JMS on CompuServe (Nov 04, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Tue Nov 4 18:21:24 EST 1997
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 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.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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: #4813-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Sb: #4803-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Sb: New B5 Logo
Sb: #4840-<<Deconstruction>>
Sb: #4879-<Deconstruction>
Sb: #4931-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Sb: #4962-#<faith manages>
Sb: #5000-<Decon->/Recon-struction
Sb: #5010-<<Endgame:Teep & ?>>
---- START SPECIAL MESSAGE ----
Most of you probably don't know Cecelia Harvey, but she's a long-time die-hard
Babylon 5 fan who has contributed a lot to our enjoyment of the series. She's
also been a good friend to many of us. Cecelia is a kind soul. Please read
this message from some of her closest friends, and do whatever you can to
help. Even if it's just spreading the word or wishing her well in your hopes
and prayers.
This is no hoax, no scam. This is real.
Thank you,
-- Brent
JMS has told us, as have Delenn, G'Kar and many of the characters that we have
come to love, that humans build communities. Over the past four years a
community surpassing anyone's expectations has formed on the internet. A
community with a common love, linked not by boundaries of geography but by
electronic impulses through time and space. We build WEB pages, we start
forums, we go to chats and somehow, we have found each other. Together we have
laughed and cried, cheered and shouted and during that time become a family.
We also have formed deep and abiding friendships. Like any good community, we
care for our own.
Now, one of our own truly needs us to come together in support. Cecelia
Harvey, who many of you know from the J & D Forum, as the Ministress of Light
for the Romantic Rangers, as Queen of the Gutter Club and the creator of the
voice of the Resistance Web Page, needs our help. Cecelia has recently been
diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo extensive medical treatments.
Cecelia is the sole support of a young son. Even before the cancer, Cecelia
had ongoing health problems and lives with chronic pain. She is disabled and
is not able to work. Though she never let on times have always been tough.
Those of you came to know her by her razor sharp wit and her saucy humor, her
spirit and her hallmark phrase "Hunk-a-dunk-a-dimple", may never have seen the
need, or been aware of the pain that she hid so well.
Now we need to look beyond the smile and the humor to the woman, the family in
need. As a community we have to come together.
Cecelia has no insurance and cannot qualify for the for the programs that
should help us all when we need it. We have repeatedly tried to go down these
avenues with professional help but to no avail. Since we have exhausted all
possibilities it is the time to inform our community. The medical bills and
basic living expenses in this time of crisis are overwhelming at this time and
will only continue to grow.
Cecelia would never ask for your help, it is not in her nature. We as her
friends cannot stand by and watch one of our own in such need and do nothing.
We come to you with a heartfelt request. Please send your thoughts and your
prayers, and most of all, your contributions no matter no small. Together as a
community we can make a major difference in one person's life.
We have established a fund in her name. Any donations you can make should be
made payable to Cecelia Harvey and sent to:
Cecelia Harvey
C/o Tish Williamson
10 Saddleview Court
Gaithersburg, Md. 20878-3861
Thank you,
In Valen's name, with love,
Adrina Cohen
Tish Williamson
Jeanne Wilson
---- END SPECIAL MESSAGE (Thank You) ----
#: 4813 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
31-Oct-97 20:58:08
Sb: #4748-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
jms,
Is it possible that the Cable Ace awards are taking place this weekend but
being televised at a later date? I could find no reference to them for this
weekend in the TV Guide (and what with chasing B5 eps all over the schedule
one becomes a rather intent reader of TV Guide <g>)?
-rje-
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else -- Emily
Dickinson
#: 4918 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
01-Nov-97 22:26:07
Sb: #4813-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I think it's next week, I screwed up.
jms
[ Summary: "I didn't see the Ace Awards show in TV Guide. What
day/time will it be?" ]
#: 4917 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
01-Nov-97 22:26:06
Sb: #4803-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Oops, I may have the wrong date, it may be next weekend.
jms
#: 4916 S2/Bab 5: General
01-Nov-97 22:26:06
Sb: New B5 Logo
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I was advised to repost this here rather than the technical section...
A new Season 5 B5 logo will be debuting on the Cable Ace awards in a
snipped from the show...just a word to the wise....
jms
[ Summary: "I would guess that the three panelists were filmed
separately and edited together, but with all the interruptions and
voice-overs, it looked very much like a live shot." ]
#: 4920 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
01-Nov-97 22:35:07
Sb: #4840-<<Deconstruction>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Stephen filmed that sequence by having all of the cast on the set at the
same time, running multiple film cameras to get each version "live."
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 4919 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
01-Nov-97 22:26:07
Sb: #4879-<Deconstruction>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"By any chance, is the post-apocalyptic religious order shown in
"Deconstruction . ." a direct decendant of Brother Theo's order on Babylon 5?"
It's altogether possible....
And Theo is only awaiting a story worth bringing him in for.
jms
#: 4931 (C) S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
02-Nov-97 00:51:55
Sb: #4917-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: BRENT BARRETT
"Oops, I may have the wrong date, it may be next weekend."
This talk of the Cable Ace Awards reminded me of something I wanted to
ask you back when we first heard of TNT's purchase of the next season.
I think there's a much better chance of B5 receiving more "mainstream"
award recognition now that it's a first-run cable series. The Ace Awards
have honored such genre shows as The Outer Limits, if I'm not mistaken, so am
I right in thinking that they might be more open than the Emmys to
considering B5 for the more first-tier awards such as acting, writing and
directing?
-- Brent
#: 5015 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
02-Nov-97 19:45:13
Sb: #4931-New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I think we'll have better shots at everything, across the board, once
we're over on TNT.
jms
[ Summary: "You got your dig in to all those people who said you
couldn't do a 5 year story that wasn't Star Trek, outside the big
studio system, with a comprehensive, evolving storyline, and so on.
