By the way...on the Kosh poisoning thread, which was originally to be
discussed in "Parliament"...we ended up about 3 minutes long on "Parliament,"
and three minutes short on D.C. Fontana's "War Prayer." So we lifted that
scene and inserted it into her episode, doing a small bit of ADR to facilitate
the move. It's now quite seamless.

There's some small amount of blurring that goes on in this show; a
freelancer turns in a script, and things get added. For instance, there was a
need to really tighten up the story in "Believers," which could best be done
by bringing in a small B story, which would allow us to streamline and
intensify the main story. So I wrote the B story and slipped it in. In
"Grail," for instance, there's a courtroom scene with a character named Mr.
Flinn that was added to the script (I won't reveal what happens, but it's very
funny.)

And of course nearly all of the freelance scripts have been based on
assigned stories, something that's developed in-house (particularly if it's an
arc story) and then given to a writer to do the full outline and script. So
far the only story developed *outside* our offices first is D.C. Fontana's
second script, "Legacies."

In none of these, however, will you see more than one writer's name on
the script. Just the writer who did the draft. This is a policy I've had for
a long time, starting on JAKE. It's somewhat pro forma for some story editors
or producers to do a rewrite, or add a scene, and then slap their name on the
finished script...which cuts into the freelance writer's residuals forever
thereafter. My feeling is that if you're on staff, you are being compensated
well for your work, and should leave the freelancers alone. The residuals are
really their only way of making any real money off these things. So we had a
non-arbitration policy on JAKE, also on MURDER, and now on B5. You'll never
see a gang credit on this show. Having been a freelancer myself, this sems
the only fair way to run things.

jms