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The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Vol. 1
chromatic writes "It's hard to overestimate the influence that Babylon 5 had on American
television, especially science fiction and dramas. When it debuted, it was a
smaller, scrappier competitor to Paramount's revitalized Star Trek franchise.
When it ended, it had proven that not only could you tell a complex, layered
story over multiple years (and through the demise of syndication, yearly
struggles with funding, and often frustrating and unexpected troubles with
schedules and actors), but that a lean, creator-driven show could succeed
artistically." Read on for chromatic's review.
The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Vol. 1
author
J. Michael Straczynski
pages
454
publisher
Synthetic Worlds Publishing
rating
Worth reading for B5 fans and television students.
reviewer
chromatic
ISBN
none
summary
Notes on and scripts to the first half of Babylon 5 season 1.
Through the course of the show, its creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) wrote 92 of the 110 episodes filmed, including every episode of seasons three and four and all but one episode of season five-- a record-breaking achievement. Now he's publishing all of his scripts, as written, in multiple volumes from Babylon5Scripts.com.
There are plenty of books about screenwriting and many include a few examples of actual scripts (another book from JMS himself reprints the script to the Hugo-award winning second season episode "The Coming of Shadows"). Yet what other book or series of books even promises to show the development of a series from inspiration to the final frame of the final episode? What's in the book (and the forthcoming volumes) for a Babylon 5 or sci-fan, let alone someone interested in the mechanics of television?
The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, volume 1 includes the first five JMS-penned episodes from season one, as well as the unfilmed draft of the pilot movie "The Gathering". Each episode includes a short essay with notable information about the writing, planning, or filming of the episode. There's also a short section of photos at the end, along with seven memos from the start of the project through the filming of the pilot.
Subsequent volumes reportedly will include similar information. The second, including the remaining seven episode JMS wrote for season one, is out and shipping now. The rest will follow every few weeks. Positives
The big draw, of course, is the scripts themselves. In particular, the draft of the pilot episode, "The Gathering", has a few major changes from the filmed version. Delenn, the Minbari ambassador, is still a masculine character in this draft. Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador and victim of an assassination plot, has a lifemate travelling with him on the station. For the most part, the changes made before filming are obviously for the better. (Though cutting Kosh's lifemate was the right choice, losing a line of dialogue about one reason for the Vorlons's obvious paranoia about their biology was a pity.)
The scripts appear as written, including typos and, occasionally, vague hints to what will occur later in the series. For example, the first appearance of a First Ones ship (the Walkers at Sigma 957 in the episode "Mind War") has an explicit note that the as-yet unmentioned "Shadowmen" ship will look very different. Another suggestion during the scene of the battle with raiders recommends using real-world physics for the Starfury crafts to differentiate from other dogfights-in-space shows.
If you're interested in scriptwriting, directing, acting, or editing, comparing the script to the finished product may be very educational. Straczynski writes sparse action, leaving most of the interpretation out of the script. Of course, the episodes so far are mostly character and background pieces with comparatively few action or effects scenes needing guidance. It may be that larger battles and flashbacks have more description; it's too early to tell.
The new material is interesting, and in a few places tells stories that never actually left the set. One explains why the change of station telepath from Lyta Alexander to Talia Winters took place between the pilot and the first episode. Another expands on the trials of pitching a show to television executives, especially during the first few attempts of the late '80s. None of this is essential to enjoying the show, but it does provide background for why things in the series happened the way they did. Drawbacks
Other scripts contain scenes that never actually aired. It's not always obvious whether this was due to time constraints, edits, or other decisions. Aside from a few mentions in the episode introductions, there are no notes in the scripts themselves related to what did and didn't make it to the screen. This may not be a drawback; they're much more readable this way and serious students may want to watch and read the episodes simultaneously anyway.
