Babylon 5, "The Long Dark", S02E05, OAD 11/30/94 *spoilers*

[gchance]

Guide page: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/027.html

"I can't cry."

- Franklin gets into another romance. Or at least tries to. That wacky doc!
- Mmm, Anne-Marie Johnson
- Ehhhh, Dwight Schultz. Barclay!

Haven't watched it yet, I'll be watching tonight on the stairclimber.

Greg

[Craigbob]

Dwight Shultz - Howlin' Mad Murdoch! In any event he does a pretty good turn here and not like any of those other characters.

That said, this ep touches on some interesting points... The Creature reminded me a bit of the monster from the Id in Forbidden Planet. Mariah's reaction at the end was reminicent of the end of ST IV where the marine biologist goes off to explore the new environment... Kinda a predictable, but I'd do the same thing.

[Mars Rocket]

So the ship has no FTL capabilities? What are the odds that it would drift anywhere near B5? And is it reasonable to assume that it would have traveled that far from Earth in 100 years? I guess I can accept that it might get up to .10 lightspeed and thus take 100 years to reach B5 at it's closest estimated location, but to drift that close to its specific location stretches credibility. So why didn't they question that? Or at least wonder about it openly before they went through the logs.

"Where are we?" "My quarters - they were closer than MedLab". Ooooh - Dr Franklin is one smooth mover!

Right before the scene where Ivanova says they have reports of weapon fire in Brown 90 there's a quick shot of one of the tugboat ships rapidly accelerating towards B5, and it cuts away just before impact. This is at 36:15 on the DVD.

Sheridan tells Ivanova to "Break out heavy weapons..." and she just reaches down and grabs a few rifles. Break them out of what, the countertop?

"You got a plan?" "Try not to get killed." This reminds me of a conversation my wife and I frequently have: "What do you want to do about dinner?" "Eat it." Well, it's funny to me anyway.

Did that id monster *kick* Amis? That seems rather petty.

[JYoung]

So the ship has no FTL capabilities? What are the odds that it would drift anywhere near B5? And is it reasonable to assume that it would have traveled that far from Earth in 100 years? I guess I can accept that it might get up to .10 lightspeed and thus take 100 years to reach B5 at it's closest estimated location, but to drift that close to its specific location stretches credibility. So why didn't they question that? Or at least wonder about it openly before they went through the logs.


Don't forget that the Copernicus was programmed to home in on signals for first contact.
It detected transmissions from B5's area of space and changed course.

I didn't really like this episode the first time I saw it, even though I was already a fan of Dwight Schultz.

A second viewing after watching the series showed me that there was more going on than I realized.
Still, the death of the creature didn't have the payoff one would have hoped for.

ETA: And Franklin is a horndog. ;)

[Mars Rocket]

Don't forget that the Copernicus was programmed to home in on signals for first contact.
It detected transmissions from B5's area of space and changed course.

That might also explain why it was going so slowly (auto-deceleration towards origin of signal), but not why it was tumbling. Was it tumbling? I can't remember now, but I seem to think it was.

[Craigbob]

That might also explain why it was going so slowly (auto-deceleration towards origin of signal), but not why it was tumbling. Was it tumbling? I can't remember now, but I seem to think it was.

I think it was tumbling. Probably because it is out of fuel.

[JYoung]

I think it was tumbling. Probably because it is out of fuel.

JMS said that it was out of fuel.
However, I also think that thruster damage was a possibility as well as Ivanova mentioned how "banged up" the ship was.

[BitbyBlit]

Don't forget that the Copernicus was programmed to home in on signals for first contact.
It detected transmissions from B5's area of space and changed course.

Not only that, but the ship wasn't even originally heading toward B5's area of space. It passed by the planet where the alien creature lived, who jumped aboard and re-directed its course to the planet where it was being summoned. On the way to the planet is when the ship picked up B5's signals, and again changed its course.

[DLiquid]

Murdarclay saved this one. He does a great crazy. I liked that Garabaldi respected him and knew he was onto something.

The Creature reminded me a bit of the monster from the Id in Forbidden Planet.Completely. I thought it was weird that they'd do another Forbidden Planet thing so soon after the one in A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1.

Right before the scene where Ivanova says they have reports of weapon fire in Brown 90 there's a quick shot of one of the tugboat ships rapidly accelerating towards B5, and it cuts away just before impact. This is at 36:15 on the DVD.I know. I thought she was about to say something about that ship. I guess it was just to add something interesting to the shot, but it looked kind of hostile.

So the creature was going to the rim to meet up with the Shadows? This didn't look like a Starship Troopers bug, so I assume it wasn't one of the Shadows, though I guess it's possible they have different Shadows species. In a way, this seemed like a standalone episode with the Shadows implications tacked onto the end as an afterthought, but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

Oh, I forgot about Londo dismissing the superstitions about the dark forces in that meeting, obviously trying to downplay any suspicions about the Shadows. Kind of a dangerous game to be working with a powerful group that you really have no clue about. Londo couldn't have known the dark forces they were talking about were related to guys Morden works for, but he tried his best to cover it up anyway.

[stellie93]

Londo couldn't have known the dark forces they were talking about were related to guys Morden works for, but he tried his best to cover it up anyway.

I think he knows. ;)

[Hunter Green]

This episode feels like a return of Season One's weaknesses to me. But Dwight does a great job with his lines, he really steals the show.

I've always loved the concept of the STL relativistic travel crews (deep-freeze is easier to explain but less likely) catching up with the FTL development that followed them -- built a whole sci-fi roleplaying campaign on it once, though it never happened -- and I feel like it got short shrift here. If it were me waking up, I would have been tickled that it was a whole hundred years, not upset about it. Why else go into deep freeze unless you're expecting to be out of touch a while, so you can see what happens in what would otherwise have been after your time?

(Falling behind... and this weekend's not likely to let me catch up, either.)