Green! Purple!

(For an explanation, read up on the Drazi effect.)

The script books have mostly been interesting for the commentary and supplemental material. Though I was disappointed that they couldn’t get Neil Gaiman to write an intro for his Day of the Dead script in the latest volume. It just reprinted the contents of the solo script book you can get from the CBLDF, which has a brief intro by JMS and a handful of footnotes by Neil Gaiman.

So, here’s what we’ve got so far (including what’s been announced):

• 15 volumes of Babylon 5 scripts by J. Michael Straczynski.
• 3 volumes of “Other Voices,” the B5 scripts by other writers.
• 1 volume of the B5 TV movie scripts (announced).
• 1 volume of chronology (with a Q&A and presumably commentary).

In theory, that covers everything except Crusade, which is what I’m really looking forward to. Probably two or three volumes, and I’d hope they’d include the unproduced scripts. IIRC there are two by JMS and one by Fiona Avery, and the Chronology list mentions one that was assigned but not written. The two JMS scripts used to be available online through some PITA Java-based reader that theoretically prevented people from copying the text (though that can’t stop screenshots or manual transcription), but also made it really difficult to do things like scroll. The site folded years ago, probably in the dot-com crunch, and they haven’t seen the light of day since. I remember one of them contained the first indication of a link between Techno-Mages and the Shadows.

Back to the chronology: on one hand, it feels like they’re starting to milk the audience for all it’s worth now that they’ve seen the success of the script book series.  On the other hand, it’s only one additional volume.  And it looks really cool…

It’s hardly a surprise, since the series was always advertised as a limited edition.

The weird thing is that they’re also shutting down the related store, with all the quote merchandise, until August. Presumably that includes the Londo/G’Kar campaign signs as well.

Meanwhile, the companion series, Other Voices, with scripts and commentary by the other writers who worked on the show, just released the second book. (To give you an idea of just how much of B5 JMS wrote, his scripts take up 14 volumes. The others add up to just 3.) It’s been interesting to compare the different styles of commentary. Some wrote epics, some did Q&A or interview-style introductions, and David Gerrold simply wrote half a page about why he resisted writing “Believers,” and what he did when he realized exactly why they wanted him to write it.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve only just started reading the bonus volume of the original set last weekend (in between bouts of re-reading The Ringworld Throne and writing). After so many years wondering “what would have happened if Sinclair had stayed?” you’d think I’d be in a bigger hurry to find out. Okay, I was busy with the whole moving thing, and then unpacking, and then trying to catch up on a fan site, and then trying to launch a blog, and I keep getting sucked into comic forums…

I think I need to sleep more.

So, what’s happening to the shows we watch?

Battlestar Galactica

Returns April 4 with first half of 20-episode final season. Production on second half could start as early as March. Airdate for those TBD.

Seeing as how we don’t currently get the Sci-Fi Channel (we discovered BSG through DVDs), this means it’s time to figure out whether to mess with cable/satellite, watch it at someone else’s place, or hope that they’ll continue offering episodes online through iTunes or something.

Heroes

No new episodes expected until fall.

Pretty much expected that, given the way they were talking at the end of the “fall season.”

Journeyman

No new episodes expected. Ever.

And I continue my history of discovering interesting TV shows after they’ve already been canceled. (Actually, I have an even longer history of this with comic books. The first comic I ever bought, back in 1984, was issue #19 of Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, which lasted 20 issues.)

Lost

Six pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot five additional episodes to air in April/May.

TV Guide interviewed Carlton Cuse on this recently (via aeryncrichton). They’d already shot 8 episodes of the 16-episode season, and plan to condense the second half of the season into 5—presumably because that’s how many they can actually finish during this production season.

This could actually work out well for them. One of the reasons season 4 of Babylon 5 was so good (aside from paying off on 4 years of setup) was that JMS shifted up his timetable so that he could wrap up the foreground plotlines by the end of the season he knew he had, instead of ending with a cliffhanger and hoping he could wrap them up in the first third of a season 5 that looked increasingly unlikely. The result was an extremely intense season that is widely regarded as the best year of the show.

And let’s be honest, Lost hasn’t exactly been known for compressed storytelling.

On the other hand, there’s the last few episodes of Angel to consider as a counter-example.

Pushing Daisies

No new episodes until fall.

On the plus side, this means it’s actually been renewed! This had “Too good to last” written all over it!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Four pre-strike episodes remain. Future beyond that TBD.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this one. I enjoy it while I’m watching it, and it’s much, much better than Terminator 3, but I don’t find myself looking forward to it between episodes. Even if it does have Summer Glau beating people up.

