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Miscellaneous | Hugo Awards | Viewers for Quality TV | SFX Awards | Story Arc Info | Emmy Awards | Events


Miscellaneous

You can find details of the upcoming features in the UK B5 Magazine on this page.

Is B5 becoming another "Deep Space Franchise"? Read JMS's view here.

B5 won an Emmy for the season 4 episode "The Summoning" for "Outstanding Make-up for a Series".

You can find a pretty comprehensive list of awards that B5 has received at the Zocalo site (a UK site).

According to Channel 4, the average viewing figure for programmes in Season 3 in the UK was 1,844,000.

B5 has won the Space Frontier Foundation Award for Best Vision of the Future, and an award from the American Cinema Foundation for presentation of values in a dramatic television series.

B5 was nominated for the American Cinema Foundation's 1997 E Pluribus Unum Awards. The awards honor a creative or performing talent in the industry whose body of work best uses film to "positively address values crucial to the civic health of America." it carries a $10,000 prize. Other nominees include "A Family Thing," "The Birdcage," Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman," "7th Heaven," "Dave's World," and many others.

There's villainy afoot: read on about JMS and his Close Shave..

Startling new evidence of Shadow intervention in Earth affairs has been uncovered in the ancient Book of Kells.

Check out this, erm, unusual Lurker's Guide episode page.. :-)

I have a great report and photos from Bruce Goatly summarising his trip to the B5 set while he was in California, towards the end of filming of season 3..

I also have on-line a copy of the registration form for the Official Babylon 5 Fan Club, plus some good news for 1997 resubscriptions. (Please note that I'm nothing to do with the Club myself!).


Hugo Awards

The season 5 episode, "Sleeping in Light" has been nominated for a 1999 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation.

B5 did not get sufficient nominations for any one episode to make it to the short-list for the 1998 Hugos.

B5 won the 1997 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation for "Severed Dreams" - you can find out more, including the results when they're out, on the WorldCon Web site.

B5 was nominated again in the Best Dramatic Presentation category (283 ballots):

Independence Day (Centropolis Film Productions/20th Century Fox Film)
Directed by Roland Emmerich, Written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, Produced by Dean Devlin
Mars Attacks! (Warner Bros.)
Directed by Tim Burton, Written by Jonathan Gems, Produced by Tim Burton and Larry Franco
Babylon 5 "Severed Dreams" (Warner Bros.)
Directed by David J. Eagle, Written by J. Michael Straczynski, Produced by John Copeland
Star Trek: First Contact (Paramount Pictures)
Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Story by Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga & Rick Berman, Screenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga, Produced by Rick Berman
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Trials and Tribble-ations" (Paramount Pictures)
Directed by Jonathan West, Written by Ronald D. Moore & Rene Echevarria, Story by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler & Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Executive Producers Ira Steven Behr & Rick Berman

Babylon 5 "War without End" and "Z'Ha'Dum"
were nominated but J. Michael Straczynski declined.


The second season episode, "The Coming of Shadows", has been awarded the 1996 Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation (1 Sept 1996). This episode was top of the B5 poll for a long while until challenged by "Severed Dreams".

Here's a picture of the Hugo winners with their awards, blatantly stolen from the WorldCon Web pages:



The competition in the Best Dramatic Presentation category was as follows:
Apollo 13 (Universal)
Brian Grazer, producer; Ron Howard, director; William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert, screenplay
"The Coming of Shadows" (Babylon 5) (Warner Brothers)
J. Michael Straczynski, Douglas Netter, John Copeland, producers; J. Michael Straczynski, screenplay; Janet Greek, director
"The Visitor" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) (Paramount Television)
Rick Berman and Ira Steven Behr, executive producers; Michael Taylor, screenplay; David Livingston, director
Toy Story (Buena Vista)
Ralph Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold, producers; John Lasseter, director; Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow, screenplay
12 Monkeys (Universal)
Charles Roven, producer; Terry Gilliam, director; David and Janet Peoples, screenplay

The voting for those nominees went:

"The Fall of Night" (closing episode of season 2) received enough votes to be nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, but the producers declined its nomination in favor of "The Coming of Shadows", the other Babylon 5 episode nominated. According to jms, this decision was taken to avoid splitting the B5 vote between 2 episodes. Last year, although B5 received sufficient votes to win the award, they were split between 2 episodes.


