Amazon.com has Babylon 5 DVDs on sale, as part of their Holiday sale extravaganza.

Right now, you can get all 5 seasons, the Movies Collection and Crusade for 50% off! Since that prices each set at $29.99, I’m guessing this is “while supplies last”.

So for all of you introducing friends to Babylon 5, you now have an less expensive option to hook them with!

Thanks to John Wenn for the heads-up!

Welcome to Show #43!

On a rare instance, Jeffrey is already home enjoying a concoction when he joins Tim and Summer to chat. He’s still going on about the snow. We have to find snow for this man, and soon.

Tim reads an email from a confidential informant, giving us details on some of the effects work being done and minor changes in which stories will be shot for Vol 1 and Vol 2 of The Lost Tales, and Jeffrey gives us a minor lesson on the business of runaway production, and one possible way it could impact the historical continuity of the crew involved then and now.

Deep Geeking: It’s been a while, but we’re getting back into episode discussion! Tim and Summer delve into “The Geometry of Shadows”, the first of many WHAM episodes to hit us in Season 2.

We talk about Lord Refa, and his ambitions to gain favor in the court, and his hopes that an alliance with Londo would vault him into the line of succession to the throne. We disagree about the introduction of technomages into the B5 universe, because Tim prefers rocketships and Summer prefers sword-n-sorcery. We talk about Ivanova’s promotion and her trial by fire introduction to the careful dance of diplomacy with the Drazi and their ritual of dominance (in consideration of her broken foot). We talk about Garibaldi’s doubt in himself and his ability to continue to do his job in light of being ambushed and betrayed by his former second-in-command, Jack.

The “Purple-Green” machinations provide much geek fodder, touching on the diplomatic, the political, the humorous, the devious, the scheming and the counter-scheming, between both Drazi factions, and the humans trying to maintain some semblance of order and preventative furniture care. And the rules change committees.

Tangents traveled include wondering how the Drazi method might work out in our own political systems; Galen having a bigger impact on Tim than Elric; more musings about human-alien interactions in terms of species specific information sharing.

images courtesy of The Lurker’s Guide, and Gateworld

Vote for us! Let’s get this show’s rank into The Pickle’s Top 100!

Listener Feedback: In voicemail, Jarsto submits another B5 Haiku (RevolutionSF has Sci-Ku’s as well); John from Dispatches from Tuzenor chimes in on the B5/BSG debate; Jarsto comments on Mike’s newly found appreciation for B5, and on Jeffrey’s anecdotal contributions to the show; Iron Eagle responds to a live stream comment on Captain Janeway’s real contribution to the Trek universe; Jarsto calls in with yet another instantly inspired B5 Haiku.

Shameless plug: Summer contributed an essay to the essay collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, now available at your local bookstore and at Amazon.com.

Shameless related begging: Summer’s also really hoping to convince the publisher to eventually do a collection on Babylon 5. If you’d be interested in buying one if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

We are still considering doing a separate B5 Fan Tales segment in the future, so send us those favorite anecdotes of yours.

Your feedback does matter, and is welcome! You can call us at 206-338-2259, or email us and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played or read on the show. Please try to keep the voicemail comments as brief as possible.

Buy “The Geometry of Shadows” via iTunes

Promo: Variant Frequencies: Audio Dramas and Fiction
Promo: Slice of SciFi: SF TV and Movie News and interviews
Link: Smart Pop Books

For the fans who usually join us in the chatroom and listen to the live feed of our recordings, we will NOT be recording tonight, Wednesday November 22, because of the Thanksgiving holiday (US style).

There also won’t be any recording this weekend for Slice of SciFi, Cover to Cover, and Wingin’ It.

So catch up on some B5 and Crusade episodes, or do some reading of the script books, season guides and novelizations, and we’ll be back in the studio on Wednesday, November 29.

Welcome to Show #42!

We have some special reports and updates for everyone this week!