This is the book that has alternate versions of several episodes, the series writer’s bible…and a complete outline of the original arc with Sinclair all the way through. The site has a description of the contents, but how to get it is a bit out of date. Vol.13 shipped with a notice that they’ve changed the procedure.

Instead of waiting until you receive all 14 volumes, then filling out a proof of purchase form, you need to fill out a form before ordering #14, and they’ll ship #14 and #15 together. The form is at babylon5scripts.com/proof and collects your name, address, and the order numbers for the other 14 books. If you ordered them all through the same CafePress account, it’s easy: Log onto CafePress, look at your order history, and then copy and paste the numbers into the form.

Admittedly, “easy” depends entirely on how much other stuff you’ve made through CafePress. Unfortunately they only list order numbers on the history page, so you have to click through each number to see what was actually ordered. This makes it a perfect job for middle-clicking the links on Firefox (open in background tab): I just went down the list, clicking away, and then I had each order in a tab. Click, copy, click, paste. Repeat.

From JMS’s Cafe Press store (the same site through which he’s selling his script books with commentary):

With the coming 2008 elections, there aren’t a lot of candidates we can agree upon. So as a public service, we are now providing a slate of candidates that will bring the country together in common cause and preserve many of this nations’ finest electoral traditions.

Slates available include Londo/G’Kar, G’Kar/Londo, and Zathras/Zathras (trained in crisis management!)

I remember having an unofficial Sheridan/Ivanova ’96 (or possibly Sheridan/Delenn) bumper sticker, but I’m fairly certain it was a homemade “Elect The Brain” (as in Pinky and the…) sticker that I actually put on my car that year.

Now if only they’d used the correct punctuation on the ’08 instead of trusting smart quotes. (That should be an apostrophe, not a left single quote.)

The movie has two distinct segments, the first focusing on Lochley, now a Colonel and still in charge of the space station, and the second focusing on Sheridan and the techno-mage Galen. Both segments take place during 2271, placing it 9 years after the main story, during what would have been the 5th season of Crusade if the series had lasted.

The result is mixed. The first segment is the weaker of the two, owing in part to the fact that it’s essentially a bottle episode, taking place entirely on the station. Visually it’s very static, with characters mostly standing in one place and talking. This is probably influenced by the virtual sets, and the fact that J. Michael Straczynski directed the movie himself.*

The second segment is much stronger, and feels like a real return to Babylon 5. It helps that Sheridan and Galen play very well off each other. Their scenes together are the highlight of the film, and even though this segment still has its share of two actors in a room talking, it somehow feels more dynamic.

The special effects, of course, were incredible. Babylon 5 pioneered the use of computer-generated effects for television, and being pioneers, the show looks primitive by today’s standards. The technology has advanced immensely in the past decade, and the movie looks like a modern 21st-century skyscraper compared to the original show’s log cabin. More importantly, they’ve managed to make it look better without making it look like another show.

The virtual sets took a little getting used to. They’re better than they were 10 years ago, but still not quite up to the real thing. Plus they have their own challenges for acting, as the actors explained last Friday during the B5: Lost Tales panel at Comic-Con:

Tracy Scoggins: In my tiny corner it was like a little doll house with slippery chairs. I walk out and there is this cavernous green screen and I turned to Joe and asked “where is the door?”

Peter Woodward: With green screen, when you are 360 degree green screen, the cameras stay where they are, and we move. Now that may not seem like a problem, but I get used to that visual image … my background keeps changing. Until you get used to it, it can be very difficult.

The Lost Tales was originally announced as a series of direct-to-DVD releases. JMS explained that the reason he directed this one himself was that he wanted to establish the tone and look for future installments. True to form, Warner Bros. decided to start with just one to test the waters. By the time they went into production, JMS had cut a third segment focusing on Garibaldi, in order to put more time (and more of their limited budget) into the other two segments.

If they do make more, they’ll bring in real directors. And with any luck, WB will be willing to give them the budget for a few more physical sets, and a few more actors. (I counted 3 leads, 4 supporting characters, a couple of extras and some voice-overs. We did shows in high school with more actors on stage.)

This film didn’t wow me as much as I’d hoped it would, but it shows enough promise that I’d happily pick up a second one.

The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5.

