[B5JMS] ATTN JMS: Jeremiah Questions - general and one about Justice

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: "Jon Frain" <jonfrain at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 11:15:03 +0000
Lines: 58


First I want to say that I'm really enjoying Jeremiah.  I have a few 
questions regarding the show.

1) Do you have the series timeline written in stone or is it much more open 
than say B5 or Crusade?  And do you have a foreseen ending to the series, 
assuming it gets the run length you desire?

2) What exactly has Mr. Dante's contribution been?  When you first mentioned 
Jeremiah you mentioned you'd be teaming with him and that you always admired 
his work.  But it doesn't sound like he has much of anything to do with its 
production/writing.

3) The one thing I've been expecting to see was some "western style 
justice".  Jeremiah and the rest have run across some pretty bad folks.  In 
the case of the really dangerous baddy, played by Jason Priestly, Jeremiah 
had no reluctance in wanting to go back and remove him from the equation and 
it made perfect sense.  But that seems to be the limit to which they'll 
truly enforce "justice".  Most of the time they save the people in distress 
and move on.

I can accept the fact that the main characters are unwilling to kill people 
just because they're bad.  But I'm not sure the rest of society around him 
would be so generous.  The rapists and racist skinheads will go on to hurt 
others and Jeremiah and Kurdy will have to live with that the rest of their 
lives.  I personally can invision myself doing some seriously bad things in 
Jeremiahs shoes to prevent such horrors from being perpetrated again.  For 
instance, returning and castrating the rapists and possibly cutting off the 
hands of the skinheads.  Yeah this is seriously warped shit, but it's a 
seriously warped world they are in and they can't rely on justice putting 
them behind bars.

Again, the fact that Jeremiah and Kurdy aren't comfortable with that form of 
justice is cool, I guess.  I can't really elaborate on what I'm thinking 
because it delves into story idea issues.  Needless to say, I'd expect that 
future events that these characters experience may alter their feelings on 
true justice and what they're willing to do.  (This is a common and basic 
theme in literature and film and shouldn't qualify as story ideas, at least 
in this general form).  I hope to see a little of the characters having to 
do things they really would rather not do, such as what Franklin and 
Sheridan orchestrated with the telepaths that had been targeted for Shadow 
vessels.  This really isn't meant as a nitpick and I'm hoping you can 
elaborate a little more on the idea of Justice as it fits into the world of 
Jeremiah.

Again the show is great and keep up the great work.

Jon






_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 24 Apr 2002 07:27:50 GMT
Lines: 40

>1) Do you have the series timeline written in stone or is it much more open 
>than say B5 or Crusade?  And do you have a foreseen ending to the series, 
>assuming it gets the run length you desire?

It's not as elaborate as the B5 arc, because there I had 5 years to work on it,
but there's a timeline, yeah...and there is an ending.

>2) What exactly has Mr. Dante's contribution been?  When you first mentioned 
>Jeremiah you mentioned you'd be teaming with him and that you always admired 
>his work.  But it doesn't sound like he has much of anything to do with its 
>production/writing.

Joe Dante was involved with the early development of the project.  Once I wrote
the pilot, he was on tap to direct, and his deal, based on his early
involvement, called for certain fees and titles.  When it came time for the
pilot, he was not available, but the deal remains the same.  He has not been
involved in the show since then.  I don't think anyone in the company has even
heard from him since.

>3) The one thing I've been expecting to see was some "western style 
>justice".  Jeremiah and the rest have run across some pretty bad folks. 

There are moments and flashes of it... certainly Jeremiah initially tries to
off the guys who assaulted the woman in "City of Roses," and probably would
have succeeded if Kurdy hadn't interceded; similarly, Markus would almost
certainly have taken out Major Quantrell had Ezekiel not removed that decision
from him.  The characters are kind of on the razor's edge of what's right and
wrong, constantly fighting to do the right thing.


 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)