Last week, the Babylon 5 Script Team sent out e-mails to those of us on the script book announcement list, letting us know that volume nine will be delayed until September because JMS is too busy making new B5 material to get the volume together. Those who missed our original articles about the script books should head over to this page and dig into the goodness. (I’m trying to develop a script rubric of some form just to rave about these books.) Those who want to read the note JMS wrote for last week’s email can find it in the extended article body below.
Continue reading →

joe__gee writes, With all of the good B5 news lately (all new back story B5 mini-episodes released direct to DVD in 2007, WB offered JMS a B5 feature film due to half a billion $$$ in B5 revenues, etc.) this is minor, but several more B5 episodes are now accessible on AOLTV.com. I’d elaborate, but their Web site won’t let me, saying my version of Windows XP isn’t Windows XP. :(

Damien writes, According to an article at Sci-Fi Storm, JMS is getting lots of work these
days with WB asking him to revisit the B5 universe and several of his
stories getting TV or movie deals.
Article here.

Actor Andreas Katsulas, who’s probably most familiar to B42 readers from his recurring role as Tomalak in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” or his role as G’Kar in “Babylon 5,” has died of lung cancer at the age of 59, according to his Web site.

Babylon 5: The Legend Of The Rangers will
come to DVD on March 14, 2006, according to this
TVShowsOnDVD.com article.

For some reason, I didn’t get the automatic
notification I signed up for, so I thought I’d notify
everyone in case somebody else missed it: the first
volume of J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5
scripts is now for sale.
Order quickly, and it’s only $29.99US plus shipping
instead of the $39.99US it will be shortly.

As revealed in this
rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe post, JMS’ scripts
to Babylon 5 are going to be up for sale
shortly. Let’s hope this leads to a similar release
for Crusade, so that we can see what network
meddling kept from us.

As some of you may have heard, JMS was more than a little irritated by the DVD release of Crusade. It seems that he had agreed to record a commentary for one of the episodes on the condition that it be left intact, since he planned to tell the fans why the show got cancelled. Well, Warner edited those comments out and left the rest intact. After much conversation, (to quote JMS when I asked him about this via e-mail last December: “We’re talking. Loudly.”) it has been decided that future pressings of Crusade will not include his commentary. The deal was an “all or nothing” type of deal, so they’ve agreed on the “nothing” bit. Existing copies, such as those available here, still have that commentary track. I’ll keep an eye for a new pressing when I’m doing the weekly DVD column, and let you know when the commentary-free
batch is available. I’d suggest getting this version; I’ve listened to the commentary, and even though it’s not complete, it is interesting and informative.

Firefly

American Gothic

Farscape

Crusade

Why does the best genre entertainment have to die
an unexpected and unnatural death?

Continue reading →

Reports like this
Cinescape article are coming in to confirm old
rumours. Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows
will begin filming in April, based on a script
written by J. Michael Straczynski. It will include
the character of Galen, already familiar to those who
caught the Babylon 5: Crusade spinoff of a
few years ago. (No casting announcements have been
made, but I haven’t seen Peter Woodward working on
anything else lately.) Expect a review the morning
after it premiers.