First up, we have Stephen Furst, who’s stopped by to promote his latest directorial project, the new SciFi Channel original movie, “Basilisk”, starring Yancy Butler, Cleavant Derricks, Jeremy London and Stephen himself. Tune in to SciFi Channel this Saturday, November 25, at 9pm ET to catch this campy monster movie romp.

Next, Pat Tallman talks a little about her Be A Santa charity, a holiday fundraiser supporting Penny Lane, a Southern California charity providing services and support for children’s social services.

Pat helped them build a computer lab for the kids, but for the holidays, she needs donations to purchase gifts for the children, either of money or toys. FarPoint Media opens the donation doors with $100… let’s make a Babylon 5 push to help Pat provide gifts and decorations for the kids this year.

Next, our studio audience is introduced, but they aren’t unfamiliar voices to FarPoint Media fans. Mike is still fascinated by the fact that people want to come by to listen to this podcast (given the fact that fans in Europe lose out on some sleep to catch our live feed, he really shouldn’t be surprised). Brian chimes in that he was more familiar with JMS’ comics work, Rising Stars and Midnight Nation as examples, and Tim mentions his reading of JMS’ Fantastic Four work.

Vote for us! Let’s get this show’s rank into The Pickle’s Top 100!

Shameless plug: Summer contributed an essay to the essay collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, now available at your local bookstore and at Amazon.com.

She’s also dedicated to convincing the publisher, BenBella Books, to eventually do a collection on Babylon 5. If you’d be interested in buying one if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

We are still considering doing a separate B5 Fan Tales segment in the future, so send us those favorite anecdotes of yours.

Your feedback does matter, and is welcome! You can call us at 206-338-2259, or email us and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played or read on the show. Please try to keep the voicemail comments as brief as possible.

Season 2 episodes are not available for purchase at iTunes yet.

Promo: Variant Frequencies
Promo: Geek Fu Action Grip
Promo: GeekLabel T-Shirts
Link: Smart Pop Books

The official news from Warner Brothers is finally being released:

Courtesy of Gord Lacey at TVShowsOnDVD.com:
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales to Begin Production on November 13, 2006

BURBANK, CA, November 13, 2006 – Warner Home Video (WHV) and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) have announced the start of production of “Babylon 5: The Lost Tales,” a made-for-video movie that will be targeted towards the Babylon 5 loyal audience and science-fiction fans in general . The announcement was jointly made by Jeff Brown, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Non-theatrical Franchise, Warner Home Video and Gregg Maday, Senior Vice President, Movies and Miniseries, WBTV.

WHV will be the home entertainment distributor for this made-for-DVD release which will include two new Babylon 5 stories collectively entitled “Voices of the Dark” in one film plus exclusive behind the scenes content. The stories will be written and directed by executive producer and original “Babylon 5″ creator J. Michael Straczynski. Executive producer Doug Netter also returns in that role. Actors from the original series that have signed on to participate in the project include Bruce Boxleitner (”President John Sheridan”), Tracy Scoggins (”Captain Elizabeth Lochley”) and Peter Woodward (”Galen”).

Babylon 5 is a top selling franchise on DVD to date with over $44 million in consumer sales. Launched in February 1993, the award winning series was a top rated show on television with more than 13.7 million viewers in its debut season. After its original planned five-year run – introducing the concept of a five year arc before other TV series began to use multi-season arcs — the show went on to enjoy 9 successful years in syndication and Cable on the Sci-Fi Channel and TNT. It also spurred the creation of five feature length movies based on the series including The Gathering, In the Beginning, Thirdspace, River of Souls and A Call to Arms, as well as the limited series Crusade. Babylon 5 has received numerous awards including two Emmys, two consecutive Hugo Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award for Dramatic Screenwriting from the Science Fiction Writers of America, five English Media ‘Cult TV‚ Awards, the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, the Sci-Fi Universe Reader Choice Award for Best TV Series and was the winner of the TV Guide Poll for Best Sci-Fi Show.