*JMS is a great writer, but this is only his second time directing, ever. He did a surprisingly good job the first time, with the series finale, “Sleeping in Light.” Of course, he’d had that story in his head for the previous 10-15 years, and had come off of 4 years of production on the actual show.

Warning: the remainder of this post contains spoilers for Heroes through episode 1.21 “The Hard Part.” Also, if you haven’t seen Babylon 5 and Memento, or at least have some working knowledge of the two, you probably won’t be able to make head or tail of it. (God knows I can’t, and I wrote the darn thing.) The more background, the better.

Okay, so Linderman, a Vorlon, a Shadow, and Leonard the amnesiac dude from Memento walk into a casino. Two of them can agree that the problem with manipulating people to fight your battles for you is a Risky Proposition, for the simple reason that they are people, not chess pieces. Leonard agrees but can’t remember later that he did, because Linderman confiscated his tattoo stuff. And Linderman himself is sitting grinning and thinks the godlike beings are just so tragically wrong.

(Drinks arrive.)

VORLON: This plot has always been here.

LINDERMAN: Well, of course it has. Do you think we’d leave this all to chance? We only crib from the best.

LEONARD: Um, guys, my money disappeared. I think John G. took it.

(CANDACE walks by, tries to morph into a VORLON, and gets a richly deserved psychic bitchslap.)

CANDACE: (from the floor) Ow.

SHADOW: Mr. LINDERMAN, what do you want anyway?

LINDERMAN: Isn’t it obvious? You’re the godlike aliens, after all. We’re just mildly special, but we can play around with all sorts of fun toys. Like people’s minds.

VORLON: Reflection. Surprise. Terror. That’s your future.

LEONARD: Who are you people, anyway? And why am I drunk?

LINDERMAN: Mr. Kosh, I’m sure you’re mistaken. I’ve seen the historical documents, and while I’m quite impressed, you’re overlooking the fact that I’m—we’re—not attempting to fight a war here. We’re only trying to reach the…nexus, if you will. Thereby throwing a hydrospanner into the proverbial gears.

SYLAR: I can fix that.

SHADOW: Oh, hi there Gabriel. Having fun being our emissary?

THE PROPHETS: Wrong show, dorkwad.

SHADOW: My bad. Still, we’re winning. (blows a raspberry at the VORLON)

(VORLON is shaken, and its voices appear to be muttering layers of “dumbass” and “shit-for-brains.”)

VORLON: Impudence. Hiro and Mohinder remain to us. And Parkman and the Bennets are not lost.

LINDERMAN: (chuckling) Oh, you’ll see. They’ll all fall in line easily enough. Why do you think I and my associates have let so many of them realize they were being manipulated? Because they’re so adorably predictable when their trust is betrayed. You really should read the Widmore report, it’s marvelously entertaining. Believe me, no amount of time travel is going to change people’s gut reactions.

LEONARD: (reading off a legal pad smeared with paint) Okay, so…what, you shoved Meredith at Nathan and then shoved Bennet at Meredith, knowing how she’d react, so you could force Claire’s expression of the gene. So what’d you do it for and how’d you get Molly?

SHADOW: A better question would be, is there anything—

LEONARD: (brightly) Worth living for?

SHADOW: (sighing) Wrong tattoo. Anything you didn’t account for.

LINDERMAN: I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.

CANDACE: Wow, it really is hard to hold a Vorlon form with so many people watching. (passes out)

SYLAR: Oh goody, lunch.

LINDERMAN: Not on the casino floor, Gabriel. Why don’t you visit one of our many fine restaurants?

VORLON: You start the avalanche, but you do not know how all the pebbles will vote.

LEONARD: Yeah, what he said. Or she said. Whatever. Hey, do you guys know if I finally did it?

SYLAR: No, I’m the one who does it. Kaboom. Good-bye, Nyuu Yooku.

LINDERMAN: Wait, you ate Hiro? That’s not in my script.

VORLON: And so it begins.

ANGELA PETRELLI: There’s a new draft, hon. Page 606. (hands LINDERMAN a script with the word balloons filled in)

LEONARD: So you’re just making up your own truth? I think somebody’s going to lose a Post-It sooner or later here.

LINDERMAN: Nonsense. Mohinder is seeing to that. We won’t even need computers of dubious origin and purpose to find all the mutants, which is a good thing since I’m really not going to be happy with how perceptive Micah’s turned out.

SHADOW: (throwing up a few appendages in surrender) Okay, you don’t want to listen to the ones who’ve been there. We get that. Just don’t come crying to us when your boom tomorrow isn’t the one you wanted.

