Rare Scripts Of J. Michael Straczynski Book On Auction For Charity

By David Wharton | Updated

Looking for a cool science fiction collectible for the fanboy/fangirl in your life? If you’ve got friends, relatives, or significant others who were big fans of Babylon 5, you might want to turn your eyes toward eBay. A single copy of a rare “The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski” book is being auctioned off to benefit Be A Santa, a charity to provide holiday gifts to emotionally and physically abused teens at the Penny Lane Home for Children. Just to throw another B5 connection into the mix, the Be a Santa program was founded by Patricia Tallman, who played Lyta Alexander.

If you aren’t already familiar with the Babylon 5 script books, they were a very cool set that collected the scripts for the various B5 along with rare behind-the-scenes pictures and documents, as well as extensive commentary from creator J. Michael Straczynski. While they’ve since gone on to publish numerous other volumes exploring the history of B5 and its short-lived spinoff, Crusade, the original set was a 14-volume set. There was also a rare 15th volume that you could only get if you ordered the rest of the set. It’s a copy of this 15th volume that’s up for auction to help benefit Be a Santa.

So, what do you get for the winning bid, aside from a warm fuzzy feeling of having helped make some unfortunate kid’s Christmas better? Well, it’s signed by JMS himself, for one thing. Here’s some handy bullet points to further entice you:

This is a NEW, still in shrinkwrap copy of the very rare Volume 15 of the Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski. This volume was only given as a gift to fans who’d bought the entire 14-volume set. This volume contains:

  • Babylon 5 ‘Writer’s Bible’ previously only available from the B5 Fan Club.
  • A memo written by JMS between the Pilot and Season 1 describing the entire 5-year arc AND a possible sequel.
  • An alternate draft of “And the Sky, Full of Stars.”
  • The practical joke scenes JMS wrote into the episode “The Exercise of Vital Powers” where Londo and G’Kar become lovers.

This one predates the work I did with the B5 scripts folks for several years before signing on to GFR, so I give this book an enthusiastic thumbs up as a paying customer who bought the entire set back in the day. Behind-the-scenes awesomeness to geek out over, and a worthy cause? What’s not to like? You can bid on the book right here.