Babylon 5 5-17: Movements of Fire and Shadow

Episode:

105

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John C. Flinn III

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Air Date:

17-Jun-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the Babylon 5 season 5 episode Movements of Fire and Shadow. Sounds like it should be the name of a Game of Thrones novel, but you know that things are getting real when the word 'Shadow' shows up in a B5 episode title.

It was the final episode to be directed by John C. Flinn III, but he carried on in his other job as the series' director of photography until the end. The main thing I remember about Flinn's episodes is that he's not great at shooting actors in monster suits, but if they can avoid that here this might be a good one.

We're getting really close to the end now, only 5 episodes left after this one, but they decided to be cruel during the show's first airing on TNT and make people wait 19 weeks for the next episode. That's four and a half months! We had it even worse in the UK, as we had to wait 2 weeks longer than that. Though they did at least air the B5 movie Thirdspace in the meantime... which confusingly slots in during the events of season 4.

I should probably mention that there will be SPOILERS beyond this point for this episode and earlier episodes too, but I've written this warning over a hundred times now and I'm getting pretty bored of doing it, so you're just going to have to live without it this time.

Babylon 5 5-06: Strange Relations

Episode:

94

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John C. Flinn III

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Air Date:

25-Feb-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 6, Strange Relations. Huh, that's weird, I can usually vaguely remember the names of each episode but Strange Relations doesn't ring any bells with me at all. If I was given one of those quizzes where you have to go through titles and choose whether they're from Babylon 5 or, I dunno, Magnum P.I., I would've totally failed this one. (I would've nailed The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari though.)

You can tell this episode's been around a few years now as a bit of the letter 'g' has gotten scratched off. That's apparently a unique feature of the Region 2 DVDs, so you can tell where all my screencaps are coming from.

This episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski, no big surprise there, and it was directed by the Director of Photography John C. Flinn III. Flinn had previously directed TKO and Grey 17 is Missing, contenders to be the worst episodes of their respective seasons, so he doesn't have a perfect track record, but he's done some good episode too. I'm not considering it to be a warning sign.

Okay I'll be writing about the entire episode one scene at a time so there will be massive SPOILERS here for this story and the series so far. I'll not spoil anything that comes afterwards though.

Babylon 5 4-11: Lines of Communication

Episode:

77

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

John C. Flinn III

|

Air Date:

28-Apr-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, another episode of Babylon 5.

Lines of Communication was written by showrunner J. Michael Straczynski and directed by director of photography John C. Flinn III, a pair of people who clearly must have had more hours in their days than the rest of us get. This was the last episode Flinn directed this season but he did a couple more for season 5. He didn't direct any of the spin-off series Crusade afterwards though weirdly, or anything else for that matter.

I feel compelled to warn you that there will be SPOILERS for this episode below this point, because I'm going to go through the whole thing basically scene by scene. I'll not be spoiling anything past this episode though, so if you're watching through the series for the first time you'll be fine.

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.

Babylon 5 3-19: Grey 17 is Missing

Episode:

63

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

07-Oct-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's a late contender for the worst ever episode of Babylon 5. Grey 17 is Missing is currently in the bottom three on IMDb, just above Infection and TKO, and the other places I've checked haven't been much kinder to it.

(Though right now the main thing that's bothering me about it is that it's the 19th episode this season; the numbers are just a little bit too close. I have to keep double checking to make sure it's not episode 17 and the title's not 'Grey 19 is Missing'.)

Seems that what went wrong with the story is similar to what went wrong with Exogenesis (the 7th worst B5 episode according to IMDb), as it just took too long to write. Showrunner jms says his best scripts only took one or two days, as once he got on the right track the ideas would start flooding out of his head. Apparently this one took more like two weeks for whatever reason, possibly because he got pulled away to deal with other problems, possibly because of some kind of idea blockage that needed sorting out, I don't know.

Exogenesis took so long to write because it was interrupted by that strike that happened during the filming of A Day in the Strife. They eventually worked things out and got production running again by finding the money to go full union, but that meant cutting costs elsewhere. Turns out that this is one of the places they cut costs on... as director John Flinn chose to give up his payment for this episode and direct it for free! I'm starting to think that people liked working on this show and wanted it to do well.

SPOILER WARNING: This recap and review is for people who've seen the series up to this point. I won't spoil anything that happens after this episode but I'll definitely be spoiling what came before it.

Babylon 5 3-11: Ceremonies of Light and Dark

Episode:

55

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

08-Apr-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, the Babylon 5 continues with Ceremonies of Light and Dark. Sorry for the close up of the guy's fingernail up there, that's the image the episode chose to display its title over.

It's a pretty fitting title for a post published at Christmas though. I mean Christmas is a social or religious occasion that happens in the dark of winter that involves putting lights up, and participating in ritual acts such as giving gifts and eating too much. Not that the episode has anything to do with Christmas whatsoever, it originally aired in April, but it's still a bit of an occasion.

Babylon 5 has at least five TV movies, two spin-offs and whatever you'd call The Lost Tales, but if you just take the episodes on their own then this story is the halfway point of the Babylon 5 saga. We're halfway through the five year arc!

Which means this recap potentially contains SPOILERS for exactly half the series, including this episode. But if you're watching through the series for the first time you don't have to worry about me spoiling what happens in the other half.

Babylon 5 2-20: The Long, Twilight Struggle

Episode:

42

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

18-Oct-1995

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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 2-07: Soul Mates

Episode:

29

|

Writer:

Peter David

|

Air Date:

14-Dec-1994

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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.