Things You Don't Expect To Hear

Some things are beyond words.
Beyond comprehension.
Beyond forgiveness.
The questions come:

It has been a while since I posted anything here. It's not because JMS hasn't been posting information, but since it refers to "Legend of the Rangers" or "Jeremiah", I put the information on those pages. This morning, there are some posts about JMS and Superman. You probably know, JMS is a HUGE Superman fan. Here are some postings from the B5 moderated group I thought you'd enjoy.

Q: What is your most cherished Superman related item?

A: I have a number of very cool Superman things, some costing a fair bit, but the one thing that is emotionally the closest to me is the one that came freely.

Long time ago, former Superman editor and living monument Julius (Yes I'm Older Than The Pyramids But I'm a Nice Guy So What Of It?) Schwartz used to give out these gold Superman emblem tie-tacks, cheap but cool. I managed to snag one of them a few years back.

A couple of years later, I'd been wearing it on a sport coat and discovered, to my horror, that it had come off somewhere and was just gone.

Now, every Thanksgiving, we'd all get together for dinner...me, Harlan, Susan, Julie Schwartz, and Ellie and Robert Bloch. Sometimes more if the situation merited, but that was the core of it.

That Thanksgiving, I explained what had happened and asked Julie if he had any more of the tie tacks. He didn't. So I figured that was pretty much the end of it.

It was about a year later that we lost Bob Bloch. It was a great loss to the core group and to the field and to all Bob's fans.

About three, four months after that, I got a note from Ellie, by way of Harlan, containing a gold Superman emblem tie tack, one that Bob had gotten from Julie years earlier. She said she knew that Bob would've wanted me to have it.

So of all the Superman items I have, that is the one that I cherish most.

Q: How did his mum buy the cloth for his costume without arousing suspicion?

It came from the swaddling clothes he had with him in the rocket from Krypton. Ma Kent had him use heat vision to cut the threads.

Q: Where does Clark Kent buy his spectacles, given that they are presumably plain glass?

They were made from the same rocket.

Q: Why doesn't anyone notice that Clark never works out, even though it would be impossible to have a body like that without doing so? And if he doesn't work out, why would he bother waxing his chest and back? (and who helps him with the back?)

Actually the new Clark does some of that just to ease suspicion.

Q: Where does Superman keep his wallet?

In the pouch of his cape, which is also where he keeps his CK clothes when he has to change on the fly.

Some general round-up things....

1) As folks sorta kinda know already, in addition to the B5 pilot movie, I'm doing another project (a series) which goes into full-blown prep in just a few weeks. Due to the air date being moved up a bit, and consequently the start of filming and prep being moved up, I'm going to be unable to make it to San Diego Comic Con this year. My apologies for those who were hoping to see some of the footage from Rangers that I'd planned to bring. (And with regrets, I can't let anyone else walk around with that stuff.) I've only missed it once before, due to pneumonia, because it's my favorite convention and the ONLY big one I was planning to do this year, but the way the shooting schedule is laying out, I don't have any choice.

2) On the topic of the other, non-B5 project...which I *still* can't talk about by name because the deal hasn't been announced yet (it's making everybody nuts)...we're deep into casting, we've hired about 90% of our crew, and scripts for the series are well underway. We will be rolling film on the opening movie September 4th, finish that, then go right into filming the 18 episodes for a total of 20 hours.

3) The producer's cut of Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers is now in hand, and goes to the network and studio today. I think it's a really kickass movie, and in terms of general production, performances, and stuff like that, it's probably right there with In the Beginning (not in scale, of course, since ItB is just *huge* and sews up the B5 storyline in this big tapestry, they're two vastly different kinds of stories, but in terms of overall quality of production and how well it works).

4) The latest draft of the Rising Stars screenplay, "Born in Fire," went to the producers the other day, and I think we're now in pretty good shape. As it turns out, there was an article in the Hollywood trades about a week or two ago, in which MGM talked to vendors (licensees) about their upcoming films for 2002, and Rising Stars was among them...so thats kinda cool. If the first film works out, they want to commission 2 more and make it into a trilogy that reflects the 3 act structure of the RS comics.

5) My new graphic novel from Top Cow, "Delicate Creatures," will debut in September at a bookstore near you. (I think it's coming out in hardcover.)

6) Jeanne Cavelos new installment of the Techno-Mage trilogy, "Summoning Light," is scheduled to be out July 1st but is already in some stores.

7) Talks have resumed on the third TV project that I had alluded to earlier, now that I've finished up enough stuff to clear the boards a bit, and I'll let you know more about that if and when it becomes a reality.

8) Because of all the stuff going on in 1-7 above, there have been some delays in the pub dates on RS and Midnight Nation. These are entirely my responsibility because I can only write one word at a time, but I'll be catching up shortly. Tow Cow has been very gracious in giving me the time I need to get deal with the TV/film stuff.

-- and two annoying little nigglies to round it out to 10 --

9) Folks have emailed to ask if I'm still lurking on the scifi.com/babylon5 board because I haven't said anything there in a while...the answer is no, because fan fiction began to show up, and where it is, I can't be. I do find this kind of awkward, because it's the one thing I've ever asked from fans: if you know I'm in X location, however infrequently, please keep fanfic away from where I can see it, especially since I'm telling new stories now in the B5 universe and don't want to imperil myself legally by being exposed to fanfic. There are plenty of sites where that stuff is available.

9a) A subset of 9 and a request...I keep seeing posts from people who are freely exchanging textfiles containing the Crusade scripts that were posted on bookface.com. To those folks, the rest of you can move on...I don't think you've stopped to realize that what you're passing around so freely is my property. It's not taking from WB, or TNT, it's taking from *me*. I own the scripts that I write, under the Writers Guild Separation of Rights provision. I allowed Bookface to put them up because they gave me assurances that they could not easily or well be pirated. (They clearly did not anticipate the ingenuity of some folks.) You are infringing on my rights, my copyright, my ownership, and causing me to regret my decision to let folks see them, such that I may never do this again because it greatly reduces my ability to ever sell them or publish them in book form in future. You have, in effect, stolen my property and are freely distributing same. That it's not available elsewhere is not the issue; we all want things we can't have, or which are not currently available. I'm asking you politely, as the guy who *made* this show and *wrote* those scripts (and *owns* those scripts) for you to stop. If it doesn't stop, I'm going to have to start taking action against those doing this. (I've been giving my attorneys quite a workout lately, inclusive of making sure that a certain individual who has been fabricating stuff about me for six years on the unmoderated group...will do so no longer.)

10) Last bit of annoyance...in that past, I've recommended various websites to folks as great places to shop or get free information...so it's only fair to report back when it goes the other way. In all the time I've spent online, the *worst* experience I've ever had has been with thinkgeek.com. They waited weeks to send out stuff ordered for next-day shipment, screwed up the order and sent the wrong stuff, spent weeks trying to get someone to talk to about it, got the proverbial buck-passing, assurances made that were not kept, and the result is that it's now three months and I'm still nowhere on the problems. I've never seen a company this careless or inefficient or sloppy. If you're looking for electronics to buy...go ANYwhere else. Trust me on this one.

Which is about the longest posting I've written in almost a year, because I haven't had time to keep up on stuff...sorry for the frequent lapses, but as noted above, things have been mad beyond description this year in terms of the work involved, busier than at any other time in my life, so I've had to pull back...on the theory that I can either write about the work or do the work, and at this moment the latter has to take precedence.

Things will, one hopes, lighten up soon....

jms

(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine and don't send me story ideas)

Q: Loved the scene between Jeff Conaway and Pat Tallman in Thirdspace. Can you give us a little background on it? How many takes did it require?

A: Not many, he nailed it just fine every time.

Funny thing about that scene...we were told before filming that the script was 8-10 minutes longer than it should be, and I had to make cuts. I didn't agree, but the director was very concerned, so with great reluctance, I snipped about 8 minutes out.

So on practically the last day of filming, we get a report from the film editor that we're about 6 minutes *short*. The director suggested ways to expand the last few shots, and we could add some more CGI, but it wasn't nearly enough. I now had to write a new scene to make up the difference. (If I'd not had to make the cuts in the stuff shot to that point, we'd've been fine.)

Given that it was the last day or so, we'd already released a number of the cast, and struck many of the sets. I asked what we had left to work with. We had Zack, and Lyta, some extras...and an elevator. So with that in mind, I wrote that scene in about 20 minutes and turned it over to Jeff, who memorized the lines overnight and showed up the next morning and nailed the scene.

