JMS From Usenet Past
Dianne Hackborn
people who hadn't been able to get alt.tv.babylon-5 might enjoy seeing some
of his old posts to that group. These are some of the posts that I saved
from late September until early November last year, before the series had
actually started to air. It should give you an idea of the huge
contribution he has made to the group.
Enjoy! :)
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: A question for Joe
Date: 24 Sep 1993 22:49:49 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
My understanding of ANYthing to do with our CGI is limited and
imperfect at best, but it's my understanding that we are indeed rendering
it at 16:9.
Re: the episodes...thus far we're coming in on time, and on budget,
and our episodes are timing out about right, i.e., we're not having to cut
scenes out altogether, as we did in the pilot. We're using just about
everything we shoot, minus any snippets here and there to pick up the pace
within a scene.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: JMS: "Sky" (Know fear!)
Date: 26 Sep 93 02:13:21 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
"makes me wonder as to the wisdom of releasing shots of what could be
some of the best CGI to come out of (B5)."
Lemme give you a little hint about something.
We didn't let out the best. We let out the *least*. For the very
reasons you specify. And that was done at the very earliest stages of CGI
work on the series.
It gets far, far, FAR cooler than that.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Design flaws of the B5 station
Date: 28 Sep 93 22:48:16 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Y'know, the only thing that bothers me about these discussions is
when something becomes a "flaw" because it's not how someone else might
do it.
I've gone over your message, and frankly, what you say is a flaw is
NOT a flaw. It's the most logical approach we could come up with. You
use the zero-G cargo bay for huge, heavy objects and crates and god knows
what where you need weightlessness. People don't weigh very much. You
also don't have to worry about pumping in air in most cases; you can
leave it fairly open, let the ships dock nearby, shuttle in the cargo
right into the top bay, and move on.
You say that it's hard to dock in the center because it's moving,
but I'd point out that in space, EVERYTHING is moving. Even to dock in
or use the zero-G area, a ship has to stop and orient itself to that
area. Everything in space is moving relative to everything else. There
isn't much difference involved for the approaching ship.
When a ship enters the regular bay, it moves further in and is in
essence "grabbed" and lowered into any of a number of various docking and
cargo bays. The deeper the cargo bay, the more gravity. So you can
adjust as you go. Also, this way, instead of having what is in essence
one big garage (the zero-G cargo bay), you can shunt ships off by their
category (civilian vs. military, alien vs. human atmosphere) to the
appropriate bays. You don't have to worry about shuttling people through
zero-G once they leave their ships; they're in atmosphere, and on the
"ground," where they can then get into a proper line to go through
customs. It's a *controlled environment*, which is what you want in a
customs area, not everybody floating around everywhichway.
There are another half-dozen reasons why it's constructed this way,
but those are the primary ones. So frankly, I have to disagree with you:
it is most definitely NOT a design flaw. And not to be persnickety, but
before classifying something a "flaw" in a message, you might consider
next time asking why something is the way it is. If I can answer your
question logically, then it's not a flaw. If I can't, then it is. (Ditto
to just going on this as an assumption that it IS a flaw, and then asking
for additional, as though this were simply a given. It isn't.)
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: The Planet/Writer's guidelines
Date: 29 Sep 93 01:43:11 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Yes, the nearby planet will eventually figure into the storyline. No,
I cannot currently tell you how.
We're not sure when the writer's guidelines will become available.
We still have to work out the dynamic on that to figure out how to avoid
getting swamped. When I worked on the syndicated Twilight Zone, we got
something in excess of 3,000 spec submissions...and my suspicion is that
if we're successful, that would double. (And that 3,000 figure was just
for one season.) We have to figure out how to create a situation that
will create manageable numbers, or we'll be swamped, and nobody will get a
fair shot because they'll be lost in the white noise.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Design flaws of the B5 sta
Date: 29 Sep 93 07:53:35 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
It's hard to get a sense of scale from that docking bay sometimes,
which is something we'll be addressing, to give a better idea of it...but
for purposes of scale, you could dock several aircraft carriers or about
two Enterprises in the size of that docking bay entrance.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: E! show question about ship ID
Date: 30 Sep 93 10:57:48 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
The ship you see performing the rescue in the E! clips is one of
the B5 fighters, located in their own docking bays in the station within
the cobra-like arms you see on the sides of the forward part of the
station (and hence nicknamed cobra bays).
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Filming Episodes Out of Order
Date: 30 Sep 93 20:27:48 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
There's absolutely no problem with the actors in terms of continuity
because of shooting the season finale midway through the run. First and
foremost, again because this is a novel for television, the basic stories
for the whole season are already written, and thus all of our actors know
where they're going for this season. Much as this is a straight line,
everything in TV is out of order. You generally don't shoot an episode
in sequence, for instance...you often shoot the last scene first, the
first scene in the middle, and the middle in the beginning. Actors have
to be able do adjust to that sort of thing, and they do so.
