JMS on Compuserve: October 10, 1995

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: JMS on Compuserve: October 10, 1995
*  1: Oct 10, 1995: The Green Meddler <kilgalen at tde.com>

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From: The Green Meddler <kilgalen at tde.com>
Lines: 147

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A note for internet folks:

compuserve is reorganizing their SF areas, and they have
given B5 equal billing with star trek as "The Two Biggest
Genre Shows Ever!". everybody else has been moved to the
"minor leagues" forum.

purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/  Green Meddler  kilgalen at tde.com   Nathan F. Wallace _/
_/     http://www.webcom.com/~kilgalen/welcome.html     _/
_/     http://www.webcom.com/~kilgalen/nerelon.html     _/
_/    C.I.U.P.K.C. Software -- Unleashing the Power!    _/
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/


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Subj:  12 Steps Program?		Section: Babylon 5
  To:  Anne L. Warner, 71513,1177	Monday, October 09, 1995 1:17:16 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362252

     Michael's kind of stubborn and independent and doesn't generally go in for group sessions.

                                                                       jms


Subj:  Re: B5 Comic			Section: Babylon 5
  To:  Anne L. Warner, 71513,1177	Monday, October 09, 1995 1:17:17 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362253

     Nobody else here is sufficiently crazy to be on-line all the time.

                                                                       jms


Subj:  WOTW: DS9 Imitates B5?		Section: Star Trek
  To:  Jeannette Fornadel, 76371,3057	Monday, October 09, 1995 1:31:21 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362273

     Of course, the one good thing to come out of all this is what I've been saying all along...that the presence of lots 
of SF shows will cause more competition between the shows, with the ultimate beneficiary of this being the audience.

     Case in point: from day one, B5 has always shown the station very busy, with lots of ships going and coming.  
One of the concerns voiced by many DS9 fans, quite logically, was that if this was such a busy station, why did we 
not see any ships docking at the station, a sense of being busy?  Well, finally, we now see the new open to DS9 
where they show a fair number of ships moving in and out.  We've been doing lots of scenes with huge numbers of 
ships dating back to the pilot movie; now in the season debut, they've come to the plate and shown big numbers of 
ships.  Granted that several of the big shots were recycled throughout the course of the episode (watch for the wide 
shot where you see a Klingon ship in front of the crowd moving right to left, for instance), still it's a strong effort.

     Our presence gives them some competition to do more, and as they come up to the plate to do just that, it 
challenges *us* to rise to the occasion as well, so it's a good back-and-forth.

                                                                        jms


Subj:  WOTW: DS9 Imitates B5?		Section: Star Trek
  To:  Jeannette Fornadel, 76371,3057	Monday, October 09, 1995 4:55:06 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362470

     Fred Allen, a man considerably before your time, once observed, "Imitation is the sincerest form of television."

                                                                       jms


Subj:  Shadow Ship Progression		Section: Babylon 5
  To:  Hugh Kennedy, 70042,710		Monday, October 09, 1995 1:31:23 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362274

     The color of the jump gates is kept consistent with the phenomenon of red shift; objects moving away quickly take 
on a red hue, those coming toward you take on a blue aspect.

                                                                       jms


Subj:  B5 Pot Luck Party in NH		Section: Babylon 5
  To:  Anne L. Warner, 71513,1177	Monday, October 09, 1995 5:06:31 PM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#362480

     If you're going to have something this big, with that great a video and audio system, maybe you ought to consider 
holding this one week later for "The Long Twilight Struggle," which benefits hugely from this kind of treatment, and 
will, I suspect, have a much bigger reaction from those attending.  Just a thought....

                                                                       jms


Subj:  Episodes Evaluation		Section: Babylon 5
  To:  John M. Kahane, 102664,773	Tuesday, October 10, 1995 12:49:22 AM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#363120

     Re: craft...it's not any one area per se, really, just a lot of little things.  "Trifles make perfection, and perfection is 
no trifle." Michelangelo.  So I keep trying one technique or another, working to get a little better, or add different tools 
to my toolbox.

     Favorite visual moments?  The last shots in the second major action piece in TLTS (the through the window stuff). 
 The Emperor's fall in CoS. Delenn and Sheridan embracing, and Lennier's exit from the isolation area in C&L.  Some 
of the staging in CtI.

     We just have to continue to get better, and never look back.

                                                                       jms


Subj:  Episodes Evaluation		Section: Babylon 5
  To:  John M. Kahane, 102664,773	Tuesday, October 10, 1995 12:49:24 AM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#363121

     No, "Severed Dreams" is episode #10.

     I think really that "War Prayer" was so thoroughly ruined for me by the direction, as was "Grail," that I can't see 
past that aspect.  We spent hours and hours in the editing room, trying to make those work, and it was a major 
league pain in the butt.

                                                                       jms


Subj:  VOYAGER'S BAD TREK		Section: Star Trek
  To:  Lawrence Roberts, 73200,2174	Tuesday, October 10, 1995 12:50:01 AM
From:  J. Michael Straczynski, 71016,1644#363122

     Absolutely not.  I don't think the audience is facionalized, really; I think there's *plenty* of room for SF, but it has 
to be SF *done well*.

     See, that's the difference in how execs think (if I can use that term); if a cop show dies, they say, "Well, that one 
show didn't work."  If an SF series dies, they say, "There's no market for SF in television."

     I think that the audience can handle lots of SF, if it's quality.

     BTW, though I normally don't have a chance to catch the ST shows, with rare exceptions, I did manage to catch 
tonight's Voyager...and I have to say that this was probably the best I've seen to date.  The dialogue was crisp and 
funny and insightful, the story worked (even though the plot per se was nothing to write home about), the bits 
played...I quite enjoyed it.  I'd love to see them do more of this kind of thing.

                                                                       jms



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