brennen
/
lurkers-guide


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


								<blockquote><cite>

								When the Centauri emperor visits the station, Sheridan tries to keep G'Kar

								from going after him.  Londo and Refa plot to expand their power.

								A mysterious man seeks out Garibaldi.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Bey,+Turhan">Turhan Bey</a> as the Centauri Emperor.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Throne,+Malachi">Malachi Throne</a> as the Centauri Prime Minister.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/M/person-exact?+Forward,+William">William Forward</a> as Refa.

								</blockquote>


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/031">9.59</a>


								Production number: 209

								Original air date: February 1, 1995

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000087EYB/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 29, 2003


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by Janet Greek

								</pre>


								<p>

								Winner of the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.


								<p>

								The shooting script for this episode is included in JMS'

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898795125/thelurkersguidet">"The Complete Book of Scriptwriting."</a>


								<p>

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000ADJO/thelurkersguidet">An

								episodic soundtrack is available.</a>


								<p>

								<strong>Note: this episode is more momentous than most.  Think twice before

								proceeding to the spoilers; it's worth seeing unawares.</strong>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>

								<p>


								<h2><a name="BP">Backplot</a></h2>


								<ul>


								   <li> Sheridan joined the Earth military a few years before the

									Earth-Minbari War.  A planetary draft was established during the war.


								   <li> The Centauri have sent many ships into Vorlon space; none have

									returned, but strange stories about the Vorlons have found their

									way back to the Centauri homeworld.


								   <li> Sinclair's duties on the Minbari homeworld extend far beyond normal

									ambassadorial functions.  He is taking part in the preparation for

									the fight against the great darkness that many of the Minbari

									believe is approaching.  To that end, he is in command of a small

									army of "rangers" -- individuals, Minbari and human, who roam the

									frontier, gathering information too sensitive to report back via

									normal channels.


								   <li> The Centauri Emperor employs four telepaths, linked since birth;

									when he leaves the royal court, two accompany him and two stay

									behind, so he and his representatives at the court are constantly

									aware of each other's circumstances.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>


								<ul>


								   <li> What is the meaning of Londo's dream?  (see

									<a href="#AN:dream">Analysis</a>)


								   <li> Why is Sinclair in charge of the rangers?  Is he the only one in

									control, or is he a piece of a much larger chain of command?


								   <li> How did the rangers get started?  How are they expanding?  What

									or who is drawing them to Minbar, and how?


								   <li> Why does Sinclair think Garibaldi should stay close to the Vorlon?

									How much does he know, and how long has he known it?  (Recall that in

									<a href="000.html">"The Gathering"</a>

									Delenn gave Sinclair information about the Vorlons, though it's not

									clear how complete or accurate it was.)


								   <li> Will Londo become emperor some day?


								   <li> What will the Narn's first move against the Centauri be?


								   <li> What did the Emperor know about Vorlons that caused him to want to

									ask Kosh his question?  What does the question mean?  (see

									<a href="#AN:question">Analysis</a>)


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>


								<ul>


								   <li> When the two telepaths on Centauri Prime entered the throne room,

									a human and two Minbari were talking to the prime minister.  Most

									likely they were there on unrelated business, but it's possible they

									were rangers, there to gather information.  (See

									<a href="#JS:throne">jms speaks</a>)


								<p>

								   <li> As soon as Londo lied about what the Emperor told him, the two

									veiled telepaths exchanged a look and left the room hastily.  It

									may be that they knew he was lying; whether they'll tell anyone,

									and if so what impact that will have, remains to be seen.


								<p>

								   <li> Kosh seems to have a perception that extends into the future; or

									perhaps he is simply basing his comment on the results of the last

									great war against the Shadows.


								<p>

								   <li> <a name="AN:dream">Londo's dream,</a> which has been foreshadowed from

									day one

									(<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line"</a>)

									contains a lot of information, if it's to be taken literally.


									<ul>

									   <li> The hand seems a clear reference to the "great hand, reaching

										out across the stars" as seen by Elric in

										<a href="025.html">"The Geometry of Shadows."</a>

										If so, the hand is Londo's.  Presumably it is a metaphor

										for his expanding power and influence.


									   <li> Londo stands in the middle of fine sand, a desert (or

										perhaps decimated ruins; witness the dead vegitation and

										patterns in the sand) and watches several Shadow ships fly

										overhead.  This appears to be on Centauri Prime.  He is

										dressed in his ambassadorial uniform and appears to be

										roughly the same age as in the present.  One implication is

										that the Shadows will either attack Centauri Prime or (more

										likely) come to its defense.  It should also be noted that

										Londo has never seen a Shadow ship in the present.

										One reader suggests that Londo's expression can be interpreted

										as Londo looking on, helpless, as a great evil is done; for

										the first time realizing who's really the pawn in his

										relationship with the Shadows.


