[B5JMS] ATTN JMS Re: S2 commentary comment

[b5jms at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: ssmith1701 at aol.com (Stephen C. Smith)
Date: 25 May 2003 00:37:22 GMT
Lines: 48

>From: jmsatb5 at aol.com  (Jms at B5)

>Because so many people seem to respond to it, from time to time over the years
I've considered releasing that material...then I hesitate.  It's one of those
things that either I'll release posthumously or delete altogether.

With all due respect, my liege ...

I think it's very important that everything you wrote regarding the series --
notes, index cards, napkin scribbles, the odd graffiti spray-painted on Sun
Valley brick walls -- needs not only to be preserved but also released for
public access at some time.

If you wish to wait until you're really most sincerely dead -- and some of us
suspect you're beyond that to the undead stage, but that's your business --
that's fine.  But you owe it to the prism of history to archive those materials
for future researchers.

You probably think it sounds pretentious, yet as you note a lot of
philosophical types are already latching on to your work and debating its
implications.  The thinking behind the creation of your work needs to be
accessible, just as you as a student probably sifted through archival materials
on some subject or another during your educational years.

One reason I was *so* appreciative of the access you gave me back then was that
I was able to preserve small snapshots of B5's history.  Every now and then, I
go back and read articles like the "Week on B5" and reflect on what a special
time that was for all involved.

I'm more convinced than ever that one day people will look at B5 as a seminal
influence on the next generation of television.  We already see that with more
ubiquitous use of CGI, shows with story arcs, stonger character lines, etc.

Maybe you'll have to flee your deification one day like G'Kar did, but at least
he left behind the Book.  (The question is, where are his notes?)  Maybe you
could leave the stuff to the Museum of Television and Radio, or the
Smithsonian.

Just my two credits' worth ... Actually, I'm about to embark on a personal
project to create an on-line historical archive on another subject, so the
importance of both preservation and access to such materials is quite on my
mind right now.

This also suggests an idea to me which, if it's alright to mention to you, I'd
like to e-mail you if you're interested.

Stephen


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 25 May 2003 08:52:00 GMT
Lines: 41

>I think it's very important that everything you wrote regarding the series --
>notes, index cards, napkin scribbles, the odd graffiti spray-painted on Sun
>Valley brick walls -- needs not only to be preserved but also released for
>public access at some time.

Not possible.  It's gone.  Nearly all of it.

My notes: gone once I used them.

Early drafts of scripts: gone.  I'd write the script, make my notations in
hand, get the revised one in hand, toss out the one with my notations and put
out the final draft.  There are no surviving scripts from B5 with my
handwritten notes or edits on them.

B5 correspondence and memos: unless they're in the hands of other people: gone.

I have, to all intents and purposes, erased my footprints in the sand.  Only
the finished work remains.  It was a deliberate decision from day one.  I don't
want people poking in to find where "I" am in this, where my brain was at this
point or that point.  I ain't the issue.  The story, as told, is the issue.

The only things that remain in my possession are the script books with the
final draft of each script, shooting schedules, and in some cases, art or
prosthetics designs.  Some blueprints.  The rest I threw out.

The only real document about the making of Babylon 5, from stem to stern, is
the one I wanted to leave behind: this conversation, on line, with the folks
who stayed with us for five plus years.

It's the only thing that really means anything to me.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)