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What was New - 1997

December 30, 1997
New on the Products page, Software section: A new Web site for Sierra's upcoming B5 space combat game.

By popular demand, the US episode list page now lists air times for TNT's behind-the-scenes special as well as the rerun times for "In the Beginning." See the "TNT Rebroadcast" section.

December 29, 1997
The final eight episodes of season four will be shown in Israel in two four-episode blocks on February 6 and 7.

Mira Furlan will be answering reader questions on TV Guide's bulletin board.

December 27, 1997
On December 28, Bruce Boxleitner and Jerry Doyle are hosting TNT's broadcast of "2001: A Space Odyssey." A behind-the-scenes B5 special will also be airing Sunday night. See TNT's B5 site for details.

December 25, 1997
A synopsis of "Endgame" is online, thanks to Arturo Magidin, who joins the Lurker's Guide as a synopsis writer for season five.

December 24, 1997
New on the Products page: A new Web address for the publishers of Norman Corwin's radio shows.

December 23, 1997
Relief for more Canadian viewers: CFCF in Montreal will reportedly be showing season five Wednesday mornings at 1AM starting January 6.

December 18, 1997
New on the Products page: JMS comments on the Starfury model from Revell.

A transcript of Richard Biggs' Q&A session on TV Guide Online has been posted.

December 17, 1997
TNT is organizing several public viewing parties for the US premiere of "In the Beginning." See their B5 site for details.

December 16, 1997
Relief for some Canadian viewers: CFMT in Toronto will be showing season five. Start date is likely to be Jan-Feb 1998. CFMT asks that viewers not call them for more information; when a schedule is decided they'll announce it.

December 12, 1997
TNT's B5 Web site has been updated and now features QuickTime versions of their B5 advertisements, among other material.

December 4, 1997
A transcript of the December 3, 1997 "Politically Incorrect" featuring Bruce Boxleitner is available.

The January 1998 issue of Cinefantastique features some B5 articles.

Del Rey's Web site has a sample chapter from the novelization of "In the Beginning."

November 29, 1997
Peter David's novelization of the prequel movie, "In the Beginning," has shipped and is in some bookstores now.

Newsflash: Ain't It Cool News has possible news about the status of the sequel series, "The Babylon Project: Crusade." The information has not been officially confirmed.

November 20, 1997
Newsflash: The "Babylon Emporium" section of the Official Fan Club site is now up and running.

November 17, 1997
Newsflash: Sierra's B5 reference CD, The Official Guide to J. Michael Straczynski's "Babylon 5," has shipped and should begin appearing in stores today.

November 16, 1997
New on the Products page: G'Kar sculptures.

November 9, 1997
Poll 5 results for "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" are online.

TV Guide Online has a short article about Tracy Scoggins joining B5.

A synopsis of "Rising Star" is online.

A synopsis of "Between the Darkness and the Light" is online.

November 8, 1997
New on the Products page: JMS asks for help tracking down pirate videos.

November 6, 1997
Newsflash: B5 begins in Hungary on November 8.

A transcript of JMS's November 3 chat session on TV Guide Online is available. Contains some spoilers for season 5 and "Crusade."

November 5, 1997
New on the Products page: more information on the Columbia House video releases in the US.

A transcript of JMS's October 31 chat session at SciFi Con 2.0 is online.

November 4, 1997
Newsflash: TNT's B5 Web site is now open.

Removed the "This week's episode" link from the home page, since B5 is off the air in the US until it starts on TNT in January. The link will return at that time.

Removed the list of US broadcast stations from the Air Times page for the same reason.

October 31, 1997
The onscreen credits for "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" are online.

Another updated letter from TNT is available, with additional air schedule information.

October 28, 1997
JMS will be chatting live at Sci-Fi Con 2.0 on October 31 at 7PM Eastern.

Poll 5 results for "Rising Star" are online.

October 27, 1997
The onscreen credits for "Rising Star" are online.

October 26, 1997
Product news in the Video category: Season two tapes have started coming out in Australia.

Product news in the Miscellaneous category: Details about the fourth-season card set from Fleer.

October 24, 1997
Newsflash: The UK broadcast will be moving to Thursdays starting November 6.