I've always been weird that way, I go for the details, I like turning things around and looking at them in different ways. When I was in college, I helped a local community center fix up a "youth activities room," which meant getting scraps left over from carpet stores and putting them together into a kind of montage carpet.

Now, all the other guys working on this grabbed whatever big swatches of carpet were available and started laying 'em down. Me, I was at the other end with all the tiny scraps, a few inches across, maybe a foot, assembling them in this very detailed, precise sequence, this little abstract tapestry, if you will. At the end of the day, you would stand at one end of the room and, as one person put it, "you can tell where Joe was sitting today."

1) Please do not send me inquiries about the storyline in private email. You may think, "Well, it's just me," but at last Neilsen count there were about 15 million of you out there, and only one of me. I can't get into lengthy discussions about the plot or storylines in email. I end up answering the same questions multiple times, and the answers go to only one person at a time. If you have a story question, ASK IT IN A PUBLIC FORUM, NOT IN EMAIL, so that others can benefit from the answers.

(Here's where this gets silly. Often, when I'm speaking at a convention, I'll ask, at the end, "Any other questions?" And nobody puts their hands up, even though we've got a few minutes left. Then, as soon as the presentation is over, 50 people rush the stage with questions they want to ask...many of them very good, and which the audience would've loved to hear answered. You tend to be a very smart, perceptive bunch...don't deny others the quality of your questions.)

2) Please, please, PLEASE do not send me story ideas in email.

3) Do not send jpgs or anything else that requires downloading; I was hit by a trojan horse and virus lately, and consequently I have a very firm no-download policy on anything else coming into me via email.

4) Private email should be used for things you cannot discuss in a public forum, or for which confidentiality is needed for other reasons. I'm swamped with 500 messages a day...if it doesn't have to be sent email, please don't do so.

5) Requests for agent suggestions, or requests to read your scripts or stories, will be met by stony silence.

6) We cannot give studio tours, or afford to send out scripts, or story bibles, or actor photographs. When the actors do this, bear in mind that it is a kindness *that comes out of their own pockets*, as there is no budget from WB to send photos.

I hate to be as brusque as this, but I'm starting to get overloaded with email, and an occasional advisory seems necessary.

Many thanks.

JMS

COMIC PROJECT UPDATE

Q: Joe, what will happen with Joe's Comics as Rising Stars and Midnight Nation conclude? Are there new titles in the works?

A: I've already lined up the next regular series, an anthology title, and a new graphic novel, Delicate Creatures, which is already written. I don't want to do more than 3 books per month (2 Joe's Comics titles, 1 other title a la Spider-Man) so one will have to phase out to make room for another to avoid the workload getting too hairy.

How does SCIFI differ from your other network experiences?

A: It isn't so much different as it is pretty much the same, in the sense that the whole TNT situation was an aberration; I had NEVER had that much interference, that level of interference, on ANY other show before. There have been headaches, sure, but that's part of the job and never to this extent.

So SFC's involvement has been pretty much on a par with what has gone before. They had a handful of notes on the outline, ditto on the script, and that was it. And in both cases they were primarily small notes, line notes or character bits.

You *expect* to get some notes along the way, because the network/studio is the buyer. I'm okay with that and always have been. The TNT situation was simply insane.

Q: Any idea of how long it will take SCIFI to decide on whether or not to proceed with Crusade?

A: Things take the time they take. The show just barely finished ariing on SFC. Look at the time frame between when B5 started airing on SFC, and when we got the go-ahead to do Rangers. TV doesn't work in idealized terms..."Gee it did great so let's go out and make a deal RIGHTNOW!" It is a slow, wearing, grinding process. TV is a cautious business.

I have not been told, definitively, "no" by SFC, nor have I been told "yes;" I know what's in their budget to do at this moment, and I know they want to test the B5 waters in general with Rangers. I cannot imagine that, if the show does well, they wouldn't want to revisit Crusade.

But to say that I want the show to die is right up there in the top two percentile of the top ten percent of dumb things I've heard this year. I would love to be able to finish the story, and finish it properly. Until that happens, it will always be an unresolved issue with me.

WORKING WITH CHRIS FRANKE

Q: How closely did/do you work with Christopher Franke on the music for the series?

A: Chris and I sit down to spot the movie (meaning I call out the spots, minutes/seconds/frames) where I want the music to come in and go out. I give general directions, more in terms of the emotion of the scene or my intent than in musical terms because I don't speak that particular language with any facility. On rare occasions I'll say I want a particular instrument, or a particular sound. Usually it's left to Chris, who knows what I want better than I do sometimes.

A: It would be possible, but we'd have to lay things out and schedule them in such a way as to allow me to do the work properly.

Q: A while back you mentioned pulling together a graphic novel for Babylon 5. Where does that stand right now?

A: I'm in the process of nailing down the story, which may work out to be a pre-WWE Sinclair/Sheridan crossover, involving Mars, Minbar, B5 and a conspiracy.

A: Here's the dopey thing...I can answer this and a bunch of related stuff, I just can't say what it IS because the PR department still hasn't gotten to issuing the silly press release.

In general details...

We prep July/August; we plan to shoot right after Labor Day. (Labor actions permitting.) In addition to a two hour pilot, there are now 6 scripts in the works. We've begun refining budgets, talking cast, music, crew, staff have been hired in various areas, contracts have been signed, we have a firm order on 20 hours of TV for this project...we even have a date for our debut, March 15th 2002.

I just can't tell you what it IS yet.

I still think the first five produced were our best of the ones we shot, in terms of the ones I wrote. The best scripts of mine per se would probably be the two that didn't get produced but which were made available via bookface.com, To the Ends of the Earth and End of the Line. I think they would've kicked over the table and shown where the production, and the story, was going. They're also the ones I wrote after "Apperances," which is where I decided, "Fuck it, fuck TNT, fuck the notes, I'm just gonna go back to what I was doing for the first 5 and write what I want." I got pissed, and sometimes I write best when I'm angry about something.

Weakest of my scripts...probably The Long Road, which started out as a good idea, and is still about 70% a good idea, but it's over-written and it feels...I dunno... stagey, somehow.

You actually happened to hit me with this question on a reflective night, so I'm taking a bit more time than I normally would with this.

I was talking to a friend recently, and I mentioned that in looking at the Crusade episodes on SFC, something about them bothers me...not the performers, who are all great, or the direction, which was generally quite good (with some lapses), but the writing. They didn't seem to me to have the same level of energy as B5.

To which I was told, "You want to know the truth of it? I was glad when they shut down Crusade." Now, as you might expect, I was kind of taken aback by this, and asked for clarification and what this had to do with my original statement.

The reply: "You were *exhausted*. You did five years of backbreaking work, you were averaging 3-4 hours sleep a night if you were lucky, you lost your hair, your health, and a good-sized chunk of your sanity...you were *tired*. The best thing would've been if there had been a year break between B5 and Crusade, to give you a chance to catch your breath. Would it have made a difference to TNT's decision? No. They changed their mind about the show based on their new ratings surveys before you ever shot a frame of film. But you wouldn't be sensing that lack of energy in the episodes now.

"Look at the stuff now: the Rising Stars screenplay is getting fast-tracked, the studio and the network love (title deleted until press release is issued), it's some of your best work ever, and Rangers has the energy that B5 always had, that Crusade didn't. It's still better than 95% of what's out there, but it's not you writing at the top of your top form."

"So how come you didn't say this at the time?" I asked.

"Because then you couldn't have heard it, wouldn't have listened. Now you can."

Hearing something like that is very difficult, because we all like to think we're invulnerable. In retrospect, I think there's a measure of truth to it. Maybe more than a measure.

Crusade is a good show. It got beaten down after the first five, stayed kind of beaten down through network notes and my own fatigue fighting fights that I shouldn't have had to fight, then picked up with the two post-fuck'em scripts because my energy was gearing up again at that decision. But overall it was a good show.

Not that it made any difference to Crusade's eventual fate; that had zero to do with the writing, acting, or directing, and everything to do with an internal corporate TNT decision about SF in general. Even written at 100% of my energy level, even if it had been a GREAT show instead of a very good show, it STILL would've met the fate it met. Of that there is no question.

It was starting to pick up speed again with those last two scripts. I think we would've eventually progressed in quality to where it needed to be.

But I had just enough energy to get it started, to write and produce it, but not enough to go through all that AND the day-to-day battles with the network. Having gone through five years of hell on B5, I could handle any two of those three, not all three.

