Will investigate the Arkansas situation.

And thanks re: the B5 video via Newtek. And yes, it's going to be a LOT
more impressive. Part of this comes from dealing with the technical and
scientific/extrapolational questions of such a station. How would it really
*work*? If you want a situation in which you have windows at eye level as
well as under your feet (required by centrifugal force), how would you do it?
How would ships dock? How do you divide up sectors and arrange for various
rotation speeds (and thus gravities) without the whole thing tearing itself
apart at the seams?

By hewing closer to the realities of such questions, I think we get a
very *authentic* looking show.

The computer EFX station will be arriving within the week, and it's
REALLY something. Newtek is working with us, and with our designer Ron
Thornton, to give us some amazing stuff, rewriting codes and coming up with
new ways to do things. Though it will, alas, come too late for the bulk of
the EFX we're doing, apparently there's one additional component being
developed now that would, when plugged into our new station, give us the
capacity of a Cray computer times 1.2. We might miss that for the movie, but
it'll definitely be available for the series. As it is now, what we have now
will allow us to do REAL-TIME rendering...and those out there who understand
what that means will grasp how amazing that will be on a movie like this.

On the plus side of Another Controversy, it's my understanding, from my
few sources, that DS9 and B5 -- though essentially the same in terms of format
-- will be vastly different in terms of approach and storytelling. DS9 will
be, well, like TNG, just in a different environment, in terms of tone and
attitude and storytelling. Which will make B5 *very* different by comparison.
I do take some comfort in that.

jms