Wondering what the new books from the script team are about? Find out March 4th at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific on the Babylon Podcast live feed.

Though a special arrangement with Captain Jacyln and the scripts team, Tim and Summer will be getting advanced copies of the book. They will announce the book and talk about some of its contents during the live feed.

Come and join us for the reveal and all the regular Babylon 5 insanity. 

How to listen to the Live Feed

First, you need an application that can connect to a streaming feed. WinAmp seems to be the app of choice for Windows, and iTunes or Quicktime seems to work best on the Mac. One app of choice for Linux users is Amarok (with the xine engine).

To connect to the live feed, you can point your favorite audio stream catcher at one of the following server feeds:

http://stream.farpointmedia.net:8000/listen.pls (USA)
http://w2k.myftp.org:8000/FPM.m3u (Europe)

Tune in on Wednesday, find out what the new script books are all about, then join us in the chat room to discuss amongst other B5 fans and listeners!

While J. Michael Straczynski didn’t pick up a BAFTA for Changeling, there is a new award for it in his portfolio:

Best Screenwriter 50 and Over
J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling

He’s already one of television’s top writers of fantasy and science fiction; and although Changeling is based on a true story, Straczynski’s tale of a mother’s search for her kidnapped son—and the corruption it uncovers—churns with an eerie sci-fi atmosphere and dizzying sense of disorientation.

We Also Loved: John Patrick Shanley for Doubt…Eric Roth for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button…Woody Allen for Vicky Cristina Barcelona…Joel and Ethan Coen for Burn After Reading.

Link: AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups® Awards 2009

Welcome to Show #146!

Tim reads some news from JMS on his screenplays in progress, including World War Z, Lensman, and Ninja Assassin, and some teaser news that he’s been offered some directing gigs.

Discussion: Tim and Summer discuss “Endgame”, the climax of the struggles gone through during the battle phases of the Earth Civil War. We compare more speeches again, too.

Contest: We’ve come up with a contest to give away a copy of the B5 Chronologies scriptbook! Can you identify all the voices in the podcast opening montage? If you think you can, submit your entries to contest [at] sliceofscifi [dot] com with the Subject line of Babylon Podcast Chronologies Contest, and include your mailing address.

We need all 12 voices correctly identified and in order, and a single winner will be selected from all the people who submit fully correct entries, and participants who helped with the lines are not eligible to enter this contest… maybe next time, gang.

Submit your entries by midnight Pacific time, March 3rd, and we’ll randomly pick a winner from pool of correct entries live on the live feed on March 4th.

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.

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
Promo: Variant Frequencies

Welcome to Show #145!

Seriously, how do you guys like that Babylon Podcast Season 4 opening sequence? Crazy cool, isn’t it?

Contest: We’ve come up with a contest to give away a copy of the B5 Chronologies scriptbook! Can you identify all the voices in the podcast opening montage? If you think you can, submit your entries to contest [at] sliceofscifi [dot] com with the Subject line of Babylon Podcast Chronologies Contest, and include your mailing address.

We need all 12 voices correctly identified and in order, and a single winner will be selected from all the people who submit fully correct entries, and participants who helped with the lines are not eligible to enter this contest… maybe next time, gang.

Submit your entries by midnight Pacific time, March 3rd, and we’ll randomly pick a winner from pool of correct entries live on the live feed on March 4th. Every voice in there is known somewhere in the podosphere, so get cracking!

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

Discussion: Tim and Summer revisit the discussion about Ivanova’s “I am Death Incarnate” declaration before leading the White Star fleet up against the advanced EA Destroyer fleet. We compare it to President Laura Roslin’s speech from the recent BSG Season 4 episode “Blood on the Scales”, and Summer amends her previous assessment of Ivanova’s speech. She doesn’t hate it, like Tim and Mike do, but it definitely doesn’t rank as high in her estimation as before.

Voicemail: Arkle adds his thoughts about and full support for Ivanova’s “Death Incarnate” speech; Todd from Grand Rapids adds his comments about the Ivanova speech; a comment on how maybe they did hang up on Ivanova during her speech and no one told her about it.

Troy sent an email saying that Tim’s wrong about Ivanova’s speech, and how apropos it is for a warrior walking into her death; another email thinks that it appropriately displays her state of being near the breaking point, under the pressures of leading the fleet and being worried about Sheridan’s welfare in captivity.

