Babylon 5 Column
by Robertp361@AOL.com

"The avalanche has already 
started.  It is too late for the 
pebbles to vote."
    -- Ambassador Kosh, "Believers"

Well with Babylon 5 on vacation until the 
week of January 23, we have a chance to 
see what else is going on in the "third age 
of mankind."

A CD of the Babylon 5 themes will soon be 
available on the market, and several people 
were lucky enough to get a special edition 
at a recent convention.  The following 
information is courtesy of John Platt of Sonic Images.

                                          BABYLON 5 
                      SPECIAL EDITION SOUNDTRACK ALBUM 
 
The Babylon 5 Soundtrack Special Edition Compact Disc was introduced at
Loscon 21, November 25-27, 1994, in Burbank, California USA.  

More about the Special Edition B-5 CD:
* The Special Edition CD is out of stock.  Sonic Images has shipped them 
  all; if you haven't mailed your check, you'll have to wait for the 
  commercial release to show up in your local store in February.
 * 44 minutes running time
 * different packaging and art than the commercial release
 * a numbered edition, signed by the artist (Chris Franke).
   The very first few numbers will go to Franke and Straczynski; after that,
   all of the numbers will be randomly mixed up so everybody has a fair 
   chance of getting a low or high number.
 * Is authorized by Babylonian Productions, PTEN, Warner Bros., JMS 
   himself, etc.
* The February '95 commercial release will be somewhat longer. 
   (they'll be adding a few more tracks as soon as they finish them up).
   The music on the compact discs consist of extended suites of the themes
   used in Season 1.  They've been expanded, because on the show you only 
   hear a 30-second bit at a time..  This makes the album somewhat different 
   from typical "soundtrack" recodings; this is more like a continuous album.
 * The commercial release will be numbered Sonic Images SI 8402-2.

The proposed multmedia CDROM that I mentioned last issue has been postponed indefinately because of internal problems at Compton's.

Dell Publishing will be releasing a series of original novels based on the current story line.  "Voices" by John Vornholt will be released in early 1995, and focuses on the Psi Corps.

The first issue of the Babylon 5 comic book was released December 6, and was writen by J. Michael Straczynski himself.  This comic series by DC will also mirror current issues in the series, as well as Sinclair's dealings on the Mimbari homeworld.  The next issue is scheduled to release on January 3.

The Babylon 5 episodes, starting with the pilot, should also start to ship in the beginning of 1995 on videotape, with the laserdisc format following soon after.

If anyone caught the recent Museum of Radio and TV Special on Science Fiction TV might have seen some neat clips of Babylon 5.  It's nice to see the show getting some press.

The next new episode will be titled "A Race Through Dark Places", and should be shown the week of January 23.  This episode reportedly will feature Walter Koenig, reprising his role as a Psi-Cop.  Until then we should be seeing reruns of Season Two episodes.  PTEN apparently felt that any Season One reruns would add too much confusion.

Now that AOL features ftp access, don't forget to check out ftp.hyperion.com, which features a wealth of Babylon 5 information and pictures.


Until next month!
-Bob
-RobertP361
-Robertp361@aol.com