=========================================================================== | This text is compiled from posts by J. Michael Straczynski on the Usenet | group alt.tv.babylon-5. This document contains material Copyright 1993 | J. Michael Straczynski. He has given permission for his words to be | redistributed online, as long as they are marked as being copyright JMS. | This document, as well as other Babylon-5 related material, is available | by anonymous FTP at ftp.hyperion.com. =========================================================================== From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 3 Aug 1993 03:43:47 -0400 Subject: characters You make some good points about the number of characters in the show; it *is* an ensemble in the truest sense. Not every character will appear in every show, only when they have something to *contribute* will they be there. Also, it's possible to bring out something interesting about a character without dedicating an entire episode to that character. It is, as you say, a very large cast: on the EA side, you've got Sinclair, Garibaldi, Ivanova and Franklin, with the telepath more or less on that same side. Then on the alien side, you've got G'Kar and his attache Ko'Dath, Londo and his attache Vir, Delenn and her attache Lennier, Kosh and...nobody, really, plus other recurring alien characters such as n'grath (a *very* non-humanoid and interesting character), and of course Sinclair's recurring love interest, Catherine Sakai. That's 14 characters right there. That's a lot of balls to keep up in the air at the same time, and you have to use them carefully, to advance a given story, but also to give them moments in which their personalities can really come through. This is, as stated, a *big* show. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 3 Aug 1993 03:45:48 -0400 Subject: Re: Rerun the Pilot! The pilot will be rerun a couple more times between now and the series going on-line, definitely in November. (And those who' 've been asking for x-y-z axis movement will get it, btw.) The only hesitation I have about the pilot is that the series is going to be *much* improved, and the pilot really will no longer be a real indication of what we have in mind. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 4 Aug 1993 03:44:03 -0400 Subject: is there anyone on who doesn't The situation you describe is essentially correct. One part of the problem comes from the fact that there have been so few even reasonably successful SF shows on television...and you can count the ones set in space on the fingers of one hand. So with so few shows in this area, it is inevitable that people will make comparisons. If SF space series were as common place, and had had as many variations, as the cop show, or the hospital show, I think you wouldn't really have this going on. (When a new cop show comes on, people don't go around trying to figure out how it compares to CANNON or POLICE STORY.) If B5 succeeds, proving you can do SF space series for a reasonable cost, I think you'll suddenly see a *lot* more of them. (Already people are talking about the B5 "model" in terms of how to produce a show in this genre without hitting hideous cost over-runs.) jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 5 Aug 1993 02:44:37 -0400 Subject: Re: JMS: Cast additions/change Harlan is currently consulting on the series, and is even now writing a script for us. So yes, he's definitely working away. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 5 Aug 1993 02:50:39 -0400 Subject: Wanted: Hardend Characters We'll definitely be dealing with the aspects of how fighting in a war can affect you. And this isn't just a vague promise: watch the end of the third (currently) scheduled episode, "Infection," for a scene between Sinclair and Garibaldi that really deals very straightforwardly with this issue. It's a conversation you wouldn't expect to see in a show like this. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 7 Aug 1993 01:51:25 -0400 Subject: Wanted: just a bit more reali The main line I've been stressing with our writers and others who we're working with is the goal of making our humans more human, and our aliens more alien. Much of our life is focused around things that don't generally show up in SF television...we cut ourselves shaving, we have to find a bathroom, our shoes don't fit...and these are the elements that help make a character more real somehow. So yes, we're very definitely going for that aspect. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 10 Aug 1993 01:14:59 -0400 Subject: A thousand thanks. You have my promise on both counts. Frankly, if a common enemy came along...in the B5 universe they'd all probably fall over each other trying to sell each other out in hopes of being the one left standing when the dust clears. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 11 Aug 1993 01:03:49 -0400 Subject: Re: Wanted: less cheese, more I wasn't gonna jump in here, but I have to at least answer your question: "Where's the rest?" The rest is in the series. You haven't seen the series yet. You're comparing it against 7 years of TNG; rather consider if the ONLY thing you had EVER seen was "Farpoint." We had a massive burden: to build an entire universe, based around a political drama, in basically 90+ minutes not counting commercials. That meant that more time went into exposition and backstory than I'd like. In my view, we've now done that, we've laid the foundation, and now we can sit back and tell stories...