B5ALL3

According to JMS in a real time Conference Sunday night on DELPHI, the words
for the opening narration will be...

"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But,
in the Year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last,
best hope for... victory. The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5."

He wouldn't provide the voice that read those words, but because it uses the
term "our" it seems likely that a human will be reading them. Ivanova was
mentioned by someone, to which JMS said, "Could be."

******
The interesting thing about this, to me, is that it supports my
contention that the Shadow War is not the major story of B5. It will
obviously be pivotal, but if year 3 is "the Year of the Shadow War", there
are obviously two more years of story AFTER the war.
And remember how much has happened in the first two years. >:-)>

******
OK, this wording means that the Shadow War lasts one year, and it is season
3.

Now, we've seen an older Sinclair fleeing B5, and a much older Sinclair
getting B4. Since the action still takes place on B5 (see narration), all
that must take place in a _different war_. Against whom?

(Maybe against Vorlons or First Ones, since we _do_ see 'light' in b5.)

******
While I think the word "traitor" is a bit strong, I'm beginning to
have some misgivings about Susan Ivanova. I was a staunch opponent of
the Ivanova is a traitor thread but I now see "something" of value in
it.

1. She doesn't trust the Minbari ("Midnight on the Firing Line").

2. She isn't really an earth-firster either though ("War Prayer").

3. She hates Psi-Corp and distrusts telepaths (many references).

4. She seems to get along with Delenn ("Legacies", "Soul Mates").

5. She discourages any discussion about the Shadows whenever it
arises ("The Long Dark", "Coming of Shadows", "A Distant Star").

6. She isn't ruthless or discompassionate ("Chrysalis", "All Alone..").

7. She was very suspicious of General Hague and was almost reluctant
to join Sheridan and the others in the anti-conspiracy
("All Alone in the Night").

8. She was a communist as a child ("TKO") and hates commercialism
("There all the Honour Lies").

Of the above 8 items, I only really consider items 3,5,6 and 7
to be of supreme relevance. The theory is as follows:

Ivanova hates Psi-Corps and she is aware of the connection
between it and the Shadows. She believes that Earth Gov is all but
controlled by Psi-Corps/Shadows and sees General Hague as another
threat. She's not going to do anything quite as crazy as shoot
Garibaldi in the back, but she will be forced to choose between
loyalty to her friends and to those who have sent her to keep an eye
on those who would arose the attention of the Shadows. Shady motives,
but still an essentially "good" character. Lyta Alexander will likely
have something to say about her in the upcoming episode "Divided
Loyalties".

*****
DId anyone else notice the theme of sacrifice in Season 2
(Third Principle of Sentient Life) ?

1. Londo's dueling partener from "Knives"
2. The Narn cruiser in "Acts of Sacrifice"
3. Delenn's change
4. Lazarenn (sp?) in "Confessions and Lamentations"
5. The 'Fury pilot in "All Alone in the Night"
6. Draal from "Voice in the Wilderness"
7. G'Kar's wingmen from "Revelations"

******
We see one of JMS's familiar themes again. The Minbari's Third
Principle of Sentient Life, sacrificing oneself for a friend, a loved
one, or a cause, is certainly driving Delenn's behavior.
For the second time, we see Delenn telling Sheridan that some things are
more important than the individual. Nice echo of her speech in ITSOZ.
Sheridan doesn't yet know Delenn as well as we do, as witnessed by his
immediate assumption that her request would be to leave the station. He
was surprised but I don't expect the rest of us were. In ITSOZ, Delenn
*told* Sheridan he needed to pledge himself to a cause greater than
himself. In C&L, she *showed* him.

*****
Also of interest is Delenn's speech about life being transitory:

"Don't look away, Captain. All life is transitory, a dream. We all
come together in the same place at the end of time. If I don't see you
again here, I will see you in a little while, in the place where no
shadows fall."

"The place where no shadows fall" could simply refer to a place where
there are no longer physical bodies. However, "The place where no
*Shadows* fall" is also possible. Interesting phrasing for the
afterlife, isn't it? I'm not sure what to make of it. The wording
can't be an accident. It's a hint like the rebirth ceremony in TPODr,
but we don't know how to interpret it yet. It's another clue about the
Shadows not being just physical.
******
However, the most interesting thing about the little girl was that she
provided a forum for Delenn's story about becoming lost as a child on
Minbar. The interesting part of the story is her description of the man
in the temple who told her she would be all right:

"When I woke up, there was someone standing over me. He looked down and
smiled, and my fear went away. He stood there, bright against the
darkness, and he said that I was going to be all right, that if I
believed, that my parents will come for me. He said "I will not allow
harm to come to my little ones here, in my great house." And just then,
the door opened and my parents came running in."

"bright against the darkness..." "...*MY* little ones..." Light?
Darkness? Echoes of a messiah and little children? Valen? Was the
man in Delenn's memory/vision Valen? Is this another clue that Delenn
is special? The One? (Or part of it at any rate.) Or am I
certifiable?

The parallel between Delenn's story and the little girl's immediate
plight are unmistakable. However, where Delenn's story turned out
happily, the little girl's does not. Delenn's parents found her in the
temple, presumably took her home and everything was all right. At the
same time the little girl is reunited with her mother, she exhibits the
first symptoms of the disease. I guess faith doesn't always manage.
Watching the little girl stumble really brought home to Delenn that the
Markab situation is not going to have a happy ending. Before her
transition, Delenn was used to being in control of situations. Now
she's adjusting to not being able to effect the outcome of some things.

One question I have is, although I find her actions totally in
character, would Delenn risk herself before she has done whatever the
prophecy expects of her? We really need to find out more about Valen's
prophecy.

Finally, Lennier will follow Delenn anywhere. At least as long as he's
alive. This doesn't come as a surprise, but it's the first time Lennier
has actually put his life on the line to follow Delenn. Can you say
"Foreshadowing"?
******
Suffice to say there's one more major hit yet to come, and I do mean
major.

jms
******
I didn't say destroyed, I said decimated; and no, this wasn't it.

jms
*******
The following plot synopses were printed in the latest isus of TV Zone
(Dates are UK transmission dates):

(13 June) The Long Twighlight Struggle

The Narn are losing the war against the Centauri and, as a
last, desperate attempt to hold them off, plan to destroy
a heavily guarded Centauri supply world using the majority
of their fleet. But the Centauri discover the plan and, with
the help of the Shadows, stop the attack and strike at the
near defenceless Narn home world.

(20 June) Divided Loyalties

Telepath Lyta Alexander (from the pilot episode) returns
to B5, now part of a secret movement against Psi Corps.
She informs Sheridan that a sleeper spy has been planted
onboard B5 Psi Corp and that he or she is a very important
person. To make matters more complicated the spy does not
know he or she is a spy, having had subconcious personality
planted without their knowledge by a psi technique. The
personality can only be triggered by a telepathically-
transmitted password. When an attempt is made on Lyta's
life Sheridan agrees to let her scan all senior crew members,
but Ivanova resists being scanned, revealing a secret she
has kept. Then a surprising discovery is made...

Comments.

The Narn home world is TOAST!!!! It just waits to see if it is easy
or over done (as our american friends would say). I suspect therefore
that the references to G'Kar being re-assigned may indicate that the
Narn Government may move offworld, to Babylon5? and that he will have
a senior position in the exiled government.

I suspect this means that Ivanova is NOT the traitor but IS psionic.
Any further guesses as to the traitors Identity.
******
....dang! I should have thought of Sheridan! Here I was thinkng that
the LEAD guy could not be the sleeper spy because he's the lead! Daauugh!
8-) I kept thinking it was Ivanova the whole time because in the last
few episodes we have seen brief shots of Ivanova with an puzzling look on her
face...

...man, think of it: "The man in between is searching for you".
Sheridan looking for the Spider, not knowing the Spider is him, within him.
Did Kosh realize this ? Does this mean that (oh shit!) the Psi Corp
knows what Sheridan know regarding the Shadows and Za' Ha' Dum ??!

******
Ok...that's enough warning. I have it on fairly good authority
that the traitor/sleeper is the resident telepath, Talia. In fact, she's
going to be arrested for her involvement in something relating to
season one. Suffice to say, you won't have Talia to kick around anymore.
******
Ivanova could easily be the traitor if she's a sleeper who doesn't
even realize that she is a spy. That would make the most sense. Every other
human is already involved with something hidden. Sheridan is one of General Hague's counter conspiraracy group. Talia and Franklin are doing the under
ground railroad for the telepaths. Garibaldi was very involved with uncovering the initial plot to kill Santiago in the first place. This leaves Ivanova.
Now, by being a sleeper, that means her character will stay on the
show as one of the good guys. She never wants to be scanned which would
make sense. That could have been put in her subconsious when she was first
programmed OR she already had an aversion to the core as a result of her
mother. This would make her a perfect candidate to be programmed. One night
she is grabbed, programmed and dropped off somewhere with no recollection
ala Sinclair.

*****
JMS,

I have seen several post discussing C&L and Delenn. Her and Lennier's
work in the isolation area should get them medals.
But on the other hand, Delenn needs to be slapped silly. As a
leader, she no longer has the luxury of personal acts of sacrifice. Her
death in the isolation zone could be disastrous for the war against the
Shadows. It would have been proper for her to send Lennier and other
Mimbari in, and wait by the hatch for them to come out. She now has to
be one, like Sheridan, who has to endure the pain of watching others go
into battle and not come back.
This was otherwise(except of a singular lack of bio-isolation suits) a
good episode. I thought if funny, that it and X-Files, both recently
had disease episodes.

*****
Re: why Delenn would do such a thing...hold out for "Comes the
Inquisitor"...it gets into her rationals on such things.

jms

*****
Well, others have noticed (David Hines? for one) that Dr.Franklin
seems to becoming dependent on those stimulants. We know that he has
taken them in ItSoZ, when he was talking to Ivanova. And we have seen him
inject himself in C&L, when apparently that was his "third one tonight"
according to the now deceased Marcab doctor who also said, "Too much isn't
good for you."
I recently went back and reviewed the synopsis from "The Quality of
Mercy", from the Lurker's Guide (Thanks Steven Grimm!), and was reminded of
another doctor who had taken stims - Dr. Laura Rosen. Apparently she also
was in the habit of using stims to stay awake, and then became addicted to
them. This led to her "mistake" and well, see the synopsis for further
details. I wonder if our own good doctor is headed in the same direction.
*****
Ah, about time; I was wondering when someone would get around to
remembering "Quality of Mercy" in this....

jms
*******
In the pilot it was hinted that there was a human legend of a human
seeing a Vorlon and being turned to stone. What was the tale?

Also, do other races have similar legends?

And while I'm at it:

Thank you for persisting in your vision. I can only imagine the
mountains you had to climb to get your project realized. B5 proves there
can be quality on television. BTW, I think C&L was one of your best
works to date.
*****
I think I'll perhaps leave this question be for a little while....

jms
******
TOP TEN REASONS JOE READS THE NET

10) Harlan told him it would keep him from getting "too big for his
britches"; Joe is still wondering why he's not losing weight.

9) Finds a peptic ulcer helps spice up otherwise-bland cafeteria food.

8) Whenever a plotlines threaded with delusion, conspiracies, aliens,
and violence seems too implausible, a brief foray onto the net makes
his story look like the Three Pigs.

7) For material on his upcoming book, "To Serve Man".

6) If it wasn't for Joe, the Fullers would have to go back to haranguing
people at bus stops.

5) Surprisingly enough, by keeping track of which books and authors he
is supposedly plagiarizing, has managed to compile a pretty good
reading list for his retirement.

4) Abuse, harassment, stupid ideas and insults help him wind down after
those long P-Ten/WB meetings.

3) Hoping to pioneer interaction between Hollywood producers and the
Internet community... because they deserve each other.

2) He's making a list to give to his masters... because nobody knows
the "M" in JMS stands for "Morden".

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON JOE'S ON THE NET

1) He's got nothing better to do with his time!

******
The Top Ten Reasons the Shadows Want to Destroy Earth

10. Earth ships go too slow in hyperspace

9. Earthers are teddy bear litter bugs

8. The Beavis and Butthead broadcasts finally reached Za Ha Doum

7. They hate being called shadows; they are illuminationally
disadvantaged.

6. They were afraid the BATF wouldn't approve their church.

5. Sick of Ed McMahon's junk mail

4. Some one has to shut Theron Fuller the hell up.

3. Technobabble, treknobabble.

2. Ivanova should have kept her comment regarding alien anatomy (or
lack of) to herself.

And the number one reason:

1. Punish Warner Bros for holding back episodes.

******
How does the finale compare? Hmmm...depends on what you're looking
for. "Inquisitor" is primarily a character piece, virtually no EFX, but
very intense. The story is kind of straightforward, with a few kickers
along the way. "Twilight" is a heavy story episode, that zips all over
the B5 landscape, between the Narns, the Centauri, and elsewhere (he said
vaguely). The finale, "The Fall of Night," is actually kind of deceptive;
it starts out fairly calmly and tightens fairly fast. The story is not
as back-and-forth or layered as Twilight or Coming, it's really about one
thing. Visually, it's the most ambitious thing we've done to date, and
probably the most ambitious EFX stuff done for a TV series *ever*. I
don't think you'll feel left wanting after the episode is done.

jms
******
Yeah, I kinda guess that "Grail" would be my alternate for worst ep;
I guess I'm generally just harder on eps I wrote myself.

BTW, given the reasons you cite for liking "Sky," I think you're gona
(gonna) LOVE "Comes the Inquisitor."

jms

******

Heh.. Asuming the rumors are true that Ivanova is "control" for bureau 13,
and a "trator" in some sence, how this plays out will be most fascinating..
I love it when little tid bits and clues given to us previously in past
episodes all make sence when the story plays itself out. Her hatred and
utter refusal to have anything to do with telepaths would seem to be more
than past childhood trajedy. Of course she wouldn't want to be scanned,
she would be discovered. And in the episode where Sheridon was held captive
by the Stribes, in his dream Ivanova said to him, "Do you know who I am?"
Have to wonder if that is in reference to the fact that he really has no
clue as to what she really is. The crow on her shoulder was a nice effect
to that end as well. And in the episode where we saw a few glimpses from
Bureau 13's personell, one of them was a Psi Cop. So that means Ivanova
works, in some fashon, with them in this "black government agency".

I could be, of course, way off base with this. But it seems ... intersting.

******
Recognizing that some folks would like to examine the scripts (hell,
if I were out there, I'd be kinda curious), once the B5 Fan Club gets up
and running (we're nearly there to getting the darned thing approved after
negotiating with WB for nearly a year), there are plans afoot to release a
limited number of B5 scripts for sale through this venue, so they're
properly authorized and complete.

The word "complete" is important because in, oh, 95% of the cases,
some dialogue ends up on the cutting room floor. Sometimes it's only a
few lines or words, sometimes it's a short scene, or several paragraphs
worth of dialogue which add to the scene, but when we got into editing,
felt weren't *absolutely necessary* (and we're always long on our eps,
from my sense that it's better to have more story than time than more
time than story). (And no, expanded episodes won't ever be available on
tape or disk.) All that material will be available in these scripts.

Give us another couple months on this one.

jms
*****
"We need the Bab5 equivilant of a tribble."

That would be me, yes.

jms
******
Sometimes it is better to have a defined person that is evil. Someone
(or group of people) you can count on to do the evil, malignant thing.
Someone sitting on the top saying "yes, now pawn-boy do x; knight-girl
do y; yes, my power grows indeed." Because you can gather around and
fight that person. War becomes peace.

Because the alternative is:

There really are no central evil folk, with a definite agenda. It is
just a bunch of people looking out for their own. Now how do you fight
those?

Waco, Oklahoma, Japan's subway gas incidents. How much of it is true,
how much of it is propaganda? I won't even mention the recent wars. But
we talk for months about OJTV, Buttafooco, Bobbit. Apologies to
non-americans; the last 3 examples are US hot topics for fodder-stories.

I hate reality, idealism is dead. I think I am beginning to hate
B5. One man can make a difference...I wish, oh I wish, why can't
it be true?

Perhaps it is. There have been people like Jimmy Carter, Mother Teresa,
Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Karamchandra Gandhi...(note: the sum of
what each of them has done outweighs the shortcomings they had as
individuals. That cannot be argued against).

2 killed, 2 alive; but their legacies do live on. And some people _have_
been touched by them.

*****
Which age of mankind are we in *now*? That shouldn't give too much
away, but it'll keep us proles guessing ;)
*****
It would be fair to say that this is the second age of mankind, yes.

jms
*****
Yeah, there was one thing I didn't get, only because those involved
kind of imploded. The final revelatory scene at the end of "The Long
Dark" was supposed to be one HELL of a lot more impressive than it was.
I really wanted to see something extraordinary. What we got...wasn't
it. That's the only case that I can remember. PTEN has never come to us
and said, "Joe...it's too weird." Performance wise, I think the part of
Inspector Cranston in "Hunter/Prey" could've been better executed. But
overall, I have to say I'm very satisfied.

jms
*****
Let me be absolutely crystal clear on this: there has never, ever,
at ANY time been any suggestion from Warners about Talia leaving or
staying or, frankly, really much of *anything*. I don't really think
they're even that much AWARE of the character. Zip. Nada. Not a single
word from Warners about the character, or the actress. Ever.

jms
*****
"CtI is the only episode in the last four that we know nothing about."

And if I figure out how I happened to achieve that (short of just
keeping my big yap shut), I'll do it some more. There should be some
surprises, yes?

And it's an arc story, yes, but in a very odd way.

jms
******
"There is good reason to believe the Minbari Triluminary device
is an artifact not created by the Minbari."

DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING!

jms
*****
No I don't think Delenn has been all weak and weepy because she is
"leaning" on someone she doesn't know well.
I think she is COMPLETELY at a loss of how to deal with her situation.

Consider: we have a powerful member of Mimbari culture, a member
of the Grey Counsel, and the chosen leader of the Mimbari, someone who
was confident in her position and place in the universe. Then she makes a
choice to change, rejects the position of leader. Ever since Chrysalis
her world has been yanked down and given a good 9g spin. I think she's
lost her frame of reference, and that the transformation hasn't quite
turned out the way she expected.
She has undergone a major personal loss, quite literally, her own person.
I doubt she expected to be and feel so alone. So powerless.
But hey, "Faith manages."
I'm sure there are times when Delenn sits around and wonders how it all
would have turned out if she had just accepted the leadership role and
gone on with her "career".
That, IMHO, is why she is so "weak and weepy".
It's not who she leans on, it's the knowledge that it all was her own
choice in the first place.

You are right, with Sinclair, the scene would have been much different.
But I don't think that Sinclair is "better" or "worse" than Sheridan,
just different.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Sheridan go through the fire and
come out a much different fellow.

*****

Good point -- and perhaps the best quote of the show. Romance would
indeed by nice, but too predictable. I saw the final "slobbering
on the uniform scene" (as some have called it) only as Sheridan
showing that he understood Delenn's lesson: that you must show
compasion when it is needed, for you 'll never know when you'll
need compassion yourself. She had exhausted her emotional reserve
by ministering to the dying, including the child she had touched
so deeply, and needed some compassion herself.

