JMS and b5

[Shadows the first ones]

i would like to know. Has JMS given up on making B5? I do know it is deficult to find the funding for B5 but i am sure that there is a way. personaly im not in position to help im still lerning. got about 6 more years b5 i have my diploma in moving images and give it a shot my self. i have so many ideas soch a big veriaty of posibilitys that can be explored. Im not a script righter nor do i want to write a script for B5 for the simple reason of that no one will do a B5 script better then JMS, but why dont he, does he not feel pashenatly about his chield as we do??

[Jan]

Anybody from B5TV who recently read what I'm about to post, feel free to move on.

i would like to know. Has JMS given up on making B5?

Hi Shadows, glad that you've joined us. As for your question, it's one that JMS is asked fairly frequently. This is what he said recently:

From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Is B5 dead?
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 5/25/2005 11:24:08 PM

"Are we now reduced to hoping for a book once or twice a decade? Is
there any reason to have hope for more of what we love so much?
Is Babylon 5, as we know it....dead?"


This question comes up periodically, and I'll give it pretty much the
same answer that I always give...that there is a difference between
*dead* and *complete*.

If a novelist writes a book, and he doesn't write five more books in
that universe, with those characters, is the book dead? Or completed?

When I embarked on B5, I wasn't out to create a franchise, wasn't
looking to springboard this out into a zillion other projects...I
resisted merchandising, and made it clear to all parties that this
would be five seasons, no more. Because that's I figured it would take
me to tell that story. The only thing I asked of the universe was that
I be able to tell the story to its end, and that I not die before
finishing it. That's all.

And somehow, both happened...and I'm happy with that.

I've said it a hundred times before...if something happens to come up
in the B5 universe that's fun to tell, and someone wants to provide a
venue, great...if not, also great. I told the story that I wanted,
needed to tell. When Zack says, in SiL, "We did what we said we were
gonna do, and nobody can ever take that away from us," that was the
author speaking through him.

What I set out to do with that show, I did, and nobody can ever take
that away. I told the story I wanted to tell. Everything else is
lagniappe.

jms

Now, I'm not JMS and don't know any of his thoughts other than what he posts, but what I see it boiling down to is that he's told the story he set out to tell, the story that had him knocking on doors and working to sell B5 for four or five years before the pilot was made. That was the story that he had to tell, no matter what. And he told it even though it literally almost killed him.

Because the universe he created is so well thought out, so textured and detailed, there are other stories that can be told and he certainly wouldn't mind telling them. But he also has many other stories to tell, too. We've heard of some (Polaris, World on Fire) and can experience others (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, the upcoming Book of Lost Souls etc.). As JMS wrote in July of 2003 after word came out that he wouldn't return to Jeremiah:

It's great that you want the next thing I do to be the same as the last thing I did. But that ain't why I'm in the game. I want the next thing I do to be *different* from the last thing I did.

It's the difference between having ten years of storytelling...or one year of
storytelling ten times.

So the way I read it, yes, JMS would enjoy doing more stories in the B5 universe but there are people who want him to tell other stories in other universes knocking on his door already so he'll wait for the ones who want him to tell more B5 stories to come to him and put the package together. When that happens as a feature film, he's promised to make sure that it's done right. He's proud of being known as the creator of Babylon 5 but he won't limit himself to that one universe, either.

I'd love to have more B5. Movie, TV series, books, comics...I don't care I'd love more. But I've also enjoyed his other work a lot, too. JMS wrote in February when he told us that TMoS wouldn't be happening that he has faith that one day there will be a B5 feature film. Once upon a time he also said the same about there being B5 DVDs and he was right.

I can wait.

Jan

[Shadows the first ones]

all well and true sad about IMoS i actualy was a[[lyed to be one of the extras in it lol but of well i never got the call

[Towelmaster]

I think that 'confining' jms to B-5 and its spin-offs is the same as if people would have forced the Beatles to play the same ol' style forever.

It was fantastic while it lasted, and perhaps some more will come our way sometime, but right now I personally consider the B-5 universe to be what jms wanted it to be.

We have seen what happens 1 million years from now in that universe, we have gone back to before the war with the Minbari. What more could you ask for if not just more of the same?