And I'm wondering now if, in the long run, maybe it was the best thing that could have happened. If it had not gone the way it did, I almost certainly would never have been in a position to do the things I'm doing now...a (still classified) high-profile and high-budget TV series for one network, a B5 TV movie that will almost certainly go to a series on SFC, and the Rising Stars feature film in addition to a bunch of other stuff. And it's all fresh, with energy, there's fun there, and I think Rangers will have the fun and energy and cool stuff that is emblematic of B5.

I've always tried to be very forthright in my appraisal of my own work...I know where my strengths are, but I also know where my failings are, and I think one needs to be blunt about both. So I tend to be pretty merciless when looking back at this kind of thing, but I think it's necessary.

It's weird to think that I'm actually in a *better* position now, in terms of my career and the quality of my work, with Crusade having gone the way it did, than I would be if it had continued...but there it is.

It's a funny old world, you know...?

The opening episode did a 1.1, and the second night (Needs of Earth) got a .9, both far and above what was anticipated...and significantly, as season openers go, "Racing the Night" (my original pilot/opener) built in audience whereas "War Zone" (the one TNT commissioned) decreased in audience on their respective opening nights.

Not at all, because I haven't been doing the B5 production fandango for the last 5 years nonstop. And the workload, at least at this point, looks like it's going to dovetail quite well....

We shoot the Rangers MOW May/June. The other (still TWCBN*, alas) series would begin prep July/August, and (labor relations permitting) shoot right after Labor Day (I just realized how appropriate that is...that's damned funny).

Shooting the 20 hours involved in The Other Project will take us through January, maybe into early February. If Rangers goes as a series, we'd probably start shooting in February/March. We've even discussed having crew going from one project to the other, and just rotating between them.

*That Which Cannot Be Named

Projects outside of Sci-Fi

Q: What kinds of material do you enjoy writing outside of the sci-fi genre?

A: Not that terribly much anymore, to be honest. Most of what I used to do in other areas came by way of journalism...used to work for the LA Times, the LA Herald Examiner, San Diego Magazine, TIME Inc., the LA and San Diego Readers, Writer's Digest and others...varyingly as columnist, contributing editor, special correspondent...doing features, reviews, columns, interviews, that sort of thing.

At the moment, in my copious spare time, I'm writing a medieval play (which I've been working on for quite some time, and will which probably continue to take a good long time to finish because it's that kind of play) and I'm about 150 pages into writing a mainstream novel, which I figure I'll be able to finish during the coming writer's strike (which doesn't cover prose).

One of my mainstream stories to come out recently is "We Killed Them in the Ratings," which though horrific isn't technically a horror story.

A: When I sit down to write, I go over and revise the previous day's work. This lets me catch up mentally with where I left off, and condenses the revision period so that by the time I'm done...I'm done. So I'm constantly tweaking, trimming, revising, and otherwise mucking with the words. Once it's done, it's pretty much done. This is especially vital in TV which doesn't leave much time for going back and revising; you finish it, slit your wrists, and go on to the next script.

A: There are a couple of factors in the questions you ask. First and foremost, my comments about getting the heck out came at a time when I was emotionally, physically and psychologically exhausted by the demands of telling this particular story. People who know me, know what it did to me.

(Emblematic of the toll it was taking...it's pro forma to insure actors at the beginning of each season so that if they are injured or killed or otherwise incapacitated, the show is insured against that loss. Production staff -- writers, producers, others -- are almost never similarly insured. But after season 2, seeing what it was costing to get this show made, the powers that be insisted that I be insured, so that if I collapsed or dropped dead the show would be insured. I'm always reticent to talk about that kind of thing, because it seems really indulgent, but that's the truth of it.)

I've had a bit of time to catch my breath since then -- though none of my hair has grown back -- so I think I'm in the biz for a bit longer. I figure I've got another couple of shows in me...but I can't let any of them be as dramatic an effect on my life again, it's just too debilitating.

The other factor in all this is that, in doing 5 years of B5 and one of Crusade, I became very attached to this universe. I like visiting it. Even when I'm not working in it, the characters are there, in my head. So there's the lure of kind of going home again.

A: Writer's strike (if it happens) would be triggered on May 2nd, which is why the script has to be totally finalized before then. The actor's strike (ditto) would take place July 1st. We'd be finished well before this.

Q: Has an airdate been determined yet?

A: Airdate hasn't been finalized yet.

Q: Filming begins in mid-May. What happens then?

A: General rule of thumb for any kind of TV movie: 8 weeks prep, 6 weeks post, anywhere from 17-24 days shooting. Any network can hold any show for as long as they want, though the longer they hold said show, the more difficult it becomes to hold cast, crew, sets, stages.

Q: With Netter Digital no longer in existence, will you be hiring or forming a new CGI team to handle the Ranger film?

A: Yes, we'll be looking to employ a new EFX firm, probably in the Vancouver area.

A: We've already discussed shooting it in wide, and *editing* in wide (rather than 4:3 as we did on the B5 series) and then *compositing and creating cgi* in wide, so that however it gets initially shown, it'll exist from the git-go in a true wide version.

A: It's certainly something I'd pursue when it comes time to do the series.

A: You've gotta understand...I've always done multiple projects. While I was story editing Twilight Zone, I wrote and sold my second novel, was writing a monthly column for Twilight Zone Magazine, and hosting a two-hour weekly talk radio show on KPFK-FM Los Angeles, Hour 25.

At the tail end of B5, I was handling all the post production for B5, writing the 2 new movies, writing and setting up Crusade, writing multiple outlines for the various Del Rey novels, writing the "We Killed Them in the Ratings" novelette that was published shortly thereafter in an anthology, and writing Rising Stars.

It's just kinda what I *do*.

It's always been that way with me...I like writing in a lot of different fields at the same time because it keeps me from going stale. The more work I have, oddly enough, the better I get...I'm at my worst when I have only one thing in front of me, and I fret over it and second-guess it to death.

I sometimes think I'm the only creature known to modern science whose natural environment is hot water....

Re: hiring actors/actresses for a few days only:

When you do episodic TV, you look at the days per episode that somebody works. When, for instance, we had Richard Biggs do an appearance in Crusade, it only required being there for a couple of days out of a 7 day schedule.

It's standard in that kind of situation to look at the actor's weekly fee and pay them for the number of days they appear. In other words...and these are totally bogus figures, just for ease of discussion...if Actor X gets 7,000 for a 7 day shoot, then if you only need him on another show for 2 days, you pay $2,000. If you need him for the whole episode, you pay the full $7,000.

That's what we did with Richard, and what we've always done.

On shooting the production in Vancouver:

LOTS of shows are shooting in Vancouver, with all KINDS of budgets. X-Files and Millennium shot up there for years and were *massively* expensive shows.

Our budget for the TV movie is absolutely in line with what's usually spent...and if you actually knew anything about TV production, you'd know that you don't spend the money to fly someone from LA to Vancouver, put them up, and do all the rest...just to use that person for a walk-on.

So the SciFi Channel asked me what order I'd like to air the series in, since the folks at TNT kafuffled the airdates and schedule based on what I'd originally had in mind. The theory is, you start out with general episodes to introduce the situation, characters and story, then you focus on individual characters. The first five we shot, intended to produce this effect, got shoved to the back of the line and we then had to air the individual-themed ones *first*...essentially inverting the order.

So SFC asked me what the preferred author's order would be...and that's how they've structured it, costume change be damned. Yes, there will be some dialogue glitches now, because we looped a few things to try and do least violence to the chronology of previously shot shows...but from an overall story perspective, this is the preferred order (as best I could remember it when they called and asked).

So here is the order in which the Crusade eps will be broadcast:

Mon, April 9 8:00 PM CRUSADE RACING THE NIGHT
Tue, April 10 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE NEEDS OF EARTH
Wed, April 11 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE MEMORY OF WAR
Thu, April 12 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE LONG ROAD
Mon, April 16 8:00 PM CRUSADE VISITORS FROM DOWN THE STREET
Tue, April 17 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE WELL OF FOREVER
Wed, April 18 8:00 PM CRUSADE EACH NIGHT I DREAM OF HOME
Thu, April 19 8:00 PM CRUSADE PATTERNS OF THE SOUL
Mon, April 23 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE PATH OF SORROWS
Tue, April 24 8:00 PM CRUSADE RULING FROM THE TOMB
Wed, April 25 8:00 PM CRUSADE THE RULES OF THE GAME
Thu, April 26 8:00 PM CRUSADE WAR ZONE
Mon, April 30 8:00 PM CRUSADE APPEARANCES AND OTHER DECEITS

"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.