Also, in terms of being familiar with their characters...again, that
is very much at their disposal. We don't have the luxury of taking a
full season to start to establish our characters. We have to hit the
ground running right from ground zero. We'll be expanding our characters
as we go, but again, nearly all of that currently exists in the B5 season
one bible, which goes into considerable background history on all of the
characters, and spells out in broad strokes what will be happening to them
in this first season. As a result of all this, our actors have been able
to hit their stride almost from the first frame.
It ain't no kind of problem.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: The Planet/Writer's guidel
Date: 30 Sep 93 20:28:14 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
There's one other aspect to consider in all of this, though. In a
way, Trek has created a false image of how a TV show operates. What I'm
about to say should not be taken as a slam at Trek...it isn't. This is
simply the truth, this is what they do. Sometimes it sounds less than
politic to say it, though....
Trek is constantly scrounging for new stories...for new ideas because
to some extent they've run out of ideas (at least, ideas that can be
allowable within the ST universe...their exec, Jeri Taylor, is probably
one of the very best writer/producers in town, and she could rip the lid
off that show if they'd let her). They've embraced/encouraged spec
scripts from anyone and everyone just to get stuff in the pipeline.
Compounding this is the fact that they're operating in 25 years of
history, meaning there's a lot they can't do for fear of repitition.
You have to understand...we don't have that problem.
At this juncture, if I so desired, I could close the front door to
the office, and never hire a freelance writer because *this story is a
NOVEL for television*. It's the story I want to tell. And each and
every episode has been sketched out already for a full five year run. If
you're putting together a collection of unrelated short stories, then you
solicit stuff all over the place. But if you're writing a novel, do you
ask people to submit ideas or stories? This show doesn't operate like
Trek...or like just about any OTHER show, for that matter. It's very
unique in that respect.
What I'm doing, however, is making sure that we employ freelance
writers for a minimum of 50% of our episodes. Most shows are almost
entirely staff written, by contrast. So far, though, all but one of our
freelance scripts work off stories I've developed and assigned to them,
as part of the overall arc of Babylon 5. This gets the writer in tune
with our show, so that they can then come up with their own stories and
I can free up that slot in the novel, or replace a less strong story with
a stronger one, thus strengthening the series overall.
When we start looking at specs, it won't be to look for ideas. Many
of those I've spoken to who've written spec Trek scripts don't really
consider themselves scriptwriters; their hope is to sell the basic idea,
get the credit, a little money, and so on. The only reason for looking at
spec scripts would be to find the very best *SF scriptwriters*, new or
established, who get our characters and the dialogue, to whom we could
then assign a story.
People shouldn't treat this show the same way as Trek; no other
series operates like that show does. Whether that's good or bad is
anybody's guess. All I can say is how *this* show works. We will
continue to do as much as we can to be open to new writers...one of our
writers this season has only written one other produced live-action
episode, and another has no live-action credits...but there are limits to
our resources, and our approach. We can't afford to field a huge reading
staff, and don't need one. It's just not the same kind of show.
Working this all out will require a solution of near Solomonic
proportions...but it will be worked out somehow.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Filming Episodes Out of Or
Date: 1 Oct 93 02:59:17 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
It never ceases to astonish me how, when there's not a problem, people
insist on fabricating them....
First and foremost, every series shoots its episodes out of order to
varying degrees. Second, it is our decision to shoot 22 early because, as
I stated originally, it's going to require some considerable post
production/CGI, and the sooner that gets started, the better. Also, some
of our actors will be briefly unavailable during the holiday period, so
we're trying to shoot the episodes that use those actors earlier, so that
we can shoot the episodes that don't need those actors when they're off
on vacation, then pick up the last few that involve those actors upon
their return.
And it's not a "finale"...it's not designed to tie things up, but
rather to open up a WHOLE lot of questions, kick over some tables, and
make for one hell of a cliffhanger.
Honestly...you people get worried by the damndest things sometimes....
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Filming Episodes Out of Or
Date: 2 Oct 1993 00:19:46 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
There's one thing to remember in all of these discussions; this is
something that came up very early on, when I was almost exclusively on
GEnie, and has been shown to be true over the year-plus that this dialogue
has been going on. Granted that there may be some small publicity value
to my participation in all of this; from my perspective, the chief benefit
is the exchange of information, a demonstration of respect for those who
enjoy SF media, and the goal of providing a real behind-the-scenes look at
how a show is done, for whatever help this may be to others thinking of
working in television.
