Babylon 5: Season 2 - The Coming of Shadows Review

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'll be writing a bit about the second season of Babylon 5, which has the overall title of The Coming of Shadows. Not to be confused with the episode The Coming of Shadows, which also has the overall title of The Coming of Shadows.

But first, here's a rare glimpse behind the scenes of Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures. When I first had the immensely dumb idea of starting my science fiction review site I also had the extremely sensible idea to get some episodes written up in advance. That way I'd have a buffer so I wouldn't disappear and leave the site dead during the months I was busy with other things. In fact all 38 Babylon 5 reviews published before my unintended absence last year were written ages before the site first went live on 1st April 2016. Unfortunately I got so distracted with writing about other sci-fi series and movies that I didn't get back to writing about Babylon 5, so when more important things hijacked my free time I'd already used up all my spare reviews. Which is why I disappeared for months.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that it may look like I started reviewing Babylon 5's second season episodes two years ago, but truth is it's actually closer to four years and I haven't rewatched the episodes since. I find it hard enough to keep 22 episodes in my head at the best of times, so I have no business trying to review this season really. Still going to do it though.

This is going to contain epic SPOILERS for everything in season 2 from Points of Departure to The Fall of Night, and probably earlier episodes too. If I can remember them.

Babylon 5 2-22: The Fall of Night

Episode:

44

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

01-Nov-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, this is it, I've reached the epic season finale of Babylon 5 season two! Well I'm just assuming it's epic to be honest, I haven't seen it in ages. But if it's half as good as season one's finale, Chrysalis... then I'll be only two-thirds satisfied with it, so ideally it'll be a little better than that.

In the last few episodes we've gone from a Long, Twilight Struggle to The Fall of Night, so things seem to have been getting darker. It made me wonder if this theme had been running through other titles this year, so I looked through an episode list and found Geometry of Shadows and The Long Dark near the start, and All Alone in the Night sitting there in middle. So no, I can't say I saw any journey into darkness in the titles.

I didn't see Janet Greek's name in the 'directed by' column all that much either, but I guess she'd earned a rest after Signs and Portents, Chrysalis, Points of Departure and The Coming of Shadows. Actually she was apparently suffering from pneumonia, but she came back just in time for the end of the season, before vanishing again for the next two years. Anyway she's a good director and that makes me think this will be good.

If you've just gotten hold of some second hand DVDs and you're watching the series for the very first time you might be thinking about listening to the commentary by showrunner jms and maybe even checking out some of those special features. I wouldn't recommend it though, because there's SPOILERS in there for later seasons. You're safe reading this review though, provided you've watched the episode and all the ones leading up to it, as I won't say a thing about where it's all going. Nothing that Ivanova doesn't spoil herself anyway.

Babylon 5 2-21: Comes the Inquisitor

Episode:

43

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

25-Oct-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about an episode actually genuinely called Comes the Inquisitor. It's the one where an inquisitor comes to the station I guess.

The is the penultimate episode of Babylon 5's second season so I'm very close to being done with it, though it doesn't really feel like I'm at the end of something. Season two has been a lot more serialised than the first year, but it hasn't built up momentum leading up to anything likely to be resolved soon. There's been no sense of all the pieces falling into place before a massive turning point in the story. So to me this is pretty much just feels like season 2, episode 21.

There will be SPOILERS below for both this episode and the earlier stories that led up to it as I'm going to go through the whole thing writing text under screenshots. Though if you're watching the series for the first time you don't have to worry about me spoiling anything that happens after this episode. This is a first time viewer friendly review.

Babylon 5 2-20: The Long, Twilight Struggle

Episode:

42

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

18-Oct-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing The Long, Twilight Struggle, the antepenultimate episode of Babylon 5's second season! The last few episodes have been a bit miserable but if that title's anything to go by I expect this is going to be the one that really turns things around.

Here's some entirely useless facts for you: according to IMDb, John C. Flinn III was the director of photography for 102 of 110 Babylon 5 episodes, and this is one of the 8 he skipped. It's also one of the 9 he directed, and if you suspect there's probably a lot of overlap between those two lists... you'd be wrong. It's just this one. This was the third episode he directed after TKO and Soul Mates, so he's got the bottom and the middle of the ratings scale covered already, but was this his first really great episode? I'll tell you what I think later, though if you've seen it and remember which one it is I expect you already have your own opinion.

