Highlights from the Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski.

Highlights from the Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski

Straczynski, J.Michael

Straczynski, Joe

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Synthetic Worlds Ltd.

SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>And the Sky, Full of Stars</li>
<li>Signs and Portents</li>
<li>A Voice in the Wilderness (Part One)</li>
<li>A Voice in the Wilderness (Part Two)</li>
<li>Babylon Squared</li>
<li>The Quality of Mercy And the famous first-season finale... 
</li>
<li>Chrysalis</li>
</ul>
FEATURING
<ul>
<li>A brand new 57 page, 15,000 word introduction and commentary written exclusively for this volume! (That's two thousand words longer than volume one.)</li>
<li>37 pages of memos describing for the first time the design of B5's guns, links, and the alien sector...the creation of new regular characters later omitted from the series (The Boss and The Mysterious Mr. Jones). In a special feature, the memos also include story development notes and recently-rediscovered premises for such lost season one Babylon 5 episodes as The World Below, The Resurrectionist, The Commander's Hour, In Their Image, Debt of Honor, Target Unknown and many, many more!</li>
<li>8 pages of B&amp;W photos of cast and crew taken by Straczynski, drawn from his personal archives, seen here for the first time.</li>
</ul>
In this extensive analysis, you will also --
DISCOVER what dumpster diving, living in a cult's religious commune, and sixties coffeehouses had to do with the creation of both the Joe Straczynski Memorial Mandala and the Babylon 5 five-year arc, a bit of personal history jms has never shared before.
HEAR for yourself the consequences that followed when Claudia Christian was left strapped into a Starfury during an earthquake.
UNRAVEL the truth behind Londo's hair once and for all...who is REALLY to blame for this, why, and where it all started to go completely out of control.
WITNESS the process that led to Morden's famous "What do you want?" questions.
LEARN the secrets of production that kept Babylon on-course and on-budget for five years, and turned the B5 cast and crew into one of the tightest families in television.
FIND OUT what Warner Bros. said when it came time to reveal Londo Mollari's...attributes...on camera, and even more horrifying, what happened when the prop department had to actually build the darned things.
UNDERSTAND how the Babylon 5 sets and costumes were designed, and what made them different from nearly every other TV series.
LAUGH with hysterical dementia as you discover what happened the night the network LOST the next episode of Babylon 5 and decided to put it together themselves.
SEE with your own eyes the Amazing Snackie Bowl Incident that saved the day while filming "And the Sky, Full of Stars"
SLOG THROUGH jms's over-wrought and breathtakingly inaccurate observations on culture, history, Gandhi, warfare, sacrifice blahdee-blahdee-blah he's SO into this stuff, but it helped shape the future history of Babylon 5 so we had no choice but to include it. We apologize profusely.
UNCOVER why and how the "fasten/zip" scene came to be written, and the horrors that followed thereafter.
PREPARE TO BE SHOCKED when you learn who Zathras was modeled after (you'll never guess this one!)
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Hidden plot details, revealed! Secrets of production, exposed! Untold stories of the cast, unearthed! Centauri hairlines, apologized for! High-priced writing advice, freely given! The June Lockhart Rainbow Break, explained! And what the HECK is "The Hokey Pokey" doing in Babylon 5?

