Sci-Fi Storm

Found this buried in a discussion on Facebook from JMS himself:

Re: B5…the studio offered a full season of a new and rebooted B5 as part of a new distribution venue they were creating (us and several other shows from the same studio were part of the same deal). We’d have a full season, a big budget, and total creative control. The negotiations (not between us but between the participants of the venue) dragged on for over a year, we were told repeatedly this is going to happen, but finally, the participants couldn’t make the math work. So we and the other three shows that they were hoping to put out there got set aside.

At this point, I’ve told the studio that if this isn’t going to move ahead, there’s something else they need to consider and there’s a very informal negotiation going on now in that regard. We’ll see where it goes from there.

But again, B5 was never created to be a Deep Space Franchise, we wanted to do our 5 years and get out clean. That was my intent going into this, and if that’s where this ends up, I’m happy to stick with that. There are other film and TV projects I’m doing, including a deal we just concluded to write a pilot for Will Smith’s company on a show that’s been pretty much pre-sold for a full season overseas (two bidders want it badly for Europe, and now they’re just looking for a US partner).

So it sounds like we were VERY close to a “new and rebooted B5” (not sure what that meant exactly) via a new distribution venue (also not sure…web-based? iTunes?), but it isn’t happening – but something else could still happen.

Actor Jeff Conaway, who starred in the movie Grease as well as the TV series Taxi and Babylon 5, passed away this morning after his family removed life support yesterday. Conaway, who had long been suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, was placed in a medically induced coma after being found unconscious on May 11th, suffering from pneumonia and sepsis. Early reports blamed a drug overdose, but this was later refuted, although reports still say that his painkiller addiction (exacerbated by both old and more recent injuries) may have contributed to him not getting medical help soon enough.

He was 60 years old.

Bobby Wheeler/Kenickie/Zack Allan, you will be missed.

SFX Magazine in the UK posted the results of a number of polls, including the “Favourite Monsters, Supernatural Beings & Fantasy Creatures” – and the Daleks lead the list of the top 20. Other notable entries include Gollum (5), Babylon 5‘s Shadows (6, not bad for a show nearly 12 years gone…still wish we were getting more), The Borg (11), Pilot from Farscape (12), and the Cybermen (13).

For the old-time Babylon 5 fans on the Internet (especially UseNet), you may remember Elana, who made the “jumpgate” pins based on the ASCII “jumpgate” symbol (<*>) prevalent in the UseNet signatures of fans at the time. They were high quality handmade pins (I still have two of the original black pins, although I managed to break the pin back off on one). I just found out via JMS that she recently found some “missing inventory” after having moved several times, and has all sorts of them for sale again on her home page…and she sure could use your help, as she fights breast cancer…as a happy past (and soon to be again) customer, I wish her strength.

Update: Alas, Elana passed beyond the veil, October 30th, 2013. She will be missed.

With each season’s production, JMS had hired filmmaker John Hudgens to make some music videos, which JMS would then show at conventions – but that was the ONLY place you could see them, so if you didn’t attend the conventions you were out of luck – until now. All 8 videos are now available online, thanks to the B5 Script Books team. Also included are the two tribute videos to Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas.

Tomoko Kawamoto writes “Eleven fans of the epic science-fiction television series Babylon 5 (1994-98)–all previously unknown to one another, and living in places from Washington State to England–have bought a pristine prosthetic mask used on the show and donated it to Museum of the Moving Image (New York). Worn by actor Andreas Katsulas in his role as the exiled alien ambassador G’Kar, the mask had been put up for auction on eBay. The donors pooled their resources to purchase it and then gave it as a gift to the Museum, so that the mask would be accessible to fans and to the general public.

To view the mask on the Museum’s Collection Catalog, go to:
http://collection.movingimage.us/index.php?g=detai l&object_id=99056

Full press release can be read at:
http://movingimage.us/press/pdf/2008/babylon5_mask _062008.pdf“

Well, it took over a month, but one of the supposed launch titles, Babylon 5, is finally available on Hulu.com. Included right now are all of the first season episodes, plus if I remember correctly (I’m too lazy to drag out the DVD) is the original version of “The Gathering”, not the Special Edition version.