E-mail Item 5914766 98/01/19 03:17 From: D.KINNEY Don H. Kinney To: D.KINNEY Don H. Kinney /*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ THE ZOCALO #136 A Web Site: http://www.highfiber.com/~katana /*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/ 6804 Subscriptions Est. 10,000+ readers January 18, 1998 <*><*><*><*><*> TABLE OF CONTENTS <*><*><*><*><*> Part A Introduction Note from the Publisher Note from the Editor What's New J. Michael Straczynski Speaks News from Around the Networks B5 Fans on the Net: Erez Zadok Part 3 Babylon 5 Magazine Update Sinclair Top Ten Part B Zocalo Cafe - Let's Talk Discussion Replies Topic for Next Week Letters to the Staff Part C Zocalo Newsstand Open Letter from Stephen Furst Premiere Night Report Upcoming Cons Schedules/Programs Convention Attendance B5 Cast in Other Roles B5 Fan Clubs, Mailing lists, Chat Rooms New Babylon 5 Web Sites B5 Merchandise B5 Sightings B5 Chase Part D Odds and Ends Trading Post Convention Calendar Important Addresses Newsletter Basics ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ INTRODUCTION ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> The wait is nearly over. On Wednesday, at 10PM (EST), we begin season five with episode #502. This is a fascinating episode, introducing some new characters and story threads, including Captain Elizabeth Lochley. I can't say enough about the new opening sequence JMS has put together for us. It's a perfect way to begin this final season. It looks back over the entire story arc, showing us characters and events that have shaped the arc and brought us to this point in time. Bravo, Joe! Bravo. We've received a LOT of letters on a boatload of subjects this week - everything from the new comic book, comments on "The Gathering" and "In the Beginning" to requests for information on fan clubs and B5 music. In addition, Don finishes up his interview with Erez Zadok - keeper of the JMS digest. We have some convention updates as well as publications with B5 features. John Freeman, Editor of the UK B5 magazine, gives us an update as well. Fan Clubs are popping up all over and we are tickled to see that the Dutch Fan Club is really making a difference in their area. As I've wandered around the Internet and AOL this week, it's been particularly gratifying to see all the comments regarding season one. Viewers, both old and new, are getting a deeper appreciation of those early episodes and of the overall story. Our views and insights have been enriched and enhanced. Besides - they are just so cool! Have a great week. Keep your dial tuned to our new home, TNT. You don't want to miss a moment of B5! Take care. Sandy <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> NOTE FROM THE EDITOR <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> I want to extend a big thank you to TNT! They are doing a great job of advertising Babylon 5! If the show had had this sort of support from the very beginning, people wouldn't have had to chase all over their local TV stations trying to find where Babylon 5 had been moved! We now have our favorite show in one specific time and location! If you are unable to attend local group viewings of the series, you might want to find a chat room on the net where people in the same situation can sit at their computers and watch Babylon 5 and chat with their fellow Internet friends. I do this a lot as I have a TV right in my computer room. Needless to say, the chat really dies down when the show is on and the messages just fly during the advertisement breaks! The set time and day also will help greatly in preventing accidental spoilers! The people who have to tape the show for later watching will have to be careful until they have had a chance to watch their tape but I'm hoping that the set day and time across the US will help prevent someone from receiving the surprises Joe has in store for us this season. Conventions are coming up! Are you attending any of them?? If so, we are always on the lookout for a review of your experience. I don't get to go to as many conventions as Sandy so I really enjoy reading about other's experiences and I appreciate all the effort you put in to writing them! Thank you for being here with us each week! We appreciate all the messages you send to us! Jan ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ WHAT'S NEW ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI SPEAKS <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Q: We haven't heard much about the Book of G'Kar. What happened to it when G'Kar was imprisoned? Will we learn more about it? A: Quite a bit, actually, and very soon. Q: What sort of preparation did TNT do before beginning B5? Concerning advertising, etc. A: TNT did some market research prior to the launch of B5, and the two questions they wanted answered were, what does a new viewer need to tune in to B5, and what do the current viewers need to bring them in to watch again? The research told them all the things they had to include, and do, and say, to get the new viewers...and then when they got to what the current viewers need: "They just need to know when it's on." I think that's when they began to sense something rather massive lurking just beneath the radar nets.... Q: I am amazed at how stories from season one take on a totally different meaning now. A: That's the thing...I wrote this show for the long-term, and if you watch it in the way it'll be shown in the long-term, daily, it becomes a whole different show. It was a bitch to pull off, too, lemme tell you.... Q: It's amazing that in rewatching the season one episode, I'm finding not just subtle things I'd missed the first time, but entire story lines. How did you do that? A: And lemme tell you something...this has been INCREDIBLY hard to pull off. If I'd known just how hard, I don't know if I would've tried to tackle