Babylon 5 4-01: The Hour of the Wolf

Episode:

67

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

David J. Eagle

|

Air Date:

04-Nov-1996

---

Sci-Fi Adventures is back for another two months of sci-fi recap reviews! Most of them are going to be of Babylon 5 episodes to be honest as I need to get through this series, but I'm fine with that. I can think of worse series to be stuck with.

I'm starting off with the first episode of season four, The Hour of the Wolf! Though I'm watching it on DVD without the adverts, so it's more like The 42 Minutes of the Wolf.

Here's an interesting fact about US science fiction TV shows during the last century: they didn't typically live long. At the time this episode aired The X-Files was starting its fourth season and Star Trek: The Next Generation had just finished an epic seven season run, but for other sci-fi, especially space sci-fi, three seasons was an exceptional run. Battlestar Galactica and Space: Above and Beyond managed one season, Buck Rogers reached two, and even titans Lost in Space and Star Trek were cancelled after year three. So for Babylon 5 to make it to year four was actually pretty unusual. And appreciated considering the cliffhanger the last season left us on.

Hey I just noticed that the title text has gone back to the season 1 font! Well, on the DVDs at least, it would've looked different on the original airing. The shadow didn't used to look so dark for one thing.

Anyway I should point out that this is a recap/review for people who've already seen the episode or don't care about SPOILERS. It's very first-time viewer friendly though, as I'll not be spoiling anything that happens after this point.

---

It's the start of a new season, which means a brand new DVD menu! Season four and they're still doing the morph effect; they just can't let it go. And they still refuse to morph the female character to the other female character! Though at least Marcus's hair matches.

Morphing between characters like this was never in any danger of looking good, but this is their best attempt yet. Unfortunately they've introduced a new problem: Garibaldi's got the wrong costume. Worse, Marcus isn't even wearing a costume! That's just the actor in a leather jacket.

We've had to say goodbye to Susan Ivanomollari, Demarcus Colenn and Narnbari aide G'Lennier from the season 3 menu, but a whole new group of DVD menu heroes have joined the show.

There's Marsan Ivancole, a witty but tormented warrior in unrequited love with themself, Stephen Frankdelenn, half Minbari, half doctor, G'Londo, a prideful ambassador from two warring empires, and Security Chief Captain Sheribaldi, who is currently both dead and missing.

Anyway, I'm pressing play now.


Hey, they've redone this scene slightly since the first time we saw it. The nukes have moved, the ship looks slightly different and the pipe's going underneath now. That's such a strange thing to change.

I mentioned at the start of my War Without End, Part 2 review that it was the final episode in the series to start with a 'Previously, on Babylon 5' clip montage. Well it turns out that I was entirely wrong about that, because Delenn just said it and now I'm looking at clips recapping the last episode, Z'ha'dum.

Basically what happened was Sheridan's wife appeared on the station, which was a bit of a surprise to him as she was presumed dead years ago. She invited Sheridan to speak with the Shadows on their homeworld, Z'ha'dum, so he crept off in the White Star with a couple of nukes hidden in the boot to have a chat.

The Shadows made their case and told him to join them or they'd destroy the station, Sheridan countered by nuking their city first. The White Star plummeted from orbit like a nuclear missile aimed roughly at his own head and he heard the voice of Kosh telling him to jump. Almost certain death is better than certain death, so he decided to take his dead friend's advice and leapt off this balcony into the convenient pit below.

It's still unclear exactly how convenient the pit's going to be, but ideally it'll be deep enough for him to survive a 1000 megaton nuclear blast and have a nice stack of mattresses at the bottom.

Hey is this a new shot of the station? If so it's our first proper glimpse of the new VFX team's work.

Foundation Imaging were responsible for the show's CGI all the way back to the pilot movie, but an issue with money during the production of Severed Dreams led to them being replaced. It seems that Foundation felt they were being asked to do more than was planned, so they needed more money to cover their costs during the season, but the producers on the show went 'They're asking for all this cash for one episode? What if they pull this again later?' and decided to go with a safer choice. Or at least that's the story.

The situation was complicated by the fact that executive producer Doug Netter wanted to acquire Foundation for his company, Netter Digital, and allegedly blew the money issue out of proportion to get rid of them after they declined to be bought. Without Foundation out of the way, Netter Digital were able to take over to provide visual effects for the rest of the run. Though they apparently only had Foundation's final renders, and they had to bribe two Foundation animators to back up the other files and bring them over so that they weren't working from scratch.