I'll be posting this to the scifi.com/babylon5 board in a bit, but the jist of it is this....

I sat in the room with the editor while they corrected this error, and the revised copy of the episode that I received on vhs was, indeed, corrected.

My suspicion is that they've put all their emphasis on getting the correct S2-4 widescreen eps delivered to SFC in a comparitively short amount of time, and haven't sent them the new master yet. (The closed captioning that appears there now is a different process.)

I have a call in to WB now about this, but I suspect that the above scenario is correct. I think they preferred at this stage to put all their efforts into getting the big problems done first, focusing on the smaller problems later.

JMS on "Casting Shadows" Date: 26 Feb 2001 19:31:52 -0700 Q: I like the length of the new book. It gives you time to get to know the characters.

A: That's something I was very pleased with when I saw the length of the book. You really need to spend time with the story and the characters for the incidents provided in the outlines to make any kind of dramatic sense or impact.

Purely subjective opinion on my part, but the best writing these days seems to be showing up in:

Sopranos
Oz
West Wing
Futurama
Buffy
Angel

Those are my must-see TV programs. I've also been impressed with the improvement in writing on Roswell. I kinda like Ed but I usually end up watching it through parted fingers 'cause for someone who grew up as socially awkward as I did, it's just painful....

Here's my dilemma: there are two definite go projects that I can announce. But I can't announce either of them because it's not within my purview to do so. The studios have to make those announcements.

The problem is that one deal has only recently been concluded, and the other -- a done deal since January -- has been awaiting the studio PR department to put out a press release. They haven't been in any particular hurry to do so since (information deleted) won't start until the Fall.

So I've basically been going insane since January, with Big News to announce, but not being able to say *anything* because it would be a serious breach of studio protocol. If I so much as eep they'll beat the crap out of me (and rightly so, to be fair about it).

So I'm waiting as much as you are...with the exception that as a result of both these projects going ahead, I'm drowning in work and can't spend that much time thinking about how I'm going nuts.

JMS UPDATE

Q: What did you use during your "pitch" session for Babylon 5?

A: They were given the pilot screenplay for The Gathering, an extensive series treatment with sample stories covering most of the first season, with notes on where the series would go, and lots of sample artwork on the station and the characters.

With some exceptions, it was very close to what became the B5 writer's bible, which was available for a while via thestation.com.

Q: How did you map-out Babylon 5? It's technology, history, etc?

A: I basically took a historical perspective on the story, and just laid out the basic events going about a thousand years back, and a thousand years forward in fair detail, and thumbnailed-out the rest for about a million year period.

I alway figured that Earth would have pretty much the lowest tech level going in, because that would make it more interesting, and preserve some of the wonder of SF storytelling...you only get that sense of awe when somebody else has something you don't.

Latest JMS News:

Rising Star Movie:
"Film-making is a long process. The first draft is in, I'm currently revising it for a second draft. If all continues to go well, and so far it's gone very well, we could film this sometime in the fall or spring of next year, so it could conceivably be in theaters by next fall/winter. Assuming nothing glitches along the way, and you always have to assume those things."

New Writing Panel:
"I forgot to mention in my last post that on March 26th, I'll be doing a panel discussion on writing for the fantastic, which will be carried via satellite to various universities and the two divisions of the Museum of Television and Radio. The panel will feature me, Harlan Ellison, Chris Carter and 1-2 others TBD."

Q: What will be the first DVDs released?

A: The first disk will have In the Beginning and the SE version of The Gathering.

B5 Graphic Novel:
Q: What sort of length will the novel be?

A: My last conversation with them indicated a length of about 100 pages, give or take.

Q: Can you tell us the context of the graphic novel?
A: I think I'd like to do something in continuity with the series, so that it feels like an unproduced episode...but I haven't decided yet, and don't want to go too far down that road until I've talked more to the guys at Wildstorm. They've been great in all this, they initiated the project, and I want to be sure that welcome is treated properly.

Q: Who owns the rights to the comic, WB or DC?

WB owns the rights, which reverted after DC stopped doing the books. They'd rather not go to an outside company for political reasons.

CRUSADE:
As announced today in a press release from the SciFi Channel, the network has picked up all 13 episodes of Crusade for broadcast this Summer. This will be the first time the series has been broadcast since its brief, original run on TNT.

I received an email the other day from Fiona Avery (B5 reference editor, columnist for the B5 Magazine and script writer for both Crusade and Earth: Final Conflict) announcing that the first issue of her new, original comic, NO HONOR, will be debuting next Wednesday the 21st from Top Cow/Image. (I've seen the scripts/artwork and it's killer.)

B5 GRAPHIC NOVEL
On the topic of comics...I will be writing a one-off B5 Graphic Novel for Wildstorm that will debut later this year. I figure on writing it as soon as I get out from under my current deadlines.

(later post about the graphic novel:)

I think I'd like to do something in continuity with the series, so that it feels like an unproduced episode...but I haven't decided yet, and don't want to go too far down that road until I've talked more to the guys at Wildstorm. They've been great in all this, they initiated the project, and I want to be sure that welcome is treated properly.

One aside...as you know, most viruses that go out these days tend to attach themselves to Microsoft Outlook email address books. Apparently there's an *awful* lot of you out there that have me in your email address books, even though you may not have actually used it in that way. Hence, whenever one of these viruses gets out, as one came out today, I invariably get a bunch of them in my email box. Just as a favor to me...if you don't actually *need* my email address in your address book, can you delete it to help me out when this kind of stuff happens? It ain't like I'm hard to find....

B5 ON DVD

And finally...yes, it's true, B5 will be coming out on DVD starting with The Gathering and In the Beginning, to be released in July. The series will start soon thereafter. I've been going over the artwork and related issues for WB Home Video, and though at this time there's no supplementary material involved, at least as far as I know, it should be pretty cool. (Don't know yet which aspect ratio they'll be using, but my *guess* would be widescreen, now that WB is correcting the earlier versions.)

All of that said...as noted well above, there's some substantial TV-related news sitting out there waiting for me to talk about it as soon as I'm given the go-ahead to do so. Suffice to say that one very large deal has now been set and closed, another is in heavy negotiations (with money now on the table from those involved), and a surprise third project is also coming up fast and furious.

More on these when I'm allowed to talk about them. Probably sometime next week.

jms

While I'm waiting for permission to talk about some of the big stuff that's going on, some general news....

As announced today in a press release from the SciFi Channel, the network has picked up all 13 episodes of Crusade for broadcast this Summer. This will be the first time the series has been broadcast since its brief, original run on TNT.

I received an email the other day from Fiona Avery (B5 reference editor, columnist for the B5 Magazine and script writer for both Crusade and Earth: Final Conflict) announcing that the first issue of her new, original comic, NO HONOR, will be debuting next Wednesday the 21st from Top Cow/Image. (I've seen the scripts/artwork and it's killer.)

On the topic of comics...I will be writing a one-off B5 Graphic Novel for Wildstorm that will debut later this year. I figure on writing it as soon as I get out from under my current deadlines.

One aside...as you know, most viruses that go out these days tend to attach themselves to Microsoft Outlook email address books. Apparently there's an *awful* lot of you out there that have me in your email address books, even though you may not have actually used it in that way. Hence, whenever one of these viruses gets out, as one came out today, I invariably get a bunch of them in my email box. Just as a favor to me...if you don't actually *need* my email address in your address book, can you delete it to help me out when this kind of stuff happens? It ain't like I'm hard to find....

And finally...yes, it's true, B5 will be coming out on DVD starting with The Gathering and In the Beginning, to be released in July. The series will start soon thereafter. I've been going over the artwork and related issues for WB Home Video, and though at this time there's no supplementary material involved, at least as far as I know, it should be pretty cool. (Don't know yet which aspect ratio they'll be using, but my *guess* would be widescreen, now that WB is correcting the earlier versions.)

All of that said...as noted well above, there's some substantial TV-related news sitting out there waiting for me to talk about it as soon as I'm given the go-ahead to do so. Suffice to say that one very large deal has now been set and closed, another is in heavy negotiations (with money now on the table from those involved), and a surprise third project is also coming up fast and furious.

More on these when I'm allowed to talk about them. Probably sometime next week.

A: I haven't talked to Chris yet, but I can't imagine doing another project in the B5 universe without him.

