Welcome to Show #126!

Kosholympics. Run with it.

Summer clarifies the details behind her cryptic statements from a few weeks ago, dispelling the many rumors that she’s leaving the podcast (never!), or that we’re going to start making Babylon 5 Phase II independent/fan film productions (tempting!). All she did was help out with cleaning up some of the chronology data that’ll be in “The Chronologies of Babylon 5″ book that’s coming our from babylon5scripts.com.

Deep Geeking: This week, Tim and Summer talk about “The Illusion of Truth”, and the impact of propaganda, and how Sheridan’s hopes for getting their side of the story out to the people of Earth and the Earth Alliance by manipulating the ISN crew that comes on board backfire, creating the exact opposite impression that they wanted to make.

Go check out Deep Geeking when you get a chance, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, get ahold of Summer.

Discussion: Mike plays a B5/Gnome mashup that appeared in the Slice of SciFi Voicemail Show… Garden Gnome 5! Jeffrey affirms that Hollywood has run completely out of ideas, since they’re bringing back “The Banana Splits Show” (we just want the Danger Island segment, actually).

Tim reads some comments from the website as feedback on some of our more recent shows about the rights to Babylon 5 stories (films and books and tv specials), and the script for The Memory of Shadows; A Studio Lurker lets us know the intricacies and the hoops involved in getting permissions to print more B5 books and comics, and further cements Summer’s opinion that WB is a broken system hogtied by it’s own divisional competition rather than a healthy, efficient entertainment corporation (apparently it doesn’t really make money, as the poor TW/AOL/WB shareholders can attest).

Yes, Summer is a bit of an idealist… why do you ask?

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now the penthouse suite of Third Life Books. You can find the castle at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

If you can, please Donate… moving the studio took a big hit, and Mike needs to replenish the coffers.

Promo: Future Traditions: All Things Jericho
Promo: Star Wars: Codename Starkeeper

Alexandre Hugla from France let us know that he has been involved with an on-line Babylon 5 computer game. He describes it as a “Civilization game, but in B5 universe.” It is free to sign up and play.

The kicker is that the site is almost entirely in French. I’ve forgotten most of the French I learned in high school, but I’m sure there are plenty of Babcast listeners out there who could sign up and get involved. So what are you waiting for? Déclaration de guerre!!

It’s here!

Across Time and Space: The Chronologies of Babylon 5

* For the first time ever available in print and authorized by J. Michael Straczynski

* Contains two complete chronologies: Terry Jones’ Babylon 5 Historical Database (parts of which were previously published in the now-defunct Official Babylon 5 magazine) and I. Marc Carlson’s “Time Line of the Babylon 5/Crusade Universe.”

* Together these two documents are the only sources that give you a complete picture of the Babylon 5 universe and how it fits in the history of the world

* Contains important Babylon 5 canon buried in the novels, comic, books and short stories.

* Up to the minute — includes “The Lost Tales”.

* Includes information that has not been published in a decade from out-of-print publications such as the Official B5 magazine.

* The ultimate Babylon 5 reference because it weaves the entire B5 universe into a cohesive narrative.

* Includes data from all televised episodes of Crusade and some that weren’t even produced.

* Includes an introduction by Fiona Avery, reference editor for Babylon 5 and Crusade (and writer of 3 Crusade episodes).

Now you guys know what project I was helping out on last month! Yay!

Also, you have until August 23rd to submit questions for JMS regarding any of the B5 movies, in “Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski: TV Movies”.

Quote: With this book is a special opportunity. For the first time J. Michael Straczynski is letting fans ask any question they want about the four TV Movies “Thirdspace”, “The River of Souls”, “Legend of the Rangers” or “The Lost Tales”

Scroll down to the bottom of the babylon5scripts.com page for the submission link.

Welcome to Show #125!

Summer really need to schedule a time to rummage through Jeffrey’s B5 archives. I see a Los Angeles Road Trip in the near future. Keep your eyes open for a Jeffrey eBay sale… and possibly a live feed only eBay sale?

Deep Geeking: This week, Tim and Summer talk about “Epiphanies”, a pivotal episode where alliances, plans and perspectives shift for a number of people. Garibaldi leaves his post as security chief, pushing Zack into an unexpected new role; Bester comes to B5 looking for Sheridan’s help in exploring what the Shadows might have left behind on Z’ha’dum; Lyta begins to test the extent of her Vorlon-enhanced powers at Sheridan’s request.

How much did Bester risk by betraying his Black Omega pilots? How effective is the EA blockade of the jumpgate before B5’s gate really going to be for non-Earth ships? How might have Sheridan reacted if Lyta had brought her concerns about Bester’s request and about going to Z’ha’dum to him first?

Go check out Deep Geeking when you get a chance, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, get ahold of Summer.

