From all indications, JMS is accomplishing what he set out to do. The pilot movie pre-production and filming came in UNDER budget and on schedule.  In information given out so far, there is no sign of any kids or robots.  Many noted science fiction authors have given very favorable comments on Babylon 5.  And it has all been done with no interference from Warner Bros. in the creative area.  Presentations by JMS at various science fiction conventions have gotten very positive responses from the fans. 4.  Who else is working on Babylon 5? Richard Compton, Director: Richard has worked a lot on TV, including The Equalizer, ST:TNG ( Haven ), and many TV movies.  Compton will be a co-producer on the series, directing some episodes and coordinating with other directors to maintain a consistent look to the series. The production team includes: Producer (series) : John Copeland Production Manager (series): Kevin Cremin Ron Thornton (Computer EFX): Computer Graphics expert. John Iacovelli (Production designer) Has worked on Honey I Shrunk the Kids . Billy Dickson (Director of Cinematography) Bob Brown (Production Manager/Line Producer): Producer and/or production manager on War of the Roses, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, Return of the Jedi, Iceman and Childs Play (all three). Mary Jo Slater (Casting Director) Did casting for the revived Dark Shadows, Intruders mini-series, and Star Trek VI. Costume Designer (series): Anne Bruice Visual Consultant: Steve Burg Stewart Copeland (Musical Score) formerly of The Police.  He has done music for The Equalizer TV series as well as the Francis Ford Coppola movie Rumblefish . Harlan Ellison will be Creative Consultant for the series.  He has also written a Manifest for the show that will explain to other writer how to write science fiction for television and Babylon 5, in particular. Lawrence DiTllio will be Story Editor.  He has worked on Captain Power, The Hitchhiker, Real Ghostbusters and other shows). Writers signed for _script_s include D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, Christy Marx (new Twilight Zone and others), and Marc Scott Zicree (Friday the 13th TV series and author of the Twilight Zone Companion). 5.  Who is the main cast for the show? a. The Cast for the Pilot Michael O'Hare (Commander Jeffrey Sinclair): Movies: By A Thread; Into Thin Air; Pursuit; Short Term Bonds; The Promise. TV: Rage of Angels; Adams Chronicles; Equalizer;LA Law; Case of Deadly Force; Blue Revolution; Kate and Allie. Broadway: A Few Good Men; P_layer_s; Man and Superman; Galileo. Tamlyn Tomita (Laurel Takashima) Movies: Come See The Paradise; Orange Curtain; Hawaiian Dream; The Karate Kid II; Vietnam, Texas TV: Quantum Leap ( Temptation Eyes); The Trials of Rosie O'Neil; Tour of Duty; Santa Barbara (series regular); Raven (pilot) TV Movies: Hiroshima:Out of the Ashes; To Heal A Nation. Peter Jurasik (Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri Republic): Movies: Problem Child; Enemy Mine; Tron; Straight Time; Mr. Jones TV: Columbo; Hill Street Blues; Beverly Hills Buntz; Civil Wars; Remington Steele; MacGyver. Andreas Katsulas (Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn Regime): Movies: Husbands and Wives; Sunset; Someone To Watch Over Me; Communion; Next of Kin; The Sicilian, True Identity, Hot Shots Part Duex, The Fugitive. TV: Star Trek:The Next Generation (Romulan Tomalok in episodes The Defector , The Enemy and Future Imperfect ); Alien Nation; The Equalizer; Max Headroom; The Human Factor; The Guiding Light TV Movies: The Death of the Incredible Hulk; Murder Times Seven; Seduction: Three Tales from the 'Inner Sanctum'; Blaire Baron (Carolyn Sykes): Movies: A League of Their Own, Privilege, Skinner TV: Happy Days, Three's Company, General Hospital, The Guiding Light Johnny Sekka (Dr. Benjamin Kyle): Movies:  The Fever; Ashanti; Southern Star; Khartoum; Woman of Straw; Hanky Panky; A Warm December; TV: Roots Second Generation; Master of the Game; Kingston Confidential; Passion in Paradise Jerry Doyle (Security Chief Michael Garibaldi): Movies: Kidnapped; Being in Time TV: Reasonable Doubts; Homefront; Bold and Beautiful; Moonlighting. Mira Furlan (Minbari Ambassador Delenn): Movies: When Father Was Away on Business; Three For Happiness; Dear Video; Southbound; The Condemned; The Beauty of Sin. Patricia Tallman (Lyta Alexander): Movies: Night of the Living Dead (remake); Army of Darkness; Sweet Justice; Knightriders; Monsignore; Roadhouse; Kalifornia Jurassic Park (stunt work, credited as Patrick Tallman). TV: Generations; Tales from the Darkside; Miracles; Guiding Light; Star Trek: The Next Generation ( Starship Mine , Timescape ; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (stunt work). Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek: Himself (i.e. animatronics) b. The Main cast for the series Cast reported by Straczynski to be returning for the series are: Michael O'Hare Jerry Doyle Mira Furlan Peter Jurasik Andreas Katsulas Patricia Tallman c. Supporting cast and guest stars: Walter Koenig - Chracter code named Knight One which will appear in two early episodes and be an occasional guest character.  Possibly a Psi-Cop. 6. How much of the series is planned out already? As part of the development of Babylon 5 , a five year arc has been planned as if it were a five year miniseries.  Events have been planned for each season, which will tell a larger story over time. There is plenty of room for individual stories within each season. There is also a writers guide as well as much backstory on the Babylon 5 universe. 7. How has Babylon 5's development progressed? Spring/Summer 1987: BABYLON 5 treatment created by J. Michael Straczynski, also writer's bible. May 1988: artist Peter Ledger hired to design a BABYLON 5 logo, and to do a series of paintings _base_d on the treatment and bible, which were then used for various presentations. Summer/Fall 1988: BABYLON 5 pitched to CBS, HBO, ABC and others. March 1989: BABYLON 5 pitched to Chris-Craft Television, a consortium of stations.  CCT pledges support of B5, and attempts are made throughout 1988 and 1989 to create co-production deals with foreign investors. June/July 1989: BABYLON 5 submitted/pitched to Paramount. December 1989: BABYLON 5 receives additional pledge of support from Warner Bros., which begins working with CCT to form fifth network at same time. November 1991: BABYLON 5 announced as one of three flagship projects for the Primetime Network (Warners and the TV Consortium). The trades carry the story extensively. June,July, 1992 - Casting for the pilot movie. August 10th, 1992 - Filming on the pilot movie begins. September 4th, 1992 - Filming ends on the pilot movie. November  7th, 1992 - First showing of pilot movie to a convention audience at Wishcon II in Springfield, Mass. November 28th, 1992 - First announced showing of pilot movie to a convention audience at Loscon 19 in Los Angeles, Ca. January 14, 1993 - Final edit of pilot movie completed. February 19 & 20, 1993 - Satellite feed of pilot movie to local stations Week of February 22nd, 1993 - TV debut of the pilot movie.  It achieved a 10.3 GAA national rating, which was better than the two hour premiers of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (10.2), The Untouchables (10.2) and Time  Trax (8.3). April, 1993 - Series Pre-production starts. May 28, 1993 - Formal announcement by Warner Bros. of a series order. late summer - Filming starts on the series. Jan, 1994 - Start of weekly series. 8. Where can I see Babylon 5? Babylon 5 is part of Warner Bros. Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) which is mainly independent stations and Fox Network stations.  The Pilot movie will air again in November on these stations and the series will air on Wednesday nights at 8 pm ET/PT on most of these stations where Time Trax (which is moving to a second night of PTEN programming in January) currently airs. A Making of Babylon 5 special is planned by PTEN to air shortly before the series starts. For a detailed list of stations, refer to the Babylon 5 / PTEN station list available separately. In the U.K., the Babylon 5 pilot movie is soon to be released on home video. 9. Who can you write to show support for Babylon 5? For Warner Bros. write to: Dick Robertson Vice President Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television 4000 Warner Boulevard Burbank, CA 91522. If you would like to write to Babylon 5's creator, send mail to: J. Michael Straczynski 14431 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 260 Sherman Oaks, CA  91423 10. Now that Babylon 5 is a series, can I submit a _script_? JMS has said that for the first season, all _script_s will be done in-house , utilizing writers that Joe has worked with before and that he can work closely with in getting the series started. JMS plans to start accepting _script_s for the second season and will announce submittal specifics at that time. 11.  Where can I find out more about Babylon 5? a) On the GEnie Science Fiction RoundTable, there is a Babylon 5 category where JMS talks with the fans about the show, both production and story info. Most of the information in this FAQ came from this category. It is located at Page 471, Category 18.  Archives of past messages are available in the GEnie SFRT files areas.  In honor of the fans who are involved with this group, the specific location of Babylon 5 corresponds to the original location of the GEnie topic (Grid Epsilon 470,18,22).  A split of the GEnie SFRT in November, 1992 created the Babylon 5 category, moving the original topic into the new category. b) Available on GEnie and Compuserve, in their respective science fiction file areas, are various text files and two GIF files, one of the Babylon 5 space station and another of a Vorlon ship. c)  The Official Babylon 5 Newsletter A Babylon 5 newsletter is being produced with the cooperation of J. Michael Straczynski by Christy Marx.  