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More on "Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows" and Rick Biggs
samuelk
The Unstoppable Mr. 'K'
JMS posted the following message via Usenet:
[quote]My apologies for the prolonged absence, but the loss of Richard Biggs kind of took the wind out of our sails and it's taken a while for me to feel up to saying anything about B5. This has also had the effect of slowing up anything to do with B5:TMoS (which as some of you have guessed or inferred does indeed stand for The Memory of Shadows), because in the writing we/I never imagined he wouldn't be here to be a part of it. More on that another time.
The funeral itself was a very moving ceremony. It was a point of some pride
that, although Richard had worked on a variety of shows, and all of them were
present to varying degrees, the largest contingent was from Babylon 5. The B5
family gathered in full strength, because whatever internecine hassles may have
come up between anybody, there hasn't one person on that show who didn't think Richard was just a nifty, nifty guy.
There were many crew members present, from art department to camera and office staff...DP John Flinn, directors Tony Dow and Jesus Trevino, and literally all the major or minor cast members with the exception of Jeff Conaway (who was out of town and couldn't make it), Peter Jurasik (who was attending another funeral on the other side of the country) and Joshua Cox (ditto...it was a bad week for a lot of people).
So from the cast we had: Bruce, Jerry, Mira (and Goran), Andreas, Claudia,
Walter, Bill, Pat, Marjorie, Tracy, Stephen, Jason, Caitlin, and others I may have missed or forgotten. From the writing/producing side it was me, Kathryn, Larry DiTillio, Doug, John Copeland, Kevin Cremin, Skip Beaudine, others.
Out of respect for the privacy of the family, I won't go into details of the
ceremony itself. Suffice to say that he was dearly loved by all, and his family is held in that same affection by everyone who was there.
I was going to go into more stuff here in general, but I don't seem to have it
in me at the moment. More later, then.
jms[/quote]
[quote]My apologies for the prolonged absence, but the loss of Richard Biggs kind of took the wind out of our sails and it's taken a while for me to feel up to saying anything about B5. This has also had the effect of slowing up anything to do with B5:TMoS (which as some of you have guessed or inferred does indeed stand for The Memory of Shadows), because in the writing we/I never imagined he wouldn't be here to be a part of it. More on that another time.
The funeral itself was a very moving ceremony. It was a point of some pride
that, although Richard had worked on a variety of shows, and all of them were
present to varying degrees, the largest contingent was from Babylon 5. The B5
family gathered in full strength, because whatever internecine hassles may have
come up between anybody, there hasn't one person on that show who didn't think Richard was just a nifty, nifty guy.
There were many crew members present, from art department to camera and office staff...DP John Flinn, directors Tony Dow and Jesus Trevino, and literally all the major or minor cast members with the exception of Jeff Conaway (who was out of town and couldn't make it), Peter Jurasik (who was attending another funeral on the other side of the country) and Joshua Cox (ditto...it was a bad week for a lot of people).
So from the cast we had: Bruce, Jerry, Mira (and Goran), Andreas, Claudia,
Walter, Bill, Pat, Marjorie, Tracy, Stephen, Jason, Caitlin, and others I may have missed or forgotten. From the writing/producing side it was me, Kathryn, Larry DiTillio, Doug, John Copeland, Kevin Cremin, Skip Beaudine, others.
Out of respect for the privacy of the family, I won't go into details of the
ceremony itself. Suffice to say that he was dearly loved by all, and his family is held in that same affection by everyone who was there.
I was going to go into more stuff here in general, but I don't seem to have it
in me at the moment. More later, then.
jms[/quote]
Comments
We know the name now. Drakh War anyone? May it prevail.
[B]I feel sorry for Peter Jurasik and Joshua Cox who had two funerals to attend :(
We know the name now. Drakh War anyone? May it prevail. [/B][/QUOTE]
y'all are gonna HATE me for even suggesting this... but. i ALMOST feel that they should not bother making B5:Tmos... I mean, B5 with out Dr Franklin? Ugh. I know, Stuff happens, and the show must go on and all that, but if Sheridan and Delenn were the heart of B5, Dr Franklin was its Soul. i can't imagine a show set on B5 without him.
B5's real story is about as varied and emotional and unpredictable as the fictional one, but in the end, faith manages.
[B]I agree with Keyan. [/B][/QUOTE]
The world may be rich enough, and the show of course can go on, but it just won't be the same.
can you honestly say that you will be able to watch a new B5 show and not think about Franklin not being there?