New product in the Toys/Games category: A B5 collectible card game.

October 23, 1997
Newsflash: The US video release of B5 from Columbia House has begun. It's not yet listed on their Web site but can be ordered now.

I'll be posting notices on this page for additions and updates to the Products page from now on, since some people have commented that it's a hassle to scan the page a lot. Recent entries:

October 22, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Endgame" are online.

October 21, 1997
Newsflash: JMS will be chatting live on TV Guide Online on November 3 at 9:30PM Eastern.

Another updated letter from TNT is available, with additional "In the Beginning" air dates and other information.

October 19, 1997
Newsflash: According to JMS and Harlan Ellison, the sequel series "Crusade" is nearly a done deal. The final decision should be made within a few weeks.

October 17, 1997
The onscreen credits for "Endgame" are online.

October 16, 1997
Newsflash: Harlan Ellison will be chatting live on CompuServe's Book Preview Forum (GO PREVIEW) on October 17 at 10PM EDT.

An updated letter from TNT is available, with details on air dates, letterboxing, and more.

October 14, 1997
A transcript of the JMS chat session on Wild Wild Web on October 8 is available.

October 13, 1997
The following note from Dean Treadway at TNT may be cause for relief for some viewers:
For those of you who are not getting the final four episodes of the fourth season because your local station dropped B5 in October, we'll see what we can do about getting those final four on some 1 am-5 am slot sometime before Jan 19, but there's a strong possibility that it might not happen. No promises. You'll hear about it if it happens, through the TNT/B5 webpage, due to launch in early November.

Poll 5 results for "Between the Darkness and the Light" are online.

The onscreen credits for "Between the Darkness and the Light" are online.

October 7, 1997
Newsflash: Richard Biggs will be answering reader questions on TV Guide's bulletin board starting October 13.

October 6, 1997
Newsflash: I'll be out of town October 8-14, so the guide page for "Endgame" will be delayed a few days. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Newsflash: JMS will be chatting live on October 8 at 10PM Eastern on Wild Wild Web.

October 3, 1997
Mania has an interview with Mira Furlan.

October 1, 1997
The print ad and episode description in next week's TV Guide contain more spoilers for "Between the Darkness and the Light" than you may enjoy knowing. Read with caution. On the plus side, the episode was picked as an Editor's Choice, hence the more detailed than usual description.

September 14, 1997
Harlan Ellison will be chatting live in America Online's Globe Auditorium on September 17.

September 13, 1997
Bill Mumy is answering fan questions on TV Guide's Web bulletin board.

September 12, 1997
A transcript of the September 9 episode of "Politically Incorrect" featuring Harlan Ellison is online.

Newsflash: Harlan Ellison's September 8 appearance on The Late Late Show has been rescheduled to September 24 due to Princess Diana coverage.

Newsflash: The previous satellite feed update was incorrect; the initial feed is Fridays at 2300 Eastern.

September 4, 1997
Newsflash: The September 6 TV Guide has a short article about the remainder of season four. It includes spoilers.

September 3, 1997
Newsflash: B5's satellite feed has moved to a new time and channel.

September 2, 1997
Bill Mumy will be appearing on "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" on Cartoon Network on September 12 (11PM Eastern.)

August 30, 1997
Newsflash: "Severed Dreams" has won the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation.

August 28, 1997
Newsflash: Tracy Scoggins has been cast in the new role of Captain Elizabeth Lochley for season five.

Newsflash: Harlan Ellison will be appearing on CBS' The Late Late Show on September 8.

August 24, 1997
A transcript of the August 12 chat session with Bruce Boxleitner on Prodigy is available.

August 20, 1997
Newsflash: Bruce Boxleitner will be appearing on the syndicated talk show "Vibe" tonight. Check local listings for airtimes.

August 19, 1997
New versions of the SF TV schedule and titles files are online.

August 18, 1997
The onscreen credits for "The Face of the Enemy" are online.

August 17, 1997
A synopsis of "Racing Mars" is online.

August 15, 1997
Newsflash: This week's TV Guide has a small article on Claudia Christian's departure. Contains some spoilers for season five. There is also an article with Bruce Boxleitner's comments on her departure.

