From: vince.maiocco@satalink.com (Vince Maiocco)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: WHAT IN BLEEDING HECK IS
Date: 29 Jul 92 07:20:00 GMT
Reply-To: vince.maiocco@satalink.com (Vince Maiocco)
Organization: SataLink Info Systems - Huntingdon Valley, PA - 215-364-3324

JH>	I keep getting articles on r.a.tv and r.a.st.c about some
JH>show called "Babylon 5."
JH>
JH>	WHAT IN HELL IS IT?

OK, Jeffrey, you asked!  Babylon 5 (B5) is a sci-fi show that will 
air on the new Warner Bros. network(like the Fox network, this one 
will begin airing shows in Jan '93, B5 is it's flagship show) 
beginning Jan '93.  B5 is a deep space station set in the middle 
of a sort of "Neutral Zone" separating 5 different species of 
aliens.  The guy who created the idea for B5 had taken it to 
Paramount, who turned it down.  He then went to Warner, who 
decided to run with it.  Subsequently, Michael Piller and Rick 
Berman of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (over at Paramount) 
came up with an idea for a show called "Star Trek: Deep Space 
Nine" (DS9), which is a show about a deep space station, now 
commanded by Starfleet, that used to be run by some aliens.  The 
creator of B5 has been quoted as saying that he believes the idea 
was *NOT* stolen, because he went to Paramount offices with his 
idea, not Trek offices.  He believes it's a case of coincidental 
creative genius.  Anyway, below are some partial quotes from a very 
long article about B5 that I captured from one of the Trek 
conferences:

        The year is 2257.  Mankind has gone to the stars, and we
have found that we are not alone.  There are other governments and
empires that are far older than ours, and some that are younger.
Some we met in peace, and began an exchange of technology and
information that substantially increased the pace of Terran space
exploration and colonization.  Some contacts were hostile.

        And some led to outright war.  The Earth/Minbari war lasted
for almost a decade, and led to one of the great mysteries of the
time in which our story is set.  On the very edge of victory over
the Earth Alliance, when everything Earth tried had failed and their
destruction seemed imminent...the Minbari surrendered.  It is now
five years later, and the dark secret behind the Minbari surrender
will finally begin slowly to emerge.

        And over the course of the series, that secret will have a
direct and substantial impact on Babylon 5.

        As for Babylon 5 itself...it is a space station roughly
three miles in length, with docking bays fore and aft.  It is made
up of sections that rotate at varying speeds to create alternate
gravities to accommodate various lifeforms.  Different atmospheres
are also used in different sections.  Babylon 5 is located at a key
jump-point; to get from any one of the five major confederations
(four alien, one human), you almost always have to pass through this
sector of space.  Thus, the area surrounding Babylon 5 has been
designated Neutral Territory.

        Babylon 5 itself, therefore, functions as a sort of futuristic
free-port, a space-borne Casablanca open to travelers from anywhere,
going anywhere; people fleeing from something or escaping to something,
on missions of urgency...smugglers, diplomats, scientists, mappers,
traders, soldiers, refugees...sooner or later, they all come to
Babylon 5.

        In preparing Babylon 5 for production, a comprehensive five
year arc has been created.  Though stories will stand on their own
in each episode, the series overall will gradually tell a story on
a much grander scale, a tapestry of falling and rising empires in
which one or two individuals may mean the difference between a new
dark ages on one side and a future of hope on the other.  In that
respect, Babylon 5 will be treated as a five-year miniseries, with a
definite beginning, middle, and end, with each year equalling one
"chapter" or book in the saga.  In that respect, it has been likened
by some to going for the broad tapestry of a Lensman or Foundation
series of books.

OK, back to me:  at a recent panel discussion at a Trek convention,
several Trek writers commented about the differences and 
similarities we would find betwwen B5 and DS9.  One of these guys 
said, and none of the others disagreed, that whatever made us "fall
in love with" the original Trek would be the same stuff that would 
make us prefer B5 to DS9.  Remember, I said these were Trek writers!

So, there you have it.  There's a heckuva lot more info in the file 
I have.  Are you local to Phila, PA?  If so, and you'd like more of 
it, lemme know and we can see what it'll take to get it to you.  I 
cannot do E-mail or FTP thru the BBS I use, so those options are out, 
but we'll figger something out.
LLAP.



--- WinQwk 2.0 a#0
                                                                                                   
From: knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:12:02 GMT
Subject: Re: Homefront: new episode
Organization: HP Labs, High Speed Electronics Dept., Palo Alto, CA