JMS on CompuServe (Jul 31, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS* 1/2
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Wed Jul 31 15:31:45 EDT 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
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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
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the right to revoke this permission at any time.
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #549196-<IaE in UK>
Sb: #549364-Olympics in 2260?
Sb: #549432-#The Greyest of the Grey
Sb: #549498-Delenn question (spoiler
Sb: #549266-I&E -Vorlon Cruiser
Sb: #549511-The Greyest of the Grey
Sb: #549553-#Audio
Sb: #549556-#gerbals or hamsters?
Sb: #549564-jms Songwriter ?
Sb: #549759-<WWE question>
#: 549196 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
29-Jul-96 13:36:01
Sb: #548827-#<IaE in UK>
Fm: NEVILLE WHITE
Thanks for the answers... it helps clarify some stuff in my mind, at least! As
someone else has commented, I remember Minbari souls being described as a
"non-localised phenomenon", so I'll be watching out for further information
about such, er, phenomena!
Another thought that occurred to me just now - and I haven't been back to the
video to check it up, but in Dust to Dust didn't Kosh appear in G'Kars dream as
*his* father, too? (prior to appearing in angelic form).
As part of the creative process in designing and running role-playing games I
have always been fascinated by the possible characterisations and motivations
of a person who is many centuries old, not least because they would have seen
so -much- of what we consider history. I like the sort of
paternalistic/conservative approach that you seemed to show with Kosh, and I
might, er, "borrow" the concept in the future! I hope that's OK!
Regards,
Neville White
(UK)
#: 549998 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 14:19:08
Sb: #549196-<IaE in UK>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, by all means, I can't exactly lay claim to a patriarchal system,
after all. And that's what Kosh tends to play into, the whole father aspect,
though others might take the other approach in this.
jms
#: 549364 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Jul-96 18:46:27
Sb: #Olympics in 2260?
Fm: ERIC ROCHKIND
JMS (Joe?),
I asked this question a while back, but you never responded, so I'm
asking it again. Right now, we're in the middle of Olympic Fever. The thought
occured to me that 2260 will be an Olympic year. Since we have not yet seen or
heard the Olympics mentioned in the third season of "Babylon 5" (Granted, this
could be in one of those episodes we haven't seen yet) are the olympics still
being celebrated in the 23rd century? If not, why not?
If so, are they Earth-only, human-only (but including the colonies), or are
they open to aliens as well - either as exhibition teams or as full-fledged
competitors. In my opinion, this form of official non-violent athletic
competition would be very much in line with Babylon 5's mission of preventing
war by promoting interstellar understanding. (As opposed to that Mutara match
in "TKO" which was anything but peaceful!)
Any ideas on this subject?
#: 549999 S5/Babylon 5: General
30-Jul-96 14:19:09
Sb: #549364-Olympics in 2260?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
My gut instinct would be that the Olympics would still be almost
exclusively an Earth/human thing, we have to keep some things to ourselves, as
part of our unique heritage. And they're probably still going on.
jms
#: 549432 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
29-Jul-96 19:14:50
Sb: #548828-#The Greyest of the Grey
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
<< And no, I won't tell you which was which.... >>
I would have considered it extremely impertinent to have asked. Given your
frank and enthusiastic participation in this and other online venues, it might
be tempting for those that question you to push the envelope of frankness, so I
can see where you are justifiably wary. But my question was truly aimed at the
"interactive record of the television process," which you addressed quite
satisfactorily, thanks.
- rje -
#: 550000 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 14:19:11
Sb: #549432-#The Greyest of the Grey
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
On the other hand, the only way to get pertinent information is to ask
impertinent questions....
jms
#: 549498 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Jul-96 20:30:11
Sb: #547196-#Delenn question (spoiler
Fm: ROWAN KAISER
>>She wanted to see Kosh to assure herself that the Vorlons, who she'd never
met before, were who she believed them to be, and that this was a true Vorlon
and not a pretender. He had to be in place as part of Valen's prophecy.<<
Had she not already seen a Vorlon in an abandoned temple, (from Confessions)
Sin wreak`oar Mistie, Montie, Jordanite and PITAS
Emperor of SPAMM, Rowan's earthly Avatar "God, schmod, I want my monkeyman."
