JMS SPEAKS 2

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: soc.culture.jewish.moderated question
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Unfortunately, the character,Ivanova, was played by an actress named Claudia Christian, a Gentile, natch. The whole character should not be taken
seriously, since it was a stupid in-joke created by J. Straczynski, Babylon 5's
creator.

This has to rank in the top one percentile ofthe top ten percent of stupid comments I have seen on the net to date.

Because Claudia's last name was Christian, this makes it an in-joke? You think I created that character then went around looking for someone named Christian
to play the part?

Does your mom know you're using her computer when you're supposed to be in bed?

The character was created to be a strong Jewish character. Period. To show that our heritage and our history goes with us to the stars. We dealt seriously and with great sensitivity with what it means to be of Eastern European Jewish heritage.

I cast the best person to walk in the room for that role. I applied an open casting rule to all parts, to allow greatest latitude in picking people without prejudice. On Crusade we had an actor of Korean descent, Daniel Dai Kim, portraying a Lieutenant named Matheson.

B5 received several awards from Jewish organizations for its portrayal of Susan
Ivanova. That aspect was used in sermons and lectures by Rabbis who seemed to have NO problem taking her seriously. Her character was the first regular series character in a futuristic space SF series who was not just Jewish, but a *practicing* Jew: sitting shiva, lighting the Menorah and consulting (sometimes reluctantly) with her Rabbi.

A stupid in-joke?

You can sit there and write off an actor and a character just because the actor who portrayed the character happened to be a Gentile? Which is in no way fundamentally different than the many fine Jewish actors who play Gentiles because the intelligent thing to do is to cast the best actor for the role?

An IN-JOKE?

The problem is not the show's, nor is it the actor's, nor is it the character's. The problem is yours.

Sir, and I say this with the love of whatever god you say you believe in, in my heart... you are an ingnorant, prejudiced putz.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Why the Station's Fate Still Doesn't Make Sense (spoilers I
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

1) Remember that this was the cheapest of all the B5 stations, it wasn't built to last forever.

2) You'd have to go through that thing and pull out literally tens of miles of
computer equipment, sensors, records, and other material before you could sell
it to anybody. Not to mention all the remaining weapons systems.

3) It's now like a town bypassed by the railroad...the IA now does most of what
B5 was intended to do. So as Zack says, nobody comes there anymore. The cost to maintain it in the lack of supporting business is heinous in the extreme.
So do you set guards to something that nobody uses anymore? Pay all the money to pull out all the classified stuff you don't want removed intact by salvage operations?

Or do you just spend a few bucks to blow it up, the way folks blow up old buildings now?


jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Pending DVD release
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

One aside...the release of the first DVD of "The Gathering" and "In the Beginning" has been put back a month, at my request. There was apparently some misunderstanding about which version of The Gathering to put out, and they were going to do the original version rather than the re-edit (which would go for the European market). They had already invested about $100,000 in copying
costs when I found out about this, and I asked if they could please reconsider
and do the re-edit instead. They finally agreed, which is commendable in the
extreme. It'll add one month to the release schedule, but I'd rather have the best version out there and wait the addtional 30 days.

I have to really thank WB for taking the time and spending the money to put out the right version.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: It was a GOOD story!
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>It's as if you intended for this show to be aired at 7 p.m. every day on
cable from the very beginning...</font>


Yes and no. No particular time slot was conceived of, but I wrote this with an eye to knowing what happens to series in syndication: they end up being stripped daily. So I knew it would end up being seen this way, and that was going to be the preferred way of both watching and writing it. It's when you see it that way that it actually works best, because the threads in the garment are pulled closer together, rather than years apart, and you can see the
connections and the patterns more clearly.

