[Profanity warning: JMS is not shy about using profanity in his talks, and I don't want to edit the quotes because I wouldn't presume to change his words. Escape now if you're easily offended.] [Comments in square brackets are my own.] [Spoilers have been sorted to the end. They are preceded by spoiler space and sorted in order to be aired. Spoilers for S1 "The Quality of Mercy", S2 "There All the Honor Lies", S3 "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", "Interludes and Examinations", "Walkabout", "Grey 17 is Missing", "Shadow Dancing", and unspecified late 3rd season.] [other parts available at http://eek.cwru.edu/~surak/Babylon5/marcon.html ] Saturday, May 4, 1996, noon An Hour with J. Michael Straczynski The room was bigger than the ones scheduled for Richard Biggs and JMS on Friday, but there were still people standing packed in the aisles and the back of the room. After about 5 minutes, they finally found a microphone, because the room was just large enough that people in the back couldn't hear. JMS had a few things to say about the room. Every time he goes to a con, they never believe he needs a bigger room. This was no exception. He told the concom, "I tell you, we need a bigger room, you guys." The concom said, "No, this will be fine, there are lots of other panels going on." JMS said, "You don't understand. My people are coming. Let my people sit." He finally got started, but commented that this was a really tough crowd, with the microphone troubles and all. "I know it's Ohio, but give me a break!" (The audience was unamused. He ragged on Ohio a lot over the weekend.) "I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see a room full of faces of people as perverse as we are. Look around, this is an audience of like-minded people." The closest they've ever come to being late on delivering an episode was on "Severed Dreams" a few weeks ago. The day of the satellite uplink, Warner Brothers was going, "Guys, guys, we're running out of time." They delivered two hours before the satellite uplink. JMS wanted to bring "War Without End, part 1" to the convention, but they were still working on the audio mix, so it wasn't ready. One of the big reasons they are able to produce Babylon 5 on about half the budget of an average Star Trek episode is because everything is planned out well in advance. Scripts are finished about 4 weeks before filming to give everyone time to prepare costumes, sets, casting, etc. and *do it well*. They also almost never go overtime on their filming schedule. They film 12 hour days, and in 3 years they've only gone seriously overtime 9 days. Because scripts are ready so far in advance, JMS is working on about 9 episodes at once. He's outlining one, writing the next, doing preproduction (casting, sets, etc.) on a third, filming the fourth, CGI on the fifth, audio mixing on the sixth, and so on. "You have to be good at multitasking." Some in the back shouted, "What about OS/2?" JMS replied, "That's Warp. Sorry, we don't warp in this show!" Then he smiled and said, "I'm proud of that line." Someone asked how he works with other writers to make sure that the stories are consistent with the arc. He said he has the story planned out well in advance. At the beginning of each season, he sits down and outlines everything that needs to happen that season, and all the stories for the season, and makes synopses of what needs to happen for the arc. If it's an arc-light episode, the synopsis may be only a few pages, and if it's arc-heavy it may be 10-12 pages. Then he gives that to the writer, who goes off and writes a full outline and comes back and JMS goes over it, then the writer goes off and writes a 1st draft, and they go back and forth to keep it consistent with the story. So how did he end up writing all 22 episodes this season? Well, about 2/3 of the way through the season, someone pointed out that no one writer had ever written an entire full season of a television show. "Well, that was it. I was screwed. I had to do it at that point." An audience member commented that she was very happy that the female characters aren't just being treated stereotypically, though I didn't note which episode she was referring to. For example, the stereotypical thing would be to have Ivanova kidnapped and tortured by the Shadows. JMS replied, "A regular character needn't be a victim." Someone else asked, "So are we going to see Ivanova kidnap and torture a Shadow?" This brought cheers and thunderous applause from the audience. JMS: "If you'd come to staff meetings, you'd know these things." JMS asked how many folks are on the net. "It's like body snatchers or something." "Did you know there's a funeral directors' convention going on here? I had wanted to get some extra sleep this weekend now that we're done filming, but I was woken up at 6am by people from the other convention talking very loudly in the next room, and of course the walls are paper-thin, so I could hear everything they were saying. And they're over there saying, `Did you know there's some weird science fiction convention going on here this weekend? They're really creepy, they all come dressed as their favorite characters.' I wanted to scream, `You necropheliac corpse-banging bastard! At least they're alive!' I have no life." A woman stood up and told JMS that she wanted to ask him a question she once asked Gene Roddenberry at a convention. JMS joked, "What's Majel Barrett like to live with? I don't know." The woman asked, "What is your dream? What do you want to be remembered for when you die? What do you want them to put on your tombstone?" JMS replied, "I'm only 41. I don't know." He thought about it for a minute and said, "`He told good stories.' That's what I'd want on my tombstone, what I want them to remember me for." [Joe, if Babylon 5 is any indication, you most certainly will be remembered for that.] JMS briefly talked about the fan club that's starting up (signup info is on the Lurker's Guide if you haven't got it already). The club has only been publicized over the Internet, and they already have about 5000 members. They're