasons I can't wait for the series to get on the air is so that we

								can make one thing clear, once and for all: it is NOT an error, not a

								plot hole, it is a plot POINT.  It is a question that our *characters*

								will be asking each other.  How can this be?  This will come up more

								than once, starting with "The Parliament of Dreams" episode.


								<p>

								<li> As for the Vorlon handshake (so to speak)...this will be dealt with

								in the series.  You have to remember that the original plan was to air

								the pilot and go *immediately* into series, where we'd bring up some

								of these questions.  There simply wasn't room to deal with EVERYTHING

								in that short pilot...and where we DID try and cover everything, we

								got gigged for being expositional.


								<p>

								Now we have to re-establish a few things since there's been a gap in

								time...but the poison incident will be raised in "The Parliament of

								Dreams" script to start with, and move on from there.


								<p>

								<li> The Senator of the pilot, who was back on Earth, is someone who has

								in past been someone that Sinclair has come to for backing on things;

								he's the equivilent of someone on the Armed Services Committee, here

								as one of those civilian Senators overseeing Earthforce.  He would not

								be in any position to just come in and take over, any more than a

								Senator visiting a U.S. army base would be in a position to take over

								the base if there were a problem with the ranking officer.  But he

								might be able to bring some force to bear back in Washington, which

								might double-back to be of some use.


								<p>

								There are civilian branches and military branches, as with today, in

								which the civilian branch oversees the military, but in very

								formalized ways.


								<p>

								<li> In the script, the privacy mode involved going from a standard

								looking open booth to what suddenly looked like a flat black cube,

								which you could neither hear nor see through.  The director decided

								to try the lights.  It didn't work.  We're dropping it.


								<p>

								<li> You're right; the events of the Line are something that Sinclair

								doesn't much like talking about, and has been advised *against*

								talking about.  When the Minbari surrendered, Earth put the best

								possible spin on it, tried to make the survivors of the Line look

								like heroes, but there's a general sense of what happened.  And a

								great deal of dismay over it.


								<p>

								<li> Your assumption is correct; the assassin's weapon was a very small

								one...limited power, and a charge-up sequence that becomes longer the

								more it's used.  If the Minbari had shot Lyta, it would've taken too

								long for the gun to power-up again for him to shoot Sinclair...and he

								would've been captured.  We slightly expanded the power-up whine for

								each shot after the first one.  You'll note that the first shot, the

								one that takes out Varner, is almost immediate.  Points and fires.

								Gradually it takes longer, and finally the gun runs out altogether

								(which is why, though we probably should've been clearer in showing

								this, the assassin finally went hand-to-hand with Sinclair...the gun

								was never meant as an assault weapon, more as a derringer, with a few

								shots in case he got into trouble).


								<p>

								<li> As for Sinclair going after the Minbari assassin...there were several

								reasons for this.  First, this was personal for him; if the guy

								*wasn't* caught, he would be blamed for the death and sent to the

								Vorlon homeworld.  He had something very much at stake.  Second, if

								you have somebody with shapeshifting technology on board, the LAST

								thing you want is to send in a large group.  The tracking of the

								energy web used for the holographic effect was good, but only to a

								certain point.  It could say "He's ten feet away," but if there's 5

								guys within that range, it'll take you just long enough to react for

								the assassin to wipe out the bunch of you before you figure out which

								one he is.  But if there's only *two* of you, and you hear the shifter

								is within 10 feet, you know *exactly* who it is and can react

								accordingly.  It seemed logical.  Also, you'd want someone there who

								you knew VERY well, in case there were a replacement...because while

								someone could emulate a face, they can't replicate memories, and

								Sinclair or Garibaldi could quickly figure out if the other was an

								imposter.


								<p>

								Yes, I probably could've stopped to explain this...but I figured it

								was readily apparent, and there was already enough exposition in the

								pilot to stun a horse.


								<p>

								<li> "If JMS had not mentioned the hole in Sinclair's mind, what would

								have been the reason for the assassin to try and kill Sinclair?"


								<p>

								Hello...did you see the same movie that I wrote?  The assassin was

								not there to kill Sinclair.  He was there to kill Kosh.  He tried to

								kill Kosh.  He tried to stay AWAY from Sinclair, did everything in his

								power to avoid Sinclair, ran from Sinclair, and only finally

								encountered Sinclair when Sinclair came after HIM.  Then it was

								nominal self-defense.


								<p>

								Had the "hole in the mind" reference never been made, it would have

								been clear -- at least clear to every other carbon-based lifeform who

								saw the movie -- that the assassin 1) came to try and kill Kosh, 2) in

								the hope of disrupting the purpose of Babylon 5, with the added

								benefit of 3) if he failed in his mission, setting up Sinclair to take

								the rap for his actions.  At the very end, rather than be captured and

								interrogated, the Minbari assassin killed himself with an implanted

								bomb.  His comment to Sinclair at that moment was more of an "Up yours"

								comment, designed to shatter Sinclair with the knowledge that he knew

								something Sinclair didn't.


								<p>

								You keep saying he was there to kill Sinclair.  He wasn't.  He didn't.

