Interview: Executive Producer Douglas Netter Veteran producer Doug Netter was executive vice president and chief operating officer of MGM Studios from 1970-1975. A colleague of Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski ever since 1987's Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Netter is responsible for a great deal of the negotiations related to B5: The Legend of the Rangers. We interviewed him on the Vancouver set in May, when he'd flown in from Los Angeles for a B5 fan event. Q: I was amazed at the new set. A: The first decision we really had to make was the choice of production designer, mainly because of all those sets that would be needed. Steve [Geaghan] was the first selection that we made and that was done wisely — at least it turned out that way! We got him started a little bit ahead of time with pre-production, before the final agreement between SCI FI and Warner Bros. was accomplished. So we got a little bit of a head start. You need that lead time. Q: The new bridge area is very striking. A: That's Joe. Joe is quick to approve a design proposal. Joe, when he sees something he likes, he goes for it. I loved some of the sets on Babylon 5, like the arrival area. That was kind of fun. It was different. Q: When I was talking with people yesterday, they said that director Mike Vejar is a wealth of information. A: Mike is a great director. We felt we needed him not only because he's good, but so that we could have the continuation of what Babylon 5 is about as we take it to another dimension. It would have been hard to introduce a new director. And in the area of visual effects and prosthetics, the crew really knows Babylon 5. Q: Have you encountered any sort of difficulties, working outside of Los Angeles? A: Yes. For example, there aren't as many prosthetics people here, and I am told that this is the heaviest prosthetics television show under development. Fortunately, Bill [Terezakis, the key prosthetics artist] is wonderful. If you have more people, then you can have certain people putting it on and certain people taking it off, which we did in the States and Star Trek does. There's a crush up here on production and the limited numbers add to the problem. However, it can be solved: You need to train more people. It's that simple. There aren't that many people in the make-up field. Q: Have there been any other production challenges in this project? A: More in the beginning. You'd be surprised what some people do if they are working on Babylon 5 and feeling that they are a part of making it better. That has helped tremendously on the visual effects and prosthetics. And we've never had interference from Warner Bros. — they have been supportive always. And SCI FI seems be the same — they like the dailies. And the budget seems to be under control, so everyone stays out of your hair.