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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.
"It's hard to overestimate the influence that Babylon 5 had on American television, especially science fiction and dramas."
No it's not, you just did it with that sentence.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
The first 3 posts were sabotaged, and the fourth disappeared.
I tried so hard to get into that show, but just couldn't. I saw it as corny just too out there. I do like Star Trek, but am not a devouted trekkie thinks everything else sucks, but that is just my opinion.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
When you have Will Robinson in your show you know it's going to be a hit!
including all of seasons four and five and all but one of season five -- a record-breaking achievement.
;)
I can see why no one had ever been able to do that before!
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
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.
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.
... good as HSB. By the time Babylon 5 appeared, there were numerous TV shows imitating HSB's layered stories, mixture of short and arc plots, ensemble casts, etc. -- including thirtysomething, St. Elsewhere, and so forth. Almost all of these shows were better than Babylon 5, they just weren't science fiction.
It seems to me that Babylon 5 was an attempt to produce something a little like Hill Street Blues in space. It wasn't as well written, acted, or
He was going to try to get Paramount to accept his ideas for a new Star Trek show (PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, anyone but Beavis & Butthead), but he heard from his contacts that Paramount wanted the show to sit for a while. As a result, he took an offer to run the television show Jeremiah.
:-(
He's had an interesting career in SciFi, and got his start in the little known show, "Captain Power and the Soliders of the Future!" Sadly, the show went off the air just as people were starting to get into it. Stupid networks.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Those Video Toasters were state of the art back then if you wanted to do it in house, on time, and within budget.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
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 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.
Ignore the spaceships and the funky haircuts on the aliens. Who is G'Kar? Who's asking you "What do you want?" in that seductive tone of voice. Who's being held in who's cellars, out of sight and out of mind? And remember, B5 had come and gone before any of us heard of Abu Ghraib!
Nearly every show now has a multi-season arc. These were inexistent when B5 was created (aside from the occasional and rare cliffhanger). Joss picked it up for Buffy, Angel and Firefly. The last few seasons of the X files started to concentrate more on scripting ahead. DS9 and Enterprise started making use of larger arcs (although still lacked any sense of long-term continuity), and it enabled the multi-season dramas like Lost. It heavily affected/enabled nearly all the following sci-fi series like Stargate, farscape and Battlestar Galactica.
The thing nobody has been able to match is to have an END. This sounds stupid, but it implies closure and a pre-written script that arcs over multiple seasons. It allows you to set up character attributes in season one that they will not make use of until season 4, and when done right it makes for a fantastic viewing experience.
Pre-scripting the story arc also allows for a continuity that would stop you from making a mish-mash of abandon technology and general stupidity like you always get in the Star Trek universe.
And I'm STILL understating it.
Apparently it was intended to be Laurel Takashima (the second-in-command during the Pilot). She was supposed to stick around on the show for a while, shoot Garabaldi in the back during Chrysalis, then be revealed as the person with the sleeper personality (instead of Talia) later on.
For reference, here's the explanation from JMS on the Lurker's Guide:
"Think hard about the pilot for a moment. Whose job is it in the observation dome to monitor incoming ships...but apparently let the spider transport slip through unnoticed? The station's skin should have (and likely did) detect something clamping onto it...but apparently someone over-rode that for the spider transport. Someone had to PRE-arrange access via the computer for the assassin, since it easily palms its way into Varner's quarters. (And what is the name of the person the access computer recognizes?) Someone had to arrange for the transport tube to be delayed, and then *erase* that information from the computer system. Someone who knew *exactly* when the Vorlon ship would be docking. We see, at various times, the following people interacting with the assassin, in different capacities: Garibaldi, Lyta, G'Kar, Londo, Dr. Kyle, and of course, much later, Sinclair. Who did we never see in direct contact with the assassin? Who was put in charge of the station after Sinclair was removed?
Do you notice a pattern developing? Do certain things here point to a certain individual...who may, or may not, have been acting on her own volition?
And yes, this is something we planned to explore, though it wasn't on a *direct* line to the arc of our story. It definitely impinged upon it, of course. This has been modified due to the change in the character of the Lieutenant Commander, and this now won't go where it was going to go...but we still have some very interesting plans for our secondary character, not at all along the Takashima lines (which is why this isn't a spoiler), but certainly intriguing on their own terms. "
I'm not sure it's ever been explicitly stated, but here's one way to connect the dots:
The assassin was a member of the Minbari Wind Swords clan. The Wind Swords sheltered Deathwalker, the worst war criminal among the Dilgar. The Dilgar have been implied to have been allies of the Shadows. At least some Shadow allies are known to have been active since the Earth-Minbari War or earlier. This suggests that the Wind Swords clan is either allied with the Shadows or has been infiltrated by Shadow agents.
It's entirely likely that the Shadows, or their agents, recognized Babylon 5's significance -- as they recognized Babylon 4 -- and wanted to destabilize it before it beame a threat. What better way than to strike at a likely pivotal figure (Sinclair) by killing a Vorlon and sparking a potential conflict with the Vorlons themselves?
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.
I am curious, do people feel that B5 predicted the current political events quite well? Some of the quotes and behavior of the NightWatch, the use of external threats (often exaggerated) to cause and then justify actions that people would not stand for otherwise, the arguments used to rationalize a grab for power, etc.
Once a viewer said that such features of a dictatorship could never occur in an established democracy. JMS responded that they are bound to happen as long as people think they cannot happen (paraphrased). I fear he was right.
Not the same thing at all. B5 was designed as a 5-year story with a beginning, middle, and end. It was designed to end after 5 years, which is why instead of a sixth season, they did a couple of stand-alone TV movies and a spinoff.
Details changed, things got moved around, the first half of season 5 was mainly filler because those stoies got moved up to the end of season 4 -- but it was about the journey from point A in the first episode to point B in the last, and all the points along the way.
The soap opera model is designed to keep going indefinitely. You're not working toward an ultimate destination, you're working from what you have in place to see where you can go next. Even if you have things in mind to resolve one long-term story, you always have another one to launch to keep things going.
JMS has always likened B5 to writing a serialized novel for television. The soap opera model is more like standard super-hero comic books*. You might have a complicated, multi-year X-Men story, but you don't expect it to tell the entire story of the X-Men wrap it up with an epilogue and end the series when you're done.
* I'm not saying this to disparage soap operas or comics, and I'm well aware of comics like Preacher or Sandman that use the other storytelling model.