								He didn't try.  It makes it hard to have this conversation with you if

								your comments don't touch reality at any two contiguous points.


								<p>

								<li> I never said that the [assassin's] intent wasn't to set up Sinclair;

								I only said that he wasn't there to *kill* Sinclair.  That aspect of

								making Sinclair the patsy was very much part of the thing.


								<p>

								<li> What Kyle suggests...is closer to the truth than might otherwise be

								suspected.  We had filmed a scene -- which never made it into the

								finished pilot -- where Garibaldi, growing suspicious of his boss --

								confronts Sinclair in the core shuttle.  One of the alibis he checked

								out doesn't hold up: Sinclair's.  The transport tube computer records

								don't indicate any delay.  Sinclair suggests that there's either a

								problem with the system, or it's been deliberately altered to remove

								that information.


								<p>

								It was, of course, the latter.


								<p>

								Now...stop and think about this for a moment.


								<p>

								The Observation Dome has equipment to detect approaching ships.  The

								spider transport approaches without being noticed.  The surface of the

								station would likely have sensors to detect something attaching itself

								to the hull.  Somehow these were over-ridden.  The only time that

								anyone notices, up in the Dome, is later, when Laurel isn't there,

								interestingly enough.  Someone deliberately programmed the transport

								tube to delay Sinclair.  The assassin would have to know this in

								advance.


								<p>

								We saw Londo with the assassin.  We also saw Garibaldi, Lyta, Dr. Kyle

								and -- later -- Sinclair with the assassin, each relating to him in

								different ways.  Who was the one person we never saw with the assassin,

								whose reactions might have told us something?  Who was the one put in

								charge of the station when Sinclair was pulled out of circulation?


								<p>

								Laurel.


								<p>

								We had some...interesting things in mind for this character.  Now that

								another character has come in, some things will be modified, but other

								elements will come in to replace them.


								<p>

								<li> I kept Tamlyn in the dark about a lot of this.  She even mentioned

								this in an interview she gave somewhere.  I didn't want that knowledge

								to make her play the role anything other than it should have been

								played:  as if absolutely innocent and sincere.  Sometimes you just

								gotta be sneaky....


								<p>

								<li> There was an element of saving her own life...and another aspect of

								all this is that she may not have been acting entirely of her own

								free will during the first half.  There may be some influences that

								will emerge later.


								<p>

								<li> Laurel was not being altogether honest, and was helping to cover the

								activities of the person who was doing the assassination attempt.


								<p>

								(This, again, is a thread that would've come clear had we kept that

								character; nobody was supposed to figure it out going in, but rather

								put it together over time.)


								<p>

								<li> This has already been answered; had the character stayed with the

								show, gradually it would have emerged that the assassin had access to

								Laurel's codes because she provided them to him.


								<p>

								<li>

								This isn't so much a spoiler, since it concerns an abandoned story

								like (or, let me rephrase that...a modified story line).  I mention

								this here since I just mentioned it elsewhere, and might as well do

								so here.

								<p>

								Think hard about the pilot for a moment.  Whose job is it in the

								observation dome to monitor incoming ships...but apparently let the

								spider transport slip through unnoticed?  The station's skin should

								have (and likely did) detect something clamping onto it...but

								apparently someone over-rode that for the spider transport.  Someone

								had to PRE-arrange access via the computer for the assassin, since it

								easily palms its way into Varner's quarters.  (And what is the name of

								the person the access computer recognizes?)  Someone had to arrange

								for the transport tube to be delayed, and then *erase* that

								information from the computer system.  Someone who knew *exactly* when

								the Vorlon ship would be docking.  We see, at various times, the

								following people interacting with the assassin, in different

								capacities: Garibaldi, Lyta, G'Kar, Londo, Dr. Kyle, and of course,

								much later, Sinclair.  Who did we never see in direct contact with the

								assassin?  Who was put in charge of the station after Sinclair was

								removed?

								<p>

								Do you notice a pattern developing?  Do certain things here point to a

								certain individual...who may, or may not, have been acting on her own

								volition?

								<p>

								And yes, this is something we planned to explore, though it wasn't on

								a *direct* line to the arc of our story.  It definitely impinged upon

								it, of course.  This has been modified due to the change in the

								character of the Lieutenant Commander, and this now won't go where it

								was going to go...but we still have some very interesting plans for

								our secondary character, not at all along the Takashima lines (which

								is why this isn't a spoiler), but certainly intriguing on their own

								terms.


								<p>

								<li>

								Now, I didn't say she was a villain.  I said that certain things may

								or may not have been done of her own free will, her own volition.

								What this means...we'll see.


								<p>

								<li> The scruffy person in the Varner files was the same homeless person

								who we just happen to see sitting right outside Varner's quarters,

								watching as he moves along.  This was played by Ron Thornton, because

								we wouldn't be seeing him in a major role, we'd just have to know

								someone was there.


								<p>

								Again, this ties into a specific story line that has been modified

								with a) the departure of Laurel, and b) the length of time since the

								pilot aired.  Who was the homeless man really?  It's no longer an

								issue, but it was related, yes.


								<p>

								But only in a very small way.


