Echoes of All Our Conversations, Volume 5

The interviews with the cast and crew in this volume occurred during the period of time that included the filming of "Day of the Dead," "The Fall of Centauri Prime" and "Objects at Rest" as well as the TV movies The River of Souls and A Call to Arms.

• Mira Furlan's reaction to Delenn's pregnancy.
• Details. Details. Details. Bill Mumy opens up about "Gut Reactions," the script he wrote with Peter David for season five, and how it would have influenced the arc by introducing Londo's successor as the Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5.
• The situation in which Tracy Scoggins told Jerry Doyle to "kiss my ass!"
• Andreas Katsulas's reaction to walking through conventions and seeing people wearing G'Kar shirts.
• The thing actor Martin Sheen did with the Babylon 5 crew that he'd learned from Marlon Brando during Apocalypse Now.
• Lyta's season five storyline was originally intended for Susan Ivanova. Find out how it would have played out if Claudia Christian had not left Babylon 5.
• How visual effects designer Ron Thornton first approached designing the jumpgates.
• The mistake everyone made with Crusade, according to director Janet Greek.
• Andreas Katsulas's feelings about G'Kar becoming Londo's bodyguard.
• Tony Dow's "phobia" when directing.
• The thing that made Andreas Katsulas "squirm like nothing else does."
• The origin of the title "A View from the Gallery."
• Why Mira Furlan jokingly refused to come out of her trailer during "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder."
• What director Janet Greek did in The River of Souls that you "never do in television."
• How Mira Furlan's husband, Goran Gajic, found out he was directing "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder."
• The award that Babylon 5 received alongside Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
• How Babylon 5 utilized virtual locations (versus practical sets) in season five, and the motivation for doing so.
• Why conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison attacked Babylon 5's tie-in novels -- or "pussycat novels" -- and the one he read.
• Why JMS was not worried about how The River of Souls would be received, despite having only a handful of Babylon 5 actors in the cast.
• The scene where it was okay for one of the actors to blow their line on camera.
• How comedian/actor Jackie Gleason was the inspiration for Rebo and Zooty's catchphrase, "Zooty, zoot, zoot."
• The alternate ending director Douglas E. Wise shot for "The Fall of Centauri Prime."
• How Neil Gaiman -- who was beginning to develop his script before Claudia Christian's departure -- altered his approach to "Day of the Dead" once Captain Lochley was in place.
• What JMS said to John Copleland 36 hours after the Blackpool convention contract-negotiations kerfuffle had ended.
• Why Andreas Katsulas referred to season five as "another nice, healthy G'Kar crop."
• The story that producer John Copeland thought JMS believed would be better dealt with in a novel.
• The aspect of "And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder" that director Goran Gajic found most challenging.
• Why director Goran Gajic asked the prop department for a five-gallon whiskey glass.
• The amusing evolution of Harlan Ellison's Babylon 5 title -- from "real important guy" to "conceptual consultant."
• Which Babylon 5 actor would have received an acting award if Peter Jurasik had been able to bestow one. (Hint: It wasn't Andreas Kastulas.)
• Why Peter Jurasik joked about "Londo's dry cleaning getting mixed up and he ends up wearing Narn clothes to the big ball."
• Why, when shooting "Secrets of the Soul," director Tony Dow believed that he'd "overstepped his bounds."
• The conflicting fan mail actor Denise Gentile (Lise Edgars-Garibaldi) received after her appearances in season five.
• The information director Janet Greek wished she had known sooner, and how it would have resulted in two of the characters in The River of Souls being played by the same guest actor.
• Executive producer Douglas Netter's explanation of the financial challenges Babylon 5 experienced as it transitioned from syndication to basic cable and a much lower budget.
• The thing that British fans didn't like about Babylon 5, according to JMS...and the episode they enjoyed more than American fans.
• Which alien homeworld was envisioned as "a cross between Egypt and Venice."
• What Peter Jurasik considered to be the "check and checkmate" part of Londo's character arc.
• Why the notion of Lennier's betrayal in "Objects at Rest" bothered Bill Mumy.
