Amph General JMS discussion

Yeah i was woundering about them crying. I just recently got all of his amazing spiderman stuff. IT only gets better. The book of eziekial (tbp 7) and sins past (tbp 8) are awesome.

 

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JMSNews.Net has posted the following online letter from BABYLON 5 creator/producer J. Michael Straczynski claiming he wants to do a new STAR TREK series and asking fans to let Paramount know about it.



Here is the letter :

i'm trying this via google to see if I can access the groups, since I've been offline since AOL stopped carrying newsgroups.

I don't normally do this...in fact, I don't think I've ever done this in any group before, because I've always kind of waited to make sure it was worth doing, and that it would make a difference.

I'm sending this to both the B5 folks reading this and any Trek fans looking on.

Bryce Zabel (recently the head of the Television Academy and creator/executive producer of Dark Skies) and I share one thing in common. We are both long-time Trek fans, from the earliest days, who felt that the later iterations were not up to the standards set by the original series. (I'm exempting TNG because that one worked nicely, and was in many ways the truest to the original series because Gene was still around to shepherd its creation and execution.)

Over time, Trek was treated like a porsche that's kept in the garage
all the time, for fear of scratching the finish. The stories were, for the most part, safe, more about technology than what William Faulkner described as "the human heart in conflict with itself." Yes, there were always exceptions, but in general that trend became more and more
apparent with the passage of years. Which was why so often I came down on the later stories, which I did openly, because I didn't feel they lined up with what Trek was created to be. I don't apologize for it, because that was what I felt as a fan of Trek. That's why I had Majel appear on B5, to send a message: that I believe in what Gene created.

Because left to its own devices, allowed to go as far as it could, telling the same kind of challenging stories Trek was always known for, it could blow the doors off science fiction television. Think of it for a moment, a series with a forty year solid name, guaranteed markets...can you think of a better time when you take chances and can tell daring, imaginative, challenging stories? Why play it safe?

When Enterprise went down, those involved shrugged and wrote it off to "franchise fatigue," their phrase, not mine.

I don't believe that for a second. Neither does Bryce. There's a tremendous hunger for Trek out there. It just has to be Trek done *right*.

Last year, Bryce and I sat down and, on our own, out of a sheer love of Trek as it was and should be, wrote a series bible/treatment for a return to the roots of Trek. To re-boot the Trek universe.
Understand: writer/producers in TV just don't do that sort of thing on their own, everybody always insists on doing it for vast sums of money. We did it entirely on our own, setting aside other, paying deadlines out of our passion for the series. We set out a full five-year arc.

But when it came time to bring it to Paramount, despite my track record
and Bryce's enormous and skillful record as a writer/producer, the effort stalled out because of "political considerations," which was explained to us as not wishing to offend the powers that be.

So on behalf of myself and Bryce, I'm taking the unusual step of going right to the source...right to you guys, fueled in part by a number of recent articles and polls, including one at www.scifi.com/scifiwire in which nearly 18,000 fans voted their preference for a new Trek series, and 48% of that figure called for a jms take on Trek. (The other
choices polled at about 18% or thereabouts.)

See, if somebody doesn't like a story, doesn't want to buy it, that's all well and good, that's terrific, that's the way it's supposed to be. But when "political considerations" are the basis...that just doesn't parse.

So here's the deal, folks. If you want to see a new Trek series that's true to Gene's original creation, helmed by myself and Bryce, with challenging s

 

In addition to the star trek bit i thought this thread might be good to have up along with ravens thread.

 

Just found this SciFi article:

Straczynski Wants To Reboot Trek

Inspired by a recent SCI FI Wire poll, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski posted a message to a newsgroup urging fans to write to Paramount, owner of the rights to the Star Trek franchise, in support of a new Trek series that he and Bryce Zabel (Dark Skies) developed last year.

Although the studio originally passed on the treatment due to "political considerations," Straczynski feels that they might reconsider if they knew that fans were eager for such an idea. "I'm taking the unusual step of going right to the source ... right to you guys," Straczynski said in the message. "Fueled in part by a number of recent articles and polls, including one at www.scifi.com/scifiwire in which nearly 18,000 fans voted their preference for a new Trek series, and 48 percent of that figure called for a [J. Michael Straczynski] take on Trek."