Fortunately Foundation got brought onto Star Trek: Voyager from the start of season three, so they did just fine without B5... for a few years at least.

The actual episode begins like the last one ended, with a voice over by G'Kar. A couple of episodes last season started with Ivanova's narration telling us how everyone is, but this time Ivanova's one of the people we need an update on so G'Kar has taken over the task. It's an interesting choice, as it shows that the guy has been paying attention to everything that's been going on.

Ivanova's in a similar situation to the one she was in at the start of season two, as she's spent the last week running the station after the departure of its commander and she's not enjoying it. Though this time she's more depressed than frustrated. She blames herself for the loss of her two best friends and she's had the weight of a full-scale galactic war put on her shoulders.

It's funny how this always seems to happen to her right around New Years, but that's an inevitable side effect of the seasons all starting in January and ending in December. The Star Trek spin-offs tended to do the same thing if you look at the stardates, though you could never tell on screen.

G'Kar continues by telling us that Londo's got a new job as well. He's returned to Centauri Prime to take up the role of Advisor on Planetary Security. His old home doesn't seem so familiar to him anymore though, as now it's got a proper set, with glass in the windows and illumination coming from outside! It's a real turnaround for the Centauri Royal Palace, which has generally had some of the weaker looking sets in the series.

Even with the powers that come with being the narrator G'Kar's omniscience is limited, but he's insightful enough to know that even back on his own planet, Londo is still entirely alone. I guess Vir hasn't dropped by to see him yet.

Hey Delenn has a sloping bed! I wonder if we've seen that before.

Delenn is suffering much like Ivanova is and she hasn't touched her flarn in the last seven days. Lennier keeps on putting food in front of her though just in case.

The episode cuts to G'Kar in his quarters, writing all this down on paper, and it makes me wonder... is this part of that book he's been writing? Is he giving away all this personal information about his friends?

All I know for sure is that no one's answered two very important questions: What happened to Captain Sheridan on Z'ha'dum? And where is Mr Garibaldi? I was expecting the teaser to end with some hint of their fate, but it's keeping us in suspense.

Then it cuts to the brand new season 4 opening credits sequence! There's new clips, new music, new narration, and a new character...

Well actually it's an old character finally getting promoted to the opening titles. Despite making it onto the season 3 box art, Lyta Alexander has only actually made four appearances in the series so far, one of them in the pilot movie The Gathering. So this is a strange case of an actress who had a role written for her and was intended to be a regular from the very start taking three seasons to finally get there.

According to this interview at Geek Pride, a Warner Bros. executive took a dislike to her because she didn't want to sleep with him, and he was one of the two people in charge of the show so he was able to get rid of her during the gap between the pilot and the series. The executive apparently made it appear like she'd asked for too much money, though Tallman was able to phone jms and clear that up, and he eventually found a way to get her back on the show.

How many people got dropped from this series due to misinformation about money anyway?

I like this new split-screen effect they're using to introduce each of the characters, even if they have used a clip from Grey 17 is Missing for Garibaldi. They've also got all of the characters reading the opening narration, each getting a line, and that works pretty well too. Unfortunately both of these things give away that Garibaldi and Sheridan are still main characters in the series.

There's also a new version of the theme to go with the new titles and I'm glad the series is still updating its title sequence like this. If I can't tell a show's season from the opening credits alone it's doing something wrong in my opinion! The music, on the other hand, is doing nothing wrong. I was going to link to a YouTube video of the theme, but I might as well just embed the opening titles:

The show has never had particularly upbeat opening music, but it's been getting darker and more dramatic each year to the point where season three dropped the Babylon 5 theme altogether because it was getting in the way of the hopelessness. It's still drums and drama this year, maybe even more so, but if season three titles had a tone of 'the shit's hitting the fan', then season four's music has a tone of 'the fan strikes back'. It's still kind of bleak, but more desperate and heroic now. The clips are fast, everything is all action, and the Babylon 5 theme has returned!

The year is 2261, it's time to go send the Shadows straight to hell!!

ACT ONE

Cut to Ivanova sitting in her quarters listening to her alarm clock go off, followed by the computer listing all the new messages she's got in her inbox. We've seen that she hates waking up in the morning and it seems like she's solved that problem by just not going to bed in the first place.

