Berättelsen om BabCon VI

BabCon VI:	Bester
	The Corps is mother, the Corps is father.

(Till Programmet)

Varför engelska?

Strax innan BabCon VI kom Vice ordförande i IA, Daniel Petzén aka Sinclair, i kontakt med Walter Koenig som spelar Bester. Han har visat intresse för vår förening och det minsta jag kan göra är att skriva om BabCon VI på engelska.

Why english?

Just before BabCon VI the Vice President of IA, Daniel Petzén aka Sinclair, came in contact with Walter Koenig who plays the role of Bester. He has shown interest in our organization and the least I can do is to write about BabCon VI in english.

The main man

What could be more suitable to start this story with than a message from Walter Koenig to the attendees at BabCon VI. The message was to be read at BabCon VI, but even as mr Koenig made an effort to send us the mail in good time, I Sinclair, managed to miss it as it went to mailbox other than expected. But better late than never. So here it is:

Many thanks to all the Swedish fans who are acknowledging Bester at your convention. Playing the character was the most satisfying television experience I have had and it makes me feel quite good indeed that others respond strongly to him also. I hope you have a most enjoyable con and hope, as well, that in the future we might all sometime meet.

Warmest Regards,
Walter Koenig

BabCon VI - the story.

It was the dawn of mankind eh... well in the dawn anyway. After a brief setup and general checking the first fanatics started to turn up. They forged ahead through a weather that was beatiful with around 25° celsius and not a single cloud in the sky. This was an excellent day to spend 10 hours in a dark screening room enjoying Babylon 5!

The people bought entrance and all the necessities such as Cola and chocolate. We also provided them with the program and the trivia contest for BabCon VI.

After a brief intro we started with the guest play of the Con: Farscape. First out was the pilot and then the Episode 'I, ET'. The spontaneous reactions on the movie was sparse and mixed. Later on in the evening when the beer loosened the tongues it became quite clear that the majority of the attendees thought that it was a bit to plastic. The most vicious comment was that it was the muppet show in space and the kindest that it was a bloody good SciFI show. Most people thought that they needed to see a few more episodes to make a decision.

After the break it was time to embark on the main event: Babylon 5, PsiCorps and Bester! First out was one of my favorites: Mind War. It's in this episode that a stray PsiCore experiment hits Babylon5. There are a lot to mention about it, but the most goose-bump-generating part has to be when Ironheart reaches a higher state of consciousness with the words: 'See you in a million years'. The second episode, 'A Race Through Dark Places' is about the rouge telepaths and their attempts to break free of the core. It's really a classic PsiCorps-Bester versus the general mundane-world.

Poor me sat outside during these wonderful events and guarded the cash and merchandise. Yes... It's actually very sad - not.

Before we started again after the pause we informed about a few things such as lunch and the evening activities. A somewhat amusing event was when I tried to correct the answers to one of the trivia questions. The question was about what substance that is used in jumpgate constructions. The correct answer was Quantium-40, but we had written Quantium-90 and I was just about to correct it when it stroke me: wouldn't it be a bit obvious to correct one of the alternatives if it was a false one? The cashier was quick to motion me to just tell people to ignore the numbers. Well, I thought it was pretty amusing anyhow :-)

The next two episodes in line were 'Dust to Dust' and 'Ship of tears'. The first is about the drug Dust and what it does to people and in particular to Narns. The latter is about what the shadows have in store for telepaths. Both episodes features Bester as he starts to grow as a character.

It was now time for lunch and we made a common cause and set off to a pizza place close by. Some remained, but most people came along. We had a very pleasant lunch with a lot of interesting discussions. For once, the time for lunch was plenty. The end of the lunch was also the deadline for the trivia contributions and it turned out that most people participated.

We then screened 'Epiphanies' which is a classic Bester meets girl and plots against the world to get her detached from shadow technology. Seriously this is a classic Bester episode with the usual quick replies and excellent acting. I enjoy these episodes immensely. The other episode, 'The Face of the Enemy' is in the middle of the endgame and reveals the long awaited plot against Mr Garibaldi. During these episodes we started to look through the trivia contests.

It turned out that two persons managed to get 19 points out of 20 and two got 18. This hairy situation was handled by cold and admirable logic by our brainman, cashier and web-dude Daniel Johanson. We made a lottery out of the first/second place and the third/fourth place with a fourth place award quickly inserted. My god we're good. The winners were as follows:

From the right:

1:a Kim Karlsson
2:a Peter Andersson
3:a Fredrik Persson
4:a Christer Levefelt

Mr Karlsson further amazed us by celebrating his birthday with us at BabCon VI. That is what I call devotion!

On the left we have Daniel and Daniel. The Johansson version to the left and the Petzén version on the right.

I want to thank our sponsors Melodyline and Dolores for the fine prizes!

Then it was time for the main episode: 'The Corps is father, The Corps is mother'. This is so typically Babylon 5; the episode is from a totally different angel, with a sudden deep revelation of the PsiCorps inner functions. With so much focus on Bester, this is really the best episode of them all. Just a plain joy to watch.

We rounded of the day activities with a very brief presentation of the present members of the board and how the evening was to be arranged. One of the Chalmers sections (called sjösex in swedish and I won't even try to translate that) were having a feast and the attendees were more than welcome to join them. Many people joined up and went down to the party that was close by. We moved some tables together and had a wonderful time. The feeling to sitting together at a table with a bunch of Babylon 5 devotees is really a pleasure. We had a great time and the last of us left when the party was closing late in the night.

Another BabCon was at an end. Personally I think this was one of the best BabCons so far.