JMS Usenet Posts - 5/29/2002
Dirk A. Loedding
Warning: This edition might contain spoilers for Jeremiah.
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I was re-watching the pilot the other day with a couple of friends who
:hadn't seen it, and got to wondering: Are we going to see any more of
:Theo?
Definitely. She's in Thieves Honor, A Means to an End, and the
two-part season finale Things Left Unsaid.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about the schedule change for the 4/19
>episode of Jeremiah, which he called "one of our best" below;
:I would have thought that Showtime would have told you, but knowing
:the way television works, you'd probably be the last one they'd tell.
They did, actually, though I still heard about it first on this group.
Just a reminder for folks jumping in on this...the ep tonight at 10:30
is one of our best, I think. Very moving.
:Working too hard? :)
It's a lifestyle thing.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:1) Do you have the series timeline written in stone or is it much more
:open than say B5 or Crusade? And do you have a foreseen ending to the
:series, assuming it gets the run length you desire?
It's not as elaborate as the B5 arc, because there I had 5 years to
work on it, but there's a timeline, yeah...and there is an ending.
:2) What exactly has Mr. Dante's contribution been? When you first
:mentioned Jeremiah you mentioned you'd be teaming with him and that
:you always admired his work. But it doesn't sound like he has much of
:anything to do with its production/writing.
Joe Dante was involved with the early development of the project.
Once I wrote the pilot, he was on tap to direct, and his deal, based
on his early involvement, called for certain fees and titles. When it
came time for the pilot, he was not available, but the deal remains
the same. He has not been involved in the show since then. I don't
think anyone in the company has even heard from him since.
:3) The one thing I've been expecting to see was some "western style
:justice". Jeremiah and the rest have run across some pretty bad folks.
There are moments and flashes of it... certainly Jeremiah initially
tries to off the guys who assaulted the woman in "City of Roses," and
probably would have succeeded if Kurdy hadn't interceded; similarly,
Markus would almost certainly have taken out Major Quantrell had
Ezekiel not removed that decision from him. The characters are kind
of on the razor's edge of what's right and wrong, constantly fighting
to do the right thing.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Whatever happen to the City of Dreams project that JMS was working on?
:I went to scifi's page but couldn't find any downloads (or I'm blind
:tonight ). Are there any plans to release these on cd or something.. I
:listened to the first one when it started and like it a lot.
They're all still there at:
http://www.scifi.com/cityofdreams
jms
>Any news you can share about the B5 DVD's?
There's nothing that I can share at this time that would not preclude
others in the food chain from doing the same on this subject.
jms
[Ed. note: No, I don't know what it means, either]
>JMS quotes and answers about "Rising Stars":
:One of the heroes of this comic comes to the Middle East and makes the
:great desert land fertile again - thus bringing peace to the region. I
:love most of what JMS writes, but here he shows that he has no clue as
:to what's going on in this part of the world.
First off, the comic in no way indicated that this would solve the
problem in its entirety, only that what happened would be a start.
Second, it wasn't just some guys coming in to make the ground fertile,
it was that in a matter of a couple of hours the land was transformed
as if directly by the hand of God, nobody knew it was the specials
behind it, creating the impression of a newly minted miracle that
favored EVERYone in the region, which would be enough to give anyone
pause.
And given that this was expressed right in the book itself, quite
clearly in dialogue, either you didn't read it, didn't understand it
(and then go on to say that others don't have a clue) or just didn't
care and just came in to poke.
Either way, what you present is a gross and inaccurate simplification
of the story.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:On what day will you be at Comic Con this year?
Dunno, nothing's been set yet.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Is there any chance that we'll get more episodes of City of Dreams? As
:I recall, you wrote and submitted three scripts that haven't been
:produced.
The sci-fi channel pulled its financing for most of its audio dramas,
so that's pretty much that, though the episodes do remain at the site
(and can be downloaded via audible.com).
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:You must not have read his post, he says in the first sentence he
:didn't read it. You might note his country code .il is Israel, so it
:seems entirely appropriate that he post his conclusion contrasting the
:events in the Rising Stars issue and the real world. And this is
:valid regardless of what the comic book says in the dialogue.