*****
I really DO believe
that we saw the hand of the Shadow in the demise oftwo billion people. But
whether that's ture or not, this was a definite wham.
Anyone familiar the Nevil Shute's On the Beach ? In the edition I have,
there's a prefatory verse,
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, with a whimper.

*****
>Isn't anyone else but me excited about the possible
>complications which would be raised by a Sheridan/Delenn "alliance"?

Excited, indeed. How many monkeys does this throw into the already convoluted
B5 wrench? Bad vibes from Earthers toward Sheridan (ooh, imagine Minipax
getting hold of this info), from Minbari _and_ Earthers toward Delenn
(as if she isn't getting enough bad vibes already); plus the question of
Sheridan's wife...what a mess. A truly exiciting mess. Plus this brings
things to a much more personal level; yeah, a war on the horizon can be
exciting, but great scenes are made of emotional characters involved in intense
relationships. Characters like Sheridan and Delenn give this situation the
potential to be _very_ intense. Their scenes together in C&L made me shiver.

How oh how can we wait until October to watch this develop!??!!

This "alliance" is a daring and brilliant move by JMS. I love this goddamn
show.

>I thought they had terrific chemistry. MUCH better than
>Sinclair/Delenn.
>We've been well oiled for the idea that Delenn has at least
>a semi-functioning human reproductive system. Will it be put to use?
>
>I feverishly hope so. This series keeps getting more and
>more way-cool.

*****
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Official Transcript of a formal real-time Conference with
J. Michael Straczynski, held Sunday, May 21st, 1995, in
DELPHI's Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

.Gordie>
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to DELPHI's Science Fiction &
Fantasy SIG. For the last few months, we've been having special
Conferences with authors, giving them an opportunity to share a
little insight into how they work, and where they might be going.
Tonight, while seemingly unlike our last few Conferences, we
actually have a rather similar situation. Joe Straczynski is a
writer and not just of individual television episodes, although he
most certainly does that, too. He has written a couple of novels
as well, and as soon as he finishes with some, ah, other commitments,
I suspect he will write others. But what sets Joe apart from the
rest of the crowd is a vision he has. A vision to create a whole
new form of storytelling. The vision we have all come to know
as Babylon 5. I hope Joe will share some of his vision with us
tonight, both for that literary form in general, and for the
television gem, Babylon 5, specifically.

With that out of the way, I'll open the floor to Joe for any opening
comments he might like to make. Joe?

STRACZYNSKI>
Many folks have noticed that I'm on a LOT of systems, and have
wondered if it's really me making all these replies. I wish to
state categorically that it IS me writing all those messages, but
since there is a limit on time, obviously this is not actually me
in this conference, but rather someone that I have hired to pretend
to be me while I'm off pretending to be Rondo Hatton, standing on
the ledge of a large building, and I'll jump, I swear, I'll jump.

Go ahead. Ask questions. See if I care. (Boy, is that a long
drop.) ga

ALLBELL>
Do you ever lurk in newsgroups for other shows? Do you find your
reactions differ when you're in the groups for the other shows? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
No, in general, I don't much lurk in other groups for other shows;
I have a hard enough time keeping up with all the B5 groups.
Though I do from time to time lurk on other B5 groups, so that I
can see what folks are saying when they don't think I'm around,
because I'm concerned that my presence sometimes may influence a
group. Unvarnished opinion is a sobering but educational thing. ga

ALLBELL>
Have you gotten any ideas about universe building from the flamewars,
etc. that go on on the Internet?

STRACZYNSKI>
Negative. The only thing that flamewars do is to give me the chance
to try out new Ivanova lines (or lines that BECOME Ivanova lines)
about one's genetic ancestry, cerebral capacity, and other
wonderfulnesses. ga

.Lemming>
What became of the unmade season 1 Gerrold scripts? Will they be
made? Will there be more Gerrold scripts? Thanks, GA

STRACZYNSKI>
There are no unproduced Gerrold scripts. There were, as I recall,
two outlines that never got to script, but no scripts per se; one of
those outlines will be coming out as a two-parter in the B5 comic,
so nothing goes to waste. ga

.Lemming>
This is not really unrelated, but bothering me, in _Knives_, Londo
went one way, his sword the other, then it's back in his hand. Is
this a production glitch or did a shadow push it over? Thanks, keep
up the great work! GA

STRACZYNSKI>
I think that's a camera thing; we shot that in master and close
during that sequence, and the thing landed where it was supposed to;
Londo grabbed forward for it, but I think in the close shot we used,
you can't really see how far he's had to reach forward, which may
account for the discrepency. ga

.Elric>
I have a two part question. 1, It seems that the FOX affiliate in this
area has pushed the B5 episodes back to the wee hours of the morning
instead of the 10:00 slot it once had. Is the B5 series in danger of
being dropped (God forbid) ?!?!? And secondly, in an episode several
weeks ago, they opened the novelty shops and I noticed some models of
the B5 station and of a Starfury. Can fans order these things? If not
will they ever be available? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Stations have the option of airing the show pretty much whenever
they so desire; sometimes they shift it good, sometimes they shift
it bad. It has no real impact on our chances, except in the
cumulative ratings, if enough put us in crummy slots...
As for the toys used, they were just made up for that episode, and
don't exist in reality, nor are they for sale anywhere though you
can take a pretty good guess where the Londo and G'Kar dolls ended
up, and where the station model will end up after the series is
finished. ga (Daffy duck voice: MINE, MINE, MINE!)

.Gumby>
Any truth to the rumour that Sheridan is history and that Sinclair
is back as Station Commander in the 3rd season? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
The rumor is not true. ga

.Gumby>
As well, how much input do you have in the novels and comics (which
are both great, by the way)... ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Total and complete. I review both in detail in outline and in
draft form, I approve the script/pencils/inks in the comic, suggest
stories, and I'm writing a 4-issue arc. The 3rd novel was a bit
off-kilter (no fault of John's), and I sent it back for considerable
revisions, which put it back a month, but I'd rather have it right
than fast. ga

.Gumby>
Right on !!

.Gordie>
Are there any plans to do some kind of multimedia product?

STRACZYNSKI>
Yes, a CD rom is in the works, but not for a while yet. I'm less
interested in ancillary marketing, merchandising, and all that
than just Telling The Story. I've seen merchandising get in the
way too often. ga

.John>
Will Commander (ambassador) Sinclair and his organization play a larger
part in the upcoming season or is he bowing out of the show? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
All I can say for now is that we will see a lot more of the Rangers
in the coming season (assuming we're renewed). As for the rest, I'd
rather hold back just now. ga

.CompuJohn>
Are the rumors true that the last 4 episodes of season 2 won't be
shown in the US until October ?

STRACZYNSKI>
Yes, they are correct. Ain't my decision. The Powers That Be
figure that if they hold off the last 4, they can use them to lead
up to the start of the (hopefully) new season in November, and get
us off to a good start. They say that HUTS (Households Using TV)
figures are very low for June, July and August, since everybody's out.
In September, you're right up against the new blockbuster network
shows, and their PR machine, so that leaves October. My opinion...
...is my opinion. ga (I can chew glass too when required.)

.CompuJohn>
B5 has just the right amount of humor sprinkled in... Is the wall
hanging of Daffy Duck in Garibaldi's room available in stores? GA

STRACZYNSKI>
Yeah, I think it's a commercial print, so it probably is. ga
(It may be on velvet.)

.Neil>
Hi Joe. Dunno if you remember me, but I was six inches and 90
degrees to your left at the I-Con banquet last year. I've heard a
rumor that you're considering compressing the series should a year
four not look to be in the cards. Total BS? Or is it still a total
fight for survival on your end?

STRACZYNSKI>
I'm not sure it CAN be condensed, and certainly I have no current
plans in that area. But it's always a fight to get this thing done
right, and to see it through to the end. But if it was easy,
everybody'd be doing it. ga

.Neil>
Yeah, the offer I made before to send a screener of that film I
translated still stands. Interested at all?

STRACZYNSKI>
Would you like to see the stack of tapes on my desk that I haven't
looked at yet? I appreciate the offer, but....

.Neil>
Gotcha... Maybe some year...

STRACZYNSKI>
...my time is zilch; the only films I've seen in the last 9 months
have been on airlines. 24 hours a day, B5 is my life. ga

.Colin>
There are many subtle (and not so subtle) references to classic SF. To
what extent have you been influenced by EE Doc Smith's Lensman series?
(Humans bail out the galaxy.) (Or for that matter, Heinlein, Clarke,
movies, etc...) ga

STRACZYNSKI>
I've been influenced in a generic sense, rather than in any
particulars; I grew up on the big sagas of SF and fantasy literature
and I'd always wondered why nobody ever did something on that scale
for TV, and the answer is, "Because nobody's done it." ....
So I figured, may as well be me. As for specifics, I grew up on
all the main writers of the genre... Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury,
Ellison, Matheson, Asimov, you name it...plus my models in many other
ways were writers like Norman Corwin, Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky,
Reginald Rose and others who loved language and weren't afraid to
have someone talking for more than 2 lines at a time. ga

.Colin>
Thanks. Just wanted to say that I really look forward to each episode,
and enjoy everything except the size (or rather lack thereof) of the
comic. Any plans to expand it? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
No, all DC comics are the same length, 24 pages. That's immobile. ga

.NumberSix>
This follows nicely upon Colin's question. The references to
_The_Prisoner_ in B5 are fairly clear, and I've started some
discussions here and elsewhere as to whether there is an equivalent
to No. 6 in B5. Any comments? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
First, there is a difference between a nod and a one-to-one
reference or template; if you look for ANY character in B5 to echo
somebody else in another story or series, you won't find it; I didn't
work 5 years to sell this thing just to do the Prisoner or Lord of
the Rings with the serial numbers filed off; this is a unique and
independent story; I nod out of respect, not to leave a knive where I
have extracted something. Second: the REAL number six would NEVER
identify himself as such... so I conclude that you are an IMPOSTER!
Delphi police, arrest this man! ga

ALLBELL>
He is not a free man. He is a number.

.NumberOne>
Thanks! And yes, there is much more to B5 than a Prisoner clone.

STRACZYNSKI>
(The B5 CD soundtrack is playing as I type this. Buy it. It's
great.)

.Rich_L>
Was it your intention to make the Shadows insectile to generate a fear
reflex in the viewers, or did it just end up that way? GA

STRACZYNSKI>
Certainly when I thunk them up, I wanted them to scare the bejeezus
out of people when they appeared; we went through several different
design elements, and that was the one that creeped me out the most,
and thus we went with that one... I'm not sure I said, going in,
"I want big honking bugs," but what we got, I like, and when you look
real close they're not quite as insectlike as they may appear. Very
alien looking. ga

.Rich_L>
It scared my wife enough to give her nightmares for a week... Any
chance we will see more of the enigmatic aliens that Sinclair's
fiance encountered that one episode? I liked them a lot.

STRACZYNSKI>
Hurm.........no comment. ga

GRAGEM>
Do you know when the pilot will be released or rebroadcast?

STRACZYNSKI>
My hope is that it'll be soonish, summer or fall, but I don't know
that for a fact. ga

.Rob>
Artifical intelligence is already under development in today's time.
Will we learn that sophisticated, human-level artificial intelligence
has been been perfected by B5's time and is in commercial and/or
govermental use? As an aside, I *want* a Sheridan Bear (I assume you
can be bribed?:)

STRACZYNSKI>
I can't be bribed, but I can be rented...

.Gumby>
<lol> :)

STRACZYNSKI>
I've kind of set aside a lot of the AI stuff, on the grounds that
it kinda gets in the way, and once all the fooforah is done with, I
suspect that people will want their computer systems to be seen and
not heard, and reasonably obedient. Certainly the B5 system is very
intuitive, but not AI in the sense that we've come to expect it might
be. I dunno...every time I think about trying it, I see Twikki, and
I fall down. "Open the pod bay doors, Hal." Ehhh...I just dunno. ga

.Rob>
::chuckle:: What's up with Keffer? Will he back? Will he stick
around? Will he play a more involved role in the story?

STRACZYNSKI>
The last four episodes of this season show Keffer a lot more. (We
build a little of that in the next ep) ga

DEBGREEN>
How do feel about using things routinely today, that were SF 50 years
ago?

STRACZYNSKI>
I suppose on one level, it's amazing, as you say, but at the same
time, what was incredible 100 years ago was perfectly real 50 years
ago, it's part of human social and scientific evolution. I think if
we weren't constantly amazed, we'd be dead, but on one level, I think
we kind of take it for granted after a while. (I used to own a Kaypro
II with 64K and a 180K floppy, and now I have 2 gig, a 17" monitor,
with amazing facilities and 64MEGS ram and it ain't enough yet. We
are engaged in the parade of humanity toward the future, and imagining
it is fascinating for what is, and what isn't done...
"Just Imagine," a B&W SF MUSICAL in the 1930s showed life in the 1980s,
50 years hence, with private aircars, pills instead of food, people
with numbers instead of names, and little/none of it's true. It's
scattergun. We live in the future; it's ALL amazing. ga

DEBGREEN>
When do you expect to find out about next season's pick-up/cancellation?

STRACZYNSKI>
We keep hoping on an almost daily basis to get the word; the folks
who make the decision will be back in town come Monday, so with luck
we'll hear something this week. ga

SLOMICHAEL>
If KOSH is one of the few remaining old ones, and the Vorlons helped
fight with the old ones a 1000 years ago, does this mean he is not
a Vorlon or there is only one Vorlon-him? Also I believe that the
Minbari on the planet below Babylon 5 will be seen again in the fifth
season. ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Kosh is a Vorlon. The Vorlons fought the Shadows. There are many
Vorlons, back home. (The Writer committed an error in that he used
too many pronouns in that segment of dialogue.) And we'll see Draal
again *this* season. ga

.Lor>
Will we see the original doctor (from the pilot) again or hear more
about what happened to him?

STRACZYNSKI>
See? No, no plans for now. Hear about? Yes. ga

.Lor>
This season? Or later? GA

STRACZYNSKI>
Sorta/kinda both. ga

.Lor>
Thanks! GA

CEKELLEY>
With the war started, and only two seasons down with three to go
how much/how often can we expect to see space and or GroPo combat
scenes? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Not that much gropo stuff, but you're going to be seeing a LOT more
space combat stuff, particularly later this season. There's some
amazing stuff coming, including probably the single biggest engagement
we've shown yet. Something on the order of a dozen fleet-sized capital
ships, plus a couple hundred fighters wizzing around, new and unusual
weapons, and some long-range tactical strategy, rather than everything
at close range (several thousand klicks apart). Nifty stuff. ga

.Gumby>
Cool !

PATGIBBS>
What are the prospects for a successful letter writing campaign to
reverse the PTN decision to delay broadcast of the last 4 Season 2
episodes from June to October? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
If I were to comment on this, or suggest anything, it could be
problematic in my relationship with PTEN. Verstehen Sie? ga

PATGIBBS>
Does PTEN know and or care about the success of B5 on the net? GA

STRACZYNSKI>
Stark cold reality: if you added up every single person on the nets
who watches B5, it wouldn't be .0001 in the ratings and that's all
they care about. I'm here out of respect for the fans, as part of an
experiment, to get a sense of the room and to learn more about my
characters by answering questions; I don't think the networks really
understand/care about the nets sui generis. ga

.Clint>
Can you give us a hint about why Mars is important? Is there a link
to the Shadows? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Possible. Look for the conclusion of, and the current story arc
in, the comic as now being published. GA

.High Res>
In comic #1, Rathenn tells Sinclair that the soul migration has been
going on for nearly six thousand years. In "Points of Departure,"
Lennier tells Sheridan that it's been going on for a much shorter time
period--one or two thousand years, I forget which. Would you be
willing to comment on the discrepancy between the two time periods? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Rathenn spoke incorrectly. ga

.High Res>
In book #2, Accusations, why does G'Kar appear on the cover and not
in the book? And, on page 252, there's a brief reference to Sinclair.
Was that a typo? That's all. ga

STRACZYNSKI>
The covers were done in advance of the books being written; I'm not
thrilled about this, because it can be as misleading as our promos
tend to be. This will, one hopes, be amended in future. ga

.High Res>
And the reference to Sinclair? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Which reference?

.High Res>
Right after the Joint Chiefs of Staff schedule a review for Ivanova,
and it cuts to action with the Asimov docking on the station. The next
sentence starts out "Sinclair" and then switches to Sheridan. ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Typo. Not My Fault. ga

.phil athans>
Is there any opportunity for freelance writers like me to write
for B5? And if so, how does one start that process? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
In the past, I've always tried to stay open to newbies, and the
like, but in this case, bear in mind that we're not looking for
outside stories. We've GOT all the stories. I don't take pitches,
I assign stories out of my outline to writers, usually writers I've
worked with before, or who come with sterling credentials. So, alas,
we're kinda closed. ga

.phil athans>
Oh well... Have you thought about a role-playing game based on B5? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Would love one. Nobody's approached us formally yet. ga

.phil athans>
I'd be willing to try. ga

52RANGER>
A steely eye just opened at Wizards of the Coast ;)

STRACZYNSKI>
You have to have your company, or A company, approach WB and
formally license the thing. ga

.Gordie>
Let me sneak one in here... How do you decide how much of the greater
arc to reveal each week? The balance between saying too much and not
saying enough has to be tricky.

STRACZYNSKI>
Mainly, you just have to feel your way through on instinct and
planning. For instance, in planning for the (hopefully) third year,
I pulled out my notes, and 22 index cards. Went through my series
outline, and picked the eventsI needed at the start of 2260, and the
end; then pulled out all the other incidents that had to happen in
that year, and began assigning one-two to each card, putting the cards
in order so I could see the whole season at a glance if an item seems
light, I may pair it up with another incident, or if it's too arc-heavy,
pull it out and pair it up with a lighter episode. It's all very
subjective. ga

.Gordie>
So the pacing really got locked in when you came up with the whole arc.

STRACZYNSKI>
Mostly. There's some room to maneuver in there, so I can slide stuff
around to make things interesting, and keep the arc fresh but in
general, yeah, it's set. It's a novel, with outline. You always veer
a bit once you hit the book/script, but for the most part, it's set. ga

.Brendan>
I've missed several crucial episodes both this season and last. Are
there any plans to release old eps into syndication or on video once
the series' run is complete? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
This season will be rerun to within an inch of its life. First
season will not, on the theory that folks'll get confused by seeing
a new CO, though I understand that the tapes for year one will be
out later this summer. ga

.Gordie>
Your theory, or Someone Else's? <g>

STRACZYNSKI>
Not mine, jack. ga

.Brendan>
One more quick yes-no question: Was Sinclair's departure planned from
the start?

