JMS on AOL: 03/03/96 to 03/07/96
b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu
b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu
Thu Mar 7 15:05:20 EST 1996
Forwarded message to B5JMS list.
Originally From: Kevin P Mooney <kpmooney at acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
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The following is a compilation of the posts of JMS on AOL. If you have
comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at <kpmooney at acsu.buffalo.edu>
WARNING: Possible spoilers may lurk below.
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Subj: Re:Point of No Return - Spoi
Date: 96-03-03 01:42:03 EST
From: Jms at B5
Wendy: thanks. We do try....
jms
Subj: Re:Hour 25
Date: 96-03-03 01:22:27 EST
From: Jms at B5
Ehh...I'm not really a radio personality kind of guy...still working on ANY
kind of personality...and I don't know if I would have much of anything worth
saying to a national audience. So it's pretty much a moot point.
jms
Subj: Re:Sick feeling
Date: 96-03-03 01:24:30 EST
From: Jms at B5
Thanks. We disturb, from time to time; other times we amuse, or inform.
That's what TV should be for. "Be sand, not oil, in the machinery of the
world," as someone said.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: Earthforce officer
Date: 96-03-03 01:25:32 EST
From: Jms at B5
Wanda's tied up elsewhere, but we do plan to use more hispanics in the show,
as well as other ethnic groups.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: Withdrawels
Date: 96-03-03 01:25:56 EST
From: Jms at B5
Yes, I think those two will be rerun in short order.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: Withdrawels
Date: 96-03-03 01:28:58 EST
From: Jms at B5
It's perfectly okay to show this stuff in class, as far as I know, so it's
cool.
jms
Subj: Re:Foreign Markets
Date: 96-03-03 01:30:28 EST
From: Jms at B5
We're on in a lot of countries: France, Germany, Norway, Canada, Taiwan,
Singapore, England, Australia, Israel, Jordan and a number of others.
jms
Subj: Re:Frankly, You Amaze Me
Date: 96-03-03 01:33:44 EST
From: Jms at B5
"...you're doing the same thing without the pain of two "bad" records."
Hrmmm...I dunno about that. There are a number of things I've done in the
course of learning my craft that I wouldn't necessarily want to put back on
the air just now. It's like the first time you learn carpentry; eventually
you can make swell stuff, but you know that hidden in the other room is the
napkin holder you made where the angles don't come together, the glue is
visible, the dowels don't quite fit properly....
Any form of art is trial and error. You make the same mistake 999 times, so
the 1,000th time you don't make that mistake anymore.
jms
Subj: Re:Space Potatoes?
Date: 96-03-03 01:34:29 EST
From: Jms at B5
The ship was hidden there to avoid it being destroyed during the war. May or
may not see General Franklin again anytime soon.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS- And The Rock Cried
Date: 96-03-03 01:35:15 EST
From: Jms at B5
"And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place" is a quote from the Bible, from a
passage also used in various gospel songs.
jms
Subj: Re:Boom Today?
Date: 96-03-03 01:35:47 EST
From: Jms at B5
Boom April 3rd.
jms
Subj: Re:Actors
Date: 96-03-03 01:36:50 EST
From: Jms at B5
I'm directly involved in casting; all cast, guest and regular, must be
approved through my office.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: PONR Questions (Spoi
Date: 96-03-03 01:38:23 EST
From: Jms at B5
If I were to answer any of these questions, which will be answered in the
very next batch of new episodes...well, there wouldn't be much point in
showing them...
jms
Subj: Re:LuvSerfie
Date: 96-03-03 01:20:42 EST
From: Jms at B5
Wow...I've never seen a tactical nuke used in battlefield combat before....
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: Any cons?
Date: 96-03-04 05:30:04 EST
From: Jms at B5
Yes, I'll be at the Chicago Comic Con in June in neighboring Rosedale.
Am tentatively planning to be at the Syndi-Con convention in San Francisco
over the weekend of April 12-14.
jms
Subj: Re:Inquisitor quotes
Date: 96-03-04 05:28:34 EST
From: Jms at B5
Thanks. The Inquisitor was a great episode to write, and Wayne did a killer
job with it (so to speak). That one episode has received more mail than most
others, particularly from those in the religious community, as well as at
universities, crisis centers, you name it. Something there seemed to strike
a chord.