<font color=red>Anyway, *good* story. We really enjoyed it.</font>


Thanks.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: JMS reintroduced me to Comics (& restored my faith)
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Anyone have any other suggestions for me? It has been a lot of fun to
rediscover this medium!</font>

I'd recommend "Usagi Yojimbo" for a fun book. Fiona Avery's "No Honor" (www.nohonor.com) is also a fine book. The work done to return Superman's origin in the 4 issue Return to Krypton mini is very nice. I'd also suggest in reprints checking out Astro City, and the Marvels, Kingdom Come and Uncle Sam miniseries. And DEFINITELY the Mage books.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN:JMS Your thoughts on V
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>"After the cancellation of the series, the story of V continued to live on for a short time in paperbacks by Pinnacle and Tor, and comic books by DC Comics. There were talks of a third final miniseries, but the farthest that went was a script proposal by Joe Straczynski (of current Babylon 5 fame) which was rejected by Warner Brothers. </font>

Two corrections here. It wasn't a script *proposal*, which is to say, a proposal for a script, it was a full four hour miniseries script commissioned by WB which I wrote and turned in. It wasn't rejected, they loved the script, but in doing the budget for what the series would cost, they ran into the same
problems they had with the original V, which damn near destroyed WB TV because of cost over-runs. Showing an Earth based war, with all the pyros, stunts, huge cast and set requirements, location work, all that...was more than they wanted to pay for a syndicated show, which was their intent at the time.

<font color=red> Straczynski has considered developing his script into a novel, but there is no word when that will happen. "</font>

I cannot develop it into a novel because I don't own the underlying rights, WB owns them, and never intended to do any such thing. It's what we in da biz
call "dead pages."

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: Pending DVD release
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>1. Will "The Gathering" be on the DVD in pseudo-widescreen from Sci-Fi (i.e. 4:3 with picture info hidden by black bars at the top & bottom), or will it have the 4:3 as-shot version like the laserdisc?</font>

Insofar as I know it'll be 4:3.

<font color=red>2. Will "In the Beginning" show the Centauri Vorchan Cruiser blowing away the Narn ship at the ice planet/abandoned outpost and then bombarding the outpost (with missiles, IIRC), or just jump straight from the Vorchan exiting the jump point to flames on the ceiling of the bunker. In other words, will the DVD have the Sci-Fi cuts or will it have the whole thing (like the Laserdisc)?</font>

DId the snip during the SFC broadcast somehow rebound into the WB negatives vault and transmorgify the cut residing there...?

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: How did he do that?
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

We generally made deals for all episodes produced, and I used the actors as I needed them for the story.

<font color=red>While I know Star Trek references are not appreciated by some here, they did make it a point to include everyone somehow.</font>

Only problem with doing that is that it whittles away the complexity of the story you can tell, and the degree of personalization. X characters per episode = Y minutes spent with each of those characters out of a set number of minutes per episode (about 43).

I always figured, just take what I need for the story and no more than that.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: ATTN: JMS DVD Supplemental material
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>Hey, Joe!

I, for one, can't wait for the DVD's to start coming out. But I am sorely disappointed about what I understand to be the apparent lack of supplemental material (read "commentary") on them.

Supplementary material is one of the things that really makes DVD's special, IMHO. And as much as B5 has been about "behind the scenes" (on the Internet) as well as a darn good story, I think WB would be terribly remiss to issue B5 DVD's without taking advantage of the opportunity to get some of that background information down permanently. (Not to mention it'd just be plain
fun to listen to your commentaries.)

Is that the final word, or is it still in negotiation (assuming your interested in doing commentaries in the first place)?</font>

There doesn't seem to be much interest in doing it, which may stem from the fact that there are so many episodes that if you do it in 1, how do you justify not doing it for all 110? So I'm not holding my breath.

jms

[Lyta Alexander]

Subject: Re: JMS and JC: Galens Backstory
From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

<font color=red>How much of the Galens backstory did Peter Woodward know proir to playing him? (I really must find a copy of Well of Forever now it will mean so much
more.)</font>

He knew a fair amount, just enough needed to play the role.

jms