*character* based stories. That's what I'm best at, and that's what the writers I've chosen to use on the series are best at. The "rest" you ask for is there..in the series. But I'm not asking you to take my word for it. Check out the show. Maybe you'll like it. And maybe you won't. That's showbiz. You don' like it, you don' gotta watch. But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. The miracle of the B5 pilot is that it got done at *all*, given the odds against us, given a team working together for the first time, without the benefit of an established universe, and actors who had never worked together before who had zero chance for rehearsal. I'm not apologizing for the pilot; it had flaws, but I'm very proud of a lot that's in there. Do the math. You have a little over 90 minutes. You have to introduce 9 major characters in the course of that story. That gives you ten minutes of attention for any one character. Now you've also got to tell the backstory. You've got to establish who the various players are. You've got to put the present-tense story into motion, with beginning, middle and end. And now you're left with maybe 3-4 minutes of "quality time" with any one character. If we only had 2 or 3 characters, then it's a very different story...but that isn't the universe we have to work in. Now that the series is going ahead, we can spend an entire *episode* dealing primarily with one character. And do the same for others. We have the time. And that's what's important. One last observation: you repeat the notion that it's all a "reaction" to TNG. The treatment and screenply were complete and making the rounds in Hollywood in Spring 1987. The basic material was written in 1986, at a point in some cases when TNG hadn't even *aired* yet. So it could hardly have been written as a reaction to something that hadn't been seen yet, could it? jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 12 Aug 1993 02:57:23 -0400 Subject: Re: Wanted: less cheese, more You repeat several times your insistence that I study TNG to see what they did right, use them as a roadmap. Sorry. I have no desire to study TNG. I'm telling a different sort of story, in a different universe. What TNG does right or wrong is more or less irrelevant to that universe. That's like saying that (just to pick two names at random) Orson Scott Card should study Poul Anderson as a roadmap in his own novels. This is utter nonsense. A while ago, I got an email from someone who didn't like the pilot (and it may have been on internet, btw) mainly because of the communication devices. He said, and I'm paraphrasing from memory, that every time someone used the wrist-links, it broke the illusion for him, since we all KNOW that by then the REALITY is that we'll be using the chest communicators that TNG uses, and I should be sure to include that in future episodes as a capitulation to that reality. Sorry...TNG is a roadmap for TNG. Not B5. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 13 Aug 1993 00:58:02 -0400 Subject: Various Topics 1) Language. We don't have a universal translator. You either have to speak English, Interlac, or Centauri, the three dominant languages. If not, then you have to use a mechanical translator, which isn't set up for every brand new language they encounter. I'd like to showcase at least one episode in which communication is really a problem. 2) Yes, for the most part, we're looking at humanoids...but not in all cases. Look for one character in particular, n'grath, who will make his/its first appearance in the second episode. This thing definately ain't human. 3) We have some interesting ideas for what can happen to the energy question. 4) Our crew members do what they're assigned to do, what their rank and designation specifies they should do. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 13 Aug 1993 01:12:35 -0400 Subject: Upcoming Conventions? I'll be at both WorldCon in San Francisco the first part of September, and at Comic Con in a week or so. I'll be bringing the same basic material to both places, so you don't have to do both. But I can promise you'll find it interesting. At this point, in addition, it looks like Michael O'Hare, Jerry Doyle, and Harlan Ellison will also be doing the SDCC B5 presentation as well. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:10 -0400 Subject: One more *small* request of jm I hate scripts that end with, "And they all laugh." Even when I was working in animation, I avoided them. Thus far, all of our episodes are slated to end with a tag, but in many cases -- and this is almost becoming a theme or a setpiece for us -- there's a questioning element to the tag, something unusual or offbeat that adds one other layer to what we've just seen. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:38 -0400 Subject: Popularity of this group It's all extrapolation, trying to keep an eye on what seems now to be a realistic expectation of the future. The wild card, of course, is the assumption in the B5 universe that we've also integrated a fair amount of alien technology, which sort of jump-started our own space exploration efforts. It vastly changes the whole equation.... jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:26:42 -0400 Subject: ftp.hyperion.com With regrets, I can't provide gif images without PTEN (justifiably) yelling on me. I'm working to try and change their opinion, but so far, that's the policy. