I'm not so sure about this - RE the B5 encyclopaedia.

[Triple F]

After reading a comment on another thread about what’s considered canon when it came to compiling the B5 encyclopaedia, I took a look at the recently released extract covering the letter G.

I got to admit, I’ve never read any of the comics or books – so the subjects covered on the bulk of the entries are new to me – I never knew G’Kar had a daughter for example. But I have watched the series.

There’s a few little things which I won’t mention here – but something that did jump out at me was the entry for the Great Machine.

A vast computer construct built five miles beneath the surface of Epsilon 3 by Varn’s species some time prior to 1758. The Great Machine was hidden to keep it from falling into the hands of an outcast branch of the originating species.

But the builders of the Great Machine has long been considered one of the great mysteries surrounding the show. Most likely it was a story thread that was just dropped because the second actor to play Draal wasn’t available. jms himself even said this kind of thing.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/019.html

Of course, insofar as I recall, it wasn't stated in the episode that Varn's people actually *built* the Great Machine; after all, if they could build it, why would the others have been searching for it so frantically for the last several hundred years?

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-9826&query=built%20great%20machine

You may not find out who built the Great Machine in the series, but that will be one of the features of one of the planned TNT movies. And there will be more on the Valen/Sinclair transformation as well.

The second quote was made in ’97 – years after A voice in the Wilderness. So in other words, he’s confirming the builders of the machine were not revealed at that point in the show – and as it turns out they never were.

[Jan]

Chances are the best person to answer this sort of question of would be Jason Davis. In addition to the 'ordinary' source material like the show/comics/novels/etc., we also saw from the Artifacts & Behind the scenes offerings that he had access to JMS' documents from the show.

[Triple F]

It’s just that – if I’m reading and understanding the referencing system at the end of each entry – it only lists 7 episode numbers as the source of the information within the entry.
(120, 121, 219, 304, 316, 317, 412).

So it’s unlikely that any of it came from production notes and the like – as production notes and memos, etc, have their own codes.
(AG, 200, 400, 500)

jms’s online comments – like those about some race other than Varn’s were the builders - also have their own codes, and of course they’re not included as what he had said isn’t part of the entry.
(RAST, B5M, CIS, Genie)

[b5historyman]

I hope that these factual ommissions will be corrected in due course.
I've sent my latest research from the Historical Database to Captain Jaclyn and Lieutenant Brandon to assist.

[Jan]

It's my understanding that the entry is based on what's seen onscreeen - which JMS has said trumps any posts. Anything further I suggest you take up with them at the usual email.

[Triple F]

It's my understanding that the entry is based on what's seen onscreeen - which JMS has said trumps any posts. Anything further I suggest you take up with them at the usual email.

Interesting. When did he say that?

[Jan]

Interesting. When did he say that?

I knew somebody would ask and I tried to find it in the archives. Either I'm not using the right search terms or it's one of many posts that got lost over the years and database crashes. Some time I'll try to find it via Google Groups.

The gist of it was (paraphrasing) 'in twenty years nobody's going to be reading these posts so what's on screen should speak for itself.'

[alpha128]

I knew somebody would ask and I tried to find it in the archives. Either I'm not using the right search terms or it's one of many posts that got lost over the years and database crashes. Some time I'll try to find it via Google Groups.

The gist of it was (paraphrasing) 'in twenty years nobody's going to be reading these posts so what's on screen should speak for itself.'

Jan, I think this is what you're looking for:

What airs is considered canon; in 15 years, nobody's gonna be hauling these messages around. But the show will still be on the air. If it airs, it's canon.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/075.html#JS

[Jan]

Jan, I think this is what you're looking for:

YES, thanks, that's exactly the message I was thinking of.

Here's the link to the archived post. Don't know why I had twenty years stuck in my head. http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-9562

ETA: Pretty sad that his posts are still freely available and the show's only recently available after several years.

[Kraig]

YES, thanks, that's exactly the message I was thinking of.

Here's the link to the archived post. Don't know why I had twenty years stuck in my head. http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-9562

ETA: Pretty sad that his posts are still freely available and the show's only recently available after several years.

Maybe because the archived post was 20 years ago?