Viewers for Quality Television Voting

The US VQT organisation annual voting this year produced the following results (March '96):
Highest Quality Shows                                  Qualitative
                                                       Rating (1-10)

1.  Law & Order........................................8.90
2.  ER.................................................8.80
3.  Homicide...........................................8.80
4.  NYPD Blue..........................................8.70
5.  Party of Five......................................8.50
6.  Murder One.........................................8.30
7.  The X-Files........................................8.30
8.  Grace Under Fire...................................8.10
9.  Frasier............................................8.0
10. Friends............................................7.7
11. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman..........................7.70
12. Chicago Hope.......................................7.70
13. Touched by an Angel................................7.70
14. Seinfeld...........................................7.60
15. Mad About You......................................7.60
16. Babylon 5..........................................7.60
17. Highlander.........................................7.60
18. Murphy Brown.......................................7.50
19. Star Trek: Voyager.................................7.50
20. Picket Fences......................................7.50
21. Nowhere Man........................................7.50
22. New York Undercover................................7.50
23. Strange Luck.......................................7.40
24. Cybill.............................................7.30
25. Lois & Clark.......................................7.20
26. Star Trek: DS9.....................................7.20
27. The Simpsons.......................................7.20
28. Space: Above and Beyond ...........................7.10
29. Due South..........................................7.00
30. Roseanne...........................................6.70
31. Dave's World.......................................6.70
32. Home Improvement...................................6.70
33. Almost Perfect.....................................6.60
34. The Nanny..........................................6.50
35. Ellen..............................................6.50
VQT also now endorse B5 as a "quality programme". Which is nice for B5..


SFX Reader Awards

1996

The 1996 results of the SFX Readers Awards were recently posted to Compuserve by Mark Nolan.

The published lists were top tens. The top 5 from each of the TV categories is included (except The Worst category which was topped by ST:Voyager and Space Precinct):

Best SF/Fantasy TV Show of 1996
  1. Babylon 5 (60% of the vote!!)
  2. The X-Files
  3. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  4. American Gothic
  5. Doctor Who

Best Individual Episode of an SF/Fantasy TV show in 1996
  1. Babylon 5 - Z'ha'dum
  2. Babylon 5 - Severed Dreams
  3. Babylon 5 - War Without End
  4. The X-Files - Final Repose
  5. Babylon 5 - Shadow Dancing

Best SF/Fantasy Actor in 1996
  1. Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar, Babylon 5)
  2. Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan, Babylon 5)
  3. David Duchovney (Mulder, The X-Files)
  4. Gary Cole (American Gothic)
  5. Paul McGann (Doctor Who)

Best SF/Fantasy Actress in 1996
  1. Gillian Anderson (Scully, The X-Files)
  2. Mira Furlan (Delenn, Babylon 5)
  3. Claudia Christian (Ivanova, Babylon 5)
  4. Kate Mulgraw (Janeway, ST:Voyager)
  5. Nana Visitor (Kira, ST:DS9)

SFX Hame of Fame for Contributions to SF/Fantasy TV in 1996
  1. J.Michael Straczynski (Producer/Creator/Writer, Babylon 5)
  2. Chris Carter (Producer/Creator/Writer, The X-Files)
  3. Neil Gaiman (Writer, Neverwhere)
  4. Philip Segal (Producer, Doctor Who)
  5. Shaun Cassidy (Producer/Creator, American Gothic)

Babylon 5 won 4 out of the 5 "Best" TV categories. Babylon 5 also won the Best SF/Fantasy-related Theme Music & Best SF/Fantasy TV Show or Film Opening Credits categories. Congratulations!!!