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 2

DISCOVERED A completely different version of the Season 2 premiere episode, "Points of Departure."
A NEW BABYLON 5 EXPERIENCE Featuring the teleplay and an audio-photo re-creation of the "lost" version of Sheridan's debut episode...illuminating new facts about BABYLON 5's storylines, characters and canon.
WE COULDN'T HAVE SEEN THIS COMING 
While we were aware there were two very different scripts of Babylon 5's Season 2 premiere, "Points of Departure," we never thought we'd get to publish the original. Here's why:
In the early 2000s, J. Michael Straczynski's hard drive suffered a fatal crash and the original script was thought lost forever. That's why, when Volume 3 of Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski was released, JMS included the shooting script for "Points of Departure" instead of an earlier draft of the teleplay, as he'd done with most of his other scripts.
Enter Editor Jason Davis – former feature writer for Creative Screenwriting magazine (and resident Indiana Jones) – somehow, secured the original version of the "Points of Departure" script.
Surprised by the differences between this original script and the shooting script, and aware of some "classified" reshoots early in Season 2, we realized that this original draft was actually produced and edited before the episode was rewritten and scenes were re-shot.
Unable to reach JMS, we found proof of our theory in the Babylon 5 storage vault: a VHS video tape — the Season 2 opener as written in the ORIGINAL teleplay.
When J. Michael Straczynski resurfaced, he was thrilled that we now had the original teleplay and the tape and suggested we put together a "re-creation" of the original episode by using screenshots from the VHS tape and lining them up with the dialogue in the original script, since we would not be able to get permission to release the actual video. (See samples below).
For a more holistic experience, JMS had us pull the audio track from the VHS cassette, have it professionally remixed and included on an audio CD. This way, you can listen to the original episode's dialogue as you read the script and view the accompanying 300 images.
All of which makes the point: if we had then what we have now, all of this would have been included in Volume 3, which is why we are inserting this book between volumes 2 and 3 -- a moment of transition, if you'll forgive the phrase.
WHAT'S INCLUDED WITH VOLUME 2.5
✔ ANNOTATED SCRIPT The complete ORIGINAL draft of the Season 2 premiere, "Points of Departure," with editor's annotations for every page indicating the differences between this draft, the director's cut, the producers' cut and the final version of the episode that was aired and released on DVD. 100 pages total. (See samples below).
✔ VIDEO IMAGE RE-CREATION OF "POINTS OF DEPARTURE" AS ORIGINALLY SHOT Using nearly 300 screenshots, we have re-created, scene-by-scene, the original episode as it was originally filmed BEFORE J. Michael Straczynski decided to extensively alter the episode. The 100 pages of this re-creation are formatted so that each frame matches up to the dialogue being spoken on the audio CD. (See samples below).
✔ AUDIO CD OF THE ORIGINAL CUT This is the complete audio portion of the original episode. This means you can pop in the CD, open the book to page 106 and follow along with the script and video screenshots for a retro "multimedia" experience. (Added bonus: You and your friends can lip synch the dialogue for added fun at your next party.)
✔ POSTCARD AND BOOKMARK Featuring never-before-heard quotes that didn't even make it into the version of "Points of Departure" re-created herein. (See images below).

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 2.5

SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>Points of Departure</li>
<li>Revelations</li>
<li>The Geometry of Shadows</li>
<li>A Race Through Dark Places</li>
<li>The Coming of Shadows</li>
<li>All Alone in the Night</li>
<li>Acts of Sacrifice</li>
</ul>
FEATURING
<ul>
<li>A brand new 60 page introduction and commentary. The longest one yet. More than 19,500 words, many of them pronouns, some nouns, a handful of adverbs and far more adjectives than would be appropriate for polite company.</li>
<li>27 pages of memos written during production of the second season, detailing the process of developing stories, scripts and episodes, some of which have never been seen or discussed before. See how premises are suggested, developed, changed, combined, dropped or re-edited into whole new stories as the season two arc is created in front of your very eyes.</li>
</ul>
The funniest, most personal, and most revealing volume yet...the book that was so big we had to push the photos to volume 4 just to fit everything in!
<ul>
<li>A lengthy discussion of the change-over from Sinclair to Sheridan, including the process by which Bruce Boxleitner was finally selected as the new commanding officer of Babylon 5, what the character's name was originally, and how Sheridan's name was finally chosen.</li>
<li>For the first time, we reveal the other actors who were considered for the part, and the famous British actor who came within an inch of being hired, what happened, and why.</li>
<li>A PG13-Rated retelling of what happened the afternoon JMS stepped onto stage B to ask Claudia and Talia about whether or not they'd be willing to play intimate scenes.</li>
<li>Descriptions of two recurring characters who had been planned to appear in year two but had to be cut.</li>
<li>JMS's calm, level-headed, scholarly discussion of the decision by PTEN to delay the final episodes of each season until the start of the subsequent season. (One quote: "I mean, there's actually a kind of awe that sets in when you begin to really understand the extent of the stupidity involved...")</li>
<li>Read how the techno-mages were created, and why.</li>
<li>A point-by-point analysis of the nearly-supernatural Babylon 5 synchronicities that began to haunt production and may have resulted in real-life broken bones and arms among the cast.</li>
<li>Learn for the first time which scenes in "Points of Departure" had to be re-shot, something almost never done in the course of the series, because JMS screwed up.</li>
<li>Discover the reason Warren Keffer's character was created, what that character was originally supposed to be, and why JMS was determined to kill the character off at the very first opportunity.</li>
<li>Production secrets about how the Centauri homeworld was created and visualized, and the production of Babylon 5's first Hugo-winning episode, "The Coming of Shadows."</li>
<li>Never before revealed secrets concerning the relationship between Garibaldi and Sheridan, when and how and why the O'Hare cameo was shot, and how the arc of the season was constructed.</li>
<li>At last, a complete, shot-for-shot explanation of Sheridan's famous prophetic dream in "All Alone in the Night," most of it never revealed before. Who was the man in the middle, REALLY? It's not who you think.</li>
<li>The development process that culminated in the Shadow-doctrine of evolution through war.</li>
<li>Funny convention stories, Drazi wars, and the day the JMS generic protest chant led to the police being summoned.</li>
</ul>