								<p>

								<li> "Would it be fair to compare the original ST pilot to B5's pilot?"


								<p>

								No, it would not.  Because there is nothing in common with them other

								than that they are both SF.  You can compare TNG to DS9 to TOS,

								because they're in the same universe.


								<p>

								Would it be fair to compare Cagney and Lacey with NYPD Blue?  After

								all, they're both cop shows.  But in fact, they're not the same kind

								of cop show; they share the same genre, but there ends the overlap.

								The two shows are distinct, separate entities, just as Harlan Ellison's

								work is distinct from Bill Gibson's work, even though both incorporate

								elements of SF.


								<p>

								The ST pilot existed in its own universe, and was primarily an action

								show.  The B5 pilot exists in its own universe, and primarily sets the

								stage for a political mystery/intrigue series.  It wasn't meant to

								serve the same functions as the ST pilot.


								<p>

								It seems to me that many SF fans continue to compare everything to

								ST because that's their primary frame of reference, and they continue

								to apply it whether it's relevant or not.  My suggestion...get another

								frame of reference.


								<p>

								<li> Once again, there's a lot of false analogies here in any attempt to

								compare pilots, as in this TOS and B5 thread.  You're talking about

								transporters and other *technological* items.  And you're right, they

								didn't explain their tech.  Neither did we, with the exception of the

								changling net in the pilot, and only because it was a plot point.  We

								didn't explain how the jump gates worked, how centrifugal force kept

								the gravity in place, or any of that.


								<p>

								The difference isn't *technology*, it's *context*.  Once again, B5 is

								in many ways a *political* story.  Consequently it's necessary to

								explain who the players are in some detail, something that ST didn't

								have to worry about.  If you're reading a political thriller about the

								U.S. and the (now defunct) USSR, it helps a lot to know who's who.


								<p>

								Also, when ST started, there wasn't really a clear agenda, a place

								that they were going, story-wise.  B5 is a novel for TV.  And that

								puts on some pressures and problems other shows don't have.  Others

								may not see it that way, but it isn't their call.  It's my call, and

								I stand behind it, even while seeing some of the flaws in the pilot.


								<p>

								All of which again points up the...well, *pointlessness* of trying

								to compare the two shows.  Compare MASH to ALL IN THE FAMILY.  They're

								both comedies.  The similarity ends there.  Everything doesn't have to

								be comparable or dissectable (to coin a term) in reference to ST.


								<p>

								<li> Let me just, against my better wishes, dive in here for just a moment

								moment on this discussion.  Especially as it relates to your slam

								against the characters and characterizations on B5.


								<p>

								People keep comparing the B5 pilot to either the DS9 pilot or the TNG

								pilot, often favorably, sometimes less so, but the reality is that the

								B5 pilot had to suffer under a burden shared by neither of those two

								other shows: establishing a whole new universe, especially given that

								the B5 story is more of a political/action piece in which you really

								have to understand where everyone's coming from.  By the time they got

								around to making the TNG pilot, just about everyone knew what a

								Klingon was, what the Federation was, what phasers and teleporters

								were...this was all established cultural coin.  When Jay Leno would

								make jokes about Klingons on the Carson show (which it still was back

								then), he didn't have to explain it to anyone.  There's 25 years of

								shared history informing the story.  Same in DS9.  Thus in neither

								pilot was that much really or substantially *new* introduced, they

								didn't have to create the universe from scratch.


								<p>

								But that was exactly what was necessary for B5; the relationship

								between the five various governments is important to understanding the

								characters, and the show...as is the recent Earth/Minbari war, which

								isn't just backstory, it's something that will grow to play an

								increasingly important role in the series as time passes.  So there

								had to be time spent establishing each of those relationships, the

								political backstory, the minor players.  AND we had to tell a fairly

								complex story within that framework.


								<p>

								After you allocate the history of the B5 universe, for the

								establishment of the plot, for the establishment of who our various

								players are in relation to one another, you've got -- at MOST -- 3

								minutes left per character out of a 92 minute movie.  You can't

								establish a lot of character in 3 minutes.


								<p>

								Which is what strikes me as unfair in this conversation.  You're

								trying to compare 25-30 years of ST in its various incarnations, with

								its delivery of characterization over A WEEKLY SERIES to a single

								introductory TV movie of 92 minutes.


								<p>

								Plus, the pilot was never meant to be a stand-alone; it was meant to

								get all the pieces moving, introduce us, and follow up the very next

								week with *character-oriented stories*.  That was always the plan.

								Had I known that it would be aired by itself, with a long delay until

								the series, I would have totally restructured it to make it more of a

								character story, and held off on the heavy background stuff until

								later.  And in addition to THAT, I again point to the 25 minutes of

								good character stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor because

								we were over, some of which has been shown to people at conventions.

								Some of them also felt as you do.  They saw the extra footage.  And

								their reaction: "Oh, so THAT'S who that is!" And their opinions of the

								characters did a fast turnaround.


								<p>

								So what I'm saying here, fundamentally, is this: let's compare apples

								to apples and not apples to oranges.  You can't compare B5 to either

								TNG's or DS9's pilots, because they operated in pre-existing universes.