• The reason JMS had "always been suspect of the value of" casting name-value stars in Babylon 5.
• Why actor Ed Wasser choose to wear a light-colored crystal around his neck for his appearance in "Day of the Dead"...and why he was surprised JMS allowed him to wear it.
• The scene in which director Tony Dow declared, "I used more film on that particular day than I've ever shot," the scene he considered "the best I've ever directed" and the scene he "never understood."
• How the fifth season contract negotiations changed how Bill Mumy felt about playing Lennier during the final year of Babylon 5.
• JMS's explanation of what he was trying to accomplish with "Intersections in Real Time."
• What visual effects designer Ron Thornton showed JMS that caused him to say, "You've got to get me a copy of that big-time!"
• The reason the cast and crew called Bruce Boxleitner "Buzz Lightyear" in season five.
• A beat-by-beat account of how actor Martin Sheen was cast as the Soul Hunter.
• The exact point at which JMS told Tracy Scoggins and Bruce Boxleitner that their characters had been married to one another.
• The presumption Richard Biggs made about the fifth season of Babylon 5 that was essentially incorrect.
• Why the crew had to be absolutely silent for three minutes during the shooting of "Rising Star."
• How makeup effects creator John Vulich addressed his season four unhappiness with the Drakh look, and why he referred to them as "different classes of ants."
• Whether or not Andrea Thompson was jealous that her then-boyfriend, Jerry Doyle, was having an onscreen relationship with Marie Marshall (as Dodger)...who was his real-life ex-girlfriend. (Say that ten times fast).
• Why JMS had to adjust Rebo and Zooty's dialogue after the characters were cast.
• The acting situation which director Tony Dow said, "You couldn't do it with Mira."
• Why JMS balked when he first saw a Vorlon ship.
• The storyline Richard Biggs regretted never being able to play.
• Why Richard Biggs believed that Franklin's emotions about leaving his post on Babylon 5 would not surface until he was ensconced in his new job at Earthdome.
• Why producer John Copeland chose to direct an episode in the middle of season five rather than at the end of the year when he typically had fewer responsibilities.
• Peter Jurasik's recollection of his audition for Babylon 5, back-to-back with Andreas Katsulas's, and why, after they looked at the concept art for Londo and G'Kar, they completely disregarded the drawings.
• The thing that conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison believed ultimately killed Star Trek...and why he had no interest in seeing Babylon 5 continue past its five seasons for the same reason.
• The reason "The Ragged Edge" was noted by the Hollywood trade magazines as a milestone.
• Why Peter Jurasik compared "The Fall of Centauri Prime" to a symphony.
• Why director Janet Greek "softened the Lochley character."
• The three toughest scenes for producer John Copeland to direct in "The Ragged Edge," and how he approached them.
• Why John Copeland was known as "Pig Dog 13."
• What Lochley said to Garibaldi that Jerry Doyle believed was odd and not in step with the storyline.
• Why a "practical keeper" was more cost-effective during the regent's death scene.
• How Tracy Scoggins won the role of Elizabeth Lochley over her competition at the final network audition.
• Which serious design problem conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison's extensive library solved for producer John Copeland.
• What JMS meant when he said, "The entire Babylon 5 story was always there, I just had to find it."
• Neil Gaiman's story goals for Lochley, Garibaldi, Lennier and Londo in "Day of the Dead."
• Mira Furlan's description of what it was like for her to return to the full Minbari makeup for In the Beginning, and how she played 140-year-old Delenn in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."
• The compliment from JMS that actor Damian London (Regent Virini) heard third-hand and considered the "best Christmas present I could ever get."
• Patricia Tallman's description of filming the Lyta-Byron love scene.
• Why Patricia Tallman did NOT feel like Lyta was more a part of the show when the Byron storyline surfaced.
• The "accessory" that Patricia Tallman wanted the Lyta action figure to wear.
• The opportunity no one had mentioned to Mira Furlan at the time of her interview, and which she said she would have agreed to if asked (but she wasn't).
• Which of the stars said, "I'm probably more comfortable with crew than I am with the actors."
• "Rebo and Zooty for President" -- the episode Neil Gaiman wanted to write for Crusade.
