Highlights des Chats mit JMS am 21.09.

Andrea Grieskamp, Goldkanal-Redakteurin, ist am 21.09. früh aufgestanden und hat an dem SciFi-Chat mit JMS teilgenommen. Hier einige Highlights aus dem transcript:

F: JMS any hope for reviving Crusade on Sci Fi?


It's an open issue. As far as I know, SFC will be looking at the ratings of B5 to determine its next steps. If the B5 ratings do well, then they may very well pick up the Crusade reruns after the first of the year.
After that... if THOSE do well, they may commission something Crusade-ish to follow. Or they may commission a B5 somethingorother in advance of that (i.e., maybe a tv movie or something), but all of this is totally speculative, full of balloon juice, and should not be trusted, especially
given the source (me).

F: Okay, come clean: Ivanova's "I think I loved Talia": platonic or not?


You're asking me, did they shtup, is that it? Is that what it comes down to? Huh? So you want the skinny, is that it? You wanna know did they do the deed, were they lovers, did Ivanova play on her own team, is THAT your question?


Yeah, she did. Next question.

Along the line of merchandise, dvds, etc...Let me slip in a question that many, many people seem to be asking... Any chance of a B5 film on the horizon?


You gotta see the world as I do for a second. (So everybody turn sideways for a moment.) Everything comes around in time. Everything. If there could be a Gilligan's Island movie, then sure as heck sooner or later there will be a B5 feature....


There have been some informal chats with WB about this, but
nothing portentious. I do think it will happen in time, but again, and to be utterly honest...I'm in no rush. I told the 5 year story I wanted to tell, and I'd rather it be done RIGHT than fast....


Though the idea of Arnold Schwartzeneggar playing Ivanova
does seem rather appealing at times....

F: JMS, since you know the characters better than anyone, which do you think was most consistantly underestimated?


Vir. From the day he appeared, he got badrapped. "Oh,look, it's Flounder in space." Then after a lot of folks got past that one, they just kinda dismissed him as trivial.... but in fact he was the stronger character than Londo. Sure, Londo was more *colorful*, but that ain't the same thing as *strong*. Confronted by the same or similar circumstances, Vir generally chose well; Londo did not.

F: How long until the New Show on Pay Cable Which Cannot Be Named will be named?


Pilot script is due by December 1st, if everything's copacetic we would start shooting in March, so figure...late summer/fall or thereabouts, if all goes well.

F: How close is the finished product to your original vision of the story arc? and how much did outside forces (the threat of cancellation etc.) cause you to alter it.


I always took the point of view of just charging along and letting the devil take the hindmost, so it's really about 80-85% of what I had in mind. In some ways it exceeded it, in some ways we could've done better..... but in TV, you're generally lucky if you get 50% of what you
have in mind, so to get 80% or so is just phenomenal. The only adjustment I made structurally as a consequence of possible cancelation was to pull the first 3 eps forward from year 5 to year 4 because I was told categorically that there would not BE a season 5 and to pull together the main threads.

F: What are the chances of having all the short stories written for the B5 universe released in paperback?


I dunno...we broached the idea to Del Rey a bit back, but they had kind of a laissez faire attitude toward the whole thing, "Oh, well, we'll see," kind of attitude. There's certainly almost enough in hand now for a collection. So any publishers out there who want to look into it, feel free.

F: Many, many people in the room seem to want to know what you think of Star Trek in its various guises?


In its various GUISES? What, it's been seen wearing a trenchcoat and funny glasses? Okay...here's the skinny....


Original Star Trek: it doesn't get much better than that
,folks.


Next Generation: A lot of good stuff balanced against the problem that they began to decide that what ST was...was technobabble and solving problems by inverting the phase warp generator...


DS9...they had a nice arc to the story...too bad it was ours....


Voyager: a good premise with lots of potential conflict softened and with all the corners knocked off. It could've been so much more....


Here's what it comes down to for me, in relation to ST: If I had a show in which I *knew* it would be renewed each season, that had a name going in that guaranteed an audience, that had a huge empire behind it...I'd take every opportunity to USE that venue to push stories to the wall, to do experimental stories, controversial stories, stories with teeth and claws and passion because in most situations they say, "Oh, you can't risk that, you'll lose the audience." But the ST audience is a loyal one...and the Empire will make money off it regardless so why not take it to the wall?
If you have this terrific fast car, why keep it in the garage? To me, it's a catalog of missed opportunities. But that's just my subjective POV, your mileage may vary.

Autor: Martin Bahmann
Quelle: eigene

 
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