JMS on CompuServe (Sep 11, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Thu Sep 11 17:09:22 EDT 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
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the right to revoke this permission at any time.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Archives of this material may be found at:
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**********************************************
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #699320-SPOILER
Sb: #699405-Writing Wish List
Sb: #699266-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Sb: #699546-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Sb: #699577-#Delenn's voice
Sb: #699619-#Abandon Ship
Sb: #699650-Lochley=Tracy Scoggins!
Sb: #699564-#DS9 IS A COPY !
Sb: #699502-Ghostbusters goes PC
Sb: #699409-5th season
Sb: #699670-DS9 IS A COPY !
Sb: #699694-#<ST:Voyager>
#: 699320 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
09-Sep-97 05:53:04
Sb: #699185-#SPOILER
Fm: VADIM NARODITSKY
<< Please refrain from story suggestions in future.>>
My apologies. You can use anything you hear from me. I don't want any share for
it. (Is that a sufficient disclaimer? :-) )
Vadim
#: 699410 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
09-Sep-97 14:30:55
Sb: #699320-SPOILER
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Actually, no, it's not. Disclaimers don't work. If they appear too
much when I'm around I'll have to leave.
jms
#: 699405 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
09-Sep-97 14:03:54
Sb: #Writing Wish List
Fm: KEVIN P. KENNEY
You are a wonderful writer,and exceptionally fair to your readers/viewers. The
Hugos prove that. And yet, there's a couple of differences I'd like to see you
consider. I think because I care about B5 more than other series, I can be
more critical of it, and that a lot of this criticism falls into distinct
categories. I hope to express a couple of these categories in a
non-irritating, constructive manner.
Perhaps just because of the pace of the show, I feel some things are being
forced to happen. You've taken this into account for bigger events (such as
Cartagia's and Edgars' downfalls), setting up the necessity for the action to
occur now. These don't bother me, I'm talking smaller things, such as Ivanova
ordering Garibaldi shot on sight. Though we've seen Ivanova willing to kill
before (taking out a raider in Season 1, and ready to take out Bester in season
3(?)), I think whatever bloodlust the character has should have been seen, just
by her reactions to events, in other episodes, just 'in passing'. (I'll look
for these when I'm rewatching the series on TNT next year, in case I missed
them.) The broad strokes and focused strokes of character are there, but I
think some of the finer strokes may be getting clipped to fit the 42 minutes...
Another such case is Bester releasing Garibaldi: you tried heartily and well to
sell it, but I wish it had been set up previously, or happened with more of a
purpose (which it might still have, you sneaky writer, you).
Second and lastly, I'd like the characters to be a half-step smarter. This was
part of my problem with VoA, where I thought people handled conversations
badly. (I know you wanted to leave the issues unresolved: I think you did that
too well, to the possible detriment of the episode.) More recently, Zack
shouldn't have asked Lyta to scan Garibaldi: he should have asked Lyta to ask
Garibaldi to allow himself to be scanned, as he did back when shot. (I
actually thought up an entire variant storyline here, paralleling yours, ending
with Lyta hidden in the tubecar with Bester and Garibaldi, 'nudging' Bester to
release Mr. G.) I think having smarter characters can put more of an edge on
the series.
That's it. Thank you for listening, and I hope I haven't offended this time,
KpK
#: 699412 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
09-Sep-97 14:31:00
Sb: #699405-Writing Wish List
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
We have two different views of what the characters should do and who
they are. We agree to disagree.
jms
#: 699266 S5/Babylon 5: General
08-Sep-97 19:46:28
Sb: #699049-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: TOM KNUDSEN
Joe,
<Yeah, "Dream Me a Life" was one of my TZs and as it happens one of the
TZs I'm most proud of, followed by "The Mind of Simon Foster">
Is one of those the one that Rod Serling started and you finished?
Tom^^^^
#: 699508 S5/Babylon 5: General
09-Sep-97 21:35:57
Sb: #699266-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Selena" is the one I wrote based on Rod's outline.
jms
#: 699546 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 05:17:36
Sb: #699508-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: ANNE L. WARNER
Joe,
Shane just asked about you collecting your own short stories? Sounds like an
idea to me.
In the same vein, would you consider (after year 5) authorizing an anthology of
fan fiction about B5? I'll bet many of us would love to see that!
