Guide Page: "The Illusion of Truth" (original) (raw)

• It's a good and creepy episode. I like it when things get creepy.
• Stephen has directed before, yes, though he hasn't done that much episodic TV work.
  The final shot was strictly described in the script; the monitor POV, the relative positions of everyone, the slight fisheye look and the absolute silence.
• Was Garibaldi's flashback shot in advance?
  Somtimes, yeah, we'll gang together shots in one location that will spill across several episodes, and definitely did that in Garibaldi's case. I just figure out what's coming, and write those specific additional scenes prior to the rest of the scripts.
• Where did the Starfury model Sheridan was looking at in the war room come from?
  Actually, I think the Starfury model was an illegal one we confiscated.
  Waste not, want not...
• Was the psychologist reading from a teleprompter?
  Actually, no, he wasn't reading off a teleprompter at all. His eyes may have been moving, but there was no reading involved.
• "In the Delenn/Sheridan interview, there is a change in the vocal acoustics of the journalist for the "new" questions he asked."
  And not just in the voice quality...look at the footage again. He's sitting in a different chair, in a different room.
• About the names cited in the confession
  Yes, they're based on the real names of writers who were blacklisted, Dalton Trumbo and Paul Jarrico.
• Parks (the person who's naming names) was also named after one of those who testified before HUAC.
• Were the names dubbed in?
  Only Jarrico was dubbed, because it was mispronounced.
• It's a period too few people really know much about, and it never hurts to point to the past in order to warn about the future.
• This ep is one that'll be discussed a lot, but not rewatched a lot, because it's just really hard to watch, knowing what's coming. It really does tend to upset people.
• If it's a little close to home...you have to remember I came out of journalism, that was where I cut my teeth as a writer, working for newspapers and magazines. You see a lot of the tricks, some good, some not so good, used for purposes that are sometimes good or not so good, distortions on the left and distortions on the right. So it wasn't hard to just tweak it a bit.
  Thing to remember, though, is that this isn't ISN as we've known it in the past, at least not to this extreme. If anything, this ep should point to the difference between journalism, albeit biased, and propaganda, which is all ISN is now, and how only an informed viewership can prevent the one from sliding into the other.
• Aren't there networks besides ISN?
  ISN is the one network that can handle *interstellar* broadcasts, which reqire a massive amount of energy, logistics, setup...there are other, local, planetary networks around Earth, and a few specialized channels for military and some commercial use...but ISN is the biggest, and because of that is very much in Earthgov's pocket.
• It was most definitely difficult and painful for me to write. I I am as much involved with these characters as anyone else, and doing this kind of thing to them is hard. And you have to put yourself in the minds of those doing this, and that's a dark place to be.
  And yeah, I know people who were harmed in the blacklist, and I've seen others, and myself, sometimes harmed by those who like to twist things around to their own benefit.
• "FWIW, that was your most courageous episode yet, IMHO."
  I appreciate the sentiment, so don't take this as lack of gratitude on my part; I'm happy you perceive it that way.
  But courageous? No.
  Courageous as an apellation belongs to the South American writers who insist on telling the truth about their governments, who risk death on a daily basis for doing so...and to other writers doing similar work in other countries.
  Yeah, it was kind of a shot to the midsection for some groups, with a certain element of biting the hand that feeds you, but the truth is, ain't nobody gonna come to my door in the middle of the night with death squads, take me away, and torture me. If you want to hear about real courage, join PEN International, or Amnesty International. They can always use the help.
• "This B5 episode should be required viewing in University media and history classes."
  Funny thing is, I've since received several requests from instructors at various colleges asking if they could use the show in their classroom to illustrate the points raised. Kinda nice....
• I don't make any blanket condemnations of journalists. For one thing, there's a difference between portraying journalism in a relatively free society, and one that's operating under a dictatorship, a la President Clark. It's the difference between journalism and propaganda.
  In "Midnight on the Firing Line," we had a reporter there doing a straight-ahead story; in "Point of No Return" we had the Good Journalists fighting to reveal the truth even as Clark was shutting them down.
  There have been favorable portrayals; it's just that under the current regime, they don't have access to the media.
• I am definitely *not* anti-reporter...I'm against the *control* of truth by any government or political agenda. We are made stronger by a multiplicity of voices, and the more those voices are allowed access to a level playing field, the more often the truth will come out to play.
  The third name was Jarrico, after Paul Jarrico, also blacklisted.
• The ISN cameras are not capable of autonomous operation, but they can be progammed within a parameter set. The wand is a control device to change those parameters. Thus, one operator, two cameras (or more!)
  There was a distinct anti Minbar/Minbari sentiment among this particular crew, as evidenced by the later parts of the show, and it isn't hard to imagine that the bumping was at the behest of the wand wielder. If Lennier was simply annoyed, advantage ISN. If he reacted violently, advantage ISN. I'm sure that footage will be used on another ISN propoganda broadcast. (You can see it on Channel 134 of your cable)(Oh, sorry, Channel 134 is not availbale in all sectors after curfew)
  George Johnsen
  CoProducer, B5