Babylon 5 3-18: Walkabout

Episode:

62

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

30-Sep-1996

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Hey, a shot looking straight down at Babylon 5 station, you don't see that often.

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Walkabout, an episode of Babylon 5. In fact this is the last episode I'll be writing about for a while, as I'll be switching over to Super Adventures to play video games for a couple of months instead.

Because of scheduling weirdness this and the remaining four episodes in the season all aired earlier here in the UK than they did in the US, which is a rare and beautiful thing. In fact it was the last time it ever happened for Babylon 5. Though we still got them in the wrong order.

According to the airing and DVD order I should be watching War Without End right now, which is a huge two-parter I'm eager to get to. But Walkabout was originally supposed to be aired first and the season apparently works better if it's moved before it. At least according to the Lurker's Guide Master List, which has this block of episodes looking like this:

14 - Ship of Tears
15 - Interludes and Examinations
18 - Walkabout
16 - War Without End, Part 1
17 - War Without End, Part 2

So this review won't have any SPOILERS for War Without End, but I will be going through all of Walkabout scene by scene and I'll probably end up spoiling some of the episodes leading up to it as well.

Babylon 5 3-07: Exogenesis

Episode:

51

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

12-Feb-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Exogenesis!

What is exogenesis anyway? I was curious so I checked Wikipedia and it gave me a few different answers: it's a song by the band Muse, it's a visual novel, it's an album by Eloy Fritsch, it's the theory that life here began out there, far across the universe, and it's apparently an episode of the science-fiction TV series Babylon 5. I'm surprised it's not an episode of X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager as well, with the way they liked to name their stories (though X-Files did have Biogenesis).

I'm not looking forward to this one to be honest, because I remember it being one of the bad episodes. I don't think there'll be many of them this season, but I know that they're there, lurking in the cracks between major story arc episodes. Waiting for viewers to get drawn into the ongoing drama so they can leap out and trip them up with some self-contained rubbish.

I can't be talking about crap episodes coming up in the near future though, as I'm only allowed to give away SPOILERS for this story and the rest of the series so far. If I want to write about the other stories I'm not eager to write about this season I'll have to be patient.

Babylon 5 3-01: Matters of Honor

Episode:

45

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

6-Nov-1995

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Sci-Fi Adventures is back and I've finally reached Babylon 5's third season! Hopefully it won't take me three years to get through like the last season did, even if I am going to be taking long breaks every two months this time for the sake of my sanity.

Though hang on, isn't Matters of Honor a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode? Oh, that was A Matter of Honor, singular. This story presumably features multiple matters.

Babylon 5 liked to bring director Janet Greek in to direct the big episodes, like season premieres and finales, but she skipped seasons 3 and 4 entirely, so Confessions and Lamentations director Kevin G. Cremin was at the helm for this one. That was a good episode I think, though he also directed the moderately mediocre Spider in the Web, so this could go either way.

Generic SPOILER warning: Don't read any further if you don't want spoilers for the whole episode and the two preceding seasons of B5. Also you probably shouldn't listen to the DVD commentaries either. Those folks will ruin all kinds of things for you from the whole 5 year run if you let them. Me on the other hand, I won't say a word about what's coming. If you're a new viewer you'll be safe here.

Babylon 5 2-18: Confessions and Lamentations

Episode:

40

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Air Date:

24-May-1995

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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 2-06: Spider in the Web

Episode:

28

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Writer:

Lawrence DiTillio

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Air Date:

07-12-1994

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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.