Babylon 5 5-08: Day of the Dead

Episode:

96

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Writer:

Neil Gaiman

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Director:

Doug Lefler

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Air Date:

11-Mar-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the 57th episode of Babylon 5 in a row to be scripted by creator J. Michael Straczynski, whose tyranny over the series was absolute. No, hang on, this is actually a Neil Gaiman episode?

Gaiman had never written for Babylon 5 before, as he was busy writing Neverwhere and Sandman and stuff, but he did actually have a connection to the series as he has an alien race named after him (the Gaim). This was director Doug Lefler's only Babylon 5 episode as well. The guy had directed a few other episodes of other shows but these days he's mostly a storyboard artist, working on movies like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Godzilla vs. Kong and Deadpool 2.

Day of the Dead was filmed between episodes 10 and 11, but the plan was to air it a couple of episodes later (after The Ragged Edge). Then the episodes got reordered in order to have a build-up of dramatic stories leading up to a break, so it was actually aired a couple of episodes earlier. The Lurker's Guide Master List I'm following places it back in its intended position and the list's been working out for me so far, so I'm going along with it.

That means to me this run of episodes looks like this:

11 - Phoenix Rising
12 - The Ragged Edge
08 - Day of the Dead
13 - The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father
14 - Meditations on the Abyss

I think this is actually the last time that episodes are going to get shuffled around like this. From now on I can just watch them in the order they aired in.

Alright, I'm going to jump right into giving you my recap commentary, going through the episode scene by scene and writing words underneath screencaps. These words may contain huge SPOILERS for earlier episodes as well, but this review is first time viewer friendly so I won't spoil anything that comes after. Except I'm watching this after episodes 9, 10, 11, and 12 so I guess they'll be getting a little bit spoiled.

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I don't know how many episodes of Babylon 5 start with a shuttle docking at the station, a lot probably, but I do know this is the only one where it turns out that comedian magicians Penn and Teller are on board! I guess the Vorlons must have abducted them from Earth and kept them in suspended animation like they did with Jack the Ripper.

Actually the two of them are playing famous comedy duo Rebo and Zooty, who have only been mentioned once before, I think. We heard about them in the mid-season 4 episode Rumors, Bargains and Lies, which also revealed that that Sheridan loves them and Londo really wasn't impressed. He didn't get their catchphrase 'Zooty, zoot zoot' and neither did I. Though to be fair I hadn't heard it in context.

Here we finally get to see one of their comedy routines, as Rebo walks into the customs area with a large bag that he drops on the desk, telling the customs official that he has nothing to declare but his genius. Hey that's Oscar Wilde's material! Well, allegedly.

A second later and suddenly the bag is full of Zooty, who climbs out, claiming that he has nothing to declare either before dropping a "Zooty, zoot zoot!" on the crowd.

The thing is, Zooty's played by Teller, who doesn't talk on camera even when he's playing another role, and it turns out that the character has a box that speaks for him. A box which sounds like it's been dubbed over by Harlan Ellison doing an annoying cartoony voice, along with some cheesy sound effects. So now we know that Rebo and Zooty's famous "Zooty, zoot zoot" line wasn't actually spoken by Rebo or Zooty. That wasn't the original plan though; jms had to do a rewrite after Penn and Teller were cast.

Oh by the way, they pulled off this particular bit of magic with the 'someone walking across the screen' camera trick, which disguises a cut. It looks really seamless in motion, but not so much when you view it frame by frame.

For one thing this security officer on the right materialises in an instant before the shadowy figure in the foreground has even made it across the screen. They don't just move over a little a little bit from where they were standing before the cut, they appear out of nowhere.

Meanwhile Sheridan, Lochley and Garibaldi are walking down a hallway having a friendly chat about Brakiri religious customs and it's nice to see them actually being halfway friendly to each other. It helps that they're in a good mood, without any telepath crises on their minds.

Sheridan reveals that he actually knows nothing about Brakiri customs, which seems a bit strange seeing as he's been running Babylon 5 for three years. I bet Sinclair would've learned everything about them by now.

Garibaldi at least knows that they really don't like people talking about comets, as it's a symbol of death in their culture. He doesn't go into how picked up this bit of knowledge, but we know from season 3's A Day in the Strife that a Brakiri once pressed charges against him because he said "Look! A comet!" to distract the guy long enough to escape a conversation he didn't want to have. He had no idea that it would be taken as a threat!