Newsflash: Jason Carter guest-stars on Fox's "Roar" on August 18.

August 10, 1997
Bruce Boxleitner will appear on "Home and Family" on The Family Channel on August 12 at 1PM (Eastern/Pacific.)

August 8, 1997
Applied lots of spelling and punctuation fixes to some early guide pages. Thanks to Darin Adler for poring over the pages tracking them down.

A synopsis of "Conflicts of Interest" is online.

August 5, 1997
The onscreen credits for "Atonement" are online.

Newsflash: The B5 issue of TV Guide sold 12.5 million copies, on par with issues featuring The X-Files, according to JMS at a recent convention. They want to do another B5 cover later in the year. Thanks to everyone who participated in the buying campaign.

August 3, 1997
A synopsis of "The Face of the Enemy" is online.

July 30, 1997
A synopsis of "The Exercise of Vital Powers" is online.

July 28, 1997
The onscreen credits for the following episodes are now online:

July 27, 1997
Newsflash: Jeff Conaway will appear on FOX After Breakfast on July 28.

July 24, 1997
Newsflash: B5 has been nominated for an Emmy for best makeup for "The Summoning."

July 23, 1997
The onscreen credits for the following episodes are now online:

July 21, 1997
A synopsis of "Intersections in Real Time" is online.

July 19, 1997
Newsflash: Claudia Christian will not be appearing in season 5. The full story.

July 16, 1997
A synopsis of "No Surrender, No Retreat" is online.

July 15, 1997
The onscreen credits for "Rumors, Bargains and Lies" are online.

July 13, 1997
Newsflash: Babylon 5 begins in Finland on August 17.

Newsflash: A Canadian letter-writing campaign is underway to convince local stations to pick up season 5.

July 11, 1997
An index of the second B5 soundtrack CD has been uploaded.

July 10, 1997
An updated letter from TNT answers questions about season five, their plans for reruns, international distribution, air schedules, and more. Check it out before you send them mail asking for information.

Sonic Images will be releasing a five-CD set titled "Babylon 5 - The Cult" containing the unabridged soundtracks to the episodes "Severed Dreams," "A Late Delivery from Avalon," "Walkabout," "Shadow Dancing," and "Z'ha'dum."

The onscreen credits for "No Surrender, No Retreat" are online.

July 6, 1997
The onscreen credits for "The Exercise of Vital Powers" are online.

July 5, 1997
A new version of the B5 FAQ is available:

July 2, 1997
A transcript of JMS's June 30 IRC chat is available on Rough Cut's Web site. One nugget of information from that chat session: JMS says Columbia House Video may release B5 videotapes at some point.

The onscreen credits for "Intersections in Real Time" are online. Thanks to Arturo Magidin, who has started transcribing the episode credits for the Guide.

The onscreen credits for "Moments of Transition" are online.

There's a warning on the Lurker's Guide home page, but it bears repeating: the recent issue of TV Guide contains major spoilers for future episodes. Of course, you should still go buy two copies.

Several people have forwarded a letter from TNT about B5. Since it's of general interest, I've reproduced it here.

July 1, 1997
The season-four finale's title has been announced: "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."

Newsflash: B5's online following, including the Lurker's Guide, will be profiled on the July 3 edition of "The Site" on MSNBC.

June 30, 1997
Newsflash: The July 5 issue of TV Guide is now online. It features a B5 cover story. This is an opportunity to help the show! (The B5 article contains major spoilers for future episodes.)

Updated the US episode list to include information about TNT's rebroadcast of seasons 1-4, as well as the latest news about season 5 renewal. Switched the date format to be consistent with the rest of the per-country schedules.

June 27, 1997
Newsflash: Babylon 5 has been renewed for a fifth season, according to an announcement by Harlan Ellison on "The Late Late Show." Season five will air on cable network TNT. The start date, which presumably will come after the remainder of season four airs on PTEN, is unknown; it's also unknown whether the PTEN stations will get the first season-five episode in exchange for "Sleeping in Light," which will now air at the end of season five, or which episode will be shown at the end of season four in foreign markets. More news as it's available.

