Re: ATTN JMS: Surprised You??? (SPOILER for "Interludes and Examinations")

 Posted on 5/12/1996 by jmsatb5@aol.com to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


spoilers....























Yes, I think Kosh sort of "hit the wall" when he saw that Sheridan wasn't
going to go away; I think finally he was ashamed, and recognized his fear,
and in a sense the air went out of him, and he reconciled himself to what
had to be.

You're right about the mentor; sooner or later, the mentor has to step
aside (or fall by the wayside) for the others to grow into the hero's
journey. Originally this was slated to happen a bit later...I think, on
some level, I was reluctant to do it, because to write this kind of stuff
you have to *feel* it yourself, and I think I was avoiding that as much as
Kosh was avoiding his fate. I didn't want to go through writing that. So
I kept putting it off. I knew it *had* to be done...but not yet....

And that's when, for lack of a better explanation, Kosh stepped up and
began to pull me in that direction in the script. It was time. His
passing shouldn't be frittered away or minimized; it should happen at the
right moment, and this was that moment. It's almost impossible to
describe this to a non-writer, but the character, this fictional
construct, was simply determined to have his way, and that was the end of
it. I kept trying to dance away in the script, to go back into safer
waters...but each time was pulled back in this direction, until finally I
had to admit that yes, this was the right time, and the right way, to do
this.

And Kosh fell.

But what finally convinced me was the realization that this was not only
right for now, but right for *later*...though you won't know what that
means for a while yet.


jms