STRACZYNSKI>
That's a much harder question to answer than you know; but I'll try
to surround it a bit; this may take a while... I always knew, going
in, that I was going to have a hard time folding all of this baggage
into Sinclair's duffel; survivor of the line, head of B5, missing 24
hours, Minbari soul, AND with a connection to the shadows? It
stretched credulity to a tremendous extent. I figured, once I got
into the writing, it would work itself out. It did so by saying,
"Y'know, it'd be a better solution to bring in a new character, and
move Sinclair off the chessboard. It'd let you focus more on Minbar,
bring in the Rangers more smoothly, have someone to bounce new info
off of for newbies to the show, tie in the Shadows, and allow more
conflict and an escalation of the arc." So I looked at that, and saw
that it fillled the areas of the outline that sagged a bit. Remember,
nothing to me is sacred but the telling of the whole story. Nothing
gets in the way of that, including any personal relationships I may
have with cast, writers, crew, anybody. So I went to Michael, and
said, "If we do this, I can do a lot more things than I can do now."
He liked the idea and there were some things he wanted to do, so we
parted company amicably, with the notion that down the road, we might
intersect again for some elements of the story. So parts of the
parting were *indicated* or prefaced by the story going in, but I
didn't know the *shape* of that resolution until I got there. ga

.Brendan>
OK, thanks! ga

.Scott>
Any plans for a map of the galaxy, where the homeworlds are in relation
to each other and such?

STRACZYNSKI>
We have one, kinda, in the office, for our use, but no plans for a
general map. ga

.Scott>
Loved the baseball in "knives"...is football far behind? Thanks for a
great show. ga

.Matt>
When will we learn what the Third Age of Mankind is? ga

STRACZYNSKI>
Eventually. ga

.Matt>
Hehehe..Well, that's definitely non-specific :) We've heard rumors
that there will be new actors for season 3 - Is that true? If so,
can you give us names?

STRACZYNSKI>
Yes, and no names.

.Matt>
Ok, thanks...All of us at StMOO (telnet moo.ravenet.com 1701) would
also like to say thanks :)

.Karen>
I appreciate that B5 mentions God routinely...but Why?

STRACZYNSKI>
Karen...why not? (Stand by, folks, looking for her reply.) ga

.Karen>
No, no, I really glad. Your characters have more depth.. and you've put
a Jew in space!

STRACZYNSKI>
Okay, background here... I'm an atheist. My attitude is that we must
respect those who wish to believe, and those who choose not to, in
equal terms. Consequently, I must properly respect the notion that
in 250 years, religion will still be here and people will still be
wrestling with it in many ways... Bear in mind that, in early history,
science and religion emerged as ways of trying to understand the
universe around us, using very different methods - faith vs. the
scientific method - but the desire and the intent are twin impulses so
why not give respect to the idea that some believe? Hence, I
don't keep religion out of my show. It seems to me that it's the only
way to go if I am to be HONEST in how I portray the future, and my
characters. And the first obligation of a writer is to be honest in
his writing. ga

.Karen>
Well an atheist who can include an ex-Jessuit and a Jew can't be all
bad!

STRACZYNSKI>
Absolutely. I'm just a wonderful human being and a force for good in
my time. Also a snappy dresser. ga

.Brendan>
LOL

.Rich_L>
rotflmao

.Robert>
(geez, it's Bill Shatner)

.Gumby>
<LOL> :)

.John_Drake>
Sorry to keep switching names & numbers, but it's hard to find oneself
in v-space... Since Ellison is 'conceptual consultant,' do you know
if he's still as adamant about the terms 'speculative fiction' as
opposed to 'sci-fi' as ever? BTW, thanks for providing hours of work
tracking down the multitudes of literary, historical, and cultural
references. ga

STRACZYNSKI>
That's m'job. As for Harlan, yeah, he hates Sci-Fi; says it's the
sound of crickets screwing. ga

.Brendan>
LOL again

.Gumby>
Definitely ROFL !!

.Rich_L>
snorts of disgust.

.John_Drake>
Quick followup; any comment on Inonova's possible telepathy?

.Brendan>
Oh don't be such a stick in the mud Rich :)

STRACZYNSKI>
Who said she had telepathy? I never said this. How could I
comment on something I've never said? Such a strange question. ga

.John_Drake>
My wife said she does :)

STRACZYNSKI>
I should believe somebody who married YOU?

WARGAMERDAVE>
Thanks, have any any TV and/or movie stars asked to be on the show?

STRACZYNSKI>
From time to time, yes. We've had folks come to us, but I'm not
sure if it would be correct for me to say who. ga

WARGAMERDAVE>
If for some reason there is no season 3 would you consider doing
some theatical movies to tie up the show?

STRACZYNSKI>
I can't even consider that possibility. The only way this show has
been made is as an act of sheer will. I decided that it would have a
pilot, that we'd get the series order, and we'd go the full run; if I
allow myself the slightest doubt on that, it'll never happen. ga

WARGAMERDAVE>
Thank You..

C_HAMER>
Is there an earth based outlet for the JS bears? (and B5 soundtrack
CD), or do I have to scrape one off the nose of a starfury? GA

STRACZYNSKI>
No bear boutiques. Soundtrack CD is available at any record store
now, from Sonic Images. (The end credits on the show now list the
ID # for the soundtrack.) ga

C_HAMER>
Followup: What is the count of Amigas in the rendering farm?

STRACZYNSKI>
14,287. How the hells hould I know, they tell me it's faerie dust,
and I believe them. (I think it's actually 10.)

.Brendan>
(nearly spewed my coffee there...)

.Gordie>
Matthew, I missed you earlier. You're the host of the B5 Custom Forum,
invite the nice folks over, and ask your question.

.Matthew>
Ok.. thanks.. :) The CF is 118, btw. And my question is when, if at
all, will Zathras be making a return appearance?

STRACZYNSKI>
Eventually, yes. What should I do when I get there? (Can't stay
long, either, btw.) Even though we don't have an order yet for
year three, I have to get X-number of scripts ready regardless. ga

.Matthew>
Well, I was going to show you around the forum, if you have the time.

STRACZYNSKI>
Oh....s'okay, I stopped by yesterday and ran around the place
naked. (You should get a heater in there.) ga

.Matthew>
hehe..

STRACZYNSKI>
Check your logons and you'll see my tracks. (Alas, nobody noticed,
except one user who pointed and said, "MY husband has one just like
that, but bigger.)

.Brendan>
ROFLMAO

.Robert>
Ouch, hot tea out the nose!

.Elric>
I must say that your team along with Ron Thortons team is a perfect
match! Do those guys have time for any other projects? And thanks
for a GREAT SHOW!

STRACZYNSKI>
I've developed several other projects, which are in various stages
with variuos studios, but haven't pushed too hard since B5 remains
my first priority, and I wouldn't be running those shows as a result
the same way I run b5. ga

GRAGEM>
Will Sinclair make another appearance before the end of this season?

STRACZYNSKI>
Not this season, no. But as I peek over at my outline, I see a
possible two-parter... ga

52RANGER>
Opening a jumpgate back to reality...2 quick thankyous JMS...One for
B5...One for your WD Book & column work...Keeps me from straying too
far :)

STRACZYNSKI>
Thanks.

.Gumby>
Is Babylon 5 going to released on laser disc any time soon? This show
BEGS to be seen on laser disc !!

STRACZYNSKI>
Eventually, yes; but to do so, we would have to re-telecine all of
the footage back to its original aspect ratio, then reassemble it all.
Which we've discussed, and I've volunteered (at great personal
sacrifice) to screen the first set of disks for QC when this happens.
But because of the massive work involved, it won't be for a bit
yet. ga

.Gumby>
Rats !!

STRACZYNSKI>
Mice

.Gumby>
<LOL> :)

STRACZYNSKI>
Okay, let's see... How about the narration for year three? Though
I doubt anybody'd be interested in that... Nah, never mind.

.Gordie>
Vir?

C_HAMER>
please.. go ahead

.Robert>
Daffy Duck?

STRACZYNSKI>
You sure?

.Brendan>
YES!

C_HAMER>
Yes...Kosh perhaps?

.Colin>
Yes, please!

STRACZYNSKI>
Wouldn't want to be a bother. (Not who, but what's said.)

.Gordie>
Bother away!

STRACZYNSKI>
Okay, here t'is.

STRACZYNSKI>
"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed.
But in the year of the shadow war, it became something greater: our
last, best hope...for victory. The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5."

.Scott>
cool

.Rich_L>
Oh, damn...

ALLBELL>
Victory is not a greater thing than peace.

STRACZYNSKI>
Depends on the war.

.Colin>
Definite Coolness!

ASCHMUECKER>
wow!

GRAGEM>
whoa..

.Brendan>
You'd think these characters would notice sooner or later that
something earth shattering happens every January.. :)

.Gumby>
Tres Cool !!

.Karen>
YES!

C_HAMER>
Please tell me Lando is going to read it again.

STRACZYNSKI>
You'll get a hint in the last ep to who reads it.

.Gordie>
_Our_ last, best hope... Ivanova'd be my guess.

.Karen>
YES, please

WARGAMERDAVE>
gotta be her

STRACZYNSKI>
Could be.

.Gumby>
Damn straight !!

C_HAMER>
Which won't be till October. :(

.Gordie>
Could be Keffer, too...

.Brendan>
In which ep did the war break out?

STRACZYNSKI>
One sorta slides into the other. As wars do.

STRACZYNSKI>
Oh, HR, yours is the last question. No pressure. All these folks
waiting to see what YOU'RE going to ask.

.High Res>
How do you define atheism?

STRACZYNSKI>
...you call that a question?
All these people, who gave you their chance to ask a question, and
THAT'S IT?

.High Res>
It fits the standard definition of a question... Yeah!

STRACZYNSKI>
Well, yes, gramatically, it does, subject, object, punctuation...
Now you want DOCTRINE on atheism? Hasn't the world got enough
problems?

.High Res>
Hey, you make us go nuts _every_week_. I thought I'd see if I could
reciprocate. <g>

STRACZYNSKI>
I don't believe it. (There, THAT'S your definition.)

.Gumby>
ROFL

.Gordie>
Author! Author!

STRACZYNSKI>
(It's true, ANYBODY can get on Delphi.)

.High Res>
Very...elusive. <g>

STRACZYNSKI>
This is kinda like one of those moments when you go to McDonald's
and the guy in the next booth is screaming about that damned Roosevelt.

.Gordie>
Well, I want to thank Joe for taking time to spend with us tonight.
And all of you out there for joining us.

.Colin>
Thanks for the Conference, and most of all, thanks for the show.

STRACZYNSKI>
Thanks, everyone, for supporting the program.

.Gordie>
This CO is officially over!
==========================================================================
This transcript was edited to enhance clarity and correct typos.
==========================================================================
For more information on upcoming guests for DELPHI's monthly
Author's Conference series, please send email to:
Gordie Meyer <biblinski@delphi.com>
==========================================================================
This transcript is copyright 1995, DELPHI and DELPHI's
Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG. Permission to reprint is
granted, as long as the transcript is left intact and unchanged.

******

While everyone else is bickering over lethal-trans-species-organic-
nano-machines, has anyone noticed that over the last few episodes
Dr. Franklin seems to have developed an addiction to 'stims'. I'm not
sure if the stims themselves are addictive or if he is using them to
aid an addiction to his work, his sacrifice to help others. Anyway,
Richard Biggs gave another fine performance.

****
John: you have made a very perceptive observation.

jms

******

From the home office in Earth Dome ...

TOP TEN REASONS WHY DELENN PREFERS SHERIDAN TO SINCLAIR

10. Sheridan looks so cute when he snores.

9. Never warmed up to Sinclair's pet name for her, "Dome Bone".

8. Kosh likes Sheridan better.

7. Widowers make the best husbands.

6. Sheridan's nickname "Star Killer" a lot cooler than
Sinclair's nickname "Ol' Hole in Mind".

5. Sheridan is slightly less stiff.

4. Sinclair screamed like a school girl when he was tortured on the
Grey Council ship.

3. Sheridan does not need Kosh to remind him of urgent
appointments with her.

2. Two words: better hair.

1. A gal's got a right to play the field before settling
down with her destiny.

*****

JMS has hinted that the shadows are not evil in clear terms. I propose that
the true nature of the shadows is in their vital question

'what do you want'

I think that the shadows are the ultimate philanthropists and will give anybody
what they ask for. But remember the old maxim 'be careful what you wish for',
in doing this they do not worry about the ethics or morals of what they do.
So if a shadow asks you what you want and you ask for them to kill someone
they will do it BUT if that person asks for vengance they will also kill you.

This philanthrophy is not just limited to other species however the shadows will
take whatever THEY want as well without regard for others. Thus the evil lies
not in the intent of the shadows but rather their effect on cultures which
when given what ever they want fall apart into different factions fighting for
what THEY want instead of what is for the good of the people.

******
>(Why do I seem genetically incapable of just writing a simple little
>story...?)
>
> jms

Ok. You asked for it! Note to the humor-impaired, all to follow is
categorized with one giant smiley... :-)

From the home office at EarthDome...

THE TOP TEN REASONS WHY JMS CAN'T WRITE A SIMPLE LITTLE STORY
-------------------------------------------------------------

10) Didn't have a night-light as a child (too many shadows...).

9) He learned to write from Snoopy. "It was a dark and stormy
night. A shot rang out. The maid screamed. Suddenly, pirates
appeared on the horizon!" (I tie this together in chapter 2...)

It could be worse, he could of learned from Dr. Suess instead
of Charles Schultz. "narn one and narn two. narn two and narn
one. they can find anything, anything. Anything under the sun."
_The Vorlon in the Hat_

8) Unresolved issues from "Little Red Riding Hood". It was just a
little TOO convenient having that hunter show up in the end,
wasn't it? Joe's version explains it all with a world-wide
conspiracy involving a race of "Old Ones".

7) Oat Bran - the silent killer. (Tribute to the best top 10 entry
I've ever seen - "Top 10 headlines in the year 2050". Hey! JMS
does this - so can I!)

6) Mean actors/actresses demanding complex characters to portray.
(Sinclair was just a gas station attendant in Jersey until O'hare
whined pathetically...)

5) One word: insomnia

4) Because he's not just the President of the Story Club for Men, he's
also a customer.

3) Because Ivanova said so and Ivanova is God. Those that don't listen
to Ivanova go BOOM. Joe no like BOOM. Got it?

[Alternate 3) Claudia promised that, if he tried harder on the stories,
she'd put in a good word for him to MENSA to make up for his low
test scores..]

2) Two words: sci-fi groupies.

and the #1 reason...

1) If he *could* write simple little stories, he'd have to
write for ST: Voyager. And the Paramount cafeteria only
serves 'spoo'...

I now return you to your regularly scheduled belly-button
contemplating until October. (Sigh.) :-)

*****
Just a thought...
Maybe his form is (to some extent) influenced by whoever looks upon him?
So each individual would see something different (maybe something from their
own mythology? or whatever they expect to see? or whatever they _don't_
expect to see? or some element of their own self?), possibly combined with
whatever the 'natural' Vorlon form is.
*****
A quiet episode, not so much happening in the way of action, running
gun battles or space combat. I guess we can't have that every week.
Still, I did feel a chill run up and down my spine when I heard
Kosh's story. This episode is *definately* setting up tensions to be
released in the near future...

Some random thoughts in no particular order...

The history of `The First Ones' sent that chill up my spine. For the
first time we actually get some *major* information about who/what Kosh
is. And about time too! From hyperion and JMS posts, The First Ones
are a group of (presumably likeminded) races, of which the Vorlons are
one race, and Kosh is an individual in that race. I did wonder if
Kosh was unique as the last of the First Ones, apparently that isn't
what JMS intended. Still, one wonders who strong the Vorlons are
compared to the Shadows, and even why the remainder of the First Ones
felt that that could depart, and move beyond the veil?

Delenn's `like giants' quote is almost identical to her speech
made to the Grey Council in _Babylon Squared_. Are humans intended
to replace The First Ones as `guardians' and defenders of light?
Were the Minbari intended to become the new guardians, but somehow
fell by the wayside? Kosh has indicated that neither the Narn or
the Centauri have the capability...

Anyone else notice that Delenn was rather dishevelled and unkept?
Perhaps she was roused by Kosh in order to deal with the gravity of
the situation. Quite obviously Kosh has faith in Delenn's abilities
where the rest of the Minbari don't...

Well, I guess we now see Sheridan's link to the Shadows. His hopes
that his wife is still alive might be used against him at some point in
the future, or cloud his judgement in some manner. We can already see
him wanting to go to Z'Ha'Dum in order to try and find answers - and
kick some collective butt, fighting legends. I get the impression
that Kosh was anticipating this. Sheridan is now *motivated*.

A message on hyperion from JMS, posted back in 1993:

I've just sat here for five minutes trying to decide how to phrase
this and not give something vital away...and it's damn near impossible.

(another five minutes passes)

Okay, look...do this. Get a piece of paper. Write down the following:
"Sinclair sees the hand, but Sinclair does not see the hand. And five
other people standing in the room would not see the hand that Sinclair
sees, or see the hand that they see."

I know it looks like gibberish. But trust me on this. Put the piece of
paper in your wallet (next to the condom) and hold onto it for about
two years. Assuming we're still around that long, at some point that
message will make absolute and perfect sense.

Anyone else get the feeling this was the Talia meets Morden scene, and how
Sheridan (replace Sinclair in the above) now knows of the existence of the
Shadows, but doesn't yet know/understand their abilities, strengths and
weaknesses. One wonders what this has to do with the 'You are the hand'
quote from AAitN...

Morden was with 3 Shadows in his holding cell? Any significance to these
numbers, and the number of Shadow vessels? JMS maintained there were 2
Shadow ships in Chrysalis, we saw Morden talk to 2 beings in that episode.
Now we have 3 ships in TCoS, and 3 beings here? Coincidence? More
importantly, why do those beings need to be with him almost constantly?
Are they drawing energy from him? Feeding him information? How do they
get out of the way of people, if in fact they can come into direct contact
with them? How did they know to vanish when Sheridan saw them on the
monitor? Where did they go when they vanished? Questions, questions,
questions. Anybody out there in netland got answers?

Vir is getting stronger and more confident all the time. Standing up
to Morden like that, I rather hoped that he'd personally remove Mordens
head and stick it on the pole himself! Still, it was something of
a climbdown to have him go to Sheridan requesting Mordens release
under Centauri diplomatic protection. Londo of course realises the
importance of keeping Morden in his good books, and the power of
his `associates' should it be turned against him.

The Ministry of Peace. Now that *is* scary. An organisation that
encourages you to snitch on your friends, neighbours and people you walk
past in the street. All in the name of `embracing people into society'.
Can you imagine the fireworks had Ivanova been at that meeting? *grin*
The beginnings of a `Police State' where people who question
government propaganda disappear for their misguided and angry (but not
evil) views. And who better to run that society than the true throught
police. Strong resonances with what happened before/during the 2nd
world war of course. Will the humans be distracted into their own civil
conflict rather than uniting against the darkness that threatens to
engulf?

An episode that chills you for the revelations and hints of what is
to come... and we have the last four episodes before the US. What a
scoop! The episode _Divided Loyalty_ is when we get ahead... and get
to dominate rast.b5.
******
I think this has been analysed before, but hopefully not
with quite this interpretation.

*Sheridan is in his quarters, in uniform. The lights are
*out. Ivanova is in the quarters with him, in uniform,
*hair draped over her left shoulder. The door is open. She
*raises her fingers to her lips and says, "Shh."

Ivanova seems to be talking directly to the *real*
Sheridan.

*Ivanova, now with a raven perched on her right shoulder,
*looking past Sheridan (?), says, "Do you know who I am?"
*Sheridan looks over his right shoulder to see
*himself on a catwalk in a bright spotlight (?)

It's as if Ivanova isn't talking to the dreaming Sheridan
but the one on the catwalk.