It cannot be a valid response if he didn't read the book. He is
criticizing without knowing what he's criticizing, therefore his
opinion is not valid. As Harlan said, you're not entitled to your
opinion, you're entitled to your *informed* opinion. If he didn't
bother to get informed, to just slag off the book without actually
reading it, his opinion is not valid, I don't care what his country
code is. That's not a justification for not doing your homework.
jms
>Some general comments, posted on 5/3:
As I'd mentioned in an earlier note, the episode of Jeremiah that airs
this Friday the 3rd of May, "Journeys End in Lovers Meeting," is one
of my favorites to date. For those who know my work it's kind of a
different sort of creature than I've done before...it's almost
fanciful or fairy tale in feeling, but with teeth behind the softness
and an ending that I think will lead to a lot of heated debate.
One of the things I like best about this episode is the look of it.
We were knee deep in snow when we shot this thing, and the pure white
landscape gives the whole episode an almost unreal quality. It also
has one of the best performances to date from Malcolm Jamal-Warner,
whose role is very important in this episode.
Anyway, it's a good one, and I highly recommend it.
jms
>On 5/9:
Just an FYI...my latest The Amazing Spider-Man hit comic stores today,
the 8th, and the next Midnight Nation, issue 11 (one more to go) comes
out next Wednesday.
jms
>This came from uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5 (itself a forward of a JMS post
>to alt.babylon.uk).
Forgive the intrusion on a matter of what constitutes news on a tired
subject that I almost don't care about anymore, and shouldn't care
about at all, except that sometimes things happen that are just so
goddamned funny that you have to comment on it to people who know the
history, which would be the folks in this newsgroup....
Anyway...long preamble dispensed with, the basics follow.
A few days ago, I got an email from a source in the UK alerting me to
a situation that, when I read it, I thought, "This can't *possibly* be
true." But I checked, and to my utter amazement and astonishment, it
is true.
Last week, it turns out that Bryan Cooney was here in Vancouver, and
decided to stop by the Bridge Studios, where we film Jeremiah and
Stargate is filmed. Well, "stop by" probably isn't the most correct
phrase. More specific...he told the guard at the gate that he was a
courier making a delivery, and thereby slipped onto the lot. Now, you
must understand that anyone having a legitimate reason for coming onto
the lot gets a pass; if you're a cab driver or a UPS guy or a courier,
who's gonna come and go right away, you don't get a pass. You come,
you go, that's it. He didn't get a pass.
Under the false pretense of being a courier, Cooney snuck onto the
lot...and stayed for a good part of the day, sneaking onto the
Stargate sets, attempting to get Stargate actors to sign photographs
for whatever reason. Well, that is also not as correct as it might
be...he *tried* to stay for a good part of the day, but got booted off
the lot by security when they were alerted to the situation.
More specific still...he was booted off *twice* by security when he
tried to sneak on the lot again, and spent the rest of the day
prowling the area around the lot desperately trying to figure out some
way to get in.
So outrageous was the situation that, apparently, whatever minor
francise license he had has been revoked by MGM, and by orders of
those at Stargate if he attempts to slip onto the lot again he will be
arrested on sight.
The amazing thing is that all this happened within 100 yards of my
office on the lot, and I was completely unaware of it until the email
came, and I was then able to verify the situation with those directly
involved. For this I would've set up a lawn chair on the grounds and
sold tickets....
Anyway, just the latest for those who might find the tale of interest.
Anybody wanna place bets on the odds of *this* little adventure
showing up in the pages of the ostensibly objective SFX Magazine...?
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Also Joe, will you possibly be doing any more creator-owned work, but
:from Marvel?
Yup. My contract allows for both creator owned work as well as stuff
inside the Marvel universe.
:You mentioned in an article/interview some time ago about Joe's Comics
:plans for a Hard SF comic miniseries. Is that going to see the light
:of day, somewhere?
Haven't decided yet.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Is TC planning on doing a collected edition of MN when Issue 12 comes
:out? Would look great next to my copies of Rising Stars and
:Watchmen...
Yup. It'll be out in September.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers Paul Harper:
(Paul Harper gave an excellent summary on this newsgroup. You can find
it in the archives at http://groups.google.com/. The subject was Re:
SFX Magazine, JMS and Double Standards, and the date 27 November 1999
Which resulted in a proposal of marriage from JMS.)
:I'm still at the altar...
:Paul.
Excellent.
