Before the BBC announced RTD2, he repeatedly expressed interest on twitter. Now, my dream British tv show for JMS to do would actually have been Blake's 7 (as in, a reboot - come on, the Excalibur already looks like the Liberator, and Anna Grant says hello to Anna Sheridan, so clearly he likes the original), but undoubtedly it would also be fascinating to watch his take on DW. So, here are my guesses on what it would have been like, based not just on B5 and Crusade but also on his Spider-Man comics, Sense 8 and his most recently published novel::

- at the very least two thirds of a season would take place in space or on non-Earth planets; he might even do a season without any Earth episode (historical or present) whatsover, in direct reverse to the New Who trend so far

- at least one of the Companions (and there would be several) is an Alien (not a human being from the future, an alien who needs daily make-up to look like it)

- the Old Who aliens for JMS to unearth are the Draconians; we'll get multi episode plot of scheming families and/or revolution

- at some point, someone quotes parental advice saying "Never start a fight, but always be the one to finish it"

- Time Lord telepathy gets explored as a major plot element

- one of the Companions has the initials JS

- at least one canon transgender character (possibly the Companion of the present day?)

- either the Doctor mentoring someone or someone mentoring the Doctor (trickier because of the age factor, but not impossible) is an ongoing emotional arc

- monologues which, depending on the casting, are either incredibly moving scenes or get mocked above and beyond (think G'Kar vs Byron)

- one of the big or little bads is a sinister cooperation with research on human experimentation

- one of the characters has traumatic childhood abuse

- there's unforunately one episode where other characters tell the Doctor and their Companion(s) how great they are and/or viliy their critics

- both the Doctor and the Companion(s) have highly significant dreams which we see on screen; despite Amy's Choice already existing, there will be at least one other episode taking place in the mind ouf our hero(s)

- JMS is horrified when the Anti-Vaxxers latch on the plot about the evil cooperation doing secret experiments and gets into so many fiery battles on twitter about it that he has to take a break from social media

- when at least one veteran Star Trek actor guest stars, the annoying B5 vs ST battles get another round and are now B5 vs ST vs DW

- sometihing utterly unpredictable which I can't remotely guess at happens, because the man is very, very creative and has managed to surprise me in all his endeavours I'm familiar with so far

The other days

A novel by JMS, and while I've read several of his comics and his autobiography in addition to being a Babylon 5 fan, and having watched The Changeling (for which he wrote the script) and Sense 8 which he co-created with the Wachowski siblings as well, the man still manages to pleasantly surprise me by the way he doesn't rest on his laurels or resort to familiar types but keeps renewing himself creatively.

The novel is, among many other things, a road trip and found family story, as well as a current day take on that 18th and 19th century genre, the letter novel (in this case, the email, blog entry and podcast novel) with a premise that could have gone incredibly wrong. JMS himself must be keenly aware of this, since in the novel he's lampshading the trapfalls via a stern email from - that would be spoilery. Anyway, the premise, laid out on the outset and hence tellable without spoiler cuts, is this: a group of people, strangers to each other, come to together for a shared journey with one specific goal, which they all have in common: each of them wants to die. They all have different reasons, which the format of the novel allows to get into: for some, it's physical illness, others are plain old depression, some have backstory tragedies and some are in a hopeless position for other reasons. In one case, there's definitely payback and spite involved, while in another, it's guilt. But it's different for everyone.

Now, the most obvious trapfalls with such a premise are:

1.) If at the end, these people do in fact kill themselves, won't that feel like either relentless grimdark nihilism and/or glorification/prettifying of suicide?

2.) If, on the other hand, they don't kill themselves, won't that trivialize the subject and make it look like anyone can be talked out of suicide if the right person comes along, no matter how serious their reasons for having made such a decision in the first place?

Then there' the question as to whether a writer can maintain such a story at novel length, can get the readers involved despite them knowing what the characters want to do? After all, it's not a given people who have a stressful life themselves want to relax with a novel where all main characters start out wanting to die.

It helps if the author is someone who far more often than not has made you care, of course. So I read it, and it turned out to be compelling, captivating, and deeply humane. There's a lot of humor, too, with the characters, not about them, and not negating the heartache. On a pure "technical" level, I'm impressed that JMS managed to come up with distinct individual voices for the main characters, since the format means they're all first person narrators, and I know how tricky it is to do first person which sounds individualistic and not too alike. Here, even without reading the headers, you always know who is speaking, and you quickly get an impression of what they are like. When they start to form relationships with each other, these also work in a believable manner.