1995

B5 recently surprised the editorial team at SFX by doing well in their readership survey (March 96 issue?):

(Information forwarded by Mark Rigby-Jones )

Best SF TV Show of '95

Worst SF TV Show of '95

Best TV Episode of '95

Best Male SF TV Star of '95

Best Female SF TV Star of '95

Best SF TV Show of All Time

Best Comic of '95

Best Issue of a Comic '95

Best Toy/Model of '95

Sexiest Man in SF

Sexiest Woman in SF

Best Villan in SF

Best Space Ship in SF

Best Alien in SF

Best SF Event of '95

Best SF Fanzine '95

Most Overrated thing in SF '95

Best Thing to Happen in '95


Arc Spoiler!

The following might be considered a spoiler as to the shape of the 5-year story arc in general. You have been warned..! (Note that the "mini-arc" is the split from Earth in "Messages from Earth" to "Severed Dreams").

I don't normally keep jms quotes, however this one seemed of some interest..:

       Yes, the current mini-arc (8-10) is the second major turn in the
storyline.  The third starts with the last episode of this season, going into
the fourth year.  Then you've got one more big turn about the last quarter or
one-third of year four, and then a bit of a flip at the end.

                                                                       jms
(The first turn came at the end of Season 1 / beginning of Season 2 with Delenn's transformation and the reasons for the end of the Earth/Minbari War.)

Here's some more interesting information on the timing of the tail-end of the series (spoiler material!):

      The fifth season ends in 2262.

      The telepath war: 2264/5.

      Crusade: 2267.

                                                                    jms
("Crusade" is the follow-on series from "Babylon 5").

Various folk have remarked how much foreshadowing is actually present in the first season episodes - you can read JMS' take on the arc and the difficulties in writing that way.


Emmy Nominations

B5 was nominated for 3 Emmy awards in 1995:

Previously, B5 has had a nomination for the pilot (and won) and two nominations for the first series (and won one). Special effects & direction nominations were not forthcoming this year, perhaps due to the pilots of ST: Voyager, etc.


Events to Come

This section deals with Babylon 5 'informal' events in the UK that are coming up. The difference between 'informal events' and 'conventions' (for which there are more details on the FAQ pages) is somewhat hazy, so check both sections!

First of all, check out the events to be held under the Babblings banner - I also have a uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5.social newsgroup for the latest info.

For people in the Leeds area of the UK, there's a bunch of "crazed maniacal Babylonians" [ed: their words] who periodically meet, talk B5 (and other, more general topics), drink fluids [ed: it must be hot in Leeds!] and fall down [ed: no doubt heat exhaustion!!].

Understanding the problem of finding a solitary 'anyone fancy meeting at the xxx on yyy' posting in the sprawling mass of B5 postings (and assorted off-topic trivia), a small private mailing list has been set up so that any news of these wet and wild "Leeds Gurglings" parties can be dropped directly into your mailbox.

To be added to the list, please send a grovelling e-mail to the maintainer, Gareth Edwards, at config@ultim.demon.co.uk. He'll reply instructing you to buy him a beer for his services :-)


Events Past

For a catalogue of misdemeanours and embarassing photos from previous events, check out my Babblings pages!

Andy Thomas at Durham Uni. has a page of 1995 Wolf 359 ("The Gathering") convention photos, including piccies of JMS ("The Great Maker"), Michael ("Sinclair") O'Hare and Ed ("Boo Hiss, Morden") Wasser! James Petry has a site with more photos from the 1996 Wolf 359 "The Encounter" convention and from the 1996 Babcom summer event.

Finally, you can find a great selection of shots from various events on Mel's B5 pages.


Also see the main News page for more news & info...

Be sure to check out the B5 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages for the UK B5 Newsgroup ( uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5) which I also hold, and which contain a lot of additional information, especially on merchandise and up-coming conventions.


Some obligatory links:

Please note that any views expressed here are my personal views & do not necessarily reflect UCL policy. No claim is made, explicit or implied, about the suitability of any data presented here for any purpose and all rights are reserved by myself or UCL a s appropriate.

ie Don't take any data without asking & don't then blame me if it's not what you were after!

"Babylon 5" is copyright the Prime Time Entertainment Network.


Jeremy Morley / jmorley@ge.ucl.ac.uk
Dept Geomatic Engineering / University College London
29 April 1999