Welcome to Show #162!

Never Surrender Dreams.

And now, we bring you Part 2 of The JMS Interview!

In this hour, JMS talks more with Tim and Summer about the development of Babylon 5 and the pros and cons of continuing or expanding the series, the real reason for putting his foot down on “big budget or nothing”, the broader realities of the hammer lock of Warner Bros has on any future “expanded universe” properties, the personal influences on his writing, and related reflections on family, both born and made, and last but not least, the ever-changing relationships with the fans, both in cyberspace and on the convention circuits.

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Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

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: Slice of SciFi

Welcome to Show #161!

Faith Manages.

The interview everyone clamored for but hadn’t been holding their breath waiting for has come to pass.

JMS, The Great Maker, graciously allows Tim and Summer to throw a seemingly endless stream of questions about the origins and creation of Babylon 5, the production and growing pains of the show, and dealing with the vagaries of the industry of Hollywood, the bizarre perfect storm surrounding Crusade on TNT, and more.

And yes, this interview went long enough that the only way to do it justice was to split it over two episodes, so come back next week for part 2!

Visit GoToMeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE 30 day trial!!

You have until June 27th to enter the contest to win a free iTunes copy of the Harlan Ellison documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth!

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

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: Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009

Welcome to Show #156!

It’s all about the birthdays… May 12th is the birthday of both Tim Callender and Bruce Boxleitner! It’s also Migratory Bird Day, which amuses Jeffrey to no end. And what did you do for Mesmerism Day?

Visit GoToMeeting.com/techpodcasts for a FREE 30 day trial!!

Interview: We have found the First Vorlon! Russ Johnson, who wore the glide suit during Season 1, before Jeffrey took over the electraglide harness, joins us to reminisce about the early days on set at Babylon 5, and trying to one up each other for… something smelly?

Russ tells us all about the fun he had as part of Optic Nerve, escapades in both the encounter suit and as the drug-dealing cricket in Down Below, having to repeatedly tell TV fans that he was not the actor who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, and more.

Discussion: Gary wishes Tim a Happy Birthday; Neil calls from Goddard Space Flight Center about the Shuttle Launch; Gary posits that we may have eventually seen some leadership juggling had Crusade gone on longer.

Tim reads emails from Bob, who tells us that he’s doing a full B5 episodic immersion, by watching the episode, reading the scriptbook and Babylon File and Lurkers Guide entry… he also wants to hear more varied opinions on the show, so he’s in for some fun when he gets to S5; Jim wonders about the portrayal of the military, and how they seem more like businessmen rather than officers in the military.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

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: Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009
Promo: The Geekcast

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 #148!

Tim and Summer lament about whether or not the entry requirements are too hard for the Chronologies contest, since we haven’t received any entries yet. Not a one.

Is the contest entry requirement too hard? Seriously, as of 2pm PT, March 11 2009, I have received ZERO entries for this contest. Is this too hard a task for our lurkers and rangers, or does everyone already have the Chronologies book?

Tim also relays a note from JMS saying that the studio has completely scrapped the screenplay for the Forbidden Planet remake, so we hope the person that leaked it was held responsible for theft of intellectual property and is now working off a period of indentured servitude in that studio’s salt mines.

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 (extended to March 25th)

Interview: Captain Jaclyn, Jason Davis and Amy Guskin from the Babylon 5 Scripts Team join us to discuss the new scriptbooks project that’s been kept secret and tightly under wraps until now.

Asked and Answered: JMS answers Thousands of Fan Questions about Babylon 5 is the title of the new series, and it’s an exhaustive compendium of questions ever asked about B5. Starting in November 1991, and current through 2008, the team went through over 20,000 questions from many sources that aren’t available online anymore (online chat transcripts, convention transcripts, etc) in addition to the newsgroup archives from GEnie, AOL and Usenet.

It’s arranged in chronological order, without editing, so it’s a rare glimpse at the actual development process as the show is ongoing. Most people have seen some of the answers before, but a lot of work went into establishing the original question with the answer to preserve the original context.

Keep an eye out at the Babylon 5 Scripts store for more details as the official announcement date of March 17th and the release date of April 7th (not April 1st) draw near.