The reason they're talking about this is because the Brakiri want to buy a section of Babylon 5 for one night for religious reasons. In fact they want to buy it for tonight, so they're really waiting until the last minute here.

We see that the Brakiri have set up stalls in the hallways and one of them's trying to sell some skull candy to Londo (who arrived back on the station four episodes from now in The Ragged Edge). Seems that the Brakiri Day of the Dead celebration has some suspicious similarities to the Mexican holiday with the same name. I wonder if the Brakiri celebrate their own Christmas as well.

Londo must be in a very good mood today as he doesn't say a thing about the fact that this stranger has set up shop literally right outside his quarters in the presumably high-security ambassador section of the station. He's about to become the Centauri Emperor, people have been trying to assassinate him and yet security just let this happen!

The Brakiri asks Londo if there's anyone dead that he'd like to chat to, and he replies that he's got a lot of bones to pick with the first Centauri Emperor. He might well get what he wants, as tonight... the dead return! At least that's what the Brakiri says, and the spooky music says that we should pay attention.

Damn, that was a surprisingly claustrophobic teaser even for Babylon 5. Not a lot of camera movement or scenery in the frame.

ACT ONE

Act one begins with the surprise return of Lennier! Oh no, I hope he's not dead.

This is the first time we've seen him since The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari and also the first time we've seen him in his new Ranger costume. Lennier had a break in his training so he decided to come back for the Day of the Dead festival. It happens one night every 200 years, so it's not something you want to miss out on if you've got the interest. He's also glad he didn't miss out on Rebo and Zooty, and he quotes their famous catchphrase.

There are two things a bit weird about this scene. First, they're hugging, and that's not very Minbari. Second, Delenn apparently has no idea about the Brakiri religious festival that's going on today all over the station. She loves religious festivals, they're totally her thing!

Cut to a hall in some other part of the station where Sheridan is making a short speech about how humour is universal, like hydrogen.

In fact that's pretty much the whole speech, as he's just there to introduce Rebo and Zooty and give them a scroll offering them the freedom of Babylon 5... which Rebo passes along to Zooty and Zooty passes along to the audience. Then they get to work trying to put their hats on the correct heads

Everyone in the audience is laughing at their routine except for Lochley, who's standing there stony-faced. I've never related to her more, especially with this comedy music playing. Comedy acts don't have a comedy soundtrack, they generally do better without them. Penn and Teller are slick with their hat routine though I'll give them that.

Lochley escapes to a meeting with the Brakiri ambassador, who gives her a comet artefact as a gift (which she points out that she'll have to report). She has something else to report: she's decided to make an exception for this once-every-200-years festival and allow the Brakiri to buy a section of Babylon 5 instead of just renting it. So that's cool of her.

We learn something about the Brakiri here: they're nocturnal, that's why the Day of the Dead takes place at night. This actually took me by surprise as you don't get a lot of nocturnal aliens in series like this. We finally get a name for the Brakiri ambassador as well! He's called Ambassador Kullenbrak. It's nice that the Brakiri are getting a turn after we learned so much about the Drazi in The Ragged Edge.

Just then G'Kar bursts in to warn her not to allow this to go ahead! Man, every time there's an ambassador on screen it's only a matter of time before someone starts an argument. Kullenbrak's been totally reasonable this time though and he ultimately gets what he wants. Everyone always ignores G'Kar's warnings!

The episode cuts to Garibaldi in a corridor, who's currently enduring more exposition from a Brakiri about their religion. So now we know that their solar system has a single comet that comes by every 200 years and is a symbol of death.

Also they've drawn a line on the floor indicating the start of Brakiri territory and Garibaldi's quarters are on the wrong side of that line. So hang on, does this mean that Garibaldi has to pay one night's rent to the Brakiri now? Actually I've got another question: is that metal pattern on floor actually just painted on? It looks totally flat.

The Brakiri goes on to explain that the other side of the floor is actually the Brakiri homeworld now, at least until sunrise, but it's clear that Garibaldi didn't sign up for any of this, he doesn't want to know any of this, he just wants to go to bed.

ACT TWO

Act two begins with Rebo and Zooty arriving at Sheridan's quarters for dinner, and Zooty makes a good first impression by pulling the slide-whistle rod on his voice machine and getting it to tell Delenn a joke in Minbari. She bursts out laughing and now Sheridan's the one that doesn't get it. Rebo explains that Minbari humour is based around the failure to attain spiritual enlightenment, unlike human humour. Hey, there's plenty of different kinds of human humour, you can't generalise it like that!