NEW B5 PROJECTS AT SCIFI

JMS has a way of popping up when the subject of Babylon 5 arises. This happened recently at the SCIFI/Babylon 5 Message Board. There is always a lot going on there, but JMS dropped over and here's an excerpt from the note he left:

"To confirm what Bonnie Hammer has stated, yes, there are conversations ongoing between SFC, WB, myself and Doug Netter about some new projects. I'm not at liberty at this point to be much more specific than that. Could be a movie in the B5 universe. Could be a series set in the B5 universe. Could be a combination of those, plus a little something else. Suffice to say that SFC wants to become the new home for B5 in all its parts and pieces, and there are several possible ways to accomplish this currently under discussion.

We may have some resolution on these issues as early as next month. To that end, we have verified the availability and interest of those who helped make B5 a success among the crew, and everyone we have spoken to is excited and ready to get going. Same crew, same quality, same dedication.

Beyond that, I can't comment...except to say that if we get the go-ahead on what I think may be coming, it could be a very exciting opportunity to do another kind of story that no one's ever done before in SF TV, just as no one had ever done anything quite like B5 before.

So watch this space, keep an ear to the ground, and stay out of trouble...interesting times are a'coming...."

jms

For those of us who have been on-line with JMS for a while, this has to be some of the BEST news we've had in a LONG time!

A: Actors and writers get residuals each time an episode is aired. The amount of that residual is not based on the ratings, so any actor can't tell how it's doing based on that.

There are three different formulas used to compute ratings, one for network, another for syndication, a third (and the crummiest) for cable. Crummiest in that the amount of the residual is tied to the amount paid for the rights to show the series. Consequently, many of the studios that own cable networks (as Universal owns USA Network, for instance) sell the shows to themselves for the smallest amount possible.

Hence, a residual that, for a third or fourth airing, might bring a couple thousand bucks elsewhere, in that situation brings you literally about five dollars.

This is one of the issues being addressed in the current pre-strike negotiations.

A: I've just today approved the last of the colored pages on Midnight Nation 5, and I think this is the strongest issue to date. It gives you a preview of what's coming down the road (again my tendency to show you what's coming at the end, but you don't know the context) and it's just completely kickass, especially the artwork, which is impressive as all hell.

I think it'll be out in a couple of weeks. Keep an eye out for it, it's a good one.

Same deal here, the last of the colored pages came through on Friday, so it should be out in a few weeks.

SCIFI Postings Following the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette article, JMS posted the following on the SCIFI Message Board:

...I'm not usually as cranky as the last few messages would imply. It's...well, there's a joke about a kid who, at seven years old, has never spoken a word. One day, at dinner, the kid looks up from his plate. "The soup's too salty," he says.

The parents are astonished, numbstruck. "You can talk!"

"Of course I can talk."

"Well, why didn't you SAY anything before now?"

"Until now, everything was fine."

That tends to be the dynamic through which I get pulled into situations like this...when there's a problem that needs to be addressed. And then I come in all elbows and angles. So that sometimes becomes the way I can be perceived..."Boy, jms sure is pissed."

No, not really, that's just the only context in which I get seen sometimes...one of those "until now everything was fine" situations.

To those who've wondered...yeah, I do sometimes lurk here, checking out the messages (avoiding anything that looks like a story idea, natch). I don't post here as a rule because I've discovered over the years that my presence can sometimes have a cooling effect on discussions, people can feel hesitant to say something negative about the show if I'm right there.

Truth of the matter is, I have no problem with anyone who has a negative opinion of B5 or anything else I've written. For starters, you can't argue with someone's opinion of something. Their facts, if they're wrong, sure. But not everybody is going to like the same things. I like milk chocolate, I don't like dark chocolate, white chocolate is a contradiction in terms and an abomination in the eyes of the lord. Your mileage will vary. That's okay. It's SUPPOSED to be that way. No matter what you make, there will be a bell curve of people who unequivocably love it at the one narrow end, people who unequivocably hate it at the other narrow end, and in the middle, people who like it or dislike it to varying degrees. As long as the bell curve slants more to the like than the dislike, you're doing okay. But ain't no way everybody's gonna like everything you do. Just not possible.

And there's nothing anyone can say about B5 that's harsher than some of the things I've said about it at times as I've slogged my way through making it, imperfections, goofed voice-overs, warts, clumsy lines and all. There are any number of episodes I'm not thrilled with, and one or two that I wouldn't mind if they fell off a pier somewhere. (And most of them are shows I've written.) So I certainly don't take issue with ANYone with similar responses.

Having an open exchange of opinions is important, so I don't usually poke my snout into the situation unless there's a direct need for same. The only drawback, as noted above, is that when I do come in, it tends to be in full avenging angel mode, which is unfortunate because about 99% of what I've seen here, and on other, similar boards, is nothing but terrific. As usual it's the demented 2% who screw things up for the rest.

Before retreating back into the shadows, if you've managed to wade through all this verbiage, a couple of bits to make the long and over-written voyage a little more salutory....

To confirm what Bonnie Hammer has stated, yes, there are conversations ongoing between SFC, WB, myself and Doug Netter about some new projects. I'm not at liberty at this point to be much more specific than that. Could be a movie in the B5 universe. Could be a series set in the B5 universe. Could be a combination of those, plus a little something else. Suffice to say that SFC wants to become the new home for B5 in all its parts and pieces, and there are several possible ways to accomplish this currently under discussion.

We may have some resolution on these issues as early as next month. To that end, we have verified the availability and interest of those who helped make B5 a success among the crew, and everyone we have spoken to is excited and ready to get going. Same crew, same quality, same dedication.

Beyond that, I can't comment...except to say that if we get the go-ahead on what I think may be coming, it could be a very exciting opportunity to do another kind of story that no one's ever done before in SF TV, just as no one had ever done anything quite like B5 before.

So watch this space, keep an ear to the ground, and stay out of trouble...interesting times are a'coming....

jms

A number of items here, of varying timeliness and relevance.

As some have noted, Bookface.com is now an ex-website. For those wanting to get their hands on Tribulations, the book is still available from darktales.com. There are no plans currently to put the book up anywhere else online.

Rising Stars 12 and Midnight Nation 5 came out a few weeks ago (would've made more mention of this but it's been kinda hectic here lately on a number of fronts).

(And speaking of comics stuff, Crusade writer and B5 Reference Editor Fiona Avery wrote the script for the X-Men Annual 2000, which came out last week from Marvel. Her own series, No Honor, will debut from Top Cow late February. Folks can keep up on her stuff at www.fionaavery.com)

My first draft screenplay for the Rising Stars movie went in on Christmas day, and the studio reaction has been EXTREMELY positive. I can't say more about this at the moment, but things are looking very good for the long haul on this.

I've turned in 4 scripts for new City of Dreams episodes, but due to production tie-ups on other projects at Seeing Ear Theater, they won't be up at www.scifi.com/cityofdreams until around the first week of February.

Finally...and you'll have to forgive the vagueness of this...B5 fans may want to keep their ears to the ground for the next few weeks. There are several things that have been simmering for a while now, which I haven't commented on because I wanted them to be realities, not possibilities, before I said anything. I think the former may finally be working out...so keep an eye on this newsgroup for the next few weeks. There may be a number of interesting announcements.

A: The information John cited is not accurate; the spider is too important an icon to the Spider-man mythos to remove.

Coming Strike Concerns:

Q: With the coming writer/actor strike, how will you be filling your days?

A: I've got 3 comics per month to turn out (Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Spider-Man), plus the weekly Psycomic column, and the City of Dreams scripts aren't affected because radio drama covered any more by the WGA, and I'm writing a new novel, more of a mainstream book, and there's other stuff...I don't generally have or take time off.

Q: What type of writing is not covered by WGA?

A: WGA covers TV and film and is working on covering internet TV productions. That's it.

Only working for WGA covered areas is prohibited during a strike. I can write for my own pleasure all I want (though what that has to do with the nets is anyone's guess).

One of the things that kinda fell by the wayside was The City of Dreams, and now that Jeremiah is in, taking away half of my biggest worries for the moment, I'm working to catch up. I've now turned in episodes 8 and 9, and hope to have the remaining 4 in by the end of the year.

I just last week turned in Midnight Nation 5, "Past Present, Present Tense," and my intent is to turn in the next issue of Rising Stars, #13, probably next week.

Moments before coming here, I turned in next week's psycomic column, this one on writing and characterization.

My first issue of Spider-Man will go in to Marvel around mid-December. It will come out around May/June of next year.

There's more stuff beyond that, but I can't talk about it yet. Probably in the next week or so. A couple of them should be of particular interest to B5 fans.

And for those missed the first few issues of Rising Stars and have been wondering when the trade paperback was coming out...well, it's out. "Rising Stars: Born in Fire" gathers the first 8 issues, plus various covers, with Neil Gaiman's introduction. It hit newsstands this past week.

