The Babylon Podcast

Macaulay Bruton joins us to talk about not only his work as "Jack" on the show, but also his work as an acting teacher and coach, and how that led to him working with Michael O'Hare and to getting his role in Season 1. Source

Writer Christy Marx talks about writing the Sierra Games Babylon 5 space simulation game that, unfortunately, was never finished and released as a game. Source

Tim, Summer and Jeffrey gather together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our starting this podcast, a labor of love decidated to one particular TV series, BABYLON 5. Source

Since "The Gathering" is on all our minds again, it's only fair to talk with the musician who gave us the first sounds of Babylon 5: rock and roll legend Stewart Copeland. Source

It was something of a milestone when Babylon 5 returned to Amazon Prime in December, because the original edit of "The Gathering" was included. Source

Tim and Summer's enjoyment of "The Road Home" extends to the soundtrack, and we talk with the composers Kristopher Carter, Lolita Ritmanis, and Michael McCuistion about creating that sound. Source

Tim and Summer have watched "Babylon 5: The Road Home" to enjoy the story, and watched to make note of the hidden nods to die-hard fans, and the details shared in both the audio commentary track and the featurette. Source

The full trailer for "Babylon 5: The Road Home" has been released and well received by fans. Speculations on the story have run rampant, and now, we're going to add ours! Source

Discussion: JMS called. We answered. The hashtag that surpassed The Queen's Funeral on Twitter for a few hours on Sep 20. Of course we had to talk about it. So we answered the call, and hopped in a conference call to discuss things. Source

Speculation: Time changes us all, in many ways. So given how busy JMS is writing many things other than new stories for the new Babylon 5, it isn't likely he'll want to or be able to do all the writing himself. So naturally, Tim posits the questions about writers and writers rooms, and we run amok from there. Source

Discussion: Tim and Summer just can't help themselves. We indulge in some wildly unfounded speculation on the announcements about the new Babylon 5 series, plus ask a few questions out loud about what we could be watching on The CW someday. Source

Thank you, everyone, for allowing our love of Babylon 5 to help fuel your own love for the show, and we are grateful that our efforts to explore a show we love also provided entertainment and enjoyment for you. Your voices and support over the years have meant a lot to us, and that you still want to hear us keep talking about everything B5, and not just Day of the Dead, warms our hearts. Source

Interview: Tim and Summer chat with author Jane Killick, whose Babylon 5 Season Guides are a vital resource for any fan of the show. Source

Interview: Tim and Summer welcome Tracy Scoggins, whose command of the station in Season 5 and Crusade was a welcome addition to the field of leading lady military roles in science fiction television. Source

Interview: Tim and Summer swoon in the presence of Mira Furlan, whose regal stature on Babylon 5 made an impression to last beyond the end of time. Source

Discussion: Tim and Summer discuss most of the contents of J. Michael Straczynski's memoir, Becoming Superman. Source

Interview: Marie Marshall ("Dodger") stops by to talk about her brief but passionate and impactful appearances on Babylon 5, about how one short stint turned into such a long-term fan favorite, acting in New York, and so much more. Source

Interview: The Jason Davis stops by to talk his current project, "The Babylon 5 Preservation Project", to preserve the history of BABYLON 5 using archival paperwork and interviews with cast and crew to create a definitive making-of book. Source

Interview: Marshall R. Teague ("Ta'Lon") stops by to talk about the philosophy and wisdom of the warrior-sage Ta'Lon, the talks he had with JMS about expanding that character beyond the unnamed Narn who, along with Sheridan, survived being kidnapped by the Streib (S2E11 "All Alone in the Night"), how the creation of Ta'Lon's sword played a role in that development, the fun of being a cowboy, and so much more. Source

Interview: Josh Coxx ("Lt. David Corwin") stops by to talk about his time on C&C, the character growth over all 5 seasons and the movies, and so much more. He even chats about his time as a Frost Giant in Thor. Source

7 years ago, in December 2012, Tim and Summer closed the book on that particular journey, having spent nearly 300 episodes and quite likely well over 500 hours of discussion and more with the many cast, crew, creators and fans on all sorts of topics about and around Babylon 5. Today, we're back from beyond the rim, for just a little while. Source

It's not goodbye, it's farewell... we'll meet again, and if we don't, we will see each other again in the place where no shadows fall. We've always been here, and so have you all. Jeffrey returns from his explorations along the Rim to join Tim, Summer and Jeremy for the final official episode of The Babylon Podcast. Source