The first issue was made available for free and some copies may still be available. To receive the additional issues, send a $5 check or money order to Christy Marx, Editor - BABYLON 5 NEWSLETTER, P.O. Box 2325, Oakhurst, CA  93644.  (In Canada $6 and $9 elsewhere). d) Call NewTek at (800) 765-3406 and request a copy of their latest demo tape.  This tape contains a moving Babylon 5 station, and a starship that is also used in the first part of the B5 demo itself, though the two are shown in reverse order.  This is animation from the early stages of development. e) Broadcasting Magazine: July 13th issue has an article on Babylon 5 including a nice color photo of the Babylon 5 station.  Check your local libraries.  A later issue has an article on the special effects being done for the show. f) Starlog Magazine Articles: Starlog Spectacular #4, March 1992, page 54. Article on NewTek's Video Toaster. The photo that fills the bottom half of the page is an early version of the Babylon 5 station. Starlog: September, 1992 Has a feature article on Babylon 5. NOTE: The pictures with the articles are either outdated or have little, if anything, to do with Babylon 5. Starlog Spectacular, Jan 1993 :  Feature article with many pictures from the computer animation done for the show. Starlog: February, 1993 has an interview with Andreas Katsulas where he talks about his involvement with Babylon 5 and other genre appearances. g) Science Fiction Conventions: J. Michael Straczynski has been attending science fiction conventions when possible to promote Babylon 5. Appearances so far have included LosCon 18, Galllifrey One in 3D and Gallifrey One Goes Forth. WesterColt .45, the San Diego Comic Con, WishCon II, and LosCon 19, Con-Dor, and BayCon. Upcoming con appearances planned by J. Michael Straczynski include: San Diego Comic Con - August 1993 A possible appearance at ConFrancisco, the 1993 WorldCon. Likely con appearance at LosCon 18, Los Angeles, Nov 25-27, 1993. Also, Arne Starr, Artist on the DC Comics Star Trek series has been making Babylon 5 presentations at cons he has appeared at. h) Cinefantastique Magazine Articles: December 1992 issue has a two page article on Babylon 5. January, 1993 issue has a  20 page feature article/cover story. Cinefantastique sister publication Femme Fatales Spring 1993 has a feature on The Women of Babylon 5 i) E! Televsion has produced a Making of Babylon 5 special which has aired on E! Television and occasionally turns up on the channel. Note that one segment of the special focused on some of the animatronics used for background characters seen only briefly (if at all). j) USENET/INTERNET sources: alt.tv.babylon5 was created the week of Feb 15th.  Check to see if you have access to it. rec.arts.sf.tv is also appropriate for posts regarding Babylon 5. Cross-posting to rec.arts.tv and rec.arts.startrek.misc should only be done when necessary. The Babylon 5 mailing list was discontinued after the creation of alt.tv.babylon5. FTP sites: ftp.uu.net has a Babylon 5 files area in /usenet/rec.arts.tv/babylon-5 ftp.hyperion.com (192.65.216.1) has a Babylon 5 files area that includes Babylon 5 mailing list digests, GIF files, and other information files in /pub/Babylon-5 k) Other Lists (available at the hyperion FTP site): The Babylon 5 / Prime Time Entertainment Network Station list. Posted occasionally to rec.arts.sf.tv and rec.arts.tv. The Babylon 5 Actors Other Roles list (also included in this FAQL) The Babylon 5 Grid Epsilon Log - Detailed information, backstory and character profiles posted by J. Michael Straczynski on GEnie, compiled by Phil Posner. (B5REVISE.TXT on GEnie) 12. Miscellaneous Info a. Merchandising: Licensing Company of America, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. is handling the licensing of Babylon 5 products. Creation Conventions has licensed some products already, like t-shirts, hats, etc. Electronic Arts has licensed the rights to a computer game _base_d on Babylon 5. A novel _base_d on the pilot movie is planned when the show goes to series. David Gerrold is lined up to write it. A Comic adaptation should happen, most likely with DC comics.  Nothing has been announced yet, though. b. Fans influence on the show: Partially due to fan response from those who have seen the pilot movie or clips, some things in the pilot movie were changed: The voice of Delenn will be Mira Furlan's voice without any processing and Delenn will be female to begin with.  Original plans were to electronically process her voice and have Delenn change sex during the series. Some additional voice-over was done by Patricia Tallman to clarify one scene in the show. 13. What is Babylon 5 About? Babylon 5 is set in the year 2257 A.D. on a 5 kilometer long space station in neutral space.  