Editing Babylon 5 (section)

=== Writing ===
Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes of ''Babylon 5'', including all 44 episodes in the third and fourth seasons,<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 |title=Writers/Directors list (JMS entry) |url=http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/write-direct.html#JMichaelStraczynski |access-date=November 8, 2007 |archive-date=March 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306060639/http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/write-direct.html#JMichaelStraczynski |url-status=live }}</ref> a feat never before accomplished in American television.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13039 |title=Re: ATTN: JMS I heard that with you writing the entire season, you will be the 1st in tv history? |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=April 22, 1996 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028180357/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13039 |url-status=live }}</ref> Other writers to have contributed scripts to the show include [[Peter David]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Kathryn M. Drennan]], [[Larry DiTillio|Lawrence G. DiTillio]], [[D. C. Fontana]], and [[David Gerrold]]. [[Harlan Ellison]], a creative consultant on the show, received story credits for two episodes.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 |title=Writers/Directors list |url=http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/write-direct.html#write |access-date=November 8, 2007 |archive-date=March 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306060639/http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/write-direct.html#write |url-status=live }}</ref> Each writer was informed of the overarching storyline, enabling the show to be produced consistently under-budget. The rules of production were strict; scripts were written six episodes in advance, and changes could not be made once production had started.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N24/discuss.24n.html |title=Straczynski, Jablokov Discuss Television, The Future |author=Brett Altschul |work=[[The Tech (newspaper)|The Tech]] |date=May 5, 1998 |access-date=December 13, 2007 |archive-date=September 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915233342/http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N24/discuss.24n.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

With not all cast members being hired for every episode of a season, the five-year plot length caused some planning difficulties. If a critical scene involving an actor not hired for every episode had to be moved, that actor had to be paid for work on an extra episode.<ref name="newsarama 2019"/> It was sometimes necessary to adjust the plotline to accommodate external influences, an example being the "trap door" that was written for every character: in the event of that actor's unexpected departure from the series, the character could be written out with minimal impact on the storyline.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/misc/cc-leave.html |title=JMS on Claudia Christian's departure |access-date=November 14, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019022537/http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/misc/cc-leave.html |archive-date=October 19, 2006 | url-status= live}}</ref> Straczynski stated, "As a writer, doing a long-term story, it'd be dangerous and short-sighted for me to construct the story without trap doors for every single character. ... That was one of the big risks going into a long-term storyline which I considered long in advance;..."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13003 |title=Re: ATTN: JMS Changes in the Story due to Actors |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=April 24, 1996 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224173745/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13003 |url-status=live }}</ref> This device was eventually used to facilitate the departures of Claudia Christian and Andrea Thompson from the series.

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| quote = First thing I did was to flip out the stand-alones, which traditionally have taken up the first 6 or so episodes of each season; between two years, that's 12 episodes, over half a season right there. Then you would usually get a fair number of additional stand-alones scattered across the course of the season. So figure another 3–4 per season, say 8, that's 20 out of 44. So now you're left with basically 24 episodes to fill out the main arc of the story.
| source = —J. Michael Straczynski, 1996<ref name="writing">{{cite web |title=From jms re: yr 4/5 |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=December 18, 1996 |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=10251 |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026130923/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=10251 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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Straczynski purposely went light on elements of the five-year narrative during the first season as he felt the audience would not be ready for the full narrative at that time, but he still managed to drop in some scenes that would be critical to the future narrative. This also made it challenging for the actors to understand their motivations without knowing where their characters were going; Straczynski said "I didn't want to tell them too much, because that risks having them play the result, rather than the process."<ref name="newsarama 2019"/> He recalled that Peter Jurasik had asked him about the context of Londo's premonition, shown partially in "[[List of Babylon 5 episodes#ep1|Midnight on the Firing Line]]", of himself and G'Kar choking each other to death, but Straczynski had to be coy about it.<ref name="newsarama 2019"/> The full death scene was shown in context in "[[List of Babylon 5 episodes#ep61|War Without End - Part 2]]" near the end of the third season.

During production of the fourth season, the [[Prime Time Entertainment Network]], which Warner Bros. opted to use for ''Babylon 5'', was shut down, leaving the planned fifth season in doubt. Unwilling to short-change fans of the show, Straczynski began preparing modifications to the fourth season that would allow him to conclude his overall arc should a fifth season not be greenlit, which ultimately became the direction the fourth season took. Straczynski identified three primary [[narrative thread]]s which would require resolution: the Shadow war, Earth's slide into a dictatorship, and a series of sub-threads which branched off from those. Estimating they would still take around 27 episodes to resolve without having the season feel rushed, the solution came when the [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]] network commissioned two ''Babylon 5'' television films. Several hours of material was thus able to be moved into the films, including a three-episode arc which would deal with the background to the [[Earth–Minbari War]], and a sub-thread which would have set up the sequel series, ''Crusade''. Further standalone episodes and plot-threads were dropped from season four, which could be inserted into ''Crusade'', or the fifth season, were it to be given the [[greenlight]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/Messages/Message?id=10251 |title=Year 4/5 |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=December 18, 1996 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 18, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026130923/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=10251 |url-status=live }}</ref> The intended series finale, "[[Sleeping in Light]]", was filmed during season four as a precaution against cancellation. When word came that TNT had picked up ''Babylon 5'', this was moved to the end of season five and replaced with a newly filmed season four finale, "[[The Deconstruction of Falling Stars]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=How will this play out |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |author-link=J. Michael Straczynski |date=May 21, 1997 |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9221 |access-date=February 26, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026122726/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9221 |url-status=live }}</ref>