ATTN JMS: Blown away by "Night Calls"
Simo Aaltonen
I just wanted to say that the City of Dreams episode "Night Calls"
totally blew me away. I enjoyed the first four a great deal, but this
one had my UNDIVIDED attention. Usually I can't turn off my critical
side that evaluates what I see and/or hear, but the very best things
manage to pull me into them completely.
And "Night Calls" was certainly one of those. I love Tim Curry's work,
and was hoping it'd be a good episode. It wasn't -- it was fantastic!
City of Dreams is one of the major reasons why I've really gotten into
radio drama recently... It's a medium that really WORKS for me, in
terms of getting my imagination racing. Thank you!!
How many episodes will there be in the series?
-Simo Aaltonen
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Jms at B5
>totally blew me away. I enjoyed the first four a great deal, but this
>one had my UNDIVIDED attention.
Thanks.
>How many episodes will there be in the series?
>
We're doing 13 in all. There are five up now at www.scifi.com/cityofdreams,
the next one goes up on the 14th, and I'm hustling to get scripts out the door
for the rest so I can get focused on the other stuff.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
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Christian McNeill
news:20000830001353...@ng-cp1.aol.com...
> >I just wanted to say that the City of Dreams episode "Night Calls"
> >totally blew me away. I enjoyed the first four a great deal, but this
> >one had my UNDIVIDED attention.
>
> Thanks.
>
> >How many episodes will there be in the series?
> >
>
> We're doing 13 in all. There are five up now at
www.scifi.com/cityofdreams,
> the next one goes up on the 14th, and I'm hustling to get scripts out the
door
> for the rest so I can get focused on the other stuff.
What a great birthday Present .. thanks! :))
--
==========================================
Christian McNeill
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Keeper of the "Grrr Arrgh"
Guardian of Mutant Enemy
E-mail: chri...@quicknet.com.au
Web: red.underground.com.au
ICQ: 818458
or 48580607
Itaï Perez
in the thread "Disappointed w/City'o'dreams, Night Calls" and "We missed
something, JMS please help us !".
The discussion is on the (apparently lack of) relation between the two parts
of the story (Ben Joseph and the Web site) and on the meaning of the (again
apparently lack of) conclusion. I have no doubt of the quality of JMS
writing, but my feeling at the end of the story was unsatisfaction. I think
that I must have missed something.
As you seem to be satisfied by the story, if you could just add your bit of
wisdom to the thread it could help us to come closer to the truth.
And of course, JMS, if you would be so kind as to take a time to have a look
at that thread and show us the right way, we would be eternally grateful.
Friendly,
Itai.
Christian McNeill <chri...@quicknet.com.au> a écrit dans le message :
S00r5.304$3d6....@nsw.nnrp.telstra.net...
Jms at B5
The conceit here is a radio drama on the web that gets interrupted by a couple
of guys who've hacked into the system to use it for webphone calls. There
CAN'T be any relationship because one is just a story, while the other is
"really" happening.
I chose a funny story because it played best counterpoint with the darkness of
what's being portrayed in the intercepts.
Simo Aaltonen
Pål Are Nordal
>
> We're doing 13 in all. There are five up now at www.scifi.com/cityofdreams,
> the next one goes up on the 14th, and I'm hustling to get scripts out the door
> for the rest so I can get focused on the other stuff.
The City of Dreams web page says "Coming September 4"... Which is right?
(The web page I hope)
--
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Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com
Jms at B5
>>=20
>> We're doing 13 in all. There are five up now at www.scifi.com/cityofdr=
>eams,
>> the next one goes up on the 14th, and I'm hustling to get scripts out t=
>he door
>> for the rest so I can get focused on the other stuff.
>
>The City of Dreams web page says "Coming September 4"... Which is right?
>(The web page I hope)
Almost certainly the web page.
Simo Aaltonen
I think the DejaNews system (which I'm forced to use for a while) ate
my attempt at a reply to this thread, on the subject of the
interconnectedness (or lack thereof) of the two storylines in "Night
Calls"...
Basically I wanted to point out the fact that the "voice of the damned"
speaking to the guy in front of the computer was that of Tim Curry's...
The voice of Ben Joseph AND the voice of God. Assuming for the sake of
argument that the Ben Joseph thing actually DID happen way in the past
(further assuming that the Noah incident of the Bible actually did
happen), the implication would be that Ben was damned for getting the
unicorns killed and releasing the plague basilli, and that God sent him
to Hell. Which would be why he was speaking for the damned in
the "present" of the story. Also, remember what Neil Gaiman wrote in
The Sandman... Stories don't have to have happened in order to be true.