Straczynski said that he and Zabel share an affection for the original Star Trek series, and a disappointment in the later iterations of the series. Together, they created a new treatment and a five-year story arc with the intention of returning to the roots of the world created by Gene Roddenberry. "If you want to see a new Trek series that's true to Gene's original creation, helmed by myself and Bryce, with challenging stories, contemporary themes, solid extrapolation, and the infusion of some of our best and brightest SF prose writers, then you need to let the folks at Paramount know that. If the 48 percent of the 18,000 folks who voted at SciFi.com sent those sentiments to Paramount, there'd be a new series in the works tomorrow," Straczynski said.

Straczynski added that he felt that the current stewards of the series have been too cautious in their stories, and the franchise has suffered as a result. "Over time, Trek was treated like a Porsche that's kept in the garage all the time, for fear of scratching the finish," Straczynski said. "The stories were, for the most part, safe, more about technology than what William Faulkner described as 'the human heart in conflict with itself.' Yes, there were always exceptions, but in general that trend became more and more apparent with the passage of years. Which was why so often I came down on the later stories, which I did openly, because I didn't feel they lined up with what Trek was created to be. I don't apologize for it, because that was what I felt as a fan of Trek. That's why I had [Roddenberry's widow Majel Barrett] appear on B5, to send a message that I believe in what Gene created."


I'd like to see him do Trek.

 

Oh oh... He retracted what he said:

Straczynski Ends Trek Campaign

A day after calling for a letter-writing campaign by fans who wanted to see his version of Star Trek produced, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski posted a follow-up message to the same newsgroup retracting his statement. "elay everything I just said," Straczynski wrote. "In the 24 hours between the time I composed the prior note, and sent it, and it made its way through the moderation software, two things happened."

The two things that changed Straczynski's mind were a tip from a trusted source at Paramount, which owns the rights to the Star Trek franchise, that the studio is "giving the Trek TV world a rest" for a year or two, and an offer to run a series premiering in the fall of 2006, which Straczynski has accepted. In Straczynski's words, the Trek campaign is now "kind of moot."

The writer/producer apologized to fans and assured them that he hasn't abandoned the project completely. "We can reconvene a year or two down the road to see where this takes us," he said. "But in the interim ... my apologies for waking everybody up in the middle of the night."
~SFW

 

yeah a jms helmed trek show would be awesome.

Strange #4 and amazing spider man came out this week.

 

I never cared for BABYLON 5, but I'll be checking out SUPREME POWER trades shortly -- and the entire RISING STARS is being collected into a massive, 600+ page HC that I might pick up, if it looks pretty enough on the shelf.

 

I never cared for BABYLON 5

 

I never cared for BABYLON 5

Watch season two and then you'll never be able to stop.

 

I thought that season 5 was kinda weak.

 

That big supreme power books ounds sweet, but i have the first two trades. Season 5 of B5 was a bit weak, but that was because most of the show was wraped up in season 4, since no one knew if they would get a season 5.

Mast, have you checked out strange?

 

http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=18524780&start=18580520

Some people are speculating about jms writing the star wars tv show over in the sssw forum.

 

Now that would be interesting...

 

The third rising stars trade comes out this week along with supreme power #16.

 

I'm glad to hear the third Rising Stars trade is out this week. I read the first two and loved them.

 

my guess is this will be the last one. I think The last issue of rising stars was issue 24 or 25. The second trade completes issue 16 and ends. The new trade is $20 dollars whihc is about the right price for it to have 8 or 9 issues in it.

 

I've been reading rising stars,, and today on my way to the doctor's office(sinus infection), i was thinking about some common themes in Jms's writing. Mistrust of the government comes up in B5, Jeremiah, rising stars, and supreme power. A strong connection to the main character's father figure comes up in B5, Jeremiah, and spiderman. One sided love turns up in B5, Jeremiah, and Rising Stars. JMS also seems to have a thing for writing about nukes. He uses Nukes in B5, on a few occations, talks about them a lot in jeremiah, rising stars, and supreme power. He also likes to reference the story of eizekial from the bible.

 

that's a very accurate observation.

 

I finished rising stars, and i have to say that it's awesome.

 

JMS's run on the fantastic four starts this week with issue 527.

 

Is it very accessible to new readers?

 

I'm not sure. I jumped into amazing spiderman when his run started, having no knowledge of the spiderman universe except for the movies, and i was able to follow it. I would guess that it would be.