Babylon 5 at 30!
Revisiting my Claudia Christian (Commander Ivanova) DigBoston Interview at 10!
“It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace” — Jeffrey Sinclair
I was living in what can best be described as a flop house. I had just one other roommate, at the height of my rock-n-rollness (horniness). It was something I’ll describe to kids in the future, “the place with the machete in the kitchen, ice-cold vodka in the freezer, and a full Red Queen floor-length gown occupying 80% of my closet.”
An agreement that I do not move the handmade gown was struck so that I could move in and never speak a word about the dress or that I had no place to put my comic books.
It turned out that my own personal best hope for peace was to sneak out in the middle of the night and live on Josie’s couch for 3 months (paying rent and playing Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell) because the formerly safe apartment had now become a dangerous place, and heavy drugs started to seep in through the airlock. I had to, as they say, “bug out”.
I did learn major lessons. Lock up your shit. Forgive junkies after they move back home and get clean. If you are in a situation and start to feel unsafe, GET OUT.
How is this about Babylon 5? This roommate, the owner of the gown, a popular local DJ, a real freak, then a junkie who moved back home to get clean, introduced me to Babylon 5 during my brief 5-month stay in Lower Allston. There is a kind of trick going on in Babylon 5 - no spoilers, certainly, but J. Michael Straczynski’s space station drama is 5 seasons long, and each season is (roughly) about a year on the Babylon 5 space station. We watched on VHS, this was in the 2000s, so even then a VHS collection was a little anachronistic, but he had all of the episodes.
Something impressive to me, as a collector, and believe me, this roommate was one too (see the gown), is to see a full VHS run of anything that is not a dubbed copy. This was valuable enough at the time for him to buy them, and they look great lined up on the shelf.
A lifelong Star Trek and Star Wars fan, when B5 was on television in the 90s, I caught episodes here and there. I didn’t understand that this was not like Kirk said in Star Trek: Beyond, "episodic.” Yes and no, but this is one big story with a beginning, middle, and end. Catching a random episode of TNG, Voyager, or the other space station show (there's something special about space station shows), Deep Space Nine could keep you occupied for an hour without any threads arcing across episodes. JMS designed B5 for episode watchability but the real payoff is when you can watch it from beginning to end (?).
Babylon 5: The Gathering aired on February 22, 1993. A rewatch is now possible on ‘digital whatever’ Tubi and other places. The pilot is slightly less good-looking (production-wise) as a show, but it does lay the groundwork for the Captains and the last surviving Babylon station.
Here is the whole monologue from Season One, spoken by Jeffrey Sinclair
It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War.
The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers.
Humans and aliens, wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal . . . all alone in the night.
It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace.
This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.
(Credit: Warner Bros)
In 2013, as a part of my EARTH PRIME TIME comics and pop culture column at DigBoston, I was asked if I was interested in speaking with Claudia Christian, the actress who played Commander Susan Ivanova. Besides the Stan Lee article, it was one of the only to see print in the ‘physical’ paper! And since you are likely reading this on the internet, be thankful I’m not getting ink all over your hands! I was really grateful and lucky to have this gig, and I continue to support the work at the paper.
At this point in my life, I am newly sober, with a couple of years under my belt. And though I went to AA to get sober, I went to non-traditional meetings that made some of my sober alcoholic friends wonder if I was actually going to AA at all! I was and still haven't picked up a drink. I was expecting to talk to Commander Ivanova about B5, and we did, certainly, but we also got to talking about her unique voyage to sobriety using a different method.
This method is one I am still a bit skeptical about myself, but only because their Boston office is directly above the office where I have had over $20,000 worth of extensive mouth surgery and extractions done. If the office of “Free Chocolate Unicorn Pets That Shit Cotton Candy For All Citizens” were in the same building as my oral surgeon, I would kick the door and crouch before entering. Like any alcoholic (including my worried friends), I’m skeptical. Especially in terms of getting sober. For nearly a century, there has only been one REALLY PROVEN and FREE way, and that is AA. It’s not perfect, but kind of…works…for a lot of people (and not for others).
