Top 20 TV Shows: Updated for 2007

In the midst of a golden age of television, it's time to update the list of my top 20 TV shows, made a year ago. There's been some changes, here's the new list:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Up 1)
2. Twin Peaks
3. Six Feet Under
4. The Sopranos
5. Cowboy Bebop
6. John From Cincinnati (New)
7. The Office (UK)
8. Angel
9. The X-Files
10. Freaks and Geeks
11. Arrested Development
12. Gilmore Girls
13. Battlestar Galactica
14. Babylon 5 (Up 2)
15. Friday Night Lights (New)
16. Seinfeld
17. Samurai Champloo
18. Deadwood (New)
19. 24
20. The Prisoner

Now, let me tell you why things have changed.

Bufy over Twin Peaks

I rewatched the whole of Twin Peaks after the second season DVD box set came out. It's still a brilliant show, with moments that are better than anything else to ever air on television. However, there were also some weak moments, and my overall impression of the series didn't match the feelings I had for Buffy. Buffy was the perfect blend of challenging intellectual content and just plain addictive storytelling. The best TV shows are like an addiction, you just need more, and never did I need more more than when I was watching Buffy seasons five and six. So, it ascends to position of best TV show of all time.

John From Cincinnati

Is it too soon to call it the sixth greatest show of all time? Perhaps, but right now, that's the way I feel. The show challenged me to think in new ways like no other show ever did before, and it also had wonderful character arcs. Great moments from the show, like John and Shaun's return from heaven in the last episode, were among the best TV moments of all time. I loved each episode so much, and watching it unfold was a joy.

Other New Shows

Friday Night Lights easily earned a spot, with a debut season that ranks among the best all time. It could easily go up another couple spots if the second seasons matches the first's quality. Already, I was debating putting it over B5, however, for now, B5 gets the edge. One of the tricky things about a list like this is choosing the criteria. Should I base the ranking on the show at its best, or an average of its whole run. Right now, I decided to go with my feeling about the show, which can be hurt by late season screwups. An average episode of Friday Night Lights is much better than an average B5, however, B5 has the scope of a five season story that FNL can't match just yet. The other new show is Deadwood, which is great, but not quite up there with the all time best shows.

So, that's the update for this year. Next year, I'll return and see what new shows are worthy of the list, and whether there's some shift among the old ones.

Babylon 5: Ten Lost Tales that Should Be Found

While I enjoyed Voices in the Dark, the stories that JMS told there weren’t exactly ones I, or anybody else, was clamoring to see. He has such a rich universe, it’s a shame that all the TV movies, with the exception of In the Beginning concern themselves almost exclusively with generally unimportant events. Now that the door has been opened for more films, here’s a bunch I’d actually be interested in seeing, in chronological order.

1. Valen and the Previous Shadow War: For All of Michael O’Hare’s crappy acting, the character got a wonderful sendoff, and found a really interesting place in the backstory of the series. But, there’s still a lot of open questions about Sinclair and his life in Valen. I’d love to see a big movie that covered the previous Shadow War and showed Sinclair/Valen’s role in it. He’d get to hang out with Kosh and we’d also see how Sinclair adjusted to life with the Minbari. Through his prophesies, we could get a bunch of tie ins to the series, and I’d love to see the Shadow War rendered in today’s CG effects.

2. Morden, Anna and the Shadows: This would be tough since the actors have aged, but I’d love to see a movie that showed what happened to Morden and Anna Sheridan when they met up with the Shadows during their expedition. How were they converted, did they legitimately come to believe in what the Shadows were doing or was brainwashing involved? This would be ideal for a smaller scale project, perhaps paired with a story of Lyta on the Vorlon homeworld.

3. Garibaldi and Bester: At series’ end, one of the big question marks is what Garibaldi did to Bester. Now, I’m aware this was covered in a canon novel, but it’s not the same as seeing it presented visually, with the actors involved. So, I’d love to see what happens when Lyta lifts the mental block and Garibaldi gets the chance to seek revenge. Knowing JMS, he likely realizes that killing Bester wouldn’t get him anything, but it’d still be interesting to watch. There’s a lot more inherent drama here than in a random standalone story.

4. Lyta and the Telepath War: A lot of the post series material seems to indicate that Lyta is dead. But how did she die, what would be powerful enough to take out someone with her psychic capabilities, and what did happen during the telepath war? These are all questions that linger and have been convienently avoided in post series material. Lyta was just coming into her own at the end of the series and I’d love to see her at the height of her powers in a Dark Phoenix set against a war backdrop story. This would be a big one, but if they can do In the Beginning on a TV budget, this should be doable too.

5. The End of Crusade: Admittedly, this’d have a more limited audience, but I’d still like to see a movie that showed how the Drakh plague was resolved, and also gave some resolution to the characters from Crusade. Everyone wouldn’t have to return, but get Gideon, Dureena, Matheson, Galen and perhaps Sheridan in there to show what finally solved things. I’m sure JMS had the idea in mind, so it’d just be a matter of reassembling everyone.

6. Lennier and Delenn: One of the great ambiguities at the end of the series is what happened to Lennier. He died at some point between the end of the show proper and ‘Sleeping in Light,’ but there’s still a lot of untapped drama there. This would also give Delenn a chance to do a story that’s more than just a greatest hits tour. Did Lennier completely lose it after ‘Objects at Rest,’ or was he forever plagued by conscience, trying to atone for his great mistake?

7. Dureena and Galen: While I wasn’t a huge Crusade fan on the whole, I did really like Galen and Dureena. Both characters were different from what we’d seen in Babylon 5 and had potential for a lot of growth. In Crusade, it was hinted that Galen would take Dureena on as an apprentice, and I’d love to see a film that showed her training process, maybe spread over a period of years. Galen was one of the highlights of Voices in the Dark, and it’d be cool to have him back again. Both characters have a lot of moral ambiguity, and would challenge each other. Perhaps the film could be about them working to start a new order of technomages to replace those who had left.

8. Londo and Vir: A lot of references to Londo’s great sadness were made during Voices in the Dark, and I’d love to see more of what Londo was up to at the time. The character is the most interesting part of the B5 universe, and it would be a joy to watch him at a new point in his continued evolution. Plus, due to his imprisonment by the keeper, everything with him has inherent drama. I’d like to see a movie about Londo finally telling Vir what’s up with him, and setting in motion the events of ‘War Without End II.’ This could actually be a pretty small scale movie, and of all these, is the most likely to actually get made.

9. The Battle for Centauri Prime: The series’ best episode, ‘War Without End II’ gave us a glimpse of what would happen sixteen years in the future, as Sheridan and Delenn fought to save their son from a Centauri/Shadow threat. But, there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the moment, and considering it’s one of the most dramatic pieces of the series’ chronology, I’d love to see it given further development. The major issue with this is the fact that Andreas Katsulas is no longer with us, and thus, we can get no new G’Kar material. I’d have loved to see what led him to his guerilla warrior assault on Londo, but even without that, there’s plenty of drama. Fill in the pieces around ‘War Without End’ and you’d have one of the most exciting movies possible in the universe.

10. The Rebuilding of Earth: In ‘The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,’ we get glimpses of Earth at various points in its future. The most interesting is 1,000 years in the future, where a bunch of Rangers secretly stationed on Earth work to rebuild after a catastrophic nuclear war. This was a fascinating concept, and I’d love to see more of the world. The juxtaposition of the rangers with humans at roughly our level of development would be really interesting, and it would be another chance to reflect on the way the main characters have become mythologized. Yes, we’d be missing the main characters, but the concept could carry it. Hell, it’d certainly be more interesting than Lochley’s story in this movie.

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark

Over the past year, I watched and reviewed all the filmed material in the Babylon 5 universe. It was a pretty long journey that sadly ended on the down note of the awfully mediocre Legend of the Rangers movie. But, luckily that wasn’t the end of the universe, it returns to life in the form of a new direct to DVD movie.

Having watched the whole series over the past eight months, I have a different relationship to this film than most long time fans do. I’ve only been without these characters for a few months, I’m happy to see them again, but it’s not like I’ve been waiting years. Still, it’s been a couple of months, and it’s awesome to be back on the station. On the DVD, JMS says this is the first time since the series he’s done something that really felt like Babylon 5, and I’d agree with that. While this isn’t the world’s most exciting story, it puts you back in that place and leaves us with the hopes of more stories from this universe.

The film opens with one of the emotional high points of the series, the destruction of the station, accompanied by one of Christopher Franke’s most beautiful music cues. This was there to set the time, the last time we saw the station it was being destroyed, but there were moments before that. Going to such a heavy moment brings you right back into things, and the credits which jump through all the major characters in the series continues that reimmersion.

After a snappy opening sequence, we segue into what’s essentially a one act play with a marginal connection to the B5 universe. It made little sense to me that Lochley would be one of the characters chosen for the first episode of the Lost Tales series. This episode doesn’t delve too deeply into the character, probably because there’s not too much to delve into. So, this episode just uses her as an audience surrogate in a story that I’d assume JMS just wanted to tell, and decided to fit into this B5 project.

As a standalone tale, it’s marginally successful. The concepts are interesting and the visual style is more interesting than most of what we’ve seen on the series, but it’s limited by the fact that the vast majority of the film is three people in a room talking. About halfway through, I was checking my watch, annoyed that half of the new B5 project would just consist of his random standalone story. Like a lot of JMS’s weaker material, there’s some interesting philosophical concepts here, but it doesn’t particularly work as a film. For one, we’ve seen exorcisms so many times, the basic structure isn’t that interesting.

The bigger issue is the way he undermines the moral conundrum he’s come up with by presenting a heretofore unseen third path. The beauty of a show like 24 is that they’d put the characters in a situation that apparently had no outs, then force them to actually go through with one of the morally compromising alternatives. In both halves of this piece, the characters get themselves in a tough situation, but wind up finding an easy solution. This happened on a lot on the series and Crusade as well. To give the characters such an easy way out renders the philosophical inquiry essentially meaningless on an emotional level, and that leaves this as just an intellectual exercise.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot to like. The acting was generally solid and the constantly rotating camera was much more dynamic than the static composition of the series. Some shots reminded me of Irreversible, and there are few higher conflicts that you can pay a cinematographer.

