ATTN JMS: SFX Award
Iain Reid
with the following text, under the title "Hurrah for us":
"Many Thanks to the members of top B5 fan club, The 5 Times, for voting SFX
the best magazine of 1999. Dave and Gary went along to the Starfury
Millenium convention to collect the award, and only recieved slightly less
applause than when Jason Carter, Peter Jurasik, Andreas Katsulas and Richard
Biggs accepted the award for B5 as the best show of all time. Well, maybe
not slightly..."
I was just wondering how you felt, considering you own feelings about this
publication, about the fact that it was honoured in such a way at a B5
convention...and by a B5 fan club?
I was also wondering, considering the nature of the convention, exactly what
shows was B5 up against in the "Best show of all time" category? Anyone who
was at the convention (or a member of the club) like to fill me in? Also,
how shocked were you when B5 won? ;o)
Iain Reid
Jms at B5
>publication, about the fact that it was honoured in such a way at a B5
>convention...and by a B5 fan club?
>
The UK fan club is in no way authorized or sanctioned by us, we have nothing to
do with it.
As for being the best show of all time, that comes from the readers of the
magazine, which is a very cool thing...especially because all SFX does these
days is diss the show and myself. So I'm glad it got the award from the fans;
it's the wrapping that needs work.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)
Iain Rae
>
> >I was just wondering how you felt, considering you own feelings about this
> >publication, about the fact that it was honoured in such a way at a B5
> >convention...and by a B5 fan club?
> >
>
> The UK fan club is in no way authorized or sanctioned by us, we have nothing to
> do with it.
>
> As for being the best show of all time, that comes from the readers of the
> magazine, which is a very cool thing...especially because all SFX does these
> days is diss the show and myself. So I'm glad it got the award from the fans;
> it's the wrapping that needs work.
>
I can't remember the exact list of programms that B5 beat but it
certainly included Blakes 7, St-TOS and Dr Who (which I have to admit I
thought was most likely to win it as the magazine is UK based) and I
think SG1 and DS9 (I was fairly drunk at the time).
If Sean pokes his head in here at all I'm sure He'll give the full
details but he did make a point of saying that it wasn't a close
result......not anywhere near.
There are more details at http://members.aol.com/fabevent/ and I should
mention that Richard Dean Anderson won the unofficial bar award for the
millenium's most entertaining acceptance speech, or possibly it was the
most original miniseries, I forget.
Oh and Joe, in the manner of the fools who preceded returning Victorious
Roman generals mocking them to remind them that they were human and not
Gods can I just mention the Zarg?
<FX lightning bolt>......I guess not then? ;)
--
Iain Rae
Computing Officer
Dept. Civil & Offshore Engineering
Heriot-Watt University
Iain Reid
"Iain Rae" <ia...@civ.hw.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:39116766...@civ.hw.ac.uk...
> Jms at B5 wrote:
<snip>
> I can't remember the exact list of programms that B5 beat but it
> certainly included Blakes 7, St-TOS and Dr Who (which I have to admit I
> thought was most likely to win it as the magazine is UK based)
Hmm? So the awards were something to do with a magazine? I was under the
impression that the awards were voted for by the UK Babylon 5 fan club.
Iain Reid
Iain Rae
They were, the fan club runs a magazine/newsletter/whatever called the 5
times.
Mac Breck
news:20000503221829...@ng-fj1.aol.com...
> >I was just wondering how you felt, considering you own feelings about
this
> >publication, about the fact that it was honoured in such a way at a B5
> >convention...and by a B5 fan club?
> >
>
> The UK fan club is in no way authorized or sanctioned by us, we have
nothing to
> do with it.
>
> As for being the best show of all time, that comes from the readers of the
> magazine, which is a very cool thing...especially because all SFX does
these
> days is diss the show and myself.
I bet that pissed them off at SFX Magazine. :-)
Mac
> So I'm glad it got the award from the fans;
> it's the wrapping that needs work.
>
>
Iain Reid
> Iain Reid wrote:
<snip>
> They were, the fan club runs a magazine/newsletter/whatever called the 5
> times.
Ahh...well my obliquley made point still stands...I mean, I bet Peter
Jurasik et al were not all that suprised when they were asked to collect the
award...Babylon 5 winning the award for best TV Show of all time as voted
for by the readers of the magazine of a Babylon 5 fan club? Surely not! ;o)
And as for Doctor Who - it rarely beats Babylon 5 in reader awards in normal
Sci-Fi mags, never mind in ones voted on by people who are all members of a
B5 fan club. I mean, the good Doctor was long running and popular - but he
hasn't been on our screen for donkey's years now (apart from sporadic
repeats and that awfull McGann movie debacle).
Iain Reid
Iain Reid
"Mac Breck" <macb...@timesnet.net> wrote in message
news:8es3rn$g...@library2.airnews.net...<snip>
>
> > As for being the best show of all time, that comes from the readers of
the
> > magazine, which is a very cool thing...especially because all SFX does
> these
> > days is diss the show and myself.
>
> I bet that pissed them off at SFX Magazine. :-)
>
> Mac
Sadly not, because JMS is mistaken. The awards in question were voted for
by readers of the UK B5 Fan club magazine not SFX.
In the SFX reader poll for top 50 SF shows of all time, Babylon 5 came
third - after Doctor Who (which was to be expected, as the other Iain says,
since it is a British mag...and one that is not solely B5-dedicated like the
B5 Times). I couldn't believe what came first, though...Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. Okay, this is a great show - really fun and often witty and with
some great characters and fights. But best SF show of all time?
Puuuh-leease. Still, third is still quite an achievement. Especially for a
show that finished quite a while ago, and yet not long enough ago to be
considered "kitsch".