Claudia told me about The Sinclair Method, perhaps to attract or recruit. Whatever, I don’t know her motivations for putting this in the interview, but if it saves a life, and helps, why do I care? Are we evangelizing something like the NXVIM Cult? I don’t think so, but as all the greats say nowadays, “do your own research” If you’ve somehow come across this and you are struggling, please reach out to someone who can help you. Google AA meetings or I will pass you in the hall at my dentist's office.
In terms of survival, that's six of one and a half dozen of the other.
The articles from the internet archive are here.
DIGBOSTON: Unfortunately you had some negative experiences with some famous actors you talk about in the book, such as Cliff Robertson and William Shatner.
CLAUDIA CHRISTIAN: The Cliff Robertson thing was kind of shocking because I had never been treated like that, it was a silly incident and he pulled a very dramatic, sort of violent gesture toward me and I thought, “Wow, is this what Hollywood is like?”
I only had one real classic “casting couch” incident but that was with Bob Evans.
I’m sure every actress in town has one of those with him! That didn’t make the book.
The other incidences were men making passes or just being inappropriate or lascivious or whatever. I think I got a pretty good deal compared to some actresses I’ve talked to.
Claudia Christian as Ivanova, Walter Koenig as PsiCop Alfred Bester
You’re a strong, beautiful woman, and a great role model to a lot of young girls that are into sci-fi. As you said before though, the Hollywood model doesn’t go that way any more. This was the ’80s.
Absolutely the most satisfying thing was playing Ivanova on Babylon 5. It really is a role model that is still around. I recently got a letter from a little girl in Russia who said, “You’re my hero.” She is 14 years old. This is a whole new generation that’s seeing it. She was a good role model. Encouraging little girls to be the commander, I don’t have to be the person on the left pushing buttons.
And it also helped in a lot of ways because a lot of people came out of the closet because of the portrayal.
They decided if Ivanova can be bi-sexual, then I can tell my parents.
It really was amazing. That was an incredible role.
Sci-fi never dies.
We have reunion dinners a couple of times a year just on our own.
JMS (J. Michael Straczynski), the actors, we genuinely like each other. I’ve never seen such camaraderie on a set than I had on Babylon 5.
I came across your book on social media, you seem to be very active there. How is it interacting with your fans there?
I have about 7 Facebook pages! I have my personal page, my fan page, my One Little Pill page, my C3 Foundation page. It goes on and on. I’m making a documentary about The Sinclair Method, I have a page for that. I have also got a great team behind me. It takes a little pressure off of me.
You are also in so many other amazing movies, one that relates to the recovery part of the book, Clean and Sober, and The Hidden. What’s the difference between the movies and TV sets for you?
Well, Clean and Sober was amazing, I originally tried out for the Kathy Baker role but I was a little too young. Glen Gordon Caron offered me the role of Iris and I was thrilled to work with Morgan Freeman and Michael Keaton. These were actors at the top of their game.
It was a world-class set with trailers, people kowtowing to you even if it wasn’t a big role.
Just amazing, a very attentive director, we did a lot of takes. Morgan Freeman was phenomenal to work with, Michael Keaton was phenomenal. It was so different, you have more time, more money, the luxury of doing tons of takes. Whereas on a cheap TV show, you have to know your lines.
That’s hard with technobabble. It’s a whole different experience.
To be honest, part two of the interview takes a hard turn into talking up The Sinclair Method, which I don’t know enough about to endorse (nor condemn!).
There is way less Babylon 5 in part two! The reason for celebration. I am still pinching myself for getting to speak with Claudia. Support DigBoston and independent journalism in Boston.
Speaking of which! Support me with a free subscription if you’d like or leave a comment (or tip below)! We’re keeping it free in ‘23 so far.
P.S. Bonus for the real heads. Check out this amazing B5 Article. Neil Gaiman! Penn & Teller!