The other thing I really liked was the reimagining of traditional religion for an era where mankind is in the stars. It fits in really well with the final moments of the series chronologically, where man leaves Earth behind to head out to the stars. With it, comes the destruction of the old demons who have held us back through the years. That millions years in the future sequence was one of my favorite moments in the entire series, and the thematic culmination of the entire shadow war plot, so it’s nice to return. However, it wasn’t quite enough to make this piece work.

However, much like Chungking Express, which used a similar split narrative, by the time you reach the end, the first half is a distant memory, what lingers is the more accessible, more successful second half. In this case, it feels kind of like the first time I watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. You have to sit through a half hour prelude to get to what you’re really watching the movie for, and much like the first appearance of that Twin Peaks sign, seeing Sheridan again is a relief. His half of the film isn’t up there with the best of the series, but it totally satisfies what I wanted from this project, putting you back in the universe and through this small story, we receive a glimpse into the state of the world as a whole.

Like the Lochley piece, the Sheridan story feels more like a play than a film. There are so few characters, we get no sense of B5 as a bustling port, like we did in the series. It seems a bit absurd that both Sheridan and Prince Vintari would have no security force whatsoever. But, you just have to accept that and move on. I don’t really mind the starkness of the set, it gave things an ominous feel. You’re focused more on the characters and less on clutter in the background.

The high point of this segment was definitely the scenes with Sheridan and Galen. Galen, despite having appeared in only seven episodes or so, is one of the most charismatic characters in the B5 universe. Much like Londo, his moral ambiguity makes him more interesting to watch than someone like Franklin or Ivanova, who almost always did the right thing. He has some real anger here, and presents a pretty ominous vision of the future. I thought the stuff with the future New York was fantastic, though I do think there’d be more contemporary buildings around, even 200 years in the future. But, maybe there were some in there and I missed them.

The film raises an interesting moral question, though again gets around by giving Sheridan an easy way out. Yes, we still have the possibility of Vintari bombing New York, but the implication at the end is that Sheridan and Delenn will teach him another way to be. It was pretty tense in the ships, but I didn’t feel like Sheridan would really kill him, and if he was going to kill him, doing it in such an obvious way doesn’t make much sense. That would lead me to believe that it was Galen’s goal all along to get Sheridan to take him in, but he moves in mysterious ways, and had to make Sheridan come to the conclusion on his own. So, much like the Vorlons, his logic works in a way that will create the best plot. Convenient, that. While I love a lot of what JMS does, he just makes it too easy on his characters a lot of the time.

But, those issues aside, this section worked wonderfully as an inserted piece of continuity. I loved realizing that Vintari was Cartagia’s son, particularly the fact they didn’t outright say it. Every viewer would take a minute to realize and then things would click into place. And, along with that, there were a lot of great nods to the other characters who didn’t appear, particularly the Franklin and G’Kar lines. I’m glad Londo was mentioned a lot, the implication seemed to be that he’d be part of the next Lost Tale, he’s the character I’d really love to see. He and G’Kar are the only characters who were spared from the easy outs JMS gave to everyone else. Everyone else got a happy ending, Londo just got fucked.

Watching this segment made me ponder what the whole series would have been like if it was made with today’s standard of visual effects. These effects looked fantastic, seeing the Centauri attack on Narn or some of the Shadow War battles with these effects would have been amazing. Even with the lacking 90s effects, those scenes were incredibly emotional, but they don’t come close to matching what we see here. Throughout, this is a more visually inventive and aesthetically satisfying take on B5. It’s moodier and more interesting to look at. People hailed this film for feeling like B5, and while that’s true, it has a completely different, much better visual style. Still, I wish we had gotten more visual indulgence and less scenes of people just talking.

But, ultimately the film satisfied its mission. It was great to catch up with these characters, and I think this format works much better than a series to continue the universe. The main story is through, but in the echoes we can find out more about the characters and how they lived. It’s the same principle as the Six Feet Under closing sequence, we don’t need to see everyday of these peoples’ lives, but it’s nice to check in every once in a while and find out what happened to them. The ending of this piece and the ancillary material certainly implies that we’ll be seeing more Lost Tales, and I’m looking forward to them.

Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight

Back in November, I watched the Babylon 5 pilot. Now, seven months later, I have finally watched the most recent Babylon 5 production, the uninspiring TV movie Legend of the Rangers. Worse than Crusade, worse than the other TV movies, this one does some things well that the show didn’t, but is missing practically everything that was good about the show. It’s a better production, more watchable than The Gathering, but it lacks any real artistic motivation. I see no particular reason for this movie to exist.

I’ll start with what’s good about the production. The effects and visual style are much stronger than what was in the series. The effects were rarely a huge concern for me, once you get into the show’s universe, you just accept that this is what the world looks like and there’s nothing we can do about it. Here, the effects look pretty good, though they still don’t have the realism of a Battlestar Galactica.

A bigger improvement is the visual style. The ship doesn’t look as much like a set and the camera has more energy. The aliens generally look more believable, not just a bunch of masks that were sitting around, and the alien guy with the weird hair was quite cool looking. The director was Mike Vejar, who did a bunch of B5 episodes, and he raised his game here. It’s a moody, atmospheric film. I would have loved to see this level of visual urgency on Babylon 5. The series generally looked almost like a theater prouction, with actors standing on what were clearly sets, this makes it more like real life.

On top of that, this episode is a much more traditionally engaging pilot than The Gathering. That episode was practically unwatchable due to the absurdly bad acting of much of the main cast. Those characters felt like they were written by someone who’d never actually seen humans behave. The characters on this show still don’t feel real, but rather than seeming completely inexplicable, they seem like they were written by someone who’s seen a lot of TV shows. They feel like characters, and at least that’s an improvement over feeling like actors standing on a stage, reading off cue cards. But, they are still far from feeling like real people.

And then gets to the central problem with the work. As the pilot for a TV series, you don’t expect to get to know everyone in depth, but these characters are so undeveloped we have to have a scene where they literally say their name and a vague line about their purpose. But, when you’ve got ten of these in a row, you don’t really remember them. I couldn’t tell you much about the characters from this show and I watched it yesterday. They weren’t memorable at all, and none of the actors brought the intensity that Peter Jurasik or Andreas Katsulas did to The Gathering.

The captain is perhaps the most generic captain character I’ve seen. He dislikes authority, always does his own thing, and oversees a ragtag crew on an old ship that no one else likes, but he has affection for. Am I talking about Han Solo, Mal from Serenity, Jet from Cowboy Bebop or David Martell from this show. He’s the same archetype as Sheridan as well, and like almost all JMS human characters, his only real flaw is that he cares too much about his people and is willing to go off the book. I’d like to see JMS write a really troubled human character, like Londo or G’Kar, because it’s only when we know that someone has the capacity to do bad that we care when they do good. That was the problem with the original series, with Crusade and now with this, the characters have nowhere to go arc wise. If they are already what they want to be, the only problems come from outside, and that’s not as compelling as internal conflict.

The rest of the characters don’t really jump out at you. Now, that’s always going to be an issue with pilot, but this one is 90 minutes, and really, you should care about someone. If the show ended with the ship exploding and everyone dying, I’d probably just be like, oh well, what can you do? JMS’s greatest strength is the way he develops massive plots that affect an entire universe. Watching an episode like “The Fall of Centauri Prime,” it’s profoundly sad because you can feel the weight of an entire universe dooming Londo to his imprisonment with the Drakh. Maybe in three years, someone here would reach that point, but generally speaking, people aren’t going to wait that long for payoffs. It astonishes me that Babylon 5 stayed on the air to even reach that point. I know I wouldn’t have made it through the first episode, let alone the first season if I didn’t have people assuring me it would get great.

In today’s TV world, I don’t think you have the luxury of time that 90s creators did. Shows like Seinfeld and The X-Files took a couple of seasons to find their voice, but when shows like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under are brilliant right out of the gate, it’s a lot harder to get the benefit of the doubt from the audience. And this show does nothing to earn that benefit of the doubt.

It surprises me that JMS would again run away from the greatest strength B5 could bring to a spinoff, its characters. It was great to see G’Kar again, even if he got nothing to do but make some lame jokes and deliver some exposition. The character has so much residual affection that the show picked up any time he was on screen, even though he has virtually nothing to do with the show. Would he even have been a regular? I don’t know, presumably not, but it would have been much worse without him.

But, if you’re doing a show with rangers, why not have Lennier on the ship? We never found out what happened to him and this would be a chance to explore that. If you’re going after new viewers, you could present him as just a troubled older ranger. Just putting a character in the show is about as much development as any of these others got. That’s such an obvious inclusion, and would have really helped get fans hooked on the show, I don’t see why JMS didn’t do it. While I was intrigued by the brief mention of Lyta, who’s gone now, this was so peripheral, the use of Babylon 5 seemed like a cashin.

This show barely even seemed to take place in the B5 universe. Minbari looked very different from what we’d seen, and this just didn’t jive with what we’d seen in Crusade. It makes no sense to undermine the central conflict of the show, the Shadow War, by presenting this new foe who claim to be so much tougher than the Shadows. Either those guys are lying, or JMS has completely screwed up continuity by inventing a major foe who never are mentioned in any of the other post series stories. It makes no sense.

So, let’s say they’re trying to reinvent the universe, cater to a new audience. Then why do they end the show with a trip to Babylon 5, without explaining the significance of the station. This is clearly meant to be a big dramatic moment, but if you were watching the show for the first time, it wouldn’t work at all. That implies that the show is targeted at previous viewers. But, in that case, why not really cater to them and give us more classic characters and not screw with the Shadow mythology.

While I liked the shooting style, I think the ship was quite poorly designed. It feels like a submarine, and the constant darkness makes the show feel claustrophobic. I’d have liked to see at least a couple of windows. The Excalibur was a much better looking vessel. I actually liked the first time they did the virtual reality weapons thing, the second montage was just overwhelmingly goofy, with her over the top expressions revealing the underlying goofiness of what was going on.