*He looks to his right and sees Garibaldi (right hand
*man?)
*Garibaldi: The man in between is searching for you.

Does this mean the Sheridan in the middle of the
triangle (i.e. the real Sheridan)? If so does this mean
the real Sheridan is trying to find a traitor in his staff
and his subconscious is trying to tell him who it is ?

*Ivanova, in a veil and black dress, is standing behind
*Sheridan.

Why is Ivanova wearing funereal garb ? She's been to a few
funerals we know of (her mother's, her brother's and even
the lurker in Soul Hunter) - I have feeling that it's her
mother who's important (cf. the Eyes dream sequence): IMHO
somehow she's not dead but hiding inside Ivanova's mind in
a similar fashion to the alien in Knives.

* As he turns (to his right), we get a brief glimpse of a
*metal pin on the left breast of his jacket: a Psi-Corps
*badge. And in fact, his jacket appears to be the uniform
*of a Psi-Cop, with the leather strap down the right
*side in front.

Why is he wearing the uniform of the Corps? Is it purely
that he believes himself the pawn of the Corps or
something more sinister. He was Santiago's choice
(allegedly acc. Hague) so one would have thought Santiago
would have vetted him fairly well. We have no noticable
time missing from when Santiago died to when Sheridan took
over for him to have been brainwashed so he must have been
groomed for some time otherwise. (I am reminded of
Costner's character in "No Way Out"
[http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/M/title-exact?1D4B25])

*Ivanova, still veiled, says, "You are the hand."

She's definately talking to Sheridan. Whose hand ? The
instrument of which organisation ? Londo is quite
obviously the hand of the Shadows, maybe Sheridan is his
counterpart in one of the opposing factions ? And who
should turn up next but ... ?

*Sheridan starts to turn to his left. The scene switches
*and Sheridan is now looking (back ?) over his *right*
*shoulder to see Kosh.

Is Kosh standing where Ivanova was ? No I'm not suggesting
that Susan is a Vorlon. Probably.

*Sheridan is back in his normal uniform. "Why are you
*here?" he asks.
*"We were never away," Kosh answers. "For the first time
*your mind is quiet enough to hear me."

This always made me think that the Vorlons had been on
guard, waiting for some specific sign. Later Kosh says "I
sought understanding. I listened to the song. Your
thoughts became the song."; was this purely because
Sheridan was dreaming something about his own role in the
coming struggle ? In 'Hunter, Prey' the doctor says that
the ship "sang" to him: is this how Vorlons
think/converse? Do all Vorlons share some instantaneous
telepathic link (cf Centauri telepaths in CoS)?
If so, do we know it was definately Kosh or just A.N.Other
Vorlon ? If Vorlons think collectively then it would be
reasonable to say "*We* were never away" but "to hear
*me*" because it is actually Kosh who is conversing.

*Sheridan: "Why am I here?"
*Kosh: "You have always been here,"

I have *no idea* what this means.

*Sheridan wakes up in the Streib ship.

And this has happened *once* before? (cf HP).
To whom ? And recently ?
******
1. I don't care what anybody says, I still like Sinclair better than
Sheridan.

2. B-5 is like the US Congress: everyone is running around yelling at
each other, each with their own private agenda. There are more subplots
here than in a bad Italian Soap Opera. The fact that the show doesn't
play like a bad Italian Soap Opera is a tribute to JMS and his creative
writing. Well done to the producer.

3. PsiCore is most likely behind the President's assassination. Their
motives: divide the people, bring in thought control, take over the
government, put themselves in charge. Just think of it, President for
Life Bester. Kinda makes you want to sell out to the Narns.

4. The Shadows are an old and evil race of beings. Their motives: divide
the races, get everyone to fight each other, take over the galaxy, put
themselves in charge. Hmmmmmm, do I detect a pattern here?

5. Everyone is watching everyone else. The Narns watch the Centuri, the
Centuri watch the Narn. The Vorlons and Mimbari watch the humans, the
humans watch each other, the Rangers watch the RIM and the Shadows watch
everyone. At least I know how we are going to solve the unemployment
problem with the out of work KGB and CIA agents. Time warp them into the
23th century and have them go back to work. Everyone is hiding something.
Everyone seems to be trying to change someone, or screw someone to the wall.
Isn't it nice that in the future, man will have finally evolved beyond out
present base existence.

6. Koch is an Old One, yet he is also a Vorlon. Yet the Vorlons do not
appear to be all Old Ones. Does this mean all present Old Ones are
Vorlons, but not all Vorlons are Old Ones? How is this possible? My
answer: watch the old Trek show "Devil in the Dark" and ask what is
happening to the Horta.

7. Lets face it, nobody care a rip about the Narns and Centuri beating
each other brains out. Koch could shut off the war tomorrow by telling
what he knows. That would put Londo's and Morden's heads on a pike. While
Vir may get his kicks from that, this is not as important as keeping the
Shadows in the dark. :) :). Saving millions of lives doesn't cut much
slack either. So much for the Prime Directive theory in the B-5
universe. Remember the conversation in the first season between Sinclair
and Koch. Sinclair asks about both races and Koch says they are dying.
Sinclair asks which one, but gets no answer. My guess, both races are
going to suck the pipe on this one. (Investment Hint! Don't buy Centuri
War Bonds)

8. This then brings us to the question of why the Mimbari and Vorlons
show interest in us and so little in the other major races. I also think
the Shadows are worried about us for a reason. Why, well they aren't
bugged by the Narn and Centuri unless it is with Narn Mythology. (Haven't
heard about that one in a while.) The Shadows have fought the Mimbari and
Vorlons before, so no surprises there. They are interested in us. Perhaps
they learned more from the Icarus than we think since they seem to start
stirring again about that time. What then is the reason? Well my answer
is simple, Lionhart. I don't think he was a freak. I think he is the
first. I mean you get this telepath, fool with a few brain chemicals, and
make a non-corporeal being. This requires an unbelievable small amount of
effort when compared to four billion years of evolution. No, man is on
the brink of this change now. Ms. Winters will be the next to go over. I
think Mr. Bester is about to get a lesson in just how powerful a telepath
can be. (And we thought screwing with Technomages was bad ju-ju.) This is
what scares the hell out of the Shadows. Do you want a thousand Lionharts
showing up at your door with a large bone to pick. Hell NO!. Lets kill
the humans before they breed.

9. Last Item, the War. I don't even think it's the major story arc. I
think it is a vehicle for drawing out the main story arc. What is the
arc, why the third age of man. (Here's where I really start to stretch it)

First Age: Man become a sentient being
Second Age: Man leans to use technology and the powers of science.
Third Age: Man leans to use higher order psycokenetic powers.

Final result, we become the next race of Old Ones to guard the galaxy.

If JMS is reading, am I even close?
******
Lyta Alexander is supposed to reveal that one of the crew is a 'sleeper'
agent given an artificial split personality by Psi Corps.

The question is which?

Leading candidates are Sheridan and Ivanova...Ivanaova because of her link
with Psi Corps, Sheridan because of the dream with him in a Psi Corps
uniform.

I'd bet neither.

Sheridan already has a link to the Shadows via his wife's death (?). JMS
already posted part of why Sheridan replaced Sinclair was because adding
the Shadow link to Sinclair would overload the character and screw up
suspension of disbelief. I figure he's going to stay consistent.

Ivanova is just too bloody obvious. JMS hasn't done that yet.

And they both have a problem: as career officers, their movements are on record.

Two characters, who are relatively undeveloped, don't have that problem:

Garibaldi: when alcoholic, he probably had more than one 'lost weekend.'
AWOLs were probably a regular problem with him. The Psi Corps could have
borrowed him at one of those times. Assuming the Psi Corps were
particularly interested in Sinclair, and what happened at the Line, they
might have picked Mr. Garibaldi because of his friendship with Sinclair.
A truly evil possibility that comes from this is that maybe Michael G. did
*not* come out of the bottle all by himself..maybe his programming keeps
him sober. JMS likes evil.

Franklin: Remember his 'rogue telepath' operation? Maybe Psi Corps
picked him - or programmed him - for his sympathy to it, so they would
have a mole in the Underground Railroad. Also, he would be able to inform
them on his father, a big shot in Earth Alliance. His vaguely-defined
years hitchiking across space might have been when they intercepted him.
*****
...Someone mentioned that in the UK TV Guide*(?) it said that one of
the B5 crew is a sleeper spy and that spy does not that he is a spy -due
to a subconscious personality implanted by Psi-Corps.
What if Sherdian is that spy ? What if HE is the "Spider in the Web" that he
wanted to find and kill. iEven if the personality is not triggered does he
still report what he sees and hear ? I mean is he a walking camera that does
nothing UNLESS he is triggered to do something ? If so, then Psi-Corps
would know about the Shadows (if they don't already) and Morden and the nature
of the Vorlon Race. They would also know of the counter-conspiracy to expose
the Corps and its connection to President Clark as well as the assassination
of former president Santiago.

If the Psi Corps knows all of this then Sheridan IS the hand from his
dreams When Ivanova says "You are the Hand". It would also make sense of the scene where SHeridan is in a Psi-Cop uniform. He would be helping the Corp
seek out its enemies and eliminate, and not know it.

However, Sheridan being Control would explain the bit about Ivanova saying
"Do you know who I am". If Ivanova WAS the spy then that part weould make
sense, right? But somehow I think jms is doing the red-herring thing again.
What if there is another reason why Ivanova is very much against being scanned ?

HOw Garibaldi being Control ? Damn, what irony. Mr security man is also a
HUGE security risk!

...I am going with Sheridan being the 'sleeper spy' cause there were many
Sheridans in that dream :"the man inbetween is searching for you", "You are
the hand",

If Sheridan contains a subconscious personality-Agent, then does Kosh know about
it ? Can scannign reveal it ?
Is this part of what Kosh wanted to show Sheridan when he said he will teach
him about himself ?

As for Ivanova (since I am betting 1000 dukhats that Sheridan is Conytrol),
I think her deep-dark secret is either she was a traitor during the EA/Minbari
War or she is telepathic and trying to hide (which we all suspect)
*****
I don't really think Sheridan is the spy. I can understand your views,
but there is one piece of vital evidence which has been overlooked here.
All through season1, and parts of season2, Ivanova has suffered from a
lack of sleep; she has been feeling tired in the morning. This suggests
to me that *she* is the spy, and that when she goes to sleep, this other
self takes over and reports back to Earth - or does some nasty stuff
onboard the station.
It would be interesting to look back on all of these episodes to see
if something goes wrong on the station when Ivanova is feeling tired.

Is Ivanova being the spy an obvious choice? Well, yes. Which is why it
makes a good double bluff. Everyone is thinking to themselves "well, it
can't be *her* because that's too simple - it must be someone else!"

On the otherhand, I can't discount a revelation about Sheridan -
perhaps HE is the latent telepath, which would explain the psi-corps
uniform from the earlier episode.
******
What we know from previous episodes is that the Bab5 computers/communications
have been compromised by B13/Control (SitW) and also that Garibaldi is pretty
hot on system security (Ivanova & gold-channel), able to detect and trace
anomalies even through counter-measures (remember the ice-breaker code). While
Garibaldi might not always know what his STAFF are up to (two of his staff
turned out to be corrupt), he definitely keeps a close eye on B5's SYSTEMs. So
either the hole is built into the system in some way, or Garibaldi has missed
some major hacking, or Garibaldi has DONE some major hacking. It's consistent
with his character for Garibaldi to "bug" his own systems (his monitoring of
Talia Winters for example) and pry into everything as he takes a very
pro-active approach to security. If our Gari DID has a subversive, second
personality then his snooping could either be an unconscious compulsion
planted by <whoever> or a fortuitous quirk which <they> can take advantage of.

Garibaldi as the (innocent) traitor? I think that's worth a couple of thousand
dollar-pounds wager, it certainly explains why he appears to know too much
about what happens on the station (clues hidden in plain sight?).
*****
>I just got the soundtrack (a friend picked it up at an anime convention)
>and it's magnificent. One question, though:KMS mentions, in the liner
>notes and elsewhere, a piece called "Requiem for the Line" which is
>supposedly on the CD, though there's no indication where.

Second half of track 5. Starts at the crash at 1:57 into the track,
until the end of the track. If you have a regular release of the
soundtrack (12 tracks instead of the 9 on the limited edition), track
12 is an extended remix of it.

As I've said many times before, that soundtrack is pretty awesome
material. Recently, David Goldfarb posted a fairly complete summary
of where each section of music came from. Here's an older copy of the
list; I hope there's a more complete version running around, possibly
on the WWW guide (http://www.hyperion.com/lurk/lurker.html)

--- Begin copy of post
From: goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb)
Subject: Soundtrack CD index
Date: 3 May 1995 10:10:10 GMT

A little while ago I announced a project to index the music
on the soundtrack CD and correlate it with the episodes. It's been
a while, so I thought I'd post the current version.

There are a few items marked with (?) that I'm unsure of, and
there are still some gaps. Comments and corrections are welcome.
Note that the list does have spoilers for first-season and some of the
early second-season episodes. They're all old enough that probably
nobody will care, but I'm going to throw in a ^L just for safety.
Plus, that way anyone who's not interested has an easy place to bail out.

Babylon 5 Soundtrack CD Index

Compiled by David Goldfarb

Contributors: Aaron Brezenski, Bruce Goatly, Stephen Notley, Dave Spicer

Special thanks to Dave Spicer, who did a great deal of work.

Suite 1: "Chrysalis"

Track 1:
0:00-0:10: "Babylon Squared" -- teaser
0:11-0:39: "Babylon Squared" -- leaving B4
0:40-1:05: "Believers" and "TKO" -- the starliner Asimov
1:06-1:56: Season 1 opening title (beginning)
1:57-2:13: Asimov theme again
2:14-2:32: Season 1 opening title (conclusion)
2:33-3:10: "Mind War" -- Ironheart vs. the Black Omega Starfuries (?)
3:11-3:28: Ambassador Kosh (many episodes)
3:29-3:54:
3:55-track 2 0:07:

Track 2:
0:08-1:59: "Deathwalker" -- the arrival of the League ships
2:00-2:41: "Deathwalker" -- Sinclair arrives in C&C, League ships back off
2:42-3:02: "Deathwalker" -- Sinclair leaves C&C
3:03-3:23:
3:24-4:40: "Mind War" -- Talia tells Sinclair about telepathic sex
4:41-track 3 0:06:

Track 3:
0:07-1:14: "Mind War" -- Ironheart in his quarters & the first "mindquake"
1:15-1:45: "Mind War" -- Talia & Ironheart, reprise
1:46-2:03:
2:04-2:20: "Deathwalker" -- League ships leave
2:21-2:41: "Midnight on the Firing Line" -- Garibaldi in the transport tube:
"My second favorite thing in the universe."
2:42-3:10: "Soul Hunter" -- The renegade Soul Hunter escapes from the iso-lab
3:11-5:03: "Soul Hunter" -- rendezvous with the damaged ship
5:04-5:12: "Believers" -- start of act I
5:13-5:25:
5:26-5:48: "Mind War" -- Catherine Sakai departs for Sigma 357

Track 4:
0:00-3:45: "Born to the Purple" -- Londo and Adira

Suite 2: "Mind War"

Track 5:
0:00-0:50: "...And the Sky Full of Stars" (?)
0:51-1:59: "...And the Sky Full of Stars" -- Sinclair, deranged, wanders B5
2:00-track 6 0:04: "...And the Sky Full of Stars" -- "Requiem for the Line"

Track 6:
0:05-2:34: "Chrysalis" -- Garibaldi in the medlab, through the destruction
of Earth Force One and immediate aftermath

Suite 3: "The Parliament of Dreams"

Track 7:
0:00-2:32:
2:33-2:56: Background is "somber/sad music", heard in several episodes; e.g.,
when Liana leaves in "Survivors"; and in "Chrysalis", discussing
Petrov's death in the medlab and again at Sinclair and G'Kar's
conversation. The high-pitched, repeated electronic sound is
reportedly Christopher Franke's signature sound, heard somewhere
on all his solo albums.
2:57-3:18: "Somber/sad music" continues
3:19-3:31: "Survivors" -- Earth Force One enters the jumpgate to B5
3:32-3:49:
3:50-4:08:
4:09-5:15: "Survivors" -- Teaser: Garibaldi and Ivanova discuss the President's
visit; bomb explodes.
5:16-5:24: "Survivors" -- Earth Force One arrives at B5
5:25-5:49:
5:50-track 8 3:14: "The Quality of Mercy" -- background music in "The Dark
Star"

Track 8:
3:15-3:42:
3:43-5:37: "Somber/sad music" again, this time with oboe. Specific episode,
anyone?
5:38-6:03:

Track 9:
0:00-0:38:
0:39-1:42: "Mind War" -- confrontation between Ironheart and the Psi-Cops
1:43-2:04: "Mind War" -- Ironheart transforms
2:05-2:15:
2:16-2:49:
2:50-3:09:
3:10-5:04: "Babylon Squared" (?)
5:05-5:39: "Somber/sad music" again
5:40-5:42: Closing chord

Suite 4: "The Geometry of Shadows"

Track 10:
0:00-1:31: Season 2 opening title
1:32-2:00: "Signs and Portents" -- the battle with the raiders
2:01-3:51:
3:52-4:29:
4:30-4:50: "Revelations" -- Dr. Franklin visits the newly-hatched Delenn
4:51-5:20:
5:21-5:57: "A Distant Star" -- the Cortez
5:58-6:27: "Points of Departure" -- Lennier with Delenn's cocoon
6:28-6:53:
6:54-7:26: "The Coming of Shadows" -- the Centauri Emperor's arrival on
Babylon 5
7:27-7:33:
7:34-7:46: "The Geometry of Shadows" -- Technomage theme

Track 11:
0:00-1:10: "A Distant Star" -- Delenn discusses "star-stuff"
1:11-1:41: "A Distant Star" -- Keffer lost in hyperspace
1:42-1:49:
1:50-2:05:
2:06-2:35: "Points of Departure" -- Lennier stands between Kelain and
Delenn's chrysalis
2:36-3:23: "Chrysalis" -- Garibaldi, mortally wounded, crawls towards the
transport tube.
Track 12:
0:00-3:57: Extended version of the "Requiem for the Line"
*****
Yes, the Centauri/Narn war is a very handy distraction, which the
shadows could use. That's one of the two reasons they helped set the
whole shebang going.

jms
******
While I don't know if this is what the Shadows intend, a significant effect of
the war, from the episodes this season, seems to ber that more divisions are
forming among the Earthers: pro-Centauri, pro-Narn, anti-war--in addition to
the familiar, eternal political and economic ones, plus psi-corp, rogue
telepaths, military and political plots... and on.

Presumably, near the end of the Earth Minbari war, EA was more unified. I
suspect from the richness of jms' writing and story so far, if we see this
happening within the EA, plus what we of the Centauri splitting over the
Narn war, plus the Minbari still split over the surrender... that comparable
divisions are developing within every race... and being magnified by the war,
especially for races bordering the Narn or Centauri, especially for races
like the EA who were helped by the during their own war, or mentored into
space by the Centauri, or who simply favor helping vicitms, or gaining favor
by siding with the likely winner.