									   <li> When Londo receives the crown, he is again not much older

										than in the present, possibly slightly older than when he's

										observing the Shadow ships.  Perhaps he is crowned after

										calling in the Shadows to help defend Centauri Prime.  (Of

										course, the new Emperor would have to be dead first.)

										The person crowning him appears to be fairly old.


									   <li> Much later -- twenty years, give or take -- Londo, in white

										Imperial attire, sits in the throne and looks around,

										face filled with regret or resignation.  Nobody else is

										visible, and the throne room seems bare compared to the

										scene at the beginning of the episode.  It's as if everything

										has been lost; he is Emperor, but Emperor of nothing, perhaps

										of a dead world.


									   <li> Then he sees G'Kar, also aged 20 years, face half-covered

										by a strip of black cloth.  The two try to strangle each other.

										Londo appears to go limp as the dream ends; presumably he is

										dying.  The cloth across G'Kar's face appears to cover an

										injury; he may be missing his left eye.

									</ul>


									<p>

									Londo's old age in the last scene suggests that it takes place around

									the same time as the attempt to snatch Babylon 4 through time (cf.

									<a href="020.html">"Babylon Squared."</a>)

									Sinclair seemed to have aged about the same amount, though of course

									humans and Centauri may age at different rates, and something may have

									caused Sinclair to age prematurely.  But barring those two factors, it

									suggests that the war is still raging at the time of Londo's

									strangulation, and that it will last at least twenty years.


									<p>

									It's also worth noting that the dream contained only one spoken line,

									from

									<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis:"</a>

									"Keep this up, G'Kar, and soon you won't have a planet to protect."

									(It was spoken over a scene from

									<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line."</a>)


								<p>

								   <li> Londo may well be serious when he tells Vir he has no wish to become

									emperor; his premonition may have convinced him that it'd be bad

									to seek the position.  But the vision remains; he may find himself

									taking the throne in spite of himself down the road.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@844882570 The state of G'Kar's left eye may be a reference to Norse

									mythology, in which the god Odin gives up his left eye for wisdom.


								<p>

								   <li> "It's a small price to pay for immortality," says Refa.  A reference

									to everlasting fame?  The Centauri propensity for elevating emperors

									to godhood?  (cf.

									<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis"</a>)


								<p>

								   <li> <a name="AN:question">The emperor's question</a> implies that he was

									in on something that isn't general knowledge, possibly something about

									the Vorlons.  One explanation may lie in dreams; perhaps the emperor's

									death dream (according to Londo in

									<a href="001.html">"Midnight on the Firing Line,"</a>

									such dreams are commonplace among the Centauri) told him that a war

									would begin after his death.  Why he thought Kosh would know how the

									war would end -- assuming the war is what the question referred to --

									is still an open question, though.  (See

									<a href="#JS:vision">jms speaks</a>)


								<p>

								   <li> Along similar lines, why did the emperor speak his dying words to

									Londo, rather than Refa?  Did he know what Londo was really up to,

									or was he simply guessing that Londo was likely the catalyst who

									would bring his empire into war, based on Londo's handling of Quadrant

									37 in

									<a href="022.html">"Chrysalis?"</a>


								<p>

								   <li> The Narn government apparently approved of G'Kar's would-be

									assassination attempt, even though he lied about it in his will;

									presumably he wanted to protect his people from revenge attacks

									by the Centauri.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@845337411 The script for this episode is printed in its entirety in

									JMS' "The Complete Book of Scriptwriting," ISBN 0-89879-512-5,

									published by Writer's Digest Books.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 The votes for the Hugo Award were as follows.  The two

									numbers listed are number of nominations received and final number

									of votes cast.


									<p>

									<pre>1st "The Coming Of Shadows"    93    457

								2nd "Apollo 13"               122    355

								3rd "12 Monkeys"               59    160

								4th "Toy Story"                79     76

								5th "The Visitor" (ST:DS9)     30     60

								6th No Award                          15</pre>


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>


								<ul>


									<p>

								   <li> I love "The Coming of Shadows."  It's one of those episodes that just

									knocks the breath out of you.  You know those moments when you're in the

									passenger seat of a car, and the person driving is doing something

									crazy, and your foot automatically keeps searching for a brake pedal

									that isn't there because you know something awful's going to happen?

									That's the feeling you get all through that script.  This episode,

									like "Sky," "Signs," "Chrysalis" and "Revelations" again changes the

									direction and ratchets everything one notch tighter.  It's also a

									very visual script, and I like that, since I sometimes do rely too

									much on dialogue from time to time, and it's good to go in a different

									direction.


									<p>

								   <li> Kosh's brevity is one of the things I like best about him; in the

									year two episode "The Coming of Shadows," he has just two words in the

									whole episode...but they're guaranteed to give just about anyone the

									willies.


