*SPOILERS* B5: TLT: Voices in the Dark - *SPOILERS*

[Jan]

Oh...my...

[Joe Nazzaro]

You will see one of them on the DVD- but I'm not telling you which one!

[Jan]

JMS is a very sick man. I like that... Now let's hope it becomes a regular feature. I want to see a Londo sock puppet. And a Minbari sock puppet. Maybe even a pak'ma'ra?

I'm a very sick woman...I worry about me sometimes.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Jan, it's a static menu. And I think the sock puppets were great; the best part is seeing Joe and Doug watching the scene intently on the monitors and they suddenly cut to the sock puppets voiced by the original actors. If you don't get a laugh out of the Galen sock puppet, with a black Sharpie instead of his staff, you're watching the wrong DVD!

[Jan]

Thanks. Is it just a stationary menu or is there anything like the 'opening door' or morphing characters like on the season sets?

Can't wait to see the sock puppets. Whole thing, really. I'm glad I've got the con to distract me for a good part of the next week.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

The main menu lists Voices in the Dark (which will play the entire story) or you can click on 'Over Here' (for the Lochley story) or 'Over There (for the Sheridan/Galen story.

The Features menu is divided into:
Interviews (JMS & Bruce, Tracy and JMS and Peter)

Memorials (Andreas and Richard)

The Straczynski Diaries (Joe's Role, Babylon 5 Set Construction, Sock Puppets/Directors Cut, Joe Straczynski in a Sea of Green, The Destruction of New York, Babylon 5 Visual Effects)

Fireside Chats (a series of JMS to-camera interviews about five minutes apiece: The Babylon 5 Universe, Why Babylon 5?, On Returning to Babylon 5, The Fans of B5, People Watching, The Experiment).

[Jan]

Joe, can you tell us about the menus on the disk? Do the two segments play straght through? Thanks,

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Thanks Bean; I just try to call 'em as I see 'em, although if I felt extremely negative about a project, I probably just wouldn't review it, as opposed to writing a nasty piece. That being said, I generally don't hesitate to point out what I think is a project's faults, as I did with TLT where I was genuinely troubled by the lack of extras in frame. While I tend to think this was more of a budgetary decision than an aesthetic one, it still bothered me which is why I made of mentioning it.

[raw_bean]

I'm glad you did send it to AICN for the exposure, Joe. I'm not a big fan of that site but you're right, it gets the traffic. I see that Raw Bean has been posting in the Talkback section.
...
Jan

That's because I am a big fan of the site - retards, crazies and trolls in the talkbacks aside. I actually struck up quite a few friendships with a group of folks on there who I've subsequently met and thoroughly enjoyed the company of on a couple of trips to the States. Other than that I do my best to inject the occasional drop of sanity in the oceans of lunacy that go on over there.

Nice, balanced review Joe. Given that I tend to dismiss the upper bound raves and the lower bound pannings of any given project, your restrained and critical yet positive review gave me more hope of enjoying VitD than any delirious endorsement of it as the second coming would.

[Jan]

Pretty much, Joe. And I've been to enough cons to see just how much work the actors really do at them. When I saw Claudia a couple of months ago locally she was great at the autograph table. She shook hands with everybody and made sure that each person had a moment with her.

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

I agree, it's a case of two and two equaling five. If you look at the autographing schedule, there are a good number of celebs showing up who aren't necessarily promoting a project. The mega-cons are a good way of making a lot of money for relatively work. Not that sitting behind an autograph table for eight hours at a time is easy or comfortable, but it sure beats being on location in some third world countries, working an 18-hour day. I think that's sort of what you were alluding to, Jan?

[Jan]

I doubt it means anything, Andrew. Pat's involved in a number of things lately and, as I said above, I'm pretty sure she's in at least on panel, too. As for Claudia, she's very heavy into the convention circuit lately. Further deponent saith not.

Jan

[Andrew_Swallow]

I really, really hope a second installment is already on the way. Comic-con seems like the perfect place for them to announce it, to coincide with the release of the first part. Or maybe they have to leave it up to Warners to do it..

I am suspicious that Pat Tallman and Claudia Christian are going to Comic-Con. If they were invited by Warner Brothers (or JMS) this strongly hints at good news. If they invited themselves, well there are worse ways to ask for a job.

[Jan]

I'm glad you did send it to AICN for the exposure, Joe. I'm not a big fan of that site but you're right, it gets the traffic. I see that Raw Bean has been posting in the Talkback section.

'Bout *time* they sent you your itinerary! Looking forward to seeing you again, Joe (last time was at the Hawthorne con).

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Sigh. Years ago, I sent in a story to AICN under my own name, which as you know is the way I always do things. When the story was posted the following day, they'd given me some dopey name which I can't even recall now. So from then on, I decided to use Gaspode, which as Terry Pratchett fans will recall, is a talking dog, which seemed terribly appropriate somehow.

I thought it would be better to post a review on a site that would get a lot of mainstream traffic, which in turn would help promote the project to a bigger audience, which it seems to have done. But I made sure there was a spoiler tag clearly marked so as not to ruin anything for anybody. I may have been slightly specific regarding the Sheridan/Galen story, but since Peter Woodward has already gone on record with me about that, I wasn't revealing anything that wouldn't be out there anyway.

By the way Jan, I just got my details re San Diego from WB about ten minutes ago, so it looks like I'll be coming along after all. Should be a lot of fun.