Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info,rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated,rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5,alt.tv.babylon-5,aus.sf.babylon5,rec.arts.sf.tv,alt.answers,rec.answers,news.answers
Subject: Babylon 5 FAQ (A): Information about Babylon 5
Supersedes: Between pilot and first season:
Due to reworking and recasting after the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takashima,
Dr. Benjamin Kyle, and telepath Lyta Alexander were replaced. Kyle and
Alexander were sent back to Earth under "mysterious circumstances"; Takashima
is on a classified mission, and may return someday. Much of the character
stories and back-histories were transferred to their replacements.
Make-up for G'Kar was improved; Delenn's look was substantially modified once
it was established that the character would be female.
----> Between first and second season:
Director Richard Compton, a fixture on B5 at its inception, left the show
after "Grail." The narration and main titles was changed to be shorter, and
to include new graphics introducing the characters. Many improvements in
costumes, makeup, lighting, and FX were added for season 2. Several new sets
were added, including a bazaar and an officer's lounge called "Earhart's,"
after the famed aviator. In order to advance the story, the character of
Commander Sinclair was moved "off the chess board" at the start of season 2.
According to JMS, this was a mutual, amicable decision between producers and
Michael O'Hare. Lt. Cmdr. Ivanova was promoted to Commander; Delenn went
through a physical change. Na'Toth was re-cast, and the character of Warren
Keffer was added.
----> Between second and third season:
The narration changed once again. Additional sets were brought on, including
a rather large one. Keffer and Talia Winters, and Na'Toth are no longer on
the show; Zack Allan was made a regular character, and Marcus Cole was brought
in as a regular.
----> Between third and fourth season:
Foundation Imaging is no longer doing the visual effects; they are now done in
house by Netter Digital. Additionally, many of the behind-the-scenes crew
that had been on the show since the beginning are not returning. Lyta
Alexander joins the main cast of the show.
----> A list of episodes that have been mentioned online and later retitled.
"Blood and Thunder" --> "Midnight on the Firing Line"
"Amaranth" --> "Born to the Purple"
"Carnival!" --> "The Parliament of Dreams"
"A Knife in the Shadows" --> "Survivors"
"Backlash" --> "By Any Means Necessary"
"Raiding Party" --> "Signs and Portents"
"The Resurrectionist" --> "The Quality of Mercy"
"Chrysalis, Part II" --> "Points of Departure"
"A Trick of the Mind" --> "A Spider in the Web"
"Pestilence, Famine & Death"> "Soul Mates"
Season 3 was initially called "I am Death, Destroyer of Worlds."
> Scripts not used in Season 1:
"Target Unknown" and "Metaphors and Body Counts" (David Gerrold)
> Harlan Ellison stories mentioned but not written: "Midnight in the Sunken
Cathedral" and "Demon on the Run"
> Season 2 story titles shelved:
All Our Songs Forgotten, a.k.a. "Unnatural Selection" (D.C. Fontana),
The Very Long Night of Susan Ivanova (JMS), "Expectations" (David Gerold)
======== h. Fan Clubs
## Got Updates? E-mail {b5-submit@midwinter.com} with subject "B5 FAN CLUBS"
An official USA B5 fan club is up and running. The address of it is:
The Official Babylon 5 Fan Club, P.O. Box 856, North Hollywood, CA 91603.
Online form: ftp://ftp.midwinter.com/pub/Babylon-5/fan-club-info (text file)
Note: UK fans can join via the UK fan club; see the UK FAQ for information.
There are some international and unofficial fan clubs, as well as some fan
clubs for particular actors. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION IN SENDING MONEY TO THESE
CLUBS; I AM NOT ABLE TO VERIFY THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, AND I HAVE
HEARD REPORTS OF PROBLEMS WITH A FEW OF THE CLUBS.
The Centaurian Sentinal is a printed monthly newsletter.
WWW: http:www.hway.net/dreamin/centauri.htm / E-mail: m.zmuda@genie.geis.com
The Circle of Friends, a fan club sanctioned by Michael O'Hare (Commander
Sinclair/Valen) is a charity organization which raises money to support
his chosen charities. For more information, contact Sandy Bruckner at
sgbruckner@aol.com or 5022 Geronimo Street, College Park, MD 20740.
WWW: http://www.muohio.edu/~thomasrd/fomoh.html
Garibaldi & Company, c/o Linda K. Shapley, 12865 NE 85th St., Suite 267,
Kirkland WA 98033 e-mail: Flashdanze@aol.com.