Consequently, this conversation can't be reduced to puff pieces. If
and when there is a problem, you won't HAVE to hear it on a rumor, you'll
hear it first right here, from me. This happened before, during and
after the pilot's production and broadcast. When there have been hassles,
complications or other troubles, I've tried to address them head-on, and
in so doing, illuminate the process a little for those looking on.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Filming Episodes Out of Or
Date: 2 Oct 1993 17:27:55 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
The reason you don't generally hear about shows shooting episode 22
at number 12 is that most series don't know where they're going for the
length of their season. They're individual stories, rather than an overall
vision for a whole season at a time. That is what makes B5 different, and
what makes what would otherwise be a huge and expensive SF series
manageable from a fiscal point of view.
Because we know what stories we'll be shooting for the whole season,
it lets us budget and adjust in ways no other show really can. If we can
only make a deal with X-actor for a limited period of time because he or
she has to go off and make a movie, but we WANT X-actor because he or she
is best for the part, we can push those episodes together and write and
shoot them together for production purposes, and then air them later in
the correct story sequence. If we know we're going to be using X set --
a very big and expensive set that takes up a lot of room -- in certain
episodes, but not in others, we make it a point to try and shoot them
back to back. We're able to look ahead and match a certain kind of
story with a certain kind of director, rather than being haphazard about
it. (I.e., even though it's not written yet, we know that story 11 will
be a big action piece, and X-director is *great* on action, so we'll slot
him in for that one, and use Y-director, who's good with smaller, more
intimate stories, for episode 10.)
If we're not doing things the way you're accustomed to...then as far
as I'm concerned, we're doing our job. We're trying hard to redefine how
you do a TV series, particularly in SF, if you approach it as a novel
rather than as a series of disconnected stories.
And if I seemed to come down hard, it was to squelch this asap. I've
been on systems long enough to know how this works: person A says, "Gee,
I'm worried, this could be a problem." Then person B reads it, and passes
onto another system, "Some guy over on Internet who knows this stuff says
this could be a problem," after which it turns up on Compuserve as "Word
going around says there's a problem." And suddenly you've got ten zillion
people asking you what the problem is, what you're going to do about it,
when there IS no problem. I've seen this happen again and again. So when
I see it, I figure the best way to handle it is to just come back with the
facts.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Filming Episodes Out of Or
Date: 3 Oct 1993 01:21:03 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
What you say is essentially correct...now that the actors can see
where they're going to be by season's end, it definitely colors their
performance, and adds layers of foreshadowing that aren't even scripted,
but which come out almost subliminally. It heightens things nicely, and
adds depth to the portrayals.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Little niggle with the pilot..
Date: 3 Oct 1993 00:50:51 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We've totally redesigned the breather units to cover the eyes and
face, and expanded the surgical scrubs to include the full body.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Filming Episodes Out of Or
Date: 6 Oct 1993 00:58:47 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
I honestly haven't yet heard the final PR plans for B5. The studio
was up until just a little bit ago mainly concentrating on promoting the
new fall season. They've just finished that, and are drawing a breath
before plunging into the January stuff. I hope to know more soon, though.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: * New season shot 16x9?
Date: 8 Oct 1993 16:01:18 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Yes, the series is being shot in letterbox aspect ratio, but until
HDTV is more of a standard, it'll be broadcast using the conventional
ratio. For those of us who've invested in solid entertainment systems and
good-sized TVs, we forget sometimes that most sets in use out there are
18" or thereabouts, and letterbox just makes the picture too small for
most viewers to handle. Once HDTV becomes more the standard, then it'll
be broadcast in that aspect ratio. However, on the theory that those who
buy laserdisks are better set-up for that kind of picture, it's my
understanding that the laserdisks of B5 the series will be in letterbox
format.
Re: Tamlyn Tomita...several things you have to understand. You can
have 8 really great actors, who all perform wonderfully individually, but
sometimes the result is more than, or less than, the sum of its parts. In
an ensemble like B5, you have to look at what kind of synergy is generated
by your cast. We felt strongly that the result didn't really reflect the
individual talents of our cast. Tamlyn's a terrific performer...and she
wasn't entirely happy with her performance. It's not the kind of role she
is really used to playing. Which is not to say that at some point she
might not return to the show in a different capacity....
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: JMS: Music, Sky, etc.
