JMS on CompuServe (Nov 01, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Fri Oct 31 23:55:51 EST 1997
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Sb: #4563-#Gathering re-edit?
Sb: #4663-Babylonian Model/Movie
Sb: #4593-to nitpick or not
Sb: #4738-the "old" Anna
Sb: #4739-<<Rising Star>>
Sb: #4465-#The Last ep (wow)
Sb: #4706-The Last ep (wow)
Sb: #4488-<<Deconstruction>>
Sb: #4495-<<Deconstruction>>
Sb: #4565-#<Rising Star> Bravo
#: 4748 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
31-Oct-97 12:09:01
Sb: New B5 Logo on Ace Awds
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
For those planning to watch the Cable Ace Awards this weekend...be on
the lookout, there's going to be a clip from B5 (with a twist at the end)
which will lead off with a new B5 logo which we're introducing for the fifth
season.
jms
[ Summary: Asks what's going to be done to the pilot in re-editing. ]
#: 4604 S2/Bab 5: General
30-Oct-97 22:02:04
Sb: #4563-#Gathering re-edit?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Basically, it's new scenes with the characters, new CGI in many places,
and new music.
jms
[ Summary: "[What] are the chances of a feature film?" ]
#: 4744 S2/Bab 5: General
31-Oct-97 11:58:09
Sb: #4663-Babylonian Model/Movie
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
There have been talks, but we'll have to see what happens.
jms
#: 4593 S2/Bab 5: General
30-Oct-97 19:17:03
Sb: #to nitpick or not
Hi Joe,
As a reader of the relay list, I've been seeing some posts that I'd like to
address in general. I'm not against nitpicking, as long as it follows the
line of something akin to constructive criticism. However, I've been lately
amazed at how much of it address basically how you do your job.
As someone who holds your work/talent in high regard (you have such a way with
characters <g>), I'm constantly floored by how many people nitpick not what
you said in your story, but how you chose/choose to tell it. It really makes
me wonder if Shakespeare were alive today, how long would he last around this
world.
I've enjoyed all four seasons and am highly looking forward to season five.
Deconstruction was a fabulous episode and I liked the little dedication at the
end. : ) I don't give a rats backside how you choose to tell us your
stories, just as long as you continue to do so. I've always found your story
pace to be quite good and I really don't see why it's so necessary to nitpick
it. Perhaps I just don't get it?
I mean, afterall, I wouldn't expect you to tell me how to do my job. Why
should I tell you how to do yours? One would think that you haven't won a
highly prestigious award two years in a row. Seems to me that you're doing
something right. I'm someone who really doesn't mind that John and Delenn's
wedding was a quiet, off-camera deal. Those characters are private people
when it comes to things like this and they would not have wanted a state deal.
Just something simple. At least, that's the impression I've gotten. Of
course, I could be mistaken.
Anyway, because I'm not so sure you've been hearing this enough lately, *thank
you.* I think you're doing a fantastic job. I'm thoroughly entertained by
your tale and like a child with a bedtime story, I anticipate the next
chapter.
Happy All Hallows Eve and have a great weekend....
#: 4605 S2/Bab 5: General
30-Oct-97 22:02:04
Sb: #4593-to nitpick or not
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks....
I think a lot of the nitpicking comes out of people feeling they *have*
to express an opinion about something. It's something you learn as a writer;
if somebody goes into a bookstore and buys a book, they bring it home, read
it, and if they like it, they like it; if they don't, they don't, and that's
really kind of it, just the broad strokes. If you write a book and give it to
a friend, the friend will feel s/he has to go through it and give you critical
responses..."I just didn't buy it when John bought the vanila ice cream cone
on page 47, a guy like that would buy chocolate."
Once the creation of the show is over, I think that it'll fall back into
the general reaction category.
jms
[ Summary: Asks if JMS will replace the photo of Anna that's seen in "In
the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum." ]
#: 4745 S2/Bab 5: General
31-Oct-97 11:58:09
Sb: #4738-the "old" Anna
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It's one of those things we'll do when we get enough round tuits.
jms
#: 4739 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
31-Oct-97 11:42:00
Sb: #4594-#<<Rising Star>>
Fm: JONATHAN KASS
Message text written by Scott J. Epstein
> And knowing other people who are like that, I wouldn't have personally
assumed that that would change because someone thinks they have leverage...<
Well, not to open up the whole debate again, but...
I don't think from reading what was posted on both sides that it came down to
right and wrong per se... it came down to contractual language vs personal
assurances (thats as short a summation as I've ever seen of this :) )... and
CC / agent were more concerned with the former, and jms thought the latter
should be adequate, and the world keeps turning....