Ultimately, it was a watchable film. Everything was put together competently and the story flowed in a logical way. It felt very much like a pilot made to satisfy a network, full of action and attitude having younger characters. JMS seems to have abandoned everything that worked about B5, in favor of basically making the show TNT wanted from Crusade. There’s no intellectual subtext to anything here, it’s just straight up action and I see no future here. It’s better than a lot of first season episodes in terms of enjoyment, but it’s also completely superfluous and lacking in any kind of substance.

And from the point of view of developing the universe, it gives nothing really notable to the fans. I think the Lost Tales project is a much smarter way to do things. I don’t really need another series, but I’d love another hour with Londo, Lyta and others. So, it’s probably for the best this didn’t go to the series, and instead the universe got the chance for a new reboot.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that this is the final appearance for G’Kar. I feel like the greatest piece of the story that’s not yet told is how G’Kar got to the point where he killed Londo and the keeper. I imagine him and Vir as part of a small rebel organization fighting to liberate Centauri Prime once he finds out what happened with Londo. Their relationship was what made the series great, and it would have been incredible to see G’Kar finally realize why his friend has changed and go back to the planet to save him in the only way he could. I wish JMS had covered that in one of the TV movies or instead of one of the countless goodbye episodes at the end of the show. And now that Andreas is gone, we’ll never see it.

I’d be curious to see some interviews with JMS about the goals behind this project, and where it would have gone in the future of the possible series. All I can find is one anecdote where he talks about how a Colts/Patriots playoff game caused the show’s ratings to fall below expectations. But, this feels like such an odd, troubled project, I can’t imagine what was going on with him that led to its creation.

Well, it’s been a long journey, and it’s not over yet. I’m now caught up and ready for the Lost Tales film. I have to say, Sheridan is probably the character I’m least interested in following up on, we know everything about him. But, hopefully this will succeed and lead not only to a wide ranging series of B5 films, but also similar projects for other series, like, perhaps, just maybe, Buffy. B5 changed sci-fi TV with its introduction of long form arc based storytelling. Maybe it will change things again by opening direct to DVD as a legitimate vehicle for continuing cult series.

Crusade: 'The Path of Sorrows' and 'Appearances and Other Deceits' (1x12-1x13)

The series comes to an end with its best episode and a decent one. 'The Path of Sorrows' is the first episode that really hints at a larger world of possibility within the show, an overarching narrative that extends beyond standalone episodes. The show always had elements of that, since it drew on the mythology built up over five years of Babylon 5. That's the show's greatest asset in a lot of respects, we know the details of the Shadows and the Psi Corps, and we can understand references that would just be cryptic babble on other sci-fi shows.

A work like Babylon 5 almost demands a plethora of spinoffs and ancillary material since the universe is so richly detailed. Right from the first episode, JMS seemed to know everything that was going on with the characters and their universe, and over the course of the five years, we learned a wealth of material. I know more about the history of the Centauri Republic than I do about a lot of real nations.

But, the fully developed nature of the universe can present difficulty when making a spinoff. How much can he rely on what already exists, and how much should be new, so that new viewers can pick up the show? Ultimately, I think he finds a workable balance, new viewers could easily watch this and not miss anything. Yet, as someone who's watched B5, I did find myself wishing for more ties to the mother show.

But, before getting into musings on the series as a whole, let me go through these last two episodes. 'Sorrows' wasn't quite at the level of 'Signs and Portents' in terms of redefining what the series could do, but it did give us some much appreciated character background and set up what would likely have been a major theme of the series, the search for forgiveness. All the characters here have some bad deeds in their background, something they need to atone for, and the creature they find tries to help them come to terms with those past trangressions. The episode reminded me a bit of the Firefly episode where we flashback to where all the characters were before they came to the ship. That was a great episode, the brief snippets told us all we needed to know in a more efficient way than Lost's neverending flashback parade.

I liked the way they used the text captions to communicate the creature's pure feeling in a way that couldn't be represented by speech. It reinforces the idea that this thing is just giving the people what they want, like the cave in Empire Strikes Back, you only see what you bring with you. My favorite flashback was Mathison's, which gave us a glimpse of the telepath war. That's a piece of history we skipped over and it was great to fill it in. I would have loved to see a Lyta Alexander cameo, or at least mention, but what we got was great. Galen and Gideon's flashback were a bit more expected, but still well done. In general, I love devices like this, that force the characters to assess themselves in some way. Buffy's 'gimmick' episodes were all on some level about forcing the characters to examine themselves, be it in dreams, music or conversations with dead people. Taking the characters to a more subjective mental place is a great way to get to know them better, to understand the facade they present to the world.

'Appearances' was a less successful episode, one that, while entertaining, contains a lot of JMS's consistent writing problems. For one, the episode didn't have much tension. No one we actually knew was infected, and it was fairly obvious they'd find a way to resolve things in an easy way. That's because JMS almost always gives his characters, at least the heroes, an easy way out. People like Sheridan and Gideon always find some trick or tactic that will let them save the day without hurting anyone. Only occasionally will he force characters to make hard choices, and those are the most memorable moments of the series, the Londo arc or even the standalone in B5's first season where the kid dies. That was a bold call, this is the obvious ending. Because it's so easy, we don't get any satisfaction from the victory. It just goes by as expected. It would have been a more powerful ending to have to kill all the infected people to save the ship.

Another thing that bothered me about this episode was the use of the guy who played Neroon on B5. He looked similar and talked the same way, how can we buy him as a different character? This problem cropped up on B5 too, when they used Wayne Alexander in countless roles. That's fine if he's random alien every week, but once he played Lorien, he became too recognizable to be believable in a different role. I can understand wanting to be loyal to your actors, but it was distracting.

The biggest problem with this episode, and countless others, is that it's tough to make the audience get invested in a standalone hour of TV. The thing I love about the medium is the possibility to tell massive stories, developing characters' lives over years and years. That's what JMS did in the later years of Babylon 5, and even though you do need to set the groundwork, it's possible to have arcs right from the first year. The Sopranos managed to keep running plots going over the first season, and even if there were more standalone stories, they didn't feel as disconnected as these do. JMS should have learned from the first year of B5, that standalones just don't work as well. Even if you're doing a five year arc, put a mini arc in the front of the series to hook people.

Ultimately, the series, while entertaining, is futile viewing. It doesn't lead anywhere, and the characters don't go through much growth. While it's more rewarding on an episode by episode basis than early B5, that doesn't make it particularly worthwhile. I thought Dureena was a great character, and Galen had a lot of potential, but that's pretty much all the show was, potential. It works best as a dessert after B5, giving you a final jaunt through the universe before moving on.

That said, the Lost Tales film could change that. Some of the elements here will likely return there, and maybe that film will tie this series closer to the mythology. I'm eager to see Galen back, and I'd love to see Dureena or Gideon appear in a future film. Though, there's a bunch of B5 characters I'd prefer to see first.

B5 succeeded because of its scope, watching all the pieces of this elaborately constructed narrative fall into place. It was never a show that was about the moment, it was all about the big picture. Yet, with Crusade, all we have is moments, and that's not enough to satisfy.

Next up, I'll finally reach the end of the Babylon 5 universe, with Legend of the Rangers, leaving me all caught up for the imminent arrival of new material. Look for that review soon.

Crusade: 1x09-1x11

Crusade continues in much the manner as it was going, with a mix of strong and okay episodes. However, I’m starting to lose patience with it, a few arcs keep me interested, but the fact that it isn’t going anywhere does affect the viewing experience. I’d imagine it was different for first time viewers, who had gone a year without Babylon 5, an episode like ‘The Rules of the Game’ must have been positively ecstatic, at last returning to the station where it all started. However, now, I was there a couple of months ago, and while it’s nice to be back, the nostalgia factor isn’t quite enough to make all the episodes work.

‘Each Night I Dreamt of Home’ does have an ace up its sleeve in terms of nostalgia factor, the return of Doctor Stephen Franklin, whose dramatic entrance is spoiled a bit by seeing his name in the credits. Still, it’s nice to have him back even if he is stuck behind glass the entire episode. His presence brings to the fore one of the issues with the series, we know that the Drakh plague won’t actually destroy Earth, we’ve already seen Stephen twenty years in the future in ‘Sleeping in Light.’ This doesn’t kill the tension, but it’s an out for the audience, we know the happy ending is coming, it’s just a matter of getting there.

The episode itself is pretty good, particularly the climax which cuts between a space battle and Franklin’s attempt to save the other guy. That said, the Drakh still look goofy here, not matching the darkness of their appearance in the latter days of Babylon 5. That guy who stuck the keeper in Londo was a scary dude, these ones, not so much.

I want to take a second to address the uniform issue. With this viewing order, they switch frequently, and it’s baffling to me that people seem to prefer the grey and red ones to the blank uniforms. The grey and red ones don’t look good, and even if the black ones were TNT imposed, they were a good choice. Maybe I’m confused with the different episode orders and people actually like the black ones, I know I do.

Anyway, ‘Patterns of the Soul’ is up next, an episode that reunites Dureena with some more of her people and gives us a guest appearance from Brian Thompson, a.k.a The X-Files’ Alien Bounty Hunter. This episode doesn’t work so well. They try to do good work with the planets, but ultimately they wind up feeling stagy, Battlestar Galactica’s tact of going out into the woods creates more convincing alien worlds. But, I don’t think there’s one shot in the entire Babylon 5 universe that was actually taken outside the studio.

I don’t really have too much to say about this one, these episodes all sort of blend together, even moreso than early B5 did. That’s largely because the plots are very similar, go to an alien planet that might have a cure for the plague, find out they don’t, move on. That’s the problem with the series, and even if they would cure the plague in season two, we’ve still got a bunch of similar ones here.

The final episode features that aforementioned return to Babylon 5. This was a fun episode, largely because we actually get some strong character moments, for both Lochley and Gideon and for Max. Lochley and Gideon are a lot of fun together, both totally committed to the job, but secretly wanting each other. Their relationship is a lot more believable than much of what we saw on B5, and it helps to humanize both characters. I’m assuming this would have been a major thread in the series, considering Tracy Scoggins place in the opening credits.

It’s good to be back on B5, even if this does end up feeling a lost Babylon 5 episode. That’s not a bad thing though, obviously it wouldn’t work long term, but checking in for an episode is great. I’d have liked to seen Dureena off ship, but the limited cast does allow for a closer focus on the characters who are in each episode.