I nearly didn't show this screencap of the title because it spoils a character's surprise reappearance. But then I realised that the role was recast and this actor has never actually been in the series before, so all it really spoils is that a Minbari shows up at the start of the first act. But there will be massive SPOILERS below this point for both this episode and the ones leading up to it, as I'll be going through it one screencap at a time, writing about what happened and what I think about that.

Babylon 5 2-19: Divided Loyalties

Episode:

31

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

11-Oct-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I am once again writing about a second season Babylon 5 episode. Not many of them left now though. This one's called Divided Loyalties and it's episode 19 of 22.

Here, have some TV scheduling trivia to make everything else I write afterwards seem more interesting by comparison: in the US, seasons of B5 were split into four blocks, so you'd get five episodes, a month off, eight episodes, two months off, and so on. Meanwhile in the UK, we had to wait a while for the season to start, but once it was airing we didn't have so many huge gaps and we were able to catch up. So we actually got to watch up to the season two finale The Fall of Night during the four months that US fans were waiting between Confessions and Lamentations and Divided Loyalties. I can imagine VHS tapes were getting mailed across the Atlantic (they probably wouldn't have worked on an NTSC player but you never know unless you try).

Though American viewers soon got their revenge, as season two continued straight into season three without a break in the US, while British fans had to wait eight months for it. Man, could you imagine having to wait eight months between seasons of Westworld, Doctor Who or Game of Thrones?

I'll be screencapping and recapping the whole episode below, throwing in my own opinions and observations as I go, so there'll be SPOILERS for the whole of Divided Loyalties and episodes leading up to it. But if you're watching the series for the first time and you've only gotten this far, then you've got nothing to worry about as I won't spoil a thing about what happens afterwards.

Babylon 5 2-18: Confessions and Lamentations

Episode:

40

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

24-May-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Confessions and Lamentations, the 40th episode of cult 90s space opera Babylon 5.

Incidentally, if you add 40 to 90 you get 130, which is the total number of Babylon 5 stories ever filmed if you include the movies and the spin-offs (and count The Lost Tales as one thing). Why am I mentioning this? Because I feel like I should be writing something here to pad this introduction out a bit. Plus it also means that if I somehow end up owning a Crusade DVD box set in the future I'll have 90 stories left after this to review.

Beyond this point you'll find SPOILERS as I'm going to go through the entire episode in screencaps, and put my opinions and observations underneath, so I wouldn't recommend reading any further unless you've seen the episode already. I won't be spoiling anything that happens after this point in the series though, so it's entirely safe for people watching it for the first time.

Babylon 5 2-16: In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum

Episode:

38

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

10-May-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm putting the previous DVD back in to watch In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.

Babylon 5 first aired with the occasional episode out of order, mostly due to the visual effects taking ages, and if you watch the episodes off disc or Amazon you get to experience the authentic continuity weirdness this causes (which is pretty minimal to be honest, it's not really a big deal). But I'm following the J. Michael Straczynski approved Lurker's Guide Master List order, which enhances the narrative by pulling Knives forwards and slotting this in before Confessions and Lamentations, leaving this block of episodes looking like this:

15 - And Now for a Word
17 - Knives
16 - In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
18 - Confessions and Lamentations
19 - Divided Loyalties

By the way, this is one of the few episodes to get a DVD commentary by producer jms and if you're watching B5 for the first time I'd recommend leaving it until you've seen the whole series. In fact all the special features seem to have been produced under the assumption that if you've bought the discs you're probably already a fan. Which is fine, but they could've at least included a spoiler warning. Like this:

WARNING, I'm about to write some massive SPOILERS all over this review! But only for this episode and the ones that precede it. Which includes Knives.

Babylon 5 2-17: Knives

Episode:

39

|

Writer:

Larry DiTillio

|

Air Date:

17-May-1995

---

Welcome to Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures, which is now entering its fourth year! And yet I'm still not done with Babylon 5 season two. It's like I'm a showrunner on a modern TV series or something.

Obviously my plans have been terrible and something needs to be done, so I've got a new plan for 2019: I'm going to be writing just one review per week and I'll be switching my attention between Sci-Fi Adventures and Super Adventures in Gaming every two months. So that's 8 or 9 episode reviews here, then I switch over and write about 8 or 9 games, and so on. Unfortunately that only gives me 26 weeks a year to write about science fiction; just enough to cover a single season of one 90s TV series (or one episode each from 26 different series I suppose).

