Babylon Park
Encyclopedia
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
and South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
that debuted on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
in 1998, created by Christopher Russo. It presents the Babylon 5 cast with South Park character designs. It spawned several short films, including later productions with actual cast and crew from Babylon 5.
Babylon Park was born from a comment Christopher Russo made on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated: "Oh my God, they killed Koshi!" That comment spawned a website expounding on the joke. Shortly after the debut of that site, Russo was approached by the Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
-based NicholsFilm group, who desired to make a short fan film
Fan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by...
based on the concept. Russo granted permission, and Babylon Park: The Movie made its debut at the 1998 DragonCon, along with Russo's own short Spoohunter. The movie portion was written and directed by Alyssa Gobelle, and was an instant hit not only with fans, but with the Babylon 5 cast and crew, many of whom were in attendance at the convention.
After the DragonCon premiere, Russo went forward with plans to make more shorts, but without the involvement of Gobelle or the Nicholsfilm crew. Nicholsfilm would later produce another parody, Crusade Wars, lampooning the network bureaucracy that plagued the Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade
Crusade (TV series)
Crusade is a spin-off TV show from J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5. Its plot is set in AD 2267, five years after the events of Babylon 5, and just after the movie A Call to Arms. A race called the Drakh have released a nanovirus plague on Earth, which will destroy all life on Earth within five...
.
The later Babylon Park episodes were released by Russo's iNFiNiCorp Transgalactic, and are as follows:
- Episode 000 (1999) - An introductory montage of the Babylon Park universe, showing clips from future "episodes", hosted by Mr. Mordy, the ShadowShadow (Babylon 5)The Shadows are a fictional alien species in the science fiction television series Babylon 5. Their homeworld is Z'ha'dum. In contrast to the Vorlons, whose philosophy is represented by the question "Who are you?", that of the Shadows is represented by the question "What do you want?", centering...
Poo (a parody of South Park's Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo). - Frightspace (1999) - Extra-dimensional gods invade the station in a LovecraftianH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
assault, in a parody of the Babylon 5 telefilm ThirdspaceBabylon 5: ThirdspaceBabylon 5: Thirdspace is a made-for-television film that is part of the Babylon 5 science fiction universe. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño....
. This entry is notable for its voice talent - Babylon 5 actors Wayne AlexanderWayne AlexanderWayne Alexander is an American actor who grew up in San Joaquin Valley in California. He trained at Los Angeles City College Theater Academy, then spent four years at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. He later worked as a fight choreographer and did stage work both in Los Angeles and...
, Robin Atkin-Downes, Patricia TallmanPatricia TallmanPatricia J. Tallman is an American actress and stunt performer, sometimes credited as Pat Tallman.-Early life:Patricia is the daughter of Jerry Tallman, a radio entertainer...
, and Jeffrey Willerth lent their voices to the production. - Spoosade versus Forager: Grudgematch (2000) - Captain Gidiot must battle Captain Painway to determine which franchise's storyline is fit to save Earth from a nanobot plagueGrey gooGrey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario known as ecophagy .Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally...
. This entry was produced by Jeffrey Willerth's Erthbound Entertainment, and won a Silver Trophy in the Animation category at the 2002 Telly Awards. Popular fan songwriter Tom SmithTom Smith (filker)Tom Smith is a singer-songwriter from , who got his start in the filk music community. He is a fourteen-time winner of the Pegasus Award for excellence in filking, including awards for his "A Boy and His Frog", "307 Ale", and "The Return of the King ", and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in...
also composed an original song for the film, "Enterprising Man." Babylon 5 actress Maggie Egan joined the cast for this film.