<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>...when you talk about constructive criticism, does anybody here thinks that JMS will move an inch to accomodate our opinions?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Maybe. JMS has always said that he'll
listen to criticism/suggestions from
anybody, the cast, the crew, the fans, the guy who sweeps up the set and the woman behind the craft-services table. (Some of whom have spent more time on soundstages than a lot of famous directors, and probably have as good a feel for what works and what doesn't as anybody.) But
he makes the final decision. Because if he listened to
everybody and implemented their requests, the show would be chaos. (And he already had the Shadows to provide that.)
Besides, many requests are diametrically opposed to one another. Almost every major character had a block of fans who hated him/her and wanted him that character off the show. Those same characters all had another block of fans who wanted almost everybody
else off the show and to have it renamed
The Adventures of Marcus Cole or
The Susan Ivanova Hour or what-have-you.
But he does listen, and he does incorporate criticism, especially if he
agrees with it. (And he will certainly have had his
own critique of the show. Anyone in his position would. When I was directing shows for the theater I would still give the cast notes after performances, even re-block bits of staging I wasn't happy with.)
The murderer plot in "The Quality of Mercy" came about because folks weren't clear on how judicial matters, and especially the "death of personality" were handled in
B5 and how exactly the teeps fit into things.
Delenn's gravity rings disappeared. Lots of small, subtle things were done or not done on the show as a result of fan feedback. But if there was something everybody hated that he felt strongly needed to be in the show, he stuck to his guns. That's what he meant by not writing by poll or writing by committee. That was one of the problems with
ST:TOS.
The audience loved the Kirk-Spock relationship, and the writers did as well, because they were fun to write for. Because of this,
Trek gradually turned into
The Kirk & Spock Show. By the third season Spock was routinely giving Kirk information that should, logically*, have come from the doctor or the chief engineer. This greatly diminished the secondary characters, to the detriment of the series.
So, yeah, I'm sure JMS wasn't thrilled with the way the weapons pod turned out, and it will probably be different in the series. (It was only done the way it was because the original version, in which Sarah's chair dropped into a holo-sphere and she fired the weapons from there**, proved too expensive for the movie's budget.) We'll have to see.
Regards,
Joe
* you should pardon the expression.
** Probably something like the weapons control system in
The Last Starfighter, if you've seen that.
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