Though the scripts represent the bulk of the show and the introductions and memos provide some detail, there are plenty of decisions made during filming that don't actually have explanations in the book where you might expect them. Walter Koenig's character of Bester, the Psi-Cop, has a crippled hand, yet the book doesn't mention this at all. It's difficult to know how much detail to include -- and the permissions and availability of the material may make it difficult to include (production notes? director notes?) -- but this is by no means the whole story. Keep the Lurker's Guide handy for more details.
The book itself is solid but not remarkable. The script formatting reproduces faithfully an actual shooting script in length and layout. The print quality is good.
Very picky readers may quibble about the length and weight of the book -- most of the non-script material uses whitespace a little too generously, with large top and bottom margins and more than double-spaced type allowing only around twenty lines of text on a letter-sized page. Hopefully subsequent volumes will tighten the layout somewhat. Conclusion
While it's always possible to find bootleg or transcribed scripts online or at conventions, often at vastly inflated prices, the chance to read the official versions as filmed is worth considering for serious students of film or television as well as Babylon 5 fans. The bonus materials are nice, but they're probably more interesting to fans than students; more information about the process of how a script went from the paper to film might satisfy both groups.
The quibbles are minor; if you're already a Babylon 5 fan, you know what to expect here. If you're not a fan or a screenplay geek, this isn't the place to start -- but if you find the creative processes behind television or movies fascinating, this is an easy way to soak up wisdom and hard-earned experience. It's well worth your time to compare a few episodes in script and filmed form.
chromatic's life goals include writing a novel (done), a comic book, and an episode of a television series. Then he can sleep. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Through the course of the show, its creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) wrote 92 of the 110 episodes filmed, including every episode of seasons three and four and all but one episode of season five-- a record-breaking achievement. Now he's publishing all of his scripts, as written, in multiple volumes from Babylon5Scripts.com.
There are plenty of books about screenwriting and many include a few examples of actual scripts (another book from JMS himself reprints the script to the Hugo-award winning second season episode "The Coming of Shadows"). Yet what other book or series of books even promises to show the development of a series from inspiration to the final frame of the final episode? What's in the book (and the forthcoming volumes) for a Babylon 5 or sci-fan, let alone someone interested in the mechanics of television?
The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, volume 1 includes the first five JMS-penned episodes from season one, as well as the unfilmed draft of the pilot movie "The Gathering". Each episode includes a short essay with notable information about the writing, planning, or filming of the episode. There's also a short section of photos at the end, along with seven memos from the start of the project through the filming of the pilot.
Subsequent volumes reportedly will include similar information. The second, including the remaining seven episode JMS wrote for season one, is out and shipping now. The rest will follow every few weeks. Positives
The big draw, of course, is the scripts themselves. In particular, the draft of the pilot episode, "The Gathering", has a few major changes from the filmed version. Delenn, the Minbari ambassador, is still a masculine character in this draft. Kosh, the Vorlon ambassador and victim of an assassination plot, has a lifemate travelling with him on the station. For the most part, the changes made before filming are obviously for the better. (Though cutting Kosh's lifemate was the right choice, losing a line of dialogue about one reason for the Vorlons's obvious paranoia about their biology was a pity.)
The scripts appear as written, including typos and, occasionally, vague hints to what will occur later in the series. For example, the first appearance of a First Ones ship (the Walkers at Sigma 957 in the episode "Mind War") has an explicit note that the as-yet unmentioned "Shadowmen" ship will look very different. Another suggestion during the scene of the battle with raiders recommends using real-world physics for the Starfury crafts to differentiate from other dogfights-in-space shows.
If you're interested in scriptwriting, directing, acting, or editing, comparing the script to the finished product may be very educational. Straczynski writes sparse action, leaving most of the interpretation out of the script. Of course, the episodes so far are mostly character and background pieces with comparatively few action or effects scenes needing guidance. It may be that larger battles and flashbacks have more description; it's too early to tell.
