JMS on CompuServe (Jan 22, 1998) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at speedlink.com
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Fri Jan 23 02:57:43 EST 1998
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 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
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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.
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #16095-Formulaic Television
Sb: #15844-#Season 5 Intro
Sb: #15999-#Season 5 Intro
Sb: #15984-Season 5 Intro
Sb: #15872-#Season 5 intro
Sb: #16010-Londo and G'Kar
Sb: #15909-A thought...
Sb: #15962-#Question about Kosh
Sb: Sheridan, the Messiah?
Sb: #15973-#<NC (501)> thoughts
Sb: #16073-<NC (501)> thoughts
Sb: #16161-<NC (501)> thoughts
Sb: #15991-#No Compromises
Sb: #No Compromises
Sb: #16067-#NC/Main title
[ Summary: Why did you pick television as the medium in which to tell
your story? ]
#: 16168 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Jan-98 19:56:11
Sb: #16095-Formulaic Television
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I picked TV because this sort of saga has been *done* for print before,
but nobody's done it for TV in the US before. It's more of a challenge to do
it here.
jms
#: 15844 S2/Bab 5: General
21-Jan-98 02:17:09
Sb: #15811-#Season 5 Intro
Fm: CARL CANTARELLA
>>Now I gotta tell 'em to tape Season 5 and not to watch it until they catch
up (good luck). It's no big deal if they don't, but you only get to see these
things for the first time *once* and it's *so* much better when you don't know
what's going to happen.<<
Boy, do I know what you mean!
And one of the things that concerns me the most as far as
newbies goes is how the Season 5 intro can be such a Spoiler in so many
respects for them. Damn, if I was a newbie, I think I would be taping on
Wednesday nights at 10:00 for the next 22 weeks and trying to holdout on
watching the new episodes until the strip runs its course. But then again, if
I were a newbie, I wouldn't know as much as I do about the series, and might
be tempted to tune in to watch just one season 5 episode and see how it goes,
and like I said, the intro in and of itself would probably be enough to piss
me off.
Of course, that's just me. Maybe I'm just more sensitive about
it than I should be.
#: 15918 S2/Bab 5: General
21-Jan-98 17:06:01
Sb: #15844-#Season 5 Intro
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I think the newbies will be fine...unless and until you know the context
of the scenes from S1-4, they're just pretty pictures.
jms
#: 15999 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Jan-98 02:54:01
Sb: #15918-#Season 5 Intro
Fm: CARL CANTARELLA
Message text written by J. Michael Straczynski
> I think the newbies will be fine...unless and until you know the
context of the scenes from S1-4, they're just pretty pictures. <
Okay, let me mention one thing that's sticking out in my mind with
regard to this ...
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\
\ You might be right, but as I just mentioned to someone else who
prompted my mentioning the one thing that most specifically has stood out in
my mind since I first viewed the intro, and that is Sheridan's statement about
being there to arrest President Clarke as the year appears on the screen. I
don't know, that one just kinda whacked me over the head, but don't get me
wrong, I love the whole thing and don't want to make you feel like you have to
second guess yourself about the choices you made; it was just one reaction
that I personally had. I wish half the shows on television would devote enough
time and attention to their openings as you clearly did with this one. If an
award was actually given out for openings, I'd say that this one is a definite
lock to walk away with the winners trophy for Best of the Year, without a
doubt.
Enjoyed "No Compromises" BTW --TNT is doing right by your show, and I
for one love the hell out of it. :)
#: 16069 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Jan-98 11:46:03
Sb: #15999-#Season 5 Intro
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Except, of course, that the Clark aspect is mentioned several times over
the course of season 5.
Basically, it seems to me a tad over the top to expect that the new
season 5 episodes should not contain information that's a spoiler for 1-4; you
may as well not MAKE the show on that basis. If you're going to tune in to S5
after not seeing 1-4, you're going to learn things you didn't know; that can't
be helped, and I can't see the wisdom in hobbling the show for all the rest of
the years to come to protect a few newbies in the current season who, if
they're THAT concerned about being spoiled, shouldn't be watching.
This seems to me at times a bit like the v-chip discussion...do we have
to protect everybody all the time and let them never assume any kind of
responsibility for their own actions? Seems that deprives them of free will
and free choice, all in the name of "protecting" them.
jms
#: 15984 S2/Bab 5: General
21-Jan-98 23:02:06
Sb: #15730-#Season 5 Intro
Fm: GARDNER L. HARRIS
Joe in tonite's ep at the beginning when the ship came through the jump gate
into real space seemed to hesitate for a split second just as it exited the
jump gate, then continued onward.
Was that a glitch in post or intentional on your part?
-Gardner L. Harris
#: 15989 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Jan-98 01:45:06
Sb: #15984-Season 5 Intro
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
We've always done that with the jumpgates.
jms
[ Summary: Where can I see the intro for the fifth season? ]
#: 15903 S2/Bab 5: General
21-Jan-98 14:12:13
Sb: #15872-#Season 5 intro
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
You can find the clip at the tnt site, www.tnt.turner.com/babylon5, or
you can watch it tonight.
jms
[ Summary: How did you come to select Andreas and Peter for their
respective roles? ]
#: 16070 S2/Bab 5: General
22-Jan-98 11:47:02
Sb: #16010-Londo and G'Kar
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
When they came in the door, they *were* those characters as they read
the script. It was a no-brainer.
jms
[ Summary: Comments on the repetition of themes, such as things ending
in fire and things being between the candle and the light. ]
#: 15919 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
21-Jan-98 17:07:11
Sb: #15909-A thought...