Date: 9 Oct 1993 20:19:29 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Zocalo is a word of, I believe, South American origin for the Grand
Plaza, or central plaza...what in the States we'd call a mall, or a
shopping center. It's the area in B5 where you have shops, booths, some
food and drinks, that sort of thing. As I've said before, in the B5
universe, we're *all* going to the stars, and we've worked in stuff from
other cultures along the way to bolster that aspect. I look forward to
incorporating other elements from South American, Chinese, African and
other cultures as we go.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Question: Continuity between P
Date: 12 Oct 1993 21:18:58 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Where possible, we're trying to fold production changes into the
shows in terms of dialogue without getting bogged down in it. At some
point I'd like some character to comment that he wishes they'd stop
changing everything around here...bad as digging up the streets. My sense
has always been -- and this includes the pilot -- that B5 is still more or
less unfinished, there are sections still uninhabited, incomplete, so
they're still working to get it right. (They blew all their budget on B4,
so B5 is having to scrape by with less.) What happened in the pilot is
still canon; that we may or may not choose to use something in future,
such as the privacy mode, does not mean that it didn't exist, or that it
doesn't exist. Only that we may not need to use it. IF at some point in
time there was an absolute crying need for a privacy mode, we'd probably
use the block mode rather than the lights, but as of this time, there's
been no such need in any of our scenes for that.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: One more "NO" for B5
Date: 12 Oct 1993 19:01:41 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
I *hate* evil twin stories, and have never let them near ANY series
I've ever worked on, let alone B5. Feh.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Replies to JMS
Date: 12 Oct 1993 23:24:00 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
At one point in the series, to note the now-vanished Babylon 4, we're
going to have somebody just standing in deep background wearing a T-Shirt
that reads, "My Mother Visited Babylon 4 And All I Got Was This Crummy
T-Sh
We're a sick bunch, but we're fun.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Replies to JMS
Date: 13 Oct 1993 03:58:39 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Let me just dive into this whole telepath thing, which you keep
bringing up as something that you feel doesn't belong in an SF series. I
strongly disagree (obviously, since it's in B5). The problem with most
uses of telepathy in TV SF is that it hasn't been done very well; it's
either couched in mysticism or used as a deus ex machina. Telepathy has
had a long and distinguished history as a subject of *quality* SF, right
up to and including Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man," arguably the
best book ever written on the subject.
What no one has done in TV, and what I want to do, is to ask the
next question, which is what SF is all about. Because if, in reality, we
discovered tomorrow that there actually were provable telepaths among us,
you can bet your bottom dollar that there would be laws passed about it
the very next day, in every courthouse and congress around. Questions of
privacy, of criminal prosecution, of lifestyle, of regulation, all these
and more get raised by that particular spectre. And that is something I
very definitely want to explore in B5...it's not just a throwaway, it's
something that we will discover after a while is *central* to something
that's going on in the B5 universe.
It's no more or less fantastic than jump gates and Vorlons, and there
is room to explore how we as a people would react to something like this.
And that is what SF is *for* at its best.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Replies to JMS
Date: 14 Oct 1993 04:58:42 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Actually, there's very little in the B5 telepathy issue that comes
anywhere near Bester's; I brought that up only as an example of how it
can be, and has been treated well in fiction. The notion of telepaths
banding together has shown up in *lots* of different books and stories,
though arguably Bester's is one of the best. (One difference, fo
instance, cited earlier, is that in Bester's book, psi's can't testify in
court...in the B5 universe they can, but only under *very* restrictive
conditions.)
As someone with degrees in clinical psychology and sociology, I've
been noodling around with the sociological impact of psi's for a long
time now, and figure this is the place to work it out. (And no, there
won't be any instances of magic qua magic on B5. It has to be somehow
explainable; even if it's extremely high tech that *looks* like magic,
one has to be able to come up with a possible rational explanation.)
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: telepaths
Date: 14 Oct 1993 21:13:43 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
To answer your questions in detail would be to give out major plot
points from the B5 series, and I'm loathe to do that. Thus, I'll only
answer some of the questions, and in no more than one sentence each.
Yes, a psi can go undetected, but generally not forever. Some say
the Psi Cops are witch-hunters, some think otherwise. Breeding is
generally arranged. It is possible to have a schizoid telepath. The
Psi Cops can function as lie detectors. Psi Cops are telepaths, rated
P12, the highest level admitted level of telepath. They are part of
a guild, with some government regulation, though that's fuzzy. They do
not have the same rights as other citizens -- most have fewer rights than
other citizens, a few have more -- and the different races handle their
telepaths in different ways.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: a question for jms
Date: 16 Oct 93 01:53:04 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Interesting that your tagline should be a line from Tennyson's
"Ulysses," which is a poem we often cite in the course of B5; both in the
pilot, and again in "The Parliament of Dreams."
There's a fairly detailed past history of the B5 universe, which we
are even now in the process of refining and putting into real order. When
we've done this, it'll be more available. But we're already working on
it, and most of it is already in place (of necessity, since we sometimes
have elements from the past catching up with us, and we need to be fairly
consistent in terms of what happened when, and where.)
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: "The Gathering" Novel
Date: 17 Oct 93 09:18:52 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Thanks. That a lot of people are looking forward to the series is
one reason I'm trying desperately *not* to over-hype this thing. What
happens in that case if you're not careful is that everyone starts to
overlay the show with what would be their dream SF series...and there's no
way it can be that to all people, at all times, in all places. All we can
really focus on is doing the best show we can...and I think that we've got
something very special.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Better than DSN?