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 14 Aug 1993 03:42:32 -0400 Subject: Re: A thousand thanks. Somebody said that what they liked about the show was the sense that it was altogether possible that you could turn on the show one day and find that the whole station had vanished, with the word "Crotoan" lasered onto a nearby asteroid. Anything can happen. And as much as possible, I'm going to try to keep playing to that aspect. Anyone is fair game. Characters should turn around, and become something other than what they seem to be. And there can be even larger changes wrought on the whole tapestry of the show, some of which will show up in a *very* major way late in the third season. I like pulling the rug out from under people. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 15 Aug 1993 00:14:42 -0400 Subject: The Known Galaxy -- How much i I'm still mapping that aspect out. We do make a distinction in the series between space in general and "known space." In "Infection," one character comments that he's come "halfway across known space" to see someone. But the details of that are still being worked out. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 15 Aug 1993 00:14:54 -0400 Subject: So who's Catherine Sakai? Catherine Sakai is played by Julie Nickson Soul, an asian-american actor who's done quite a bit of work in high-profile films. Her character is never Cathy, only Catherine (occasionally Cath to Sinclair, but *only* occasionally). She's a planetary surveyer, working for one of the Earth corporations, looking for uninhabited worlds and asteroids for exploitation. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 16 Aug 1993 00:27:02 -0400 Subject: Re: Aspirin (Was Re: One more "But it still doesn't change the FACT that in a few hundred years, aspirin WILL BE obsolete." Don't suppose you'd be willing to produce the Journal of the American Medical Association for Spring 2257 to back up your statement of *fact* in this matter, would you? The *fact* is that even now, we're re-discovering medicines and means of healing that go back centuries. You may state clearly and with great confidence your opinion...but that is all that it is, it is not "fact," as you state. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 17 Aug 1993 01:44:34 -0400 Subject: Where can I find ??????? Beats me, but if you find an uncut version of B5, lemme know, because I'D like one. The problem is that, unlike a motion picture, where you produce a cut on film, which you then trim down, we're editing on computerized image files. We don't get around to finally cutting the film until we've made our final edits. So no complete version ever existed on film. The most that could be done is get those 25 minutes and *build* a new version with that footage...which would require additional scoring, editing, and other stuff. BTW...just to put the word out: someone stole a painstakingly painted plaster cast of G'Kar -- full-size, head and neck -- from the B5 offices. If *anyone* should offer this for sale anywhere, please be advised that this stolen merchandise and should be reported. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 19 Aug 1993 01:41:54 -0400 Subject: Questions for JMS Insofar as I know, Walker is mainly features PR and some network PR; we fall under the PTEN jurisdiction, so I don't think he's involved. I don't yet know how much promotional material will be made available; it's a long ways until we go on the air, so there's time for that to get put together. For those who want to send mail to B5, best to use this address: 14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. My name or B5 will suffice. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 20 Aug 1993 02:56:03 -0400 Subject: Re: JMS: Last 2 weeks... Re: the skin tab/Kosh's hand/encounter suit question...one of the reasons I can't wait for the series to get on the air is so that we can make one thing clear, once and for all: it is NOT an error, not a plot hole, it is a plot POINT. It is a question that our *characters* will be asking each other. How can this be? This will come up more than once, starting with "The Parliament of Dreams" episode. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 20 Aug 1993 03:10:52 -0400 Subject: Re: JMS: Last 2 weeks... The point you raise is absolutely accurate. When it comes to making up names for civilizations, or characters, one goes for the *sound* of the name or the sense of the name. "Minbar" is one of those terms whose meaning, unlike Yangs and Coms (Yanks and Commies) is NOT well known; ask any 100 people on the street, and it's *very* unlikely that ANY of them would know what a minbar is. Because the Minbari are very spiritual (well, half of them, anyway), and because I always liked the *sound* of the word "minbar," that became the name. It has no dead-on meaning, there is no translation, it doesn't describe what they are. I don't think it's as blunt as the examples cited, because it's a *very* obscure term; in all this time, only that ONE person recognized its origins. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 25 Aug 1993 23:35:30 -0400 Subject: Re: pilot inconsistancy I'm going to try this again; for some reason, the last several notes I sent in reply to internet stuff hasn't gotten through. The station *is* still rotating in the Vorlon attack scene. The camera is more or less tracking with the rotation at that moment, but it is moving. I was there at the early wireframe tests. As for the Vorlon handshake (so to speak)...this will be dealt with in the series. You have to remember that the original plan was to air the pilot and go *immediately* into series, where we'd bring up some of these questions. There simply wasn't room to deal with EVERYTHING in that short pilot...and where we DID try and cover everything, we got gigged for being expositional. Now we have to re-establish a few things since there's been a gap in time...but the poison incident will be raised in "The Parliament of Dreams" script to start with, and move on from there. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:27:56 -0400 Subject: Re: A little scenario Excuse me for being blunt, but since you're being blunt, you shouldn't mind a blunt observation in return. You are an idiot. I have no problem with someone finding genuine faults with a show, mine or otherwise...but it's something else again to *manufacture* faults, and then make them into errors. I feel a little like Woody Allen in MANHATTAN, listening to the fellow behind him in line mouthing on and on about Marshall McCluhan's work, all of it absolutely wrong, until finally Allen drags Marshall out from behind the nearest wall to say to him, in essence, "You are an idiot." You say, taking this as your premise, "it's pretty clear that a Vorlon is the standard 'shimmering-electric-blue energy creature that just happens to be humanoid.'" No, it's not. I don't care what you think, that is most definitely NOT what Kosh is. So all of your error-finding based on that assumption is strictly nonsense. I'm just amazed that you can sit there and say, "Oh, yes, this is what it is," when it's not, and at this moment only three people in the WORLD know what a Vorlon is. You say that the Minbari "of course...should have had NO contact with them." That's your assumption. Your assumption is deadass wrong. Note how Delenn comes forth and bows to the Vorlon. There is some familiarity there. We will be finding out just HOW much familiarity there is down the road. That's what we have the series for. To develop these kinds of things. You complain about things you think are obvious (and by the way, you're wrong in THAT message as well), but things that are subtle seem to rocket over your head at something just short of lightspeed. And that background of familiarity DOES explain how the assassin would know how to hurt a Vorlon. You have to understand that, despite being on televison, this is a BOOK. It is a novel. You have seen only the prologue to the novel at this juncture. To conclude everything that will happen based strictly on that prologue is absurd. (And please don't throw "Well, that's all we've HAD for a year" at me...it wasn't designed that way. It was designed to go immediately into series, and begin both posing and answering some of the questions raised, so that at this moment, we wouldn't be HAVING this discussion. You can't blame us for a corporate decision.) So in any event, your entire 1-2-3 progression, based as it is on completely erroneous and presumptuous assumptions is totally wrong. You will simply have to wait and see how it ends, as with any story. If you don't, if this message has pissed you off, that's life. In future, comment on *actual aspects of the production* all you like...but try to refrain from cooking up some weird scenario in your own mind, slapping it as an overlay onto my show, and somehow twisting things around to make it look like we're doing something dumb, when in fact your message doesn't touch reality at any two contiguous points. How's THAT for a review? (Oh, and a P.S. to those who parroted the comments of Jeff Jarvis at TV Guide about the "cheesy" special effects/CGI in the B5 pilot: we just received word that we've won an Emmy for Best Special Effects in a TV Movie.) jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:28:36 -0400 Subject: Re: Strange Things "I could swear I saw ships leaving B5 after Sinclair ordered it closed." To which you reply, "I agree, and I mentioned it before." Yes, you did. Just one problem. There ARE no such shots of any ships entering B5. You have some shots of ships in a holding pattern outside, waiting until all is cleared, or heading on to secondary bases. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:42:49 -0400 Subject: Confirmation requested... Koen Whoever posted the note re: Walter Koenig is baldfacedly lying. Walter was in my office just this afternoon, in fact. He's doing well, exercising, walking around, and looks great...a hell of a lot better than I would look under those conditions, that's for sure. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 27 Aug 1993 01:43:01 -0400 Subject: Re: "Silence" in Babylon-5 "Another one of those 'all alien men want Earth women' type things, if you'll disregard the psi-stuff for now." In other words, disregard what is going to be probably one of the most dominant themes that will emerge in the entire series. Disregard what you WANT to disregard in order to make a critical comment. I look forward to embarrassing the hell out of you by about this time next year.... jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 28 Aug 1993 01:13:48 -0400 Subject: Re: inconsistancy in pilot There was a reason we gave Londo the pilot opening monologue, yes. And another reason why we're giving Sinclair the opening monologue over credits of the first season, though with some differences. We're also considering rotating any such opening between other cast members as well, but *always* in the past-tense, "Babylon 5 *was*...." We're dealing in future history here, and we plan to do some interesting things with that aspect. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 28 Aug 1993 01:16:00 -0400 Subject: Re: A little scenario We're definitely populating the show with ethnic groups from all over the place, including some not generally found in futuristic SF, so yes, we plan to do that. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:15:37 -0400 Subject: Re: A little scenario Actually, it's Kosh's ship that comes out of the jump gate backward, engines forward to assist with deceleration. The fighters don't want to be slow-moving targets, so it stands to reason they wouldn't be configured for rapid deceleration. They want to get into position as fast as possible. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:15:43 -0400 Subject: Re: A little scenario What you propose in your scenario is not it...but it does show that you're thinking along similar lines to what we're going to be doing. That kind of thing, and the inner workings you describe, are very close to the surface of our story, and what we have in mind. Or, said more succinctly: yes, you get it. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 28 Aug 1993 20:45:55 -0400 Subject: Jeff Jarvis, ET. AL. :-( Paramount spends *vast* amounts of money advertising TNG and DS9. Also, from time to time, personal relationships between journalists and those they cover can influence their perceptions. Beyond that...your guess is as good as mine. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 29 Aug 1993 03:45:53 -0400 Subject: Re: Babylon 5 Computer What Kyle suggests...is closer to the truth than might otherwise be suspected. We had filmed a scene -- which never made it into the finished pilot -- where Garibaldi, growing suspicious of his boss -- confronts Sinclair in the core shuttle. One of the alibis he checked out doesn't hold up: Sinclair's. The transport tube computer records don't indicate any delay. Sinclair suggests that there's either a problem with the system, or it's been deliberately altered to remove that information. It was, of course, the latter. Now...stop and think about this for a moment. The Observation Dome has equipment to detect approaching ships. The spider transport approaches without being noticed. The surface of the station would likely have sensors to detect something attaching itself to the hull. Somehow these were over-ridden. The only time that anyone notices, up in the Dome, is later, when Laurel isn't there, interestingly enough. Someone deliberately programmed the transport tube to delay Sinclair. The assassin would have to know this in advance. We saw Londo with the assassin. We also saw Garibaldi, Lyta, Dr. Kyle and -- later -- Sinclair with the assassin, each relating to him in different ways. Who was the one person we never saw with the assassin, whose reactions might have told us something? Who was the one put in charge of the station when Sinclair was pulled out of circulation? Laurel. We had some...interesting things in mind for this character. Now that another character has come in, some things will be modified, but other elements will come in to replace them. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 30 Aug 1993 00:45:50 -0400 Subject: Re: Babylon 5 Computer I kept Tamlyn in the dark about a lot of this. She even mentioned this in an interview she gave somewhere. I didn't want that knowledge to make her play the role anything other than it should have been played: as if absolutely innocent and sincere. Sometimes you just gotta be sneaky.... jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 30 Aug 1993 01:43:14 -0400 Subject: Takashima (was Re: Babylon 5 C There was an element of saving her own life...and another aspect of all this is that she may not have been acting entirely of her own free will during the first half. There may be some influences that will emerge later. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 30 Aug 1993 04:25:08 -0400 Subject: Homosexuality in Space! My feeling is that the best way of handling this question is to have a character, someone we see more than once, who we eventually learn is bi or gay. This seems to me a much more intrinsically powerful statement than doing a "gay" story. So that's what we're going to do. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 31 Aug 1993 01:30:54 -0400 Subject: Re: A little scenario This has already been answered; had the character stayed with the show, gradually it would have emerged that the assassin had access to Laurel's codes because she provided them to him. jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 31 Aug 1993 01:32:18 -0400 Subject: Kosh's reception And who else isn't at the reception? jms From: straczynski@genie.geis.com Date: 31 Aug 1993 04:24:38 -0400 Subject: The Opening momnologue (was: i You're right; in my head, I was thinking "surviving characters," but that does complicate the issue enormously. Perhaps it's best to stay with the one voice for now after all.... jms