Babylon 5 posts on GEnie by JMS for September, 1992 This file includes a compilation of posts on GEnie by J. Michael Straczynski in the Babylon 5 topic. The posts are copyright by JMS (and compilation copyright is by GEnie). Category 18, Topic 22 Message 65 Tue Sep 01, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:57 EDT One nifty thing in today's dailies...I have to say that Patricia Tallman makes one heck of a telepath. Wonderful. One thing I've never liked much about most treatments of telepaths on TV is that they've never really SOLD the idea...meaning, made it visual and dynamic, it's usually someone putting their hands to their head and muttering about images or feelings. Sort of your dime - store psychic stuff. In the script, I came up with a way of making the process dynamic and mysterious and visual, but without breaking the reality (if one could call it that) of how the process would or should work. Didn't know for sure if it would work until I saw the dailies today. Oh, man....it's lovely. And powerful as hell. Some very nice scenes today with Sinclair and his love interest, Carolyn Sykes. Nice grown-up adult relationship stuff. ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 95 Thu Sep 03, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:07 EDT Hello? Is there really a world out there? Haven't had a chance to log on until now. Lots of interviews as well as production to worry about. Broadcasting Magazine again for a follow-up, then CNN/Showbiz Today this afternoon, on and on. Don't know yet when some of this will be hitting the stands or the airwaves (respectively), but will advise when I do. There's a lot of good stuff coming down the road, some exciting news brewing...but as with the time when this was That Which Could Not Be Named, I can't say anything. Let's just say that the disparitites between the coverage between B5 and the other series (and the reason for same) should evaporate very soon. In addition, promos are now being shot to air on all the TV stations set to carry B5 which will include scenes from the movie. These may begin airing as soon as a month or two from now. Just two more days of filming left. It's sometimes hard to believe; it took us five years to get here, and now this part of it will be over in just two more days. But as is so often said in television, boys and girls, there is more to come.... The footage continues to look spectacular. David Gerrold came by this evening to pick up a few things for the Worldcon auction, and saw some of the footage (efx and dailies). His comment: "Every so often, the science fiction media world undergoes a paradigm shift. There was one with Star Trek, another with Star Wars...and what I just saw amounts to a major paradigm shift." Newsletter is coming together, most of the interviews are concluded, and I expect it to be out sometime around the end of the month, so those who've sent postcards, watch your mailboxes around the first part of October. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 117 Fri Sep 04, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:23 EDT The last two days, we've been shooting stuff in the observation dome, basically the B5 command and control room, which has a huge port that looks out into space. (The design is kinda, but not really, reminiscent of the Spirit window from the strip of the same name.) Saw the dailies today, and it looks great. And there's something nifty about standing there in the middle of this thing, looking out at space, black and white and the blue of a nearby nebula, rendered outside the port so we can do some of this in-camera. It feels very real when you're inside. Last day for the pilot shoot tomorrow. And probably one of our most lavish sets as well. Will log on after we've finished the last shot. Really tired, but we've got just about everything in the can now, and it's all 99.9% of what I originally saw in my head, or in many cases, better. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 188 Sun Sep 06, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:54 EDT Er, actually, any reposts of my messages should only be noted as copyright by me. Just a formality. Just returned from the San Francisco con, and about ready to drop, which sums up pretty well my status for the last few days. We wrapped Friday night at 2 a.m., and there wasn't a party (we were all too bushed) but a general well-wishing sort of thing. Didn't get home until nearly 3:30 a.m., or asleep until 5 a.m....and then could only grab two or so hours sleep before having to get up and nab the plane in time for the B5 presentation in San Francisco. Emotions were really riding high Friday night as we got off the last shot of the pilot. No one really wanted to leave, despite the late hour. They're a good bunch. Anyway, I'm going to go and put my feet up, try to eat around my broken tooth, take some aspirin, and try to get better. It's as if my body were able to stand the strain just long enough to finish the job of the last four weeks, and then imploded.... Later. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 277 Sat Sep 12, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:59 EDT It occured to me that I hadn't left a really *substantive* post since we finished filming last Friday. There's a certain burn-out that happens after you finish a major project like this; you just sort of shut down for a while and stare at the walls a lot. So between that and catching up on M,SW work...you understand. Most everyone is now taking a sorely needed rest from the grueling schedule; Michael O'Hare and Mire Furlan have headed back to New York, and the rest are out here, working on other stuff while we gear up for Phase Two on B5. The film is now being edited together, and the editor is now close to finishing the first rough assembly. (They've been doing some of this all along.) The assembly will be in-hand Tuesday, but that's for our director's eyes only. Right now, we're running a bit