Showrunner Joe Straczynski was also having problems getting sleep at the time, as writing, producing and editing 22 episodes a year only left him with three hours a night. He was already an exhausted wreck by the start of season four and now his characters are suffering too.

The computer moves on to listing all the things she needs to do, so she finally gets up and goes to work.

Her work today includes yelling at ambassadors from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds in the council chambers. Not all that exciting, but we rarely ever see the place these days so it's nice to be back for a while.

G'Kar's back as well I noticed and I've also noticed there's no ambassador from the Centauri. I don't think I ever noticed those computers on the tables before though. They're hidden by the nameplates when you're looking at them from the front.

Ivanova's not really in a diplomatic mood and has decided that the meeting's only going to be over when they finally agree to her proposal. We don't get to hear what the proposal is though as the topic quickly changes to the Babylon Treaty (which the ambassadors signed in Ceremonies of Light and Dark), and how they agreed to send ships to fight the Shadows so that all their races could fight together as one unit.

The Drazi ambassador is of the opinion that the war's already over, so it's time that they brought their ships home. G'Kar rushes over to yell that it's just a pause and the Shadows will back, and the ambassador concedes that okay yes maybe they're still at war, but that they need to take advantage of the lull to tighten up their defences... so it's time that they brought their ships home.

Ivanova tries to argue that they're throwing away the only chance of winning, so now the Drazi ambassador argues that the war can't be won! (So it's time that they brought their ships home).

Now we get to hear Ivanova's proposal: she wants them to get their fleets together and attack Z'ha'dum directly while they're still recovering from being nuked and send the Shadows straight to hell!! I can see why there's a bit of resistance to that, especially after the Gaim ambassador points out 'no one returns from Z'ha'dum' and that Ivanova and Delenn have a personal interest in going there to look for Sheridan.

Everyone ultimately leaves unhappy, except for their new Vorlon ambassador who was never there to begin with. There's plenty of things to be pissed off about right now and Delenn decides that she's going to be pissed off about that.

Back at the Royal Palace on Centauri Prime, Londo has been granted the rare privilege of getting to walk down an actual hallway set that isn't 90% made up of curtains. Sure there's still a lot of curtains around, but they're being used to decorate the room instead of just being the room.

He's also been granted the rare privilege of a private audience with Emperor Cartagia, the man he and Lord Refa put on the throne! We've heard the guy mentioned a few times now but we haven't actually seen him yet. Londo's seen him though, twice when the guy was a drooling baby, and once when he was teenager trying to peek up ladies' dresses, so he's not exactly coming into this meeting with a whole lot of awe and reverence for the man.

It seems that they've got a decadent swashbuckling emperor this time around! He's also got incredibly short hair for a Centauri noble. Not quite as short as the last emperor, who was bald, but short enough for him to go walking around outside the palace visiting scandalous places. Londo's extremely careful with his words (he hides his contempt for the guy well) but I'm sure he's not happy that this flamboyant scene stealer is stealing his scene. I can tell he's thinking 'the camera was once mine and it will be again'.

Cartagia mentions that a human dropped by recently and introduced him to the phrase 'the big picture', which is kind of concerning. That seems exactly like something Mr Morden would do. Then again Morden got nuked last week so maybe that problem's already been fixed.

He also reveals that he called Londo home for two reasons: to handle the arrangements (he'll tell him later) and because he was requested (he'll find out who requested him later).

I love how dark this episode is. With all the film grain it looks almost like a painting. I also like the contrast between Vir trying to look on the bright side while Ivanova falls apart in the foreground. It's easy for him to be cheerful though, seeing as he's inexplicably looking a lot thinner since the last episode. The actor had to lose a lot of weight for health reasons during the break, and succeeded, which worked out for him but wasn't so good for the people who had to sort out his costumes.

Ivanova's really busy lately, but Vir's got information that's worth a couple of minutes of her time. The thing about the Shadows is that they're almost as secretive as the Vorlons; Londo worked with Morden for years and wasn't able to learn anything about his associates, not even what their ships looked like, or why he needed to leave Babylon 5 in a hurry at the start of Z'ha'dum... hang on, did Vir not leave with him back then?

Damn, Vir had been warned that something bad was about to happen but he stayed on the station anyway?

3-22 - Z'ha'dum

Pictured: the bad thing that happened.