Date: 18 Oct 93 04:19:04 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Insofar as I know, the series will be marketed as SF. And that's
the show we're giving them.
Interestingly, it's come back around to me, through channels, that
some of the changes at those other shows are due at least in part to the
concern about B5. It's prodding them into doing stories that are more
active, and more character based. Which the writers have been asking for
for a long time now. Which is something I've felt from the start, that
this genre *needs* some competition to make it stay fresh, to force each
show to make better stories.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Things that make you go "The H
Date: 19 Oct 93 09:17:48 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Laurel was not being altogether honest, and was helping to cover
the activities of the person who was doing the assassination attempt.
(This, again, is a thread that would've come clear had we kept that
character; nobody was supposed to figure it out going in, but rather put
it together over time.)
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Substance use in B5 universe?
Date: 19 Oct 1993 19:58:03 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We will be dealing with the drugs issue, but it's something that I
want to circle for a while and set up properly before dealing with. I
think certain elements would have changed by 2258, some more permissive,
others more restrictive, and to understand how they function within the
culture, I first think you have to set up how the culture works. So it's
definitely on our list of things to play with, but understand that like
everything else of note that we're dealing with in this show, we're not
going to do a "drugs are bad for you" story, or a "we should all get
along and play nice" episode, or "we're all equal under the skin" story.
My feeling is that if you haven't figured out that stuff by now, no TV
show is going to teach it to you. Those topics should be something we
bounce a story off of, rather than making it the entirety of a story, the
way you bank a cue ball off the edge of a pool table to come at your target
from a different angle. We don't generally come at *anything* dead on
around here.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Scenes _we know_ we'll NEV
Date: 19 Oct 1993 20:05:20 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We are, from time to time, implementing some pretty scary or unusual
looking aliens. In "Infection" there's a full-body prosthetic that's
pretty impressive, and the insectoid character, n'grath, appears in many
of our episodes (also a full-body prosthetic with animatronics and radio
controlled stuff). Personally, even though (or possibly because) he's
fairly humanoid, I have found the 2nd soul hunter in the episode of the
same name to be the creepiest of our aliens to date. Very believable.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Things that make you go "T
Date: 20 Oct 93 04:52:18 GMT
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We'd originally planned to go for a more vague sexuality for Delenn;
a male physically and primarily in the voice, on top of the natural
female movements one gets from an actress. In post-production, however,
we couldn't get the voice to sound as good and male as we'd wanted. In
addition, a couple of convention showing of a rough cut saw people
responding VERY strongly to her voice as it was, so we finally decided to
let it stand and change the one reference to "he" to "she," and that was
the end of it.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Detective Work: Joe, can you c
Date: 21 Oct 1993 19:49:07 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We were going to have a CGI creature in the bar at one point, but
vetoed it at the last minute. So it's not there. However, a CGI
character/alien/critter does play a substantive on-camera role in one
episode this season entitled "Grail."
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Substance use in B5 univer
Date: 22 Oct 1993 14:29:40 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Laurel was not standing upside down in relation to the station's
rotation. The docking bay, at the center of the station, for zero-g, was
above her head, her feet pointed down, toward the rim of the station, in
correct orientation. Just FYI.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Centauri
Date: 25 Oct 1993 15:44:05 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Our dealings with the Centauri prior to the Earth-Minbari War were
primarily economic and cultural, with some technological elements sold to
us as well. They have no interest in getting into a war, especiall on
behalf of someone else. They were primarily foot-draggers during the war,
selling some stuff to us as needed, but generally not doing anything the
Minbari would get annoyed by. In particular, they didn't sell us any
weaponry. It was, oddly enough, the Narns who sold us many of the weapons
technology we used in the war...stuff they'd captured from the Centauri
during their own revolution. The Narns needed the money, and need to
forge an alliance with the EA, however tentative.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: JMS: Lots of good info. ;)
Date: 29 Oct 1993 01:11:30 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Actually, I'm rather abashed to say that I've never actually *read*
anything by C.J. Cherryh. Over the years I've found I have less and less
time for reading, and thus focus in generally on authors I've known for a
long time...if then. There was a time when I read a *minimum* of 20 books
per year, but I haven't read a full novel (though having started many)
in nearly all of the past year. Some nonfiction books, yes, sometimes for
research, sometimes just curiousity (just finished "Secret Ceremonies,"
one woman's adventures in mormonism), but no novels.
Anyway...also no plans at this time for any scripts from there. I'm
trying to focus in on hybrid SF writers, who've done both scripts and
books, to save the learning curve of teaching a prose writer script form.
It can be done, and I'd like to try it in the second season, but we have
to really hit the ground running in year one.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Why Sinclair?
