User:Aladdin Sane/B5-AS-notes

References

References

Babylon 5#Format

Described as a "window on the future" by series production designer John Iacovelli,^{[currently at 10 in the article][1]} the story is set in the 23rd century on a large O'Neill Colony named "Babylon 5"—a five-mile-long, 2.5 million-ton rotating colony designed as a gathering place for the sentient species of the galaxy, in order to foster peace through diplomacy, trade, and cooperation.

And Now For a Word#Production details

• The Psi-Corps commercial contains a semi-subliminal message: during the closing of the commercial "The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps" flashes on the screen.^[1]

A book reference from Subliminal messages in popular culture

• In a 1995 episode of Babylon 5, during a scene which represents a PSA for the Psi Corps, the words "TRUST THE CORPS" and "THE CORPS IS YOUR FRIEND" appear on screen for four frames. J. Michael Straczynski wanted the audience to recognize the subliminal message; "I had my staff find out what constitutes subliminal material--and it's two frames per second, which is illegal, you can't do things at that speed--so I went four frames per second".^[1]

Canon

My impression of Project scope is that mainly what we're talking about here is the intersection of two things:

1. What's allowed under EN WP Policy and Guidelines
2. What's B5 canon

So, for EN WP P&G we have one or two (or one or two thousand) documents that tell us what that is.

My question becomes, "What's B5 canon?"

From studying the articles and other sources I think canon consists of three things:

1. Primary canon
2. Secondary canon
3. "Because JMS said so."

One) Primary canon is all that published on DVD. While we could say, arguably, that it is all that which originally aired on TV, that would exclude The Lost Tales, a direct-to-DVD work in the scope of canon. The "aired on TV" argument also has an encyclopedic sourcing problem in that we can't really independently recapture what went out originally over the airwaves in a fixed, published form to properly source it to the primary source. The DVDs are published, and have ISBNs to identify them and prove their publication. The only sourcing problem the DVD standard has is that it does not include original airdates. This problem is largely or wholly solved by the Lurker's Guide and other online sources that have preserved these for us.

Two) Secondary canon is almost entirely defined by what's in the article "Babylon 5 novels, short stories and comic books". What's missing from that article is the games that are considered canonical, as these are secondary, and the apparently canonical B5 CD-ROM. Seems like something else is missing. Hmm. Oh, well, the point is to try to find all the compelling sources (see Three, below) that state that secondary canon is canon, and take anything non-canonical and segregate it into a separate article section or sub-section, or maybe delete it, depending on consensus.

Three) Whenever JMS says something is canon, it is. What JMS asserts about the B5 universe, is the B5 universe, by definition. In all the Talk pages I've read, there aren't any Project editors that disagree with the assertion or the argument behind it: That he created the universe, it's his to say as he pleases about it. Examples of "Because JMS said so" include the actual site documented at the article "The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5", which JMS said he used for writing the canon (and is cited in that article that way), and therefor rises to the level of canon itself, and anything JMS asserts in messages posted online since at least 1991 that have been verified (and if they show up at his sanctioned archive or Lurker's Guide, then they have been verified). There are a variety of other sources that have published interviews with JMS, and since his words are quoted, they are usable as assertions of canon.

Given these three categories, I detect an ambiguity surrounding "toys and dolls as secondary canon". Here, the argument breaks for me into two possibilities: JMS-style canon and Warner Bros. marketing department-style canon. I think I detect a consensus among editors that JMS-style canon is the standard here. Nonetheless, given a strict segregation, and explanation to the reader what we mean by differentiating the two types of canon, I see where these could possibly be added to an article; if anyone ever thinks they're otherwise noteworthy (perhaps for literary criticism purposes).

(Note the idea of defining canon was first proposed by editor Fang Aili 18:58, 1 August 2007 (UTC) in section Naming Conventions of B5 Project Talk Archive 1.)

How do we organize around canon?