Anyway, the Shadows never tell Londo anything. But since Londo moved back to Centauri Prime their agents have been contacting Vir instead, and it seems like they're happy to tell him anything he wants to know! He's got the whole story about what happened at the end of Z'ha'dum and what happened to the Sheridans. He even knows the exact number of nukes used and their megaton yield... and the exact number of miles that Sheridan fell when he jumped down that chasm. It's two miles by the way, so he's pretty much confirmed dead now.

Meanwhile, on Centauri Prime, Londo finds someone waiting for him in his room...

ACT TWO

It's Mr Morden! Or what's left of him anyway. He jokes that he's a shadow of his former self, kept alive after The Incident due to their advanced technology. Right now he looks like Delenn did right after her time in the chrysalis and he should probably be lying down, but flesh does as it's told, and his flesh was told to be here. He seems to have gone a bit nuts as well, a bit more obviously villainous, which gives the actor a little more to do... when he's not busy picking bits of dead skin from his hand.

Londo has been back on Team Shadow after Adira's death in Interludes and Examinations, which is why Morden was the one who asked for him to be brought to Centauri Prime. Turns out that the Shadows are moving some of their forces off Z'ha'dum and bringing them here to use his homeworld as a base. Some of the ministers in the Centaurum opposed it, but Cartagia made sure no one's seen any of them since.

Oops, Londo and Refa have made a real mess of their government.

Of course Londo was already wary of the Shadows, and he made it absolutely clear when he renewed their alliance that his homeworld was to be left out of their plans, but Morden knows he's going to help him arrange this. Because they're friends! And because Londo is drawn to power. Plus this is the only way Londo can be sure that someone else doesn't take the job and make things worse.

And the old school Babylon 5 staging returns. No stylish cinematography allowed in the Zen garden. But hey the Zen garden's back! I honestly thought we'd seen the last of this set.

Bad Kosh is back as well and he's had a real upgrade since his last appearance. The fabric used to fold in closer to the actor's shoulders making it more obvious that it was a bloke in a cloak, but it looks better now that they've used the pointy bits as a curtain rail. Those ribbons running down the front are new as well.

Delenn needs Bad Kosh to give her some public support so she can keep the alliance together, but he's not really interested in any of that anymore, and he definitely doesn't care about trying to save Sheridan. Nuking Z'ha'dum has apparently opened an 'unexpected door' and "we do now what must be done now". Which to an outsider looks like absolutely nothing, as usual.

She tells him that if he leaves Sheridan to die then she'll have no more respect for him. He says "Respect is irrelevant." and walks out. Well there goes all Delenn's faith in the Vorlons. Bad Kosh is bad.

At least Lyta got to make an appearance in the episode. And Zack Allan shows up right afterwards, investigating someone breaking into Garibaldi's quarters.

It's a bit of a Search for Spock moment, as first it seems like Garibaldi has returned to his quarters, but when the lights are turned on it turns out to be G'Kar being a wacky TV character and breaking into to the security chief's house to wear his clever disguise hat. I like Garibaldi, I think he's generally pretty competent, but it's not a good look when the station's head of security has terrible security.

G'Kar points out that everyone's been talking a lot about Sheridan this episode but no one seems to be trying to find Garibaldi. He's also fascinated by that picture of Daffy Duck on the wall, wondering if it's one of his household gods. Zack says he's sort of the Egyptian god of frustration, and he's half right.

Poor G'Kar is a main character without a storyline right now, so he's decided to pay Garibaldi back for his role in his spiritual rebirth arc last season and go look for him himself. This is a really bad idea, as G'Kar only has sanctuary from the Centauri while he's on the station, but Zack's not going to start mentioning anything that will put him off saving his friend, so he lets him go without saying a word. He doesn't even stop him taking the hat.

Back on Centauri Prime, Londo is having costume problems. Turns out that on Centauri Prime people get their jackets washed occasionally, they don't just wear the same clothes every single day, so his favourite black coat has gone to the cleaner.

It's nice to see Minister Virini getting a second scene this episode, he deserves more screen time, but I can't help but noting that the guy seems a little... weirder than he used to be in previous seasons. This is apparently because the actor decided to play him slightly senile last time (in Sic Transit Vir) and jms started writing to the character to match his performance.

Londo gets called out to the sand garden, so he puts his old purple coat on and then heads outside to see what everyone's looking at.

IT'S HIS DREAM!

It's the scene he saw in his dream in The Coming of Shadows, of Shadow vessels flying over Centauri Prime. Up to this point I think he's only suspected they were Shadow vessels (after seeing footage of one in Matters of Honor) but know he knows for sure. His dream's all coming true.

