Welcome to Show #150!

Jeffrey pokes fun at Tim and Summer’s consternation at not having a larger pool of contest entries to choose a winner from… or even someone who’s gotten all of the voices guessed correctly. (this was recorded on March 18th, so the contest is already over)

We also hit a tangent about the death of the SciFi Channel. Summer rants. And she’s not the only one who’s a tad annoyed. Not by a long shot. Now she wants to implement a plan to create her owned damned spec-fic channel. Not a Cylon plan, but a plan nonetheless.

Interview: Stephen Furst joins us to reminisce about directing “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars”… at least, that was the initial plan.

And as we all know, the most entertaining shows always veer off their intended courses… “Babylon 5: The Musical”… ’nuff said!

Stay tuned next week for a super-sized Feedbackapalooza!

Discussion: In honor of Show #150, Jeffrey wonders how in the world we’ve done more podcast episodes than actual show episodes in existence, and Mike wonders how this tiny show grew to have a gravity well strong enough to pull him and Brad in for keeps. And then the talk wanders into the realm of space junk, and completely hijacks the intended topic of discussion… again!

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 Galactica Quorum
Promo: Tuning Into SciFi TV

Welcome to Show #141!

Yes, it’s been awhile since we’ve had a new show… didja miss us? We hope this show makes up for that long break.

Jeffrey regales us with a Majel Barrett convention tale as we honor her memory (she passed away on December 18 2008 of leukemia).

Tim tells us about a new TV project that JMS is working on, and we all hope that a SAG strike doesn’t happen to knock things awry.

Interview: It’s the interview almost everyone has been waiting for. Ed Wasser joins us this week, and he tells us how he thinks that the attraction to Morden comes from the undeniable allure of the mystery and the appeal of the bad guy. We also talk about how he came to Babylon 5, and how his asking for a more dangerous part led to him getting the role of Morden, his fan club and convention visits, and more.

The depth and reach of Morden’s plans definitely affects the entire series, even though he was only on screen for 13 episodes. It’s a testament to the writing and the performances that major characters that only appear from time to time can have such a large impact on the overall series story arc.

But, did you also remember him being on Sliders?

Feedback: Jeffrey pushes the buttons and plays some voicemail for us! Gary thanks Brad for the musical Holiday Gifts that were posted to the site; Gary comments on JMS’s remake of Forbidden Planet, and manages to bring in the Zima again.

We have no idea who the mystery caller is that is going to call us back, but she amused the hell outta Jeffrey. Really.

Mike G sent an email about Jeffery’s listing on the Who’s Dated Who? website. Why doesn’t Jeffrey Willerth have any WDW fans?

Kate in Chicagoland gives us some suggestions on topics to cover on The Babylon Podcast after we’ve gone through all the official and unofficial materials, and James in Tallahassee tells us that he’s made many Lego B5 ships, including EA ships, Narn, Centauri, Minbari and Brakiri ships. We wanna see pictures of them!

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: Scott Sigler: CONTAGIOUS
Promo: I Should Be Writing

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.

Welcome to Special Edition #4!

Kurt from The ScapeCast recorded Claudia Christian’s panel at this year’s Dragon*Con, and was kind enough to make it available to share with Babylon Podcast listeners.

Many thanks to Kurt for this, and to Brad from PodCulture for the bang-up editing job!

Enjoy!

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

Maggie Egan’s new website is up and running @ maggieegan.net, thanks to the magical ministrations of our web Wonder Woman, Summer. The site had been inactive since 2002. If any of you out there have old newsletters or other information to fill the gap between then and now, please email them to Summer.

Maggie’s not the only B5 actor with a presence on the web. Our own Jeffrey Willerth and Pat Tallman both have sites hosted by The Galactic Gateway.

The Official Bruce and Melissa Site is the site for our favorite captain turned president and his wife (both here and on B5). Claudia Christian can be found at claudiachristian.net. Bill Mumy’s site covers everything from his music to his 48 years(!) in show biz.

The website for Jerry Doyle’s radio show is here.

For Crusade and Lost Tales fans, Peter Woodward’s site is here. Carrie Dobro can be found here.

Welcome to Show #76!

Tim, Summer, and Jeffrey dive right into “Lost Tales” celebration month, and forget any previous plans for separate episodes geeking on TLT… we’re going into overdrive coverage of The Lost Tales, and there will be spoilers contained in all the August episodes, so be forwarned. If you want to avoid spoilers, then skip these next few shows until you’re all caught up!

Jeffrey gives us a recap of the Los Angeles Best Buy release party event, attended by Tracy Scoggins, Bruce Boxleitner, Peter Woodward and Doug Netter. He obtained plenty of video and audio footage covering the event, so stay tuned for clips!

