JMS on CompuServe (Mar 27, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS* 2/2
Brent Barrett
brent.barrett at 24stex.com
Wed Mar 27 13:08:57 EST 1996
[ Continued from previous section -- BB ]
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 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.
[ Note from Brent: Before you ask, no I cannot forward
your questions to JMS. He has asked that questions
not originating from CIS accounts not be posted to
CIS. He encourages all of us to wait for the
moderated USENET group, to which he plans to
subscribe. ]
[ Summary: Points out the source of the misunderstanding about who wrote
the Hypernauts pilot. It was a message left by JMS in which he poorly
punctuated a sentence which could have been misinterpreted to mean that
JMS wrote the pilot. Asks if he really meant that Christy Marx would
be both the Script Editor and write the pilot herself. ]
#: 476745 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Mar-96 23:41:26
Sb: #476642-SpaceCases&Hyper. in EW
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, that was the meaning of it, that Christy was SE and would write the
pilot.
jms
[ Summary: Thinks the fact that JMS has had to incorporate real-life injuries
into the show has helped add to the realism of the show. Notes that in any
large project, you often see new, better ways to go in the middle. ]
#: 476746 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Mar-96 23:41:28
Sb: #476653-#Lost Threads?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Exactly. And that's the point that a few non-writers make when they go
after that aspect. Writing is fluid...if you alter course a little, it's
usually because you found a better way to do something. This is done all the
time, in every conceivable art form.
Also, the B5 basic storyline was conceived by me in 1986/87; I was a
fairly good writer then, I'm better now...it's almost 10 years later, and I've
written a lot of stuff, learned more about my craft, and the writer of 1996 has
some better ideas of how to do things than the writer of 1986. I'd be a fool
to stick to every single note from 10 years ago if I think of a better way to
do it now; the goal is to tell the story as effectively as humanly possible,
not to be rigid.
jms
[ Summary: I point out the same error in punctuation that was pointed out
earlier and state that I too mistakenly read it as JMS having written
the Hypernauts pilot. ]
#: 476747 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Mar-96 23:41:30
Sb: #476714-SpaceCases&Hyper. in EW
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, the error was mine, I should have been more precise.
jms
#: 476722 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Mar-96 22:06:56
Sb: #explorer ship
Fm: JAMES R. KAPESIS
What, if anything, happened to the ship that originally discovered the ruins of
Z'ha'dum?
Someone must have discovered them before the Icarus' arrival since the crew
kniew they were going to explore an ancient civilization.
#: 476748 S5/Babylon 5: General
26-Mar-96 23:41:34
Sb: #476722-explorer ship
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
As will be explained later this season, the ruins at Z'ha'dum were
detected by a long-range probe; same as the kind of probe IPX used to find the
other planet in "Mind War."
jms
#: 476605 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
26-Mar-96 19:43:31
Sb: #475585-#Unresolved plot lines
Fm: ROWAN KAISER
Here's some more:
9) imbalance in the Grey Council
10) the Underground Railroad
11) Lady Morella's vision
12) What Kosh really looks like
13) Sinclair not the One, but he will be
14) Delenn's "cramps"
15) Londo's prophetic dream
16) Where Bester stands (to be decided in Ship of Tears, later this year!)
17) Minbari souls
Sin wreak-oar Mistie, Montie, PITAS, Emperor of COWDP and Kidism Patroler
"So the leading causes of accidents are joy, sex, and old age?"
-Mike Nelson
#: 476755 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
27-Mar-96 03:05:03
Sb: #476605-Unresolved plot lines
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
9) imbalance in the Grey Council
Will be dealt with this season.
10) the Underground Railroad
Will be elaborated upon and brought to the fore later this season.
11) Lady Morella's vision
C'mon..."unresolved?" It was only mentioned for the first time in the last new
episode. Gimme some time here, I'm dancing as fast as I can.
(Some more on this later this season.)
12) What Kosh really looks like
More on this later this season, in an important way.
13) Sinclair not the One, but he will be
Dealt with this season.
14) Delenn's "cramps"
In the fullness of time.
15) Londo's prophetic dream
More this season, in detail.
16) Where Bester stands (to be decided in Ship of Tears, later this year!)
Yes, this season.
17) Minbari souls
Also this season.
See, this is the thing that I have to shake my head at when people use
terms like "unresolved plot lines" or "dropped threads;" the story ain't done
yet. You only use that term when you've finished the book, and stuff is left
hanging. We're only midway through the book -- not even that yet in what's
been broadcast -- it's a little premature to start announcing threads or plots
as unresolved. There's an ebb and flow to the threads, they're brought in and
out as needed.
You can't reference every single thread in the show in every episode, or
you'd just have an hour of people sitting around and reciting updates on all
the various positions.
I don't like leaving loose threads hanging around. And I don't. We
will hear more about Na'Toth soon, because it's time to mention that again, as
an important storyline element. (Somebody commented that it's being mentioned
because folks have been asking...no, I don't work that way. It's been asked
for ages now. People have been asking for n'grath, and I ain't moving on that
one. The few who've tossed this my way, that because they asked they forced me
to deal with it, are like the roosters who think their sounds at morning are
directly responsible for the sunrise.)
In any event, to this issue...be patient. This isn't about immediate
gratification. There's a certain pacing in the show in the ways in which story
elements come and go, which would be more apparent if the show were being
broadcast more steadily, without breaks. Yeah, there've been two months almost
since Lady Morella's prophecy, but there *haven't even been any new episodes
aired yet*, and it was only aired in the last new epsiode out of the blocks, so
how can it be a dropped plotline?
At the beginning of year one, a lot of folks were saying, "Where's the
arc? Huh? Where's this `overarching storyline' we've been led to expect?
Huh? It ain't here." Then they saw it bigtime starting with "Sky," and
eventually realized that some elements of what they were seeing had ALREADY
STARTED the arc...they just hadn't realized it until they looked back. "Oh,
yeah...THERE it was."
Others said, "What happened to that alien ship that blew up the Raiders
in "Signs?" They were just thrown in there to shake things up, and then they
dropped it, I hate it when shows do that. It's a cheat." Oh, you mean the
SHADOW VESSEL that has now formed the main core of year three and a lot of year
two?
In this list of "unresolved plot lines" I haven't yet seen one that
we're not either dealing with, or planning to deal with shortly. I would
suggest we perhaps table this approach until the work is done, since only at
that time can you say, positively, "THIS is an unresolved plot line," since
we've hit the resolution of the story then. Until then, it's an exercise in
"who didn't cross the finish line?" halfway through the marathon.
jms
[ Summary: One of the SysOps of the eTV forum thanks JMS for joining them
and takes the opportunity to say that she enjoys B5, has pushed for its
inclusion on the Viewers for Quality Television list and thinks his use
of female roles is great. ]
#: 44403 S7/SF/Sci-Fi
26-Mar-96 23:41:45
Sb: #44373-B5 - VQT Endorsement!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks for the kind words, and all the help with VQT; it's vastly
appreciated.
jms
[ Summary: The same SysOp notes to Lori that she was on-line at 1-2am
and saw that JMS was in her forum. ]
#: 44407 S7/SF/Sci-Fi
27-Mar-96 00:21:10
Sb: #44274-B5 - VQT Endorsement!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yeah, I'm usually up until 2, 3 or sometimes 4 a.m., working and
writing. Easy to do when you have no life yet detectable by modern science.
jms
/*********************************************
* Brent Barrett brent.barrett at 24stex.com *
* Senior Software Engineer Automedia, Inc *
* -- Watch Babylon-5! -- *
*********************************************/
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