It's easy in an SF show to cut to the EFX and let it rock; to me, the
challenge is what's shown in those scenes: two people, locked in a room, no
(or few) EFX, no car chases, not even much of a set...with explosions of
dialogue and character. Ah loves it.
jms
Subj: Re:Messages from Earth
Date: 96-03-04 05:22:45 EST
From: Jms at B5
Allow me to disagree with you. Re: "The Nine Billion Names of God," the
whole purpose of that story had nothing to do with alien contact; it had to
do with gettting all the earthbound names of God into a computer, so they
could create the end of the world. The monks are on B5 in an attempt at
studying the different religions out there for the purpose of better
understanding...or more succinctly, comparitive religious studies, which long
predate Clarke by, oh, about 500 years.
The buried shadow vessel was put there to hide it from destruction. Are you
suggesting that every time someone buries something alien it's 2001?
jms
Subj: Re:praise for PoNR
Date: 96-03-04 05:25:08 EST
From: Jms at B5
Tiger: thanks. All I can say is that when you see "Severed Dreams," I think
you'll find it was worth the wait.
jms
Subj: Re:Syndicated ratings: 2/11/
Date: 96-03-04 05:19:23 EST
From: Jms at B5
There are usually anywhere from 250 to 275 or more syndicated shows every
week; at #43 or 38 out of that, we're in the top 15-20%.
jms
Subj: Re:Trek vs. B5 on AOL part 2
Date: 96-03-04 05:34:23 EST
From: Jms at B5
Jeez...I'm surprised one of them didn't write "Go back to russia where you
came from!" All I can offer is that that reaction is not typical of all ST
fans, only the noisy minority who show up at cons in Spock ears and make the
majority of open-minded, mature ST fans shake their heads in dismay.
jms
Subj: Re:favorite episode
Date: 96-03-04 05:35:29 EST
From: Jms at B5
The episode you cite was "The Geometry of Shadows."
jms
Subj: Re:Delenn in PoNR
Date: 96-03-07 03:04:26 EST
From: Jms at B5
Delenn was taking care of some business on Minbar.
jms
Subj: Re:Great episodes
Date: 96-03-07 03:04:58 EST
From: Jms at B5
Darla: thanks.
jms
Subj: Re:Hello???????
Date: 96-03-07 03:05:45 EST
From: Jms at B5
The info came from the Vorlons, and from the last war the Minbari fought
against them.
jms
Subj: Re:Why didn't we see the fig
Date: 96-03-07 03:07:41 EST
From: Jms at B5
We could've easily played the EFX full-screen, as WB used them in the promos,
after all. But it's a slow tease, a reveal. You do it big in Messages, hold
it back just a bit, at arm's length, in PoNR, then bring it all REAL close
again in the next episode. By putting it at some remove in PoNR, it makes
the viewer almost like one of those in the Zocalo, fighting for a better
look, stranded out far away, trying to figure out what's going on.
jms
Subj: Re:Religion on B5
Date: 96-03-07 03:11:28 EST
From: Jms at B5
We hope to have Harlan's script for next season.
"I hope that perhaps you have done some searching in areas of your faith as a
result of that episode."
No. Don't see any reason to do so. I wasn't *exposed* to that episode, I
*wrote* it, the same way I'd write a convincing show about Minbari...I don't
have to believe they exist to write convincingly about them.
I keep being astounded that others are astounded that an atheist can write
well about religion without being religious. Writing is writing. Characters
is characters. Either you're honest as a writer, or you ain't; either you're
telling a story, or you're using the medium for propaganda.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS:LOTR and the Future
Date: 96-03-07 03:12:27 EST
From: Jms at B5
There's a lot more here than anything like LoTR; the show uses mythic
archetypes, so you tend to see whichever myth-cycle you're most familiar
with.
And we do certainly hope to get this story finished, yes.
jms
Subj: Re:Corwin
Date: 96-03-07 03:13:43 EST
From: Jms at B5
Thanks. Corwin's question is really one that hits a lot; you see things
starting to fly apart, but you keep thinking it's gonna work out..then it all
goes to hell, and you're standing there trying to figure out how it all
slipped away. It's a very innocent, yet universal question.
jms
Subj: Re:Inquiries from the Rim
Date: 96-03-07 03:15:05 EST
From: Jms at B5
I'd love to see an Aggy micromachine. As for the rest...why would I tell you
what each of her prophecies means, thus defeating the surprise or the impact
when they're shown? That would be absolutely self-defeating.
jms
Subj: Re:ISN's role
Date: 96-03-07 03:15:39 EST
From: Jms at B5
Yes, that's a very good question. It'll be answered in *the very next new
episode*, in fact.
jms
Subj: Re:B5 on TNT?