									<p>

								   <li>@@@846703584 <em>The G'Kar-Emperor thread was similar to the King

									Arthur legend: Arthur's and Mordred's armies are poised for battle but

									make one last attempt to negotiate, but a soldier raises his sword to

									kill a snake and everyone attacks.</em><br>

									There's another applicable metaphor for the sword story; you'll see it

									a little later this season.  Very good catch, btw.  <em>"This season"

									refers to season three.</em>


									<p>

								   <li> I generally don't let the actors know what's coming unless it's

									important to the current performance.  Otherwise you risk having the

									actor play the *result* instead of the *process*.  Had to make one

									divergence from this recently, so that Peter could understand better

									a sequence in "The Coming of Shadows," which you'll understand when

									you see it.


									<p>

								   <li> We're also taking advantage of some of the recent Hubble photographs

									to scan them and use them as backgrounds in some far-space shots;

									there's one in "The Coming of Shadows," for instance.  Real space is

									*very* nice looking in places.


									<p>

								   <li> I may not have been clear in my meaning when I said "accellerating

									the arc."  This doesn't mean doing anything ahead of schedule; it just

									means that now we begin cranking the story into a higher intensity

									level.  We've been kind of floating toward our destination...now we

									begin the process of accellerating.  If you recall Literary Structure

									from English Lit 101, there's the Introduction, the Rising Action, the

									Complication, the Climax, and the Denouement.  Year one up through

									about the first eight episodes of year two are Introduction; we are now

									in Rising Action stage.  Remember that this is structured like a novel,

									and you'll generally have some idea of where you stand in the

									progression.


									<p>

								   <li> I ended up giving Peter info on "Signs" prior to shooting "Chrysalis"

									last season; that was the biggie there.  For "CoS" in order for the

									scene to match what's going to happen several years down the road in

									the series, I had to kinda give him the context of the dream, and what

									was really happening in that scene, and what caused it, and how he got

									to that place with G'Kar's hands around his throat.


									<p>

									He seemed quite...astonished.


									<p>

								   <li> Yeah, on several levels, writing "The Coming of Shadows" was hard;

									there were times I felt as though I'd just jumped onto the back of a

									runaway dynamite truck.  Halfway through that story you can feel the arc

									kinda moving underneath you, like some huge, dark fish about to break

									surface.


									<p>

									The only way to make a viewer feel a character's pain is if you feel

									it in the writing, and a lot of that came through.  I live with these

									characters running around in my head 24 hours a day...and when I'd

									finally finished "Shadows," it was as if they all sorta stopped and

									looked at each other, and at me, and said, "Gee, thank you EVER so

									fucking much, jeezus, why don't you just go pluck somebody's eye out

									while you're at it?"


									<p>

									To which the only reply is, "Now that you mention it...."


									<p>

								   <li>@@@852230868 <em>The script for this episode is in JMS' "Complete Book

									of Scriptwriting."</em><br>

									What might be interesting, next time you pick up the book, is to

									fire up a copy of "The Coming of Shadows" and go through it with the

									script in hand...it's a good way of seeing how you lay out a show

									shot-for-shot.  And since there's stuff there that was cut from the

									episode, you can also judge on what was left out, and why, and whether

									it hurt or helped.


									<p>

								   <li> Not all Centauri dreams come true; however, the ones in which they

									see their deaths tend to be pretty accurate.


									<p>

								   <li> Turhan originally came in to audition for Elric in "Geometry;" we

									wanted someone with more menace (Ansara), but we were all just blown

									away by how wonderful and sweet and nice a person he was, and as he

									left, I told John Copeland, "I'm gonna write a part just for him."


									<p>

									So I did, and we cast him, and everyone on the set loved him...to

									the point that, at the end of the shoot, they were saying, "You BASTARD,

									how could you bring this WONDERFUL man in here and then KILL HIM OFF SO

									WE CAN'T HAVE HIM BACK?!"


									<p>

								   <li> <em>Are the Rangers a reference to the Chuck Norris series, "Walker,

									Texas Ranger," with which you were involved, or to the Rangers in

									Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings?"</em><br>

									For me, the concept of the Rangers isn't tied to Norris; that isn't

									the reference I was talking about.  Being on that show, I kinda had to

									look into the history of the Texas rangers in general, and being the

									curious kind of guy I am, I widened out into the Army Rangers, and other

									sorts.  I'd been looking for a kind of name to attach to this group, and

									the more I thought about it, the more it fit.


									<p>

									As far as the costume is concerned...it's not medeival based; if you

									look at the ranger's outfit, than go look at a Minbari warrior outfit,

									you will discover a LOT of points of comparison.  It was *designed* to

									echo Minbari warrior caste clothes, to reflect the fact that these two

									sides are working together.  Go fire up "Legacies" and look at his

									uniform, then look at the ranger.  You'll see the similarities in

									silhouette and line in various places.