								You can't compare the level of character  you get in a series to a TV

								movie, because one is 92 minutes long, the other is 22 hours long

								times the number of seasons run.


								<p>

								If you want to compare things, and that's certainly your right, may I

								suggest a moratorium on this entire discussion until the series comes

								on the air?  That will allow you to compare series to series, which

								seems just a tad fairer to me.  Any seconds?


								<p>

								<li> Re: the pilot...I've hashed and rehashed this, and the bottom line is to

								see what we do in the series and judge the series by the series. The DS9

								pilot had to explain very little that wasn't specific to the plotline: you

								already knew what a Bajorran was, what a wormhole was, what the Federation

								was, what the Cardassians were, on and on and on. Because they didn't have to

								introduce any of that, they could spend time on other character moments. We

								didn't have that luxury in the pilot. We had to do what, in essence, ST has

								done over 25 years: establish our universe, painting it in broad strokes, as

								broad're done with that aspect. And now we can do our character-based

								stories. Which is exactly what we're doing. Each of the characters is being

								solidly rounded out in the series, showing multiple sides to each character.

								All I can say is that I think you'll like what we're doing.


								<p>

								<li>

								I wasn't gonna jump in here, but I have to at least answer your

								question: "Where's the rest?"  The rest is in the series.  You haven't

								seen the series yet.  You're comparing it against 7 years of TNG;

								rather consider if the ONLY thing you had EVER seen was "Farpoint."

								We had a massive burden: to build an entire universe, based around a

								political drama, in basically 90+ minutes not counting commercials.

								That meant that more time went into exposition and backstory than I'd

								like.


								<p>

								In my view, we've now done that, we've laid the foundation, and now

								we can sit back and tell stories...*character* based stories.  That's

								what I'm best at, and that's what the writers I've chosen to use on

								the series are best at.


								<p>

								The "rest" you ask for is there..in the series.  But I'm not asking

								you to take my word for it.  Check out the show.  Maybe you'll like

								it.  And maybe you won't.  That's showbiz.  You don' like it, you

								don' gotta watch.  But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.


								<p>

								The miracle of the B5 pilot is that it got done at *all*, given the

								odds against us, given a team working together for the first time,

								without the benefit of an established universe, and actors who had

								never worked together before who had zero chance for rehearsal.  I'm

								not apologizing for the pilot; it had flaws, but I'm very proud of a

								lot that's in there.


								<p>

								Do the math.  You have a little over 90 minutes.  You have to

								introduce 9 major characters in the course of that story.  That gives

								you ten minutes of attention for any one character.  Now you've also

								got to tell the backstory.  You've got to establish who the various

								players are.  You've got to put the present-tense story into motion,

								with beginning, middle and end.  And now you're left with maybe 3-4

								minutes of "quality time" with any one character.  If we only had 2 or

								3 characters, then it's a very different story...but that isn't the

								universe we have to work in.


								<p>

								Now that the series is going ahead, we can spend an entire *episode*

								dealing primarily with one character.  And do the same for others.  We

								have the time.  And that's what's important.


								<p>

								One last observation: you repeat the notion that it's all a "reaction"

								to TNG.  The treatment and screenply were complete and making the

								rounds in Hollywood in Spring 1987.  The basic material was written in

								1986, at a point in some cases when TNG hadn't even *aired* yet.  So

								it could hardly have been written as a reaction to something that

								hadn't been seen yet, could it?


								<p>

								<li>

								You repeat several times your insistence that I study TNG to see

								what they did right, use them as a roadmap.


								<p>

								Sorry.  I have no desire to study TNG.  I'm telling a different sort

								of story, in a different universe.  What TNG does right or wrong is

								more or less irrelevant to that universe.  That's like saying that

								(just to pick two names at random) Orson Scott Card should study Poul

								Anderson as a roadmap in his own novels.  This is utter nonsense.


								<p>

								A while ago, I got an email from someone who didn't like the pilot

								(and it may have been on internet, btw) mainly because of the

								communication devices.  He said, and I'm paraphrasing from memory,

								that every time someone used the wrist-links, it broke the illusion

								for him, since we all KNOW that by then the REALITY is that we'll be

								using the chest communicators that TNG uses, and I should be sure to

								include that in future episodes as a capitulation to that reality.


								<p>

								Sorry...TNG is a roadmap for TNG.  Not B5.


								<p>

								<li> The VOYAGER pilot is *$23 million*?!

								<p>

								The BABYLON 5 pilot was $3.5 million.

								<p>

								With $23 million, we could make 1.3 SEASONS of B5.  And have a bit

								of money left over for a wrap party.

								<p>

								Amazing....


								<p>

								<li>

								My feeling here is, don't worry about the show, regarding your

								overcoming on the pilot.  Pilots are good, bad or uneven.  What matters

								in the analysis is the series.  You can have a great pilot and a

								disappointing series.  And vice-versa.  The series will air.  If it's

								good, people will watch, whatever they may have thought about the

								pilot.  If it ain't good, people won't watch, and deservedly so.  In

								other words, the ball's in our court now.


								<p>

								<li>

								"The pilot wasn't good.  Face it!"