After bugging the guys at darktales.com, I've gotten them to lower the price a bit for the Tribulations trade paperback, so this may be a good time to check it out.

The Jeremiah pilot movie script is in at Showtime, and we'll know something about the disposition of said pilot in about 2 weeks.

(A non-directly-jms related plug: the friendly folks at factory-x.com have just come out with the secong large pewter sculpture, a Black Omega Starfury, which looks even better than the station figurine. They also have one of the niftier opening menus for the B5 stuff, with music and the B5 logo in various languages (Minbari, Narn, Centauri and others.) You can find the whole shebang at http://www.factory-x.com/B5.html

Today I went to a meeting at Warner Bros. technical support, where we went over the problems detected in the SFC widescreen airings. I now have some answers and some information on this. I have to say up front that the WB folks have been nothing but helpful and determined to fix the problems.

In "Midnight on the Firing Line," wherein a teapot is shown instead of a starship when the audio indicates the latter...the editor explained that it resulted from a pause/freeze frame during assembly, and when he restarted the equipment, it jumped shots. This will be fixed.

In "Covictions," wherein a comp shot of several monitors doesn't show the surveilance footage, but rather shows just the original babcom logo...they had missed this on their list of comp shots, and will go back and insert the proper footage now that they know the problem is there. (They QC everything, but often with the audio down, so they had no way of knowing that they were talking about camera footage, and figured that it was okay since there was something -- the babcom logo -- in the monitors rather than totally blank screens.)

In "Inquisitor," wherein the west end/east end audio correction wasn't made...they were going off the original PAL audio transfers, which in this case didn't work because we made that audio correction *after* broadcast and replaced the audio for that shot afterward. They're going to go back to the revised 24 track audio and insert the proper audio.

Here's what's going to happen beyond this.

1) WB is going to go back to using *only* the original 24 track audio stems for the dubs.

2) Seasons 4 and 5 as it turns out are already in proper wide versions, as is season 1, so the only ones that need to be addressed are seasons 2 and 3.

3) WB is going to run cassettes of the whole series in the new version and I'm going to personally go over every damn episode personally looking for any potential problem areas (such as comps that may not have been recognized as such by the WB editors). It's possible that I may miss something here and there, because 110 hours is a LOT of TV to watch...but it'll certainly help.

They were *extremely* helpful and apologetic at WB, and are determined to do everything they can to fix the situation as fast as possible.

As for the audio...the audio transfers are being done directly off the original clones (either the original PAL, digibeta or 24 track stems), and QC'd. So what they suspect *may* be the problem is if the SFC is running the digital tracks through a dolby decoder. If you try to decode Dolby that isn't there, on a digital track (which doesn't need Dolby because it's digital) it can make the audio crunchy or lead to drop-outs, pops and other problems. I've sent word to SFC to have them check that at their end of things.

So the situation is well in hand.

A: No, not at this time. Be advised, btw, that anyone selling copies of scripts other than the actual ones used during production, which are multicolored, is ripping you (and the writers) off. It's patently illegal and constitutes copyright infringement.

Q: Will remaining scripts in the Fan Club inventory be available for sale?

A: That is not feasible. Only a few scripts were on hand in the fan club offices, so while those might be in play...under the WGA separation of rights provision, the writer of a script owns the rights to the actual, physical script, so that would be me and whatever other writers worked on B5. Nobody can authorize the sale of such scripts but the writer.

There will be some delay on the physical delivery of the tapes, because the original prints are all in cold storage, and you literally have to allow them time to defrost before you can run them through, and then there's the duplication time involved...and we haven't yet determined if new copies will be provided from S2 ep 1 and on in that order, or if they'll try to nail the next ones up in the airing schedule to get the corrected versions on the air sooner...but either way, we have been given assurances that the problem is now being dealt with.

SFC has been very helpful and patient in this situation, and it looks as if there was an error at the duplicating lab contracted by WB, literally a case of loading the wrong prints into the system, because the S5 eps are in proper widescreen, so we're looking at errors in S2-4 only.

To further assure that these errors are not perpetuated, we will have teams of Democratic and Republican observers present to...oh, wait, sorry, wrong crisis.

With any luck, this will be my last word on this for the time being, because this group really should be discussing B5 stuff, as many folks have requested.

I've never been a straight-party voter on any side of things. I was more than happy to vote McCain because I thought he was the best man in the race at that time. When he fell out, I felt that the best man in the race at that time was Gore, and voted accordingly.

Somebody asked if I'd accept Bush at the end of all this if the votes go his way. It was, and is, a silly question. I will accept *whoever* the vote ends up favoring on either end of the spectrum. (Not that it's up to me to accept anybody, it's a legal process that has nothing to do with me.) I had serious reservations about Nixon's performance as president, but I never questioned his *legitimacy*. I just thought he didn't make a very good president.

As I said elsewhere, I cannot imagine *anyone* on hearing proof positive that one side or the other engaged in illegal maneuvering, not wanting to take whatever time was involved to investigate the situation and ensure that those responsible be dealt with under the law.

And I equally cannot imagine anyone, on hearing proof positive that the election results were arrived at in a legal and proper way, not accepting as final and conclusive the results of that election.

If Bush, at the end of the day, is legally the winner of all this, no voter fraud involved, then one cannot question his legitimacy. That's the way the system works.

Do I think he will be a *good* president? Honestly, no. But I have always been willing to give any new president the time and space needed to prove otherwise.

I would hope that both sides would agree with this sentiment, whatever their own personal assessment of the individual in question.

That aside...I've been ruminating on this whole situation, and have come to the conclusion that this is a massively good thing for the country as a whole. Why?

Several reasons.

In recent years, we have been a fairly uninterested nation as far as politics and the mechanisms by which politics are carried out are concerned. If you asked any group of people a few weeks ago to explain the electoral college, few could've done so. But you cannot now walk into a restaurant or a bar without hearing people debating the relative merits of the electoral college, discussing the validity of butterfly ballots, and the role of the judicial system in the implementation of votes in the executive branch. It is, for the most part, healthy, productive, energetic and *informed* discussion.

An involved, excited electorate -- even a pissed-off electorate -- is an *informed* electorate, and that cannot but bode well for the future.

A month ago, a lot of people didn't bother to vote because they didn't think it would make a difference. Now, with states teetering on going one way or another by as few as 17 votes, nobody can think that way and a LOT of people are kicking themselves for not voting. I suspect that in four years, this will lead to a massive turnout of people determined not to make the same mistake twice.

This whole situation has brought into clear focus the still-remaining problems with ballots and the methods of balloting in any number of states, problems that have never really been dealt with before because until now there was never a *need* to deal with them. Now that they have been brought to light, this will almost inevitably lead to reforms and clarifications.

Some people have referred to this as a "constitutional crisis." But it's not. This IS the system working, using all of the various permutations set in place at the federal, state and local levels, at the polling place and the court house. What this says is that WHATEVER the problem, sonuvagun, there are peaceful and statutory means set up to deal with them.

If the system didn't work, if this were a constitutionsl crisis, there would be no other option but violence. And that ain't the case here. Either side going the legal courtroom route isn't going outside the system, the courts are a PART of the system, part of the chain of checks and balances that keep the whole together.

Out of this will come precedent and changes that will be useful the next time something like this happens.

Government and situations like this are part of the process of considering new contingencies and developing ways of working around them. If you look at the Constitution, you see a group of bright people who sat down and considered every possible variation or contingency that could be foreseen at that time, and who wrote down what to do in this event or the other. Most of those are still utterly applicable today, and the ones that don't address the problem directly still set up the parameters by which they can be addressed in other ways.

The Constitution is a living document, and this current situation is simply one more opportunity for growth and learning.

At the end of the day, whatever means or methods are used, and whatever one may think of the person involved on either side, we WILL have a new president. We will have one with legal validation, and that president will come into office in a peaceful transfer of power.

That is the very *core* of the Constitution and the system that has grown up around it. It *is* the process. The process has not broken down.

Whenever there's a situation like this, everybody says not to push things, that the system can't take it. The system survived Watergate and Vietnam and the Civil War and the fight for Civil Rights and two world wars and a bunch of smaller ones. It will survive this quite handily.

Over time, barnacles, moles and pocket fluff accumulate on any system of government. From time to time, something must occur to shake loose the growths and dust off the lint. This is such a moment.

