The comment re: Twin Peaks is correct; I loved TP dearly, but if you
missed one episode, you were screwed. The way the story is constructed, you
can come in at any point, even miss episodes, and still be able to follow the
thing. It's just that the *more* you watch, the more you'll get out of it,
the more things you'll pick up on. It's a very difficult task from a writing
point of view, but worth the effort, I think.

Re: the actors...yes, there was a great degree of comitment on their
part. The head/hairpiece for Londo worked fine, but just to add to the
authenticity, Peter Jurasik shaved his head for the duration of the shoot.
All of the actors did research into their characters, got books on SF if they
didn't know much about the genre, on and on. They *very much* got into it,
down to consulting about their wardrobe and having input into prosthetics (to
some degree). We want them to be comfortable, otherwise they can't do their
best work.

They're all certainly committed to doing the 5 year stint; as for being
forever inserted into SF...there's the question of typecasting, and we've
tried to circumvent that in some sneaky ways (who's going to recognize Mira or
Andreas outside of their makeup?). Nimoy had problems because it was his face
and head, just a pair of ears stuck on. If we have lots of alien makeup, we
try to hide the actor's face (while allowing for varied expression) so they
can do other stuff. I think it's important to try and think of your actor's
well being and career...because then you create a good and healthy environment
for them, and it serves you well in the long run.

I've not been consulted re: closed captioning, and must confess that I
don't have the info on this. Will see if I can find out.

Yes, I was consulted about the ads, and while accepting the graphics,
provided alternate copy for the ads, which I thought were a tad heavy handed.
But overall, I'm quite happy with the approach that's being taken.

jms