I mentioned back in the Londo heavy episode that an advantage to having 22 episodes and not enough plot to fill them means that the show can luxuriate in one off episodes that do some good character building work without … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…”A View from the Gallery”
As much complaining as I have done about Season 5, there was a kernel of a good idea in some of the plots for the season. The Interstellar Alliance seems like an obviously good idea to the various planetary governments, … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“The Paragon of Animals”
With the setting up episode out of the way we get into some character building content. Season 5 is unique among the Babylon 5 seasons in that it has room for one-off episodes that the other seasons really didn’t. The … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari”
Lets get it out of the way at the start. I dont really care for Season 5 of Babylon 5. I am not alone in this. Most fans of the show feel that this is probably the weakest season, even … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“No Compromises”
For a low-budget show that would go on to 110 hour long episodes, it is practically a miracle that we never got a Babylon 5 clip show. Clip shows are a producers dream, even cheaper than a bottle episode, and … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“The Deconstruction of Falling Stars”
One of the strengths that Babylon 5 has when stacked up against both modern shows and its contemporaries was the combination of 90’s style huge episode orders(22 per season) paired with serialized story telling. This allows us the excitement of … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Rising Star”
We have finally arrived. All of the little bits of planning that we have seen from Sheridan, every strategic choice he has made all season has been leading to this. Sheridan is not done being sneaky though, as his plan … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Endgame”
After the somewhat experimental “Intersections in Real Time” Babylon 5 gets back to normal business. We are now only four episodes from the end of the season so everything moves very quickly to get all the pieces in place for … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…- “Between the Darkness and the Light”
For all of its work in popularizing serialized storytelling on TV, Babylon 5 was at its heart a very traditional show. Guest stars come in and out, many plots are sewn up at the end of the hour, and we … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Intersections in Real Time”
I tend to think more highly of this episode compared to the previous one, as it is full of forward movement and big events, but at the end of the day it is another basic plot advancement episode. What sets … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“The Face of the Enemy”
Now that the war with Earth has kicked off in earnest it is time for a business-like episode that covers things back on the station and follows Mr.Garibaldi’s adventures on Mars. After an action heavy episode there is value in … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“The Exercise of Vital Powers”
As I say in every season when we get to this point, each season has a name. Signs and Portents, The Coming of Shadows, Point of No Return, and now No Surrender, No Retreat. Each of the seasons has one … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“No Surrender, No Retreat”
The Season 4 firehose of plot continues in “Moments of Transition”. We get forward movement with Garibaldi, a sad little plot for Lyta Alexander, and the conclusion of the already short Minbari Civil War storyline. All of which is the … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Moments of Transition”
Season 4 continues at a brisk pace. Sheridan is still working several angles at once, trying to solve the problem in front of him, and the one behind that one at the same time. Part of this is a testament … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Rumors, Bargains, and Lies”
Yippee a whole episode about people having to deal with situations where it is clear that their emotions are compromising their own good judgment but everyone has to muddle through. Another in our latest line of “day in the life” … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Conflicts of Interest”
In military strategy maintaining lines of communication and supply is considered the most important thing. You cannot do anything intelligently if you do not know what is going on out there, and you cannot do it if you cant be … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Lines of Communication”
Now that we have put the Shadows to bed, and checked in on some of the other hanging plots it is time for an episode that jumps from story to story to advance several different character plots all at once, … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Racing Mars”
With all the reminders of how things on Earth are still screwed up we may forget that nearly every major race has been dealing with some kind of disaster since the Shadow War had started. We have mostly dealt with … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Atonement”
Having lived with cheerful propaganda news stations for most of my adult life, this episode does not hit as hard as it may have when Fox News was in it’s infancy, and right wing media still had the seedy reputation … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…”The Illusion of Truth”
The Shadow War is over. One of the largest plots, and certainly one of the longest story arcs beginning all the way back in Season One is over. Add to that the Centauri plot is mostly over. Another arc that … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…-“Epiphanies”
We have arrived at the climax of the Shadow War plot and instead of a great big Death Star style confrontation, it ends up being won by ideas and the sharing of information. As far as sticking to the themes … Continue reading The Last Best Hope…- “Into the Fire”
You must be logged in to post a comment.