Episodes that were featured at this Gathering were:
Trevor Bradley MC'ed. Travers Naran did the syndicate. John Francis did multimedia. Mike Pede and Jason Reader did A/V and sound. Below is a great picture that was taken by Colin Stobbe, an original B5 Irregular from GEnie, taken at the February Gathering. You can visit Colin's page to find out more about the photo.
This Gathering featured the Best of Babylon 5 Soundtrack during the breaks on CD. This was a bonus enhanced CD that came with the Guide CD ROM, which we also featured again, as well as the Desktop Entertainment Utility. During the long break, we showed the interviews from Best of B5 enhanced CD on the multimedia overhead. Since my personal B5 collection has been getting rather weathered by the crowds, I no longer bring most of my stuff to the Gatherings in the interest of preservation. This time, we had a collection of Internet articles and transcripts of chat sessions. There was a killer session with Jerry Doyle that drew a lot of laughs. Trading Card Collections were a staple of interest with sets brought in by John F. and John Gee. An Impromptu Q&A panel was held during the long break in which local B5 pundits responded to peoples' questions only to be stumped once. Sponsoring Syndicate members got to sample Margeret Ostrom's famous cookies, an nw-b5 tradition. Our many thanks go out to Margaret for sharing these with us through thick and thin.
Trevor Bradley, our lists owner (except chat) was looking after his wife who had the killer flu that hit us all this winter, so couldn't MC. Travers Naran, lists vice-moderator, mc'ed and I (John Francis) did the Trivia Contest. Jason & Mike were on AV and sound. were Prizes were donated by John Gee of Johnny's Wax Pax. We gave away, a B5 pencil holder, 3 packs of B5 Trading Cards, and the Grand Prize was a 6" Londo Action Figure. List member Tom Terashima, of VFS, very quickly answered the question to win the Grand Prize - What actor that appeared in ID4 also appeared in B5? See the Lurkers' for the answer. This Gathering also featured the return of Van Wilson to the Gathering. Van was former partner in the Star Shoppe, predecessor to SFG in New West. Van's opinions are always good for critical thinking and interesting conversation. Cheers Van!
This Gathering featured the following presentations:
The Ad-hoc Committee to Save Babylon 5 in the Northwest had organized a new letter writing campaign to BCTV as a last ditch effort to the show back on the air in some form. We showed off our proposal results which contained press releases about B5 from various sources, local press articles, and the commemorative B5 edition of Hollywood Reporter. The covering letter was a hard hitting letter containing demographics and business items that ended up pushing all the right buttons (or wrong buttons if you're the BCTV program manager). Signatures were collected from the organizing committee. Dennis Kristos gave us a summary of the events and goals of the campaign.
As usual, John Gee of Johnny's Wax Pax donated 5 prizes for the Trivia Contest. This time, we gave away a pencil sharpener, Vorlon DND door hangar, a 4th Season UK cast poster, and a Sheridan 6" action figure. I supplemented this with a donation of a copy of the B5 Hollywood Reporter. We also had a color transparency we made from the Excalibur Homepage showing the design of said ship for the new series. List member "Herbie" brought her cast-autographed T-Shirt her boyfriend did the artwork for from a WOLF-359 convention in England. It had great artwork on of the Whitestar Class ships.
Panic almost set in at the start of this Gathering as A/V tech, Mike Pede, got caught in in a traffic jam on Highway 1 due to a bad accident. The A/V crew arrived just in the nick of time to start, like the shining Minbari Reinforcements in Severed Dreams...:)
This Gathering featured the following presentations:
May 31st, 1998. We had about 125 people turn out to the latest Season 5 stuff up to and including Meditations on the Abyss. This was our last Gathering until September. We ran the new episodes first this time so those who didn't want to see the Viewers' Choice could leave early. About 50 hearty souls stuck around for Legacies.
Trevor Bradley brought the Red Dwarf Smeg-ups, a 1/2 hour bloopers reel, to serve as a special feature during the long break. Needless to say , they brought the house down.
We had 16 members for the Syndicate this time. Many thanks to all who contributed. 'Unfortunately, Margaret Ostrom was not able to bring her famous cookies this time to share with us. Probably the short notice as we had only 10 days notification of booking confirmation. Anyway, her cookies were missed!
John Gee did bring up the fan club order though that a few of us had gone in on to reduce shipping costs. The most impressive piece was by far the new Earth Alliance pins
This Gathering featured:
511 Day of the Dead
513 The Ragged Edge
514 The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father
515 Meditations on the Abyss
Viewers' Choice. Legacies.
Many thanks to all who attended the September Gathering, and to those who took part in the syndicate.
The Gathering was a great success with 200 people or so attending. There was enough to keep everyone occupied and not to lose interest.
Dennis Kristos gave a great summary about B5 on the whole as well as it relates to us on the community scene.