Kidism Patrol; Recruitment Division and Spoiler Police
Sigh Corps - Ruth Ballam division
#: 550001 S5/Babylon 5: General
30-Jul-96 14:19:14
Sb: #549498-Delenn question (spoiler
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Nope.
jms
#: 549266 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
29-Jul-96 14:46:48
Sb: #I&E -Vorlon Cruiser
Fm: PAUL OWEN
Joe
During the Vorlon /Shadow battle, the smaller Vorlon cruisers (one of which
smashed through the disabled Shadow ship) appeared to be of a comparable size
to the Shadow cruisers, however , the last ship through the Vorlon Jump Point
was an enormous vessel which was able to resist the dreaded Shadow purple beam
quite easily and used its own weapon as a shield.
Since its own weapon seemed to be pretty devastating why did we not see it
attack a Shadow vessel directly ? or do Vorlon battle tactics dictate its use
in another way?.
Now that I've asked my question I 'd just like to say that using the image of
David Sheridan to allow Kosh to speak to John in a way he could relate to was
brilliant and very moving , hard to think that you could empathise with that
suit but by the end of Kosh's apology to Sheridan I was really quite choked to
find that he really did care about them all and in fact was prepared to die for
them, wonderful!!.
Paul
#: 550002 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 14:19:15
Sb: #549266-I&E -Vorlon Cruiser
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I think we just didn't see those shots; it was used in the attack. And
thanks.
jms
#: 549511 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
29-Jul-96 21:00:24
Sb: #548828-#The Greyest of the Grey
Fm: SYSOP DUPA T PARROT
> And yes, there are sometimes themes that come out without my
> knowing it; sometimes I wear my heart on my sleeve more than I
> intended, ...
Joe,
Do you have any idea how often you've brought tears to our eyes this season?
Particularly the tears shed over an animatronic actor?
-Dupa T. Parrot, Team SF/F
[Tech. Support SysOp]
<OS/2 + GCP> O-
#: 550003 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 14:19:17
Sb: #549511-The Greyest of the Grey
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
And that's good. Too much of TV is just the plot/action stuff, not much
emotional content. For me, drama done well should make you feel something.
That's vitally important to me.
jms
#: 549553 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Jul-96 21:59:29
Sb: #Audio
Fm: SHAWN TAYLER
Hello Joe,
I happen to lay my hands on a tape of WWE II taken directly from the satelite
feed to the affiliates. I really liked the improved video, these TV types are
slippin. One thing I did notice is that a considerable amount of gain
reduction (compression) is being applied to the audio portion of the feed by
someone along the way. The local affiliate here already butchers up the audio
pretty badly as it is (TV types think audio is just something that comes along
with the pictures ;-). The audio on the tape was considerably better than I
usually get locally, it still didn't do justice to the material. I usually run
B5 thru my surround processor (real loud) for the full effect but the
background sounds you put it get eaten up by all the compression (guessing
12-15dB). Do you have any input on this?
I am hopeful that a laser disc offering of the series will turn up someday as
the audio portion of the program will survive there relatively unscathed and
provide the extra dimension that is being excised by the distribution system.
Any comments or info you might have would be appreciated.
Shawn (from the dark side of Planet OS/2)
#: 550004 S5/Babylon 5: General
30-Jul-96 14:19:20
Sb: #549553-#Audio
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
That happens after we turn it over to WB, during the dubbing process
wherein they add first captions, then commericals.
jms
#: 549556 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Jul-96 22:03:06
Sb: #gerbals or hamsters?
Fm: WILLIAM H. DIPAOLA
Joe,
Perhaps you can help me and a friend out by resolving once and for all our wild
speculations as to what's in those little Shadow vessels <g>, but we were
discussing it over the weekend and we have it narrowed down to three
possibilities, and they are as follows:
a- gerbals and\or hamsters
b- midgets <vbg>
If you'd like we mapped out a short scene in which Garibaldi
encounters the midgets for the first time along with Sheridan and Ivanova. :)
Yes, I know --I can be a real 'card' sometimes when I
wanna be. ;-)
And Gee, I sure hope I didn't trample any story
ideas. <g>
hehehe
#: 550005 S5/Babylon 5: General
30-Jul-96 14:19:23
Sb: #549556-#gerbals or hamsters?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Go to your room.
jms
#: 549564 S5/Babylon 5: General
29-Jul-96 22:52:57
Sb: #547195-#jms Songwriter ?