How does this go to article organization in the encyclopedia?

Personally, I see the whole Project as one big WP:SS off of the main article "Babylon 5". It's sort of a "mini-web" inside the encyclopedia, with each article related to the other both hierarchically and non-hierarchically.

Of the articles, most are titled against a canonical element, such as an episode title, a species title, a character title, a location title, or a plot element title. List articles, very useful both because they are a way of grouping elements not notable enough for an independent article and because they serve to guide the reader to relevant canon articles, are included here.

There is an Index article here, not sure how we're supposed to maintain it. I take it there are some automated tools lying around somewhere, just need to implement them. I noticed WikiProject Iowa has an automated watchlist for all their articles, I thought that was pretty cool, speaking of automated tools.

We have spin-off articles that describe and help define canon from an out-of-universe perspective but are not titled against a canonical element. That I can see, these are "Babylon 5 Influences", "Babylon 5's use of the Internet", "rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated", and "The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5".

In addition to the three areas of canon listed above, there is a fourth area to look at, non-canon. These are the articles that deal specifically with something B5 universe-related, but are zero canon-related. On the canonicity meter, from 0 to 100, these articles hit an exact 0. These are, "The Be Five", "Babylon Park", "Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning", and "Stellar Occasion".

The deleted article "Similarities between Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space" should be mentioned. (The article, in case any new editor reading this wonders, is around the corner down the street at Wikia, hanging out smoking a cigarette. See AfD 1 and AfD 2.)

There is one article hanging out that I think should be re-titled and worked on, "Mythology of Babylon 5". The article has great potential I feel as a stopping point for all our red linked in-universe items, such as Interplanetary Expeditions, but the title offends me greatly as a B5 fan, since it confuses genuine real world out-of-universe myth on which B5 is based, Babylonian creation myth, in JMS' own words, and the Hollywood/fandom/whatever WP:PEACOCK/WP:WEASEL term "myth" which should always be avoided in the encyclopedia. It's a fancrufty word to say the least because it overstates the subject: The subject is a TV show. I can't think of a really great title, some things that come to mind are "List of Babylon 5 artifacts", "List of Babylon 5 notable in-universe elements", "List of Babylon 5 stuff we couldn't figure out where else to put". Hmm. May need a little work.

There is another article hanging out that fits none of the above possibilities, "TMoS". Fundamental to hitting the "primary canon" or "secondary canon" definition is that the work must be published. Works that are in no way published, by definition, cannot be canonical. When you think about it, they cannot be non-canonical either. They don't exist as published works either way. The "TMoS" article should be renamed "The unproduced scripts of J. Michael Straczynski", or something else JMS-related, and expanded: JMS himself does write online about how many scripts in Hollywood go unproduced: I think he said that produced scripts end up being maybe 10–30% of the total. My feeling is that the TMoS article has nothing to do with the B5 universe, canon or otherwise, but does have to do with JMS, who does meet WP-style notability and might deserve a WP:SS article. Were there a WikiProject JMS, I'd advocate moving the article to their scope.

There aren't any other B5 articles on EN WP. Or, there are, and they're mighty well hid. Or, there are, and I've just forgotten to mention them.

All different types of articles intersect with the Project articles, without being B5 articles. Some examples are actor's bios, and lists of various elements of fiction. Various media criticism articles mention B5. There's lots. Many of them are inherently in-universe such as "List of fictional medicines and drugs", and many are real world, out-of-universe, such as "Science fiction on television".

A proposed article name change

One reason I wanted to organize these thoughts, is that I think the B5 games belong in the secondary canon article, not the primary one. The problem with moving the section is the title of the secondary canon article. Currently it is titled "Babylon 5 novels, short stories and comic books". I have two names to propose, and I think they both pretty much suck.

