JMS on AOL: 03/13/96 to 03/17/96

[Kevin P Mooney]

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:Conundrum
Date:  96-03-13 18:06:07 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Warner Bros. is not so much a monolithic company as a series of mutually
competing divisions.  WBN and PTEN are totally different entities, and
there's almost no chance of overlap.

jms



Subj:  Re:Lot's O Q's
Date:  96-03-13 17:46:20 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

The station is about 5 miles long, so the rest you can work from there.

You *can* see the length of the station from some of the living quarters,
such as Londo's, and from Sheridan's office.

Yes, the Neville Chamberlain parallel was intentional.

jms



Subj:  Re:PoNR - Fixed Stars!
Date:  96-03-13 17:47:26 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

We've gone over this a lot; because the station rotates, you'd need a
circular, rotating starfield that would be twice as tall as our stage ceiling
to make it work, and it'd be hideously loud.

jms



Subj:  Re:The creative process
Date:  96-03-13 17:48:36 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Because I knew it'd have to be a multi-year format, which limits you to
either books or TV, since you couldn't do all of this stuff in films.  (You'd
need 55 movies.)  So...TV.

jms



Subj:  Re:PoNR - Fixed Stars!
Date:  96-03-13 17:50:30 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

C&C is *not* in the center of the station, which is the zero-g docking bay;
it's 1/3rd of the way down, so it has about 1/3rd gravity.  That means a 200
pound person weights 67 pounds, so you're not exactly going to be bouncing
around or anything.

jms



Subj:  Re:Uniform Question
Date:  96-03-13 17:51:24 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Only time will tell.

jms



Subj:  Re:World Con...
Date:  96-03-13 17:51:49 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Well, I'll be there; we'll see about the rest.

jms



Subj:  Re:No Free Will?
Date:  96-03-13 17:53:14 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Yes, the characters surprise me...but the characters aren't real, and
"they're" not surprising me, it's something that burbles out of my
subconscious.  Only living beings can truly have free will.  Fictional
characters don't.

jms



Subj:  Re:Hot Jalla
Date:  96-03-13 17:55:32 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

It's not a connection, but a resonance; jalla is made from the jalwah tree,
and yes, G'Kar's father was hung from a jalwah tree.  But I wouldn't read too
much more into that.

jms



Subj:  Re:Name that tune
Date:  96-03-13 18:04:47 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

I listen to just about every kind of music there is, except for hard country
music.  It just grates; not to say it's bad, lots of folks like it, it just
gets my teeth grinding like tectonic plates.  (The closest I get is bluegrass
and folk, with the Red Clay Ramblers being a favorite there.)

When I work, I tend to listen to different things as the mood strikes me.
Everything from rock to jazz to big band to "new age" to classical to Irish
music to Japanese music to Australian aboriginal music to Gregorian
chants...you name it.  I was heavily into Japanese KODO music for a while,
but because I was playing it all the time I kinda got KODO'd out after a
while.

Among the stuff that turns up most often on the stereo while I'm working
these days: Meatloaf, Slade, Enya, Alice Cooper, Melissa Etheridge, Sarah
MacLachlan, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Red Clay Ramblers.  I'll probably
cycle through into more orchestral/instrumental stuff soon.

jms



Subj:  Re:What type of Government E
Date:  96-03-13 17:31:17 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Each nation/state on Earth has its own government internally, and its own
leader, who is part of the EA Senate.  One senator per nation/state.  (Mars
is treated as a colony rather than an independent entity, same with the more
important colonies, while other, less valuable ones are more loosely
attached.)  Clark has full military control as Commander of Chief of
Earthforce, though the military is funded jointly by all participants.

jms



Subj:  Re:My point exactly KSTEEN!
Date:  96-03-13 17:40:54 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

"Nightwatch does, in fact, have an "heraldic banner" which is in the form of
its black uniforms."

Err...I hate to correct you, but Nightwatch members do NOT have black
uniforms.  Many of them wear armbands, but others do not.  Julie Musante did
not wear an armband.  Neither did the snitch in C&C who turned in the Narn
cruiser in "Fall."  B5 security members were given the arm bands as part of
their uniform, indicating that they were serving Nightwatch in an official
capacity, the same as you'd give a badge or ID to someone working for two
agencies.  There are and can be others who are part of Nightwatch who don't
wear the arm bands.