Ahh well, at least it beat copy-cat pretender, DS9 (which came in 4th).
Iain Reid.
Oh, in case anyone's interested in seeing exactly who Babylon 5 beat -
here's a rundown, complete with commentary provided by me :o) :
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (again, Puuh-leease)
2. Doctor Who (Okay...as long as you exclude the Doctor who went on to
stick his arm up Cow's bums)
3. Babylon 5 (A show set on a space station near a big portal in space with
a male commander and a strong female first officer.)
4. Star Trek: DS9 (A show set on a space station near a big portal...hmm,
haven't we been here before?)
5. The X-Files (Maybe Mulder knows why Buffy's at number 1?)
6. Star Trek: TNG (Where no *one* has gone before...do you see what we did
there?)
7. Star Trek: TOS (Any show that starts off with a woman screaming like a
Banshee on every episode is alright by me)
8. Red Dwarf (I am a fish. I am a fish. I am a fish....)
9. Blake's 7 (Which wobbled more, the teleport beams or the sets?)
10. Xena - Warrior Princess (Hmm...women. In leather. Fighting each
other... Sorry.)
11. Twin Peaks (So just who killed her anyway? A nation is gripped.)
12. The Prisoner (Just why was he so scared of that Balloon at the start,
anyway?)
13. Quantum Leap (Oh Boy.)
14. Star Trek: VOY (Janeway's hair: Bagel or Sausage roll? The world needs
to know. Used to be crap, but has recently gain two notable additions to
the crew which seem to be boosting ratings.)
15. The Avengers (Bowler Hats. Catsuits. Silhouettes. Sexual tension.
'Nuff said.)
16. American Gothic (Yay...Matthew Giddeon tramples all over small-town
America, looking menacing the whole time)
17. Alien Nation (Do you think those aliens were just Narns that had never
been allowed out in the sun?)
18. The Twilight Zone (the original 1959-64 series, surely?)
19. Battlestar Galactica (A member of the A-Team other than Dwight Schultz
finds other work!)
20. Stargate SG-1 (So, explain to me again why they keep going through when
every time they do it almost gets them killed?)
22. Thunderbirds (5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Thunderbirds are go! FAB=Fabulously
Animated Blocks'o'wood?)
24. Batman: The Animated Series (Great series...but the theme isn't a patch
on the "dinner dinner dinner..." one)
25. Sapphire and Steel (Hmm...is it just me, or are neither Sapphire nor
Steel
actually elements? Transmugenic or not.)
26. Ultraviolet (Coming to the States soon, you lucky dogs. Far better than
Buffy - even if none of them could bring themselves to actually bring
themselves to say the word "Vampire")
27. UFO (Blue is the new Blonde, you know.)
28. Lost in Space (Aww...it's an ickle Lennier...in't he cute?)
29. The Outer Limits (again, the original one from 1963)
30. Starfleet (Never heard of it...it worries me that this is the first one
I can't comment on. Boy, am I sad.)
31. Space: 1999 (So, did the /entire/ cast of Mission: Impossible make it
into this at one point or another?)
32. Quatermass (It's just so British, old chap.)
33. Survivors (If they had known they'd only make it to #33 in the charts,
perhaps they wouldn't have bothered surviving at all)
34. Sliders (Is it just me, or does the Cast of this slide out more than the
characters do?)
35. Highlander (My, that's a big sword...no, honestly, I wasn't making fun
of your pony-tail)
36. Lexx (Ever popular on this NG...;o))
37. Hercules (Apparently Bulging Biceps just don't cut it when compared to
Mammoth Mammories - as its sister show clearly demonstrates from way up the
charts)
38. Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (Vic Reeves should definitely have played
the living one in the remake)
39. Transformers (Robots in disguise!)
40. Dark Skies (Why, oh why, oh why was this cancelled? A five year arc and
Jeri Ryan...it couldn't have failed!)
41. Captain Scarlet (This is the voice of the Mysterons!)
42. Gulliver's Travels (And SFX credits J. Swift as creator...even though he
died a couple of centuries before they started production)
43. Earth: Final Conflict (Gene Rodenberry writes from the grave! Ooh.
Spooky)
44. Out of the Unknown (Hmm...I am sad. This is the only other one of these
I haven't heard of...)
45. V (Biting the heads off hamster? Suits you sir.)
46. The Storyteller (Aha! There had to be Muppets in here somewhere ;))
47. VR.5 (Why was this tat allowed to be made, never mind allowed into the
top 50? Dull, dull, dull dull dull.)
48. Poltergeist: The Legacy (We really are into Channel 5 territory here,
aren't we?)
49. Charmed (Girls with supernatural powers take on the forces of
darkness...hmm, where have we heard that before?)
50. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...
...So long, and thanks for all the fish!
I wonder if anyone actually made it this far....
Mac Breck
I didn't mean that the magazine itself rated the shows.
Mac
"Iain Reid" <theva...@callnet0800.com> wrote in message
news:8esav7$9l9jr$1...@fu-berlin.de...
Gerard J Keating (Ireland)
> "Many Thanks to the members of top B5 fan club, The 5 Times, for voting
SFX
> the best magazine of 1999. Dave and Gary went along to the Starfury
> Millenium convention to collect the award, and only recieved slightly less
> applause than when Jason Carter, Peter Jurasik, Andreas Katsulas and
Richard
> Biggs accepted the award for B5 as the best show of all time. Well, maybe
> not slightly..."
The UK B5 fan club closed down about a year or so ago. While the 5X magazine
continues, it is no longer the journal of the fan club...
cheers
gerard