And you didn't even mention the nifty screen displays....

Okay, so it's a given: anything I say here has to be considered from the
point of view that I have an agenda. And is thus suspect. So with that out
of the way...I saw the pilot for "Space Rangers" the other day, a network star
cops type series. ILM did some CGI space effects for the pilot, and I was
curious to see it.

Oh, man...what a piece of...well, this is a public forum. On a writing
level, it's one of those scripts that mistakes banter for dialogue, and
annoying, stupid people for characterization. Just awful. As for the CGI
stuf...there were only a handful of shots, they looked prosaic for the most
part, one or two were very nice, and one or two were dreadful. (By
comparison, where they did 5-6 CGI shots for that one-hour show, we're doing
51 CGI shots for our two-hour show. And it will cost half of what ILM
charged. And look better.)

Really annoying.

Anyway....

Today we assembled all but one of the cast members of B5 for a *full*
read-through of the script for the first time. We'd done scenes before, and
had an early run-through with generic actors doing the lines, but this was the
first time we went from FADE IN to FADE OUT with pretty much the entire cast.
When you do a rehearsal like that, invariably you make changes, there are
awkward moments as the cast settles into the roles.

My pen hit the paper a total of five times, each just a word here or
there. That's it. And the wonderful part is that there was a chemistry among
the full cast right from the word Go. It was as though they had been working
together for years already. We cast *just* right. And they're a nice,
professional bunch of people, not a prima donna ni the bunch. (Make that *in*
the bunch.)

It went so well that, even though we'd set aside Friday for further
rehearsal, our director thinks, and I agree, that they won't need it; they hit
everything _ dialogue, attitude, delivery, pacing _ just right. (You always
block out and work through a scene before you shoot it, on the stage, this is
different.) You always go into any situatoin with the expectation that no one
is going to really Get It. Here, they all got it, and I don't think Richard
asked for more than three or four re-dos of scenes with different attitudes.
And on those where he did, they Got It immediately on the second try.

This is *so* rare. I can't tell you.

T-minus 6 and counting.

jms