Interview: Bruce Boxleitner joins us to talk about his experiences filming The Lost Tales, and doing promotions for it at the adventure now known as Comic-Con.

Bruce recounts working with Peter Woodward, Tracy Scoggins and newcomer Keegan MacIntosh and the fun of portraying an older, wiser and more sage President Sheridan; the bane that was the sock puppets; and the resurgence of interest in TRON, even all these years (and advancements in CG) later.

Fan Cast: The Three-Edged Sword Episode 7: “Word Gets Out” (TS: 43:34-49:19)

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 greelight more volumes of TLT? Let us know…

Are you interested in listening to more Babylon 5 audio drama? Voices of Babylon is coming soon, and maybe you can get your own story out, too.

Also, 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 on an idea for that 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: GeekCred
Link: The Official Site for Bruce and Melissa

Welcome to Show #54!

Jeffrey’s back from Houston, where he met with listeners John and Satyajit, who have their own show called AstroCast, a podcast dedicated to the Houston Astros. They treated Jeff to a round of Buttery Nipples. He also throws out the welcome mat to other fans of the show who would like to treat him to a drink when he’s traveling around.

Interview: Maggie Egan (”Jane”, ISN Anchor)

Tim, Summer and Jeffrey engage in a delightful chat with Maggie Egan, who was the familiar and comforting face of ISN before and after the Clark Administration ran riot over Earth Gov.

She gives us an update on her latest projects: a creative ad spot for CBS’s “Without A Trace”, and a guest spot on FOX’s “Standoff”. The episode she’s in is slated to air in March, so if you watch it and you like the show, let FOX know that you’d like to see more of her! We learn about the differences between auditioning for commercials and auditioning for TV and film, the differences in stresses and relationships and expectations. And the money…

She then regales us with tales of auditioning for B5, and the fun of returning to the set time and again, with being surprised to come back to the series after she thought she’d been blown up, and her surprise at discovering at a convention that her character actually had a name! Tim and Summer both relate how much her performance resonated with how anchors should make people feel, and in making the series feel a little more real.

Maggie also tells us about the disapperance of her domain, and how she’s been lacking a website for several years now, which leads to all sorts of calls for tech help and offers for assistance. In the end, Summer ended up registering MaggieEgan.net for her, and will be putting together a new site for Maggie (right in the middle of doing websites for a whole slew of new FarPoint Media shows).

Listener Feedback: Gary from Jacksonville muses on whether Timov was modeled after Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote”; Gary again, commenting on how maybe we should have picked up Talia’s secret much earlier; Jenn from Dreamwatch mentions the JMS mailing list, which is an email digest of the posts available at JMS News, and Summer really does want to add more B5 related links to the site here; Jarsto comments on “Soul Mates” and the relationship progression between Susan and Talia; Gary from Jacksonville thinks that “The Long Dark” was merely a Dr Franklin romantic filler episode; Gary wants details on the podcast’s Season 2 pickup; Edmund geeks over hearing his own voicemail. Tim reads emails from Roz, who’s disappointed in a lack of B5 content in a show (but we don’t know which one) and the appearance of too many insider remarks; Craig loves the show and caught up on missed episodes in a flash.

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.

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

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.

Link: Smart Pop Books
Link: Maggie Egan: The New Website!
Promo: Support TD-0013 in the MS Walk

Welcome to Show #46!

Stream of Consciousness Chat: Robin Atkin Downes (”Byron”)

Jeffrey sends out his heartfelt thanks to all the fans who responded to our call for donations to Pat Tallman’s “Be A Santa” charity program. The successful fruits of that effort went to make Christmas a little happier for the children of Penny Lane.

Jeff also tells us what he can about “The Lost Tales” progress, relaying some of what Bruce Boxleitner could tell us about the filming and working with everyone again, and how completely impressed he was by the script and everything about his experience climbing back into the Babylon 5 universe. This DVD is so going to rock!

We present for your entertainment and edification a rather interesting and amusing chat with Robin Atkin Downes, during his and Pat Tallman’s meandering search for an Italian restaurant.

It’s an interactive slice of life in Los Angeles, and words truly cannot describe the experience. Don’t worry… we’ll get Robin back, later, when he’s less distracted.

Listener Feedback: Jarsto really calls in and wanted to hear more from Kim Holly about Peter Woodward’s leather pants in “Crusade”; Gary comments on Show #44 with a Keffer tidbit; Doug comments on Show #44 with some detail on one reason why The Cortez may have run afoul of a Shadow vessel.

Haiku: This week, Hilary’s haiku pays honor to Cmdr Susan Ivanova. But we still had to explain it to Michael before he remembered.

We so need a B5 holiday season collection of quotes and song variations.

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.

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.

Promo: Chuck Chat Technorama
Promo: Chuck Chat: The Gmail Podcast
Link: Smart Pop Books

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