So I've decided to drop my weekly Doctor Who, Deep Space Nine, Discovery and The Orville reviews and focus on getting through Babylon 5... with something different thrown in every now and then so I don't have to rename the site to Ray Hardgrit's Babylon 5 Adventures. It's not that I don't like those other series, it's just that B5 is a serialised story that I'm already a third of the way through and I'd like to get it finished.

The last episode I reviewed (back in February 2018) was And Now for a Word, so if you go by the airdate, DVD and Amazon Prime episode order I should be watching In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum right now. But I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List which puts Knives before it for continuity reasons, which makes this block of episodes look like this:

14 - There All the Honor Lies
15 - And Now for a Word
17 - Knives
16 - In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
18 - Confessions and Lamentations

All this really means is that I'll not be including any SPOILERS for In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, because that's what I'm watching next time, though I will be spoiling everything in this story and probably earlier episodes as well. Assuming I can still remember anything (it's been ages since I watched them).

Babylon 5 2-15: And Now for a Word

Episode:

37

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

03-May-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about an ISN special report called 36 Hours on Babylon 5, except not really, as the text on screen gives away that it's actually Babylon 5 episode And Now for a Word. It's the series' first format-breaking episode but they didn't break it quite far enough to leave the title off or change the opening credits sequence. It's a bit disappointing really.

Oh, by the way, it's Babylon 5's 25th anniversary! The pilot movie The Gathering aired on the 22nd of February 1993, just one month after Deep Space Nine's pilot Emissary. I was late for the DS9 anniversary and I've missed Red Dwarf's recent 30th anniversary entirely, but this time I finally got it right! (Though to be honest I was planning to have reached the slightly more monumental In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum by this point).

Okay, this is one of my regular length reviews, which means I'll be sharing my thoughts on the entire episode and throwing out massive SPOILERS along the way. I'll likely end up spoiling a few of the earlier B5 episodes as well, but I won't even hint at anything that happens after it. Except for just then when I said that Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum is one of the more important ones.

Babylon 5 2-14: There All the Honor Lies

Episode:

36

|

Writer:

Peter David

|

Air Date:

26-Apr-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing my thoughts about There All the Honor Lies, considered by many to be the 14th episode of Babylon 5 season 2.

It's also the second and last episode written by Peter David (after Soul Mates six episodes back), and the second to last episode written by anyone but creator J.Michael Straczynski for a long long while. But there's still one Larry DiTillio episode to go this season; JMS hadn't achieved total script domination quite yet.

I'll be recapping the whole episode with screencaps and sharing my opinions and observations, so there'll be wall to wall SPOILERS past this point. I'm sure I'll even spoil events from earlier episodes, but I'll give away nothing from any of the episodes that come after it. Or episodes from entirely different series for that matter.

Babylon 5 2-13: Hunter, Prey

Episode:

35

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

01-Mar-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm rewatching a Babylon 5 episode called Hunter, Prey.

I've never much liked the title of this one, it feels lazy somehow. Plus it's probably a quote from some poem I've never heard of, and I hate poetry almost as much as I hate it when television makes me feel ignorant!

Anyway, the following text will contain SPOILERS for this episode and the ones that preceded it, as I'm going to be doing a full recap with screencaps. But I'll not mention a thing about what's to come, so if you're a first-time viewer you don't have to worry about me ruining everything for you.

Babylon 5 2-12: Acts of Sacrifice

Episode:

34

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

22-Feb-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've jumped back to Babylon 5 for season two's Acts of Sacrifice. I'm just past the midpoint of the season now with 11 episodes behind me and 11 still to go, which means I'm 4 episodes behind where I was at this point last year. I need to step up the pace.

Hang on, I recognise that ugly rubbish spiky spaceship... this is the episode with the Lumati in it! The title had me thinking it was the one where Londo's old friend shows up and then stuff happens, but nope it's this one. I guess I should start mentally preparing myself for how it ends then.

There's going to be SPOILERS beyond this point, by the way. Not just for this episode, but maybe earlier ones too. I'll not even hint at anything that comes in later episodes though, except for just then where I said that Londo's friend shows up and stuff happens.