I don't know if this firmly resolves the mystery of whether Sheridan was able to change Centauri Prime's future by sacrificing himself, but the clues are definitely pointing towards 'no'. One thing is certain: the nukes that Sheridan set off are what sent the Shadows running here, so Londo prophetic dreams were always of this timeline. And his dreams sync perfectly with Sheridan's trip to the future in War Without End. The big question is, how did Sheridan fall down a two mile chasm and still survive to have a kid with Delenn in the future?

It's a little convenient that Londo has to change to his old jacket one last time just before the scene to keep continuity, but it's much better than him being dressed wrong, like Delenn was in War Without End.

The trouble is that they put all their effort into getting the coat looking right...

2-09: The Coming of Shadows

... and got everything else in the scene wrong.

Maybe Sheridan did change the future after all!

ACT THREE

Londo's so shocked by what he's seen that he temporarily forgets who he's dealing with and tries to pull Cartagia away from the window.

He still openly criticises his decision to bring the Shadows here to his face, calling it madness, which is like sticking your head in a lion's mouth. But Cartagia's in a good mood and he really wants to explain his plan to someone, so he lets him keep his head for now.

Basically Cartagia wants these gods he's invited over to make him an immortal all powerful god himself, and he knows that his people will all willingly sacrifice their lives in the coming battle so that he can be elevated to godhood. It's like G'Kar said, all must be sacrificed if one is to be saved... or something like that.

This guy is amazing at delivering these lines by the way. Babylon 5 hasn't always found the best actors, especially for its villains, but this time they have nailed it. Peter Jurasik does a fantastic job as Londo as well, as he stumbles out of the room utterly stunned at what's just happened. So that explains why Virini's gone a bit loopy I guess.

Meanwhile Lyta is downloading Bad Kosh back into his encounter suit after carrying him somewhere in her body and she's not looking well afterwards. This isn't as fun as it was with Good Kosh at all, and she can tell that he's planning something. He just tells her that she's free for a time and she shouldn't interfere.

I like that they've remembered that she has gills to breath in the toxic Vorlon atmosphere, though they probably weren't much fun for the actor to wear. The last thing you want is something squeezing the sides of your neck while you're trying to deliver lines... or at all really.

Londo gives Vir a call and we learn that even the TVs get a fancy frame on Centauri Prime (though they haven't got widescreen yet). He forgot the time difference but that's fine as Vir was just about to get up in six hours anyway.

I don't know what Vir's even doing on B5 without Londo, as he's his attaché, but he won't be on the station for much longer as Londo needs him here. It turns out that Vir is the only person Londo actually trusts, and conspiracies require more than one person.

Meanwhile Cartagia's hanging out with his collection of spare heads. Because what's the point of having people executed for disagreeing with you if you can't keep a trophy and then talk to it at night? I have to be honest, I think out of all the crazy people in this episode, Cartagia might be the craziest.

Reminder: Londo put this guy on the throne.

Back on the station, Lyta drops by to see Ivanova. It's still really late/early, but it's fine has she wasn't sleeping anyway. In fact she hasn't slept for an entire week. That seems kind of bad! She's plenty to drink though, which is good. Well, it would be good if it was water she was drinking.

Ivanova decides it's been long enough and someone should explain what the title of the episode means. The 'hour of the wolf' is the time between 3 and 4 in the morning where you're stuck lying awake thinking about all your problems and regrets, only in Ivanova's case it's been between the hours of last week and forever.

But Lyta didn't just drop by to say hi to this person she's barely shared a scene with before, she's here to present a plan. If they drop by Z'ha'dum in a White Star, she might be able to sense if Sheridan is alive and block the Shadows long enough to get away afterwards. Well, okay, sensing Sheridan through rock without line of sight probably isn't going to work, but sensing the piece of Kosh still inside him... that might work! At least if they try this they can stop wondering about him and move on.

Though the question is, why does Lyta care? Is she trying to save the piece of Kosh that's inside him?

ACT FOUR

Hey they've changed the layout of the bridge again! Though I suppose this is actually an entirely different ship to the one the heroes had last season... even though they keep calling it the White Star. I don't like that the White Stars don't have individual names, it makes them feel very disposable. All the other Minbari ships have names!