So, with two episodes to go, I’m not expecting any sort of resolution. The show has a lot of potential, but being cut down so early meant that none of these episodes are leading anywhere. JMS is a writer who’s all about buildup, it’s possible stuff we saw here would pay off in great, unexpected ways. Certainly I wouldn’t have expected all the elements of B5 season to come back like they did, but we’ll never know. It’s not the fault of the people making the show, but it comes off as a kind of pointless viewing experience. But, as a way to ease out of B5, it’s nice. And, perhaps the Lost Tales stuff will bring back some lost Crusade plots. The issue isn’t so much a lack of resolution, it’s that we didn’t even get to the point where there’s plot points to be resolved.

Crusade: 1x06-1x08

Crusade rocks on with three episodes that are of pretty much the same quality as the previous ones. The show is much stronger than Babylon 5’s first season, but it remains hobbled by the fact that almost every episode has the same structure, and it’s tough to really care about the standalone situations introduced in each episode. But, on a moment by moment basis, it’s thoroughly enjoyable, and I’m going to be sad to reach the end of the show without receiving any kind of meaningful closure.

‘The Long Road,’ like all too many episodes, begins with a mysterious direction from Galen, which prompts him and Gideon to go investigate a mysterious small town. The setup here reminded me a lot of The Wicker Man, with its secretive town, and innkeeper’s daughter. Unfortunately, the story did not lead to Gideon being seduced by the daughter in the night while she bangs on his wall, nor did it lead to him dressing up in a bear suit and beating up some women. But, we have a guest appearance from Edward Woodward, star of the original Wicker Man movie. He looks a lot older.

Like a lot of Crusade episodes, this was a good story that didn’t quite have enough material to fill the whole 45 minutes. Like a lot of early Babylon 5, the story drags on a bit, either with an extended coda that spends too much time wrapping things up, or just a series of extraneous developments that don’t add to what we’ve already seen. It’s a lot harder to write a consistent run of satisfying standalones than a big arc, and a lot tougher for the viewer to engage with. We have no particular reason to care about this town, and in the end, it’s mainly interesting for what it reveals about our characters. Considering the technomages supposedly left the galaxy, we sure do run into a lot of them around. They seem to be the all purpose way to show that a story is meaningful.

Next up was ‘Ruling from the Tomb,’ which brought back Captain Lochley, finally justifying her place in the credits. While Lochley was never a critical character on Babylon 5, she seems to be a JMS favorite, cropping up in most of the TV movies, and also in the upcoming Lost Tales. While I think it’s a big mistake to put her in Lost Tales, as one of only two Babylon 5 characters returning, she’s a good fit here. Having a Sheridan or Delenn on would be overwhelming, in the same way that it was to have Buffy on the first season of Angel. She was sucha strong presence that I wanted to see their old dynamic played out, ‘I Will Remember You’ was more like an episode of Buffy than an episode of Angel.

Lochley’s interaction with Gideon is fun, particularly their discussion of Sheridan. He has become such a legend in the galaxy, ordinary people can’t understand him as a human being in the same way we do. That’s something they played with in the later years of Babylon 5, and it works even better here, when he’s not actually there to counteract that perception. Lochley knew him back before he was an icon, and is able to puncture the myth.

This episode features one of the typical standalone issues that plagued numerous Babylon 5 first season episodes, namely a mysterious character from someone’s past returns, bringing danger. In this case, it’s a character from Trace’s past, yet, Trace has only been in one episode, so we don’t really care that he had a religious affiliation in the past. I’m not sure if it’s a result of the screwy viewing order, but it’s odd that Trace just all of a sudden returns here, after not being seen since ‘War Zone.’

The religious guy falls prey to another classic JMS standalone problem, the generally wrong, but morally ambiguous character who forces the characters to assess some kind of universal debate, in this case the validity of religion. Gideon’s way of defeating him, by revealing that the plague will kill everyone within a year, would likely have some really bad consequences, like causing a panic on Earth. They never talked about that, how they would take back what he said. Wouldn’t you be suspicious that the government was trying to cover up the truth about the plague by claiming Gideon was just lying?

The stuff with Dureena and Max in the bar was fun, and gave some nice character shading to those two. They have a fun dynamic, Dureena has the most energy of all the characters on the show, and has the potential for a Londo like journey through moral ambiguity. However, I guess we’ll never see that.

And finally, we’ve got ‘The Well of Forever,’ another Galen gives a mysterious direction episode. This one also suffers from having about thirty-five minutes of content, and seemingly retreading some previous Galen stuff. The intent was clearly to make Galen more human by revealing this loss in his past, but it doesn’t quite work. It’s such an obvious way to build sympathy, it feels transparent. It’s also a bit of a copout at the ending, with a “Don’t do that again,” but no real consequences admonition by Gideon.

One of the interesting things here was more insight about how the Psi Corps has been restructured. That was cool to see, but again, we’ve got a trickery on the part of the Captain that lets everyone get what they want easily. I was talking about The Sopranos the other day, and realized that David Chase really hates his characters, but is fascinated by them. I think one of JMS’s problems is that he’s too in love with all his characters, and won’t let them do really ambiguous things. Everyone has to have pure motives.

The only characters he wrote who weren’t like that were Londo and G’Kar, and it’s no coincidence that they’re by far the best characters on either series. Morally ambiguous characters work because they make you want them to be better. If characters are always good, as in the case of Sheridan, you want to see them do bad things, and that works agans the moral universe of the series. It can be fun, as in Buffy season six, where I loved Buffy’s flirtation with darkness, but the closest we got to that here was Garibaldi’s season four arc, which was wiped out by the reveals at the end of the season.

With Londo, I always wanted him to do the right thing, and it was awful when he aided Morden in season two. The brilliance of his arc was to have him do the right thing for a brief moment, and then have everything go to shit by the end of the fifth season. JMS never put his human characters through that same kind of trauma, and the way this episode goes, it’s clear that the character he writes as good are given too wide boundaries, frequently getting too easy resolutions to their issues.

I’ll add that the visuals in this episode, and the series as a whole, have been fantastic. The effects made a big jump from Babylon 5, and make me eager to see what they bring out in The Lost Tales.

So, these episodes were strong, but no quite to great. The show has a lot of potential, and I would love to be proven wrong about these characters and their potential for moral ambiguity and complexity. Dureena is one of the more interesting people JMS has created, and Galen has a lot of potential if he moved beyond cryptic phrase sprouting guy and got real development. I’m eager to see more, it’s a shame there’s only five episode left.

Crusade: 1x03-1x05

The Needs of Earth, Memory of War, Visitors From Down the Street

These three episodes, with one exception, continue a strong opening run for the series, a much stronger opening than Babylon 5, which also hints at the potential depth of these characters. But, the last of these just fails on nearly every level, hitting depths not seen since Babylon 5’s first season.

‘The Needs of Earth’ touches on a lot of classic JMS themes, and has some good stuff, but drags into preachiness during the episode’s second half. However, the opening, in which Dureena and Gideon go to rescue the guy on the planet is very strong. Dureena is my favorite character on the show, I like her rage, and the way that rage can lead her to reckless action. Last time, I said she reminded me of Faith, and that comes across even stronger here. She’s always prone to dangerous action, putting herself at risk to help others. But, it’s unclear whether this is a purely selfless act, or if she actually wants to put herself in danger as punishment for not being there when her world was destroyed.

I think one of the major issues with her character going forward is that eventually her dangerous behavior should catch up with her. So far, she is able to go through this really dangerous situations with few negative consequences, and I’d like to see her struggle either physical or moral dilemmas. Getting hurt during one of her stunts would be an obvious way to show the consequences of what she’s doing, but a more interesting tact would be to put her in real moral conflict with Gideon and the others on the ship. They indulge her mysterious ways because things always work out in the end, but what about when they don’t? That’s the problem we frequently see with these super capable characters, like your Jack Bauer or Sidney Bristow, what happens when they buck the system and fail?

But, considering we’re five episodes into the series, it’s probably a bit early for that. However, going forward, I’m not sure if JMS would have pushed her to a more ambiguous place. Watching Babylon 5, the first season had a very traditional Manichaean conception of good and evil. Then, in season two, Londo and G’Kar both went to really dark places, shockingly so. However, he never put the human characters through that same kind of journey. His biggest mistake with the series was pushing the reset button on Garibaldi after he went through his traitor arc in season four. Season five would have been much more interesting if Garibaldi had to make up for his transgressions.

Anyway, once this guy gets back to the ship, we go into a reverie about the power of art, and the importance of preserving culture. To some extent, this story gets a bit sappy, particularly with the doctor’s comments on the music. But, the basic idea is great, and I do enjoy JMS’s journeys into philosophical musing. I just wish he was a bit more subtle about it.

As a side note, even though I generally enjoy the music on the show, it was notable that the music in the alien porn video didn’t sound very different from what we usually get. There is a certain porn quality to this score, but I still think it was a smart decision to switch composers. It helps give this series its own unique identity. While it has elements of Babylon 5, Crusade has quickly established its own universe.

Next up is ‘The Memory of War,’ which features yet another mysterious lost civilization. I’m glad that the Drakh plague was only going to take two seasons to cure because I’d imagine going to random planets that are deserted, but full of thematically relevant mystery would get old after a while. What is interesting here is Galen, who for the first time feels like a real character rather than a cryptic plot device. He has the most potential of any character on the show, and it’s good to get more time with him.

The production values on the show are a big jump from Babylon 5. While the effects aren’t always completely convincing, for a TV show in 1999, they’re great, and allow JMS to tell bigger stories than he could back on Babylon 5. The climax with the giant machine was a particularly strong sequence, though I’m a bit unclear on the motives of the zombiefied people, particularly Dureena during that scene. Plus, it bothered me to spend so much time with those obvious redshirts during the mission. I was just waiting for them to die.

