Babylon 5

[BlueStuff]

"A Distant Star"

An unconvincing guest star hampers a pretty uneventful episode.

Russ Tamblyn as Maynard just seemed to get the tone wrong throughout, never coming across as intrigued, shaken, or urgent as the script would have you believe. He had all the makings of a character we'll surely never see again.

In addition, Franklin puts the crew on "food plans", Sheridan pouts about not being on a starship, and Delenn waxes lyrical about space and the stars after her authority is brought into question by the Minbari. None of this did much for me other than briefly making me consider my own dietary schedules.

About the only event of any significance, it seemed to me, was Keffer spotting a shadow vessel in hyperspace (which remains terrifying, by the way).

Rating: **

- I liked the red mist design of hyperspace.
- Keffer got his first real showcase in this one; too bad he didn't really show more than "action pilot dude".
- Maynard talks about how thoughts of the unknown object he saw still send chills down his back, but he looks and sounds more amused than anything.
- Still no movement from the Vorlons! For that matter, no Londo/G'Kar, which may help to explain my general lack of fondness for this episode.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Russ Tamblyn as Maynard just seemed to get the tone wrong throughout, never coming across as intrigued, shaken, or urgent as the script would have you believe. He had all the makings of a character we'll surely never see again.

Tamblyn apparently feels he's too good for genre work, which really make casting directors stop calling him in for genre production. He replaced Nick Adams in the Toho classic "War of the Gargantuas", and the producer who pushed for that later came out complaining how much of a pain in the ass Tamblyn was.

The only thing I've seen Tamblyn in that he actually seemed to do a good job was Twin Peaks.

About the only event of any significance, it seemed to me, was Keffer spotting a shadow vessel in hyperspace (which remains terrifying, by the way).

Yes, that is significant, and will drive the character for the rest of the season.

 

[Forbin]

Russ Tamblyn is best when he's singing and dancing - see West Side Story. I think he was good in Twin Peaks because he played an apathetic hippie.

His daughter Amber, however, is a powerhouse actress - see Joan of Arcadia.

 

[DonIago]

If everything else about B5 sucked...and thankfully, it doesn't...I would argue until my dying day that the design of the Shadow ships was spectacular. I daresay they're as iconic as the Borg cube.

 

[Frostscape One]

I agree. I aldo think they are far more terrifying than seeing a cube appear, particularly afyer VOYAGER defanged the Borg in its later years.

 

[DonIago]

Hm. A Shadow ship versus a Borg cube might make for an interesting battle to be sure. The Shadows are an older race, but the Borg are quite innovative. Plus we know the Shadow ships have a weakness, which I won't get into because spoilers since we have an active reviewer right now.

 

[Kraig]

"A Distant Star"



In addition, Franklin puts the crew on "food plans", Sheridan pouts about not being on a starship, and Delenn waxes lyrical about space and the stars after her authority is brought into question by the Minbari. None of this did much for me other than briefly making me consider my own dietary schedules.

About the only event of any significance, it seemed to me, was Keffer spotting a shadow vessel in hyperspace (which remains terrifying, by the way).

Rating: **

The writer for this episode was D.C. Fontana, and IIRC she was on a diet plan when she wrote the episode and added the food plans for the command staff.

Spoiler: spoiler for Keffer

Keffer gets his own "white whale."

 

[Jan]

The writer for this episode was D.C. Fontana, and IIRC she was on a diet plan when she wrote the episode and added the food plans for the command staff.

Trivia note: When Ivanova complains about the 'expanding Russian front' Rick Biggs managed to get one of the very few ad libs in that stayed with his "But with very nice borders" line.

 

[JD]

Jan, you seem to know a lot about the show, were you involved in the production, or are you just a fan who followed it very closely?

 

[Booji]

Jan, you seem to know a lot about the show, were you involved in the production, or are you just a fan who followed it very closely?

Jan is one of the First Ones

 

[BlueStuff]

"The Long Dark"

A serviceable episode that tied what could have been a standard monster-of-the-week show into the season's buildup of the emerging dark forces.

Feels like every episode is filled with ominous hints towards the evil that's fast approaching, and I'm just waiting for the whole thing to explode as this force directly collides with our heroes. Eagerly looking forward to the next appearance of Mr Morden.

"Ship from the past" is a sci-fi trope I always enjoy, and it's utilised here to show that the optimistic future of Star Trek has no place on Babylon 5. Great line from G'Kar: "Take my advice and go back to the time you came from; the future isn't what it used to be."

I was wondering why this week's guest stars were better than usual - then I realised that Amis was, of course, Star Trek's Dwight Schultz (Barclay!). Mariah was also acted well, though I didn't care so much for that side of the tale. The conclusion was a little weak given the ease in which the Dark Creature was dealt with, and Franklin was oddly... attentive to Mariah extremely early on, essentially as soon as he found out she was a widow.

Rating: ***

-Do all doctors creepily stroke their patient's hair after they've woken from clearly disturbed sleep?
-Sheridan's cheery disposition seems to have disappeared. It seems the stress of running B5 is getting to him... and he's only 5 episodes in.

 

[DonIago]

Between B5 and DS9, apparently the message is that in the future doctors falling for their patients will be considered best practice.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Must be the Florence NIghtingale Effect.

 

[Jan]

Jan, you seem to know a lot about the show, were you involved in the production, or are you just a fan who followed it very closely?

Thanks. It started out with following very closely. I'd watched from the first episode (Missed 'The Gathering so does that make me a Second One? ) and when I got my first computer in...fall of '96 I think, I discovered JMS's posting on the old AOL forums as well as finding the Lurker's Guide. Ebay fed my love of scripts (which is all Trek and James Blish's fault) and so on. Eventually I ended up on staff with the B5 Books Team for several years. Because of that, I watched the show and compared it to the scripts and also reviewing JMS' archived posts a lot and...a bunch of it stuck in the trivia sandpaper I affectionately call my mind.

 

[JD]

OK. That makes your encyclopedic knowledge of the show even more impressive.

 

[Jan]

OK. That makes your encyclopedic knowledge of the show even more impressive.

Thanks again. But I'll admit that I've got a 'cheat' that most people don't. Even before working with the B5 Books folks, I had collected all of the B5 & Crusade scripts. Most from a crew member, a few from the writers or the B5 Fan Club. And I've got them all scanned. So it's easy for me to search for bits that I'm looking for.without pulling up the episodes themselves. So basically, whiler there are plenty of folks who know what I do, I've got a *great* set of reference tools!

 

[JD]

That's a pretty cool resource to have.

 

[Frostscape One]

Very cool, indeed.

 

[DonIago]

Thanks again. But I'll admit that I've got a 'cheat' that most people don't. Even before working with the B5 Books folks, I had collected all of the B5 & Crusade scripts. Most from a crew member, a few from the writers or the B5 Fan Club. And I've got them all scanned. So it's easy for me to search for bits that I'm looking for.without pulling up the episodes themselves. So basically, whiler there are plenty of folks who know what I do, I've got a *great* set of reference tools!

Damn, I have the script books, and I believe I have access to the encyclopedia online, but I don't have the scripts online.

 

[Jan]

Beginning January 26, B5 will be on HBOMax:
https://pressroom.warnermedia.com/us/media-release/hbo-max/hbo-max-highlights-january-2021

No word of whether it's the 'new' versions or not. Guess we'll see.