June 22, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Intersections in Real Time" are online.

Moved the Cast page out of the Universe section and into the Making Of section where it more properly belongs. The old People page is now named Creators, so as not to imply that actors aren't people.

June 17, 1997
Newsflash: Babylon 5 is now airing in Slovenia.

Newsflash: This month's MacUser magazine has a behind-the-scenes article on B5.

Poll 5 results for "The Face of the Enemy" are online.

June 16, 1997
Newsflash: According to an unconfirmed report in TV Zone magazine, season 4 will begin in the UK on July 23.

June 11, 1997
A guide page for novel #8, "Personal Agendas," is online. The page for novel #7 is in progress.

June 9, 1997
Poll 5 results for "The Exercise of Vital Powers" are online.

June 8, 1997
Newsflash: Rumor has it that the July 5 issue of TV Guide will feature a B5 cover story. This is an opportunity to help the show!

June 7, 1997
The synopsis of "Atonement" is now illustrated.

A transcript of a January 23 IRC chat session with JMS is available.

The summer rerun schedule for the US has been announced and is listed on the US episode list page.

June 6, 1997
Newsflash: The renewal announcement from Warner Bros., if one occurs, may not happen until July, judging by a recent message from JMS. (The message is all the information I have; when there's more news you'll see it here.)

The synopsis of "The Illusion of Truth" is now illustrated.

A transcript of the June 2 chat session on America Online with JMS and John Copeland is available.

A synopsis of "Rumors, Bargains and Lies" is online.

June 5, 1997
Poll 5 results for "No Surrender, No Retreat" are online.

The synopsis of "Epiphanies" is now illustrated.

June 3, 1997
Newsflashes: the June 5 issue of the Christian Science Monitor has a B5 article, as does the June 9 issue of Newsweek magazine.

The episode guide and synopsis screenshots are now in JPEG format rather than GIF format. In most cases, this should result in improved load time (JPEG typically produces smaller output than GIF for these types of images) and, for people with 16-bit (64K) or higher color depth, much nicer-looking images.

A synopsis of "Lines of Communication" is online.

May 31, 1997
Newsflash: JMS and John Copeland will be chatting live on America Online Monday, June 2 at 9PM Eastern time. Go to keyword "Babylon 5".

Some of the inline images in the Guide will probably switch over to JPEG format soon. I've changed the Lurker's Guide logo on the home page to a JPEG image as a test; unless I'm deluged with complaints the change will happen sometime in the next week. Images that work better in GIF format, such as buttons, will stay GIF.

For those of you who're curious about this kind of thing, in the course of making the decision I compiled a list of the most popular Web browsers used to access the Lurker's Guide. The following are the most popular browsers out of the last 933945 accesses to the "This Week's Episode" link on the Lurker's Guide home page, which should be a representative sample of the user base. Note that this just measures fetches of that one URL; images aren't included in these totals.

Hits%Browser
70968275.99Netscape Navigator
17331418.56Microsoft Internet Explorer
235702.52Lynx
20480.22Unknown
19450.21Prodigy browser
15980.17IBM WebExplorer
13630.15AOL browser

May 26, 1997
The synopsis of "Falling Toward Apotheosis" is now illustrated.

A synopsis of "Moments of Transition" is online.

May 25, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Rumors, Bargains and Lies" are online, as are preliminary results for "Moments of Transition."

May 15, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Conflicts of Interest" are online.

May 14, 1997
A new version of the B5 FAQ is available:

May 12, 1997
Newsflash: Director David Eagle will be chatting live on America Online on Wednesday, May 14 at 9:30PM EDT. He'll be in the official B5 area's "Eclipse Cafe."

May 8, 1997
The following synopses are now illustrated:

Newsflash: NBC's "TV Censored Bloopers" airing May 12 will feature outtakes from B5.

May 7, 1997
Newsflash: JMS has written 50 episodes in a row, a record for American TV. A press release on the subject is available.

May 6, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Lines of Communication" are online.

May 5, 1997
Newsflash: A press release regarding Scott Adams' appearance on B5 is available.

May 3, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Racing Mars" are online.

