JMS Usenet Posts - 6/23/2000
Dirk A. Loedding
>JMS quotes and answers:
:ALL countries have free speech. Countries with an armed population
:have freedom AFTER speech.
You mean like Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, England, France....
jms
>More on the gun debate. There's only a few more after this one!
People who cite the 2nd Amendment tend to forget the first part of it,
which refers to a WELL REGULATED MILITIA.
At the time when the Constitution was written, there was no such thing
as an American army. People would work as farmers or silversmiths or
merchants, and would participate as members of a militia in case of
problems from the British or any other invading force from the
OUTSIDE.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:"Militia" means part-time military. In the old days, a "draft" would
:be issued by appropriate authority to fund a certain number of men for
:a certain time and / or task. Every town had a militia officer, often
:the mayor, who was to be given the draft and who would then call those
:men he felt were needed, up to the number which the draft would pay.
:It was purely voluntary (the "compelled draft" was first issued in
:this country during the Civil War).
Precisely. Now the question is, how many people who cite the 2nd
amendment and say they hold steadfastly to it would agree to the first
half of the statement under those conditions, and be willing to
voluntarily serve in a militia?
Darned few, I would suggest.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:But being a writer and knowing how to punctuate sentences you know
:that a comma means a new clause or thought. , THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE
:TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. Look it up in the
:numerous writing style books. A comma initiates a new clause or
:thought into a paragraph or sentence.
No it doesn't. A comma paves the way for clarifications of or
expansions on the first thought. If it's a NEW thought, it's followed
by either a semi colon, a colon or a period.
Sorry, but you're wrong.
(Which, above, by your reasoning, would mean "sorry" has nothing to do
with "but you're wrong," and you could assume that I was referring to
something ELSE you were wrong about. Doesn't work that way.)
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Why "even" and what kind are "people (or folks) like us"? At first it
:seemed to refer to the B5 characters as the stereotypical 'misfits and
:screwups make good' which, for the most part they *weren't*. Now that
:I reread your intro to the scriptwriting book (thanks Arkham!) it
:seems to refer more to everyday, normal, ordinary folks.
It's really both. That flawed people, normal people, can have second
chances, even we may think (rightly or wrongly) that we don't deserve
them because we *are* flawed.
jms
>Why does the chronology listed in the official B5 magazine not match
>the order of episodes, especially in the first season?
Because episodes were often aired out of order, you have to look at
what's *inside* the episode when determining the chronology rather
than when PTEN decided to air an episode.
jms
>JMS comments on the recent "Murder, She Wrote" movie:
Apparently the show was a strong #2 rated program for the first hour,
and a strong #3 rated show for the second hour...which is MUCH better
than CBS had been anticipating given that we were up against the
season finales of Friends and Frasier which drew something like a 30
share (meaning nearly 1/3rd of the country was watching them), which
is hideous competition.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about the books:
:Do we ever find out what happened to Lyta? I had thought she died
:during the telepath war but in the second Centari book G'Kar says he
:is still spending time with her.
That's an error that slipped past me in the reading/editorial process.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I do agree with the argument that allowing law-abiding citizens to
:carry weapons helps to protect even those who are unarmed.
And there I have never disagreed. My sense has always been that a
citizen should undergo at least as much training to own a gun as s/he
undergoes to own and use a car. Proper training in safety, useage,
storage and so on.
To the person afraid of coming here due to the violence issue...if you
come alone, you're going to be okay, because something like 4 out of 5
gun related incidents happen between people who *know* each other (and
in many cases are married to or involved with one another).
People seem to go into this knee-jerk reaction whenver anyone starts
saying things like the stuff two paragraphs up, and make it into a
threat to take away one's gun. It's simply a statement that steps can
and should be taken to make sure the person who *buys* one knows how
to use it.
A car exists for many purposes, and can if misused result in someone's
death.
A handgun exists for only one purpose: to shoot another human being.
Shouldn't the standard for ownership of the latter be at *least* as
reasonable and thorough as the standard for the first?
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:However, mandatory testing does infringe on the right to bare arms
I beg to disagree, I've *often* worn short sleeved shirts and nobody's
EVER given me a hard time about it.
jms
>On 5/27, JMS quotes and answers:
: Issue 7 of Rising Stars is out this week;
And I think #8 comes out this coming week.
::they've slotted September for the first issue of Midnight Nation
::under the Joe's Comics imprint. (I've turned in the first script, and
::Gary Frank is doing the pencils even as we speak).
:What is "Midnight Nation" all about?
It's a contemporary story that doesn't really fit most
categories...maybe magic realism comes closest, dark fantasy
maybe...it sets some of the tropes of the dark fantasy genre against a
modern setting, with a police officer on a quest to recover something
taken from him, a search which shows him a side of the country usually
not seen, the hidden doors and secret places only glimpsed out of the
corner of the eye....
