Babylon 5 4-16: The Exercise of Vital Powers

Episode:

82

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John Lafia

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Air Date:

02-Jun-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's The Exercise of Vital Powers, or maybe just Exercise of Vital Powers? IMDb agrees with the title on screen but it seems like everything else, including the DVD box, put the 'The' at the start. I like it better with the 'The' so that's what I'm going with.

It's a nice title I reckon, and it gets explained during the episode so I don't have to write anything about the meaning here. That means I've got more room to mention that this is director John Lafia's second episode, after the excellent The Long Night. He only directed one more episode of the series and it's coming up very soon.

We're in the last third of the season now, by the way. Seven episodes left to go. If all goes to plan I should be writing a season four review by the end of next month.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to go and type out everything that happens during this whole episode and that's inevitably going to spoil the series so far as well. But if you're watching through Babylon 5 for the first time you'll be fine, as I won't mention anything that happens next.

Sci-Fi Adventures Awards - Season 5 (2020-21)

It's finally time for the Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures Awards Season 5! This is the time of the year where I highlight the things I personally thought was really good and incredibly bad about the things I've covered over the last 12 months.

Everything I've reviewed from April 2020 to January 2021 is in with a chance to win something, even if it was really terrible! In fact I should be giving more awards to the terrible episodes because 2020 was truly their time to shine. Here's what's in the running this year:

• Babylon 5 3-16 - War Without End to 4-15 - No Surrender, No Retreat
• Star Trek: Picard season 1
• The Mandalorian season 1
• Doctor Who series 12 + Revolution of the Daleks
  
• Short Treks season 2
• Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

That's 56 episodes and a Looney Tunes short.

This is going to be a horrific test of memory for me, as I have to somehow recall 2000 minutes of science fiction I watched over a span of 365 days. But it'll be even more horrific for you if you end up running into SPOILERS you really didn't want to see, so if you'd have a problem with me giving away every major plot twist from these episodes you should probably stop reading now.

I know I'm pretty much limiting my audience here to people who have watched all the same things I have, or don't care about spoilers, but hey this article is just bonus content for you really.

Babylon 5 4-15: No Surrender, No Retreat

Episode:

81

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Mike Vejar

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Air Date:

26-May-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about another episode of Babylon 5. It's season 4, episode 15: No Surrender, No Retreat.

Each of Babylon 5's five seasons is named after a big game-changing episode from that year. The first was named after Signs and Portents, which introduced one of the series's main antagonists, season two's title came from The Coming of Shadows which kicked off the that year's arc, and season three took it's name from Point of No Return, where the crew made a choice that radically altered their situation. Season four is called No Surrender, No Retreat, so I've finally reached this year's title episode and the shit is almost certainly going to hit the fan.

Here's some more trivia for you: the word 'no' doesn't show up in episode titles as often as you might think. In fact Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation are the only two Trek series to have a 'no' title, and they each only have the one (Where No Man Has Gone Before and Where No One Has Gone Before respectively). Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis have just one each as well (Point of No Return and No Man's Land), as does Battlestar Galactica (No Exit). Doctor's Who's been around for 57 years so you'd think it'd do well here, but even if you count the individual episodes that make up the classic serials, it's still only used 'no' once (in Sleep No More). Babylon 5, on the other hand, has four episodes with 'no' in the title, and this one uses it twice! I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when you get one writer scripting most of the stories.

Before you read any further, I should warn you that there will be SPOILERS below, for this episode and earlier ones. This will all be first time viewer friendly though, so if you've been watching through the series (or just reading through my recaps) you've got nothing to worry about.

Babylon 5 4-14: Moments of Transition

Episode:

80

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Tony Dow

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Air Date:

19-May-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've written words about another episode of Babylon 5 for you. This is season 4, episode 14, Moments of Transition, which has to be the least evocative title since Interludes and Examinations last season. You can just tell that nothing interesting or game changing is going to happen here.

