ZINE BABYLON

        I missed Babylon 5 last night, d'oh! Completely forgot to set the
video, though I knew I'd be out playing games at Chris Jones' house. We
played Siedler with the "pick a card" rule applying to picking a progress
card out of the deck and picking a card out of someone's hand with a 7 or
a Ritter being interpreted to mean "take a look at all the cards available
and pick one of your choice". Monopoly, Streetbuilding and Progress cards
whenever you want them (and played very early in the game) and you get to
know what people have and when. I won because everyone else seemed not to
value the VP cards highly enough, so I helped myself to four of them. An
interesting variant, but not an improvement.
        That said, it was an episode I had seen before - and, no, Channel 4
aren't showing repeats. For those not in the know, Babylon Five is a sci-fi
drama set to run over five series, and Channel 4 are now showing the fourth
series on Wednesday nights after the repeat of Space Cadets. I hadn't watched
any of the show before about March this year, and wasn't tempted to start,
but I lived next to the president of the society dedicated to celebrating
that show at Uni and he convinced me to watch the crucial bits of the first
three series - 32 episodes in a row in 24 hours, sponsored for charity. For
two weeks after that I thought "very nice but so what?" and then woke up one
day absolutely gagging to know what happened next. He kindly then showed me
his converted imported tapes of the first episodes of series four. Not that
I can remember all that much about what happened now...
        I'm not a sci-fi fan, normally, and you probably ought to know just
what sort of shows I do prefer by now (if you don't then you haven't been
paying attention!), but there was something very simple that really attracted
me to the show. The high standard of writing. (And the extremely high
production values, but that's two very simple things.) They used the simple
literary device of putting juicy lines in the dialogue and showing those
lines to later have some completely unexpected yet portentous and cunning
meaning several episodes down the line. Conversely, it's entertaining to
ponder over possible double meanings in lines that look like they might be
referred to again further on. Here comes the link.
        Wouldn't it be nice if GIT were that well written? Some discongruous
phrase or article here or there, a casual mention or a hint of something to
come later down the line. I'm trying. (We know, you're very trying...)
        That's what I've particularly been trying to do with the Panda Name
Sweepstakes, but I hadn't announced this in advance. I'm ever so pleased with
your response to this; I was fully expecting and anticipating people to deem
this far too embarrassingly twee even for a subzine as silly as this one, but,
no, people have been kind and gratifying enough to enter in the spirit in
which the game was intended to be played. Unfortunately no-one has got the
right answer yet, but when you do (and it's just a matter of time) you'll
understand... well, you'll understand another piece of the fundamental
underlying lunacy of the publication.
        Dan Lester suggested the panda might be called VON PANDA.
        Jim Hardy opined a possible name for the panda of NICK PARISH.
        Steve Massey tried PANDAMONIUM, but hedged his bets with STARE BEAR.
        Geoff Brown sent a lovely fancy letter on a colour inkjet with an
attempt to name the panda which was also PANDAMONIUM.
        Dave Percik picked up on the "p" theme and ventured PUGH.
        Mark Stretch rather immodestly volunteered STRETCHY SPICE.
        Lastly, Toby Harris kindly praised Games In Testing in the latest TFF
(not that I've seen it; this comes from Mark by phone) and went for STRETCHY.
        Sorry, none of these are correct. I do like some of those guesses,
though. I may not have communicated the age of the beast; I've had the furry
fella for about nine or ten years now, having been given him by an uncle who
saw him at a car boot sale and thought I might like him. (The owner was a boy
of 17 who loved cuddly pandas too, but had so many that he had to get rid of
one of his larger ones to make room. I like to feel that I have improved the
panda's lot in life - he doesn't get used as a cushion any more.) Remember,
he's about 80cm tall, has eyes permanently closed by white eyelids on a white
face and a fluffy, irregularly-shaped, roundish black hooter.
        There's still a prize for whoever gets it right, but should there be
multiple correct answers I'll use Bingo, National lottery or something else
similar to determine which correct entrant gets the one prize.