1. Babylon 5 novels, short stories, comic books and games. This article title sucks because it takes an already too-long title and makes it longer. Conceivably, we could even call it Babylon 5 novels, short stories, comic books, games and interactive CD-ROM. Oh, that would overjoy the wikigods.
2. Babylon 5 secondary canon. This title sucks because I think it is unclear to our target audience, the reader unfamiliar with the subject, what it is we are talking about. We might be able to use re-directs to make this title work out OK. I'm not sure I have all the implications of re-directs down yet.

Resolving the article title problem for the secondary canon article has to occur before moving the Games section out of the main article; else the Games section will look very strange there. I would like input on what to call the secondary canon article, if we decide to move the Games section from one article to the other.

Moving Games from the primary article would help move that article one step closer to GA, by helping its length problem, and its focus problem, at the same time.

(Hey, don't forget to sign this when you post it.)

References

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Notes on length of work and copyvio

Above, I showed that the primary canon, properly referenced to the source, quantifies as Total DVD's: 41. Total runtime: 6,027 minutes.

Note about Fair Use, de minimus, and copyvio arguers: At 30 frames per second, the work consists of 10,848,600 frames. Any screenshot (frame) taken from the work equals 0.00000921778 percent of the work (less than one one-hundred-thousandth of one percent of the work). There isn't a judge on the face of the planet that would look at that and think anything other than de minimus. Even if we take 300 screenshots for 300 articles, we're still at 0.00276533378 percent of the work used (less than one one-hundredth of one percent and closer to one one-thousandth of a percent). The copyvio arguments are ludicrous when you look at them clearly. Once we hit 0.1 percent of the work (one tenth of one percent), let the copyvio arguers come around and maybe I'll listen. That number of screenshots (one tenth of one percent) we should use for the articles describing this work is 10,849.

More about quantifying the work

Above, I showed that the primary canon, properly referenced to the source, quantifies as Total DVD's: 41. Total runtime: 6,027 minutes.

The other quantity to be noted is by pages or words written. We have JMS on record comparing the written work to the size of a novel.^[1] From this we can estimate pages and words written, to give us an idea of the scope of the written work. I note others have actually purchased the scripts, and may know more about the issue. But this is a start.

Assertions by JMS:

1. One season = 1,100 written pages
2. One season = 275,000 written words

Exact mathematical deductions from the assertions (22 episodes per season):

1. One episode = 50 pages
2. One episode = 12,500 words

Quantifying the work to take an estimation of written size:

1. 110 main episodes
2. 13 Crusade episodes
3. 14 movie episodes, where one movie = 2 episodes length, 7 movies = 5 DVD set plus B5LotR and B5TLT (bit short on the episodes in TLT, 36 instead of 43 minutes, hmm).

Work expressed as episodes = 137 "episodes" therefor

• Total pages = 6,850 pages
• Total words = 1,712,500 words

Again, this goes to the Wikiquote assertion that somehow we've "taken too much" of the work. Fair Use in the US calls for comparing the size copied to the size of the work; it's one of the four Fair Use tests. Using wc, compared to the Wikiquote page currently at about 34,416 words (including sub-heads, etc.), we've taken under Fair Use about 2.01% of the work.

Writers who are not JMS

Within the scope of primary canon, there are few writers who are "not JMS". I will list all of these here for reference.

1. S1 Ep03, "Born to the Purple" by Lawrence G. "Larry" DiTillio (needs credit style confirmed)
2. S1 Ep07, "The War Prayer" by D. C. Fontana
3. S1 Ep09, "Deathwalker" by Lawrence G. DiTillio
4. S1 Ep10, "Believers" by David Gerrold
5. S1 Ep11, "Survivors" by Marc Scott Zicree
6. S1 Ep12, "By Any Means Necessary" by Kathryn M. Drennan
7. S1 Ep14, "TKO" by Lawrence G. DiTillio
8. S1 Ep15, "Grail" by Christy Marx
9. S1 Ep16, "Eyes" by Lawrence G. DiTillio
10. S1 Ep17, "Legacies" by D. C. Fontana