Date: 27 Oct 1993 21:47:25 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
There are many people in the Earth Alliance who are asking the same
question: why Sinclair? Why a *commander*, below a Captain in rank, to
helm something as important as B5, rather than an Admiral, or someone of
higher position? Why Sinclair, who was on the fast-track up to the time of
the war, only to suddenly and abruptly fall off the promotions merry go
round?
They are all very good questions...and if I answered them here, I
might as well go ahead and can the whole first season....
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Why Sinclair?
Date: 28 Oct 1993 03:33:54 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
As will be discussed to some degree in "Grail," B1-B3 were sabotaged
during construction, long before being completed. B4 was the only station
completed when it vanished. Various degrees of this will play a role in
the storyline.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Telepathy in B5
Date: 27 Oct 1993 22:32:44 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Regarding the Psi Corps news broadcast you noticed...yes, that is a
very small clue to something. You'll find out what in an episode titled
"Mind War."
I've said before that we're telling stories on two levels; there's a
third as well that slips in. These are things that you're not SUPPOSED to
really notice or even think about until some point down the road, if you
happen to have watched several more episodes, and you look at the early
ones again, suddenly (as with your noticing of the broadcast) some things
that you swear you never saw suddenly snap into focus, the way you can
look at a picture for a long time, and not see the design until you back
up a bit and, once you can see all of it, the details come clear.
So from time to time, I drop in little things, a phrase, an
unfinished sentence, a news item, stuff that people will assume is just
background or filler...until later. In a way, it's a little like being
an illusionist. It makes the writing just that much more challenging,
because at no time can you ever let that get in the way of a person's
enjoyment of one episode totally on its own. It's just flavoring; those
who've been paying attention will get it; those who haven't, it won't
bother in the least.
It's something Delenn says in "Soul Hunter," something in a headline
in Universe Today in "Sky," bits and pieces that just seem like wallpaper
-- for now.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: UFO
Date: 28 Oct 1993 06:40:55 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
The two primary means of transport within B5 are the transport
tubes (like elevators, from level to level) and the core shuttle, which
runs the length of B5 through the garden/central core area.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Alien quarters a zoo on B5?
Date: 28 Oct 1993 16:58:13 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
First, we decided that wasn't a right look for the alien sector, and
that's the corridor we blew up at the end. But the reason it was designed
that way is important. Your reaction -- don't the aliens have any
privacy? -- is a very human, and specifically a very *western* point of
view. Our feeling at the time was, why should alien quarters look at all
like human quarters? Shouldn't they have a different perspective than
typical Western-style hotels? (In some degree, the quarters were
patterned after Japanese mini-hotels, where you get basically a slightly
larger coffin-like setup, which you crawl into like a torpedo tube, with
a window at one end, which has a curtain, a TV over your head, and so on.
What we discovered is that many people ask for more alien aliens, but
when we delivered on that, were asked why these things weren't more like
what we expect, why aren't they like human quarters? It's really a
losing battle.)
The other point on this is that if you look closely, there are back
areas accessible to residents, which can in particular be seen in the
insectoid/antennae'd character's quarters. The idea was that it would be
sort of a front porch, where for lack of much else to do, you'd sit out
on the porch, watching the passing parade.
But the reaction was less than favorable, we had to keep explaining
that this proceeds from an alien POV, and so our alien quarters are more
like human quarters now, minus the alternate atmosphere stuff. I'm still
not quite sure what to think of this.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: SF/X in Space
Date: 30 Oct 1993 01:43:00 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
We've found that what works best is to play primarily music as our
space action/sound bed, overlaying just a tad with tonalities that aren't
sound effects per se in most cases, but more sound cues that suggest a
particular effect.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Various Short Subjects
Date: 30 Oct 1993 22:17:00 -0400
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Too much to really delve into -- 57 letters in my box right now -- but
to comment quickly: the techs in the observation dome tend to rotate in
and out, with only a couple repeating. They're meant to be fairly
anonymous. At some point we may decide to develop this a bit, but as of
now we have 14 regular and recurring characters, not counting the usual
roster of guest stars, and that's a lot to focus on for now.
The one thing that I dropped fairly completely due to the delay in
getting the series going was the Laurel thread, which has now mutated and
become something even more interesting, actually. It's something that's
enabled me to now build in a trap door that you won't see for a long time,
even though it's sitting there in plain sight.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Different aliens in B5?
Date: 31 Oct 1993 01:44:45 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
There were no asymmetrical aliens in the pilot, but there's a real
dandy coming your way in the B5 episode "Grail." You want nonhumanoid
aliens, you *got* non-humanoid aliens....