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I heard a rumour about a possible reprisal of the Captain Power
:series. True? False? What are the particulars?
I think it's just rumors.
jms
>What was Zack wearing in the closing bits of "Sleeping in Light"?
It was a modified Centauri Minister outfit.
jms
>Some general announcements from JMS, posted on 6/4:
I'm appending this message here as well as sending it as a separate
thread because sometimes new threads take a while to get through
moderation, whereas replies to current threads get through faster, so
pardon any redundencies....
For those who have wanted to see some new stuff from me....
I'm pleased to announce that I've signed a contract to have some of my
prose work appear online at www.bookface.com, a brand new and exciting
site which will make a wide range of well-known authors and
best-sellers available for reading online *without charge* to readers.
These include the following items, which will be rolled out in roughly
this order over the coming days and weeks....
My brand new non-B5 short story, COLD TYPE, and in a little while, a
reprint of my novelette WE KILLED THEM IN THE RATINGS, which
originally appeared in a major mystery anthology. COLD TYPE is a
contemporary dark fantasy story in the TWILIGHT ZONE mold.
Of special interest to B5 and Crusade fans...my two unproduced CRUSADE
scripts that were written specifically to crank up the overall story
arc: "To the Ends of the Earth," which was to be that season's arc
jumper a la "The Coming of Shadows," and the *season finale* "End of
the Line." These episodes were written but never filmed. For those
who want to know what was planned for the rest of the season and where
it was going...this is it.
AND...biggest of all....
In a few weeks, as a thank-you to all the B5 fans who've stayed with
us over the years, instead of taking my new novel to auction, through
Bookface I'm making it avaiable *free* for online reading.
TRIBULATIONS will be serialized on the Bookface site over a period of
about a month.
So head on over...I think you'll like what you see.
jms
>Also on 6/4:
Actually, I was just at the bookface.com site and I'm pleased to see
that they've uploaded ALL the stuff already, absent Tribulations.
So both Crusade scripts are up, plus COLD TYPE, WE KILLED THEM IN THE
RATINGS, and another short story of mine, previoulsy published in
PULPHOUSE, "Say Hello, Mister Quigley." It's a story with teeth....
jms
>In response to complaints, JMS wrote, also on 6/4:
Just checked in again, and "Cold Type" is definitely glitching about
page 3...but the rest of the stories and Crusade scripts are
definitely fine (though "We Killed Them in the Ratings" is somehow
coming through as one big paragraph).
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:The system seemed to hang up on the third page of "Cold Type" so I'm
:going to save it and "Say Hello.." for later. Later today probably <g>.
Apparently so many people went after Cold Type that the system hiccupped....
:And thanks in advance for Tribulations! What a cool thing to do.
:Will it ever see print though? I do like to be able to pick my books
:up and put them down.
Of that I have no doubt. We haven't set anything up yet or even gone
to market on it because I really wanted to let this go out in this
form first.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I read Cold Type and Say Hello to Mr Quigley. I must say, I think the
:latter would make a wonderful horror movie. It would be so misleading
:-- everyone thinking they knew what was going on, until the end.
Thanks...most horror films these days are about damnation and not a
lot of them are about redemption. I wanted to cut against the tide on
that one.
:At one point you (JMS) said we shouldn't go to the trouble of digging
:up your early novels because they were really not that good. I
:ignored the advice and found them. You are right, they are not that
:good. However, somewhere between then and now you got to be a
:fantastic writer.
Thanks, but I'm still not quite there yet, in my own mind, not quite
where I want to be with the writing. Give me another ten years.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
>So you're saying Bacon wrote B5??
Now be a good egg and stop that.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about Jay Denebeim, a rastb5.mod moderator:
>He use to work craft services at the Babylon 5 stage making hot dogs.
>Now folks are complaining that he's just a big wiener.
Don't be silly.
Everyone knows that Jay is really Lamont Cranston.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Will the new scripts be made available for purchase at some time in
:the future -- like at the Fan Club or Scripts From the Lot?
Nothing is set at the moment.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about Crusade and the scripts on bookface.com:
>The plug was pulled right when things were getting *interesting*
Yeah, and that's what really steamed me the most about the whole
thing.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I read the two Crusade scripts on Bookface last night. Wow. Please tell
:me that Del Rey and/or Jeanne Cavelos were provided with those scripts
:as part of the prep work for the technomage trilogy.
Yup.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers, on 6/8:
:has JMS written any scripts for the second season of Crusade?
No, one doesn't write scripts for a season until there's a writing
budget for that season.