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 3

Yes, at long last, the pre-best-selling* FOURTH VOLUME of the BABYLON 5 SCRIPTS OF J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI.
Here continues the story of the Making of the Second Season of Babylon 5, as told through the FULL AND COMPLETE TELEVISION SCRIPTS for many fan-favorite episodes --
<ul>
<li>Hunter, Prey</li>
<li>And Now for a Word</li>
<li>In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum</li>
<li>Confessions and Lamentations</li>
<li>Divided Loyalties</li>
<li>The Long, Twilight Struggle</li>
<li>Comes the Inquisitor</li>
</ul>
-- many of which contain elements not included in the final broadcast version, and/or presented in radically different ways (as with "Comes the Inquisitor")
<ul><li>PLUS: 10 pages of rare behind-the-scenes B&amp;W photos taken by J. Michael Straczynski (this time without the lens cap in place for a change).</li></ul>
But wait, there's more! (No, seriously, wait...come back...whatever we said, we didn't mean it, we always liked your side of the family, honest.)
<ul><li>After the publication of volumes 1 and 2 in this 14 volume collection, there were many requests for additional lost script material. (Also four requests for restraining orders, but we just ignored those.) Well, in poring through the Babylon 5 files, much to our delight, puzzlement and terror we discovered a PARTIAL LOST FIRST SEASON SCRIPT entitled "Festival!" This was JMS's first attempt to tell the story that would eventually become "The Parliament of Dreams," but which he abandoned in order to take another path. This is a completely different story, with all different scenes, including the debut of the semi-mystical Mr. Jones, the mysterious character who would have gone on to be seen a lot in the show. At 18 pages, plus an introduction of its own, the script also includes JMS's private story notations detailing where the script would have eventually gone.</li></ul>
FINALLY, AND BEST OF ALL, this volume contains another of Straczynski's long-winded, self-indulgent, overblown introductions and episodic commentaries. This time the damage weighs in at 57 pages and 18,000 words.
<ul>
<li>Feel what it was like to be inside Babylon 5 as it began to become a pop culture phenomenon!</li>
<li>Learn step-by-step how a script goes from the page to the stage, meeting everyone in the production team responsible for creating Babylon 5...from art to wardrobe, CGI and prosthetics.</li>
<li>Learn the behind-the-scenes reasons behind the departure of Andrea Thompson, and the return of Patricia Tallman, as Babylon 5's resident telepath(s) and what changes took place in the series as a result.</li>
<li>Discover the detailed steps taken to create the sense of a news broadcast for "And Now for a Word," with clues where to look to see where the illusion breaks down.</li>
<li>Find out who decked Bruce Boxleitner during "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum."</li>
<li>Examine the evidence for JMS's never-before-revealed theory concerning the real identity of Jack the Ripper, a theory you may never have heard anywhere before.</li>
<li>And finally, Straczynski's thoughts on the life and passing of Richard Biggs, and the day the Babylon 5 family gathered to say goodbye one final time.</li>
<li>Almost sixty pages of recollections and stories from the series' pivotal second season, and some of its most popular episodes.</li>
<li>PERFECT FOR VALENTINE'S DAY, as proof to your loved one of your affection, your caring, and the fact that you had about thirty bucks to spend.</li>
<li>NOW SHRINK-WRAPPED FOR EXTRA PROTECTION! (Well, we were excited about it, anyway.)</li>
<li>ORDER NOW! OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY! (And some are squatting.)</li>
</ul>
* Martian Publisher's Weekly, May 2257, Top 100 Pre-23rd Century Books by People We Always Found Vaguely Annoying