								<p>

								I'm at the head of the line to point out flaws in the pilot.  Flaws

								that we've dealt with.  But a) it still holds up, and b) you are

								trying to make your opinion into *fact*.  It ain't.  An awful lot of

								people liked the pilot a lot.  To them, it was good.  Maybe to you,

								it wasn't, but that's only true for you.  That you may think persimmon

								yoghurt is the best flavor ever created doesn't make it true for

								everybody else.  Just a moment for perspective here....


								<p>

								<li> I was at the Emmys tonight for the presentation of the B5 Emmy, and

								in the visual efx area, more than one shoe can get an Emmy.  So we got

								one, DS9's pilot got one, and Lucas' Young Indy show got one.  (We sat

								at the next table to Lucas and his bunch, in fact, and noted that he

								watched the B5 footage with considerable interest.)  So when you come

								right down to it, here we were, our first shot out of the box, and we

								ended up on the same level of appreciation as Trek and Lucas.  Not too

								dusty....


								<p>

								<li> And y'know...it's absolutely in keeping with the Straczynski luck,

								and the history of this show, that the year B5 wins an Emmy is the

								first year that they DON'T do the recap of last night's technical

								awards.  Ah, well....


								<p>

								<li> I was asked to keep quite about this until April 23rd, which is when

								the announcement is to be made at the Nebulas, but now that it's

								indeed the 23rd, and that announcement either has been made or is

								being made now, I'm pleased to report that the Babylon 5 pilot movie,

								"The Gathering," has been nominated for a Hugo.

								<p>

								Since we're up against Jurassic Park, I think I pretty much know where

								THAT award is going...but it is a tremendous honor and everyone

								involved with the show is very pleased by it.


								<p>

								<li> Thanks.  As it turns out -- I today saw the list of nominees -- B5 is

								the ONLY TV-SF nominated for the Hugo.  The rest are all feature films

								(JP, Addams Family, Nightmare Before Christmas, Groundhog Day).


								<p>

								<li>

								Eric...nothing would gladden my heart more than if the B5 pilot won

								a Hugo (except the series winning a Hugo, which I think is a bit

								likelier, maybe).  It is the highest compliment that can be paid by

								the SF community of readers and viewers.  But one must be realistic,

								and I just don't see it outpulling Jurassic Park in the ballotting.

								JP is the proverbial 500 pound gorilla.  Or the 50,000 pound T-Rex.

								<p>

								While we are only small mammals....granted we're mammals with guns

								and an attitude, of course....


								<p>

								<li>

								<em>JP won the Hugo</em>

								<br>

								Yep, that's pretty much what I said would happen.  And in my view,

								JP probably deserves the Hugo more than "The Gathering."  Next year,

								now, THAT is an open question....


								<p>

								<li> Nope, I was nowhere in the pilot, not under makeup, not nohow, not

								no-way.  Nor will I do so in the series.  That just ain't my thing.


								<p>

								<li> Side-note...Londo baring his teeth had nothing to do with Delenn's

								vote in "The Gathering."  That was gas.


								<p>

								<li> Both Christy Marx and Kathryn [Drennan, JMS's wife]

								can both be *briefly* seen in the pilot

								movie as BG in the casino...and in the main titles, Kathryn's back is

								to the camera in the wide downshot, though you really can't make it

								out well in that one.  Also in the montage in the pilot movie, seated

								at the bar under narration, the fellow with the beard, is art director

								John Iacovelli.


								<p>

								<li> The most entertaining thing for a writer is creating a character; the

								second most entertaining thing is killing off a character.  Believe

								me, as you'll see in the Fight To The Death in the pilot, I have no

								problem dropping a body.  And as far as I'm concerned, only 2 or 3

								characters in this series are indispensible...the rest are open to all

								kinds of interesting fates.


								<p>

								<li> The amount of contact required varies according to the telepath's

								strength.  Lyta at P5 needs a little help.  A P10 could nail you from

								across the room.


								<p>

								<li> The background on that business meeting is similar to all such uses of

								telepaths: both sides agree to the presence of a telepath to monitor

								the negotiations.  If one were to demur, the deal would be off because

								the person clearly has something to hide.  Which is why there is a

								good market for various kinds of shields that don't LOOK like or feel

								like shields unless the telepath knows what to look for.  You can also

								just try and hide it and hope that the telepath isn't looking too deep

								or isn't really paying attention, which is what that guy was doing.

								(May have been reciting the "tensor" rhyme trying to keep his brain

								occupied.)


								<p>

								<li> The encounter suit opened at the touch of a button (you can hear him

								press the button with a *click*).  Only for Lyta did it open on its

								own.


								<p>

								<li> Here's the one thing that amazes me, speaking of seeing the pilot for

								the gadzillionth time...there is one great big huge gaping visual

								anomaly/inconsistency in the pilot that so far no one has noticed.

								It's so massive that when I first saw it, I just about fell out of my

								chair.   But the director said "No one's ever gonna see it, no one's

								ever gonna notice it, *trust* me on this."  I was absolutely convinced

								that he was wrong.  Apparently he was right.  At some point in the

								future I'll tell you what it is...and when you see it, you're going to

								wonder how the hell you avoided seeing it before, it's *that* big.