it. The only reason this got done was that I didn't know it couldn't be done until I'd already done it. One of the hard things was putting this stuff in, and having a number of folks at the beginning say, "Where's the story? Where's this so- called arc? It's nothing." I knew it was there, and knew that they'd know it was there...but like life, we don't see the patterns until afterward. That was a real risk. But I always wanted to plan this story for the long-haul, timing it and measuring it out with the knowledge that -- though it ran on a weird schedule for each of its original years -- in the long run it would show every day for years. So it had to serve two masters, the short term goal and the long-term one. It's what I promised when I talked about holographic storytelling 4 years ago...the more you see, the more you can see *through* the layers to the patterns they form, one behind the next. It's not a form that's really been done much before, so I kinda had to find ways to make it work on the fly. You have to have a mind like a rabbit warren to keep all the pieces together, running simultaneously, to write this stuff. What's been rewarding is seeing so many people now coming forward to say much the same thing as you just said. It means I did it right. I gambled on the intelligence of viewers, and that gamble has paid off. All of which is one big reason why I'm going to be glad to be finished with B5, as much as I'm going to miss it. It's been a hideous struggle to get all this down on paper, and to stay ahead of the Machine, the camera, which chews through stories at the rate of 24 frames per second. In a way, now I kinda know what John Henry felt like, going up against the steam engine. Just a few more steps, and I'll have beaten the damned thing. Q: In preparing for season five, are there any episodes that you would mark as "Must See"? A: Actually, I say watch 'em all...usually each season we have one where you go, "oh, well, it was a good effort." This time, so far they're all solid; in many ways, I think it's our best season to date. There are a couple that will doubtless split the fan reactions down the middle, as Deconstruction did, but that's intended, just to keep folks from getting complacent...no, in general, I'm pleased with them all. I'll leave it to the viewers to determine which of them is best. Q: I hear Bruce Boxleitner is an old sci-fi fan. A: Yeah, Bruce is definitely an SF fan. He tends to show up every so often at a couple of SF bookstores here in LA, startling the hell out of everybody, picking up the latest stuff. And he and Jerry have built up a great working relationship with NASA, having gone out to the Cape to watch several launches and help promote the space program on their own time. Q: Just saw the new season's opening sequence. It's quite different from previous years. Comment? A: Thanks...yeah, this in some ways is my favorite title sequence. It took a long time to make it, and it was very difficult to assemble. Usually I can design the title sequence on paper, and the working with the editors part doesn't take that long...Here it took a Long Time to painstakingly choose the images, use counterpoint dialogue, pick the high moments and make it all flow from one year to the next, sort of a Cliff's Notes version of the history of the show. And the music is terrific...very mature, solid sounding. As for the back of the station...y'know, those damn taggers are everywhere, aren't they? Q: Do you know yet how many episodes you will write in season 5? A: Because a couple of freelance scripts didn't work out, it's come in at 21. Q: To what number will your record-breaking string of consecutively written episodes extend? A: 60 Q: Counting all five seasons, how many of the 110 episodes will you have written? A: I think it's 91. If you put all the episodes, the pilot, and the 3 movies together, it's equal to 50 full-length feature films in 5 years. <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> NEWS FROM AROUND THE NETWORKS by Sandra Bruckner (sgbruckner@aol.com) <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Stephen Furst will be doing an interview with Detroit's 96.3 FM "Johnny in the Morning" on Monday. J. Michael Straczynski will be doing an on-line conference on CompuServe January 31 at 4PM EST. If you haven't seen the new opening sequence for season five yet, hop on over to the TNT web site (http://tnt.turner.com/babylon5). It's wonderful! Honest! It's the best sequence yet. It covers the entire story arc, beginning in 2258 and ending in 2262. One warning, TNT has put out two versions of the opening sequence - both are huge files. So don't expect them to download that quickly. It took me 28 minutes over a 28.8K modem to get the first one! But it's worth every second. The latest issue of the Universe Today is finally on the street. Received my copy Friday night! It's cool! So keep an eye out for it. <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> B5 FANS ON THE NET: Erez Zadok - Keeping Lists, Keeping the Faith (Part 3) by Don Kinney (d.kinney@genie.com) <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Concluding the talk with the maintainer of the B5-JMS list. Don: So what's the breakdown of the lists you maintain and the number of subscribers? What the difference between JMS-Digest and JMS-B5 Digest? Erez: 2652 in the regular one and 935 in the digest version for a total of 3587 right now. [Plus a hundred new subscribers last week.] Whenever I refer to B5-JMS, I count the total subscribers to both lists because the posts in the lists are essentially identical. The difference in the lists is simple. My scripts run every night and, let's say, pick up three or four messages JMS has replied to on Usenet. Those messages get posted to a list and people who subscribe to B5-JMS get them as soon as our mailer manages to send them