I’ve been chasing Bruce Boxleitner’s autograph for over 30 years. Things just never worked out. This weekend, I was able to get my cast poster autographed by him at GalaxyCon Richmond.

When I met him, he unrolled this poster and sort of… stopped. He didn’t say anything. He just stared at the poster and I could see him start to well up.

He reached out and gently ran his hand in an arch over the autographs and says, “All my friends. All my friends who are no longer with us…”

He takes a breath and asks if I bought this or if I get the autographs myself. I tell him that I got each and every one in person, and that I’ve been chasing him for about 32 years.

Before he signed, he touched Jerry Doyle’s autograph. He told me Jerry was like a brother to him, an irresponsible and impulsive brother, but a brother nonetheless. He said it was “a damn shame” that he (he then paused and took a beat) “ended it like he did.” He said he’s spoken with Jerry just a week before.

He then moved his hand to Mira Furlan. “Mia. My co-star. My beautiful Mia.” He asked if I knew how she died. I said malaria. He said not just malaria, but from a mosquito in “her own damn backyard,” not out traveling somewhere exotic. He lamented that she was too beautiful of a person to be taken so soon and she had so much to give.

He brushed his hand over Richard Biggs’ autograph. “Rick was quick. He didn’t even see it coming.”

He ran his hand over the poster once again before signing.

We chatted about the show, about how my friends and I had been to so many conventions in the 90s that Jerry started to recognize us. I told him he was the 2nd furthest I’d driven for a B5 autograph (5 hours), and Andreas was the furthest (11 hours, when I was much younger).

All in all, it was an amazingly wonderful experience. I thanked him profusely for his time and for the autograph. He thanked me for the wonderful moment of nostalgia.

I couldn’t have asked for a better interaction with Mr. Boxleitner.

I can't help but think about this scene.

If there's one similarity I wish between Walter Koenig and PsiCop Bester - I hope he passed the same way - laughing at the absurdity of the universe.

So I built this last year using some instructions I ordered. The price was a receipt showing a donation to a charity....and all the extra pieces I had to buy, cost me around $200ish.

The past few weeks, I've been working on trying to insert a motor to spin the center section. I was unsuccessful; the first motor I bought wasn't strong enough to rotate it at the prescribed 2 rpm, and the second motor I bought was too big to fit in the model.

It's a great model though; the middle does free spin so you can choose where to orient it.

Here's how to get the instructions:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/forums/topic/171687-instructions-babylon-5-omega-class-destroyer/

From Beyond the Brick on FB.

Here's a video.

Some people just age like fine wine 😍😍

This is awesome!

I got the instructions of the Eurobricks forums (just search “Eurobricks omega destroyer”), which also offers a link for purchasing good quality decals for the front of the ship. The habitat section rotates. Mine is not motorized.

Most parts are pretty common. The red engine cylinders and the gears for the rotating sections were probably the rarest. All told this cost around $450 Canadian to build and took about a month of evenings to complete.

Technically Sir Patrick Stewart is not a Babylon 5 actor I know, but still feels relevant, especially in light of Walter Koenig’s recent passing.

Bruce said of the photo "He was fascinated by G'kar, he was mesmerised looking up into those red eyes, and Andreas was great with him. He only started crying because it was time for his lunch."

From left to right:

1. Jerry Doyle, Michael Garibaldi, 60, natural causes with complications due to alcoholism as a contributing factor.

2. Andreas Katsulas, G'Kar, 59, lung cancer.

3. Stephen Furst, Vir Cotto ,63,complications related to diabetes

4. Jeff Conaway, Zack Allan, 60, aspiration pneumonia and encephalopathy, attributable to drug overdoses.

5. Richard Biggs, Dr. Franklin, 44, complications stemming from aortic dissection.

6. Mira Furlan, Ambassador Delenn, 65, complications of West Nile fever.