JMS on CompuServe (Nov 06, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Fri Nov 7 01:24:48 EST 1997
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
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Note that JMS has expressed his public permission
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #5613-B5 Sierra software?
Sb: #5636-Last episode #
Sb: #5573-#Last episode #
Sb: #5664-Babylon 5 TNT Site
Sb: #5653-Bar-Raising
Sb: #5586-#Marcus Aurelius
Sb: #5633-#<Will we see it again?>
[ Summary: Asks if the B5 CD-ROMs will be available through the
Fan Club. ]
#: 5677 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Nov-97 01:44:10
Sb: #5613-B5 Sierra software?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, the informational CDrom will be available through retail, through
Sierra directly, and through the fan club (FC members will get a discount).
jms
[ Summary: "Is there some story reason why a series of episodes about
what happens on the station in the year 2263 would be a bad idea?" ]
#: 5678 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Nov-97 01:44:11
Sb: #5636-Last episode #
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Why did the story of Ishmael end at the last page of Moby Dick?
Because that's when the story ended.
A story is a slice of a continued and continuous world; the world exists
before, and continues after. The story never ends; you just pull out pieces
of it long enough to tell to other humans, who are finite and cannot wait for
infinity to unravel itself and tell us what everything meant. Certainly,
amazing things would continue to happen in the B5 universe. But our telling
of this piece of the story, is finite.
We are finite. Zathras is finite.
The story is eternal.
jms
#: 5573 S2/Bab 5: General
05-Nov-97 12:49:07
Sb: #5436-Last episode #
Fm: FRANK
It doesn't take much to confuse me, and this is obviously a very
complicated business. What I meant was that the WB affiliate in NYC (WPIX)
doesn't carry B5, but rather it is shown on WOR (UPN), for reasons that were
explained to me in another response.
It must be difficult writing a 5-year series if you're left hanging at
the end of every season. If "Deconstruction" was written as a hedge against
the fifth season not being produced (as indicated in another comment), doesn't
it disrupt the original story line? Where would the fourth season have
ended if TNT had
renewed the series earlier?
Frank
#: 5722 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Nov-97 12:59:00
Sb: #5573-#Last episode #
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"lt writing a 5-year series if you're left hanging at the end of every season.
If "Deconstruction" was written as a hedge against the fifth season not being
produced (as indicated in another comment), doesn't it disrupt the original
story line?"
You've got it backward; "Deconstruction" was written AFTER we got word
about the S5 renewal.
jms
#: 5664 S2/Bab 5: General
05-Nov-97 22:28:02
Sb: #5467-#Babylon 5 TNT Site
Fm: CARL CANTARELLA
Does it connect anywhere? The reason why they shut it down was because they
hadn't connected it to anything yet.
Just wondering if we're in for a replay. <g>
#: 5682 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Nov-97 01:48:14
Sb: #5664-Babylon 5 TNT Site
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
The TNT site is not ready for anyone, and the information should not
have been released; they're just trying out the software, and the log-ons are
causing them problems (and some annoyance). Please (to all looking on) hold
off on the TNT site until it's ready; there's nothing there yet.
jms
#: 5653 S2/Bab 5: General
05-Nov-97 21:28:10
Sb: #Bar-Raising
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
jms,
One thing I'm fairly sure I forgot to tell you -- The pressmen groused about
the difficulty of printing the calendar (the ink saturation and the tight
register were apparently nightmarish), but, once it was finished, they sent
samples in as a submission to a printing contest. Even though they are not
(yet) B5 viewers, they take great pride in their own B5 achievement and how
it's been received.
-rje-
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else -- Emily
Dickinson
#: 5679 S2/Bab 5: General
06-Nov-97 01:44:11
Sb: #5653-Bar-Raising
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I understand what the difficulty with that would be, and I'm glad they
stuck with it...it's gorgeous.
jms
#: 5586 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
05-Nov-97 13:49:02
Sb: #5574-Marcus Aurelius
Fm: ANNE L. WARNER
Joe,
>> I think she's working on my moral and ethical development.) <<
Are you sure old Marcus A. is a good example? After all, he ultimately
destroyed the moral and ethical fiber of the Imperium.
Anne
#: 5680 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
06-Nov-97 01:44:11
Sb: #5586-#Marcus Aurelius
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Actually, I was watching a debate on PBS a few weeks ago, and they made
the point that Christianity may have been the *cause* of the fall of the Roman
Empire, rather than its saving grace...apparently it began to take the church
structure as its own model in how to operate (when its own infrastructure
began to collapse), and put religious leaders into positions they should never
have occupied for reasons of simple incompetence, and in short order things
began to fall apart.
I wish I could've made that paragraph more sensible, but I was writing
while listening, and I only got the sense of it...perhaps someone else out
there who heard it can fill in the gaps, but that's the gist of the idea.
jms
[ Summary: "You did what few science fiction writer can do, Joe:
show a tenacity and optimism of the human *spirit* that transcends
the human condition, and show it in a believable way." ]
#: 5681 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
06-Nov-97 01:44:12
Sb: #5633-#<Will we see it again?>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, that's the point...there will always be short-term setbacks, but as
long as we climb back a few inches higher than we were before we fell down, we
keep moving toward the goal of becoming a better people, and getting off the
planet. Taking our place among the stars. While it's vaguely possible that I
may *see* a Mars colony sometime within my lifetime, I know that I will never
live there...but that ain't the point, it isn't a victory if *I* do it, and a
failure if *I* don't, it's if *we* do it or not. Maybe we'll do it today,
maybe we'll do it tomorrow, the point is to decide to DO it, and then by god
DO IT.
And yeah, that little closing card is going to remain on the show for
its life...which will be long, long after its detractors (and admittedly
myself) have gone to dust. On the one hand, it is a statement of hope to
anyone else out there who has a dream, to follow it no matter who speaks
against you, no matter the odds, no matter what they say to or about you, no
matter what roadblocks they throw in your way. What matters is that you
remain true to your vision.
On the other hand, for the reviewers and the pundits and the critics and
the net-stalkers who have done nothing but rag on this show for five years
straight, it is also a giant middle finger composed of red neon fifty stories
tall, that will burn forever in the night.
In billiards, we call that a bank-shot.
jms
[END]
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