									<p>

									Of course I've read and enjoyed Tolkein.  But as I've said, I have

									no interest in doing LoTR with the serial numbers filed off.  I've

									dropped references to it in dialogue, but the structure of the story has

									nothing whatsoever to do with LoTR.  Basically, a lot of people have

									come up and said, "Oh, this is the same as Foundation," or "This is

									the same as LoTR," or "This echoes a lot of Dune," or "This is

									obviously a Homeric tale," or "There's a lot of Star Wars here."  It

									uses the same tools as all mythic structure fiction uses.  Hence it

									resonates.  But I didn't sit there and think, "Hmm...Gandalf left, so

									I'll have Sinclair leave."  That's just plain silly.


									<p>

									It's really a matter of what you bring to the table, that affects

									what you see in the story.


									<p>

									The roots of the symbolism and structure of B5 go back a hell of a

									lot longer than this.  Here...I'll give you one free.


									<p>

									G'Kar is in many ways my Cassandra figure, who in the Greek tales

									was granted the gift of prophecy...all the disasterous things she

									predicted would come true...but she was cursed by the gods that NO ONE

									would ever believe her.  And later, when the war was at its height,

									she ended up in the service of.....


								<p>

								   <li> One could certainly argue the position that those who become Rangers

									are drawn to Minbar for that purpose, and speculate about what might be

									propelling that.


								<p>

								   <li> The broach worn by the Rangers was designed by me and Ann Bruice,

									our costumer.  I sketched (dopily and badly) what I had in mind, which

									was a stylized human and minbari on either side of a gemstone, both

									wokred (worked) into the same metal, and holding the gemstone.


									<p>

									She then took this drawing that looked like it had been drawn by a

									drunk five year old and translated it into a striking piece.


								<p>

								   <li> The Rangers actually owe more to the Lone Ranger and the Texas Rangers

									in general.


									<p>

									FYI, Sinclair called Delenn "old friend" as far back as the 2-hour

									pilot.


								<p>

								   <li> Londo, in his vision, sees the shadow vessels, but he does not know

									(in his present tense version) that that's what they are.  He's had this

									particular dream for years now, long before meeting Morden.


								<p>

								   <li> <a name="JS:vision">It didn't show up in the script,</a> and probably

									won't, but the Emperor probably did have a vision of his death, and the

									Vorlon.


								<p>

								   <li> Re: your question...at this juncture, I think I'd have to choose "The

									Coming of Shadows" as the one episode I'd use to represent the series.

									That one episode came out so close to perfect, so close to what I saw in

									my head when I wrote it, that the difference is no difference at all.

									It has all the elements I'd feature in a B5 discussion...the CGI, the

									characterization, the complexity, the politics, the language, the

									performances.


								<p>

								   <li> The handclasp used in "Coming of Shadows" was a traditional clasp

									used by Romans, usually in order to check if the other person was

									carrying a knife.


								<p>

								   <li> Because to some extent the roman civilization is one of the sources

									for constructing the Centauri, I adapted their handshake (checking

									for knives) as their greeting; "I offer the hands of friendship."


								<p>

								   <li> There's a difference between what I believe dreams mean, what the

									Centauri believe dreams mean, and what dreams mean to the Centauri,

									in that universe, and what they mean to me in our universe.


									<p>

									I suspect the truth lay somewhere between Shroedinger and Jung.


								<p>

								   <li> Thanks.  That scene [the attack on the Narn outpost] in "Coming of

									Shadows" is one of my favorites; it does, as you say, convey that

									sense of wonder which is one of my main goals with this show.


								<p>

								   <li> Re: parallel visuals between MotFL and CoS...yes, precisely.  In some

									ways, they were set up as mirror-image parallels of one another, to

									show how the wheel turns, to quote G'Kar.  The opening council

									meeting, the attacks, the determination to kill the other, alternately

									Garibaldi or Sheridan having to stop them by calling on the question

									of consequences if followed up on...it shows CoS as sort of the "dark

									mirror" of the first episode.  Everything we saw when we first thought

									we knew what the series was has now totally reversed and been turned

									on its head.


									<p>

									They also focus on one of the main questions that B5 addreses itself

									to: what is important to you? what are you willing to sacrifice? how

									far are you willing to go to get what you want?  For me, a large

									measure of defining WHO we are is by WHAT we are willing to do, and

									what we want, and the means by which we pursue those goals.  The other

									theme of course is sacrifice, which recurs throughout the show in one

									form or another.


									<p>

									Sometimes, I think, people get so caught up in what's happening and

									why that they miss what it's *about* on a more cellular level.  And

									that's the question of who we are.  Identity.  The importance of *one

									single person* and the ability of that person to act as a fulcrum,

									intentionally or otherwise, upon which vast events can turn.  Choices.