Special thanks to John Gee of Johnny's Wax Pax for donating the prizes for the trivia contest. Our source of questions was different this time, with us using the Trivia Trading Cards that came out a while back. The level of questions was more difficult than usual. We gave away the prizes in the order of difficulty of the question, a B5 sharpener, an official magazine Issue 1, a first season video with MOTFL/Soul Hunter, and a Marcus action figure.
Again, many thanks to Nguyen Lam who will be leaving SFU this term. He has been our contact with Altered Reality since the beginning there and he moves on into the working world. Best of luck. Jennifer Wong will be the new new contact.
Jason Reader worked A/V and we thank him for his efforts. In appreciation, I left him the copy of the Promo Material to keep.
Extra special thanks go out to Trevor Bradley for being able to MC and do the Trivia Contest himself with a real armful. Trevor had his daughter Christi with him the whole time.
On a personal note, I got to meet Darren Conley who is one our newest members at nw-b5. Darren just arrived from Ontario and drove in from Abby for the Gathering. He had contacted me prior regarding inquiries about our lists and activities in general. Welcome!
This Gathering Featured:
516 Darkness Ascending
517 And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
518 Movements of Fire and Shadow
MoW2 Thirdspace
About 225 people attended this the "final" Gathering of Season Five stuff. The last Marchants' Network showings had already gone by and many were melancholy at having to say Good-bye to all the good friends they had met during the past year. This Gathering though was one of the most active as yet to date at nw-b5.
Trevor Bradley, Lists Founder and Owner since 1995, retired from nw-b5 at this Gathering. This was his last Gathering mc'ing. He now has a family and busy working life, and with the conclusion of the show, decided to move on. All of us at nw-b5 attempting to carry on the lists wish him all the best. Dennis Kristos and I, John Francis will attempt to carry on in the spirit that Trevor so deeply inspired in all of us.
I must say on a personal note, that the episode Objects at Rest and Sleeping in Light never cease to amaze me by their pure emotional power.
Below you can view a couple of pictures Tom Terashima and Collin Stobbe took this Gathering.
Above is a shot by lists-member Tom Terashima. It take a little time 20 load (62k file size), but it's worth it. A much more highres version (867k) can be seen here on Tom's website.
You can really how the crowd was being patient with the BC weather in this BW shot by Collin on the AQ Building Steps.
Tom took this great shot of Jason, Mike, and "NW-B5 Claus" hamming it up for the camera in Image's Control Room.
We wish all list members past and present the best in their future lives for letting us all share in these great memories and activities. This Gathering featured:
106 519 The Fall of Centauri Prime 107 522 Wheel of Fire 108 520 Objects in Motion Masters of Fantasy: Harlan Ellison 109 521 Objects at Rest 110 522a Sleeping in Light
On February 21st, 1999, nw-b5 held its final Gathering of first run B5 material at SFU's Images Theatre. About a 100 people were out for this one. Featured were the new movies, River of Souls and A Call to Arms. We also managed to throw in the Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a 1/2 Century cartoon for some levity thanks to Sophie Dessureault. A first season blooper reel that brought the house down was shown as a last minute surprise.
Johnny Gee again sponsored our Trivia Contest. We also gave away a gift pack of the first 4 original B5 books, graciously donated by Cinefantastique writer, Frank Garcia. Media Liaison Dennis Kristos gave us an update on things which included announcing nw-b5's participation in V-Con 24 this year. We will need volunteers to help staff the information table for the weekend of May 21-23, 1999.
SPACE:TIS won't have these movies until May, 1999 apparently, so it definitely made it worthwhile holding one last Gathering. So closes nw-b5's most recent mandate to bring the show to the Lower Mainland while not being broadcast locally. We have strived and succeeded in filling the viewer demand to a small extent in bringing the show to you the lists membership when no one else had it up here.
This Gathering featured:
Season 1: Soul Hunter Movie: The River of Souls Season 5: The Fall of Centauri Prime. Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century. First Season Gag Reel. Movie: A Call to Arms.
May 27th, 2001 - The 13th nw-b5 Gathering -our tenth held at Simon Fraser University- was
for the 218 (give or take) attendees, a memorable, surprise-filled
evening.
We kicked it off at approximately 5:30 pm with the introductory episode to "Crusade", 'Racing the Night'. It was nice to appreciate the scope of JMS' series opener on a large screen like the B5 episodes we've shown at past Gatherings. The Great Maker began his presentation with a dazzling 5 year re-cap music video (created by John Hudgins who, over the years has engineered several B5 music vids and JMS' famed B5 blooper tapes). The montage opened to the strains of Christopher Franke's 5th Season title theme, segueing for the remaining footage to Queen's anthemic, "Keep Yourself Alive". Very appropriate, very classy. As the video concluded, JMS entered to a thunderous, standing ovation. JMS then proceeded to relate a series of B5 life-imitates-art anecdotes about how real life events had synchronized with some events he'd written for B5 characters. For instance, Mira Furlan, who had been trying to conceive for the longest time, became pregnant just around the time in season 5 when Delenn was written to be with child. From the sublime to the hilarious, Joe quickly segued to the legendary Blooper reel -another compilation covering B5 in its entirety. (The only problem I had watching it was breathlessly straining to hear the next flubbed line, running gag or ad-lib because the laughter, including my own, was so loud.) A brief Q & A session with the audience about B5, Crusade and his apparent stealth project -That Which Cannot Be Named because still no press releases exist -followed.