It was a wonderful moment." ]
#: 5016 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
02-Nov-97 19:45:14
Sb: #4962-#<faith manages>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Exactly (and thanks). A few people have interpreted the final card as
"meanspirited" (when it's on one level a reaction *to* five years of constant
carping and meanspiritedness from lots of sectors, from the nets to the press
and elsewhere)...but what it is, is a statement of hope. That whenever you
try something different, there are going to be naysayers, and people who say
it can't be done, and certainly can't be done by *you*.
It ain't just B5, it's any dream out there.
And in the end, they are wrong.
Faith manages.
That's the message of the card.
That, and the truth that in 10 years the naysayers will be forgotten,
and made irrelevant...but the show, the *show*...goes on. And will be around
long after they and I have gone to dust. And all people will know when they
see that card, 50 years from now, was that some jerks said it couldn't be
done, and they were wrong, because they are *always* wrong. If you have the
dream, the ability and the passion, you can bring your dreams to life despite
overwhelming opposition. That's the message.
But for those on the other side, they will never see anything other than
meanspiritedness because that's all they can *ever* see...because that's all
they can bring to the table.
There's an old saying about books, which I'll rephrase to include B5:
Babylon 5 is like a book, and a book is like a mirror: if an ass peers in, you
can't exactly expect an apostle to peer out.
jms
#: 5000 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
02-Nov-97 16:43:01
Sb: <Decon->/Recon-struction
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
jms,
My first reaction to "Deconstruction..." was that it would have been a
wonderful episode to have used as extra material for my college Philosophy
class when we got to those "truth-fact-reality" questions. You gave us
multiple "shadows" on the wall in the Platonic cave -- some even cast by
simians trying to deliberately distort the "shadows," much like class-clowns
intruding on a slide show with hand-images of dogs and rabbits.
And there were the links to previous episodes: "Truth is fluid; truth is
relative" -- from the present date through Daniel's retro-fitting 500 years
later you showed us several attempts at forcing "the truth" into uncomfortable
channels. And Wade's comment to Garibaldi about everything being and illusion
([constructs of light]) -- I never would have dreamt how literally that would
come about in the holographic sequence (but I was delighted to see that the
holo-Garibaldi was just as much of a wild-card as actual Garibaldi, and that
the holo-Sheridan and holo-Franklin were utterly unbelievable -- the most
successful dictators and subhuman scientists would be those who successful
*masked* their activities rather than trumpeting them to the skies).
You bracketed the "fluid truth" bits (and I found them to be dead-on send-ups
of both current journalism and scholarship -- "sound and fury, signifying
nothing") with endearingly prosaic moments -- Sheridan and Delenn's return to
B5 and Brother Alwyn's delight in rediscovering the gas-turbine engine.
I never had the sense of hopelessness that others felt -- as a matter of fact,
I found the final scene to be one of great joy -- it may have taken 1,000,000
years, but we may be finally ready to join Lorien & Co. beyond the Rim (for
even more of a "hell of a party" than the B5 station threw for Sheridan and
Delenn). Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I was convinced that "New Earth" is
beyond the Rim.
The other hopefulness I found was in Brother Alwyn and Brother Michael --
Brother Michael because of his desire for the Rangers to be real, and Brother
Alwyn for his Bombadilish carrying-on of the Ranger tradition. I was eerily
reminded of the effects of the Xenia tornado some years ago -- incredible
devastation revealed the "truth" -- the shape of the land was revealed when
stripped of civilized accretions -- no matter what blather is created by
journalists, academics or other "pundits," there is an underlying truth which
the diligent may discover, even after cataclysms.
One thing that "Deconstruction..." implies is its "shadow" -- if we see
mutation of the "truth" 100-500-1000 years in the future, we must accept that
there may have been similar mutations of the "truth" 100-500-1000 years in the
past (or the present, as witnessed by the "Into the Firing Line" panelists).
The other thing that grabbed my attention about "Deconstruction..." was that
we, as the viewing audience, become the judges of how the "truth" is handled.
You started it in "Rising Star," when Londa makes his comment about being in
the presence of living history -- *we,* as the audience are in the presence of
the B5 living history; *we,* as the lurking viewer , are able to judge the
"truth," having actually seen the facts and the reality.
Finally -- "Deconstruction..." means that our "selah" until TNT's regeneration
of B5 in January will be haunted by those hints you threw out, like landmines
in an already tricky landscape.
-rje-
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else -- Emily
Dickinson
#: 5017 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
02-Nov-97 19:45:14
Sb: #5000-<Decon->/Recon-struction
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks...as always, thoughtful and cogent and pulling together a lot of
the threads introduced in the show.
Stop that, you know the rules on being sensible on the nets....
jms
#: 5010 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
02-Nov-97 17:54:03
Sb: <<Endgame:Teep & ?>>
Fm: JOSE CABANILLAS
A note - If Season 5 had not happened, the way you wrote up to the end of 4
and Delenn's voice over at the end were admiarbly done, and I would have been
able to go away happy. However it will be much better to see just how it
plays out.
Two questions - who was the actress who played the other telepath that Lyta
woke up when they were attacking the earth ships. The first guy we had seen
before, on B5, but she was quite striking and got no credits.
Second - will we ever see Major Morris again? It would have been a nice
wrap-around to the break away in Severed Dreams if Bruce McGill could have
been brought back for one of the wrap up episodes after Sheridan decided to
end things with Clarke. Actor problems?
jose
#: 5018 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
02-Nov-97 19:45:14
Sb: #5010-<<Endgame:Teep & ?>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
The other teep was an extra, and extras generally go uncredited, and
there wasn't time to work in the other Major at this point.
jms
[END]
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