It's clear that Rebo and Zooty have studied the science of comedy and understand how to make different cultures laugh, so they could probably be funny to a 20th or 21st century Earth audience as well if they wanted to. They just don't want to.

Sheridan confesses privately to Rebo that he'd hoped to be able to talk to Zooty without the machine, but Rebo explains that he's never broken character around him. Well, okay he has heard him say just one word without it: "Why?" So that's weird.

Man the lighting in people's quarters looks so much better now than it did in season 1.

Lochley gets home and turns the TV on. Turns out they're playing a Rebo and Zooty special, and they've got the most cheesy announcer and music to go along with it. A lot of strange, cringy choices in this episode. She does have other channels to try, but it's all Rebo and Zooty on all of them, simultaneously. It's like she's trapped in a nightmare where nothing makes any sense.

Then we get an exterior shot of the station with all the lights coming on, to indicate that it's night time.

That's apparently good enough for the comet, as a forcefield suddenly appears along the line drawn across the corridor floor. I have to give the effects team credit here as they've got the pattern of the forcefield projected onto the walls and floor as if it's emitting light, and it really sells it. Star Trek never did that! At least I don't remember it doing that.

There's moody music playing and we get a montage of what all the characters are up to, beginning with Lennier meditating in his room. This is the first time we've ever had an opportunity to see his quarters, but he's left the station at this point so they're probably just a place he rented for the night.

Meanwhile Londo's reading a newspaper with the headline "LONDO MOLLARI TO BECOME CENTAURI EMPEROR" hidden away in the bottom corner. He flips it open to reveal "REBO AND ZOOTY ARRIVE" written in giant text at the top.

We haven't had a close up on a newspaper like this in forever, and once again it's full of interesting information for people quick enough to hit pause:

• Babylon 5's airing a Rebo & Zooty movie marathon, but we already knew that.
• The reclamation of San Diego wasteland is underway. We saw the ruins back in season 2, thanks to a clip from Captain Power and The Soldiers of the Future.
• Interstellar Alliance talks are to resume. That's another reason why the Lurker's Guide put the episode after The Ragged Edge.
• And there's also a quote in a box: "We say serious things in a funny way."
  

Weirdly there's no mention of the once-every-200-years Brakiri Day of the Dead festival there. That's apparently even less newsworthy than Londo's ascension to become leader of the most powerful spacefaring race in the known galaxy beside the Minbari.

Oh damn, it's C&C! I've really missed this place.

Corwin's running the night shift and trying to practice Rebo and Zooty hat comedy when G'Kar arrives, looking for a place to sleep. His quarters are in the Brakiri section of the station and he doesn't want any of that weirdness in his life. He doesn't want to rent a hotel either it seems, or at least he'd rather sleep in the operations centre of this space station. Maybe he was hoping someone would ask him about it so he could go on a public rant about how he's protesting Lochley's decision. But Corwin just lets him sleep in the corner and he's fine with it.

It cuts back to Londo's quarters and for a moment it seems like he's talking to the first Centauri Emperor, come back from the dead to have a chat with his distant successor! He's actually still alone however, and he's just talking to a painting. At least until the love of Londo's life arrives and helps herself to some of his Brivari.

This is a pretty big moment for the series as up to this point Adira Tyree has somehow only ever appeared in one episode (Born to the Purple). She didn't even show up in the episode she was murdered in!

Meanwhile Garibaldi pulls a gun from under his pillow, because of course he sleeps with a gun under his pillow, and finds Private Dodger from GROPOS naked in his shower. Well, we only see her shadow, but I'm guessing that she's naked by the way Garibaldi throws her a shirt.

Garibaldi wants to know if she's a robot, or a clone, or one of Bester's tricks. The B5 crew have already had a bad experience with Sheridan's wife coming back from the dead, so it makes sense that the most paranoid of them would be hesitant to take this as a miracle. In fact they have bad experiences whenever anyone they know comes to visit (an Ikarran war machine shooting up the station, Epsilon 3 nearly exploding, Londo having to stab his friend to death etc.) so two of them returning at once is a bad omen.

Meanwhile Lochley's unable to contact anyone on her link as they're all mysteriously out of range. She soon has someone to talk to however, as a third old friend returns. It's someone we've never met, called Zoe, and Lochley's really shaken to see her here.