long, but the cuts, I hear, are *very* loose, and can be trimmed quite easily. The editor is quite astonished at what he's seeing; the scope of the thing, the look of it. I share that feeling. What happens when you make a project like this is that you spend a whole day on one set, doing X-number of scenes in that set. Then the next day, you watch the dailies from that set. And soon you lose track, a bit, of how it will all look when you cut it together, and you're in LOTS of sets, and scenes. It's like thinking of your house ONLY in terms of the kitchen, or the dining room, without putting it all together in your head into a dynamic system...a home. And that's what happens during editing. I spent the first part of the week going over ALL of the dailies, tape after tape, pulling out shots to be used in promos. And so for the first time saw the WHOLE movie, not necessarily in order, but all of the scenes, all of the sets, the whole look of the thing. And the overwhelming sense that I get is of the sheer, seductive feel involved, the sumptuous sets, the gritty darker stuff...thanks to Richard and John Iacovelli and so many others, it's really a feast for the eyes. I honestly, truly believe that it's going to leave a lot of people boggled. We're trying to continue the momentum now that we have film to show. Watch for a big photo layout in the next STARLOG SPECTACULAR, and a *huge* story, 20 pages or so, with lots of photos, in CINEFANTASTIQUE around December/January. (There'll be a smaller piece in, I believe, the next issue, with a photo or two from the set.) I'm pretty sure that BROADCASTING MAGAZINE will also have a story in next week or so. In a way, this is the really hard part...you've *made* the film, so by all rights this is where you should be able to relax and savor it, but there's a lot of ground to cover, a lot of work to get out the word about the show, lots of post-production to do...and we haven't even gotten to the sound for the show, audio mapping,any of that. (I hope to be able to announce a composer in the next week or so; I think you'll all be quite pleased by who we think we've got, pending the fine points in the deal being nailed down.) There's an *awful* lot of movement going on behind the scenes, all of it wonderful, but I can't say anything about it for the time being. Picked up the Don McLean CD collection today, and was surprised to hear his song "Babylon," which I'd practically forgotten. The song triggered off an image that just slammed into my head; it comes not from anything IN the song per se, but the tone, the mood, and I think I'm going to work an entire episde around that image, maybe year 3 or so. Meanwhile, as indicated, we're currently in the eye of the storm, the quiet between the end of filming and the delivery of the first real cut. Expect to see a *lot* of activity when the eye passes and we're back in the thick of it. (Final aside...in looking at the scenes, there's one in which Londo is mourning the loss of the great Centauri empire, and talking about how they've gone from running everything to being just a few worlds, living on memories and stories, selling trinkets...and I found myself wanting to tag on that line from THE PRODUCER, "...AND I'M WEARING A CARDBOARD BELT!") Oh...and there *is* a blooper reel. I've seen the first part of it. Very funny stuff...sick and twisted, but funny. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 411 Sun Sep 20, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:57 EDT To the query above, yes, BABYLON 5 has a definite beginning, middle and end. I've always enjoyed shows like that, such as THE PRISONER, which has a beginning (he arrives at the village) and an end (he escapes from the village...sorta), and good stuff in between. All of this effort is so that we can tell A Story. A very long and involved story, about one person, mainly, but how that person's future can affect the course of history. A saga. The key is to do that without making it impossible for the viewers. I dearly loved TWIN PEAKS, but if you missed an episode, you were screwed. Similarly, you can't make the end of every episode a thematic or plot- cliffhanger, leading directly into the next episode. Each episode MUST stand on its own, and it should be structured so that you can come into it at any point, and be able to track what's going on, no matter what season it is. It's very much a writer's challenge, but I love challenges. (Now, of course, the saga continues in my own head long after the end of the five-year storyline, because they're real people to me, and their lives and the lives of those they touch continue, but at this point that's more than I even want to think about. Let's get this puppy on the air first, then we'll see if we even last two years, let alone five.) On Monday afternoon, I'll be seeing a good cut of the BABYLON 5 pilot. Will let you know if it lives up to expectations. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 430 Mon Sep 21, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:09 EDT What are you missing? The stuff about the story that only I know. Re: the 10 years and 1-4 Babylon stations. Remember, first, that they were not completed. In one case only the superstructure was completed, in another inferior materials were used (deliberately), and so on. So it's not like they built 5 fully operational stations. Only B4 actually made it to operational status. B5 was/is intended to be the last effort. If this one doesn't make it...screw it. Applying the resources from the full EA was deemed vital because, as stated, we as a race were almost wiped out in the Earth/Minbari War. We might BE wiped out by a technologically superior race next time it happens...IF we allow it to happen. B5 is the first line of self defense, and from our close call, everybody knows it. Re: shipping materials, I posted somewhere upline how the jump points work. In brief, large ships (cruiser and above) can generate their own entry points to