Date: 96-03-07 03:16:18 EST
From: Jms at B5
TNT starts rerunning the show in 1998. It doesn't guarantee our renewal,
however.
jms
Subj: Re:Equality on B5
Date: 96-03-07 03:21:50 EST
From: Jms at B5
Cristine: thanks. For what it's worth, I have always admired/been attracted
to strong, capable, intelligent and witty women. I like independence of
thought, and nothing delights me more than being surprised, or topped in a
verbal exchange. And I've seen some women police officers and soldiers who
could clear out a bar without even breaking a sweat. Several women friends
of mine are very much into the martial arts.
Wimmin iz peoples too. I don't understand why some folks have such a hard
time with that concept.
jms
Subj: Re:JMS: Narn Religion
Date: 96-03-07 03:24:20 EST
From: Jms at B5
G'Quan was the greatest of the Narns, a prophet, a religious figure of great
proportions; G'Lan was one of those second-tier types who showed up
afterward. (The comparable human analog would be if G'Quan -> Mohammed,
G'Lan -> Angel.
(And yes, I know I've crossed religious structures there.)
jms
Subj: Re:Bad transliterations
Date: 96-03-07 03:25:37 EST
From: Jms at B5
Yes, and "sure" should be spelled "shoor."
jms
Subj: Re:Misunderstanding
Date: 96-03-07 03:26:04 EST
From: Jms at B5
Nope, we did San Diego ourselves.
jms
Subj: Re:Battles as Tales
Date: 96-03-07 03:26:46 EST
From: Jms at B5
The only comment I would have is, be patient a bit....
jms
Subj: Re:marcus and the link
Date: 96-03-07 03:30:30 EST
From: Jms at B5
I just summoned up Marcus in my head. Here's what he said: "Because I won't
wear the bloody thing, that's why. Bad enough you've got those pagers you
wear in 1996, no privacy, no chance to get away, always at somebody's beck
and call. Why not just put a leash around your neck and get it over with?
It'd be faster and a good deal more honest. I'm down in the bar trying to be
inconspicuous, dangerous characters on all sides, trying not to be
noticed...and the link goes off, and I'm dead. Or at minimum seriously
thumped. No, absolutely not. You'll never get me to wear one of those."
(This is btw the reason why I absolutely *refuse* to wear a pager myself.)
jms
Subj: Re:New episodes
Date: 96-03-07 03:30:58 EST
From: Jms at B5
April 3rd.
jms
Subj: Re:Just Wondering
Date: 96-03-07 03:31:23 EST
From: Jms at B5
The good guys *always* get whacked, at some point....
jms
Subj: Re:Hi again, JMS, thanks & a
Date: 96-03-07 03:33:30 EST
From: Jms at B5
There are no immediate plans for Talia's return...but we haven't heard the
last of that relationship, and the reference I promised is in the very next
batch of new eps.
jms
Subj: Re:Names
Date: 96-03-07 03:39:29 EST
From: Jms at B5
Actually, it's Clark, not Clarke, so that one's not a tribute; neither is
Morden, though it has some of the sounds of Mordred and Mordor and other
Murderous names. I'd actually suggest that 90% of the names used have no
other reference than their own identity.
jms
Subj: Re:Shadows/Vorlons
Date: 96-03-07 03:39:50 EST
From: Jms at B5
{does Kosh merge with his ship? Aren't the Vorlon ship
organic too?}
Yes, but only in a manner of speaking.
jms
Subj: Re:stuff
Date: 96-03-07 03:47:35 EST
From: Jms at B5
"For I Am Become Death" was a working title; I finally decided that "Point of
No Return" was a more apt title for the year.
If one is being accurate in Eastern-European terms, it's pronounced
strah-chin-ski; in general Americanized terms (which is what I go by), it's
strah-zin-ski.
jms
Subj: Re:click... *click*... CLIC
Date: 96-03-07 03:50:55 EST
From: Jms at B5
I was the Supervising Producer brought on under Executive Producer David
Moessinger when "Walker, Texas Ranger" was first being produced for CBS. I
left in fairly short order to do B5, which had already been commissioned
prior to doing Walker, but David asked for some help, and I never decline a
friend. Unfortunately, the studio was Cannon TV, which is not exactly known
for its sterling rep, so after a while I was driven mad and ran screaming out
into the night. "WTR" was eventually transferred to a different, better
studio.
jms
Subj: Re:Bad transliterations part
Date: 96-03-07 03:56:53 EST
From: Jms at B5
Nope, still don't buy it. How many versions have we seen of names in Vietnam
or China in English? Look at an atlas for China in the 1960s, and now.
Notice that now X is used where once Ch was used. (Chou becomes Xiou.)
Technically, my name is pronounced strachinski, but it's got a czy in the
middle of it.
There's also a difference between transLATION and transLITERATION. The
latter is often less accurate than the former.
You may choose to take any linguistic position you choose; however, the
language as it is used does not reconcile with that stance.
jms
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