ACT THREE

Zoe appears to be a bit more confused than Dodger and Adira, so Lochley gives her the story so far. Lochley found her dead on their bathroom floor, due to whatever drugs she'd been taking, and got scared enough to go back to her dad. Even after "everything he'd done". It was the turning point of her life, as she quit partying, enlisted in Earthforce, and now 20 years later she's running a space station! This is news to Zoe; she had no idea they were in space.

The two of them were cold and hungry, living in a burned-out hotel, doing what they had to in order to survive. Man, we're getting so much backstory here! Lochley asks if she overdosed on purpose, but Zoe claims not to remember. She does remember dying though... even though she doesn't believe in ghosts. The mystery of what's actually happening here thickens.

Corwin interrupts Sheridan's dinner with Rebo and Zooty to report a slight problem: a square mile of the station has gone missing. You see what I mean about old friends being bad news? Three of them have visited B5 at the same time and now a chunk of it has been teleported away!

At least now we know where everyone's quarters are located, to within a square mile. Doesn't look very square on the screen though.

Back in Garibaldi's quarters, Dodger tells him that she still doesn't believe there's anything after death, despite the fact that she's here after her death. She doesn't buy into ghosts or reincarnation, she trusts what she can feel or shoot, and she doesn't have any arcane knowledge from beyond the veil. She does claim that any Emily Dickenson poem can be sung to the Yellow Rose of Texas though.

Okay so now we've got two ghosts that don't believe in ghosts, but don't have any better explanations for why they're here. I'd theorise that Londo, Garibaldi and Lochley might actually be strapped into cybernetic implants tied up in a cerebral matrix, and they're experiencing a virtual reality cybernet, but that wouldn't explain the forcefields in the hallways.

At this point Sheridan's reached the forcefield and he immediately springs into action: grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall and lobbing it at it. He ducks just in time when it comes flying back at his head, and then walks off. So that didn't work out. He didn't even replace the emergency extinguisher afterwards! Though I guess it would need to be tested again first.

Anyway why is this hallway so deserted? I know that it's the middle of the night, but aren't there usually teams of security guards around whenever something like this happens? Maybe some people with scanning equipment. When was the last time something like this happened anyway? I guess it was when Jason Ironheart visited back in Mind War and put telepathic forcefields up.

Oh cool, now we get to read the back of the newspaper too. It's not as interesting as the front though. Earth senate votes more money for Titan terraforming, Narn consulate opens on Mars amid controversy... hey good for Mars, they're properly independent now. I hope Titan wins their independence someday as well, if they're into that.

The metal stick in the screencap belongs to Lennier, who grabbed his pike and threatened his visitor the moment he heard his voice.

It's Mr Morden! And his hair's different! His pendant as well, as it's white instead of black.

These two haven't actually talked before, but Lennier knows Morden, and he knows he worked for the Shadows. Lennier admits he came here for wisdom and Morden's happy to offer him some, saying that Delenn will never love him like he loves her. This is interesting, as the other three 'ghosts' are claiming not to have any extra knowledge. They also claimed not to be ghosts, unlike Morden.

Lennier tells Morden he already understands that Delenn will never love him, but Morden knows that he doesn't. Not really. Morden also knows what happened to his own body after his death, with his head stuck on a spike. I hope this means he's aware that Vir did that little wave to it.

Lennier tries to get away and apparently passes out outside. Huh, why is the forcefield right outside everyone's doors? I thought they had a whole square mile of station to walk around in! They're really make the station feel very small this episode. Especially because Sheridan and Corwin are apparently the only people investigating what's going on.

The two of them are apparently the only people in C&C right now as well, apart from G'Kar who's sleeping on the floor, right where people walk. I assumed he was going to find some place out of the way!

Fortunately Morden throws Lennier back inside to save his life, telling him that the other end of the corridor is 200 million light years away so it's not wise to try to walk there on foot. Wait, 200 million light years? The Milky Way galaxy is 100-200 thousand light years across! It's only 2.5 million light years to the Andromeda galaxy. How far away is the Brakiri homeworld?

Mr Morden seems slightly less evil than when he was alive, but who even knows with him? It would be nice if death has freed him from whatever the Shadows did to him, as it means there's hope for Anna Sheridan. Incidentally it was Gaiman who chose the characters who appear in this episode, not jms, so Lennier has him to blame for Morden showing up instead of someone like Marcus. I think a more antagonistic character's more interesting for Lennier though really.