• Why Bruce Boxleitner was told by one of the producers to watch Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N. starring Gregory Peck.
• The reason why producer John Copeland wanted Patricia Tallman to wear a bodysuit for her love scene in "Secrets of the Soul," and why director Tony Dow didn't think it was necessary.
• How producer John Copleand directed "Objects at Rest" to reinforce the episode's title...and how he used the episode to set up "Sleeping in Light."
• Which Babylon 5 star was offered the role of the brothel owner in The River of Souls.
• Neil Gaiman's predictions about what fans would say the day after his episode aired.
• Why director Doug Lefler preferred the dramatic scenes in "Day of the Dead" to the comedic elements.
• The aspects of "Movements of Fire and Shadow" that were the most exciting to director John C. Flinn III, and why.
• What Mira Furlan was talking about when she said, "Oh, my God, they treat me like shit."
• Why the producers believed that they could shoot an episode in six days during season five instead of the seven-day schedule used throughout seasons one, two, three and four.
• JMS's two goals for The River of Souls.
• How Marshall Teague designed and financed Ta'Lon's sword on spec.
• The Babylon 5 actor Patricia Tallman confessed that she was "ferociously attracted to."
• The emotional scene where Patricia Tallman vowed that Lyta would not cry.
• Why JMS wrote the Lochley holo-prostitute into The River of Souls.
• The document Neil Gaiman downloaded from CompuServe to help him write "Day of the Dead."
• The question asked of director Janet Greek, to which she responded, "When these things air, I pretty much always end up watching them alone."
• Why Jerry Doyle didn't read scripts prior to shooting the episode.
• Why conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison equated G'Kar to Chicago's Mayor Cermak.
• Why Peter Jurasik said, "I don't listen to him when he's a producer and I don't listen to him as a director," in reference to John Copeland.
• The specific alterations the makeup people did to the Soul Hunter so that it would look more like actor Martin Sheen.
• What Sheridan referred to as "a real toad-strangler" in a line cut from "No Compromises."
• Which Babylon 5 character would have been transgendered if JMS had not vetoed Neil Gaiman's suggestion for a secret revealed in "Day of the Dead."
• REVEALED: The reason Neil Gaiman chose to use the Brakiri in "Day of the Dead."
• Why director Goran Gajic, Mira Furlan's husband, used to come to the set in the early seasons, and the reason he stopped as the show continued.
• The reason Patricia Tallman said to the wardrobe department, "You're not spending $300 on that jacket. Take it back!"
• Why Andreas Katsulas was not able to watch "No Compromises" when it premiered on TNT. (This is surprising.)
• The game Jerry Doyle and Bruce Boxleitner were playing when Jerry said, "I have to let you win; you're number one on the call sheet."
• How director Goran Gajic approached directing his wife, Mira Furlan.
• The thing director Doug Lefler didn't do with Penn & Teller that he later wished he had.
• How Neil Gaiman selected the characters who would experience the "Day of the Dead," and who would have met whom if other characters had appeared in the episode.
• The actor that director Tony Dow was apprehensive of working with because "she's so overbearing."
• Peter Jurasik's tips for successfully auditioning...and the scene he choose to use for his Babylon 5 audition.
• How visual effects designer Ron Thornton modified the Babylon 5 station so it would not look like a bottle.
• Why Andreas Katsulas believed that Londo and G'Kar were almost like Abbott and Costello.
• Why Neil Gaiman experienced "amazing frustration" when he was told that Penn & Teller agreed to be Rebo and Zooty.
• The "bulldog and bone" analogy director Janet Greek used with Tracy Scoggins and Jerry Doyle.
• What Andreas Katsulas considered to be the downfall of any religion.
• What high-profile guest role Tracy Scoggins auditioned for prior to being cast as Elizabeth Lochley.
• Actor Robin Atkin Downes's fantasy about returning to Babylon 5 as Byron's "evil twin," complete with a bald head.
• The guest star who left his previous career as an undercover policeman to become an actor.
• The situation in which Andreas Katsulas said, "Having G'Kar there, it's almost like having a lantern to see things better by."