BTW, for those interested, Rising Stars #8 hit the stands today.
jms
>JMS comments on the AMC special "Blacklist: Hollywood On Trial":
Yeah, saw it...fairly good piece of work.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about the casting on the "Murder, She Wrote" film:
:Were all these castings just a fortunate coincidence, or was it a
:deliberate tip-of-the-hat, so to speak? If the latter, a very nice
:touch, that.
Except for Daniel and one other it was just a happy coincidence.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:In his interview on B5Magazine, Larry DiTillio mentioned that he was
:asked to write a Crusade script that would've been part of a three
:parter that ended the season--it bascally involved Dureena being
:kidnapped by some big slug-ship or something similar. Well, now we
:know for a fact that this wasn't the case. Was said three-parter
:supposed to take place between To The End of The Earth and The End of
:The Line? Or was DiTillio screwing with our heads? :)
Dureena would've been taken away in a 3 parter, and when she returned
she would've had the sword referred to in the uploaded Crusade script.
So no, Larry wasn't messing with anyone's head.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about "Mr. Quigly":
:As I read this wonderful story, I could easily see it in the form of a
:"Twilight Zone" ep. My skin actually began to crawl EVERY time those
:words showed up on the walls. My fears grew steadily, right up to the
:point of revelation and turned to tears. JMS, thanks for the wild ride.
Much appreciated.
jms
>How fast does the Excalibur actually accelerate and move?
The Excalibur accellerates at roughly the speed of plot.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I don't know if this has been asked before, but here goes. If you
:reach the point where you are 100% sure Crusade can never happen again
:as a TV series, would you consider resurrecting it as a comic?
It ain't mine to resurrect...WB owns it, lock, stock and barrel.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers, replying to someone whose marriage was
>collapsing as the fourth season started, and that the show said to
>him exactly what he needed to hear at that time in his life:
:For that, alone, I owe jms great thnaks
I'll happily thettle for a thandwich and thome ith cream...
Thufferin' thuccotash....
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:The way I described B5 to those who hadn't seen it was "Star Trek is
:the idealized future we would like. Babylon 5 is the future we are
:more likely to get."
I once got an email from somebody at the Fermi Lab, who saw on a
bulletin board there, "Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5
problem."
jms
>A teacher thanks JMS for his article "Meditations on the Dream" in the
>B5 magazine.
Thanks, and my best to your class.
jms
>"Thank you for bringing your vision to the world":
Thanks, I appreciate it....
jms
>Have you heard anything further about a DVD release on either side of
>the pond? If so, will you be involved in prepping the show for DVD?
General statement because I get this query about once every few weeks:
I don't know anything about the DVD situation; I'm not in daily
contact with WB and don't generally hear this stuff. If I *did* know
anything specific, I'd tell people.
Generally speaking, if you have to ask me if there's anything new on
this, there isn't, because if there was, I'd announce it. It ain't
like I'd forget to mention it.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:* How did you (JMS) keep going in the face of all the doubt and
:uncertainty that was B5?
Pure, naked, unbridled, ornery, stubbornness.
:How did you maintain a positive outlook (assuming you had one) during
:the whole thing? How did you get yourself to keep going in the face
:of these obstacles?
I'm of Eastern European extraction. The term "positive outlook" is
foreign to that mentality. We know only tenacity.
"So, Herr Hitler, you want to invade Stalingrad in winter, yes? By
all means, make yourself comfortable...."
:* A while back, someone asked you "What do you want?" One of your
:less humorous replies was "To tell the story" where I am assuming "the
:story" was B5. Now that you have completed this, do you have another
:goal? What do you want at this point in your life?
To tell the next story. And the one after that. Whether that's a TV
show, or a book, or a comic, or a play...it's all the same to me, as
long as I get to tell my stories the way I see them in my head.
In TV, I figure I've got another few years left in me before I just
can't handle it anymore, so I'd kinda like to do one more show, maybe
two depending on what does or doesn't last...and then get out. I'm 45
now, so that would put me at about 50, a good age to go for a quieter
lifestyle.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:BS....Joe, you've got the stubbornness of a pit bull and you'll be
:making TV shows as long as those squirrels in your brain keep running
:(or until Harlan and Kathryn sign the commitment papers.) I'll bet you
:a steak dinner that you'll still be writing/producing when you're 60.
:50.... my arse.
I'll take that bet.
See, my mind -- that same, pigheaded mind -- made itself up pretty
firmly on this one.
Reason is basically this: I started working in TV round about 1984/85.
That's 15 years already in this particular vineyard. And it's
soul-killing work. Always has been. Charles Beaumont said it's like
climbing a mountain of ka-ka to pluck one perfect rose...only to find
by the time you've gotten to the top that you've lost your sense of
smell.
It's hard, tedious, soul-breaking work, mainly for the kind of people
you have to deal with, and I have only so much visceral material.
