The Babylon Podcast

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!

Deep Geeking: The team gets involved in geeking on "Rising Star", and musing on when the cast knew whether there'd be a 5th season, and on if that notice came before or after the initial airing of this episode.

Discussion: Summer and Tim succumb to the temptation and try out their best Irish brogues. Tim reads an email from Captain Jaclyn, correcting the info on the release date of the "Asked and Answered" scriptbooks (April 7th, not April 1st).

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.

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.

Tim reads some news from JMS on his screenplays in progress, including World War Z, Lensman, and Ninja Assassin, and some teaser news that he's been offered some directing gigs.

Discussion: Tim and Summer discuss "Endgame", the climax of the struggles gone through during the battle phases of the Earth Civil War. We compare more speeches again, too.

Discussion: Tim and Summer revisit the discussion about Ivanova's "I am Death Incarnate" declaration before leading the White Star fleet up against the advanced EA Destroyer fleet. We compare it to President Laura Roslin's speech from the recent BSG Season 4 episode "Blood on the Scales", and Summer amends her previous assessment of Ivanova's speech. She doesn't hate it, like Tim and Mike do, but it definitely doesn't rank as high in her estimation as before.

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".

Deep Geeking: Tim and Summer discuss "Between The Darkness and The Light", the episode which marks a significant turning point in the war to take back Earth from Clark's forces.

The morale hit taken by Sheridan's capture is turned around by them breaking him out and rescuing him, and by the White Star fleet's destruction of Earth's advanced, Shadow-tech cruisers.

Is this the first glimpse we see of Lyta's steps towards her dark, angry side?

Deep Geeking: Tim, Summer and special guest Jarsto delve into "Intersections in Real Time", definitely one of the most difficult episodes to watch the first time around.

The psychological abuse we see Sheridan being subjected to is also felt by the viewer because of the structure of the episode... there is no cut away to a B story, no time jumps in scene, and the relentless manipulation in pursuit of a truth they want to use for their own purposes.

It's also another wonderful example of the use of a stage play composition, both in set design and writing/acting, to intensify the the emotional impact of the interactions and the reasons for them.

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.