JMS on CompuServe (Dec 29, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Sun Dec 29 14:31:30 EST 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE
RESPECTIVE MESSAGE AUTHORS AND CANNOT BE
REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPRESSED
PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
Note that JMS has expressed his public permission
that all of his messages may be reproduced freely.
I give permission for my summaries to be reposted in
any form, however I reserve all rights to them and
the right to revoke this permission at any time.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Archives of this material may be found at:
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #631328-I own ST B5 MicroMachine
Sb: #631630-#G'Kar's monologue
Sb: #631644-Another Happy Fan
Sb: #631692-Lorien's waiting
Sb: #631714-#Message to Great Maker
[ Summary: Comments on finding a Babylon 5 Micromachines set packaged in a
Star Trek Micromachines package. ]
#: 631650 S5/Babylon 5: General
28-Dec-96 19:47:50
Sb: #631328-I own ST B5 MicroMachine
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
A B5 product in a ST box should be left intact...I suspect that it will
be worth several times what any other such MicroMac will go for in a very few
years, as is generally the case with error packages.
jms
[ Summary: Rewatched "Z'Ha'Dum" and wanted to tell JMS how much she loved the
closing monologue by G'Kar/Andreas Katsulas. ]
#: 631653 S5/Babylon 5: General
28-Dec-96 20:14:25
Sb: #631630-#G'Kar's monologue
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks...I'm very proud of that little bit of writing, and Andreas'
performance is terrific.
jms
#: 631644 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
28-Dec-96 19:31:29
Sb: #Another Happy Fan
Fm: RICHARD E. COUTURE
Joe:
A friend sent me this. She mover reciently and couldent watch B5. She is
catching up on re-runs. Just want to forward this to you.
Rich
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ONLY reason I got online tonight was becaue I just had to write WOW WHAT A
TERRIFIC SHOW! TALK ABOUT TIGHT KNIT SCRIPTING AND SUSPENSE! Did you notice
it was directed by Adam Nimoy - any relation do you think?
I CAN"T WAIT TILL NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! It's SO good. I'm not taping over this one... Damn,
I've been missing all this, but it just keeps getting better and better!
Glo
#: 631654 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
28-Dec-96 20:14:27
Sb: #631644-Another Happy Fan
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
That's great, and tell her that yes, Adam is Leonard's son.
jms
[ Summary: Asks just how Sheridan managed to be the first one to reach
Lorien. ]
#: 631699 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
29-Dec-96 00:06:31
Sb: #631692-Lorien's waiting
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Why does anyone end up in the right place, at the right time, to change
the world...for good or ill?
jms
[ Summary: Asks JMS exactly what he thinks of Star Trek. ]
#: 631722 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Dec-96 03:05:09
Sb: #631714-#Message to Great Maker
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I'm sure you must understand that I am in kind of a dicey situation when
it comes to commenting on Star Trek. Whenever I comment on it one way or
another, I usually end up honking somebody off, and thus generally try not to
comment unless someone asks point-blank, which you just did.
I was very fond of the original Star Trek. I was just a kid when it
first came on, about 14. I enjoyed them immensely, but didn't consider myself
a *fan* in that I've never really been into joining fan groups or been much of
a follower of any one thing. Basically, I'm a loner when it comes to most
things. I thought it was unfortunate when the show got canceled, but aside
from catching the occasional rerun over the years, and finding that they got
better as I got older, my main interest was always print SF.
Of all the STs, that version still remains my personal favorite, for its
purity of intent and form, and the challenging ideas it presented. I enjoy it
for what it was, before it became "a franchise," as it's referred to in the
business.
TNG I thought was very uneven in its first few years, when I had a chance
to check it out, which wasn't often. There was a revolving door of writers and
writer/producers during those first couple of years, and that will hurt *any*
show. There were many good episodes (in my view), but for the most part, I
felt the show had a certain...I dunno...polished coolness about it. I like my
shows when the characters are being passionate, or fiery, or clinging to the
side of a sheer rock cliff by their fingernails and there's a storm coming.
Doesn't make one show any better or worse than the other; it's just a personal
preference. TNG was a polished opal, cool to the touch; ST was a hot coal
dumped into your hand.
I really haven't seen enough of DS9 or Voyager to comment intelligently.
I could probably summon up an opinion, but the key is to call up an *informed*
opinion, and I don't have enough material to do that on an episode-specific
basis.
My *overall* sense is that there are a number of people over there trying
very hard to do a good show, but that they are handcuffed by two things: 1)
Paramount, which wants the show to stay as safe as humanly possible to
guarantee the continuance of the franchise, and 2) the perception by some over
there as to what ST *is*, and that it can't be anything other than that.
They've put up a number of very real blocks to the creative process, and in so
doing strangled any number of solid dramatic possibilities before they can even
be born...pre-selected against certain kinds of stories because "that's not
what Star Trek IS."
Now, to be fair, every series has to do that...but the fact is that the
more narrowly you define what your show is, the less you can do with it.
Certain muscles atrophy and fade from lack of use. The stories become inbred,
familiar. Either Berman or Pillar were quoted as saying, of change, "If it
(ST) ain't broke, don't fix it."
Well, if you wait until it's broken, you've waited too long to fix it.
Why not, "If it's working now, let's *improve* it so it'll continue to work
*tomorrow*?" Humans didn't have to break before evolution could get in there
and improve the race. If we had to wait until our feet were broken before
evolving the opposable thumb, we'd still be eating berries and bashing each
other with tree limbs. That's a clumsy metaphor (he said upon rereading it),
but the point obtains.
If they took the blinders and the handcuffs off the people over at ST,
who are good and talented people, I think they could blow the doors off
television SF. They've got a guaranteed berth, guaranteed publicity, budgets
of $1.2-1.4 million per episode...that's the perfect platform from which to
launch controversial, or challenging, or dynamic stories that dance on the
ragged edge of what's possible in storytelling, EFX and drama.
For my money -- and this is, again, only one person's opinion, this is
not What Is, only What I Feel About What Is -- they don't do that, and you have
a situation similar to a high-performance Porsche that either sits in the
garage or is taken out only to go to the local grocery.
Now, again, I may have missed any number of episodes that are just like
what I described wanting to see. It's altogether possible; as I said, I've
only seen enough to gather a general opinion. But I've seen many other folks
echo similar thoughts, many of them long-time ST fans, so I suspect there may
be at least a measure of truth to it.
On the other hand, there are many folks who completely enjoy what they're
getting, and their opinions are no less valid than mine. It's all very
subjective, and this shouldn't be seen as B5 ragging on ST, or me jumping on
them. What works for me is just what works for me, nothing more, nothing less,
it isn't a statement of quality. It's just spelling out what rings my bell.
jms
[END]
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