From the chatroom (times in CET):

[2009-01-08 01:26:32] <SummerNinja> fyi, in case you didn’t already hear in Second Life. no live feed tonight. Sorry about this.
[2009-01-08 01:26:48] <SummerNinja> Let other folks know as they filter in later? Thanks.

Unfortunately that’s about all that’s clear right now, so I don’t have any hows, whys, or wherefores to share. More news may follow. And in the mean time the 2008 Year End Special is now up and waiting to be listened to.

Welcome to Show #83! Summer’s literally so rushed off her feet she doesn’t have time to post this, so notes by Jarsto. Please, be gentle.

Summer, Jeffrey, Tim (the first one) and Tim (the younger) open up the show. The opening pretty soon moves two universes over into the realm of the Jedi. Then it goes to Summer’s life as a girl geek. And then to an apology from Jeffrey, for a bad joke he made. Somehow they manage to close the opening and move on with the show.

Interview: Keegan Macintosh (Prince Vintari) joins the Babylon Podcast crew for an interview, “confesses” to listening to the show, and moves straight on to mastering the accent, how he got cast as Vintari, and what David Bowie had to do with it.

The discussion moves on to the “no mercy” atmosphere among the B5 cast on the set, the nature of green-screen work, and the joy of being a Starfury, both while filming and watching it back on the screen.

The “start at season two” B5 recruitment advice leads to a discussion of good television series. Then a brief look back at how Keegan first heard about the role, and a discussion of the potential for more Lost Tales (and more Vintari).

Doug Netter’s (and JMS’s) sense of humor, comparative times spent in makeup for Vintari’s hair versus Galen’s lack of same, the need to be careful with the hair, the convention scene, Keegan’s current lack of website, and possible future parts round out the interview.

Fan Cast: The Three-Edged Sword Episode 13: “Examinations and Recalibrations” (TS: 35:06-44:33) This is the long version of TES that will normally only go out on Voices of Babylon, because of the short(ish) show.

Finally our intrepid editor Brad, and his lovely assistant Christina, provide a close and explain what’s going on with the end of this show (and where the promised geeking on Over There is).

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: Can we and should we mount a Babylon 5 propaganda campaign, in order to get sales of The Lost Tales to the point where Warner really really wants to greenlight more volumes of TLT? Let us know!

Also, if you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know!

Jerseys Are Go! (really… we’re still moving forward with these!) Interested? Let us know if you’d place a pre-order!

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.

Link: Voices of Babylon
Promo: The Scape Cast

This is a sad day, my fellow livestream devotees. Tonight will be a livestreamless night. Normal releases should continue as scheduled, as last week yielded enough content for two shows.

While for those of us in Europe this means a night without the dilemma of sleep versus entertainment, I realise it’s a pure loss for people in some timezones. So I’ll try (no guarantee) to setup a re-run of a classic livestream to go out instead.

Please note I won’t be there tonight (at least I’m not planning to), so while things should work I won’t be there to fix things if something goes wrong.

Friends, Romans, fellow Babylon Podcast listeners: lend me your ears. No on second thoughts lend me your eyes and read this.

Now that we’ve got our own independent feed for Three Edged Sword, and as a result a version of the show with more time to play with, we’re looking for more voices. As the story develops we’re going to need everything from some big recurring parts to people willing to do occasional bit parts as “bridge officer saying ‘yes, sir’”.

So if you’ve got the ability to record yourself at a decent quality, and you’re willing to give us a little (or more than a little) time, please send an email to tes at voicesofbabylon.com

And don’t worry if you don’t have time immediately, right now we’re mainly looking to build up a pool of voice talent we can draw on in the future.

Thanks to Summer for letting us cross post this here, as well as having it on our own site.

Jarsto (on behalf of the Three Edged Sword team)

Welcome to Special Edition #2, where the voicemail lunatics have taken over the asylum from the lunatics who normally run it.

Two technical notes:
1) I’ve done my best, but I’m not Mike. The sound quality on this is decent, but not what Mike manages to coax out of his big board.
2) If you hear references to “one hour in” at forty minutes, that’s not a mistake, that’s just pointing out how much editing this need to be a normal length show.

To start with Jarsto, Edmund and John introduce themselves, and explain how they discovered Babylon 5. Before generally reminiscing on how B5 changed the way they watch TV shows in general and SciFi shows in particular. Then it’s time for some questions they put out there for the rest of the fans to be answered.

The Worst Of Season One

The first of those questions is what the three worst episodes in season one are. More particularly which three episodes should be most avoided. Responses come in from Gary from Jacksonville, Warlord2k, Daniel from Germany, and Jan from Denmark.

Then Colin, and once again Jan, provide us with some different musings on season one sparked by the question. And as Colin decides to defend Infection the crew bring in Gary to help assess this defence. Much geeking ensues.

Final conclusion: everyone votes for Infection and TKO; Believers is third worst but competition for that spot is much more open.

Best Intro Sequence

The next question put out there was which season had the best intro sequence. Daniel, Colin, and Warlord2k weigh in on this one. And then of course everyone present live has a go as well.

Season four ends up getting the most votes, but there all seasons have something good in the opening. And though it’s not an opening the end of Sleeping in Light is by far the best credits sequence by a unanimous vote.

The Audiodrama Debate

With the prearranged content done Gary brings up the debate about the contributions from Edmund, John and Jarsto, specifically the audiodrama. The other guys give their opinions on what’s going on, what’s going to happen in the future, and how it all began.

Are you interested in listening to a Babylon 5 audio drama? Let us know?

Hey, if you know of a dead B5 website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know!

Summer would also like to find the long versions of the B5 promos that ran on TNT prior to Season 5, the ones narrated by Keith David? anyone have any old VHS copies of S5 they taped from TNT?

Jerseys Are Go! Interested? Let us know if you?d place a pre-order!

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.

Shameless related begging: Summer’s working to convince any publisher to do an essay 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.

There’s a box of Babylon 5 novels sitting here, books that were rescued from unknown fates at used bookstores in his area by Brad from the PodCulture podcast. The B5 library collection grows… if you have a request, send it in.

Promo: The SciFi Smackdown (lately the home of the X-Wings vs. Starfuries clash)