Fun with scripts

[Jan]

Every once in a while, while reading the scripts, you'll run across something that brings you out of the story but reminds you that the person writing the script was having fun doing it.

Remember Garibaldi's famous: "Why is it always thin air? Never fat air? Chubby air? Mostly fit but could stand to lose a few pounds air?" line in "Grey 17 is missing? Later on in the script, when Lennier comes up to Delenn as she's being threatened by Neroon, JMS wrote: ...and Neroon is gone, as though vanished into chubby air.

In "The Coming of Shadows", when describing the battle between the Shadows and the Narn, JMS requests: A Ron Thornton special.

And earlier, in Mind War, knowing that he was asking a lot, JMS wrote: PANNING AWAY from the survey ship to a nearby empty sector of space, as we begin to SEE a DISTURBANCE FORMING in the fabric of space. (Good luck, Ron.) It's almost but not quite like a jumpgate forming...rather, it's space itself seeming to bend, collapse.

In "Soul Mates", Peter David describes a transisitional shot of the station:
EXT. BABYLON 5
In case viewers forgot where we are.

and

EXT. BABYLON 5
Transition shot. Collect 'em all. Trade 'em.

What have you guys found?

Jan

[JoeD80]

I had noticed several similar notes, but I don't know them off the top of my head. I'll have to scan through the scripts again!

[nottenst]

Every once in a while, while reading the scripts, you'll run across something that brings you out of the story but reminds you that the person writing the script was having fun doing it.....
In "Soul Mates", Peter David describes a transisitional shot of the station:
EXT. BABYLON 5
In case viewers forgot where we are.

and

EXT. BABYLON 5
Transition shot. Collect 'em all. Trade 'em.

I guess you forgot that most of us haven't seen Volume 3 of the Other Voices collection or have Soul Mates in our personal collection.

Neil

[Jan]

Well, I did know about those from before the script books, yeah. Hope that wasn't too much of a spoiler!

Here's the only instance I know where JMS uses an actor's name in the script; from "Wheel of Fire" when Sheridan goes into the isolab to tell Delenn that she's pregnant...

I leave her silent reaction, as they embrace, to Mira.

This one was always my favorite, though; from "Secrets of the Soul":

As Lyta clutches Byron, holding him tight, not just the physical release, but the release of what she's seen and known and had to carry for so long. (I wonder which is more embarrassing, reading this or writing it?) He wraps his arms around her, seeing past her.

Jan

[WorkerCaste]

Hmmm. No Lyta's Lingerie from that day's shoot, I guess.

[glindros]

I know it would be a massive undertaking by hand, but just out of curiosity I wonder what jms's top ten words used in the script would be, excluding the common words ( e.g. and, if, he, she, in, go).

[OmahaStar]

I know it would be a massive undertaking by hand, but just out of curiosity I wonder what jms's top ten words used in the script would be, excluding the common words ( e.g. and, if, he, she, in, go).

10. Chump
9. Chumpette
8. Yours
7. Up
6. Pimpmobile
5. Bite
4. My
3. Shiny
2. Daffodil
1. Ass

[glindros]

10. Chump
9. Chumpette
8. Yours
7. Up
6. Pimpmobile
5. Bite
4. My
3. Shiny
2. Daffodil
1. Ass

Daffodil #2? Wow! Now that's a surprise., I would have figured #5 tops.

Back on topic, I'm just curious what words or phrases we see jms use over, and over again, his pet phrases so to speak.

[Spoo Junky]

I remember "in the final analysis" coming up a bunch of times.

If you watch several episodes on one sitting, or within a few days, there are phrases that just start to stick out.

[Jan]

Here's one I just found. In "Mind War", Talia and a businessman are talking about what it's like to be a telepath and just after Talia relates how strong emotions tend to leak through, they get on a transport tube and...

...and behind her, Garibaldi gives Talia the once-over with his eyes, checking her out the way men sometimes do (I'm told).

Of *course* JMS has never done anything of the sort, I'm sure!

Jan

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I'm just curious what words or phrases we see jms use over, and over again, his pet phrases so to speak.

"When the time is right"

Variations on "Sending them all straight to Hell".

Just off the top of my head!

[raw_bean]

10. Chump
9. Chumpette
8. Yours
7. Up
6. Pimpmobile
5. Bite
4. My
3. Shiny
2. Daffodil
1. Ass

Ah, Bender Bending Rodriguez, my hero!

[nottenst]

And Now for a Word

I'm reading "And Now for a Word" and there are some delightful descriptions in the script.

From Scene 2

CYNTHIA TORQUEMAN, a tintanium-platted stunner whose eyes glitter like two ice crystals buried beneath the arctic shelf since the early cretaceous period.

From Scene 8, describing Londo

And he smiles a smile that tells you butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

And right where I just left off at the end of Scene 21, after Torqueman talks with Ivanova

And that's where she leaves it. You could drop an asteroid on her, and you wouldn't get anything else.

What a treat to read these.

Neil

[Jan]

Oooh, good one! I like this one from Act Three of "The Fall of Night":

Sheridan sits slumped in the middle of the couch, jacket off,
shirt sleeves rolled up, drink in his hand and an "I could give a shit if the universe explodes" look on his face as Ivanova enters.

Jan

[timk519]

eyes glitter like two ice crystals buried beneath the arctic shelf since the early cretaceous period.

I'm curious what ice crystals buried beneath the arctic shelf since the early cretaceous period would actually look like....