Anne
#: 699666 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 17:25:52
Sb: #699546-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I'm open to all sorts of fiction prospects down the road, once the show
is out of production.
jms
[ Summary: "In the pilot, when the Minbari assassin [spoke], it definitely
sounded electronically altered. Was that the proposed process to be used
on Delenn's voice? And also did Mira's contralto voice give her an edge
to be cast for Delenn?" ]
#: 699667 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 17:25:53
Sb: #699577-#Delenn's voice
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, the process on the Minbari voice wasn't the same as the one we were
going to use on Delenn...and Mira's voice was secondary to her overall
performance in casting her.
jms
#: 699619 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
10-Sep-97 13:02:32
Sb: #Abandon Ship
Fm: DAN EVERETT
Well, the AOL deal is the last straw. Coupled with the October 1 price
increase, the attitudes of CIS mgmt re. censorship, the flight of IBM's OS/2
tech support, the inavailability of POP3 mail, and an outright ignorance of the
needs of the OS/2 community vis CIS access software, I'm jumping ship at the
end of this month when my current monthly billing period expires.
Expect CIS forum admins to attempt to get you (everyone) to stay around. They
have a vested interest in stemming the bleeding until H&R can turn over the
"subscriber base" to AOL. I, for one, do not plan to be on that list. There
is no way I will even chance being included in the subscriber base statistics
that get turned over to AOL.
I mourn the passing of CIS as a longtime user of 6+ years. Alas, most of my
file download requirements can now be satisfied through the Internet. I
haven't downloaded a file from CIS in months.
Long live B5 and here's to a great final season! Thanks JMS for being here. I
will be moving post-haste to the rec.arts.scifi.babylon5.moderated (or whatever
it is) newsgroup on the Internet.
RIP Compuserve
Regards,
Dan Everett
#: 699668 S1/Forum&Technical Hlp
10-Sep-97 17:25:53
Sb: #699619-#Abandon Ship
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks, and I'll see you on the net....
jms
[ Summary: "[Does] B5 need a professionally run convention?" ]
#: 699669 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 17:25:55
Sb: #699650-Lochley=Tracy Scoggins!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I've always preferred the fan-run convention format to the other sort,
so there has to be a way to maintain that structure, and I'm looking into that.
jms
[ Summary: "You do realize, of course that neither DS9 nor Babylon 5
originated the 'space station in a busy area of space' concept, don't
you, any more than Star Trek originated the 'space ship from the
United Planets exploring space and enforcing the peace' concept." ]
#: 699670 S3/Star Trek: DS9
10-Sep-97 17:32:43
Sb: #699564-#DS9 IS A COPY !
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
That's correct...but it's a matter of a space station, with a female in
command, that is a trading outpost, with a religious leader in the midst of it,
next to a gateway, with a shapeshifter in its pilot, with a name followed by a
number...well, one could go on...it's the specifics, not the generality, that
is of interest.
BTW, you apparently announced over on AOL with some enjoyment that B5's
fifth year had been canceled and was not going to happen. In future you might
refrain from prognostication until properly qualified by the gypsy of your
choice.
jms
#: 699743 S3/Star Trek: DS9
11-Sep-97 02:25:27
Sb: #699670-DS9 IS A COPY !
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I meant to say female *second-in-command*, both were in command though
during the attack on the station in both pilots.
jms
#: 699502 S5/Babylon 5: General
09-Sep-97 21:12:38
Sb: #698984-#Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: SHANE S. SHELLENBARGER
Any chance that you'll be collecting the short stories?
Shane
#: 699721 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 22:37:45
Sb: #699502-Ghostbusters goes PC
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Collecting which short stories? Mine? Eventually...when there are
enough of them for a collection.
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 699722 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-97 22:37:47
Sb: #699409-5th season
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"It's surprising that anyone would ever think of a five-year story arc -
keeping it moving forward despite changes in the cast must be almost as hard as
putting it together in the first place. It must have been one of those things
you realise nobody can do after you've done it."
Boy, you got that right....
jms
[ Summary: Thinks the ending of Voyager's latest episode, with the
transformation of Kess, was a blatant rip-off of the end of B5's "Mind
War" episode. ]
#: 699744 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
11-Sep-97 02:25:29
Sb: #699694-#<ST:Voyager>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Didn't see it, so can't comment.
jms
[END]
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