hyperspace; gates are used mainly for smaller ships without their own field generators, and larger ships that want to conserve power. So all that was required was to drop 1 jump point when they started building B1, and that was it. There was no long supply line. (To clarify, the larger ships, Explorer class, leave behind 3 or 4 jump gates at pre-arranged points as they move through space.) As for Sinclair's status as both commander and ambassador...that is something we're going to deal with in the series. By all rights, he shouldn't even BE there. EA tried to stick an Admiral or some other high-ranking officer there. The first race to sign onto the station, the Minbari, had approval over who was sent to that post. They rejected everyone suggested, right down the line, until Sinclair. EA Officials are still wondering why HE was selected. (There is a reason.) That post was previously designed to either include representing Earth as an ambassador (to avoid in-station conflicts) or as an adjunct to one. And at one point, an ambassador will arrive, and they will hash this out once and for all. Your question proceeds from the assumption, "How can everyone agree that this is the right thing to do?", which is understandable, given how monolithic some shows make the future. But in the case of this show, there is constant disagreement, and there are a LOT of people in the Earth Alliance who think that this is NOT the right thing to do,and will try to take action to "correct" it....some for understandable reasons, some out of another agenda entirely. What you have picked up on are not flaws, but story points in the making...areas that will be explored down the road. These questions WILL be answered. It would have been very easy to make him Admiral or Ambassador Sinclair. He was given this lower rank for a reason...and there are an awful lot of people who look at this, and wonder if Sinclair isn't just a *tad* too cozy with their former enemies in the war, and just where ARE his loyalties, *really*? I've always taken pride in the fact that my stories are generally airtight. I hate loose ends and unanswered questions and inconsistencies. So feel free to poke and prod. It'll either be something I've deliberately built into the show, or something that I should attend to. As for the question above about how long this access will continue, only time will tell. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 451 Tue Sep 22, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:23 EDT Well, I saw the first cut today. Overall...not bad. The one drawback to doing a screening like this is that you can't just sit back and enjoy/watch the show. You have to look for problems, have to keep reminding yourself not to get sucked into it and lose objectivity. You don't go to have a good time, you go to find ways to give yourself grief. Fortunately, it all seems to hang together nicely. There were a few scenes and partial scenes that need to be cut, that're fun but don't advance the plot. (It's a tad long, so we could use the cuts.) And a few shots need to be restructured for clarity. But overall...it's good. (It's also one of those situations where you've now seen something 15 or 20 times, and you lose all sense of perspective.) I imagine we'll have the revised cut in by week's end. Tomorrow our tentative composer views the cut. Will advise as soon as I know how this finally works out. In the interim, some scenes were dubbed with bits of music, whatever they had on hand...and it's amazing how much music adds to a scene. Just makes the whole thing come alive. Once we have the next cut in hand, I think I'm going to show it to a few selective people, all of whom are very critical of my work, and invite them to beat the crap out of it. The tougher we make it, the better the odds of survival out in the world.... ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 475 Wed Sep 23, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 19:21 EDT I am trying very, very, *very* hard not to lose it at this moment. Someone put the copy of the current ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY in my hands, with the DS9 cover story, and said "I think you should see this." And I saw some full-head makeup prosthetics that look an *awful* lot like ours. But worse yet...the sets. The Promenade looks amazingly like our bazaar; their casino/bar looks a lot like our casino/bar, on and on and on.... This is getting just a *little* out of hand. The visual aspect comes on top of the story aspect...that both shows are about a space station that functions as a port of call for businessmen, smugglers, diplomats and others, located near a jump-point/worm-hole, has an open marketplace, a casino, a bar, hookers, original draft screenplays in which a shape changer played a substantial role, a female second in command, a head of the station with the same initials (J.S.) both with the rank of Commander, and an attack scene near the end with the female second in command being in charge of the defense...oh, yeah, and both commanders carrying a trauma from a recent war or battle. And there are more points of similarity, those are just the ones that spring immediately to mind. And now they will even have much the same look, similar sets, similar makeups.... I'm calm. I'm quiet and collected. How that desk got tossed out the window is anybody's guess. Well, at least there's some good news. We screened the rough cut of B5 for the composer we'd like to work with, and he seemed to go for it. Now we just have to see how our mutual schedules mesh. (This is a very special composer, and so there's a fair amount of courtship going on.) jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 478 Wed Sep 23, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 19:42 EDT (Entering calm, philosophic mood....) Personal involvement aside, I'd say that B5 looks *better*. And I just got the news this afternoon, now that the final production report is in (minus what's