The title comes from a monologue by G'Kar in the episode Z'ha'dum, in which he explained that life is made from moments of transition and moments of revelation. So I suppose we can at least be sure there won't be any revelations in the episode.

Though I do have a revelation for you of my own: this is episode 80 of Babylon 5, which means that this is the point where the series had officially overtaken the original Star Trek's episode count. Even if you count Trek's unaired pilot episode, The Cage, Babylon 5 has its own pilot movie, The Gathering, to put it one story ahead again.

I should warn you that there's going to be so many SPOILERS after this point. I'm going to ruin the whole damn episode. But if you're watching through the series for the first time you've got nothing to worry about as I won't even hint at what happens next.

Doctor Who (2005) - New Year's Day 2021: Revolution of the Daleks

Episode:

862

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Writer:

Chris Chibnall

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Director:

Lee Haven Jones

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Air Date:

01-Jan-2021

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who again! I felt like I was probably done with the series after that last season, at least until Chris Chibnall stepped down as showrunner, but I needed to write about something new to break up all the Babylon 5 I've been reviewing and this one-off special aired at just the right time for me.

I mean I didn't hate series 12, but every now and then Doctor Who makes a real effort to sever my emotional investment in it and The Timeless Child did a better job than most episodes. Plus after two seasons of Chibnall Who I'm well aware of what to expect from it and I know it's not really my kind of thing.

Revolution of the Daleks is following in the tradition of classic 'R of the Daleks' stories like Resurrection of the Daleks (Davros tries to cure a Dalek virus), Revelation of the Daleks (Davros runs a funeral home) and Remembrance of the Daleks (Dalek vs Dalek in WW2 London). But not the last New Year's special, Resolution, as they forgot to include the 'of the Daleks' part for that one. Its title was announced before it aired, but it wasn't shown in-episode until the end credits so it seemed like they were going to reveal it was really Resolution of the Daleks... but it wasn't.

This time the title's up at the front of the episode, where it usually is, and... that's about all the trivia I can think of to write about here. Anyway, this I'm going to do the full recap and commentary thing with this one, so there'll be SPOILERS for the entire story, and perhaps other stories too.

Babylon 5 4-13: Rumors, Bargains and Lies

Episode:

79

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

Mike Vejar

|

Air Date:

12-May-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Rumors, Bargains and Lies, the 79th episode of Babylon 5.

It was written by showrunner J. Michael Straczynski, who was about two thirds of the way through his unbroken streak of scripts by this point, and it was directed by Mike Vejar, finally making a reappearance after skipping the first half of the season. He hadn't directed an episode since War Without End, Part 2 back in season 3, so it's nice to have him back.

I'll be recapping the whole episode and sharing my thoughts as I go, so there'll be huge SPOILERS for this episode and earlier ones. But you'll be fine if you've been watching through the series for the first time.

Babylon 5 4-12: Conflicts of Interest

Episode:

79

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

David J. Eagle

|

Air Date:

05-May-1997

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the 79th episode of Babylon 5, titled Conflicts of Interest. For whatever reason they decided to render the station from the back instead of the front for this shot, so there's a close up of B5's ass behind the title. It's also episode 12 of season 4, which means I'm in the second half of the season now. I'm 7/10ths through the show!

Conflicts of Interest was directed by David J. Eagle, who was the only Babylon 5 director to ever have a bird-related surname. He directed episodes like Severed Dreams, And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place and Falling Toward Apotheosis, so he preferred to hang around at the top of people's episode rankings, but this could be the episode where it all started to go wrong for him. We're in season four, so probably not, though it's been a while so I can't actually remember if this one's any good or not.

Here's some more trivia for you: the episode came out on May the 5th, the day after Star Wars Day. I don't think Babylon 5 ever got its own day, but I suppose the 5th of the 5th isn't the worst date you could pick for it.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to go through this episode scene by scene spoiling the events with my recap and spoiling the story by nitpicking everything as I go. I'll even spoil episodes that came before it! But I won't spoil anything that comes after it, so this is safe for first time viewers.