Also, it's not "an heraldic."  It's A heraldic.  You only use AN if you can't
hear the H sound; if you can, then you use A.  As in "An hour" and "A horse."
Similarly, the use "an historic" is also incorrect.

jms


Subj:  Re: B5 CANCELLED
Date:  96-03-15 04:25:44 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Because, Harokin, this stuff happens *every season* at this time, and after a
while, one gets tired of chasing down and denying every rumor that comes
along, time after time.  I posted a brief note about this in the ask jms
category, that should cover it.

jms



Subj:  PS to Harokin
Date:  96-03-15 04:26:42 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Don't take the tone of my prior note as indicating annoyance; it's just that
this happens every year, and it wears thin after a while.  It's not your
fault.

jms



Subj:  Re:Beginnings
Date:  96-03-15 04:07:25 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

I first discovered the Red Clay Ramblers when they were the musical
accompaniment for the Broadway show (then touring) FOOL MOON.  I thought they
were absolutely terrific, and still do.  (And the show's terrific too; if it
comes to your town SEE IT.)

"Where did B5 start? What was the germ of the whole idea? Who were the first
characters? Were any characters conceived as men that ended up as women and
vice versa?"

No, the men were men and the women were women (and they LIKED it that way).
The primary "germ" of the notion was the setting in this case, a locale where
the stories would come to us rathre than chasing new worlds every week.
Obviously you need a command staff, and I began filling it out from there.
Then, one day, the whole story just sorta unfolded in my head in a moment of
total clarity.  That happens sometimes....

jms



Subj:  Re:JMS: Fan Clubs
Date:  96-03-15 04:08:03 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Yes, I do believe the various actors fan clubs are sanctioned by the actors
(at least, the ones we know of; not every fan club is sanctioned, obviously.)

jms



Subj:  Re:JMS:88 notes in your musi
Date:  96-03-15 04:09:29 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

We never know from year to year on the B5 status, same as with every other TV
series.  No studio will give you a 2-year buy unless you're Spielberg.  We'll
have to see....

jms



Subj:  Re:Station Interior
Date:  96-03-15 04:10:31 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Yes, the interior has been mapped to great detail; as Sheridan falls, you can
see perspective on many of the structures, due to the 3d mapping.  Don't know
if we'll ever make a map available, at least in the short run.

jms



Subj:  Re:Cancellation of B5!?
Date:  96-03-15 04:15:33 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

This happens every season.  People with too much free time on their hands
start posting rumors long before anything has even been *discussed*.  This
happened after the pilot ("I just heard from a VERY reliable source that it's
never gonna make it to series") after the first season ("a guy I know at WB
says the first season was just a fluke, they got pressured, there won't be a
second season"), after the second....

Nothing is ever decided on these things until the execs meet to go over it,
and that won't happen until late April/early May.  Anyone who says he's heard
anything definitive before then is simply full of it.

jms



Subj:  Re:Dear JMS:Starfury "Nose A
Date:  96-03-15 04:16:56 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Yes, there's nose art for most (though not all) of the furies.  Ivanova's is
traditionally Russian, and Sheridan's is the Flying Tigers (we actually got
permission from them to use the symbol).

jms



Subj:  Re:No Free Will?
Date:  96-03-15 04:17:50 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Ah, but it wasn't Holmes who forced himself back into the writings of Doyle;
it was pressure from readers (real people) who refused to let it go away.

jms



Subj:  Re:Artwork from Atlanta
Date:  96-03-15 04:18:49 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Unfortunately, the answer to both is no, unless you want to give it to one of
the actors at Fantasticon to pass along....

jms



Subj:  Re:JMS: Couple'a Questions
Date:  96-03-15 04:20:01 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Now that S3 of B5 is almost done, I can finish the deal to write the Grimjack
movie, which will take me through the next few months to finish.

jms



Subj:  Re:Apologies are in order...
Date:  96-03-15 04:23:35 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

This season is an unintended aberration re: writers; I hope to use others
next season.

As for your story...apology not accepted because it is unnecessary.  As it
happens, I remember your comments, and yes, at the time, they were hurtful.
But they came from honest criticisms of the show, rather than any particular
agenda, and I never have a problem with honest, fair criticism.  Hell, I had
my own problems with the pilot, which I was determined to fix in the series.

What you did that counts is that you were sufficiently open-minded and fair
to give the show a chance when it hit series, and you found that the promises
were true.  And now have said as much.  What more can anyone ask of one?

jms



Subj:  Re:My point exactly KSTEEN!
Date:  96-03-15 04:01:54 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

Nope.  Zack did wear an armband the whole time he was involved with
Nightwatch.  

jms



Subj:  Re:Foundationalism
Date:  96-03-17 23:23:03 EST
From:  Jms at B5       

The impact of other alien races on contemporary religions is a good question,
and one that I hope to carve out some time to examine down the road a bit.
The Foundation was a way of saying, in essence, that there aren't various
religions, there's just *human* religion as opposed to what has been
developed on other worlds...that every human religion is an aspect of the
whole, like blind men describing an elephant by each holding onto a piece of
it.  They looked to the foundation of all religions, and combined them, so
there's aspects of nearly every major and minor belief in them.

jms



----

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