								But not for a while yet.   (And the few smaller things mentioned here

								...ain't it.)


								<p>

								<li> For the record...thtch has something to do with the second trial

								scene.


								<p>

								<li>

								It's the overhead shot of the courtroom; we didn't have a second

								establisher, so we used the one of Kyle even though Sinclair was on

								the stand.


								<p>

								<li> Actually, "beep-beep" was always there in the script; it was the part

								where we learn AFTER that that Sinclair only told G'Kar about the

								homing beacon, didn't really plant it, that came up during filming.


								<p>

								<li> Here's one little extra for you: only one person aboard Babylon 5 has

								any idea of what a Vorlon is, inside that suit, and only one race has

								had dealings with the Vorlons before.  Watch the reception at the end,

								and see if you notice anything unusual in the way the various people

								respond to Kosh.


								<p>

								<li> How much of the basic "saga" is in the pilot?  Some...bits and pieces.

								The problem, always, is that we have a whole new universe to

								establish, with all the backstory that goes with that.  As it is,

								it's fairly "information intensive," as one person put it.  We find

								out about the Earth/Minbari war, the curious surrender, Sinclair's

								past, the missing 24 hours, the relations between the various

								governments and their own personal agendas, and a hint of what's to

								come.  This while establishing the backstory of all our characters,

								and telling a story in present time (for them).

								<p>

								I think you will find indications of what we've talked about for the

								series present in the pilot.  Which is why it bears watching more

								than once; you'll pick up more information and more of a sense of

								the world the more closely you inspect it.  (We tried to come up

								with a pilot that actually BENEFITS from close inspection, rather

								than falling apart if you look at it too closely.)


								<p>

								<li> Actually, the funny thing is, I don't much mind if people who hadn't

								seen the pilot don't catch the rebroadcast.  What we're doing now is

								SO radically better than the pilot that I almost can't watch it now.


								<p>

								<li> Agreed, the pilot movie was much darker...unfortunately, it was SO

								dark that we actually veered into what're called "illegal blacks,"

								that is, the picture is too dark, and this causes problems with

								foreign distributers.  (This is what they tell me, and through an act

								of faith I have come to believe them.)  We're still about a half-stop

								or full stop below what's typical.  Be advised that many stations,

								when they broadcast the show, pump up the brightness a *lot*.  They

								just dial it up.


								<p>

								<li>

								Laurel was not standing upside down in relation to the station's

								rotation.  The docking bay, at the center of the station, for zero-g,

								was above her head, her feet pointed down, toward the rim of the

								station, in correct orientation.  Just FYI.


								<p>

								<li>

								We'd originally planned to go for a more vague sexuality for Delenn;

								a male physically and primarily in the voice, on top of the natural

								female movements one gets from an actress.  In post-production,

								however, we couldn't get the voice to sound as good and male as we'd

								wanted.  In addition, a couple of convention showing of a rough cut

								saw people responding VERY strongly to her voice as it was, so we

								finally decided to let it stand and change the one reference to "he"

								to "she," and that was the end of it.


								<p>

								<li>

								Delenn was originally going to be a fairly sexually-ambiguous

								character...a male character, played by a female, with a computer

								altered voice...but we couldn't make the alteration sound good enough

								to satisfy us, so we left her a her.


								<p>

								<li>

								Kosh will "speak" in the series.  After a fashion.  But not as you

								might expect.  Suffice to say we've seen the final effect now in the

								mix of finished episodes, and it's *real* creepy.


								<p>

								<li>

								Your memory is faulty.  It was stated in the pilot that Kosh's ship

								took roughly 4 days to travel via hyperspace to B5.  That's from

								Vorlon space; we don't know where the fleet was when it entered jump.

								Because such ships can make their own jump points, it could've been a

								lot closer to B5 space when it went in.  (And was.)


								<p>

								<li>

								Okay, okay, 8 days not four...I knew it weren't no 3 weeks, though.

								The one thing to remember is that travel in hyperspace isn't the main

								problem; the real problem, time-wise, is the period required to get

								from a world to its nearest jump gate.  It might take 4 days to travel

								from World X to the gate, and 1 day to B5 in hyperspace...while

								another race, 1 day from the gate, and 1 day to B5 in hyperspace, only

								has 2 travel days.


								<p>

								<li>

								As I've noted elsewhere, G'Kar made mention of the need for genetic

								alteration/modification during the scene with Lyta.  Beyond that,

								though, G'Kar's personal perversion is sex with humans, which no one

								else seems quite able to understand....


								<p>

								<li>

								Garibaldi was named after the famous Italian war hero of the same

								name.


								</ul>


								<h3>Special Edition (spoilers for future episodes)</h3>


								<ul>


								<p>

								<li>@@@857153237

								"Now that TNT has set a definite date for airing the

								series, have they given you a 'go' for re-editing The Gathering? If so,

								how much will you be able to put back (the character stuff with Sinclair?)

								Might you even re-score it with Christopher Franke music?"


								<p>

								We're still negotiating that out, but in hopes of this going, we've begun

								redigitizing the footage so we can get into the main scenes we want to

								work on.


