JMS on CompuServe (Jun 25, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

bbarrett at speedlink.com bbarrett at speedlink.com
Wed Jun 25 15:15:23 EDT 1997


 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
 upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.

 Continue at your own risk.
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 S
  P
   O
    I
     L
      E
       R

         P
          R
           O
            T
             E
              C
               T
                I
                 O
                  N
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 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.
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Archives of this material may be found at:

   ftp://ftp.johndelenn.com/pub/bbarrett/cis/
                    - or -
          http://www.johndelenn.com/
 **********************************************


 [ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
    Sb: #679655->>415-418<<
    Sb: #679840-Last Episode
    Sb: #679774-#From jms re: yr 4/5
    Sb: #679959-#<City of Sorrows>
    Sb: #679923-New episodes


 #: 679655 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    23-Jun-97  00:10:18
Sb: #>>415-418<<
Fm: TONI MULLER

Usually when I'm blown away by an episode, I jump right on CIS and E-mail you,
but lately I haven't had the energy (we're expecting our first child in
December and I never knew I could feel so "green" and exhausted for so long).
But after this last batch of four I had to write and say "Thank you, thank you,
thank you" for wonderful drama and entertainment.  I wish the show could go on
for 10 more years, though I wouldn't be happy for the toll that would take on
you.

Everyone's said so much already that I won't be redundant.  I will say that our
favorite line in "Face of the Enemy" was Garibaldi's "The last guy who said
that got 30 pieces of silver for the whole job" (or somthing close - I'd have
to rewatch).  That was quite chilling and prophetic.

The scene where Franklin tells Lyta that the Sheridan he knew never would have
asked this of him had me beginning to wonder if another one of Sheridan's
allies was about to defect, and made me more open to questioning Sheridan's
behavior.  But then you quelled my fears by having Franklin admit that Sheridan
was right.  Those few seconds in between seemed much longer.

And poor Johnny.  He's been through so much and now this.  I started out
thinking "Hey, he's been to Z'Ha'Dum and back; you can't touch him."  But the
way the episode was written and acted still left a seed of doubt in my mind -
not intellectual doubt, but an emotional sort of doubt - "I know he wouldn't
cave in, but...."

At any rate, kudos to all the cast and crew - and to you.

BTW, I don't know what Minbari pregnancies are like but someone better warn
Delenn that while she's expecting little David she might not quite feel like
cruising out on the White Star to take on the Drakh or some other galactic
threat. <g>

Toni


 #: 679905 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    23-Jun-97  23:03:34
Sb: #679655->>415-418<<
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      Thanks...it's been a good run.

                                                                    jms



 #: 679840 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    23-Jun-97  18:21:32
Sb: #Last Episode
Fm: ROB CARR

I just got home from vacation.  Of course there was a lightning storm while we
were gone, the power went out, and as a result the VCR screwed up and I didn't
get to see the final episode.

I called up my best friend, whose wife is a B5 fan.  Before I left, I told them
this was the last episode of the season.  I was hoping they had a tape.

When Floyd answered the phone, he told me right off that he had watched the
season ender of Babylon 5 with his wife and it was the "disturbing."  Three
days after watching the show, it is still slashing at his consciousness.  He
didn't like it.  The show bothered him and he wanted to leave but found he
couldn't.  He said he could never ever watch that episode again.  From the
sounds of it, he doesn't have to - he's getting reruns in his brain whether he
wants them or not.

He asked me to pass along his congratulations to you and to the actors and to
tell you that you are just as disturbed as that episode for making it the
"cliffhanger."

His wife wouldn't even talk about the show.

They taped it but put the tape back in the recycle drawer it bothered them so
much, and so I may have to wait months for a rerun if they can't find it.  I
wonder if Floyd or I will go nuts first....

Must have been a heck of an episode.  Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgh.

Rob


 #: 679907 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    23-Jun-97  23:23:32
Sb: #679840-Last Episode
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

"He asked me to pass along his congratulations to you and to the actors and to
tell you that you are just as disturbed as that episode for making it the
"cliffhanger.""

      Why, thank ye kindly....

                                                                    jms



 [ Summary: Is there anything we can still do to help with season five? ]

 #: 680029 S5/Babylon 5: General
    24-Jun-97  13:29:02
Sb: #679774-#From jms re: yr 4/5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       It's all in the hands of the network gods now....

                                                                       jms


 [ Summary: Enjoyed the recent novel about Sinclair and hopes that we can
   learn more about Sinclair as Valen in the future. ]

 #: 680035 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    24-Jun-97  13:36:22
Sb: #679959-#<City of Sorrows>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       The coming comic will deal with some of the situation after Sinclair
became Valen.

                                                                       jms



 #: 679923 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    24-Jun-97  03:12:01
Sb: #New episodes
Fm: CHERNS MAJOR

I'm a little behind on my episodes, but the new ones I've seen have certainly
been up to the high standard you've set for yourself.  (Later: I've caught
up--great stuff!)

One comment and one question:

Comment: I thought that Marcus's playing with his fighting stick (!) at the end
of--was it "Lines of Communication," "Racing Mars"?--was perhaps the most
explicit representation of sex I've seen on the screen since Hitchcock ran that
train through that tunnel at the end of _North By NorthWest_.

I was thinking of the fairly early episode featuring the alien ambassador who
Ivanova has to deal with ("Acts of Sacrifice," I *think*).  As I've said
before, I thought that the most telling part of that episode wasn't Ivanova's
"sex scene" (which was certainly cute), but the concept that turned the
ambassador's mind around--that humans use poverty to cull their own species the
way the ambassador's species want to cull other less adaptive ones.  I thought
that this was very insightful and fairly subtle social commentary, but now I
wonder: was this theme also directly related to the "nature red in tooth and
claw" philosophy we later found espoused by a certain other, shadowy, crowd?
Or, maybe, just showing that certain ideas pop up all over?

Love the show--thanks for creating it *and* carrying through so well.  Best,
--Howard

Oh, yeah: one more question: is the character Captain Jack a reference to the
Billy Joel song of the same name?

And one more comment: I love the Voice of the Resistance test pattern--sort of
a neo-Indian-head.  (I hope that the coloured bars in the corners don't mean
that NTSC has survived that long, though.)  --H

Later, after seeing _Intersections in Real Time_: did I see, in a scene near
the end involving a gurney, a tip of the hat to a scene, also towards the end,
in a Frankenheimer film, recently released to video, that you've mentioned
admiring?  I don't know if you've ever read (in your copious spare time, I
suppose) Tom Sharpe's darkly comic _Wilt_--now *there*'s a guy who knows how to
survive an interrogation...  Cheers, --H


 #: 680201 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
    24-Jun-97  22:34:50
Sb: #679923-New episodes
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      I think those are pretty much no's across the board.

                                                                    jms



[END]

-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field.  The best way to reach JMS is to post to rastb5m, which
-*** can be done by sending email to <b5mod at deepthot.cary.nc.us>.



More information about the B5JMS mailing list