Babylon 5 Discussion: Special Poll Edition!

Sounds like someone's due for a rewatching.

No, but seriously, this thread is meant for all fans, it's not just a sounding board for my discussions. If you want to post pictures, videos, short thoughts on anything B5 related, whatever you want. I hope I'm not making anyone feel like you need to have the episodes memorized to contribute lol.

Welcome! Awesome that you met somebody from the show. I'd love to meet Bruce Boxleitner or Mira Furlan or Walter Koenig or anyone from B5, really. It's a great tragedy that some of them are no longer with us. Like I said elsewhere, we'll always have Sinclair, G'Kar, Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin and Zack but the lights of Michael O'Hare, Andreas Katsulas, Jerry Doyle, Richard Biggs and Jeff Conway will never brighten our lives again- or at least not until we make that final journey.

Friends, a toast, to departed stars.

I'll gladly toast to that.
As a matter of fact, I was very lucky, because I was able to meet a lot of the actors at a german SciFi convention. They were very popular there. So far, I had the luck to met Peter Jurasik, Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, Walter König (I accidently run him over - dressed in a Delenn costume, his comment:' I expected that from Ivanova, but not Delenn' . A really sweet and funny guy), Richard Biggs, Robin Atkins Downes, Jerry Doyle, Patrica Tallman and a few others. Since that con is very familar and easy going, you'll be able to meetmost actors outside panels and photoshoots, since they enjoy the con as much as the guests.

Well, I finished Casting Shadows. A quick blurb/review on it.

The book is of course one in a trilogy. Threads have been set up that I assume will be resolved. But for now, this first book deals with the initiation of Galen into the technomages and the events that lead to the technomage migration seen in Season 2. As far as it's protagonist goes, Galen is more a creation of Crusade and its pilot movie A Call to Arms, though Elric, the technomage from B5 proper does show up as his teacher.



The book does have one thing I look for in expanding universe works, namely the expansion of lore regarding individuals or groups only hinted at in the original works. Here you'll find how mage apprentices are trained and come fully into their powers, as well as getting a glimpse into how technomage society operates. While I may have preferred some aspects (or attitudes) to go a slightly different way the way the technomages were presented was in line with what I'd come to expect. However, a word of caution. When you see the technomages in B5, there's a lot more mystery to them- you're told they use technology to achieve the appearance of magic but you're given zero insight into what this technology might be; so even to the viewer, it might as well be magic. However Crusade starts to give you peeks behind the curtain and reading the wiki (or this book) throws the curtain wide open. It doesn't make the mages any less impressive, but keep in mind that as with any magic, once you see past the illusion, even if not all the way, you can never go back, and the wonder is slightly dimmed.



As far more mundane things, I found the characterization of Galen a little odd, compared to how we see him in Crusade. It's possible that by the time of Crusade he's grown into the man we see, but at first glance the two works appear to feature different characters at heart. Elric for the most part, is as we see him in B5 and the supporting cast of mages are interesting and varied enough. Another thing I found strange is the writing style seemed to be rather stilted, with thoughts of the characters and descriptions of events and feelings not seeming to flow as well as they should have at times, particularly during the interaction of the mages near the start of the book. I'm not sure if this was deliberate for those parts (given Galen's and Elric's characterization), or indeed, if it got better in the middle or I simply stopped noticing it.

Still, if technomages or Galen specifically interest you, this book is recommended. I'll have to get copies of the other two and see where the magic takes me.

You really, really should. Seasons three and four in particular are some of the best sci-fi ever broadcast.

Yeah, most definitely.

I somewhat remember trying to get into the show (and Crusade) as a kid back in the 90s. Unfortunately as the only person in my family who enjoys Sci-Fi, any time I left the room for more than a few seconds, the channel would be conveniently changed by the time I got back.

Looks like the Shadows aren't the only ones that are coming...

Ill just throw a spoiler on this picture in case someone hasnt see the whole show...

"Woo-hoo?"

I totally never thought about that

Wanna talk socks?