JMS on CompuServe (Oct 22, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Thu Oct 23 01:13:33 EDT 1997
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #2711-#Claudia
Sb: #2804-Soul mates (endgame)
Sb: #2615-<<EndGame>>
Sb: #2654-Endgame
Sb: #2671-Rising Star
Sb: #2705-#<Rising Star>
#: 2711 S2/Bab 5: General
21-Oct-97 20:56:05
Sb: #2430-Claudia
Fm: DEGAN OUTRIDGE
>> Petition for the Possible. She could still be in the Spinoff... though
maybe not paired with another character I'd like to have seen in it. JMS has
said the scripts are written through the middle of season 5 already, so that's
just not possible. But the future is still fluid... <<
That's where I'm hopeful...that we can let the studios know our hopes to see
her in any future movies or Crusade. Encourage other fans to write, but to
pair enthusiasm with courtesy...<G>.
If the folks spending/making the bucks know that Ivanova is a big favorite,
they should at least think about it....
-Degan Outridge
#: 2904 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Oct-97 18:13:00
Sb: #2711-#Claudia
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"That's where I'm hopeful...that we can let the studios know our hopes to see
her in any future movies or Crusade. Encourage other fans to write, but to
pair enthusiasm with courtesy...<G>."
Two things:
1) It wasn't the studio's choice in the first place, it's not like they
wanted her gone...she left, so there's not much point in writing them.
2) It's not their call in many ways on future projects in ANY event;
they basically let me write whatever I want, so it's my call.
What the fans need to know...is that by constantly bugging me about this
and haranging me and hassling me about it...they are not leaving me well
disposed toward that prospect. I have a tendency, when pushed and generally
honked off, to go in the exact opposite direction of where I'm being pushed.
Yeah, it's probably stupid and immature, and I should deal with such
hassling better...but I'm human, rumors to the contrary...and in that respect,
writers are like violins...finely tuned and highly strung. Don't mess with
the strings.
jms
[ Summary: "'The Ascent of the Ordinary Man' happens to be a bit of
classical music." ]
#: 2905 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
22-Oct-97 18:13:00
Sb: #2804-Soul mates (endgame)
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
You're thinking of "Anthem for the Common Man."
jms
#: 2615 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
21-Oct-97 16:53:08
Sb: #<<EndGame>>
Fm: CARL CANTARELLA
Joe,
On Sunday I had the displeasure of getting an all-too familiar type of
migraine headache. When 9:00pm rolled around I had to decide on whether or not
to put off watching this latest B5 episode until another time thanks to my
VCR, or watch it and not enjoy it as much as I otherwise would thanks to the
headache. Suffice it to say that I endured, migraine and all, and while that
did put a bit of a damper on the experience, I nevertheless really enjoyed
what I saw. You and your team --cast and crew-- really managed to put it all
together into one BLAST of an experience.
WWOR was so courteous in their airing of the show that they didn't
even do their usual voice-over/squeezing of the closing credits in order to
give a run-down of what was coming up on their 10:00 news broadcast, which
immediately followed. I don't think it was by chance that things went down
that way, but who knows. However, it's worth mentioning that while certain
stations have dropped the last four of season four in order to make room for
their own shows, WWOR actually moved the last four eps of S4 up an hour from
the old 8:00 time slot to 9:00, which pits the show against "The X-Files" as
it turns out. My guess is that the station is sorry to be losing the show, and
I'd almost bet that you've got a true Fiver-fan over there in the programming
department of that station. <g>
Anyway, great work, great ep, and my thanks for the quality
entertainment. I'm looking forward to the next two, and even further ahead to
January. ;-)
#: 2891 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
22-Oct-97 17:59:02
Sb: #2615-<<EndGame>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks for the info...interesting.
jms
#: 2654 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
21-Oct-97 18:39:04
Sb: Endgame
Fm: MARTIN TOGGWEILER
JMS:
Superb episode. Kudos to the special effects crew. I loved the detail: the
Martian military base, the Martian moon (Phobos I think), the Moon in the
background when Delenn enters the battle around Earth. I do wish, however,
that everything would not have resolved quite so quickly, though I do
understand this was put together before season 5 got approved. Like in "Into
the Fire", there was flavorful and emotionally satisfying detail I would have
loved to have seen, but which was sped over. In particular, I would have like
to have seen the despair/hate in Clarke's face when his downfall was certain,
as well as the panic among the rest of his cronies; there's a great catharsis
in seeing evil-doers getting their just rewards. It seemed strange that those
coming to arrest Clarke did not have to fight through any guards, or were
these his once most loyal troops who turned on him in the end? Are there
many if any scenes from season 4 that never made it to TV, but could be edited
in for release on video? One last thing, I've watched the entire episode
three times now, I noticed that the ISN special report says the battle over
Earth took place at 1:45 Earth Standard Time. Is this Greenwich Mean Time?
Geneva Time? A niggling detail I picked up my last time through was that it's
dusk over mid-Australia when the fleet jumps out at Earth, which makes it
mid-morning in western Europe and just before dawn in the eastern U.S.. When
the battle is raging it's full daylight over North America. In Clarke's
Geneva Office it seems to be night. Assuming the battle took an hour max,
these facts just can't be reconciled. But hell, it's TV and a battle over a
daylit Earth does look cooler.
Thanks again for the most unmissable TV there's ever been.
I'll be getting cable in January to see the rest of the story,
Martin Toggweiler
#: 2892 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
22-Oct-97 17:59:02
Sb: #2654-Endgame
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yes, EST = GMT.
And this episode wasn't rushed; it's what you do when you're bringing
any story to its climax. It's like watching Aliens, going away before the
last 20 minutes, coming back and saying, "Well, it moved awfully fast." It
has to, you're in the big moment. No, there isn't time for everything, there
is NEVER time for everything, there's always stuff we might want to see...but
what's in Endgame is what was always going to be in Endgame. If I'd known
there would be a 5th season at the time, I still would've written it exactly
the way it was written.
The collapsing was done for the most part *long* before we ever got to
this part of the season.
It's just fast because that's what you need to do at this point.
jms
[ Summary: Really enjoyed "Rising Star." ]
#: 2893 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
22-Oct-97 17:59:02
Sb: #2671-Rising Star
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks...it's a good resolution to one thread, while setting up what's
still to come.
jms
#: 2705 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
21-Oct-97 20:25:13
Sb: <Rising Star>
Fm: PAM JERNIGAN
Beautiful episode, Joe. So much crammed in there, and it's all good! I think
you managed to give all your major characters something fun to do. I love the
way all the major threads are gathered back together (not entirely tied up),
and I'm so glad Garibaldi has a happy outcome (not ending). It's obvious that
there are more things to be done next year, and I'm looking forward to it, but
this was a beautiful subtotal, so to speak.
One question - the voice-over from ISN tells us that Ivanova will be
commanding a ship for the next year - this is obviously what you meant by
changing one line of dialog to explain CC's absence. Classy. But a friend of
mine was wondering if the visual might have been changed, too - she thought
she recognized that clip of Susan staring at the stars. Was that filmed for
this spot, or recycled? I'm guessing that the visual would have been the
same, with a voice over indicating that she'd been given command of B5...
PJ
who was rooting for the new alliance to be called the League of Aligned
Worlds, or LAW... <g>
#: 2894 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
22-Oct-97 17:59:03
Sb: #2705-#<Rising Star>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, that's a new shot (Claudia at the window). She was shot for that
episode for that voice-over...we just changed one line. The basic thrust was
that she was going to take some time to *decide* whether to take on B5, or to
take on a Warlock class destroyer. So we just went with the decision.
jms
[END]
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