Despite those issues, this is the strongest episode of the series to date. Dureena’s walk on the invisible bridge was cool, and there was some strong character development. So, it’s a shame that the next episode was so ridiculously bad. I’m a big X-Files fan, and I believe JMS is too, so this should have been a great episode. However, The X-Files parodied itself so much, and so well, it’s tough to say something original. This episode plays like someone who only has surface knowledge of the series, giving us the most obvious jokes, and not working as a story outside the parody.

A large part of my issue with the episode is the casting of the aliens. Why is the Mulder British? It makes it feel like a vague caricature of Mulder, rather than a sharper parody, and the Scully is a non-entity. The Smoking Man is just generically evil, not the quiet menace of the actual character. These characters hit only the general qualities of The X-Files characters, and that means it’s not as funny to see them do stuff. I would love to see a near exact analogue of Mulder crop up on this ship, but this guy only captured a small piece of the character. Plus, those dreadlock tentacles just looked so stupid, it took away credibility for me.

Now, you may say, just chill out, it’s a funny episode. I did like some of the role reversal alien stuff, but it was too close to The X-Files for me to take seriously as an episode on its own, but not focused enough to work as parody. So, it falls into the nebulous realm of bad parody, which is just reproducing the original in a different context and expecting it to be funny. It’s the same kind of thing as Date Movie or Epic Movie, which mix random pop culture characters together and assume that just the presence of a Willy Wonka analogue is hilarious.

But, other than this episode, the show is going well. I’m still wondering where Lochley is, she’s in the credits, but hasn’t appeared in any episodes yet. And, I’m not looking forward to the inevitable disappointment that the unresolved end of the show will hold. But, at least we’ve got The Lost Tales up, which will give us more Galen and perhaps some resolution to the lingering questions of the series.

Crusade: 'War Zone' and 'Racing the Night'

Just a quick note, I’m watching the show with this order, there’s so many floating around, and I can’t really judge for myself which is the best until I’ve seen the show. But, it was recommended, and I’ll roll with it. Onto the series…

The spinoff is always tricky territory. How can you simultaneously please fans of the original series, and create something original that can attract new viewers? This conflict seems to be at the core of JMS’s issues with TNT during the production of the series, and it’s also a tension inherent in the series itself. After a five year journey through Babylon 5, do we have the energy left to invest in another five year saga? Does JMS? We’ll never know for sure, since the show was cut down before its time, but I’ve still got a ways to go, and so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how Crusade’s been going.

That said, I don’t know that Crusade would have ever grown into a show as strong as Babylon 5. I think there’s a basic flaw in the premise, which is pretty much the same as Star Trek and most other sci-fi shows. While the Drakh plague provides a structural element, a goal, it doesn’t change the fact that the series’ premise will inevitably lead to a threat of the week, which will presumably be dealt with in the episode, and then left behind. While there can be interpersonal growth, I don’t think we could ever have the sustained build of the Narn/Centauri War or the Shadow War. Babylon 5 provided a center for action, and even when things spread across the galaxy in the later seasons, the characters weren’t on the move, they were in developed places where story could be built.

Now, it’s obviously difficult to assess a series from two episodes, after two episodes I wasn’t a fan of Babylon 5, but I could see the potential for something great. Here, I think the series is pretty good, but I don’t know that it could ever be much more than that. The strength of Babylon 5 was never the standalone plots. It was the way narrative arcs crescendoed over seasons, leading to these massive battles like ‘The Long Twilight Struggle’ or ‘The Fall of Centauri Prime.’ That’s what made the series special for me.

The other thing that made it special was two characters: Londo and G’Kar. Right from the first episode, they outshone the makeup and created fully believable, charismatic, morally ambiguous characters. As I mentioned many times in my reviews, the human characters very rarely captured my interest, primarily because they lacked any real sort of moral ambiguity. It’s early to say, but so far, nobody’s jumping out with G’Kar/Londo potential.

Galen would be the obvious point of interest, and was set up well in A Call to Arms, but so far, he’s been there just to be ambiguous and intercede at a crucial point in the story. He reminds me a lot of early Kosh, but having him do stuff like save Gideon in ‘Racing the Night’ makes it difficult to justify his lack of involvement at other times. I’d rather see him fully involved, but with some limits on his power. He is the most charismatic character here, and I want to know more about him, but I worry that he’s going to be used as a crutch for the writers.

Captain Gideon has a bit more attitude than Sheridan or Sinclair, and Gary Cole is certainly a stronger central presence for the series than Michael O’Hare was. I think JMS learned a lot about writing believable characters during his time on Babylon 5, and this show feels much more real, and much fresher than the early days of Babylon 5. That makes sense, it was six years later, but it’s also a result of his growth.

The other character I’m most interested in so far is Dureena. She’s the most morally ambiguous figure, and is a type we haven’t seen before in the B5 universe. I’d like to see her relationship with Galen further developed, in ‘Racing the Night,’ we find out that she wants technomage training, and I’m guessing that she would have become Galen’s apprentice if the series had went on. I’m getting a very Jedi vibe from Galen, and I think it would have been cool to explore his techniques in a more in depth way. As it is here, she’s mainly in an action role, which works fine. She’s definitely a post Buffy heroine, particularly reminding me of Faith.

One of my major issues with the first two episodes, if any episodes can actually be called first in this screwy ordered series, is that they both feature a variation of JMS’s obsession with archaeological digs, and ancient cultural objects found via excavation. This showed up occasionally in Babylon 5, showed up a lot in the TV movies, and now returns again. It seems like the premise of the series will allow JMS to rely a bit too much on the random ancient civilization plots to provide material for episodes.

The production value throughout was a lot higher than most Babylon 5 episodes. Effects have come a long way, and ‘Racing the Night’ in particular had a lot of impressive sequences. However, I think there’s more stuff designed just to show off the effects, like Gideon’s ride through the city. The best effects moments in B5 were the ones that actually forward the narrative, here JMS is using them more for spectacle, and the effects aren’t good enough to justify that.

The weakest effects are the Drakh in ‘War Zone,’ looking like really lame costumes, and the PPG blasts aren’t much better. Having the major foe be so goofy looking takes you out of the world of the story. But, in general, it’s a big improvement from even the best work on Babylon 5.

The credits of the show were an interesting change of pace from B5. The goal seems to be to provide a lot of quick exposition about the show’s premise, and it does that effectively. I like the tie in to the Vorlons/Shadows, with the questions “Who are you” and “what do you want.” I was surprised to see Captain Lochley in the credits, she hasn’t turned up yet, but presumably she’ll be in a bunch of episodes down the line.

I approached the show as something totally different from B5, so I take references to the universe as a bonus, not an expectation. It was really cool to see the Brakhiri and Drazi back at the beginning of ‘Racing the Night.’ I think B5 ended at the right time, so it’s not like Buffy, where I was desperate to see some more of the characters. Other than Londo, I have no particular need to see the people from Babylon 5. It’d be a nice bonus, but it’s not a necessity. The only character who would really fit on the show is Marcus, but alas, he was cut down before his time.

Reading about ‘War Zone,’ it’s clear that JMS was not happy to have to make this episode. On the one hand, I totally sympathize with his anger at network meddling. He’d proved that he could make a popular show, and if left to his own devices, Crusade would have probably kept a lot of the B5 audience. However, I also think he’s a bit of a petty guy, going back to B5. I don’t know the full story about Keffer back in season two, but it seems like he refused to develop this character and then killed him off just to spite the network. Watching season one, I was thinking that he could have used a Han Solo style character, with some attitude, and maybe he should have used the studio suggestion to his advantage, not done something that was somewhat baffling for a viewer, have this guy around for a while, not develop him, then kill him. You can see similar behavior when he puts in the title at the end of ‘Deconstruction of Falling Stars,’ giving a petty chastising to all the critics who said the show wouldn’t survive.

Now, I don’t know the full extent of the TNT involvement, maybe it was really awful, but I can’t help but think that he could have run with their requests, not just bitched about them. If they wanted him to make an episode introducing the characters, then use it as a chance to give some more in depth characterization. Certainly, these people still had a ways to go in ‘Racing the Night.’ I’d imagine his resistance had at least some part in the show being cancelled. Of course, it’d probably be better to go down with the show he wanted to do then compromise his vision. But still, I think there’s some midground between total rejection and online bitching at TNT, and just accepting their suggestions outright.

All this and I feel like I’ve barely touched on the episodes themselves. I was entertained, but not wowed. I feel like B5, even at its worst, had a sense of purpose and build. Here, it’s good in the moment, but I don’t know that it will all click into something bigger. B5 had a closed universe, a few groups who we got to know in depth. Here, it’s such a big world, I feel like we can never get that mastery. And that’s the ultimate flaw I see with the series as it moves forward. Of course, it never actually did move forward, so it didn’t become a problem. If nothing else, it’s a huge jump in production values and acting from the vast majority of B5.

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms

A Call to Arms brings this boxset of generally inconsequential films to a close by trying to bring some consequence back. This is certainly the most significant film since In the Beginning, giving us a major development in the B5 universe and setting the stage for another five year saga. I’d imagine this movie played quite a bit differently back when it aired than now, when I know that Crusade doesn’t even make it through a whole season, and this thread of the world’s narrative will wind up essentially abandoned.

But, I’m not aware of how things will fail, so this movie does provide an intriguing glimpse into at least a bit of new B5 material. The stuff with Galen is great, and the ending is quite powerful, however, in general, the film is less consistently successful than Thirdspace or River of Souls. Those two films had minimal ambition, and didn’t really go anywhere, but were fun along the way. This one is much bigger, and does take us places, but suffers from a haphazard narrative structure, part of which is the inevitable tension of bridging B5 and Crusade.

From the standpoint of a B5 viewer, it’s a bit frustrating to not get any meaningful character development for the major players. Sheridan has a new hairstyle, but other than that, everything seems pretty much the same. We gets hints about the telepath war, but no development of that, and my general feeling is that things have been in stasis since the series ended. A large part of the fun of this movie should have been catching up with the characters and finding out how they’ve changed, but the majors feel plugged into roles here, with a narrative imposed on them, not arising organically out of their personalities.

I’m not a big car or tech guy. I love computers, but I’m not someone who’ll drool at the prospect of a 2.3 ghz processor, so the lengthy sequence designed to show off the Excalibur didn’t do much for me. I think JMS was more in love with the ship than most viewers will be, it’s not that exciting to be told what it can do. I can see why they did this, to set up the powers and limits of the ship, but it’s not particularly exciting on its own. The power draining main gun feels like a plot contrivance, specifically designed to create narrative tension.