Of course, in that vien, I have to wonder if the Vorlons and the Shadows are
as unified as may have seemed, or whether jms has chosen to show us only
Kosh and Morden as representatives of the races to partly mislead us into
thinking they act with a singularity of purpose... Why not assume there is
any less conflict, duplicity and potential for change among Vorlons or
Shadows as jms has written into the other races? Ancient doesn't mean
unified... uncept on certain shows where ancient usually means ball 'o light
creatures who can take any form to help avoid confusing humans, and can end
wars just because they find that sort of behavior primitive and tedius...
now if you had one race that could end them, and another that could get them
started just as easily, the universe would be much more interesting place.

It's tempting to speculate about what effect the Narn Centauri war might
have on the Vorlons, why they haven't they stopped it... if they can... and
what effect it might be having on the Shadows, especially if they are a just
mass of borging war mongers... well, there really hasn't been enough shown
of those two races to base speculation on without crossing into idea territory.
Don't want to cross the speculation line. But, have to say I am still that
jms has after showing almost two seasons of episodes, has put down quite a
lot of structure to the universe, yet has managed to do it in a way that
preclude little or nothing in terms of where the story might go... or limit
what the underlying conflict(s) might actually be about.
*****
>I wonder what will happen to this newsgroup after Babylon 5 goes for its
>full five years?

It'll be renamed rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon4 (all of the news software
around the world will be fixed by then, right? :), and things will
carry on as if nothing had happened, despite the universe being shaken
to its core.

Seriously, though, newsgroups do not go away automatically, and
there will be enough fans to debate the significance of which order
people lined up at the security checkpoint in ITSOZ, given fact Y that
came out near the end of season 5. JMS's participation might not last,
but that'll be because he'll be out of the Exec Producer business.

Given that usenet volume is on an exponential increase, even if the
traffic is cut in half at the end of the show, that'll take 6 months
to a year to regain peak traffic.

I'm not quite sure how the end of season 5 will be handled. Even if
the last episode is 2 hours long (i.e. 90 minutes screen time, about 2
episodes), I'm not sure if that'll be enough to wrap up everything.
If we have some climactic battle, revelation, surrender, or anything
else, that cuts away from the episode time. Having just watched the
anime series Maison Ikkoku, where the last 4 episodes are really
'downhill,' and doing a darn nice job of wrapping everything up, I
wouldn't be surprised if B5 takes an episode or two to do the same.

*****
JMS has said that "The Vorlons...occupy a *huge* sector of
space."

If Vorlon space is anything like the space around Earth,
there should hardly be a concept of Vorlon just as it would
be difficult to say which species represents this sector--
Minbari, Centauri, Narn, human, etc.--unless for some reason
Vorlon space is unusually devoid of other sentient species.

We have one other very old species, the Shadows. G'Kar has
described in Revelations their space as being expected to be
devoid of life, "where no living thing has walked in over
a thousand years." (I said expected because now life of
some kind is moving around there.)

We also know from Z'Ha'Dum that there has been a very long
armed conflict between those affiliated with the First Ones
and those affiliated with the Shadows, the latest having
occurred 1,000 years ago, a prior one 10,000 years ago.
Yet, each of the B5 species has no more than a distorted
remembrance of the last conflict with the exception of
the Minbari.

We also have been told in various episodes that this
particular struggle against the Shadows will be
desperately difficult to win and that all sentient life
in this sector is threatened. If this at most 50% chance
of surviving were to repeat itself every say 50,000 years,
over 1 billion years the chances of this sector not being
exterminated are very small.

The conclusion is that previous Shadow Wars did end in
total destruction of sentient life in the afflicted
sectors. Where are these sectors--right in "Vorlon"
space. That's why Vorlon space is huge--it's the
graveyard/battleground from all the previous Shadow Wars.
And that's why the Vorlons must never allow anyone else
into their space, because they would see the devastation
and start to ask questions.

The Vorlons through Kosh however have laid a fall-back
position in their explanation of the Shadows to Sheridan
in Z'Ha'Dum. They will claim that the vast desolation is
the former home of the First Ones who have "passed beyond
the veil." In other words, they simply died in the cyclical
ritual combat between the Shadows and the Vorlons.

This sector is destined to just be another tombstone in
the Vorlon/Shadow graveyard unless humans are able to change
the rules of the game--and humans changing the rules of
the game is one of major themes of B5.

In the introduction to the pilot I believe it is implied
that the best of humans are pursuing through the B5 project
"a dream of a galaxy without war" so that "species from
different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect."
*****

The "thanks" part is both for investing the time and energy to contribute
actively to this group, as well as for providing us with a serious,
high-quality SF TV show. There are so many of us old-timers who have felt
terribly betrayed and abandoned by the "Great Franchise"; with B5, you
have gone a lot further than filling a void for many of us -- you have
restored faith.

Every week, my sister and I get together to watch B5, searching for clues
to the arc and basically being transported by the show. In discussing the
arc, we've come to the conclusion that B5 is not only a good SF show, but
it's really a very different kind of television -- it's *inferential*
television, almost interactive. I can't say enough good things about it,
and I'm sure others notice the same inferential component. We're not all
nit-picking, toy-worshipping SF lemmings (even though I'm sure it can seem
that way sometimes); they're just the loudest bunch at times.

I'm sure you get this sort of praise all the time, and you deserve it.
But I wanted to stick my nose into it, too, since I've created a few of
the "flame wars" you complained about in your post. Sure, we fight in the
newsgroup, and will continue to do so -- some of us are assholes, and some
of us are just concerned about the potential loss or selling out of a good
thing (it's happened before, you know). Nevertheless, I hope it won't
burn you out of this newsgroup, because it truly is a groundbreaking thing
that you're doing.
*****
I'm starting slowly to wonder about something, with all these reports
of, "We can't air the eps before America does." When I first heard about
the delay of eps here, I contacted WB and tried to talk them out of it.
As part of my argument, I pointed out that the eps would be airing in the
UK first, so they might as well show them here, since they'd be getting
here on cassette otherwise. This came as a bit of a surprise to them, and
they said they'd look into it. I'd *hoped* they would fix THIS end of the
problem; I'm starting to wonder if they decided to fix the problem at the
OTHER end.

This is the problem with studios. Studios are like sleeping dragons.
The key is to get into the cave and take what you can without awakening
the dragon or drawing his attention. Because dragons are absolutely,
100% unpredictable. They could see you and make you a king...or fry your
ass on the spot. This may be part of what happened here.

jms
******
straczynski@genie.geis.com wrote:
: IF it's an established and well-attributed quote, then it's okay to
: mention it, yes, as "the long, twilight struggle" is a partial quote.
:
: jms

Well, as I mentioned, I saw the quote attributed to Mr. Churchill
in two different books. I am sure that a neutral third party should be able
to verify it. Mr. Churchill was a true master of the English language.
This is the quote in question:

In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended to by a
bodyguard of lies.
-- Winston Churchill

I thought that "A Bodyguard Of Lies" would just have to fit in
somewhere as an episode title.
Has anyone else come across this quote?
*****
>I asked JMS via private email to give a *ONE* sentence theme for_Babylon_5_.
> > [deletion] Anyway...Delenn said it in
> >dialogue, of the Zen garden: "The power of one mind to change the
> >universe." Or, put more simply...the show is about personal
> >responsibility, and the degree to which individuals can dramatically
> >change the universe around them, despite being told we are irrelevant.

It might be good to see how many quotes about this we can find,
such as G'Kar's "Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest"
or the whole "What do you *want*" thing, or Emperor Turhan's
conversation with Sheridan about life choices in which there were
so many paths he could have chosen instead but "It simply
never occurred to me that I could do it any other way."
*****
> I wonder if there's any connection between Talia seeing herself
> reflected numerous times in multiple mirrors when triggered by Abbut's
> "It's not good to reflect too much" in Deathwalker and what the Soul
> Hunter said about the Minbari: "The Minbari. Pale, bloodless. Look
> into their eyes and see nothing but mirrors,infinities of reflection."

> Kosh said: "Reflection. Surprise. Terror. For the future." Why?
> (Reminds me that Varn said that the planet was for the future also).

<straczynski@genie.geis.com> wrote:
> Yes, there is a reason for the mirror/reflection motif, and for
>Kosh's comment. What is a reflection?
>
> jms

A reflection can be a way of examining one's self from another
perspective to gain information not readily apparent from one's normal
perspective.

There seems to be a growing amount of evidence that what one sees when
looking upon the face of a Vorlon is a reflection of some aspects of
one's self. What a Vorlon truly IS is still anyone's guess. Consider
the following:

1) Kosh states in "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" that he would be
recognized by "everyone" if he were to leave his encounter suit.
Doesn't everyone who looks into a mirror recognize what he or she sees
in it?

An alternate explanation for this that has been brought forward is that
the Vorlons encountered humanity (and the other races?) early in our
development, leading to their image becoming a part of our
legends/history/racial memory. Suggestions have been made that Kosh
resembles an angel, a demon, a dragon, etc., etc. How likely is this,
though? Is there really a single image so common to all the diverse
cultures of Earth (not to mention the alien cultures) that EVERYONE
would recognize a Vorlon?

2) When Delenn goes to see Kosh in "Chrysalis," she asks to see him
before beginning her transformation. After looking into Kosh's opened
encounter suit, she appears satisfied that what she is about to do is
proper. We learn from "ItSoZ" that the Minbari know a great deal about
the Vorlons, so it seems likely that Delenn would have some information
on the true appearance of a Vorlon. If Kosh resembles, say, an angel,
and Delenn already knows this, why does she need to see him before
proceeding with her transformation? If, on the other hand, looking at
Kosh will allow Delenn to see some aspect of herself reflected back,
then her visit makes a great deal of sense.

3) Consider the following JMS quotes regarding Kosh:

Quote 1:
"Okay, look...do this. Get a piece of paper. Write down the following:
'Sinclair sees the hand, but Sinclair does not see the hand. And five
other people standing in the room would not see the hand that Sinclair
sees, or see the hand that they see.'

jms

Quote 2:
"Kosh is always and forever *exactly* what he appears to be, no less
and no more. At the same time, Kosh is absolutely *nothing* like what
he appears to be."
jms

Six people looking at a mirror will all see a different image reflected
back at them. While they all "see" the mirror, what they are really
paying attention to is the reflected image, not the silvered surface of
the mirror itself. A mirror is both exactly what it appears to be (a
silvered surface reflecting light) and absolutely nothing like what it
appears to be (the reflected image).

From a broader perspective, perhaps Kosh is to the characters in the
show as JMS intends the show to be to us, the viewing audience.
Consider yet another JMS quote (sorry, I don't know to which episode it
applies):

"Now that you've seen this much, now you can begin putting together the
other level of the metaphor that is B5...consider: a war that did not
end satisfactorily for us, not winning or losing, a sort of peace with
honor....the death of a president...the rise of intelligence agencies
and military power...start to sound familiar? Now what we begin to do
is to start moving around the pieces, shifting the mirror of the story
to reveal different aspects of ourselves, as well as tell the other
separate story of B5 itself. Again, the idea is for this story to
function on *many* different levels: future-history, myth, adventure
story, mystery and a metaphor."

jms

Since any further Kosh speculation may put me in danger of presenting
story ideas, I will stop here. Thank you, JMS, for creating such a
wonderfully complex and thought-provoking show. Please pass along my
compliments to all of the cast and crew. You are all doing a fantastic
job, and I can't wait to see the next three seasons (not to mention the
last four episodes of this one).

******
Anyway, I digress. Now that you know season 3 is going ahead do
you care to whet our appetites as to a few things that we might expect
to see?
Martin
******
Well...some of what's coming in year three can be deduced from the
last four eps; let's have those first, then we'll talk.

jms
*****
Well....erm...uhm...*I* speak for me.

And some folks, who remember what I said, sometimes repeat it.

Unlike those who simply ignore it, or distort it.

What gets me is when somebody says, "Well, who are YOU to post here to
defend him?" Well, who are YOU to post here and attack? Everybody's an
equal when it comes to speaking up. If one can make someone else's
business your own enough to attack, how is that different from making
someone else's business one's own enough to defend? This is absolutely
illogical, and can only, I assume, proceed from a desire to have me respond
personally to them. Which I have absolutely no intention, or desire, to
do. You will note the very important sentence that comes up frequently:
"If what I wrote wasn't important, then why all these reactions?"

That's the key, and it's very sad. To respond directly, WHATEVER you
might say, creates the sense that they are important. And they LIKE that.
The more furor, the more angry messages get provoked, the more important
they feel. If you respond directly, you're doing *exactly* what they
want you to do, and feeding the fire, and soon the conversation becomes
about the conversation, rather than the substance that provoked it, and it
spirals off and away into madness.

They are petty, and venal, and I have absolutely nothing to say to
them. If others choose to talk to them, well, why should they complain,
since it's that very action that makes them feel important? It's a logical
contradiction.

But then, logic has *nothing* to do with this.

jms
******
BTW, about the Triluminaries and their 'foreign manufacture'. It occurs to me
that Delenn has taken upon herself some of the characteristics of the One, and
that Sinclair was called The One in BabSq. Is there going to be a third
person coming up in season three which will turn these two into a triumverate?
It just occurred to me: TRI - LUMINARY. Like maybe it takes three very
special sentient beings to wield it and produce some kind of light. (Light
vs. Shadows?). Hm... Well, just thought I'd ask while you're all jubilant
(and he-he-he maybe a little vulnerable to saying more than you should right
now ....he-he. ;) ).
*****
You're looking in the wrong direction....

jms
*****
I realize that what follows is not the sort of thing you are wont
to respond to directly, but on the chance that you will favor us
with one of your elliptic/Delphic/Vorlon replies, here goes . . .

You recently acknowledged (on CompuServe?) that another poster was
correct in deducing that the scarcity of triluminaries--only three
available to the Grey Council--meant that the triluminaries were
not created by the Minbari, but by Someone Else. It has long been
established that the Grey Council was constituted by Valen with
representation of three castes, the same number as the number of
triluminaries.

We learned from "In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum" that in the last major
conflict between the Shadows and the Ancient Ones, the Minbari
participated on the side of the Ancient Ones. We also learned that
the races that made up the Ancient Ones included the Vorlons.

After Kosh showed himself to Delenn in "Chrysalis," her doubts about
the course of action she was about to take were allayed, and she told
him something to the effect that "The promise will be kept." We have
yet to be told what that promise entails.

If we viewers were to speculate that the Ancient Ones (probably but
not necessarily the Vorlons) provided the Minbari with the three
triluminaries during the last war with the Shadows at the price of
a Minbari promise (made by Valen?) to participate the next time
the Shadow menace reared its head, would we be on the right track?
*****

Here's what we know, the evidence follows:

Kosh is a Vorlon
The Vorlons are an ancient and (very) alien race/species.
The being inside the encounter suit is Kosh.
The Vorlons are the only remaining 'First Ones' left.
Kosh has telepathic powers.
The Shadows are older than the Vorlons.
Humans have a great destiny ahead.
We will see Kosh before the end of season II.
(probably in the last 10 mins of 'Fall of Night'.)
The War with the Shadows will get going this season.
Epsilon III and Draal will feature again before the end of season II.
A new character will enter the plot during season III.
The war: Vorlons, Minbari vs. Shadows

A fairly certainly (not not absolutely DEFINATE):

The station will be destroyed near the end of the arc.
A single pod will escape the exploding station.
Talia Winters has as yet unseen psychic powers.
Kosh is a corporeal being.
The war: Vorlons, Minbari, Narns vs. Shadows, Centari

Kosh:
There have been suggestions that Kosh is not a corporeal being or that the ship
is actually Kosh (the encounter suit being a remote servant).
I find these unlikely, Kosh was affected by the poison in 'The Gathering' and
the Vorlons were prepared to start shooting because of this. A
non-corporeal being would not be affected by poison. The contents of the suit
must be very important for the Vorlons to threaten B5.
If I remember correctly, in 'The Gathering' Lyta needed to open the suit and
touch Kosh in order to scan him. I also seem to remember the doctor saying
something about Kosh's 'blue cells', a non-corporeal being wouldn't have cells.
A non-corporeal being would not need to breath a heavy CO2/Methane
atmosphere.

There has also been speculation that Kosh is Sinclair or Sheridan
(or another current character), this is also VERY unlikely. JMS has said that
there would only be one incident involving time travel (B4 being taken into the
future in 'Babylon Squared') so how could Sinclair or any of the others be in
two places at the same time?
Even with no humans near, Kosh communicates in a very non-human way (cf:
Hunter, Prey).

JMS Quote regarding 'The Shadow of Z'ha'Dum' (see below):
"No, "all but one" refers to the race, not an individual. The First Ones are
various species/races. One of these species/races is around at this time. The
Vorlons. Of which Kosh is one."

Kosh has telepathic powers (cf: Deathwalker, All Alone in the Night,
The Shadow of Z'ha'dum) and he clearly knows more about the Shadows & Morden
than the other races (see: Signs & Portents) with the possible exception of
Delenn (see 'In The Shadow of Z'ha'dum').
The Vorlons did not offer to send an ambassador to any of the other 4
Babylon stations, it is possible that the Vorlons knew what would happen, this
would seem to fit the idea that the they posses precognition.
The Vorlons use organic technology, Kosh's ship showed-up as a non-human
lifeform (cf: Hunter, Prey), perhaps Kosh's encounter suit is organic in
nature. This would explain how the poison affected him even with the suit on.
The suit was damaged by Morden (in 'Signs & Portents'), suggesting it's
protective powers are not that great.
Delenn tells Sheridan that Kosh cannot leave his encounter suit because he
would be regonized (see below).
What did Kosh's ship do to Sheridan in 'Hunter, Prey'? It looked as though it
either scanned him, or stopped him approaching further. If it scanned him, the
writing that the ship displayed for Kosh could be the results of the scan.

JMS quote: "Kosh tends to speak naturally through a series
of musical/tonal/atonal chords, and I figured his ship would communicate in
the same way, which to another might sound a little like singing."

Kosh to Talia: "Ah, you seek meaning? Then listen to the music not
thewords..." (in Deathwalker)
Kosh to Sheridan: "I sought understanding. I listened to the song. Your
thoughts became the song.".
(in Hunter, Prey. refering to dream sequence in All Alone in the Night)

>From 'War Prayer':
Sinclair: "Meanwhile it might be helpful if you spoke with the
other ambassadors."
Kosh: "We take no interest in the affairs of others."
But Kosh is studing records of human history, clearly he doesn't consider
humans as 'others'.
In 'Signs & Portents', Kosh enounters Morden:
Kosh: "Leave this place, they are not for you. Go. Leave. NOW!"
JMS has stated that 'they' DOES refer to humans.
The Vorlons denied humanity immortality in 'Deathwalker' by killing
Jha'dur. "You are not ready for immortality."

Kosh seems to take very little interest in the Narns & Centauri.
(from Midnight on the Firing Line:)
Kosh: "They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass.'
Sincliar: "Who, the Narn or the Centauri?"
Kosh: "Yes."

