Guide Page: "Into the Fire" (original) (raw)

• One of the things about the way events come to a head and finish in ITF is that it's very unnerving...okay, *now* what? The ongoing conflict has become something you could count on, you knew the rough shape of what might be coming along. Now all that's kicked over, and you have to get on with the next aspect: making a new life.
  What interests me, what I wanted to do with making this show, was in large measure to examine the issues and emotions and events that precede a war, precipitate a war, the effects of the war itself, the end of the war and the aftermath of the war. The war is hardware; the people are at the center of the story.
• So far the general reaction has been, "But...but...what NOW?" which is *exactly* the reaction I was hoping for.
  Everybody keeps commenting, "This is the sort of episode you have at the end, not 6 eps into your season." Yep.
  We're funny that way....
• Now comes more fun...again, it's all about process...going from post-war (Minbari) to an uneasy peace, to showing how a war starts to come about, the actual beginning of a war, its progress, then the aftermath. That arc really is at the core of the show...the changes that take place through this process.
• I've always preferred the arc, both inside an episode, and between episodes, and even in the course of a season, where there's the resolution and then there's time to consider, reflect, and show the impact of these things. It's not just about solving the technical problem that way...it's about the people who solve the problem and how they are affected by the problems and solutions.
• It's often the aftermath that holds the greatest interest. The Civil War tells one kind of interesting story; the Reconstruction that followed, which endured for many years longer than the war, tells another, just as interesting story.
  There's a line one of the characters will say soon, "The duration's going to be a lot longer than the war." It's a very true comment.
  One of my favorite books is "Alas, Babylon," by Pat Frank, which is about a nuclear war (written in the early 60s). But the war happens entirely off-stage, way in the distance...and the book focuses on one small township dealing with the after effects, and the day-to-day realities of surviving in a changed world. I've always been partial to that kind of storytelling.
• As for the story being over...not by a long sight. Frankly, some of what's coming in the latter part of this season is more intense than anything we've done previously. We really focus in on the characters and the after-shocks of the war, in ways usually ignored.
  After all, we all know how nice and calm and civilized Europe was after the War To End All Wars came to an end...we hardly heard a peep from that part of the world thereafter....
• As usual every season, we start out with lighter CGI episodes, and build to big stuff as we go. That will be the same this season as last. Our first really big CGI episode last season was "Messages," which was around episode #8, then "Severed," episode #10. This season we'll hit with big stuff around episode #6, which will likely be as big as "Severed." Rather than push stuff back, we've been able to move CGI stuff forward and expand on scenes.
• Just a quick note with two purposes:

1. to alert folks interested in Lightwave to check out the B5 episode airing in about 2 weeks, "Into the Fire," the second new episode back, to see some nifty stuff one can do when one applies oneself. That episode has roughly 114 CGI shots in 43 minutes, and are easily some of the most elaborate ever done for TV. (There's some nice stuff toward the latter half of this coming week's episode, but the following one is the big blow-out.)
   and
2. to plink the noses of those on here who came on proclaiming that "good sources" told them that the CGI EFX on B5 would either go to hell, or look crappy, or be less than before. We're now doing far more EFX than in any previous season, and more elaborate shots. I said these individuals were full of it then, and the facts have spoken for themselves in the time since. These individuals have since dropped away and gotten real silent. I hope they'll be as forthright now that they've been shown to be wrong as they were in their original proclamations.
   Otherwise we'd have to assume that these individuals were spewing out things they knew weren't true, just to poison the well and cause us grief, and I just can't *imagine* that *anyone* would do something like that....