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: JMS! How is Chris' work progr
Date: 31 Oct 1993 04:36:30 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Chris Franke's work has been wonderful. (Got the magazine finally,
btw.) Stylistically, it's all over the place, which is what we wanted;
synth, orchestral, multi-cultural, experimental, you name it, at some
point we've got it. Because it's a multi-cultural show, with non-human
points of view, we've freed up Chris to do pretty much anything he wants,
and go as far as he wants. We should have a clearer idea on the main
title theme in the next week or so.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: promo for season one in rebroa
Date: 31 Oct 1993 04:39:24 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
I haven't seen the promo footage, so actually have no idea who you're
referring to in the extra alien shot. My guess is it's just one of our
many supporting aliens; we have the B5 Advisory Council (Earth, Minbari,
Narns, Centauri and Vorlons), and the League of Non-
Aligned Worlds, representing the rest, and there are about a dozen or so
of those, so it may be one of those.
Don't know when fighter models will come out; so far there's no deal
set that I'm aware of. And that's not really something I see as a
priority; there's too much emphasis on merchandising in SF-TV and not
nearly enough on telling a story. That's where I want to keep my focus.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Trek vs. B5
Date: 31 Oct 1993 21:01:57 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Let me just, against my better wishes, dive in here for just a
moment on this discussion. Especially as it relates to your slam against
the characters and characterizations on B5.
People keep comparing the B5 pilot to either the DS9 pilot or the
TNG pilot, often favorably, sometimes less so, but the reality is that the
B5 pilot had to suffer under a burden shared by neither of those two other
shows: establishing a whole new universe, especially given that the B5
story is more of a political/action piece in which you really have to
understand where everyone's coming from. By the time they got around to
making the TNG pilot, just about everyone knew what a Klingon was, what
the Federation was, what phasers and teleporters were...this was all
established cultural coin. When Jay Leno would make jokes about Klingons
on the Carson show (which it still was back then), he didn't have to
explain it to anyone. There's 25 years of shared history informing the
story. Same in DS9Thus in neither pilot was that much
really or substantially *new* introduced, they didn't have to create the
universe from scratch.
But that was exactly what was necessary for B5; the relationship
between the five various governments is important to understanding the
characters, and the show...as is the recent Earth/Minbari war, which isn't
just backstory, it's something that will grow to play an increasingly
important role in the series as time passes. So there had to be time
spent establishing each of those relationships, the political backstory,
on and on. In addition, we had 9 major characters to introduce along with
the minor players. AND we had to tell a fairly complex story within that
framework.
After you allocate tthe history of the B5 universe, for the
establishment of the plot, for the establishment of who our various
players are in relation to one another, you've got -- at MOST -- 3 minutes
left per character out of a 92 minute movie. You can't establish a lot of
character in 3 minutes.
Which is what strikes me as unfair in this conversation. You're
trying to compare 25-30 years of ST in its various incarnations, with its
delivery of characterization over A WEEKLY SERIES to a single introductory
TV movie of 92 minutes.
Plus, the pilot was never meant to be a stand-alone; it was meant to
get all the pieces moving, introduce us, and follow up the very next week
with *character-oriented stories*. That was always the plan. Had I known
that it would be aired by itself, with a long delay until the series, I
would have totally restructured it to make it more of a character story,
and held off on the heavy background stuff until later. And in addition
to THAT, I again point to the 25 minutes of good character stuff that ended
up on the cutting room floor because we were over, some of which has been
shown to people at conventions. Some of them also felt as you do. They
saw the extra footage. And their reaction: "Oh, so THAT'S who that is!"
And their opinions of the characters did a fast turnaround.
So what I'm saying here, fundamentally, is this: let's compare apples
to apples and not apples to oranges. You can't compare B5 to either TNG's
or DS9's pilots, because they operated in pre-existing universes. You
can't compare the level of character you get in a series to a TV movie,
because one is 92 minutes long, the other is 22 hours long times the number
of seasons run.
If you want to compare things, and that's certainly your right, may I
suggest a moratorium on this entire discussion until the series comes on
the air? That will allow you to compare series to series, which seems just
a tad fairer to me. Any seconds?
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: A (trivial) suggestion
Date: 1 Nov 1993 02:48:23 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Happily, we're doing that; the bartender is generally the same, we
have a recurring character as one of the techs in the observation dome,
some of our security people are repeaters, and so on.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Trek vs. B5
Date: 2 Nov 1993 05:31:14 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
One thing we're trying to do on B5 in this respect is to really use
three-dimensional space, on the full x-y-z axis for ship movements and
the like. Opens up all kinds of wonderful opportunities.
jms
From: strac...@genie.geis.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.babylon-5
Subject: Re: Trek vs. B5
Date: 2 Nov 1993 06:13:50 -0500
Organization: VT News/Mail Gateway
Thanks. The process has sometimes not been easy. More often than
not, one runs into fairly blunt opinions. But that's part of the process.
