DVD Talk Forum - What is the "thing" in B5?

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What is the "thing" in B5?

I'm listening to the commentary on "The Gathering" and the set/design director mentioned something about a thing that has been in every eps (and movie, B5 and otherwise) done by a production group called "the woodland creatures"... anyone know what he's talking about?

I just finished listening to this an hour ago. I thought he said that this prop (smaller than a bread box and larger than a coke can) has been in every TV show and movie these guys (Woodland Creatures) have worked on. It hasn't been in every B5 episode, but it's been in a few including The Gathering.

BTW, I've not listened to the commentary on In the Beginning yet, but the comment I heard was on The Gathering. Is this a mistake on your part or do they talk about it in that commentary also?

A quick Google search turned up nothing. Anyone know anything about this?

My apologies you're right :o... Shows you what I get for listening and typing at the same time ;)

Wow, I was just listening to this at work, and was considering asking in here as well. I can't believe he didn't say what it was.

I thought we had some real hard core B5 fans here but I guess not :( or maybe this is too obscure even for them ;)

The "thing" in question is Sinclair's duck.

:cool: Thanks :D

So what other shows/movies has it been in though?

(For anyone who doesn't know about the infamous duck..)

Sinclair's duck is/was a bad running joke on the early online B5 fandom.

Quote:

Welp, listen up, young 'uns, and you'll hear a tale from the old days, from back when the bald 'n' bony fan club made sense, Sinclair was the station's final commander, and moderation was a thing for rec.humor.funny.

It seems that certain people once had a certain fondness for certain parts of Claudia Christian's anatomy. These people started a thread to discuss them, and this thread was called "Ivanova's t*ts," and it was slightly censored to appease the vocally offendable.

Certain _other_ people asked, "So why don't we ever have threads like this about the _guys_?" And so, not to be outdone, these people promptly started a thread entitled "Sinclair's d*ck."

JMS saw this thread, and unto it posted the reply: "Hey! How did you find out about that? We weren't supposed to introduce Sinclair's duck until season 3!"

Back then, posters were forbidden from posting story ideas in the group that JMS read for obvious reasons, so that's part of JMS's humorous reaction.

The "duck" in question may still be seen on the lurker's guide page for the series finale. It was put there as a joke, and they still haven't changed it to a scene from the actual episode.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/gif/110/starship.jpeg

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To answer the quetion, I did a quick google check and came up with this:

On 8-18-2004, JMS made the following post to rastb5mod in regard to this same question:

Quote:

Now it's driving me crazy -- did John ever tell you what the mystery object was that has supposedly appeared in *every* sci-fi movie/tv project? And, more importantly, is it true?

Yeah, it's true, and no, he wouldn't tell me.

Quote:

Who are those three guys John spoke about?

There was a group of folks in the art department who were referred to jointly as the Woodland Creatures...Dark, Bear, and Dragon (two of which are real names, the third is a nickname, I'll let you do the investigation on that one). There could not have been a more apt description of these guys...

Further down the thread, it's speculated the object might be this:

http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/q30.html

So, the ducks out then? Cool story, but it doesn't seem to be what they're talking about on the commentary.

The overthruster does make more sense however. I've heard of it being in different shows before.