JMS on CompuServe (Mar 03, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS* (2/2)
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Mon Mar 3 21:20:47 EST 1997
[ Continued from previous section -- BB ]
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The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #653494-To Sysops from jms
Sb: #653499-Minbari castes
Sb: #653485-Atonement
Sb: #653488-Grey Council
Sb: #653549-Caste, Clan, Family?
Sb: #653621-Minbari castes
Sb: #653649-#TNT Air Order
Sb: #653672-To Sysops from jms
#: 653494 S5/Babylon 5: General
02-Mar-97 22:10:22
Sb: #652535-#To Sysops from jms
Fm: RAY PELZER
I started to make a reply when I saw the first few messages, but I'm glad I
read through to this point before putting my reply on the system. I was even
ready to suggest that we bypass the usual "obscenity scan-bot" technique by
telling everyone how "p1$$ed-0ff" I was, and that the law was truly a "@$$"
(and believe me, I've joked around about putting together a DICTIONARY of
bypass methods like this... think about having to delete anything relating to
FAQ because it might be mispronounced as something "dirty"!), but as you've
said, there are attempts being made to rectify the situation.
The original rules were pretty much set hard and fast, and nothing came
along to test the issues until now. Most any law has to have SOME room for
interpretation, and most of us agree that self-policing is the best method of
keeping the system a happy place to visit.
There are forces at odds here - trying to allow everyone first-amendment
freedom of expression while still avoiding the parental controls settings
(personally, I don't think being on the Parental Controls list is anything to
fear, but I also don't know what percentage of use is actually FROM P.C.
candidates). I wholeheartedly agree with your feeling that a publicly
announced "we're getting into a risky area here... let's each watch our
personal message contents, please" is the way to go. If you tread gently, you
often don't NEED the big stick which tends cause unintended collateral damage.
#: 653541 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Mar-97 01:35:14
Sb: #653494-To Sysops from jms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Y'know, I've been thinking about all this a lot over the last few days
(what else do I have to do, run a show or something?) and here's the thing that
gets me in the area of parental controls.
It starts with discussions over language, and nobody wants to say "We
can't have language or other problematic items our conferences," because it
smacks of censorship (which, in fact, it is). (And, granted, some uses of
language are a little more disagreeable than others, I'm not getting into
degrees here, just the overall notion.)
So someone says, "Instead of doing that, let's have a Ratings System,
which will tell parents which forums (or shows) are safe for their kids, and
which are not, so we can have areas where you can say whatever you want, and
other areas where it's more controlled, and parents know where to go."
Then the ratings go into place...but nobody wants to be tagged with the
harsher designation. Because that would mean a loss of revenue, or prestige,
or visibility. So now everyone starts doing whatever it takes to avoid that
rating, by changing content or enforcing stricter rules to avoid the label,
since that's somewhat easier to defend (even though it's exactly the same as
the original problem, they've just moved the target to something that's less of
an obvious flash-point as censorship).
What you therefore end up with is that all forums or shows move toward
the safer designation, and there no longer IS a choice between "kid" and
"adult" conversations or topics or language or subjects. Because the latter
has ceased to exist not for political reasons but for *economic* ones.
It's much like what happened in the record biz...some groups wanted
labels put on records, have them rated so parents and kids could tell the hard
stuff from the safe stuff, "But we're not pro-censorship, we just want to be
informed." Until the records started coming out, at which point the same
parents groups began screaming about x-rated albums being even in the same
STORE where kids could enter their orbit, even if protected by cellophane
wrapping and warned by labels. It became a basis for exclusion.
Nobody in TV right now wants to be hit with the TV-M (mature) rating,
because of threatened boycotts. It's the same material that may have been
there before, but now that it has a label, that label has become a target.
The expressed intent is to create clarity in making choices in material.
The result is to *remove* choices by excluding material.
The more I look at it, the more insidious it gets.
I think I'll write something about this, one of these days....
jms
#: 653499 S5/Babylon 5: General
02-Mar-97 22:30:07
Sb: #Minbari castes
Fm: JOHN L. FJELLSTAD
What caste is Lennier, and do every member of a clan belong to the same caste?
John
WARPing CIS
#: 653542 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Mar-97 01:35:18
Sb: #653499-Minbari castes
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Lennier is religious caste; and all members of a given clan belong to one
caste.
There are, for instance, no religious caste members of the Star Riders
(military caste) clan.
jms
#: 653485 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
02-Mar-97 21:32:32
Sb: #Atonement
Fm: DOUGLAS PILIGIAN
Joe,
Just wondering, what, if anything, was involved in using the song from Pirates
of Penzance that Marcus was singing at the end?
