JMS on CompuServe (Mar 13, 1998) POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Fri Mar 13 21:22:12 EST 1998

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
 upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.

 Continue at your own risk.
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 S
  P
   O
    I
     L
      E
       R

         P
          R
           O
            T
             E
              C
               T
                I
                 O
                  N
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 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
 any form, however I reserve all rights to them and
 the right to revoke this permission at any time.
 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Archives of this material may be found at:

          http://www.johndelenn.com/
 **********************************************

 [ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
    Sb: #23741-Your religious past?
    Sb: #23817-#<DotD Writing Question>
    Sb: #23973-News from AOL?
    Sb: #23873-<Day of the Dead>

 #: 23741 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
    11-Mar-98  15:19:04
Sb: Your religious past?
Fm: TONY SCARPELLI

Every once in a while, while watching an episode, I'll think: 'Hey, I know 
that religion (or religious thought)!' or 'Hey, I know that philosophical 
thought!'.

Have you ever studied Gurdjieff or Sufism, or any of the Eastern religions 
like Bhuddism?

Or maybe what I see is so universal.

Thanks.

 #: 23782 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
    11-Mar-98  20:27:13
Sb: #23741-Your religious past?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

"Have you ever studied Gurdjieff or Sufism, or any of the Eastern religions 
like Bhuddism?"

      I think studied is too formal a word...I've read just about every 
religious book out there, in whole (the Bible) or in part (the Gita, others).  
It's a good idea to be well-rounded.

                                                                    jms

 #: 23817 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
    12-Mar-98  05:37:14
Sb: <DotD Writing Question>
Fm: ANITA KARVE

Hi Joe,

Wonderful episode! Just curious how you work with "visiting" writers. Do you 
give them a framework and let them run with it? I ask because since the B5 
universe is in your head, I'd assume you'd have to give quite a bit of 
guidance.

Also, I'd assume outside writers may not know details like Dodger's brief 
friendship with Garibaldi several seasons back, about Adira's importance to 
Londo, or much about Mr. Morden. How do you maintain the continuity while 
working with someone from the outside?

BTW, you hit the jackpot with Neil!

Regards,

Anita Karve

 #: 23864 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
    12-Mar-98  13:33:03
Sb: #23817-#<DotD Writing Question>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      It varies, I get involved to different degrees with different writers; 
with Neil, it was more "What do you want to write?"  He noodled around with 
some ideas, ran one past me that he liked, and I liked it...he asked for a 
truckload of scripts for reference, picked the characters he wanted to use, 
researched them, we talked on the phone and via email a number of times as he 
refined his ideas further, then wrote the script.  I tucked and nipped a 
little here and there, but pretty much left it alone.

                                                                    jms

 #: 23973 (C) S2/Bab 5: General
    12-Mar-98  21:37:56
Sb: News from AOL?
Fm: BRENT BARRETT

Joe,

    The following was just reported by an AOL subscriber whom I know and 
trust:

    "Melissa Gilbert just spent a few minutes online at the
B5 chat area of aol, and she said BB was sad because he
found out he would be in only one of the upcoming tv
movies, and neither he nor ANY of the regular cast were
slated for Crusade!"

    Is this correct?  Have you already made your choices
regarding the casting of both of the new movies and the 
new series?  I know that you said that we'd all hear about
it when you signed the final deal for Crusade, so I'm 
wondering if Bruce is actually just saying that no one
has approached him yet.  

    Is there anything you can comment on here?

Thanks,

  -- Brent

 #: 23992 S2/Bab 5: General
    13-Mar-98  00:07:14
Sb: #23973-News from AOL?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      This is not quite correct, but that's all I can say for now.  There are 
one or two actors who might slide to Crusade, depending on circumstances, and 
we have spoken to them on the QT about it...which is probably why this was 
said, because I asked the actors in question not to say anything until we got 
closer to seeing how things were going to work out; the inquiries were mainly 
of an "if we had this role, would you be interested in doing it?" nature, 
checking avails and possibilities so we could plan accordingly.

                                                                    jms

 #: 23873 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
    12-Mar-98  14:24:11
Sb: #23815-#<Day of the Dead>
Fm: ELIZABETH

<<Bah. It was amusing but this was an example of uneven - Rebo and Zooty 
didn't actually tell any jokes that we could understand. Nothing that was 
really all that funny except for some physical hat comedy. Only major guffaw 
laugh was in Minbari! I guess it's hard to write the universe's premier comedy 
team when its hard enough to write comedy on a normal level...>>

Well, actually, Joel, someone suggested that this was a *consistent* (or even, 
as opposed to "uneven") thing.  IOW, if someone from several hundred years ago 
came forward in time and listened to some of *our* comedians, they probably 
wouldn't get half of it--because so much of comedy is based on present events, 
metaphors, and things that people from back then wouldn't have one clue about.  
So it is for us and comedy that is "set" almost 300 years ahead; there's a lot 
that we wouldn't understand, because it would be all subtext from *that* time.  
<shrug>  I hadn't really thought about it until someone pointed it out to me, 
but it makes sense to me.

Elizabeth

 #: 23993 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
    13-Mar-98  00:07:14
Sb: #23873-<Day of the Dead>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      Neil kept the humor sort of off-base...operating on the assumption that 
there are some things that become au courant or funny because of context: 
Steve Martin's "excuuuuse me," for instance.  Now, it ain't funny, it's just 
annoying...at the time, EVERYbody was saying it and laughing.  R&Z are similar 
cultural phenomena...their "with a machine" catchphrase, for instance, which 
the crowd new and reacted to.  To us, and Lochely, it didn't mean anything.  
Lochley's reaction was tailored to be EXACTLY the same as most women's (and 
some guy's) reaction to the Three Stooges: either it's funny, or you can't 
figure out why people are laughing.

                                                                    jms

[END]

-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field.  See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/b5jms/ for all
-*** other information about this list.

JMS on CompuServe (Mar 13, 1998) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

JMS on CompuServe (Mar 13, 1998) POSSIBLE SPOILERS