NOTE: Apparently some people were having problems reaching this FC; I am
reassured that they are still in business.
Bruce Boxleitner's Official Fan Club, P.O. Box 57593, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
International Bruce Boxleitner Fan Club, c/o Darla Vasilias, 230 Deerfield Dr.
Alexandria, VA 22309
Garibaldi's Security Squad, c/o Caroline Griffin, 54 Wimpole Street, London
W1M 7DF England
Julie Caitlin Brown Fan Club, e-mail Dkountz@aol.com for information.
Richard Biggs Fan Club, c/o Shirley Didemoico, 1133 Uptegraf Street,
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
The Mira Furlan Fan Club, PO Box 523093, Springfield, VA 22152-9998.
Ed Wasser Fan Club: Bi-monthly electronic newsletter. Free to all. e-mail
subscribe@wasser.com to join. WWW: http://www.catalog.com/wasser
Australia: There are TWO fan clubs, in competition. The information for both
is provided here. The Babylon 5 Oz Fan Club: WWW: http://www.bab5oz.hl.com.au/
NOTE: I have received several reports of problems with this club; please
exercise caution. Then, there's the Australian Babylon 5 Fan Club;
e-mail bfive@vnet.ibm.com for info.
Germany: Journey to Babylon. Steffen Maier, Friedenstrasse 11, D-66978
Donsieders, GERMANY. E-mail: StefMaier1@aol.com.
Germany: German Babylon 5 Fanclub, Daniela Ricci, Mindenerstr.7, 40227
Dusseldorf, Germany. e-mail: wizart@NetCologne.de
Norway: The B5 Alliance. Inge Carlen, Ole Messelts vei 130 0676 Oslo, Norway
e-mail: ingec@powertech.no
France: Le Cercle de Babylon 5, c/o Dominique Deloze, 1, Clos de Momgambe,
54460 Aingeray, France
Russia: see WWW: http://www.aha.ru/~shs
UK: See the UK Babylon 5 FAQ.
------------------------------
Subject: 11. Where to find online information
## Got Updates? E-mail {b5-submit@midwinter.com} with subject "B5 ONLINE"
======== a. INTERNET
WORLD "The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5" is by far the best source for
WIDE B5 updates, information, analyses, images, and so on.
WEB North America (West): http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html
Mirrors of the Midwinter site are:
North America (East): http://www.dscga.com/lurk/lurker.html
Australia: http://econ-www.newcastle.edu.au/lurk/lurker.html
Germany: http://www.asta.uni-essen.de/lurk/lurker.html
Greece: http://www.ntua.gr/lurk/lurker.html
UK (ep. guide): http://www.csv.warwick.ac.uk/~suaap/lurker/eplist.htm
The OFFICIAL B5 web site is less ambitious, but has a nice set of high
quality official graphics, movies, etc. at http://www.babylon5.com
"Agamemnon" sound site is http://rampages.onramp.net/~brummett/b5.htm
An unofficial encyclopedia is http://interweb.uml.edu/B5/Enc/
(Other B5 WWW sites are listed in the Lurker's guide.)
The web holds dozens of web pages devoted to B5; you can find many
of them via links at the Lurker's Guide or the official site.
USENET rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info
A low-volume, moderated list for announcements and information related
to Babylon 5, as well as general compilations of JMS postings.
A must for anybody who can get Usenet. Created November 1995.
This group is archived on the web: http://ivory.ora.com/rastbi/
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
The new moderated discussion group in which JMS participates, as well
as co-producer George Johnsen, along with occasional other B5 staffers
and writers. Created April 1996.
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
This group was created in Mar 28 1994 and is the main unmoderated
Babylon 5 discussion newsgroup. JMS no longer participates here.
alt.tv.babylon-5
The original Usenet B5 group, created Feb 18 1993, and still online
uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5 and aus.sf.babylon5 are UK and Oz groups.
rec.video.satellite, rec.arts.tv, and rec.arts.sf.tv may also contain
Babylon 5 discussion and announcements.
FTP ftp.midwinter.com (206.148.146.193) is the main site from which you
can retrieve Babylon-5-related files via anonymous FTP.
NORTH AMERICAN MIRROR: ftp.uml.edu
AUSTRALIAN MIRROR: econ-www.newcastle.edu.au
EUROPEAN MIRROR: ftp.ctrl-c.liu.se
B5 Sounds are at Agamemnon, ftp://archive.egr.msu.edu/pub/babylon5
REVIEW The Babylon 5 Reviews Electronic Forum, moderated by Jeff Schultz.
