 September
26, 1998 wasn't a normal Saturday for me and my daughter,
Kelly. It was a very special day because we attended Mad
Media 5. Mad Media is a science fiction convention in Madison, Wisconsin and this was the fifth year for it. But that wasn't what made it so special. What made it special for us was the fact that in 1998, it was almost totally devoted to our favorite science fiction television show, the now gone, but never forgotten, Babylon 5. The guest of honor was Harlan Ellison, who was the Conceptual Consultant for Babylon 5. He is also the writer of the original Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever", which guest starred actress Joan Collins. If you ever have a chance to hear this man talk, my advice would be, take it. Be warned, though. Mr. Ellison is a very blunt, out-spoken person, who doesn't mince a lot of words. He says exactly what he thinks and he does this often. He can also monopolize a conversation, because quite frankly, once he gets going, there's no stopping him! But, putting all that aside, he is also a very interesting person to listen to and at time, really hilarious. 
One of our favorite actors from the show, Stephan Furst, who play Vir Cotto, was the Babylon 5 media guest. Mr. Furst has also been on National Lampoon's "Animal House" and many other movies. He has also played a doctor on "St. Elsewhere". For those who have never seen Babylon 5, Mr. Furst's character, Vir, was from an alien race known as the Centauri. He was the aid to the Centauri Ambassador, Londo Mollari, and he had many duties. One of his biggest duties turns out to be trying to keep Londo in line and on the right path, which of course, didn't always work. This man is intelligent, funny, and good looking. Listening to him talk was really a great experience.
Neil
Gaiman, who was one of guest authors, also wrote a script
for Babylon 5 entitled Day of the Dead. He also had an
alien race on the show, the Gaim, named after him. He
also has several other works credited to him such as:
Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy Companion, Neverwhere, and the Sandman comic
series, just to name a few.
Peter David was another guest author who has written a couple
of scripts for the show, not to mention the Babylon 5
movie novelizations, "In the Beginning" and "Third Space". He
is also well know for Star Trek books like Q-Squared,
Q-in-Law, and its sequel, Imzadi.
The story I'm going to tell you next, believe it or not, has
nothing at all to do with Babylon 5, but is Star Wars
related and is rather humorous. It has to do with a well
known Star Wars author named Timothy Zahn and our quest
for the room we wanted to be in.
We'd been trying to figure out just where the room was that had the event which we wanted hear, but never having been to this place before, we really had no idea where we were going. Kelly decided that she was going to ask the next person to walk out of the room we were standing next to for help. The second she finished saying that, two men came through the door, one of them dressed in black and carrying a light saber. That in itself is no big deal at a science fiction convention where numerous people are dressed in costumes, but this guy had just finished speaking on the stage. I had no idea who he was other than he was obviously a guest speaker of some sort, but I was almost speechless that she was asking him of all people. This man, dressed in black, and his companion were very helpful. They gave us very good directions and after thanking them, we headed towards our destination. On the way, we we discussing the man who had given us directions. Kelly told me that the minute she started talking, she saw that his name tag said Timothy Zahn and that she knew he was an author for Star Wars related books, but by the time this all registered in her mind, it was too late because she had already started asking for help. We were still talking about our encounter with Mr. Zahn when we heard these two men behind us yelling, "Hey ladies! Wait a minute!" We turned around and there was the man in black, light saber in his hand, companion by his side, hurrying down the hall towards us. It seems they gave us the wrong directions, apologized, and offered to guide us on our way. So these two men walked us all the way back to where we'd first saw them and took us right to the room we wanted to be in. After finding our seats, we looked through the convention booklet and read all about our "Black Knight". This just shows that rescuers or good deed doers don't always have to be knights in shiny armor on great white horses. Even though he will most likely never see this page, Kelly and I would like to thank Mr. Timothy Zahn for helping us out so much that day. Without him, we probably would have been wandering the halls, looking for our room and would have missed the entire discussion we wanted to hear.  Stephan Furst and me.  Stephan Furst and Kelly.  Neil Gaiman and Kelly.  From left to right: Jon Manzo(moderator), Peter David, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen Furst.  From left to right: Jon Manzo(moderator), Peter David, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen Furst.  Stephan Furst  Stephan Furst  Stephan Furst as Vir Cotto. |