(JMS's official explication is that the Ben Joseph thing was nothing
but a radio drama within the episode).
Or interpreting the voice from Hell to be the voice of God would be
also interesting.
BTW, I have to say that Tim Curry is one of my favourite actors. He
seems to really enjoy everything he does, and that gives his work a
certain -- dare I attempt to say it -- joie de vivre. As I said in the
first attempt at this reply, his God just killed me. Laughing, you
know...
-Simo Aaltonen
---
(What probably happens now is that the original reply DOES come through
the system just fine, and I've ended up posting two messages that say
the same things just a little differently...)
Simo Aaltonen
Pelzo63
>(What probably happens now is that the original reply >DOES come through
>the system just fine, and I've ended up posting two >messages that say
>the same things just a little differently...)
or that the repost gets posted twice as exactly the same message, don't you
just love usenet quirks? <g>
...Chris
http://pelzo63.terrashare.com
Frank J. Perricone
[ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ]
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On 29 Aug 2000 22:55:22 -0700, "Itaï Perez" <itai....@free.fr> wrote:
> The discussion is on the (apparently lack of) relation between the two parts
> of the story (Ben Joseph and the Web site) and on the meaning of the (again
> apparently lack of) conclusion.
The conclusion seemed complete to me: the circle repeated, only faster.
The previous "victim" set out to trap someone new just as he had been
trapped, and a series of quick snatches of the same sounds showed the
process repeating, faster, or perhaps more often, but in any case in a
cycle. I guess you could call it an absence of a conclusion, but only in
the sense that an acorn isn't a conclusion to an oak tree.
--
* Frank J. Perricone * hawt...@mail.com * http://www.sover.net/~hawthorn/
* If hawt...@mail.com doesn't work, try hawt...@sover.net *
"If a man can do it, a woman can do it better. If a woman can do it, a
man can do it better. It's just a matter of finding the right one."
Rob Perkins
page discussed by the two friends appear in the space where the City of
Dreams logo appears, when you play these streams, or maybe a separate panel,
as the dialogue suggested. It's well within the capabilities of RealAudio
clients to do. I especially anticipated it when the City of Dreams logo
disappeared in the middle of the stream.
Joe, had it occured to you to try that?
I have no idea whether it would have lent more suspension of disbelief or
less. I suspect that it would have added just a little more freakiness to
the story, if the "web page" had been done right.
Rob
Rob Perkins
WOW. That has a sort of "War of the Worlds" kind of vibe to it, and the Tim
Curry filler was hilarious!
Thanks for the good story!
Rob
Simo Aaltonen
pel...@aol.com (Pelzo63) wrote:
> or that the repost gets posted twice as exactly the same message,
> don't you just love usenet quirks? <g>
Yepper. You got it!
BTW, I realised I didn't really say anything about WHY I enjoyed the
episode, other than my fondness for Tim Curry's work. And it's kind of
hard to pin down precisely. One major reason was that the episode was
very off-format and experimental, which is a quality that has a way of
pulling me into a story (I remember how real "And Now for a Word" made
the world of B5). Obviously that alone wouldn't have made it a great
episode, without the execution being as successful as it was. That's
something that has really impressed me about City of Dreams: the
production values. And the actors have certainly been great.
What drew me in most, however, was perhaps that unique quality of the
best Twilight Zone or EC Comics or Outer Limits installments, the way
things kept falling in place along the way as the story progressed. It
kept my attention all the way through thanks to that quality. First
there was the "Buffering download" thing (I actually restarted
listening to the episode, just to make sure it was supposed to be part
of the dramatic presentation). Then the beginning started a hilarious
exhange between Tim Curry and Tim Curry, suddenly changing to a
WHOLE 'nother story. And while those were the major revelations, I did
not let my guard down for the rest of the episode, paying attention to
every detail, as per the instructions of the narrator.
A beautiful job all round.
-Simo Aaltonen
Jms at B5
>page discussed by the two friends appear in the space where the City of
>Dreams logo appears, when you play these streams, or maybe a separate panel,
>as the dialogue suggested.
We actually considered that, it's something I suggested to Brian, but we
wouldn't have been able to pull it together in time for the webcast.
Jms at B5
>
>WOW. That has a sort of "War of the Worlds" kind of vibe to it, and the Tim
>Curry filler was hilarious!
Thanks...and you'd be surprised at the number of people who emailed me or Brian
asking if we were aware that some folks had cracked the system and could we do
something about it so they could go back to listening to the program....