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Interviews: Ask J. Michael Straczynski What You Will
He has written for many different comic book titles including Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man, and wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-nominated movie Changeling, but J. Michael Straczynski (jms) is probably best known as being the creator, writer, and producer of Babylon 5. Recently, jms has teamed up with the Wachowskis and Netflix to create a new original sci-fi series, Sense8, coming out in late 2014. Straczynski has agreed to take a few minutes from writing sci-fi epics in order to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
I've heard that to be a good writer you need to read and write several hours daily. On average how many hours do you spend reading each day? Writing? Do you have an average word count you aim to produce for each day?
My work here is dung.
As the emergence of more Philip K. Dick movies (and remakes) indicate, there's a lot of great sleeper sci-fi out there.
Who's your favorite writer that no one else seems to be enjoying?
My work here is dung.
Do you frequently brush up on physics or cosmology or some scientific field to keep your forward looking ideas sharp and in-line with current academic trends or do you simply rely on your imagination? Any academic journals you subscribe to looking for something to stimulate you into envisioning a future with an interesting twist? Is this common in the writing community or do I have the wrong image in my head?
My work here is dung.
Time travel is a sticky area in Sci-Fi stories and is so pervasive it has caught the eye of Chinese censors. Since H.G. Wells it's been a major staple of sci-fi movies and has become quite pervasive from fantasy books like Harry Potter to television series like Lost and Futurama. Even modern Sci-Fi stories like Stephen Baxter can still win awards for novels based on time travel. I'm not incredibly familiar with your work so I don't know if you've relied on time travel yet, however, I would like to hear your take on it. Is it a tired cliched mechanism that is overused or do you still find yourself thoroughly entertained with the possibilities it presents? If you wrote it, would/did you go infinite parallel universes or single universe with time travel paradox correcting crumple zones?
My work here is dung.
In your opinion is there anything we as viewers can do to get more quality sci-fi on TV and keep it there without being cancelled? It's always too expensive, takes a long time to gain a strong following and syndication, and then gets pushed out in favour of wrestling or some paranormal nonsense. We don't even have a proper sci-fi channel any more, despite there being literally hundreds of channels available.
I'd love to contribute to the funding of, say, more episodes of Stargate Universe, but at $2m/episode I just can't see how crowd funding would work.
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Do you think a series like Babylon 5 could be made today? Could you please get right on that?
You've worked in television, what are the pros and cons in the deltas between Netflix and one of the big networks/cable goliaths? Do they still goad you into putting a cliff hanger at the end of the episode so the couch potato continues to veg-out and just hit 'play' on the next installment? Are you glad you don't need to plan for commercial bumps? Any dark sides to being paid by Netflix?
My work here is dung.
Babylon 5 started off very strongly, but many fans feel that the show jumped the shark after Season 3, even as it's suggested that the series story arc was planned from the start. What actually happened?
You were one of the first Hollywood writers with an online presence, hanging out in newsgroups during production of Babylon 5. My memories of that were tidbits and insights from you, along with frequent "no story submissions" reminders and threats of your departure if the story ideas didn't stop. How do you remember that experience? Was it worth the hassle? And do you view the seeming explosion of writers, directors, producers and actors on social media as a positive or negative for the industry overall?
Purple or green?
Do you have any beef with the writers of The Big Bang Theory? Sheldon seems to mock/complain about Babylon 5 a lot. Did you loose a bet or something?
sudo make me a sandwich
Hey, someone else was going to do it if I didn't!
Can you list any examples of shows that have changed your approach to Science Fiction since Babylon 5 was written? For example, the latent success of Firefly showed how smaller-scale science fiction can be effective. How have you been influenced by Firefly or any other show post-B5?
_Legend of the Rangers_ was, at one point, a very promising pilot. What happened to keep the show out of production, how would history be different if it had gotten made?
And why?
