| Q: "But seriously, what kind of responses do you expect to see in this
newsgroup the week following the last episode?"
In a way you're kind of asking the wrong person, as I'm inside the
fishbowl and can't see the show the way anyone outside can see it. The
only gauge I have is the reaction the script got around the stage when
people on the crew and cast read it. (With a note attached explaining
the possibility of airing it as 522 or 422, but that either way this
would end up the story.)
Pretty much everybody cried. I came home to a message on my machine
from Mira, who was almost unable to speak, and another from Claudia who
said she was honored and proud to be a part of this, and the script had
made her cry. Bruce, Richard, big beefy guys on the crew...all said the
same thing. And there I have to concur; I lost is several times as I
was writing it, due to the content; there's one scene in
particular...you'll know it when you see it...that put me away for an
hour when I finished writing it.
But here's the thing...*every single person* who cried at the script,
ended it feeling that it was not a sad script in the end, or a down
ending...that it left them feeling proud, and tall, and
*positive*...that life goes on...that it was a reaffirmation of life
itself, on its most primal level. They felt good about the ending. And
that was a great relief for me, because I was trying something *very*
difficult from a writing perspective, and at first blush it looks as if
I've pulled it off. (Now I get to go in as director and *totally* screw
it up.)
Only one fan has read the script...someone whose opinion I trust.
Because I was curious about the reaction from that side of the screen.
And the reaction was *exactly* the same.
So how do I think people will react?
I think a lot of people will cry.
But by the end of it, I think it will come around, and be all
right...and mainly, that people will then look back at the whole story,
through all these long years, and say, "It was a good story." And close
the cover, and put it on the shelf with the other books that will be
reread again down the years, and turn off the lights, and go to bed
feeling that the time was well spent.
Which is the most any writer can ever ask for. To tell a tale worth
telling To make people cry. To make people laugh. And even, once in a
while, make them think about things, and see the world just a little
differently than when they began.
And then they can centerpunch me on the freeway, or throw a plane at
me, and I won't even mind. Because everything I set out to prove, I
proved. Everything I set out to say, I said.
I've carried this story like a hermit crab carries its shell for five
long years, counting the pilot. It's been an *awfully* long and
difficult road, and no one will ever really know just how hard this
show was to make. Nor should they, because it isn't the difficulty that
makes the story, the *story* makes the story. But one way or another,
aired as 522 or 422, when it airs the burden is off at last. Then it no
longer belongs to me. It belongs to you. As should be.
And, in the end, I think you'll be pleased.
|
| A number of people have wondered how you could have the final episode be
aired at 422 or 522, as wouldn't that indicate that you have to
tie up threads in 422 that could have played out if there was a
fifth season. Caught this question and answer on one of the jms
digests I get:
>> If there is a season 5, 422 is yanked out of the mix and moved down to
occupy 522's slot, and we shoot 501 and get it done in time to air in place of
422 in October. <<
So the final ep will still make sense in the flow of the story, regardless of
whether all the events of season 5 transpire before it or not?
I think this is what is confusing people--at least me.
#: 670806 S5/Babylon 5: General
21-May-97 17:13:46
Sb: #670789-How will this play out
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
There's no need for confusion. Season 4, as you know, takes place in
2261. Season 5 would take place in 2262.
422, or 522, depending on the breaks, takes place in 2281. So it plays
just fine either way.
jms
So it looks like the final episode will be a retrospective, as well as probably
an update on where everyone is now...
PeterT
|