“We are very excited to be releasing this new made-for-video release filled with original content for ‘Babylon 5′ one of the most successful science fiction series of all time,” said Jeff Brown. “This popular TV show which has been off the air for a few years continues to have a strong loyal fan base that is hungry for more content. This is the first time we’re utilizing one of our popular TV franchises as a made-for-video title, and we have a strong commitment to the growth of this sector.”

“It’s great to be reunited with Joe and Doug once again,” commented Maday. “I have always been very proud to be associated with their wonderful work on Babylon 5 and I‚m confident the “Lost Tales” will add to the legacy of this very special franchise.”

Whee!

Welcome to Show #41!

Summer is in Austin TX this week, attending World Fantasy Convention, hanging out with many of her favorite scifi and fantasy authors.

This means the boys are left to their own devices. Hoo-boy.

Tim, Jeffrey, and Michael talk some guy stuff in Babylon 5, which pretty much covers motorized and mechanized toys, sexually suggestive scenes, and the fifth season tendency to get Tracy Scoggins in her underwear as often as possible.

Exactly how many cross-media promotions and mentions about Babylon 5 can Tim and Jeff reference? The Drew Carey Show, the Dilbert comics, the list goes on, and they don’t even scratch the surface (how did they not recall ll of the mentions by Xander on “Buffy”?). Maybe we should make a list…

Many are the topics touched on by the guys tonight: plot required set destruction and general breakage, SmartPop Books, the depth of B5 technical manuals and blueprints, the randomness of B5 airings the first time around, and an amusing musical interlude.

Vote for us! Let’s get this show’s rank into The Pickle’s Top 100!

Listener Feedback: Jarsto submits Babylon Podcast Haikus for our entertainment; Jarsto comments on Londo’s three wives and the possibility that all together, they are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Iron Eagle has a serious request that we move ahead faster with the episode discussions; Jarsto comments on Show #38, and how the Narns sacrificed themselves to make sure G’Kar got to safety.

Shameless plug: Summer contributed an essay to the essay collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, now available at your local bookstore and at Amazon.com.

She’s also really hoping to convince the publisher to eventually do a collection on Babylon 5. If you’d be interested in buying one if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

We are still considering doing a separate B5 Fan Tales segment in the future, so send us those favorite anecdotes of yours.

Your feedback does matter, and is welcome! You can call us at 206-338-2259, or email us and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played or read on the show. Please try to keep the voicemail comments as brief as possible.

Season 2 episodes are not available for purchase at iTunes yet.

Link: Smart Pop Books
Link: Babylon 5 Tech-Manual

The folks who listened to this past Wednesday’s live feed already heard me wax passionate on this, but now I’m throwing it out to the wider Babylon Podcast audience, and perhaps even the wider B5 fan base (based on Chris-In-Indy posting my call to the rastb5.moderated newsgroup).

BenBella Books is publisher of the wildly popular Smart Pop Books series, a smart and funny series of pop culture topic analyses that I’m a big fan of. I absolutely love their Angel collection, the “Star Wars On Trial” collection is brilliant, as are many more of the ones they’ve published (follow the link and see what they’ve done so far).

Shameless plug recap: I contributed an essay to their new BSG collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica.

But there’s a reason for my shameless plug: Right around the time we released Show #1 of the podcast, I asked the folks at BenBella about the possibility of them publishing a collection about Babylon 5. The first few times I inquired, I was told that they felt B5 had been out of the limelight for too long, and there might not be enough fan interest anymore. I knew that wasn’t accurate info, but at the time, I couldn’t point to anything new and shiny about B5 to catch their attention other than the podcast, and my lone, biased opinion wasn’t enough.

As the year has progressed, the fan response to our little podcast has been overwhelmingly positive, with great feedback on improvements and questions to ask our guests. Knowing that support was out there, it helped when I continued to ping the nice people at BenBella every couple of months if there were any updates on them deciding to move ahead with the B5 collection. I even talked to them at their table at Dragon*Con and gave them the news about the new production news about “The Lost Tales”, which they knew nothing about at the time.

More recently, I asked if they’d be interested in hearing fan feedback about interest in such a collection, and they said that they would also be interested in hearing that feedback. Yay progress!