It was constructed by the Earth Alliance to help keep the peace between the EA and four other alien alliances of which Babylon 5 is centrally located between.  Each of the alliances has an official representative on the station. These include the Earth Alliance, represented by Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, who is in charge of Babylon 5. The Minbari, represented by Ambassador Delenn.  The Minbari waged a war with the Earth Alliance 10 years earlier and mysteriously surrendered on the brink of victory. The Centauri Republic, represented by Londo Mollari.  The Centauri Republic was the first to make contact with Earth and helped advance their technology.  However, they are really on the decline, much like the decline of the Britsh Empire. The Narn Regime, represented by Ambassador G'Kar.  The Narn were previously under the control of The Centauri Republic but rebelled and are now independent and growing in influence. The Vorlons, represented by Ambassador Kosh Naranek.  The Vorlons have avoided contact with the other alliances and are a mystery.  They have agreed to participate with Babylon 5 and the arrival of Kosh is central to the opening pilot movie. Other major characters include: Vice-Commander Laurel Takashima who is second in command of Babylon 5 and is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the station.  She's smart and resourceful and can take care of herself quite well. Security Chief Michael Garibaldi is in charge of security on Babylon 5.  He has a troubled past but was picked by Sinclair for the job. Dr. Benjamin Kyle is the ship's resident xenobiologist.  He's an expert on alien medicine and took the Babylon 5 position to have the aliens come to him, instead of him traveling to the aliens. Lyta Alexander is a Rent-a-Telepath on the station.  Telepaths are used regularly in business dealings and are regulated with strict rules set by the Psi-Corps. Carolyn Sykes is Sinclair's romantic interest and is the owner and pilot of a trading vessel.  She's known Sinclair for quite a while and is very independent. Supporting and recurring characters: Knight One - The code name for a character played by Walter Koenig.  He will appear in two episodes and an occasional role afterwards. n'grath - non-humanoid alien Assistants to the Ambassadors: Virell, a male Centauri assistant to Londo Ko'Dath, a female Narn, second in command to G'Kar. Looking for personal advancement. Lennier, a monk-like male aide for Delenn, having lived a monastic life, a will be a true innocent on B5 For additonal (and much more detailed) information on the Babylon 5 universe and characters, refer to  the Babylon 5 Grid Epsilon Log text file (see FAQL item #11). 14.  Babylon 5 Episodes Pilot - The Gathering (The _title_ of the pilot was not shown on-screen) Series Episodes:  1. Midnight on the Firing Line - We will learn about what is happening on     Earth and what is happening between two of the Alien governments.     It will be a fast moving episode with lots of action plus some humor     and mystery.  Working _title_ of Blood and Thunder .  2. [_title_ withheld] - Features Delenn and deals with the Minbari religious     system and a conflict between Delenn's people and another group. It will     introduce some new chracters, including n'grath and we will learn more     about the Minbari Grey Council.  3. Infection  4. And The Sky Full of Stars - Deals with The Line, Episode 9 or so.     It was one of the first _script_s written due to the extensive     technical and EFX work it will require.  5. The War Prayer - D.C. Fontana  6. Carnival!  7. Babylon Squared (deals with the fate of Babylon 4)  8. Mind War  9. Deathwalker 10. Target: Unknown 11. Raiding Party 12. Backlash 13. Chrysalis - First Season finale. 14. What kind of Special Effects does Babylon 5 have? All space visual effects for Babylon 5 will be comuter generated. Ron Thornton is utilizing specialized software in conjunction with NewTek's Video Toaster to design and render the visual effects. The only models used on the show will be computer models. Effects for the series will be improved over the pilot movie due to technological advances. ***************************************************************** The Babylon 5 Frequently Asked Questions List Some of the information contained in this FAQL is _base_d on posts by J. Michael Straczynski in the Babylon 5 category in the GEnie Science Fiction Roundtable (Page 471; Cat 18). Compiled by Lee Whiteside     L.WHITESIDE (GEnie)             76044,502 (Compuserve)             This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (USENET)             This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (INTERNET for e-mail)             Sysop of the Magrathea BBS (602)833-9216