Anyway Lyta, Ivanova and Delenn are going on a rescue mission to Z'ha'dum! This probably isn't the wisest idea, but then none of them are really thinking clearly right now. Ivanova's had no sleep and has been drinking, Delenn's had no food for days, and Lyta is going through some Bad Vorlon problems, along with her grief over Kosh's death. Then again Sheridan wasn't really in the best state of mind when he went to Z'ha'dum either and that worked out great!

Incidentally what they're doing right now is exactly what Delenn was scared Sheridan would do if she told him there was even a hope that his wife was still alive.

Lyta's eyes have turned black like G'Kar's did when he was on Dust and they're bleeding a lot less than they did when she tried blocking Shadows in Walkabout. So that's probably a good sign?

Unfortunately things go a bit Lord of the Rings as The Eye starts looking for them while they're looking for Sheridan.

It's those literal eyes in space that Ivanova ran into back in Voices of Authority when she was using the Great Machine! Hey, why did no one think to use the Great Machine to search for Sheridan?

Ivanova realises she's been here before, but that doesn't help much when the thing starts affecting their minds. They seem transfixed by it, and Ivanova begins to give the order to bring the ship down. I guess the Shadows aren't so bothered about anything remotely Vorlon touching their planet anymore, now that the worst has already happened.

Fortunately Lennier had the sense to program the ship to automatically take them to safety if he didn't keep pressing a button every two minutes. It's a bit of a cheat, seeing as it wasn't set up at all, but it's not a stretch that Lennier would do something smart. Now that Sheridan’s out the picture, Lennier's really doing what he can to earn points with Delenn; like by saving them all from certain death/brainwashing at the hands of their arch enemy.

Well their rescue mission plotline has led to complete failure, they weren't able to get any response from Sheridan, but they have gained some crucial intel about Z'ha'dum they didn't have before: they really don't know what they're dealing with here. The Shadows may have decided against putting all their ships into one basket, but what just happened here suggests that Battle of the Line 2: This Time it's Z'ha'dum would go very very badly for the combined forces of our heroes

The scene ends with a strange zoom into Ivanova's shoulder, but the point of it becomes immediately obvious after it cuts to a cave on Z'ha'dum and a cloaked figure drops a very similar bit of metal on the ground. Well, okay maybe it's not that obvious. But without that shot of Ivanova's stat bar we'd have no clue that this was Sheridan's stat bar we were looking at!

Sheridan's alive!

This reminds me of the time where Kosh led Sheridan to a dark corner of Down Below where he had to give up a stat bar as payment for a weird dance performance in the dark. That doesn't happen this time.

Man this lighting looks good.

The episode seems torn between looking like an episode of Babylon 5 and looking like this. Every now and again, like in Londo's room, it looks fantastic, but then that'll be followed by a shot of everyone standing in a row in some well lit room on the station and it's back to looking cheap.

This scene seems like the logical place to end the episode. The team have gone to Z'ha'dum (and failed), Londo's learned about Cartagia and called in an ally, G'Kar's started his quest to save Garibaldi, and Sheridan's alive... but somehow this is just the end of act four. It's still going!

ACT FIVE

Vir's finally makes it to Centauri Prime by act five, a little later than intended, and Londo immediately tells him to shut up because he has to scan for bugs. Did he think Vir brought one in with him or is he just making a show of it to make sure he's taking this seriously? Because the dude came here late; there was plenty of time for bug scanning earlier!

Londo explains that Cartagia is mad and everyone knows it, but no one's going to make a move against him because it would be suicide. It's great to see Londo and Vir back together, because Londo gets to be shouty and insulting again, but the point he's getting around to making is that Vir is the closest thing he's got to a friend, and he's certainly a patriot.

Of course Vir's on board with his crazy dangerous plan, he's been begging Londo to do the right thing for years now, so the two of them are going to take down an emperor and save a planet. Vir and Londo, bros against evil!

Vir's so happy until Londo mentions that they're going to have to assassinate him.

There is something different about the effects in this episode but I'm struggling to put my finger on what it is. Maybe it's just that the blue part of the station is usually in the light and the front part with the docking bay is usually in shadow. They're definitely using the same familiar models with the exact same textures... more or less.

And the episode ends with the same shot that started act one. I mean it's not exactly the same, Ivanova's hair has changed and the background light's been turned off, but she still hasn't gotten any sleep.

Though she records a log where she finally admits that Sheridan's dead and she has to carry on his work (of sending the Shadows straight to hell). For that she's going to need help and she has a few ideas of where to find it.