LIST To subscribe, e-mail the automated list server, listproc@cornell.edu.
Put a single line into the body of the message, reading:
SUBSCRIBE B5-REVIEW-L Firstname Lastname
This is processed by machine, so do not include a signature.
WWW: http://mist.cit.cornell.edu/b5rev/
STORY An outlet for creative "fan fiction" has been set up as a mailing list
IDEAS in order to keep JMS from being exposed to any story ideas. There's
LIST also a speculation mailing list. Send e-mail to these addresses:
b5-creative-request@lists.best.com for creative stories, or to
b5-speculation-request@lists.best.com for speculation. Place the word
SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
INTERNET A continuous chat exists on EFnet on channel "#Babylon5".
RELAY Info on IRC: ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet/news.answers/irc-faq
CHAT Info on the B5 chat: http://www.nwlink.com/~brett/B5irc
also: http://b5chat.home.ml.org
MUD/ There's a B5 MUD (info: rmeikle@cs.strath.ac.uk ) reachable by:
MUSH telnet underworld.demon.co.uk 2010 / visit babylonfive
A B5 Mush can be found at gateway.targonia.com 4201.
LOCAL MANY areas now have local area mailing lists, thanks to the babcom
AREA list server. WWW: http://www.babcom.com/b5/lists.shtml
LISTS Or, over e-mail, send 'help' to majordomo@babcom.com for a complete
list of commands. 'lists' gets you the list of lists served.
JMS To get mailings of JMS's answers from Usenet (and their preceeding
RELAY questions) as well as digest of CI$ JMS postings, send e-mail to
LIST majordomo@majordomo.cs.columbia.edu containing "subscribe b5jms"
Another similar service is available by sending e-mail to
majordomo@ulc199.residence.gatech.edu with "subscribe jms-posts"
in the body of the message.
WARNER A new mailing list from Warner Bros. for fans has been started; it has
BROS. occasional "newsletter" mailings. Mail listserv@taz.warnerbros.com
LIST with body text: subscribe babylon5 firstname lastname
ELEC- "The Zocalo" is a 4100+ member B5 club/newsletter via e-mail.
TRONIC Send your first name, where you found this info, your city, state,
NEWS- and country of residence to katana@highfiber.com.
LETTERS WWW: http://www.highfiber.com/~katana/
======== b. GEnie
The two Babylon 5 topics are located at Page 471, Category 18 (general
series-related) and 19 (episode-specific). Archives of past messages are
available in the GEnie SFRT files areas, along with graphics files and the
interactive demos are also available in the file area.
======== c. America Online (AOL)
AOL now features a Babylon 5 Section (Keyword: Babylon5). There are official
promotional images, movies, and sounds and an (uncredited!) adaptation of this
FAQ list. Interactive interviews with the cast and crew occur frequently. JMS
now participates in the message areas.
======== d. CompuServe
JMS is a regular daily participant in the SF & Fantasy Media One Forum
(SFMEDONE), where there are three active Babylon 5 sections (for general
discussion and spoiler discussions, and the UK audience), two weekly B5
conferences, and quarterly JMS conferences. There is also another B5
conference, in the eDRIVE grouping of forums, under ETV, Section 7, SF/Sci-Fi;
JMS pops in there from time to time.
======== e. Other
JMS also frequents BIX, and lurks on other networks; there are active B5
sections on many other networks and BBSs around the world. Babylon 5
graphic files, information files, and forwarded JMS postings are available
on many of these systems. If you have a local BBS or network, feel free to
add some of the resources from the FTP site over to that system!
------------------------------
Subject: 12. Credits and Legalese
This text file may be distributed online, in complete or excerpted form, as
long as acknowledgement is made to the authors, and the URL of the current
version of this file is indicated. (see top of document.)
The Babylon 5 Frequently Asked Questions List part (A) is Copyright 1996-97 by
Dan Wood. Acknowledgement is made to J. Michael Straczynski, previous FAQ
maintainer Lee Whiteside and to excerpted contributions from the Babylon 5
online libraries, especially The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 and The Zocalo.
Currently maintained by Dan Wood (danwood@karelia.com)
Comments, suggestions, etc. are always appreciated.
If you have any information to go into the FAQ and/or the Lurker's Guide,
please send them to {b5-submit@midwinter.com>.
This text file was edited on QUED/M text editor running on a Macintosh.
If you maintain an online B5 service, I can send you each FAQ update. I don't
have the resources to send updates to individuals, so please don't ask.
Last-modified: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 07:17:17 GMT