Fm: CHRIS CROUGHTON (UK)
Joe,
> I think it's the same mental glitch that hits me when I try to do certain
> kinds of math. "X is a numerical value." "No, X is a letter, 7 is a
> numerical value." I can't ever seem to make the one equal the other in
> my head.
I know that one, my mother's like that.
> So when I write songs, and I have a specific melody I'm hearing in my
> head, I'm invariably placed in the humiliating position (since I can't
> play a musical instrument) of humming it, or somehow trying to suggest
> it to the music-person. Suffice to say it looks really goofy and stupid.
To you, maybe, but there are dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of professional and
amateur song-writers in the same position. How about all the blues singers who
couldn't recognise a note of written music but wrote those superb songs? And
still do - it's only in orchestral music that the ability to read and write
musical notation is considered essential, I know a lot of folk groups where
none of them can do it.
> another song that, much to my chagrin, is apparently still being used in
> church songbooks (and that's all I will ever say about that)...
You realise that you've just doubled the sale of hymnals because every B5 fan
is going to be hunting for it <g>. I hope you get royalties <g>...
> and when I decided to do a show with a singer for B5, I wrote a couple of
> songs for that one, with Chris Franke providing the music.
Has it been shown yet? I don't remember seeing it here (Britain) yet but we're
still a couple of episodes behind the USA.
B5: Our last, best hope for a decent story...
Chris
#: 550006 S5/Babylon 5: General
30-Jul-96 14:19:24
Sb: #549564-jms Songwriter ?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, the songs are in "Walkabout," which is the next episode up after
"War Without End."
jms
#: 549759 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 08:05:43
Sb: #<WWE question>
Fm: DAVID FOX
JMS,
I meant to ask you this question the first time I saw WWE. Having watched it
three times now, there is still a section of the story I am confused about.
When Zathras is trapped by the falling beam, it is Delenn who is in the space
suit and saves him. I just couldn't make any sense of this. First of all why
does she get into the suit? How does she know that Zathras is trapped. Second,
you see the spacesuit materialize in the room in the sequence before Zathras is
trapped. This would seem to imply that the person in the suit is materializing
from another time. But Delenn is in the same time as the rest of the folks in
that scene, so how could she be materializing. Third, when Sinclair touches the
suit, he is thrown backwards by what seems to be an energy release. What the
heck is that about?
And one other thing. Delenn sees the suit appear before she takes the suit.
Later you see Sheridan saying he doesn't remember how he got back, but that he
woke up as he is. This seems to imply that Delenn saw the suit materialize with
Sheridan in it, took him out of the suit, and put the suit on herself without
Sheridan being concious. This seems difficult to imagine. If Sheridan was
unconcious, he would be a lot of dead weight, and it is hard to imagine she
would have the strength to do all that by herself. Also, why wouldn't she try
and wake Sheridan to see if he was OK?
Finally, one last extended comment.The following by no means is a criticism of
the Sinclair/Sheridan situation or the way you handled it. In fact, I am one of
the people who was glad to see Sheridan arrive in the story - I find him to be
a much more interesting and richly layered character. And although Michael
O'Hare is no slouch, frankly I think Bruce Boxleitner is a much finer actor.
But -- it seems to me that you wre somewhat disengenuous (correct word?) when
you first announced the fact that Sinclair was leaving and and a new character
appearing. From your comments at the time, it seemed to imply that both you and
Michael had come to the conclusion that some changes needed to be made and so
he was leaving gracefully. However, in looking at the way the Bab 5 story has
been constructed, with such a crucial plot point as Sinclar returing to the
past to become Valen, I find it hard to belive that his wasn't all determined
when you first created the Bab 5 story line. In which case, you knew from the
very beginning that Sinclair would leave after the first year, and the stated
explanation was a "smokescreen". As I said, this isn't a criticism, but I am
curious. Please tell me if I am wrong.
Thanks as always for your answers, and for creating the best show on
television.
#: 550007 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
30-Jul-96 14:19:26
Sb: #549759-<WWE question>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
When Delenn takes off her stabalizer and puts it on Sheridan, taking on
his suit for whatever small protection it might offer, at that point he
stabalized and she became lost/unstuck in time. So it was she who appeared in
the last sequence there. She took the risk to ensure saving Sheridan.
jms
[ Continued in next section -- BB ]
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