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Unproduced scripts?

R

Republibot 3.0

Regular
I know there's at least two JMS-penned unfilmed B5 scripts that remain unpublished: There's the Garibaldi story from "Lost Tales," and there's the movie script for "The Memory of Shadows." Obviously, neither of those will ever be filmed, but I'm curious if anyone's read 'em? There's also an unfilmed Peter David script from Season 5, and at least one or two other unfilmed Crusade scripts that never made it on Bookface.

I know they're moldering away in a file somewhere in Warners, but SF scripts have a tendency to leak. For instance, I read JMS "World War Z" script a year or so ago, and reviewed it for my site (He asked me to take it down, so I did).

So: Has anyone seen any of these? I'd really like to read what I didn't get to see.
 
Republibot 3.0 said:
I know there's at least two JMS-penned unfilmed B5 scripts that remain unpublished: There's the Garibaldi story from "Lost Tales," and there's the movie script for "The Memory of Shadows." Obviously, neither of those will ever be filmed, but I'm curious if anyone's read 'em? There's also an unfilmed Peter David script from Season 5, and at least one or two other unfilmed Crusade scripts that never made it on Bookface.

I know they're moldering away in a file somewhere in Warners, but SF scripts have a tendency to leak. For instance, I read JMS "World War Z" script a year or so ago, and reviewed it for my site (He asked me to take it down, so I did).

So: Has anyone seen any of these? I'd really like to read what I didn't get to see.
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The Garibaldi "Lost Tales" script was in the TV Movies volume of the scriptbooks.
 
The two unproduced JMS Crusade scripts and the Fiona Avery script "Value Judgments" did appear on Bookface. Those are the only completed scripts that were put up. Other scripts were in the works but may not have been completed. Plans are for them to be printed in upcoming 'Crusade: What the Hell Happened?' volumes.

Lots of folks have asked about the TMoS script but there's been no word from JMS as to whether it might ever be published. It may depend on whether the entity who commissioned the script was a signatory of the WGA agreement which includes the Separation of Rights clause which allowed JMS to publish his B5 & Crusade scripts without WB approval.

ETA - RE: Gut Reactions by Peter David and Bill Mumy, I've written a synopsis of the script if anybody wants me to send that to them via PM or email. I won't post it online and I don't share scripts (since it's copyrighted material and illegal.)

Jan
 
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Jan said:
The two unproduced JMS Crusade scripts and the Fiona Avery script "Value Judgments" did appear on Bookface. Those are the only completed scripts that were put up. Other scripts were in the works but may not have been completed. Plans are for them to be printed in upcoming 'Crusade: What the Hell Happened?' volumes.

Lots of folks have asked about the TMoS script but there's been no word from JMS as to whether it might ever be published. It may depend on whether the entity who commissioned the script was a signatory of the WGA agreement which includes the Separation of Rights clause which allowed JMS to publish his B5 & Crusade scripts without WB approval.

Jan
Click to expand...

Yeah, I knew about the Bookface ones. There were at least three others in various stages of completion when the show was axed, all from the end of the season. At least one of these was complete, though I'd be surprised if it got past the first draft stage, and was part of a rather vaguely-defined mini-arc that would have comprised eps 19-21. It was the middle one. Sounded like a bit of a bottle show to me. And of course there's the unfilmed Garibaldi-on-Mars story.

JMS *Did* tell me that TMOS will *NOT* be filmed, and won't appear in comic form or any other form. Even if he's got the rights, I'd be very, very, very surprised if he'll publish it. I'm not sure why, that's just the feeling I get.
 
Republibot, it really is illegal to copy that sort of thing so it's unwise to solicit it.

Jan
 
Jan said:
Republibot, it really is illegal to copy that sort of thing so it's unwise to solicit it.

Jan
Click to expand...

Solicit an illegal copy? I did no such thing, as you can plainly see from my newly-self-censored message above.

Seriously, though, thank you for pointing that out. My enthusiasm got the better of my common sense.
 
I see...my mistake, much apologizings. ;)

As I recall, the overall title for the three Lost Tales was "Voices in the Dark" which would have been particularly apt for the Garibaldi segment. I don't know where the 'over here/over there' thing came from that showed up on the DVDs but it wasn't on the scripts.

Jan
 
Can't reproduce the Garibaldi Lost Tales script, but I can give you a synopsis of the story, if you want.

Spoiler for unproduced Garibaldi Lost Tales script:
The nuts and bolts of it is that as head of Edgars Industries, Garibaldi's attention is drawn to some excavation the company was doing on Mars. He went to personally investigate, and after a cave-in or some such he found a huge abandoned city deep underground. While there, a tall, skinny, bronze-skinned Martian appeared to him telling him something about how humanity is their children and they've been watching them and might see them again one day. The martian and the city then disappear or crumble to dust or something like that, and Garibaldi is left having had this experience alone to be rescued by rescue personnel with no proof of the existence of the Martians.
 
