(BTW, Walter Koenig saw the pilot and said it was "a winner," adding that
he thinks it "should get a lot of the Trek fans, plus a lot of more mainstream
viewers.")

How much of the basic "saga" is in the pilot? Some...bits and pieces.
The problem, always, is that we have a whole new universe to establish, with
all the backstory that goes with that. As it is, it's fairly "information
intensive," as one person put it. We find out about the Earth/Minbari war,
the curious surrender, Sinclair's past, the missing 24 hours, the relations
between the various governments and their own personal agendas, and a hint of
what's to come. This while establishing the backstory of all our characters,
and telling a story in present time (for them).

I think you will find indications of what we've talked about for the
series present in the pilot. Which is why it bears watching more than once;
you'll pick up more information and more of a sense of the world the more
closely you inspect it. (We tried to come up with a pilot that actually
BENEFITS from close inspection, rather than falling apart if you look at it
too closely.)

Had a meeting the other day with the folks who're going to be doing the
B5 games. (As to platform...variations are being planned for ALL of the
various platforms...CD-ROM, IBM, Amiga, Mac, Sega and so on.) It was a
terrific meeting, with top of the line people. What was interesting was the
fact that they seemed shell-shocked from dealing with other producers, the
heavy restrictions, the interference, the hassles...my attitude on this show
has always been, "Here...we're creating a whole universe for you to go and
play in. Do so." So they're going to have a lot of freedom to come up with
stuff. I *want* to be surprised. Hell, I want to play the games.

Because of the need to avoid any substantial conflicts with the general
arc of the story, I gave them a peek into the five year arc, a few things that
had to happen. As long as things didn't cross into these areas, the territory
was completely open. And knowing that going in, there are no surprises down
the road to sabotage them. They seemed...well, there were a lot of very wide
eyes when I explained some of what we were going to do. They also saw the
pilot at the screening that night, and apparently loved it. We're cooking
along, folks....

jms