Voices in the Dark: Over Here and The Darkness Between the Stars.
Shabaz
Here used at least some elements from a JMS short story that was
published in magazine of dark fiction Dark Wisdom: The Darkness
Between the Stars. I finally got curious enough about it a few weeks
ago, and decided to track down the story. Despite the issue of the
magizine the story was published in being out of print, after a bit of
looking I managed to find it, and for only a couple of bucks too.
After having read it, it seems pretty clear that more than reusing
some elements, Over Here for the most part was an adaptation of the
short story. Some of the names are different, and the Babylon 5
station was originally a base on some remote planet. And the biggest
difference probably lies in the fact that the focus in the original
was much more on the priest, and his thought processes and decision
making, with the equivalent character to Lochley being much more
passive. And the final act in Over Here where Lochley figures out her
"third way" solution involving some creative scripture interpretation
is new, including the information about the possesed having visited
earth. Instead in the original the priest basically does pick between
one of the two choices Asmodeus puts forward, opting to use the
phenomena to fill the churches.
But a lot of it is in fact very similar, and some of the bigger and
more significant monologues and dialogues are taken over pretty much
verbatim, e.g. the priest's lament of people finding great wonders
when they took to the stars, but nothing that answered to the
traditional image of divine miracles.
And I know that some have lamented that Over Here either felt out of
place for the B5 universe, or that the story at least didn't seem
specific enough to either the universe or the Lochley character. I
don't know if it is entirely due to the choice of using an existing
short story originally unrelated to B5, but it might be that's what
some have been noticing. Though a significant character bit for
Lochley was added in the new final act, and the way the story
concludes for the episode version.
For the record, I did like Over Here, but I do think it's interesting
that apparently the first TLT story we got wasn't actually written
with the B5 universe in mind originally.
-Shabaz
Amy Guskin
(in article <1188729260.0...@r29g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>):
>
> For the record, I did like Over Here, but I do think it's interesting
> that apparently the first TLT story we got wasn't actually written
> with the B5 universe in mind originally. <<
Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. I'd heard a little about the
story, and that there were similarities, but it was most intriguing to hear
about it in detail. And like you, I do wonder if some peoples' feeling (mine
included) that "Over Here" could have been a story done in _any_ universe,
that it wasn't specific enough to any B5 characters or situations as we knew
them, is because it originally _wasn't_.
I did mean to pick up the magazine when the story was announced, but I didn't
see it at my comics shop and I never remembered to order it from the
publisher via mail or online. Now I'm kind of glad that I didn't, because I
probably would have been disappointed to know in advance (somewhat) how the
first B5:TLT story was going to turn out.
Amy
--
"In my line of work you gotta keep repeating things over and over and over
again for the truth to sink in, to kinda catapult the propaganda." - George
W. Bush, May 24, 2005
Matt Ion
> But a lot of it is in fact very similar, and some of the bigger and
> more significant monologues and dialogues are taken over pretty much
> verbatim, e.g. the priest's lament of people finding great wonders
> when they took to the stars, but nothing that answered to the
> traditional image of divine miracles.
So you're saying JMS stole a story idea from himself?
Maybe he should talk to John Fogerty's lawyer... ;)
Aaron Sherman
> And I know that some have lamented that Over Here either felt out of
> place for the B5 universe, or that the story at least didn't seem
> specific enough to either the universe or the Lochley character.
It will only seem out of place if, in the long run, the story doesn't
change. The second episode of the original series was all about the
Minbari religion and souls. It's not like B5 hasn't dealt with
religion, but in this case, it's clearly stating that a particular
element of one of the many Earth religions seen in the series is not
only true, but quite contemporary. THAT is what doesn't really fit in
with the series. I suspect, however, that we'll be getting
clarification about this in later installments. As I'm sure many fans
did, I saw this and immediately paged back mentally to the only race
we ever saw in the original series to do everything that this entity
did. I'm quite convinced that the whole story hasn't yet been told.
Bill
> It will only seem out of place if, in the long run, the story doesn't
> change. The second episode of the original series was all about the
> Minbari religion and souls. It's not like B5 hasn't dealt with
> religion, but in this case, it's clearly stating that a particular
> element of one of the many Earth religions seen in the series is not
> only true, but quite contemporary. THAT is what doesn't really fit in
> with the series. I suspect, however, that we'll be getting
> clarification about this in later installments. As I'm sure many fans
> did, I saw this and immediately paged back mentally to the only race
> we ever saw in the original series to do everything that this entity
> did. I'm quite convinced that the whole story hasn't yet been told.
I finally got my paws on TLT and thoroughly enjoyed it. New B5, after
all, even with the faults. As far as the entity in Over Here goes, I'm
not quite as conviced that it was as much of an endorsement of the
supernatural as others are. It's purpose, as Lochley figured out, was
to keep humans in their place and as good little sheep following a
rigid order. That's Vorlon philosophy pure and simple. And remember,
at the end of Thirdspace, Lyta said something about "So many others
[mistakes]".
Hopefully, I haven't just posted a story idea. If I have, mods please
feel free to edit this so that my point gets across without the story
idea.
Bill
Amy Guskin
(in article <1188937124.1...@r29g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>):
No, this wasn't a story idea, but I'm replying because I want to give you and
others something to think about when posting something like this (i.e.
something that you think may veer into story idea territory): if you are a
poster who is not on hand moderation, posting to a non-moderated thread, your
post will not be available to me for editing. It'll go right through to the
newsgroup. So if you _are_ in doubt, and you check the Story Idea FAQ
(http://members.aol.com/rastb5mod/storyfaq.html), and you _still_ aren't
sure, rather than going ahead and posting, drop the moderators a note and
ask. That address is:
This, and other fun, fine facts, can be found here:
http://members.aol.com/rastb5mod/mod-faq.html