Doug
#: 653543 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
03-Mar-97 01:35:20
Sb: #653485-Atonement
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Nothing, really...we just grabbed one of the audio bits from the day's
filming and dropped it in.
jms
#: 653488 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
02-Mar-97 21:42:23
Sb: #Grey Council
Fm: DOUGLAS PILIGIAN
Joe,
In Atonement after Dukhat dies Delenn casts the ties breaker vote to attack.
Ok, so there's 9 members of the Grey council, Dukhat dies leaving eight. They
vote and it's a tie. Now if Delenn has not voted, how can there be a tie vote?
There would have been 7 members voting. Unless either:
1. More council members than Dukhat were killed or,
2. They needed more than a simple majority
What say you oh Great Maker?
Doug
#: 653544 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
03-Mar-97 01:35:22
Sb: #653488-Grey Council
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Others in the Council died, as was noted when the one says, "Our
brothers?" "Dead," Delenn says. So there were others.
jms
#: 653549 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
03-Mar-97 03:02:17
Sb: #Caste, Clan, Family?
Fm: BRENT BARRETT
Joe,
"Lennier is religious caste; and all members of a given clan belong to one
caste."
So I take it, from earlier comments of yours that Delenn chose her caste as
a child (I believe you said it was due to her "vision" in the temple), that you
are not born into your clan?
In other words, If Delenn had chosen to be a worker, she would not be in
the clan she is currently in, correct?
If that's the case, then clans aren't necessarily organizations of
relatives, right? I got the distinct impression from watching "Atonement" that
the clan was made up of Delenn's relatives.
Was her clan the "Mir" clan? Or was "Mir" her family name? I believe
Dukhat referred to her heritage as "the family of Mir." Is that different than
the clan?
Assuming nothing you've said in the past has changed, that would give us
three organizational units in Minbari society (in order from largest to
smallest): Caste, Clan, Family. Is this correct?
My head is spinning from all this stuff, but it's just so good that I
really want to understand what you've created.
Thanks,
-- Brent
#: 653683 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
03-Mar-97 12:05:07
Sb: #653549-Caste, Clan, Family?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, Mir is her family; you are generally born into a caste unless you
at some point decide that the calling of your heart is elsewhere, at which
point you enter training for that other caste (with the permission of your
caste leaders) until such time as it's finalized that that's what you want, at
which time you're assigned to a clan within that caste. If you choose to stay
in the caste you're born into, you automatically are in your familiy's clan.
jms
[ Summary: "Humm... Interesting... And Delin, [...]" and "Religous is as
good a choice as any" and "I rather liked her purposed 'Defense' [...]"
and "Poor 'Prosicuter' [...] needed clean underware." ]
#: 653684 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
03-Mar-97 12:05:08
Sb: #653621-Minbari castes
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Don't take this the wrong way...it's simply an observation...just a
thought from someone who works with words all the time and gets very anal
retentive about these things...the dictionary is our friend....
jms
[ Summary: Asks for the scoop on why JMS wants to rework the pilot. ]
#: 653685 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Mar-97 12:05:09
Sb: #653649-#TNT Air Order
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, the fault was mine, not the suits.
Prior to exec producing B5, I had never edited a show before, never had
final cut before...had never even been IN an editing room for more than 5
minutes before. So here I am, given the director's cut...and I know it's real
slow, but I haven't done this before, so I don't trust my instincts. I let it
go with very minimal changes.
And I've been kicking myself ever since. I should've followed my
instincts, but instead I deferred to the director's cut.
It's a mistake I have never made since.
Even so, that first cut just gnaws at me...I *know* I can make it
better, stronger, even if only a bit in a few places, that would help salve my
soul over this thing.
jms
#: 653672 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Mar-97 10:42:48
Sb: #653531-#To Sysops from jms
Fm: WIZOP WES MEIER
>> I see. Though, that would apply only to SFMEDONE, if it got the PC
label...you could still hold COs on SFMEDTWO, with different forums. In other
words...let's say, worst case scenario, SF1 gets PC'd. No opening menu
announcements. But SF2 is *not* PC'd. So the CO could be held there; and
since they're both (presumably) under the same roof, it all works out the same,
yes? <<
Pretty much so, yes. Except that CSi now only touts events that have a
"business slant" to them which now effectively rules all 4 fora out.
We can't win.
- Wes
#: 653686 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Mar-97 12:05:10
Sb: #653672-To Sysops from jms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
So then the concern about not getting opening screen promos because of
parental controls is moot because we can't get the promos ANYWAY because it's
not business oriented, so it's really a moot issue in any event...?
Fascinating.
jms
[END]
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