John Hudgens was hired by Joe Straczynski to create official Babylon 5 music videos for him to use at science fiction conventions, and later to promote the show to networks. They produced eight over the run of the series. Now, for the 20th anniversary and after numerous requests from fans, Straczynski has allowed these to be posted online.
In the spring of 1997, the fourth season was roaring to an end, but there were rumors the series would not get its fifth season. Hudgens and Straczynski had talked about using Christopher Franke's music again, highlighting the epic feel and scope of the Babylon 5 story, and with that in mind, Hudgens started editing.
After about a month, he got a call from Joe on a Friday, asking how close he was to being done. Hudgens was maybe 75% there, but Straczynski wanted to know if there was any way it could be finished that weekend, as he was going to Atlanta the next week and would VERY much like to have a showreel inhand. Hudgens put in a LONG weekend edit marathon, as this was Joe's trip to hopefully finalize the deal to get B5 onto TNT for the fifth and final season, and he was going to use Hudgens' work to do it. Hudgens was even prepared to drive to Atlanta to meet him with a tape if need be, but the overnight delivery got to the B5 offices just in time for him to review the tape before leaving for Atlanta.
This video premiered at DragonCon in July 1997, and the original version ended with the TNT logo and the announcement of Season Five. At the time, this was considered A Very Good Thing - but that's another story.
