The problem becomes that, the deeper we get into the series, the
more continuity there is between episodes, and the more you pretty much
have to know what's coming the rest of the season to write episodes for
the show. Right now, all the scripts currently in the works have been
assigned out on the basis of premises developed by me, because I'm the
only one who knows where the hell the ship is going, particularly in light
of the new character(s) coming in. What I'm doing is looking at some
spec scripts, determining if they've got what it takes, and assigning out
stuff; we're *not* looking for outside stories.

jms

Interfacing with the overall arc is one problem, to be sure; but
even the independent episodes (and we'll have a number of them) will have
new characters and situations to deal with. Who is the new commanding
officer? Who's this new character introduced over here? The status of
this other character has changed, how does that manifest itself? It
becomes very dicey.

If the show and the characters didn't change, remained static, it'd
be easy. But they don't, not here. (Also, it's worth noting that ST has
kind of given people a false image of how TV works. Ninety-nine percent
of TV shows do not take ANY spec submissions. ST did because -- and this
isn't a slam, this is by their own admission -- they ran out of ideas. We
don't have this problem, and we tend to operate more like a regular TV
series.)

jms

"IF one stuck to the general guidelines of the B5 universe...."

My point is, until we've established for you what those guidelines
ARE, particularly in terms of the new characters we'll be bringing in,
that's problematic at best.

"...do we attribute that to better writing (on TNG) after the first
season?"

Yes. Nobody knew what the hell they were doing there the first
and second seasons. Things improved quite dramatically when later they
brought in Jeri Taylor, who was instrumental in stopping the revolving
door of writers there (something just under 30 writer/producers have left
or been fired off TNG since it started, which is *unheard* of in TV, the
bulk of it those first two years, maybe 23 or so).

"Ya mean people didn't send in their teleplays for "Murder, She
Wrote?""

Yes, they did...and as soon as it was determined (by partly peeling
back the flap) that it WAS a spec script, it was sent *immediately* to
Legal Affairs, which sent it back to the writer in question, with a note
telling them that it had not been read, and not to do it again.

jms