It is not a crisis. It is a good thing.

jms

Nov. 13 from JMS:

I expect that we will have some kind of resolution on this situation next week. I've been in discussions with several people from the technical division at SFC, giving them the information they need to backtrack with WB and figure out what happened. They had no idea there was a problem until several second season eps had aired because there was no reason to do any kind of check against the regular aspect ratio episodes since all of season 1 was correct.

We know they're ALL in widescreen in PAL format because we worked closely with WB to ensure they were all fully conformed when B5 was completed. And a number of us visited WB technical ops and also went to Laser Pacific to view eps from two later seasons during season 5. (We made the field trip so we could evaluate how the cgi comps were transferring to PAL in order to make some minor adjustments to color value balance in future comps, which sometimes showed line trading. And I received confirmation from WB at that time that they were finishing up the last of the widescreen deliveries.)

Anyway, as stated we should have some reading on this next week.

Insofar as I know, SFC has nothing to do with the conversion of these episodes. They run what WB gives them to run. If there are audio or video glitches, the eps came that way.

The audio is a good example. A number of people have voiced concerns about how the eps sound, and I think I've figured out what the problem is there.

When we mixed B5, we used the full dynamic audio range. We came close to illegal audio every so often -- y'know, when your subwoofer threatens to explode during a shadow battle -- but we never crossed the line. Nonetheless: it's a VERY dynamic mix.

I suspect -- I don't know but I suspect -- that when they did the transfer of eps, they didn't go back to the original stems. They probably just transferred the eps via a standard duplication system which has built-in audio limiters that look for excessive (for TV standards) highs and lows and damp them down.

The result is that the audio becomes "crunchy," if you will, or static-y, because you're losing frequency waves at either end.

What they're doing to the video, I don't know.

But SFC is getting a bad rap on this, and it's undeserved.

Craig Engler, Executive Producer of SCIFI.COM posted this note recently at the B5 message board:
The short version is: The programming department at SCI FI is trying to figure out what's going on with the letterboxing for season 2. The first we heard of any problems was a note from JMS saying that the fans were concerned. Right now the programming department is in the midst of looking at episodes to see what the cropping situation is, etc. Once I know more I'll let you know. Thanks everyone for bringing it to our attention, and apologies for any inconvenience.

The ratings are holding rock solid on B5. For the last five weeks, they look like this:

0.7
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.7

Prior shows in that timeslot averaged .4 to .6 (and oddly enough we've doubled the ratings for kids and teens in that timeslot) and it bumps up every time from its lead-in.

For some kind of comparison, the most recent list of SFC shows that I've seen puts B5 in the top 10 (#4 to be exact), well ahead of most of SFC's original programming.

New Projects

The Scripts for Jeremiah and Rising Stars is due soon. How are they coming?

A: The final draft of the Jeremiah script has to be in by December 1st for a production decision; my goal with the Rising Stars screenplay is to get it turned in at the first-draft stage on December 1st, get notes and revise over the holiday break.

The first draft on Jeremiah went to various parties about a week ago, and has thus far met with very positive response. There's still a ways to go, but the signs are positive thus far. There are layers and layers of bureaucracy when you're back at the networks.

JMS On The Elections

A: Well, it looks like the jury is still well and truly out...talk of irregularities and missing ballot boxes in Florida....

Haven't had this much fun since good old Mayor Daly and the ballot-stuffing boys of Chicago....

If you check out cbs.com and abc.com, you will find reports of police cars outside polling centers in mainly black communities in Florida ticketing people who showed up to vote for minor offenses, intimidating african-americans...a so called "computer glitch" which gave the Socialist candidate -- who was polling literally 1 or 2 votes in every other county -- nearly 10,000 votes in *one county* that may have been for Gore...the 10,000 Gore votes that disappeared from Vusalia (sp?) county after they had already been logged into the computer...

Not to mention the GOP calls to older people telling them they couldn't vote unless they *specifically registered* for this election, and best of all, the call that THEY GOT ON TAPE AND GAVE TO THE FBI from a GOP phone bank saying that people had to bring their voter registration cards with them to be eligible to vote, and if they didn't, it could cause them legal trouble.

We're looking here at some massively serious allegations of vote fraud, intimidation, and more.

The GOP has literally tried to steal the election.

Also, MSNBC just reported that 19,000 ballots were *thrown out* because they had two holes punched for presidents, as though somebody had gone through and mass-punched ballots to disqualify them.

Choice of Candidates

Get real...this is the worst you can do in opposition to Bush, who lied to the press about any prior arrests, changed his driver's license number to make it harder to track such arrests (and was arrested at least once or twice more for vandalism and rotten behavior), got his daddy to put him in the National Guard to avoid the draft and went AWOL for 90% of that, never bothering to show up for his tenure there, and may now be at the center of the biggest and most blatant attempt in decades to steal an election through fraud and intimidation?

Yeah, much better choice.

A: In theory, yes...WB didn't want to let the book outside "the family" so they wouldn't let anyone other than DC do it, but now that Wildstorm is owned by DC, it's a possibility.

http://www.thetzsite.com/pages/color/articles.html

One of the features is a new weekly column by me (each Monday) and a new weekly column by Kevin Smith (each Friday).

My column is entitled "Letters From the Edge," while Kevin's is "Views Askew." My first installment is "I'm Fine, How Are You?" in which I try to avoid writing a mission statement.

Boy, has this been a week....

As most folks know by now, the news about Marvel entrusting me with their flagship title The Amazing Spiderman broke on the nets Monday/Tuesday. As a longtime Spidey fan, this is something I'm looking forward to enormously. You can expect to see the first jms-written issue of TMS probably around March or April of next year.

On Wednesday Rising Stars 10 came out (and Midnight Nation 2 is due out in 2 weeks).

Also this week...after writing my first pass on the outline for the Rising Stars feature film (tentatively entitled "Born in Fire"), MGM read the outline, loved it, had a couple of very smart suggestions...and as of Wednesday, I've been put to script.

On Thursday, some friendly folks at Warner Bros. asked if they could take up the banner of my project The World On Fire (formally with Chris Carter) and take it out in the Spring to sell it as a series.

I also turned in the outline for the pilot TV movie this week, and today, Friday, was put to script on THAT project as well. With that hurdle passed, I can now talk a little about it. The network is indeed Showtime, as some have speculated, with Paramount Television the studio attached, and it's for an hour-series (debuting with a two-hour pilot movie) slated for their Sci-Fi Fridays slot. The project is based on an outside source, though I can't yet comment on that. I'm on as executive producer/show runner. In addition, feature film director Joe Dante is aboard also as executive producer, and he will be invaluable in setting the visual and directorial tone of the series. It's been an absolute pleasure working with Joe, and if we get past the next few hurdles -- every series has to go through the stages of pilot outline, pilot script, decision to produce the script and then the go-order on a series, same as with B5 and every other program -- I'm *really* looking forward to working with him on the series.

The Rising Stars movie screenplay will probably be turned in sometime middle or late November; the Showtime TV movie screenplay will probably be turned in around November 1 for production reasons.

It has been just an *astonishing* week....

Because I've been up to my ears in work the last few weeks, like an idiot I kept forgetting to update the Tribulations info posted earlier.

The entire manuscript of Tribulations, my first new novel in 12 years, is now up at www.bookface.com, having been serialized last month in 4 weekly segments. It's been at the #1 spot now since it first went up, and now it can be read all the way through online for free.

(And for those who want to actually buy the thing -- and be entered in a drawing for the keyboard on which I wrote most of Babylon 5 and other stuff, signed and with a letter of authenticity -- it's available over on www.darktales.com.)

Other stuff still available to be read free online at bookface include: the last two scripts I wrote for Crusade (the arc-starter To The Ends of the Earth, and the planned season one cliffhanger End of the Line), and three short stories of mine, Say Hello Mister Quigley (dark fantasy), Cold Type (contemporary fantasy), and We Killed Them in the Ratings (novelette length thriller).

Aside from my stuff, btw, Bookface has really expanded its inventory of new original works by established and up-and-coming writers...it's fast becoming the place to go to find out what's coming up on the horizon in terms of rising SF and fantasy writers.

I supported John McCain early on, even though I've traditionally voted democrat, because I thought there was a man of great substance up there behind the podium. I don't believe in following party lines, I try to find the best person for the job.

I think Gore is okay. I'm not massively enthusiastic, I think we could've done better on that count, but at the end of the day, he's okay. I think he'll do a decent, reasonable job.

I definitely do NOT want GWB in office, for very strong reasons.

This is a man who said, when he was told that there might be a huge budget shortfall in Texas as a result of his administration's choices, "Well, hopefully I won't have to worry about that." This is not a man who we should put anywhere NEAR the White House.