Feedbackapalooza: Gary from Jacksonville, quite likely the most prolific feedback producer the Babylon Podcast has ever had, joins us to go through the messages for the last official feedbackapalooza. He may have to replace Babylon Podcast with Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas on his voicemail speed dial... Source

Tim relates an article from io9's Charlie Jane Anders article, Please explain Babylon 5 to us!, and the offer is still out to Charlie if she wants to join us some day for a roundtable Q&A, where we'd do our best to answer her questions, and to keep those responses to under 5 minutes each. And then, the Feedbackapalooza! Source

In quick succession, the Babylon 5 universe lost two of its stars at the end of September, Michael O'Hare and Turhan Bey. We take a moment to remember them, and their all too brief moments here with us and on Babylon 5. Source

Discussion: Oh, the humanity! Even with Warner Bros being inconsistent with licensing terms, pulling licenses before items were completed or in some cases, had even gotten off the drawing boards, there's still a LOT of stuff out there for a dedicated Babylon 5 fan to search for and immerse themselves in. Source

Deep Geeking: This episode, Neil and Edmund join Tim, Summer and Jeremy to talk about the 3 short stories from the Amazing Stories magazines: "Shadow of His Thoughts", "Genius Loci", and "Space, Time and the Incurable Romantic", all three of which were written by J. Michael Straczynski. Source

Deep Geeking: This week, Tim, Jeremy and Agent 6 go in-depth discussing The Psi Corps trilogy, written by J. Gregory Keyes. The books in the series are "Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps", "Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant" and "Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester". Source

Deep Geeking: The Technomage trilogy, written by Jeanne Cavelos, is subtitled The Passing of the Technomages. The books in the series are "Casting Shadows", "Summoning Light" and "Invoking Darkness". Source

Deep Geeking: Legions of Fire, The Centauri Prime trilogy written by Peter David, is the topic for this episode, and the crew on hand really digs in. The books in order are "The Long Night of Centauri Prime", "Armies of Light and Dark", and "Out of the Darkness" (the third book is out of print, but not quite as hard to find as it had been in previous years). This was the second of the Babylon 5 trilogies that are considered canon. Source

We lament the passing of science fiction master Harry Harrison, recounting some of the classics that he'd written over the years. Feedbackapalooza: Tim, Summer and Jeremy dive into the messages that you've sent us, and we appreciate your messages to us and for us! We have a lot to go through, so settle in, kids... Source

Deep Geeking: The Shadow Within is Book #7 in the original series of novels, and the other of the two from that series that have been acknowledged as canon. Talk about this book delves deeply into Anna's story, and into the character and motivations of Morden, of the Psi Corps mission to eliminate a threat to the telepaths, and how these events mesh into the main Babylon 5 storyline as a whole. Source

Deep Geeking: To Dream in the City of Sorrows is Book #9 in the original series of novels, and one of the two from that series that have been acknowledged as canon. Talk about the book ranges from the cover art, the story arcs for Sinclair, Marcus, Catherine and Neroon, the accuracy of the character "voices", the nagging feeling that this book's pacing was too fast, and very likely could have been a much better book if it had been allowed to be longer, and more. Source

Deep Geeking: Discussions begin with the Babylon 5 novels... the books, the books, the books! Where to begin with the commentary and the criticism? Much of the dissatisfaction that we feel with these books likely comes from a combination of the main characters authentic voices being slightly off, plus the impression that the events of the books didn't matter, that they fell into the trap of hitting the "reset" button after the end of the "episode", which is one of the things that we loved about Babylon 5 that the various Star Trek series couldn't adhere to most of the time. Source

Deep Geeking: And so it begins... the last leg of the Babylon Podcast journey starts with us talking about one of the rarest books in the Babylon 5 realm, and a very interesting collection of thoughts, opinions and examinations about the the show we all love. Who knew that "Fasten, Zip" was really a metaphor for the paradox of time travel? Source

Feedback: Tim, Jeremy and special guest Michael Dymond (Stormknight) tackle the second batch of voicemails, and it's 100% Neil from Bowie, because that's how we have to handle it whenever he gets on a roll. Are there official blueprints and cutaways for Babylon 5? Source

Feedback: Tim, Jeremy and special guest Michael Dymond (Stormknight) tackle the first batch of voicemails covering the recent Crusade unproduced scripts and more. Stay tuned next week for the rest of the feedback from this batch, and the people joining us to review and discuss the novels with us (or for us) should be preparing to step into the on-deck circle! Source