JMS having covered previous ground, moved on to his new "B5: Legend of
the Rangers" telemovie, 'To Live and Die in Starlight'. He talked
briefly about the how the deal with Sci-Fi Channel was done and without
missing a beat, transitioned us into footage (unseen by anybody except
for the editor, the producers and perhaps the SFC powers in 'dailies').
A 2 1/2 minute unfinished (no graphics or promo voice-over) trailer set
to the haunting "Requiem for the Line", led off the proceedings. Next
on the agenda, Joe introduced not one, but three individual scenes.
First and longest running fo the scenes revolved around an Anla' shok
ritual called 'The Naming of Names' aboard David Martell's (Dylan Neal)
new command, the 'Liandra'. In context of the scene, we were introduced
to the new ensemble of charcters -Dulann (Alex Zahara), Sarah (Myriam
Sirois), Malcolm Bridges (Dean Marshall), Kitaro Sasaki (Warren
Takeuchi), Firell (Enid-Raye Adams), Nafeel (Jennie-Rebecca Hogan) and
Tirk (Gus Lynch)- their rank, function and something extra about each of
them. The middle scene, (a two-hander complete with "Insert VFX"
caption) centred on Citizen G'Kar and Martell with G'Kar revealing news
of a distant archeological dig and speculating upon its implications.
The final clip entailed the Liandra's crew realizing they are
seriously outclassed when they discover a powerful new enemy is on the
prowl. First impressions? There is much to admire and anticipate here.
Joe's delivering on the promises he made before a single frame was shot.
Director Mike Vejar's visual mastery of shadow and light is very evident
while production designer Steve Geaghan's beautifully detailed sets
delight the eye. Credit also goes to DOP Henry Chan for his atmospheric
cinematography. The Ranger uniforms have undergone slight cosmetic
changes and Optic Nerve's makeup designs appear to have been taken a
step further by the present crew. Sitting there, I could only imagine
what the Gadjecki Visual Effects people will come up with, but I'm
confident it'll be right. As for acting, well, the core
twenty-something cast is young by B5 standards, but they're individually
and collectively hitting the mark. Also, that elusive quality
-chemistry- is quite apparent in this appealing company of heroes. If
audience reaction was any indicator, it appears 'Tirk' will be B5LR's
breakout character (much like 'Zathras' was in "Babylon 5") should
Sci-Fi greenlight a full series. It's hard not to imagine that
eventuality since the potential is definitely there.
After the viewings, JMS delivered the finishing touch, introducing the
cast (save for Neal), who had secretly joined another special guest,
'Zocalo Today' publisher-editor, Sandy Bruckner and the audience
earlier. (Late Friday, the 25th, B5LR production manager Ron Mcleod
contacted John Francis about logistics for Joe's arrival as John was
making final preparations for the event. During their conversation, Ron
incidentally informed John an undisclosed number of cast and crew would
be present on the day and so they were.) They entered in that great
theatrical tradition, from the rear of the hall down to the 'stage' for
the final and longest Q &A round. Their energy, enthusiasm and candid
responses were appreciated by us as they revealed seven of eight cast
members are local actors, some are science-fiction fans and a couple of
them have dreamt about being in a sci-fi series. Travers Naran (nw-b5's
JMS liaison, the Gathering's logistics master and talent wrangler) asked
JMS if he'd be willing to come speak to us again in the future. Joe
responded that he'd ". . . be delighted. . .". Someone else dropped
the "big one" asking Joe if B5LR goes beyond this telemovie, would he
keep it here. His response -a simple "Yes".
Before concluding the evening's activities and adjourning to the foyer for the autograph/meet'n' greet/photos session, John Francis presented his Makerness with a framed nw-b5 Certificate of Appreciation signed by the members of the Gathering Committee -Travers, Johnny Gee, John Francis, AJ and yours truly. In addition, I presented Joe with a bound copy of our 'Support Babylon 5 on KVOS TV-12' petition of 1997/98. Door prizes (10 copies of the 'Babylon 5' double issue) kindly donated by Cinefantastique and Frank Garcia and (5 B5 items, ranging from t-shirts to a 12" G'Kar action figure) from Johnny's Wax Pax Collectibles were given out just in time for autographs.
Faith manages, Art lasts. ---= Dennis =--- <*>
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