BTW, this week will Bill Mumy's first week on B5, and he's done a very
nifty job as Lennier. He brings a wonderful sense of absolute innocence...the
proverbial innocent abroad...to Lennier's character. The Minbari prosthetics
look great on him, enhancing the sense he brings to the character. He's also
great with the cast, and keeping things up during shooting. At one point, as
they're leaving camera, Delenn says to Lennier, who has just arrived at the
station, "Now tell me of home; I have been away far too long." His ad-libbed
off-camera response: "Beatlemania is back." (Another ad-lib for another shot:
"Minimalls...they're everywhere," and "Well, we just got Pizza Hut and
cable.")

There's one truly remarkable shot we did for the current episode, shot
Friday evening. Generally, in any shot with a crowd, you need about 20-45
people. That's usually enough to fill out the shot in any set you can go to.
More than that gets costly, and isn't really noticeable unless you frame your
shot just *so*. Yesterday's shot has 160 extras. It's a very impressive, and
very moving shot. It appears in the tag of "the Parliament of Dreams." It's
the kind of shot you just don't see anywhere else. We had some people from
PTEN and a film crew for a behind-the-scenes piece on hand, and they all
commented on how only this show would do this shot...and how significant it
is. (I can't tell you what it was, because that gives it away, and I want it
to be kind of a surprise; suffice to say you'll definitely know it when you
see it.)

"Parliament" is also shaping up to have both some serious moments, and
some that are just fall-down funny. There's a Centauri religious festival
that has to be seen to be believed....

We're having far too much fun on this show....

jms