Toni Muller <75223.1575@compuserve.com> asks:
> When will we find out to which castes they belong?
> Was the council leader one of them?
> Is it just my imagination, or was her speech more "human,"
> perhaps due to her time on B5 or her transformation? And I ask
> myself, "Why do people let it come to this - that they must kill
> each other to resolve their differences?" I found myself saying,
> "No, it can't be; JMS wouldn't do that," Then, "Wouldn't he?" Is
> she related to the Senator?

Toni: thanks. All of the characters shine in this one, Mira in
particular as Delenn. It's a nice contrast; her speech to the Grey
Council is an intense piece of work that goes on for a while; her
declaration to the EA ships is short, to the point, and absolutely
deadly. The right tool for the right job.

I'm utterly pleased and proud of the job we did here. Partly
because it's just so nifty on its own terms, and partly because it
gives us a new level to try and beat. Up until now, I've been looking
to top "Coming of Shadows;" now the goal is to top this one...and I
think it's possible there may be one or two even this season that'll do
that, but tonally I think they're different enough that it might end up
as a tie.

I definitely wanted the close-in, hand-to-hand fighting to
personalize what's going on. It's also very logical strategically.
You send in your forces to disable or overwhelm C&C, distract them,
slip in a cadre of troops to a station that (you hope) didn't know you
were coming...then they race to C&C and seize control from inside,
shooting anyone they have to en route. If Sheridan et al hadn't known
the ships were coming in, this could've gone very differently. But
once they were in, they were in close quarters, and you want to get in
closer if you're on the defensive side so that they can't use their
weapons without cutting down their own people. After that you have to
hope you can overwhelm the intruders with sheer force of numbers. It's
an ugly, awful way to win a fight, because it *guarantees*
casualties...but what war doesn't?

Something to bear in mind when rewatching, btw...it was during
this scene that Jerry fell and broke his right arm and right wrist.
And they still had one last scene to film. He stuck it out and they
rolled film, to get the shot of him and Zack at the end of the fight.
Next time you watch it, keep an eye on the right arm as he releases the
helmet...it bends in directions never intended by evolution.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Thanks. That's exactly the impression I wanted...you do the
dolly/zoom move, isolating Sheridan visually...you don't cut back to
the others as they speak, just let the camera stay on him, put the
other voices down under the music and off to the side, just *HOLD*
there...works great.

jms

Ray Pelzer <70475.1263@compuserve.com> asks:
> I presume there was some dialog snipped giving him a new pinpoint
> location for the pod?

That was because the Narns just kept right on going, even when
he'd said "we'll wait here." That's Narns for you.

jms

{original post had no questions}

I agree, but Jerry was determined to do it, and more time
would've been lost arguing about it than it took to do the takes.

jms

Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com> asks:
> Was this a member of the Warrior Caste defecting with Delenn?
> Who the hell is running the Mimbari government now?
> Incedently, if the warrior caste was *not* in on it, where did
> they get the warships?

At this point, with the Council broken, Delenn isn't currently
running Minbar...there's a vacuum of power. The system can carry on
for a while, the balance between the castes is pretty efficient, but
this is going to have to be resolved, and some in the warrior caste may
suspect Delenn of doing this so she *can* rise to power.

As part of Valen's covenant, to prevent one caste from taking
over the other, each caste has access to its own warships. This was
done to create trust a thousand years ago, and since then, since there
hasn't been any conflict between Minbari, the three castes own their
own warships still, but in general are assigned to Warrior caste as a
courtesy, which can be revoked. As Delenn noted, the worker and
religious castes control 2/3rds of their forces.

jms

Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com> asks:
> Did some of the Military follow Delenn?
> May we assume that Neroon did not follow Delenn?

No, 5 left the council with her. And one can wonder, Did she
turn down the position of leader of the Grey Council, which would be a
balance for that role, in order to eliminate the council and become
primary ruler? (That is what some of the warrior caste are bound to
begin wondering after a while.)

jms

{original post unavailable}

Each caste populates the ships in their jurisdiction with their
own people. Which is why those on the Minbari warships that came in,
which we'll see shortly, are religious caste, no warriors among
them...but even the religious caste is well trained in combat, as part
of their education in temple. We've seen some of this already in
Lennier's abilities in a fight.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks....

jms

{original post unavailable}

Yeah...the reference was kafuffled. There was so much going on,
so many EFX shots, so much rearranging of shots to make everything work
(we literally delivered this 2 hours before the process for uplinking
started) that this slipped past. I'll assume that Sheridan got excited
and said the wrong name. It'd happen to anyone. Right? Right?

jms

{original post had no questions}

Except, of course, you now have an extraordinary situation in
which the Major, through the death of his CO, was now the commanding
officer of the Alexander. In ordinary circumstances, this would mean
he'd be given a field promotion.

Second, I don't recall any situation where the Major was "giving
orders to a commander." The aide on the deck of the Alexander was a
Lieutenant, as I recall. Also, if Hague indicated that he was to be
given command as he died, that would likely be honored. Finally, yes,
the Major was involved in the discussions of strategy, but in *every
case* he presented Sheridan and Hiroshi with options, and because it
was Sheridan's neck of the woods, it was left to Sheridan to give
orders. He coordinated the defense, and was the only one speaking
directly with the Agrippa.

jms

Deonaha M. Conlin <102531.2627@compuserve.com> asks:
> How can you possibly top this one?

How can we top SD isn't the question. It's when. We *have* to
keep constantly getting better, improving the show. As Bob Dylan
wrote, "Any man not busy being born is busy dying."

jms

Daniel M. Upton <75442.1331@compuserve.com> asks:
> Does this mean that there are warrior and worker caste Minbari
> doing religous duties in the temples and warrior and religious
> caste Minbari doing worker caste duties as well?

No, those aspects are kept absolutely separate and
caste-specific. It's only when you get into the warships that, by
tradition, some warrior caste have been involved with the others,
mainly as a courtesy.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Re: Foundation "adding a new flame effect"...sort of. One
night, we just went out into the parking lot, set up a camera pointing
up behind a plexiglass screen, and set off a bunch of explosions above
it. Went great until one of the blasts was so big it melted through
the plex *and* the camera lens....

Looked good though, didn't it?

jms

{original post unavailable}

Thanks. If you've got someone new to the show, who might not
know the backstory very well, then probably the Michael York episode,
"A Late Delivery From Avalon" would be a good one.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I'd have to check my figures, which are at the office, and I'm
at home, but I *think* we've got about 600 crew and support on a
Minbari cruiser.

jms

{original post unavailable}

No, just a member of the warrior caste making sure one he
considered a friend *really* wanted to do this....

jms