New JMS/B5 book available to order

[Jan]

The first book in the latest series brought to you by JMS and the Babylon 5 Scripts Team went on sale today. As is traditional, the book is discounted $10 for the first week.

What is the series? "Asked & Answered: J. Michael Straczynski Answers 5,296 Fan Questions about Babylon 5 and Beyond". From the website:

OVERVIEW OF THE ASKED & ANSWERED SERIES
It's true. The creator of Babylon 5 answers 5,296 fan questions covering every aspect of the show in over 100 categories in new Babylon 5 book series.

J. Michael Straczynski answered these questions as they surfaced over a period of 18 years as part of an online experiment he started in 1991 and continues to this day.

This makes Asked & Answered something that has never been done before with a television show: an oral history IN REAL TIME. No revisionism. Nothing forgotten. No detail spared. Because this dialouge with fans starts in 1991, it pre-dates the production of the Babylon 5 pilot, so you'll discover JMS' complete vision for the series, many aspects of which never made it to the screen.

Even better, these questions and answers include interactions on AOL Bulletin Boards, GEnie Forums, the moderated usenet group, CIS Discussion threads and Chat Transcripts, some of which are not available in archives anywhere.

In addition to Babylon 5, Asked & Answered includes JMS' responses to personal questions about his life, politics, love, religion, writing and more. These responses are grouped with a related B5 topic showing fans – for the first time – the provenance of the Babylon 5 philosophy and culture. All that plus JMS' real life stories behind the stories.

To make this the ultimate reference, this series took 2½ years and a crew of four B5 experts – in addition to J. Michael Straczynski – to compile, categorize and edit.

There are 12 sample pages available and a sampling of the questions in Part 1 at B5books.com.

Jan
Babylon 5 Scripts Team

 

[Bester]

So, it's basically the content of jmsnews then?

 

[Jan]

If it were, it wouldn't have taken 2.5 years to put together. We've recreated questions that shed light on JMS's answers when there weren't any and sorted them into categories that actually make it more like the conversation it was. We found posts and chat transcripts that weren't archived and included them. It took a team of four to put this together in a form that would be enjoyable to read as well as put the incredible document that JMS and the fans created into a premanent form. Even as familiar as I am with JMS's posts I find it a fun read.

Jan

 

[Triple F]

Just out of curiouslity, is it just jms replies to questions that will be in the book. Not the full content of his posting over at Usenet, etc. For example:

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-16978

When he's the one that initiates the conversation, heads up, etc.

 

[Jan]

Definitely not just the full contents of his posting on Usenet. We started with something around 18,000 posts and chat transcripts and the final count in the books is just under 5,300 if I recall correctly. Something like the example you linked to would likely have not made it into the book because it was only useful at the time it was posted and was basically a press release. While there are probably a number of instances when he initiated a post included in the book those would probably have "JMS talks about thus-and-such" rather than a question.

Jan

 

[Jan]

For those interested, "Asked & Answered: Part 2" is available now with the usual discount through July 22.

There are some fun categories in this one.

Jan

 

[Jan]

Asked & Answered Part 3 has gone up for sale. Rants, Religion and Sex are just some of the categories in this one!

Jan

 

[darth_librarian]

Just got the email summary, this sentence caught my eye:

How did JMS design the Vorlon ships?

To my knowledge, Ron Thornton designed the cruiser and transport, with Luc Manyard creating the planet killer.

http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_05_7

Some clarification here would be appreciated I'm sure he is not trying to take credit for Ron's work, its probably just a misrepresentation. Some people get antsy about this stuff.

 

[Jan]

Some clarification here would be appreciated I'm sure he is not trying to take credit for Ron's work, its probably just a misrepresentation. Some people get antsy about this stuff.

I'm sure that most people understand that JMS doesn't write the ad copy.

Going strictly by memory, as I recall there were several posts about the Vorlon planet-killer. Some said that JMS had seen the designs and others just discussed the designs. I don't know which ones ended up in what categories.