set for post). We've come in UNDER budget. Hey, Paramount! Phthpfttttt! jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 491 Thu Sep 24, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:36 EDT Television is like a train; once it leaves, you then know how long it will take to get from A to B. We could've still made the November airdate if we'd gotten the go when originally discussed. That didn't happen. Given when we started, it's simple math to determine when we can air. (And remember, we aren't all by ourselves here; Warners has to consider many factors, like the rest of the network, and where we fit in in that area.) We will have a pretty solid cut in about 2 weeks. A fine-cut by the end of October. We start spotting (looking for music cue locations) November 3rd. Scoring will take place around December 14th. We'll deliver shortly before Christmas. Nothing can happen then until January or February. And the Prime Time Network goes on line in February, and they want B5 to air during the February sweeps, where it will get the most attention and exposure. Sweeps also puts us up against the MOST deadly competition; that's when the networks, syndicators and cable outfits pull out their big guns in stunts and high-profile programs to kill off everything else in sight. So we're very much walking right into the lion's den, with everything in the world stacked up against us. Seems like fair odds to me.... And it wouldn't be the first time. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 516 Fri Sep 25, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:30 EDT *** YES! *** The composer we've wanted, who we've been courting, has seen the rough assembly and likes what he sees! He wants to do it! Insofar as I know, there's only one deal point remaining to be resolved. Once that's done, and Warners has approved, I can probably make some sort of announcement, all things being equalized. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 539 Fri Sep 25, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:46 EDT As I write this, we are starting to come out of the lull between storms. First there was the production itself, then things quiet down while the editors and our director assemble their cut, which is now ongoing. The closer the cut comes to being finished, the more things begin to pick up speed. We're starting to pick up a *little* on the PR stuff. Gave some interviews to different magazines, and remember, the E! channel 30 minute Making Of documentary should be hitting the air in the next few weeks to a month. Now that we have something to show people, it's a bit easier to get their attention. On Tuesday I'll be seeing one of the four-minute promos for the show. The fellow handling that aspect over at Warners is *very* excited by the look of the thing, and commented today that the task we'd had was to make a TV movie as a pilot. What we ended up with, in his view, is a Motion Picture that just happens to have been made for television. "The best I can describe it is, imagine if someone had made STAR WARS just the way it was made, but for television," he said. That's one of the problems with working on a project for so long; after a certain point, you're no longer capable of really viewing it or evaluating it objectively. To some degree, you don't even SEE it anymore, there's no surprise after you've seen each take 5-10 times at least. So we all kind of take it for granted; it's only when someone sees the whole thing for the first time that we can even begin to gauge the film. We're getting absolutely amazing support from Warners, which is just in love with the project and really smells something special. And that's nice. They're still amazed that we came in under budget (the precise figure: $1,190 under), given that a certain OTHER show, with fewer sets, fewer EFX, a wealth of standing sets (the ship-board stuff), established uniforms and some prosthetic precedents, has apparently, as George Martin mentions above, gone WAY over budget even at having been budgeted at something between $9-12 million, which is hideous even to start with. The key to that, frankly, is something where we have a definite edge: planning. We weren't rushed, we had the script a long time in advance, and were able to schedule our set construction and other areas to control the costs. And this will apply to the series as well; we know roughly what half the stories will be about, so we can spread out the construction, start in on the required EFX well in advance, so that they look good, and aren't rushed...simple, basic planning. At the core of that is something that occured to me today, the one thing that no one can take from us, and which no one can touch: the other show is about a space station at which stories take place; ours is a show about one particular story, one saga, which happens to take place on a space station. If there is any one thing that distinguishes B5 from everything else, that's probably it. jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 600 Mon Sep 28, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:26 EDT An aside, hopefully the last one for a while on the Other Show, only because I know it's being discussed elsewhere, along with the question of why it SHOULD be discussed...so I thought I'd take a moment to deal with it here. Some of it appeared in the now-deleted message, but presented here in calmer terms. There's always disagreement between genre fans regarding shows; some like TNG over TOS, some vice-versa, some like STAR WARS but not TREK...and there will doubtless be that same discussion between B5 and DS9. Which is all fine and good, and had nothing much to do with the topic at hand. What it comes down to, really, is history and context. BABYLON 5 is the culmination of five years of work, five years of my life, and that of many others. Five years of meetings, of pitches, of return meetings, of second pitches, of raised hopes and bitter disappointments. It would have been