Morden's surprised that Sheridan's not here, seeing as he died on Z'ha'dum, so it turns out he's not all knowing. He does know that Lennier will eventually betray the Rangers though, which is kind of a bombshell. Lennier doesn't want to hear it however, or anything else he has to say, so Morden goes back to reading the Rebo and Zooty newspaper. Whatever happened to those two anyway? I feel like they've shown up more times on newspapers and the TV than they have in person this episode.

ACT FOUR

Zoe explains to Lochley that they're both on the Brakiri home planet right now, which is interesting knowledge for her to have considering she didn't know they were in space a minute ago.

Lochley has been doing what she can to get communications working, but the next stop of the process requires her to tell the computer her authorisation code, right in front of her mysterious visitor. Turns out that the password is "Zoe's dead". So there's a bit more insight into her character.

Hang on, if they're on the Brakiri homeworld then where's the power coming from? And the water for Dodger's shower? They've been disconnected from all the pipes and the cables.

Last time Dodger was on the station Garibaldi resisted the temptation to have a one night stand with her because he was in love with someone else. Now he has a second chance... and he's still not sleeping with her. He's not going to cheat on Lise. Well maybe just one kiss...

Fortunately Captain Lochley interrupts in the nick of time, causing Dodger to bolt upright, salute, and give her name, serial number, and the fact that she was killed in action. Lochley's more interested in Garibaldi rewiring communications from his quarters however, as they need to get in touch with the rest of the station. Hang on, how is there any long range broadcasting hardware in their section of the station? And how come it can broadcast to distant galaxies? More importantly, how is it that anyone can phone Garibaldi up at any time of night and see what he's doing in bed?

Londo and Adira have mostly been spending their time sleeping together. But she knows that this is a one-night only deal and claims to be a dream. He doesn't want to become emperor and rule 40 billion Centauri, he'd rather stay in this dream. And he definitely doesn't want to listen to Lochley on the screen telling everyone that everything's fine and under control.

Meanwhile Dodger's getting a bit annoyed that Garibaldi's hacking the Babcom into the Stellarcom instead of joining her for a night of passion, but she only has to put up with it for 17 minutes and then he's done. Lochley gave him a time limit of 30 minutes so it's like he's showing off. I think he deserves to be able to show off every now and again, as it's rare that we see him demonstrate his technical skills like this.

But does Dodger really want his attention or is she trying to stop him from getting communications working? The episode's got me keeping track of clues, trying to spot any signs in the ghosts' dialogue or behaviour that gives away what they are.

Back in Sheridan's quarters, Rebo and Zooty are back! And they're very impressed with how calm Delenn is during this crisis. In fact they admire Sheridan and Delenn a lot and have decided to quit show business and get into politics. It doesn't seem like Zooty's going to drop his talking machine gimmick though.

Sheridan points out that as comedians they could say things during Clark's presidency that no one else would dare to say. Rebo says that they say serious things in a funny way (hey that's the quote on the newspaper), but no one takes them seriously. Meanwhile the senate are a bunch of clowns doing one idiotic thing after another, but they say funny things in a serious way. Sheridan tells them that the only reason politics exists is to give people the ability to laugh. Well that explains a lot about his presidency so far.

Just then Lochley gets through! She claims she's 27 light years away, which is a much more sensible number, and the effect will end during planetary sunrise on the Brakiri homeworld. Wait, what's a planetary sunrise? Some part of the planet is always lit by the sun and some part is always in darkness.

This reminds me of Sinclair's conversation with G'Kar in By Any Means Necessary, when he told him that he could carry out his religious ceremony when the light that hit a mountain on his homeworld years ago finally reaches Babylon 5. Except here the distance doesn't matter as the section of B5 is on the homeworld, somehow, and it turns out that Brakiri planetary time and B5 time are synced up so it's night in both places simultaneously. We have entered the Don't Think About It Too Hard Zone.

Like, are the dead roaming the whole of the Brakiri homeworld simultaneously or just the areas that are in night? Here's a better question, how the hell did the Brakiri figure out what lines to draw in order to make B5 part of the homeworld if it only happens every 200 years and they needed to develop the technology to leave their planet and travel to other worlds before there was ever a need for it?

