Daniel M. Upton <75442.1331@compuserve.com> asks:
> What is the story on the Grey Council?
> PS, What part of Patterson were you born in?

Thanks. The easy thing to do, the TeeVee thing to do, would've
been to go from Sheridan's line "All ships return to base," to the
exterior with the big ships, and fade out. But I try to keep this show
from doing the easy thing. Yes, you had a victory. Yes, it was
necessary. But what's the cost? We shouldn't glamorize these things.
Even at the end, as you notice, even at the end of the reception...we
go out on an ominous note.

What part of Paterson? The downscale part of town.

jms

Daniel M. Upton <75442.1331@compuserve.com> asks:
> Paterson has an *upscale* part?

"Paterson has an *upscale* part?"

Used to.

jms

{original post had no questions}

"...hit between the eyes." Yeah, that's the correct reaction,
I'd say.

Yes, it's easy to fire on the enemy when it's a faceless
entity; not as easy when it's someone you know. Kinda brings it home,
makes it personal.

We rode the audio on some sequences right to the legal limit;
don't know if we got clamped at any point along the way, to explain the
surround drop. Will look into it.

Thanks again.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Did we get cut or did you leave it to our imaginations?

No, we cut that shot pretty close, to go out on the bang. Your
local station didn't cut anything there.

jms

{original post unavailable}

No, there's an actual limit to the frequency/volume you can pack
into an episode. Go over the legal limit and you can get into dutch
with the FCC. We went real near it, but didn't pass it.

jms

Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com> asks:
> Do advertisers have to stay within those boundaries?

Advertisers generally go right up to the limits of the sound,
but can't go over it. They just use up *all* the frequency range, so
it seems louder and bigger.

jms

Joe Salemi [ZD Net] <72631.23@compuserve.com> asks:
> And Mira?
> And the look in her eyes?

Thanks, and yes, there's definitely fire and steel in Delenn,
which she calls upon when she needs it. And nobody crosses her when
that happens.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Thanks. Yes, it's designed to get you revved up at the retreat,
it's our natural reaction. The TV Logic thing to do would be to go to
black at that point, and the commercial. But this show is about
consequences, choices and responsibility, and to *not* have that last
scene would be a betrayal of that. Otherwise it's just jingoism.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Of course, one wonders how he managed to get such a plum
> position, hmmm? When exactly did the effects get finished for this
> episode?

All I'll say here is that there were *so* many EFX here that we
mixed the episode a few days before delivery, and got it down there 2
hours before the process for uplinking the episode to stations. It was
the hardest thing we've ever done...but it was worth it.

jms

Rick Sharon <76416.2213@compuserve.com> asks:
> What can I say?
> Is this your best to date?
> You and your entire crew (actors, special effects, casting -
> EVERYONE) must be extremely proud of this masterpiece - as well
> as a little aprehensive - how do you top this?? But, who are the
> traitors? But, what of the Grey Council members that broke from
> the council to side with Delenn? Traitors to what had been their
> ruling body? Probably won't be enough, but at least he'd go down
> fighting and it could help distract Clark's troops? I guess their
> (Shadows) time of quiet preparation is over? Definitely not
> comfortable but, who would would be? I could almost see/hear the
> wheels turning in John's head ("this is it, no turning back, time
> for "the" decision, it's in my hands, -my- decision" - replaying
> events up to that point, wrestling with alternatives, "are there
> alternatives?"
> - just plain numb over the weight of these events?
> ships, situation hopeless - surrender or die?
> "What do I tell his and Hague's wives?"

Wow, that's a lengthy examination. Thank you for all that,
and the effort. Great encouragement. I appreciate it.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks. Any work of fiction must, on some level, make you
*feel* something for the characters, so it isn't just an intellectual
exercise, or the resolution of the plot. If you can touch the
emotions, then you've got something very special.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks; you're right, it's the moments that make any good show.

jms

Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com> asks:
> "Will you give all you can give so that our battle may advance?
> Some will fall and some will live; will you stand up and take the
> chance?"

Thanks. Yeah, the older I get, the more I realize there are
things you can do with silence you can't do with words, though I still
love the form of the speech. There was a lot of counterpoint in this
episode, a tool I'm still playing with as a writer; eventually I'll
figure out how to really use it properly. (Though there's an
interesting scene up later this season using another kind of ironic
counterpoint which I think works pretty well.)

jms

Joe Salemi [ZD Net] <72631.23@compuserve.com> asks:
> Are they new?
> Whose are they?