Jan

 

[Galahad]

To my knowledge, Ron Thornton designed the cruiser and transport, with Luc Manyard creating the planet killer.

http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_05_7

Some clarification here would be appreciated I'm sure he is not trying to take credit for Ron's work, its probably just a misrepresentation. Some people get antsy about this stuff.

I do believe it was indeed Thornton...as the book "Creating Babylon 5" quotes Thornton as saying that he based the vorlon ships on garlic.

 

[Triple F]

Yup even got the original drawing for it.

http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen3_02_14

It’s not difficult to find jms being attributed with all sorts of stuff that he’s never laid claim to. Most of it’s just eager fans taken quotes from the archive literally and not appreciating why other names crop up in the shows credits. : )

Though when it pops up in literature such as official ad for a jms book I imagine that probably helps the various urban legends along. By the way the launch system for the furies was also Ron’s. jms’s orignal suggestion was a bit different.
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_01_9

I’m not going into the other stuff surrounding the CGI. To be honest it’s why I’m none to fond of the archive and the books in general. A truly unique and fascinating insight into how the show was created but as it comes all from just the one person it’s very limited and leaves folks with a skewed view of things – and that can’t be good. For example.

Taken from an article on the ‘Down The Tubes’ site highlighting that years comic expo in Bristol (England).
http://www.downthetubes.net/news_archive/2005/03march2005.html

The headline event is a first UK Comic Convention appearance by Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski, also the Emmy award winning writer and producer of the TV series Babylon 5, Jeremiah and Crusade.

From the introduction paragraph to an interview with jms, conducted by CBR (comic book resources).
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=11836

J. Michael Straczynski has done it all. The legendary writer has garnered an Eisner ("Amazing Spider-Man"), an Inkpot, a Saturn, two Hugos and three Emmys ("Babylon 5")

Article extract from the Changeling official press kit and web site and is quoted quite a bit throughout the net. (press the more info for movie geeks on this particular link to it)
http://www.seemagazine.com/edmonton-movies/changeling-68908/

In 1986, Straczynski jumped ship from journalism . . . . . . . He also created and executive produced the double Hugo Award-winning series Babylon 5, for which he wrote 91 out of 110 produced episodes and received the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, two technical Emmy awards, the Saturn award, the Ray Bradbury Award and many others.

 

[darth_librarian]

I can kind of understand it in that kind of press release, after all, its easiest ot indentify him with the show and he had a massive creative input into many aspects of it.

However, attibuting single artistic creations (i.e. a ship design) is not on. Roddenberry did not design the Enterprise.

 

[Jade Jaguar]

I do believe it was indeed Thornton...as the book "Creating Babylon 5" quotes Thornton as saying that he based the vorlon ships on garlic.

I've heard that, but honestly can't believe it, no matter who says it! It was very clear to me and my B5 watching buddies that many of the B5 ships were based on things you see while snorkeling/diving in the ocean. Vorlon ships look very much like squids. Minbari ships look like parrot fish, or even gouramis. Narn ships look like rays. Of course Earth Ships look like subway cars...

 

[Triple F]

I've heard that, but honestly can't believe it, no matter who says it! It was very clear to me and my B5 watching buddies that many of the B5 ships were based on things you see while snorkeling/diving in the ocean. Vorlon ships look very much like squids. Minbari ships look like parrot fish, or even gouramis. Narn ships look like rays. Of course Earth Ships look like subway cars...

Ahhhh, a consensus based decision . . . . . . . . . . . but why would he lie.