									What you value most.  Those, to me, are the issues most worth

									exploring.  We're told every day, beaten down with the notion that

									we're powerless, that we can't change things, you can't fight city

									hall...and of course it's not true.  You can fight.  And sometimes,

									you can even win.


								<p>

								   <li> Sinclair didn't send the same letter.  Same greeting, to keep the

									recipient secret.


									<p>

									Only the Ranger knew who got what.


								<p>

								   <li> The emperor falling scene, as with those around it, were shot as

									written, down to the slow-motion notation, the close on his head

									hitting the floor, the women clutching one another...all in the

									script.  But it takes someone as skilled as Janet to take what

									somebody else might screw up and elevate it into something truly

									nifty.


								<p>

								   <li> Slow-motion (or camera overcranked) is almost always indicated in

									scripts.  I like slow-mo.  It can add a dreamlike quality to a shot, and

									prolong a sense of imminent trouble.


								<p>

								   <li> You left out my favorite quote from the show, from the Emperor:  "The

									past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us

									...and our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast,

									terrible in-between."


								<p>

								   <li> The centauri veiled telepaths are mainly wired into one another.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@852230868 I'd say that Turhan was probably emperor for about 30

									years or so.


								<p>

								   <li> The emperor said exactly what, in the hallway, Londo said he said.


								<p>

								   <li> The emperor was referring to Londo and Refa.  And if the Centauri

									telepaths suspected or picked up anything, to tell anyone would almost

									certainly lead to a quick demise.  When you're that high up in the royal

									court, you learn to keep your mouth shut.


								<p>

								   <li> [Emperor] Turhan's death was exactly as stated, natural causes.  If

									it were anything else, we'd have at least nodded in that direction at

									some point.  It's not fair to do so otherwise.


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Didn't the Narn behind Londo and Refa hear them?</em><br>

									The Narn was just passing quickly through scene, in a hurry, and

									couldn't have heard what Londo and Refa were quietly discussing.


								<p>

								   <li> Your feelings about the war starting are exactly what they should be,

									and what I wanted to achieve with "Shadows."  In SF TV, very often, as

									you state, it's "Yeah, let's get a war on!  Blow stuff up!"  But to

									hear of a *real* war...it's very, very sobering.  When we hear that

									Gulf troops were being sent into the Mideast, when we heard of soviet

									troops sent into Prague...your heart stops for a moment.  When Kennedy

									put American ships in a Cuban blockade and the world held its breath

									...THAT is what it feels like to step into possible or real war.  All

									you can think of is, "How the HELL did we get into this, and how the

									hell do we get OUT of it?"  And that was at the emotional core of

									"Shadows."


								<p>

								   <li> <em>Why not use the healing device from "Quality of Mercy?"</em><br>

									The alien healing device was specifically used in treatment of

									illness; the Emperor suffered massive damage to his heart and othe

									internal organs, which simply restoring some life energy wouldn't help.


								<p>

								   <li> Not a contradiction.  I don't believe in omniscient or all powerful

									devices that function like literal deus ex machinas and heal everybody

									all the time.  It was stated *plainly and clearly* that the device was

									used in healing terminally ill patients.  They cannot undo physical

									damage from gunshots (the regen packs and other devices were used to

									heal Garibaldi's wound, and the alien device was used to raise his life

									energy level enough to bring him out of the coma).  The emperor

									suffered a massive attack that destroyed parts of his heart.  Can't be

									fixed by this device.


								<p>

								   <li> You may tell your friend that the city hit in "CoS" was CGI, not

									a model.


								<p>

								   <li> The Sanctuary is where Sheridan and the Emperor had their lengthy

									conversation; it's *all* a virtual set except the floor.


								<p>

								   <li> The Sanctuary is entirely a virtual set.  It's all blue-screen, no

									walls, no windows, no stars, no nothing.  I made sure to ask

									Foundation and Mitch to blur the walls a bit in close up to give it

									the correct depth of field.  (Much of the CGI/background work is done

									by Mitch, our effects guy, who works independent of Foundation, who

									was also the main EFX guy on Predator, ET and others.)  Because that

									was a LONG scene, the rendering time was just hideous.


								<p>

								   <li> The Sanctuary set has ALWAYS been entirely virtual, except for a small

									grating on the floor as a marker.  The walls, the windows, all of it.

									Virtual.  We've actually done this a number of times.  I haven't said

									anything before because whenever I mention there's a virtual set, and

									where it is, people look at it and say, "Oh, yeah, I could tell it was

									virtual."  Because they knew ahead of time.  So I stopped mentioning it.


