ATTN: JMS Character Popularity/Writing them out

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN: JMS Character Popularity/Writing them out
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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+  1: May  1, 1996: babylon at nauticom.net (JB)
*  2: May  2, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: babylon at nauticom.net (JB)
Lines: 24

	Just a quick question, which I feel is VERY relevant at this 
point in the series.  It has to do with characters, their growing 
popularity over time, and how it must feel for you to make major 
changes in them.
	Not only have most of the recurring characters grown popular 
with the fans over time, but I'm guessing that JMS the writer has also 
grown rather attached to them since the first time you inked them into 
a script.
	With all the talk of character death recently, how difficult is 
it for you to undertake such a task from not only a writer's 
standpoint, but just as a human being?  We've all grown to love them, 
and, since you created them, I'm guessing you have as well.  It's one 
thing to write them as characters in a novel, another thing entirely to 
see them "in the flesh" as portrayed by actors.
	So, to sum up, has it been hard making these changes after you 
and all of the fans have gotten to know them?  Or is it simply a matter 
of: "Well...it's their time...?"




Jeff Bauer, keeper of:
Jeff's Babylon 5 Update Page
http://www.nauticom.net/www/babylon

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 47

sorta kinda spoilers, I guess....











"So, to sum up, has it been hard making these changes after you and all of
the fans have gotten to know them?  Or is it simply a matter of:
"Well...it's their time...?"

It's both, kinda.  In the case of one character, who's been with us a long
time, and who...shall we say delicately, is en route to becoming an
ex-character by the end of this season...it was hard knowing the actor,
because the actor said, "Was there something I did wrong?"  To which you
can only answer truthfully and say no, not at all, just the opposite...you
did a GREAT job, that's why we're offing you.  If you'd been just
mediocre, nobody'd CARE."

In another case, also later this season, it was *very* difficult for me
personally to do it, very emotional...and I wouldn't probably have done it
at all if the character hadn't basically grabbed me by the lapels and
dragged me kicking and screaming to that point of the story and said,
"Look, this is right, you know it, I know it, now DO it."  So I did.  (And
the cast and crew were equally stunned.  Of everything that's been done on
the show to date, THAT one thing got the biggest reaction; nobody'd eat
across from me for two days at lunch after that.)

Bottom line...you've got to go where the story leads you.  That *has* to
be your first and foremost obligation.  If it's anything else -- catering
to the audience's expectations, or your own preferences -- rather than
doing what the cold logic of the story *demands* you to do...you're
finished.  






 jms


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