In terms of JMS' past work, I think it's noticeable that no one has the initials JS or is told by their father to never start a fight but always finish it the classic hero(ine)/lead character marked as such from the get go and treated as such till the end is not there. Not just because this is an ensemble story, but because the focus and the emphasis keeps changing, and the characters givng the narrative its final form aren't the ones initializing it. There's a bipolar character named Lisa who is very unlike any character I've encountered in a JMS-authored work before, and neither she nor the characters with physical illnesses feel ever like "the one with with #ailment X", they feel like "character Y". Otoh, some other JMS stalwarts are present and accounted for, including love of cat, and a feline in a key emotional role. (I noticed this first in the Crusade episode where Max Eilerson rescues his cat, which is dedicated to one, too; when I read what JMS wrote in his memoirs re: his own cats, something clicked.) And he still has that knack of bringing minor characters to life in just a few words.

Of course, after a while I had strong hopes and fears as to what would/should happen with the characters eventually, and in some cases I was truly torn. In the end, I felt emotionally satisfied, and truly glad I had read the novel.

Oscar Wilde once said memoirs were written for two reasons – self justification and revenge. He might have added therapy while he was at it, had he been living in a post Freudian age. Regardless on whether the people in question are interesting in themselves, there are not that many compelling autobiographies (telling your own life is messy in a way fiction isn’t; not coincidentally, Dickens only wrote fragments of straightforward autobiography, didn’t finish them and wrote David Copperfield instead), and/or if the it’s one of your average celebrity memoir written and standardized by a ghost writer.

When last year I heard that JMS would be publishing his autobiography, I was interested because Babylon 5 remains one of the most important and beloved things in my life of imagination and fannishness, and I liked and/or admired in varying degrees many other of his works – a lot of his Spider-Man run, the ill-fated Crusade, Changeling I thought was impressive, Supreme Powers for the first three volumes fascinating, and Sense8, of which he’s one of the three „parents“ (along with the Wachowskis) was something I got really fond of. Also he’s a writer with strong opinions, so no danger of standardized ghost written blandness. About his personal life, I didn’t know anything, so I had no expectations in terms of what kind of story he’d tell. In the lead up to the publication, which happened yesterday/today (depending on your time zone), I gathered he’d had what is euphemistically known as a „tough childhood“, and being a B5 fan, I knew about the various production travails (Did Paramount pinch the concept for DS9? Controversy, Michael O’Hare’s departure and the reasons, last minute grant of a fifth season and so forth). But that was about it.

( Spoilers suspect JMS of being a Stephen King character )

In conclusion: dark story compellingly told. Not just for fans. But definitely not if you’re easily triggered. (Honestly, how that man ever made it out of childhood coherent, I don’t know.)

...currently watching Sense8, and in the middle of a scene wherein two of our heroines spy in the lair apartment of one of the potential (well, pretty obvious at this point) villains, the character played by Freema Aygeman discovers a photo of said villain with a prominent rl character.

"Oh my god", says she, half mocking, half serious, "BFF with Cheney! He's got to be evil."

JMS: still not over the shock of Dubya liking his show and ensuring it won't happen again. :)

1.) Patrick Stewart guest stars in season 4 of New Who. Err, I think there were rumours about him being Davros or something like that a few years back? Anyway. I wish. Not necessarily Davros (though any Patrick S. would have been fine!), but oh, I wish. (Especially since I've seen him and David Tennant together on stage.) (I'll never stop boasting about this.)

2.) JMS (that's Joe Straczynski to you, non-Babylon 5 people) does a remake of Blake's 7. Because he's the only one of the current crop I'd trust do one that gets core elements of the original and comes up with a spin of its own. Mind you, there would also be the usual JMS weaknesses (watch out for characters with the initials J.S.! Operatic speech! Someone at some point quotes the "never start a fight, but always finish it!" staying!), but it could be really really interesting. I tend to be sceptical of remakes/reboots, but now and then they surprise you in a good way. This one would have great potential. Alas, I don't think it was ever more than wishful thinking.

3.) Elves get it on more than once a millennium, or whatever the Tolkien-approved time span was. Not that I'd go to the opposite end of the spectrum as much fanfiction does, but come on. No species deserves that little of a sex life.

4.) The Double Quickening at the end of the Comes a Horseman/Revelation two parter in Highlander has left Duncan and Methos with the ability to recognize each other beyond the general Immortal buzz. This was a popular fanon I was fond of back in my HL days and shamelessly used myself in fanfiction, despite the fact it's actually disproven by the show (in Forgive us our Trespasses, Duncan at one point feels an Immortal approaching and assumes it's Keane until he sees Methos).

5.) Various members of the Beatles have the ability to time-travel. At least judging by the sheer number of stories that let them do this, usually, but not always, to prevent John's death, it seems to be a popular conviction. Well, they did appear on Doctor Who once...

This is the weekend of writing and signing Christmas mail. I can't stand the sight of my own name anymore, let me tell you that. And there is yet more to come. So, in brevity, some recs:

Vid:

Civil War: neither the English nor the 19th century American one, but the comics event in the Marvelverse two years ago. By now, enough Marvel characters have appeared in films for footage to exist, and here a vidder has used it to create a gread vid about the big crossover event that, while severely flawed in execution, still is the one providing some terrific character stuff.