									<p>

									We're sneaky that way.  You've seen, and will continue to see, sets

									that don't exist ANYwhere.  Hell, you know that bazaar shot in the

									main title sequence?  The second floor?  Doesn't exist.  Digital

									compositing and virtual set melding.


								<p>

								   <li> The area where the reception was being held is the Rotunda.


								<p>

								   <li> On the chance that the datacrystal might fall into the wrong hands, I

									had Sinclair deliberately avoid using Garibaldi's last name, and

									avoid Delenn's altogether (since she has only the one).  The Ranger

									was told to deliver the crystals at the cost of his own life if

									necessary...but sometimes such orders don't end well for the messenger.

									So both messages began the same way.


								<p>

								   <li> I'm very happy at the reaction.  I was telling John Copeland a bit

									ago, when we finished the episode, "Maybe we ought to superimpose a

									crawl before the first frame of the teaser saying, "JUST IN CASE YOU

									THOUGHT WE WERE KIDDING.""


									<p>

									An aside on the jms/kosh discussion, for whatever interest it may

									have....when Ardwight comes in to do Kosh, they call me in to direct

									his performance so that it matches what the intent is now, and how it

									will be interpreted later.  From where I sit in the control room, I

									can't see him, I can only hear his voice.  So it's kinda like talking

									with Kosh there, and me saying, "Okay, can you try 'In Fire' hitting

									the second word harder, and with a sense of some anger behind it?"

									And between takes, he's still in Kosh-speak mode, muttering, "How will

									this end, how do I know talk to my agent...go on, get out, buzz off

									...."


								<p>

								   <li> There are some episodes coming that are about as intense as this,

									though not as much *happens*, in the sense of a bunch of events

									affecting lots of people in different places.


									<p>

									Yes, intentional parallel structure to "Midnight," which is why I

									included the shot from that episode in Londo's dream.  I like irony.


								<p>

								   <li> Yes, "CoS" is a deliberate mirror-image of "Midnight," partly to

									illustrate the notion that "the wheel turns," as G'Kar says...yes, it

									does, and if you forget that it eventually turns on *you*, you'll be

									ground beneath it.


								<p>

								   <li> I will tell you a true and secret thing, re: Londo's dream, and looking

									up into a blue sky to see the ships passing overhead.


									<p>

									Ever since I was a kid, I've had that image in my dreams, of standing

									out in the open and looking up as strange dark ships pass overhead.

									It's always been an unnerving image, and I really wanted to use it

									here to see if it would have the same effect on others.


									<p>

									The other single most recurring image is to be standing at the bottom

									of a long set of stairs, in a basement, and the door at the top of the

									stairs is thrown open, and there's gunfire, and guards, and flares in

									the night beyond, and more ships firing down.


									<p>

									Don't be surprised if this shows up as well, someday....


								<p>

								   <li> We nailed a piece with Michael before he left for New York; when we

									shot "Points," he had long since returned to NY and was in the

									process of pursuing other things.


								<p>

								   <li> <a name="JS:throne"><em>What was with the human and Minbari in the

									throne room?</em></a><br>

									They were discussing possible use of a world on the fringe of

									Centauri space for something of, they hoped, benign use.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@846703584 One of the problems we had with the Hugo last year was

									that whereas only a couple of TNG episodes were good enough to get

									nominated, eight B5 episodes made it to the final cut.  Because folks

									went for their favorite episodes, and they had a number that year.

									The result was that the choices got split so much that TNG won, since

									it had fewer good or great episodes that season.  ("All Good Things"

									won with, I think, 57 votes; the top two B5 episodes on the list had

									32 and 27 votes between them, enough right there to have won if

									combined.  That was for "Signs and Portents" and "Chrysalis," with

									"And the Sky Full of Stars" at 21, "Babylon Squared" at 19,

									"Believers" at 10, "Mind War" at 9, "Voice in the Wilderness" at 8,

									and "Soul Hunter" at 6.)


									<p>

									So basically, we lost because we had too many solid episodes to choose

									from.


									<p>

									As a result, a lot of folks this year have been campaigning to have

									participants go for "The Coming of Shadows," which is the highest

									rated episode in all the informal polls on-line and elsewhere from

									that time period.  It's the one nearly everybody seems to agree upon.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Congratulations on winning the Hugo.</em><br>

									Thanks; that was the one where we felt we really hit our stride.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 The Hugo is a marvelous reward to everyone who's worked

									so hard on the show these last 3+ years.  We're very proud.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Did you think you were going to win?</em><br>

									I honestly didn't know how it was going to work out.  I figured

									(correctly, as it turned out) that the main opposition would be Apollo

									13.  Which for my money would've been a good selection.  (Is it SF?  The

									description John Campbell and, I think, Heinlein gave for SF is "the

									impact on humans of technology."  It even uses the Analog Magazine

									approach of finding a technical solution to a technical problem.  If

									Apollo 13 doesn't count that way, what does?  Is it fiction?  Nnnnnooo,

									I suppose, though certainly elements of it were fictionalized for

									purposes of drama, and I guess that counts somewhat.)