Feedback: Kurt sent in a “Year 4/Year 5″ mashup as a replacement intro, but we may end up using that as a show promo; Isaac in Ottawa disagrees with some of the comments on JMS’ announcement, and gives us his perspective on fan productions, which spawns an interesting discussion about expectations and future possibilities and options for smaller B5 stories that would still fall into canon.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now the penthouse suite of Third Life Books. You can find the castle at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Promo: Cue the Film
Promo: Mean Mommies Club

Welcome to Show #124!

Kosh. Rastaman. I got nothin’.

Feedbackapalooza Part Deux!! Chris Lester from Metamor City Podcast and C.A. Sizemore are still in on the Feedback Fun.

Colin doesn’t appreciate the tone of JMS’ announcement; Freehold South chimes in on the JMS announcement, and feels blindsided by it; Bethany from OK comments on “Into the Fire”, agreeing with Tim’s desire to see what was going on in the Alliance ships saving Sheridan and Delenn, and disagreeing with Summer calling the Vorlons/Shadows “whiny”.

Email from Jerry in Ashburn comments on alternatives to deeper explorations of the revelations from “Into the Fire”, and suggests that “Intersections in Real Time” could have been cut (we disagree!); Edmund weighs in on the JMS announcement, theorizing that JMS might be trying to flex his newly found status to see what he might be able to create; John in Birmingham agrees with Brad’s viewpoint on JMS’ announcement (a comment from PodCulture).

New question: Vipers vs Starfuries? What do you think? Summer thinks the Vipers might actually take out the Starfuries, and while Thunderbolts might fare a shade better, they’d still lose out.

Mike Smithwick responds with what he would have cut from B5, and what he would have added in; Ann in CA wonders if JMS’ announcement was more of an indication that he hasn’t had the chance to really focus on creating more B5 stories, be it lack of time or introduction of a block; an X-Files tangent leads to a comparison between Chris Carter’s long-term work versus JMS’ long-term work.

Jeffrey notes that we haven’t gotten Christopher Franke and Ed Wasser for us to talk to, and promises to do better; comments on inconsistencies “Into the Fire”; Andy comments on the “Into the Fire” discussion, and chimes in on what he thinks could have happened had Londo failed in his plan to kill Cartagia and destroy the Shadow ships on Centauri Prime; Valerie in MD disagrees with Tim’s opinion that “The Long Night” was a bad title… she also would love to listen to a Lensman podcast, and is waiting for our commentary on the Script Books (we’re working on that last one).

Go check out Deep Geeking when you get a chance, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, get ahold of Summer.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now the penthouse suite of Third Life Books. You can find the castle at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Promo: The One Tree Hill Connections
Promo: The GeekSpin: The Best in Comedy Music

Claudia Christian has a new Blog. She will talk about her new upcoming projects, books she’s reading etc. She can write and post right from her computer so there will be lots of updates. You can find it at http://claudia-christian.blogspot.com/

She also has a new print out for the summer. It is one of a series of four representing the four elements. The artist has done an amazing job. The first one available is titled Siren representing the element water. The prints measure “10×14″ and are numbered and signed by CC. This is a limited run of 100. The image can be seen here. It is not safe to open in some work environments.

If you heard our interview with Claudia from November 2006, you know how lively and colorful she can be. If you haven’t heard it, listen to it here.

Information courtesy of Claudia’s newsletter.

J. Michael Straczynski is scheduled to speak at the 11th Annual Mars Society Convention, in Boulder, Colorado August 14-17th.

Convention Information:

Who: Hundreds of Mars Experts and Enthusiasts
What: Eleventh Annual Mars Society Convention
When: August 14-17, 2008
Where: University of Colorado, Boulder
Why: Your chance to hear the latest news and research from Mars, and to join us in advancing the cause of human space exploration!

Thanks to Denis Legault for spotting this!

This is just a reminder to everyone that there will not be a live feed this Wednesday.

In addition to Mike having to move the studio, everyone’s headed to Las Vegas to attend the New Media Expo.

Be back next week!

Welcome to Show #123!

When the ground shakes, save the big screen TV.

Feedbackapalooza!! Chris Lester from Metamor City Podcast and C.A. Sizemore join the voicemail fun fest.

Gary gives Summer and Brad directives on stuff to do for The Babylon Podcast, and starts bypassing Tim-Guarding-The Voicemail-Gate and sending vmails directly to Mike by sending them to the Slice of SciFi voicemail line by mistake; Markum from Indy loves hearing Jeffrey’s Hollywood insider insight, and would love him to do a Business of Hollywood podcast (didja know about FPM show Deep Geeking when you get a chance, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, get ahold of Summer.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now the penthouse suite of Third Life Books. You can find the castle at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Promo: Playing For Keeps: Amazon Splash on 8/25/2008!
Promo: The Babylon Project Game: The Earth-Brakiri War