Those are the Vree; we saw them in season one, in Deathwalker.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Is there a reason she wanted Sheridan's part in the Conspiracy of
> Light kept under wraps, but expected something very different
> from the Grey Council? Wouldn't that have jeopardized the chances
> for success for the Conspiracy of Light? Secondly, I'm curious as
> to whether the three Minbari warships are the sum of the fleet
> the Religious and Worker Castes have at their disposal? Anybody
> ever tell you your stories are addictive? ?

Thanks. The Grey Council could've taken a lot more action to be
supportive behind the scenes, getting the warrior caste more involved
with the rangers, giving aid to the non-aligned worlds...there was a
LOT they could have been doing all this time that wouldn't have
required tipping their hand. Instead they sat and did nothing. And
now, with B5 on the edge of falling, to say it's not their problem was
too much. Now is the time they have to start coming forward.

jms

{original post unavailable}

In a sense, it's going from one emotion or thematic element to a
very different, but equally strong one, either as bookends or through
intercutting. Going from the high of the victory, to the sudden shot of
the dead troops, is thematic counterpoint.

Here's another...in "Cabaret" you've got a scene where the
performers in the Cabaret are doing the sort of German dance where you
slap your knees and thighs and chest...and they take it a bit further,
slapping one another, it's all for comic effect...but during this,
you're intercutting the owner of the cabaret being beaten to within an
inch of his life by some Brownshirts outside. You go from comic to
brutal and back, with the result that the happy little dance suddenly
takes on ugly characteristics, and the beating takes on the sense that
the participants are having a sick kind of fun, that it's all just
another kind of dance, a ritual.

That's what you have to look at as a writer...how this scene
works, and how it interacts with the scenes in front, behind and
"beside" it (for things happening simultaneously). Sometimes, with the
proper counterpoint, you can add whole new levels of meaning to a
scene, or make the scene much stronger than it would've been on its
own.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Why have we not seen any scenes showing the people in the
> opposing forces?

We haven't seen those scenes because we don't know anyone there
really, and in an hour show you only have so much time, and within our
budget we only can do so much. Every speaking role you add costs
thousands of dollars. Every set costs thousands of dollars.

We're doing the absolute best we can with a budget roughly 1/2
of any of the ST episodes.

If it isn't *absolutely necessary* to the scene, it isn't in.
Yeah, seeing some folks in EA talking back and forth about well, maybe
this isn't a good idea, maybe it is, well, let's get back to
work...it'd be an interesting aside, but in addition to slowing down
the pace of the episode, and this one had to move like a house afire,
it's just not something I felt we could or should do.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Then we both wondered whether the plasma weapons tend to
> cauterize and seal the wounds???

Correct, PPG bursts, being superheated helium, tend to
cauterize the wounds as they go through.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> How do they protect the station from damage caused by collisions
> with debris, and do they even attempt to gather up the remains of
> the dead floating around out there?

We've shown clean-up crews before outside, including a hazmat
station that goes out to clear away fuel cores or other toxic material.
They would've been dispatched for this.

jms

{original post had no questions}

I hope nobody takes this the wrong way....but I think some of
the earlier slowness in the first season episodes has something to do
with being ST-programmed. It's a pacing we've all kind of gotten used
to, lots of standing around and discussing stuff, and for everyone
concerned, particularly the freelancers, it's a *very* hard mindset to
break. It took a while to work that out of everyone's system so we
could concentrate on telling a story the way only we can.

Also, bear in mind that the first season or so we had to spend
a lot of time establishing our universe, the politics, history and so
on, so that the events we're seeing now would have some weight. Now
that we've done all that, laid the foundation, we can just rip along at
top speed.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Who is loyal and who is traitor?

Actually, yes, I tend to ask for musical counterpoint in the
show from time to time. For instance, when Sheridan et al were going
to the area where the crowd was waiting, I told Chris to fool us...give
us an ominous sounding sting going into what's going to be a very "up"
scene. In the battle earlier on, when you'd normally do something fast
and exciting, I asked him to give me something more somber, to pull out
the Requiem theme in a few places. Sometimes, in other shows, I ask for
music that works against a scene to control the emotional core of it;
if it's a bit too silly, perhaps, then I go for a more serious musical
cue to balance it out. Where a scene would seem to ask for major keys,
I go for minor chords.

It's all just part of the tapestry.

(BTW, a little secret...just for fun, I wrote a couple of songs
that you'll be hearing in an upcoming episode. I used to write songs
here and there, even did a couple for an ABC prime-time special, and
figured I'd try it again. I wrote the lyrics, discussed the music with
Chris, and he took care of the score, and it's about what I first
conceived. Came out pretty well, actually.)

jms

{original post unavailable}

Yes, Dukhat was killed at the start of the Minbari war (that
*caused* the Minbari war), and the Council did without a leader for a
long time. She was taught and sponsored by Dukhat.

jms

David Belt <72142.1365@compuserve.com> asks:
> I realize that this is not another household, but my son will now
> start raving to his friends at school, so who knows? Question,
> will we learn more about the fate of Anna Sheridan this season?
> Will we see more of Sinclair after this season?