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 4

SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>Exogenesis</li>
<li>Messages from Earth</li>
<li>Point of No Return</li>
<li>Severed Dreams</li>
<li>Ceremonies of Light and Dark</li>
<li>Sic Transit Vir</li>
<li>A Late Delivery from Avalon</li>
</ul>
We're going to do this one straight. No, really, we are. Because this is a very crucial volume, in every sense of that word.
Volume 6 of the Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski begins with a lengthy and moving tribute to Andreas Katsulas. Deeply personal, and just as affecting, it's a glimpse into the revelations of those last days and how everyone, including the fans, pitched in to do everything possible.
This volume also includes the scripts for the most important trilogy of episodes in the third season (some might even say in the entire series) of Babylon 5: the Earth Civil War trilogy of "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams," which became Babylon 5's second Hugo-winning episode.
In the episode commentaries -- the largest part of an original 17,000 word introduction written exclusively for this volume -- you will learn:
<ul>
<li>What happened the day the Pentagon (and, later, the Secret Service) contacted Babylon 5;</li>
<li>What "Exogenesis" has to do with Macbeth, 1950s horror movies, and what happened to turn the ending of that script into something that should be strapped to a concrete block and dropped off the end of the nearest pier;</li>
<li>How and why the interior of the White Star (aka "that damned plucked chicken") was totally redesigned;</li>
<li>The circumstances that led to Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, making an appearance on Babylon 5;</li>
<li>The blow-up when "General Hague" was a no-show for "Severed Dreams," and the only-now-revealed story of what JMS did about it five years later...and the never-before-told story of how Bruce McGill was cast as his replacement in a way that took everyone by surprise, including JMS;</li>
<li>The origin of the Minbari beds, the story behind Jerry Doyle's broken arm, how to defeat the Macbeth curse, how Lennier fell in love with Delenn, and how Ivanova came to express her affection for Talia;</li>
<li>How even more of the strange Babylon 5 coincidences that surrounded production came back to haunt not just JMS but Jerry Doyle;</li>
<li>Plus more behind-the-scenes photos and JMS's personal memos written during production, in this case dealing in particular with the creation of the opening title sequence, showing how the development was handled between composer, editors and JMS himself.</li>
</ul>

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 6

SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>Ship of Tears</li>
<li>Interludes and Examinations</li>
<li>War Without End, Part 1</li>
<li>War Without End, Part 2</li>
<li>Walkabout</li>
<li>Grey 17 Is Missing</li>
<li>And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place</li>
</ul>
Let's start with the 63-page introduction and commentary, written exclusively for this volume. What will you find waiting for you this month?
<ul>
<li>How about an intimate -- in more ways than one -- description of the year that the Babylon 5 cast and crew began to descend into a near-mad level of eccentricity? Learn all about the previously-classified Breast Bowl...and its shortly-thereafter-hatched companion contest, the Butt Bowl...the practical jokes that began to take place more and more frequently on-set, including the "What's In Lyta's Box?" lingerie story, the day everyone in the cast decided to convince Jason Carter that his character was going to die in "Grey 17 is Missing," and --</li>
<li>-- AND...the story of the day Andreas and Peter decided to pull one of the worst practical jokes in the history of the form on none other than jms...a practical joke which, down the road, would lead to a retaliation of near-mythic proportions.</li>
<li>The Draal Complication Explained. Fan-favorite two-parter "War Without End" was originally written to heavily feature Draal, but had to be extensively revised when the actor was not available. The commentary examines each of the changes to the script that came about as a result, and how the two- parter was completely restructured in editing. Step by step, readers are taken through the editing process as the episodes are thrown up in the air to come down in vastly different form: the teaser and parts of part two becoming the end of part one, big changes to Sinclair's character, Delenn...possibly the most detailed look yet at the complete restructuring of an episode, invaluable for budding film-makers and people eager to win arguments in bars.</li>
<li>Secrets of the Starfury design, and the day that NASA called, asking if they could borrow it, and a rather embarrassing secret of the Book of G'Quan.</li>
<li>How to Create Alien Designs for Fun and Profit Using Color and Little Bits of Cloth.</li>
<li>Buckets of behind-the-scenes information on the production of some of the most pivotal, fan-favorite episodes, including what happened to the Kosh encounter suit the day that character was no longer needed. (Viewer discretion advised.)</li>
<li>The secret methods by which "War" was linked with "Babylon Squared," paying off threads from two years earlier whose meanings had quietly changed behind the scenes.</li>
<li>A deeply personal story from jms about how he came up with the story for "Walkabout" based on his time in a religious cult and a tragic experience he endured shortly after.</li>
<li>It had to happen...and about time...jms apologizes for "Grey 17" and explains exactly why it all ended up going into the toilet in quite the way it did.</li>
</ul>
All of THAT...in addition to the scripts, many of which contain material deleted from the final episodes.
In fact, as a SPECIAL BONUS for B5 fans, this volume incorporates the ORIGINAL DRAFT of the script for the two-part episode, "War Without End," which includes over a half-dozen wholly different scenes omitted from later drafts or radically changed when Draal was not available.
PLUS...10 pages of JMS's personal behind-the-scenes photos.

