This file contains messages posted by J. Michael Straczynski on GEnie from Mar 1 - Mar 15th, 1995. Postings are copyright 1995 by J. Michael Straczynski with compilation copyright by GEnie. ************ Topic 1 Mon Oct 26, 1992 SF-MARSHALL [Dave ] at 18:50 EST Sub: Babylon 5 - The Series (Non-Spoiler) Welcome to the Babylon 5 General category. This is the main topic for the hit SF series. We discuss all general information on the series in this topic. Topic 2 is for SPOILERS! DO NOT POST STORY IDEAS! 878 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 471 Wed Mar 01, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:17 EST We hadn't thought much about it (maybe because I'm kinda tall), but Bruce, Jerry, Claudia, Richard, Andreas...they're all *really* tall, which has kinda come back to bite us at times on casting, because if we have to have a baddie, or someone against whom they must go, we have to be sure they operate at the same height area (usually), or it'll look goofy. BTW...I'm pleased to announce that the latest survey from Viewers For Quality Television (VQT) has chosen Babylon 5 as the #1 ranked syndicated series, and #16 overall, beating such network/non-network shows as Murphy Brown, DS9, Seinfeld, Lois and Clark, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and The Simpsons, among others, in their ranking of Highest Quality Shows. Thanks to all those who downloaded (and continue to download) the VQT survey forms, for helping draw people's attention to the hard work being done on Babylon 5. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 495 Fri Mar 03, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:25 EST As Harlan has pointed out, he's really tall when he stands on his charisma. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 501 Fri Mar 03, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:26 EST VQT = Viewers For Quality Television. A totally irrelevant aside...does ANYbody here know ANYbody from the Ben and Jerry Ice Cream company? If so, I have a message for them. HEY! PAY ATTENTION! Did you know that there is NO ONE out there making banana ice cream? I don't mean banana mix with those crummy walnuts in them, or sometimes a little banana cream stuffed into an ice bar, or those sticky banana ice-milk bars....I'm talking here STRAIGHT BANANA ICE CREAM. Go ahead, check out any supermarket's frozen section. You've got cherry, strawberry, chocolate, coffee, rum-raisen, white russian, vanilla, french vanilla, neopolitan...row after row of ice creams of every sort and flavor and packaging...EXCEPT BANANA. I KNOW. I'VE SPENT THE LAST SEVEN YEARS SEARCHING FOR IT! Ben...Jerry...SOMEBODY...make up some banana ice cream and you'll have the corner on the entire market. Trust me on this. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 507 Fri Mar 03, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 17:21 EST I'm between 6'4" and 6'5". jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 532 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:03 EST I haven't used my pool in a year and a half because I'm too busy behind the keyboard to take a dip. Honest. And making ice cream isn't something I can even think of making the time for. Thank goodness I have a policy of not getting involved in my own life.... Believe it or not, I worked with Laura Dern once upon a time, before she was LAURA DERN. When Showtime produced my adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," through Shelley Duvall's company, she and Anthony Andrews were cast as the leads. Even though she was noted even then mainly for being Bruce Dern's daughter, she was very sweet and talented and you could see real talent there. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 534 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:27 EST Since I've been meaning to post the info here in answer to requests: really nifty B5 t-shirts and caps can now be ordered directly from All-U at 1- 800-424-2558, ext. 105. T-shirts (great color images) and caps are $17, and the LONG SLEEVE t-shirts are $25, plus shipping and handling. The shirts they have now are 1) original cast photo with station, 2) new cast photo with station, the B5 logo with station and the words "the last best hope..." 4) station, planet and logo, and 5) station and starfury, all color. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 585 Mon Mar 06, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:55 EST Joe does not consciously raid ST for guest stars. Joe looks for the best actor for the role. Sometimes he goes out of his way to help someone break the fist of typecasting. That's it. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 601 Tue Mar 07, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:32 EST Kwicker...wow, that's a lot of legwork, thanks. I think I can follow up from here now, thakns. Or thanks. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 606 Tue Mar 07, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:57 EST Did I mention you'll probably see Lyta Alexander once more before the season is out...? jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 634 Wed Mar 08, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:06 EST Loops: get the hell away from my office window. I can see you out there with my x-ray specs. Y'know...people wonder sometimes why I get a little exasperated with Paramount from time to time. Here's a few reasons. Back when the Arsenio Show was still on the air, Stephen Furst was set to appear on the show. Suddenly, they canceled. According to Stephen, he was told on the QT that it was because Paramount heard about it, and didn't want to promote B5. Back at the top of the season, we'd met with Winrich Kolbe about doing some of our episodes (he does a lot of TNG, DS9 and now Voyager directing). Nice guy, we met, we agreed, and a date was set. All parties agreed