Feel free to ask the Scripts Team any questions about the project, and if you want to see that electronic version (for easier searching) or an electronic index, then let the Scripts Team know! (you know, there’s a free Kindle app available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, if a Kindle version of the book could be made available someday)

Discussion: Tim and Summer nitpick a little more about the contents of these new books, and are looking forward to having the finished product to dig into later. But now Summer won’t get her Crusade books until 2010… grumblefrack.

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 Geek Survival Guide
Promo: The Signal Season 5, flying high in 2009!

Welcome to Show #147!

Tim, Summer and Jeffrey chat about spring training, the early Daylight Savings shift, JMS winning a writing award from AARP, and the contest.

Mike plays Edmund’s “My Funny Vorlontine” parody for Jeffrey, and there were pulled muscles from the laughter.

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 (extended to March 25th)

Interview: We talk with journalist Frank Garcia about his history as a freelance writer for many scifi magazines over the years, and the research that he and Mark Phillips undertook to compile the books Science Fiction Television Series, 1959-1989 and Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004.

We talk with Frank about his experience with Babylon 5 and Crusade over the years the show was in production, and the information pulled together for the second volume.

Find out more about both books at http://legacyweb.com/scifibook/index.shtml

Feedback and Discussion: Andy wonders if our Jeffrey is the one listed in the credits of The Faculty — he was, and Jeffrey recounts his experience working with Robert Rodriguez; Todd from Grand Rapids disagrees with Summer and thinks that Gary Cole as an EA Captain just doesn’t work for him because of the Brady Bunch memories (and Summer will always think of him as Sheriff Buck); Gary wants to know who wrote the copy of the B5 episode teasers that aired during the first 4 seasons on PTEN (Jeffrey says it was the promo folks at PTEN/WB).

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: Dragon Page With Class
Promo: The Gmail Podcast

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

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

Welcome to Show #136!

No Jeffrey this week, he’s working hard on “The Amazing Race”, but not to worry… for some reason, the Vorlon puns still filter their way into the show.

Interview: This week, Tim and Summer talk with Jaclyn (pictured, L) and Jan from the Babylon 5 Scripts Project, and by a twist of fate, the date of this interview, October 29th, was the 3rd anniversary of the release of the first scriptbook!

Jaclyn and Jan give us as many details as they can about how this project came about, and the scope of putting something on this scale together, possible future volumes, and much much more!

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

Call to Action: While we haven’t set a travel date yet, it’s time to start requesting donations to help fund Summer’s road trip into Vorlon Space, to catalog the items in Jeffrey’s storage locker, so we can help him consolidate his storage needs. Please donate, and make a notation that it’s earmarked for the Excursion into Vorlon Space, and those who donate will get first crack at items, before they’re made available to auction to the live feed listeners, and then to the general public.

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: PodCulture: Equal Opportunity Geekness

Welcome to Show #133!

Are you sick and tired of Tim editing down your audio comments before sending them to Mike? Then do what Gary does and just come on by to sit in!

Interview: B5 fans have always been creative. This week, we are happy to introduce you to the “League of Non-Aligned Knitters”… B5 Fans Who Knit.

Tim, Summer, and Jeffrey chat with Catherine, Heather, Laura, Amanda, and Elizabeth about the convergence of Babylon 5 viewing and knitting (and other scifi shows). There are practical applications for scifi fans to know how to knit… you’re going to have to make your own clothing after the zombie apocalyse, ya know.

Be forewarned, the puns flow freely in this session… and there’s a knitted Dalek. How cool is that?

Knitter’s Links:
JenLa
Fibercrack’d

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

Discussion: It is really fun to find out that more people are still coming to Babylon 5 because of interests in other things, having never seen the show before and falling in love with it, keeping the fandom alive and growing.

We also discuss true options for scifi themed reality programming, something with more appeal to the average scifi fan than WWE Raw, and we talk to Gary to get the scoop on the voicemail madman.

And for some reason, the knitting puns still keep coming.

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.

Link: Ravelry: an online knitting and crocheting group
Link: Legion VI Victrix Roman Reenactors
Promo: Mitt Zombie 2008
Promo: Der Geek: Speaking German for Geeks