Babylon 5 2-11: All Alone in the Night

Episode:

33

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

15-Feb-1995

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about an episode of television! Every season of Babylon 5 lasts precisely 22 episodes, so by my calculations that makes All Alone in the Night the midpoint of season two.

I did some more calculations and figured out I've heard the phrase 'all alone in the night' exactly 32 times already, as it's been part of the opening monologue on every episode so far. Other titles they could've used include: 'A Shining Beacon in Space', 'A Dangerous Place', 'Our Last Best Hope for Peace', 'Neutral Territory', uh... 'The Name of the Place'. Could've, but didn't.

So this is a bit like the Where No Man Has Gone Before of Babylon 5 then I suppose. Kind of makes it seem like the episode's going to be a little more monumental than most, though my fuzzy memories are telling me... it isn't.

I'm going to go through the whole episode now, sharing my thoughts and screencaps as I go, so be prepared for SPOILERS. It's probably best to assume there'll be spoilers for earlier B5 episodes too, though I won't ruin anything about what happens later.

Babylon 5 2-10: GROPOS

Episode:

32

|

Writer:

Lawrence DiTillio

|

Air Date:

08-Feb-1995

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally returning to Babylon 5 with season two episode GROPOS.

You'd think that the biggest problem GROPOS has to live with would be its name, but it also suffers the misfortune of coming directly after The Coming of Shadows, the Hugo Award-winning mid-season game changer, so it was pretty much doomed to be a let down no matter how good it is.

Still, the episode that came after last year's mid-season game changer was TKO, and there's no way it can be that bad... though they do share the same writer. This was script editor Larry DiTillio's sixth episode for the series, and also his penultimate one, as he left at the end of the season. I guess there was no point in keeping a script editor around anymore when the executive producer took over writing all the episodes in season three.

Underneath this point the article's all SPOILERS and screencaps, so continue at your own risk. I'll not ruin anything that happens in the episodes that came after this though.

Babylon 5 2-09: The Coming of Shadows

Episode:

31

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

01-Feb-1994

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the Hugo Award winning Babylon 5 episode The Coming of Shadows. It won the award for 'Best Dramatic Presentation' in 1994, back when individual TV episodes had to fight it out in the same category as blockbuster movies. So this didn't just take down beloved Deep Space Nine episode The Visitor, but also 12 Monkeys, Apollo 13 and Toy Story! Damn, that's a lot of movies and series with a number in their title. Also a lot of Tom Hanks.

Just to put that win in context, previous winners include: Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Aliens, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek's The City on the Edge of Forever. So I'm expecting this to be at least as good as all of those.

Man, I love listing things; it saves me from having to actually think about the words that I'm writing. Anyway, this episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Janet Greek, who'd already given us stories like Points of Departure, Signs and Portents and Chrysalis by this point, just to pick a few names from the very top of my episode rankings. So it'd be fair to say they'd assembled B5's A-Team for this one. Well, except for Dwight Schultz; he'll not be participating as a guest star this time (or ever again).

I'm going to be recapping the whole episode with screencaps and writing my thoughts underneath, so there'll be maximum SPOILERS past this point. I'm sure I'll end up spoiling things from earlier episodes too, but I'll not say a thing about what happens after (though I can't promise the episode itself won't reveal a few things about what's to come).

Babylon 5 2-07: Soul Mates

Episode:

29

|

Writer:

Peter David

|

Air Date:

14-Dec-1994

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching episodes out of DVD order again, as I've left Soul Mates until after A Race Through Dark Places. They aired the other way around in the US, as the network wanted to move an episode to an earlier air date and Race's VFX shots wouldn't have been finished in time, but this is their correct production and story order.

Why does it matter to you what order I'm watching the episodes in? Well it affects the SPOILERS you're going to be getting, as I avoid spoiling things that happen in later episodes, for the sake of people who haven't seen the rest of the series yet (or have forgotten it all), but as far as I'm concerned Race Through Dark Places has already been and gone, and is now fair game. Also, I'm going to recap this whole episode as I give my thoughts about it, so I'll be spoiling the hell out of it too.

Babylon 5 2-08: A Race Through Dark Places

Episode:

30

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

25-Jan-1995

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm back to Babylon 5 season two, writing about A Race Through Dark Places. My DVD's telling me I should be watching Soul Mates now, but I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List which reorganises the stories into a more chronologically logical order, and it says that A Race Through Dark Places was always meant to come first.

