Babylon 5 4-10: Racing Mars

Episode:

76

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Jesús Salvador Treviño

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Air Date:

21-Apr-1997

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I'm pretty sure that's a spaceship in that screencap up there, but are those glowing panels supposed to be windows? Their polygon budget must have been really tight.

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about another episode of Babylon 5! This episode's called Racing Mars, which is a play on the phrase 'racing cars'. Actually I don't know what it means, it's mysterious. Sounds good though.

It's the fourth of five episodes directed by Jesús Treviño, and he's been doing alright so far with episodes like Sic Transit Vir and Interludes and Examinations. He also directed the movie Thirdspace and came back after the series to direct an episode of the spin-off, Crusade.

I'm going to go beyond your recommended daily allowance of SPOILERS here, as I'll be spoiling this episode scene by scene, and any stories that lead up to it. But if this is your first time watching the series you don't have to worry about me ruining anything that happens afterwards. I won't even spoil Thirdspace, even though the events probably take place before this story.

Babylon 5 4-09: Atonement

Episode:

75

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Tony Dow

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Air Date:

24-Feb-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about more Babylon 5! The episode Atonement to be specific, which was the 9th story in season 4.

This means I'm finally going to have to face one of the biggest mysteries in the entire Babylon 5 saga: where the hell does the movie Thirdspace fit in? Some people say watch it before Atonement, some people suggest watching it right after it. Some even suggest starting the episode, getting up to a certain point, then switching over to watch Thirdspace instead for a bit. And some people, perhaps more sensible people, suggest just watching it in the order it aired in.

I'm just going to put the episode on and see if I can spot any point where you could interrupt the action with an entire film without it being weird.

Oh by the way, BABYLON 5 FINALLY GOT REMASTERED! Holy crap, I can't believe it. Okay it's not a full Star Trek-style HD remaster where they rescanned the original film and replaced the effects, I think they've just gone back to the original 4:3 broadcast masters, but it looks a lot better. Unfortunately I don't have any of these remastered episodes so all my screencaps are going to be from the widescreen DVDs.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to assume you've seen all of Babylon 5 up to and including this episode, but I won't spoil anything that comes after. I won't even spoil Thirdspace, even though it apparently chronologically takes place here.

Star Trek: Borg

Writer:

Hilary J. Bader

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Director:

James L. Conway

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Release Date:

1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm giving you a choice!

Star Trek: Borg is an interactive movie, but it's also a Star Trek story, so you can keep reading this article to get all the meandering, sci-fi trivia and nitpicks I put in a typical Sci-Fi Adventures review, or you can jump over to my other website, Super Adventures, and get a more focused, streamlined version which gets to the point. Stay here if you're a Star Trek fan who likes words, or go over there if you'd rather scroll past less text.

> CLICK HERE FOR THE SHORTER SUPER ADVENTURES STAR TREK: BORG REVIEW <

I really wouldn't recommend reading both articles. Well, unless you're into sitting through lots of the same content all over again, in which case I might have found the right story for you!

The game apparently came out in late 1996, just a few weeks before the movie Star Trek: First Contact. That film's all about the Borg so they had their synergy figured out there. That means that in grand scheme of Star Trek games, Borg comes after 25th Anniversary and A Final Unity, but before Starfleet Academy and Elite Force. It was released right at the start of the Trek game explosion that lasted until 2001, where every year would have three or more games, some of them not entirely terrible! In fact this wasn't even the only Trek game by Simon & Schuster that year, as they also released Star Trek: Klingon, which appears to be more of the same kind of thing.

The game will apparently run on modern systems if you download this ancient installer from the Internet Archive: Borgptch, but I don't really know how well it gets along with Windows 10 because I decided to run it in Windows 95 using the PCem PC emulator instead.

I usually only play for an hour or two, but this isn't the longest of games so I'm going to be playing all of it this time. So there's going to be HUGE SPOILERS for this game and maybe a few smaller spoilers for Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes like The Best of Both Worlds.

Babylon 5 4-08: The Illusion of Truth

Episode:

74

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Stephen Furst

|

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

|

Director:

John C. Flinn III

|

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.