Ivanova's wrong about Sheridan being dead, but that doesn't really matter at this point. She couldn't move forward with the uncertainty holding her back, and now she at least has certainty.

Meanwhile, on Z'ha'dum, a dishevelled Sheridan has built himself a little campfire, and an alien comes over to share it.

Sheridan asks "Who are you?" and the alien sends the question right back at him. It's hard to tell through the makeup and the performance, but this is Wayne Alexander, the guy who played Sebastian the inquisitor in Comes the Inquisitor, whose first question was also "Who are you?" He's doing it again!

Though the real question is "Why am I alive?" and he doesn't have an answer for him. Not in this episode anyway.


CONCLUSION

---

I remembered not liking The Hour of the Wolf for whatever reason, so it was a nice surprise when it turned out to be pretty good! It continues on directly from season 3, but there's been a shift in tone. Some of the typical 90s TV structure has gone, the performances are subdued, the music is serious. It's a little slower paced than I'd expect from a season opener, but I feel like it's a darker, more intense Babylon 5 than we got in previous seasons. Or better lit at least.

Plus even though the story arcs are continuing, we've definitely turned the page into a different chapter here. Londo's got a new job off the station, G'Kar's moving onto his next storyline, and there's isn't a single scene of Sheridan stressing out in the war room. There's barely any scenes of Sheridan at all actually.

Maybe what was throwing me off the first time I watched it is that it's clearly an episode that's missing its protagonist. Sure Londo is the star of his B plot, he's the absolute focus of that story, but when the action switches to the station the episode doesn't know who to follow. No one's stepping up to take that role and dominate the episode, so it drifts from character to character trying to latch onto a story. It's only when three of them get together in act four that some kind of plot can develop.

I was going to type that it's an episode about three people dealing with grief, but the actual problem is that they aren't actually able to move on to that point. They're stuck in limbo and it's taking a real toll on them mentally and physically. Well it's taken a toll on Ivanova and Delenn anyway; Lyta's got a Bad Kosh to torment her while she deals with the loss of Good Kosh. So it's not a big shock that they start doing slightly incredibly dangerous things, like taking White Star-A out to the homeworld of their enemy alone because the P-5 telepath who struggled with one Shadow ship thinks that she can block the whole planet. Turns out that it was a bad move, because that Eye thing that Ivanova ran into back in Voices of Authority can make crews land their ships! But the mission worked out despite them, and now they have important intel! They now know not to bring their whole fleet to Z'ha'dum as they'd all be mind-controlled into surrender. That wouldn't have done anything to gain the faith of the other races.

It's a little weird though that everyone's so focused on Sheridan, when Garibaldi's missing as well. In fact Garibaldi is really missing, as he only appears in the 'previously on' clips at the start. This was the third episode of the series that Jerry Doyle didn't have to turn up for, which means Claudia Christian has increased her episode count lead. There's no Franklin or Marcus either, though we did at least get five minutes of Zack Allen.

Meanwhile Londo's B plot is all about him getting a first-hand look at what all his schemes to make Centauri Prime great again have done to his home. The puppet he put on the throne back in season two has turned out to be more of a psychopath and he's going to get millions killed in his mad plan to achieve godhood. Everyone willing to move against him openly is dead so now Londo has to put those sneaky assassination skills he demonstrated back in And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place to use and murder his own emperor. Poor Vir, he and Londo are finally doing something good together, and it's the worst thing imaginable. Funny thing is, this isn't a change of heart for Londo, he hasn't become a better person, it's just that Cartagia is even worse than the empire he was trying to restore and his priority has always been to do what's best for the Centauri.

So yeah, this is definitely a chapter of a larger story. But it's a great, if surprisingly low key, way to kick off the season.

---

COMING SOON

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, Babylon 5 season 4 continues with Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? That question mark there makes it sound like I'm surprised and maybe a little confused about this, but it's the second episode of the season so it only makes sense to cover it next.

Here's another question for you: what did you think about The Hour of the Wolf? Let me know in the comments!

Or you could chat about the episode in the new...

Sci-Fi Adventures Discord server!

It's not actually that new as it's been around for a month now, but this is the first chance I've had to announce it here. It's already full of writing about all kinds of things, mostly sci-fi and video games, but it needs a constant supply of fresh text to survive and have any reason to exist, so you're welcome to drop by and leave a few words!