There's a trend lately with TV shows writers to build mystery and suspense episode after episode without any consideration to the resolution of those arcs. The most famous instance of this is with JJ Abrams' Lost, but we saw the same thing happen to Battlestar Galactica. That's when we're even lucky enough to get a finale, often shows in danger of being cancelled will elect to end the season in a cliffhanger in an attempt to get an increased audience and help their chances of getting renewed. In contrast, with Babylon 5 you've shown great respect for the fans by coming up with a full storyline, complete with several outs in case of unexpected problems, such as actors being unable to return for one reason or another. In addition, when you thought Babylon 5 was going to get cancelled on its fourth season, you filmed the series finale to ensure we would get the full story, as much as it was possible. I truly thank you for that.
My question to you is whether you believe the type of long-term thinking into developing a good and complete story directly harms your overall numbers. After all, if Lost angered most of its viewers with the season finale, by then it doesn't matter anymore: the important thing to the bottom-line is that they were watching while the series is on. Have DVD sales helped somewhat in that people are more likely to buy the series if it's fully developed, and do studios take that into consideration in addition to Nielsen ratings? Do you have a complete story planned out for Sense8 similar to how you developed Babylon 5 and if so does working with Netflix make this process easier or harder than working with a traditional studio?
You have been one of the best known writers to interact with the community at large.
How do you feel that this has improved on your writing and character developments, and have there been any particular netizens which have caused you to stop and think about the stories your are telling in a different way or fashion than you initially thought?
(Is there anyone that you miss seeing?)
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Are you still working on the remake/reboot? Can you share any details (expected release date, etc..)? The original is one of my all-time favorite movies and I feel that there are very few writers/producers these days that could do it justice (possibly just you and Joss Whedon).
As a former Amiga owner, I remember how excited the community was to learn that this new TV series called Babylon 5 was going to have it's visual effects developed on the NewTek Video Toaster. Many considered it a vindication of the Amiga platform as well as a milestone in the evolution of digital video. My understanding is that you moved away from this platform in later seasons because it wasn't scaling up to meet your needs.
Today desktop video is commonplace, and there are a million billion Youtube videos whose quality is only limited by the talent and time invested by the creators rather than any technological barriers. How do you feel about the progression from then till now and the role you played as an early adopter?
When you visited Andreas Katsulas before he went beyond the veil; you mentioned in an interview that you told him stories of B5 that never got to be told.
Would you consider telling us here, in a post somewhere, or even a compendium; those stories? I'd love to enrich the B5 Universe.
For it’s original shows, Netflix tends to release all of the episodes at once so viewers can “binge” on all of the shows at once. What changes does force on the writer? Does the nature of cliff hangers change since you won’t have to wait until next week?
For me, this gives a very different viewing experience. When I am left with a cliff hanger, I get to turn it over in my mind, examine alternative theories floating out on the web, etc. In short, part of the pleasure is the (forced) slow unfolding of the story.
What would you say are the most valuable things you took away from your experience as creator/head writer of "Babylon 5"? In particular, the effort to create a single, long-running storyline over five seasons? Do you think you could have done things differently to avoid the issues with actors leaving mid-show and the network threatening to cancel the final season?
You know you want to.
Is it going to have a long story ark over several seasons with a definite beginning, middle and end like B5 did?
I remember a few years back hearing that you were writing a screenplay for Edward Elmer Smith's the Lensman Series. What has become of that? Isn't writing for that really difficult without it being corny, old fashioned and a parody of itself?
History is so yesterday!
One of the things about Bab5 that was always fun for the hardcore SF fans was bringing back actors from classic SF television. Casting Billy Mumy (Lost in Space) as Lennier and Walter Koenig as Alfred Bester (a personal fav) were entertaining beyond the performances they delivered. Are there any cool casting choices about Sense8 that you have planned or can dish on?
Everything I've read confirms the original CG models were lost. IIRC it was either due to the company that did the CG going out of business or some accident. A lot of the model work has already been done by the community though. There are fan made game mods where they started from scratch on the models and texturing. I'd imagine with permission they could take the existing models and improve on them.
JMS, if this does happen, please ensure they don't rape us at the checkout counter. $40/season is within my budget. I'd be willing to pay a little more because of how much I love this work, but $70+/season is pretty hard on the budget.