I've worked hard all my life (as have most people), working round the
clock for *years*, rarely ever taking a vacation, writing nonstop...I
*need* to find that time when I can relax a bit, and that ain't never
gonna happen as long as I'm working in TeeVee.
Give up writing? That, no, I'll be writing until I fall down dead.
But TV? Yeah, I could give that up pretty easily when the time comes.
jms
>JMS is asked about a joke used in a couple of Peter David's scripts,
>with the punchline: "That's not my leg, that's my airhose"
Peter David wrote both those episodes; best to ask him. I'm opting
not to know.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Thanks for everything. Be sure to take us along as you do continue
:developing as a writer, okay?
You got it. And thanks.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I loved Rising Stars #8. I'm pretty excited about the direction the
:story is going in. I have one question, though--Issues 1-8 were
:Chapter One. How many chapters will there be in the story?
It's three acts; act 2 is issues 9-16, act 3 issues 17-24.
jms
>I heard you were suing Sierra for lost royalties due to their
>cancellation of the B5 computer game:
Don't know any more about it than you do.
jms
:I guess I asked the wrong question. When I am in situations where
:there is a lot of doubt, etc. I will sometimes go into what I call
:"Fuckup Theater" mode. Basically, it seems like every mistake,
:screw-up, lapse of judgment, etc. that I have ever made will come back
:to haunt me. Just to give me that extra boost of confidence when I
:need it most :-) What I was getting at was: did you ever feel that
:way on B5? Did it happen often? When it did, were you able to just
:kick it out of your mind, or was it still sitting there, sneering at
:everything you did?
I can't think of a moment in the entire 5 year history of the show
when it *wasn't* there, in the back of my head. You *always* doubt
yourself, you *always* want to go over it one more time. When I look
at ANY episode, all I see are the flaws, the things that could have
been done better. It'll be years before I can look at it without that
overlay.
And the only thing you can do is burn through it and hope for the best
at the end.
jms
>Someone asked just how close the attachment was between Galen and
>Gideon, whether they were closer than just friends, or could have been:
There was certainly the basis there for a great and abiding
friendship, which would have strengthened over time, but I don't think
I would have taken it to quite that level.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers about Netter Digital taking over the effects
>from Foundation:
:Netter Digital wanted the B5 gig. Doug Netter was a producer of B5.
:Netter Digital got the B5 gig.
Not quite true.
The problem we had was that, according to what I was told, the cost
was going up on the CGI, meaning we were going to be able to have
*less* CGI per episode, the shots would have to be less ambitious,
there were not going to be ANY re-dos allowed, and we were going to be
assigned trainee animators.
To continue with the deal as it was at that time would be, in my
opinion at the time, to the detriment of the show. There *was* no
Netter Digital Entertainment CGI division in existence at that time.
Doug said, in essence, "We can pull one together to do the work if you
think it's a move worth making."
The ultimate decision was mine, made with WB's approval, to move the
CGI work to Netter's company, which hustled to set up an animation
wing to get things going.
I should point out that I was offered the chance to own a piece of the
animation wing, but on long reflection, I passed, on the theory that
if that decision was to be made, I *had* to make it with clean hands
and NO conflict of interest. So I've never gotten a dime off the
animation, and prefer it that way.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Just received my Amazing Stories No. 602 yesterday and read "Space,
:Time, and the Incurable Romantic". That's one story that I'd never
:have guessed, but it fit Marcus to a "T". However, I think Marcus
:should have told her the truth. She'll probably remember her death
:and his actions sometime in their future, and then their time together
:would have been a lie
She won't remember it, not if I have anything to say about it.
And I do.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:"SciFi.com is planning a 13-part, original Web show called ''City of
:Dreams'' from the creators of the ``Babylon 5'' TV show" Huh? Which
:creators be this?
Be me.
See other message on this in the Seeing Ear Theater thread.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Thanks for a great chat at SciFi.com! now can you give lots of detail
:about the new project? It's really anthology style?
Thanks, yeah, it's 13 half-hour audio episodes, first on scifi.com
starting July 10th, then afterward on Dove audio. I'm writing all 13
installments of The City of Dreams, and it's kind of a Twilight Zone
approach, but made modern and given some new teeth.
The first one, "The Damned Are Playing at Godzilla's Tonight" stars
Steve Buscemi, with Andre Braugher set for the next one.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Anyway, as a more visible Atheist have you've noticed yourself as an
:influence to other Atheist.
Not that I'm aware of, but since we have no one place where we gather
and hang out, I'd have no way of knowing.
>Also, in the 15 or so years since you've imagined B5 has your
>philosophy on Atheism been modified or enhanced throughout the process?
Not terribly.
jms
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