• Why wasn't the Vorlon shown in its true form?
  Because we'd still be rendering it. There are 114 EFX shots in that episode, and as it was we just barely made the satellite uplink. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, better to do it more simply. As it was, we were rendering the shadow form too.
• Are you happy with having to hurry season four along in case the show isn't renewed?
  Truth: I go back and forth. The "Into the Fire" thing, for instance... it would've likely been a two-part episode, but it still would've ended up exactly where it ended up. A few more big explosions, but I wonder also if that really adds anything past a certain point.
  From a production standpoing, since "Fire" darn near killed us in the CGI department, it's probably a darned good thing it DIDN'T go for 2 eps. That puppy had something around 120 or 140 EFX shots.
  Overall, I'm actually quite happy with how this season is going, in terms of the intensity of the arc and the emotions and incidents. Parts would've been a bit more laid-back if I had decided not to cover my bets on renewal, and maybe the situation has worked out to the best (again the ABA principle, Art By Accident).
  So I dunno...all I know is what's in the episodes this season, and it's pretty cool overall....
• 1.) The CGI was excellent and seemed very different than in previous episodes, much larger, better defined, darker. Was this an effort on your part, or the post-production department?"
  We're trying some new rendering techniques...I think they're working very well. (Some of the stuff in the next episode has a very realistic feel to it.)
  2.) Have you found some way to slow down time or compress the episode into a shorter span? When I finished this one, I swore I had watched a two hour movie.
  You did. We arranged for a time dilation bubble to appear over your house.
  3.) Any reaction from the actor or staff on this one? Especially, Ed Wasser? (Might be a bit of spoilers in the answer to this one)
  Ed wants to come back as an alien. I see no problem with this.
• Any significance to Morden's pendant?
  It may have its uses.
• The shadow voice was definitely Ed Wasser.
• Yeah, that was Ed's voice. Seemed appropos.
  Definitely didn't want it to end in a big explosion. We've seen many of those; how many more can you see? One is the same as the other after a while. And if we destroyed everything, how would that show we'd grown enough to create the new age? It's a matter of evolution, not destruction.
• I've suggested the use of a minor chords version of the theme music to Chris on several occasions, where it seemed right, here, Signs and Portents, and in others. The change from minor to major chords does signal an emotional transition, and it works well.
  The director initially didn't want to do the Londo rage scene in one take; it was something I felt very strongly about, and I think it works well.
  BTW, there's another example of a long single take coming up soon, on Epsilon 3, which is all I'll specify. I kinda wanted the scene to play itself out, without cutting, and to show just how amazingly capable some of our actors can be. We're talking here almost 4 minutes of footage, not one cut in the whole thing, very fast dialogue, and not a single muffed line, with the performances working wonderfully. You'll know it when you see it.
• Why were the other First Ones still around?
  They were all still hanging around here, for one reason or another, mostly to do with inertia, familiarity...but finally recognized that it was time.
• The Sigma 957 ship was one of the First One ships, yeah.
• I don't think the shadows speaking through Lyta referred to Delenn by name; they said only, "And you they have left for us."
  The jostling from the asteroid was an accident, though the others would've figured out what was going on soon enough.
• Any relation between the Vorlon representative's outfit and Ivanova's in the"All Alone in the Night" dream?
  No, no relation to Ivanova's outfit. I just wanted a sense of something that was both ancient and ageless, frozen, formal, distant.
• The woman was in ice as a symbol of their ridigity, their inflexibility, "frozen in time," as the shadows say.
• Two ancient adversaries gave up just because Delenn and Sheridan told them to?
  I think that, for me, what mitigates against that is that a) it wasn't just Delenn and Sheridan, it was with virtually every other major civilization around backing their play, and adding their support, their voice, even being willing to die for the sake of this confrontation. If it were just the two of them...they'd be scragged. The two forces needed to be shown that the others had turned against them, and that their true faces had been exposed.
  b) The other key for me is that neither the Vorlons nor the Shadows saw themselves as conquerers or adversaries...both believed they were doing what was right for us. And like any possessive parent, they'll keep on believing that until the kid is strong enough to stand up and say, "No, this is what *I* want."
  Most wars tend to end with one singular event...sometimes it's a big bomb, or a series of big bombs...and sometimes it comes with a negotiation. The two sides meet in a room, sometimes with representatives of other nations, and together they hammer out a truce, or a peace. There's the Nagasaki solution on the one hand, and the "let's meet in a room and talk about this" of Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat and Minister Begin.
  Both work.
• There is a definite parent/child/parent dynamic going on there, in that Lorien is, in a way, in that role to the Vorlons and the Shadows, they're in that role to us, and we're in that role to those who will follow. It's the endless cycle.
• About the final scene between Lorien and the Vorlon and Shadow images
  One could almost argue for the whole scene as a classic "intervention" out of psychotherapy or group counseling.
  Very early on, John Copeland asked me, "Okay, bottom line it for me, what's the war about?" I said, "It's about killing your parents." And his eyes went wide, and I explained, "No, not literally...but at some point you have to step outside the control of your parents and create your own life, your own destiny. That process is inevitable...and if there are indeed older races, and they're interfering, that puts them smack in the middle of that same process."
  It's not about who has the biggest gun, because there's *always* somebody else with a bigger gun...it's about *understanding* your way out of a problem.
• Will we ever learn why the first Kosh was more sympathetic to the younger races than his replacement?
  That's a good question, and one of the things I'd like to do (but which I can't see any way to do in the series) is the whole story of who Kosh was, how he got to be who and what he was, why he felt the way he did toward humans (part of it was knowing Valen)...maybe this will have to go into one of the novels.
• Did Kosh go to B5 knowing that the conflict would soon be over?
  I think Kosh came late to the table. I don't think he came to B5 with that intent, but it grew in him over time that this cycle had to end, and he could be instrumental to that.
• The main motive for going beyond the rim...there's a heck of a big Taco Bell out there....
• The notion of the Vorlons and Shadows representing Order and Chaos goes back to the Babylonian creation myths, that the universe was born in the conflict between order and chaos, hence part of the reason I decided to name this show after Babylon. That's called *research*. It informs the show, but it is not the show.
• Certainly Londo would like to avoid his fate, and Lady Morella prophesied certain ways of doing this...and he's had some chances, and blown them. As you say, he's creating the very future he'd hoped to avoid.