The Minbari are the only other race on B5 to have had previous contact with the
Vorlons (see 'In The Shadow Of Z'ha'dum').
JMS quote: "Here's one little extra for you: only one person on Babylon 5 has
any idea of what a Vorlon is, inside that suit, and only one race has had
dealings with the Vorlons before."
The events in 'In The Shadow Of Z'ha'dum' prove that the race is
the Minbari and that the person was Delenn.'
This may also explain how the Minbari assasin in 'The Gathering' knew what type
of posion to use.

During 'The Gathering', 'Midnight on the Firing Line' and 'Chrysilis', Kosh
appears to glow brilliant white when not in his encounter suit.
Kosh's comment in 'Hunter, Prey'...
(Kosh offers to teach Sheridan)
Kosh: "Until you are ready."
Sheridan: "For what?"
Kosh: "To fight Legends!"
...could be interpreted to mean that Kosh will look like something of
legend.

>From 'In The Shadow Of Z'ha'dum':
Delenn: "There are beings in the universe billions of years older than
either of our races. Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like
giants. Vast, timeless, they taught the younger races, explored beyond the
Rim, created great empires. But to all things, there is an end. Slowly, over
a million year, the First Ones went away. Some passed beyond the stars,
never to return. Some simply dissapeared."

Sheridan: "I'm sure this is all very interesting but what does it have to do
with Morden?"

Delenn: "Not all of the First Ones have gone away. A few stayed behind.
Hidden or asleep, waiting for a day when they may be needed. When the
Shadows come again."

Sheridan: "Shadows?"

Delenn: "We have no other name for them. The Shadows were old when even the
Ancients were young. They battled one another over and over across a
million years. The ast Great War against the Shadows was ten thousand years ago.
It was the last time the Ancients walked openly among us. The Shadows were only
defeated, not destroyed. A thousand years ago the Shadows returned to
their places of power, rebuilt them and began to stetch forth their hand.
Before they couldstrike, they were befeated by an allience of worlds, including
the Minbari and the few rmaining First Ones who had not yet passed beyond the
veil. When they had finnished, the First Ones went away...All but one.

Sheridan: "There's still one of them left. Where?"

Delenn: "That's why Kosh cannot leave his encounter suit, he would be
recognised."

Sheridan: "Recognized? By whom?"

Kosh: "Everyone."

Delenn: "For centuries the Vorlons have stood alone, the lastre maining
gaudians. Watching and waiting."

The war 1,000 years ago is apparently featured in the sacred book of
G'Quan.
If the war 10,000 years ago was a 'Great War', the eminant war is probably on
the same scale since it's called 'The Great War' in the opening
narration.

NOTE: When Delenn speaks of Kosh, she says 'him'.
JMS refers to Kosh as a 'he'. (see below)

JMS quote: "Kosh is always and forever exactly what he appears to be, no less
and no more. At the same time Kosh is absolutely nothing like what he appears
to be. These are not cotradictory statements. And this is about the straightest
answer I've given yet on the subject, believe itor not."

JMS Quote (borrowed from Lurkers Guide WWW site):
"In a few days we will begin shooting the final episode of season two: "The
Fall of Night." In terms of action, this is the biggest thing we've ever
attempted. Where normally our scripts have 50-80 scenes/shots (as noted in
numerical sluglines), this one has 134; of which 64 are EFX shots, some in
combinations. To understand the weight of that, there were 60 EFX shots in the
entire two-hour pilot. In addition, this has more and more *complex* CGI than
the first 13 episodes of our first season put TOGETHER.
Nothing on quite this scale has ever been attempted in series TV before, and
the irony is that the major part of this covers only a few minutes in the
fourth act.
This stuff is going to involve every one of our EFX
divisions, compositing, makeup, prosthetics, costuming, practical effects,
mattes, CGI; the visual EFX meeting was the biggest we've ever had,
andevery one's both sober and excited."

I'll put money on this being the episode that Kosh reveals himself, in the last
part of the show.

The Coming of Shadows:
Both the Vorlons and Minbari (Delenn at least) have been expecting a war
against the Shadows for years (see 'In The Shadow of Z'ha'dum').
In 'Babylon Sqaured', Zanthras speaks of a great and terrible war.
The roles that the various races will play in the war is still not clear.
The Vorlons will definately oppose the Shadows, the Minbari will side with the
Vorlons. The Centauri have dealings with the Shadows and may fight with them,
and the Narns and the Centauri will not side together.

So: Vorlons/Minbari/Narns vs. Shadows/Centauri

In 'The Shadow of Z'ha'dum' it is clear that the Centauri are overpowering the
Narns.
It has been suggested that Earth will side with the Centauri, this would make
sense - it was the Centauri who gave Earth interstellar travel. What we know
from 'Babylon Squared' and other episodes indicates that B5 will fight against
the Shadows.
It will be very strange if B5 opposes Earth, after all, Earthdome funds B5.

In the opening narration to season II we hear "It was the dawn of the third age
of mankind, the year the Great War came upon us all."

Apparently JMS stated in a real-time conference on DELPHI that the words to the
opening narration for season III will be:
"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the
Year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope...
for victory. The year is 2260. The place: Babylon 5."

JMS has said that the Great War gets going this season.
The season III naration indicates that the crucial parts of the Shadow War will
occur during 2260 - season III. If so, what happens after the war may be more
important than what happens in the war.

Psychic powers:
In 'Mind War', Jason Ironheart gave Talia Winters extra powers. We have only
seen telekinesis and resistance to unwanted scans. I've read that we may see
more of these powers later - possibly season III. Talia Winters seems set
to be a major player in the 5 year arc, even Kosh has shown an interest, see:
'Deathwalker', when it seems as though Kosh scans Talia somehow and the
information is recorded on a data crystal by Abbut.
Talia: "What was he, and what was on that data crystal he gave you?"
Kosh: "Reflection, surprise, terror... for the future."

On Earth, the Psi-Corps seem to be very powerful. They are involved in
experiments of boost psychic powers (see: 'Mind Wars') and possibly have a
great deal of influence in the government.

Delenn: "...the passions we deplore have taken them to their place in the
stars and will propel them to a great destiny. Their only weakness is that they
do not recognize their own greatness. They forget that they have come to this
place through two million years of evolution, struggle and blood, and they are
better than they think and nobler than they know.
"They carry within them the capacity to walk among the stars
like giants."

Compare this to Delenn words when referring to the First Ones in 'The
Shadow of Z'ha'dum':
"Once, long ago, they walked among the stars like giants."
Interesting!?!

The Future of the Station:
In 'Signs & Portents' a Centauri seeress show Sinclair a vision
of Babylon-5 exploding in the future, with only one pod escaping, when asked
who was in the pod, JMS replied "That is an excellent question."
JMS has said that we will see the other side of 'Babylon Squared', ie: we will
see the attempt to drag B4 forward from the past to be used as a base of
operations in the 'Great War'.
Also in 'Babylon Squared', we saw a vision where Garibaldi is defending the
station from an unseen enemy (Shadows?) and is possibly killed in the
process.
The plot runs roughly in real time, so the 5 year arc should finish
in 2262-ish. Meaning that the glimpses of the future can't be from more than a
few years.

'The One' is still very much a mystery. From Zathras in 'Babylon Squared' we
know that the One is the great leader trying to win/stop the war. At the end
of that episode, the One is shown to be an older Sinclair (aided by Delenn).
If I remember correctly, JMS has said that there are 3 parts to The One. One
part seems to be Sinclair, another Delenn, the final part we still have no idea
about - could it be Kosh? (after all, he seems to be very wise and powerful and
is concerned with the future of the Minbari and Humans.)
It is quite possibly something/someone that we have not met yet.

JMS had stated that we will see more of Draal and the technology within
Epsilon 3 that we caught a glimpse of in 'A Voice in the Wilderness'
sometime in the last 4 episodes of season II.

Maybe Jason Ironheart will make another appearence, but I doubt it. I think the
powers he gave to Talia will though.

******
(Holy Valen subject--don't have original)
Christopher: save this message of yours and keep it at hand going
into the second season, around the 10th episode or so.

jms

(sigh...I meant third season, wrote second...still dealing with
the renewal.)
*****
With all the inquires about video, I thought I'd inquire of WB. Much
to my astonishment, after I made my way through the complex web of studio
people, the person at the other end of the phone told me that apparently
there ARE no immediate plans to release the videos, because there is
concern that if they're available, it'll bring down ratings; also because
WB and the PTEN stations own the shows jointly, and some kind of complex
negotiations would have to take place to sell the show domestically. I
pointed out that the cassettes are for sale in the UK, and doing very well,
and that if WB wasn't going to air the first season for a long time, then
why not release THAT one cassette for now? No clear answer, but I've got
another name to speak with (upon his return from out of town), and we're
going to push for this from other directions. I'm sure we'll get it done,
but it may take a bit.

jm(perpetually astonished)s
******
No, the last ep of this season wasn't per se a cliffhanger, though it
does tip over a few things, so it flows from 222 to 301 fairly smoothly.

jms
*****
Yes, the theory is to show the last 4 eps in October, and go right
into year three eps the next week in November, no break, so you'd get
about 8-9 eps in a row, rather than the usual 5 or so.

jms
******
J. Michael Straczynski wrote:
> It'd be foolish, I think, to try and extend the shadow
>war across 3 years of the B5 series; I think it'd get
>redundent real fast. I'd say there has to be more than that,
>wouldn't you?
> jms

It seems kind of silly to spend the better part of two years
building up to the Great War (aka The Year of the Shadow War)
only to have it end in one, IMHO. I had always imagined season
1 and the first half of season 2 to be the setup of the Great
War, with seasons 3 and 4 showing the first phase of the war,
and the season 4 finale depicting the war's turning point. I
didn't think that could be redundant, since there already is at
least *one* other major plotline (the Psi Corps/EA President)
to help balance the show. IMHO.

******
Never said the shadow war would be over in one year. Only that it
wouldn't last three.

jms
*****
Yes, there is a reason for the mirror/reflection motif, and for
Kosh's comment. What is a reflection?

jms
*****
: >: <straczynski@genie.geis.com> wrote:
: >: > Yes, there is a reason for the mirror/reflection motif, and for
: >: >Kosh's comment. What is a reflection?
: >: Hmm... Think about a free-standing mirror. When light falls on it,
: >: it creates a reflection.
: >: (Of course, this mirror also casts a shadow behind it, but that's another
: >: matter.)
: >
: >Point, also recall the chant of the grey council. "We are gray,
: >we stand between the darkness and the light" <paraphrased at
: >best>

: Yes but I think you missed one suttle point when you said
: this. The Mimbari would be the mirror, Reflecting the light(Vorlons)
: and casting the Shadows. Becaus after all what color is a mirror,
: Generaly Silver which is nothing but shiny Grey.

: >A single mirror being used to illuminate also must cast a
: >shadow, but two mirrors working together...

: Yes a second mirror would be able to banish the shgadow of the
: first but there would still be a show of the second.

Actually that is exactly what I'm saying. Assuming that the
re-emergence of the Shadows can fit into this metaphor as the
shadow cast by the Minbari. Humanity could be the second mirror
to banish the Shadows. But, what shadow will humanity cast?
Look at the Season three narrative "in the year of the Shadow
war", maybe the Shadows won't be the only enemy in the whole five
years.

There was something said in Infection I believe which was
repeatedly recently and tweaked my interest. Something to the
effect of if you obsess on your enemy you become the enemy.

Just idle free-association, but there may be the nugget of an
idea in there somewhere.
*****
> Yes, there is a reason for the mirror/reflection motif, and for
> Kosh's comment. What is a reflection?

The only way to look at a Gorgon without turning to stone.
*****
Well, I personally see a shadow as the opposite of a reflection. A shadow
is what remains when you block the light. Although it is loosely shaped
upon your outline, it is featureless, empty, a reflection of emptiness of
light. A reflection of you reflects the light that falls upon you. Your
reflection on a mirror reflects your own essence.

Ultimately, both shadows and reflections are mere byproducts of your
essence. Shadows occurr when your physical essence blocks the light,
reflections when your physical essence reflects back for you to see. If
you are a being of light, the people amongst whom you shine will be the
pale mirrors of your own essence, each reflecting it according to his or
hers. If you are shadow, you will blurr the features of those you fall
upon. Thus Talia perceives Morden as frightfully cold an empty, and
Delenn sees him as a shadow. His own features are blurred by the shadows
of his masters.

As for Anna Sheridan, I think it is significant that JMS had Sheridan
perceive her as a frozen image in the screen smiling in love to him. In a
university of flux and process, this is a dreadful mistake on Sheridan's
part. I think that which will meet him eventually will not be the wife
that he remembers (could Agammenon sell his soul for Clytamnestra?).
Morden seems to feel solicitously tender towards the shadows which
accompany him. Call it alien love. Whatever it is that Sheridan runs into
eventually, it will no longer be his former sweetheart.
*****
Babylon 5 #9
Gerrold/Guay/Bryant
Shipping Aug. 1
Fracote Format
Part 1 (of 2)

Ambassador G'Kar is desperate to get off Babylon 5, and in his rush to
leave, ends up kidnapping Garibaldi. Now Sheridan and a strange Narn
must begin a frantic search to find the two before tragedy strikes.

This storyline is written by Nebula Award-nominee David Gerrold, (writer
of both original STAR TREK and BABYLON 5 TV episodes) in his first foray
into comics, with art by Rebecca Guay (BLACK ORCHID) and Rick Bryant
(SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN).

The issue features a computer-generated cover by Foundation Imaging, the
special effects group behind the Babylon 5 television series, based on a
sketch by Rebecca Guay.

*****
"That admission was impressive!" (Ross Bench)

Not really. Kinda wish it was, but it ain't.

You have to understand, for all the criticisms on this or any other
net, there is nobody -- NOBODY -- harder on this show than we who make it.
Nobody gets spared. Opinions are not withheld. This is a show where
one of my producers, John Copeland, for instance, can walk into my office
after getting a new script and say, "Joe...it sucks." (Most notably,
this happened on the first draft of "Soul Hunter," which I knew didn't
work as soon as I finished it, but still put it into the pipeline because
I wasn't sure of my own opinion at that very early stage in the first
season, decided I was right after all, and yanked back the script from all
parties with a note simply explaining that I had been momentarily
possessed by an idiot.) We're all very open about this stuff.

What I guess maybe doesn't always come through is that if you ask me
a straightforward question about the show, or behind the scenes, I'll
give you a straightforward answer. I've never been big on politics or
self-preservation. Which ep disappointed me with the EFX? The Long
Dark. Which do I consider my worst ep? Infection, and it's entirely
my fault; if it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage. Is there
anything I'd like to re-do? Yeah, probably parts of Voice 2.

Happily, of all the stuff we've done, there's only about 5-10% that
sometimes glitches. Mostly, it's light years beyond anything I could have
hoped for. And lemme tell you...in advance...for those who thought "The
Coming of Shadows" was something, I've seen the final version of "The Long,
Twilight Struggle," and it's even better. Better than "Z'ha'dum." It's
probably the best we've done. I've poked and prodded that one all over,
and it's solid.

jms
******
I hope the reaction would be both; what a ride, and that's deep
(though I probably wouldn't use that exact wording). It should also
create the sense that you've gone off and lived somewhere else, and
somewhen else, for five years. When I got finished reading the Lensman
books, my sense wasn't really either of those expressed above, but a sense
that I had visited a real place, and lived through massive changes,
empires that rose and fell, and seen a genuine saga with massive
repercussions. It should really have the sense of finishing a good book,
one which one would like to go back and reread again later.

There are a number of philsophical undercurrents to the story, of
course, some of which are apparent now, some which will become clearer
later, and certainly a lot of action...but I'm shooting for something I
can't really define for you, except to say that it should somehow be more
than the sum of its parts.

jms
*****
Sure, I can tell you what happens in the last four eps.

Really Awful Stuff.

jms
*****
Since apparently this has broken on AOL via John Copeland before I
could post it...yes, I can confirm that we've been renewed for Year
Three. I got the call late today, and have spent part of the evening
doing Producer Stuff, part trying to push through a bit of a bug that
hit last night (and thus took some of the edge off the news), and only
late this evening was able to get on-line to confirm.

It's a full order for 22 episodes, and we begin shooing July 31st or
thereabouts.

Thanks in particular to all of Babylon 5's "netted" friends, who have
held the Line alongside us for the preceding two years, and with whom we
hope to continue sharing the foxhole for the next three.

jms
*****

STUFF ADDED 6/29/96
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
I am writing this here, because I do not know JMS's email, so if
someone would send it to me, I would greatly appreciate it.

I was reading a post from Compuserve, which I get in digest format
from a mailing list. I was so struck by it, that I had to respond,
and my response is simple.

Thanks, now I understand.

James

Post follows:

"The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure
there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"

Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place
called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that they're too
smart to be on what *we'll* do.

And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence,
brutality beyond belief; I've seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of "god's
noblest creature." And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with
G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open
wound, "How do you apologize to them?" "I can't." "Then I cannot forgive."

As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because
it's only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it's gone
forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be
nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a
crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.

So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who
CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to explore in great
detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would
write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would
write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of
priests and monks and minbari....

jms

--
James V Brown brownj+@osu.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice this just is not true.

*****

Subj: <Gethsemane questions> Section: Babylon 5: Upcoming
To: John C. Brobston/PRCT Thursday, December 07, 1995 2:35:27
AM
From: J. Michael Straczynski #412460

{regarding athiest vs. agnostic}

If all the things you describe were suddenly to happen, sure, I'd
have to give my position serious thought, while turning down Stephen
Hawking's invitations to dance and dodging the newly revived dead.
Now,
when is this supposed to happen? 'Cause it hasn't happened yet, and
gives no indication of happening anytime soon. Which is, really, the
point.

Let me try a different take on this whole agnostic/atheist thing,
to
see if I can better communicate my position. My agent calls and says,
"Listen, the BBC called, and they're interested in signing you up for
a
two year documentary on the mating habits of clams." To which I
respond,
"Great, but I'll believe it when it happens."

I do not say that the contract may, or may not exist; it either
is,
or it isn't, and my actions proceed from those two options. Until I
get
the contract actually in my hand, it doesn't exist. Until someone
puts
the absolute proof out in front of me of a deity, it doesn't exist.
That's the difference; the agnostic says, well, maybe there is, maybe
there isn't, who knows? The atheist says, There is currently no proof
whatsoever of this assertion, thus I choose not to believe it.

There are, really, any number of schools on what atheism is or
isn't. Some have taken this to be the notion of anti-religion, which I
think is unconstructive. I used to write a humor column for Madeline
Murry O'Hare's publication American Atheist back in the 1970s (betcha
didn't know that one, did you?). Even did some other writing,
articles
and the like...until one day I realized that this (American Atheist
Organization) wasn't about just providing equal respect and treatment
for
atheists, it was about knocking down religion and attacking others'
belief
systems...at which time I resigned the magazine.

To get back on track...mine is the kind of atheism you saw most
often around the turn of the century, basically accommodational of
others, positive in outlook, stressing the basic worth of the
individual,
and the importance of the individual in building a better society.

Because of the more...rigorous atheists out there, atheism has, I
think, gotten kind of a bad rap in some circles. And a lot of it is
unfair, though I'd be foolish to say that the criticisms were entirely
without merit. But when then-President Bush said, as he did in an
interview in Chicago during the last election, that he "doesn't really
consider atheists patriots, since after all the idea is one nation
under
god," it brings you up a little short. The founders of this country
weren't just believers, they were deists and freethinkers and even the
occasional atheist.