The Babylon 5 cast has lost several members - many younger than expected
- Andreas Katsulas
- Tim Choate
- Richard Biggs
- Jeff Conaway
- Michael O'Hare
It's even been referred to as the "Curse of Babylon 5". Can you share a favorite memory of each from your time on Babylon? Or perhaps, the scene that most epitomizes each character/actor?
Many readers are attracted to science fiction literature by their attempts to answer the Big Questions like "why are we here?", 'what is out there?", "where are we going?". Especially in the novels written in the decades after WWII. On the other hand many movies are obsessed with action- spaceships, superpower fights and so on. They dont really exercise our brains. Some go even as far to suggest that philosophical science fiction is essentially unfilmable, especially if you want to make a profit. How can you put more provocative ideas into scifi movies and shows?
The trailers for the World War Z movie suggest that it is radically different from the source material. Most obviously that would be things such as the whole fast vs slow zombie deal but perhaps more importantly the focus appears to have turned on a single globetrotting protagonist in the thick of the action. What was your original vision for the script and why do you think it has turned out the way it has?
Babylon 5 was great on many levels, but I enjoyed the most for its well-thought-out story and as an example of true science fiction. It contained many elements that were based much more in fact than in fantasy, something that was rare for its time, and even more rare today. What research and/or advisers did you have to go on when writing/producing for the show? What do you foresee for the future of science fiction television (or streaming or online) content in terms of using real-world science?
And thank you again for Babylon 5. :)
I think Sheldon's hate of Babylon 5 is a way for the writer's to pimp a show that wasn't as mainstream recongized. And give it some recognition.
I want to live long enough, to see this thread locked. And to wave at it like this....
m!m
I give JMS a lot of cred for his handling of various religious and spiritual aspects. Unlike most atheists, he seems able to distinguish the good from the bad, and keep a rational head on. I swear, some atheists are more religious and dogmatic than many judeo-christians.
And why JMS makes for better story telling because of it. I once read an SM Stirling novel where the Coast Guard cutter Eagle is sent back in time. And in it, he portrays the entire lot of christians trying commit suicide over the fact that now Jesus hasn't come. Seriously, WTF? He may despise christians, but it was such a far fetched and unrealistic scenario framed wholly in his extreme bias. A much more fun play would have been to have one of the christians express, maybe this is how God planned to reached those before the time of the Bible. And start having the character needing to deal with a group of now determined "missionaries to the old world". That would have provided more realism and a much more fun plot twist.
By maintaining respect for those of religious persuasion, and not just taking it as an opportunity to bash. We got some superb plots. The whole monastic order arcs were great. And really spiritually challenging.
And related to that: Assuming no constraints regarding rights, what classic (or not so classic) science fiction stories would you like to adapt as movies or TV series?
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Is there any chance that B5 fans will ever get insight into what you actually had planned with Crusade after the Drakh plague was cured? I know it was something to do with Earth wanting left over Shadow technology, but did you have anything specific in mind? Did you have an outline for each year?
And similarly, will we ever find out who or what The Hand were about (in Legend of the Rangers)?
And, not a question, but a big "thank you" for B5. I'm taking a friend through it for the first time and we're currently mid-way through season four. She's now totally hooked and has borrowed my season one DVD box set to see it again now she understands some of where it's going.
The dream was covered in volume 3 of the B5 scripts books. To paraphrase what it says there:
Ivanova with a raven on her shoulder: A symbol for Ivanova being the voice of the resistance, the bird being a reference to Norse mythology where they brought news. The "Do you know who I am" refers to her being a latent telepath.
The "man in between" refers to Sheridan himself, described by Lorien as being "in-between" (life and death).
However, in one of the other books, there is a scan of some of JMS' notes and next to "man in between" is the handwritten question "raised by Vorlons?". This suggests that at one point JMS was considering other possibilities.
My favourite bit though is (to quote):
"As for the dove on Garibaldi's shoulder... that doesn't mean anything. I just liked the idea of making Jerry Doyle have to stand around the set all day with a bird on his shoulder"