So, if you’d be interested in buying copies if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either by email, posting here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

Link: Smart Pop Books
Link: Smart Pop LiveJournal
Link: BenBella Books

Welcome to Show #40!

Interview: Claudia Christian (”Commander Susan Ivanova”)

Warning: Harsh Language contained in this episode

Claudia Christian is only in the US for a short time, and we are giddy that she joins us for a time!

She talks to us about her fond memories of the show, of the mutual on-set fondling, of working with Bill Mumy for various music projects, and much more. “Geometry of Shadows” is still her favorite episode, and she talks about how her appreciation for the show now is so much deeper now that she’s had the time to sit and watch the series.

Yes, she’s lived in the UK so long she’s picked up a British accent. It’s cool, huh? So go help promote the trailer for her new project, STARHYKE.

Vote for us! Let’s get this show’s rank into The Pickle’s Top 100!

Listener Feedback: Jarsto’s voicemail comments on distinguishing between good guy and bad guy signoffs; Dan from Honolulu comments on the talents we’ve lost from the series; Trampas from The Signal on the positive addition of Bruce Boxleitner, and the comparisons between B5 and Firefly.

Tim reads an email from Steve in Singapore about impersonating the Vorlon god Boojee; and one from Matt in Michigan on possibilities for “The Lost Tales”… and yes, I know we got the ep wrong… it’s “Legacies”, not “Quality of Mercy”.

Shameless plug: Summer contributed an essay to the essay collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, now available at your local bookstore and at Amazon.com.

She’s also really hoping to convince the publisher to eventually do a collection on Babylon 5. If you’d be interested in buying one if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

We are still considering doing a separate B5 Fan Tales segment in the future, so send us those favorite anecdotes of yours.

Your feedback does matter, and is welcome! You can call us at 206-338-2259, or email us and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played or read on the show. Please try to keep the voicemail comments as brief as possible.

Season 2 episodes are not available for purchase at iTunes yet.

Promo: The Podcast Entertainment Network
Link: Smart Pop Books

Welcome to Show #39!

Interview: Peter Jurasik (”Ambassador Londo Mollari”)

Jeffrey’s back in sunny California after his search for snow came up a little short, but all travel pains are easily forgotten during our chat with Peter Jurasik.

Peter regales us with tales of auditioning for the role, of the evolution of the Centauri hair styling, the costuming and more. He also shares his memories of Andreas’ performances as G’Kar, and the in-costume smoke breaks, and the fun he had in seeing Londo’s prosthetic genitalia paraded around the set for comment and feedback.

Too bad he missed out on being able to take any memorabilia home after the show was done. He also talks about Being Londo Mollari, teaching theatre, about marrying Jeffrey and Patricia, and much much more.

It’s not easy to come up with questions when you’re laughing so hard!

Also, if you can find it in your hearts, please, help us find a cure for Jeffrey’s puns.

Vote for us! Let’s get this show’s rank into The Pickle’s Top 100!

Listener Feedback: Next, Tim and Summer discuss some listener emails: Gabriel ponders that the new Battlestar Galactica isn’t really as deep as Babylon 5 in terms of character and story depth. Summer waves the flag in defense of BSG, as does Tim.

Shameless plug: yes, Summer contributed an essay to the essay collection, So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, now available at your local bookstore and at Amazon.com.

She’s also really hoping to convince the publisher to eventually do a collection on Babylon 5. If you’d be interested in buying one if they did do a B5 collection, let Summer know, either here in comments, or over in the Babylon Podcast forums.

We are still considering doing a separate B5 Fan Tales segment in the future, so send us those favorite anecdotes of yours.

Your feedback does matter, and is welcome! You can call us at 206-338-2259, or email us and tell us what you think… and likely hear it played or read on the show. Please try to keep the voicemail comments as brief as possible.

Season 2 episodes are not available for purchase at iTunes yet.

Promo: The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas: Talking Old School SciFi and Fantasy
Link: Smart Pop Books