JMS on CompuServe (Jun 27, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Thu Jun 27 13:29:10 EDT 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
P
R
O
T
E
C
T
I
O
N
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #530245-#Series Renewal
Sb: #530294-#Series Renewal
Sb: #530160-#sci fi shows
Sb: #530270-<Another Death?>
Sb: #530085-Ta'Lon?
Sb: #530447-Series Renewal
Sb: #530423-What of Earth?
Sb: #530439-A laugh for ya
#: 530245 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 18:25:22
Sb: #528673-#Series Renewal
Fm: SHANE S. SHELLENBARGER
Joe,
Putting aside your total lack of time, are you interested in directing?
Shane
#: 530402 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 21:50:47
Sb: #530245-#Series Renewal
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I go back and forth on this. Basically, no, I'm not interested in
directing. On the other hand, my gut (and my agent) tells me that I should do
it at least once, just so I understand the process (a good idea), and to add
that aspect to my resume. I dunno...we'll see.
jms
[ Summary: Congratulates JMS and the cast & crew on renewal for season
four. Also asks how JMS contracts actors if he knows he's going to
kill them or otherwise not use them for the whole series. ]
#: 530403 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 21:50:50
Sb: #530294-#Series Renewal
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks. Basically, you hire actors by the season. You hire someone for,
say, 13 episodes out of 22. That actor has a pay-or-play *guarantee* of 13
episodes. We may only end up using him in 11, but he gets paid for all 13
regardless. So that allows the actor to plan his year effectively. The
contract for all actors has an option for the following year at the producer's
discretion. When we get the word on renewal, we can then choose whether or not
to bring an actor back, assuming we haven't already decided this earlier and
killed the character off.
jms
#: 530160 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 15:08:31
Sb: #sci fi shows
Fm: PHILIP HORNSEY
>> I like X-Files quite a bit, haven't seen virtually anything of Sliders...
Interesting thing about Sliders is that it gets better by stages. In the first
"season" (basically 11 eps) it was OK (mostly due to the actors) but had
continuity problems. Tracey Torme' couldn't get the network to show them in
order, so the timer breaks in ep 5 (as they aired) and you can't figure out why
they cant beat a hasty retreat from the meteor in ep 3. Initially, Torme'
couldn't even get approval to show the episode titles.
This season it has been quite a bit better on those fronts, in ep 12-22 there
are titles, and they have been able to take more chances.
Next year they have a *full season* (22 eps) and Torme' has the authority to
span stories out over several weeks, introduce some cross continum aggressors
and basically run his own show. Also it's the lead in to Millenium. I'm quite
looking forward to it.
Phil ^^^^
FREE EARTH!
#: 530404 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 21:50:53
Sb: #530160-#sci fi shows
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Odd, I'd thought Tracy Torme was off Sliders now. I'd heard that,
anyway. Let me know if he's still listed on the show in the new eps.
jms
#: 530270 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
26-Jun-96 19:13:18
Sb: #529541-#<Another Death?>
Fm: DEONAHA M. CONLIN
SFZ
But will the events we saw unfold as we saw them, or will they be
changed? Oh, dear, now I have confused myself.
Or did Sheridan exist in two time continuums at the same time? (I
gotta stop this. This is not good.)
Would his very knowledge of the future shade events somewhat?
Di Conlin, Minister of Paranoid Development &
Personality Reconstruction, RMES
Sigh Corps -- Jerry Doyle Division
#: 530406 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
26-Jun-96 21:51:00
Sb: #530270-<Another Death?>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Events will unfold as we saw them. Sheridan might try to use his
knowledge to change things...but who knows, that may just bring them about.
jms
#: 530085 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
26-Jun-96 12:39:28
Sb: #Ta'Lon?
Fm: BRENT BARRETT
Hello, Joe!
Question: Are we going to be seeing more of Ta'Lon? He's one of my favorite
characters, just behind Sheridan & Delenn. :-)
Thanks,
-- Brent Barrett
#: 530407 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
26-Jun-96 21:51:02
Sb: #530085-Ta'Lon?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Wouldn't mind seeing more of him.
jms
[ Summary: An fan in Australia (where they are enjoying the end of season
two currently) congratulates the entire cast and crew for a wonderful
show. In addition, he'd like to know the status of video releases. ]
#: 530455 S5/Babylon 5: General
27-Jun-96 02:19:53
Sb: #530447-Series Renewal
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks. There's nothing much happening currently on videos or disks; in
the fullness of time, I suppose....
jms
#: 530423 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 22:10:45
Sb: #529876-#What of Earth?
