Babylon 5: The River of Souls - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still making my way through the 1998 Babylon 5 TV movie, The River of Souls. This is part 2 of 2, so if you want to go back to part 1, click HERE.

There are actually six Babylon 5 movies, kind of:

• The Gathering (1993) - The original pilot movie.
• In the Beginning (1998) - A prequel about the Earth-Minbari War.
  
• Thirdspace (1998) - Lovecraftian weirdness during season 4.
  
• The River of Souls (1998) - You are here.
  
• A Call to Arms (1999) - A lead-in to the Crusade spin-off.
  
• The Legend of the Rangers (2002) - The pilot for a spin-off that never made it to a series.
  

So even though I'm in the final stretch now there's plenty left for me to write about. In another timeline I'd be going straight into writing about the Babylon 5 reboot series afterwards, but that's seeming less than likely at this point. Still, at least I can write about a couple of episodes of Crusade. Yay.

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be writing about this whole movie and mentioning things that happened during the series. I'll not spoil a thing about Crusade or Legend of the Rangers however.

Babylon 5: The River of Souls - Part 1

Written By:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Directed By:

Janet Greek

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Release Date:

1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the third of the Babylon 5 TV movies made for the TNT network: The River of Souls. I keep wanting to call it River of Souls but there's definitely a 'the' at the start.

The first two TNT movies, Thirdspace and In the Beginning, were filmed before season 5, in May-June 1997, but this was filmed after the series had wrapped, between 1st-21st April 1998. It's a film about the Soul Hunters, from one of B5's least-loved early episodes, so I wonder how many people showed up for work on that first day wondering if it was an amazingly elaborate April Fool's prank. The series was over, writer J. Michael Straczynski could've told a story about anything, but he decided give the Soul Hunters another shot!

At least the film's got a good director: Janet Greek. She had directed stories like Signs and Portents, Chrysalis, The Coming of Shadows and The Fall of Night. Plus it features some real stars in the cast, including The West Wing's Martin Sheen and Deadwood's Ian McShane. No seriously.

Chronologically the movie should come about halfway into a season 6 that doesn't exist, but it actually aired with three episodes of season 5 left to go. They moved it up a couple of weeks so that the finale wasn't overshadowed by it (or vice versa), messing up the order. I'm watching it after Objects in Motion and Objects at Rest however, so there may be SPOILERS here for the two episodes... in addition to all the stories that came before them. I'll not be saying a word about anything that comes after though, so this is first-time viewer safe.

Babylon 5 5-21: Objects at Rest

Episode:

109

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

John Copeland

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Air Date:

18-Nov-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the penultimate episode of Babylon 5: Objects at Rest. Episode 109 out of 110.

Babylon 5 was always meant to last five seasons, but for a while it seemed like it would be cancelled at the end of its fourth year. To avoid leaving the story unfinished, showrunner J. Michael Straczynski rushed to get the main storylines concluded at the end of season four and filmed a final episode to wrap everything up called Sleeping in Light. Then they got a fifth season after all, so the final episode was put away for a year until it was time. I'm bringing this up now because it means that Objects at Rest was the last ever Babylon 5 episode to be filmed.

It was also the third and final episode to be directed by producer John Copeland, who'd previously directed Endgame and The Ragged Edge. Those were both very effects-heavy episodes, but I'll be surprised if this episode goes in that direction. In fact I think I'm going to be surprised whatever happens. All the plot I can remember from my first watch already happened in The Wheel of Fire and Objects in Motion.

Alright, I'll be going through the whole episode giving my scene by scene recap and reactions with screencaps so there will be huge SPOILERS here, for this and earlier stories (except for The River of Souls which I'm saving). I'll not say anything to spoil what happens next though, not that there's a whole lot of 'next' left at this point.

Babylon 5 5-20: Objects in Motion

Episode:

108

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Jesús Salvador Treviño

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Air Date:

11-Nov-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 20: Objects in Motion. Hey wasn't that the name of a Firefly episode? Oh sorry, I'm thinking of Objects in Space.