Nobody should add to a Picasso except perhaps Picasso himself. And I think that jms is doing other worthwhile stuff now.

[Shadows the first ones]

after a story and there is another one that spawns from the origans storys spirt!!! all i can do i supose is hope that ill make it far enough to make another one of them sstorys come to life

[Hunter]

Your right. But I guess, in the end it comes down to the luck of the draw. We had Crusade. We had LOTR. We would have had TMOS. JMS has not given up on his B5 universe, but I think it's just a lot more difficult to pull anything off now (taking into account various things, such as the entertainment industry as it is). And its easy to say "We did everything we set out to do" - But theres so much stuff left untold, granted a lot of which is in book form. I for one would like to see the many stories that unfold between Objects at Rest -> SIL on the screen. Although we kind of, well... did... It just got killed early.

[Jan]

If I had my choice of which story to see next it would probably be the Telepath War. I want to see for sure what happened to Lyta and to Lennier.

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

Did I read somewhere that Lennier and Lyta were killed at the same time in an explosion, possibly blowing up a PsiCorps building? or was it separately?

There are so many bits and pieces of things out there it's hard to keep track of what is real and what's supposition.

[Jan]

Did I read somewhere that Lennier and Lyta were killed at the same time in an explosion, possibly blowing up a PsiCorps building? or was it separately?

There are so many bits and pieces of things out there it's hard to keep track of what is real and what's supposition.

Actually, that one's 'sorta true'.

Highlight to read semi-spoiler for Crusade episode:

In the original draft of "The Path of Sorrows", the teep who Mattheson helped was supposed to by Lyta. This had to change when an agreement wasn't reached with Pat Tallman. In the original draft, Lyta got her psi back and there was a shot in a hallway where she triumphantly calls Lennier's name. We were supposed to see a Minbari fighting from the back (no face). The next shot was the same explosion that was shown in the episode and the inferrance is that both were killed. BUT since the script was revised, that scene can't be considered canon so we don't really know if that's what did/will happen.

Clear as mud, huh?

Jan

[jahkneebee]

I, more than any other plot line to extend, would like to see:

The Adventures of Lyta and G'Kar

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall on that trip!

[Spoo Junky]

Clear as mud, huh?

Jan

Thanks for clearing that up (sorta)

I guess she couldn't know what would happen since she's not a psychic, but I wouldn't expect Lyta to get in a situation like that with her "super-superhuman" teep powers. S--t happens, I suppose

[Jan]

I guess she couldn't know what would happen since she's not a psychic, but I wouldn't expect Lyta to get in a situation like that with her "super-superhuman" teep powers. S--t happens, I suppose

I'll check sometime tonight to make sure but I'm pretty sure that what the teep cut out with the syringe she got from John was a homing device or transmitter of some sort. Could be that she was supposed to get away before the explosion? I'll see what the script says but I know it's not 100% certain what happened to them.

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

She may have got herself in the situation on purpose - it can't be easy to live with so much potential power (although I'm sure there are plenty out there who could, and not always with the best intentions).

But who can know what's in a person's head and what they intend to do Sorry, I had to put that in there

Whatever the case, at least Bester couldn't fulfil the contract she signed when she rejoined the Corps. Score one point for Lyta

[Hunter]

Babylon 5: Pleasure Threashold

Signed!

[Jan]

She may have got herself in the situation on purpose - it can't be easy to live with so much potential power (although I'm sure there are plenty out there who could, and not always with the best intentions).

But who can know what's in a person's head and what they intend to do Sorry, I had to put that in there

Whatever the case, at least Bester couldn't fulfil the contract she signed when she rejoined the Corps. Score one point for Lyta

Okay, I checked the script. In the drafts where it's Lyta who was the prisoner, it seems that she used her power entirely-there was no mention of a transmitter. In the final revision, it was a homing device with a telepathic trigger that only Alison could activate and "Then the others will come." Of course, the explosion could have been something set off by the Psi Corps itself, too.

As for what was in her mind? I would hesitate to guess in this case. Lyta changed so much in the last season that it's hard to know if she fell into the 'something worth dying for' trap that others on the show did. Depriving Bester of his prize would have been a tick in the 'For' column, though, I'm sure!

Jan