#: 4747 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
31-Oct-97 12:09:01
Sb: #4739-<<Rising Star>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"it came down to contractual language vs personal assurances (thats as short a
summation as I've ever seen of this :) )... and CC / agent were more
concerned with the former, and jms thought the latter should be adequate"
It was also contractual language on other sides, since giving what was
asked for would've violated our contracts with every other member of our cast,
and we couldn't do that.
jms
[ Summary: About the promise for the future shown in "The Deconstruction
of Falling Stars," this poster says, "There is so much." ]
#: 4601 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
30-Oct-97 21:21:14
Sb: #4465-#The Last ep (wow)
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
And of course we had those who wondered what else there would be to fill
in a fifth year...not understanding that I have this story worked out in at
least broad strokes for the next 1,000 years....
"How can this story ever end??"
The story never ends. It's this part of the telling that will end.
jms
[ Summary: "I was one of your big critics about what I thought was the
slowness of the developing story but now that we have progressed
this far I all I can say is GREAT JOB." ]
#: 4746 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
31-Oct-97 11:58:10
Sb: #4706-The Last ep (wow)
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks.
jms
#: 4488 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
30-Oct-97 05:12:11
Sb: <<Deconstruction>>
Fm: DEONAHA M. CONLIN
Joe, that was so surreal! That went BEYOND surreal. I'm still
sorting it all out in my head, but I enjoyed it.
Looking at what was done in the increments he chose, I kinda wonder
about the 'history' we have been taught as fact. Just how much of it has been
altered or edited to satisfy the sensibilities or agendas of a given time?
How will Watergate look in 2072? How did WWII *really* look?
Delenn's attack of the panel was......Delenn. Tell it like it is.
And again - how much of what we read in the news has been altered or spun by
the authors, their papers or networks, etc.? Words to the effect of "what you
do not know you will invent" seem to ring so true NOW.
The half-millennium sequence was creepy. The *new and improved*
Sheridan may not have been such a far stretch from the Sheridan we know.
Based on what most people saw at the time and believed (remember the captain
who was sure his crew would be taken prisoner and killed when nothing could
have been farther from the truth?), fivehundred years later, it wouldn't be a
hard thing to believe. The change in Franklin was the one that really shook
me up. His very cool, clinical, matter-of-fact discussion of vivisection, and
then experimenting with children....Joe, as usual, you know how to get down to
what gives people the crawls, and that did it for me. I felt nauseous.
I think the sequence I most enjoyed, after the welcome back for
Sheridan and Delen, not forgetting Londo's description of Centauri weddings as
somber and reflective <giggle>, had to be the thousand year sequence. The
young monk talking about losing his faith, the older one counseling him,
reassuring him without being obvious -- it took me a bit to realize that the
older monk was a Ranger. And it didn't fully sink in until he pulled the
uniform from the closet, and touched it so reverently. I got such a chill.
The million year part I found distracting somehow. Partly that I
could detect the edge of the bald cap, and that bothered me some. Partly that
I guess a million years a such a great dealof time to get one's head around.
But it does make you ask if any of this will be remembered in a million years.
As Delenn said, history will take care of itself - it always does.
This looks like it will make a nice transition into series five,
another resting place such as we saw at the end of the shadow war, another
place to look back and get ready for the next season. Should be fun.
Di Conlin, Wielder of the Lesser Salmon of Discipline, TUS (AKA Tigger)
Great Maker, huh? (Wolf 359, 1997)
"YOU! OUT of the gene pool!"
#: 4740 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
31-Oct-97 11:42:05
Sb: #4488-<<Deconstruction>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
The interesting thing about revisionism is, as you say, that so much of
it goes on already. John Copeland over lunch the other day was outraged over
a situation where new Japanese textbooks are being introduced indicating that
the rape of Nanking never happened, and that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was
in retaliation for Hiroshima.
I'm constantly amazed....
jms
#: 4495 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
30-Oct-97 08:06:05
Sb: #<<Deconstruction>>
Fm: PAM JERNIGAN
Quite a lot of things going on here... <g> Fascinating framing device. I
noticed a lot of little details in this one....
Nice "Just Married" sign on the shuttle <g> I didn't expect to see Garibaldi
back on B5 so soon, though. Londo has a point about weddings, too - if this is
"the happiest day of your life" then that can only mean that the rest of your
life will get worse; not an encouraging thought <g>
The credits were interesting. Claudia Christian has been almost completely
excised from them, which, considering that Jason Carter still has a credit,
seems kinda petty.
Now, comments on the other clips...
2262 (ISN NightSide): Was it just my imagination, or did the Paris
speechwriter seem an awful lot like James Carville? <g> It was clear, thru
the debate, that these Earthers haven't paid any attention to galactic events.
Sheridan has already proven his ability to hold together disparate alien
races, i.e., the Army of Light. Yes, that was military rather than political,
but they didn't seem aware of it at all. And it's worrying that Clarke's
party still has election chances; silly me, I'd have thought they'd have been
thoroughly discredited.
