Welcome to Show #209!
Last week, our heroes risked breaching the fabric of the space-time continuum by trying to follow alternate Babylon 5 storylines to parallel universes where they might have been fully played out…
Discussion: Tim, Summer and John from Jersey continue the discussion about alternate story possibilities within the original 5-year arc. We’re not sure where Bret ran off to… hopefully, he didn’t run afoul of emopaths and spaced himself out of self-preservation.
Lurker’s Guide 2.0: Summer is starting a push to get Lurker’s Guide 2.0 completed and finished, including missing collectibles, photos of magazine covers and toys, and all sorts of other B5 goodies that didn’t get included in the original guide during the years after Crusade. Let her know if you want to lend a hand.
More Parody/Filk Songs Wanted: If you know of any more B5-related fan songs out there, definitely let us know, so we can let other B5 fans know where to buy them! And if those CDs are out of print, let’s brainstorm on ways to get those songs back out there for fans!
Babylon Podcast Social Communities:
Twitter: @babylonpodcast
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.
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Funny that the subject of re-casting a major character came up; did you eitehr Tim or Bret ever get my e-mail about doing a B5 Casting Game? Summer has expresed interest. If I can’t get the rest of the BabCast gang though I might be able to talk Luke Ski into being the second panelist.
You speculated on when the first mention of the telepath timeline was. I believe that was in the pilot, when G’Kar approached Lyta about obtaining telepath DNA. He commented on how impressive her line was traced back to. To which she answered to the effect that the official record only went back to a little over 100 years, when they started keeping records, and that her unrecorded family history went back even further.
The description of the mysterious Mr. Jones initially reminded me of the Technomage, Galen: The unexpectedness of his appearances with vital information that it was inferred may not always be trustworthy. The refusal to let doctors examine him. The fact that no one considered it odd that this unknown commoner could so easily schmoose with the bigwigs. The question of just who’s side IS he on, anyway? The legend and rumor aspect. Later parts of the description, however, remind me of Marcus. His holding “court” at the same table in the bazaar. The consequences of trying to force an issue with him. Perhaps he was to be a Marcus-like Technomage. After he was dropped, the Technomage part was ultimately sent fleeing for safety, and the Marcus part later brought back as the ever-helpful Ranger.
Regarding Mr Jones as Sebastian: I was mentally shouting this just before John said it. Obviously, he’s a Narn telepath. What Might Have Been may be worth visiting again — good topic.
I was reminded in this episode of how JMS was involved directly with fans though electronic means. Has this been done since? By anyone? If B5 has legacies that we can find in current and future productions, why has this level of contact not been seen?
And I don’t mean Twitter and the mass-blast approach. Sure, that’s there, but JMS actually read and responded, as the upcoming books prove.
Involved with the fans directly, one on one? No, I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. I think Joss Whedon had/has a one-level-removed hands-on relationship with his fans, I’d say especially with the groundswell of Firefly fans moreso than Buffy or Angel.
But if you think about it, it’d be harder to do in 2010 than it was in 1995 (meaning, more work), because the Internet is so much broader, and faster than it was back then. A showrunner these days would never get any work done on their show if they spent an equivalent amount of time on the Internet, trying to read most of the fan commentary *and* respond. So I really don’t think we’re going to see that kind of direct interaction again, outside of Twitter or any other social media gadgets.