								<p>

								<li>@@@857547322

								We're also going to update the CGI, if we can do this.


								<p>

								<li>@@@857554301 <em>Why were any important scenes cut?</em><br>

								The fault was mine, not the suits.


								<p>

								Prior to exec producing B5, I had never edited a show before,

								never had final cut before...had never even been IN an editing room for

								more than 5 minutes before.  So here I am, given the director's

								cut...and I know it's real slow, but I haven't done this before, so I

								don't trust my instincts.  I let it go with very minimal changes.


								<p>

								And I've been kicking myself ever since.  I should've followed

								my instincts, but instead I deferred to the director's cut.


								<p>

								It's a mistake I have never made since.


								<p>

								Even so, that first cut just gnaws at me...I *know* I can make

								it better, stronger, even if only a bit in a few places, that would

								help salve my soul over this thing.


								<P>

								<li> @@@859779286

								<em>Would you use new music by Christopher Franke?</em><br>

								Yeah, Chris would re-score it.


								<p>

								<li>@@@876776558

								<em>Is the reedit a dead deal?</em><br>

								No, the funding was approved, and we're working on it now.


								<p>

								<li>@@@877368299

								Yep, we're working on the re-edit now.  There's still just so

								much that can be done, we can't shoot new material...but it's still

								going to be tighter, with additional material, new music, and new CGI

								in many places.


								<p>

								<li>@@@878327316

								Basically, it's new scenes with the characters, new CGI in many

								places, and new music.


								<p>

								<li>@@@878327426

								<em>What was wrong with the original?</em><br>

								I was new at exec producing, and deferred 'way too much to the

								director, whose cut was, frankly, slow and left all the best character

								moments on the cutting room floor.  We lost 14 minutes of good stuff,

								which is now going to go back and we're going to tighten and make it

								better, the way we do our cuts on all the episodes.


								<p>

								<li>@@@878758531

								"Will the 14 minutes being restored to "The Gathering" include

								Marianne Robertson's "hostage" scene?"


								<p>

								Yup.


								<p>

								<li>@@@878843594

								Today, John Copeland and I finished re-editing "The Gathering,"

								the B5 pilot movie.  While there were some areas we couldn't get into

								because of the complexity in redoing the mix, virtually every scene got

								tinkered with to one degree or another, and most important, the roughly

								14 minutes of footage left out of the original version is now back in.

								The whole thing is tighter and faster, and there's more recent CGI,

								we'll have Chris Franke re-score it, and it's just in general a lot

								better.  (Some parts of it even make more sense now.)


								<p>

								One additional change: because of the desire on PTEN's part to

								have as many commercial breaks as possible, the 6-act script was

								jerry-rigged and broken down into 9 acts.  One side-effect of this is

								that 9 acts wears on you, and wears you out, more than the standard 6.

								You start to get a feeling of being led up to things too often, and

								there isn't time to dwell on the acts you're in.  I was finally able,

								with this re-edit, to move scenes back around again to what I

								originally wanted in a 6-act structure (you'll see a number of scenes

								juxtaposed from their original order).


								<p>

								Anyway...the TNT Special Edition is much improved over the

								original.


								<p>

								<li>@@@880391734

								<em>What will be cut to make room for the new footage?</em><br>

								Not much, just little snippets of things...the show was *very* slow paced, and

								once you pick up the pacing within scenes, whole vast tracts of time appear.


								<p>

								<li>@@@882987588 you spare a few words on how you went about the re-edit?  Did you

								start with what you wanted to get back in, or trying to find out how

								much time you could recapture?"


								<p>

								The first thing I did was to sit down with the editor assigned

								to the re-edit, Suzie, and go through the original script for the

								pilot.  My first words to her were, "Put everyhing in that ain't

								there."  To that end, she redigitized all of the footage from missing

								scenes, and had available all of the available footage of the other

								scenes for digitizing as we went.


								<p>

								Note that I said all the *available* footage.  The folks at WB

								who held custody of the film (we don't keep that stuff, we're not

								allowed to by contract, they store film, negative, prints, all that

								stuff) put the negative canisters into storage...and at one point in

								the intervening 4 years, there had been water damage, and on another

								occasion, apparently rats had gotten in there and chewed some of the

								original negatives (and in most cases there weren't positive struck of

								those takes).


								<p>

								Take your reaction to the foregoing, put it in front of the

								Hubble telescope, and you will have mine.


								<p>

								However, we lucked out...where there were some takes that are

								gone, we were able to find enough others (masters instead of a

								two-shot, or a close-up instead of an over-shoulder) and B-camera

								footage that we were able to build solid versions of those scenes.  We

								didn't always have as many choices as we're used to but there was more

								than enough for our needs.


								<p>

								Suzi then dumped all of the newly edited additional scenes into

								the existing pilot, and that gave us the new running time (we added

								about 14 minutes).  So at that point, John and I went in and worked to

								slice down the previously existing scenes, doing what we do with B5:

								tightening every loose screw and nut as much as we could.  One or two

								incidental, unimportant scenes in the original pilot went out, because

								they added nothing and shouldn't have been there in the first place (a

								total of about 3 minutes).  The remaining 11 minutes we made up in just

								tightening scenes, which were *so* lax and slow that it's amazing at

								times.