In any event...I hadn't meant to belabor the point. This is
simply
what I think. I don't usually get into it, but the question was
raised,
so I answered it. I don't expect much of anyone else to agree, or to
convince anyone to think as I do. And that's fine, and as it should
be.

jms

*****
>It seems to me that the holiday season is never joyous on B5 ... there's
>always presidents being assassinated, colonies being attacked, ambassadors
>disappearing, the odd Centauri cruiser attack, Nightwatch meetings and
>other non-fun things happening.

>So, in that spirit, here's the Top Ten Reasons Why The Holiday Season
>Sucks on B5.

> 10] Kosh refuses to perch on top of the Christmas tree.

> 9] Lumati ambassador, normally the life of the party, does nothing
> but hang out under mistletoe and stare at Ivonova.
>
> 8] Christmas crackers cause explosions in sections with alien atmosphere.
>
> 7] Draal won't stop broadcasting the Mojo Nixon version of
> "Jingle Bell Rock."
>
> 6] Three words: Lennier's eggnog bender.
>
> 5] Nightwatch agents disrupt holiday shopping in the Zocallo with
> sedition raids.
>
> 4] That dumb episode where Sheridan gets kidnapped by the Streibs is
> rerun a thousand times (whoops, sorry, that's from Top Ten Reasons
> Why Summers on B5 Suck.)
>
> 3] Garibaldi is always in terrible shape by the time he stumbles to the
> New Years' party.
>
> 2] Delenn steals all of B5's Christmas ornaments for her funky machine.
>
> and the number one reason why B5 sucks for the holidays is:
>
> 1] "Ho ho ho, what do *you* want?"

*****
In my last general posting to rastb5, I mentioned that from time to
time, I'd try to post the occasional "letter to home" just to keep folks
up to date on matters Babylonian. Now that I can catch a breather, I
figured I'd take this opportunity to do so (though since it's 3:15 a.m.,
this'll likely be short).

"catching a breather" refers to the script situation. I've just
finished writing 316 and 317, the two parter, "War Without End," which was
a very difficult task, given the amount of story and logistics that had to
be put into it. While writing "Babylon Squared," to which this is the
flip-side, I figured, "Oh, sure, yeah, I can get this all in on the other
side, no problem," but when it came time to do it, it got awful tight, but
finally I fit it *all* in. (Well, all except one teeny, tiny sentence,
about where Zathras was first seen, and how, 'cause to do what I'd first
had in mind would've taken another 3 pages, and I didn't have that, so
that one element I'll have to just deal with later somehow. But that's
it.) Hopefully, one need never have seen B2 in order to watch and follow
WWE. (Which was one of the hard parts, since B2 may or may not be aired
prior to this, all the background information *had* to be in the episodes,
so that's a lot of background to include.)

This now leaves 5 episodes to be written for this season. At this
point, Lyta should factor strongly in one or two of these, there will be
some direct confrontations between our side and the shadows, then a really
nasty final episode for year three.

I'd suggest, btw, that if there are any folks you've been waiting to
bring into the fold on B5, you may want to consider 8 and 9 in the new
cycle, the last of that bunch in February. Eight is potentially one of
the best, possibly the best episode we've produced to date. Much as I'd
have wished PTEN would've aired 10, the final part of the 3-episode arc
that changes direction on the show, a week after 9, even though it'd be
out of sweeps period...it's probably for the best. When producer George
Johnson saw the scrpt for #10, "Severed Dreams," he laughed, walked over
to me and said, "Boy, this is the best episode we're never gonna deliver.
ARE YOU NUTS?!"

As an example of "ARE YOU NUTS?!" in "The Fall of Night," in the
sequence between the first Garden shot and the end of Sheridan's rescue,
about 6-7 pages of script, there were, I think, about 60 or 65 EFX and
practical shots. In just the span of 4 pages in 310 there are roughly
100 EFX and practical shots. In EFX terms, it's probably one of the
biggest shows we've done, so it's better to give Foundation a little extra
time to get it right rather than rush them.

(Oh, and lest I forget, yes, Zathras does return in "War," as does
Sinclair, who has a lot of great scenes with Marcus, Sheridan, Delenn,
Zathras and others. It also has some real surprises in store, including
some flash-forwards from WAY down the line.)

Another "oh, yeah, I nearly forgot"...for those out there who have
young kids, or if you're a bit on the squeamish side yourself...there's
one EFX shot at the end of the teaser for "Exogenesis" that you may want
to avoid. When it was finished, John Copeland brought it into my office,
fired it up on my TV, and looked away, saying, "You look, it creeps me
out too much to look at it again." It's...pretty strong. So you'll miss
the minimum possible, here's the sequence: first there's the Screaming
Man (a), then a cutaway to two people (b), then back at the Man for the
first part of the shot (c), the two people again (d), the man (e), and
finally the two people. What you want to avoid, if there are real young
kids in the room, are shots c and e. That's it for the whole episode.
For non-netted folks, it'll go by pretty fast, but I figured it'd be
worth mentioning as an added piece of info for the netted amongst us.

("Exogenesis" is the 2nd episode up, after "Voices of Authority,"
which premieres the next batch around January 29th.)

Some more info on the fan club...the announcement that was posted to
the nets, which appeared on various news wire services, and on-line
services (authorized reposts) was issued after the basic contract came in
from WB authorizing us to do the fan club. This after, oh, well over a
year of kvetching at them to let us do it. That's all we have at the
moment: the contract allowing us to do it, which was signed right before
the Christmas hiatus. There's currently no one on staff, there IS no
staff, until after the 2nd of January. We've interviewed some folks and
will make a final decision that week.

The way this is gonna work is that Doug and I will both contribute
half the operating expenses for the fan club apiece. (We feel fairly
comfortable with this, since the fourth year is currently looking pretty
good.) We'll either run it through Babylonian Productions, or set up a
separate company for it. (Note: NDE does not own the fan club, and I do
not work for NDE in any capacity whatsoever; it's a totally separate
entity, owned entirely by Doug Netter. Doug's company produced The Wild
West miniseries/documentary, is doing Hypernauts with Ron Thornton; I
have/had nothing to do with either. Because Netter Digital Entertainment
has a staff, whereas Synthetic Worlds Ltd. is mainly just me, NDE offered
to put out the release on this.)

Once the fan club is set up either way, as in-house BPI or as its own
company, the person hired to run it will report directly to me, and I will
share final authority of it with Doug, though as with most of the licensing
stuff, that generally gets deferred to me anyway. Our hope is that the
fan club will earn enough to break even its first year; if we do that,
we'll be doing great. On the boards are a newsletter, probably quarterly
to start, then monthly if the need is seen. (This is all still being
worked out in detail, so don't take any of this as canon yet. I'll be able
to be clearer after the first week of the year.)

We're going to get the same sub-companies and suppliers to produce
a small number of items that produce them for the show, so they're 100%
authentic. We're currently looking at doing links, EA badges, a selection
of patches, Sheridan's EAS AGAMEMNON cap from "Knives," some scripts,
maybe photos (we're still debating this)...and we're going to go back and
ask permission to do the videos on a limited edition basis. So it's not
going to be a lot of stuff, just enough so we hope it can pay for itself
after a while. None of the areas we're going to be doing are currently in
conflict with any other licensee of B5 material.

Similarly, we'll probably set up a B5 fan club web page, which will
not conflict with the AOL or WWW web pages since the plans are to design
it *specifically* for just the fan club members, which would be a fairly
modest portion of the online community. We mainly figure it'll be used
for signing onto the club, ordering one of the aforementioned items, or
linking off to other sites. (We hope to include information on stuff being
produced by other companies as well, to help folks find this stuff.)

We're told by the media sales folks at WB that the commercial spots
for B5 are sold out through the third quarter of 96, at extremely good
rates, which again encourages us for a fourth season. (We definitely
wouldn't be investing our own money in the fan club if we thought
otherwise.) As usual, though, we won't have any kind of final word on
next season until probably around April or May.

The Christmas hiatus ends after the 1st, so we're back at work on
the 2nd shooting "Ship of Tears," with Walter Koenig returning as
Bester. Expect some major revelations about Bester's background, and
where his character is going.

It's strange to think that by the time the next batch of new episodes
have finished airing, end of February, the last 5 remaining scripts will
be finished. (Sometimes I have to catch myself, thinking, "Oh, I can
mention this, since that happened *ages* ago..." then remember that yeah,
it was a while ago, in episode 7, which HASN'T aired yet.) Overall, in
terms of performances, story, the look of the show, and the music, this is
definitely our strongest season ever. For reasons too convoluted to go
into, I was watching "Midnight on the Firing Line" today, and it's amazing
how far the story has come, and how much it's changed. And you havent
even *seen* the really *major* changes yet, which start in the next batch
of episodes.

Oh, one final thing...if you want to avoid being spoiled, do NOT read
the current TV Zone's B5 coverate (with Jason's interview) until after the
next batch has aired...some very specific stuff is kinda given away. If
you don't mind being spoiled...go for it.

Anyway, that's it. It's now almost 4 a.m., and having worked out
the details of #318, I'm going to crash now. As I noted before, I don't
know when or how often I'll be able to post these; I'll try to get in
one more before the new batch starts up, if I can, at which time we
should have the fan club info more fully in hand.

jms

*****
Sunday I was clambering around in my attic. My foot
slipped off a beam, and I crashed through the ceiling,
just barely catching myself before hitting the floor
below.

And all I could think of, dangling there in the hallway,
was, of course...

You idiot, you can't die yet! There's still two
seasons left!

Dave Moore == djmoore@uh.edu == I speak for me.

Oh, a few scrapes, some sore muscles, thanks for asking.
I've even fixed the hole already.

Scared the sheet (rock) right out of me, though. --djm

*****

#: 456564 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
22-Feb-96 08:03:31
Sb: #456498-#<Messages from Earth>
Fm: Philip Hornsey 74053,2101
To: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644 (X)

I wanted to seperate this from the other observations.

I have long been worried about how you were going to justify Morgan Clark
attempting to establish a dictatorship (or whatever) on Earth. It is a
Hollywood Cliche that any facist can dupe an infinite number of sheep into
abandoning a mature democracy in just under 24 hours unless the loving liberal
heros (who are the only people who ever seem to love liberty, or recognize the
danger) stop them.

I didn't say a word. I trusted you.

I love it when I'm right.

My opinion had *always been* that the only way a mature democracy (which the EA
is, given the US, for example, has been free for 484 years) could be overthrown
is by an elected leader who could demonstrate a clear and present *threat* to
*everyones* survival.

A Cold War, wouldn't do it. A Red Scare wouldn't do it. They never even came
*close*. The only thing they could do get a few people persecuted for a while.
Even then those persons did tend to be ones who flirted with the "enemies"
culture (which you are supposed to be able to do in a free nation).

There is a big difference between 50's America and the EA though. Even in the
US at the height of the Red Scare, the US had no living experience with
invasion. People in *this* mature democracy simply could not *feel threatened*
in thier gut. Sure, some could, but the majority of those living then, really
didn't think the bombs were going to fall, and the crys to man the battlements
ang hollow.

That's not the case in the EA.

I think he might just be able to do it. Just by the skin of his teeth.

Incedently, I think it's kind of ironic that one of the most important
individuals in all of Earth history is going to be a little lurker names
Stephen Petrov who, in the end, forced Clark's hand. Just cause he was too
stubborn to die when he should have.

Phil^^^^
FREE MARS!

#: 456733 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
22-Feb-96 14:22:04
Sb: #456564-#<Messages from Earth>
Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Philip Hornsey 74053,2101 (X)

Exactly. You need a clear and present danger, and with a population
that nearly got wiped out by the Minbari, who are skittish to begin with, you
drag out the possibility of someone else doing the same thing and it makes it a
lot easier to do what you want to do.

jms

*****

#: 457601 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
23-Feb-96 22:33:42
Sb: #457563-#<Messages From Earrth>
Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: John M. Kahane 102664,773

It's Nightwatch.

The thread will diminish for a while, then return down the road in later
seasons, after the story takes its third major turn.

By the last few episodes, pretty much all of my cards are on the table.
But by the last episode of this season, we find that the game we've assumed
we've been playing ain't necessarily the game at all. The show takes a fairly
subversive direction, and of all the seasons so far, the one that follows, year
four, represents the greatest writing challenge to make this actually work.

Which is another reason why it's important to get the B4 storyline and
several other threads out in the open, and clear the decks, because this is
gonna take every bit of whatever talent I've got to pull off.

Year four is the point in the novel when you're just past the halfway
mark; you know the reader thinks he or she has got the story sussed out. The
reader knows all your tricks by now, or thinks he/she does. You've been
pulling doves out of your hat for 243 pages.

Now you'd damned well better be able to pull out an alligator.

jms

*****
anyays, these guesses are mostly a result of too much free time, plus the
> fact that JMS has said the title is far too big to give away:
>
> 1. "The Fall of Babylon"
> 2. "The Dawn of the Third Age"
> 3. "Shadows in the Light"
> 4. "Prophecy"
> 5. "The One"
> 6. "And the Nine said, 'Yes'"
> 7. "Walking amoung the stars"
> 8. "I am Vorlon"
> 9. "We are Vorlon" :)
> 10. "Ascention" or "Coronation" (in reference to Londo/Vir)

Here's a few more (also a result of far too much free time ;-)

1. "Candle, Shadow, Star"
2. "Betrayal of Trust"
3. "The Shadow of Humanity"
4. "Choir of Darkness, Song of Light"
5. "Friend or Foe?"
6. "Perspectives"
7. "Orphans of War"
8. "Memories Long Forgotten"
9. "Weep for the Future"
10. "Who Are You?"

*****
Epic sagas seem to follow a formula in which good always
triumphs. I'd like to see the forces of light really scared sh*tless.
I'd like to see the forces of light sacrifice everything for the greater
good and find that they may have sacrificed too much. I'd like to see
this story be very different from stories such as Tolkiens LOTR. I like
the idea of having shades of grey and i would find it satisfying if the
forces of light won but found that what they thought was evil wasn't
quite so evil and what they thought was good wasn't as good as they
thought.
*****
B5 is alive (yes, baby!!)

Several have stated pretty clearly their belief that Babylon5 is in
terminal condition. Its ratings stink. The dialogue remains purple and the
acting, frigid. I humbly disagree with the prognosis-- not on the basis
that "B5 is perfect" or that "ST sucks" or that "JMS rules."

On the contrary, B5's dialogue tends to be melodramatic, bordering on
campy at times. Sheridan's speech patterns are consistently histrionic and
patronizing. The stories are often riddled with inconsistencies and the
acting can be stilted, subdued and, ye s, mediocre. Beyond that, the more
momentous elements of the arc were put off too far toward the end of the
current season, diminishing the sense of great portent and anxiety
suggested at the end of the last season. Many of the earlier episodes were
lame cannon fodder.

The important thing is this: at its best, B5 consistently exhibits an
attention to detail and a respect for the tragic elements of life that
ST,for all of its improvements over the last season, too often fails to
represent. I suspect B5, like TOS before i t, will not only survive but
transcend its shortcomings and thrive in spite of them. Here's why...

At its best, B5 represents an uncertainty about how much worse things will
get rather than a comfortable belief in things eventually returning to
normal over smiles, quiet laughs and hot cocoa after the battle's over.
It's about slowly wading through the thick muck of ugly tensions instead
of backslaps and handshakes between the warring parties when an individual
episode comes to an end. It's something beyond antiseptic portrayals of
main characters visibly confident that they'll survive the season no mat
ter what happens.

B5 is not about
two-ships-passing-in-the-night-firing-slow-intermittent-glorified-cannonballs-at-one-another.
Its about several swarms of metallic worker bees degenerating from fixed
formations into chaotic interactions along three dimensions.

B5 is a relentless barrage of painful hesitations, difficult
judgements,terrible miscalculations, aborted detentes, paralyzing fears
and grudging resignation to the demands of necessity. It's a man biting
his lower lip as he pulls the trigger.

B5 is a long, drawn out camera pan over a landscape of battered carcasses
at the end of an undesired firefight; B5 is a confrontation between an
organized conspiracy of insecurity and a disorganized, insecure conspiracy
of competing interests; B5 is a cou ncil leader whose gesture of greeting
is welcomed with weapons fire; B5 is a dying emperor and a targeted
president entertaining wild and pretentious ambitions of a peace neither
will survive; B5 is a command staff in command of very little, anxious,
conf used, bewildered, in mild disarray; B5 is a head of security unable
to protect himself; B5 is a medical officer suffering from an illness he
cannot treat; B5 is an ambassador and a people wildly chasing vague hopes
of an elusive grandeur to will fill the voids of moral decay; B5 is an
ambassador whose efforts at strengthening the ties that bind two species
are rewarded with the scorn of both; B5 is a war-hardened diplomat-soldier
cowering like a baby against the wall of a hallway, tears in his eyes,
fragile hopes betrayed, disheveled, demoralized...angry; B5 is a
submissive, hesitant and otherwise insignificant subordinate with a rare
courage to vainly declare the unspoken, mitigate the irreprable, and speak
to the face of an enemy the words "I'm sorry."

B5 is about the death of important characters; it's about the lingering
threat of impending death hovering over *all* of the main characters
*all*of the time; it's about people succumbing to petty selfishness; its
about consequences, repercussions, enduri ng tensions, irony,things going
bad just when characters thought they couldn't get any worse. It's about
quasi-protagonists who, more often than not, act as recalcitrant puppets
reluctantly dancing to the tune of forces beyond their control. It's about
the frayed-yet-sturdy conviction of an individual where institutions have
failed. It's about the universe as you once knew it going straight to
hell.

Its about the primacy of fear, prejudice and self-interest over
last-ditch, heartfelt appeals to reason, open-mindedness and sacrifice for
the greater good. Its the loud, united thunderclap of euphoria celebrating
a signed treaty contrasted with the quiet , lonely sobs signalling the
wake of its failure. Its about dealing with life as it is, not life as we
wish it could be or life as we may have once envisioned it. B5 is about
severed dreams-- the death of grandiose visions-- and the effort to adjust
and b uild new ones. B5 is about the turmoil of the human condition and
the struggle to transcend it- about a long twilight struggle against the
lesser angels of our nature.

Make no mistake. B5 is no "line drawn against the darkness;" it is no"line
in the sand" drawn against some dark and nefarious nemesis, some
well-defined and unabashedly evil enemy, some clear, present and external
danger.

B5 is a near-hopeless holding action against the bland and indifferent
avalanche of inevitability. B5 won't die. Babylonians, armed with weapons
of telecommunication that TOS viewers and Roddenberry himself could have
only dreamed of, simply wont let that happen. Any possibility of
cancellation would engender a viewer movement for reinstatement unseen in
the world of television since...say...the 1960s when the first ST series
was experiencing some of the same travails. B5's strength is beyond
numbers, bey ond ratings, beyond pragmatic and jaundiced assessments of
its commercial viability.

It's bigger than you. It's bigger than all of us. Frankly, it's bigger
than JMS, himself.

