Soul Hunter

Episode 3 “Soul Hunter” (Season 1, Episode 2) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0517692/?ref_=ttep_ep2

Synopsis: In which a mysterious alien, a hunter of souls if you will, comes aboard the station. We are introduced to Doctor Stephen Franklin, gain some insights into Mimbari religious doctrine and learn that Ambassador Delenn may not be what she seems.

Lurker’s Guide page on the episode: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/002.html

JMS on Delenn’s originally intended gender ambiguity:

“We'd originally planned to go for a more vague sexuality for Delenn; a male physically and primarily in the voice, on top of the natural female movements one gets from an actress. In post-production, however, we couldn't get the voice to sound as good and male as we'd wanted. In addition, a couple of convention showing of a rough cut saw people responding VERY strongly to her voice as it was, so we finally decided to let it stand and change the one reference to "he" to "she," and that was the end of it.” http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/000.html

Chris, discussing the theory of soul-vat recycling, referenced “Richard Bachman” but meant “Richard Bach.” Bachman is, of course, a pseudonym used by Stephen King to write such works as “Thinner” and “The Running Man.” It would have been much more interesting to see King’s take on the migration of souls, so perhaps this was just wishful thinking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One:_A_Novel

Claudia Christian and Walter Koenig were at GenCon in Milwaukee in 1999.  

The Shell Game scam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_game

The Babylon 5 station is listed as 5 miles long and 2.5 million tons. An Imperial Star Destroyer is approximately ⅛ the size. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/01/25/how-much-would-it-realistically-cost-to-build-an-imperial-i-class-star-destroyer/#1f3b3c44390d

Commander Sisko’s conversation with Quark:

Commander Benjamin Sisko: My officers, Bajoran engineers, all their families depend on the shops and services of this promenade. If people like you abandon it, this is going to become a ghost town. We need someone to step forward and say "I'm staying. I'm rebuilding". We need a community leader, and it's going to be - you, Quark!

Quark: [guffaws] Community leader!

William Morgan Sheppard: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0792003/?ref_=tt_cl_t12

Ave Atque Vale, Vir

Sometimes I have to wonder, and I know I’m not alone in this, if this show is cursed.

As everyone probably knows, we lost Stephen Furst last week. A very good actor, a huge presence in Babylon 5, and by all accounts I’ve seen a very good person.

Furst, as Vir Cotto, comes on seeming to be the bumbling comic relief sidekick to the comic relief main character. It would have been easy to leave him in that role, largely inconsequential to the bigger story. But Babylon 5 never went for easy.

Jon suggested I write something about Furst and Vir this week, but I’m having a problem with that. I’ve never seen Animal House for whatever reason. Never really watched St. Elsewhere. And while I watched Babylon 5 in its initial run my memory is terrible. I can remember general themes and vague impressions but not many details. I’m almost seeing the series for the first time after having dreamt it or had someone describe it to be in vague detail on a long train ride.

But I do remember one bit, the one everyone remembers. Vir was the one who actually stood up to Morden, when no one else would. From this awkward, nerdy fellow, this was a triumph.

Vir was the conscience of the show, the everyperson with a heart of gold and the best intentions, even if he didn’t always know how to achieve them. I may not remember many specific details about the show but I know that Vir was a good man in a very complicated and difficult situation. I look forward to getting to know him again.

Thumbnail image from: [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/519251032012521949/]

Midnight on the Firing Line

Episode 2 “Midnight on the Firing Line” (Season 1, Episode 1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0517669/?ref_=tt_ep_pr

Synopsis: In which a Narn sneak-attack on a Centauri outpost bring the powers to the brink of war. Earth elects a new President!  Also we meet the new station telepath Talia Winters, the new first officer Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova, let us never speak of Laurel Takashima again, and there’s some nonsense about space pirates.

Season 1 Opening Narration:

Jeffrey Sinclair: It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

Lurker’s Guide page on the episode: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/001.html

Claudia Christian: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0160004/?ref_=nv_sr_6

Our Thesis - Why We Think Babylon 5 Matters, Even in 2017

Why are you making a podcast about a show that's more than 20 years old? Particularly one that hasn't even been given a glossy (or gritty) remake yet? Chris and I asked ourselves that very question before we got to work and we came to the conclusion that without Babylon 5, you simply don't have the fundamental reinvention of science fiction television that came after it. You don't have Lost. You don't have the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica in all its glory. You don't have Firefly. You don't have the serialized science fiction, as evidenced by programs like Orphan Black, 3%, Sense8 or Stranger Things. Babylon 5 helped turn us into different kinds of science fiction television viewers by virtue of its long-running narrative arcs that required a commitment to follow. In short, what is it about this program that made this practice possible, how did it work, what did its creator do to sustain it and what were the themes that made the show effective?

Our objective is not to give a blow-by-blow recounting of each episode's events. Rather, through our conversation, we hope to better understand what made B5 one of the seminal programs in science fiction television history. It was great and dreadful, sometimes in equal measure, sometimes in the same episode. Usually programs this uneven don't get made. We hope over the course of this series to better understand B5 as a phenomenon, as a cultural relic of its time and despite its problems, worthy of its place in the canon of science fiction television. We're going to riff a lot as we take the show episode by episode. There will be regular features, like the most Straczynskiest line of the episode, and we'll certainly be making fun of some of the more over the top aspects of the show. But each episode will, we hope, take us with ever greater confidence into understanding the show, its influence and its context...now, join us in the year 2257, at the dawn of the third age of mankind, as we begin to decipher the legacy of this often great, sometimes dreadful but always intriguing television touchstone.

Cover image from: [http://io9.gizmodo.com/5985727/the-strange-secret-evolution-of-babylon-5]

The Gathering

Episode 1 - “The Gathering” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106336/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Synopsis: In which we meet the crew of the space station, for better or worse. Representatives from each of the alien powers gather, and someone tries to kill the enigmatic Vorlon ambassador. The plot thickens when the station commander, Jeffrey Sinclair, is the prime suspect!

Opening narration

Londo Mollari: I was there at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257, with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Babylon 5 was a dream given form, a dream of a galaxy without war where species from different worlds could live side by side in mutual respect. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story.

On the comparisons between Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9: http://www.tor.com/2013/02/26/is-this-the-smoking-gun-proving-deep-space-nine-ripped-off-babylon-5/

The changes made to the show between The Gathering and the start of season 1: http://io9.gizmodo.com/5985727/the-strange-secret-evolution-of-babylon-5

In the discussion of the Earth Alliance, we note that the Earth Alliance appears to be a”humans only club” and that the various other “miscellaneous” aliens we see around the station don’t seem to have representation among the command staff or in the tribunal. We will see in “Midnight on the Firing Line” that these other aliens are part of the “League of Non-Aligned Worlds” and not part of the Earth Alliance.

Opening sequence from the original version of The Gathering, as it aired in 1993, including the original theme music by Stewart Copeland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9KM9YQ-WQ

In sharing this extraordinary music with this audience, we make no copyright claims to it and use it only to ensure that those many fans who have never encountered it might learn of it.

Tamlyn Tomita’s credits. And Jon calls himself a Glee fan... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000674/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The Instance, a World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to:

http://frogpants.com/instance

The indispensable Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5, entry on The Gathering. See the “Analysis’ section for discussion of  Lt. Commander Takashima’s role in the conspiracy:

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/000.html

Michael Garibaldi’s second favorite thing in the universe: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ym9b7_daffy-duck-ep-70-duck-dodgers-in-the-24%C2%BDth-century_fun