Vorlon transport - ( even has pictures explaining it : )
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_05_8

Vorlon cruiser
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_05_7

Narn cruiser
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_11_1

Hyperion
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_11_1

Early Narn cruiser
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_11_2

Minbari cruiser
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_03_1

Early minbari cruiser
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_03_2

As Ron said, “I really wanted to do some organic designs that weren’t nightmarish. If you had said organic at the time everyone would have immediately thought Giger! Well I wanted to go more butterfly and orchid than bones and guts. “

It was his call as the guy who introduced CGI and the idea of organic tech to the show ,so he went to town a little with the organic inspirations, especially if you consider things like the Raiders carrier was partially based on an artichoke of all things..
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_06_2

Paul and the others went for the more conventional looking designs on the whole, so it’s a mistake to lump all the designs onto a single person or theme (far from it due to the number of folks involved).

I hear what your saying about the fish based designs though, a bit of a running joke developed around that as we went through some of his designs .
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm#Screen2_12_10

 

[Jade Jaguar]

Well, he admits that the Minbari ships were based on fish. They also seemed to move like fish, in relation to each other.

The photo of a Vorlon transport clearly looks way more like a squid than a garlic head. So, I can only conclude that the smell of Gilroy's garlic somehow evoked squid, in his subconscious... That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...

 

[Triple F]

I never got a chance to talk to John Teska (he designed the big centauri cruisers, often called the primus), but I’m guessing they were based on some type of skate / ray going by the look of them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was wrong. Talking of admissions, the most surprising one I felt was mojo saying that he had the Klingon bird of prey at the back of his mind while coming up with the Centauri Vorchan.

Though personally, I have no problem in the slightest with nods to well known (earlier) work. It’s been going on in all forms of art for millennia – especially when a new medium or technique is developed, and at the time CGI definitely qualified as both.

 

[KoshFan]

"Inspired by" is a loose term. 90% of all the fantasy stories I've written got their start with a single story in a Mercedes Lackey collection. The current products owe a lot more to Bujold, Pratchett, and Lloyd Alexander -- but it started with that random story I read (and have never re-read) all those years ago.

 

[Galahad]

Following Darth's link, I was highly intrigued by the site's claim that Earth First One vessels (ala Deconstruction of Falling Stars), are visible during B5's decommissioning in Sleeping in Light if you look very closely. Is this really true? I'm skeptical.

If it is, surely they'd be somewhere distant observing without being detectable.

 

[Triple F]

Following Darth's link, I was highly intrigued by the site's claim that Earth First One vessels (ala Deconstruction of Falling Stars), are visible during B5's decommissioning in Sleeping in Light if you look very closely. Is this really true? I'm skeptical.

If it is, surely they'd be somewhere distant observing without being detectable.

Sceptical. SCEPTICAL. Seriously though, three copies of the model were used in the scene. I’ve linked to two quick (and nasty looking) screen grabs below.

http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/Pic2.jpg
http://themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/Pic1.jpg

You have to look at the full sequence of them flying towards the ‘camera’, but it is without a doubt the same ship model. Their inclusion is interesting as all the other ships present are from the League, Earth, Minbar, etc.

Maybe it was just the random use of some model assets to fill out the screen (that happened a lot). But given the only other time you see one of them (and who was using it), who knows. Maybe jms did request their inclusion to signify something. Seeing how first ones and advanced races were capable of time travel – so million year old human rangers likely could.

Surely someone else noticed this before. Could make a interesting question to the man himself.


[edit]
If, on the off chance jms did want them there to signify a temporal package holiday to see the destruction of B5 was going on, then they would have to be visible. Otherwise you wouldn’t know they (and the *possible* link to first one humans) were there. Thing is though, while the CGI models are definelty used, what their inclusion is meant to signify (if anything) is pure supposition. It's why I only mentioned it in passing on the site.

 

[KoshFan]

Sleeping in Light and Deconstruction were filmed pretty much back-to-back, so it makes sense... the visuals folks could have been thinking about both at once.

If there's an in-universe explanation, however, I'd put it this way... remember how the whole show is supposed to be a dramatization of actual events? Well, clearly the people who made the drama slipped their own ship into the decommissioning sequence as an easter egg for their million-years-from-now brethren.