									<p>

									Anyway, that dispute aside, and I can see why it's not a clear issues

									for a lot of folks...understand that I've never won a major award

									before.  I've been up for Ace Awards, the Writers Guild Award, the

									Gemini Award (the Canadian equivilant of an Emmy), the HWA Bram Stoker

									Award, others...but hadn't won, and as a result, you get very guarded

									about these things.  So I didn't know for sure until the words left

									Roger Corman's lips.


									<p>

									And I have to say...this show has won a lot of awards in different

									areas, Emmys and others, but this one, for me, means the most.  Even

									Warners is excited about it, and is taking out a double-page ad in most

									of the trades this Friday, with others to appear the following week.

									(We encouraged them to also congratulate the nominees for the award as

									well, since they were all very deserving, it was stiff competition.)


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 The reaction at the [WorldCon] to B5, at the awards

									and elsewhere, was quite amazing.  Everywhere the show was mentioned at

									panels, it appaarently got applause.  The attending fans were

									*extremely* friendly, went out of their way to be nice.  The two B5

									panels I gave (the second one added on when the first one wouldn't fit

									into the room provided) were extremely enthusiastic. I think the two

									presentations I gave that day totaled about 2,500-2,600 people total.


									<p>

									When the winner was announced for Best Dramatic Presentation, and I

									headed for the stage, for a moment I thought we were having an

									earthquake, or there was a sudden thunder...but it was the fans

									applauding and stomping their feet enough to make the ground shake.  It

									was deafening down where the nominees were, and I noticed a couple of

									them looking around with a "what the hell is THAT?" look on their faces.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Reader congratulates JMS on the Hugo and adds that

									she did so in person, but he didn't seem to hear her then.</em><br>

									Thanks...I'm not sure I heard much of anything that night....


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>See the <a href="#NO">Notes</a> section for the

									vote tallies.</em><br>

									What's interesting, in noting the number of votes in the nominations, is

									that if we hadn't withdrawn the second Hugo nominated B5 episode, "The

									Fall of Night," DS9 wouldn't have had a nomination at all.  They moved

									into the nominations when we withdrew "FoN."


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>How many nominations did "The Fall of Night"

									receive?</em><br>

									I don't know offhand; my guess is that it was #5 in the overall

									nominations list, because (I understand) they had to jump past #6 (The

									Long, Twilight Struggle) to get to #7 (the DS9 episode) to find a non-B5

									candidate for the nominations list.  So we had 3 out of the top 6, and

									apparently two more B5 episodes were high up on the list, I think in the

									top 10.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Is this the first TV episode to win since Harlan

									Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever" from the original Star

									Trek?</em><br>

									Actually, no, two episodes of TNG also got Hugos.


									<p>

									But what *is* significant here is that in 43 years, only 7 Hugos have

									gone to dramatic TV series; 3 to the original Twilight Zone, 4 to Star

									Trek (old and new).  This is the first Hugo in 43 years to go to a

									science fiction TV series other than TZ or ST.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Where will you display the Hugo?</em><br>

									I was thinking of putting the Hugo on display in my bedroom,

									but I decided it was 'way too Freudian.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>Have you taken it onto the set?</em><br>

									Absolutely, I took the Hugo out on the very next day, Tuesday.  The

									whole place was very excited about it.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843206491 <em>B5 received another award at WorldCon.</em><br>

									Yeah, the Shadow Hugo (an ominous name for what's basically a

									coaster-shaped circuit board with a bronze plate on it) went to B5 from

									Sci-Fi.Com, which was actually the first SF award B5 has gotten, beating

									the real Hugos by about 24 hours.


									<p>

									The reason they had to come out of the SFFWA <em>(Science Fiction and

									Fantasy Writers of America)</em> suite to give me the award

									had to do with my feelings toward SFFWA, from which I resigned over

									their attitude toward media writers and the dramatic nebula (bottom

									line: all media writers are hacks, and it's not real writing, and even

									though media work, scripts, are eligible for membership, or were then,

									they're not eligible for the Nebula because it isn't really writing).


									<p>

									Actually, what I said to the folks from scifi.com was..."I wouldn't go

									in there for the presentation if I were dying of lung cancer and they

									were offering free chemotherapy at the door."  Nothing against many of

									the SFFWA members, many of them are fine folks who're taking the rap

									for a provincially minded leadership, but after the grief I got from

									SFWA over all this before, the hate mail, the vindictiveness, the

									resignation (to this day they still haven't had the guts to print my

									letter of resignation in the Journal), I just couldn't go in there for

									the award.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843787022 ...sigh...I'm gonna regret this, I know it, I just

									know it....