Fm: ALAN KATZ
Exactly. When you combine your attention to these details with the fact you're
working with a five year story line, it lends the entire body of work a greater
sense of reality. Which is all the remarkable -- and more important -- in a
science fiction show dealing with characters and situations which almost by
definition are unreal. Babylon 5 is further blessed with a cast capable of
adding to the appearance of truth by conveying complex characters as opposed to
stereotypes. It's a remarkable coming together of elements. My
congratulations to you not only as a writer, but as a producer.
By the way, five seasons now days means what, about 110 stories? I remember
when "Hill Street Blues" or "Wiseguys" using a three episode story arch was
groundbreaking.
Alan
#: 530456 S5/Babylon 5: General
27-Jun-96 02:19:55
Sb: #530423-What of Earth?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yeah, five seasons would be 110 episodes.
Thanks re: the producer part. This is probably the one area I get asked
about the least, and the hardest part of the job. You have to make sure each
and every element intersects correctly with every other element, and that takes
some juggling.
jms
#: 530439 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Jun-96 23:15:01
Sb: #A laugh for ya
Fm: WILLIAM H. DIPAOLA
Joe, here's a something I think you may get a kick out of:
Two weeks ago a close friend told me that he bought the recently
released B5 CD-ROM out in stores and said to me that maybe I should buy it. Her
knows that I'm as avid a fan of the program as he is himself --perhaps even
more so!(Come to think of it, *definitely* more so.) To further induce me into
purchasing it(not that he had to) he brought up the fact that there had been
only 100,000 copies produced specifically for the purposes of making it a
potential collectors item. He didn't have to tell me that because I already
knew --why? Well, because I made it my business to keep up with the "Mystery
Alien Sweepstakes" and did not fail to send in even just one of the postcards.
Nevertheless, when he told me, "maybe you should consider buying it," I
responded by saying, "Carl, I was in the B5 Sweepstakes, and that was one of
the prizes that they were going to give out to 2,000 people who had entered.
With my luck I'll go out and buy it and then I'll find that I won that prize
because there's no way I'd be lucky enough to win the top prize of being able
to actually appear as an alien in one of the episodes." The guy laughed because
he knows I have crap luck. (We've known each other for a long time.) Anyway,
that same week I was in Manhattan and went into Egghead Software as part of my
usual weekly stop. This was two weeks ago, and guess what I saw on the shelves
there for the first time? You got it --the B5 CDROM. Nevertheless, though I
felt a bit compelled to purchase it I held off for the exact reason I mentioned
to my friend. Last week I was in that store again, saw it, contemplated buying
it, then went to an appointment deciding that I would give it some further
thought and would come back after my meeting in the event I decided on getting
it. Guess what? --I did. :-) Then guess what shows up in my mail yesterday,
almost a week later? You got it --that very prize! <g> I threw my receipt
away last week after having installed the program I bought because it worked
just fine and I then knew I was going to keep it, so now I have third prize(or
was it 2nd? I think it was 3rd) wrapped in plastic, and with absolutely no use
for it whatsoever! And to boot I made it my business to keep up with the MA
Sweepstakes all six weeks just to "win something"(though, of course, I was
going for the top prize even though I knew that both the odds and my own
personal luck were working against me. Nevertheless, I still keep looking for a
"sign" that would truly make me feel 'lucky' for once in my life to show me
that perhaps my luck is on its way to changing, or that maybe I've been to
critical in my thinking about my luck.
But, of course, "fate" never ceases to amaze me by giving me a kick in
the butt. <g> Yeah, I know we're only talking thirty bucks plus tax here, but
it's still the principle of the thing. ;-)
Anyway, hope you got a laugh from all this --I had to laugh-
and I want to say that I am extremely happy with the application on my PC. I
love the scenes that appear on every boot up, and the sound FX that work when
I'm doing various things on the computer. There's no way I'm removing this
thing now, and if my system ever has a major crash which requires reformatting
I'll reinstall the B5 CDROM right away, along with everything else I need to
install. ;-)
"May the Force be with you." <vbg> Oh yeah --different
universe. ;-)
#: 530457 S5/Babylon 5: General
27-Jun-96 02:19:57
Sb: #530439-A laugh for ya
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
That's great...and congratulations on the win.
jms
-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Messages to this list come from various sources.
-*** Replies to them, automatically to go the maintainer of this list
-*** <b5jms-owner at majordomo.cs.columbia.edu>. If you want to reply to
-*** someone else, make sure the "To:" header line is correctly set.
More information about the B5JMS
mailing list