Babylon 5: Season 5 - The Wheel of Fire Review

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'll be writing a bit about the fifth and final season of Babylon 5! And I suppose I should say something about the series overall as well. If I can remember enough of it.

I can't promise I'll say much here you haven't read a thousand times before on a thousand other websites, or heard on a thousand podcasts. Maybe you've even watched a thousand YouTube videos. But I do have one unique fact for you that no one anywhere has ever mentioned before: each season of Babylon 5 features slightly longer episode titles on average than the previous one, and by season five the titles are, on average, 42% longer than season one titles. I hope this extremely trivial trivia brings joy into your day.

But did longer episode titles mean better episodes? Was the miraculous fifth season renewal a good thing overall? Did Babylon 5 actually stick the landing? I'll tell you what I think and then you can tell me what you think in the comments afterwards.

There will be SPOILERS here for pretty much all of Babylon 5, aside from the spin-offs and Lost Tales. That's The Gathering all the way to Sleeping in Light.

Babylon 5 5-22: Sleeping in Light

Episode:

110

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I did it, we're here, it's the last episode of Babylon 5, episode 110 of 110. I have finally reached Sleeping in Light! Though here it looks more like Sleeping in Bed. I suppose they do have that lamp on.

It had originally been filmed as an extremely final season 4 finale when their network was collapsing and the future looked bleak. But when the miracle happened and TNT gave them a fifth season, it provided them an opportunity to film an alternative end to season 4 and hold onto this for a while. That means that the episode finally aired 394 days later than planned! The actors and crew knew the story, people from the media got hold of the script, but it seems like no one ever said anything in all that time.

It's the first and only episode of the series to be directed by showrunner J. Michael Straczynski. In fact it was his first time directing anything. Personally if I was going to try my hand at being a director I wouldn't start with the finale to my epic sci-fi series. Endings are incredibly important to a story, they're one of the things that people remember most and it colours their opinion of the whole saga, so screwing up here would be very bad.

Okay you're if you're reading my final B5 review you probably already know the drill by now, but I write about entire episodes scene by scene, with a recap under screencaps, so there'll be HUGE SPOILERS. I'll not spoil anything that happens in the spin-offs, Lost Tales, or any other series however. So if you're hoping for me to compare it to Deep Space Nine's finale, that's not going to happen. I could compare it to a certain other Trek finale though, with its 20 year time jump.

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

|

Directed By:

Janet Greek

|

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

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

John Copeland

|

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

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

Jesús Salvador Treviño

|

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

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Director:

Janet Greek

|

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.