We celebrate the news that Walter Koenig will finally be receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the ceremony will be held September 10, 2012. While he's the last of the original Star Trek cast to get a star, he is the second Babylon 5 cast member to have a star... and curious fans want to know if his star will have a Federation emblem or a Psi Corps emblem on it? Deep Geeking: Tim, Jeremy and guest Neil from Bowie discuss the DC Comics miniseries "In Valen's Name". Source

Deep Geeking: This week, both Gary from Jacksonville and Neil from Bowie join Summer and Jeremy to discuss the initial 11-issue run of Babylon 5 comics, published originally by DC Comics, and later collected into graphic novel collections by Titan Books and by DC. Source

Discussion: Tim, Summer, Jeremy and guest Gary from Jacksonville discuss the plan for talking about the Babylon 5 comics published by DC Comics and by Titan Books. Many issues surrounded the actual creation, writing and publication of the series, and Gary gives us a little bit of that wacky history. Source

There's nothing quite like playing Devil's Advocate in a Babylon 5 argument you're having with yourself. Feedbackapalooza: The Feedbacking continues, as we hack our way through the backlog, clearing the way for future voicemails to come in about the comics, novels, and collectibles. Source

The new theme music for Season 7 makes it's official debut, and it's a snippet of the theme created by Stewart Copeland for the original version of "The Gathering" that aired in 1993. Feedback: Tim, Summer and Jeremy respond to the backlog of voicemails that have come in over the past month or two, and as happens quite often, tangents rule. Source

Welcome to Show #260, and the start of Season 7 of the Babylon Podcast! Get ready, Babylon 5 fans... the coverage of the comics, novels, guidebooks, games and collectibles is about to commence. But first, we have to find a way to get copies of some of them into Tim's, Bret's and Jeremy's hands... after we digress into a discussion about physical vs digital books. Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer, Bret and Jeremy discuss the last officially produced Babylon 5 video content, The Lost Tales. Source

Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer and Jeremy discuss the last Babylon 5 made-for-TV movie, Legend of the Rangers, which aired in January 2002. Yes, ten years ago, people. A treatment for this movie exists in Scriptbook Volume 10, and the full script is in the TV Movies scriptbook, so compare and contrast at your leisure. Let the nitpicking begin: there aren't many real issues with the actual story, just some execution miscues. Source

Deep Geeking: Tim and Summer discuss the unproduced Crusade script, "Little Bugs Have Lesser Bugs", which was written by Peter Woodward and slated to be a Season 2 episode. The larger implications from the plot of this script are intriguing, given that it revealed a previously unknown vulnerability in the Drakh, and also gives us a storytelling conundrum, trying to obsessively figure out where in Season 2 this episode would have aired. Source

It's been way too quiet on the Babylon 5 front AND the Crusasde Script Books front. What's going on? Feedbackapalooza Time! Also, folks preparing to review and discuss the comics and novels with us (or for us), get ready... your turn will be coming up soon! Source

Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer and Jeremy discuss the unproduced Crusade script, "The End of the Line", which was slated to be the Season 1 finale. As always, Captain Gideon's dogged pursuit of the truth behind the destruction of his old ship leads him and his crew into knowledge that shakes their trust in their superiors, and Gideon himself to a personal crossroads... and a cliffhanger that could have been as intriguing as Z'ha'dum leading into Hour of the Wolf. Source

Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer and Bret talk about the unproduced Crusade scripts that would have made up the Dureena Trilogy (the stories to explain her absence after her initial contract expired): "War Story", "The Walls of Hell" and an untitled story by JMS. Also discussed are three spec pitches by Richard Mueller, for "Fire in the Blood", "House Odds", and "Mixed Blessings". Source

Deep Geeking: Tim and Summer discuss the unproduced Crusade script for "Tried and True", which can be found in the "Crusade: Other Voices, Vol 2" scriptbook. This would have been a remarkable Dureena performance, and comparisons can be drawn between this draft and what we saw in Season 4's "Intersections in Real Time", especially given the "one room play" stage-like setting in both stories. Source

Deep Geeking: Tim throws out the challenge to Gary and Jeremy: compare and contrast your favorite Captains: Sheridan (Babylon 5), Gideon (Crusade), Reynolds (Firefly) and Kirk (Star Trek: TOS) Source