off, process them and send them out. Generally within a few hours. All these messages get collected into a digest format. The configuration of the digest is such -- due to the Majordomo software -- that whenever 40,000 characters have been collected, it sends that chunk off. That's generally a default document size that's used around the Net and won't crash mailing programs or be blocked by spam filters. Once or twice a week on average is when a Digest gets sent out. During Really, really busy times you may get three a week. On quiet months you may get two a month. My scripts pick up the messages from Usenet but the JMS Digest contains digests from other sources. The most significant one is from Brent Barrett and his Compuserve digests of JMS messages. I can't touch any of the messages in the Compuserve digest to split them up or note a thread. Then there's the sticky legal issue that raised its head a while back about needing a person's permission to repost their messages. Brent Barrett actually went through the effort of acquiring permission from each individual before he posts their originating message. Otherwise, he'll just do a short summary. When Brent got the permission from Compuserve posters, not only did he get permission to post to his digest, but to other sources, including my list. So the regular list has JMS's individual messages with accompanying questions plus the CIS digest. The B5-JMS digest is a digest of individual messages plus the CIS digest -- a digest of digests. D: Do you have any general likes/dislikes of SF fandom? What do you like most about fandom? E: I don't like the general perception that SF fans are geeky people with no lives otherwise, who collect every possible set of Spock ears and visit every SF convention. I know many who like SF to various degrees, none of which are "fanatics", and all lead normal lives (9-5 job, wife/husband and kids, etc.) I don't like the treatment that TV Networks have given SF fans. They think that if they throw in some explosions or use the latest morphing algorithms for SFX, that SF fans won't notice that the story does not exist. Many, many shows came and went in just the 4 years that B5 had been in production, because they simply didn't have good stories or insulted the intelligence of the viewers. I like several things about the fandom: (1) The devotion and fun you can have in the same company. At the end of S2 and S3, I was lucky to get my hands on tapes recorded in the UK of the last 4-5 episodes not yet aired in the US. I hosted a small viewing party at my place, and suffice to say it was great fun. Recently, I hosted another viewing party, January 4th, for the B5 movies. (2) I find in general that I can have more informed, open, and intelligent conversations with fellow SF fans --- on many non-SF subjects too. SF fans have long been accused of being elitists who think they are smarter than the rest. I'm not saying that's necessarily it. But I do think that SF fans have been exposed to many other possibilities and have learned to accept them. SF fans have read or "seen" many other worlds, races, societies, religions, etc. They have been accustomed to the possibilities of many other alternate realities. Hence when in conversations with SF fans, they tend to be more tolerant, open to other ideas, accepting of their own possible failures and frailties, yet challenging you with ideas and angles you didn't think before, and would not try to lobby one narrow agenda onto the rest. D: Do you read science fiction/fantasy/horror? Favorite writers, stories, novels? E: When I was in high school and then served in the Israeli Army, I had a lot of free time. During that time I read everything I could get my hands on, from Asimov, and Heinlein, and Herbert to just about whatever the local library had. (As a kid, I had trouble sleeping for several nights after reading Childhood's End --- it just blew my mind!) Alas, ever since I started working myself through school, I've had no chance to read a single SF book! Reading books takes time, more than watching a pre-taped 1 hour show and fast-forwarding through the commercials. For me, it has been a simple but painful choice: do I spend hours each week reading SF, or do I work on my latest programming assignment or other research? So I opted to concentrate on the here and now, school and work. The beauty of it is that I'm not too sorry. These wonderful books and new worlds to explore with my mind won't go away. They will be waiting for me even 40 years from now when I'm a retired grandfather. Years ago I made myself a promise that I *will* get back to reading SF. One day I will. Promise. D: What else do you watch on TV besides BABYLON 5? E: I sit in front of computer coding away for hours each day, 6-7 days a week. After such a thought-strenuous day, by brain hurts. I find Seinfeld and Frasier to be excellent stress relievers, while not boring me with cheap comedy. I generally give any new SF/horror/fantasy show a chance, watching a few episodes. But I found many to fizzle out quickly on me (Earth 2, Space: Above and Beyond), and even old time favorites like The X-Files have been getting too repetitive for my taste after several years. What can I say, Babylon 5 has managed to spoil me terribly: I can no longer stand anything that's not at that at level of quality. I still watch Star Trek:DS9 because once in a while there's a really good episode. I'm semi-embarrassed to say I also watch Voyager, because once in a purple moon there's a good episode... 