Now just stay there for a bit longer while I round up some
firewood....
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
>From as much as I can remember of both (it's been a while since I read
>the books now as well), there's just enough similarity, and just
>enough vagueness (in typical JMS/CC fashion ;), to make one wonder if
>there isn't a little homage paid there by Joe and/or J. Gregory Keyes
>in the PsiCorp back-story... a little hint that, gee, maybe that was a
>Vorlon ship Mulder and Scully found, the incubation pods in it used in
>their work creating telepaths?
In a word...no.
jms
>On 5/23:
It had to happen sooner or later...with so many message boards and
posts asking "What's your favorite B5 quote?" a book of Babylon 5
quotes was inevitable.
So "But In Purple I'm Stunning: Quotations from Babylon 5" is coming
out from an independent publisher later this year. The book will also
contain sections dedicated to fan choices for best/favorite quote.
Fans of Babylon 5 are invited to send in their favorite quote, and why
it's a favorite. The best of these emails will be culled for the
book, and along the way this will determine the #1 favorite quote.
In particular, the book will be looking for anecdotes/stories from
fans about what a given quote, or what the show, meant to them in
particular. There are a lot of people who have found comfort or
meaning in the show, or found it helped them get through some of
life's problems. (An example I sometimes cite at conventions was the
young man dying of aids who asked his sister to put all of G'Kar's
speeches about hope and never giving up on tape so he could listen to
them at his bedside.)
It needn't be a heavy story, just one that has meaning for the person
involved, can be a funny story, whatever. Basically the goal is to
find the intersection where the show and its message and its words
touched people.
All contributions will be considered free to use by virtue of being
submitted for this project.
So if you have such an anecdote/story/message about a favorite quote
or the show in general, send it to the following address (rather than
replying to this, since I'll just have to forward it on in any event):
Thanks.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:In an ideal 'JMS sets the standards' world, what do you think would be
:the optimum length for a television episode? What about the number of
:episodes to constitute a season?
You have to understand that I'm a Russian, and we're not known for
telling short stories. So for me an episode would be perfect at 60
minutes, no commercials, and a season would have 52 episodes per year.
What can I say, I yammer....
:Any chance of you giving us a 'State of the Straczynski-verse' note on
:what's new, what's pending, what you can't talk about, how you're healing
:(fast and well, I hope) and all the other questions we keep asking?
Jeremiah: finishing post production on our last batch of episodes,
including the two-part finale "Things Left Unsaid," which Mike Vejar
directed and it's just *killer*. Of all the things I've ever done,
and I'm including B5 in this, on an invidual basis this may be the
best thing I've ever done, certainly the most ambitious. It's just
frikkin' HUGE, the performances are great, the story moves ahead by
leaps and bounds, I'm just *real* happy with it.
(Another crucial arc story, "Tripwire," airs next Friday. This is one
to definitely see if you're thinking of following the show.)
What's pending...I'm about 4-5 issues ahead on Spider-Man now, with
another issue coming out next Wednesday...I've turned in the next
draft on "Polaris" to the SciFi Channel, and that seems to be moving
ahead nicely....
And there's another TV project that's been in the works for a while
now that's also getting a bit toasty at the moment, but I can't say
anything about it yet, not until the ink dries.
As for the healing...not great. The finger didn't heal right after
the dislocation, and it looks like the emergency room doctor who put
it on (who said she hadn't done this sort of thing before) kinda put
it on sideways...so it locks and hurts and when I went for a follow-up
in LA, the doctor took one look at the thing and said, "Surgery."
Looks like a combination of a ruptured tendon and some bone bits that
got into the joint and have been sawing back and forth all this time.
So now I've got to go in and have the damned thing operated on, and
there's a better than even chance that because of the surgery I may
lose some function in the finger.
Sucks.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Is this a cliff hanging S1 finale? Is there (do you want there to be)
:a S2 planned?
Yeah, it's our s1 finale, as for a second season, that's in the hands
of the TV gods.
:I'd guess typing is really tough. Have you tried any of the voice
:recognition stuff out there? It's said to be getting pretty good, and
:with all your academic / scientific contacts, who knows, you might
:even get stuff earlier than the market
Problem is, I think through my fingers, I can't dictate for squat.
jms
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| Dirk A. Loedding <*> ju...@america.net |
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