The first volume of the “Asked and Answered” series is now available from Babylon5Scripts.com
OVERVIEW OF THE ASKED & ANSWERED SERIES
It’s true. The creator of Babylon 5 answers 5,296 fan questions covering every aspect of the show in over 100 categories in new Babylon 5 book series.
J. Michael Straczynski answered these questions as they surfaced over a period of 18 years as part of an online experiment he started in 1991 and continues to this day.
This makes Asked & Answered something that has never been done before with a television show: an oral history IN REAL TIME. No revisionism. Nothing forgotten. No detail spared. Because this dialouge with fans starts in 1991, it pre-dates the production of the Babylon 5 pilot, so you’ll discover JMS’ complete vision for the series, many aspects of which never made it to the screen.
Even better, these questions and answers include interactions on AOL Bulletin Boards, GEnie Forums, the moderated usenet group, CIS Discussion threads and Chat Transcripts, some of which are not available in archives anywhere.
In addition to Babylon 5, Asked & Answered includes JMS’ responses to personal questions about his life, politics, love, religion, writing and more. These responses are grouped with a related B5 topic showing fans – for the first time – the provenance of the Babylon 5 philosophy and culture. All that plus JMS’ real life stories behind the stories.
To make this the ultimate reference, this series took 2½ years and a crew of four B5 experts – in addition to J. Michael Straczynski – to compile, categorize and edit.
We have a winner, at last (you’ll hear the discussion and selection in this week’s show, if you didn’t hear it during last week’s live feed broadcast)
Congratulations to Gregory Smith (Albany NY) —
You’ve won a copy of “Across Space and Time: The Chronologies of Babylon 5″!!
just let me know if you want me to sign it before sending it to you!
And for everyone’s edification, here’s who said what:
It was the year of Deep Geeking… — Brad Bowyer
the year of Feedbackapalooza… — Gary in Jacksonville
the year we discussed our favorite show. — T’Jon (John Keegan)
It was the year without Zima… — Robin in Seoul
the year of great tequila… — Michael R. Mennenga
the year of puns… — Brian Brown
and a year of more interviews. — Mur Lafferty
It was a new chance for fun. — Jarsto
It was the end of the series. — Edmund Boys
It was the year we made it to Crusade. — Summer Brooks
The year is 2009. — Jeffrey Willerth
The show: Babylon Podcast — Tim Callender
Here’s the latest from the moderated newsgroup that should bring a smile to a lot of faces:
Author: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 07:24:14 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <3.14159265.040109.2259@B53rDage.googlegroups.com>
Regarding the delay of the two Crusade books…it’s the B5 tradition.
I’ve been very pleased that so many folks who have received the Babylon 5 volumes have said great things about the them. Though, bear in mind that there is a ceiling on how long these final Crusade script books will be available at www.babylon5scripts.com so get in while the Cafe Press price breaks will give you maximum benefit.
As promised, here are the breadcrumb hints for the Season 4 podcast opening:
It was the year of Deep Geeking… he’s one of the Cultured Pod people
the year of Feedbackapalooza… the voicemail line is his and his alone
the year we discussed our favorite show. the Narn is always trying something
It was the year without Zima… she’s everywhere, and she’s Beta Clone #062
the year of great tequila… he’s our primary audio god
the year of puns… he’s a wiseacre, he’s Captain Hammer, and Giles
and a year of more interviews. she’s Writing, For Keeps
It was a new chance for fun. he is the Netherlands Captain
It was the end of the series. and he is the unnamed Agent
It was the year we made it to Crusade. Summer Brooks
The year is 2009. Jeffrey Willerth
The show: Babylon Podcast Tim Callender
I hope this helps someone win!
Captain Jacyln wants you to know she hasn’t forgotten about the surprise mailing that she mentioned on the Babylon Podcast.
“The Scripts Team is most likely going to send the mailing next week instead of this one because the contents of the mailing have changed. Three days ago we got clearance to share something timely with the fans that has postponed our previous mailing because this is a timely piece of content and that is also super cool.”
Thanks for the update.
Check with the podcast and in the comments on this post for any new information.
We thought that the entry requirements for the chronologies contest would be more fun for you guys than this.
Finding the names for all the voices in the open seemed simple enough… but you have mentioned that the requirements for entering the contest were a bit too challenging, given the time frame.
We hear you, and we are there.
To help things along a little bit, here is the script for the open:
It was the year of Deep Geeking…
the year of Feedbackapalooza…
the year we discussed our favorite show.
It was the year without Zima…
the year of great tequila…
the year of puns…
and a year of more interviews.
It was a new chance for fun.
It was the end of the series.
It was the year we made it to Crusade.
The year is 2009.
The show: Babylon Podcast
All but two of them have been on the podcast at some point in time or another (yes, that was your first hint), and one of those two is still directly connected to the podcast (yes, that’s your second hint). All of them can be found somewhere in the FarPoint Media universe (yes, that’s your third hint).
We’re also thinking about picking riddles to help lead you to those voices, if it’s still not easier to figure out.
We haven’t decided when we’re going to drop the breadcrumbs that will lead you to the other voices, but it will be announced ahead of time. Most likely there’ll be a 24-hour window to get entries in after the breadcrumbs are dropped.
We don’t have to give you guys hints for those last three voices, now do we?
update, 3/18: Of all the entries currently sent in, everyone’s gotten the last three voices wrong. The only thing we can come up with is that Tim’s voice sounds so different when not over a crappy phone line, that it’s throwing everyone off!
No, Jeffrey did not do both of the last two lines. So here’s another helper:
It was the year we made it to Crusade. Summer
The year is 2009. Jeffrey
The show: Babylon Podcast Tim Callender
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!
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!
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
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
Voicemail: 206-338-2259