The new characters are more interesting. Galen the technomage has a bit of a Dungeons and Dragons vibe, but he’s got a lot of potential. The dream sequences where he communicates with Sheridan were visually striking, though a bit let down once you see that they’re just on a stage with painted backdrop. Still, he should be a cool character on Crusade, even if his magical powers seem designed specifically to create easy standalone stories. Hopefully we won’t see too many episodes with Galen senses something mysterious, and sends the crew on a cryptic mission.

Dureena is a more interesting character, infused with a moral ambiguity lacking in most of B5’s characters. Other than Londo and G’Kar, everyone on B5 was pretty standup, having a thief on the ship, even one committed to this mission, will create an inevitable tension. I’d like to see her maintain her edge as the series goes on, she’s certainly got some cool fighting abilities, as seen in the thieves’ guild scene. She reminds me of a Whedon heroine, and that’s a character type I always enjoy. She’s not quite there, but she’s certainly more emotionally believable than any of the characters in ‘The Gathering.’

My major issue with the film is that all the narrative action happens because of outside manipulation. Galen sends Sheridan on a mission, he gets a couple of people together, then goes to defend Earth, all based on these visions. I suppose we needed an excuse to have the thief join the team, but there’s no reason this couldn’t have come out of some detective work, rather than a deus ex machina. It was likely designed to show off Galen’s power, but it winds up feeling cheap.

The final battle over Earth was well executed, but lacked the emotional engagement of the fight against Clarke, which it was clearly meant to echo, right down to a ship sacrificing itself to save Sheridan. When that’s over, the ending is a nice segue into future stories, and makes me eager to watch Crusade. In that respect, the movie accomplished its mission, however it could have been a bit stronger.

In the Beginning was filled with continuity porn, targeted at the hardcore fan. This film could have used a bit more of that, throw in a reference to the Drakh control of Centauri Prime, or even just mentions or Lyta or other characters. They got some in there, but I wanted more updates. I suppose JMS might have done more of this in Crusade, but if this was meant to be the farewell to the original B5 crew, I would have liked a bit more.

Still, if the goal is to start a new series, it’s probably not the best idea to get bogged down in references to the past, and had Crusade gone on to a five year run, I imagine people would look back on this movie fondly. As it is now, it’s a solid story, with some really strong bits. I’m certainly glad I watched it, and I’m ready to move on and judge Crusade for myself.

Babylon 5: River of Souls

General consesus seems to be that these TV movies aren't particualrly good, and I think that's actually made my viewing experience a lot more satisfying. If I'd just heard that River of Souls was a movie set after the end of the series, I'd be expecting something that would address the major issues, forward the characters' lives and tell me something new about the world. But, based on the buzz, I wasn't expecting much of anything, and like with Thirdspace, I wound up pleasantly surprised by this film. It's not one of the best things in the series by any means, but it's a fun story, with a lot of nice character bits. For me, this movie box is basically a segue out of the series, giving me some final moments with the characters to close out the experience of watching the series.

That said, the opening of this movie had me expectng the worse. The lame dialogue and Indiana Jones knockoff character weren't intriuging at all. Outside of my attachment to the series, there's not that much strong stuff in this film, and the opening scene just dragged with lameness. I'm sure Ian McShane is great on Deadwood, but his scenes were the weak link in this film, it wasn't until we got to the station that things got rolling.

Most of this film centers on Captain Lochley and I have to say, contrary to typical fan opinion, I think she's a superior character to Ivanova. Ivanova was really harsh, and only occasionally would moments of humanity shine through. Her speech in 'Rising Star' was one of the highlights of the series, but other than that, I can't think of many great moments with her. I'm guessing that the Byron arc was meant to develop her in the way that Garibaldi's season four brainwashing did for him, but as it was, she was just sort of there, never the center of my interest. Lochley seemed a bit more human, less abrasive. On the journey from Laurel in The Gathering to Ivanova to Lochley we can see the evolution of the same character type, moving from a near robotic inhumanity to a strength mixed with emotional vulnerability.

I think a large part of what makes her stand out in this film is that she's the undisputed leader, not subject to Sheridan. He was such a strong personality that he overshadowed her during season five. Here, she gets to command the station and do her own thing. Even though Garibaldi is back, he doesn't take control of things, and is just part of the team. I could definitely see why people would be frustrated to spend so much time with her, but I think it generally worked.

Because we've already seen 'War Without End' and 'Sleeping in Light,' it's not as big a thrill to see past the end of the series on this show as it would be on others. We can piece together most of the characters' lives post 2262, but it's still nice to check in with them again. It was great to see some new stuff for Garibaldi and Zack, and even Corwin, who once again fails when gving a gift to his commanding officer. This isn't quite as bad as the awkward time with the roses, but the bat doesn't work so well. The bat gag is pretty funny, but I don't know that it's quite as funny as JMS thinks it is. The design of the bat doesn't work so well either, if it's meant to be a love bat, shouldn't it look a little warmer?

The big guest star on this episode, a person I was surprised to see doing the show is...Robbie from Six Feet Under. No, actually it's Martin Sheen. During his initial entrance, I was thinking this must have been the nadir of his acting career, wearing the goofy makeup, speaking with an odd cadence, desperately hoping that he gets cast in this pilot called 'The West Wing.' But, as the film goes on, he gets into character and pulls things off fairly well. It's certainly no Apocalypse Now, but he puts in a good performance, and engages with the reality of the universe better than a lot of other guest starts.

Of the two plots, the Soul Hunter stuff was less interesting to me than the idea of the holo-brothel, but I do like the way JMS used the two as parallel narratives, both dealing with the concept of identity and memory vs. soul. The holo-brothel ties in nicely with 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars,' where we see the crews' image co-opted for use by a fascist government. The holo-brothel brought back some of the seediness of the pilot, and having Lochley as a part of it was an obvious, but satisfying gag. The best moment here was when Robbie says she's more popular with women.

'Soul Hunter' was probably my least favorite episode of the entire series, despite the ties in to future series mythology. But, I think this episode did a better job of dealing with the same concepts. I particularly liked Lochley's out of body experience, and the idea that this race was actually evolving, not dying. This ties in with the Vorlons, and is a precursor of humanity's future. It also works nicely with Morrison's concepts, the idea that evolution means a move beyond the physical, towards a pure energy state. I'm glad to see a work of fiction exploring this idea. There's a lot of rich themes here, all centerng around the question of what is the essential self, is it the physical form or is there something other?

Still, the basic plot is pretty goofy, and it was more the peripheral things that engaged me than the central narrative. As a continuation of the Babylon 5 saga, it's not much, but as an added bonus, it's nice. I'd like to see Lost Tales do something bigger and more meaningful than this, but if it doesn't, I wouldn't mind catching up with our characters and just going on another adventure.

Babylon 5: Thirdspace

Going into Thirdspace, I wasn’t expecting too much. The world wasn’t crying out for the lost standalone episode of season four, but after watching it, I was pleasantly surprised. The movie has a different, more cinematic feel, than your average B5 episode, and the story tied nicely into the mythology.

One of the major issues I have watching these movies is that nothing particularly major can happen to the characters. Particularly with this one, we know what happened in the fourth season, if a huge event did happen, it would feel strange that they never mentioned it. So, we’re left in an odd narrative place, telling a story that has to fit into our pre-existing knowledge of the series, perhaps deepen it, but not fundamentally alter it. That’s why ‘In the Beginning’ was the ideal use of the TV movie format, doing something that would feel out of place in the series, but fit well into the series mythology. This movie was made while the show was still on, so they were constrained by having to slip into the existing continuity. I was pleasantly surprised by the way this fills in some additional backstory and gives us some nice character payoffs.

The most notable example of this was the stuff with Lyta. I always wanted more of her on the series, and here we get the backstory of her journey to Vorlon space, previously unexplained territory. We also get the great scene with her and Zack in the elevator. He always seemed to have feelings for her, but he never acted on them, this scene is great because it gives us some payoff on that, and fits well into the continuity. It’s tough to watch him squirm like that, but it’s also really funny in an Office kind of way. That scene was the highlight of the movie for me, and perhaps the most important scene in the whole piece for overall character development.

The other thing I really liked was the general surreal, dreamy atmosphere. Particularly during the middle section of the movie, we drifted from Lyta’s madness, to Ivanova’s dream, and that great moment with Vir. There was a lot of atmosphere here, aided by the music. B5 doesn’t usually stand out for its visual style, but this movie did a great job of creating weird environments and moods for the characters to move through. The CG was also generally solid, the city was great, though the creature at the end didn’t quite work.

Much of the last two seasons are spent dealing with the legacy of the Shadows and Vorlons, so this fits right in thematically. This gate is the same kind of threat as the Drakh or the telepaths, an example of the hubris of the old ones haunting our characters in the future.

The ending was pretty exciting, particularly Sheridan’s flight into the artifact. But, it felt more like empty flash than the typical B5 battle. Not since the first season have we seen this much fighting for the sake of fighting. Not only was there the big battle outside, there was all the random violence within the station. It was justified by the narrative, but having all the characters attacking each other just didn’t work. I don’t get in that many fistfights, but apparently it happens all the time to the B5 characters. That makes it feel more like a show, less real.

But, I enjoyed the movie on the whole. There were some cool bits that tie into the overall continuity, but mainly it’s just a fun standalone story. If the fourth season wasn’t compressed, I could easily see this being thrown in as a standalone. I think it works better this way though, as a bonus for viewers who’ve watched the series. Then, I would have just been waiting to get to the more significant stuff, here’s it’s a treat, a chance to return and see the characters as they were. Even if it didn’t have much overall impact, it was good to see Lyta and Ivanova one last time.

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

And so we return and begin again with the Babylon 5 prequel/sequel In the Beginning. As the reaction to the new Star Wars trilogy shows, it’s tricky to make a good prequel, how can you involve people in a story where they already know the outcome?