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 7

SCRIPTSShadow DancingZ'ha'dumThe Hour of the WolfWhatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?The SummoningFalling Toward ApotheosisThe Long NightIN THIS VOLUME...the cliffhanger ending to Season Three, and the big season opening episodes for Season Four, considered the two most popular seasons in B5's history!An original introduction and commentary written just for this volume detailing the dangers posed by the death of the PTEN network, and behind-the-scenes stories never told before, including how an accounting error came within an inch of utterly ending the Babylon 5 story after year three.There's also a couple of memos, but most important of all, something new: in going through the B5 archives, jms discovered ALL OF THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT ART created by artist Peter Ledger used in selling B5. This was the VERY FIRST TIME that the Babylon 5 universe had been visualized, and many of the elements in that early concept art were carried across into the series.Some of that artwork was used (in postage-stamp size) on a flyer from PTEN, but most of it has NEVER been seen, and the rest has never been seen properly, full-size. This volume includes FIFTEEN BLACK AND WHITE FULL PAGES of that original artwork, PLUS a color illustration on the back cover (subsequent volumes will also feature other full-color B5 concept art).See parts of the B5 universe you've never seen before! Read scripts you've never read before! Learn things you never knew before about the colorful history and dangerous past of Babylon 5! All of this in Volume 8 of THE BABYLON 5 SCRIPTS OF J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI!

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 8

One war ends, another begins! Volume 9 of the Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski brings you the end of the Shadow War, and the commencement, up-close and personal, of the Earth Civil War. Included in this volume you will get the following seven scripts -- count 'em, seven, not just one, like some others might do, we shouldn't name names, live in peace, we say, live long and prosper even...but still, we've got SEVEN scripts -- for these pivotal fourth season episodes.
SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>Into the Fire</li>
<li>Epiphanies</li>
<li>The Illusion of Truth</li>
<li>Atonement</li>
<li>Racing Mars</li>
<li>Lines of Communication</li>
<li>Conflicts of Interest</li>
</ul>
And as if that weren't enough -- and for some people it is, no names, just saying -- there's another original 51 page introduction with episodic commentaries that gives readers an inside-out view of the production of Babylon 5: a word-picture tour of the studio, a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes wrangling over DVDs and video releases, concerns over the end of B5 in its fourth year coming to a head, and an extensive look into the makings of these pivotal episodes.
PLUS...a collection of behind-the-scenes photos, JMS's own original outline for one of the Babylon 5 novels, never previously released, AND his outline for an arc of the Babylon 5 comic that shows the story of Valen, along with a partial B5 comics script by JMS!
All of this for considerably less than you would spend on an aircraft carrier, a cloned velociraptor, or a juicer. What more can you ask for?

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 9

SCRIPTS
<ul>
<li>Rumors, Bargains and Lies</li>
<li>Moments of Transition</li>
<li>No Surrender, No Retreat</li>
<li>The Exercise of Vital Powers</li>
<li>The Face of the Enemy</li>
<li>Intersections in Real Time (A Passing Shadow)</li>
<li>Between the Darkness and the Light</li>
</ul>
Hot on the heels of the first screening at the February 2007 New York Comic Con of the director's video blogs for Babylon 5: The Lost Tales comes Volume 10, which might as well be called Babylon 5: The Lost Arc.
Read in more detail than ever announced what steps were taken to truncate the 5 year arc into 4 years at the request of Warner Bros...and the previously unknown back-room maneuvering underway to try and save that last important year.
Discover a lengthy memo to TNT for an ALTERNATE VERSION OF SEASON FIVE, with a whole new overarching story that would have been keyed to building the empire that was now the Interstellar Alliance.
Most startling of all, this volume contains a recently uncovered FULL LENGTH TREATMENT for the B5 sequel series JMS had proposed before Crusade, that was his first choice over what eventually became Crusade, a series that would have starred Sheridan, Delenn, G'Kar, Marcus, one of the Zathrii, and several others in a story set against the backdrop of the Alliance attempting to create interstellar peace.
And on the back cover, the full-color illustration done by artist Peter Ledger that showed, for the first time ever, what the interior of the Garden area of Babylon 5 would look like.
As if all that were not enough, add 56 pages of original introduction and commentary written just for this volume, AND the full, original production drafts for some of the most pivotal and fan-favorite episodes of Season Four.
(What's that you ask? What the heck is "A Passing Shadow" and how did this script transmute itself into "Intersections in Real Time" by way of one of the most amazing coincidences in television history? Get Volume 10 and find out.)

Babylon 5 - The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski Volume 10

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