Objects in Space was the final episode of Firefly, this on the other hand is just the final Babylon 5 story to be directed by Jesús Treviño. He was one of the chosen few to have been asked to direct one of the movies (along with Mike Vejar and Janet Greek), but Thirdspace had been and gone by this point. He did return to the B5 universe one last time for an episode of Crusade however.

This is also one of the rare episodes to give Harlan Ellison a story credit (along with writer J. Michael Straczynski), which probably means he suggested something for one of the plots.

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be recapping, screencapping and commenting on the whole episode, scene by scene, so if you don't know what happens in it yet, you will do after reading this. I'll not be spoiling anything that happens afterwards however, not that there's much left to spoil.

Babylon 5 5-19: The Wheel of Fire

Episode:

107

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Janet Greek

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Air Date:

04-Nov-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5, episode 19: The Wheel of Fire! I'm getting really close to the end of the series now so I'm almost out of pictures of an episode title over a shot of the station. This is one of the better ones though I reckon, the lighting on it looks great.

Each of Babylon 5's seasons was named after one of the most important episodes that year, and this is the one that season 5 took its title from. That puts it in the company of Signs and Portents, The Coming of Shadows, Point of No Return and No Surrender, No Retreat, so if it doesn't immediately make it onto my top 10 list it's going to be a massive let down.

Here's some trivia for you: 60% of these monumental season title episodes were directed by the same director, Janet Greek, and she came back for this one. I've read that showrunner J. Michael Straczynski considered her and Mike Vejar to be his two favourite directors on the show and I can see why. This was her final episode, but she did return for the movie River of Souls and two episodes of the spin-off series Crusade.

I'm going to be recapping and reviewing the episode one scene at a time, so there will be massive SPOILERS here, for this and earlier stories. I'll not be spoiling anything that happens next however, so if you're watching the series for the first time this will all be safe to read.

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Era (2018-2022)

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the entire Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who! It seemed like a smart idea to put my thoughts down now while it's still fresh in my mind to save me from having to watch it all again at some point. I mean I'm not saying that this run was bad... not up here in the intro anyway.

Though I'm starting to regret committing to this, as I'm not sure I can come up with anything I haven't said already, never mind the rest of the internet. Reviewers have turned tearing apart the Chibnall era into an art form. YouTube's packed full of video essays with hours of content, each of them representing months of work. Meanwhile all I have is a few scribbled down thoughts I've had over the last few days. Basically I'm not in a great position to be criticising trite half-baked writing.

But I said I'd do this and I need to see it through, so now that the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled etc. I'm going to take a look back at the Thirteenth Doctor era and figure out if I liked it. There will be SPOILERS beyond this point.

Babylon 5 5-18: The Fall of Centauri Prime

Episode:

106

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Douglas E. Wise

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Air Date:

28-Oct-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Babylon 5 episode 106, The Fall of Centauri Prime. I suppose lots of planets have an autumn.

Babylon 5 originally took a bit of a break after the last episode, Movements of Fire and Shadow, and even more of a break in the UK. In fact viewers had to wait over four months for this episode! That's way more than the month I've kept you waiting, so I'm not even feeling guilty. There were no more breaks after this though. They aired this final stretch of stories over five weeks, with the movie River of Souls thrown in as a bonus. In the UK, Channel 4 did one better by airing them over five days. Unfortunately it was scheduled a little earlier than usual... at 11:30 AM as part of The Bigger Breakfast block.

The episode was directed by Douglas E. Wise, nephew of Robert Wise (director of The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture). It was the only episode of the series he directed, but he'd been on the series for a while at this point working as a the first assistant director so I'm sure he knew the difference between a Centauri and a Minbari.

I'll be going through the entire episode writing my comments under screencaps, so there will be massive SPOILERS below. I'll also be spoiling the hell out of anything relevant that led up to it, though I'll not say a word about the episodes that come after.