Many people I know in the TV or film business have tried to maintain such
a line, and just get turned off or insulted and go away. Or they come in
briefly to get the PR invovled, a la "Sneakers," and then they're gone. A
few stay...George Martin, others. And sometimes it's very hard to take it
on the chin from someone you've never met, who's just called something you
worked on for five years "crap" and sometimes for reasons that are more in
the perception than the reality (such as the internet user who flamed me
for using wrist links when it's clearly established that in the future we
will all be using chest-communicators a la TNG, and thus every time I used
our links it broke the illusion for him)....
But in the long run, it's been, and continues to be more of a positive
experience than a negative one. Because some of the criticisms have merit,
and need to be addressed. Other times, hard questions get asked, and I
have to sit down and really think about this character or that situation,
and in doing so, those answers end up helping the show. Every day, I find
anywhere from 30-60 messages in my GEnie box, most of them Internet relays,
and it's like opening a puzzle box...you're never entirely sure what you're
going to find inside.
And most of the messages are informed, and literate, and challenging,
which is the part I enjoy most. As for the rest...my sense is this: a long
time ago, when we began this journey -- and I've been on-line talking about
B5 on the nets for several *years* now -- the one thing that was foremost
in my mind was the sense that SF media fans are probably the most exploited
such fans around. They're expected to be cash cows who line up and buy
the products, no talking or shoving in the lines, and for god's sake no
questions or hassle. They're often valued for as long as they continue to
buy the merchandise. Every year, producers who don't know SF, and don't
know fandom, and really don't care, trundle out their shows as the Next
Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, raise a lot of attention...and when the show
turns into crap, they're suddenly nowhere to be found.
When the pilot aired, I stuck around. And I'll do all I can to stick
around while the series is airing. (The only glitches may be when I'm hip
deep in production.) This is my audience, and I feel that one should be
responsive and receptive to one's audience, and not run out when things get
uncomfortable. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it. See, the
thing is, I *am* a fan, and I've *been* a fan, from a kid growing up on
Bradbury and Clarke and Tolkein and Doc Smith to the present...I've sat in
the audience and listened to those aforementioned producers at conventions
and waited, only to be disappointed.
And when the time came to do B5, I swore that I'd try and do it
differently...that there would be an ongoing dialogue with the viewers of
the show, that we'd listen and be responsive and not just exploit, and if
we didn't have answers to the hard questions then by god we'd go and we'd
GET the answers. Or look like idiots. Because it's the fans who keep
this medium alive, and to ingore that aspect seems to me inappropriate.
jms
-------------------------------------------------------
Dianne Kyra Hackborn "It's queer, queer fun
hac...@xanth.cs.orst.edu for you and me!"
BIX: dhack / IRC: Dianne
Oregon State University -- Two Nice Girls
Dan Wood
I should point out that if people want MORE, just do the anonymous ftp
thing from ftp.hyperion.com. It has pretty much all the GEnie and Usenet
archives (including March's, if I can anthropomorphize a month, and get
my collection in order, so you may need to wait a few days).
The're _very_ informative and entertaining. If you read over them enough,
you _will_ become a B5 expert! :)
--
---------------------------- :Hairdo:Gold and Blue:what's new:apercu:kangaroo:
Dan Wood, dan...@netcom.com :Have some spoo:tried and true:void foo ( ):guru:
---------------------------- :Tom Vu:a whole slew:The New Number 2:get a clue!
Troy A.. Rutter
>
>The're _very_ informative and entertaining. If you read over them enough,
>you _will_ become a B5 expert! :)
So then YOU TOO can memorize useless facts like the Babylon 5 baseball team
beating the SeaQuest team 2-0... the B5 team all had the number 5 on the back
of their jerseys.
Oh yeah... and something about Enya-like music or something?
And what was that about Tom Servo?
Egads! I need a break.
--
-Troy Rutter, Project Vincent, Iowa State University
PSI-Corps Council of Elders
Babylon 5 Librarian
Colin Sebastian Roald
> jms writes:
> >from a different angle. We don't generally come at *anything* dead on
> >around here.
> "Infection."
yeah, and this is why he's said that "Infection" was his least favourite
episode to date.
--
colin | we all want to be big stars, but we don't know why and we don't know
roald | how / but when everybody loves me, i'm going to be just as happy as can
be / mr. jones and me, we're gonna be big stars.. (counting crows)
David Hines
>understand that like
>everything else of note that we're dealing with in this show, we're not
>going to do a "drugs are bad for you" story, or a "we should all get
>along and play nice" episode, or "we're all equal under the skin" story.
>My feeling is that if you haven't figured out that stuff by now, no TV
>show is going to teach it to you. Those topics should be something we
>bounce a story off of, rather than making it the entirety of a story, the
>way you bank a cue ball off the edge of a pool table to come at your target
>from a different angle. We don't generally come at *anything* dead on
>around here.
"Infection."