Babylon 5: Artifacts from Beyond the Rim

Babylon 5 omniverse

by J. Michael Straczynski

JMS's Handwritten Notes for Season One
See for yourself the ideas JMS originally planned to include...at the moment he thought of them. We include scans of his original notes along with a transcription of what he wrote. (If you've ever seen JMS's handwriting, you'll understand what a bonus this is.) These season one notes include --
* The two-part episode that was scrapped in favor of “A Voice in the Wilderness,” which includes an Earth Alliance ambassador being stationed on B5
* The plot for the unproduced episode “Blockade”
* The original notes for "Quality of Mercy," which in his notes was called “The Resurrectionist”

Story Editor Larry DiTillio's Character Profiles
Written as a personal reference to aid him while developing scripts, these dossiers contain fascinating bits of data such as --
* Jeffrey Sinclair’s favorite composer
* What John Sheridan’s father was named before he became David
* What Susan Ivanova liked to collect
* The name of Michael Garibaldi’s brother
* What celestial body was the birthplace of Dr. Stephen Franklin
* Talia Winters’s favorite movie
* How Vir Cotto's mother's maiden name linked him to a powerful Centauri family
* How Na'Toth’s religious beliefs differed from G’Kar’s
* Which ancient Earth culture interested G'Kar
* And a wealth of hitherto unknown facts about Delenn, Lennier, Keffer and Londo Mollari...and nothing at all about Kosh
* Bonus: the dossier DiTillio wrote about the teenaged telepath Alisa Beldon, who appeared in “Legacies”

"Some Basic Thoughts on Telepaths"
Another "lost" document from story editor Larry DiTillio. Again, written for his personal reference, this is a list of twenty-six telepathic abilities in the Babylon 5 universe. Included in the listing are abilities such as --
* The Six Types of Mind Scan
* Thermal Manipulation
* The "Chaos" Maneuver
* The Empathy Scan

The JMS Interview Conducted Two Months Before the Pilot Aired
Highlights include --
* The circumstances in which he'd want someone to hit him over the head with a baseball bat
* How he’d convince an SF fan to watch Babylon 5
* What it means to give a Babylon 5 writer a "blind assignment"
* How JMS wanted Babylon 5 to be like Hill Street Blues
* Which actor had the most difficult time adapting to prosthetic makeup
* JMS's rules for designing the aliens
* The real reason he wanted diversity in the cast

“The Strange Exhibition of Sebastian D'Arque”
This was to be a season two episode featuring Sebastian, the character who later appeared in “Comes the Inquisitor.” You will get to see not one, but two outlines for the aborted episode. They explain how JMS planned to integrate an ISN reporter into the series’s regular cast, as well as how Sebastian was originally envisioned -- a very different take from what he would eventually become.

The JMS Interview From the Week “The Coming of Shadows” Aired
In this detailed interview JMS reveals --
* Which season two episodes he liked
* What went wrong with the episodes that fell short of his approval
* Which guest characters he wanted to use again (and which he didn't)
* His thoughts on sex and SF
* The origins behind the infamous “fasten-zip” conversation from “Babylon Squared”
* Why he didn't regret losing Catherine Sakai when he wrote out Sinclair
* The amazing thing Michael O'Hare did while filming "Parliament of Dreams"
* Why sacrifice is a recurring theme in season two
* In which episode he thought he did too much "preaching"
* Why he was glad Deathwalker was female
* Why "Believers" did not violate JMS's "no kids" rule
* Why "Survivors" required so much rewriting
* The reason "Grail" went off the rails, and why it was aired later in the season
* The complete background on why "Eyes" was written
* Which actor's performance he thought could have been better
* The storyline that divided the fans

Never-Before-Seen Concept Art by Peter Ledger
Six pieces total --
* Ledger's "simplified" English alphabet
* A "really alien" alphabet
* Four posters intended to decorate the walls of Babylon 5, including one promoting the "Church of the Beatles"

J. Michael Straczynski's Journal
Hour-by-hour details of how the executive producer/creator/writer spent four days during the production of his TV series during late season two. You get to read his innermost thoughts on --
* "The Quality of Mercy" and his definition of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
* What Warner Bros. noticed (and what they didn't)
* Getting better time slots
* What Doug Netter really does
* The importance of lunch (especially on Fridays)
* What a spotting session is
* The crew member that is "completely nuts"
* The necessary evil he agrees to that makes him think he's a "six-foot five-inch duck"
* The conversation with cast members about "Narn butt"
* The thing most people don't know about how television is made
* Why JMS stays up most nights until 4 a.m.

"...

Genres: Babylon 5, Science Fiction

393 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Joseph Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018). He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.
Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling (2008) and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin (2009), was one of the key writers for (and had a cameo in) Marvel's Thor (2011), as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening (2012), and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z (2013). From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four. He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics. Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.
A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019) for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go (2021) for Simon & Schuster, and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021) for Benbella Books. In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.
Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984. He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show. Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.

Reviews

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Babylon 5 is my all-time favorite TV show. While not as well known as Star Trek (the Original Series being my previous favorite), the Sci-Fi Channel remake of Battlestar Galactica, or the short lived Firefly, all of which are in my pantheon of great shows, B5 holds a special place. It speaks to my soul in a way that previously only Mr. Spock did. I watch the series again every year without fail, most recently with my mother who had finally grown curious enough after watching BSG.

I've read some of the novels, To Dream In The City Of Sorrows being my favorite as it adds so much that was left out of the show after Sinclair's departure. Plus I still have the 5 season episode summary books by Jane Killick.

This is more of a deep archive tome, something only a true fan would appreciate. I liken it to owning a copy of The Journal Of The Wils (the original script to Star Wars), but this is so much more.

There are other collections available about the show, but those are all focused and none hold enough interest to me. But this, this is a hodgepodge of various material from the 5 season arc and beyond, some of which I've heard of but have never seen in print in any form anywhere. Where else can you find:

Notes on unproduced episodes
Psi-Corps Manual on telepathic abilities
Season 5 revised episode note cards (after the originals were lost by hotel staff, a story I'd never heard)
The 1998 Motion Picture treatment
An interview with Andreas Katsulas
An interview with Richard Biggs
Several interviews with JMS (at various points during the show)
plus various other notes, Earthforce patches, etc.

If you are a fan of the show, then I'd say this is a must-have.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading JMS's thoughts about creating Babylon 5. The book is organized chronologically, and while it isn't comprehensive (I know he has written a LOT elsewhere about making B5), I think it's a pretty good snapshot of his process.