Babylon 5 3-21: Shadow Dancing

Episode:

65

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

21-Oct-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's Shadow Dancing!

Wikipedia tells me that Shadow Dancing is a song by Andy Gibb from an album of the same name, a Canadian thriller starring Christopher Plummer, and the penultimate episode of Babylon 5's third season, but really it's only that last one I care about.

When you see the word 'shadow' show up in a Babylon 5 episode title you know there's a fair chance that events are soon to transpire. Sure The Geometry of Shadows was fairly tame, but you couldn't say that about The Coming of Shadows or In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum. Hey, 'Z'ha'dum', there's another word that shows up in titles sometimes...

The episode was directed by Kim Friedman, who's more famous these days for being the mother from the crazyjewishmom Instagram account. This was her first and only episode of Babylon 5, but that was possibly because she was busy with all the Star Trek she was doing. She directed four fairly rubbish episodes of Voyager overall (three of them generally ranked in the bottom third of the entire run) and six pretty good episodes of Deep Space Nine (four of them ranked in the top third), so this episode could go either way really.

This recap/review is mainly intended for people who've seen the series up to this point, so I won't be holding back with the SPOILERS. Though if you're watching the series for the first time you'll be fine, I won't ruin what comes next.

Star Trek: Picard - Season 1 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got some relatively tiny Star Trek: Picard reviews for you! Well, more like 'observations and other thoughts that entered my head while watching it'. Sorry for making you wait, but it took this long for my internet to finally get fixed.

Picard's first season was only ten episodes, making it the shortest season of full-length live-action Trek ever, but that's still a lot of episodes to read about in one go. (I was going to write 'ten stories' for a moment, but it's not that kind of series.) Fortunately for you I already wrote about the first episode, Remembrance, back when it came out, so that cuts it down to just nine. I could've copy and pasted all that text here to the whole season in one place, but... no.

Oh, I should mention that I wrote the first draft of these reviews right after each episode hit the internet, so any predictions and concerns are genuine. I really didn't know for sure where the story was going at the time. I also cut myself off from outside opinions for a while, because you know what fans are like when a new Trek series launches: they have a wide variety of different reactions just like you'd expect from any diverse group... but you're for sure going to hear about how it's a complete failure and a massive insult to everything that came before it. They may well be right, it is the first season of a Trek show after all, but I don't need to be rehashing second-hand negativity. If I'm going to hate on it, I want it to be for my own reasons!

There's going to be lots of SPOILERS past this point, mostly just for season one Picard, but I might throw in a few from earlier Trek if they seem relevant. So I'd suggest watching all 30+ seasons before reading this, just in case.

Babylon 5 3-20: And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place

Episode:

64

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

14-Oct-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Babylon 5 episode 64: And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place.

Now there's a proper title! In fact there's so much title there that they couldn't show the station in the same shot as it'd be hidden behind the wall of text. Plus it starts with 'and', which makes it feel like it's just a fragment of an even longer title.

This is actually is the longest title of any episode of Babylon 5... except for the The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father, which has the the same number of words but is exactly one character longer (including punctuation and spaces). Here, have a list of some of the longest sci-fi episode titles so you can see where this fits in the grand scheme of things:

• Star Trek: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (50 characters)
• Discovery: The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry (48 characters)
• Babylon 5: The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father (40 characters)
• Babylon 5: And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place (39 characters)
• Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (38 characters)
• Twilight Zone: The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross (38 characters)
• Battlestar Galactica: Taking a Break from All Your Worries (36 characters)
• Stargate: SG-1: There But for the Grace of God (30 characters)

By the way, if you're looking for SPOILERS, you're in the right place, as I'll be spoiling the hell out of this episode and anything that led up to it. Though if you're a first time viewer, or just don't want to be reminded about what happens next, you've got nothing to worry about 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.

Doctor Who (2005): Series 12 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the latest season of Doctor Who!

Series 12 was apparently Jodie Whittaker's second season as the Doctor (and Chris Chibnall's second year as showrunner), but I only vaguely remember there being a first one. It seems so long ago now. In fact the show disappeared for exactly a year after 2019's New Year's Day special! It would've been the longest gap between episodes since the series was resurrected in 2005, but 2016's hiatus has it beat by one day, due to being a leap year.

It apparently took them bloody ages to film the last couple of seasons, possibly because they were always flying around the world to shoot on location, I don't actually know. It's worked out well for me though, as I've only got 10 episodes to cover here. Sure I still have to somehow fit everything I want to say into 1/10th of the space of one of my normal reviews, but with these episodes I don't expect that'll be a problem.

Oh by the way, I wrote the first draft of these reviews right after each episode aired, so if I sound weirdly clueless about what's going to happen next, that's because I genuinely didn't know at the time of writing. I should also inform you that there will be SPOILERS below, but I won't be spoiling anything that comes after series 12. Partly because it hasn't aired yet and nobody knows anything about it, but mostly because I don't want to.

Babylon 5 3-17: War Without End, Part Two

Episode:

61

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

20-May-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the conclusion of Babylon 5's epic War Without End two-parter.

Sorry about the mosaic up there where the screencap should be, but the image seemed a bit spoilery to have up here in the non-spoiler intro section which everyone can see. Not that you can really tell what you're looking at if you don't already know.

There's going to be even more SPOILERS below this point, for this episode and earlier ones, so I'd suggest you stop here if that's an issue for you. Then watch the episode and come back!

Babylon 5 3-16: War Without End, Part One

Episode:

60

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

13-May-1996

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Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures has finally returned for its fifth season... and I'm still working my way through season three of Babylon 5. Though that's not so bad, as it means I get to write about the epic War Without End two parter!

I've spent almost the entire last two months preparing for this. I've been growing my hair out to try to get it as long as Marcus Cole's and I've grown an appropriate beard. I've also studied to become fluent in Minbari, I've trained to become a master of staff fighting, and I've been taught the application of terror.

Actually I'm lying, I've done no preparation. In fact it's been so long since I've published anything here that I've forgotten what Babylon 5 even is. I'm sure it'll all come back to me though.

One thing I do remember is that I've already written about the episode Walkabout, even though it was originally broadcast after War Without End. That's because I'm following the Lurker's Guide Master List, which reorganises this block of episodes to look like this:

15 - Interludes and Examinations
18 - Walkabout
16 - War Without End, Part One
17 - War Without End, Part Two
19 - Grey 17 is Missing

Not long now before I get to write about Grey 17 is Missing!

The reason I'm pointing out this story shuffling is because there's going to be SPOILERS here for this episode and anything that came before it, and for me Walkabout came before it, so it's possible I might mention something that happens in it. Like the scene where Franklin goes to a bar, sits down and just listens to an entire song.