Copy of review I
posted in CompuServe’s Babylon 5 forum
I just got home from a quick
weekend trip to Atlanta for “The Babylon 5 Experience” at
the Perimeter Mall, the exhibit’s first stop on an 8 city
tour. (There are details on the TNT B5 web site (http://tnt.turner.com/babylon5/)
about the rest of the tour.) The exhibit is sponsored by TNT,
and features props, costumes, interactive video displays, and
stars.
We arrived at the mall around
noon and had a quick lunch at the food court. We began spotting
fellow fans in B5 t-shirts and hats, and eventually noticed
quite a few balloons with “Babylon 5” and “TNT” on them.
Pretty nifty!
The set is a large oval room
with five entrance doors (two on each side, and one at the end).
Tracy Scoggins was sitting at a console in front of a large
“window” similar to the window in C&C signing
autographs; Jerry Doyle was slated to appear a couple hours
later. On the opposite end of the oval were glass cases with
props from the show—the bowl Cartagia used to wash G’Kar’s
blood off his hands, several weapons, some Ikkaran artifacts
from “Infection, ” the Rebo & Zooty issue of Universe
Today, and the Minbari Dreaming chalice from
“Atonement” were the ones I remember. There were also two
uniforms on display: Ivanova’s Army of Light uniform and
Corwin’s Earth Force uniform. On the outside of the oval were
some interactive video displays with information about the
station, and both inside and outside were video monitors showing
clips from what looked like the intro to B5 special that aired
on TNT, and also clips from the movie “Thirdspace.”
Unfortunately, with all the people around I wasn’t able to
listen to the clips from the movie, but saw a few visuals. There
were people giving B5 comlink temporary tattoos (mine is still
intact), and another couple of people airbrushing B5 things on
kids’ faces, people’s arms, etc. My favorite was the G’Kar
face.
There were two to three hundred
people I’d guess around the display. Most were in line for
autographs. (As they had already cut off Tracy Scoggins’
autograph line and I had already met Jerry Doyle at a previous
convention, we didn’t bother). In front of the display, where
the majority of people were waiting in line, a representative
from the sponsoring radio station (country) was asking trivia
questions and giving away autographed postcards of Babylon 5
crew members, B5 Experience posters, B5 CD-ROMs, a B5 planning
book from TNT that I didn’t really get to see very well, and
radio station t-shirts and hats. Most of the trivia questions
I’d heard had to do with their particular radio station, and
since I didn’t live in Atlanta I didn’t know any of those
answers. But my Superman watch did win me an autographed picture
of Kosh (signed by Jeffrey Willerth—the guy in the suit). The
emcee was looking for someone with “promotional material” of
any kind from another show that TNT airs. I was very thankful
that I was a fan of Lois & Clark!
I was disappointed to not be
able to talk to Tracy Scoggins and get her autograph, mostly
because I did enjoy her work on Lois & Clark so much, and
I’m sure she doesn’t get asked about that very often. But
the rest of the exhibit was fun, and I was glad I had made the
trek to Atlanta to visit my friends there and attend.
So if you live near one of the
exhibit cities, or if you just like taking weekend Babylon 5
related road trips, I’d recommend you go. We had fun (my
friend Karen and I especially liked watching Jerry Doyle
he’s very very sexy in person, and has a great smile that you
don’t get to see on the show very often), and it’s always
encouraging to see other B5 fans gathered en masse.
Photos by John Williams
& Rae Augenstein
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