1. S2 Ep04, "A Distant Star" by D. C. Fontana
2. S2 Ep05, "The Long Dark" by Scott Frost
3. S2 Ep06, "A Spider in the Web" by Lawrence G. DiTillio
4. S2 Ep07, "Soul Mates" by Peter David
5. S2 Ep10, "Gropos" by Lawrence G. DiTillio
6. S2 Ep14, "There All the Honor Lies" by Peter David
7. S2 Ep17, "Knives" by Lawrence G. DiTillio

(I've personally confirmed through S2, Ep21, except that style reference on DiTillio)

• S3: None

• S4: None

1. S5 Ep04, "A View from the Gallery" by J. Michael Straczynski and Harlan Ellison (confirmation needed)
2. S5 Ep08, "Day of the Dead" by Neil Gaiman
3. S5 Ep20, "Objects in Motion" by J. Michael Straczynski and Harlan Ellison (confirmation needed)

• (I thought Ellison got writing credits for "Objects at Rest"?)

Crusade

1. C1 Ep03, "The Well of Forever" by Fiona Avery
2. C1 Ep05, "Patterns of the Soul" by Fiona Avery
3. C1 Ep06, "Ruling From the Tomb" by Peter David

Directors of note, credited more than once

This has become important as of March, 2015.

Certain directors, such Janet Greek and Jesus Trevino, had a disproportionate effect on the show, the overall canon of what it has become.

I intend to list and credit them here.

My purpose is to make sure that there achievements are properly credited in their WP bios, and if possible on Wikimedia Commons.

There may also be directors credited here who only directed one episode. The reason would be for an unusual and notable achievement, such as winning the Hugo or Emmy award for the episode.

• Richard Compton
• Jesús Salvador Treviño: 5 episodes, 1 movie, 1 Crusade episode
  • "Divided Loyalties" S2 Ep19
  • "Sic Transit Vir" S3 Ep12
  • "Interludes and Examinations" S3 Ep15
  • "Racing Mars" S4 Ep10
  • "Objects in Motion" S5 Ep20
  • Thirdspace
  • "The Rules of the Game" (Crusade) C1 Ep07
• Janet Greek: How many episodes?
• Mike Vejar

(from freebase.com about to be taken down, March 2015, in favor of Wikidata:

Adam Nimoy Z'ha'dum Passing Through Gethsemane

David J. Eagle In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum A Day in the Strife Dust to Dust Severed Dreams And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place

J. Michael Straczynski Sleeping in Light Voices in the Dark: Over Here Voices in the Dark: Over There A View from the Gallery Objects in Motion

Janet Greek And the Sky Full of Stars Points of Departure The Coming of Shadows No Compromises Chrysalis

Jesús Salvador Treviño Divided Loyalties Interludes and Examinations Objects in Motion A Late Delivery from Avalon Racing Mars

Jim Johnston Severed Dreams Soul Hunter Survivors Point of No Return Gropos

John C. Flinn, III Strange Relations Soul Mates TKO The Long, Twilight Struggle Epiphanies

John Copeland The Ragged Edge Objects at Rest Endgame Ruling from the Tomb C1 Ep06

John Lafia The Long Night The Exercise of Vital Powers Intersections in Real Time

Kevin Cremin Confessions and Lamentations Walkabout Matters of Honor Exogenesis Spider in the Web

Kevin Dobson Into the Fire Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?

Mario DiLeo The Long Dark And Now for a Word

Richard Compton Midnight on the Firing Line Infection The War Prayer

Stephen Furst The Corps Is Mother, the Corps Is Father The Illusion of Truth The Deconstruction of Falling Stars Appearances and Other Deceits C1 Ep08 Each Night I Dream of Home C1 Ep13

Tony Dow A Tragedy of Telepaths Rising Star Moments of Transition Atonement Secrets of the Soul )