The new material is interesting, and in a few places tells stories that never actually left the set. One explains why the change of station telepath from Lyta Alexander to Talia Winters took place between the pilot and the first episode. Another expands on the trials of pitching a show to television executives, especially during the first few attempts of the late '80s. None of this is essential to enjoying the show, but it does provide background for why things in the series happened the way they did. Drawbacks
Other scripts contain scenes that never actually aired. It's not always obvious whether this was due to time constraints, edits, or other decisions. Aside from a few mentions in the episode introductions, there are no notes in the scripts themselves related to what did and didn't make it to the screen. This may not be a drawback; they're much more readable this way and serious students may want to watch and read the episodes simultaneously anyway.
Though the scripts represent the bulk of the show and the introductions and memos provide some detail, there are plenty of decisions made during filming that don't actually have explanations in the book where you might expect them. Walter Koenig's character of Bester, the Psi-Cop, has a crippled hand, yet the book doesn't mention this at all. It's difficult to know how much detail to include -- and the permissions and availability of the material may make it difficult to include (production notes? director notes?) -- but this is by no means the whole story. Keep the Lurker's Guide handy for more details.
The book itself is solid but not remarkable. The script formatting reproduces faithfully an actual shooting script in length and layout. The print quality is good.
Very picky readers may quibble about the length and weight of the book -- most of the non-script material uses whitespace a little too generously, with large top and bottom margins and more than double-spaced type allowing only around twenty lines of text on a letter-sized page. Hopefully subsequent volumes will tighten the layout somewhat. Conclusion
While it's always possible to find bootleg or transcribed scripts online or at conventions, often at vastly inflated prices, the chance to read the official versions as filmed is worth considering for serious students of film or television as well as Babylon 5 fans. The bonus materials are nice, but they're probably more interesting to fans than students; more information about the process of how a script went from the paper to film might satisfy both groups.
The quibbles are minor; if you're already a Babylon 5 fan, you know what to expect here. If you're not a fan or a screenplay geek, this isn't the place to start -- but if you find the creative processes behind television or movies fascinating, this is an easy way to soak up wisdom and hard-earned experience. It's well worth your time to compare a few episodes in script and filmed form.
chromatic's life goals include writing a novel (done), a comic book, and an episode of a television series. Then he can sleep. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Does anyone know what J. Michael Straczynski is up to these days? I keep hearing rumors that he is "doing something big", but nothing ever materializes out of it...
It's easy to forget in the world of Firefly, Stargate, Farscape, etc just how hard it was to get any real sci-fi series that were not named Trek on the air prior to B5. Babylon 5 struggled it's entire existance with ratings, but the fact that someone actually aired a 5 season arc without having to dumb it down, and change it radically to accomidate the Least Common Denominator is impressive.
My dream is that some day we will get JMS and Joss Whedon to sit down and do a sci-fi series together. With JMS's strengh in plotlines and story development and Joss's characters it would be one of the best series ever. Certainly better then the upcoming SW:TV series. Han with wookies indeed.
It darn near killed him, too. I'd seen him at various conventions during Babylon 5's run, and it was clear the stress was getting to him. I saw him again at this year's San Diego Comic Con -- 5 years after the show ended -- and he looked 10 years younger.
"(and through the demise of syndication, "
I had wondered as a kid why CTV suddenly stopped showing Bab 5. It used to be on right before Star Trek TNG on my CKCK TV station, then poof it was gone, or moved to Saturday afternoon. Then it was on here and there, and I realized they were trying to kill it off. There were times when I felt I couldn't go on, not knowing what was going to happen next on Bab 5, but I sadly got over my addiction and ended up not watching most of the last two seasons since they weren't readily available to me. One of these days I'll have to get ahold of the DVDs and watch the series in its entirety...
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
B5 was fun and entertaining, but I wouldn't hold it up as an example of great writing. I think in the end, the show was just taking itself too seriously, and I could never quite shake the suspicion that JMS seriously believed that he was conveying some profound philosophical message with B5.