going to have lots of nifty stuff, including a web site done by the same guys doing the show, where each member will have mail, and personal quarters on the station that they can customize, and station tours and other cool stuff. They are planning on advertising in print media soon. Someone asked about Harlan Ellison. Harlan is doing much better, went home from the hospital just a few days after his surgery and is already writing again. "His job is to perch on my shoulder like the devlish elf he is and scream in my ear to avoid the pitfalls of his previous shows. He is a free-roaming agent of chaos." There was a kid dressed in a Ranger costume who asked a question. JMS spoke about responsibility and consequences. The characters on his show have to take responsibility for their actions, and their actions do have consequences. Small incidents, or a revelation or insight, lead to big changes, revolution. "You do have the power to change things." Someone asked why we don't see any little kids in Downbelow. JMS said B5 isn't the sort of place you bring kids. The person pointed out that people living in Downbelow should be having babies just like everyone else does. JMS mumbled something about there not having been enough time since the station went online, then turned to the side and said in a stage whisper, "Stupid arrogant bastard." SPOILERS ahead for S1 "The Quality of Mercy" 5 10 15 20 Every once in a while, JMS throws something completely outrageous into a script. For example, in "The Quality of Mercy", Londo cheats at cards using a long tentacle that turns out to be part of his genitalia. JMS said, "Warners and I have an understanding--every once in a while something happens that they don't want to know about, so I pretend it never happened." :) This didn't sit too well with Larry DiTillio, who was story editor at the time. Larry said to JMS, "You tell me I can't do camp in my scripts, then you write one with a guy picking up cards with his dick?" JMS replied, "Write what you know." Larry wouldn't talk to him for days after that. SPOILERS ahead for S2 "There All the Honor Lies" 5 10 15 20 JMS told the story about Peter David and the teddy bear, which has escalated since last I heard it. JMS hates cute things. And Peter David knows this. Now you have to realize, Peter David is a teddy bear incarnate, according to JMS. So Peter sends JMS this cute teddy bear with "Bear-ba-lon 5" on the back and the initials J. S. for Joe Straczynski on the front. JMS calls Peter. "You fucked with me." Peter replies very enthusiastically, "Yeah, ain't it great?" JMS says, "You don't understand, I have to get even with you." Peter begins to sound worried. "What are you going to do?" JMS added a few scenes to the next Peter David script that came through, which was "There All the Honor Lies" in the 2nd season. That was the one with the Babylon 5 merchandising, and one of the items in the store is a teddy bear with the initials J. S. for John Sheridan. Sheridan gets hold of the bear and spaces it. JMS' favorite part of the whole thing was watching the dailies when they filmed the episode. Out in space, Keffer finds the teddy bear and it slams into his windshield, which is a separate element in the editing and has to be filmed separately against a blue screen. So when the dailies came in, there were shots against a blue screen of the teddy bear spinning around with a pole stuck up its ass, being slammed into a piece of plexiglass over and over again. JMS loved it. JMS grinned and said, "We're a sick bunch!" Well, that wasn't the end of it. Peter David called JMS after seeing this and said, "Well, you declared war." Peter David now has his own show called "Space Cases". And in one of the episodes, what did they find floating in space but a teddy bear? Of course, one of the lines on the show was, "What kind of monster would space a teddy bear?" But this wasn't an ordinary bear. It was planted there in space by an evil race called the Straczyn, who want to conquer the galaxy but don't have the budget. And it was carrying all sorts of viruses and other evil nasty stuff. When JMS saw this, he sent a message to Peter-- "My serve!" JMS says he has a revenge planned that is "so wonderful I can't tell you because it would ruin the surprise. You will hear about it, it's that big, you can't miss it." [Now I'm curious.] SPOILERS ahead for S3 "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" 5 10 15 20 A woman, dressed in a replica of the new uniforms introduced in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", stood up to ask a question. When JMS saw the uniform, he remarked, "I recognize that uniform--that was fast." SPOILERS ahead for S3 "Interludes and Examinations" 5 10 15 20 He spoke briefly about "Interludes and Examinations", the episode he brought to show on Sunday. That's the episode in which "something happens which I had not planned... and if I can surprise me, I can surprise you. That's my job." [I saw the episode on Sunday, and I'm not exactly sure what the surprise was. Any guesses?] SPOILERS ahead for S3 "Interludes and Examinations", "Walkabout", "Grey 17 is Missing", "Shadow Dancing", and unspecified late S3 5 10 15 20 He also spoke a bit about upcoming episodes. In "Grey 17 is Missing", they literally find that an entire level of Grey sector is gone. This is a Garibaldi story. There is a big Marcus/Delenn story coming up. "Interludes and Examinations" is a Franklin story. In "Walkabout", Pat Tallman returns to test the possible weapon against the Shadows that we learned about in "Ship of Tears". "Shadow Dancing" will deal with the problem we are going to hear about in "Interludes". He confirmed that a couple of characters get scragged before the end of the season. One of the actors whose character was killed came to JMS and asked, "Did I do something wrong?" "No, you were great. If you were rotten, no one would care if you lived or died. You were great, so I had to kill you." Someone asked who was going to die. "God I wish I could tell you! But half of me would kill me, and the other half wouldn't move to stop me."