Bethany from Oklahoma is catching up after being without Internet access while in Colorado for a month, and she watched episodes of “Babylon 5″ on her drive back home through the Rocky Mountains… good thing she didn’t really have to watch the screen rather than the road; comments on the various themes in “Between the Darkness and the Light”, with the struggles of many of the characters being echoes of the title; Dave from Kentucky lets us know that there’s a large selection of Babylon 5 ships done in Legos; Doug calls in about #134 and the difference in sizes between the B4 and B5 stations; Gary has a question for Jeffrey about the Babylon 5 Mall Tour mentioned in some old issues of “The Universe Today”, and Jeffrey tells us what he remembers about the tour, a promotional venture by TNT to promote the upcoming new Season 5 episodes (paging Sandy Bruckner!)

Gary sends his apologies to Jeffrey for bringing Ed Wasser to the show for us to talk with; Edmund from Greenville wants to chat about “Intersection in Real Time”, and how it originally was slated to be the Season 4 finale, and thinks the way we ended up receiving the shows works better than the original plan; Bethany from Oklahoma shares her thoughts on “Intersections in Real Time”; Kate from Chicagoland has issues with the Shadow War wrapping up too quickly; Neil from Bowie comments on his shiny new copy of the TV Movies Scriptbook; Bethany from Oklahoma comments on the discussion for “Exercise of Vital Powers”; Gary lets us know that JMS didn’t win the BAFTA for The Changeling, and Jeffrey says that the winner, In Bruges, is well worth checking out.

And finally, the Return of Jarsto! Jarsto smacks both Tim and Summer for not remembering “In The Beginning” in detail in regards to how the Babylon Project came about, from Show #138 (Summer claims sleep deprivation); Jarsto chimes in again about Marcus gets the lyrics wrong during his rendition of “A Modern Major General”, and submits that perhaps the Vorlons, and NOT the Shadows, destroyed the first three stations, since they knew they’d need to take B4 back in time for their use.

Babylon Podcast: You’re not sure what happened to you, but you liked it… Happy Vorlontine’s Day, everybody!

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.

Promo: The Weird Show

Welcome to Show #144!

Interview: Jan Schroeder and Jason Davis of the Babylon 5 Scripts Team join us to talk about the TV Movie Scripts book, and to tease us about a series of mystery books that will be coming our way starting in March.

Jason tells us how he came to the project, and his history of doing JMS interviews; both Jan and Jason talk about the finished movies vs the original scripts and extra materials that paint a different about of the movies, especially “Legend of the Rangers”.

Don’t forget: the TV Movies book is only available for a limited time, so make sure that you order your copy before April 30th!

We muse over the possibility of a feature length new B5 movie, since WB has thrown the thread out there in asking what dollar amount constitutes “feature” to JMS; and Tim and Summer throw out guesses about what the new series of books may contain, and we’re shot down on every one, not that they’d acknowledge if any of them were correct.

It’s a long interview, so grab a beverage, put your feet up, and enjoy!

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send a note to 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.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: The GeekSpin: Comedy Music at its best!
Promo: The Zombie Channel

Okay, I’m stumped.

I had always thought that the Season 5 opening theme was on the “Best Of” soundtrack. Even regular listeners and chat room denizens told me that it was there.

But it’s not on my copy of that CD.

The cover art is the same, but the track listing on the CD is different from what’s listed on the Sonic Images website, and on Amazon.com.

The first 15 tracks are the same, but the last 3 are different.

Here’s what those three tracks are listed as from Sonic Images:

15 Main Title 4th Season
16 Main Title 5th Season
17 Dying Station
18 Bonus Theme

And here’s the listing of those final tracks from the CD I’ve owned for years:

15 Main Title 4th Season
16 Main Theme (Sierra Game)
17 Main Theme Extended (Sierra Game)
18 End Title 3rd Season (bonus track)

So, where exactly is the opening theme music for Season 5? Is there a different version of the “Best Of” CD that everyone else has? I never bought all of the episodic soundtracks (there’s what, 20, 25 of those total?), so I don’t know if it’s hiding out on one of those.

Is there more than one version of the “Best Of Babylon 5″ soundtrack? I honestly can’t recall if I ever made a note of exactly what this was, because it’s been a good 10 years since I’ve listened to it… which is another strange thing, because the date on my copy says 1997, while the release date on the Sonic Images website says 2001.

This CD also has video interview clips featuring JMS, John Copeland and Peter Jurasik about the Sierra game, a long trailer for the game set to the S4 opening music, and at the end of that trailer, it says the game is coming “Holiday ‘98″.

Did they re-release the “Best Of” CD later, changing up those last three tracks, and I just missed it?

Just FYI for folks who are subscribed through our old FeedBurner feed, that feed will be going away very soon.