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It all interweaves, don't it...?
jms
[ Summary: Asks if we will ever find out what Kosh meant in "Hunter,
Prey," when he said that he had contacted someone else's mind "once"
before. ]
#: 15983 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
21-Jan-98 22:54:07
Sb: #15962-#Question about Kosh
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
If I can, I'll try to work that in someday.
jms
[ Summary: Points out how similar Sheridan's recent experiences have
been to that of Christ. ]
#: 15904 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
21-Jan-98 14:12:13
Sb: Sheridan, the Messiah?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
There's certainly a messianic streak running through the character,
though he himself might challenge that notion.
jms
#: 15973 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
21-Jan-98 21:47:13
Sb: #<NC (501)> thoughts
Fm: MARTIN ROTH
Another set of random thoughts after watching it twice back-to-back...
This was another one of those episodes where the "A" plot (the assasination
attempt) seemed to be there primarily so that the character pieces could be
attached. And IMO it worked quite well.
Lochley was presented to a great extent as a cliched "by-the-book" commander.
Given the fact that Joe's writing this story, I fully expect to see that
cliche turned on its head fairly soon.
It was good to see Joshua Cox with a guest credit at the start of the episode
rather than in the end credits. It looks like the Corwin-Lochley working
relationship should be interesting.
Sheridan seems somewhat uncomfortable with Lochley. We don't know quite why
(well, those of us who have read various spoilers may have an idea <g>) but it
certainly appeared that there was something that they both were going out of
their way *not* to bring up...
The Sheridan-Lochley agreement about decision-making "turf" seems rather
vague. I suspect they have different ideas about what it means. I suspect that
the telepath colony issue will expose these different ideas rather quickly.
And of course this issue also starts to tie us back in to Deconsstruction of
Falling Stars.
Does anyone know whether Byron's "The geometries that circumscribe your waking
life draw narrower until nothing fits inside them anymore" came from anywhere.
My first (rather obvious) guess was that it was a line from Byron. A quick
check of a quote book didn't have that, but I did discover that Byron wrote
something called "Monody on the Death of Sheridan" in 1816. Hmm......
After seeing the Signs and Portents rerun tonight, we see Lochley ask *the*
question of Byron - "What do you want?"
Note the contrast between Sheridan and Garibaldi regarding which side Lochley
was on during the war -- Sheridan makes sure Lochley knows he doesn't care
(though we don't know whether or not he knows) while Garibaldi makes a point
of asking and doesn't seem satisfied with Lochley's evasive response.
Had we ever seen what a Gaim looked like without the mask before?
Will the "public" ever find out that the entire oath of office taken by
Sheridan was "Put your hand on the book and say 'I do'"?
We now know that Sheridan washes his own socks, but we still don't know the
real issue -- sock sock shoe shoe or sock shoe sock shoe?
The Rough Cut promo tie-in was cute, but someone really needs to tell them
that 1) there are no transporters on B5, and 2) light years are a unit of
distance, *not* time.
Overall, no complaints. The episode had a lot of explaining and setting up to
do, and it generally did it without getting too talky.
-- Marty PPG
#: 15985 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 00:41:07
Sb: #15973-#<NC (501)> thoughts
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Does anyone know whether Byron's "The geometries that circumscribe your
waking life draw narrower until nothing fits inside them anymore" came from
anywhere. My first (rather obvious) guess was that it was a line from Byron."
No, that was me.
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 16169 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 19:56:12
Sb: #16073-<NC (501)> thoughts
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Do you get mistaken for dead poets that often?"
Only when they see my picture.
jms
#: 16161 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 19:20:09
Sb: #15985-#<NC (501)> thoughts
Fm: MARTIN ROTH
>> No, that was me. <<
OK, that was my next guess...
I was going to ask whether there was any significance to Byron's name... but
if there is, I'm not sure whether I want to know yet. So never mind...
-- Marty PPG
#: 16170 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 19:56:12
Sb: #16161-<NC (501)> thoughts
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
There is, but it's something you kind of have to put together after
meeting more of his folks...it's not necessary to the storyline, it's just a
little something I put in.
jms
[ Summary: Loved "No Compromises," and really enjoyed Lochley. ]
#: 16071 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 11:47:02
Sb: #15991-#No Compromises
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks...yeah, Tracy's doing a bang-up job for us, and fits right in. So
much for the few who worried we'd bring in a "babe" with a softer, more
submissive attitude, which I heard endlessly in some corners. Amazing how
often people are willing to dismiss stuff out of hand. She's gonna be great.
jms
[ Summary: (See below.) ]
#: 15982 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
21-Jan-98 22:54:07
Sb: #No Compromises
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"That last one is what hooked me. I figured you'd be spending the next few
weeks explaining how you really hadn't broken the cardinal rule of B5 by
introducing little Simon."
That means you went for the okeydoke...and thus didn't see the last bit
coming. That was the intent.
jms
#: 16067 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 10:53:05
Sb: #NC/Main title
Fm: STEVEN K. ANDEWEG
Great retrospective main title with terrific score and graphics! I really
enjoyed it. The episode itself was topnotch. I especially liked the
Starfury sequence at the end. Another example of why pilots always say to
"check six".
Steve A.
#: 16072 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
22-Jan-98 11:47:02
Sb: #16067-#NC/Main title
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks....
jms
[END]
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