Man, Lennier's really wasting Morden's cameo. He's just mediating at this point, refusing to listen to any more of his lies. Or perhaps his truths. I suppose he'll have to find out.

Morden tells Lennier that he's a "brief electromagnetic anomaly that told you some true things for your own good" and then vanishes, his newspaper dropping to the floor.

Meanwhile Dodger's got her uniform on and she and Garibaldi are singing Emily Dickinson poems. Well, actually hers is an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, but she doesn't know that and I wouldn't have known it either if I hadn't looked it up. I don't even know the first thing about poetry.

He suggests that maybe they'll meet again in Heaven, and then she's gone. Man I hope he's not planning to cheat on Lise in Heaven.

Zoe's about to vanish too, but first we learn that she did have some arcane knowledge to pass on, as she's given Lochley as message to pass along... to Sheridan.

She hears the chimes that reveal her time is almost up and quickly admits she remembers her death. She says that she did do it on purpose and asks Lochley not to hate her for it. In the original script Zoe disappears just as Lochley is about to tell her that she could never hate her, but in the episode Lochley gets just enough time, which I think is a change for the better. And then Zoe's gone too. No cheesy visual effects, just gone. I guess there was nothing sinister about their visitors after all. They were just some spectres who wanted to hang out and use the bathroom.

The scenes between Lochley and Zoe could've really been awkward if the acting wasn't up to it, considering all the horrible things in their backstories, but the two actresses nailed it I reckon. We never did learn whether they were friends or girlfriends, though it's clear that Zoe made a huge impact on Lochley's life and is probably a huge part of the reason she became so by the book.

ACT FIVE

Next morning Sheridan tries to get some answers out of Lochley about what she saw, but she's as tight-lipped as anyone else he's asked. All people will tell him is that it was intensely personal. She does at least explain why she sold part of the station to the Brakiri so they could bring back the dead: she thought it was a metaphor, and she'll try to be more literal-minded in future. Did she even have the authority to sell part of the station anyway?

Turns out that the folks back home believe the effect might have caused been a device smuggled onto the station that activated parts of their memory. That's immediately disapproved by the way Lochley clearly saw Dodger on the screen and it doesn't explain the forcefield. Zack is checking for signs of gas pumped in through the air ducts, which also wouldn't work, and Garibaldi is blaming telepaths, which is actually more plausible. Though the Brakiri would've needed enough telepaths to affect a square mile of people. Nobody has any real idea what caused it, but they don't buy the Brakiri's story any more than I do, so it's still a mystery to them.

Lochley doesn't have a problem with it being a mystery though, as no one got hurt. Also she has a message for Sheridan from someone called Kosh: "When the long night comes, return to the end of the beginning." Bloody Kosh, he's been dead for two years and he's still just as cryptic. Didn't we already have a long night this season? Oh that was Londo's very long night. Though there was a The Long Night in season 4, where Sheridan prepared for the final battle of the Shadow War.

G'Kar comes to talk to Lochley about the phenomena, but he's not coming to say "I told you so". He's noticed that the people who saw a 'ghost' are more at peace now and he's wondering who he would have met. So for once his unheeded prophecy of disaster didn't come true!

The clever thing about the episode's premise is that it inspires the audience to think a bit about who they would've hoped to talk to if they were there in the ghost zone. Not me though, I'm too busy being all analytical, thinking of things like 'What happened to the people who share their quarters with someone else? Did they each get a ghost, or is it one ghost per room?'

Londo is chatting to Rebo over on the other side of the Zocalo, and he's grown a lot more fond of his comedy than he was last season... at least while he's being filmed for the news. It appears that he's identified them as being the most newsworthy event on the station and he wants a bit of that for himself. G'Kar's onto him though.

The episode ends with Zooty putting a hat over his machine and whispering something into Sheridan's ear, with his own voice. Sheridan's getting all kinds of weird messages today.

The music's getting kind of sinister at this point and G'Kar asks him what Zooty said. He said "Because it tells me to". Another cryptic message!

Man they had Penn and Teller right there on the station but they didn't give a single explanation for what happened here! I wanted them to explain the trick.


CONCLUSION

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Day of the Dead is the first episode in a long while to be written by someone other than jms and it's got a brand new director as well, so it's not a huge shock that it feels a bit different to the rest of season so far. Part of that is because it puts all the arcs on pause for a moment to let the characters relax and part of it's because it's so small and claustrophobic. Babylon 5 feels more like a haunted house than a 5 mile long space station, with a Brakiri setting up a stall outside Londo's door and G'Kar going to sleep in C&C when his own quarters are in the ghost zone.