Further, major corporations put up nearly $100 million bucks, the largest in history, for his primary campaign. Corporations like that don't put up money at that level unless they think they're going to be getting something back in exchange. This is a man who is going to be absolutely beholden to big business, as he was in Texas, where the first things he did was to provide a massive tax break for big oil, and the "tort reform" he lauded later was a bill to make it harder to sue corporations when they do bad stuff.

This is a man who is a total chameleon. When McCain trounced him in one of the primaries as a reformer, suddenly Bush came out with all these banners saying HE was a reformer. He co-opts the other guy's stance when the other guy is ahead because he really has no other stance other than "I want the job."

He was packaged and picked because the party heads think Bush was a brand name they could promote, and because he was well placed to get the southern vote. They picked him because of logistics, not because he was the best man for the job.

He's prissy, arrogant, brittle, not terribly bright, and if he gets anywhere near the White House the damage he will do the country will, I believe, be *substantial*.

A: Is it a rule? No, of course not. I was speaking of the matter of honor and of principle and of responsibility, things not overmuch popular in a time of "Leave me alone, I can do whatever I want, you're not the boss of me."

One is not *required* to help a person who is being assaulted in the street...but a basic requirement of decency and humanity is that we *try*.

When I was a guest at Chicago Comic Con a few years ago, some guy was caught shoplifting in the dealer's room. He punched the dealer and started running, the dealer followed, yelling for somebody, ANYbody, to stop the guy.

Nobody moved, which is when it came inside my peripheral vision.

The dealer got a partial hand on the guy, but the dealer was an older man, he wasn't going to be able to take this guy, who was a toned (as it turned out Navy) guy.

So I jumped in and tackled the guy. The two of us brought him down, and we held him, against his struggling, until the cops finally showed up.

We live in a representational form of government, which has a lot of problems and a lot wrong with it. It also has a great deal to offer: the street lights generally work, the mail generally comes, we are generally free to voice our opinions without fear of gulags or death squads.

To vote is *our part of the bargain*. If we want government to keep to THEIR part of the bargain, how can we in all good conscience not keep *our* part of the bargain?

I'm not jingoisitic, I know and am quite open about all the problems of this country and this government. But I also vote every year, year in and year out, good candidates and goofballs, because if I don't, then I'm not entitled to gripe about the consequences.

Every year, fewer and fewer people vote, meaning that our futures and our fortunes are being dictated by an increasingly smaller portion of the population because the rest just don't want to be bothered.

And I'm sorry, but to me, that ain't the proper perspective of a citizen. It's not just a one-way "gimme" street.

To vote is not the *legal* requirement of a citizen -- and by the way, the freedom you cite is first and foremost the freedom to choose the form of your elected government -- but it *is* a moral and ethical requirement.

Because if you don't exercise it, sooner or later you will lose that freedom and all the others you cherish, because those with a vested interest in making those freedoms go away will be the ones to pass the final laws, unopposed by dissenting voices at the ballot box.

Freedom does not equate laziness.

I said it in the show: you must choose the future you want, or others will choose it for you.

CLAUDIA CHRISTIAN'S LEAVING THE SERIES

Q: Did you consider just recasting the role with Tracy Scoggins when Claudia Christian left the series?

A: I've heard this before, and while it's a sensible and reasonable assumption to make, the one thing wrong with it is that it ain't true.

When Claudia left, I roundfiled (trashed) thefew scripts I had been working on with her character because they could not be used. They were first and in some cases second drafts, or partial scripts.

The scripts with Tracy in them were written for Tracy. Period.

As annoyed as I (and the rest of us) were with Claudia when she chose to leave, at the same time I just couldn't justify recasting it like that. It just didn't feel right to me, and I suspect a lof of fans would've felt the same way.

Looking back:
Q: In hindsight, would you do things differently with the series?

A: In general, there isn't a frame I wouldn't go back and tweak in editing, a single line I wouldn't want to revise one more time to get it tighter or more to the point.

In more specific terms...the problem I had going in was that no one had ever done anything quite like this before, and as a consequence there were no road maps, no guidelines. I was kind of inventing the form as I went along, and I've always been somewhat insecure about my work, as many writers are, and there were times I'd think, "Christ, there isn't enough going on, I need more stuff happening here or else it's going to be just the writing and I'm dancing on the edge as it is"...and the threads would get so dense and manyfold that there were times when I was afraid I might actually lose control of the thing and the whole thing would tip over and end up in a ditch.

It took me a while to realize that I could relax and trust the writing to take me where it wanted to go. It was only this slowly dawning revelation that let me write things like Comes the Inquisitor or Intersections in Real Time, which is really just two characters in a room. I didn't need a lot of intrigue-ridden threads all over the place to keep things moving, it was okay just to write the scene and the characters and let the drama play itself out.

And there were times I didn't adjust to stuff as fast as I would've liked. When we got unionized in season 3 -- the most painless such activity I've ever seen, by the way, but still a distraction -- I was in the middle of writing Exogenesis. Then my world got kicked over by the negotiations, and when I came back to the script finally, 7-10 days later...it had gone cold, and I'd lost the fingerprints of the story. I couldn't drop it because we needed it in the pipeline to shoot, but in my view the first half of that episode sets up a cool premise that is not quite lived up to by the second half.

Same thing when Claudia chose to leave the show. That was a hard one on all of us, but in my case, I had a whole arc worked out for her that had to be dropped. I suddenly had to bring in a new character, weave her threads out of the tapestry, and adjust everything else in the first third of that season totally on the fly. (And on top of all that, my detailed notes on the first half of the season were tossed out by the hotel staff that moved my stuff from one room to another in Blackpool without checking with me. I had to recreate stuff on the one hand and angle it all off in a different direction on the other, both at the same time.)

While I think I did okay, it ain't pretty in a lot of places. If it had happened in the second or third seasons, I could probably have handled it with a bit more finesse, but at that point we were all on the edge of exhaustion. (Indicative of that: each season of a show, actors are brought in to a doctor, checked out, and insured for the season, so if something happens to them, the company is insured against delays. For the first time I know of, the writer producer (viz: me) was given that treatment -- this was a mandate to me, because others had noticed what the show was taking out of me -- so if I upped and died of a cardiac infarction in the middle of things, or collapsed of exhaustion, the company would be covered.

A: When it played even better than I'd expected it would. On a script, you see the scene and you think, "Well, I think it'll work," but you never really *know*, and like everybody else in the business, I've been fooled...something that looks like gold on the page turns into a dog when it hits the stage or the editing room, and something you thought wouldn't work ends up being massively cool.

Severed Dreams, the scenes where Sheridan makes his decision on hearing that troops are coming in...and Delenn's timely arrivel...I knew they'd be good, but I had no idea the real effect they'd have until I saw 'em in the editing room. Same with the Sheridan takedown in Face of the Enemy.

Probaby the biggest example, though, is Sleeping in Light. I knew that the last scene(s) would be effective from the script and the edit...but when we laid in Chris Franke's score, even before we had the EFX done, I began to realize that this was going to be a *crusher*. We didn't have the final EFX in until late 5th season -- I didn't want to finish it and give anybody a chance to accidentally run it early -- and when they were dropped in...it ruined me when I watched it straight through for the first time.

A: Emotion is the hardest thing to do in TV, because of the constant interruptions by commercials. And there's this kind of too cool for the room sensibility that passion is passe, and it's all about the plot...which is why a lot of shows are *interesting* but not a lot of them really ramp up your emotions.

Drama is supposed to make you feel something. Hell, go all the way back to Twain...and this is from memory..."A short story or a novel should make you *feel* something for the characters, for the good to succeed and the bad to fail. In (title) you feel none of that. You want them all to land in hell, together, as soon as possible."

Otherwise what's the point?

My theory of writing has always been that if I can make myself laugh, the odds are that I can make the audience laugh; if I get misty eyed at something I'm writing (and it happened a LOT on B5), the odds are pretty good, since I'm a fairly restrained kind of guy, that it'll have that effect or more on the audience. So yeah, I tend to feel what I'm writing, because that's the only way TO write.

Those are kind words, and I hope that at the end of the day they may even become true. I'm too close to judge.

The only thing I do know in this regard comes from a quote from, I think, Madeline L'Engle. She said, "If an artist exists in true service to the art, then the art is greater than the artist." There were times on B5 when I didn't know WHERE the hell this stuff was coming from...I only knew that it was bigger than I was at times, and the moments that were created as a result were something...important.

That, at least, is what I hope for.