[B5JMS] Babylon 5 Scripts Site Nearly Ready, And More!

Sun Oct 30 09:43:06 EST 2005

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:39:14 +0000 (UTC)
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First, an advance word to those who are looking on...as noted here
earlier, all of the B5 scripts that I wrote are going to be published
in book form via www.babylon5scripts.com (a clever and inventive
title), and I just had it confirmed to me that the site will be going
on line right around the 28th of this month, give or take a day or so.

There will be 14 volumes, containing all the episodic scripts that I
wrote, plus "In the Beginning" (in the 14th) and in volume 1 the
ORIGINAL 1989 version of "The Gathering" that was used to sell the show
but which was massively changed prior to production, which features
different characters and gave Kosh a life-mate named Velana.

The 15th volume will be given without charge to those who pick up all
14 volumes...even the shipping charges will be covered.  That volume
will contain the lost Soul Hunter script (well, not lost, I recalled it
because I'd unwittingly written a Star Trek style script instead of a
B5 style script), a never-before-seen draft of Midnight on the Firing
Line written a YEAR before we got the go-ahead for the series to show
WB how the series would work, which is *massively* different (and a bit
more surreal) from what was filmed...the original B5 series bible...the
5 year arc overview given to WB before we started filming season one to
show how the series would work (and which followed Sinclair's character
all through those five years on B5)...and the script used in the
now-famous (or infamous) practical joke played on Andreas and Peter
which had G'Kar changing genders and ending up in bed with Londo.

Each volume also has an original introduction from me, and a lengthy
discussion of each episode, averaging about 40 pages per book, with a
lot of behind the scenes information never revealed before, along with
what went into the writing and producing.

There will also be a collection of B&W photos from my private
collection taken behind the scenes, which have never been seen by
anyone before.  (Some books will have more photos than others,
depending on how often I made it to set that week.)

As noted before, for the first week or so after each new volume is
released, they'll be knocking ten bucks off the price of each volume to
reward the B5 community for keeping an eye on this.  And yes, they do
ship internationally.

Moving on to other topics for a moment....

The same week, the 26th, will also see the publcation of issue one of
"The Book of Lost Souls," the new comic I'm doing with Colleen Doran,
and published by Marvel.  This book is not like anything I've ever
written before (the closest would be Midnight Nation), and it's
definitely not like anything else Marvel is doing, and it's just
gorgeous to look at (and not bad to read, either).  No spandex, no
costumes...a kind of modern dark fantasy, very adult, sometimes very
dark but ultimately hopeful...and best of all, it has a talking cat
named Mystery who is modeled after Buddy the Miracle Cat, so really,
how can you go wrong?

Finally...and I almost hate to type these words for fear of jinxing
anything...but in addition to the network project in development, I've
been offered show-runner on another series which should, if all goes
according to plan start shooting up in Vancouver in the spring.  That's
all I can say about it for now, except that I've accepted the offer and
we're now concluding negotiations.  More on this as it develops.

jms

(message content (c) 2005
Synthetic Worlds, Ltd.
Reprint permission specifically
denied to SFX magazine)

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:30:37 +0000 (UTC)
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Stefan wrote:
> Concerning completely forgotten stories...
>
> You wrote in a rastb5m posting (09-08-2000):
>
> "When Claudia left, I roundfiled (trashed) the few scripts I had been
> working on with her character because they could not be used. They
> were first and in some cases second drafts, or partial scripts."
>

Not thus far, no...I've come across a few script fragments that I
started and abandoned ("Festival!" which I think is about halfway
written, before being totally set aside and reworked as "The Parliament
of Dreams"), and a couple of others, but thus far not the fifty season
stuff, which I think I actually may have erased, given how upset I was
at the time.  But I'm still going through it all...there's just
hundreds of memos, mostly private or of no real outside interest, but a
lot of them have some pretty cool stuff.

In terms of the premises written, I found the original premises for
"The Long Night of Susan Ivanova," "The Commander's Hour," and a bunch
of others, as well as the Season 5 Christmas letter I sent to the crew,
which I'd forgotten about but is very moving, as well as the letter
sent to all of the cast and crew when the script for "Sleeping in
Light" came out, which spells out our options for the future...if there
were to be one.

There's also stuff in the memos and in my intros about characters we
were going to introduce in the series but ultimately couldn't fit in,
including an ISN reporter I wanted to embed on B5 full time...the
mysterious Mr. Jones...others.

As far as the script fragments are concerned, though, I'm not sure if
they're worth including or not, except as oddities...still thinking
about that one.  At this point I'm inclined to leave them out.

jms

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From: Jan <janmschroeder at aol.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:58:15 +0000 (UTC)
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In article <1130632210.963427.237500 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
jmsatb5 at aol.com says...
>
>There's also stuff in the memos and in my intros about characters we
>were going to introduce in the series but ultimately couldn't fit in,
>including an ISN reporter I wanted to embed on B5 full time...the
>mysterious Mr. Jones...others.

Wasn't there supposed to be an environment tech at one point?  And is that Mr.
Jones the same sort as we met in Crusade?

Jan

-- 
Here, gathered together in common cause 
We agree to recognize this singular truth 
and this singular rule: 
That we must be kind to one another.
                           G'Kar (J. Michael Straczynski)

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 01:49:19 +0000 (UTC)
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Jan wrote:
> >
> Wasn't there supposed to be an environment tech at one point?

I think so...haven't come across that yet.

> And is that Mr. Jones the same sort as we met in Crusade?
>

Oh, no...very, very different kind of person...more in the mold of Mr.
Morden, but much darker.

jms