LINDERMAN: Fine. Go ahead back to the future, the past isn’t what it used to be. (glances at SYLAR, who is eyeing CANDACE) Oh for God’s sake, Gabriel, get a doggie bag, you’re going to die at the end of the season.

(There is the faint sound of FANGIRLS wailing. It’s loud enough for SYLAR to wince.)

VORLON: You are so not ready for immortality.

ANGELA PETRELLI: That’s why we have kids, stupid. LINDERMAN just adopts, that’s all.

LEONARD: Receipt, please.

One part of the story follows Sheridan as he picks up an unexpected visitor on the edge of Centauri space, Prince Regent Dius Vintari, and a warning about what will come afterward delivered by the techno-mage, Galen. The other part of the story is set aboard Babylon 5, as Colonel Lochley summons a priest from Earth space to deal with a problem that may have dark supernatural overtones. The two parts of the greater story intersect at certain key plot and thematic points, so that they overlap and complement each other while telling separate, but simultaneous, stories.

JMS has been posting photos and notes from the set from time to time, and (via ***Dave), TV Shows On DVD has posted a press release with more background and information about the DVD.

Interestingly, the press release and cover art make no mention of it being the first in a projected series. This is hardly a surprise, though, as Warner Bros. has always been reluctant to commit fully to Babylon 5 without testing the waters. Then they see the dollar signs and go all-out. It happened when they decided to release the pilot as a TV movie, instead of committing immediately to a series. It happened when they licensed the VHS rights to Columbia House, until they realized how much money Columbia House was making and launched their own series. It happened when they released just the pilot and one prequel as a DVD, before they were willing to release full season sets.

Hmm, perhaps the pre-order on Amazon shooting up to #10 in DVD sales before the end of the first day might help convince them? Edit: On day two, it’s up to #5. His people are coming.

Here’s hoping it’ll be worth the wait.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that they might be able to land Claudia for a recurring guest spot as her “mother” (flashbacks maybe?), and thus call into question through visuals alone whether Danielle is even as right in the head as she seems to be.

Yes, they were green and purple.

When you purchase your tickets, you’re assigned a country. (We got Hungary, which seemed appropriate for a dinner show.) This determines two things: your seating area, and which knight you’ll cheer for. People got really into it, cheering on their own knights, booing others, all from a random assignment. About halfway through the show, I realized it was a Drazi scarf situation.

To explain: The Babylon 5 episode, “The Geometry of Shadows” features a conflict among an alien race called the Drazi. Two factions have been fighting each other on the station, and the crew wants them to stop. The Drazi ambassador explains that every few years, they put a bunch of green and purple scarves in a barrel. Each Drazi reaches into the barrel and pulls out a scarf. Green Drazi form one faction, Purple Drazi form the other, and they fight until one side wins, becoming the dominant political force for the next few years.

The episode was clearly meant as commentary on politics, but here in the dinner tournament was an actual case where nothing but random chance determined allegiance. It wasn’t even a random draw for a team, this was just the cheering section! For a scripted show!

Last weekend we went to the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure for Katie’s birthday. It’s a similar setup, only with pirates instead of knights, a smaller arena so that you can actually see the actor/stuntmen’s faces, and a more interactive setup. (There are contests where they get willing audience members to participate, kids get to be sworn in as members of the pirate crew, etc.) Again, you’re assigned a color when you get your ticket, and that color corresponds to one of the pirates. And everyone gets a colored headband. Not too different from those Drazi scarves.

Title? “this is very good”
Blog Name? “this is very good”
Author? “this is very good”

The excerpt itself varies a bit, but is usually something like, “this is related article.”

I figure they’re either probes or attempts to poison blacklists.

What’s funny about these is that in the logs, the fields are all run together, so it looks like this:

author: this is very good title: this is very good blog_name: this is very good e-mail: …

The natural inclination is to break the phrases at the punctuation, so it looks like it’s saying, “This is very good title. This is very good blog name. This is related article.”—making it sound like Zathras is behind the keyboard!

Unfortunately all the really cool stuff is going into volume 15, which is only going to be available to people who order all of the first 14 volumes. A treatment of the 5-year arc with Sinclair in it all the way, alternate episodes, etc.

I’ve ordered Volume 1. Apparently they underestimated demand—people always underestimate demand for B5—because CafePress sent out a notice that “due to overwhelming popularity, your order for the Babylon 5 Script has been delayed. Our production team is working diligently to ensure that the books are printed as quickly as possible.”