2362 (academic panel): It's depressing to think that humans can be that
baselessly smug, but I know it's true. I thought it was interesting that the
historian was only asking the questions (and seemed somewhat distressed by the
answers) - the people answering the questions were a sociologist and a
psychologist. And they've interpreted events to suit their preconceptions and
preferences. I suppose we all do, to an extent. I thought it interesting
that they wouldn't allow Sheridan and Co any credit for good things ("The
individual cannot *do*. He can only allow others to do" - whatever that
means) but they were quick to blame him for bad things - the creation of the
Alliance was a result of societal forces, but the Telepath War was all
Sheridan's fault.
Loved Delenn coming in to shut them up. It seemed she got there mighty fast,
but then again, the opening did refer to "another in a series" so perhaps
they'd been going on like that for days. She was able to shame them all with
a look. She might be less physically able than when she broke the Gray
Council, but the force of her personality still shines through.
Lots of interesting clues in that sequence, too - the station is apparently
destroyed in 2282 (Sleeping in Light, anyone?). Mr. Garibaldi seems to come
to a bad end, although they didn't actually say he was dead, so I refuse to
believe it <g> (Not that I'd put it past Joe, mind you) Sheridan's death was
a little mystical, too, apparently. Wonder why Delenn lives so long,
considering that Minbari live to 120, tops, and humans live less than that?
2762 (propaganda holograms): My, we humans don't improve with age, do we? As
Di said in another post, this propaganda would probably be all to easy to
believe. Daniel mentions that the Alliance has weakened humanity's position
with other races... he doesn't know his own history, does he? I'm betting the
Alliance did more to get us up to par with the other races than anything
else... Then again, even in 2261 Earth was telling itself fibs (we could have
beat the Minbari).
It wasn't until this sequence that I fully realized how much I have *missed*
Garibaldi over the past year! Finally, he's back in form, even if he is only
a hologram... <g> Good to see Eric Pierpoint again, too.
3262 (monks): Well, Garibaldi may have influenced the course of the war, but
apparently it was still pretty bad for Mother Earth. (Although I suspect some
of the colonies survived).
I noticed the little roman numerals that kept appearing in the lower left hand
corner of the screen - I'm guessing they referred to cameras? Part of the
automatic tracking system that Brother Alwin mentioned?
Fascinating to see the parallel to the Dark Ages, with monks keeping the
history alive. More clues here, too: "the blessed Sheridan, who lived and
died and lived again and who was taken bodily into heaven"? And then there's
"Ivanova the Strong, and Delenn the Wise" <g> Wonder what the others are
called... "Marcus the Purehearted," anyone?
As soon as Alwin mentioned the possibility of Rangers working in secret, I
began to suspect him, especially as Brother Michael didn't appear aware of the
cameras, which were quite a bit above their apparent tech level. I've read
several books with similar themes, I think it's a neat idea. I wonder if the
Rangers are all recruited on Earth, or if a lot of them come from the old
colonies? Loved Br. Alwin's sense of perspective "give him 20 years, and he'll
be fine." <g>
Million years out (wrap-up). So, humans are now energy beings, with encounter
suits? <g> The head on the suit looked fairly human, which led my husband to
wonder if the Vorlon encounter suits reflected what they used to look like...
I did wonder why they needed encounter suits - is it our time to guide younger
races? Have we finally learned enough for that? And the second time through,
we did notice that the his ship had a Ranger insignia... what is built
endures, indeed.
The final dedication was a nice touch, too. Looking forward to next year!
PJ ^^^^
#: 4741 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
31-Oct-97 11:42:06
Sb: #4495-<<Deconstruction>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Good comments. One note:
"The credits were interesting. Claudia Christian has been almost completely
excised from them, which, considering that Jason Carter still has a credit,
seems kinda petty."
WB called us after we'd done the credits for that episode, about 5 days
before the uplink, after realizing that if her credits were in that episode,
AND in "Sleeping in Light" which appears in S5, that it could very possibly
trigger another salary payment, which is substantial. So we could credit her
in one or the other, and since she wasn't in DoFS, it's S5, that was the one
to take out. Since Jason wasn't in "Sleeping," it was okay to leave him in.
It was a WB mandate from business affairs, nothing more.
jms
#: 4565 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
30-Oct-97 16:41:08
Sb: #<Rising Star> Bravo
Fm: SCHMULENSON
In the pilot and the first few eposides you say that Sinclair is the last
commander of Babylon 5- I find that very confusing??? Do you plan to bring him
back for another eposode? or are you going to change the pre-lude statement
when it's put on TNT(I already hooked up to cable-for this one show and I'll
probably unhook it after it's over-I watch very little TV unless I'm home sick
or feeling super miserable)
Phyllis
Oh congradulations on doing an extraordinarly good job novel writting on TV
I'm enjoying your converging archs(Triangles-but of course I still like
Spinoza too) I haven't had this much fun with a series for a long, long time.
#: 4606 S4/Bab 5: **SPOILERS**
30-Oct-97 22:02:05
Sb: #4565-#<Rising Star> Bravo
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Actually, Sinclair is never specified by name as the last commander.
jms
[END]
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