• Why director Janet Greek knew about the alcoholism link between Garibaldi and Lochley before Tracy Scoggins was even cast.
• Why Richard Biggs considered seasons three and four as the high points for his character.
• How conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison was cast as a psi cop in "The Face of the Enemy," and why his pairing with Walter Koenig (as Bester) was significant to his career.
• What prompted Bill Mumy to say, "I wasn't happy with the way my fifth season deal went down and I'm not going to pretend that I was."
• Director Doug Lefler's biggest regret about "Day of the Dead" (it involves Andreas Katsulas).
• Why Jerry Doyle was "not at all concerned about giving up the residuals for the fifth season," and why he said to his agent, "If you fuck this deal up, I will cut your legs off!"
• The materials Neil Gaiman requested to prepare him for the writing of "Day of the Dead."
• How an event hosted by the Television Critics Association created the opportunity to produce The River of Souls.
• The deleted line from "Day of the Dead" that established how Lennier and Morden had met prior to the latter's one-night resurrection.
• Why director Mike Vejar was described as taking "us to the edge of the envelope every day and we all get paper cuts."
• Why Peter Jurasik called "A View from the Gallery" a real treat.
• Why, when director Janet Greek saw the Minbari fighter for "Darkness Ascending," she "hated it," and how Bill Mumy was able to make her cry while he was shooting his scenes within it.
• First assistant director Douglas E. Wise's main concern when JMS and John Copeland decided to direct an episode each at the end of season four.
• Why director Tony Dow brought actor Robin Atkin Downes and Patricia Tallman into his office a week before they shot their sex scene.
• Why Neil Gaiman wanted a Morden/Lennier encounter in "Day of the Dead" instead of the more obvious Morden/Sheridan meeting.
• How Richard Biggs would have approached "Believers" if he could play the episode again after five years of being Stephen Franklin.
• Why Patricia Tallman did not like the way the Byron storyline ended.
• The guest character the producers believed was more beloved than Zathras.
• Actor Robin Atkin Downes's backstory for Byron, and how his instincts aligned with what later appeared in the scripts.
• Why none of the Battle of the Line effects footage from "And the Sky Full of Stars" was reused for In the Beginning.
• The scene in "The Wheel of Fire" that prompted director Janet Greek to comment that, "When we finished that scene, everybody just wanted to go to sleep."
• The similarity between Claudia Christian and Tracy Scoggins, according to Richard Biggs.
• The visual elements director Doug Lefler wanted to shoot for "Day of the Dead" but couldn't due to a lack of time...including storyboards for unfilmed sequences.
• Why Andreas Katsulas believed that the best place to watch human emotions was the airport.
• Why Patricia Tallman said of "Phoenix Rising" that, "I wasn't pleased. I was very upset."
• Who said, "With a crew like this, I can even go to Centauri Prime without any problems."
• The scene which made Peter Jurasik feel "like I was in an X-Files episode."
• The kind of scenes Mira Furlan found most interesting to play in season four, and which were scarce in year five.
• The situations that forced Patricia Tallman to flip out in tears in JMS's office. (Hint: It's NOT about the painful contact lenses.)
• Why Damian London -- who played Regent Virini -- found himself in a role where he "was the only pageboy in the court of Henry VIII that had a Doris Day flip."
• Why JMS received letters asking if Stephen Furst had cancer. (He didn't!)
• Why Mira Furlan was not pleased with her performance in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."
• JMS's one-word response after Neil Gaiman pitched him the idea of featuring Rebo and Zooty.
• What conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison thought of his Babylon 5 trading card.
• How Mira Furlan approached Delenn's laughing fit in "Day of the Dead."
• How the reference to Rebo and Zooty in "Rumors, Bargains and Lies" led Neil Gaiman to revisit those characters in "Day of the Dead."
• Why, in season five, makeup effects creator John Vulich wanted to incorporate more hair into the alien races.
• The comment frequently made to actor Lawrence LeJohn -- who played Bo in "A View from the Gallery" -- after the episode aired.
• The question to which Stephen Furst replied, "I'd rather be unemployed and alive."