We actually stopped promoting it a couple years ago, because there were some horrible interactions with the WordPress FeedBurner plugin, iTunes and our website at the time, so we tried to switch everyone over, or encourage them to use the main feed, http://www.babylonpodcast.com/?feed=podcast as the raw show feed to subscribe to if you don’t use iTunes.

If you are one of the small handful of people still using the FB feed, please use either http://www.babylonpodcast.com/feed/ for the entire site feed, shows and news, or http://www.babylonpodcast.com/?feed=podcast for the podcast.

If you are currently using iTunes, you don’t have anything to be concerned about. If you can use iTunes, subscribe using http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=118334327.

And if you are or will be using the iTunes Store feed, be sure to give us some reviews, show us some love! The more you love us, the more iTunes loves us, and that’s a very good thing.

Did you know The Babylon Podcast is listed as one of their Feature SciFi shows? Just click on Podcasts from the main iTunes Store page, then on the bottom right, click on Sci-Fi Fans, and you’ll see 15 scifi related podcasts spotlighted by iTunes… what’s even cooler is that 5 out of the 15 are FarPoint Media shows. Do we rock, or what?

Welcome to Show #143!

Discussion: NY Comic Con announced that JMS definitely had to cancel his appearance, since there was no way that he’d be able to make both NYCC and the BAFTA Ceremony where Changeling has been nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

And Warner Bros is now considering making the steps necessary to find out what JMS’s definition of “big” is in the “big budget only” declaration he made about the only way he’d do another feature length film project. While we aren’t getting our hopes up too high yet, some of us can only wonder what took them so long.

We get bubbly for a bit about the amount of fresh B5 content out there, and that’s still coming along.

Deep Geeking: Tim and Summer discuss “Between The Darkness and The Light”, the episode which marks a significant turning point in the war to take back Earth from Clark’s forces.

The morale hit taken by Sheridan’s capture is turned around by them breaking him out and rescuing him, and by the White Star fleet’s destruction of Earth’s advanced, Shadow-tech cruisers.

Is this the first glimpse we see of Lyta’s steps towards her dark, angry side? Is the technique of telepaths suggesting “pain” a standard self-defense or protective disabling technique since all telepaths are capable of doing that?

And Tim has a huge gripe about Ivanova’s battle speech, wondering why the opposing destroyers just didn’t start shooting while she was ranting. How many other people despise that part of the scene for being too speechy or too long?

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send a note to Summer.

Feedback: Doug lets us know that the way they were able to completely remove the Keeper from David Sheridan was explained at the end of the Centauri trilogy of novels; Gary calls in to offer his appreciation for the extra long clip show, and wanted to know if Jeffrey was silent during his scenes or if he had to learn the lines with the rest of the actors (yes, he had to learn the lines).

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.

Promo: Star Wars: Codename: Starkeeper
Promo: The 9th: A Heroes Podcast

The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski: The TV Movies is now on sale for $29.99 through Feb. 5. After Feb. 5, the price will be $39.99

Featuring these Scripts:

• Thirdspace
• The River of Souls
• The Legend of the Rangers
• The Lost Tales

These TV Movie scripts are twice the length of a single episode of Babylon 5 and are the page count equivalent of EIGHT episodic scripts making it the second biggest book ever with more than 450 pages!

ALL THAT PLUS THESE SPECIAL BONUSES

• The included version of The Legend of the Rangers is an early draft that is 20 pages longer than the script that was filmed, which means you get to read scenes and exchanges of dialog that never made it to the screen.

• Exhumed from Joe’s vault, a 3-page fragment of an outline detailing the premise for a Psi Corps feature film . Focusing on The Telepath War, and appropriately titled “Wars of the Mind,” JMS’ notes reveal the background of the conflict — teeps vs. teeps, the cast of characters — including the identity of the Interstellar Alliance’s Vice President, and the explosive deaths of two B5 regulars — something hinted at, but never stated in an official series document.

• The lost tale from The Lost Tales. Did you know that there were originally three lost tales, not two? The middle segment, never produced due to production considerations, featured Michael Garibaldi making a startling discovery on Mars. Only a handful of people involved in the production have ever read this script, but now you can enjoy this “lost” installment.

• The original short story on which The Lost Tales segment “Over Here” was based. It’s called “The Darkness Between the Stars” and was originally published in the now out-of-print seventh issue of The Book of Dark Wisdom (Fall 2005). See how JMS adapts a story from one medium to another and witness a different ending than the one that concludes the B5 version.

• J. Michael Straczynski’s personal, behind-the-scenes photos taken on the set of The Lost Tales and The Legend of the Rangers — included in these 36 images are the last pictures taken of Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar.

And much more. Order here by April 30