1/2 a :-) There are several excellent drama shows on TV and Cable that I'm simply afraid to get into. I hear very good things about them, but I know that if I started watching them seriously, I'd be hooked. So I purposely avoid them. I'm not worried too much; good stuff will always find itself into reruns. In fact, I never watched Seinfeld/Frasier when they first aired. Rather, I catch them in reruns 5-6 times a week. D: Do you think anything like Babylon 5 will ever happen on TV again? E: It depends what you mean. If you mean will a the Novel-for-TV format be repeated again, I'm sure it will. It was proven to be successful, once the networks trusted the audience to be smart enough to follow a complex show. In fact, I believe B5 had already made an impact: - The ST writers are listening more to fan's requests for continuity and mini-arc stories spanning several episodes. - Earth: Final Conflict is modeled as a 5-year story with an overall arc. - Other shows are looking into B5 as a model of "doing more with less". With only one primary writer, and a smaller budget, B5 managed to do more where other shows with huge budgets failed (E:A&B, ST:VOY to name a couple). D: I'm going to broach the unmentionable here and ask what will happen if JMS pulls back from his online participation and doesn't post to Usenet and the online services as much. Will you stop coordinating the JMS lists? E: If he doesn't post too much on CIS or anywhere on Usenet, then yes, that's what will happen. There will be fewer messages posted to B5-JMS until there might not be a need for the lists. But people have asked Joe about his continued online involvement after BABYLON 5 and he said that he had been on the Nets years before B5 even existed. Though he has stated he won't be as strong a presence as he is now. I think there will still be some information coming from him. Who knows how busy future projects will keep him? JMS may find he has more time to be online. D: Thanks for talking with me, Erez. E: You're welcome. For anyone who wishes to subscribe to the JMS digest, here are the instructions: The B5JMS List: An echo of JMS's messages on the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 newsgroup, filtered through an automated script that also sends the messages he's replying to, if any. To subscribe, send mail to majordomo@majordomo.cs.columbia.edu with a single line in the message body: subscribe b5jms <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> BABYLON 5 MAGAZINE UPDATE Contributed by John Freeman <101447.2455@compuserve.com> <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Hi, and Happy New Year! from Babylon 5 Magazine... As UK readers know, B5 #5 is already on sale here and is also available to fans worldwide through the official B5 fan club website at www.thestation.com. Issue 6 - our 'telepaths' issue - is now on sale 2 February. Yes, it's suffered one of those interminable delays which again was beyond our control, but only by a week. Personally, I think it's worth the slightly longer wait, if only for the pictures we were able to drop in from season five which we received just last week. But again, my apologies to all involved, and all those reading the magazine, for another wait. This issue features two great interviews with Walter Koenig and Pat Tallman (including some sneak preview comments on Thirdspace, the second TV movie. It also has an exclusive free gift - a B5 customizable card game card featuring Pat Tallman, courtesy of Precedence. Plans for future issues are slightly up in the air, because an outline idea to run our coverage of the making of the first TV movie has been put back, now there's a provisional release date for the film on video here in the UK (July, in case you're wondering). Since the majority of our readers are still UK-based, we tend to tie a lot of features into what's happening here, although obviously we're not unaware of the tremendous groundswell of interest in B5 with TNT's fantastic work promoting the show in the US. So the ITB features go back to mid-1998 and we're bringing several items forward to fill the gap; a feature on stunts, a double header interview with Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik... and more. It also means we'll be resuming our station log feature; the next one will be Intersections in Real Time, to run in Issue 9. Issue 8 will also be carrying a readers survey and I hope to receive your comments on the magazine in due course. One thing we have been made painfully aware of is a few annoying typos and the misplaced Zathras (nope: it's not Zathras!) picture in Issue 5. Obviously, we don't plan to make these errors; we're trying to tighten our checks and avoid them in future! That's it for this time out! You know where we are if you want to write to us. You don't? here: Babylon 5 Magazine Titan Magazines 42 - 44 Dolben Street London SE1 0UP No spoo packages, please. Cookies, though... we like cookies. <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> Sinclair Top Ten Contributed by Allisa Choate msallisa@dancris.com <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> The Top Ten Reasons Jeffrey Sinclair Was More Of A Sex Symbol Than James Kirk... 10. Sinclair had real hair, Kirk had a really awful toupee'. 9. Kirk hangs a phaser on his belt, Sinclair tucks his PPG into his pants. 8. Lions and Tigers and Sinclairs, oh my... 7. James Kirk? No, not the One. 6. Real men hit an alien and can admit that it hurt their hand. 5. Sinclair's voice in a whisper... "Breathing in, breathing out... in and out" could melt the polar ice caps... 4. Kirk chased skirts, skirts chased Sinclair. Any questions? 3. Kirk never married, Sinclair was a would-be polygamist with Delenn, Catherine Sakai, and a Minbari one thousand years earlier. What a stud... 2. Michael Garibaldi's favorite thing in the universe was... Jeffrey Sinclair. Hello, old friend, indeed. 1. Kirk had one son. The children of Valen could not be counted. Decide for yourself who is the sexiest man in space. My New Year's resolution is that Sinclair deserves better. Lisa... the evil, twisted and happily addicted to B5 <*><*><*> The newsletter continues in part B <*><*><*> =END=