An ongoing TV series is different from a film in that the length of it allows you to make more realistic long term character development. A movie will generally focus on the most tumultuous period in a character’s life, and end with a return to normalcy, some kind of static status quo they’ve earned for enduring the tumult of the film. While a show may have an overall story arc, there’s always going to be periods of new drama, and moments of quiet. Those moments of quiet are really what separate an ongoing story from a film.

In a TV show, we generally start with the characters at a relatively uneventful place in their lives, and over the course of the series, they go through major changes. The problem with doing flashbacks to before the series is that there shouldn’t be too much of interest there, most of the important stuff should happen in the time that the series covers. That’s my major issue with Lost, if you’re stranded on a desert island, you’d think that would be the major trauma in your life, not some parent issues from years ago. It’s fine to do the occasional flashback, but it’s better to see your characters grow as the show moves forward.

Babylon 5 certainly does a lot of that, and considering how many episodes there were, I think it’s certainly interesting and worthwhile to take a look back on the events that led up to the world we saw at the beginning of the show. That’s what I was expecting from In the Beginning, what I wasn’t expecting was to get some followup on events near the end of the series’ chronology. What I really loved from this film was the framing device, which gave me a bit of the resolution I wanted for Londo’s story, but didn’t receive from the end of the series.

The most successful prequel of all time is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a film that hops through the series’ chronology to simultaneously illuminate the beginning of the series and give a sense of closure to the overall experience. In the Beginning functions in a similar way, with Londo reflecting on the events that led him to this moment when he knows he has to die. We’ve already seen most of his failures occur during the series, but he brings up one more here, and I’m guessing his logic is, if he hadn’t destroyed the Narn ship, the Earth/Minbari War would have ended, and he’d never have been put in the position where he could have met Mr. Morden and made his deal with the Shadows. In reality, I’d imagine the Morden meeting would be what he would reflect on at this point, but I’ll forgive it since that story hasn’t been told. And, he does elude to the Shadow meeting, so it’s still present in the story.

At one point, Londo says war isn’t glory, it’s death and pain, a summation of one of the series’ key themes. The series is concerned with destroying the mythology surrounding war. Sheridan isn’t a hero after destroying that Minbari ship, he’s a hero later on when he manages to bring the different races together and create a lasting alliance. JMS always focuses on the negative consequences of war, and in the series’ best moments, such as ‘The Long Twilight Struggle’ and ‘The Fall of Centauri Prime’ shows you the full extent of what war does to a people.

Here, we’re in an interesting moral place because we have attachment to both sides. During the series, we’re used to seeing the Minbari as a force for good, and even though the humans have some issues, this was pre Clarke, when there presumably a lawful government that was working for the peoples’ interest. Both sides are also presented with their flaws, there’s a lot of infighting going on with the Minbari, and they lack the vision required to take on the Shadows. Even though they are consistently presented as the most evolved race, both this and season four show that the caste system can easily fall into chaos without a war to center them.

It’s really interesting to watch this with the knowledge that Jeffery Sinclair is Valen. At the start, the Minbari have lost faith in the order that Valen has created, the society is reverting to the old ways, becoming more warlike. It takes the return of Valen to center them again and prepare them for the war against the Shadows. It’s particularly cool to think that Sinclair just made these prophesies as a result of hearing those prophesies that were already made. They were only created because they already existed, an interesting time travel paradox.

The further away I got from the first season, the fonder my memories of Sinclair. He got such a fantastic sendoff in ‘War Without End,’ I had almost forgotten just how bad an actor he was. But, seeing the season one footage, it all came back and I remembered why I was so happy he left. He did great as the season three Sinclair, but as a heroic captain, he just didn’t work.

I was impressed by the way they were able to incorporate that season one footage seamlessly into the new movie. There were no real issues, it all flowed together well and felt like one piece. We even got to see Michael York back, tying into that season three episode. This episode also gave us more context for the flashbacks we saw from Delenn in season four. Watching the episode that first time, I didn’t emotionally connect with just how grave an error she had made. We saw her going crazy, but we never saw just how many lives her actions cost. This movie made clear that she made a really major error with her decision to attack the human ship, almost as bad a choice as Londo did with Mr. Morden. I suppose what separates her from him is that she learned from her mistake and worked to correct it, but Londo got caught up in the spiral of his bad decision and never escaped from that.

That said, I think Delenn’s tantrum after Dukhat dies is Mira Furlan’s worst acting moment on the series. She goes so far over the top, even throwing in those weak punches on the guy next to her. It’s really out of character, and she winds up looking like a five year old, or just a bad actor. I think it might have been better to go for a quiet, burning rage. The scene as is definitely needed some more takes.


This episode seemed designed to blame everyone for the start of the Earth/Minbari War. Londo claims the blame, Delenn takes the blame, and we also see Sheridan refusing to go on the ship that would meet them, where he could have potentially stopped them from firing. It’s how they react after the mistake that defines the character.

I was really impressed by the makeup and hair work in this episode, everyone did seem much younger. It was crazy to jump from the old Londo to the really young guy meeting with the Earth officials. Sheridan seemed younger, and Ivanova looked younger too. I’m curious about the timing of this production, wouldn’t Claudia Christian have left the series by this point? If she was willing to come back for the movie, why didn’t they get her to do a cameo in the series? I would have loved to see her appear in even just one episode, letting the crew know what was up to her, and say why she decided not to return to Babylon 5, even if only to set up her return in ‘Sleeping in Light.’

The film’s strength and failures stem from its narrative structure. I liked the way we seamlessly moved between sides, picking up characters when they were important to the plot and letting them go when they were no longer needed. Because we already know what will happen to Franklin and Sheridan, we can stop in to see them do their mission, and then just let them drift out of the film. I loved the way we were made to sympathize with both sides in the war, and not given any easy answers about who was responsible. The Minbari wound up looking like villains, but that’s only because they were winning.

However, the jumping between narrative strands meant the film was lacking a strong present. It felt like I was being told a story, not experiencing it firsthand. And, I’m sort of torn the ‘continuity porn’ element of the film. Much like with the Star Wars prequels, it was great to see characters we knew, but it made it feel like a really small universe when G’Kar happens to be the one to go on a mission with Franklin and Sheridan. I suppose it’s necessary for this story, I’d rather have him there than some random other person, but it took away some of the expansiveness of the story. I suppose that’s one of the basic problems with prequels, particularly when you’re telling the story of a universe rather than one person. Fire Walk With Me, as originally envisioned, would have suffered from the same issues, jumping to random scenes of the various townsfolk. Though I’d still love to see the deleted scenes, I’m happy they weren’t in the film, and we instead got to focus on the story of Laura.

That’s not to say it was an emotionless film. The final section, where Londo describes the humans’ final stand against the Minbari, was very powerful. I was feeling a Battlestar Galactica vibe when the president talked about fleeing the planet and setting out to start a new civilization. I really understood what the Battle of the Line was, and just how remarkable it was for the Minbari to surrender there. That brought a lot of things together, and I’d imagine makes the first season a lot more emotionally relatable. In that case, watching this film means that we experienced the moment of the war, and can understand Sinclair’s struggle in a new way.

But, for all that, it was the framing device that really got me, particularly the closing revelation that this is what happened right before Londo met with Sheridan and Delenn at the end of ‘War Without End.’ It makes sense that he would look back on his life after meeting his friends again for presumably the first time since ‘Objects at Rest.’ Jurasik is so good here, making us understand exactly where the character is emotionally. His agedness is particularly evident in contrast to the enthusiasm of the kids. He used to be like them, now he’s worn down, forced to rely on getting drunk as the only way to overcome the keeper. He sees Sheridan and Delenn together in the cell, and knows that he did not spoil the chance for human/Minbari peace, and in letting them go now, he can maybe help set things right. That closing pullout is a great moment, we know what’s coming next, but are given a better understanding of who the character is at that point in time. I would have loved to see old G’Kar come out there and get a better context for where the two of them are at this point, but I guess we’ll never see that piece of the scene now.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The past stuff was really solid, and I was particularly happy with the bonus of more old Londo. That scene gave me what the end of the series didn’t. Even though I’ve still got four movies and Crusade to go, this felt like a strong point of closure for the series, bringing it backwards to go forward.

One side note, seeing old Londo again made me hope that we get to see a Lost Tales movie focusing on the character. He’s consistently been the most compelling on the series, and I’m sure there’s another story about his life in there, perhaps a split story of him and Vir. The other lost tale I’d really like to see is one about the latter days of Valen. Even though I’m not a huge O’Hare fan, the first Shadow War would offer the most exciting material to center a movie around. Other than that, I’d really like to see one focusing on what happens to Lyta Alexander after the end of the series.

Well, that was a great movie, now it’s on to ‘Thirdspace.’ From here on out, I’ve got lowered expectations for everything in the B5verse, but who knows, maybe there’ll be a pleasant surprise along the way.

Babylon 5: The Lists

Here's another Babylon 5 post, wrapping up the fifth season and the series, with some lists. First, the top five episodes of year five:

1. The Fall of Centauri Prime
2. Movements of Light and Shadow
3. Objects at Rest
4. Sleeping in Light
5. Day of the Dead

I think the season as a whole was a lot better than its reputation suggests. It was way beyond season one, and averaged out equivalent to season two. None of the episodes soared to the heights of the best of those years, but the characters were so much more complex, your average episode had a lot more layers. I really enjoyed the Byron story, even if the ending went awry, and the final Centauri arc was absolutely fantastic.

And, I found the ending totally satisfying. Yes, there were some loose ends, but I felt like the story had been told and it was time to move on. I'm sure there's people who wish the fifth season was never made, but I think it brought us a lot of great moments, and is a much more satisfying place to end the show than the chaos of 'Rising Star' would have been.

Now comes the larger issue of determining Babylon 5's place within the overall world of television. It's a very important series for showing that a very complex, unified story can be told in a TV show. People can stick with the exposition necessary for a five year story, and that buildup makes for a much more satisfying development. And, I can't think of any show where the universe is so well developed, such that we can leap seventeen years, five hundred years or even a million years into the future, and keep it coherent. I wish more shows would be created with this level of planning and foreknowledge. Of course, that is dangerous because, as in the case of Carnivale, you can wind up with just a bunch of buildup and no payoff. If Babylon 5 was cancelled after season two, I don't think it would have been worth watching, it is the way the threads develop and finally pay off that is most interesting.

