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Welcome to Show #144!
Interview: Jan Schroeder and Jason Davis of the Babylon 5 Scripts Team join us to talk about the TV Movie Scripts book, and to tease us about a series of mystery books that will be coming our way starting in March.
Jason tells us how he came to the project, and his history of doing JMS interviews; both Jan and Jason talk about the finished movies vs the original scripts and extra materials that paint a different about of the movies, especially “Legend of the Rangers”.
Don’t forget: the TV Movies book is only available for a limited time, so make sure that you order your copy before April 30th!
We muse over the possibility of a feature length new B5 movie, since WB has thrown the thread out there in asking what dollar amount constitutes “feature” to JMS; and Tim and Summer throw out guesses about what the new series of books may contain, and we’re shot down on every one, not that they’d acknowledge if any of them were correct.
It’s a long interview, so grab a beverage, put your feet up, and enjoy!
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Hurray, the podcast is back on schedule! I can get my Thursday morning fix !
It all makes sense now…
First, the economic chaos.
Second, the order of the scriptbooks.
And now a stimulus package just in time for the release of the new series of scriptbook?!
It would seem that Jason Davis, is the man in the middle, the one that everyone has been searching for…
Is he behind Farpointforums Thread 83 by 9 by 12 too?
Did Jan or Jason happen to mention anything like how long they’ll be available for, and if they’ll be priced at $39.99 each? Or will they be $29.99 like the quotes book?
A great interview. I can’t believe neither of you asked about whether the project had to do with JMS’ “triple-encrypted computer file” or his notebook of episode plots.
Jason nor Jan ever mentioned whether or not the new book project will be a limited time offer.
Neil: I was just rereading an old B5 magazine where jms mentioned the file, and it immediately came
… to me that this might be one of the book things they had in mind.
Availability and price will be announced on the script book website when the book is released, I imagine. We’ll know when you know.
Neil, I completely blanked on the notebook. I assume you’re talking about the one he had sitting on his desk in plain sight, and held the entire arc of the series?
I guess the thing is, for my part, I can’t think of anything that I didn’t know I wanted. As far as that notebook goes, eh- I figure it might be interesting reading, but the finished product is so great, I don’t know what I’d glean from notecards that wasn’t covered in the script books. I’d like an “Art of Babylon 5”, but I imagine that kind of material is held by WB.
Count me in as another who’d love to see an “Art of Babylon 5” book, but I’d want it to be at least as detailed as the 500-page “Art of The Matrix” hardcover beauty.
Here are some possibilities that came to mind:
– Scripts for the comics up to and including “In Valen’s Name”
– Outlines/excerpts from the books and/or books never completed
– Outline/script for the “Into the Fire” videogame
– Copies/commentaries of the short stories JMS wrote within the B5 universe in various venues
– Collections of conceptual drawings with commentary and notes from JMS from over the years?
But that wouldn’t come close to filling 5 books, would it? Sounds more like possibilities for the smaller ~2 book series that was mentioned.
I could see the notebook/flash cards fulfilling that purpose, but wouldn’t that render the special 15th volume rather moot? The whole point of that volume was the chance to get material (and an early-phase outline for the original intentions of the series) that would otherwise be unavailable. So that doesn’t quite sound right to me.
One possibility is that JMS had compiled something of a concordance to keep the details straight, or he could have commissioned someone to put one together for him after the fact for this sort of release. Perhaps something like the oft-mentioned “encyclopedia” that JK Rowling wants to eventually put together for Harry Potter, with tons of additional background information that never made it into the books themselves? The existence of something like that has never been mentioned, and it could certainly be of major interest…
The “Triple encrypted file” binder contains things that were not included in the vol.15 outline, such as how several main characters eventually die. I wouldn’t dismiss it’s content out of hand.
The unproduced Bill Mumy and Peter David script would still be nice to see as well.
I’m no man in the middle — I have nothing at all to do with hemlines.