Yes, that's pretty close to being correct. We're in the very comfortable
position of knowing what 50% to 75% of every season's episodes are going to
be, so you can, for instance, go to a writer on the level of a DC Fontana, for
instance, and say, "Here, this is the story where X happens. We need to see
the following elements introduced in this episode. Outside of that, you're
pretty much on your own." Then you also leave room for outside ideas to
become episodes as well, and let the writers pitch ideas you may never have
come up with alone. One makes sense AND fits within the universe that's
established, you buy it.

Nine times out of 10, when you see a lot of names script done
consistently, what you have is a situation where they don't really have a firm
grasp on where they're going. The producers buy a notion or an idea, they
then take it in-house, it goes through one draft, that writer can't make it
work, so they go to another in-house writer, it sits on a shelf after that,
then finally goes back to the other writer, and finally gets yanked out of
cold storage 5 days before prep and hurriedly put into production when another
script falls out. That's generally what happens.

As for the "go" on B5, that will come with reaction to the whole PTN
arrangement. The greater the ratings, the better the reaction, the faster we
get into production. Which is why it's *very* important that if you like the
show, you write to your local station and Warners to tell them so. It will
not only help move things along faster, but will give us more clout in doing
Our Own Thing without changes.

jms