Film reviews which make me not only want to see the movies in question but sulk over the fact it will take a while (read: months, if not a year) till they make it to Germany for me to watch, while you Americans and Brits are already able to do watch them at your leisure:

Milk

Changeling

The later's script was written by JMS. (That would be the creator of Babylon 5, for non-B5 watchers, J. Michael Straczynski.) One tiny paragraph betrays the reviewer can't have watched the show:

The Rev Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), an eloquent Presbyterian pastor with a regular radio programme, takes up her case, beginning with a fierce sermon indicting the LAPD under police chief James Davies for negligence, inefficiency and corruption, collaborating with criminals rather than serving the public. He seems initially to be an obsessive, hellfire preacher, another menacing role for Malkovich, we're led to think. He is soon revealed to be a courageous, implacable crusader.

Considering that JMS is not only an atheist scriptwriter who, like RTD and to a lesser degree Joss Whedon, is fascinated by religious subjects and keeps returning to them, but who also tends to present priests of various religions (both real ones and fictional ones) in a positive light, this is not especially surprising.

andrastewhite has finished her great movieverse Charles Xavier story, Coalescence. Spoilers for all three films: Charles in his well-meaning, manipulative ambiguous glory. No one writes Xavier as multifaceted as Andraste - go and read now!

Meanwhile, over in the comicverse, there is a very entertaining talk with various gents whose shows we loved on tv and who are writing Marvel comics these days, here. My personal highlight is the following exchange between JMS (aka creator of Babylon 5, writes Spider-man) and Joss Whedon (these days busy torturing the X-men):

STRACZYNSKI: I should point out too that Joss has a definite vested interest in Spider-Man’s personal life in that, during the retreat, I mentioned a plan that we had with respect to a certain old Spidey character, and he actually got up from his chair, crossed the room and embraced me, and called me a “brother.” So there was that.

WHEDON: It’s true. I also tried to spoon him…a little bit. But he’s tall.

Anyone willing to make suggestions what specific JMS writerly deed caused this? ( Spoilers for JMS run Amazing Spider-man  )

Then there is also the following suggestion, revealing that comicbook creators really are just like fans:

QUESADA: I sense a Sue Richards mini-series by Joss Whedon in the future.

WHEDON: You sense one, eh?

LOEB: Emma Frost/Sue Richards: Extravaganza. We’d sell a billion copies.

Only having caught brief glimpses of Sue in her cameo in Astonishing X-Men and in Neil Gaiman's 1602 - since I haven't read Fantastic Four yet -, I hereby support the notion of Joss writing Emma/Sue slash anyway.

The second trade back of JMS' Supreme Powers, Powers and Principalities, arrived yesterday via mail, making me a very happy fangirl indeed. As I mentioned some months ago, this is the best take on the "what would superheroes in a 'realistic' world be like?" question I've read since Moore's Watchmen. It's also better than JMS' own Rising Stars with which it shares a few themes (for starters, Rising Stars has this leading character with the initials J.S….), and a brilliant twist on one of the oldest and most basic of comicverse stories, the Superman lore.

Now, I'm no Superman expert, unlike searose. I've seen the Christopher Reeve movies, I've read about three or four comics, I've watched Lois & Clark, and a very few episodes (about four of season 1, and two of season 2) of Smallville. Based on that limited knowledge, it seems to me that Lois & Clark gets the credit of swinging the emphasis from Superman to Clark Kent as the "real" identity, and making Clark more engaging and interesting than Superman to boot. (Whereas Smallville's contribution to the overall myth was the reinvention of Lex Luthor, not something quintessentially new about either Clark Kent or Superman.)

What JMS does with the Superman equivalent, Mark Milton, aka Hyperion, is something else altogether, because, as described in the first volume, that wonderful Kansas background with loving parents and a Norman Rockwell home which formed Clark Kent's character in Supreme Power is a lie, a set-up by the government, so Mark develops into the kind of person they can control. Frank Miller, in Return of the Dark Knight, used the Superman-as-the-tool-of-the-government premise already, but in a manner unsympathetic to Superman. Whereas you can't help but feel sorry for Mark Milton. While understanding why the various American governments did this to him in the first place; another great achievement of Supreme Power is that the military and secret service doesn't consist of moustache-twirling villains. A child with unlimited power is a frightening thought; an adult even more so. Anyway, there is no mild-mannered/tongue-in-cheek reporter identity for Mark, lonely, isolated and growing ever more suspicious of his surroundings as he is. In relation to the Superman myth: this, I'd say, isn't Clark Kent, it's Kal-El. And Kal-El, the alien in a human world, is the aspect JMS explores.

( Cut for length... )