Attn: JMS - B5's impact on ordinary folk

[B5JMS Poster]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: bev1will at ecn.ab.ca ()
Date: 30 Dec 1999 17:01:45 -0700
Lines: 67

Hi,

While reading some e-mail I received from an on-line fan group I belong to
(the BB Grapevine) about the saddest scenes in B5, this missive popped
up from a member who lives a little off the beaten track. Thought you
might be interested in seeing it.

She does not have access to newsgroups, and she gave me permission to post
it.

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 99 15:58:39 +1000
From: sonny <sonny at webspin.org>
Subject: RE: SAD MOMENTS - Z'HA'DUM

> All of life can be broken down into moments of transition and revelation.
> There is a greater darkness than the one we fight, it is the darkness of 
> the soul that has lost its way.
> The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against 
> chaos and despair.
> Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of 
> dreams.
> Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, 
> waiting in moments
> Of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the 
> shape of that future, or
> Where it will take us. We know only that it is always borne in pain.

I just had to comment on this.

I rarely watch TV (bit hard with no TV stations <G>) and saw B5 only in 
batches of 5 eps at a time, pirated tapes sent to me by friends. At this 
point I had watched B5 from the beginning, then was slammed with the last 
five eps of S3 in one evening. I had subconsciously been caught up in the 
evolving story, but until then, whilst admitting to extraordinary 
continuity and depth for mere tv, didn't know it was written as a five 
year novel....I had not followed it on the net, nor had I seen 
advertising - anywhere - I live in the middle of nowhere. But after this 
ep, I sat alone in the dark...stunned. 

A televison show was not meant to impact me like this. I mean it was 
*just* a tv show. What right did it have to grab hold of my emotions and 
shake them apart? How could mere *television* do this to *me* - real life 
as dramatic enough. This evoked not so much sadness ...as despair.
After a while, I went to bed and for the first time in years, suffered 
insomnia. Hours later I faced reality...a damned tv show had grabbed me 
by the heart and soul and had torn into me. So I hit the internet, and 
within an hour had learned that S5 had just been given the green light 
and Sheridan was still a part of that world. 
I went back to bed, a little easier of mind...but forever changed, just a 
little. A tv show had impacted on me, made me lose sleep, made me care 
deeply, saddened me to the point of despair.
Other moments in B5 have since moved me to tears - I still have real 
difficulty watching Sleeping in Light. But no one single moment in tv or 
movies had, before or since, affected me like this. And thus, I must 
judge it to be, if not *the* saddest, then certainly the most profound 
moment both in B5 world and my own perspective of television. I no longer 
viewed it as a source of mindless entertainment and news, but as a 
genuine artform, with the power to wrest emotions as real as true life. I 
wonder if we will ever see its like again.

Sonny







=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 31 Dec 1999 00:25:01 -0700
Lines: 15

That's really wonderful to hear; please extend my thanks for the kind words.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)




-***
-*** 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.