The Audio Guide to Babylon 5

Tumblr for the "Audio Guide to Babylon 5" podcast: b5audioguide.com

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

The legendary @neil-gaiman made his American television debut writing the only episode of B5 not authored by Joe Straczynski since late Season 2. Was this mystical character piece too much of a departure from the “house style”? What the heck was Morden doing in Lennier’s quarters? We bring back the Space Mob’s biggest fan, first-time B5 watcher Steven Schapansky, for a fresh look at a story by a pre-American Gods and Coraline storyteller.

Chat thread for those who beware of spoilers

Chat thread for those who fear not the spoilers

[galathea-snb]

Some must be sacrificed, if all are to be saved.

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

This episode has epic ’90s computer matte compositing of a balcony, set to a particularly stirring Christopher Franke score!

Oh, and Garibaldi does the secret agent thing, hamstrung by his return to the bottle; G’Kar becomes the Narn Pope; Franklin gets a job offer (name-checking a character not mentioned in 99 episodes), and Londo inadvertently fingers his own government. Just another ordinary day in the life of Babylon 5–in our 100th episode!

Chat for episodes 0-99

Chat for episodes 101-???

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

It’s the end of the Byron arc, in dramatically tragic fashion–which means it is of course time for our own harbinger of doom, Jason Snell, to return to delight in misfortune.

Chat thread for remaining spoiler-free

Chat thread full of spoiler potential

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

The two threads–the telepath colony crisis and the secret Centauri attacks on ISA ships–get pulled tighter together, with an unexpected rescue of Na’Toth (the real one!) and an entirely expected return of Bester. We’d call it the calm before the storm, but it’s not very calm….

Chat thread for those in the know

Chat thread for those who don’t want to know

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

No more pastels for the Regent, no.

Damian London portrays a very different Regent from the sweet old man we used to know as Londo begins to suspect very dark things are afoot in his supposedly liberated world. It’s an episode full of delightful double acts (Londo/G’Kar), palace intrigue, clumsy politics (hello, Byron) and dark omens. But is there a STORY here? And if not, is that all right?

Spoiler-free chat thread

Spoiler-ific chat thread

[babylon5iov]

Вавилон 5: Деленн Babylon 5: Delenn

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

As Steven discovers a long-buried secret about an Alliance race, Byron discovers an even more deeply buried secret about telepaths in EVERY race–just as life is getting even rougher for his followers in Down Below. How is the telepath story arc faring, now that we’re looking at it 20 years later? And what the heck IS a BCFMO, anyway?

Chat thread for first-timers

Chat thread for many-timers

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

We use the word “spackle” a few times in this podcast. We like that word. Rolls off the tongue. MEANWHILE, for the second episode in a row the stars of the show aren’t our regulars. What’s up with that? Is it worth it to get the delightful Turhan Bey back? It’s a deep dive into Rangers and Minbari, and an exploration of the ever more fraught partnership between Garibaldi and Lochley in this episode of B5AG!

Chat thread for spoiler-philes

Chat thread for spoiler-phobes

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

We all come together in a better place to find a roomful of singing telepaths, an irritated Bester, an irritated Lochley, an irritated Garibaldi, and (thank heavens) a gleefully mischievious Delenn and G’Kar. How’s that master plan of Sheridan’s working out now, eh?

Chat thread for the spoiler-philes

Chat thread for the spoiler-phobes

[b5audioguide]

J. Michael Straczynski on Twitter

“Absolutely...AGtB5 has always been fascinating and insightful. https://t.co/YEM3k6LOuO”

Yeah, we’re all freaking out just a little here...

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

DEPLOY THE GREEK CHORUS! Two never-before-seen minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern their way through the space station and their cast. In Spoiler Space for the previous episode, our intrepid podcasters expressed their dread of “A View from the Gallery.” Was it misplaced? Did the memory cheat? Are we on Team Mack and Bo now?

Chat thread for those in the know

Chat thread for those who don’t want to know yet

[b5audioguide]

Due to two of our three being at Long Island Who this weekend, and they being the two that are better at editing audio files, our next episode, “The Paragon of Animals”, will go up next weekend.

Chat threads have been posted for the benefit of those who did their homework on time.

Spoiler-free

Spoiler-full

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

It’s the second episode of a brand new season with a brand new status quo, so what do you do? Ignore all the new people and new situations, and do a character study about alllll of the bad decisions one man made over four years. It’s Londo’s “Come to Jesus moment” paired with Lennier’s “I’m off to the Foreign Legion” moment, in the most surreal episode yet of Babylon 5.

As always, chat threads are here for those avoiding later spoilers and there for those who’ve seen it all.

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

Somewhat to their surprise, the cast and crew and showrunner got their fifth season. But to quote some guy way back in the first, “Nothing’s the same anymore.” Sheridan’s wearing a suit, not a uniform. Ivanova’s gone. There’s a new face in the command center wearing a regulation Earthforce uniform. And then there’s Byron. Welcome to the TNT year of Babylon 5!

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

Creepy Cthulhu aliens from beyond Firstspace and Secondspace! This Untold Tale of Babylon 5 was produced after the fourth season when they had no hint there would be a fifth. Is this a better “movie” than “In the Beginning”? Does it actually fit into Season 4’s continuity? Where the deuce has Deuce been all this time? We answer all of your questions–except that last one. Next up: Season 5!

Chat threads: Spoiler-full and Spoiler-free

[b5audioguide]

Visit Original Link

Four years into BABYLON 5, JMS took a mulligan with a brand new prequel movie that served as a pilot for the series’s relaunch on the TNT network! Is it a better beginning to B5 than the original pilot, “The Gathering”? Does it strain credibility to have our cast of characters interacting during the Earth-Minbari War, portrayed by actors who are not actually ten years younger? And why do we call it the Earth-Minbari war instead of the Human-Minbari war or the Earth-Minbar war? And why is Chip only now asking that question? Luckily we don’t distract our recurring guest Steven Schapansky with those last questions!