									<p>

									C'mere.  Siddown.  Lemme 'splain.


									<p>

									I resigned SFWA (back before it became SFFWA) for the reasons you

									cite, and over the whole Dramatic Nebula issue, which was for me the

									defining moment and the proverbial straw across the equally

									proverbial camel's back.


									<p>

									A number of us -- me, D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, Mike Cassutt,

									Harlan, others -- attempted to get SFWA to restore the Dramatic

									Nebula, which had been dropped for a number of years.  In the course

									of this, I received more abusive, vitriolic, hateful pieces of mail

									and email than I can begin to describe to you.  It rivals or exceeds

									*anything* ever sent to me in any flame war.  All from other SFWA

									members.  One quote I remember vividly is emblematic of the whole: "I

									work my ass off writing for pennies a word, while all you hacks in TV

									churn out crap for thousands of dollars a page.  You and your LA

									buddies will never get a Dramatic Nebula as long as I'm alive."


									<p>

									And that was the nicest letter I got.


									<p>

									It was explained to me, in mail, email and the SFWA journal, that

									scriptwriting wsan't really *writing*, it was just typing.  That TV

									writers weren't really writers.  That you can't read a script unless

									you're trained, so you can't vote on it.  That since TV/film is often

									a collaborative form, you don't know who contributed what, so how can

									you give a nebula?  And there's George Martin's argument, that SFWA

									should give Dramatic Nebulas to scriptwriters when WGA allows prose

									writers to join.


									<p>

									And the responses to this...it *is* writing, you *can* read the

									script easily, it's just the margins that are different.  Editors

									often contribute structure and ideas and other material to the books

									they edit, but I don't see that stopping regular nebulas.  And SFWA

									was built around a particular *genre*, anything in that genre is or

									should be acceptable; WGA is built around *form*, the script, and any

									genre within that form is acceptable.  We're talking apples and

									oranges here.


									<p>

									I was even willing to remove myself from all future DN consideration

									to remove the notion that I was doing this to get one myself.  It was

									the principle, for one vital reason:


									<p>

									At that time, SFWA allowed scripts to qualify you for membership in

									SFWA.  Scripts were fine as far as SFWA was concerned as long as it

									brought in more in the way of membership dues.  If it brought money

									INTO SFWA, then it was writing, and qualified script writers to join

									SFWA.  But when it came time to give out the dramatic nebula...nope,

									suddenly it ain't writing no more.


									<p>

									It was a clear contradiction, and a bald-faced double-standard.

									Hypocrisy at its most blatant.


									<p>

									So finally, when the move to restore the Dramatic Nebula was vetoed,

									I quit.  The final irony being this: over the 10 years or so I'd been

									a member, I'd written maybe 7 or 8 letters to be published in the

									SFWA Journal, which appears quarterly or monthly, I forget now.

									There were (and are) people who had something in almost every issue,

									often for pages at a time.  I sent my letter of resignation to the

									Journal, and it has never to this day been printed.  Because once it

									became clear that I was no longer going to continue paying dues

									(though I was still a member at the time of the letter, and for

									several months thereafter, until my prior payment ran out), they

									really had no interest in hearing anything from a scriptwriter.  They

									later tried the exuse that it was too long, but it was exactly the

									same length as the majority of letters that appeared in the Journal.


									<p>

									In fighting for the rights of script-members of SFWA on  the DN

									issue, and the perception of scriptwriters in general, I was

									insulted, abused, targeted, slandered, ridiculed, threatened and

									harrassed.  While there are many fine individuals who belong to the

									group, as an organization is is provincial and small minded and

									insecure and jealous.  Any John Norman GOR novel would theoretically

									be eligible for a Nebula, but 12 Monkeys would not.  If an SF novel

									sells 35,000 copies, it's a great thing; 100,000 is a *terrific*

									thing, much ballyhooed by the SF establishment.  B5 has a hardcore

									audience of between 10 and 15 *million* people.


									<p>

									So bottom-line...yeah, I left SFWA because I got tired of the

									contempt the organization and many of its members held (and still

									hold) for scriptwriters.  When it came time to accept the Science

									Fiction Weekly's award for "The Coming of Shadows," I stepped into

									the SFFWA suite (where they were to be given out) just long enough to

									find the guys involved, and get out again.  And the award was

									presented out in the hallway, because I didn't want it to happen

									there.  As I told the organizer, I wouldn't go into the SFFWA suite

									for this if I were dying of lung cancer and they were offering free

									chemotherapy at the door.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@843505162 <em>The promo for the Hugo-commemorative rerun had a

									"Winner 1996 Hugo Award" overlay.  Was it hard to get WB to do

									that?</em><br>

									It was their idea.  They're impressed that we got the Hugo.


								</ul>