I was right. The overall title for the Lost Tales script was "Voices in the Dark" and each segment was simply numbered. The Garibaldi segment was the middle one, segment 2.

Jan
 
^
And it went in the opposite order of the DVD. Story 1 was Sheridan/Galen. Story 2 was Garibaldi. Story 3 was Lochley.
 
vacantlook said:
Can't reproduce the Garibaldi Lost Tales script, but I can give you a synopsis of the story, if you want.
Click to expand...

Really? Wow...that's...uhm....that's not very good at all, is it? My. Suddenly I don't feel as cheated, though I still would have liked to see Garibaldi again.

Is there any kind of tie to the other stories in Lost Tales, like were the Martians the demon race that Lochley encountered, or something like that? Any particular reason for why it would have to take place at the same time as the other two stories?
 
JoeD80 said:
^
And it went in the opposite order of the DVD. Story 1 was Sheridan/Galen. Story 2 was Garibaldi. Story 3 was Lochley.
Click to expand...

Wise choice to reverse them. Always good to end on a more adventurous story than one involving two people sitting in a room chatting for an hour, with occasional heavy metal album cover FX thrown in.

That said, I really did like the implications of the demon story.
 
No, 'fraid not. They were supposed to be un-copy-able but naturally, a number of fans opened two windows and simply transcribed them. This upset JMS no end:

9a) A subset of 9 and a request...I keep seeing posts from people who are
freely exchanging textfiles containing the Crusade scripts that were posted on
bookface.com. To those folks, the rest of you can move on...I don't think
you've stopped to realize that what you're passing around so freely is my
property. It's not taking from WB, or TNT, it's taking from *me*. I own the
scripts that I write, under the Writers Guild Separation of Rights provision.
I allowed Bookface to put them up because they gave me assurances that they
could not easily or well be pirated. (They clearly did not anticipate the
ingenuity of some folks.) You are infringing on my rights, my copyright, my
ownership, and causing me to regret my decision to let folks see them, such
that I may never do this again because it greatly reduces my ability to ever
sell them or publish them in book form in future. You have, in effect, stolen
my property and are freely distributing same. That it's not available
elsewhere is not the issue; we all want things we can't have, or which are not
currently available. I'm asking you politely, as the guy who *made* this show
and *wrote* those scripts (and *owns* those scripts) for you to stop. If it
doesn't stop, I'm going to have to start taking action against those doing
this.
Click to expand...

The Crusade script books are expected to have the unproduced scripts as well as lots of goodies found in JMS's storage unit.

Jan
 
I have a somewhat tangential question... re-watching Season One, I was suddenly reminded of the idea kicking around to do an episode that would be a sequel to "Demon With a Glass Hand." Considering I never even saw the original Outer Limits ep, my question is doubly strange, but did Harlan Ellison ever actually write that sequel script, or did it just stay as an idea?
 
Harlan has said that it was a joke on JMS's part because he (Harlan) doesn't do sequels but JMS has said that he thinks Harlan never wrote for B5 in order to let B5 remain entirely JMS's vision. But as far as I know, it was never scripted or even outlined.

Jan
 
Thanks; it would have been a bit weird, yes, although I think it would have been kind of a neat tie-in. Someday I'll even see the original.
 
'Demon on the Run' was supposed to have been the title. I had never heard the story about why it didn't happen, so I'm glad you asked! 'Demon With a Glass Hand' is a cool episode, filmed in the same building (Bradbury Building) in LA that the finale of Blade Runner was shot in. I ran across it on VHS in Antarctica.

I remember some other unfilmed ep titles from a magazine, Cinefantastique, was it? They did either two or three huge features on B5, all were interesting reading. They're a lot like the script books content we're reading now, but back when the pilot and the series began. Very behind-the-scenes stuff, and explanations of how they were intentionally doing everything differently from Star Trek. Reading those, I knew early on the series was going to be unique. The other titles were:

A Trick of the Mind
The Resurrectionist
Target: Unknown
The Very Long Night of Susan Ivanova

There were a few more, those are off the top of my head. No details on any, but I think Ellison might have been the writer for The Resurrectionist. Or maybe I'm wrong, and that one became The Quality of Mercy. Hmm.

Raw Shark

"Do you know what the very last Xon said, just before he died? AARRRGGHHHH!!!!!!"
Londo Mollari
 
And I have to agree, the Garibaldi story for Lost Tales didn't grab me either. At all. I'm now glad it wasn't filmed, even though Garibaldi's my favorite character.

Raw Shark

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
- Einstein
 
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