But, what holds Babylon 5 back is that I sometimes got the sense that JMS was just trying to get to the end of the five years, and wasn't always paying attention to the moment. If you're aware of how much cool stuff will come, it might be easy to make some sacrifices in the present, and particularly in the early years, the acting just wasn't good. The pilot is almost embarrassingly bad, and even after that, it takes a while for the actors to adjust to their characters. I wish that they would have put as much effort into the performance as the writing, and worked to get the performances to a deeper level.

Reading interviews with JMS, he clearly prides himself on bringing things in on time and under budget, but that's not always the best way to do art. He said something like, I know what I want so I'll do one or two takes of a scene then move on. Now, that's valid, but there's a reason guys like Kubrick were able to get phenomenal performances out of their actors, the longer you work with a scene, the more you can develop it and find new layers. You can't approach it with the goal of just shooting and moving on, sometimes you have to just work in a moment. Now, after a while this can get tedious, but there's a lot of scenes in season one that could do with another take, and even in the later years, bad acting from the guest characters hurts the show. I wish JMS had his own Tommy Schalmme or Michael Rymer, someone to dictate a strong visual style and work with the actors to get the best performance possible. At the end of 'Deconstruction of Falling Stars,' he's not celebrating that he made great shows, he's celebrating that he made it to year five. There were great shows in there, but I can't help but wish he would live more in the moment.

But, is foreknowledge and planning incompatible with appreciating the moment? I think Joss Whedon founds the best balance, keeping overall character arcs in mind, but modifying the show to emphasize what was working and phase out what wasn't. Both Buffy and Babylon 5 had shaky first years, but comparing those years tells you what's best about each show. In the case of Buffy, even during the awful standalones, you had strong character moments and acting from the leads. In B5, it was hints about the larger picture of the universe that sustained me. And, ultimately both series emphasized those strengths as the show went on.

And, even as I fault some of the acting, I need to praise Peter Jurasik and Andreas Kulsatas again. They nailed every episode, right from the pilot, and without them, I'm not sure I would have made it through the early going. As the series went on, they became more nuanced and continued to do fantastic work. No one else on the show even touched them in terms of screen presence.

Ultimately, it's best to appreciate the show for what it is, not damn it for what it's not. There were moments in the show that affected me on not a personal level, but on some kind of universal human level. I've never seen a show that showed the devestation of war as powerfully as the Narn-Centauri War in season two. They managed to make these massive effects sequences incredibly powerful on an emotional level, and that's not easy to do. Effects are so often criticized as eye candy, these weren't superfluous, they were the story. The show made me think in a way few others have, and that's why I loved watching it. The reason 'War Without End II' is the series' best is because it's simultaneously mind blowing on an intellectual level, and extremely affecting on an emotional one. Plus, it's such a bold narrative experiment, you have to take notice. Not many people can reveal the end of the story in the middle of the show and still make it work.

In recent years, we've gotten a lot of shows with the illusion of continuity and development. Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck always carry over plot threads from episode to episode, but they don't accumulate in the characters' lives. They go through awful, awful shit and come out the other side basically the same. On Babylon 5, change always mattered, actions had consequences and nothing was forgotten. That is why I loved the show, and, in spite of its flaws, it stands as perhaps the best example yet of the television show as more than a bunch of episodes, it is the television show as single, unified story.

And now, the top ten episodes of the series:

1. War Without End II - The boldness of doing a three part episode where the latter two air two years after the first deserves notice alone, with this millenium spanning story. Not only do we get great resolution for the past, with Jeffery Sinclair's emergence as Valen, we also get resolution for the future, with the phenomenal Centauri Prime storyline. Only in a show as meticulously as planned as B5 could an episode like this work, not only is it mind bending, it's also extremely fun as it unfolds. Easily the best episode of the show, and unlike anything else I've ever seen.


2. The Long Twilight Struggle - This was the most emotional episode of the series for me. Londo finally recognizes what he's done in the devestating bombing of Narn sequence. This is the first episode that uses massive events, the space battles, in a truly emotional way. Watching G'Kar's pain next to Londo's gradual revelations is heartbreaking, there's a reason this one is revisited so much later in the series, it's one of the greatest depictions of the horrors of war in TV history. Most war stories can't help making war look cool, witness the love of Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket by fratboy types. One of JMS's greatest triumphs is to show war for what it really is, destruction and loss, the worst thing humanity is capable of.

3. Deconstruction of Falling Stars - No episode made me think as much about this one, and no episode is as relevant to reality. This is a story about humanity's journey, and it applies just as much to us as it does to Sheridan and his gang. The opening two segments are interesting comments on the show, the last three are about humanity in general, depicting our capacity for greatest evil and greatest good in equal measure. And, no matter what we do, we will continue to move forward, move to the stars. On the commentary, JMS talked about a potential series about the monks rebuilding Earth and that sounds like as good a spinoff as any from the series. In one episode, he created four fully realized universes.

4. Z'Ha'Dum - There's a reason the image of Sheridan on the precipice, preparing to jump, popped up in so many credits sequences. It's epic, never was the show bigger than at the end, with Anna advancing on Sheridan, and the white star descending, carrying bombs on Z'Ha'Dum. This episode pays off a lot of threads, and completely changes the nature of the Shadow War, it's the turning point of the series, and one of the most emotional hours.

5. The Coming of Shadows - This was the episode that changed everything, before this I enjoyed the show, but this made me reevaluate what it could be. Londo's oblivious betrayal of G'Kar is devestating, and casts a shadow over the rest of the series. The scene where he buys Londo a drink is one of the best examples of dramatic irony in TV history. Plus, we get that intriuging glimpse of Londo's future, a dream which will guide us through the rest of the series. I'd ever seen a previously likable character to as dark a place as Londo went in the second season, his arc alone makes the series worth watching.

6. Rising Star - Ivanova's speech is her character's greatest moment, and the personally emotional of the entire series. Most of the emotion comes from huge events, as the characters watch wars spiral out of control around them. This was just one person's sacrifice, and it was still profoundly sad. It was a great farewell moment for the character. A lot of other cool stuff happens here too, including the set up of the universe's new status quo. If the show had ended with this plus 'Sleeping in Light,' I'd have been satisfied.

7. The Fall of Centauri Prime - So many previous plot points fell into place here, and Londo's arc comes to a sad end. After his rehibiliation in year four and five, it's so hard to watch him give up his identity to save his people. All his hopes and dreams are shattered, unable to escape the legacy of his deal with the Shadows. Everyone gets good stuff in this episode, it's the last moment of forward progress in the series, everything else is denouement.

8. Into the Fire - The Shadow War comes to a close as its essential falseness is revealed. This was an ideological war, and Sheridan and Delenn win by choosing a third path, creating the third age. In some respects, I would have liked a bigger conclusion to the story, but it still works well, and is a perfect summation of the themes that have been present since the pilot.

9. Introspections and Examinations - Another everything changed moment happened here, with the death of Kosh. It may be the most shocking moment of the show. On top of that, we've got Londo's return to the darkness, and Sheridan's tense confrontation with Kosh. It is in that moment that Sheridan begins the series of events that will begin the Third Age.

10. Movement in Light and Shadow - Perhaps the best cliffhanger in the whole run is the end of this episode, with everything falling apart, the entire Alliance in jeopardy, and Centauri Prime falling into the chaos we know will last for seventeen years. There's a bunch of episodes similar to this, but few had the stakes of this one.

Now, a couple of point I've been thinking about. One is, whatever happened to Draal and Epsilon 3? A bunch of effort wasput into setting them up, and I figured they'd play some role in the Shadow War. He pretty much disappeared from the show after a while, was he ever meant to do something more, or was it always a misdirection? I suppose the planet was a part of War Without End, but I figured it would play a bigger role.

And, after finishing the show, I have to say that Garibaldi's season four arc was a copout and one of the rare violations of the actions having consequences rule. All of Garibaldi's development over the course of the season is wiped away when Bester meets him. Now, there are some lingering consequences, from the act of being controlled, but not from what he actually did. It's an attempt to have things both ways, do the dark Garibaldi arc, and then have him back on the team easily. I think it would have been more effective to have him spend the fifth season trying to find redemption for betraying Sheridan, and coming to terms with what he'd done.

Also, what are the major changes from the five year plan? I know the original one, with Sinclair, isn't out yet, but from what's out there, where did things change? I know the Ivanova and Byron one, but there are any other major things like that?

And, to close things out, a few months ago, I made a list of my twenty favorite TV shows of all time, but I was midway through B5. Now that I'm through it, here's my current ranking:

1. Twin Peaks
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. Six Feet Under
4. The Sopranos
5. Cowboy Bebop
6. The Office (UK)
7. Angel
8. The X-Files
9. Freaks and Geeks
10. Babylon 5
11. Arrested Development
12. Battlestar Galactica
13. Gilmore Girls
14. Seinfeld
15. Friday Night Lights
16. 24
17. Samurai Champloo
18. The Prisoner
19. Spaced
20. Trigun

Battlestar vs. B5 was a challenging question for me, and a really good end of season from BSG could change the rank, but ultimately, B5 had a clear direction, and constant forward motion. That's what makes it a more satisfying overall experience for me. But, on a random episode basis, BSG is far beyond. It's interesting because the shows are exact opposites in terms of strengths. Babylon 5 has great overall direction, far reaching character arcs and great consistency and internal story logic. Battelstar suffers on the big picture, with a lot of wheel spinning and obfuscating, but it's so well shot and acted you don't really care. If the production team of BSG worked with a writer like Stracyzinski, we could have an absolute masterpiece. What he really needed was someone to focus on the moments, the acting, the shooting, and leave the big picture to him. In that respect, he reminds me of George Lucas, a guy who can make a whole universe, craft epic, sweeping character arcs, but falls down when it comes to getting a decent performance or writing believable dialogue. Maybe it's just not his concern, I can forgive Grant Morrison for writing stories that frequently feel like they were much better in his own head, why not give JMS the same room? He wanted to realize his dream on film, and in the end, I think he succeeded.