This coming weekend, July 2-5th, Westercon 62 (FiestaCon) is being held in Tempe AZ, at the very nice Tempe Mission Palms Resort and Hotel.

When I saw that they were including a Babylon 5 panel (for the first time in a long time), I knew I needed to be the moderator!

BABYLON 5: THE ENDURING LEGACY: It’s been over 15 years since Babylon 5 debuted. Our panel looks back at the series and how it has influenced the
genre and looks ahead to what there might be in the future.
Fri 6-7p, Abbey South room. Summer Brooks (moderator), Lee Whiteside, Eytan Kollin

I’m going to try to record the panel, and if I’m successful, it’ll eventually be posted here.

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

 

 Babylon Podcast: Show #162 [55:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1137)

Congratulations to our 5 winners of a downloadable copy of the Harlan Ellison documentary, DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH:

Josh Bernhard, Val Smith, Neil Ottentstein, Gary Lindros, and Jeffrey Squires

In all the excitement of our interview with JMS, I realized I hadn’t posted this:

Susie the Southern Geek invited me to appear on her wonderful podcast, How To Grow Your Geek. Longtime listeners of the Babcast will recall that Susie lent her voice to the All-Girls’ Geekfest last year.

We talked about a range of topics, from the Babcast to Doctor Who to Mythbusters to the form and content of knock-knock jokes. And, of course, our kids. Thanks, Susie, for the great conversation!

If you have ever tried to convince your spouse that Delenn would make a great name for your baby girl, you definitely need to listen to How To Grow Your Geek.

Since the interview with JMS last week has given us a little over 2 hours of podcast entertainment, we won’t be recording a show tonight.

Besides, Mike Mennenga deserves a Wednesday off every now and again!

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!

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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

 

 Babylon Podcast: Show #161 [1:01:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2125)

I have to toss a shout-out to Gary from Jacksonville for this one.

He’d noticed that more podcasts were adding bells and whistles that enhance the listener experience, such as cute little displays for folks who use the iPhone and iPod Touch.

So, starting with Show #160, people can choose to view the show notes while listening to an episode.

I wonder what other kinds of easter eggs we can come up with…

Jonathan Wright, a blogger at The Guardian, wrote an article last week about “Torchwood: Children of Earth” and it’s 5-part story arc. He laments the fact that all of the scifi he loves has become more heavily laden with story arcs, and at first glance, this fact irks him, and he lays blame at our feet:

I’m sorry, but what’s so bad about five not-so-epic-but-nevertheless-carefully-crafted-individual stories shown over five weeks –or possibly even six if you need to re-jig the schedules because of a major sporting event? How did telly get so complicated?

Personally, I blame J Michael Straczynski. Back in the early 1990s, Straczynski, or JMS as fans know him, created Babylon 5. When it was first shown on Channel 4, it looked like a science-fiction series about a space station. The CGI was a bit shonky, but it passed the time.

Inexorably, though, it became clear that JMS, a control freak who wrote 92 of the show’s 110 episodes himself, had an overarching vision. It involved a portentous brew of big themes – politics, destiny, war, peace, love. If you tried to start watching Babylon 5 with series three, you were left hopelessly confused.

He goes on to point how how the arcs of Buffy and Alias had only increased the perceived “need” for grand overarching visions in sf and fantasy television, and while he does grumble about it, he finally admits that he doesn’t see a way not to be hooked into continuing to watch, because by the time you realize there’s an arc at play, you’re already deep into the story and don’t want to let go.

Is he complaining, or is he grudgingly handing out compliments to writers and producers for making him watch more TV?

Discuss amongst yourselves, both here and over at the Babylon Podcast forums

Link: Guardian: Torchwood has succumbed to the story arc craze
Link: io9: Did JMS Ruin Television SF?

Welcome to Show #160!

The real Summer is back in the saddle, and disagreements about flying kites ensue. But seriously, Happy Father’s Day to all you father types out there.

Jeffrey also shares some info about more goodies from the secret Vorlon memorabilia stash.

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Deep Geeking: This week, Tim and Summer delve into “Learning Curve”, and Tim admits that while he likes this episode, there are a few dramatic elements throughout the story where the cliches fell flat for him.

Was it pacing? Timing? Something else entirely?

Discussion: Listener Mike Y throws out the suggestion that Crusade might be able to continue in audio dramas; Sean admires the B5 related in-jokes that Jeffrey has been incorporating into the Go To Meeting ads, and would desperately love it if JMS could join Tim and Summer in Deep Geeking on “Sleeping in Light”.

Summer recounts the story of discovering some items of interest on her final stash of VHS tapes, including the Sciography episode for the original Battlestar Galactica, and an episode of SF Vortex featuring JMS, Harlan Ellison, and Herb and Yvonne Solow.

Enter the contest to win a free iTunes copy of the Harlan Ellison documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth

Mike from Charlotte tries to defend Zima. We don’t know why.

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: The Gmail Podcast
Promo: Dragon Page “Cover to Cover”

 

 Babylon Podcast: Show #160 [57:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1653)

Welcome to Show #159!

Yes, you heard correctly… we are all Summer.

And hey, it was Jeffrey’s birthday last week!

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Feedbackapalooza Jr: Because of rogue tachyons bombarding the area around Draco Vista Studios, we are experiencing a causality break that threw spatial-temporal ordering into disarray, giving us 3 Summers but no Tim, no Jeffrey and no Mike.

So in order to prevent any permanent damage to the space-time continuum, we bring you a special episode: Feedbackapalooza Jr!

Gary wants to know if Lochley ever specifically stated which side of the Earth Civil War she was on; Gary was amused by the GoToMeeting ads; Gary is shopping for tequila and follows Jeffrey’s recommendation; Gary wonders if there was a parallel between the different seasons of B5 and the different chapters viewed in “Deconstruction of Falling Stars”; Gary muses on whether or not Lennier thinks joining the Rangers will improve his chances to be with Delenn after Sheridan dies in 20 years; Tom appreciates the looming feeling of dread cast over Season 5; Tom also loves that Season 5 also breaks all the main characters out of the delineations drawn up for them in Seasons 1-4; next, Tom gives a Star Trek analogy for the character shifts we see in Season 5.

Arkle adds some perspective on the “Vorlon on the Roof”, and wonders why Summer didn’t like the segment with the monks from “Deconstruction”; Doug surmises that maybe the shrapnel from shooting through ducts caused the injury that bled (shenanigans!); Brian solves the problem of what color bunny ears the Easter Kosh would be wearing; Gary thought that Lochley had more of a command presence than Ivanova and Sheridan right from the start.

Emails: Steven wonders if it would be possible to get an interview with Haley McLane, the voice of the station’s computer; Robinson wonders if Jerry Doyle could be the love child of Bruce Willis and Terry O’Quinn… and John provides some info on why the Space Shuttle couldn’t manuever from the Hubble to the ISS, and suggests playing with the Orbiter Flight Sim game.

From deep in the Vorlon archives, Summer-3 reads a memo about a B5 story making the cover of a magazine called “The Screening Room”, and the article about the acquisition of B5 by TNT.

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: Technorama Returns!

 

 Babylon Podcast: Show #159 [59:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2405)