With a title like Day of the Dead you'd expect this to be a zombie story, and I suppose it kind of is. Though there are two plots in this: Rebo and Zooty's arrival at the station and the return of the living dead, and they don't really intersect or resonate at all. In fact the Rebo and Zooty story isn't really a story at all, it's just a pair of famous comedians coming over for dinner and discussing a possible move to politics. Though I couldn't be sure Rebo was being entirely serious there... because no one can be sure he's being serious, that's his problem. Meanwhile Zooty's problem is that he won't drop character for a moment and it's likely got people concerned that he's being controlled by that machine he has. They've already got enough problems with parasites mind controlling people.

The trouble I had with Rebo and Zooty the first time I watched the episode is that they're not supposed to be funny to us, only to the other characters, so I had to put up with the two of them like Lochley did. On this rewatch though I've decided that it's the comedy music, sound effects and voices they've added over the top that annoy me more. Plus I do have to give the episode credit for not trying to teach us how comedy works, without actually knowing how it works. I really didn't need this to turn into the Babylon 5 version of Star Trek: The Next Generation's The Outrageous Okona.

The main plot is about the four ghosts visiting the station, which basically means we get four main characters in four rooms having four conversations. Giving a character story over to someone who's never written the characters before could've gone very badly, but I think Neil Gaiman does a good job with them. In fact he's given Lochley some depth and history she didn't have before, making her a bit more three dimensional. Londo, on the other hand, just gets a night of happiness with the woman he loved, which is very ominous for him. When good things happen to Londo I worry.

Garibald gets a night of temptation with the other woman he loved, but I think it worked out okay for him in the end. It's pretty amazing that they went all the way back to GROPOS to bring back a character, but it was nice to see Dodger again, and for Garibaldi to get that night with her he originally turned down, even if he ultimately stayed true to Lise and just sung poems. Well, that's all we saw anyway. And Lennier got a visit from Mr Morden, who gave him what he wanted: wisdom. We have no idea how truthful or precognitive he's being when he says that Lennier will betray the Anla'Shok, but his line about Delenn never loving him was pure facts and Lennier knows this. He just doesn't know it.

The episode is kind of contradictory about what the ghosts know at any point and it feels very deliberate. Their basic nature is the same for all of them, they're the actual people who still need to drink coffee and go to the bathroom, and they've all totally accepted being dead, but they give conflicting information. Zoe's initially surprised to be in space but later knows that she's on the Brakiri homeworld, Morden claims they're 200 million light years away when they should only be 27 light years at most etc. Plus Morden's the only one who claims to be prophetic.

Also you'd expect the ghosts to maybe have some idea about what happens after death, seeing as they're dead and fine with it, but Dodger still doesn't believe there is anything after. In fact Morden straight up tells Lennier he's an electromagnetic anomaly. The fact that no one's rushing to sign up to the Brakiri religion afterwards implies that no one's truly taking their experience at face value, and the episode gives some other possible explanations like a drug pumped into the air, a device smuggled onto the station, telepaths, technomancy etc.

The episode kind of portrays the alternate theories as being a bit of a stretch though, implying that a slice of the station really was magically teleported dozens of light years, and it kind of spoils the whole thing for me. If it was a different series with different rules I could get behind it, but Babylon 5 isn't set up to support something so supernatural, so the events really took me out of the episode. Someone draws a line down the station and everything on one side is teleported light years away to a realm where exactly one dead person visits you for a time and maybe tells you things about the future... it's like I put an episode of Peter Capaldi-era Doctor Who on by mistake! I don't mind if a series has ridiculous fantasy elements, I'm a fan of Buffy, Rick and Morty, Legends of Tomorrow, Agents of SHIELD etc. but if it strays too much from its own rules and tone my brain rejects it.

So I'm a bit torn on the episode really. It's got some good characters stories, Rebo and Zooty are deliberately annoying, and the supernatural weirdness is off the charts. I guess it all averages out to being 'okay'?

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COMING NEXT MONTH

Babylon 5 will return in about five weeks with The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father. Next though I think I'm going to go on a trip through time and space to see if there's anything else Neil Gaiman's written for.

If you've got anything you want to say about Day of the Dead you should absolutely leave a comment below.