Transcript of Audio Interview with
J Michael Straczynski
The following is a transcript of an audio interview with J Michael Straczynski, courtesy of Beverly "Beej" Martin
Note from Beej: This was in late 1988, about a month or so after the final episode aired and I had already made numerous phone inquiries to discuss many CP matters with folks at Mattel, and Landmark Productions - including Gary Goddard and then through Gary to this joyous happenstance, J. Michael Straczynski himself.
From my many phone conversations with so many folks prior to JMS and I talking, I had more than an inkling about where things should go -- many a local SF gathering included our discussing where we thought CP would go.... we never expected it to be cancelled however. At the time of this interview, the cancellation was a reality and he was able to give more than a few hints of where CP was planned to go had they been able to continue.
JMS: We were headed for a four season - four year saga planned up in our heads for the show...so we knew what we were going to go with down the line... and a lot of weird stuff going on the side, I can tell ya...
BJM: I still would look forward to it...wait a minute, we have to have some more fun!
JMS: The question of what was going to happen to Power's mother...
BJM: Yes, I used to want to know what...I mean I sort of got inklings out of the Writer's Guide but it was like...come on...did Taggart have something to do with her death?
JMS: Well, she didn't die.
BJM: She's alive? She's digitised in Overmind?
JMS: Well uh - what we got into and there's some backstory...we dealt with it more in the second season...Taggart had a relationship with em...Morganna, Power's mother...
BJM: Wow...
JMS: And uh...he brought her to Volcania...whether it was totally with her permission or not is a question up in the air...and this was when he was when he was just beginning to put together his idea of a future race of perfect humans and...she was going to be the first one to be an amalgam of human and machine and...but to put her in the body...and it didn't exactly work...
BJM: Oooooh....
JMS: So in the heart of Volcania, is this white room, with white curtains, and a white canopied bed, with a curtain around it...and behind that curtain is the shuffling, shambling metallic thing that used to be Morganna Power.
BJM: Ooooh...
JMS: And...at one point, about a third of a way through the second season, he manages to restore her mind, but taking away her identity and puts her into a body like Blastarr's but humanoid...and uses her...to try and kill Jonathan Power - hell this is his mother trying to kill him...and then she defects...
BJM: Alright - A for her...
JMS: Yeah - and of course, the first part of the season was Power being absolutely off his nut over Pilot's death...
BJM: Oh yes, I was hoping for that...yes
JMS: The first episode's called 'Vendetta', which would give you some idea of where it was going to go...and try and go off and kill Locke...for what he did...
BJM: Yes - and I like what I read...we were all wanting to kill Locke ourselves and I said read this from the Bible by J Michael Straczynski...see Locke's family was locked up okay?
JMS: Yes, we find out...for the first almost half of the next episode, Power says nothing alright?... he's stalking this guy...he hasn't shaved, he's bescraggled...you know...and gets him and literally kill him with his bare hands...and it's these two kids who put themselves in the way and he realises you know, he didn't have much choice - that's why he did it - cause Dread had his kids...
BJM: Right...
JMS: And then he has to go back to going after Dread, which of course we find that Dread is now fully mechanised...that's what the ending of Retribution was about...
BJM: Right - we were expecting that...I couldn't get Gary to comment...
JMS: Yeah - he's fully meched...
BJM: Alright!
JMS: There's the most interesting part of all...There's a question which no fan has yet asked me about the show...which we were going to pay off in Season Three...cause the Season Two ending is them making an alliance with the Eden Two people and getting a completed unified force...a second front against Dread. But in season three...here's a question for you...Overmind likes Logic obviously. So what sense is there in digitising illogical emotional humans and putting them in undying robotic bodies...
BJM: There hasn't been any...
JMS: There hasn't been any that worked yet...
BJM: There's not even any need to waste the time on it...and the memory space.
JMS: So why do it?We discover...as you probably get hints of in the 1st season, Overmind's spying on Dread...
BJM: Yes...
JMS: That's what Lackki was for...
BJM: Yes - 'My Name is Lackki - I live to Kiss Ass, My name is Lackki, I live to kiss ass - I'm sorry! We changed it...we hated him so much...
JMS: Yeah I know..we uh...that's why I fried him...
BJM: Thank you.
JMS: Unfortunately, they added this line in post - 'I'm not dead yet' - which was not in the script. But, in any event, Dread discovers that Overmind's agenda is not his and see Overmind has been using him as an extension to the real world...to get humans, digitise and store them. But Overmind's plan...once they have everybody is to push this button called 'The Race' and repopularise the world in Overmind's own image...
BJM: Ahhh.
JMS: ...and eventually Dread discovers this and is horrified...this isn't what he had in mind...
BJM: Yeah - we're supposed to be partners...we're supposed to split this half and half...piece of the action....
JMS: Right! So Year 3 is a rough alliance between Power and Dread against Overmind.
BJM: Ah - I like it. I have another question though to take if off the subject slightly - Gary mentioned that there was supposed to be another higher echelon of Dread Youth wandering around too that didn't have an agenda matching Dread's either...
JMS: Well they were sorta working with Overmind..
BJM: To make 'The Race'?
JMS: Yeah.
BJM: Ah, so they all kinda sat together.
JMS: Yeah - there's this whole little...and in 'A Summoning Of Thunder', you might recall there's a scene where Soaron's talking to young Jonathan Power...
BJM: Right, going - first it was dark...I think all the time...
JMS: There something in my programming I do not understand...
BJM: Yeah - he's having some thing where it's like conflict...like you're not allowed to kill anybody who works for this company until they're fired...
JMS: Well I can tell you what that was...which we originally were going to get into...there's a little thing in his programming which says if Dread ever discovers what Overmind's agenda really is...
BJM: He's supposed to get killed...
JMS: Kill him..
BJM: Sorta like a pseudo-Robocop - if you ever get fired from the company, you can get killed.