This is about an immense yearning (however inchoate) heretofore untapped,
for a serious, organic, well-integrated, meaningful, realistic portrayal
of the struggle of life with sci-fi as the metaphor, vehicle and medium.
This is about the exploration of ar chetypes that have helped us to define
the human condition. This is about a sci-fi novel with moving pictures.
It's a deliberate focus on the painful duality of human nature and the
incredible darkness underlying it.

It is not about a mere agglomeration of television episodes or some
line-item on a ratings list or about a mere collection of aliases on an
internet newsgroup or about some staff stationed in Hollywood.This is a
leviathan, immensely bigger than the sum of its parts.

My fellow Lurkers, this...thing...is alive.

Perry D.
Yeeeeee-haaaaah!

--
____
"The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace...it failed."
Commander Ivanova, Babylon5
____
"Don't give up so quickly. You simply haven't learned to laugh
yet...and you'll never learn just by trying. But you will learn, I
promise you. If you live among us long enough, one day you will see
how funny we are-- and you will laugh."
(Jubal Hernshaw --Stranger in a Strange Land)
*****

(12/1/95)

Tonight is the last night of my feed from rastb5, and I wanted to
send along a quick note to resolve the few last things remaining to be
discussed or addressed before that happens.

Since my note went up -- raggedly, here and there, due to some
problems with the server, apparently -- I have now logged slightly over
900 private email messages in my GEnie mailbox. This in addition to the
rest of the feed per se. I'm slogging through them as fast as I can,
trying to give personal responses to as many as I humanly can; if over
the course of the next week or so, if you've sent me a note, and don't
get a response, assume that either got crunched by the often cranky
GEnie newsreader system, or it didn't specifically seem to require a
response...or my hands fell off and rolled under the table.

Nonetheless, a general thank you to everyone who's sent in mail on
this. It's disturbing to realize that about 75% of all of the notes thus
far received begin with a variation on "I used to post on rastb5 (or I
just lurk on rastb5) but don't post because the atmosphere just got too
poisoned by the deranged few you mentioned." Literally hundreds of
people seem to have been driven from rastb5 by the rampage of a few
others who don't want to be attacked or abused by those few. This is
terribly saddening to realize. That they have been driven off is more of
a real issue than my being now in this position.

Anyway...to all those who wrote, I am moved and touched by your
words, and if there were any way around this, I'd take it. I know that
some are working behind the scenes to put together a moderated newsgroup,
but I don't know if that will happen or not. The goal of any such should
not be to eliminate criticism -- heck, there's never been a lack for that
here or on any of the other systems -- but just to keep out the truly
dysfunctional. That may be a very promising route, but I'm not holding
out much hope that it'll happen.

Surprisingly, the #1 comment that has come in is, "What on earth
TOOK you so long? If I were in your shoes I'd've been out of here MONTHS
ago." Glutton for punishment, I guess. Kept thinking we could work a
way around this. But as has been pointed out by others, I guess it was
inevitable. I didn't see that because I suppose I didn't really want to
see it, or cop to it, or realize that this was running out on me. I have
vastly enjoyed the open lines of communication, have met a great number of
interesting people both on-line exclusively and even in person in many
cases.

Anyway, I wish it could be otherwise. For the most part, you're a
cute bunch, and I won't even space you for being cute.

(Oh, and speaking of "for the most part," a sidelong glance in the
direction of Robert Holland is in order, whose latest poison pen letters
are wonderfully emblematic of the problem here from the start. He has
implied since this all came out that in leaving here, I'm somehow "getting
away with something," that it's nothing to do with him or his ilk here on
the system, nononononono, can't be that...it's just that I'm on AOL now
leaving tons of messages by his reckoning, and it'd happen regardless.
Which is so obviously boneheaded and stupid that it almost doesn't merit
response...but what the hell....

(The AOL B5 page has, maybe, 1/1,000th the number of users as
rastb5; I log on maybe every two-three days, and leave maybe a total
of 5-10 messages in the course of a week. So much for his claim about
the total number of messages left. AOL is confined just to the US,
and doesn't have even a *fraction* of the coverage of rastb5. But
Mr. Holland, in his usual subliminal sleazosity, tries to find some
subterfuge, some hidden agenda, something he can point to in vague
terms and wonder what I'm getting away with. This is the game he and
the others here play constantly; there is nothing they can go after in
reality, so they come up with vaguely worded allegations with no real
core to them, just designed to somehow cast a shadow on this show or
myself, specifically to get people, myself included, to respond,
defending when no real charge has been made. It's the oldest trick in
the book; get the other person to defend themselves against a
non-existent charge, in the hope of creating the illusion of smoke and
the perception of fire...and, of course, getting everyone upset in the
process. I fell for it too many times; we all did. This is the last
time I will do so. Mr. Holland belongs in the same company as the
rest of his associates. They will *always* find something to complain
about, even if it means manufacturing it themselves.)

But it's no longer my problem. Just as it's no longer the
problem of several hundred others who've logged off here in the last
year due to the hassles, and the others who have either left, or are
about to leave for the same reason: the tyranny of the petty
dysfunctional.

So we turn back toward the light, and happier topics. This is,
after all, a benediction, not a jeremiad.

I'm told that the info area doesn't quite function as I'd
thought, so we'll see what can be done here. From time to time, I
will try to put together a letter from home, as it were, to send here
to rastb5; I won't see any of the responses to it that aren't emailed
directly to me, but the intent would be to send along information that
might be useful from time to time for folks to have. I'm not
expecting to do this very often, but will try to do it here and there
as I'm able.

In other news...since this I guess kinda counts as such a
letter... I'm happy to note that the paperwork for the B5 fan club
has finally, FINALLY, come in in finished form. Once it's vetted by
our people, we hope to get it signed and get this long-overdue baby
going. We've had a number of discussions about this, and how to
handle it, maybe a survey of folks to see what kinds of
limited-edition items they'd like to see us make, maybe a web-page for
the club, other options. (If we should start selling limiteds on the
EA pins, patches and stuff, what we'll probably do is have them made
by the same companies that supply us with the real props used in the
show, so they're absolutely identical in every way, not just
knockoffs. It's a little more expensive that way to make, and we
won't make much of anything off them because we'll keep the prices at
a reasonable level, but I think that's the way to go. Neither Doug
nor I are looking to make this into a profit center; if it can more or
less pay for itself, and help organize folks, give them something
nifty from the show, then that's sufficient.)

Oh...and we're investigating the possibility of licensing the
damned videotapes ourselves, producing them pretty much at cost.
Don't know if we can pull this off or not, but we're going to try.

Michael York is currently shooting with us in "A Late Delivery
From Avalon," and doing an amazing job. This may turn into one of our
best episodes, from a performance and emotion perspective. I had a
few doubts about the script -- it has a kind of writing style I don't
use very often, and very stylized in appearance -- but it's coming out
great.

Script 15 is entitled "Interludes and Examinations," and has a
plot turn I hadn't seen coming, but which fits perfectly into the arc;
I think you're going to be stunned. (I was.) As I write this, I've
just started writing "War Without End, Part One," #316, the first part
of the two episodes that bring Sinclair to Babylon 5, which we'll
shoot sometime after the first of the year. It's been touch and go,
but we've finally been able to schedule all of the guest cast members
from "Babylon Squared" for this one, which is the flip side of that
episode. It's probably going to be the most expensive show we've done
yet, due to the hideous production requirements for this one. It's
also the one I'm most nervous about writing, even more than "Fall of
Night," because an awful lot happens here, and it has to be done just
right. It's going to be probably the toughest writing job of the
series to date.

I'll be putting Sinclair and Sheridan together a lot, which is
shaping up to be an interesting combination. We're also going to see
Minbar for the first time.

(We just now got the finished copy of "Voices of Authority" in;
man, do I wish we'd had this early enough to run in place of PTG,
great as that one is. The EFX are terrific, eye-popping.)

Oh...speaking of eye-popping, I've gotten a copy of the B5 Screen
Saver/Limited Edition Entertainment CD Rom, and it's nifty. I suggest
it to everyone, with a caveat: if you're not a computer neep-neep kind
of person, have someone help you install the thing. It took me
several passes to figure everything out. And once you DO install it,
even though it says "do you want all the images?" and you say yes, it
doesn't put them all on. Once you've finished -- and I'm putting this
here because as far as I can tell this isn't documented *anywhere* --
go to the setup menu, and hit install. Make sure your CDrom is in the
drive. Go to the Images subdirectory on the CDrom, and you'll
suddenly see 150 or so images that were *not* installed. Highlight
all of them, copy them over to the pdesk/images subdirectory on your
hard disk, then add them, and select them. Most neeps out there could
probably figure this out, but I couldn't, so I pass this along for
those who are as computerchip challenged as I am. Once it's all
*there*, and actually even before that, it's gorgeous...the images are
crisp and brilliant, the full-motion video stuff is terrific, there's
music and sounds and other stuff...I can't commend it highly enough.
(Oh, yeah, I think it sometimes bumps up against Norton Desktop, but
it's only happening on one of my two Dell machines running ND, so it
may be something I'm doing wrong.)

For those who asked about books...there's going to be a Creating
Babylon 5 book out from Boxtree Books in the UK this summer. I just
finished proofing it, and it's pretty good. I think the photo
selection could be better, but the actual text is quite good.

(A pause while jms tries desperately to remember if there's any
other real hard news to pass along here...and the brain goes blank.)

We're going to be shooting through December 14th, at which point
we break for the Christmas hiatus through January 2nd. I hope to take
some of that time and catch up on scripts a bit. We'll probably debut
the first season 3 gag reel at the party. (Then run like hell.)

OH...yeah, and before I forget (again), to those who asked about
the Stephen Furst item in TV Guide...he's doing the Chicago Hope show
in a two-parter, he's not joining the cast of regulars. The piece in
TV Guide is ambiguous and can be read that way, much to Stephen's
chagrin. He'll be doing more shows for us this season.

There's a conference in the Compuserve Convention Center on
Saturday from 2-3 p.m. Pacific time. Just me at this point.

Knowing this is the last note I'll be sending for a while, I'm
tempted to keep shoving stuff in here. I just realized that I wish
this didn't have to stop. But it kinda does, doesn't it?

So...to those of you who have been terrifically helpful to me
over the term of this long experiment...to the Rangers for filtering
out the feed and protecting me from story ideas...to Sherry for the
great analyses of episodes, and Orso for his cogent
thoughts...actually, I shouldn't be singling people out because I've
been forever astonished and gratified at some of the brilliant and
insightful observations that have floated across my monitor in the
last year or so. I've been delighted, amused, impressed, floored,
dumbfounded, intrigued, awakened, and occasionally horrified (usually
in a good way).

It is my abiding hope that in return, I've given something of use
here. I feel strongly that we cannot hope to control or influence o
improve a dragon with as many heads as TV until and unless we
understand it first. I hope that I've helped a little to demystify
how it all works, so that folks have a better chance of getting what
they *want* rather than what some producers or studios want to shove
down your throats. If it has served that purpose to any degree, then
the exercise has been worthwhile.

My best to all of you. When I can, I'll try to post messages in
a bottle and send them along to the group as occasional updates.
Meanwhile, take care, don't fight, and remember: if you do not choose
to lead, you will forever be led by others. Find what scares you, and
do it. And you *can* make a difference, if you choose to do so.

Babylon Control, clear.

jms

*****

[This is a repost from rastb5. Please see my next reposting of the
"Welcome to rastb5.info" policy statement for an explanation of my
position on reposts and non-announcement material. Comments on the
appropriateness of such material are welcome at b5-info-request. --c.r.]

War with a John Williams Soundtrack

"The dead of the battlefield come back to us very seldom, even
in dreams. We read their lists in the paper, but dismiss them
with the morning coffee. What Mr. Brady has done is to bring
back the terrible reality that is this war, and if he has not
taken their bodies and laid them upon our steps, or in our door
yards, he has done something very much like it."

That editorial was published in July, 1864, in the NEW YORK TIMES to
coincide with the first publication of Matthew Brady's photographs of
the dead of the Battle of Gettysburg. Even today, over a century
later, the brutal reality of war in all its grim horror is tragedy most
American readers and, I believe, American viewers, choose not to
consume. The transformation of characters, or their seemingly
pointless deaths are far easier to stomach when told with historical
accuracy in films like SCHINDLER'S LIST than when incorporated into
works of fiction where the reader's response is too often "How could
the author do that?"

I recall my own shock and anger at the senseless slaughter of Hicks and
Newt at the beginning of ALIENS 3. I still hate that film and believe
their deaths represented poor storytelling. But I was surprised at how
difficult it was to deal with the pointlessness of it. If nothing
else, that film had produced one honest emotion in me -- one which the
American viewer is rarely exposed to. I recall similar feelings at the
death of Henry Blake at the end of a season of M*A*S*H.

The grim reality portrayed on B5 is unique because American viewers
usually tune this out. Modern SF shows have typically been emotionally
bland, soulless and safe -- and not without good reason. American
viewers tell the networks what they want through the simple act of
watching or not watching, a concept no less true to SF literature,
where emotionally hardened stories are too often cast adrift in favor
of countless benign TREK, QUANTUM LEAP, and STAR WARS novels. When one
takes into consideration the percentage of science fiction book sales
that TREK and SWARS represent, the situation is disturbing at best.
But one must be careful not to place the blame solely on the authors
and publishers. It is a sad fact, one with which every editor must
deal, that the most important aspect of their job is to produce a
marketable product, though not necessarily one which they would want to
read. I can't begin to describe how many truly great SF stories --
tragedies, defeats, tales on man's inhumanity -- have been handed back
to writers who've been told, "unless you intend to market this solely
in Europe, I suggest you rewrite it as though it had a John Williams
soundtrack."

Personally, I would rather read Derek Robinson's PIECE OF CAKE a dozen
times than Clancy's RED STORM RISING again, yet RSR spent weeks on the
Best Sellers List while POC went virtually unnoticed in the US.

Ours is a nation which prefers to view war through the eyes of Clancy,
CNN and George Lucas. We like our wars with a John Williams
soundtrack.

Why? I really don't know, but I recall something Churchill said the
morning after Germany's last great air raid on London: "History," he
said, "will long recall the people of London on the night of September
15, 1940. The people of London did better -- they lived it!" Perhaps
one must experience the reality, the horror and suffering, and be
touched by it, to accept or appreciate it. Perhaps if Baltimore had
been nuked like Hiroshima, Chicago consumed in firestorms like Dresden,
or if volunteers had spent a night on the roof of the National
Cathedral throwing off incendiaries to save it as they did on St.
Paul's, perhaps then we might understand why Henry Blake died.

It comes as no surprise to me that B5 is doing well in Europe. It IS
surprising that it's succeeding in the US, and it is with great joy and
delight that I watch its success. Forgive me, but in many ways this
comes as a personal victory, to see that the kind of writing many of us
long believed couldn't succeed in the US has finally found a place.

This is not to say that B5 is a flawless show. I am disturbed -- not
wholly worried, but disturbed -- that season three opened with a story
which seemed possessed of holes big enough to pass the station through;
further disturbed because the episode was written by JMS himself. For
the sake of discussion, I'll throw out a few points, though others do
this much more thoroughly and enthusiastically.

Why didn't the Shadow ship destroy Marcus as he made his escape? If it
wasn't there yet, why was only one sent? Seems their ability to travel
would have allowed as many to arrive as necessary.

Why didn't the one that arrived take out the ranger base instead of
waiting around conviently for an encounter with Sheridan?

For the Shadow ship to be unable to identify the nature and
capabilities of the WHITE STAR, its sensors must be more primitive than
I would have believed. Speaking of the WHITE STAR, this is the first
plot device introduced into the B5 universe that I'm truly troubled
with. It smells like a "deux ex machina" and tastes like TREK. The
essence of B5 believability is its ties to the past and the consistency
of its science. The capabilities of virtually all the weapons, ships
and worlds are surprisingly well-defined. Even the Vorlons and Shadows
don't come with a weapon-of-the-week. The nature of the WHITE STAR is
vague and its capabilities much too mysterious in such a concrete
universe. Who built it -- Minbari or Vorlon? Isn't putting Minbari
science on a Vorlon ship a bit like adding wooden wheels to a formula
race car? How could Minbari build it? I find it historically
implausible for the religious caste to construct something so
sophisticated, and I believe the worker caste would have told the
warriors. Why Lennier piloting it? He'd just seen it for the first
time! Cute, but bad story. Lastly, how have the Shadows been kept
from discovering its construction, or finding where it's been left
lying around? Even with the primitive intelligence systems of the
1940's we knew of the GRAF SPEE shortly after the Germans began
construction. Right now this ship is simply too convenient.

I really do have difficulty watching most of the main characters
trucking around the galaxy in the WHITE STAR. There's shades of Kirk,
Spock, and McCoy beaming down to every planet and single-handedly
saving the day. Does Ivanova have to be on board? If the thing hadn't
been finished yet I would be more comfortable with Sheridan taking the
ship on its first mission. But hadn't someone been testing it and
wouldn't that person be more qualified to command it until Sheridan was
brought up to snuff on its abilities? This isn't the LIBERATOR they've
just stumbled upon, or is it? It also seems to me that having Delenn
and Sheridan on board the same ship is a bit like too many eggs in one
basket -- fine on a five-mile-long station, but together on dangerous
missions? I look forward to a more well-defined WHITE STAR in the very
near future.

If I seem unusually harsh and critical on this matter, it's only
because B5's standards are so much higher, and I've come to expect so
much more from the show. Otherwise, I simply wouldn't waste my time
(of which I always seem to be having less and less).

Though I am hardly the one to say this, it is with great respect that I
view a creator who stands firm to his dreams and principles. I admire
those writers who've handed back their works saying, "I don't do John
Williams." Sadly, I'm usually right and their books sit on shelves
unread, ending up at half-price bookstores. Funny thing is, these are
often the ones I take home at night.

BABYLON 5 can revel in the fact that it has found a market -- perhaps a
limited one, but a fandom of faithful viewers nonetheless, who view it
based on its own merit, not because of name recognition or blind
dedication. And I myself believe that I would rather see it end
production today that ever compromise the ideals and standards that
brought it to life. This would not be a failure, but rather a triumph
of the spirit, a legacy proving that science fiction must not, cannot
cater to the lowest common denominator.

Editors, and, I believe, network executives, or anyone privileged to
decide what you, the reader and viewer, have the opportunity to see are
sometimes thought of as monsters, and perhaps they are, but if so, then
they are monsters of the id. They are what you, the viewers and
readers make them. Because you read them, we publish three or more
inept TREK novels a month while magnificent works of SF coming from
places like Sweden and Japan go unpublished and often untranslated (and
you'd be amazed at the stuff coming out of Japan). BABYLON 5 is the
one place on TV where I confidently ask: "Make it better than I
thought you could. Make me proud!"

Let me pass on one point that should never be forgotten: "The only
thing less forgiving than your publisher is your legacy."

Sadly, Matthew Brady died penniless, but he left a legacy that made us
all richer by far.

Hakuna Matata,

The Big Cat

*****
#: 410907 S6/Babylon 5: Upcoming
04-Dec-95 23:52:02
Sb: #410849-#<Gethsemane questions>
Fm: J. Michael Straczynski 71016,1644
To: Daena Hinkelman 73554,1731 (X)

"The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure
there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"

Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place
called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that they're too
smart to be on what *we'll* do.

jms

*****