• Why Jerry Doyle described Tracy Scoggins as being "as much fun after 'cut' as she is between 'action' and 'cut.'"
• Why executive producer Douglas Netter didn't mind being pigeonholed as a science fiction producer.
• Actor Robin Atkin Downes on the differences between playing Morann and Byron, and the one acting credential he had that fit with both roles.
• Bill Mumy's nickname for Lennier during the character's tenure with the Anla-shok.
• What Jerry Doyle missed about having Claudia Christian on the set after she left Babylon 5.
• The actor who'd had a crush on Efrem Zimbalist Jr. since she was a little girl.
• Why Richard Biggs received a call on Friday about an "emergency" shoot on Monday...and the regret he had while preparing.
• Guess which lead actor said, "I'm a guy who likes to eat donuts and watch The Simpsons." (Think outside the box on this one.)
• Why Jerry Doyle was "a thousand times happier that Bruce was on the show [instead of] Michael O'Hare."
• The deleted scene from In the Beginning that included actor Robin Atkin Downes mimicking a fan at an Ozzy Osbourne concert.
• Even more about Lyta's Lingerie -- details neither JMS's commentaries in The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski nor Patricia Tallman's memoir, Pleasure Thresholds, revealed.
• Conceptual consultant Harlan Ellison's take on the JMS-fueled rumor that he was going to write a sequel to his award-winning Outer Limits script, "Demon with a Glass Hand," set in the Babylon 5 universe.
• The thing that Mira Furlan was "incredibly bitter and angry about," and that she thought was "terribly unfair."

• Neil Gaiman - Writer (18 Nov 1997)
• John Copeland - Producer (19 & 21 Nov 1997)
• Mira Furlan - Delenn (20 Nov 1997)
• Ed Wasser - Morden (20 Nov 1997)
• Bill Mumy - Lennier (21 Nov 1997)
• Peter David - Writer (16 Jan 1998)
• Goran Gajic - Director (21 Jan 1998)
• Douglas E. Wise - First Assistant Director/Director (21 Jan 1998)
• Richard Biggs - Stephen Franklin (22 Jan 1998)
• Patricia Tallman - Lyta Alexander (22 Jan 1998)
• Andreas Katsulas - G’Kar (22 Jan 1998)
• J. Michael Straczynski - Creator/Executive Producer (23 Jan 1998)
• John C. Flinn III - Director of Photography (23 Jan 1998)
• Bill Mumy - Lennier (23 Jan 1998)
• Douglas Netter - Executive Producer (23 Jan 1998)
• Denise Gentile - Lise Edgars-Garibaldi (10 Feb 1998)
• Goran Gajic - Director (10 Feb 1998)
• Jerry Doyle - Michael Garibaldi (10 Feb 1998)
• Peter Jurasik - Londo Mollari (11 Feb 1998)
• Janet Greek - Director (12 Feb 1998)
• Jesús Salvador Treviño - Director (15 Feb 1998)
• Raymond O’Connor - Mac (14 Feb 1998)
• Lawrence LeJohn - Bo (17 Feb 1998)
• Robin Atkin Downes - Byron (19 Feb 1998)
• Stephen Furst - Vir Cotto (19 Feb 1998)
• Doug Lefler - Director (23 Feb 1998)
• Harlan Ellison - Conceptual Consultant (2 Mar 1998)
• Damian London - Virini (2 Mar 1998)
• John Copeland - Producer (10 Mar 1998)
• Douglas E. Wise - First Assistant Director/Director (10 Mar 1998)
• Richard Biggs - Stephen Franklin (2 May 1998)
• Janet Greek - Director (7 May 1998)
• J. Michael Straczynski - Creator/Executive Producer (11 May 1998)
• John Copeland - Producer (12 May 1998)
• Jerry Gergely - Special Makeup Effects Artist (12 May 1998)
• Tony Dow - Director (28 May 1998)
• Steve Burg - Conceptual Artist (24 May 1998)
• Ron Thornton - Visual Effects Designer (27 May 1998)
• John Vulich - Makeup Effects Creator (28 May 1998)

Index