>Can somebody point me to where JMS has said he'd never work with Pat Tallman
>again? Or for that matter, Claudia Christian? In fact, I think he's said
>that
>he'd consider it if the proper story came up.

That is correct.

>I'm not even sure where the perceived rift was supposed to have happened with
>Bruce Boxleitner, but I'd have to say that it's pretty weird to hear (at a
>convention in mid November this year) the leading man on B5 complain that the
>series didn't go into a sixth year. Hello? Wasn't he paying attention at
>all?

There's no question that Bruce was very upset with me at the end of B5,
because it was a good operation, a steady gig, everybody pretty much liked
everybody else, and you hate to leave in that kind of situation.

I remember when we were shooting "A Call to Arms," I was standing by the camera
as Bruce walked by and he said, very sternly, "What, it couldn't have been a
SIX year arc?" But you're right, that it was a five year arc was said by
everyone, especially me, from day one.

>Am I the only one who thinks it's kinda strange that Jerry Doyle is claiming
>to
>have been 'sent out to look for financing'? Right. An actor. Not Doug
>Netter, an actor. And part time politician. Doesn't that seem kinda odd, not
>to mention unlikely?

The description is incorrect. At one point, I guess it was about the time we
were playing with the idea of Rangers, Jerry called Doug and said that he
thinks he has the financing, via some Silicon Valley guys, to pull together the
money for at minimum a pilot, maybe a feature, maybe a series set in the B5
universe. We said great, if you think you've got something, let's see what
you've got.

There were several more conversations, then the calls just kinda stopped, and
we got the impression that the money he had just kind of evaporated, as these
things often do. Lots of people talk a good game, but at the end of the day,
either they have the good or they don't, and my impression is that these guys,
whoever they were, didn't.

The only thing that bothers me in the piece is Jerry's attribution to me of a
quote said by a person at Warners, which I *repeated* to Jerry but did not say
myself, that you could put the makeup on somebody else and they could be G'kar.
I was appalled by that statement, and mentioned it to Jerry, Doug, others. I
think he's taken the memory of that conversation and attributed the comment to
me since I was the one who passed it along. But ain't no way anybody else
could play that part but Andreas.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

>I'm not sure I'd go that far, either. I remember JMS being asked online about
>what Jerry was talking about (re: a new series) and he seemed aware but
>neither
>enthusiatic nor encouraging of the idea.

I went to jmsnews.com and found the following from 2001, which pretty much
confirms what I posted a moment ago (a handy thing, the internet).

------------
Subject: Re: JMS: Jerry Doyle and crew wanted to revive Babylon5?!
From: Jms at B5
Date: 05/15/2001 03:32 PM
Forum: Usenet

To answer the question...yes, Jerry had some ideas, and tried to put something
together, but the resources just weren't there.

jms

-------------

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

>JMS hasn't said anything of a negative nature that I know of about Pat
>Tallman
>(Lyta). During Crusade there was to have been a part for her in the episode
>"The Path of Sorrows" but they weren't able to come to financial agreement.

Which, obviously, was not my call, but hers. Her work would have taken just
one day (closer to half a day, actually), and the fee was based on what we'd
paid her in her last season. She felt she couldn't do it for less, we didn't
have the budget to give more, it's a fair disagreement, she opted out, so I had
to revise the script accordingly. This sort of thing happens all the time.

>Yes, there was some disagreement over who said what, when, but
>nothing I ever read from JMS indicated that he would never allow her to work
>on
>his stuff again.
>
>The only thing I can think of that would have caused people to decide that
>JMS
>would be so spiteful is that when another actor (Gen. Hague, don't remember
>the
>actor's name) bailed on them to do DS9, JMS re-wrote the script to kill off
>the
>character. He said online the one 'should never honk off the writer' and
>people seem to have decided to take this as a serious statement of 'policy'
>instead of being playful.

At the end of the day, however much one might grump, you have to do what's
right, otherwise the whole thing goes pear-shaped, as the Brits say.

Case in point: Foxworth, as noted above. We needed someone for an important
part in Jeremiah this season, and his name surfaced as one prospect. I'll be
honest: when that happened, I kind of got my back up over the Hague situation.
But then, at the end of the day, you have to say, "Okay, he pissed you off, but
does that mean you don't hire the right guy for the job?"

So we hired him for that episode, "Letters from the Other Side," part one of
our series premiere (with a quick shot also in part two).

Because you can't sensibly run a show in any other way.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

>Hmmm....based on nothing in particular...am I detecting a point of view shift
>for this second season?

Nope. But somebody has to be at the heart of Valhalla Sector, so he's the main
guy there.

>Any other titles or news you can share, JMS?

The season debut is "Letters From the Other Side," parts one and two, followed
by "Strange Attractors," "Deus Ex Machina," "Rites of Passage," and "The
Mysterious Mister Smith."

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)