Thanks to the Internet Archive: in 1999, JMS released his jotted-down original mid-'80's notes for what he then called The Babylon Project.
Oh, this is a DELIGHTFUL find; thank you so much for digging that up! There was a reference to this on the message board threads I was reading above, but all the links were to deceased forums that didn't turn up on the wayback machine. So this is fantastic; I really wanted to read it!
Its choice of core characters also maps much more closely to the finished show. (And if this text really represents his very first spitballing on the subject, then it seems relevant that the very first characters he scribbled down were preliminary sketches of Londo and G'Kar.)
Unsurprisingly, I noticed that immediately, even before reading your ETA! (I was reading this on my phone earlier, while out.)
The initial descriptions are really fascinating:
"Ambassadors from various worlds .... one drinker, decadent world in decline, wants old world back in full glory; other warrior/priest, oppressed people looking to strike back (victims enslaved by prior?); spiritual/priest character (but don't repeat other character in this, or becomes redundant, so priest character becomes warrior, warrior becomes priest, characters change and grow)"
I think it's really interesting how he pinpoints Londo's drinking as the core of how he originally conceived the character - I mean, the rest of it's there too, but basically Londo as a washed-up alcoholic is apparently the basis of him. It's also interesting that he seems to have originally seen G'Kar and Delenn as clearly signposted foils more so than G'Kar and Londo -- the warrior who becomes a priest, and the priest who becomes a warrior. I wouldn't actually have described Delenn that way in the final version (she's clearly a warrior from the beginning, however much of a mystic she still is) but it's true that she embraces her warrior side as the show goes along, and it is interesting to look at that as the character seed, an inverse of G'Kar so that the two of them are on inverted journeys towards who they're meant to be.
Also really interesting that the ambassadors are mentioned first and are definitely the crux of the show for him, at least initially, with the rest of the cast being fleshed out around that.
no subject
Oh, this is a DELIGHTFUL find; thank you so much for digging that up! There was a reference to this on the message board threads I was reading above, but all the links were to deceased forums that didn't turn up on the wayback machine. So this is fantastic; I really wanted to read it!
Its choice of core characters also maps much more closely to the finished show. (And if this text really represents his very first spitballing on the subject, then it seems relevant that the very first characters he scribbled down were preliminary sketches of Londo and G'Kar.)
Unsurprisingly, I noticed that immediately, even before reading your ETA! (I was reading this on my phone earlier, while out.)
The initial descriptions are really fascinating:
"Ambassadors from various worlds .... one drinker, decadent world in decline, wants old world back in full glory; other warrior/priest, oppressed people looking to strike back (victims enslaved by prior?); spiritual/priest character (but don't repeat other character in this, or becomes redundant, so priest character becomes warrior, warrior becomes priest, characters change and grow)"
I think it's really interesting how he pinpoints Londo's drinking as the core of how he originally conceived the character - I mean, the rest of it's there too, but basically Londo as a washed-up alcoholic is apparently the basis of him. It's also interesting that he seems to have originally seen G'Kar and Delenn as clearly signposted foils more so than G'Kar and Londo -- the warrior who becomes a priest, and the priest who becomes a warrior. I wouldn't actually have described Delenn that way in the final version (she's clearly a warrior from the beginning, however much of a mystic she still is) but it's true that she embraces her warrior side as the show goes along, and it is interesting to look at that as the character seed, an inverse of G'Kar so that the two of them are on inverted journeys towards who they're meant to be.
Also really interesting that the ambassadors are mentioned first and are definitely the crux of the show for him, at least initially, with the rest of the cast being fleshed out around that.
Thank you so much for finding this!