When it ended, it had proven that not only could you tell a complex, layered story over multiple years but that a lean, creator-driven show could succeed artistically.
You're talking about ST:DS9, right? No? Oh.
As far as I can tell, all B5 proved is that really crappy Sci-Fi can still well enough to stay on the air for a few years. It beat ST:Voyager and ST:Enterprise to the punch, sure, but who cares?
I've been renting B5 from Netflix so I can watch them all in order. Frankly, I'm surprised it made it past the first season. The writing was horrible - especially the dialog; The special effects weren't even up to BSG:TOS standards (fifteen years later!); And the acting was horrible (thank god they ditched the Sinclair character).
The improvement between Seasons is noticable, but the writing still sucked through Season 2. It's improved in Season 3, but the dialog _still_ sucks.
It's fun to watch. It's enjoyable. But only in a campy, 90's-retro, I-probably-could-do-this-myself-and-maybe-better kind of way.
Interesting. B5 changed my life at the time. It helped me see things differently. Even it this is the past and I'm focusing on other issues now, B5 will always have place in my heart.
t ml#b5-anchor
:-)
Some great links:
Babylon 5 Lurker's Guide
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html
B5 quotes I gathered (and published in an open book):
http://www.alexandre.leroux.net/quotes/quotes_e.h
Free B5 great game:
http://ifh.firstones.com/
Cheers
Animoog.org
One of the biggest things I loved about B5 was that this is the first Sci fi show I could remember in a long time that copious amounts of sarcasm, quips, snide insults, clever philosophy, and unique circumstances. JMS tried to do something new, and that's what sci fi fans want. Your hard core sci fi fan doesn't want what they saw before and they want something edgy with good dialog, good plot, and a healthy dose of snark. Before B5, the snide sarcasm was something left for the last 3 minutes of a Star Trek episode.
Have you noticed just how much snark made it's way into original sci fi series these days? B5 started it. SG1 made it a sci-fi standard. Joss with buffy/firefly turned it into a fine art worthy of hanging in the l'ouvre, if one could hang such things. Even Andromeda, which is an okay sci fi series, still has loads of snark. Snark and sarcasm are the highest forms of humor (I feel) and require intelligence and attention span to get. US TV executives of major networks shoot for the lowest common denominator and these are not traits most Americans have.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I still want to know who was really behind the poison attack on Kosh in The Gathering, but I guess it's a bit late to learn more about Vorlon internal politics, although the comment about "losing a line of dialogue about one reason for the Vorlons's obvious paranoia about their biology" perks my interest.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It was picked up because it was a CGI show that could be done on the cheap and the studios were rushing to see if the concept would work.
I don't recall which network picked up B5 but NBC went with 'Seaquest DSV' and CBS went with 'Space Rangers,' a 'space-based science fiction show' and they all came out within a week or two of each other.
Space: Above and Beyond was my favorite show of all time until Firefly.
I miss that show.
B5 had just a little too much "Hercules" or "Xena"-style cheese for me (Andromeda, anyone?), although in general it was much, much better.
The fact is that sci-fi is a genre: and that means you're always going to have people who try to capitalize on the built-in audience rather than try to tell good stories. Same thing happens with mysteries and fantasies. Yet for some reason, sci-fi fans seem desperate enough to lap up the most artistically-flawed crap imaginable. They'll just ignore plot holes, utterly ridiculous dialoge, internal inconsistencies, and see-through, 2-d characters as long as we have:
1. space ships
2. lasers
3. at least one moderately-hot chick per
(you get extra points for having strange facial prosthetics with one sub-crowd and the other sub-crowd likes superficial political commentary)
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
I have seen at least one post here decrying someone's enthusiasm as mistaking their personal opinion for fact. So I won't make broad statements about how B5 changed TV, or Sci-fi, or even the room temperature. That being said, I will say that B5 affected me stongly. It was not just a question of the characters or story lines, but the underlying philosophy. Example, when Sheridan is at Zaha Dum and is being interrogated by (assumably) Lorien. When he's asked if he has anything to live for, he suddenly remembers Delenn, and that turns the tide of things. There are other examples, but that's the most obvious. There was an underlying hope and gentleness to the series that I really enjoyed. nw '98
Nitewing '98
Everything works...in theory.