very easy, at any point, to just pack it in. I cannot even begin to convey to you the grief and hte heartbreak when the deal seemed absolutely solid...only to fall apart at the very last second. The long nights of frustration, of people (wiser than I) saying, "Look, let it go, it's not going to happen, it's consumed four years of your life, you could probably sell another show a lot easier...give it up." But we refused. I refused. And in between pitches and meetings and deals in the offing, I stole hours from other work, from desperately needed sleep, to write out character descriptions, to write down the five year story arc, the history of the BABYLON 5 universe, two hundred single spaced pages and more, because I *believed* in this project, because I had a story to tell. To see that five years of work jeapordized or threatened.... Let me put it in terms that might clarify the situation. Let's say that, the same month that the original STAR TREK went on the air, some other network debuted SPACE TREK, about a starship on a five year mission...a starship with a tubular hull connected to a saucer section at one end, and two nacelles at the other...commanded by a Captain Clerque, and his alien first officer Smock.... How would you have felt? Perhaps more to the point, how would Roddenberry have felt? And that, really, is the context in which this discussion has to be framed. It's not competition, it's not sniping, it's a serious issue that has to be confronted. With one last aspect to be considered: One of the reasons that this show was so hard to get going was that it was so unique, so challenging to television, so different in many ways, some of which you will only begin to see in the series. And I know full well that even if the Warners PR machine got working 24 hours a day on this, half of all viewers will see this show, coming out after DS9, and think it's just a last- minute knockoff or ripoff of DS9. And for a *writer*, any writer, especially if you take any degree of pride in the originality of your work, that appearance is hurtful in the extreme. Anyway, that's really all I have to say about this whole issue at this time. There's much going on (the hints to which the previously referenced sysopatrix alluded to), and there's all kinds of news coming down the pike. All of it good. As stated before, the post-production lull is just about over.... jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 607 Mon Sep 28, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 16:39 EDT One can but hope. Incidentally, and not entirely as an aside, I spoke to Michael O'Hare today, who's in New York at the moment. (Michael, you'll all remember, is our lead, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair.) Basically called to bring him up to speed on a few things, and we got to talking about heroes. And how much he wants to bring out that aspect, for his own kid, and for others. One thing that Michael and I have in common is that we both resolutely and stubbornly continue to believe in heroes, and the need for same. Not bluff-and-bluster heroes, but ordinary people who are placed in extraordinary circumstances, and rise above what they believe are the limits of their endurance. Someone said recently of HILL STREET something rather profound, I thought at the time. That it was about the redefinition of heroes; the hero as bureaucrat (Furillo), the hero as ordinary man (Hill and Renko), the hero as psycho (Belker), the hero as sleazebag (Buntz), and that genuinely struck me as the core of that show...that heroes aren't always what we think they're supposed to be, and that there is that spark that can be found in the unlikeliest of places. Anyway, just your Thought For Today.... jms ______ Category 18, Topic 22 Message 661 Wed Sep 30, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:42 EDT If it were only a matter of set design, you wouldn't hear a peep from me. For what I hope will be the last time, here's how it lays down: BABYLON 5 DEEP SPACE 9 Commander Sinclair Commander Sisko Casino Casino Bar Bar Female second in command Female second in command Shapechanger in original script Shapechanger in pilot script Located near a jump-point (warp) Located near wormhole (warp) Number-designated space station Number-designated space station Hookers Hookers Similar prosthetics Similar prosthetics Similar sets Similar sets Female 2nd fending off attack at end Female 2nd fending off attack Bazaar Promenade Cmdr. haunted by recent war Cmdr. haunted by recent battle Cmdr. is unmarried Cmdr. is (now) unmarried Freeport/port of call Freeport/port of call Travelers/diplomats/smugglers Travelers/diplomats/smugglers Those are the highlights. There's more, but this point has been belabored far more than is reasonable at this point. With one bit of new information...I've heard that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry has been quoted as saying that B5 has borrowed from DS9...now I can't personally confirm this, I wasn't there, but if those who sent me private mail testifying to this want to come forward, they're welcome to do so (though no onus is attached if they don't). Can such things happen by accident? That's more a question for others. Now, again, I don't want to go on about this in extremis. The only reason I replied was because you asked, and seemed to think that the only similarity was in the set design. As has been stated (repeatedly), they will be very different shows, in many ways, in terms of the stories and the characters and the fact that we just operate in a completely different fictional universe. So that said...let's move on. In future, if anyone wants to get the details, they should be referred to this message. There's going to be a lot to discuss, and a lot of new stuff coming down the road in terms of B5, and I'd hate for this topic to end up just a constant rehashing of point-by-point similarities. Best to talk of B5 in terms of B5, not via comparison to others. jms ______