								<p>

								In some cases, we substituted one take for another in the

								pre-existing pilot when we had a better reaction, or played scenes

								closer for more intimacy.  (One of the problems with the pilot is that

								it kept the audience far from the action, and the actors far from each

								other, something we changed in our shooting style for the series...here

								we tried to change it when we could and when we had the coverage.)


								<p>

								Tiny example: when Kosh falls down upon arriving at B5, that

								sequence ends with a big honking wide downshot of a nearly empty

								docking bay, with Kosh far from us, and Sinclair looking down (away

								from us) when he says "Damn." Then we go from that to a wide shot of

								the medlab.  Same framing. So I had Suzie look for a take where we

								panned up from a close on Kosh, to a close on Sinclair for that line,

								so it's more immediate, more personal, and the jump to the next scene

								doesn't feel like the one before.


								<p>

								See, directors like to stay wide in their cuts, so you can see

								their nifty camera angles, see the set, the lighting...but after you've

								established where we are, most people want to see the *characters*, not

								the walls or how the camera moves.  That was what we tried to fix where

								we could.


								<p>

								We couldn't totally re-edit the pilot, because we hadn't been

								given the money for something that intensive (the main expense is in

								opening up all the audio stems in the sound mix).  But all the stuff I

								wanted back in, is now in, and the scenes I wanted to fix, I fixed.


								<p>

								I also got the thing back to its original format.  All TV movies

								are 6 acts.  Because PTEN wanted more commercial breaks, I had to

								re-jig the structure of the thing into 9 acts, which meant moving some

								scenes into places where they weren't as effective, and frankly after 9

								acts you just get tired of watching.  Here I was able to move scenes

								around and get back to the original 6 act structure that was intended

								for the thing, and that alone makes a huge difference in how the film

								feels.


								<p>

								One of the biggest changes is the one least immediately

								apparent. After we finished the original pilot, some folks at WB felt

								that Laurel was too...strong.  They will rarely put it in terms quite

								as blatant as that, but that was the message...she was "unlikeable,

								unsympathetic, harsh."  Meaning some of the guys felt she was too

								strong, let's cut to the chase, okay?


								<p>

								They wanted her to loop her lines, soften their (her) delivery.

								I fought this tooth and nail.  I fought this until finally I was pulled

								aside and it was communicated to me that B5 was, after all, still an

								unknown property, could be a big failure, and if we ever wanted to see

								this thing on the air, we'd accommodate this note (which was, I have to

								admit on balance, one of the few they had).  The advice was, in

								essence, "Pick your battles."


								<p>

								So, reluctantly, I let it get looped by Tamlyn.


								<p>

								But now, when the re-edit was commissioned, and with the person

								at the studio who insisted on this now no longer AT the studio, I told

								Suzie, "Screw it, put back her original production track and trash the

								loops."  Instantly, Laurel's energy level comes up, the performance is

								better...it just *feels* more natural now.


								<p>

								So basically, we did a lot...some of it may not be immediately

								apparent (improving a sound here, altering coverage, adding additional

								sound layers, redoing a composite shot of the garden), but over the

								duration of watching it, it's just *better*.  It's still a *tad* slower

								around the middle than I would've liked, but that's a WP (writer

								problem), nothing that can be fixed in an edit.  It's just

								exposition-dense there, and nothing of a sort that can be cut.


								<p>

								<li>@@@884632930

								"Also, the reworking of Sinclair's narration of the Battle of the

								Line, with Requiem for the Line and the battle transmissions was just

								gripping, it really showcased Michael O'Hare's strengths as an actor."


								<p>

								Yeah, that was an experiment I wanted to try.  When we did the

								audio spotting (me sitting with the sound folks, Chris, others), I

								explained what I wanted done with that scene, and they kinda got it but

								were a little dubious as to whether or not this could or would work.

								When we came to the day of the audio mix, it was kind of a jumble...so

								I worked with the music and the voices to basically fill in the gaps

								between Sinclair's words.  Then I backed up and chose the ones that

								most related to what he had just said, or was about to just say.  It

								took about half an hour to get that 30 second piece down pat.


								<p>

								One of the least visible things I do is mess with the music and

								how the music lays out on the track.  I'm often at the front of the

								mixing room, working with the mixers, bringing up one instrument

								(percussion, for instance), bringing down the horns for one piece, up

								in another.  In "In the Beginning," for instance, there was percussion

								all through the Battle of the Line itself...and we had big EFX of guns

								and explosions going off, and the two muddied together.  So I went with

								the explosions for the first of it, then replaced some of the

								gunfire/explosions with percussion, then ducked down the SFX altogether

								and just let the music take it.  You kind of have to be a conductor in

								these instances.


								<p>

								<li>@@@884020341

								<em>Why would Kosh <em>tell</em> Sinclair he was Valen?</em><br>

								Internal dialogue...what he was thinking, his reaction.


								</ul>


								<HR>

								Originally compiled by Matthew Ryan <i>mattryan@pobox.com</i>