JMS on CompuServe (Oct 25, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Fri Oct 25 13:52:39 EDT 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 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
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the right to revoke this permission at any time.
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #598416-Sun-Times B5 kudos
Sb: #598336-B5 Roleplaying Scenario?
Sb: #598340-!!B5 SIM GROUP MEETING!!
Sb: #598561-foundation on voyager?
Sb: #598592-<Shadow Dance - Nits>
#: 598416 S5/Babylon 5: General
24-Oct-96 17:34:41
Sb: #Sun-Times B5 kudos
Fm: SYSOP DUPA T PARROT
Joe,
In Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times TV & Radio column, Lon Grahnke wrote about the
alternatives available at 8:00 PM (Central) now that Seinfeld is pre-empted
tonight.
Grahnke gave B5 a three star quality rating and said "... the lively series
combines action, intrigue, suspense, satirical humor, special effects and
philosophical depth." He also said "Constant changes freshen the dramatic
serial; 'Babylon 5' reinvented itself again last spring."
Since he also said that B5 was now in its fourth season, he's probably unaware
of WB's delay of the last five of season three.
I'll send the article to you if you like.
-Dupa T. Parrot, Team SF/F [Tech. Supp. SysOp]
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dupa
OzWin 2.10.1 O-
#: 598520 S5/Babylon 5: General
24-Oct-96 20:49:45
Sb: #598416-Sun-Times B5 kudos
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yeah, I'd love to get it, thanks!
jms
[ Summary: A poster tells another about a new B5 SIM group he's forming. ]
#: 598526 S5/Babylon 5: General
24-Oct-96 20:54:23
Sb: #598336-B5 Roleplaying Scenario?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Be advised that this sim group is not authorized, involves paying
members, and will be shut down by WB, which has shut down others. If you're
using CIS, you will get them into trouble.
jms
[ Summary: That same SIM poster makes a general announcement to all,
inviting then to be a part of the B5 SIM. ]
#: 598527 S5/Babylon 5: General
24-Oct-96 20:54:24
Sb: #598340-!!B5 SIM GROUP MEETING!!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
See my prior note to you. WB has shut down other unauthorized sims,
which are violations of copyright. If you want them to come after CIS, go
right ahead.
jms
[ Summary: Asks if it's correct that Foundation is not working on Babylon 5
anymore and is now working on Star Trek: Voyager. ]
#: 598593 S5/Babylon 5: General
24-Oct-96 23:12:59
Sb: #598561-foundation on voyager?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Correct, Foundation is now doing EFX for Voyager. I wonder how some ST
fans who put down B5's effects, saying ST's never-go-CGI approach made them a
better show, will react to this.
jms
#: 598592 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
24-Oct-96 23:11:47
Sb: #<Shadow Dance - Nits>
Fm: COLIN GLASSEY
Dear Joe,
A great episode. One of the best of the year. It makes me happy just thinking
about it. I really loved Dr. Franklin giving himself the angry speach. There
was a lot of truth to what his "super ego" said, but it certainly wasn't the
only aspects to Dr. Franklin's situation. It is rare to see such
"introspection" in characters in a visual medium like TV. I'd like to see more
of this from the other characters. Just a thought.
Some minor nits:
1) Why did "The White Star" have to hang around in normal space? We know of at
least two methods for tracking Shadow ships in hyperspace (tachyon signature
and psi-detection as demonstrated by Bester). But, neither of these is needed.
The Shadow fleet has, as its target, a "flock" of refugee ships located in this
as-yet unattacked quadrent. Seems to me the strategy is: wait in hyperspace
"near" the flock of refugee ships, and when they signal for help (as they will
when the Shadow fleet appears), pop out of hyperspace and engage the Shadow
fleet. The point is, the Shadow fleet is going after a known target (or so
Sheridan guesses), if you hang around near the target, they will tell you when
the attackers appear. No need to for your ships, even a scout, to sit in
normal space, the refugee ships are all "scout ships" in a sense. I realize
there are good dramatic reasons for putting Ivanova and Marcus in harm's way,
but are there good logical reasons?
2) Delenn and Sheridan spend the night together and we get to watch...
comercials. Talk about giving "short shrift" to a rather interesting event.
Couldn't this have been pushed into a different episode? I mean, here they
are, alone together, in a "ostensibly" romantic situation, lots for them to
talk about I should think. Well, I'd like to know what was said... And what do
we see? Sheridan is already asleep! I can think of a few minutes I would
gladly sacrifice from "Grey 17 is Missing"... I know you are pressed for time
in this epsidoe, but really, relationship building? romance? Sigh... Maybe we
will get more next year.
3) I think the battle could have been done with a bit more of an "umph" to it.
Perhaps the use of intercutting between the two plots was distracting in this
case. It was a good battle, just not quite as effective as "Severed Dreams" or
"Long Twilight Struggle" (which did have effective intercutting).
All in all, a great episode, I can't wait for Z - 1.
-- Colin Glassey
#: 598633 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
25-Oct-96 00:44:57
Sb: #598592-<Shadow Dance - Nits>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Okay, a couple of responses....
"Seems to me the strategy is: wait in hyperspace "near" the flock of
refugee ships, and when they signal for help (as they will when the Shadow
fleet appears), pop out of hyperspace and engage the Shadow fleet. The point
is, the Shadow fleet is going after a known target (or so Sheridan guesses), if
you hang around near the target, they will tell you when the attackers appear.
No need to for your ships, even a scout, to sit in normal space, the refugee
ships are all "scout ships" in a sense."
Massive logic problem. If you wait until they're right on top of the
refugee ships, or very near, they'll just dive into the midst of the refugee
ships and there's no way you can have a clean battle without resulting in
*MASSIVE* amounts of civilian casualties. What you suggest would all but
insure that the refugee ships would be destroyed (defeating the purpose of the
mission) and the piles of civilian ships running for cover in every direction
would hinder our side, but not the other side, and we'd lose even MORE of our
own ships.
"2) Delenn and Sheridan spend the night together and we get to watch...
comercials. Talk about giving "short shrift" to a rather interesting event.
Couldn't this have been pushed into a different episode? I mean, here they
are, alone together, in a "ostensibly" romantic situation, lots for them to
talk about I should think. Well, I'd like to know what was said... And what do
we see? Sheridan is already asleep!"
It's not a matter of being pressed for time. The whole point of the
ritual was to watch him sleeping. We had that nice moment right before they
took off with the fleet, and bunches of others, including the big kiss, right
in the previous episode and throughout the whole thing.
"3) I think the battle could have been done with a bit more of an "umph"
to it. Perhaps the use of intercutting between the two plots was distracting
in this case. It was a good battle, just not quite as effective as "Severed
Dreams" or "Long Twilight Struggle" (which did have effective intercutting)."
That's because there was more emotional content to the other two battles
you mention; the bombing of the Narn homeworld, and EA fighting EA in SD. Not
all battles are created equal, it's a matter of context. You can't expect to
get exactly the same reaction to all of them.
jms
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