The creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, indicated that Paramount was aware of his concept as early as 1989, when he attempted to sell the show to the studio, and provided them with the series bible, pilot script, artwork, lengthy character background histories, and " synopses to about 22 or so planned episodes taken from the overall course of the planned series ".

In 2009, Straczynski was nominated for the BAFTA Award for his screenplay for Changeling.

According to the jacket bio for the first edition of his scriptwriting text ( see Print below ), Straczynski had a play produced when he was 17, a sitcom produced when he was 21, and sold his first movie script when he was 24.

In 2000, Straczynski returned to radio drama with The City of Dreams for scifi. com and an original 20-part radio drama series entitled The Adventures of Apocalypse Al for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that was to debut in 2007 but has not yet aired.

Straczynski was a fan of the cartoon, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

While working on Jayce, Straczynski was hired to come aboard the Len Janson and Chuck Menville project to adapt the movie Ghostbusters to an animated version called The Real Ghostbusters.

Straczynski then developed a show called Spiral Zone but left after only one script when his concept for the show was drastically altered and took his name off the series, substituting the pseudonym " Fettes Grey " ( derived from the names of the grave robbers in The Body Snatcher ).

After leaving animation, Straczynski freelanced for The Twilight Zone writing an episode entitled (" What Are Friends For "), and for Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics, adaptating The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award ).

Initially wary, Straczynski finally did and was hired on as story editor under Jeri Taylor and David Moessinger.

When Moessinger was hired as executive producer for Murder, She Wrote, he offered Straczynski a job as co-producer.

Straczynski ran the series for two seasons but was frustrated with the conflicting directions that MGM and Showtime wanted from the show, and even used the pseudonym " Fettes Grey " for the first time since Spiral Zone on one of the scripts.

In 2004, Straczynski was approached by Paramount Studios to become a producer of the Star Trek: Enterprise series.

In 2006, Straczynski was hired to write a feature film based on the story of King David for Universal by producers Erwin Stoff and Akiva Goldsman.

In June 2007, it was announced that Straczynski had written a feature screenplay for the Silver Surfer movie for Fox, the production of which would depend on the success of the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

They announced Straczynski was writing Lensman for Ron Howard ( to whom he had sold a screenplay entitled The Flickering Light ), that he was selling another spec, Proving Ground, to Tom Cruise and United Artists.

In October 2008, it was announced that Straczynski was engaged to pen a remake of the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet.

In the fall of 2009, it was reported that Straczynski was writing a movie titled Shattered Union for Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney.

Although a third season was considered, series creator J. Michael Straczynski made it clear that if the show ran a further season he would have nothing to do with it.

It was Straczynski who made her an instructor in writing and criminology, and is widely held to have most emphasized her role as a working writer, with all the deadlines and problems involved in that profession.

He quit journalism after working for People, and in 1983, he wrote a spec script for the show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and the producers of He-Man bought it as well as other scripts and then hired Straczynski as a staff writer.

But DiTillio, a first season staff writer who became story editor when J. Michael Straczynski ( Starlog # 111 ) left the position for a similar post with the revived Twilight Zone, claimed that ramrodding the script side of Captain Power hasn't been easy.

DIC head Jean Chalopin asked Straczynski to take on the task of story editing the entire 78-episode block as well as writing his own scripts.

Straczynski left at this point and Janson and Menville took on the story editing job for the second network season.

They hired Straczynski as executive story editor to fill in the remaining number of needed episodes.

Straczynski and Netter hired many of the people from Captain Power, as well as hiring Ellison as a consultant and DiTillio as a story editor.

Straczynski is credited as " story writer " along with Mark Protosevich for the 2011 film, Thor.

Like Babylon 5, Crusade was intended to have a five-year story arc, although as Straczynski notes in the DVD commentary for A Call To Arms, it was intended to resolve the Drakh plague after a season or two and move onto other arcs.

It is also noted for featuring early script-writing work from J. Michael Straczynski, later the creator of Babylon 5 ; Paul Dini and Brynne Stephens, both of whom who would go on to write acclaimed episodes of Batman: The Animated Series ; Beast Wars story editor Larry DiTillio ; and David Wise, later the head-writer of the TV version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

However, Straczynski wrote a short story set far in the future of the series called " Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic " which was published in Amazing Stories # 602.

Straczynski returned to the Soul Hunters ' story in the post-series TV movie, Babylon 5: The River of Souls.

Unlike most writers, for whom Straczynski revised scripts himself, revisions of Drennan's script went through story editor Larry DiTillio instead.

* According to series creator, primary writer, and executive producer J. Michael Straczynski, "... the rail story was fairly self-contained, not much in the way of arc related stuff there.

* With reference to the series ' five-year story arc, this episode was originally intended by Straczynski to end Season Four.

Series creator J. Michael Straczynski cites the mystery surrounding the Battle of the Line as a key aspect of introducing Babylon 5 to the audience: " The Battle of the Line and the hole in Sinclair's mind was always intended as the entry point or trigger to the story.

Straczynski decided not to recast the Franklin character, and rewrote the script to remove the character from the story.

Straczynski had previously said of Lennier's death ( in his commentary for " Sleeping in Light "): " That's a very sad story, and maybe I'll tell it some day.

According to the DVD commentary for the final episode of Babylon 5, " Sleeping in Light ," Straczynski decided not to have David Sheridan appear in that episode, partly because he hadn't figured out how he wanted David to look, and partly because he feared that debuting an important character would detract from the story he wanted to tell in that episode.

Unlike He-Man, no backstory was given with the toys for the Lightning League and the Monster Minds doing battle, and so distinct characters were created by DIC and Straczynski to allow for a structured story ( seen below ).

When the program moved to the TNT cable network for its fifth season, a set of television movies were ordered to promote it, and Straczynski chose to use the first of these to tell the story of the war he had so often alluded to in previous episodes.

They also hired J. Michael Straczynski as story editor and, later, co-producer.

The story was not put back into the production pipeline until Straczynski could obtain a signed legal release from the fan.

In addition to using pastiches of Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, and R ' lyeh, writer J. Michael Straczynski also wrote the story in a distinctly Lovecraftian style.