Thanks...and we'll certainly hear more about Anna Sheridan's
fate this season.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks.

But really, can *anyone* under 6'2" *really* be a manly man?

jms (6' 4-1/2")

{original post unavailable}

Basically, the warrior caste doesn't think it's their war;
there's also a certain amount of resentment in it, I think...they *led*
the last war, they *did* their job, and got yanked back and forced to
surrender. That was a terrible blow to their pride, caused in part by
an alien race, so their attitude now tends to be more or less, "Screw
'em."

jms

Marte Brengle <76703.4242@compuserve.com> asks:
> Ah, is it "the taller, the manlier"?
> Dang, how come my 6'7" son isn't dating?

Because anything over 6'6" is unnatural.

jms

{original post unavailable}

That was because there were so MANY of them; our PPG bursts
usually take a great deal of work. If we'd given all of them in this
scene that amount of work, we'd still be doing them.

jms

Anthony J. Bryant <71233.3035@compuserve.com> asks:
> NOW are you happy?

Beleve me, with my rate of folliclelessness, I'm not going to
complain about anybody else....

jms

Anne Stallcup <102436.203@compuserve.com> asks:
> BTW, as I am fairly new here, may I say how great I think it is
> that you make yourself so accessible to your fans?

Thanks, and the pleasure is entirely mine.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks. I think we'll get the credit for what we've all done
sooner or later....

jms

Bruce "Firestorm" S. <72571.1722@compuserve.com> asks:
> Jms, do you know what was the reason for the sound limit imposed
> by the FCC?

I used to know...I think it had something to do with preventing
audio bleedovers, but I'm not 100% sure on that score.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Questions: (1) Was Dellen partially responsible for Dukhat's
> death? (2) Does she _think_ she is responsible?
> Or is this just an artifact of Minbari/English translation?
> Could Dellen's anger have caused her to exagerate?
> Does she feel that her destiny in the Minbari/Human joining
> somehow caused the incident that killed Dukhat?

No, she doesn't feel responsible; it's an artifact of the way
they approach certain things. "His word is on my lips, his spirit is
in my eyes." It's almost a way of saying he's speaking through me, back
off.

jms

Robert M. Schlesinger <103347.2317@compuserve.com> asks:
> But really, can *anyone* under 6'2" *really* be a manly man?

"I've always heard that it's not how much you've got, but how you use
it..."

Sure, easy for you to say. I'm still trying to remember where I
left it....

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Also this is the Episode Jerry Doylebroke his arm in a scene?
> Was the scence used?

The previews often have clips that don't appear in the episode.

jms

Vivien Loveday <100705.2440@compuserve.com> asks:
> what is it, and what happened to it?

Clarke has inside info that ISN would be going public soon with
info on what was *really* going on on Mars, his planned attack on B5,
and other stuff he wanted quiet.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I actually went to a mix of schools; four different high
schools, a dozen or so grade and junior high schools...some were
public, some were parochial (catholic) schools. The last time I
stepped into a catholic school was in my first year of high school at
St. Benedict's High School in Matawan, New Jersey. After, oh, about
six months they asked me to leave, on the theory that I was
troublesome, asked impertinent questions, and had a tendency to poke
holes in whichever theological discussion was underway at the moment.
So I got blipped over to Matawan Regional High School, and stayed
public thereafter...though still getting into trouble from time to time
for asking too many questions and refusing to take "because I said so"
as ANY kind of legitimate response.

So yes, while I do have some experience with catholicism, I
wasn't in any way raised, trained or educated by those intellectual pit
bulls of religion, the Jesuits. The last time I had anything to do
with it at all was about the same time as the above incident, wherein I
was told, at the first session of this religious doctrination session,
that Confirmation was "the sacrament of free choice." I wanted this
clarified -- religious rules were always tricky, and you didn't want to
get on the wrong side of anything as positive as hell (to paraphrase
Christopher Fry) -- and asked, "So this one we can choose or not, we
don't have to be here, right?" The nun said yes, that's corr---

She never finished the word, as there was no longer a "me"
standing in the room, only a jms-shaped silhouette made of the dust
kicked up by my sudden and rocket-like departure, rather like a Warner
Bros. cartoon, which disappeared before her eyes.

Bottom line...I have *always* been a pain in the ass.

jms