I think it'll take away from the show, I"M not saying they shouldn't make it, i'm just saying i almost feel as they shouldn't, if that makes any sense, lol
[B]The world may be rich enough, and the show of course can go on, but it just won't be the same.
can you honestly say that you will be able to watch a new B5 show and not think about Franklin not being there?
[/B][/QUOTE]
You can't bring the world to a screeching halt every time someone passes away. You have to move on.
I'm sure a lot of people felt that they couldn't imagine B5 without Sinclair in the main role.
I think the only thing that drives me nuts is it takes something like this to happen for JMS to stop being more kryptic than a Vorlon and tell us the name of the movie.
[B]There were episodes in B5 where Franklin never appeared. [/B][/QUOTE]
Yes, but never one where you know his character would NEVER appear again.
[QUOTE]
Okay, let's try this again. Best to break the ice by just sort of doing a
round-up of what's going on and what's coming and suchlike.
I'll try to address some of the questions that have come up about what's coming
up.
On the movies DVDs, and what's inside: the main thing is that we've got
commentaries on literally every one of them. Mike Vejar and I did a commentary
on In the Beginning, I did one with John Iacovelli on The Gathering, and
another with Janet Greek and Tracy Scoggins on River of Souls. I can't
remember now if I solo'd on A Call to Arms or if Mike was there as well (it all
blurs after a while...I've done something like fifteen of these things by now).
There's a separate cast commentary on Thirdspace with, I think, Pat, Jeff,
Jesus Trevino, and one or two others.
On the Crusade DVDs, there's one commentary I did on the original pilot (once
WB and I came to a meeting of minds, to wit, "I'm gonna say what happened to
the show, what *really* happened...you got a problem with that?"). There's a
second commentary track with Fiona, Janet, Peter Woodward and Carrie Dobro.
(We interrupt this message with a coded message for our friends in England and
Australia: keep your eyes on the horizon.)
One oddity...constant readers will remember a while back when I was asked what
TMoS was, and I provided a list of things it *wasn't*. The aforementioned
oddity is...one of those things has come up as an adjunct to TMoS.
Also, expect word fairly soon-ish about a new series of B5 novels.
Elsewhere on the prose front...Straczynski Unplugged is out now, and
Tribulations will be coming out in December.
I've turned in all three final Rising Stars scripts, and the first issue of the
last arc comes out in October, I hear.
Next week a new arc and a new artist starts on Amazing Spider-Man, and it's a
stinking cool issue. You can read a preview of the whole issue for free at:
[url]http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/spidey509/[/url]
On other projects...I'm making sudden progress with the medieval play I've been
twiddling with for the last few years, and may have it done in the next couple
of months. Once that happens, my plan is to do a limited, small production for
two weeks or so here in LA, just to see how the text works with an audience,
then take it away for another few months, twiddle with it some more, then go
for a larger venue. I may do something similar in London, since I may be
spending a bit amount of time there fairly soon.
And for those who've asked, I won't be in attendence at San Diego Comic Con
this year due to a variety of commitments.
Oh...and I've been offered an EP position on a network series, and while I
don't usually do that on shows I don't create or develop, when I heard what
this project was, I had to get on board. We still have to negotiate a deal,
and work out how that will interface with the stuff that'll be going on later
in the year, but fortunately the start date for the series should work out, at
least at this point.
jms
(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2004 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)
[/QUOTE]
[B]i cant think of any more fitting tribute than to continue with TMoS in honour of Richard Biggs [/B][/QUOTE]
I agree.
It seems that most of actors kept whole crew of Babylon 5 as big family and different from other jobs they had done, so I can't think better way for honouring him than continuing what he kept "special".
Spoiler: And hell, I think they could almost get away with his character being put into stasis after, say, an unexpected complication of the plague. It would allow continuity to survive, at least.
We'll see I guess.
I think there will be alot of characters that we love that won't appear in the show. And I'll miss them too just in a different way, naturally. But I do wonder how can they have all the actors back?! Some I'm sure won't want to do it and well if its set in the middle of B5 arc then they're all going to look older now. So not sure how they'd get round that one apart from applying loads of make-up and hair dye!
I think there will be alot of new characters. So Biggs not being there won't be so weird perhaps. But no doubt we will all be thinking of him during the movie. But I will also be proud and so will he am sure. :)