What happened was the network, PTEN, planned to finish off 1994 with six new season two B5 episodes in a block (following straight on from the season one finale Chrysalis, which had been held back two months because... I don't even know why.) But then they decided to increase the block to seven episodes and Race Through Dark Places just wasn't going to be ready in time, so Soul Mates was aired in its place. They were aired in the correct order for me in the UK though... eventually.

Anyway the end result of this schedule shifting is that this is the first episode of Babylon 5 to air in 1995. It also means that there's another weird Babylon 5/Deep Space Nine coincidence for the ever-expanding list: both series aired exactly 29 episodes during their first year, which is a ridiculous number. Especially as one of DS9's episodes was feature length.

If you're wondering what else was going on in 1995, it was the year that Voyager, Sliders and Space: Above and Beyond started. Also they're not science fiction, but it says here on the internet that Hercules and its spin-off Xena both got a series this year and that's weird. Meanwhile in cinemas, sci-fi movie fans got to enjoy Johnny Mnemonic, Species and Sylvester Stallone's Judge Dredd. Yay.

Warning: I'll be sharing SPOILERS for this episode with my words and screencaps, and earlier episodes are fair game for spoilers too (aside from Soul Mates). I won't spoil anything that comes after though.

Babylon 5 2-06: Spider in the Web

Episode:

28

|

Writer:

Lawrence DiTillio

|

Air Date:

07-12-1994

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'll be figuratively talking all over Babylon 5 episode Spider in the Web (or A Spider in the Web according to the DVD box). I wouldn't worry about seeing any actual spiders turn up though judging by the current run of episode titles, as A Distant Star had nothing to do with stars, distant or otherwise, The Long Dark only lasted 42 minutes, and The Geometry of Shadows had a disappointing absence of... geometry.

This is the first episode of season two to be written by executive story editor Larry DiTillio and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. The guy's episodes were all over the place on my entirely subjective season one rankings, as I placed Eyes up near the top, and TKO and Born to the Purple way way down at the bottom. But only one person wrote more Babylon 5 episodes than DiTillio and that's creator JMS himself, though after this I've only got two more stories of his left to watch before his boss took ever entirely.

It's also the first episode of any season to be directed by Kevin G. Cremin and I'm not sure if that's a good thing either. Though after scrolling through the episode list and checking out the other four stories he directed I'm thinking that signs are promising.

I'll be writing commentary under screencaps from the DVD, so there'll be SPOILERS here for this whole episode and probably a few of the ones that lead up to it. That's as far as the spoilers go though, I'll not give away anything that happens afterwards.

Babylon 5 2-05: The Long Dark

Episode:

27

|

Writer:

Scott Frost

|

Air Date:

30-Nov-1994

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures it's episode 27 of Babylon 5! I'm going to watch it, take some screencaps and write stuff underneath them, same as usual. Well rewatch it really, as I've seen this whole series before.

The Long Dark is both the first and last Babylon 5 episode written by a guy called Scott Frost who I know nothing about. Wikipedia tells me he wrote two episodes of Twin Peaks, which may be a good sign, and two episodes from the last seasons of Andromeda, which probably isn't. It's also the first episode directed by Mario Di Leo, who didn't do a whole lot of B5 either.

There will be SPOILERS past this point for this episode and earlier ones, but I won't spoil anything that comes after it. Though I might spoil a tiny bit about the movie Aliens.

Babylon 5 2-04: A Distant Star

Episode:

26

|

Writer:

D.C. Fontana

|

Air Date:

23-Nov-1994

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm continuing my descent into season 2 of Babylon 5 with the fourth episode: A Distant Star.

This is the first episode this season written by someone other than creator J. Michael Straczynski and the last B5 script from OG Star Trek veteran D.C. Fontana. There'll be a lot of 'last script's coming up over the next few months, as the series became too serialised for outside writers to produce standalone stories any more. That seems like a strange situation seeing as modern serialised TV series are written by multiple writers just fine, but I guess most of them haven't got an elaborate five year arc planned out in advance.

Okay what I'll be doing here is taking a few screencaps from the episode and then writing my commentary underneath, so this will include SPOILERS for the entire episode. I'll also be talking about the episodes leading up to it, so there'll be spoilers for them too. But as far as I'm concerned it's November 1994 right now so I can't say anything about what's coming next.