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Babylon 5
Just a few things to do with Babylon 5.
Babylon 5 was surely among the best TV science fiction series
ever produced... not so much a TV series, more a novel written for TV in five
chapters spread over five years. Things got a bit fraught, productionwise,
towards the end of the fourth year as it was only renewed for the fifth season
at the last minute, on a different network, so the end of the main plot thread
was rushed in season 4. Much of the fifth season is forgettable, though the
last half-dozen or so episodes are very moving.
I've got a little page set up where you can find out the history of
video releases in the UK. (VHS, not DVD)
The Lurkers'
Guide to Babylon 5is the encyclopaedic resource for all information about
every episode in the series...
Babylon 5 produced some of the busiest newsgroups on the net,
discussing the latest developments of the intricate plot and, unfortunately in
some places, indulging in fierce flame wars. Most of these will be pretty
dormant now the B5 Saga has long finished, but you'll probably get a response
if you post to uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5 !
The principal newsgroups were:-
- rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
- the main worldwide newsgroup, and consequently full of Americans. It's
moderated to keep the flames down and to prevent people from posting story
ideas, because the creator and Great Maker of B5, J. Michael Straczynski,
(known as Joe or jms to his many friends and fans) (hail! hail!)
frequented the group.
- rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
- the original rec.* newsgroup. Unfortunately some antisocial folk insisted on
flaming jms unjustly, so he left the group for his own protection; this
incident resulted in the creation of the .moderated newsgroup. I can't
recommend this group.
- rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info - a
low-volume moderated newsgroup which exists to pass on general announcements of
B5 news, not for discussion.
- alt.tv.babylon-5 - the
grandfather of all the B5 newsgroups. It was supposed to be superseded by
r.a.s.t.b5, but it still staggers on.
- uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5
- The home of the wild and wacky members of the UK's online B5 fandom. Since
the end of the fifth season of Babylon 5, and the demise of Crusade it's
gone very quiet, but there are quite a lot of people around who are still
subscribed to the group so you can try starting a conversation if you
like!
- uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5.social -
because the u.m.t.s.b5 folk are so sociable, they started to hang out
together in bars, restaurants and so on. The number of postings about social
meetings in u.m.t.s.b5 got so large it threatened to become an appreciable
proportion of the entire newsgroup's postings, so this group was set up so
people can plan get-togethers ("Babblings" in Pages Bar, Page St, Westminster -
almost literally a stones' throw from Channel 4 HQ - see the group, buy the
t-shirt! :-), Leeds Gurglings, Oxford Liquid Lunches, etc.). This one's also
gone quiet since its great days in 1997-8, and may in time be removed for lack
of use, subject to the usual procedures of the uk.* hierarchy.
- alt.babylon5.uk - the original
newsgroup for UK fans, now pretty low-volume but still frequented by some; note
that it has quite a high proportion of Americans posting to it, who tend to
post spoilers quite often, so be careful!
- aus.sf.babylon5 - the
Australian B5 newsgroup, very like u.m.t.s.b5 in ethos - they can get wibblish
when there's no new B5 on TV too!
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© Arwel Parry, 1997 - 2006.
Babylon 5 is Copyright ©
Warner Bros., Babylonian Productions and Prime Time Entertainment Network
1992-1997.
No infringement of any existing copyright is intended by this
page - all existing copyrights are recognised.
Last updated: 08-06-2006.
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