April 28, 1997
A version of the character appearances page for season four (or at least, the episodes aired so far) is online.

April 25, 1997
The onscreen credits for "Into the Fire" are online.

April 24, 1997
Midwinter has switched to new Web server software (Zeus, which is far and away the fastest Web server any of us have seen.) Please let me know if you see any problems with the Guide as a result.

April 21, 1997
Newsflash: "Severed Dreams" has been nominated for a Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation. "War Without End" and "Z'ha'dum" also qualified, but JMS declined their nominations to avoid a split vote.

April 20, 1997
Newsflash: JMS and Harlan Ellison will be on the Sci-Fi Channel's SF Vortex April 26 and 27.

April 12, 1997
Synopses for the following episodes are now online:

April 9, 1997
The Australian mirror has changed URLs, to http://www.cybersite.com.au/babylon5/.

April 3, 1997
The German mirror has been replaced by a mirror at Linköping University, Sweden. The mirror's URL is http://www.lysator.liu.se/lurk/lurker.html.

March 12, 1997
Newsflash: The Lurker's Guide is moving! Please update your bookmarks and links to point to http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html instead of the Hyperion address. There was a legal dispute over the old name, and we settled out of court (that's all we're allowed to disclose under the terms of the agreement.)

March 4, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Atonement" are online.

A synopsis of "Epiphanies" is online. Other synopses will be appearing shortly.

A synopsis of "The Long Night" is online.

February 25, 1997
Poll 5 results for "The Illusion of Truth" are online.

February 22, 1997
Transcripts of the recent live chats on AOL are online:

A new version of the B5 FAQ is available:

February 18, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Epiphanies" are online.

February 14, 1997
The station list on the Air Times page now contains hypertext links, mostly to TV station Web pages. The textual station list is now derived from the Air Times page rather than the other way around.

February 10, 1997
Poll 5 results for "Into the Fire" are online.

February 5, 1997
The onscreen credits for "The Long Night" are online.

February 3, 1997
Poll 5 results for "The Long Night" are online.

January 29, 1997
Many people have written to point out that the guide page for "The Long Night" doesn't have much material yet. I'm getting over a nasty flu; the page will be updated when I've recovered. Thank you for your patience.

January 27, 1997
A new summary of the Poll 5 results to date is online.

January 24, 1997
Added guide pages for the two B5 TV-movies to be shown on TNT: Last of the Fallen and Guardians, and moved the page for The Babylon Project: Crusade into the episode guide section.

Lots of long-overdue schedule updates: Israel, Cyprus, Indonesia, the United States, and Jordan.

January 15, 1997
The B5 Support Page has been updated.

A new version of the B5 FAQ is available:

January 11, 1997
More on the cookies as described in January 8's entry. It occurred to me today that to implement the feature, it wasn't necessary to have the Web server set cookies on every hit, which unfortunately was my only choice given the server software we're running. It will suffice to simply have the per-user what's new page, a CGI script, do it. Folks who refuse cookies will be relieved to see that they no longer have to do it for every image on every page (though I consider Netscape's behavior in that regard a pretty serious user-interface flaw, and Internet Explorer is no better.)

January 8, 1997
We've started running a new version of our Web server software. You may have noticed that the Guide is now setting cookies in your browser; there's a reason for that. I plan to use them to put together a "What's new since your last visit" page, so you can come to the site and jump instantly to all the latest material. To do that, the Guide needs to distinguish you from other users, and cookies are the most convenient way to do it. About 95% of the Guide's users use browsers that support cookies, according to my most recent statistics.

Some concern has been expressed that they'll be used to collect demographic information. In fact, I have no use for that; I can't accept ads or otherwise use the Guide to make money since it's not officially sanctioned by Warner Bros. To the extent that I eventually do any usage tracking beyond keeping track of the time of your last visit, it'll be to see what the most common paths through the Guide are so I can make it more convenient for frequent users. (But detailed tracking like that isn't even on my to-do list yet; just the fancy what's-new feature is plenty of work.)

January 7, 1997
The long-overdue Universe pages for season four are online. They should still be considered works in progress (there are a couple portraits missing, for example) but they should be helpful for new viewers.

To the current What's New page

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