Ok, so you have claimed quite a few were bad. And you site Battlestar Galactica as a good example (which quite frankly makes you very suspect in my book). Any others that you feel deserve merit?
As a person who has seen all of them, am something of a sci-fi fan, not for its sci-fi nature, but a good story is a good story (backdrop is not REQUIRED). B5 was indeed a good story. Please half the people in the NYT review section claim that the every video and movie clip longer than 5 seconds is the greatest thing since sliced bread (no George Carlin replies please). I am not going to say it was perfect, because NOTHING ever is.. If it finds a strong following in one camp, it will not in another. One has to remember that Sci-Fi has ALWAYS been viewed as a niche market (stereotypical demographic is: male 12 - 35, unmarried, and loaner).. Time is proving that to be wrong, but you can't fight what they want to believe. Becuase of which, anything that does not pull numbers like crazy and has an immediate following is snuffed.
A good story takes time to tell, but a good story that takes time to tell doesn't sell ad bucks the way they want.. And lest we forget, THAT is why stations put stuff (good and bad) on the air.. to sell AD space. If they don't feel they will get the market demographic they want in front of the tube at that time, they will move it, or cancel it, to find some other palp that will bring in the dollars.. (Big Guns (above and below the waist line), humour so bad and transparent that my blind dog gets it, and a plot line so thin that it takes 2 minutes to wrap it up, the rest being just filler).
Think of most of the sucessful shows on TV (and the even smaller set of sci-fi).. Very few have a story arch that spans more than 3 episodes, why because most people can/will not follow something that requires some knowledge of the previous. People don't want fantasy rooted in reality, they want fantasy with no basis, so they can shut off the brain.
Its a bit of a rant, but come on, lets understand what we are dealing with, a system that is not driven by quality, but by quantity (of dollars, ad space, etc..).
And before I hear the words Nelson Ratings come out of the woodworks, understand, the nelson households try to find what they believe to be a "typical" household demographic that in theory represents the nation as a whole. Does anyone here feel a show like "Jerry Springer" or "Sisters" or "2 guys and a Kid" represent them?..
Just my 3.5 cents
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board -- Mark Twain Look for http://Thebar.steelbeachca
I don't know if you'd know this, but I do remember hearing it from Walter Koenig himself at a Con... Bester wasn't _scripted_ to be played with a crippled hand, but Koenig came up with the idea and suggested it (it was an unspoken thing and didn't in any way change the earlier scripts as they were originally written). JMS decided to allow it.
It wasn't something JMS came up with or had originally penned, hence I could see how it wouldn't have a place
in his original notes for season one.
I have mixed feelings about how it adds or doesn't add to the character, thought it certainly makes Bester _seem_ a little more three-dimensional or "realistic"...
There is no right or wrong answer-- just yours.
Somebody should start a network that does no other programming than picking up and continuing the shows that FOX kills too soon with the same cast & writers. Just think what their line-up would be like.
Arrested Development
Tru Calling
Firefly
The TICK (both animated and live-action)
Greg The Bunny
Action
Wonderfalls
Titus
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
There's three evenings worth of perpetual TiVo subscriptions right there, and I know I'm forgetting a bunch more.
I fear for "House." It's the best show on TV right now, and it's on FOX, so it doesn't really stand a chance.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Wait, you're telling me that Dallas, Falcom Crest, and Dynasty were launched with 10-year story arcs already sketched out?
And I'll admit I may be misremembering, but isn't a telenovela generally either intended to run for one season, or at least designed one season at a time (like Buffy)?