Babylon 5 4-08: The Illusion of Truth

Episode:

74

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Stephen Furst

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Air Date:

17-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I am writing about Babylon 5 episode 74: The Illusion of Truth. Doesn't sound like a particularly interesting number, but the series has 110 regular episodes, so that means after this I'll be two-thirds of the way through!

The Illusion of Truth was the first episode to be directed by Vir actor Stephen Furst. Not just the first Babylon 5 episode, but the first episode of anything. Though he had already directed (and written, and starred in) a movie called Magic Kid II. Furst went on to direct a couple more episodes of B5, both of them breaking the show's usual format, and then he went and did a couple of episodes of the spin-off, Crusade, as well.

I sometimes point out similarities between Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, but this is one case where things worked out differently. Four actors from DS9's main cast went on to direct episodes of their own show, same with Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager weirdly, but Stephen Furst was the only Babylon 5 actor to ever make the jump.

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be spoiling this episode scene by scene and if I think of any other episodes that need a good spoiling along the way, well I'll be spoiling them as well. Don't worry though if you're watching through the series for the first time, as I'll not spoil anything that happens next.

Babylon 5 4-07: Epiphanies

Episode:

73

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John C. Flinn III

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Air Date:

10-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's another episode of Babylon 5! I gotta keep watching them if I want to make it to the end.

Epiphanies was directed by director of photography John C. Flinn III, who generally directed two episodes a season, and not typically the best two. Though he did give us The Long, Twilight Struggle (with the famous shot of Londo reflected in the window) and I remember Soul Mates being pretty good as well. TKO and Grey 17 is Missing, not so much.

I'd talk about the writer, but it's just J. Michael Straczynski again. He wrote all the episodes last season and he wrote all the episodes this season as well.

Here's SPOILER WARNING for you: I'm going to be spoiling every scene in this story and earlier episodes as well. I won't be spoiling later episodes though, so if you're watching the series for the first time you'll be fine here.

Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

Written by:

Michael Maltese

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Directed by:

Chuck Jones

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Release Date:

1953

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing a recap/commentary/review/etc. about Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, a Daffy Duck cartoon from the 50s.

It was released in theatres in 1953 to be precise, which means it's the oldest thing on my site so far by a full 10 years! It's a decade older than both Doctor Who and Star Trek, and almost 25 years older than Star Wars. But it's a parody of serials starring Buck Rogers (created 1928) and Flash Gordon (created 1934), so it's riffing on something 25 years older still... along with all the other sci-fi that was around at the time.

Speaking of Star Wars, George Lucas liked the short so much he requested that it was shown before the first movie during its initial cinema run. 1000 animation professionals liked it enough back in 1994 to vote it #4 of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time. But despite its popularity, it took 27 years for the short to get its first sequel (they were aiming to get done in time to be at the front of The Empire Strikes Back, and missed), and then 16 more years for the next one. It finally got a TV series though in 2003 and I have no idea if it's any good or not.

I've never tried to write about a 7 minute slapstick cartoon scene by scene before, but it seems like a terrible idea for so many reasons and I'm hyped to do it. I should mention though that I'm going to ruin the ending to Haredevil Hare, so if SPOILERS are going to be an issue for you I suggest you either watch it first or read this review with your eyes closed.

Star Trek: Short Treks - Season 2 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got a whole batch of reviews for you! Short ones.

I don't know if Short Treks comes in seasons, but I'm calling this 'season two' just to keep things organised. In fact I don't even know if this is considered to be a separate series to Star Trek: Discovery these days. I went into it assuming it had become its own thing, seeing as none of these stories feature the USS Discovery or her crew (except for young Burnham), but it's still got the same Discovery-style title with the starship herself flying past, and it's still got the same theme, so I don't even know.

One thing I do know is that all these episodes were put together with the season one stories and released on Blu-Ray together... except for Children of Mars. So now I'm wondering if that's its own thing. It doesn't have the Short Treks title sequence on it and it has a version of the Picard theme playing over the end credits, so is it actually episode 1 of Short Picard Treks? Are we going to be getting Short Lower Decks Treks next year?

Anyway, I'm just going to write about all of the latest Trek shorts without worrying about what counts. Beyond this point you will find six separate reviews, each of them written back when I first saw the episode and packed with general Star Trek SPOILERS.

Babylon 5 4-06: Into the Fire

Episode:

72

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Kevin James Dobson

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Air Date:

03-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Babylon 5 episode 4-06: Into the Fire, which continues on from the cliffhanger ending of the previous story: Out of the Frying Pan. Actually the last episode was called The Long Night, but my title's better.

Into the Fire was the second and final episode directed by Kevin James Dobson, who had previously directed Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi? That was perhaps the weakest episode of season four so far, but that's like saying it was the worst choc-chip cookie in the pack. Okay, I'm going to have to take these off my desk or else all my metaphors are going to end up being cookie related.

Anyway, here's a fact you'll never read anywhere else, because who would ever care: the week after The Long Night and Into the Fire were broadcast, Deep Space Nine aired its own epic two-parter called In Purgatory's Shadow and By Inferno's Light. Bit of a 'darkness leading to fire' theme going on in both series. Voyager tried to join in with Jekyll & Hyde Doctor story Darkling, but maybe it would've been better if it hadn't.

This recap/review will feature SPOILERS for this episode and the series up to this point, but I'll not spoil anything that comes after it, so it's first-time viewer safe.