to it, we had a deal. Not long before the episode comes up, his rep calls to get him out of it...at first muttering about some vague, ill-defined TV movie Paramount wanted him to do, but we'd had this for a long time...then his rep was finally asked, "Look, does this have anything to do with the big boys at Paramount leaning on you because it's B5?" The rep reluctantly admitted that this was the case. We released Kolbe from his assignment. Now, finally, B5 is getting some press, some word of mouth; mostly about this show called Babylon something. Well, UPN just announced that they're doing a new detective series for the UPN stations, the majority of which are also B5 stations. And guess what they've announced the title is? BABYLON. You think maybe some folks'll get confused about which show this is, given that they're both on the same station in many places? The roster of such things goes on, and on, and on. But it's not stopping us. Inch by inch, we continue to fight our way into the ratings. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 654 Wed Mar 08, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 15:52 EST Letters to Paramount will serve no purpose. We'll handle this one. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 661 Wed Mar 08, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 20:21 EST Neither Shatner nor Takai have ever been on B5. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 713 Fri Mar 10, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 16:29 EST I've read Harlan's piece for the TV guide special Star Trek edition (like there haven't already been a dozen such recently). Suffice to say it pole- axes much of the mythology around "City" and Gene's claims in that regard. Interesting reading...and some smoking guns. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 736 Sat Mar 11, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:56 EST Actually, the idea that people coming into the story now will have a hard time is something of a myth; we continue to add new viewers all the time, and in some countries the show is actually being shown out of order; to date I have seen at most 1 or 2 people who were unsure about one aspect or another after seeing just one episode, but were still able to follow the story easily enough. You may not know what it means in relation to something that happened 6 months ago, but what it means *now* is very clear, and all the information needed is always included in the episode. Re: raiding myself (ST comic)...I stopped raiding myself, what with all this Jocelyn Elders controversy.... jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 807 Sun Mar 12, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 23:18 EST B5 does not provide squished credits to anyone, and they are not satellited out in that form. Local stations do that. In the cas of Fox shows, sometimes the Fox network does it in distributing the show to its affiliates. But we never provide them that way. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 846 Tue Mar 14, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:26 EST Was out having dinner with Harlan and Susan, so missed seeing Voyager, thus can't comment. (Reason we went out to dinner was that I spent the day at his house, interviewing Harlan on-camera for a videotape associated with his new CD rom game based on "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream," coming out from Cyberdreams in a few months. I don't think there's *any* group we didn't offend during the course of the interview.) Re: Harlan on-line...no, he doesn't generally go on-line (except in some selected live conferences) but he does tend to get printups from folks from time to time...said contents of which could drive a monk to murder. BTW...for those also on AOL, tomorrow night I'm doing a live conference with Claudia Christian in the DC Comics Online area. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 1 Message 875 Wed Mar 15, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:46 EST Actually, the scene of Londo looking up at the shadow ships WAS shot outside the studio. jms ------------ ************ Topic 2 Wed Nov 20, 1991 STARR [Arne] at 19:41 EST Sub: Babylon 5 -- The Series!! >>SPOILERS<< Babylon 5 is moving into a second season of 22 episodes. This series can be seen at 8 Pm on Wednesdays, in most areas. This topic is for SPOILERS only. Just remember our NO STORY IDEAS rule and we'll let you live. 682 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 530 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:06 EST From "Infection," the visiting Doctor points out that, regarding organic technology, "some even say the Vorlons have got it." All this stuff gets set up somewhere. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 532 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:17 EST "Why are they allowed to stay on the station?" Space travel is *very* expensive (which is why they can't afford tickets off.) With B5's constant budget problems, who is going to pay to have these people shipped off? Who is going to accept them? Can't just space them. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 544 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 18:06 EST Re: not being one happy family...be careful what you wish for around here. Re: Kosh's voice carrying some emotion...starting at about "All Alone in the Night," or maybe one before (memory fades), I took on the job of directing the voice sessions for Kosh. He was moving from a neutral delivery to things that had to carry specific emotions and implications for the future, and nobody else knows what all this stuff means, so it fell to me. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 556 Sun Mar 05, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:21 EST I think this is the first time an American series has been worked out in this much detail. PICKET FENCES often has threads that recur, but they're more catch-as-catch-can, not so much a cohesive story as the recurring of character arcs. In the case of TWIN PEAKS, I've talked to several staffers on the show, and they really didn't have *any* idea where they were going, they were making it up on the fly and hoping for the best. Some elements of X- FILES come close, but again it's more one or two individual character arcs (Mulder's sister, for instance) than a cohesive structured story (though if it keeps getting tighter, that may change, though it doesn't have an end that I know of). EARTH 2 apparently has a *destination*, but I don't believe its continuity is stressed at all. More of, When we end up, this is where we'll be. THE PRISONER is probably the closest parallel structurally to B5, and thus something of a template. I don't know if BLAKE'S 7 started OUT plotted like a novel, but it ends up feeling like one, so the difference may be no difference. The difference, I think, beyond having a definite beginning, middle and end (which is substantial in itself), is the approach using years as chapters; tracking one year of story time equalling one year of real time; and foreshadowing, setting up something in episode 7 that won't pay off until episode 14 or later. Little things like putting in a Ranger in shows long before they're revealed, or planning ahead to change Londo's wardrobe to reflect a darker attitude, even throwaway dialogue lines...as well as the larger foreshadowings. I can't think of any American show that has done any of those things consistently, or even *tried* to do all of them at once. So, bottom line, we're kinda out here on the edge all by ourselves. Re: Kosh's lines...the best part of working with the actor is that between takes, since he's locked in the audio booth, but doesn't want to break character, he'll mutter to himself in Kosh's voice...so there I am outside, hearing Kosh's voice on the speaker, "Bugger off, Sheridan... Have I told you I find you very attractive?...Oh the pain, the pain...." jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 595 Tue Mar 07, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:00 EST Except, of course, they live in the nastier, less attractive parts of the station, near the air reprocessors that go all night and all day without a break; the sewage and water reclamation factories...but yes, eventually their numbers will have to grow too large and something will have to be done. That something has been planned for. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 2 Message 605 Tue Mar 07, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 21:45 EST To pick one background shot, as I recall, there was a ranger at the zocalo bar at one point in "Long Dark." jms ------------ ************ Topic 4 Tue Nov 03, 1992 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 03:12 EST Sub: Babylon 5 - Cast & Characters For discussion of the actors who will be bringing BABYLON 5 to life with their performances...for information before, and discussion after the airing of "The Gathering" pilot. 360 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 18, Topic 4 Message 326 Sat Mar 11, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:59 EST Okay, let's see...upcoming we've got John Shuck, a reappearance by Morgan Shepherd in a different role, and Pat Tallman returns as Lyta Alexander. jms ------------ Category 18, Topic 4 Message 356 Tue Mar 14, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 01:28 EST Okay, okay, I misspelled John's name.... jms ------------ ************ Topic 17 Tue Jan 19, 1993 C.STOBBE [Colin] at 21:02 EST Sub: Babylon 5 - Merchandising A place to discuss all the neat Babylon 5 merchandising coming out (hopefully) soon 572 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 18, Topic 17 Message 529 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:22 EST There are some *nifty* B5 t-shirts and caps available from All-U at 1-800- 424-2558, ext. 105. The shirts are color, nice screening process...just very well done. Prices are very reasonable. I commend them to you. (They're now available direct from All-U, which previously shipped mainly to distributers.) jms ------------ ************ Topic 33 Sun Mar 05, 1995 M.BURSTEIN [Michael] at 00:16 EST Sub: Hugos, Other Awards, and Babylon 5 For discussion of awards Babylon 5 has won, and discussion of which episodes should be nominated for Hugo (and other) Awards. 31 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 18, Topic 33 Message 4 Sun Mar 05, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 04:30 EST There's a dangerous irony here; the ST episode "Inner Light" was objectively the one stand-out episode of that season, and thus won. The problem I've detected in posts from people about B5 is determining WHICH episode to nominate, since there are apparently many choices. If you end up splitting the vote among lots of shows, *none* of them will get on the ballot or winning. So if you're going to push B5, you may want to get together on one ep that is always included (like "Signs," which is what I'd pick). Just a thought, since the issue at hand may not be which single ep is one's subjective best, but recognizing the series overall. jms ------------ ************ Topic 39 Wed Dec 07, 1994 STARR [Arne] at 00:59 EST Sub: #213 - "Hunter, Prey" by JMS. 75 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 19, Topic 39 Message 18 Fri Mar 03, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 00:23 EST The General was not a prisoner reference; it refers to General Hague. jms ------------ Category 19, Topic 39 Message 28 Sat Mar 04, 1995 STRACZYNSKI [Joe] at 02:56 EST I have a very simple rule: if you're going to reveal Kosh, first you have to start pointing at him, so that the revelation has weight. We're pointing at Kosh. jms ------------